Mrs. Glasses, Tokyo/Los Angeles, CAAge and Occupation: 24, English teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, English teacherEngagement Date: September 2008Wedding Date: October 2010 Venue: Parents' backyardAbout Me: I’m an expat living in Tokyo. I’ve been in Japan for almost three years now, where I met my fantastic English fiance. It’s time to leave Japan, so we are planning a fun, intimate, backyard ceremony back home in the suburbs of L.A. in October. Our wedding will be a mix of my love for food, beer, my Japanese culture, and Mr. G’s Englishness. We are on a tiny budget and DIYing almost everything!
Mrs. Plaid, AustinAge and Occupation: 26, Pastry ChefFiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Cabinetry CarpenterEngagement Date: August 8, 2009Wedding Date: October 2010Venue: Kindred Oaks, GeorgetownAbout Me: I am a Jersey girl born and raised but have since migrated to Texas and embraced its twang and Tex-Mex. I could probably eat chips and queso every day but instead I eat popcorn. I use the word “awesome” way too much but I just can’t seem to stop myself. I am addicted to all things DIY and am planning what I call a Texas-Chic wedding. I love snuggling with my two adorable dogs and of course, my adorable fiance. I can’t wait 'til I can call him my husband some day! October 2010, here we come!
Mrs. Thimble, NYC/PhiladelphiaAge and Occupation: 26, Actress & Costume Designer (+ day job)Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Lawyer & Techie WizEngagement Date: August 22, 2008Wedding Date: October 2010Venue: The Pearl S. Buck HouseAbout Me: I’m an easily inspired over-thinker delighted with the process of designing, building, directing and {dare I say} co-starring in the early-autumn affair I’ve been dreaming up. I’m a sucker for trendied-up comfort foods and old family anecdotes; I have an affinity for adjectives, alliteration, eyelet and earl grey; and I live for quality time with family and friends. I never guessed I’d marry my “high school sweetheart", but when it turned out to be my funny, techie, loyal Mr. Thimble I was committed for life. We’re both mid-career transition and ready to move back to small-townish TBD, PA in a pre-wedding flurry of all-good life changes.
This weekend my NY MOH, BMs BK and Trines, my sister, and my bests rallied together a fantaaastic bachelorette party for yours truly. Lots of love and elbow grease went into this destination soiree at my friend A’s parents’ Pocono house, but it paid off big time! Without further ado, I will share with you our shamelessly goofy photographs that capture the spirit of the evening perfectly (if you haven’t already picked up on the fabulousness in the pic above):
Mrs. Hippo, New York City/Dallas, TXAge and Occupation: 34, Event Planner for a Non-Profit Fiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Finance ITEngagement Date: August 8, 2009Wedding Date: March 2011Venue: Samuel Lynne Galleries and Marc EventsAbout Me: I’m a thirty-something bride living in New York City and planning a modern-ish wedding in Dallas, Texas. I love trashy reality television (Jersey Shore, anyone?), online shopping, Sunday brunch, Central Park, and random celebrity spottings on the streets of Manhattan. While I love NYC, I miss good Tex-Mex, my college friends, central A/C, and being in close proximity to a Target. I’m thrilled to finally be planning an event that’s not work-related and to be marrying my best friend in what I hope will be a unique and personal ceremony followed by a reception with plenty of good food, good drinks, and dancing (regardless if it’s good or not).
As I mentioned here, I am having nine women in my bridal party—four bridesmaids and five in the house party. Eight of the nine women know each other very, very well. The ninth is my sister and the MOH. I figured that since my sister doesn’t really know the other women and they don’t really know her, it would be good to share everyone’s contact information so that they could be in touch with each other if they wanted or needed to. Of course, the easiest way to do this would be a simple e-mail, but oh no…that’s not DIY fun, now, is it??!
I designed this simple 5″ x 7″ card in Microsoft Publisher and printed it out on metallic card stock. It includes our wedding logo and a letter to the bridal party on the left, and the contact information for the bridesmaids and house party members on the right. Easy peasy!
Mrs. Zebra, Providence, RIAge and Occupation: 24 Marketing/Costume DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 26 Management/Firefighter Engagement Date: December 12, 2008Wedding Date: March 2011Venue: The Providence BiltmoreAbout Me: I'm a small town New England girl with an affinity for procrastination, crossing the proverbial line, and putting her foot in her mouth. I'm a lover of history, all seasons, sewing and Incubus. I design costumes on the side for my old high school's theatre department, which is where I met my sexy man. Our motto for our Big Fat Lebanese/Portuguese/Irish near-300 person wedding is "the more the merrier"! We are marrying in a Catholic ceremony and are hammering out the details of our Victorian-inspired reception.
Mrs. Barrettes, Tumon, Guam/Napa, CAAge and Occupation: 29, DancerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Licensed Building ContractorEngagement Date: November 16, 2008Wedding Date: October 2010Venue: V. Sattui WineryAbout Me: I'm an East Coast girl, living on a tiny little island in the Pacific, twirling, leaping, and shimmy-ing my way through life, and now, wedding planning! I'm equal parts nerdy and cool... okay, mostly nerdy. I love satin bows, red lipstick, black & white graphic anything, the shine of sequins and the sound of a champagne "pop". My favorite books are The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James, and Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I can also conjure a pretty good Patronus Charm. I started my appreciation for good red wine while traveling on the high seas, and it's only fitting that my passion for wine drinking led me to my Napa-bred honey. We bonded over bottles of Cabernet on my oceanfront porch and haven't looked back since. We're sealing the deal at a winery in the Napa Valley on a 'perfect ten' of a day!
I’m just as guilty as the next person when it comes to Facebook stalking—err, “research”. I have certainly seen wedding photos of Facebook friends mere minutes after they stepped into their venue. Guests are excited and iPhones and BlackBerrys come out to play, and before you know it, your months of planning and preening are reduced to a photo on someone’s “Mobile Uploads.”
Mrs. Cardigan, AustinAge and Occupation: 21, Student/Soon-to-be Special Education TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 20, Student/Soon-to-be Accounting Systems AnalystEngagement Date: August 16, 2009Wedding Date: January 2011Venue: Vintage VillasAbout Me: I'm a native Austinite who was raised as a die-hard Aggie. Luckily, I'm a pretty persuasive girl because I managed to convince my high school boyfriend (now fiance!), Mr. Cardigan, to ditch his hardcore Longhorn ways and join me up at A&M, where we currently reside with our adorable dogs, Cullen & Ranger. We're currently planning a bright, cheery wedding with a ridiculous amount of DIY projects that I can't wait to tackle! I love crafting in any form, reading, and margaritas (I think I love them the most!). Organization is what keeps me sane and I love helping others, which is probably why I ended up as an education major. It gets a little chaotic sometimes when you're planning a wedding among all of the papers, projects, finals, and certification exams, but we're having the time of our lives and we can't wait to get started on our journey as husband and wife - and we're so excited to share our wedding with the hive!
When it comes to personalizing your wedding, I feel like making the reception, decorations, music, etc. personal are all pretty easy. You choose what you like, and go from there. But, it gets a bit harder when it comes to the ceremony. I’ve already shared our reading for the ceremony, but beyond that I’ve had a really hard time coming up with ideas for how to make the ceremony more “us,” beyond writing the whole thing ourselves (which is an extremely daunting task!).
Part of the problem is that when Mr. Cardy and I first got engaged, I was (for some reason) absolutely adamant that we wouldn’t have any rituals within our ceremony. For example, we were to have no sand ceremony, no unity candle, etc. I know that it sounds like a silly thing to be so opposed to, but I promise I had a reason.
In my experience (this is not to say that it’s true for everyone!) people tend to do these sort of ceremonies just because it’s what they’ve seen at other weddings, and they feel like it’s what they’re “supposed” to do. Read more…
Mrs. Knitting, TorontoAge and Occupation: 24, Student Recruitment Assistant
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Neuroscience PhD CandidateEngagement Date: October 2009Wedding Date: December 2010Venue: University of Toronto Faculty Club
About Me: I'm a pearl wearing, etiquette book reading Toronto girl who loves cooking and baking, museums, charm bracelets, and collecting books on Jackie Kennedy (a lot). I've been known to spend Sunday mornings at the antique market, Wednesday evenings at sister sushi dinners, and any bit of spare time reading. After six and a half years of many late night walks, watching DVDs together in bed, travelling to places like New York, and Tobermory, doing Sudokus together on the couch, lots of Indian food, the occasional yoga class, moving in together and so much more, Mr. Knitting and I are planning a cozy Christmasy (it's a word!), vintage wedding in Toronto complete with many DIY projects (eek!) and lots of help from our amazing group of family and friends.
Ha ha, yes, I’m stilltalking about food today. I can’t help it. It’s so much fun looking at pictures of amazing food!
Every single wedding I’ve ever been to has been either in the afternoon or in the evening and has been followed by a dinner and dance. Our wedding is no exception, and I love this type of wedding, but I’m dying to attend a wedding that follows a different format. One of my top choices would be to attend a morning ceremony followed by a brunch. We actually considered this for our wedding for a while, but ultimately decided it wasn’t the best choice for us. I still think it’s a fantastic idea and would be so much fun. (Hint hint, all my friends!)
Mrs. Paisley is selling these glass apothecary jars. She is asking $130 for the set of eight. She’s also selling a ton of other items from her wedding, including her Melissa Sweet gown, 110 Mason jars, 20 paper parasols, and 12 white Moroccan lanterns.
Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with a picture in the Weddingbee Classifieds, and you might see it featured on the blog!
Mrs. Socks, Southern NJ/Philadelphia, PAAge and Occupation: 23, Web Developer/Marketing SpecialistFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Systems EngineerEngagement Date: September 7, 2009
Wedding Date: October 2010Venue: Ladder 15 RestaurantAbout Me: I am originally from the Midwest, but I love being an East Coast transplant! Mr. Socks and I are foodies and winos to the core---give us a hunk of cheese, some charcuterie and a glass of wine and we could die happy. We have two mischievous Wire Fox Terriers with completely opposite personalities but with a shared love of uprooting anything in our garden. Our backyard garden includes everything from tomatoes and peppers to a fig tree, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries! I love cooking, indie music, and spending time in our wedding city of choice---Philly!
I’ve already indicated how incredibly happy we are with our engagement photos, so I wanted to lend a little insight into how we got the results that we wanted!
1. Don’t be afraid to use props
I have to admit, I felt REALLY silly telling people that I was bringing a white shag carpet to a vineyard for some photos. I was even afraid of what our photographer would think of all of my props—would he think that it would be an annoyance, that they’d take away from the photos? I was very nervous about it being “weird” because, you know, not everyone looks at wedding blogs all day like I do.
Luckily, Georgi was very open to using the props and we had so much fun with them! I think that they made for some of our favorite shots and our engagement photos just wouldn’t be the same without them.
2. Bring a friend or two
Since we were using so many props, I thought that having a “prop master” on hand would be helpful. Boy, am I glad BM Jess and her boyfriend Chris came along!
Mrs. Locket, Ithaca, NYAge and Occupation: 25, Research TechnicianFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, former Banker hoping to become an Officer of the LawEngagement Date: June 15, 2009Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: Heron Hill WineryAbout Me: I am a little bit of everything all rolled into one: A girly gal with rough edges---I love to get dolled up just as much as I enjoy throwing on some sneaks to toss a ball with Mr. Locket. My love for crafting and creating is quite apparent and I've been referred to as a Wonder Woman/Martha Stewart/Stepford Wife hybrid (yup, I'll take that as a compliment). I adore sewing, photography, sculpture, good eats (mmm tapas), baking, snugging and oh, pretty much everything in between (there's not much I dislike). I am super excited to be planning our vineyard wedding and couldn't be happier to be marrying Mr. Locket. We are a quirky, fun-loving couple residing in our college town with our two pups Maple and Molly. We love to go on hikes, visit our local dog park and to bask in the beauty of many of the local falls and gorges. We are an indecisive pair, but together we somehow manage to make up our minds (it's the easy stuff that's tricky).
Does anyone else get “The Hustle” stuck in their head when they think of the bustle, or is it just me? Okay, I’m a loon. Anyway…this busy bee spent her weekend traveling to the northernmost tip of NY state to visit her gown in her hometown of Plattsburgh, NY. (Yes, I bought my gown in my hometown because I didn’t want Mr. L to have any chance of hopping on in and seeing it.)
On Saturday morning Momma L and I finished paying for my Maggie; hauled it to the car and drove to meet with the shop’s recommended seamstress, Marsha.
We arrived at Marsha’s for what we assumed would be an easy meeting.
Miss Handbag, Smyrna, DE/JamaicaAge and Occupation: 25, AdministrationFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, SalesEngagement Date: Christmas Night 2008Wedding Date: March 2011Venue: Rosehall Resort, Montego Bay, JamaicaAbout Me: I am a Type A, emotional Italian fireball, who on a weekly basis must be brought back to reality by my level headed, calm, cool and collected fiance. We are planning an intimate, all white with hints of black, vintage inspired wedding on the old sugar aqueducts of Jamaica, with 30 of our closest friends and family flying in to witness the occasion. We are not traditional by any means and will be doing things very differently. :)
This past weekend we celebrated our last dating anniversary. Our six-years-of-dating bliss is coming to an end in a few months and it feels awesome.
Mr Handy surprised me with 2 days away at King of Prussia in PA. It was much needed and so relaxing. On Saturday morning we woke up, he told me to pack for 2 days and we hit the road. After about an hour-and-a-half we arrived at KOP mall. If you have never heard of it, Google it. This mall is amazing. We walked around for a few hours, grabbed some lunch and just talked…something we don’t do enough when life gets hectic. We decided to go to the hotel and take a nap so we could stay out Saturday night (what? We’re old!).
Mrs. Starfish, Boston/NewportAge and Occupation: 25, Operations AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, SalesEngagement Date: October 8, 2008Wedding Date: October 2010Venue: The Atlantic Beach ClubAbout Me: I'm a perfectionist who is a planner at heart. I don't do well with surprises. I love planning, crafting, Newport RI, family and friends, and most importantly, Mr. Starfish---all of which will be big components in our October wedding in our favorite little city by the sea.
Even before Mr. Starfish proposed I watched a lot of wedding shows. I loved watching Whose Wedding is it Anyways?, Say Yes to the Dress, Platinum Brides, etc. After Mr. Starfish proposed, it was finally time to start planning our own wedding after months of watching others.
I feel like you hear this a lot: people begin planning a wedding and they are totally shocked by how expensive they are. We had the reverse effect. We knew how expensive they could get. Both of us knew this, so there weren’t any shocking moments where we asked, “THIS COSTS WHAT???”
When you watch shows like Say Yes to the Dress, it kind of gets in your head that you can’t get a nice dress unless you spend upwards of $5k. Read more…
Mrs. Glasses, Tokyo/Los Angeles, CAAge and Occupation: 24, English teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, English teacherEngagement Date: September 2008Wedding Date: October 2010 Venue: Parents' backyardAbout Me: I’m an expat living in Tokyo. I’ve been in Japan for almost three years now, where I met my fantastic English fiance. It’s time to leave Japan, so we are planning a fun, intimate, backyard ceremony back home in the suburbs of L.A. in October. Our wedding will be a mix of my love for food, beer, my Japanese culture, and Mr. G’s Englishness. We are on a tiny budget and DIYing almost everything!
We are tackling the paper crane tradition. We’ll use the paper cranes to decorate our backyard. We’ll put them everywhere: hanging along the red brick wall that leads into our backyard, strung around our focal point/altar, hanging from trees and bushes, and scattered on the dessert, buffet, and guest book table. We’ll also leave some origami out on the tables along with instructions so guests can help us reach our thousand-crane goal.
Keep on loading your inspirational wedding pics to the Weddingbee Gallery to see them featured here on the blog! Remember, your images must be under 1MB in size, or they won’t load.
This weekend my NY MOH, BMs BK and Trines, my sister, and my bests rallied together a fantaaastic bachelorette party for yours truly. Lots of love and elbow grease went into this destination soiree at my friend A’s parents’ Pocono house, but it paid off big time! Without further ado, I will share with you our shamelessly goofy photographs that capture the spirit of the evening perfectly (if you haven’t already picked up on the fabulousness in the pic above):
