Weddingbee Blog

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Austin. Seriously, it’s the best. You’ve got the awesome downtown area, full of live music, amazing shopping, and plenty of shows and events, and then just outside of downtown you have the gorgeous hill country with some of the most beautiful views ever and a much quieter atmosphere.

Before I even became a bee, I remember reading the Honeymoon in my Hometown posts and wishing I could write one all about Austin. I’m so excited to have a chance to share some of the things I love about my hometown!

Where I’m from is actually a bit north of Austin itself, and that’s what I’ll be focusing on for this installment of Honeymoon in my Hometown. I know you’re dying to hear my recommendations, so let’s get started!

Let’s pretend you’re headed to Austin for a weekend getaway. You only have from Friday after work through Sunday afternoon, so you want to hit the high points, and you don’t have a lot of time.
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As a person who likes to “do it all herself” I thought I was doing my mom a favor by not hassling her with the details. Boy, was I wrong. I really cherish the day she and I went shopping for her MOB dress and the memories that we created. When I read the letter that she wrote to my aunt about our day I knew that I had been so wrong to try to keep her “out of the details” and that day was so much more than a shopping trip. One of my favorite memories from our wedding day is my mom bouncing (literally on cloud nine) around the reception and dancing with me. This memory captures how beautiful my mom felt in her pink dress and sassy heels. She radiated joy and a youthful excitement. I tear up just thinking about it.

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Sometimes I get ahead of myself and leave the people I love behind. When there is a long list of things to be done and I see an opportunity to check something off the list I do it. Last fall, just a month after getting engaged I saw a great MOB suit on sale.

Knowing that my Mom was conscious about money I snatched it up for her and was proud of myself for finding a great deal. She seemed to like the suit enough, it was a great color for her and had a fun ruffle detail. It looked like something that my Mom would wear. She told me she loved it and with some alterations it would work. I checked off the box “MOB dress” and moved on.

As I’ve shared my struggle to make sure I am engaging my Mom in the wedding details many of you have suggested going shopping for the MOB dress. With the suit already purchased I dismissed this as unnecessary.

I shouldn’t have.
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Back in high school, weddings and getting married were the farthest thing from my mind. Honestly, I didn’t really think I’d ever get married, and I knew for a fact that I wouldn’t be with my senior-year boyfriend forever.

In high school I always wanted a very independent life for myself. I wanted a career. Maybe a husband, someday, in the far, far away land of my 30s. Part of this I think has to do with the fact that I didn’t have a traditional upbringing. My dad was a stay at home dad for most of my childhood, until I started 9th grade, and my mom was the breadwinner in our family. So, I had a strong female role model that showed me it was OK to prioritize work over family, marriage and children (not that we weren’t a priority for my mom, but my family situation laid the groundwork for this in my head).

Plus there was the fact that a lot of guys I dated ended up being just my friends. Perhaps this is also related to my dad being around to raise me—believe it or not, I was actually a tomboy at one point, until I went to kindergarten and saw all the pink and purple clothes and cute hairdos I was missing out on!
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I feel like this was an a-ha! moment for me. I had been going back and forth over our first look decision, but when I finally took the plunge, it was glorious. It was easily the best decision we made about anything on our wedding day, besides marrying each other.

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OK ladies, our wedding photos are scheduled to be ready tomorrow (WOOOHOOO!), which means that we can pick up where we left off with the Powder Puff recaps next week. Holla!

In the mean time, I thought I’d throw my two cents in about an issue that I’ve seen being debated around the hive: the first look.

When Mr. Puffy and I were freshly engaged, the very first thing we did was to promptly hire an amazing photographer. At our first meeting, she asked whether or not we’d be interested in doing a first look. Little old me, who had yet to discover the wonders of Weddingbee, had no clue what that was. After she explained it to me, I was immediately against it. ‘No way!’ I thought. ‘I’m sticking with tradition.Nothing can be as special as that moment when Mr. Powder Puff sees me walking down the aisle! We’ll just do photos between the ceremony and reception.’

As our wedding date loomed closer, I began to worry about this plan.
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Tis the season for holiday shopping and great sales! Right now we are simply buzzing over the brand new invites and personalized wedding napkins in our invitations shop. Here’s a little peek at the latest:

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I am thankful to have Mr. Kitten home from Iraq!

I feel like I have so much to be thankful for this year! I am thankful for my new husband (!!!), for being able to have the wedding of our dreams just 5 short months ago, and for settling into married life with my very best friend. I am thankful for our supportive, loving, and all-around awesome families and friends. I’m thankful for our jobs, for our home, and for our fur babies (all three of them!). And I’m thankful that Mr. FF & I are both attending Thanksgiving with my family this year—it’s a first for us! Happy Thanksgiving, Hive!
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We’re kicking off the holiday season on Black Friday with 10% off of everything in the Weddingbee Favors Shop! Shop between tomorrow and Sunday to take advantage of the discount!

Top row: “Bubbly” Champagne Bubbles, “Love & Kisses” Personalized Lip Balm

Bottom row: “Sweet Send-Off” Ribbon Wands, Personalized Glass Favor Jars

Remember, this sale begins tomorrow and ends this Sunday, November 28, so gear up to save!

To all of our U.S. readers out there, Happy Thanksgiving! We’re spending the holiday with friends and family, so posting will be light today and tomorrow. To our international readers, have a lovely Thursday!

As you might recall, my plan was to let my MOH, BMs, and grown-up FGs pick whatever dresses they wanted with the guidelines that it be pink, grey, or burgundy. For me, it was really important to let them wear dresses that they genuinely like and at price points that they are comfortable with. They now all offically have their dresses, and I couldn’t be happier with them.

My MOH’s dress:

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Let me set the scene for you: Grammy Octopus’s 80th birthday is in a few weeks. Having seen the MyPublisher photobooks I have created for special occasions in the past couple of years, Mom Octopus had a great idea—to create a MyPublisher album commemorating my grammy’s life! However, after a great deal of wailing and teeth gnashing when the MyPublisher drag-and-drop system proved to be more than she could handle, Mom Octopus overnighted the CD of scanned photos to me with a note: “Thank you for helping me. Now I won’t have to kill anyone or smash the computer. Love, Mom.”

So now creating the photobook for Grammy Octopus’s birthday party is my job. I settled down with some Say Yes to the Dress in the background, popped in the photo CD, and OMFG!!! MOM OCTOPUS!!! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME HOW FRIGGIN’ AMAZING THESE PHOTOS ARE?!?

If my grandmother understood how computers worked, she would be an amazing blogger. She’s photographed every single major life event since ever, basically, and documented all of them with detailed captions. So, hive, I am very pleased to present to you…

Octo Weddings In History

Here are Grammy & Poppa Octopus, engaged in 1951, celebrating at a party. Grammy Octopus is killin’ it in a polka dot tulle dress and red lipstick:

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Dear Wedding Guests,

Mr. Cardy and I love you. We really, truly do. You obviously mean a lot to us, or we wouldn’t have invited you to participate in such a monumental day in our lives.

That being said…
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Greetings, Hive! Mrs. Peppermint here. Long time no…type. As some of you may remember I got married in Palm Springs in December 2007, almost three years ago (!). I’m excited to write to you all again as part of the Best of the ’Bee Series, especially because I’ve been meaning to do a final wrap up on all our vendors. I’m eager to get that underway, but until then let me remind you about our wedding…

We were inspired by themes of travel and old Hollywood—after all, Mr. Pepp and I both work in entertainment. Our wedding had a lot of personal details including many Gocco projects for all things paper, tables named after our favorite Hitchcock movies (we met in a college Hitchcock class!), a family wedding photo display and a travel-themed guestbook. I wanted to share the guestbook with you today. Enjoy!!

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First off, hello hive!! I’ve missed you! I know it’s been a long time since I last posted, but I’m back…

I thought I’d kick it off with a post about our guest book. To remind you, we got married in Palm Springs last December. While neither Mr. Peppermint nor I are from there, it had long been a special getaway for us. We had family coming from all parts of California as well as Virginia, Minnesota, Wisconsin and New York. We wanted our guest book to reflect this travel theme, so we settled on postcards! Basically, the week before the wedding when we were out in Palm Springs getting ready, we went to tourist gift shops, antique stores and anywhere we could find postcards (new and vintage) of Palm Springs and the outlying areas. During the reception, we had guests fill them out and drop them off in a caddy that also doubled as a pen holder. Originally, I was going to find a mailbox, but couldn’t find one that was just the right size.

Here is how it was set up at the reception:
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I left off with a near-crisis with the food. Now let’s skip forward a few hours. Several cars headed down south to the property, and we began as much setup as we were able. Mr. Husky and his crew would be coming down a couple of hours later, bringing the trailer full of the items to be set up by the guys—tents, bar, etc.

The chairs were arranged according to the half-moon diagram. Haybale covers were in place. Some tables were set up, but most were waiting for the tents—it would be easier to set up the tents if the tables weren’t right in the middle of them. Some were in the kitchen, working on our mussel shooters and entree garnishes:

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When brides talk about a name change they are normally talking about their last names.

The Kate Debate

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I really enjoy when bloggers I follow give some insight as to what their life is like outside of their blog. I like the snippets of what you eat, favorite movies, etc. I also feel like I owe you a juicy secret. Not some secret like, “I’m addicted to Mountain Dew.” (I’m not anyways, but I consider it to be a bad secret.)  I’m talking about the juicy kind of secret that makes you think, “Wow, she covered that neuroses pretty well!”

My secret is that I have an obsession with toenails. It’s an unhealthy obsession with unhealthy toenail hygiene. I trim my toenails to the quick once a week and clean them out religiously. I NEVER cut the cuticles on my toe nails. I will cut them anywhere in our house that is convenient to me, much to the chagrin of Lambster who constantly yaps at me to keep track of the clippings. I wish that the nail obsession stopped at my own two feet.
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