Mrs. Giraffe, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 23, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Music Student TeacherEngagement Date: October 23, 2008Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Trinity Lutheran Church & Idlewild Country ClubAbout 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!
I know there are bajillions of free fonts out there that any bride-to-be can use to fuel her invitation and other nuptial stationery whims, but sometimes it’s worth it to shell out a little moolah. Now, being the cheap thrify person I am, I normally wouldn’t buy a font when I could find one for free, but for those brides-to-be with a little more wiggle room in the budget, I have a suggestion for you!
Head on over to fonts.com and download Wedding Wishes BV. It’s only $22…which could be four footlongs from Subway (excluding the Chicken Bacon Ranch of course). But when it’s “for the wedding,” who’s counting the dollars? Haha.
Anyway, the Wedding Wishes BV could be used on all sorts of printed wedding materials…STDs, invites, menus, or whatever else you can dream up!
Mrs. Dolphin, Gainesville, FLAge and Occupation: 24, Graduate Architecture StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Interactive Interface DeveloperEngagement Date: February 14, 2008Wedding Date: May 2010Venue: Plantation Bay Country ClubAbout Me: I’m currently a Graduate Student at the University of Florida studying Architecture. I enjoy playing Scrabble with my Fiance, rooting for the Florida Gators, making any drink that involves a blender, cleaning (yes... I’m crazy), design... GOOD design that is, the new Pepsi with natural sugar, taking pictures, discovering new places in the U.S., and obsessing over doing (and designing) everything myself for our upcoming wedding!
I’m that person who arrives 30 minutes early for EVERYTHING. I have this fear of being late. Even when it looks like we will be a millisecond late for something, my stomach will start to turn and I will get uncomfortable and jittery. So, it came as a surprise to me that I was late for Mr Dolphin’s and my wedding ceremony. I blame Seminole Bridesmaid for making me take off my beloved Skagen watch.
Only kidding! I totally love Mrs. Seminole Bridesmaid, but it was seriously too much fun making this image. I think deep down I’m having Seminole Bridesmaid withdrawals.
photo by Starks Photography, culprit stamping by Mrs. Dolphin
Let me set the stage for a complete groom freak-out.
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 am so ready. I’m writing this as I have 20 minutes until the photographer arrives, until I get in my dress, and then…I’ll stand in front of my family and friends and tell them my promise to love Mr. Socks forever and ever.
Mr. Socks, we have been through so much this year and it has all made this wedding so much fun to plan. We have become a stronger couple through it all and I am so excited to begin this journey with you.
Hive, thank you so much for all of your help throughout my planning. Thank you for your encouragement and the lovely comments you have left for me. I have so enjoyed sharing everything about my wedding with you, and I’m even more excited to share the outcome of all of our planning!
Thank you, Thank you. Mr. Socks, I love you. Let’s do this thing!
Ms. Cheetah, Los Angeles/Palm Springs
Age and Occupation: 31, Artist, EducatorFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, TV FinanceEngagement Date: April 2010Wedding Date: March 2011Venue: The ViceroyAbout 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!
After the engagement was on, it was time to figure out where and when we were actually going to do this whole wedding thing.As for where, there were three obvious choices:1) Chicago (my hometown),2) Los Angeles (where we live), and 3) Everywhere else in the world!
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!
Last time, I shared my personal experience with church in the past, and shared my feelings about getting married in a church.
You might be wondering where my parents stand on all of this. After all, I did explain that they’re both extremely religious and still heavily involved in church. Well, I’ll get into more detail on that later, but at the time, they said nothing. We chose our venue, we moved on.
When Mr. Cardy and I very first got engaged, we made the decision to email the youth pastor from my parents’ church (we both know him and attended that youth group for a couple of years) to ask him to officiate our wedding. It seemed only natural, since he was the only pastor that we both knew.
Then, I began reading wedding blogs and wedding forums. And I began to see that there are people out there who are married by people who mean a lot to them and who are special people in their lives. I learned that getting ordained is extremely easy, and it’s entirely possible to have a friend or family member be the one to marry you. Read more…
Mrs. Jaguar, SydneyAge and Occupation: 27, Primary School TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, IT ConsultantEngagement Date: August 8, 2009Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Curzon HallAbout Me: I'm an Australian girl who is a self-proclaimed nerd, loves all things stationery and would be lost without books, music and the internet. Mr. Jaguar and I have been together for the past eight years and he finally popped the question last August. Hurrah! We currently live in Sydney, Australia with our adorable cat who thinks he's a person. We're a couple who likes to multi-task: we've been planning a wedding abroad, a permanent move from London to Sydney, and preparing to build our own home all at the same time. Travelling makes me giddy...as does Mr. Jaguar, of course!
I promise I won’t talk about engagement rings forever. Mr. Jaguar always laughs at me when I share our story in so much detail, but I just tell him that after having almost three months of planning the wedding while the ring was off being resized, I’m allowed. A girl’s gotta pass the time somehow!
So if you remember from last time, our estimated wait time for the e-ring to be shipped off to New York, resized, and then delivered back to London was 10–12 weeks. We’d bought a temporary piece of costume jewelery for me to wear in the meantime (which, funnily enough, a lot of people complimented me on!), and then all we could do was wait.
And wait. And twiddle our thumbs. And wait some more.
A friend of mine suggested we tell the company that we had our engagement party coming up and to see if they could put a priority on the resizing. (We didn’t have one coming up, and they couldn’t do that anyway, so no luck there!) Another friend mentioned telling them we had a holiday abroad coming up, and couldn’t they keep us updated every now and again about where the ring was? This also did not bring a great deal of progress. Read more…
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!
Well hive, I think this may be my last post as a Miss! With the whirlwind that’s about to hit my life I don’t know if I’ll see ya until the middle of next week!
The weather in Napa is perfect for this weekend and I couldn’t be more lucky. Marrying my love amongst our favorite people, nestled in wine country—I feel like I’m dreaming. Somebody pinch me.
I have a plethora of details to still share, but it’s hard because they’re all coming together at the last minute. For example, I glued and bow-d over 200 corks for our escort cards, but the actual paper cards are with Mom Barrettes at her hotel. Also, Mr. B constructed an amazing photobooth idea for me two days ago, but it won’t be ready to use until later tonight. Oh, and mom’s dress made mine! The final product is a hit.
Looks like I’ll have plenty to blog about while we wait for our pro photos!
Here’s a sneak peek:
Mr. Barrettes making my photobooth dreams a reality…
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.
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.
It’s Saturday morning—I woke up with anxious pangs in my stomach at 7:30 and I haven’t been able to fall back asleep which means I need to cross something off my to-do list, and that thing may as well be therapeutic and happy-making. So I write.
Tomorrow afternoon, I marry the love of my life.
The past week has felt like the calm before the storm. I went to work on Monday and Tuesday, and I diligently plugged away at an overwhelming number of DIY projects with a sense of calm and accomplishment after work. I hastily packed up my DIY mess and dumped most of my clothes in a suitcase (I’ll sort out my honeymoon packing on Monday) and loaded up my mom’s car. On our trafficky ride from Queens to Bucks County, PA, LA MOH and I assembled programs in the back seat of my mom’s SUV. When we got home I went back out to do a walk-through at our venue and ran back home as fast as I could for welcome dinner with our Irish cousins, who have come to America for my wedding, unbelievably (and they read my blog!! Say hello, hive ). I feel like I haven’t stopped—probably because I haven’t stopped working—for at least two weeks. And now the anxiety and butterflies are hitting me. Thank goodness it’s a day before my wedding so I can sort them out. Read more…
Mrs. Lioness, AtlantaAge and Occupation: 25, Physical TherapistFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, AttorneyEngagement Date: August 29, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: Anthony’s Fine DiningAbout 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!
I’m what we in the rehabilitation world call a “motor moron.” This means that my motor skills (muscular movement that results from signals from the brain) are not exactly smooth. I’m clumsy. My parents realized this early on and stuck me in ballet class in an attempt to improve my coordination. If I’d had some kind of motor developmental delay, this surely would have helped. Practice makes perfect, as the brain learns how to tell the muscles what to do…it’s kind of what my entire career is based on. This wasn’t the case, though. I don;t have any pathological delays, I’m just a motor moron. The result? I was (and still am after decades of training) quite graceful on stage; but not so much in real life.
Personal photo, circa 1992…check out that turn out!
Dancing has always been a part of who I am. It’s the first thing I can remember being passionate about.
Ms. Sloth, PhiladelphiaAge and Occupation: 35, Account Manager and Fashion BloggerFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Design AdminEngagement Date: December 25, 2009Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Bartram's GardenAbout 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.
Mrs. Giraffe, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 23, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Music Student TeacherEngagement Date: October 23, 2008Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Trinity Lutheran Church & Idlewild Country ClubAbout 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!
Has anyone ever visited White Flower Cakes? I hadn’t, but I found the link via another blog that wasn’t in English. I had no idea what it was saying, but it was a cake blog. Anyway, I headed over to the gallery and found a cake that just really made me smile. We’ve been on the fence about whether we want a traditional cake or something a little more hip, but this one is definitely in the hip category.
Mrs. Hot Wings, Chicago/San DiegoAge and Occupation: 28, ProfessorFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, InstructorEngagement Date: December 20, 2008Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: Ocean View Villas/Jasmine Seafood RestaurantAbout 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 have had long hair for much too long. I’m the type that gets bored with my hair and likes to play. I’ve been dying to chop it off. At my new gig as a fancy-pants professor, I’ve been pulling my hair back into a bun every.single.day! How sad for all that pretty hair, huh? I was seriously starting to feel like an 18 year old with long hair, though. It was also weighing me down and pulling on my forehead.
Mrs. Ostrich, San Francisco/HawaiiAge and Occupation: 30, Fashion Buyer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 38, CopywriterEngagement Date: October 4, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: Sweet ceremony by the sea and sunset celebration on the North Shore of HawaiiAbout Me: Born in the city of angels and residing in the city by the bay, I’m a fearless fashion buyer by day, a passionate blog author by night and a dreamy bride-to-be in between. I thank my lucky stars to live in such a stunning city that gives me gifts like organic honey lavender ice cream, movie nights in the park, tucked away beaches, legendary record stores, '80s dance parties, awesome sports teams, stellar flea markets, and vintage bookshops. Oh, and I love to dance! We always find every excuse to escape to the beach, and decided a little seaside wedding in Hawaii is our idea of bliss. Full of our favorite people, music, food and sparkly lights, this is one sunset celebration we will always remember.
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
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