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.
No pretty pictures today my dears, I’m sorry about that. But I’ve been thinking about something a lot lately, so I thought maybe I could share with you. I know, I know…I promised a post full of pretty details would be next. Forgive me?
I adore the Beatles, and I love their song All You Need is Love. Love it so much, in fact, that it will be the recessional for our ceremony.
But I don’t believe it. Love is NOT all you need.
This is where my encore status makes me a little different. I’ve been through two failed marriages. And I loved both of those men. Loved them completely, to the point where I sacrificed myself and my needs to them. But those marriages, they didn’t work. And it’s not because I didn’t love them.
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!
It has taken me a long time to figure out how to write this post. Originally, I titled it “Do I Look Like an Ugly Troll?” and talked all about my insecurities from my appearance and how when I am feeling ugly or icky, I ask others if I resemble this:
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.
As you know, there have been very few projects that I would say were “easy” or that turned out the way I anticipated and had hoped; however, these straw hearts by Andrea Gray Harper are so fabulous, and definitely one of my favorite DIY adventures! They were inexpensive, fun to create, and I’m pretty sure they’ll add a unique element to our cocktail hour!
Mrs. Waffle, AustinAge and Occupation: 31, Costumer/ArtistFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, AnimatorEngagement Date: July 27, 2010Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Hummingbird HouseAbout 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!
It has been discussed before that shopping with Mr Waffle is a difficult experience. He is a super-duper-picky-pants about everything. We needed to get him new black dress shoes for our wedding and our friends’ wedding, where he’ll be a groomsman later this month.
He had been digging his heels in on this one for a long time now. He has a nice pair of black shoes, but they are by no means dress shoes. I showed them to my friend when they were over at our house and she told him that they were not an acceptable substitution. I thanked her profusely.
So, yesterday, along with ring shopping and meeting with our DJ for the first time, we went shoe shopping.
Mr Waffle moped over to the men’s section and I followed (desperately trying to not be tempted to venture into the aisle of high heeled bliss). The look of disgust on his face frightened me. As we walked along the back wall covered in dress shoes I heard, over and over, the following phrases… Read more…
Ms. Gazelle, Calgary/VancouverAge and Occupation: 32, EngineerFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Technology AnalystEngagement Date: September 3, 2010Wedding Date: July 2011Venue: Brock House Restaurant, VancouverAbout 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.
Initially I thought I wanted a pretty simple colour scheme.
Black and white.
As I started perusing wedding photos, I saw the amazing shoes that brides are wearing. The wheels started turning as I contemplated an awesome pair of shoes. I may have a thing for shoes. After all, who wouldn’t want to jump on the bandwagon after seeing some of these amazing shots (all courtesy of our fantastic photographers, Sakura Photography)?
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.
It’s a bride’s prerogative to change her mind, and boy have I ever changed my mind. Remember this post where I discussed the details of my one-of-a-kind custom dress? Well, forget everything I said in that post… because I bought a dress!
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 love our invite suite. I love the style, the design, the colours. We kept it low-stress by not worrying about whether the colours of things were going to match exactly. We bought the envelopes and made the belly bands before we received the printed product, so we didn’t have anything to carry around with us to the stationery store—we just went and eyeballed the various blue and green options, and picked our favourites. The belly bands we made with blue spray I had hanging around (OK, I bought it for wedding purposes, but hadn’t decided where to use it yet!).
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?
Life is full of coincidences—mostly minor but sometimes remarkable. During the wedding planning process you might encounter some funny coincidences, which you could try to find meaning in and ascribe to “fate,” or just have a laugh about.
For example, a friend of mine is getting married on the eighth anniversary of first meeting her fiancé. The funny thing is, they were not aware of that when they booked the date: they only realized it later!
We have experienced this ourselves in a couple of occasions.
The first coincidence is the church we are getting married in (yes, it’s a civil ceremony in a church). The name of the church is “Chiesa di San Giovanni.” The Italian equivalent of Mr. Caro’s name is, if fact, Giovanni (my friends often call him that!). So, we’re basically going to get married in his church…
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.
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!
I moved to south Texas less than a year before I got engaged. I knew literally nothing about wedding-reception locations in the area. I’d been to one wedding here, in a hotel ballroom, and a quick email confirmed that there was no freaking way we could afford to do that. Catering minimum? No thank you.
Mr. Hyena and I talked about all the things we wanted in a reception venue, including having it indoors (outdoors in May in Texas = unpredictable), not wanting to pay for a lot of additional rentals, wanting the venue to allow alcohol, and wanting to be able to book it as soon as possible. (I maaay have mentioned that I tend toward the anxious, and I didn’t want to worry longer than necessary.)
I jumped online to visit my dear friend, Google, and came up with the following options. We visited all of them, and unfortunately I took no pictures…so you’ll have to just look at the ones on each place’s website.
Downtown 202, Bryan - This was the first place we visited, one weekend while Hyena Sis was in town. Looooooved it! Rustic brick walls, gorgeous chandeliers, but a little pricier than we had planned for. Also, they wouldn’t let us book more than a year in advance. I was terrified that someone else would swoop in and book it first, so we kept looking.
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.
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!
Remember when I introduced you to my wedding crush sometime last week? Well, I’ll get you up to speed quickly. Friend Brooke got married and had one of the prettiest, hippest weddings of all time and I’m totally crushing over it.
Riggghhhhhttttt? Lovely! Although, there’s one thins I haven’t shown you from Brooke’s wedding (on purpose, of course). See, Brooke and Jim had amazing engagement pictures, and they found the best way to display them at their reception. Read more…
Mrs. Seal, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 25, Personal AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Sales and Support SpecialistEngagement Date: December 12, 2009Wedding Date: November 2011Venue: Sts Peter and Paul Church/The Bently ReserveAbout Me: I am a goofy, wannabe crafty, well-intentioned Renaissance Woman (OK, perhaps "aimless wanderer" is a more aptly suited term for me, but hopefully you get the point)—basically I dabble in just about everything and pride myself in such. Without warning, I occasionally breakout into soulful improvised songs and interpretive dances and there's just no stopping me! As so many others before me, planning our wedding has unearthed a deep, intense passion for all things bridal and I secretly fear the day it will come to an end. Mr. Seal and I are quite the pair and life with him by my side is extremely rewarding—I am so thankful to have found him. Together we are planning a black-tie San Francisco affair for 250—light on the stuffiness and with lots of extra Seal-y flair.
Let me preface this post by stating that I always ruin my own surprises. I assure you I am not exaggerating. A couple of years ago, I spoiled every one of my Christmas presents from Mr. Seal, and it wasn’t because I physically saw them—I’m just impatient and…figured them out. I am suspicious by nature and have an innate sense of when someone is trying to surprise me or lie to me in an effort to throw me off track. I’m pretty sure if I were a superhero my superpower would be exposing secrets! Okaaay, that would be a pretty lame superpower, but that’s the unfortunate talent I was born to bear.
In the following situation I promise I was trying my best to remain ignorant, but it wasn’t made very easy…
The month was November of 2009. The place? Las Vegas. Mr S. and I, along with just about every other member of my family, were on vacation. He and I spent the first couple nights of the trip getting romantic—we wined and dined at fancy restaurants and attended the Wynn’s Cirque du Soleil-esque show Le Reve.
Bon après-midi! This week we’re inspired by Amelie and Parisian whimsy! Check out our latest Buzzworthy board, and where to find all the great details, below.
Wondering where to find/purchase this board’s great details? Check out the Amelie shopping guide:
barrel organ - Photography by Emilie Gerardvia Once Wed (looking to rent a barrel organ? Check out Fairground Organ [but be forewarned, this website has loud, auto-loading music])
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!
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.
While I started thinking about bridesmaids gifts back in the fall, I didn’t start shopping for them until just this week. Here’s what I’ve decided on so far. But first…
