Hi Hive! Pengy here, back from New York and reporting live once again from the couch here. 
I hope you loved all the snippets of dresses and scenes from New York throughout this week posted to Facebook and Twitter!
Before we wrap our heads around how to deliver all the spring 2012 bridal fashion goodness to the hive, I wanted you all to be able to experience some of the shows as I did, via video! Check out these quick snippets of finale videos I captured from various runway shows. Come along with me to the runway!
Kicking it off with Maggie Sottero - The hive loves Maggie Sottero! Say hayyy if you’re a Maggie bride!
Weddingbee Maggie Sottero Runway Finale Spring 2012 from Cathleya Schroeckenstein on Vimeo.
On an episode of HBO’s Sex and the City, Charlotte York says, “Everyone knows you only get two great loves in your life.” Like Carrie Bradshaw (the one time where I can honestly make this comparison) I don’t necessarily believe that this is true or even a valid way of conceptualizing the vast possibilities of love in a person’s life. That being said, though, I do have two great loves in my life right now. The first is obviously Mr. Mole. He is first by a long, long shot. The second, though, is our dog, Tom Boonen.
Such a handsome face?
In November 2009, Mr. Mole and I started to talk about adopting a dog. I quickly put my vote in for a dachshund. Mr. Mole suggested that we think about getting a greyhound. I had never thought about having such a large dog, but Mr. Mole talked me into looking into the possibility.
(Mr. Mole says that he was influenced by his friend, who adopted a greyhound the year before. I blame The Simpsons.)
Supercow585 shares one of her favorite pictures from their wedding day
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This past June, I got the heartbreaking news that my Grammy had passed away. She was a wonderful woman who I got much closer with as I got older—she was witty, funny, sharp, full of life. I visited her and my Grampy at least once a year since I was a kid, and I have boatloads of memories that include her. Her health was not the best, but she could always put on a happy face when company was around or when it was necessary. While I knew that she wouldn’t have been able to attend our wedding, I was at least hoping to show her some pictures and video from the day. While this is unfortunately no longer an option, I am forever so, so thankful that Mr. Foxy was able to meet her about two years ago when we went down for a quick weekend visit.
That being said, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend her memorial service down in Naples, Florida in early July, held at the church that she and my Grampy have been a part of for almost 20 years.
Foxy and I stayed at my grandparents’ condo with my my mom, step-dad, and uncle—definitely a full house for a two-bedroom place! Everyone had been chipping in and helping my Grampy sort things out since Grammy passed away, which included going through lots of old clothes, jewelry, books, and purses. Some were to be thrown out, some given away, some sold…and some were “up for grabs.”
In terms of purses/bags, my mom put two aside that she thought I might like for a certain special occasion (read: wedding).
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.”
The Christmas season and presents have always been two of my favorite things! Now I might be a little biased, but Mr. Raccoon combined these two last Christmas for a one-of-a-kind, best proposal ever!
My gift was a personalized stocking with individually wrapped Christmas ornaments inside. He told the story of us as I unwrapped each one.
The ornaments represented things such as how we met at college. (We have a strange mascot.)
Way back when, I mentioned I was going for a white dress and red sash combination for my bridesmaids—a very Swiss inspired choice.
…Did I ever get around to figuring out some sashes for them? Well yes, I did. But you know that means I searched all over the internet first!
($55 Sash by Etsy seller boutiqueseragun)
There were looots of sash options to choose from.
Read more…
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Here’s the low-down on our tables: our venue provides us with either white, ivory, brown, or black tablecloths. We have decided to use the white or the ivory. (We’ll decide for sure when we see the colors at our upcoming planning meeting.) But, because I have an affinity for making things more difficult than they have to be, I’m not quite satisfied with the plain tablecloths. It’s that I want a different color, which we could get for a few extra pennies (or hundreds of dollars—not really sure which and don’t really want to find out), it’s just that I want something ON TOP of the neutral tablecloths.
At first, I imagined a patchwork runner. Something along these lines but with a little more wedding flair:
Image via TheSweetestDigs.com / Table Runner by Brainstorm Studio
My dress is already ordered. The bridesmaids’ dresses are already ordered. If you read my last post though, you’d know there are still a number of women involved with this wedding who aren’t yet dressed.
When I talked about Momma Kettle’s wedding clothes options, I thought she might be leaning more towards getting a suit, like what Grandmother Kettle got. But, I was completely off. When I mentioned that I figured she’d look best in something similar to what she wore for my cotillion, she seemed a bit un-enthused.
Turns out, she definitely had an evening gown in mind, but not one like she wore at the cotillion. The cotillion had all these rules about what had to be covered and her dress had long sleeves. For the wedding, she had something a little less…covered in mind.
Off we went to West 95th street, in search of a bridal shop. I’m not sure whether or not we ended up at the same place Mima Kettle got her dress from or not. We just stopped at the first store we saw. We went inside and met a lovely young woman who got us started on finding the perfect mother-of-the-bride gown.
I showed her some pictures Momma Kettle and I brought from a magazine to give her an idea of what we were looking for.
Read more…
One of the thing all of our friends remember about our wedding is how much we all danced. The dance floor was busy until past midnight (the time Mr. Poodle and I left)! A huge thank you goes out to our friend Ricky (our DJ) that kept people dancing for hours!
We didn’t just dance though, there was a lot of singing involved.
If you are any thing like me, (and I am guessing you at least something like me because you are reading and enjoying this wedding blog) you can look at wedding stuff for HOURS, consuming endless hours of websites, magazines, blogs and pictures. I love to soak in all the frilly, glittery, lacy, shiny goodness like a bridal sponge.
I like to obsess over dresses (even though I have chosen mine and could not be happier). There is just so much diversity! Maybe I should just start wearing wedding dresses exclusively. I am pretty sure (finances aside) I could wear a different one every day for a year, and love them all.
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| Image from Kleinfeld Dress By Pnina Tornai |
I would like to take a moment to share the awesomeness that was a productive Tuesday with you all. Lately with a still overflowing to do list, it isn’t often I feel very accomplished. But yesterday gave me a little glimmer of hope.
Mr. Ticket and I finished our final pre-marriage counseling session (the week before our wedding; talk about cutting it close!) and with our marriage license in hand we are so ready for next week! Mr. Ticket tried on his suit and officially learned how to tie a tie (side note: my man looks GOOD in a suit).
Then a few little last minute projects…
Programs
I’ve known for a while that I wanted to have programs, but I just kept putting it off because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to put in them. With the wedding next week and no one else offering to design the darn things for me, I sat my butt down and started/finished them.
I was inspired by the fan concept. Our wedding day is looking to be in the low to mid 80s (fingers crossed) which is suitable weather in the shade, but a fan and a water bottle would certainly improve things for our guests.
Image via Weddingbee/ Posted by Sievequeen
After growing up in a fairly insular city in Wisconsin, I decided I was going to permanently get the heck out of the Midwest. I ended up at a great liberal arts college in Southern California. After graduating under a haze of smog and in 100-degree heat, I vowed that I was never coming back to California. It is clear—as I sit here, beginning a blog post about my six years in Chicago for grad school from my couch in Los Angeles—that I should stop making grand proclamations about my future geographic locations. Especially because I feel like I ended up exactly where I am supposed to be, with whom I am supposed to be with.
On a late, late evening in January 2009, I was browsing the personals on Craigslist. This seemed like a bad idea for two reasons: first, I knew that people on Craigslist could be a little…creepy. Especially late at night. (Not me, of course. OTHER people.) Second, I knew that I was just procrastinating. I had a chapter draft due to my dissertation committee in the upcoming weeks, and I had hours and hours of writing to go.
“Hey,” I thought as I clicked through ads anyway, “I found my awesome apartment on Craigslist. I sold my used Ikea furniture on it.*** And K., my best friend from grad school, met her awesome fiance here.” That last reason was admittedly the most persuasive.
I eventually stumbled across a witty ad by a 29-year-old guy who lived in Bucktown, rode bikes, and loved the Reader crossword. We responded back and forth, eventually exchanging pictures.
Mr. Mole’s introductory photo (at Madison’s Velo Swap)
On Tuesday, October 18th, the U.S. Postal Service announced that on January 22, 2012, the cost of a first-class mail postage stamp would increase from 44 cents to 45 cents. Now while a one penny increase may not seem a lot, when you are mailing hundreds of STDs, wedding invitations, and thank you cards, it could have an impact.
When I created my wedding invites, I knew from the start that my postage would be more expensive due to the 6 x 6 size I chose. Mailing a square envelope costs more. What I didn’t think about was that the gorgeous card stock we used was a little heavier than most invitations. Put those two together and you have one heavy and oddly sized invite.
When I took an invite in for a preliminary weigh-in, the postman had a yikes look on his face when he saw how much it would be. I honestly think he was scared to tell me! I told him I knew it would be pricey due to the size but I was not expecting over $1.00 a piece! Thankfully I have saved a ton of money in other areas of the wedding so this isn’t going to hurt our budget, but I still don’t like the idea of having to pay that much either! Oh the price of fabulous invites.
Read more…
drimmerj is selling two small chalkboard signs. She’s asking $6 each.
Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee Classifieds, and you might see it featured on the blog!
Other great items for sale:
The very next day after I tried on my dress, realized it was missing buttons, and was told they would fix it, Foxy Mama got a call from RK Bridal. They told her that the issue with the dress was already corrected and that she was welcome to go by the store anytime to do a once-over of the dress before they sent it to me in Maryland. The earliest she could do so was about a week later, since I needed to mail her the original receipt for the dress.
Fast forward a week—she goes into the shop to look at the dress…and it looked the exact same. I’m not sure who called to say it was done and that buttons were added, but they were most definitely wrong. Right there on the spot, the associates at the store tell my mom to wait for a few minutes while they added them.
Apparently you can magically add lots of buttons to a dress in minutes?
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