Weddingbee Blog

It’s amazing how sidetracked you can get when you’re nearing the final days before your wedding. So what have I been up to? Craziness, I tell you (minus all the stress).

And, that includes getting a dress at the last-minute for Mom Argyle.

We looked. We looked and looked and looked from the day I got engaged. We looked online, and Mom ordered several dresses, but returned them. Then, we shopped some more.

Okay, you get the point. But, it wasn’t easy. My mom is literally my size, other than the fact that she’s two inches taller. She’s a younger mom, and prefers modern dresses, so a traditional Mother of the Bride gown was out. We found a few contenders, but after really looking at them, we decided they just weren’t right.

Until, we went to Nordy’s one Saturday in the hopes of finding SOMETHING.
Read more…

My bachelorette festivities kicked off with me knowing nothing other than to “wear a dress and bring your ID.” Thanks to those instructions from my fab MOH, I wore a dress, and brought a clutch I found at DSW (which held my ID and phone).

The night started at my friend Molly’s house, where we sipped on a little wine, enjoyed a little appetizers and opened a few naughty gifts, one of which was a box of “nothing” or as my MOH put it, for my wedding night.

(This bow has nothing to do with my gifts—I requested it for my Halloween costume where I’ll dress as Lady Gaga)

Read more…

We ended up having two showers, mostly due to our crazy schedules. That, and the fact that the Mr. and I are from different towns. Our first shower was held in St. Louis, and hosted by my fabulous bridesmaids and some family friends. We opted for a couple’s shower, so we could both attend, and feel more comfortable.

The soiree was catered by the fab Pasta House (one of many St. Louis traditions), desserts provided by my bridesmaids, and the company by family and friends. Mom Argyle, with help from Mr. A’s mom, put together two memory boards with photos from throughout our childhood to provide guests with a little entertainment.

Read more…

So, I love our invites. They were a serious labor of love considering I redesigned them so. many. freaking. times. And, I love how each piece in the suite has its own little unique piece.

And, now that you’ve seen all of the pieces (rehearsal dinner invite, the main invite, the map / directions card and the RSVP postcard) individually, how did it all come together?. Quite perfectly, if I don’t say so myself (minus the poor photography on my part):

And, are you wondering what we did with those strips and circles? We made belly bands that coordinate with our invite design, of course.
Read more…

Mr. A’s family is not from St. Louis. And, even for those of our guests who are from St. Louis, not everyone can navigate to the Jewel Box or Windows on Washington without a little help from Google Maps. This was exactly why we wanted to include a map with our written out directions. But I wasn’t up for trying to create a map myself. I have some artistic ability, but I’m sticking to my stick figure drawings. I knew there was really only one person I wanted to do our map: Amanda from Swoonoverit. Her hand drawn maps have great character and flair. Plus, they’re just good fun.

Image courtesy of Swoonoverit via Blush Paperie

Read more…

Postcards were the only option we wanted. For one, postage is cheaper (although, we ended up buying regular stamps), and there were no envelopes needed (which equals less paper waste).

Neither of us wanted the traditional “Accepts with pleasure” or “Declines with regret” anywhere on that RSVP. I managed to stumble upon some great wording a while back, and it stuck with us since the very first time I mocked up an invitation.

Read more…

Our invitations were one serious labor of love. I redesigned them multiple times, a little more satisfied with the design with each revision. And, with a welcomed epiphany earlier this year, we settled on a final design, one that was art deco enough for us both, but still minimalist.

We took somewhat of a different approach with our invites, opting to go a tad less formal with the wording. I love the formality of a wedding, but our wedding is no black-tie affair. For one, my parents like to go by their first names, and for the most part, Mr. A’s do as well. There are no “Mr. and Mrs. Argyles” in this family. And, because both parents so generously split the cost of the wedding, we made sure to include them both. And, my favorite part? They are red. A bold and gorgeous shade of red.

In sticking with our eco-friendly goal, we printed front and back.
Read more…

Lady Gaga anyone?

After we made our rehearsal dinner location choice a while back, it was off to the good ol’ InDesign to put together an invite for the wedding party and some of the family. Since all of our paper goods are red and white (reveal coming soon, promise), I wanted to utilize our other color, orange.

So, what did we end up with? Something simple and bold.

Read more…

That sounds a little dirty…

Last Friday I spent my time Cricut-ing it up and assembling our invites. And, since we were past our goal deadline of mailing these last Thursday, I assembled into the wee hours of the morning. 5 a.m., to be exact. Don’t judge. That’s what happens when you take a 4 hour nap at 8:30 p.m. on a Friday (I said don’t judge). But, I just had to get them done. I wanted to drop them off at the Post Office on Saturday morning to ensure they would start arriving this week.

And, that’s exactly what Mr. A and I did. To the post office we went last Saturday (which was horribly hot b-t-dubs—like 115 degree-heat-index-hot).

Can’t you just feel how hot it is in that photo? I can.
Read more…

I did? Well, let me tell you again.

Everything about it fits so well with the look and feel of our invites. It’s modern and fun and different—way cooler than my handwriting will ever be. Jessica seriously rocked it out by addressing our outer envelopes and calligraphing the inner envelopes as well.
Read more…

So, that Cricut of mine? It’s been in our coat closet since the day I bought it (a year ago—no joke). And, since we scrapped the envelope liners I was at a loss of what we were going to use it for. Especially since I’m not much of a DIY-er.

The solution? Belly bands. I toyed with this idea off and on for some time and with a little nudging from Mr. A, it was a go. I was definitely not going to hand cut them—I totes don’t have the patience for that, and I wanted to forgo the hand cramping. Insert the Cricut.

I had downloaded Sure Cuts a Lot (SCAL) a while back, knowing that the Cricut Design Studio was not compatible with my Mac, plus I can import .SVG files from Illustrator if I ever needed to create a custom design. You can only do so much with a Cricut cartridge.

First I used SCAL to create an 8.5 x 11 file that would have 9 strips of paper for each piece of paper, evenly sized.
Read more…

So, remember this guy?

Source

Well, I had every single intention of using it to create our envelope liners. BUT, after having our invites printed, and deciding on our envelope colors, it seemed crazy to add another color to our invitation mix, let alone another element. And, as you’ll see, we did exactly that. We did not add an envelope liner.

Read more…

I’ve had our invitations back from the printer since before the July 4th holiday. And, let me tell you, I swear they’ve been staring at me the entire time. I had them printed pretty quickly, so we were just waiting on our map to finish printing and for our envelopes to finish being calligraphed. The second those last two pieces arrived, I immediately started assembling them. I had a goal to get them out by the third full week in July, and I was doing everything possible to make it happen (side note: So, it is the third week, and they have yet to go out. We’re aiming for a Thursday drop).

Me assembling invites (Not quite the fan of this one, but Mr. A insists it shows “personality”. I’m not sure I agree).

Read more…

I don’t know about you, but I definitely do not like to dress up in toilet paper wedding gowns, or have people try and guess a bunch of facts they probably don’t know about me.

So, what am I getting at? Well, back when Mr. A and I first got engaged, one of the very first things I told my friends and mom was that I didn’t want an all-girls’ shower. I wanted to have a shower for both Mr. A and me, that way we can celebrate our pending nuptials with our friends and family. After all, it is the both of us that are getting married. And, as much as that Le Creuset cookware is for me, the Wusthof knives are for him.

(Please note that I would be happy with any shower, but given the fact that neither of us really get a chance to see any of our entire families, we both loved the idea of having a gathering of our friends and family, but I digress.)

Right before the 4th of July, we received a pretty little card in the mail.
Read more…

Besides being crazy busy with the fact that we are officially under the 100 day mark, I managed to take a little break thanks to some wonderful news I received last week.

My best friend (MOH Argyle) is engaged!

Read more…