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Weddingbee Blog
We did it! I am officially a wife and Mr. Cucumber Sandwich is my husband. It is still so surreal to say (or type).
The wedding day was absolutely perfect. But I am saving all the details for my recaps! I will tease you with one photo, though…
Hi, my name is Miss Dalmatian and I was a sister-of-the-bride. Yes, I realize that is just a statement, but if you keep reading you will see where the confession part comes in.
A little over a year before Mr. Dalmatian popped the question, I was sitting in his dorm room when my phone rang. I saw it was Sister A and figured she was calling just to catch up and chat. WRONG. She was calling to tell me that she was engaged!
The first thought that went through my head: Bahhh! I am so happy for her!
The second thought that went through my head: When are we going dress shopping?
The third thought that went through my head (not so proud of this one): I’m jealous.
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I’m warning you now that this post is going to be a little rant-y.
A bloggy friend recently wrote a great post talking about the five most annoying things about getting married. Number 5 on the list was the fact that people start acting like getting hitched is a death sentence—that you’ll never be “free” again, that you’re life is over, etc. and so forth. Miss Petit Four also lightly touched on the subject here.
This got me thinking. Recently, a (commitment-phobic) acquaintance and I were talking about my upcoming nuptials, and he decided to use the analogy that getting married was like jumping off a plane…but worse, because, according to him, 3 out of 4 marriages fail. He proceeded to ask me that if you were told that 3 out of 4 parachutes fail when you jump out of a plane, would you still do it? In other words, since 3 out of 4 marriages fail, why even bother?
I didn’t really know what to say to that, aside from wanting to tell him to possibly keep his mouth shut.
But it did make me think; knowing that more and more marriages have a tendency to not work out in this day and age, why do some of us—why do I—bother doing it in the first place?
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rmarie3 is selling rustic table-number frames. She’s asking $100 for the lot of 16.
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:
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.”
Programs were one of those things that I was insistent we did not need. It seemed superfluous to have one for a simple, 20-minute-tops ceremony with no special readings or rituals. People would tell me it would be nice to have something for guests to read while waiting for the ceremony to start, or to let them know who the members of the bridal party were. “Pish posh,” I’d say. “Nobody cares. It’s a hassle! We shall have no programs.”
And then I saw Mrs. Tartlet’s posts on Mr. Tarlet’s program project. And then I knew we needed programs.
Mine would look nothing like theirs. I’m just not that crafty. If I attempted, it wouldn’t look nearly as good! So I searched for something that would work with my skill set, time, and money.
I don’t know when I had the idea, but I decided to incorporate the belly bands from our invitations and the paper flowers from our hanging initial decor (more on that recently completed project soon), with a simple trifold program. I had some leftover ribbon (though I ended up needing a couple of extra spools) and plenty of paper, along with about a gajillion leftover paper flowers and a box of buttons I’d bought off Etsy back in January.
I’d initially priced a printing job that would have fallen at about a dollar a program. But then! MOH Ginger casually mentioned she had an extra printer because she’d just purchased a new one, and would I like it? Yes. Yes, I would.
Holy smokes. That is really all I can say. I am exhausted and SO happy and excited. Last weekend my ladies all came out from the far corners of the world (OK, maybe the far corners of the Midwest) and hung out in Chicago, dress shopped, took in a Second City show, and ate some Ahh-MAZING food.
I had previously imagined these ladies would all finally meet on the Friday of the rehearsal dinner and that would be that. Maybe two or three at a time they would get together and shop for bridesmaids’ dresses in Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Michigan, or Wisconsin. But, as I stated earlier, they all magically synced up their calendars and converged on Chicago this weekend. It was so much fun! All of my bestest girlfriends in one place at one time. It was like a sneak peek of the all-my-favorite-people-in-one-place awesomeness that I have heard is the case with weddings.
Here is one of the first (and for sure not last) pictures of the six of us:
Left to right: Bridesmaid OT, Bridesmaid Flossy, Bridesmaid Red, Bridesmaid Sis, me, and MOH MD. Thanks, Mama MD, for taking this picture. (She drove Sis down and took the chance to catch up with her daughter [MOH MD] and me and meet the rest of the crew.)
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Our honeymoon to Costa Rica isn’t for a little while, so I’m using the time between now and then to get well and truly obsessed prepared. We were accepted into the volunteer program with them knowing neither of us speaks Spanish, but I figured it would be a good idea to learn a bit of the language beforehand.
Being Canadian and us having two official languages up here, I can speak French. Not well, and I understand a lot more than I can speak, but I was taught French in school from kindergarten until grade 12. Reading the backs of cereal boxes, jam jars, and shampoo bottles doesn’t hurt either. But, French is not Spanish, although knowing French does help with some Spanish words.
My mum has a university degree in speaking Spanish and has spent some time in Spain, so I have a coach on the other end of the phone if I need it, too. But being the iPhone-obsessed person that I am, I looked for apps for that.
Before I start on my next series of posts, I wanted to share some juicy tidbits about myself. I know you are all dying to know all of the skeletons in my closet. Because you all have been so supportive of my failings as a blogger and a bride, I felt that you all deserve to know some little-known things about myself. Who knows? Maybe you will share some of my secrets and it will allow you to be brave enough to let it all air out!
Without further ado, let’s dive in.
#1: Life is a musical.
The songs in my head make me think that my life is a lot like this! / Image via The Examiner
I treat life like it’s a musical. I sing, dance, boogie, and belt it out on a regular basis. I sing to my cats, I sing in the shower, I sing to my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I make up ridiculous songs and dance to them as I let them out to be heard by my loving fans (AKA, Mr. D and my cats who both immediately find other rooms to be in).
Back home again in Indiana! I’ll tell you all about the family shower soon!
My advice for now to everyone who will ever plan a wedding is to rummage through the houses of your relatives. Chances are they would be more than happy to give or loan you some items.
You might find those old books you were thinking of using as centerpieces:
AJRutter23 and her fiance showed off their gator pride!
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.
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!
I love flea markets. OK, that is a little bit of a lie. Not the love part, but my usage of the plural form of market is not entirely appropriate. You see, I have only ever been to one flea market—although I have been multiple times! Back in high school, Bridesmaid M and I had many thrift shopping adventures and I am a HUGE fan of searching for hidden treasures at antique malls, so I always figured the flea market would be right up my alley. Despite all of this, I never actually made it to the monthly Nashville flea market until I got engaged.
I knew the flea market would be the perfect place to hunt for unique decor items, so I figured out the dates and marked them in my Google calendar (because, quite honestly, if it is not in that calendar then it does not get done). As I anxiously waited for my first flea market weekend to roll around, I thought about what might be a good purchase to make. I knew I should not go in with a strict list. It was a flea market after all, I wasn’t grocery shopping. I also knew that if I did not have some ideas then I would either come home empty handed due to “I like it but I don’t know if I’ll use it” syndrome or with an entire car-full of items due to “I’m sure I can find a spot for this!” syndrome.
One item that seemed to have high flea market find potential was something cool and unique to use for our card box.
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Preface: This is a wordy post, but please hang in there with me if you can! I’m in no way offering any medical advice or promoting or advocating any weight-loss program. This is simply my experience.
I’ve been debating writing this post, but I want to be open and honest with my fellow bees.
It is no secret that I am a plus-sized gal. I’ve struggled with my weight most of my life. My weight gain really started my freshman year of high school. Having the freedom to buy whatever I wanted for lunch and the fact that I no longer played sports (I was a cheerleader, played volleyball and softball, and was a dancer in grade school) was a dangerous mix that resulted in way too many calories consumed and hardly any being burned.
I was still under 200 pounds when I started college, but each year more and more weight was added. I went to school full time, worked a part-time job, and left no time to take care of myself. My senior year, I lived in an apartment with three other girls. One of those girls, D, was super into eating healthy and exercising. We started working out together (Tae Bo!) and, soon enough, I had lost some weight and really toned up. I was so happy the day I could make it through the entire tape without stopping for a break!
When I decided that I actually needed to get my act together with the whole save the date STD thing (yeaa, we’re just gonna go that route), I totally hated all the old ideas I had. I mean, they were OK, but I just kept seeing so many other fun, cute, unique ideas and my originals just felt…lame. Or generic. But let’s be real…in all actuality, anything we do will likely have been done before.
::letting it go::
I was also feeling very uninspired. I’m sure I mentioned this before, but my creativity got thrown out the window when I threw my high school graduation cap up in the air.
Poof. Gone.
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Here are all most of my DIY projects. They are linked up to the tutorials I previously wrote. However, if there’s a project I don’t have a how-to for and you’d like one, just let me know! Enjoy!
Bells
Ah, my bells. It was the biggest and most time consuming of all my DIY projects, but this project had three purposes (escort card, favor, and send-off item), which made it worth the time. I collected them all off of eBay by buying them in lots. Most were in lots of five or more and came from estate sales.
Each bell had a tag attached to it with the guest’s name and a swatch of their table assignment stitched on it. Yep, I stitched 105 swatches onto little tags, but it was worth it!
I’ve been a bad bee.
The Simpsons Bumble Bee Man image via Simpsons Trivia
I shared with you our food, the dresses, and even our music.
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