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. 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.
There are so many variations on chocolate chip cookies! Do you want them soft and chewy or more cake like? In order to determine the best chocolate chip cookies my MOH decided we needed to do a chocolate chip cookie taste off!
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!
In early February I had my bridal portraits taken, and I’m so excited to share those with y’all! They turned out really well, and I love them.
In the meantime, getting bridal portraits done means I needed to become beautimus, so I knocked out a couple birds and had my hair trial then as well. You may remember my previous hair inspiration. In addition, I decided I wanted my veil to sit at the back of my head, and I wanted my hair to have a little bit of volume.
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. 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!
There are some aspects of wedding planning I am not that into. Like, the hard parts. I don’t really feel like picking out a florist and the honeymoon, while fun to think about, seems really daunting (and freakin’ expensive!) to plan, so I’d rather just ignore that right now.
Instead, I am using my tried and true method of making myself feel productive even when I am not getting anything meaningful accomplished. Like, you know, on days when you have to do laundry, and clean out your really extraordinarily messy car, and go exercise, and weed the garden, but you don’t really feel motivated at all, so you put things like Take a Shower and Starbucks on your to do list, just so you can feel like you completed a task or two?
Wait, you don’t do that? And your car’s not extraordinarily messy??? It’s just me? Oh.
Well, anyways, from my last post you may have predicted that my latest obsession is buttons. They are really freakin’ easy to make, plus I have a ton of fabric to continue making them. I already made buttons for the napkin rings, so I needed to find other projects that involved buttons. Here is a sampling for your viewing pleasure!
Mrs. Snow Cone, Pittsburgh/Johnstown, PAAge and Occupation: 23, Public Health Graduate StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, EngineerEngagement Date: April 9, 2010Wedding Date: August 2011Venue: OMOS Church ceremony/Sunnehanna Country Club receptionAbout Me: I’m one of the lucky ones---I met my future husband at the ripe old age of 13, started dating him as a mature woman of 15, and have been enjoying the ride ever since. Here we are, 8 years later, living in Pittsburgh, planning a "homestination" wedding in the place our school romance began---Johnstown, PA. I thrive on talking a mile a minute, eating my weight in chocolate, and internet shopping. I love a lengthy to-do list almost as much as I love a healthy amount of chaos in my life. Mr. Snow Cone and I watch countless episodes of Friends and The West Wing on repeat, root for rival college sports teams, and make each other laugh each and every day. We’re putting together a small-town wedding with a big personality and a classically modern (or modernly classic?) look for 250 of our closest family and friends. It’s been 8+ years in the making, and sometimes I still can’t believe I’m finally getting to marry my high school sweetheart!
Our wedding reception consists of a pretty densely packed country-club ballroom and a seated, multi-course meal. Therefore, to make things as streamlined as possible, we’re definitely going to be doing seating arrangements. Maybe not specifically assigned seats, but at least assigned tables. I don’t like the idea of the doors opening up to our ballroom and our friends and family participating in a glorified cattle drive. I crave order, predictability, and a low level of stress on the wedding day, so seating arrangements are definitely in our future.
There’s an antique grand piano in the area we’ll be using for our cocktail hour, and the coordinator mentioned that most couples place escort cards there.
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.
Hey, remember me? That girl who, just a few days ago, was bragging about how calm and collected she was? “Hey, check me out, I’m so awesomely chill about my impending wedding, blah blah blah blah blah!”
Yeah. That girl freaked the eff out last night. Big time.
First, remember my DOC issues? How she’d blown me off for two meetings in a row? Well, a few weeks after I posted my rant about that, she had an accident and got injured - nothing life threatening, and she will be fine, but she had some broken bones that made it impossible for her to coordinate my wedding. However, she put her assistant in charge of the wedding, and that assistant was very responsive and helpful. It seemed like everything would be okay.
Ms. Ferris Wheel, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, PsychologistFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, PsychologistEngagement Date: May 23 and 28, 2010 (one for each of us!)Wedding Date: November 2011Venue: Parc55 Hotel (city lights ceremony, ballroom reception)About Me: Born in the Southeast, educated in the Northeast, and over-educated on the West Coast, I finally earned my city-girl credentials and have put down roots in gorgeous San Francisco. I’m a raging perfectionist with a lightning quick wit and a terrible sense of both time and direction. Our wedding task list is endlessly growing because of my predilection to think that DIY projects I can make = DIY projects I should make (so not true!). I always go to bed wishing there were more hours in the day to enjoy all the things I adore, whether that be hobbies, friends, my career, our two dogs, or Mr. Ferris Wheel. Ours is a story of a non-traditional couple living an oddly traditional life planning a not-so-traditional wedding in this city we adore. Together we are bustin’ out all of our best skills (and some of our worst ones) to plan a laid-back-chic DIY-craftastic love-alicious affair!
I don’t know where this thought came from, but I’m acutely aware than when we first started looking at wedding venues in San Francisco I honestly believed that for $10,000 we could have a November wedding and get a conveniently-located city lights view and/or waterfront venue for no more than 100 people that would include site rental fees, equipment/furniture rentals, open bar, food, lighting, audio, dance floor, music, wedding day coordinator, decorations, and a photobooth (and those are just the requirements I can remember right now).
Let me just say for the record, I was W-R-O-N-G wrong.
You can absolutely have some of those elements for that cost, but you can’t have all of them. And trying to decide what to leave off the list felt to me like trying to decide which of my two front teeth I’d rather live without.
So instead of finding things to strike from our “want” list, we began by simply trying to minimize the costs of those things we saw as necessities for our ceremony and reception: site rental fees, food, and alcohol. After seeing a few places and ruling out those that were too expensive, we were left with 4 options.
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.
As the reception began, I noticed the beautiful sunset. Mr. Starfish and I had stepped out on the balcony to chat with guests and enjoy the view. As we were overlooking the ocean, we noticed our photographer, Dave, had written our date in the sand and was taking some photos. Read more…
Mrs. Funnel Cake, Zürich, Switzerland/Columbus, OhioAge and Occupation: 24, Visual Communication DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Application EngineerEngagement Date: May 30, 2010Wedding Date: October 2011Venue: Catholic church followed by a botanical conservatoryAbout Me: I'm an American designer who moved to Switzerland for love after a fairytale beginning at the top of the Eiffel Tower. I love travel, photography, museums, learning German so I can speak with my mother-in-law, cooking (eating), cuddling, and I'm not afraid to try something new even if it terrifies me. My Swiss/Brazilian man and I are both down to earth people planning a traditional Catholic wedding in my hometown with some quirky cultural exceptions to reflect our different backgrounds. We look forward to celebrating with friends and family from all over the world in a classic, sophisticated fusion of heritage and love.
We started our invitations this weekend. I bugged Mr. Funnel Cake to go buy some paper so we could play around with sizes and things. We had already spent a fair amount of time discussing what we want and how to approach designing an invitation that needs to be in English, Portuguese, and German. I was in favour of doing an e-invite because they are green and cost friendly, but I was shot down by both my mother and Mr. Funnel Cake, who insisted that this was a wedding and we needed to do something printed. As a designer, if I’m going to go to the effort of printing something, I want it to look damn good!
Mr. Funnel Cake has been pretty set that he wants to include a wax seal in our invite. I’m not exactly sure where a manly man gets a notion like this, but he is adamant about including one in our design. We are still debating about what to put on the wax seal…one of our initials, some kind of monogram, or something else…but it’s being included in our designs.
Also, as a throwback to Mr. Funnel Cake’s Swiss roots, and also our wedding’s colors, we are trying to design square invites in the colors red/white/black to reflect some Swiss design. I was debating using Helvetica type, too…but I’m just not sure I care for it enough to commit to it for our invites. I’m looking at Didot, Akzidenz, and maybe something by Hoefler Frere-Jones. They always have the most succulent test styles on H&F-J—I just want to use all their type! I think half of the love is that they have everything in muted tones with lots of shading and soft colors. Everything just looks elegant.
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.
I have a confession to make, hive. There’s a big part of my life that I haven’t yet divulged to you. But it being Mother’s Day, and with other things weighing on my mind, I wanted to put it all out there and recognize the person in my life that has always been there for me: My mom.
When I was a younger Sparkler, I lost my Dad. I’ve already told you that he was a Marine, but what I didn’t tell you was that he was a test pilot. This very honorable career was also very dangerous, and one July, while co-piloting a flight of the V-22 Osprey, he made the ultimate sacrifice.
Dad and me… waaaaay back in the day.
In the blink of an eye, my Mom was left alone with a growing family (my youngest sister was only five months old).
Mrs. Pony, Bloomington, ILAge and Occupation: 25, AttorneyFiance's Age and Occupation: 34, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 22, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Mackinaw Valley Vineyard; Bloomington Center for the Performing ArtsAbout Me: I found my Southern counterpart in law school and since he popped the question last March, we have been busy graduating, job searching, bar taking, and wedding planning. My loves include must see TV, magnets, quotes, anything green, my car, fun socks, the Cubs, and my Mr. Together we love wine, playing outside, and exploring the world together. Stay tuned to see our Midwest wedding full of Southern charm, vintage flair, lots of DIY details, and a whole lot o’ wine.
Remember a few weeks ago when I talked about wanting to get a wedding certificate to use as the guestbook at our wedding? Well, if you don’t, that’s just dandy because I found something that I like even more!
I still want to get a wedding certificate, but I have fallen for these wonderful quilled-paper pieces by Ann Martin.
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. 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.
Recently, I’ve been a little worried about my wedding shoes. Remember the beauties? As much as I love them, I know I’m not going to make it past the ceremony in them no matter how many gel soles I put in them. I’m not exactly graceful when walking in heels. Unfortunately, my dress is currently hemmed for my 5″ shoes. So, if I switched to flats for the reception, I’d be tripping all over myself. A+.
So what’s the answer to this predicament? Easy: find cute shoes that are super comfortable and almost as high! And that I did, today while shopping.
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 finally bought all the songs on our playlists, and I’m slowly “finalizing” them all by listening to them and making sure I like the order.
First things first, I listened to our pre-ceremony playlist. This music makes me so, so happy. Next came the processional. I imagined our families walking to their seats in the church…I imagined my walk…and then I imagined Mr. H’s face as I walked down the aisle. And then I started crying.
As the reception began, I noticed the beautiful sunset. Mr. Starfish and I had stepped out on the balcony to chat with guests and enjoy the view. As we were overlooking the ocean, we noticed our photographer, Dave, had written our date in the sand and was taking some photos.
