Mrs. Meerkat, Kalamazoo, MI/Riviera MayaAge and Occupation: 30, Application EngineerFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, IT ConsultantEngagement Date: July 26, 2008Wedding Date: December 2010Venue: Al Cielo / La LagunaAbout 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.
If you have bumped into me in the last couple months I probably looked like this to you:
Photo by Mr. Meerkat
Yes, I have caught the photography bug BIG TIME!! And what does any bride do when given a brand new camera? Takes photos of her ring, of course.
I read a post on Weddingbee Pro a long time ago about how to take good photos of your ring. While I learned a ton from that article there still seemed to be something missing in my photos. It just didn’t have that artist flair I wanted.
One of the first things I learned I was doing wrong was putting the ring in the dead center of EVERY photo. When taking a photo you should try and follow what’s called the rule of thirds. 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.
Like many of you, I’ve gone back and forth about changing my name. I’ve gone through cons like feeling like I’m losing my identity and not being thrilled at trading in my lovely and easy to spell last name for a somewhat more complicated one that doesn’t go as perfectly with my current first name. I’ve also considered pros like how it would be nice to have the same last name as my husband and for something tangible to change once we’re married, as we’re already pretty much married.
We’ve been engaged for a bit over a year now (where did that go?) and I’ve changed my mind about this subject a lot over the past year.
At our engagement party one year ago:
I would say that I was leaning a lot more towards not changing it for most of the year. Read more…
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!
Before I tell you about the proposal, there is a little bit of giraffe history to share, so put your feet up, relax, and let’s hop in the (hot tub) time machine.
To understand Mr. Giraffe and me, you have to understand a certain someone else. A certain Uglydoll that is—an uglydoll named Babo.
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.
I’d been kind of concerned for the past few weeks. Basically, all I can think about is weddingweddingwedding, and whenever I asked his opinion on anything, he’d say, “Whatever you want is fine.” While I appreciate the lack of opposition on things like colors and flowers, I kind of wished that he’d be more involved. I mean, it’s not my wedding; it’s ours.
So I brought this up to him. He said that all he cares about is the following:
That we get married.
That everyone we love is there.
That everyone has a good time (which means that there is tasty food, a fully stocked bar, and good music).
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!
To start off the festivities, Hottie of Honor and I invited out-of-town guests and family to a Welcome Reception at two different locations. We had a Ladies’ Happy Hour and a Groom’s Get Together. The ladies got the pretty villa, while the lads got the backyard of the smaller house across the street. We had a purple themed event that Hottie of Honor fully stocked with all of my favorite things! Read more…
Mrs. Cheeseburger, Baltimore, MD/State College, PAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Medical StudentEngagement Date: June 28, 2008Wedding Date: March 2010Venue: Catholic Church Ceremony & Hotel ReceptionAbout 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!
With our portraits on campus finally done, we headed to the hotel in our trolley, anxious to really start the celebration!
We pulled up about ten minutes after the cocktail hour had begun, and as we walked through the doors we were quickly swarmed by all of our loving guests who greeted us with hugs and kind words.
I had always planned on attending our cocktail hour. I think it’s nice for the bridal party to be reunited with their dates for that time, rather than be tucked away in some hiding place, and I think it’s nice to start saying hello to guests. Plus, I really didn’t want to miss ANYTHING on our wedding day, especially not the opportunity to eat and drink ;). I mean look at that spread! Yum.
Mrs. Octopus, Boston, MA/Pittsburgh, PAAge and Occupation: 25, Grad StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Graphics Operator for TV NewsEngagement Date: May 6th, 2009Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: 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!
Hi everybody! We’re back from our honeymoon and I’m ready to start blogging again! Our lightning-fast photographer already has ALL of our photos finished and up in the online gallery, and as soon as I get our disc, I can’t wait to start writing the Octo-recaps. In the meantime, I have a bunch of posts on deck that I just never had the time to write before the wedding. I’d like to kick off this particular post with a quote…
“I thought everyone I knew was normal and socially appropriate. And then I planned a wedding.”–Bridesmaid Erica
Over the course of my engagement, I developed a little theory, one which was validated over and over and over, both in my experiences and those of other people. Here it is: some people, even ones who are normal and polite and sociable and predictable 99% of the time, say or do really weird stuff when it comes to weddings. A lot of my friends have gotten married in the past two years, and in an informal poll, I discovered that every single bride had at least one story about someone doing something really, really weird, awkward, or inappropriate regarding the wedding. Sometimes the weird wedding behavior is hilarious, sometimes it is decisively NOT hilarious, spanning all the way up to incredibly hurtful, surprising, and sometimes friendship-ending. Read more…
Mrs. Poodle, Santiago, Chile/San Bernardino, CAAge and Occupation: 27, Industrial & Web DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Firefighter & Mountain PatrolEngagement Date: February 25, 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Mr. P's Grandparents’ RanchAbout Me: I’m a Chilean girl who's crazy about nature and swimming. I enjoy carving, drawing, reading and sewing; I drool over computers, fabric, pretty paper, purple and patterns. To me, chocolate should be one of the seven wonders, right next to lemon pie. I never thought an exchange work experience program was going to change my life forever, but while working in California, I met Mr. Poodle, and ever since my days are better and brighter. We are two goofy souls that, after finding each other, couldn’t help but want to be together forever. It has being a long and sometimes hard road, since we have to deal with such a long distance between us, but we are now facing the last stage of our Fiancé Visa, and soon we will be together. You know the best part? We will be married! So I’ll be blogging from Chile until just a few months before our “green and purple” wedding.
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.
They are passionate, loyal, and always entertaining. They are my pillars of strength and my daily inspiration.
My favorite girls are also incredibly style savvy. The love of accessorizing, my fascination for contemporary designers, and my adoration of exquisite footwear? Yep, I have my girlfriends to thank for fueling my love affair with fashion. Read more…
Wedding BiosFeature Launched: September 12, 2008About: Wedding bios of real brides.
Mrs. Scissors, LaGrange, GAAge and Occupation: 25, Photography & Graphic DesignFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Engineering Grad StudentEngagement Date: January 1, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: Ceremony - First United Methodist Church; Reception - My parents' house!About Me: I’m a six-foot-three bride with a fifty-foot personality! I love great art, fabulous design, intense color, tons of music, indie photography, watching movies on repeat, and being really awesome. This super-tall, Southern, loud, quirky, neurotic artist is marrying a German, quiet, silly, super-amazing roboticist in an eclectic, funky, fun, snazzy, technicolored June wedding. Anything is game for this shindig, for it is all about us! We’re bringing giant paper cranes, six-foot-tall portraits, fortune cookies, a photo booth, a club-circuit DJ, handcuffs, and possibly a kidnapping to this small Southern town. Watch out, y’all, and try to keep up!
While we were having our mini dance parties, partaking in a few beverages, and taking the entire morning to get dressed, the guys watched movies. They had brought game systems and tons of games to play that morning, but forgot some very necessary cords. No dice on the games, they were left with strange Saturday morning movies. (The most notable was Deep Blue Sea. Hola, LL Cool J.) Bad TV at its best. Read more…
Mrs. Veggie, Raglan, New Zealand/Scranton, PAAge and Occupation: 27, Director of Small Non-ProfitFiance's Age and Occupation: 42, PhD Student & FarmerEngagement Date: June 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: Indian Head Camp, Honesdale Pennsylvania
About Me: I am a tree-huggin' farmer turned enthusiastic wedding-planner. I live in a house truck and wear flip-flops more often than shoes. In my old life I was a high school Spanish teacher in love with a crazy guy who lived off-the grid on a farm in New Hampshire. But, we decided to mix things up a bit, quit our jobs and move to New Zealand. My southern hemisphere lifestyle involves growing veggies, teaching, running our small non-profit, and surfing. I love laughing, singing, playing, and the inspirational Mr. Veggie (of course!). For our wedding, I am committed to throwing a killer party that celebrates our values without breaking the bank. Look forward to an eco-thrifty summer-campy weekend-long extravaganza.
We spent some weeks meandering through the every-day experiences of our families, waking in the homes of our sibling, parents, and friends and sharing, playing, and snuggling.
We spent time eating and laughing with them and catching up on all of the happenings we’ve missed while we were away. Read more…
Mrs. Earrings, Fresno, CA/ Nelson, New ZealandAge and Occupation: 20, Student, Wannabe Writer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 19, Photography StudentEngagement Date: February 14, 2010Wedding Date: January 2011Venue: Gardens of the WorldAbout 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.
I wrote about our venue here, and told you how it used to be my grandfather’s garden/park. I feel incredibly lucky to get married to Mr. E there, and what is the best thing about getting married in a gorgeous garden? All the photo opportunities, of course! So I thought I would give you the grand tour of the garden and show you some of the spots that I think will be perfect for some of the more “artistic” photos of the day.
Where to start…ooh, let’s start with the “lake,” as us grandchildren call the big pond in the centre of the garden:
Mrs. Moonbeam, Los Angeles/San AntonioAge and Occupation: 26, Intern ArchitectFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Studio Analyst, aspiring ScreenwriterEngagement Date: May 20, 2009Wedding Date: November 2009Venue: Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church (LaCoste, TX) and Mary Gray Events Center (Castroville, TX)About Me: I was born and raised in Texas, but after college I moved to Seattle for a couple of years and loved it. Then I followed my beau out here to LA and we're getting settled in. I've been making things since I can remember. I was raised by crafters. I love to sew, draw, paint, build, cook, bake (anything with a tangible end result is fair game). In that same spirit, I've been hosting since I was old enough to cook and set a fancy table. I kind of take after my grandmother, who believes that your morning OJ always tastes better out of the good crystal.
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
