Mrs. Sand Dollar, Houston
Age and Occupation: 24, Graphic Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 22, Electrical Technician
Engagement Date: January 8, 2010
Wedding Date: September 2010
Venue: MacLean Park
About Me: I'm a domestic diva down to the core. I heart cooking, sewing, baking, decorating and making sure we have a hand-crafted home. The best part about the wedding is I get to incorporate it all! I make sure I put my art degree to good use by screen printing, craft knife cutting, and a whole lotta graphic design. We're having a big-time party on a small-time budget, and I promise to show you a boot-scootin', barbecue-eatin', finger-lickin' good time! Mr. Sand Dollar and I spend most of our time on DIY projects or traipsing around the outdoors with our two pooches Rory and Juno. I'm looking forward to sharing our journey with all of you!
Anybody out there Big Fat Greek Wedding fans? Well if you aren’t, then let me tell you that there’s some good advice in that movie. Did you know that Windex is magical? Well, it is, and this week it saved my dress.
This past Sunday, while Mr. SD was driving back from his bachelor party in Corpus Christi, my FMIL brought Mr. SD’s his little sister over so we could go pick out some paint swatches to redecorate her room. I realized I’d never shown them my dresses, so I went to the closet and pulled them out. That’s when I saw it. A faint pink streak down the front of my short dress. I stayed calm on the outside, but inside I was screaming expletives. Really, wedding gods? First you make our band flake out, then you’ve changed our 0% rain sunny day to 40% THUNDERSTORMS, and now you’re trying to ruin my dress. So I called the lovely, helpful ladies at Providence Place who sold me my gowns. They let me in on a little secret they learned back when they entered the biz. Now, my short dress is a Mori Lee Bridesmaid dress, and the long one is a gown from their private collection. But, apparently many designers chemically treat their dresses for situations like this. Here’s a little photo of the big bad stain:
I’d already removed the giant streak before I had the presence of mind to take a photo. But this one shows a dime size spot, which is pretty easy to see as it’s smack dab in the center of the skirt. So I whipped out my gear.
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Mrs. Brooch, Arlington, VA
Age and Occupation: 25, Writer/Editor
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Front Desk Manager
Engagement Date: October 3, 2009
Wedding Date: April 2011
Venue: Oxon Hill Manor
About Me: I’m an indecisive girlie-girl with a motor mouth, can-do attitude, and knack for making others laugh. I dream of becoming a best selling novelist like Elizabeth Gilbert or Julie Powell (a girl can dream, right?), and love long road trips, a beautiful countryside, music, blogs, books, and all things vintage/thrift/antique/or homemade. I’m a Virgo, i.e. overly sensitive, emotional, and critical, and there’s no such thing as short and sweet in my world. I want to say and do it all. Mr. Brooch grounds me. I point where to go and he figures out the way. He’s a pragmatic fancy-pants who enjoys video games and movies. We both adore our mutt, Rocky, and spending time with our amazingly supportive family and friends. We’re planning a garden wedding with a formal reception with lots of whimsy and unique, Southern-inspired details.
It took me a while to commit to a theme.
Remember, I mentioned we spent the first few weeks going over various ideas but never came up with anything concrete that we could really use as a wedding theme? We thought about using our faith as a focus, but then realized that was a bit too broad. We thought about doing cherry blossoms, since our wedding is in April and we live near Washington, D.C., but we know other people with this theme, and it’s not something we’re passionate about.
We looked into having a candy theme, but it didn’t seem appropriate with our historic-manor venue. We really liked the lovebirds theme, but both of us felt it was a little played out (no offense to other lovebird couples out there!). And well, the list goes on and on.
I actually started to think we weren’t going to have a theme.
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Weddingbee Gallery
Feature Launched: April 10, 2009
About: A collection of inspirational wedding pictures from readers and bees.
Starfish accent kittykim75’s wedding day shoes.
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.
If your photo is featured as the Gallery of the Day, you’re eligible for a special Weddingbee badge for your blog or website! Check out instructions on how to grab the badge here!
Mrs. Earrings, Fresno, CA/ Nelson, New Zealand
Age and Occupation: 20, Student, Wannabe Writer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 19, Photography Student
Engagement Date: February 14, 2010
Wedding Date: January 2011
Venue: Gardens of the World
About Me: I'm a girl from down under who grew up in Indonesia and I'm marrying a California boy. I'm addicted to all things sweet, have never met a chocolate silk pie than can get the better of me, and have dreams of one day being a fulltime novelist. I go weak in the knees for lace, tea cups, and a beautifully crafted sentence. When I get excited about something (whether it is historical linguistics or the Beatles) I tend to go overboard in research, and planning this wedding is no different. Mr. Earrings is my high school sweetheart, my best friend, and somehow we combine all our quirks into one big happy mess.
As our picnic garden wedding (with an extra kick of tea party) has evolved, my mum has been a great support, even when sometimes my ideas are not what she immediately thinks of when she thinks “wedding.” So, when the picnic theme came up, she was all for it because it is what we wanted…but being a visual person (like myself) she needed to see some pictures of other weddings with that vibe so she knew what we were going for and that it can be (and has been) actually “done.” That is—she wanted proof that a picnic can be pulled off elegantly.
After we looked at the following photos together, we were both reassured that, yes indeed, picnic weddings can be absolutely beautiful, and also that you don’t have to sacrifice style just because it is a picnic! (And now I have said “picnic” way too often. But it is a cool word—picnic, picnic, picnic). Here are the images that inspired us:
source
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Featured on Weddingbee
“Make an elegant invitation statement without the fuss. Stylish invitation sets with matching envelopes, reception and response cards included.”
Featured Product: Laura Ashley Delicate Damask Invitation
Mrs. Lioness, Atlanta
Age and Occupation: 25, Physical Therapist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Attorney
Engagement Date: August 29, 2009
Wedding Date: April 2011
Venue: Anthony’s Fine Dining
About Me: I’m a Southern girl with New England roots. I say "wicked" and "y’all" in the same sentence and I like to drink sweet tea with my lobster. Mr. Lion and I are both former Floridians now living in Atlanta, which fortunately is still SEC country...Go Gators! We both love baseball, coffee, traveling, cooking, and playing Words with Friends with each other on our iPhones all day long. I’m very passionate about the things and the people I love, and I tend to plan things with all of my heart...our wedding, of course, is no different! Oh, and also Mr. Lion is a first generation American of Cuban descent. I may look more like Lucy than Ricky, but I’m doing my best to incorporate some Latin elements into our vintage-garden-Southern wedding!
So now that you’ve seen my dress and my headpiece, I’ll bet you think you have a pretty good sense of my personal style. Frilly, romantic, girly…were you thinking of something like this?
Source: ModCloth
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Mrs. Octopus, Boston, MA/Pittsburgh, PA
Age and Occupation: 25, Grad Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Graphics Operator for TV News
Engagement Date: May 6th, 2009
Wedding Date: September 2010
Venue: Heinz Chapel Ceremony, Museum Reception
About Me: When my best friend dragged me to a toga party in our freshmen year of college, I was not expecting to meet my future husband; but seven years later, here we are. I'm a crazy-organized planner at heart, and I am a great lover of random trivia, books, chocolate, blogs, new and exciting adventures, mockumentary-style television, and anything heavily flavored with bright orange fake cheese powder. We're planning a festive and fun mini-destination wedding in the place where we met: fabulous Pittsburgh, PA! I can't wait to marry the man I love!
Guess where I’m blogging from?
Logan Airport.
Guess what that means?
The Octopus Wedding Weekend has officially begun.
I think I fooled some of you last week with my thank-you post, as I realized afterward that it sounded a whole lot like a “signing off as a Miss!” post, but I’ve still got one of those on deck (I think. Hopefully. As long as things don’t get too crazy). So, yeah. I’m heading to Pittsburgh and I’m getting married. At this point, I have so much adrenaline coursing through my system that I can’t properly articulate my feelings about that, so instead I will say: AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! Also, EEEEEEEEEK! And WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Before I go, I wanted to mention a little task I checked off this week that I’m really happy about.
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Mrs. Meerkat, Kalamazoo, MI/Riviera Maya
Age and Occupation: 30, Application Engineer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 23, IT Consultant
Engagement Date: July 26, 2008
Wedding Date: December 2010
Venue: Al Cielo / La Laguna
About Me: I’m a tech-savvy tomboy with an affinity for hot tea and good sushi. Us Meerkats are just a couple fun lovin’ geeks from Michigan. We love anything having to do with movies, books, video games or technology and we hold a special place in our hearts for our two very spoiled shih-tzus, Wicket and Bravo. We also LOVE to travel. We love it so much it only took us 12 hours after we got engaged to decide to have a destination wedding. We are working our little Meerkat tails off planning a rustic-chic, travel themed destination wedding in the Riviera Maya with a semi-formal, vintage-turned-modern, outdoor at home reception back here in Michigan.
There are a plethora of ring-bowl options out there. So many that at times it was hard to sift through them all. The one I have seen a lot of is by Paloma’s Nest.
Paloma’s Nest on Etsy
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Mrs. Thimble, NYC/Philadelphia
Age and Occupation: 26, Actress & Costume Designer (+ day job)
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Lawyer & Techie Wiz
Engagement Date: August 22, 2008
Wedding Date: October 2010
Venue: The Pearl S. Buck House
About 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.
I shared my mom’s elaborate bridal shower invitations with you, and now you know that my shower was kind of a big deal for me. I was excited and nervous, and both families were combining for one big party so I had one shot to do it right—which meant one shot to choose the. perfect. bridal shower dress.
I’m pretty darn proud of myself for this one—I had a dress hanging in my closet that I’d been meaning to alter into a cuter, sexier version of itself, but just never got around to it. Now that I had a reason, I was sewing on all cylinders. Here’s a semi-before shot—I have it pinned already so you can see where it’s going:
It had some direction it’s own.. the cute pale blue and white striped cotton, the embroidered eyelette design at the bottom and the subtle sweetheart neckline. The problem was, it was a little frumpy on it’s own without these pins.
Enter the magic dart:
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Ms. Sloth, Philadelphia
Age and Occupation: 35, Account Manager and Fashion Blogger
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Design Admin
Engagement Date: December 25, 2009
Wedding Date: May 2011
Venue: Bartram's Garden
About Me: I'm an internet junkie and music snob with a good eye for a bargain. I couldn't live without thrift store shopping, cheeseburgers, sushi, Coke Zero, websites devoted to silly photos of baby animals, Photoshop, and Mr. Sloth. Speaking of which, he and I are a pair of goofball homebody nerds who love our beagle (the most ridiculously adorable dog EVER) to an embarrassing degree. We're planning a low-key and intimate yet festive and quirky outdoor wedding with DIY details and deeply personal touches, and it's all taking place in the city where we fell in love and call home: Philadelphia.
One of the reasons I’m excited to have a wedding after party is because I can change into a different dress!
I’ll probably still wear white or ivory, but it’ll be much more casual and relaxed. Here are some that I’m loving right now.
Source
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Mrs. Zebra, Providence, RI
Age and Occupation: 24 Marketing/Costume Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26 Management/Firefighter
Engagement Date: December 12, 2008
Wedding Date: March 2011
Venue: The Providence Biltmore
About 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.
I can tell you from experience that organizing a bachelorette party is not so simple.
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Mrs. Hippo, New York City/Dallas, TX
Age and Occupation: 34, Event Planner for a Non-Profit
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Finance IT
Engagement Date: August 8, 2009
Wedding Date: March 2011
Venue: Samuel Lynne Galleries and Marc Events
About 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).
I know! These STD posts are never ending…seriously. It was that bad. When we left off, I mentioned that I sent one of the STDs to myself and one to Mama Hippo as a “test” before sending out to the whole group. Ummmm….wow. Best idea ever. Here’s why:
So…. apparently a sharpened pencil goes through an envelope pretty quickly. The same thing happened to Mama Hippo’s. DAMMMMMMMIIIIIITTTT!!!!! I don’t know why I didn’t think this would be a problem. I guess I was thinking that the cardstock backing was stiff enough that it wouldn’t bend and so the sharpened pencil wouldn’t be able to poke anything. Clearly, I was very wrong.
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Mrs. Turtle, Central California
Age and Occupation: 21, Art Student/Teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 22, English Student
Engagement Date: August 16, 2008
Wedding Date: July 2010
Venue: Mr. Turtle's Grandparents' backyard, Arroyo Grande, CA
About Me: I am a California girl who loves the beach and the mountains, but is quite satisfied living right in the middle where I can enjoy the best of both worlds. I am happiest when traveling to faraway places, wandering through museums, watching old movies, or baking up a storm. Mr. Turtle and I are high school sweethearts and fellow book nerds who both drive Mini Coopers and are most likely to be found browsing in antique stores. We're having so much fun planning our European garden wedding with a vintage twist and can't wait to share more of life's adventures together!
So… I’d made it down the aisle to Mr. Turtle, and here we were!
We kept our ceremony really short and old-fashioned. No readings, no unity candle, no special music. Our pastor just welcomed everyone and gave a short little sermon about love and marriage. He even referenced our proposal story, which was based on 1 Corinthians 13:13 and the most importance things in life: faith, hope, and love.
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Ms. Stripes, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 29, Costume Designer/Stylist
Fiancee's Age and Occupation: 29, Chef
Engagement Date: June 23, 2009
Wedding Date: September 2010
Venue: Heritage Square Museum
About Me: I’m a type A creative with a messy streak, a loud mouth, and an uncanny knack for combining clashing patterns. I can usually be found with my nose in a book, my feet (or at least my toes) on the ground, my head in the clouds, and my arm around the prettiest girl you ever saw- aka
Fiancee Stripes. Together we’re planning a FUN vintage/modern French carnival wedding extravaganza and rockin’ dance party on a dime. (Say that three times fast!) Good coffee, long lists, Uniball pens, and my iPhone keep me sane, and making art, making trouble, and making out keep me happy! I love urban adventures, bike rides that end with afternoon drinks, breakfast for dinner, beautiful light, photography, travel, my furry family, and of course, my beautiful fiancee! I’m super excited to be here and can’t wait to share all our adventures as we craft a joyful, budget-friendly, design-savvy and all-around AWESOME wedding!
Hello from wearestillrecoveringfromourweddingland! It’s pretty awesome, except for the part where we both got colds. Yeah. Weddings really take it out of you!
Anyhow, because my wife (!) recovers far later into the morning than I do, I actually have time to start tossing up all those posts I meant to write for you guys pre-wedding! Lucky you!
So pull up a chair and let’s chat about my other love: the blue mason jar. I’ve loved blue mason jars since I was a kid addicted to Sunset Magazine. Yup. I was a freak. Moving on. I knew that I wanted to incorporate blue mason jars into our whimsical, outdoor love fest, but I was already hung up on using milk glass (say what?! I never wrote that post either! My god—what was I doing around here?) for our centerpieces. Then a crazy thought sprung into my head—what if our guests could drink out of the jars?
I know, it’s not the most original idea in wedding land, where mason jar brides abound, but the blue ones? I became hellbent on having our guests drink out of those damn blue jars. And not just because they’re blue people, but because they’re green.
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Mrs. Barrettes, Tumon, Guam/Napa, CA
Age and Occupation: 29, Dancer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Licensed Building Contractor
Engagement Date: November 16, 2008
Wedding Date: October 2010
Venue: V. Sattui Winery
About 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!
In my last post I wrote that my new SIL gifted me with a really sweet gift that made me laugh and cry. She was gifted a similar basket at her bridal shower and was thoughtful enough to share it with me.
It is a basket of different colored candles, with a poem instructing the bride-to-be when to burn them throughout her married life.
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Mrs. Elephant, Dallas, TX
Age and Occupation: 27, Financial Operations Analyst
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, IT Student/Store Manager
Engagement Date: March 29, 2009
Wedding Date: April 2011
Venue: The Tribute Golf Club
About Me: I'm a Philly native creating roots deep in the heart of Texas. I might be a little obsessed capturing those Kodak moments of anything and everything (mainly on vacations). I've become more of a gamer thanks to Mr. Elephant, who I met online and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with. We are planning a wedding based on our favorite colors, blue and green, with a travel theme for 150 of our closest friends and family. Hopefully our long (2-year) engagement won't kill me!
As most brides can tell you, when it comes to thinking of wedding attire, most of the time is spent on what the bride and bridesmaids will wear. As you know (if you’ve been following along), I have found and ordered my amazing dress, and the bridesmaids have decided on their dresses. Next up? The guys.
After seeing this inspiration board from Snippet and Ink, I was hooked on that blue and green striped tie for the groomsmen.
Source
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All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
