Mrs. Elephant, Dallas, TXAge and Occupation: 27, Financial Operations AnalystFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, IT Student/Store ManagerEngagement Date: March 29, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: The Tribute Golf ClubAbout 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!
Not only to yesterday, but also to you—the hive. I held off long enough to share our album and video with you, and now it looks like it’s time to say goodbye.
I can still remember the rush of excitement I felt when I received that acceptance email from Pengy a little over a year ago. Your warm welcome and incredibly sweet comments as I shared with you our blue and green, travel themed wedding truly made an impact. Not only on our special day, but also in my heart. I don’t think there are words to express how much this experience has meant to me.
Weddingbee inspired me to find my inner DIY crafter and create various projects as well as all of our paper products from our invites to those infamous programs. You weren’t just there for all of the fun, pretty stuff. You were there when vendors fell off the face of the planet and when the stress became just a little bit too much. And for that, I can’t thank you enough.
Miss Kettle, Chicago, ILAge and Occupation: 26, Non-Profit Donor Resource CoordinatorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Musician & TeacherEngagement Date: May 29, 2011Wedding Date: February 2012Venue: Patrick C. Haley Mansion, Joliet, ILAbout 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.
I like to consider myself a rebel in some respects. I know it’s not wholly true, but it’s really fun to talk and blog about. So in continuing with the rebellious spirit of previous posts, I’d like to cover all the “rebellious” things that concern our wedding-party attire that have gone down so far.
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.
You might argue that Mr. Funnel Cake is more religious than I am, but when it comes to church activities, I take the lead. Growing up in an ultra-traditional Catholic family, I was an altar girl for a number of years as well as a regular lector, an active member of the choir and even a Eucharistic minister. (Wow Miss FC, you’re sooo Catholic!)
I’ve read countless stories and verses in the Bible between Sunday school, religion class, Bible camp and my lector duties, while Mr. Funnel Cake has nevereven read the Bible, let alone had religion class. (How does a Swiss Catholic manage that??) So you would think with all my Catholic experience I would be great at planning the music and readings for our wedding. Ha!
I was sailing along smoothly with my music request of “traditional hymns and an Ave Maria,” but when my music director asked me what responsorial psalm we were using, I hit a big, red brick wall.
Mrs. Parasol, San Ramon, CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 25, Non-profit writer, editor, and bloggerFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Law school studentEngagement Date: December 19th, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: 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.
Everything was chugging along wedding-wise, and then, somewhere between finishing my last string of bunting and finally getting our official head count, I went a little nutso.
Miss Warbler, Long Beach/MalibuAge and Occupation: 24, Quality Assurance EditorFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Handheld AdministratorEngagement Date: December 7, 2010Wedding Date: April 2012Venue: Calamigos Ranch MalibuAbout Me: I’m a Korean BBQ loving, cheesecake enthusiast bride living in the LBC! By day I write and edit for an online search engine marketing company. By night I am a volunteer food taster of all that is delicious. I am fortunate to be marrying an amazing man who loves me and my quirky ways. I love food, books, indie music, and Harry Potter. We are planning a small, intimate wedding up in the Malibu Hills with our closest family and friends. With the help of my wonderful fiance, our loved ones, and red velvet cheesecake, our wedding will be glorious!
If, like me, you’re resolved to be a DIY bride, chances are you get the same weird looks and questions that I do. Mainly frowns and “…but WHY?” I usually just laugh and say, “I’d like to be involved in every aspect of my wedding,” or the more truthful, “It will be WAY cheaper.”
Mrs. High Wire, DallasAge and Occupation: 23, Legal AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Director of CommunicationsEngagement Date: October 9, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Clark GardensAbout Me: My loves include yoga, anything spicy, our eccentric cat, our rambunctious dog, and Mr. High Wire, of course! Like the steadiness act of the tightrope walker, this gal is busy balancing life while planning a wedding to the man of her dreams. We’re hosting a laid-back, vintage-inspired, bird themed wedding with heavy doses of love, good eats (did someone say tacos and margaritas?), and endless Texas charm. Mr. High Wire and I are so happy to have you along for the walk across the tight rope.
I’m really proud of our wedding ceremony script. I think it works in both of our traditions in a beautiful way, and incorporates some other elements unrelated to either of our heritages, but are very beautiful. Our officiant put together the ceremony himself, and we made a few minor tweaks.
Here’s the script in its entirety. I hope you enjoy and if there are any interfaith couples out there, this may make for a good example if you are looking for something similar.
Processional
Gathering Words
We are here today in the presence of God to witness and celebrate the uniting in marriage of Kenneth (full name hidden for privacy) and Rachel (full name hidden for privacy). They are taking the first step of their new beginning; their new life together.
Loving someone is a reason to stretch beyond our limits, to become more for the sake of the other. It is to look into the soul of your beloved and accept what you see. Loving is the ultimate commitment which challenges humans to become all that we are meant to be. 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.
With our first look complete, it was time to take the couples shots I had been dreaming of. There were some spots offsite that I had in my own sights, but I let the photographers choose the rest. First off we took some shots on the front porch of the main mansion.
Okay, I seriously love the front of this mansion. I mean, how perfect is this? It looks like something out of a storybook to me. Read more…
Miss Petit Four, San Antonio/Isla MujeresAge and Occupation: 25, Technology teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Math Teacher and Football CoachEngagement Date: Feb 13, 2010Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Zama Beach Club, Isla Mujeres, MexicoAbout Me: I am a polka-dot obsessed, destination wedding diva living and loving in the great state of Texas. I am an island girl at heart and I visit the beach as often as I can. I am a wannabe DIY goddess, but that doesn’t mean I won’t give it my best shot. I love pearl earrings, the color pink, and ruffles are a part of my everyday wardrobe. My wonderful fiance and I are planning a destination wedding with our closest family and friends and we’re leaving a trail of glitter in our path!
Mrs. Skunk, AtlantaAge and Occupation: 23, Post baccalaureate studentFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Mechanical DesignerEngagement Date: February 13, 2011Wedding Date: November 2011Venue: Neverland Farms About Me: I’m a Georgia peach born and raised in the dirty dirty. I love reading, baking lots of sweets and forcing them on my friends, and most of all, rock climbing. I am in the process of applying to graduate school in physical therapy and I work at farmers’ markets around town selling bread for a local bakery. The mister and I met while rock climbing just over two years ago and have been inseparable ever since. Our climbing friends mean the world to us and have played an integral role in our relationship. We’re planning a barnyard shindig filled with good food, good friends, and lots of love.
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.
I can hardly fathom how quickly time has flown since I showed you a sneak peek of our invites back in May. Sometimes, I find myself nervous to go to sleep because I just know I am going to wake up the morning after the wedding.
Anyhow, the invites should have reached most of our guests’ homes by now (I’ve got a few RSVPs to prove it!) which means I can finally share our invites with you!
A little bit of back story first…
As perhaps you may recall, we ordered our Save-The-Dates through The Aerialist Press-this sufficiently quenched my thirst for beautiful letterpress and thus decided to go a different route for our invites. The Sealman and I had met a wonderful woman named Mimi at a bridal fair way back yesteryear and she stuck with me for a few reasons. Firstly because her custom invite designs were gorgeous, and secondly because her given name is a nickname I’ve had since before I can remember.
I let time pass, briefly reconsidered letterpress and then mentioned to Mr. Seal that I was considering contacting the “invite designer with my nickname.” Read more…
Mrs. Ladyfingers, Saint Petersburg, FLAge and Occupation: 30, Marketing ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Sports WriterEngagement Date: December 24, 2010Wedding Date: November 2011Venue: Palma Sola Botanical ParkAbout 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!
The wedding planning universe is a funny, funny place. It’s full of pretty meaningless details that can go from being completely ignored to absolutely essential in a manner of hours—nay, minutes. For us, the most recent wrench has been the ceremony’s seating of the parents. Warning: You’re about to dive into a logistical nightmare of epic proportions, with every combination of our bridal party doing an endless number of things. You’ve been cautioned.
We thought we’d pretty much figured this out at our meeting last month with the officiant: The Reverend, Mr. Ladyfingers, and his groomsmen would file in from the side of the lawn, along with FFIL Ladyfingers, who would just kind of sit down without fanfare. Then, we’d do a special song for seating Mr. LF’s mother and my dad’s fiancee, and then the bridesmaid processional song would begin, followed by my processional song.
Then, I got on the phone with our caterer/coordinator to do our ceremony appointment—and it’s been a crapstorm all afternoon since.
Her line of questioning, along with my vague grasp of what we’d decided in the first place, ended in an all-afternoon email session with Mr. LF on why MY way of seating the parents is the RIGHT way.
He’s voiced his opinion, and I keep deciding he’s wrong. This is clearly not in the spirit of collaborative wedding planning—nor in the spirit of the ceremony in general. Read more…
Mrs. Eggs Benedict, SeattleAge and Occupation: 29, AttorneyFiance's Age and Occupation: 35, AttorneyEngagement Date: December 5, 2009Wedding Date: February 2011Venue: IslandWoodAbout Me: I'm a Northwest girl who spends my time goofing around with Mr. Eggs Benedict and our dog, hiking, traveling, drinking wine and planning a wedding that will showcase the best of what the Pacific Northwest has to offer. I also love photography, beating Mr. Eggs Bene at Mario Kart, and watching the most ridiculous natural disaster flicks you can think of (seriously, how can you deny the awesomeness that is The Core or 2012?? That's right, you can't). We are planning our weekend wedding adventure at an environmental educational center, and I can't wait for the fun to begin!
Once we were finished with family pictures we could finally join our guests for cocktail hour!
Even though we’d seen a lot of our guests the day before at the welcome dinner or the bonfire, there were some guests who were only able to make it to the wedding, so I made it a point to try to seek them out first. Read more…
Miss Ticket, Riverside, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Executive AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, HVAC TechnicianEngagement Date: November 14, 2010Wedding Date: October 2011Venue: Crestmore ManorAbout 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!
When choosing who would be in our bridal party, Mr. Ticket and I ultimately made the decision to have mismatched numbers. We chose those close to us who we love and wanted to stand beside us and, well, I had four girls and he had three guys. The little OCD monster inside of me struggled with this for a little while. I wanted things to be equal and balanced, but in the end I realized it was far more important for me to have my girls standing beside me than for things to be “balanced.” And we didn’t really want to find a random stand-in for Mr. Ticket just to make the sides even. Thus, UNBALANCED it is! And we like it that way. =)
Mrs. Sunhat, Dyer, IN Age and Occupation: 32, Tax AccountantFiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Landscape ForemanEngagement Date: September 25, 2010Wedding Date: December 2011Venues: St. Andrew the Apostle, Fiesta PalaceAbout Me: I'm a Midwest girl who grew up in the country and now works in the big city! I love cooking, entertaining, reading (addicted to my Kindle) and going to the movies. I don't miss an episode of Hoarders and I start cleaning every time I watch! My profession doesn't call for much creativity so wedding planning has been a great outlet. Mr. Sunhat and I met online three years ago, cheer for rival MLB teams and share a home with our dog, Wrigley. We are planning a traditional, Polish, Catholic wedding with lots of DIY elements and some fun surprises. I'm so excited to be married on New Year's Eve and we can't wait to ring in the new year as husband and wife!
Several weeks after the first bridesmaids’ dress excursion, MOB, MOH, and Bridesmaid S met up in South Bend, Indiana at a bridal salon to try on more styles. I wasn’t able to make the trip out there, as it was during tax season and I was slightly busy.
The ladies did an amazing job at taking lots and lots of pictures and calling me with questions and opinions on what they liked best. I wanted my girls to be comfortable and like what they would be wearing, so I was happy for the feedback.
Warning: Picture-heavy post ahead! Because I wasn’t there, I don’t have style numbers for many of the gowns and I apologize for that.
Miss Warbler, Long Beach/MalibuAge and Occupation: 24, Quality Assurance EditorFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Handheld AdministratorEngagement Date: December 7, 2010Wedding Date: April 2012Venue: Calamigos Ranch MalibuAbout Me: I’m a Korean BBQ loving, cheesecake enthusiast bride living in the LBC! By day I write and edit for an online search engine marketing company. By night I am a volunteer food taster of all that is delicious. I am fortunate to be marrying an amazing man who loves me and my quirky ways. I love food, books, indie music, and Harry Potter. We are planning a small, intimate wedding up in the Malibu Hills with our closest family and friends. With the help of my wonderful fiance, our loved ones, and red velvet cheesecake, our wedding will be glorious!
OK, my maturity level seems to be dropping with every wedding task I complete. Seeing as how I’ll never get to make fun of the unfortunate save-the-date acronym again, dammit I am going to have my fun while it lasts! While brainstorming about our invitation and STD suite, I came across this lovely bit of inspiration:
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
Image via Withfriendship.com / Credit: NBC screencap from Saturday Night Live
