NOTE: Our spam filters are designed to catch comments with multiple links in them and send them to moderation. Because of this, your comment on this post may not show up immediately. But have no fear! It will be counted, and will likely show within 24 hours of you commenting/entering the contest!
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Hello, hive! We’ve got another great giveaway for you today! Keep reading to find out how to enter for your chance to win a $250 gift card to Blue Nile!
What’s not to love about Blue Nile? They’re exclusively online and the biggest online retailer of certified diamonds, engagement rings, and fine jewelry. Is bigger better? YES! The perfect diamond for you—size, cut, clarity, and price—is definitely at Blue Nile. They have over 100,000 diamonds to choose from…yep. 100K.
If s/he already put a ring on it, but you’re still looking for that perfect “something blue,” we love Blue Nile’s selection of jewelry in sapphire, topaz, and aquamarine—a blue for every color palette!
Featured (Clockwise from top right): Diamond Curved Necklace 2ctw | Halo Diamond Earrings 1ctw | Blue Topaz and Diamond Pendant Classic Akoya Cultured Pearl and Diamond Earrings | Classic Akoya Cultured Pearl Strand Necklace | Fleur Diamond Earrings 1.5ctw
Pearls, platinum, colored stones, gold, silver, platinum, and more…whew. Jewelry makes the perfect gift for your family and bridal party that they can wear for your wedding and beyond. Shop anytime, with 24/7 live and commission-free customer service, free FedEx shipping on all orders, and a comprehensive education and guidance section helping you with your purchasing decisions every step of the way, day or night.
Are you ready to win some fine jewelry?
Entry is simple:
The grand prize winner will receive a $250 gift card to Blue Nile, and two runners-up will receive $100 Blue Nile gift cards!
You have until 11:59 PM PST on May 28 to enter. Good luck!
You can follow Blue Nile on Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.
When you’re staring down the barrel of a two year (or more!) engagement, it’s tough to make any absolute plans at the beginning. Not that that stops any of us from looking for inspiration, right? And as much as I love to fill in all those who, what, when, and where questions*, the big one is how.
Image via stock.xchng | Photography by Cieleke
The who is easy: Bride & groom. An officiant. Everyone else is technically optional, but we know it’s more than that; having an idea of the size of your guest list is a good idea right now, but the details aren’t absolutely necessary just yet.
The what? Simply put, a wedding. Another blank filled in. (Though if you have a theme or something, this would be a good place to put it.)
The when? With a long engagement, you almost have your pick of dates unless you’re in a major metro area where venues book up to two years in advance anyway. Still, have a goal date in mind and your first and second pick for time of day. When = done.
The where could be broad—a city or country preference—or specific to a location. What I keep finding, though, is that the where has a lot to do with the how.
Nicole is selling a strapless wedding dress with pickups. She is asking $600 for the size-6 gown.
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:
We had not planned on a bouquet toss, mostly because Mr. Genie was appalled at the thought of the garter toss. I didn’t even purchase a garter, because what else is it for? But after some dancing, Mr. Genie came up to me and said that a certain someone was really hoping for a bouquet toss. I had a lot of single friends and family at the party, so I asked Matt, our DJ, to put on “Single Ladies” and call the girls to the dance floor. I asked one of the bridesmaids if I could toss their bouquet, because there was no way mine was going away. Sara and Margaret had left by this time, but luckily my sister nabbed some photos of the event.
I picked out my target. She made it easy by being right up front. I gave a good toss…and it hit the ceiling. *womp womp*
Being the type-A person that I am, I of course had to plan in advance a kick-ass playlist that the girls and I can listen to as we get our hair and makeup done the morning of the wedding. Mr. M and I booked the penthouse for the day before and the day of the wedding, giving us ladies and the stylists plenty of room to spread out.
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We’ll be getting our makeup professionally done! / Image via The Knot
With that in mind, how could I not create the perfect getting-ready playlist? Most of you know by now how music-obsessed I am (if you remember my intro post), but I’d categorize my favorite genre as indie rock. But for this, I wanted to make a playlist with some fun pop music that us ladies could sing along to. This includes songs by the “divas” (Madonna, Whitney, Britney, Gaga, Beyonce) as well as some awesome ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s jams. Feel free to steal this playlist!
Getting-Ready Playlist:
After opening gifts, Mr. O and I proceeded in separate cars to the venue.
While I was waiting in the car, I saw them walking him down to where we would later say our vows, and I was once again overwhelmed with emotion. There he was, my soon-to-be husband. And he was about to finally see my dress, which I had managed to keep secret for SO. LONG. (An impressive feat for me, because I do not do a good job of keeping things from Mr. O!)
And now I’ll let the photos speak for themselves!
(All photos by Stacy Able Photography)
I strongly believe that life shouldn’t go “back to normal” immediately following a wedding. I couldn’t imagine spending a year of my life planning one day, only to go back home after the reception and return to work on Monday.
Of course, this all comes down to budget. And time off work, but I just want to focus on the budget element of this right now.
We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to go away for three weeks the day after we get married, but before the option of Disney became available, we threw around some lower-budget ideas. Although I have to admit, I found it near impossible to find something “honeymoon-worthy” for around £500.
A couple of weeks ago, a colleague of mine was taken on a surprise birthday trip by his girlfriend. When he returned he sent me a link to the place he stayed, and Oh.My.God why hadn’t I known about this site before?!
If you live in the UK and want a mini getaway for less than £500 (or even less in some cases) then I want to let you in on this little secret…
Canopy & Stars is a site that lists rural retreats across the UK, Spain, France, and Portugal. Some of these cabins are to die for.
My colleague stayed at The Wriggly Tin in Hampshire.
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Image via Canopy & Stars
There are two of these little huts in a secluded meadow—one at each end. With a shabby-chic interior, this hut also has a wood-burning stove, hurricane lamps, and candles. No electric here—you are completely cut off from the world in your own little romantic bubble.
FutureMrsHuneyBee shares a photo of her brightly colored DIY tulle flower girl skirts.
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!
Last November Sparky and I went to a charity wedding event. We’d gone to a couple of events, but this was the first one that was entirely for charity. This was something we were really excited about—getting wedding vendors we needed AND donating money was kind of wonderful.
Sparky with a mighty fine mustache / Personal photo
Get Hitched Give Hope (also mentioned two times by Mrs. Cherry Pie!) was part silent auction and part live auction. The proceeds for this event went to the Dream Foundation, which is like the Make a Wish but for adults. The beautiful thing about the evening was that the founder for the charity was there and he told a moving story about his husband who passed away and how he wanted to make his last months super meaningful.
One of my rationales for having an insanely long engagement was the idea that I could do many DIY projects and not be rushing to do them at the last minute.
I didn’t really take into account that I am a bit of a procrastinator and thus would still leave projects to do at the last minute anyways, but oh well, live and learn. It seems like I’m not the only one with this problem!
Here are a couple of projects that I’ve put together recently. I wanted to share them with you guys since I’m really proud of how they turned out, but they really aren’t big enough for their own post, so random projects in a row!
1) Thank you banner. Pbear thinks making a gigantic prop for one picture for our thank you cards is silly, but I kind of like it.
I have no idea why the peach photographs so orangey. *sigh*
It’s hard to tell from afar, but the letters have this gorgeous watercolor look to them.
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