Mrs. Elephant, Dallas, TXAge and Occupation: 27, Financial Operations AnalystFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, IT Student/Store ManagerEngagement Date: March 29, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: The Tribute Golf ClubAbout Me: I'm a Philly native creating roots deep in the heart of Texas. I might be a little obsessed capturing those Kodak moments of anything and everything (mainly on vacations). I've become more of a gamer thanks to Mr. Elephant, who I met online and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with. We are planning a wedding based on our favorite colors, blue and green, with a travel theme for 150 of our closest friends and family. Hopefully our long (2-year) engagement won't kill me!
Since three out of four of my BMs are from out of town, we decided to do the shower and bachelorette party in the same weekend. After the beautiful shower, we changed and headed out for a night on the town.
Note - Some images in this post may not be suitable for work
The group out at dinner
The first stop was to Color Me Mine which is one of those places where you get to select a ceramic object to paint/decorate. They fire and glaze it and you get to keep your one-of-a-kind creation.
** Free shipping on all orders in the Weddingbee Invitations Shop $150+ through March 19, 2011! Use code WBM0211 at checkout to take advantage of the discount!
We want to feature themes YOU want to see, so if you have a theme or color scheme you’d like to see featured, suggest it in the comments below! We’re not limiting the boards to weddings, so if you have an awesome bachelorette or bridal shower theme that you’d like to see featured, let us know! Of course, there are bonus points for coming up with themes featuring puns. We love a great pun!
Mrs. Cotton Candy, Riverside, CAAge and Occupation: 29, Field CoordinatorFiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Process ServerEngagement Date: July 5, 2007Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Riverside Art MuseumAbout Me: I’m a girl in love with her best friend planning a small mid-century modern inspired wedding that’s been a long time coming. I love all things design, sewing, flea markets, and a good book. I’ve been known to swoon over a well-designed chair and often find myself craving a new addition to my chair collection regardless of the lack square footage in our home. I’m Mexican American girl who hates all things spicy but loves her rowdy Mexican family and her Latin roots. My wedding muses may not be your typical wedding superstars, but with a lot of DIY, a dash of offbeat style, and lots of love and laughs, Mr. Cotton and I plan to create a day that is unmistakably us.
Now that we’ve decided to DIY a portion of our dessert buffet, I’ve made it my mission to find simple and tasty recipes that even a non-baker like me could whip up. My first attempt came in the form of these tasty morsels:
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.
Something I’ve seen on a lot of blogs (that I don’t know if I would have come up with by myself if I’d cut myself off from all wedding media once I got engaged) is out of town bags: bags that you leave at the hotel for your out of town guests. That doesn’t mean I don’t think they’re a great idea, because I think they’re an awesome idea! If I ever receive one, I’ll be so happy and so grateful for it. I suppose if I want to receive one, I need to start going to weddings—I haven’t done much of that, but that’s a story for another day!
I don’t know if it is something we’ll get to do, because we’re trying to keep the budget reasonable, and unfortunately, out of town bags are one of those ‘nice-to-have-but-not-essential’ things that get chopped in the first round of cuts. This hasn’t stopped me from looking for bags and things to put in them, though!
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."
Guys, I hit a slump a few weeks ago—a deep pothole of wedding apathy. My well of inspiration ran dry, and my back-up reserves of motivation were busy elsewhere. When I finally confessed this rut to an engaged coworker, she said, “Oh, that happened to me too, about three months out. You’ll snap out of it.”
I doubted it. Chalk it up to planning fatigue, to work stress, I don’t know. But I couldn’t bring myself to do anything related to our wedding, nor could I cobble together any details-related writing for you. Because, um, there would have to be details to write about them.
Then, somehow, the clouds parted this weekend—literally and figuratively—and panels of sunshine filtered in. I could smell spring for the first time—the season wherein I marry my love—and, indeed, I felt renewal. The reason for my stagnation seemed so clear—I’m far enough in the process to have all the big stuff done, but it seems too far away for the tiniest details. Read more…
Mrs. Starfish, Boston/NewportAge and Occupation: 25, Operations AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, SalesEngagement Date: October 8, 2008Wedding Date: October 2010Venue: The Atlantic Beach ClubAbout Me: I'm a perfectionist who is a planner at heart. I don't do well with surprises. I love planning, crafting, Newport RI, family and friends, and most importantly, Mr. Starfish---all of which will be big components in our October wedding in our favorite little city by the sea.
We asked to have my Goddaughter/niece to be our flower girl even though she would be just shy of two at the time of our wedding. I knew she may not be able to walk by our wedding date or she may not even be in the mood to walk down the aisle. You never know how a toddler is going to feel, but we couldn’t imagine our wedding without her.
Mrs. Magic, Chapel Hill, NCAge and Occupation: 30, Licensed Clinical Social WorkerFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, ResearcherEngagement Date: December 1, 2009Wedding Date: October 2011Venue: Barn at ValhallaAbout Me: I’m a tall drink of water (5’10”!) and a Southern bride with an enormous appetite for Mexican food, good deals, anything French, and all things wedding! By day I am lucky enough to work with individuals with autism and their families. By night, I’m even luckier to be able to spend time hanging out with awesome friends, crafting, shopping, thinking about exercising, and kicking it with Mr. Magic and our two cats. I tend to have sudden, intense cravings that will not be denied (seafood enchiladas! new jeans!) and I’m prone to being a disorganized mess of anxiety and stress. After waiting (and waiting!) to get engaged, I am finally planning the colorful, fun, fabulously awesome Fall wedding of our dreams. In an effort to share the fun and craziness that is wedding planning, I’m gonna blog about it for y’all---the good, the bad, and the pretty!
The first big thing Mr. Magic and I really started thinking about was the venue. I really felt like a venue would set the tone for our wedding, and he basically had no idea what to do, so he went along with me on our venue hunt. We looked at a lot, but these were the six main contenders.
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!
One of the very first decisions that I made for the wedding was where I wanted to stay the night before we got married.
Mr. Jaguar was always planning on staying at our apartment and getting ready with his boys here—but his parents had other ideas, and he’s now going to spend the night before and the morning of the wedding there.
As for me, well, I’m not sure what it was that made my mind up so early, especially since I did this almost twelve months ago now, before I had any idea of where we were going to be living or what our apartment would be like. I had an impulse, I followed through, and I went with it. Looking back, it was probably a good decision—as much as I’d love to be at home and getting ready with my little Oscar-cat around me, my white gown would end up completely covered in tabby and white cat fluff!
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.
Rehearsal dinners are not common in New Zealand, but seeing as we had a number of guests coming from overseas, we knew we wanted to do something with them before the wedding day. We figured we would be too tired to have any sort of party the night before the wedding, so instead we decided to throw a welcome dinner earlier on the Wednesday of the wedding week. That way all of our families could get acquainted or reacquainted with each other, and we could spend some more time with our overseas friends.
One complicated and fancy shindig (i.e. the wedding) was enough for us, so we went the relaxed route of booking out the small and friendly Hot Rocks Gourmet Pizza Pasta Bar. I decided to make invitations for the dinner pretty late in the game, so it was Wedding Chicks to the rescue with their cute downloadable bunting invitation suite. Did I mention it was free? You can’t get much easier than that.
With the invitations done and doled out, all that was left to do was throw on a cute outfit and turn up! Read more…
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
When I first got engaged I was completely clueless regarding weddings. I had always known I wanted to get married: I simply never pictured my wedding day. I never role-played a bride when I was a little girl. I never looked at wedding dresses imagining myself in one. I never wondered what kind of reception or ceremony I would want.
This is why at first I was totally lost and didn’t know where to start.
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.
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.
Well, there are a lot of reasons. But one of the biggest reasons is because, when I posted about our rehearsal dinner restaurant closing down, I got so many amazing suggestions from you all about other alternatives. You guys are seriously the best!
Unfortunately, after making a ton of phone calls, no restaurant could offer us prices even close to the low prices that Arbol had quoted. We asked our hotel if we could rent out a conference room and bring in our own food, but the conference room rental fee was exorbitant, and they wouldn’t let us bring in outside food. We were thisclose to just shoving everyone into our hotel suite and ordering pizza, but then, I had a call with our venue coordinator, and everything changed.
She told me that, because of an event the night before our wedding, Bartram’s Garden would be closed to the public, and she asked if we could have our rehearsal sometime between 1-4 in the afternoon.
Mrs. Sparkler, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 27, Communications AficionadoFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, PublisherEngagement Date: July 21, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Chicago Illuminating CompanyAbout Me: I’m a Southern lady living in the big city of Chicago. Well, lady may be a stretch, but I’m working hard to keep some Virginia charm in our sleek, urban, wedding-palooza! I’m addicted to marathons, not-so-famous bands, Chicago restaurants, and Mark Twain. I cry during SPCA commercials, and I think LOST was the best show to ever hit television. Mr. S and I met at a classy college mixer and, 7 years later, he’s still by my side. He’s the only child, laid back, free spirit... I’m the oldest of five kids, type-A, organizer. It doesn’t work on paper, but we’ve never paid attention to that stuff anyway. Somehow it works. And like they say, sometimes when you know…you just know.
So you’ve seen our save the dates, I’ve talked about how we want a “minimalistic” style wedding, and I’ve revealed the venue…but what does it all mean? What will the Sparkler wedding actually look like? Let me try and paint you a picture.
Our wedding vision (really…did I just say “wedding vision”?) started coming to life when we fell in love with bold combinations of black, white, and charcoal gray, with punches of bright plum mixed in. Ohhhh look:
Mrs. Tartlet, Rochester, MIAge and Occupation: Age & Occupation: 27, Post-Doctoral Research FellowFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Medical StudentEngagement Date: May 2, 2009Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: The Royal Park HotelAbout Me: I'm an exuberant gal from the Midwest with a penchant for Neuroscience and anything sparkly. I'm not afraid to poke fun at myself, and I'm a believer that given the right pair of shoes, a girl can conquer the world. While an interest in the sciences threw Mr. Tartlet and me together (again, and again, until it finally stuck), we share a love for many things---food, video games, car dancing, food, bad puns, travel, did I mention food?---that ultimately led us to where we are now, less than five months from becoming Mr. and Mrs. We're planning a laid-back, romantic, garden-inspired affair with organic and quirky touches that reflect our love for the unexpected!
…or why I’m dead set on scheduling a hair trial before the wedding.
The year was 2008. My hair was well below my shoulders and had started to acquire that scraggly look at the ends that screams for a trim. As I sat in the salon with my head dutifully tilted downward, quietly listening to the sound of the stylist’s scissors snip-snipping away along with her chatter to a nearby stylist, all conversation suddenly ceased, and I hear a terrified “oops…” whispered from behind me. Essentially, the stylist was a little too distracted talking with her nearby co-worker and had mistakenly lopped off a huge chunk of my hair. Unfortunately, no amount of layering and blending could mask the error. I couldn’t find any photos immediately after the cut (probably because I was refusing to be in any photos at this point), but I did scrounge one up to show y’all what my “trim” looked like a couple months later:
The haircut fiasco of 2008
Needless to say, I never went back to that salon again.
Mrs. Cotton Candy, Riverside, CAAge and Occupation: 29, Field CoordinatorFiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Process ServerEngagement Date: July 5, 2007Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Riverside Art MuseumAbout Me: I’m a girl in love with her best friend planning a small mid-century modern inspired wedding that’s been a long time coming. I love all things design, sewing, flea markets, and a good book. I’ve been known to swoon over a well-designed chair and often find myself craving a new addition to my chair collection regardless of the lack square footage in our home. I’m Mexican American girl who hates all things spicy but loves her rowdy Mexican family and her Latin roots. My wedding muses may not be your typical wedding superstars, but with a lot of DIY, a dash of offbeat style, and lots of love and laughs, Mr. Cotton and I plan to create a day that is unmistakably us.
This past Valentine’s Day, in typical Cotton Candy fashion, we spent the day out shopping at our local Costco and feasting on Costco chicken bakes and hot dogs. Now before you start feeling sorry for us thinking that our relationship is devoid of all things romance, you should know that Valentine’s Day has never held much importance for us. See, about 15 years ago on Valentine’s Day (six years before Mr. Cotton Candy and I met), Mr. Cotton Candy’s father lost his battle with liver disease and passed away. Needless to say, February 14th is no day for celebration in his family or in our relationship.
This was a huge sore spot for me in the first couple years of our relationship. What can I say? I was young, dumb, and selfish and didn’t understand how the death of his father meant I didn’t get flowers on V-day. Yeah, I know—I suck. And looking back I feel like a total jerk for ever making a day that holds so much sadness for him all about me. Hopefully I’ll be able to right some of these wrongs and honor his dad on a day that his absence will greatly be felt: our wedding day.
One of Mr. Cotton Candy’s few possessions from his father is his father’s wedding band.
We asked to have my Goddaughter/niece to be our flower girl even though she would be just shy of two at the time of our wedding. I knew she may not be able to walk by our wedding date or she may not even be in the mood to walk down the aisle. You never know how a toddler is going to feel, but we couldn’t imagine our wedding without her.
