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We’ve booked the venue, photographer, videographer and all the other big details. Now that we have some downtime before the big day, it’s time to get started on the DIY projects! Early on I fell in love with the classic look of blue mason jar centerpieces. Perfect for our outdoor wedding. But they’re extremely rare and tend to go for about $8 or $10 per jar. A cheap bride’s best friend, also known as Google, helped me find an easy way to get the same look for a lot less. Stain the damn things blue with glass paint! If you are a broke bride or are just feeling crafty, here’s how I did it.
What you’ll need:
Read more…
One of the first things Mama Elk requested when we announced we would be having a secular ceremony was that Mr. Elk break a glass at the end, and I agreed. If you are not Jewish or have never been to/seen on television a Jewish wedding, the man traditionally breaks a glass (or in the past a light bulb—easier to break, apparently) at the conclusion of the ceremony. I have always been taught that this is to symbolize the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem back in the day, but there are a lot of possible meanings. Still don’t know what I am talking about? You can refer to the only good scene from SATC2 for a movie version of the tradition.
Now, I know what you are thinking! Miss Elk—that is not secular at all! That is actually very religious. But, you have to understand—every wedding I have been to (for the most part) ends with the breaking of a glass. It is the grand finale (well, before the kiss!). It is how my relatives will know to say mazel tov and clap and get ready to party.
My first fitting went well! Well…mostly. I showed up a few minutes early with my dress, shoes, proper undies, and payment all ready to go. The seamstresses were really nice, nobody got stuck with pins, and I was given plenty of privacy while changing.
TheLittleWhiteDress is selling a handmade garter. They’re asking $28.50.
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.”
I’ll be honest with you, hive: I was extremely nervous about ordering wholesale flowers online and going the DIY route. You may remember my post on deciding to do my own flowers and how that decision came about. I was confident in my ability to arrange the bouquets, but scared about what sort of quality the flowers would arrive in. There are so many mixed reviews floating around the blogosphere and plenty of horror stories that would probably scare away a lot of DIY brides. It was motivating, however, that with the bad stories there were even more success stories of happy brides who saved lots of money and had beautiful flowers.
Here is a little about my experience with ordering wholesale flowers and going the DIY route using Fifty Flowers.
1. I chose to go with Fifty Flowers mainly because of their 100% wedding day guarantee. I also really liked the fact that their customer service was always very friendly and helpful in answering the million questions that I had about the whole process and about various flowers. They were knowledgeable about their products and always willing to give pointers on caring for the flowers. I really liked using the chat feature on their website because each time I finished a chat, I always saved the conversation to my email so that I could go back and refer to the advice and answers that they had given.
2. When choosing the type of flowers that I wanted, I did so with these things in mind:
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This past weekend I checked a huge to-do off the list. We headed over to Alfred Angelo to finally pick out some bridesmaid dresses. I had a very strict guideline for my girls:
Pick whatever dress you want.
Okay, so it was not strict at all. The only general consensus was that they would of course have their dress ordered in the same color and material. Other than that though, they had free rein. So what do they end up doing? They all choose the same exact dress. Of course.
Like most bridesmaids, mine come in various and beautiful shapes, sizes and age. What was most important to me is for them to feel comfortable and happy, which is why I told them to pick whatever dress made them feel that way.
We all decided early on that chiffon would be the material of choice because it breathes well. Plus, chiffon allows you to consume all the food, cake, and wine that you want while still hiding a full belly. When we got to Alfred Angelo we told our fantastic consultant to pull all the mid-length chiffon dresses that they have.
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Congratulations to our winner, #38 shalynnmarie!
~~~
OK, this is pretty cool. Weddingbee is giving away a DJ from Scratch Weddings for your wedding! One of you lucky hive members will have one of the top DJs in the country spinning at your wedding. (Crazy, right? We wish we could go back in time and win this for our own weddings!)
Scratch Weddings is the leading provider of highly skilled, experienced, and affordable marquee-level DJ talent for weddings. Their DJs have collaborated with major recording artists such as Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, and Michael Jackson (what?!) and perform at high-profile corporate events, music festivals, and the nation’s most respected clubs and lounges. Scratch Weddings offers each couple their choice of DJ, based on their personal style, taste, and musical interests. Additionally, couples have online access to DJ bios, photos, videos, and music mixes at their website.
All Scratch Weddings DJs have passed the Scratch Test™, a proprietary 10-step screening process that tests a DJ’s critical talents, background, and appeal.
Additionally, couples are assigned a professional wedding music manager to work with them, their wedding planner, venue, and their DJ to handle all musical details of their wedding. Scratch Weddings also offers guaranteed DJ replacement in the event of an emergency, and liability insurance, and a “change of plans” money-back guarantee for 72 hours after booking!
To keep up with what’s going on at Scratch Weddings, and for great music finds and mixes, follow @scratchweddings on Twitter and check out their blog.
To enter to win a FREE wedding DJ, leave a comment below telling us what song is a must-play at your wedding! Then click on over to Scratch’s Facebook page to fill out their entry form to complete your entry. You must complete both steps to be entered in the contest. You have until Tuesday November 15 at 11:59 PM PST to enter this contest. Good luck! 
The next step in assembling our save the dates was creating a card to go with the handkerchief. We figured this was needed in order to give them a little bit of structure, and so that people would have the option of either keeping the card or the handkerchief, or both!
After an epic trip to Paper Source, I had my supplies and was ready to go. This included the A2 scallop cards in fuchsia, Lokta Kiwi paper, some tape runners, and a paper cutter.
Thanks to some more design help from MOH K and Mama Dalmatian, I was ready to print the text for the cards. I printed four cards per sheet of the Kiwi paper, and used the paper cutter to cut them to the exact dimensions that I needed.
Many months ago, in honor of our first married Valentine’s Day, I set out to bake these yummy treats for my beloved hubby.
Upon sharing our Valentine’s Day plans with the hive, I received more than a couple of requests to share the recipe and am happy to finally oblige.
*The Filling
Homemade Blueberry Filling from Scratch
(using supplies I had on hand, feel free to make changes)
What You’ll Need:
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When planning our ceremony in the awesome empty, blank-slate of a room we had, there was no question about where we’d be standing. How beautiful is that organ? You can also see the balcony in the left-hand corner of this photo, it had beautiful book-paper bunting strung along it. The bunting was made by my mum, and looked great.
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Our Hawaiian honeymoon began in the most romantic place in Chicago… the Blue Line to O’Hare.
Yep, you read that right. The morning of our honeymoon began with a sweaty, frazzled ride on the El. Us silly Sparklers thought we could wake up on a Monday morning and just hop on the highway with no trouble at all. Yeah. Right. If you’ve ever tried to get out of Chicago on a Monday morning, you’d know we were kidding ourselves.
Thankfully, Brother Sparkler was our airport chauffeur for the morning, and he quickly rerouted us to the nearest Blue Line. After a panicked climb to the train platform (and me practically getting caught in the train door), we were finally on our way.
Sparkler Hawaii Tip #1: Leave yourself plenty of time to get to the airport. Seriously.
Once we made it to the airport and got through security, Sparks and I had a chance to relax a little bit. We browsed around for a magazine or two, grabbed breakfast and… wait, what’s that? Why are all of those people getting in line? Oh yeah.
That would be our plane. Boarding without us.
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bokmeowbev wore Aruna Seth shoes on her wedding day
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!
After a few months of intense internet searching, I was pretty sure I had found our wedding venue. I know, though, that internet photos can be pretty deceiving (think apartment/house searching!), so I figured I should probably check the place out in person. Unfortunately, being a medical student in upstate New York, I didn’t seem to have any opportunity in the near future to go take a peek. Enter my parents! They so kindly offered take a drive over to the venue and check it out. And they LOVED it! My mom offered to book it right then and there, and I almost agreed! But we cooled our jets and Mr. Elk made plans to go down to Long Island over the holidays and check it out. And it was PERFECT!!!
So without further ado, our venue, the Old Field Club.
This is what you see when you drive up to the venue—very understated but beautiful.
Old Field Club image via OFC website
This is the ceremony area, with cocktail hour to take place on the adjoining deck and in a screened off porch not visible in this photo. I love the natural beauty and simplicity!
One of my very first posts was on New Year’s Eve inspiration, and in that post, I shared this photo:
Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Scott Lawrence Photographs
I finally got my butt in gear and started the boutonnières using this picture as a reference. Now that the stores are already filling their shelves with Christmas items and Macy’s on State in Chicago is cranking out the Christmas tunes, it is much easier to find holiday appropriate items. MOB recently found a bag of blowouts in colors that would match the wedding.
We love Watters and Wtoo for their accessible, feminine style. The Watters Spring 2012 line featured easy movement and light layers, with something for brides of all seasons!
We’re kicking it off with my favorite from the day:
Tule over sparkle made this a close runner up:
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