Mrs. Waffle, AustinAge and Occupation: 31, Costumer/ArtistFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, AnimatorEngagement Date: July 27, 2010Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Hummingbird HouseAbout Me: My life is pretty much spent in a sea of fabric, paint, sequins and drama. When I’m not working, I play on a trivia team, take Broadway dance classes, read, buy shoes, and occasionally geek out on video games. I am an American girl who loves all things British and Mr. Waffle is a Brit who loves all things American...I guess it was meant to be!
While looking my Senior Memory Book from high school recently, I came across a “predict your future” section which asked if you though you would be married. My answer?
“Someone might propose to me, but I don’t think I’ll ever get married or have kids.”
Fast forward to a few years ago—I still felt exactly the same way. I clearly remember having an emotional meltdown on an NYC subway train at 3 AM about how “no one will ever want to seriously marry me.”
You know what I say now? “Haha past selves! Take that…
Someone truly and seriously proposed to me! And guess what past selves…he’s wonderful!” Read more…
Weddingbee GalleryFeature Launched: April 10, 2009About: A collection of inspirational wedding pictures from readers and bees.
Jackquelyn’s damask cake is black and white perfection!
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. Tiramisu, Annapolis, MD/MaineAge and Occupation: 26, HealthcareFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Project Manager/Real Estate Management grad studentEngagement Date: May 15, 2007Wedding Date: July, 2008Blogging Since: March 4, 2008Venue: Oceanfront lawn and tentAbout Me: I was born and raised in Maine, now living in Annapolis, Maryland and planning a hometown wedding from afar. I’m nothing short of obsessed with wedding planning, and am loving the do-it-yourself madness that has now taken over my life! As for me, I’m a craft-loving, martini-drinking, girly-girl who loves traveling, photography, my schnauzer, and above all, spending time with Mr. Tiramisu.
I love that two years after the fact, the thing I love most about our wedding (besides the obvious getting married to the love of my life part) was the fact that it was almost a huge disaster. The huge storm and resulting power outage not only made the wedding unavoidably memorable, but also brought this really cool spirit to the party, where all of the guests kind of joined together and made the most of it. I really doubt that anyone would be talking about our wedding two years later if the storm had not happened, and it’s pretty fun when we attend another wedding—especially say if it’s on a gorgeous sunny day—-and someone says, “hey! remember how crazy your wedding was!?” So looking back, I still wouldn’t change a thing, and in fact I’m actually glad that we had the storm. Maybe that makes me a crazy person, but it’s true!
So here are my favorite posts—the first is when I’m still a bit in shock about the whole thing, the second is right in the middle of it, and the last is when I realize for sure that a little (okay, a lot) of rain didn’t matter at all.
~~~
Wow- what a whirlwind the past two weeks have been! Mr. Tiramisu and I returned to Maryland late last night after an amazing honeymoon, and I still can’t quite believe that this whole crazy thing happened! July 19th was by far THE best day of my life so far. It was quite simply, unbelievable- for lots of reasons. Believe me when I say I’ve got some interesting stories to tell! We’re still waiting on the pictures, so I’ll leave you for now with just a few of my thoughts of the day… Read more…
Mrs. Panther, Atlanta GA/Westport CTAge and Occupation: 24, Web WriterFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Music Recording EngineerEngagement Date: March 13, 2010Wedding Date: July 2011Venue: The Inn at LongshoreAbout Me: I'm a total goofball who goes through life at a breakneck pace, trying not to knock anything over. I tend to fall in love with everything I encounter, but more than anything, I love my two little kitties, Bela and Josie, and my big kitty, Mr. Panther! As a wannabe crafter, I'm still waiting for my artistic talents to emerge. (Any day now, really.) In the meantime, I spend my days eating anything put in front of me, buying every pair of shoes I see and absorbing wedding inspiration from every inch of my surroundings. Mr. Panther and I are hardcore New Englanders planning Connecticut nuptials from our new home in the Dirty South, and can't wait to mix our newfound love of classic Southern charm with some modern city touches.
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 hate that it’s become a catch-all term to describe any bride that has strong opinions about what she wants. Read more…
Mrs. Jellyfish, Pleasanton, CAAge and Occupation: 27, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Air Force PilotEngagement Date: February 21, 2009Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: Casa Real at Ruby Hill WineryAbout Me: In a nutshell, I’m the most optimistic worrywart you’ll ever meet. My family emigrated from Romania to San Jose, CA when I was 8, and I've been a Nor Cal girl ever since! My fiancé is also a Bay Area native, so it’s funny that we met at UCLA, as college freshmen living on the same floor (go Bruins!). Between his career as an Air Force pilot and my path to becoming a lawyer, our relationship has been anything but typical. We currently live together in Berkeley with our puppy Stinson. In addition to spending time with the loves of my life, I enjoy crafting, attempting complicated recipes, environmental law and non-law school reading (Us Weekly, anyone?). Follow along as I plan an elegant 200-person winery wedding, graduate law school, take the Bar exam, get married and get used to the always unpredictable but never boring life of a military spouse!
On Saturday morning, I woke up feeling excited. After 19 months of planning, our wedding weekend was finally here. I sat down and wrote my farewell post, and then we headed off to Pleasanton for the wedding rehearsal. Because there was another wedding happening that night, we had to have our wedding rehearsal somewhat early, at 11 AM the day before the wedding.
As we pulled into the Casa Real parking lot, we could see all our closest family and friends there, waiting for us. I think that was the first time I experienced the feeling that I’d continue experiencing throughout the wedding weekend, that “OMG, I can’t believe all these people are here for us” feeling. It’s an amazing feeling.
Arriving at the venue with boxes full of DIY goodness. This was my first time seeing my MOH, who had come out all the way from Romania to be there for the wedding.
We dropped off the boxes of DIY projects and decor with our DOC and I got straight to business, handing out the info sheets I’d printed out the night before to all of our bridal party.
Mrs. Cinnamon Bun, Calgary, AlbertaAge and Occupation: 26, Stage ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Theatre TechnicianEngagement Date: June 22, 2010Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Calgary Opera CentreAbout Me: I'm a life-long crafter and bookworm living in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. Some of my loves include Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes, knitting, opera, musicals, Etsy, baking, and of course, Mr. Cinnamon Buns. We're keeping our wedding close to home---the venue isn't very far from our house, and we live within walking distance of 6 bridal salons. I'm using the wedding as an excuse to try out every craft project I possibly can, with the endless help and support of my fiance.
Let me just say that I love cupcakes. I love cake. I love dessert in all its incarnations. But there comes a point when I’m eating a cupcake or cake that the icing is just too much for me, and I have to scrape it off and make an ugly, sticky little pile on the side of my plate. Last year, when I told Cinnamon Buns to pick any cake he wanted from my plethora of baking books and I would make it for his birthday…he asked if I could make a sour cherry pie. It’s just who we are.
So naturally, one of the first things we decided about our wedding (before we’d even decided on getting married in 2011 or 2012!) was that we were going to have wedding pie—more specifically, a pie buffet, full of all our favourite flavours of pie, with not a dollop of icing in sight. Then I started buying Martha Stewart Weddings, and my 20-wedding-blogs-a-day habit began, and I found that wedding pie was a bit of a trend. No matter, it’s still what we wanted!
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.
So, you want to know what I was like in high school, eh? Oh man.
High School Thimble was: Drama Club Actress, Stage Manager and Treasurer; Choir Alto 2, and Officer with a made-up title of Instrumental Liaison to communicate schedules with Marching Band in which I served as a Squad Leader in the Flute Section. Add to that a community service stint in a traveling educational puppet show called Kids on the Block, my weekend job as a Cashier and Bagger at Shop N’ Bag and occasional Babysitter, a fairly intense Social Life and All Honors Classes because I was gifted and I could do it all!
In other words, I was a disaster. An all-nighter-pulling, granola-bars-for-dinner on my way to rehearsal, struggling-to-keep-up with my school work while maintaining an academic elitist attitude. An over-extended teenager who would not listen to reason from my parents to chill the heck out.
AP English class with some friends I’ve hardly seen since then during finals week, or the last week… or sometime toward the end. On the left is the AP chalkboard where students of note were posted for all to see… Mr. T and I were listed under “AP Couples.”
While my best friends were celebrating senior week at the beach, I was performing Moliere at the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska: 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’m surrounded by two types of women right now, it seems. The first are currently pregnant or are glowing new mothers. The second are in the process of planning their weddings. I’ve found that the big announcements tend to happen in waves, or at least that’s what the world of social media is trying to tell me, anyway.
We’ve been engaged (for what feels like forever) for over a year now, and still have a good many months to go before the big day. As Miss Lioness put it recently, the length of a couple’s engagement is such a personal decision—and one of the strangest (and yes, also the hardest) things I’ve been dealing with lately is the amount of people who have gotten engaged after us but are getting married before us.
I know it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. People get married all the time—it’s not as though I expect the world to stop and revolve around me because I AM GETTING MARRIED NEXT JUNE. It’s silly, really. I love weddings. I love going to them, I love reading about them, I love seeing pictures of them, and I love blogging about them. Obviously.
Mrs. Penguin, Northern CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 27, Weddingbee Editor in ChiefFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Doctor of Physical TherapyEngagement Date: January 29, 2007Wedding Date: June 7, 2008Blogging Since: September 14, 2007Venue: Winery in the Gold CountryAbout Me: I love the Spice Girls, dogs with underbites, bean burritos, making messes, high fives, avoiding showers, crossword puzzles, blogs, weddings, and blogs about weddings!
Just a quick note: Weddingbee will be down tonight at 10PM PST for scheduled maintenance. Among other things, we’ll be addressing the recent post-count issue that some of you are experiencing (yay!).
The outage should last under an hour, and we’ll be back up and running in no time! If you’re looking for something to do during the outage, come play with Weddingbee on Twitter or Facebook.
Mrs. Turtle, Central CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 21, Art Student/TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 22, English StudentEngagement Date: August 16, 2008Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Mr. Turtle's Grandparents' backyard, Arroyo Grande, CAAbout 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!
As the evening wound down, and the music from our “first and last dance” began to fade away, I remember looking around at the faces of the people who were still there and thinking that it was an absolutely perfect moment in time. Some people were still dancing in the gazebo, some were taking one last turn in the photobooth, and others were wrapped up in conversation with people they hadn’t seen in years. I knew that it was time for our “farewell,” but I still found myself asking our wedding coordinator if we could just hang out for another hour. She laughed, and pointed out that the candles had all melted down. The vendors were coming to clean up soon and most of the guests had already left. I looked around and although I understood her valid points, I just didn’t want the night to end. (Isn’t that how every bride should feel at her wedding?)
The remaining guests gathered along the driveway holding the getaway flags. (Which may look like a super cute DIY project, but I have to be honest with you: they were a serendipitous find at T.J. Maxx!) Read more…
Mrs. Cola, Mountain View, CAAge and Occupation: 27, Product Communications and PromotionsFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Managing Partner and Senior DesignerEngagement Date: March 5, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: The Mountain Terrace, Woodside, CAAbout Me: I’m a Washington State native, enjoying life in Silicon Valley California with my fiancé, our three kitties and one leopard gecko. I like reading wedding blogs, Photoshopping wedding design mock ups, making lists, and planning, planning, planning! I’m a bit of an anomaly, on one side I’m a very girlie girl, I collect shoes, I lay out my outfits 4-6 weeks in advance, and I’d never leave the house without my hair curled and makeup on. But on the other side, I’m a total tomboy, I love to go camping and hiking, play drinking games (hey, I’m Irish!) and most of my closest friends are guys. My fiancé and I are planning a DIY-focused wedding with a balance between easygoing (what he wants) and chic and stylish (what I want), and are tying it all together with elements in lavender, sage, butter cream and chocolate.
Ahhh, the details. This is the post that I’ve been waiting to write since I first started blogging. All the tiny touches, glimpses of the venue, DIY details galore, and a few shots of the bride and groom thrown in for good measure.
I know some bees like to do this post early in their recaps, but I decided I wanted to save mine for towards the end, so I could do a pretty picture overload post without a lot of description. Just a “soak in all the details and hard work from our wedding” kind of post.
I’ve already touched on most of these details, scattered throughout my recaps, although there are some photos I’ve been holding onto for just these posts. So without further ado, here’s the first of my two-part details recaps (sorry, I just couldn’t narrow it down enough to fit in one post!). Feel free to click on any of these for a larger view, and I’ve included the links to the original tutorial or inspiration posts at the bottom.
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. 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!
When I started thinking about our wedding, I thought that honeymoons HAD to mean beaches, sun, and resorts. Once I began the planning though, we realized that we may not have had all of the funds we wanted in order to get to an exotic island like I pictured.
No matter…we got married in Autumn, my favorite time of year! We figured we might want to take advantage of the time of year and go where it was most beautiful at that time: the Northeastern United States! Combining my love for fall colors, the crisp, cool air, and wine, we settled quickly on The Finger Lakes region of New York, as well as Niagara in Canada. There were wineries galore, beautiful settings, and perfect weather for my favorite time of year!
Because our honeymoon consisted mostly of eating and drinking (LOTS of eating and drinking), my recaps will be fairly short, but I do want to touch on the main things we did for those of you who may be looking for a honeymoon or minimoon that’s cheaper than Napa, but is still a wonderful time! Read more…
Mrs. Brooch, Arlington, VAAge and Occupation: 25, Writer/EditorFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Front Desk ManagerEngagement Date: October 3, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: Oxon Hill ManorAbout 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.
Our awesome planner had a fabulous suggestion for making our centerpieces unique: vintage frames. She suggested putting empty frames (painted in the center with either white acrylic or chalkboard paint) in the middle of the table as a place to focus our centerpieces.
The idea came after our meeting with the florist. We recently decided we’d have five tall centerpieces, and on the other five tables we’d have clusters with three various sized frames. The frames would help keep everything cohesive.
Did I think to create a table mock-up? No, my mom did. Thanks, Mom! We found an old table covering in the basement (thanks, granny!) that was the perfect color green for our demonstration!
We plopped a frame in the middle of the table, added our milk glass vases, and voila:
Well, it didn’t really come together that quickly.
