Mrs. Hippo, New York City/Dallas, TX
Age and Occupation: 34, Event Planner for a Non-Profit
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Finance IT
Engagement Date: August 8, 2009
Wedding Date: March 2011
Venue: Samuel Lynne Galleries and Marc Events
About Me: I’m a thirty-something bride living in New York City and planning a modern-ish wedding in Dallas, Texas. I love trashy reality television (Jersey Shore, anyone?), online shopping, Sunday brunch, Central Park, and random celebrity spottings on the streets of Manhattan. While I love NYC, I miss good Tex-Mex, my college friends, central A/C, and being in close proximity to a Target. I’m thrilled to finally be planning an event that’s not work-related and to be marrying my best friend in what I hope will be a unique and personal ceremony followed by a reception with plenty of good food, good drinks, and dancing (regardless if it’s good or not).
It’s hard to believe that I’m about to bid farewell to the hive. But before I go, there are some moments and photos from our wedding that didn’t make it into my recaps that I thought would still be fun to share. First, a few detail shots:
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| My beautiful bouquet from the folks at Mockingbird Florist |
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Miss Kettle, Chicago, IL
Age and Occupation: 26, Non-Profit Donor Resource Coordinator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Musician & Teacher
Engagement Date: May 29, 2011
Wedding Date: February 2012
Venue: Patrick C. Haley Mansion, Joliet, IL
About Me: I'm a city girl who loves a good escape, so I'm planning a Chicago wedding outside of the city. I've been described as a quirky yet down-to-earth drama queen who loves fiercely. I used to be a scientist, but now I'm learning to navigate the world of non-profit organizations. I love cooking, blogging, shopping, and music, and movies (Hans Zimmer is my favorite movie composer). Mr. Kettle and I had a short courtship and now we have a happy home with our cat-who-thinks-she's-people, Belle. We spend our days and nights with good food, live music, video games, family, and friends. Our wedding has become this wonderful excuse to bring together hundreds of people we can't bear to be without.
You will see this image I made in MS Paint (on my work PC) a lot.
I do some rebellious things. I call myself a rebel a lot, but usually as a joke. My mother thinks I’m this bohemian girl. I’ve got the dreadlocks, I withdrew from med school on what seemed like a whim, I decided to get married after knowing Mr. Kettle for less than a year.
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Mrs. Macarons, Tampa
Age and Occupation: 26, Graphic Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Renaissance Man
Engagement Date: September 12, 2009
Wedding Date: September 2011
Venue: Lange Farm
About Me: I'm creative at heart and a graphic designer with an unhealthy obsession with type. I love roller coasters, spicy foods, and a good glass of Crianza. We’re planning a soft and lovely vintage-meets-modern wedding in a state that’s known for its beaches, glitz and glam. I have a ton of DIY projects and lots of little details I’m dying to share and can't wait to celebrate with our closest friends and family.
Is no other than MOH Sassy. Sassy’s hubby has always wanted his own business and his dream finally came true.
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Mrs. Ladyfingers, Saint Petersburg, FL
Age and Occupation: 30, Marketing Manager
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Sports Writer
Engagement Date: December 24, 2010
Wedding Date: November 2011
Venue: Palma Sola Botanical Park
About Me: I hail from Oklahoma, he was born and raised in Long Island. Fate brought us together, and now we live in a cute little rental house with our nutty dog, and our aloof cat. We both love to read, watch movies, explore our town, and laugh like hyenas. When I’m not obsessively wedding crafting, I enjoy stalking style and decorating blogs, making collages and painting, napping, thrifting, rearranging our bookshelves, and being a total weirdo with my friends. Hi!
When I was 12, writing out guest lists for my imaginary, far-in-the-future wedding, I never dreamed I’d be doing this without my grandparents or my aunt. And I definitely never in a million years would have guessed I’d be planning a wedding without my mother.
This post has been in my blogging dashboard in draft format since before I even applied to be a bee. It’s been a tough one to finish—partially because I’m still, 5 years later, going through the grieving process. Partially because I don’t want to come across like I’m trying to elicit sympathy. But because I know others have been through this, are going through this, or are afraid of this, I feel I need to come clean about the biggest dark cloud over this entire process.
My mom died in 2006 of a heart attack. She was gone by the time I made it to the hospital, and it was, to say the least, a shock.
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Mrs. Parasol, San Ramon, California
Age and Occupation: 25, Non-profit writer, editor, and blogger
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Law school student
Engagement Date: December 19th, 2010
Wedding Date: September 2011
Venue: Bent Creek Winery (Livermore, California); Reception: Family Residence (San Ramon, California)
About Me: I am a California girl at heart. I love the outdoors, sunny days at the beach, and hiking in the woods and mountains. I also love good books and am fresh from completing my Master's degree in English and Comparative Literature in New York City. Living in NYC was an amazing experience, and while I'm glad to be back on the West Coast, I'm also thankful that my two years back East gave me an opportunity to explore new places, make new friends, and indulge my passion for Broadway shows. Oh, and I received a pretty awesome proposal from Mr. Parasol in Central Park. Above all else, Mr. Parasol is my biggest cheerleader and my best friend. But even though I'm thrilled to be marrying him, I wasn't always totally on board with this whole wedding thing and at first, I wanted to run off and elope. I've finally been convinced to throw the wedding I never thought I wanted, and so now I'm busy planning an intimate September wedding filled with DIY details. Along the way, I'm slowly learning to appreciate, perhaps even love the wedding planning process.
It’s official, hive: I love bunting! Seriously, I could have been Miss Bunting in another life. I don’t really know what triggered this obsession, but I started seeing it everywhere, and I just loved it! As you can tell from the glimpses I’ve given you of our wedding invitations, I’ve found some fun and creative ways to incorporate bunting into our wedding. Recently I’ve been on a bunting kick and have made what feels like miles and miles of fabric bunting, and I want to share this project with you today.
Materials:
- Fabric (I chose a variety of patterns in our wedding colors.)
Personal photo
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Ms. Ferris Wheel, San Francisco
Age and Occupation: 29, Psychologist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Psychologist
Engagement Date: May 23 and 28, 2010 (one for each of us!)
Wedding Date: November 2011
Venue: 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!
ring from Etsy seller Kablamindustries
The other day someone asked about where we were going on our honeymoon, and at some point in that conversation I casually said that Mr. FW would be my “newly minted husband.”
And it stopped me right in my tracks.
That word. Husband. Hu… husb… (slowly now) huusssbaaand. So weird. So foreign. When I said it there were no warm fuzzies, no contended smiles about this idea of someone being my husband. To be completely honest (and I know this is harsh), it felt icky to utter that word.
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Mrs. Hyena, College Station, TX
Age and Occupation: 23, Marketing Specialist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Aerospace Engineering Grad Student
Engagement Date: January 8, 2010
Wedding Date: May 2011
Venue: Downtown 202
About 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!
Like Mrs. Cardigan, one of the things we decided to include in our wedding is the Texas A&M Aggie War Hymn. I couldn’t find a great video of it, but you can get a good idea from this clip, in case you’re not familiar with it:
When the War Hymn comes on, all the Aggies sing at the top of their lungs and sway back and forth, “sawing off” the horns of the Texas Longhorns.
This is a big deal at Aggie weddings.
Mr. Hyena originally wasn’t sure he wanted to include it, and I looked at him like, “Dude. You’re going to want the Aggie War Hymn.”
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Weddingbee Gallery
Feature Launched: April 10, 2009
About: A collection of inspirational wedding pictures from readers and bees.
ogreprincesspink’s cathedral-length veil floated in the breeze
If your photo is featured as the Gallery of the Day, you’re eligible for a special Weddingbee badge for your blog or website! Check out instructions on how to grab the badge here!
Miss Ticket, Riverside, CA
Age and Occupation: 25, Executive Assistant
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, HVAC Technician
Engagement Date: November 14, 2010
Wedding Date: October 2011
Venue: Crestmore Manor
About Me: I'm a lifelong So Cal gal, a chocoholic, a closet gamer, and a television enthusiast (love me some Vampire Diaries!) who adores playing in the kitchen and lives in flip flops. Mr. Ticket and I are best known for singing and dancing in the car, our World of Warcraft addiction, adoring food, crane game playing, and our general homebody ways. Oh, and GO STEELERS!
There is a little piece of information I feel I should share with you upfront. I used to work as a wedding coordinator’s assistant. Now, given the period of time I did this (nine months or seven weddings), I would hardly call myself experienced in the field, but I got my feet wet. I loved my boss and I would have kept working with her, but at the time I thought I might be moving out of state (instead Mr. Ticket moved here!), and rather than have to bail on her once she had weddings booked I informed her of my situation and stopped planning. (I now have a very different full-time job working in accounting.) Incidentally, when I found out that Mr. Ticket was in fact moving here I wanted to go back to wedding planning, but unfortunately by this time my old boss had actually quit doing it herself.
So here I would love to share a few things I learned while working in the field. What I learned as an assistant, I now know as a bride.
1. Relax. Today is going to be a wonderful day no matter what goes wrong, because all that really matters at the end of the day is that you just married the love of your life. It may sound cliche; I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but it’s extremely true! If you can remember this your day will be infinitely more special and less stressful.
Image via Pala Casino
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Mrs. Cucumber Sandwich, Washington, DC/Cape May, NJ
Age and Occupation: 28, School Counselor
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 40, Collegiate Athletics
Engagement Date: March 27, 2010
Wedding Date: October 2011
Venue: Congress Hall Hotel
About Me: I am a school counselor who spends my day wrangling children and my nights attempting to be creative with wedding projects. My enthusiasm for each of these activities far surpasses my skill. Thank goodness Mr. Cucumber Sandwich is there to pick up the pieces and be the voice of reason about my DIY tries. I have an obsession with terrible romantic comedies (‘From Justin to Kelly’ anyone?, anyone?!?), competitive Scrabble play, and hot dogs. I could eat astronaut ice cream for every meal and can’t seem to resist buying more shoes. Our wedding is going to be a true hodge podge of semi-destination, tradition, Yuengling, New England charm, with just a dash of ‘Jersey Shore’ thrown in. It has been six years in the making and I can’t wait to marry my best friend.
Now that I received all these generous gifts from my shower it is time to write thank you notes. I have a tendency to drag my feet, kicking and screaming when it comes to writing thank you notes. They were the dread of every Christmas and birthday party. I am always grateful and incredibly thankful for the gifts it is just hard for me to write it down in a card.
To make it a little more fun I decided to get a little creative with my thank you notes. I purchased some blank cards along with a ’thank you’ stamp from Michaels. The stamp and the cards were less expensive than pre-made thank you notes (in my mind, at least). On the inside of the card I wrote a generic thank you note. If it would help anyone, here is roughly what I wrote:
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Mrs. Teaspoon, Sydney, Australia
Age and Occupation: 27, Medical Scientist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Banker
Engagement Date: June 4, 2010
Wedding Date: September 2011
Venue: St Aloysius' College, Milson's Point
About Me: I am a mad scientist who enjoys swimming at the beach in summer and skiing powder in winter. Our favourite times together are spent with the sand between our toes, cooking up a storm, re-watching and re-reading every Harry Potter ever made, and spending time with our dear friends and family! We have travelled the world together in our 6 years of dating, from Paris, to Thailand, to Las Vegas, and we are tackling the many challenges of planning our special day the best way we know how---together!
I will be carrying a bouquet down the aisle and posing with it in photos and having it sit pretty next to our cake on our cake table and at the end of the night. I would really like to partake in tossing it! Slight problem, though—there aren’t many people coming to our wedding who aren’t engaged or married.
Originally I thought there were like two or three, but counting the numbers up and assuming all unengaged and unmarried women attend, there will be 12 young unmarried women! We have another two to three older women, but it is not likely that they will participate. So, even if we have some more engagements—there are probably two potentials before our wedding—we still have 10 women!! Most of them are in relationships but, honestly, that is the best time to catch the bouquet, isn’t it?
Next problem: As a single woman, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the bouquet toss! Especially when you would hear Beyonce belting out “all the single ladies”! Sure, it is a bit of fun and a glimmer of hope for the waiting-to-be-engaged ladies, but is it a tradition that I want to incorporate into our day? I’m really not sure.
The second wedding that we attended after our engagment was in Dublin, Ireland, and these girls love their rugby! They took a modern spin on a likely outdated tradition and did a line-out for the bouquet!!
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Ms. Gazelle, Calgary/Vancouver
Age and Occupation: 32, Engineer
Fiance's Age and 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.
Our second day in New York was admittedly more for me—shopping and afternoon tea. Day three was Mr. Gazelle’s day! We started our day with a trip to the American Museum of Natural History. We picked up the all inclusive super saver tickets that would get us into the Hayden Planetarium, the IMAX shows and two special exhibits: The Brain and World’s Largest Dinosaurs.
Check out how excited Mr. Gazelle is to see the show at the planetarium!
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Mrs. Elephant, Dallas, TX
Age and Occupation: 27, Financial Operations Analyst
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, IT Student/Store Manager
Engagement Date: March 29, 2009
Wedding Date: April 2011
Venue: The Tribute Golf Club
About 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!
I was really excited about the anniversary dance at our wedding. Of course we were knocked out at the beginning which Mr. E joked about being a little unfair. 
Per request from Mama E, we selected Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” for the couples to dance to. This was my parents’ first dance song at their wedding back in 1977.
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Guest Blogger
About: Guest authors blogging on weddingbee
August 9th, 2011 @ 12:36 pm by Guest
Margaret from the new travel site Enrout is back this week to share with us her ideas for Miss Seal’s upcoming mini-moon in LA! Revisit Margaret’s great honeymoon series on Weddingbee here.
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Let me tell you about the spectacular Miss Seal. She has a lots of heart, is incredibly wise, and I personally find her to be inspiring. The Seals are planning a four-night mini-moon to Disneyland with a $1,000 budget. Here’s my take on a honeymoon that will match their sparkling style and personalities!
Photo by Root Photography
Los Angeles - What To Do
Miss Seal couldn’t have picked a better spot than Disneyland for some giddy newlywed fun! As with any trip, one should definitely take advantage of the fast pass so that you can spend less time in line and more time holding hands during the fireworks. I think it would be lovely to purchase one special item on their trip, like a beautiful ornament to remind them of their engagement and honeymoon every Christmas, or a delicate hand-cut paper silhouette on Main Street…
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Mrs. Pretzel, Seattle
Age and Occupation: 32 Learning, Training, and Development Specialist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28 Manufacturing Engineer
Engagement Date: September 2, 2009
Wedding Date: July 2010
Venue: Catholic Church & The Engine Room at Georgetown Studios
About Me: I’m just a thirty-something girl who never dreamed of weddings, poofy dresses, or ritzy receptions. I am a rabid knitter, except recently, wedding projects have replaced my yarn and needles. I’ve been fiercely independent since the age of 2 and 30 years later I think my family and friends had given up on me settling down and getting married.
Ironically, I had to go all the way to Seattle to find a boy from Purdue. We fell in love over Seattle Beers and cooking together. I love NASCAR, he loves Legos. I can talk like a Muppet and he can fit a whole McDonald’s cheeseburger in his mouth. We are a two reception couple, currently planning a brewery inspired bash.
Hi there! I know I said I was going to take the summer off of wedding blogging but I wanted to share some recent successes that Mr P have achieved. Mr Pretzel and I recently lost some weight together and it got me thinking: Why didn’t we do this before the wedding?
Before the wedding, both Mr P and I were about 20 lbs heavier than our ideal. We had both gained the weight during our courtship due to our mutual love of beer and cooking. We ate healthy, but our portion sizes were a bit too big and our activity level dropped the year that we were planning the wedding. I was worried about juggling a diet, workout routine, and wedding planning on top of our already busy lives so I made a decision for myself and ultimately for both of us: no trying to lose weight before the wedding.
Photo by Rocktographer & Friend Jason Tang
After the wedding our busy lives continued to be busy. We cooked a lot of yummy meals in our first 6 months and then slowly we started to eat out more and cooking less. Soon another 10 lbs had crept up. I was the heaviest I had ever been and I did not like the way I felt.
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