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!
Well, it’s time! Our disk of pro pics came, and I’m so excited to be able to share my recaps with you all! With over 800 images to choose from, I’ve never had such a hard time choosing which pictures are prettiest! I love love LOVE our photographer, Scott V. of The Pros and RSVP Studios. I 100% endorse their work and highly recommend them. OK, so enough with the gushing, let’s get to the pictures already!
So you all heard about what a madhouse setting up the site was. So when we got to the house I immediately poured myself a glass of wine, drained it, then poured another to sip on. No need getting tipsy before the big show! I then jumped into the shower, so Bestie C could blow out my hair and start styling it.
All my girls started putting on their makeup, finishing up their hair, and putting on their pretty black dresses.
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Mrs. Star, New York City
Age and Occupation: 22, Actress
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Casting Assistant
Wedding Date: October 2009
Venue: Ceremony: The Kraine Theatre, Reception: Midtown Loft & Terrace
About Me: I’m a professional actress who’s always had New York City in her blood and I'm finally getting the chance to make a home in Manhattan with my fiancé, my dog, and my big dreams! I love polka dots, craft projects, Dunkin’ Donuts’ iced coffee, and anything sparkly. I’m having a blast planning our elegant/dramatic/New York City/acting-themed/largely-DIY wedding and am thrilled to be the youngest current Miss Blogger!
Folks, can you believe it? It’s time to open the freezer door, grab the biggest tiny-New-York-freezer-space-sucking-box out of there, and start thawing this puppy out:
You know what that means! Yep, today is our first anniversary. Time sure does fly, doesn’t it?
One year ago today, we were partying it up New York Style to celebrate our love.
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Mrs. Beagle, Austin
Age and Occupation: 26, Electrical Engineer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Finance
Engagement Date: July 12, 2008
Wedding Date: October 2009
Venue: Church Ceremony/Reception at The Waterford House
About Me: I am a true, but rare, Austinite---I was born, raised, and continue to live in this great city! Although
I am an engineer by day, I feed my inner creative side through crafting, sewing, and obsessing over Martha Stewart. I love coffee, my mister, NPR, and exploring all the nooks and crannies of Austin.
I can't wait to share my adventures in DIY and wedding planning with all of you!
On the morning of our wedding, I woke up surprisingly calm. My cousin, bridesmaid S, and best girl, Sister Beagle stayed over at my house after the rehearsal dinner, while my soon-to-be husband stayed elsewhere. We decided not to see each other until the ceremony, so my morning was without any major time constraints. I finished putting the last minute touches on the bouts and bouquets while the girls slept. Once everyone was up and about, we had a wonderful breakfast at one of my favorite local cafes and then we headed over to Aveda to get our hair done. I treated all my bridesmaids to a hair-do to keep things simple (I didn’t want the out-of-town girls to worry about finding a salon Saturday morning), while my sister and I had our makeup done. Once everyone was done with our appointments (and a quick stop at Target), we went back to my house where the girls put on their dresses and I collected my bridal attire, accessories and any straggling wedding/reception items. It was finally time to head to the church!
I’ll admit that at this point, I started getting a little nervous. It wasn’t too terribly bad, but I completely regretted not seeing my husband before the ceremony. I think it would have nixed all the unnecessary nerves, anxiety, and butterflies.
We arrived at the church about two hours before the ceremony started and camped out in our room:
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Mrs. Locket, Ithaca, NY
Age and Occupation: 25, Research Technician
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, former Banker hoping to become an Officer of the Law
Engagement Date: June 15, 2009
Wedding Date: September 2010
Venue: Heron Hill Winery
About 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).
Truth be told our wedding week was not without a dilemma or two (or three or four), but we managed to hold our chins up and truck on through. Because wedding planning isn’t always about the good I want to share some of the bad and how a bad thing can turn into something wonderful. So, here are some of our dilemmas and how we conquered them with dignity.
The Bad: My back-up hairdresser never got back to me.
Boy oh boy was I stressed…I had a week and a half to go before the wedding and had no plan.
The Good: Mr. L is awesome and saved the day.
He knew I was stressing and put in the effort at his pre-wedding haircut appointment. He was able to talk the salon manager into stepping in with such short notice and was even able to convince her to squeeze in a trial.
The trial results put me at ease:
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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.
Sister-In-Law Meerkat and Mama-In-Law Meerkat threw me my very first bridal shower a few weeks ago. Knowing my love of flip flops (as you will see if you look at my feet in the photos below), they threw a beach and flip flop-themed shower for me.
They set up tables outside with sand and seashells as the centerpieces. Each seat had a bucket with a flip flop shaped box full of Dove chocolates and Bath & Body works lotion and hand sanitizer. (I have a little bit of an addiction to Bath & Body works. *grin*)
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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.
Occasionally, very occasionally, when I go for a walk in my new neighborhood I pause at a gorgeous Weeping Willow tree. Each time I pass, I start to have small wedding fantasies about taking pictures in front of it. I have visions of quietly sharing the joy of the day with the most precious people in our lives, kissing my new husband underneath, and pressing the delicate leaves between my fingers in my wedding gown. Every time I pass this tree, the same thoughts occur to me. But, why? I began to think about why these trees appeal to me and realized that I am very attached to Weeping Willow trees. My life has literally been entwined in the branches in small ways, ways in which only I would know, but very significant ways.
One particular story involves a Willow tree, a rope swing, and a parked Jeep. Unfortunately that day did not fair well for my ankle but changed my life forever. Due to the broken leg my teacher allowed me to pick a helper, who eventually turned into my soul mate, my best friend Brittany. Our strong friendship and loyalty to each other has molded all future relationship examples. I simply am not able to allow someone into my life who can’t improve it. In short, Brittany and my friendship opened the door to fully appreciating a person like Zeb. I see the similarities in my two most influential non familial people every day. It’s astonishing.
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Ms. Cheetah, Los Angeles/Palm Springs
Age and Occupation: 31, Artist, Educator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 32, TV Finance
Engagement Date: April 2010
Wedding Date: March 2011
Venue: The Viceroy
About Me: I’m a silly, sassy lady with a compulsion to create. I love to sing and dance, despite the fact that I lack any talent doing either. I somehow manage to be messy and organized at the same time. I like to spend my days road tripping, watching '80s movies, reading true crime books, buying things on sale, sending postcards, playing board games, dining at food trucks, snuggling, and drinking ginger ale. I have a weak spot for all things sweet, especially Mr. Cheetah! I’m a Chicago girl and he’s a Nor Cal boy but we love living in the City of Angels. After 10 years as a couple we are planning a fun-filled semi-destination wedding in Palm Springs. Hope you enjoy the ride!
Or how we first met.
You heard a bit about how we met in my first post—now you get the full story. Like a lot of couples, we met at college. Like a lot of couples, we were friends first.
Mr. Cheetah and I first met the very first day of undergrad. Turns out he went to high school with one of my new roommates, Mrs. P (now a bridesmaid). That first night, Mrs. P gathered some of her new roommates (there were six of us living in a three-bedroom dorm-room suite) and some of her old high school friends that also went to the same college, and together we all explored our new surroundings, Isla Vista. IV is the packed little college town of our Alma Mater, UC Santa Barbara (go Gauchos!). I remember guys on their balconies yelling out “freshmen!” at us and thinking, “How do they know?” 
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Mrs. Knitting, Toronto
Age and Occupation: 24, Student Recruitment Assistant
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Neuroscience PhD Candidate
Engagement Date: October 2009
Wedding Date: December 2010
Venue: 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.
Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians in the Hive! Okay, now back to wedding stuff.
That’s right, BLARG! I can’t stand when people clink their glasses with knives to make the couple kiss at a wedding. I think it’s cute once, and then it becomes this awful irritating noise that goes on forever. This happened at my friend’s wedding and it was this huge unpleasant distraction throughout the dinner. NOT COOL.
Source
As a result, I’ve been trying to come up with alternatives to the glasses clinking.
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Mrs. Cheeseburger, Baltimore, MD/State College, PA
Age and Occupation: 25, Medical Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Medical Student
Engagement Date: June 28, 2008
Wedding Date: March 2010
Venue: Catholic Church Ceremony & Hotel Reception
About Me: I'm a passionate girl from Pittsburgh, currently living in Baltimore for school, who loves Penn State, seeing movies, football, thunderstorms, black and white photos, Christmas, good beer, my amazing friends and family, and of course, my mister! We met, fell in love, got engaged, and will be married at our alma mater (go lions!) in a traditional Catholic ceremony followed by a hotel reception with lots of DIY details. It means so much to have our families and friends meet at our favorite place on earth to celebrate our love for one another - I truly couldn't ask for anything more!
After we shared a fantastic dance together and cut our cake, it was time for our family to get in on the celebration.
As we were seated, my father gave a very sweet speech, welcoming our guests and thanking them for making the trip to Happy Valley.
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Mrs. Sewing, San Mateo, CA/Honolulu, HI
Age and Occupation: 24, Electrical Engineer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Electrical Engineer
Engagement Date: June 27, 2009
Wedding Date: July 2010
Venue: Anela Garden Chapel & Japanese Cultural Center, Honolulu
About Me: I'm an easily entertained, compulsive idea-scheming machine who loves good art, good food, and a good engineering challenge. I'm planning a half-destination wedding on the beautiful island of Oahu - imagine a plethora of movies, art and games; savory Hawaiian food; blended Chinese and Japanese cultural details; lush, fragrant tropical flowers and all the air conditioning a NorCal native could want! And once I marry the love of my life, we'll come back to the 'mainland' to party it up all over again in my hometown of Salinas, the salad-bowl capital of the world!
While I do the pro-pic wait, let’s do some more projects, shall we? Projects are fun.
We’ll start with favors for our fast-approaching second reception. There’s just something about personalized favors that I love. Sure, they are by no-means necessary, but they can be so fun to make, give, and receive. It must be some side effect of that paraphernalia-collecting disease I’m afflicted with.
Anyway, we needed something usable, Chinese restaurant-appropriate, and of course, something that can embody the Sewing-spirit.
Tea favors it is—now, off we go!
To start off, we ordered a bunch of metal tins from SKS Bottle.
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Mrs. Glasses, Tokyo/Los Angeles, CA
Age and Occupation: 24, English teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, English teacher
Engagement Date: September 2008
Wedding Date: October 2010
Venue: Parents' backyard
About 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!
Here were the contenders from of my very successful David’s Bridal trip:
I last left you hanging on which one I ultimately decided on.
The trumpet gown was the shape I was going for all along. It’s classic and gorgeous. The empire waist ball gown is romantic, beautiful, and has a very special unique charm. Both gowns fit like a glove and complemented my shape.
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Mrs. Giraffe, Chicago
Age and Occupation: 23, Graphic Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Music Student Teacher
Engagement Date: October 23, 2008
Wedding Date: May 2011
Venue: Trinity Lutheran Church & Idlewild Country Club
About Me: Coming from the suburbs of the Windy City, you'll often find me with my foot in my mouth while laughing for no reason or telling bad knock knock jokes. I've been crafty for as long as I can remember, and will DIY something twice over before I have someone do it for me. I'm a semi-awkward, typeface obsessed, design junkie and have been know to break out my dance moves for no reason as well as try my best to be ridiculous at all times. My love of pop culture, wordplay, and graph paper almost rivals my love of Mr. Giraffe (who is just the bee's knees). After a 2.5 year engagement, we're planning a modern-in-disguise traditional wedding, and cannot wait!
So if you have friends getting married and want to get them something a little different, but something definitely awesome, I recommend this amazing bookshelf from Fusca Design. (They also have a similar one perfectly sized for CDs.) It’s cute and trendy—definitely the perfect offbeat gift for the hip offbeat couple…or for me.
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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.
One of my “wedding wants” is having a special wedding day perfume. I know it isn’t something that is essential for the wedding…but it is still something I am bound and determined to have! We’ll just call it a bad weak spot.
I have always admired perfumes (The pretty bottles! The exotic names! Oh yeah, and the smells!) but never indulged in buying any for myself. The one and only scent I own is “Light Blue” by Dolce and Gabbana.
Mr E bought it for me at Christmas two years ago and I love it. Since then I have longed for another opportunity for a new perfume, and, of course, the wedding fits that bill perfectly. I love the idea of associating a specific scent with your wedding day.
Mr. E doesn’t want to be left out of the action either, so we have come up with a plan: I will pick three favourite perfumes, and he will pick three favourite colognes. Then, I will pick one of those colognes for him, and he will pick a perfume for me, without the other knowing which one we bought.
So, a couple days ago, we went out on the scented trail and created the following two lineups for our wedding day scents.
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Mrs. Hot Wings, Chicago/San Diego
Age and Occupation: 28, Professor
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Instructor
Engagement Date: December 20, 2008
Wedding Date: August 2010
Venue: Ocean View Villas/Jasmine Seafood Restaurant
About Me: I am a psychology grad student living in Chicago and planning my wedding to a fellow psych grad student. I am a Sunny So-Cal bred gal who trudged across the country to follow her love of psychology and ended up finding a partner in the process. I am overly passionate about anything I involve myself with. I am an activist, a foodie, a reality TV watching junkie, an over-analyzer, a photography obsesser, and am utterly cheesy to the core. This is a story of what happens when a boy and a girl meet, fall in love over academic dorkiness, and a shared love for life. We (mostly I) are planning our semi-destination wedding in my hometown of San Diego. We are excited to bring our families and friends together from across our lifespans to celebrate our future in a grand 400+ person culturally blended affair!
I would like to say that the rehearsal made everything about our wedding feel near and real. But in reality, the rehearsal was probably one of my least favorite moments during the entire wedding weekend. I had decided to just go with the flow and try to enjoy the weekend as soon as our guests arrived, but I couldn’t because of the people around me.
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Weddingbee Gallery
Feature Launched: April 10, 2009
About: A collection of inspirational wedding pictures from readers and bees.
Absolutebettie’s head table decor is chic and gorgeous!
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!
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
