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.
Once I floated back down to reality, it was time to start the ceremony. Our priest was absolutely adorable and he kept us on our toes. Since we did a super quick rehearsal and never really talked to him, we had no clue what to expect on the wedding day. He definitely made us laugh as our ceremony coordinator had warned us. He checked in with us at different parts of the ceremony to see if we were OK. He even asked if we still wanted to do this, or if we wanted to skip it and grab some food. Mr. Starfish really wanted to take him up on his offer to get some food—just not on our wedding day. As the ceremony went on, it was time for Starfish Aunt and Ant to read.
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!
I started out as a “budget bride,” but I think I have blown the wedding budget. Good thing I am saving money on all the other stuff in my life! If you need to learn how to save money, too, this mini-series is for you.
I used to HATE going to the grocery store. There were too many choices, and a bunch of small children with their itty bitty mini shopping carts were all up in my way, and then the next thing I know, I would end up paying a bunch of hard-earned money for things like paper towels and milk. Ugh. I would spend a ton of money, have a bunch of items that required cooking before eating, and be really grumpy too. It totally sucked.
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Miss Snapdragon, Chicago/DallasAge and Occupation: 32,Associate ProducerFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Lighting DesignerBlogging Since: November 14, 2008Engagement Date: January 1, 2011Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Marie GabrielleAbout Me: Voracious reader of short stories, Russian literature, National Geographic and Cosmo. I'm a GENIUS at spicing up Weight Watchers recipes and a pathological cheater at board games. I run a slow marathon, but my feet are learning to move faster. Mornings aren't my thing, but I can night owl with the best of them. Don't tempt me with your Cherry Cokes---I'm trying to quit. Tomorrow. Or never.
Just kidding. He was only mostly scared—not all the way scared. There’s a distinct difference between mostly and all-the-way, right college freshmen?
I met Bossyboots a very, verrrrrry long time ago, back when we were chumps at a local (yet national!) theater here in Chicago. I was the fresh out of college Stage Management intern; he was the seasoned lighting tech. He showed me around the theater, swooped me off my feet, and we lived happily ever after.
Mrs. Hyena, College Station, TXAge and Occupation: 23, Marketing SpecialistFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Grad StudentEngagement Date: January 8, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Downtown 202About Me: I'm a Texas girl who met my future hubby in high school, then headed up to Oklahoma for a college education (BOOMER SOONER!) before moving back to the Lone Star State to be with him. I love reading and recycling, Photoshop and reality TV, making lame jokes and then laughing at them, quoting movies, and Mr. Hyena most of all. I'm perpetually early and I like to get things accomplished. When my cat meows at me, I meow back. We're planning a laid-back, unintentionally DIY wedding with a cocktail-party vibe, and can't wait to celebrate our nuptials with our nearest and dearest!
When I was trying to figure out what our wedding colors were going to be, a coworker emailed me a link to this totally ridiculously awesome website that I lurve and you will too, called kuler. Like “cooler,” but cooler.
Kuler is a site where you can create color palettes to work with, and not only that, but it also gives you the RGB, CMYK, and HEX numbers for if you’re doing your own design work or website colors (woohoo, consistency!).
Mrs. Buttons, Clearwater, FLAge and Occupation: 24, "Working on it"Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Financial ServicesEngagement Date: June 13, 2009Wedding Date: May 2010Venue: Carlouel Yacht ClubAbout 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!
During the reception, we wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the married couples as well as the single folk! We decided to have an anniversary dance. We chose a classic song to play, and all of the married couples were called on to the dance floor.
Mrs. Candy Apple, Princeton Junction, NJ/ Seattle, WAAge and Occupation: 26, Project EditorFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, AttorneyEngagement Date: May 9, 2010Wedding Date: August 2011Venue: St. Joseph's Parish, Seattle Tennis ClubAbout Me: I am a Pacific Northwesterner, born and bred. I have lived in many cities---Santa Clara, Durham (England); Florence; Boston; Princeton Junction---but my heart will always be nestled up near the Cascades and Olympics, which is why we are holding our wedding there. I am a bookworm and a History nerd: I love that my life consists of books, books, and more books, since I work in Publishing! Recently, all waking time not consumed by work and my daily commute has been overtaken by wedding planning. Well, that, and watching Premier-League soccer. There is nothing I love more than a good Tana French mystery, traveling to new places, Anthropologie shopping sprees, Iittala dishware, Kate Spade shoes, impeccable typefaces (think: Archer), and a nice English ale (hellooo, Old Speckled Hen!). Oh, and did I mention my obsession with wedding blogs? Yeah, there’s that too. Join Mr. Candy Apple and me as we prep for our wedding, and, more importantly, our marriage!
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!
Bonjour mes amies! The Hot Wings finally went on our honeymoon. Sure, it’s seven months after our wedding, but a honeymoon can never be too late. We dorky academics planned our wedding based on our work/school schedule. Right after the wedding, we both had to fly home and start our new jobs. So, for spring break, we went to Paris!
We rented a small condo in the 4th district: Le Marais. It was a nice experience to live on a residential street and feel at home. The only difficulty we had was with making restaurant reservations. We ended up not making any because my French isn’t strong enough to have phone conversations. It might have been nice to have hotel staff to make reservations for us.
When we discussed what we wanted to do in Paris, we realized that we both had different styles of vacationing. 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!
An Ironman triathlete, engineer and a crafty gal? I’m bowing down! Say hello to our newest bee, Miss Gazelle!
Miss Gazelle, Calgary/Vancouver Age & Occupation: 32, Engineer Fiance’s Age & Occupation: 32, Technology Analyst Engagement Date: September 3, 2010 Wedding Date: July 2011 Venue: Brock House Restaurant, Vancouver About Me: I am a marathon runner, cyclist, Ironman triathlete and beautiful shoe fiend who also loves kicking back and watching Glee. I grew up a bit of a nomad as I traveled around the world with my family, living everywhere from Australia to England to South America and Indonesia. I finally settled in Calgary a few years ago and met Mr. Gazelle who loves me even though we cheer for different hockey teams. We are planning a bit of a destination wedding in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia and we can’t wait to share the day with our close family and friends.
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 we rode off into the night (around the parking lot two times), the party was officially over. Darn. There was a surge of last-minute goodbyes and a rush to gather all of the wedding stuff. Luckily, I wasn’t in charge of anything and was able to enjoy saying goodnight to our guests. My ceremony dress and purple heels magically made it into our car, as did 2 cases of our favorite V. Sattui wines. Gifts, cards, boxes, and flowers were loaded up into a few different cars to be sorted later when we all recovered.
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!
I have to admit, I didn’t really put that much effort into making sure that I had the “somethings” for my bridal outfit. It wasn’t something I was particularly concerned with, and considering all of the other stuff I had to do, it ended up falling pretty low on the priority list.
However, on the day of the wedding I was surprised to find that I really did have all of the somethings!
Something old…
My cardigan that I wore for part of our formal portraits. Believe it or not, I’ve had this cardigan for quite a while now – Sister Cardy gave it to me for Christmas one year and it’s a total coincidence that it matches my Weddingbee icon perfectly!
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!
You see, we’re having a guest book, as most weddings often do, but I’ll tell you right now that its not as easy as you would think. To save time (and possibly my sanity), we’ve decided to buy a guest book rather than DIY one.
I was obsessed with the idea of a photo guest book for a while, but my narcissistic self has already put our photo on all kinds of wedding things, so we’re going a little more traditional with this one.
Funny thing, being traditional about this is the one reason I didn’t want do. You know why? Wellllll, a “traditional” guestbook really isn’t my style. In fact, what comes to mind is something like this:
Obviously, something not my style would turn me off a little to the guestbook, but the amazing world of Etsy is once again turning everything around for me. Read more…
Mrs. Lox, BaltimoreAge and Occupation: 33, Government WorkerFiance's Age and Occupation: 35. IT ConsultantEngagement Date: May 8, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Vandiver InnAbout Me: I’m an East Coast gal born and bred and a suburban brat turned city rat for the last year. Now Mr. Lox and I enjoy walking all kinds of places, having the coolest things around in our backyard, and especially our garage parking. I love gadgets, toys, Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream, monkeys, and our insane cats. I’m a blonde by birth and a redhead by choice. I’m that girl in the cubicle farm with all the cool toys and the file cabinet covered in magnetic poetry. I still use smiley faces in my emails, whether people like it or not. This is not the first rodeo for Mr. Lox nor me. And together, we are planning an intimate afternoon wedding on a budget we can afford by ourselves.
Now that we’re under the two month mark, I swear to you, I think of something new at least once a week. And every time I do, it’s a freaking crisis. Like OMGMr.LoxwehavetodothisRIGHTNOW! Needless to say, Mr. Lox wishes I would stop thinking of things I haven’t already written down somewhere. So would I, but that’s the way the wedding cake crumbles!
However, two weeks ago I thought of something that we should both be very glad I remembered. That’s right, our marriage license. You know, tiny little important detail without which the purpose of the day isn’t complete (!!!). So I decided to research what we needed to do to make this happen.
Before I go into what happened next, you should know that although I’ve been married before, it was never in the state of Maryland. So, you’re going to have to forgive me for this.
I already knew I needed to go to the courthouse. And I already knew the courthouse has hours that exactly mimic our jobs. So I knew some time off was in order to make this happen. No problem, you know, just take an hour or two off and the whole thing will be over. Right? Not so much. Read more…
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.
I have a love hate relationship with veils. In theory I love them in all their frothy, dramatic, here-comes-the-bride wonderfulness, but in practice I’m not a fan. They get in your face (duh, that’s the point right?) they can get in your way, and for our tiny little wedding, a veil might be a little too much. Sigh…I love them even if they are too much for our wedding, so I’ve decided to indulge in my love in moderation and sport a birdcage veil on our day.
After some shopping I’ve decided that a delicate tulle birdcage veil was exactly what my day-of ensemble needs. Something like this: Read more…
Mrs. Lioness, AtlantaAge and Occupation: 25, Physical TherapistFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, AttorneyEngagement Date: August 29, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: Anthony’s Fine DiningAbout Me: I’m a Southern girl with New England roots. I say "wicked" and "y’all" in the same sentence and I like to drink sweet tea with my lobster. Mr. Lion and I are both former Floridians now living in Atlanta, which fortunately is still SEC country...Go Gators! We both love baseball, coffee, traveling, cooking, and playing Words with Friends with each other on our iPhones all day long. I’m very passionate about the things and the people I love, and I tend to plan things with all of my heart...our wedding, of course, is no different! Oh, and also Mr. Lion is a first generation American of Cuban descent. I may look more like Lucy than Ricky, but I’m doing my best to incorporate some Latin elements into our vintage-garden-Southern wedding!
Once I floated back down to reality, it was time to start the ceremony. Our priest was absolutely adorable and he kept us on our toes. Since we did a super quick rehearsal and never really talked to him, we had no clue what to expect on the wedding day. He definitely made us laugh as our ceremony coordinator had warned us. He checked in with us at different parts of the ceremony to see if we were OK. He even asked if we still wanted to do this, or if we wanted to skip it and grab some food. Mr. Starfish really wanted to take him up on his offer to get some food—just not on our wedding day. As the ceremony went on, it was time for Starfish Aunt and Ant to read.
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