Weddingbee Blog

Hi Hive!

Back in November, Minted asked Weddingbee to help choose some of the next generation of community created designs that they’d carry in their newest wedding invitation collection. You voted, and guess what? The hive’s favorite design is now in shop at Minted! Check out your favorite: “Love Story” designed by Cadence Paige Design!

Minted “Love Story”

We’re super excited to have taken part in choosing Minted’s next generation of wedding stationery! And if you love all things Minted, right now they’re giving away $500 toward Minted wedding stationery every Thursday for the next 4 weeks…which means there’s four chances for you to win!
Read more…

Hive member Couawilou sent over pictures and all the fun details about the latest bee meet up in Toronto!

~~~

On Jan 27th we had a Toronto bee meet up. Eight of us met at Jack Astor’s in downtown Toronto for dinner and drinks. It was great to see some familiar faces from the previous bee meet-up and it was even better to be able to meet some new bees.

We took a picture of our bling and got a group shot!

Back Row: AlmostMrsDoc, GreenDream, mrsbruff2b, PurpleUnicorn.
Front Row: Couawilou (me), Ms. Martian, Keekalena.

The picture was taken by Miss Juliepants

Read more…

Love is in the air, and you know what that means…it’s time for our FIFTH annual Weddingbee Valentine’s Day swap, organized this year by our fab Community Coordinator, Bakerella!

If you’re new around the Hive, (welcome and congrats on your engagement!) we do these swaps a few times a year. Essentially you get three partners, they send you a card (and if you have amazing partners, sometimes recipes or sweets), you send your partners likewise. They’re easy peasy, and put a smile on your face because it’s mail that doesn’t come with a request for money at the end!

For all the details, head to this thread to check out how you can participate. The deadline to sign up is Monday, January 16, 2012, so head on over, sign up, and get swapping!

And for a fun trip down memory lane (and to get inspired this Valentine’s Day!), check out the previous swaps here, here, here, and here!

Join us for a Post a Thon tonight on the boards beginning at 4PM PST and going on until 10PM PST! If you’ve never participated in a Weddingbee Post a Thon, we’d love for you to join us! It’s an opportunity for everyone site-wide (moderators, hostesses, blogger bees, and hive members) to gather on the boards for chat, advice, and discussion. It’s an especially great time to get lots of feedback on your current projects and ideas!

Please join us tonight for another great Post a Thon. We look forward to seeing you on the boards!

Here’s part 2 of the hive’s annual holiday card swap! Check out the creativeness below!

dallasbride2012 used paint samples to make trees! Genius!:

Read more…

Hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season, hive! It’s time to reveal the results of this year’s Weddingbee holiday card swap! Check out the great creativity of some of our amazing hive members below!

CarolinaCola included a handmade bee ornament in her cards:

Cara:
Read more…

I’m thankful that after two years of marriage, a miscarriage, and a career change (mine!), the Dude still wholeheartedly wants to spend the rest of his life with me, and I with him. I’m so lucky!

I’m thankful for family and friends (including those that live in the internet). For my health, which as I’m nearing 30 I’m trying not to take for granted. For the fact that I get to do what I love (editing) for a living!

Is it wrong to say I’m thankful for television? Because I totally am.

I am thankful for my kick-ass hubby and the amazing wedding and honeymoon we had.

I am thankful for Los Angeles, a city that thinks 50 degrees is freezing and offers me yummy cuisine from all around the world. I am thankful for cute glasses, homemade smoothies, and free shipping. I am thankful for family, friends, and Weddingbee!

Most of all I am thankful that I still feel like the best is yet to come.

Happy Thanksgiving Hive!

Read more…

Trick or treat! Have you entered the Weddingbee Halloween Costume Contest? The Hive Hostesses are accepting entries for contests and pumpkins through November 6th, and the winners have great prizes awaiting them! Check out some of our favorite entries thus far:

2bMrsG and her husband were a zombie bride and groom

Read more…

Catch up on the entire After “I Do” series here! And if you have a burning question you’d like to see discussed, submit it here!

~~~

Do you and your SO come from different backgrounds (cultural/racial/spiritual)? If so, how has integrating your (culture/race/religion) with his/hers been? Were there any hurdles or obstacles you’ve to overcome? Any compromises you’ve had to make? How will this affect your future (in regards to rearing children, presenting yourselves to your families, etc.)?

I come from an immigrant family and was raised Jewish. Mr. Spaniel’s family has been in the U.S. for centuries, and their background is Catholic. I’d thought that since we were both born and grew up in Southern California and were atheist (me) and agnostic (him), any conflicts that we had in our lives/philosophies/ideas about children would not be cultural or religious. HA! I AM STUPID! The biggest fight we’ve ever had in nearly six years together was about whether a potential son of ours would have a bris or not (not to mention all of the theoretical conversations about “what if our kids want to be garbage men/musicians/lawyers/doctors/professors?” that start off joking and sometimes end in hurt feelings).

We’ve both had to learn to really, deeply examine our (sometimes starkly different) values and put them on the table and leave them open for discussion. I’ve learned that I can’t take the values I was raised with for granted when it comes to how we’ll raise our own children. These are not really easy discussions to have, and we know we’ll have to keep revisiting them over our relationship. While I can’t say it wouldn’t be easier if we came from the same backgrounds (and had the same unspoken values), I also think that this openness has helped us to be a better couple, and to be more unified when either of our families question our decisions.
Read more…

Catch up on the entire After “I Do” series here! And if you have a burning question you’d like to see discussed, submit it here!

~~~

Has the down economy affected you/your SO and your relationship? How so? How are you weathering the storm?

The economy has been a pretty huge deal to us lately. Because of the economy, thousands of teachers across Texas lost their jobs and it was next to impossible for me to find a job right after we got married. I did manage to find something, but it’s a 45 minute drive from our house, and is an incredibly draining job—it definitely affects our relationship because I’m so tired/grumpy when I get home from work…it feels like we don’t get any “couple time” during the week at all!

Mr. Cardigan has also struggled to find something to do part time until he really gets started in real estate (he’s a real estate agent, but since we just moved to Austin, he doesn’t have many clients yet!). The job market is horrible right now, and that’s put quite a few stresses on our relationship—but we’re in constant communication about how we’re feeling and what we’re stressing about, so we’re always on the same page!
Read more…

Catch up on the entire After “I Do” series here! And if you have a burning question you’d like to see discussed, submit it here!

~~~

Current/future moms, or anyone that thinks they’ll have a child in the future: What is something you wish you did before you had your baby, or something you plan to do before you have a baby? What is something you did before baby that you’re so thankful you did?

I’ll be finishing my doctorate before we consider having kids. I think that’s very important for me because I want to devote more of myself and my time to our family—not so much to school, as it is now. I’m thankful to be almost done with that, so that Mr. MJ and I can give this giant step more serious thought. In general, I am thankful that we have both gotten started in our careers, become settled in a nice home, paid off debts, and started saving for the future. Bringing kids in to a stable environment really eases many worries I’d have otherwise had.
Read more…

Catch up on the entire After “I Do” series here! And if you have a burning question you’d like to see discussed, submit it here!

~~~

How do you balance your relationship, job, family while making time to do things you love? Any tips for overstressed hive members?

The quest for me time—important to an only child like me!—is an interesting struggle. It’s a melding of personal time and dorky self-amusement that only children are pretty good at. My husband and I work together, we run a website together on the side, and we socialize a fair bit together in a combination of networking and plain-ol’ social drinkups and dinners. And we’re part of the same two families now, lest we forget, and we have to share a bed, a household, and a budget.

Here’s how I do it alone (ha), at least:

I let myself get lost in my job for several points on any given day. For example, I write and edit for a living, so I like to find the funniest self-amusing thing I wrote or edited that day. It being self-LOL, I don’t expect anyone else to find it funny, and I don’t really share these things with anyone. It’s prime Me Time, in my head. Just get into the zone doing whatever you do, and you’ll find yourself having a lot of fun, on your very own, along the way.

I send personal emails. I’m not really an all-day IM sort of girl, so taking a minute to send a message and then spending a minute to read a fun response hours later can really make my day. Those moments are just for me and the friend I’m emailing. And it always feels special somehow.

Drink alone (not like that). Sitting alone at home or in another room with the dog and a glass of wine—or whatever you want to drink, even if it’s water—is amazing soul tonic. I love to chat/gossip/commisserate/bicker with him, but I don’t feel the need to spend all evening jabbering when we’re at home together.
Read more…

Catch up on the entire After “I Do” series here! And if you have a burning question you’d like to see discussed, submit it here!

~~~

How do you keep the spark alive in your marriage, or keep things fun?

Seriously? Sex. I went off hormonal birth control and my sex drive came back!

Also, we have date night once a month where we get dressed up and pretend like we are still trying to impress each other and have dinner and drinks.
Read more…

Catch up on the entire After “I Do” series here! And if you have a burning question you’d like to see discussed, submit it here!

~~~

How do you balance your career with your SO’s career? If one of you has been offered a position that required significant sacrifice on behalf of the other partner in the relationship, how have you handled it, emotionally/physically?

When I graduated college, I knew Mr. Hyena was going to be continuing his education, and our options were: a) I get a job wherever and we continue our long-distance relationship, or b) I move to College Station to be with him. We’d already been long-distance for four years, and I felt like  if we can’t live in the same city now, then WHEN? So I moved, and I’ll be totally honest—there aren’t many opportunities for my career here, and I can’t wait to move. Mr. Hyena is hoping to get his Ph.D and be done with school forever within the next three years, and then we intend to move to a bigger city. We’re not sure what the game plan will be — whoever gets a job first, that’s where we’ll go? We go where I get a job because it’s my turn to have a career? Whoever gets a better job? — but we both know we’ll have to re-evaluate our situation when the time comes.

Yes, I made the big sacrifice to move to a place where I knew I wouldn’t find my dream job. I don’t know for sure that I won’t have to make another sacrifice when we eventually move. Was it worth it? Will it be worth it in the long run? I’d like to say yes, but I have to figure out how to deal with it all over again, since I was recently laid off from my job. I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m optimistic.
Read more…

Join us for a Post a Thon tonight on the boards beginning at 4PM PST and going on until 10PM PST! If you’ve never participated in a Weddingbee Post a Thon, we’d love for you to join us! It’s an opportunity for everyone site-wide (moderators, hostesses, blogger bees, and hive members) to gather on the boards for chat, advice, and discussion. It’s an especially great time to get lots of feedback on your current projects and ideas!

Please join us tonight for another great Post a Thon. We look forward to seeing you on the boards!