We had a three-hour break between our ceremony and reception, which gave us plenty of time to take photos around the city. Mr. T and I put a lot of thought into which parts of our beautiful city would provide the best backdrops for our wedding photos. My number-one location was North Avenue Beach, which is where we started out, because I think it has one of the best skyline views.
We got off the trolley and headed over to the water. If you want to attract a lot of attention, gather a group of people wearing tuxedos and gowns and parade around the beach on a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon.
We started off with photos of the wedding party.
Hi bees! We’re so excited to bring you our latest giveaway: one lucky hive member will win a $1,000 gift card to Bloomingdale’s! All you need to do to win is head to Bloomingdale’s online, create a registry, and add your first 5 items to your registry. After that, head back to this post and let us know you registered in the comments, and you’re entered to win.
Not all stores you register at are created equal. With a personal registry consultant at your beck and call, Bloomingdale’s allows you to ditch that 200-point registry checklist and replace it with someone knowledgeable, helpful, and with you every step of the way. Your personal registry consultant will help you choose the items that fit best into your life, not what fits best into a generic “must haves” list.
Registering at Bloomingdale’s also means that your guests can take advantage of frequent sales on the things you want most. Savings for your guests makes you the best. bride. ever. Also, if you haven’t already considered registering at Bloomingdale’s, consider what’s in it for YOU:
The benefits don’t end there; check out 9 amazing reasons to register at Bloomingdale’s right here. Check out five of the most popular registry items at Bloomingdale’s below:
KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Tilt Head Stand Mixer
Cuisinart “French Classic” 13 Piece Cookware Set
Kate Spade New York “Grace Avenue” Champagne Flute, Pair
Joseph Joseph Elevate Carousel Set
Avanti “Monogram Letter” Towels, White & Gray
Ready to get registering and to get your hands on $1000 to spend at Bloomingdale’s?
That’s it! You must be engaged to be married by June 2014 to enter. This sweepstakes ends on Monday March, 11, 2013 at 11:59 PST. Good luck, and happy registering!
OK, first, did anyone watch the Oscars last night? Jessica Chastain looked fierce. She made me wish I had worn my hair down at our wedding. Also, who swooned over Jennifer Lawrence’s big beautiful Dior gown? At one point we paused the Oscars to do a double-take—her dress took up three chairs when she was seated!
Although I could go on all day about last night’s best dressed (and the downfall of my Oscars bracket—there were a couple big surprises!), I popped in today to share my final recap. I started my recaps with our teaser by A Sweet Film, and now we finally have our full 18-minute wedding video.
Enjoy!
I started out with a theme idea, and it was put to bed. I started out with a favor idea after I accepted a new theme idea (or lack thereof, really), and it was slowly but surely dying as well. I was beginning to wonder if I should just set out bags of Jordan almonds and call it a day…
After a fairly melodramatic email to Bridesmaid Y lamenting the loss of my puzzle piece favor idea, she responded (like a true BM should, in my opinion) with: “Don’t let the idea die yet!” As the day went on, amidst our normal gossip and such (you wouldn’t think two people who talk 984,907,834,098 times a day and see each other at least once a week would still have things to say to each other, but we really don’t ever stop), we would bounce ideas back and forth off of one another, but nothing would stick.
On my lunch, I was multitasking, like I do best, by shoving food in my mouth and plowing through wedding websites. I returned to Google and found the originally discarded puzzle pieces again, so I went to that website for a second look. I noticed, perhaps a tiny bit ashamedly, for the first time, the two arrows and “6 of 8″ caught my eye.
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Image via Hobby Lobby website / The “DUH, self” editing all me, thanks to MSPaint. Just to clarify.
I furiously clicked the arrow and VOILA (for real this time)!
When asked on what occasions she drank champagne, the late Madame Bollinger famously replied, “I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it—unless I’m thirsty.”
I used this quote on the menu for my 18th birthday cocktail party. Good times.
I do like a glass of champagne. Correction. I do like a glass of something sparkly. I don’t really care if it’s champagne. Or prosecco. Or cava. Or sparkling wine. If it’s a drink made from grapes that has bubbles in it then I’m a happy girl.
Our venue will provide wine for our meal, and other drinks can be bought from the cash bar, but we will have to supply the sparkly. With an £8 corkage fee per bottle, we couldn’t get champagne—it would just have been too expensive. So instead we decided to stick to the cheaper stuff!
Flower girls and ring bearers are adorable. There’s no denying it. Not only do they provide a cuteness factor to the wedding, they also create perfect photo opportunities.
Image via Lover.ly / Photo by John Schnack
statcypaigepiper shares a photo of her dreamy reception dress.
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!
At the beginning of January, Mr. C and I were convinced that we were heading to Costa Rica for our honeymoon. It appealed to us for a number of reasons: it’s a relatively short flight from Georgia, we would remain in a similar time zone (no severe jet lag), and it offers the opportunity to spend time relaxing on the beach or exploring the rainforest and local wildlife. It is tropical and romantic, with its beautiful white sandy beaches and hidden rainforest waterfalls. For these reasons (and many more), the idea of honeymooning in Costa Rica was very appealing. But something was off. I wasn’t over-the-moon excited about our honeymoon. I’m not even sure why. What I do know, is that by the first week of January we had a very chance conversation with a coworker that forever changed our honeymoon plans and unfortunately our honeymoon budget as well.
Our school district has a social studies coach who works with all the middle and high school social studies teachers in our school district. Early this semester she was at my school meeting with the social studies teachers. Somehow we got onto the topic of vacations and she mentioned that she had family on the island of Malta. Honestly, I can’t even remember the sequence of events but somehow, in literally five minutes, Mr. C and I were convinced that we should go to Malta for our honeymoon. After our coworker left and my heart was stirring with excitement, Mr. C mentioned that he had noticed a marked difference in my attitude towards our honeymoon. I had an excited twinkle in my eye. He could tell that my curiosity and interest were awakened by this sudden turn of events. So here we are, making plans and booking flights to visit a little place called MALTA.
So where is this Malta place, you might be wondering. It’s a small island out in the Mediterranean, below Sicily. It is part of the European Union and as such they use the Euro as currency. They speak Maltese, but are also known for their use of British English.
Read more…
We tend to lose a few things during the wedding planning process, but of all the things I’ve lost (free time, spending money, quality sleep, eating whatever I want), I think I miss my self-esteem the most of all.
I’m sorry, but I’m going to talk about body image. I don’t want to, but I need to get this out somewhere and I figure this is the most ideal place.
Last week I picked up my dress for the rehearsal dinner and not only did it not fit, but the shotty zipper broke while they were trying to get me in and then out of it. Talk about depressing. I’ve now had TWO horrible first experiences with ordered dresses and I’m pretty frustrated/annoyed with my body.
This is a 200+ dollar bridesmaid dress from a shop* in downtown Chicago. I wouldn’t normally spend so much on a rehearsal dinner dress but it was a gift from Boss Lady. During the summer of 2012 Boss Lady bid on a gift card to this shop and won! We didn’t have time to go shopping until this past January and we brought Littlest C with us to try on their flower girl dresses as well. I had Littlest C take a few photos of some of the dresses we looked at that evening.
I asked my dad to put together a slideshow of photos of me and Mr. Unicycle growing up for the guests to watch during dinner. Yes, I realized this was incredibly narcissistic of me. That is all.
Photo by Jennifer Shaffer Photography
I don’t actually have a copy of the slideshow right now—I think my dad has it—so I put together my own photo groupings for you using the photos my dad used in the slideshow. As I was going through them, I realized Mr. Unicycle and I had a lot of very similar photos. I suppose our childhoods were pretty similar. As Dr. Evil once wisely said, “We’re not so different, you and I.” Without further ado:
