- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee Blog
Face paint, that is. More specifically known as makeup. Want to see a picture of Miss Ticket without makeup? Well, you have already seen quite a few of those, because I don’t wear makeup. I only wear it for very special occasions, and even then I don’t wear much.
Miss Ticket sans makeup (Personal photo)
The Baconator and I are what you might call spiritual but not exactly religious. We both had fairly religious upbringings, but never found a church in Chicago for us to join. We kept meaning to, but it just didn’t happen, so when we decided to get married, we had to face the fact that a church wedding wasn’t really in the cards. We nixed looking at churches for the ceremony and committed to finding a venue where we could have both the wedding and the party.
Once that contract was signed, sealed and delivered, we started weighing the pros and cons of the right officiant. First up was a Justice of the Peace, but while they are easy to find, we were worried that the ceremony would be too straight forward and not full of enough character.
Next was the idea of inviting a childhood priest to come and officiate, but that would have only been sentimental for one of us, while the other half of the couple might as well have a stranger. Besides, since neither of us grew up in the Chicago area, he would have to travel eight hours to the wedding and we’d have to cover travel costs and hotel.
We then moved on to a DIY officiant where we get a friend or family member to do the ceremony for us with one of those online officiant certificates.
Read more…
With the growing trend of adult-only receptions I’ve noticed a decrease in flower girls and ring bearers. Later in my recaps I will show you how inviting children came to bite me right in the ass. I’m still a little raw about it so it’s best that I wait to describe it. (This is me telling you that I wholeheartedly support your individual decision on whether or not to have children attend/participate in your nuptials.) Back on subject, I wanted to include some of my favorite little people in our bridal party. Looking back, I am so glad we choose to have some of our favorite children with us.
Our church required that children participating must be at least five years of age. Our flower girls were six, a perfect age in my opinion. They took direction, were excited, had fun, and helped with the little ones. Our ring bearers were three. It’s not an ideal age for taking direction but I was very flexible with everything from attire to how we could bribe them to get down the aisle. Okay, so I might not have mentioned to the church that our ring bearers were slightly under the age limit. My nephews mean the world to me and there was no way that I would not have them participate. It was only fitting they be a part of their favorite auntie’s wedding day. Luckily the church didn’t ask and my nephews were able to participate.
I would be lying to say that it was smooth sailing with the children.
It took me a really long time to make a decision on our guest book for the wedding. You can add it to the huge list of things that wound up being a lot more important to me than I initially realized (others include invitations, bridesmaid shoes, and extreme promptness with my thank you Notes).
Before we were engaged, if someone asked me about our guestbook (although no one would actually do that), this is what I had in mind:
Image via Dweddingideas.com
But, as I got more and more interested in weddings and then started to plan our very own nuptials, I realized there are a lot more options out there!
Lots of brides and grooms are opting to include a guestbook including their guests’ thumbprints:
Featured on Weddingbee
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
“Make an elegant invitation statement without the fuss. Stylish invitation sets with matching envelopes, reception and response cards included.”
Mr. Kettle and I both lived in the Chicago area when we met Fourth of July weekend 2010. Six weeks later, he got a job offer to teach in St. Louis. Wanting to be a gainfully employed adult not living with his parents, he gathered his things and moved there less than a week later.
This wasn’t an issue at first. I was unemployed, desperately applying for jobs and getting tons of “thanks, but no thanks” emails each day. I had a ton of free time and spent a lot of it down in St. Louis. I think that’s partially the reason our relationship was able to move forward so quickly. We simply had the time to focus wholly on us.
When we began discussing marriage, we had to figure something out. Mr. Kettle first suggested I move down to St. Louis with him. I was worried about being an unemployed mooch/kept woman/short-order cook. I was also worried about being a complete and utter disappointment to my parents’ hopes for both my career and my chastity.
While we were discussing options, he was getting increasingly frustrated with the long-distance-ness of our relationship. It was more about missing me than anything else, which I find really sweet of him. He had gotten used to waking up next to me and hated going back to long-distance when I reminded him I still needed to spend at least some time at my house in Chicago.
Right around this time, I got the job interview with my current job. That whole process from first interview to hiring took a little over a month. Also during this time, Mr. Kettle was moving not quite so subtly toward proposing to me. Further complicating things, his boss informed him they were interested in giving him a promotion to being in charge of multiple schools in the district, as they were changing their arts program throughout the school district. It would be a great promotion with a lot more money. Things had just gotten complicated. Real complicated.
Image: Alliedow’s Blog
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
After our first dance, Papa Hot Wings gave an opening speech. He had been pretty nervous in the weeks leading up to the wedding. He didn’t really know what to say. He kept telling me he wanted to tell the story of when I failed the 2nd grade. Uh yeah dad… you want to talk about when I sucked at school? Uh hello dad, I had just completed a Ph.D. I insisted that he not talk about my failures.
Our reception included a lot of extended family friends. I didn’t want my dad’s story to get lost in translation. I didn’t want people to think he wasn’t proud of me or that I had failed him.
As he began his speech, he looked quite somber. I got nervous for him. He began by welcoming everyone and thanking them for coming. Then he did something unexpected.
Since our guestbook is far from traditional, Mr. Parasol and I knew we should probably provide some instructions for our guests. We could do something really basic and to the point like, “Leave a note and hang it up.” It’s succinct and conveys pretty much exactly what our guests are supposed to do.
But we decided we wanted something a little more fun to greet our guests upon their arrival, something more like this:
Image via Delightfully Engaged / Photography by Morgan Trinker
Pretty early on in my wedding blog browsing, I decided we must have milk glass somewhere in our wedding. I loved the clean, polished look that milk glass gives while still looking fun and vintage.
Photo by Stout Photography / Floral design by Blooms by Martha Andrews
Plus I knew that milk glass can be super cheap and easy to find, so its addition to our tables seemed like an obvious choice.
My initial plan was to combine my original inspiration images so that I would have my green vases and candles on a mirror with a couple of milk glass pieces with succulents on each side. This idea only really seemed to work with long tables, which we won’t be having (sad face). And shoving everything onto one mirror would look way too crowded.
For a while I wasn’t even sure we could use any milk glass on the tables.
So, I guess by now you would like to know what I am wearing in my hair? The plan is for a veil (more on that soon!) for the duration of the ceremony and, of course, the photographs. However, when we arrive at the reception I think a veil trailing one metre behind the train on my dress (which will actually be bustled) will just be asking for trouble. I can imagine it just being completely ripped out of my hair! Also, the one thing I really want to keep to have available for my potential daughter/daughter-in law/grandaughter would be my veil. I know that my dress will be worthless to keep, because there is absolutely no way I would have fit into, let alone worn, my mother’s wedding dress!
So, will I go naked for the reception? My hair, that is…not a chance!!! I love a hair flower as much as the next guy (or girl), and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to change my outfit up into a slightly more casual look for the reception.
So, whilst I absolutely LOVE this option…
Snatched up by Mrs. Lox from Etsy seller AmieNoelDesigns
…the seller is no longer making it in ivory—it only comes in white, peach, and berry, none of which really go with our colour palette…bummer, dude.
I have said many times, both in this blog and in real life, that I like to be busy. I get antsy if I have too much down time. I want to, “Go! Go! Go!” as my daughter’s idol, Kai-Lan says. But, Hive, I have been way too busy over the past couple weeks.
At work, our fiscal year ends June 30, so the past month has been incredibly busy. In the world of accounting, the end of the fiscal year is a big deal and there is a lot of work involved. On top of the fact the work had to be done, one of the employees in our department quit and another received a promotion, so we are understaffed.
At school, my last class ended on Saturday and it was a very intense, involved class. I had, no exaggeration, at LEAST fifteen hours of homework each week for this one class. And as the last two weeks wound down, I found myself studying for the final and doing a huge involved project that took a lot of time and concentration. Meanwhile, Mr. Cannon found himself having to work seven days a week several weeks in a row. This left me in charge of Cherry Bomb all weekend, which really took a toll on the time I set aside each week for school work. Additionally, two weeks in a row, one or the other of the websites I use for my on-line class were down during one of the days in which I usually do my school work.
On top of that, time is ticking ever closer to the wedding, and we absolutely had to get our invitations sent out.
Read more…
There were a few decisions in wedding planning that were quite simple for us. The fact that I had worked as a wedding coordinator’s assistant (WCA from here on) for most of 2009 helped in that department. I had already put some thought into what I might one day want in my own wedding, and I had met some pretty awesome vendors. Within the first week of being engaged we had chosen our colors, booked our venue, and chosen our photographers.
First up: Colors
We chose my favorite color (pink), Mr. Ticket’s favorite color (orange), and one to tone the others down a bit (black). We chose our color scheme before booking the date for our wedding and decided to keep it despite everyone telling us it looks “Halloween-y,” given our wedding is in October. With those colors in mind, we forged on with images like this guiding the way:
Top row (left to right): Image via The Knot / Photographed by Paul Versluis Photography, Image via The Knot / Photographed by Colin Lyons Photography / Bridal Bouquet by Richard Remiard Event Design, Image via Weddingbee / Posted by Spool56
Middle row (left to right): Image via Wedding Celebration, Image via The Knot / Photo by Studio Atticus, Image via Weddingbee / Posted by Mrs. Avocado
Bottom row (left to right): Image via The Knot / Photographed by Stephanie Colgan Photography, Image via The Knot / Photographed by Think Photographics, Image via The Knot / Photo by Erin Hearts Court
With the boys on their way to the church and with the girls’ hair and makeup done, there was only one thing left for me to do. It was time to get the dress on.
I showed off our urban inspired engagement pictures and I hinted that our next shoot would be more “Colorado” inspired. They turned out beautiful and we were once again reminded how lucky we are to have such a talented friend. After being kicked out of the first spot we attempted to shoot at*, we headed to a stunning location in Hermosa Valley right along the Animas River. BM Candace had a vision for this engagement shoot and I think she did an amazing job executing it.
We hauled some props to the field, including pillows and a down comforter, and set up our own little sanctuary in the middle of this beautiful setting:
So when we last left off, I told you about Mr. Sweet Cream’s band that he chose during our trip to Philly’s Jeweler’s Row… a choice that will live on his finger for years to come.
But what about lil’ ol’ me??
Well, I might have shared my pretty bling one here once or twice…
A refresher you might ask? Well, I am happy to oblige.
So while it’s totally unique and something that I was almost in tears (silly me!) after Mr. Sweets told me it was sold before he could get to it—what a trickster—it isn’t something that is easy to match a band to.
Read more…
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 |
