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Mrs. Bacon, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 26, Digital Advertising ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, IT Client ServicesEngagement Date: June 17, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Ravenswood Billboard FactoryAbout Me: I'm a Midwestern girl that can't seem to commit to staying in one place for too long and is constantly daydreaming about my next adventure. I am an aspiring foodie with a weak spot for the unusual and I love semi-reality food television. My other loves easily include laughing as a form of exercise, a book that I can't put down, summer baseball games, espresso with whipped cream, couch potato days and nights with the ridiculous Mr. Bacon, and our two kitties, Lincoln and Sawyer. We're planning a faux-destination wedding for 150 of our closest friends and family in the city we've both adopted as home that has a modern, yet whimsical twist and as many personal touches as we can manage.
Well, in the mail to me…We ordered save the dates over the weekend from MooCards during their 30%-off sale! I just love that little four-letter word: S-A-L-E. We gathered inspiration from many of the top independent printing websites online like Hello Lucky, Minted, and Wedding Paper Divas, but we couldn’t decide on just one design that conveyed the feel that we wanted, and ordering from three different sites without getting exactly what our hearts desired seemed silly.
So, we DIY’ed. We ordered 80 Moo postcards and 20 envelopes (for international delivery), designed five different options focused around our engagement pictures, addedd a sweet message printed on the back of each one asking people to save our date, and included the URL for our wedding website at the bottom.
Finally, after an hour of deciding which engagement pics were our favorites (and changing our minds a millions times), three hours coming up with options in PowerPoint (my preferred photo-editing software because I’m such a tech whiz), three hours attempting to recreate my genius in Photoshop, and 10 minutes of Mr. Bacon showing me that I can just save the PowerPoint as a PDF, I uploaded the designs to Moo and I was all done! So now we wait and cross our fingers in hopes that they turn out just as wonderfully as we imagined!
Mrs. Eggs Benedict, SeattleAge and Occupation: 29, AttorneyFiance's Age and Occupation: 35, AttorneyEngagement Date: December 5, 2009Wedding Date: February 2011Venue: IslandWoodAbout Me: I'm a Northwest girl who spends my time goofing around with Mr. Eggs Benedict and our dog, hiking, traveling, drinking wine and planning a wedding that will showcase the best of what the Pacific Northwest has to offer. I also love photography, beating Mr. Eggs Bene at Mario Kart, and watching the most ridiculous natural disaster flicks you can think of (seriously, how can you deny the awesomeness that is The Core or 2012?? That's right, you can't). We are planning our weekend wedding adventure at an environmental educational center, and I can't wait for the fun to begin!
I think I have the best friends. No, seriously, I really do. See, as soon as I got engaged I think the first thing one of my best friends from law school, Marie, asked me was if she could throw me a shower. My response—yes, please! And then she made it even better: she decided to make it a “Stock the Cellar” wine shower! Perfect for someone like me who loves wine and loves finding new wines that other people enjoy.
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.
We met with our planner this weekend and had a long talk about chiavari chairs. At first, I’ll admit—I felt like she and Mr. B were ganging up on me; saying things like “do we really need these chairs?” and “we really can’t afford these chairs.” Pavaune even tried the old, “can you even see the chair I’m sitting in right now?” I could, so that didn’t work! What did work was the realization that my obsession comes from a very deep desire to have beautiful pictures.
Finally, the light bulb went off when one of them said, “You’re going to spend $700 for a few pictures.” That really struck me, because we’re already paying quite a bit for beautiful pictures. We splurged to hire an amazing photographer and it’s so hard to justify (or find the money for) another splurge; again, having to do with the pictures.
So, I finally got it. I finally started to let go. I said goodbye to my beloved chiavari chairs. All until I came across this picture, and my heart sank! A tear might as well have rolled down my cheek. How gorgeous does this look?
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.
And then we decided to move. And we’re going to be moving to the suburbs about a month before the wedding (yes, I know that moving right before the wedding is crazypants, but that’ll be a later post).
We’re still going to be close, about twenty minutes outside of the city, but we realized that it would be a giant pain in the ass to rehearse at our venue in the city, drive to the ’burbs for dinner, and then come back into the city to stay in the hotel.
So we needed Plan B.
Unfortunately, Plan A had been so affordable ($10 per person) that all of the alternatives were over budget. I contacted practically every BYOB restaurant in the city, and there was no way to feed 20 people for any less than $30-$35 per person.
But finally, finally, finally, we found our solution. Read more…
WatercoolerFeature Launched: July 1, 2007About: The most discussed posts of the week.
Mrs. Barrettes, Tumon, Guam/Napa, CAAge and Occupation: 29, DancerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Licensed Building ContractorEngagement Date: November 16, 2008Wedding Date: October 2010Venue: V. Sattui WineryAbout Me: I'm an East Coast girl, living on a tiny little island in the Pacific, twirling, leaping, and shimmy-ing my way through life, and now, wedding planning! I'm equal parts nerdy and cool... okay, mostly nerdy. I love satin bows, red lipstick, black & white graphic anything, the shine of sequins and the sound of a champagne "pop". My favorite books are The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James, and Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I can also conjure a pretty good Patronus Charm. I started my appreciation for good red wine while traveling on the high seas, and it's only fitting that my passion for wine drinking led me to my Napa-bred honey. We bonded over bottles of Cabernet on my oceanfront porch and haven't looked back since. We're sealing the deal at a winery in the Napa Valley on a 'perfect ten' of a day!
After getting over the rush of our first look at each other, we settled down just a bit and Luke took a turn at directing a quick photo shoot. During our pre-wedding correspondence, I told Luke we were open to fun and unique photos. Of course, there is a time and place for super-formal looking shots, but I like relaxed ones too, and wanted to make sure to get a few silly ones.
Posing for your wedding photos can be hard. I was giddy and excited and didn’t know whether we should be “doing something” or just acting how we felt and letting Luke use his eye to pick up the shots. He was great at placing us in good spots and then letting us act however we felt.
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.
I mentioned in this post that we are now DIY-ing (sorta) our invites. The whole reason we are doing this is because we couldn’t find something just perfect out there, even on Etsy. Etsy certainly gave us a few good starting-off points, but not the real thing. Okay, let’s design our own. How do we start?
I started by drawing! I For the longest time I had no idea what I wanted our invites to look like, and just kept trawling invite sites, expecting to see the perfect thing ready-made. That never happened, and the more I searched the more I realised what I didn’t like, and finding things that were close-but-no-cigar helped me to find what it was I really wanted. Here are a few of my early sketches, scanned up for your viewing pleasure.
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.
It’s been a crazy week, hive, but I just wanted to pop in and share a little bit of exciting news. Well, it’s exciting to me, anyway.
First of all, remember my desperate search for the perfect mercury glass or silver footed bowl? So many of you commented with great suggestions and links to amazing bowls! I found some really awesome options, and I also kept Googling. While searching for “mercury glass bowl,” I came up with this result many times:
Mrs. Jam, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 25, Writer/Associate Wedding CoordinatorFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Structural EngineerEngagement Date: December 23, 2009Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Hunter’s Ridge, Princeton, ILAbout 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.
Have you ever felt like people just don’t fully get your relationship with your significant other? Maybe it’s because you don’t hold hands when you walk down the street, and maybe it’s because you share the same group of besties and do a lot of incredibly fun, friend-like things when you’re around other people.
If you’re nodding your head knowingly, you’re exactly like Mr. Jam and me: We’re PDA-hating best friends who poke fun at each other constantly.
Not sounding too romantic, huh?
But because of this, we want to make our ceremony special. We’re talkin’ super-duper, not-a-dry-eye-in-the-house, so-full-of-love-we-might-combust sort of special. It will be the one day where we publicly celebrate our relationship and try our hardest to put into words how crazy in love we really are…
…into a microphone in front of 150+ of our family and friends. Talk about intimidation. Read more…
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. Biscuit, Morgantown, WVAge and Occupation: 24, Dental StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Chemist at a pharmaceutical companyEngagement Date: April 2010Wedding Date: July 2011Venue: Catholic Church, Lakeview Golf Resort and SpaAbout Me: I'm an engineer who decided to trek back to my hometown three years ago to become skilled in the arts of drilling and filling. I'm engaged to a pretty awesome guy who tests your assorted benzodiazepines by day and home brews by night. Together we have two fur children, Tsali and Tobias N. Fünkat. I'm a lazy perfectionist and eternal sorority girl who enjoys running, crafting, string cheese, good beer, and bad reality TV. We are planning a Big Fat Italian/Sicilian/Polish wedding filled with DIY details and are expecting 300 +/- 50 guests. Our whimsical summer affair is themed "Alice attends the Mad Hatter Vintage Garden Tea Party in a Ballroom. She Thinks That The Venue is Odd for a Vintage Garden Party, but is Tripping on LSD, so She Doesn't Really Care." Yes, I am the Dickens of themes.
So what’s the first thing you did when wedding planning? Instead of doing all of those practical things, like picking a date or a church, I decided to pick a theme. And then another. And then another. Since we’re just starting to get to know each other, I’ll quickly show you the themes that could have been.
1.) Originally, I fell in love with a Breakfast at Tiffany’s theme. The colors: Tiffany blue, black, and silver. I wanted the emphasis to be black, with the blue and silver VERY sporadically sprinkled in so it didn’t look like too much. At this point, I also wanted a very sleek sheath instead of a gown, which probably would have looked HORRID on me. Here is a perfect inspiration board I found to illustrate the theme:
Mrs. Hippo, New York City/Dallas, TXAge and Occupation: 34, Event Planner for a Non-Profit Fiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Finance ITEngagement Date: August 8, 2009Wedding Date: March 2011Venue: Samuel Lynne Galleries and Marc EventsAbout Me: I’m a thirty-something bride living in New York City and planning a modern-ish wedding in Dallas, Texas. I love trashy reality television (Jersey Shore, anyone?), online shopping, Sunday brunch, Central Park, and random celebrity spottings on the streets of Manhattan. While I love NYC, I miss good Tex-Mex, my college friends, central A/C, and being in close proximity to a Target. I’m thrilled to finally be planning an event that’s not work-related and to be marrying my best friend in what I hope will be a unique and personal ceremony followed by a reception with plenty of good food, good drinks, and dancing (regardless if it’s good or not).
Now that our invitations have reached most of our guests, it’s time for the full invitation reveal. I’m so excited to show y’all what I’ve been working so hard on! First, the envelope.
I have fairly decent handwriting, so I kept it simple and hand wrote the addresses on the envelopes with a metallic silver gel pen. I actually tried Mrs. Plaid’s calligraphy shortcut, but because the back of the envelopes had been embossed, the embossing was getting screwed up when I was running it through the printer, so I scrapped that idea. Read more…
Mrs. Prairie Dog, Cincinnati
Age and Occupation: 24, Program CoordinatorFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, PhD/Biomedical EngineerEngagement Date: December 18, 2009Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Glendale LyceumAbout 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’ve gotta say, department stores are just nailing it these days when it comes to weddings. Especially now that spring items are rolling in, I’ve been losing more time than I care to admit in an internet black hole of wedding pretties.
I feel confident that I could have outfitted our whole wedding via Nordstrom. The site is sort of addicting, since they update it almost every day. And then…well, then they had to go and send an email actually announcing an online “wedding shop.” There are all kinds of options, many of which are budget-friendly. And you can’t beat the return policy. These were the ones that caught my eye.
