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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.
I am using our wedding as the motivation to do a little Meerkat self improvement.
I told you about how I learned to put on makeup (which I wrote about here and here). I did a little hair therapy to bring my hair back to its normally healthy self. I also started dieting and exercising, which, by the way, is going fabulously!
But for my biggest (and longest) self improvement project, I had to get some professional help:
Yep, I got me a set of braces. I knew from an early age that my teeth were too large for my jaw size and I would need braces. No matter how many times the dentist told my parents I needed braces, I refused to get them. There was no medical reason to have them done (just cosmetic reasons) and even as a kid I knew I wouldn’t feel right letting my family pay that much for something as superficial as a straight smile (read: no dental insurance).
Fast forward to a couple years ago when we got engaged. Read more…
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!
Weddingbee’s fast approaching our 200th married bee! And as we do, we’re taking a look back at our absolute favorite posts, ever! We’ve asked all the married bees to choose the favorite post they’ve ever written to share with the hive over the next few weeks, in hopes that you’ll discover some bees and posts that may have come long before you were ever engaged. We hope you enjoy our Best of the ’Bee series, and I’m kicking it off with my favorite post ever.
It’s been two years since our wedding, and I’ve been to countless weddings since then. At one of the last weddings I went to, a relative pointed out some seemingly normal detail about the wedding we were currently attending. I feigned a smile and said, “oh…that’s nice.” She gave me a snide look and said something along the lines of, “If working in weddings has made you that jaded that you don’t appreciate details anymore, maybe you need to get a different job.”
To be honest, this statement stung. Never mind that I had tears in my eyes just 20 minutes earlier when the father of the groom gave a heartwarming speech. Never mind that watching the bride and groom kiss and hug each other from afar made my heart swell so big it almost burst. I simply didn’t care about a small detail about the wedding day (think flowers, guestbook, something pretty material) and all of the sudden I was “jaded”.
Seeing weddings every day—I do still care. But I don’t care about flowers, or guestbooks, or baking twine. They’re small and wonderful, personalized details, but they’ve become part of my everyday life. What I do care about is family. I care about the love. I care about heritage. And it’s no wonder that at Mrs. Jellyfish’s wedding, when the Romanian dance music came on and Mrs. Jelly and her family shrieked with joy, this was my favorite moment of her day. Not her beautiful flowers. Not her fun favors. The love. The family. And of course, as Jelly and her family danced in circles, I cried tears of joy.
And so, this is my favorite post I’ve ever written. Because this is the part of our wedding that brought generations of women on my side together to make it happen. My mother taught me about the history behind the water ceremony, my aunts schlepped pounds of costume jewelry thousands of miles, and this was truly the moment of our wedding that we did for my family. For the love.
~~~
Immediately following the ceremony, in lieu of a receiving line, Mr. Penguin and I opted to celebrate a little of my family heritage and participate in a Thai Water Ceremony, or Rod Nam Sang. Read more…
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’m not talking about a place to park our cars; Bartram’s Garden comes with a big and safe parking lot. I’m talking about a place to park our asses. I’m talking about chairs.
Our caterer will be providing our chairs, and the chairs that come with our package are plain white folding chairs that look like this:
Mrs. Lace, Pasadena, CAAge and Occupation: 29, Elementary school teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, EngineerEngagement Date: September 6, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: Orange County Performing Arts CenterAbout Me: Born and raised in Southern California, my fiance and I are marrying in Orange County. We're planning a vintage wedding with a modern twist. I am an elementary school teacher by day and a wedding planner by night. I love reading, blogging, scrapbooking, trying out new DIY projects, buying awesome finds at incredible deals and spending time with friends and family. Trying new restaurants, traveling and shopping also top my hobby list. I'm anxious to share my wedding ideas and planning with the hive!
As if we hadn’t taken enough photos of ourselves, Mr. Lace and I scheduled in a little sunset portrait time at the suggestion of our photographer. During our engagement session, it was kind of gloomy so we didn’t get that romantic flattering sunlight. Our photog suggested some sunset portraits during our wedding since we had a pocket of time during cocktails. So, we skipped out on cocktails to take advantage of the setting sun.
Some of my favorite wedding photos came out of this one hour session.
Mrs. Pretzel, SeattleAge and Occupation: 32 Learning, Training, and Development SpecialistFiance's Age and Occupation: 28 Manufacturing EngineerEngagement Date: September 2, 2009Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Catholic Church & The Engine Room at Georgetown StudiosAbout Me: I’m just a thirty-something girl who never dreamed of weddings, poofy dresses, or ritzy receptions. I am a rabid knitter, except recently, wedding projects have replaced my yarn and needles. I’ve been fiercely independent since the age of 2 and 30 years later I think my family and friends had given up on me settling down and getting married.
Ironically, I had to go all the way to Seattle to find a boy from Purdue. We fell in love over Seattle Beers and cooking together. I love NASCAR, he loves Legos. I can talk like a Muppet and he can fit a whole McDonald’s cheeseburger in his mouth. We are a two reception couple, currently planning a brewery inspired bash.
OHMYGODIT’SNOVEMBER! Mr Pretzel and I have been married for four months and in a couple weeks I am going to squeeze slip into my wedding dress again and party once more. I’ve become BFFs with the post office and their flat rate shipping boxes as of late. A steady stream of packages are arriving at my In Laws’ doorstep each day. Details are getting hammered out but we keep bumping into this one little problem.
We’re married. We planned and had the wedding and reception of our dreams. We were introduced as husband and wife, had (cup)cake, danced our first dance, were toasted by our dads, tossed the bouquet, took pretty pictures and all around partied our arses off. It was kick-ass and wonderful but I have no desire to do those things again at our hometown reception… Read more…
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!
Now that you’ve seen the ones that could have been, it’s time to share our actual wedding invitations. I can’t even tell y’all how excited I am to be sharing, and now that we’ve officially received our first RSVP (which I totally freaked out over and hung on our fridge because I’m a dork like that) I feel confident that all of our guests have their invites and I can post them all over the internet. Yay!
So, without any further babbling, I’ll just get to the goods.
But! Before I do I just want to say one more time how amazing Steve, our invitation designer, is. I sent him ONE inspiration photo and a confusing description of the type of invitation we wanted, and he hit the nail on the head. He’s ridiculous, y’all, and if you’re looking for an invitation designer (or save the dates or, you know, ANYTHING) email him. He’s a miracle worker.
Okay, gushing over. Let’s drool over some invitations.
This is what our guests saw when they got their invitation in the mail, except they saw a real name and address.
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.
One of the first things people see when they walk into our house is the fact that our large, open-plan living room is completely lined with bookcases. One of our first “dates” was curling up together on a blanket on the grass and reading our books. (It was the year Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out, after all! I had priorities.) Cinnamum kept saying we should work our love of books into the wedding somehow. All I’d really seen inspiration-wise for that was just piling old books of the right colours as centrepieces or cake stands or such. It was nice, but I wasn’t too excited about it.
Ms. Potato Chips, Boston/Narragansett RIAge and Occupation: 29, PhD StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Personal Trainer/Business Owner/Physical Therapy AssistantEngagement Date: January 1, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: The Narragansett TowersAbout Me: A semi-professional bookworm, if I could be a literary character I’d be a cross between Jo March and Jane Eyre, only better accessorized and much lazier. My hobbies include sleeping in, seasonal brews, running, Trader Joe’s, and watching Unwrapped and Good Eats with Mr. Potato Chips. I harbor an irrational fear of tulle, crafts, things that are fussy, and overuse of the phrase "Your Special Day". After a year or seven together, down the aisle we go, slouching toward adulthood and planning a Rhodie party with equal parts whimsy, cheer, and pizza.
My friends, I’ve reached the end of my recaps. I’d like to offer you two things: outtakes and obrigada.
I. Outtakes
These are photos and memories that didn’t really fit anywhere else, but that make me laugh or smile.
These first two photos are from our favorite RI bar, where we dined and drank with friends two days before the wedding. We signed a dollar bill to commemorate the occasion.
Mrs. Sand Dollar, HoustonAge and Occupation: 24, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 22, Electrical TechnicianEngagement Date: January 8, 2010Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: MacLean ParkAbout 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!
About a million years ago, I won a prize from Apartment Therapy for a Canvas Pop $25 coupon. The one and only time I won a blog prize…hooray! Maybe someday I’ll win some more. But I digress.
Once I figured out a size I could afford, 8×10 (I needed to pay an additional $16 for taxes and S&H), the hard part was deciding on an image. I played around with a few, and finally decided on a ring shot I took at the inn we stayed at just after he proposed. Now, 8 months after I received my canvas, I mounted it on a spare piece of MDF.
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.
Now that we are less than two months away from our wedding day, we’ve realised it has come to crunch time with regards to our DIY projects.n When it comes to deciding whether to do things the handmade way for your wedding or to buy it yourself instead, the factors involved can make someone (more specifically, me) want to tear their hair out.
On the one hand, we have gorgeous weddings filled with elaborate handmade details bombarding us from every side. “Oh look, that bride did _____ by herself? Well maybe I should do that too…” From being a way to put your own personal mark on your wedding and (maybe) cut some of your costs, doing it yourself seems to have grown into “must” for today’s weddings. As in, if you don’t bust your gut doing projects then there must be something “not so special” or “personal” about your day. It puts a lot of pressure on us brides, huh?
On the other hand, we have BIY—buying it yourself. This is a way to go that can have great results, but can certainly add up, cost wise. Oh, we can never win!
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!
Once again, I apologize for the lamest post title ever. It’s way harder to come up with them than you would think!
Anyway, like I said, this post is about somebody else’s wedding band…or a few somebodies.
Who, you ask? Well of course you know her: Katy Perry! And her new husband Russell Brand! (I love him, by the way.)
Despite the fact that this has nothing to do with me, I just had to post this, hive. I secretly love celebrities. I can’t help myself! I first heard about their wedding bands on the radio (from Koz on The Mix during a commute home, for you Chicago natives).
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.
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!
Look at her hanging in the doorway. Finally, it’s time to get me in her. It began as an “aww” moment and… 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.
Ew, no not that kind! My poor dad just had a heart attack.
Moving in with Mr. Knitting 2.5 years ago was kind of the best thing ever. We had so much fun finding an apartment and setting it up together (with lots of help). Our lives had been intertwined for years before we moved in together so finally having all our stuff in the same place was amazing.
However, we did have a big problem.
I hated having to share a bed. I really didn’t like it. I had so much trouble falling asleep and then staying asleep. I also began to do weird things in my sleep like flip myself around in bed and wake up with my head at the foot of the bed with no recollection of doing this.
While I completely loved living with him, it felt like the biggest treat ever when he was away for a night because it meant I got our comfy bed all to myself. Read more…
