Mrs. Jam, Chicago
Age and Occupation: 25, Writer/Associate Wedding Coordinator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Structural Engineer
Engagement Date: December 23, 2009
Wedding Date: June 2011
Venue: Hunter’s Ridge, Princeton, IL
About Me: I’m a penny-pinching cat lady getting ready to marry the frugal dog lover of my dreams. Our ideal Saturday morning includes rummaging around people’s junk at garage and estate sales followed by an afternoon date to our favorite café, where we only eat sandwiches that include the word “salad.” We actually love it so much, it’s sort of our unofficial wedding theme: Look at our delicious finds, eat homemade ham salad, and celebrate our love…barndance style. When we’re not obsessing over our love-fest shindig, we’re planning themed parties for our best friends and jamming to '90s music.
December 13th, 2010 @ 12:32 pm by Mrs. Jam
I had a DIY mission not long after we were engaged. A wedding-related DIY project. For our wedding. Which was in, you know, over a year.
But it’s not every day that a photographer from the Chicago RedEye comes all the way to your house in the ’burbs to take a photo for an article they are writing about DIY weddings. I needed to bring my A-game in a big way.
So, after thinking a lot and asking some (not very helpful) friends what I should do for my DIY-a-year-out project, I decided on cupcakes. Because, you know, we like to DIY and might want to make our own homemade wedding cupcakes for the big day.
Never mind the fact that I am allergic to the kitchen and hate, hate, hate all forms of baking and cooking.
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Mrs. Pancakes, New York/Costa Rica
Age and Occupation: 26, Law School Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Latin American Policy Analyst
Engagement Date: March 12, 2010
Wedding Date: May 2011
Venue: Casa Punto de Vista
About Me: I’m a perfectionist with a big heart. I love a good laugh and firmly believe no one has ever regretted being prepared! My motto is “go big or go home.” I am incapable of doing anything in moderation, especially when it comes to shopping, TV, food and travel, and some would say wedding planning! The other half of this nearlywed team is a laid-back, adventure-loving, accident prone, sweetie from LA. He makes me laugh, is always down for an impromptu dance party, and totally indulges most of my hare-brained schemes. Now, in my final year of law school, we’ll be spending the spring abroad in Amsterdam and planning a DIY, whimsical, detail-filled destination wedding in Costa Rica!
One weekend in April, one of our closest friends offered to take some early engagement photos for us! (We ♥ you RW!!) I had no idea what to wear, or if we were going to do props. The only thing we knew for sure was that we would head down to Coney Island.
We also requested she take Polaroid pictures because I LOOOOOOVE the vintage feel of Polaroids. If you aren’t convinced, here’s why:
{Source}
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Classifieds
Feature Launched: April 30, 2008
About: A roundup of the best Weddingbee Classified listings.
adowles4 is selling a Priscilla of Boston wedding gown. She’s asking $2600 for the size-10 dress.
Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee Classifieds, and you might see it featured on the blog!
Other great items for sale:
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Mrs. Prairie Dog, Cincinnati
Age and Occupation: 24, Program Coordinator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, PhD/Biomedical Engineer
Engagement Date: December 18, 2009
Wedding Date: May 2011
Venue: Glendale Lyceum
About Me: I'm a pilgrim soul of a girl with a house full of books and a coffee addiction that could slay Juan Valdez. My life is a whirl of grammar correction, good music, glue-gunning, and two pets named Hazel and Winston Churchill. I'm marrying my high school boyfriend in a formal-ish spring affair, roughly themed: "Elizabeth Bennet crashes a party co-hosted by Jay Gatsby and Cath Kidston, and loves it."
I don’t know why the crap I thought I should design our save the dates. Because I am a know-it-all control freak, I guess. Also: impatient, sleep deprived, and barely caffeinated.
Don’t worry, though. Five frustrating drafts later, and we finally have a winner. In this case, I took STD to mean “sophisticate the design.” Using this method, you pour every ounce of your wedding’s class into the text. Oh! And make sure the numbers look kind of wonky!
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Featured on Weddingbee
“Make an elegant invitation statement without the fuss. Stylish invitation sets with matching envelopes, reception and response cards included.”
Featured Product: Laura Ashley Delicate Damask Invitation
Mrs. Earrings, Fresno, CA/ Nelson, New Zealand
Age and Occupation: 20, Student, Wannabe Writer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 19, Photography Student
Engagement Date: February 14, 2010
Wedding Date: January 2011
Venue: Gardens of the World
About 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.
Last Friday I was surprised with a honeymoon themed bridal shower! My mum and MOH were sneaky and tricked me into thinking it would be on Saturday, but on Friday I was told to get prettified and be ready to be picked up in one hour. Then I was taken to the nearby Washbourne Gardens, where I found this setup:
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Mrs. Cinnamon Bun, Calgary, Alberta
Age and Occupation: 26, Stage Manager
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Theatre Technician
Engagement Date: June 22, 2010
Wedding Date: June 2011
Venue: Calgary Opera Centre
About 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.
I haven’t talked too much about our venue, apart from how they don’t have any no-throwing-stuff rules, and why we chose the date we did. The truth is, I haven’t talked about it because, well, you can’t have your wedding there. Sorry! It’s like the gorgeous pictures I see online of weddings in people’s backyards, on parents’ farms, or at Grampa’s cottage…It works for that couple, but no one else. I love seeing those photos, even though I could never duplicate the experience, so I decided it was time to share.
This venue idea was actually Cinnamon Buns’s. We were trying to think of places that were secular, pretty, and had natural light. We could probably have had any date we wanted had we decided to get married in the theatre where Cinnamon Buns works full time and I work a lot of the time. There were a couple problems with that, though. Firstly, it would be way too much like being at work. Secondly, theatres are not known for their natural light. Sometimes lobbies have windows, but the theatre itself is almost always sealed off from the light so it doesn’t interfere with the stage lighting. The theatre where Cinnamon Buns works…well, it feels a lot like a cement bunker sometimes, as it is completely underground without a tree or patch of grass in sight when you do come up for air—just sidewalk and office towers.
I was starting to look online at places, when he said, “Hey, what about the opera’s rehearsal hall?” I’m marrying a smarty-pants! We immediately walked over because that particular venue is SO CLOSE to our house! We dropped in uninvited to speak to the production manager, who I know from shows I have rehearsed and run in that space. This was when we learned about the “no weddings” rule. 
Then we learned about the “friends and family” rule, which is that if we are given the keys on Friday afternoon and no one who comes in to work on Monday can tell that we were there, it’ll be OK.
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Mrs. Panther, Atlanta GA/Westport CT
Age and Occupation: 24, Web Writer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Music Recording Engineer
Engagement Date: March 13, 2010
Wedding Date: July 2011
Venue: The Inn at Longshore
About 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.
You know how they say you should pick your wedding priorities at the beginning of the planning stage and then always refer back to them when you’re making decisions or arguing with pushy parents? Well, Mr. Panther and I did that, but I already forgot what they were. Whooooops. I’m pretty sure mine were venue, photography and apparel. Mr. Panther’s might have been venue, music and photography. Photography was definitely on both our lists, whatever the other items were.
From the beginning, the two of us agreed on what we didn’t like. We didn’t like a lot of posed photos. We didn’t like cheesy soft-focus effects. And we didn’t want to hire any photographer that would ever consider making a photo black and white and colorizing one particular item, as that’s not our style.
We argued a bit about what we did like, but the general consensus was vivid colors and candid shots.
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Mrs. Jaguar, Sydney
Age and Occupation: 27, Primary School Teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, IT Consultant
Engagement Date: August 8, 2009
Wedding Date: June 2011
Venue: Curzon Hall
About 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’d have to say that finding, buying and owning my wedding dress has pretty much solidified this whole ‘getting married’ shindig.
It all started here: online. I had inspiration a-plenty—which one would’ve hoped, since I had spent countless hours scouring the interwebs to find THE perfect little {or big} white dress that I wanted for our wedding day.
I’ve mentioned before that I already knew the kind of dress that I wanted to try on: something made of lace, something with a v-neck, and something NOT strapless. Since I’ve bought my dress now and plan on sharing the details with you, I thought I’d show you some of my absolute all-time favourite gowns that didn’t end up being “the one.” (I always feel better after I’ve cleaned out some of my inspiration bookmarks by sharing images on the ‘Bee—I’m cleaning out my insane stash of wedding stuff and maybe even providing some inspiration to other brides out there at the same time. Awesome. Yep, I’m weird, I know.)
This was my all-time favourite gown: I was so smitten with it that I made my mother {who is a similar shape to me} go into a local Australian store to try it on FOR me.
This is ‘Jana’ by BellaDonna Bridal.
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Mrs. Canary, New York
Age and Occupation: 24, Marketing
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Journalist/Editor
Engagement Date: February 16, 2007
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: October 19, 2007
Venue: Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers
About Me: I'm a born and raised New Yorker who loves all things crafty and artsy, food (cheese and dessert!), magazines, and shoes. I'm a power shopper always on the lookout for good deals or great quality-- sometimes I'm lucky and I find both! I love to dance and "shake what my momma gave me" but can also really enjoy a quiet night in with Mr. Canary and a good episode of Seinfeld or curl up with a good book.
All photos courtesy of the amazing Angelica Glass, unless otherwise noted. Please note that the photos have only been color-corrected and not fully retouched.
Here I am, back again, all out of excuses… except this time I’m motivated to completely finish my recaps! I’m embarrassed to say that I had the outline for all my recaps completed last September and have only started to review and fill in the blanks. So forgive an old married bee with good intentions of sharing her wedding for being so late with the recaps.
Onwards!
We last left off after the ceremony processional.
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Mrs. Waffle, Austin
Age and Occupation: 31, Costumer/Artist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Animator
Engagement Date: July 27, 2010
Wedding Date: June 2011
Venue: Hummingbird House
About 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!
Soooooo, I’m finally getting my memory-jar project up and running! When I get a great idea, I feel this urge to “do it all NOW” because I am excitedly filled with creative energy. I’ll have to be patient with this one as MOH Sweet Pea and I are recycling food jars that we use in the upcoming months. Guess it’s a good thing I consume a lot of salsa!
However, because I just couldn’t help myself, I went and bought a few jars from a thrift store for about $0.99 a piece and started to fill them up.
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Mrs. Penguin, Northern California
Age and Occupation: 27, Weddingbee Editor in Chief
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Doctor of Physical Therapy
Engagement Date: January 29, 2007
Wedding Date: June 7, 2008
Blogging Since: September 14, 2007
Venue: Winery in the Gold Country
About 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!
Our newest bee is a West Coaster who has a love for traveling! Say hello to Miss French Toast!
Miss French Toast, Pleasanton, CA
Age & Occupation: 29, Marketing & PR
Fiance’s Age & Occupation: IT geek by day, self-proclaimed handyman by night
Engagement Date: October 2009
Wedding Date: March 2011
Venue: Palm Event Center
About Me: I’m a city girl at heart who moved to the suburbs a year ago. Now I’m adjusting to life with a front lawn, nosy neighbors, cooking attempts, and making sure the garbage pail is pulled out on time every week! When I’m not traveling, Mr. French Toast and I enjoy marathon sessions of Law & Order: SVU, snowboarding, photography, spoiling our 3-year old yorkie-poodle Mokka and disagreeing over what music to listen to in the car. We’re planning a small winery wedding while incorporating some cultural elements into the day as a nod to our Chinese backgrounds.
Mrs. Buttons, Clearwater, FL
Age and Occupation: 24, "Working on it"
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Financial Services
Engagement Date: June 13, 2009
Wedding Date: May 2010
Venue: Carlouel Yacht Club
About Me: I'm a self proclaimed perfectionist and a professional nomad (seriously, I've lived in TX, WI, MI, FL, NC, and now VA!). I love wine, cooking, curling up with a good book (nerd alert!), spoiling the furbaby, and of course, the wonderful Mr. Buttons! We are planning a lighthearted and whimsical wedding (with a good deal of DIY projects) in Clearwater, Florida, but from a distance of 800 miles away! We are looking forward to sharing our day with our family and friends, and most importantly, starting our lives together as husband and wife!
It was show time. Our guests were seated, and the doors to the ceremony space were about to be opened.
I do want to take a moment to bring up an aspect of our ceremony that was very important to me: the music. Music, in general, is so important to me, and I wanted to make sure that from the moment our guests arrived until the moment the recessional song played, our ceremony music would be cohesive and set the appropriate mood.
30 minutes before the ceremony began, our DJ started playing the following songs:
- Wedding Dress – Matt Nathanson
- Somewhere Over the Rainbow – Jason Castro
- Everything – Michael Buble
- You & Me – Dave Matthews Band
- I’d Rather Be With You – Joshua Radin
When the last notes of Joshua Radin’s song faded out, our DJ transitioned into the song I had selected for our parents and family to be seated to: When You Come Back Down by Nickel Creek
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Mrs. Pancakes, New York/Costa Rica
Age and Occupation: 26, Law School Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Latin American Policy Analyst
Engagement Date: March 12, 2010
Wedding Date: May 2011
Venue: Casa Punto de Vista
About Me: I’m a perfectionist with a big heart. I love a good laugh and firmly believe no one has ever regretted being prepared! My motto is “go big or go home.” I am incapable of doing anything in moderation, especially when it comes to shopping, TV, food and travel, and some would say wedding planning! The other half of this nearlywed team is a laid-back, adventure-loving, accident prone, sweetie from LA. He makes me laugh, is always down for an impromptu dance party, and totally indulges most of my hare-brained schemes. Now, in my final year of law school, we’ll be spending the spring abroad in Amsterdam and planning a DIY, whimsical, detail-filled destination wedding in Costa Rica!
After trying on dresses and veils, I came to the realization that I am absolutely NOT a traditional-veil girl. At this point, I think I want to get a gorgeous silk flower for the ceremony and/or a fabulous birdcage veil. So I stumbled upon Bridal Style Boutique’s website and found these beautiful silk flower headpieces.
Source
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Ms. Sloth, Philadelphia
Age and Occupation: 35, Account Manager and Fashion Blogger
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Design Admin
Engagement Date: December 25, 2009
Wedding Date: May 2011
Venue: Bartram's Garden
About 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.
In our quest to Keep it Simple, Stupid, we’ve forgone a lot of stressful wedding chores. But there’s one task, one that I’m sure is going to be a giant pain in the ass, that we’ve decided to tackle:
The dreaded seating plan.
Dun Dun DUN!
Just the thought of tackling this makes me want to barf. And we’re having a small wedding with only about 80 people! I have no idea how someone with 200+ guests would handle this. Yikes.
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Mrs. Jam, Chicago
Age and Occupation: 25, Writer/Associate Wedding Coordinator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Structural Engineer
Engagement Date: December 23, 2009
Wedding Date: June 2011
Venue: Hunter’s Ridge, Princeton, IL
About Me: I’m a penny-pinching cat lady getting ready to marry the frugal dog lover of my dreams. Our ideal Saturday morning includes rummaging around people’s junk at garage and estate sales followed by an afternoon date to our favorite café, where we only eat sandwiches that include the word “salad.” We actually love it so much, it’s sort of our unofficial wedding theme: Look at our delicious finds, eat homemade ham salad, and celebrate our love…barndance style. When we’re not obsessing over our love-fest shindig, we’re planning themed parties for our best friends and jamming to '90s music.
December 12th, 2010 @ 1:30 pm by Mrs. Jam
Once upon a time, Mr. Jam and I heard about a jewelry store closing, and we just had to stop in to peek at the heavily discounted sparklers. Although it was months before he proposed and a long time away from any holiday or event requiring an expensive gift, we are true-blue sale hunters: we stock up when the prices are good, just in case.
After re-reading that, it makes us sound like total hoarders. But trust me, stocking up on jewelry and delicious goodies isn’t a bad thing…right? Not in our book.
Anyhoodle, we looked at the glitzy watches, diamond earrings, huge birthstone gems, and, of course, engagement rings. They were priced to sell, and it couldn’t hurt to look, right?
The Jam e-ring, photographed in all of its fancy champagne-colored glory
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