Weddingbee Blog

This was probably my most intense DIY yet but because I had already decided to do it long before any other amount of planning took place, I started super early. An acquaintance of mine, who is also a jewelry designer, had embroidered her table numbers and said this one thing that stuck in my head—if there are details that are important to you, it’s absolutely possible to do them as long as you start early. I kept her advice in mind and was able to get most of it done at this point (about 3 weeks before the wedding).

My suggestion to any of you who have a really ambitious project that seems almost impossible to tackle is: cut corners where you can without sacrificing the project and then work on it a bit every week. For me, it was about an hour a week for these numbers, 10 to 30 minutes at a time. Basically the length of a TV show or until I didn’t feel like doing it anymore.

If you’re familiar with hand sewing, it actually goes by quite quickly! I didn’t use anything I didn’t learn in 8th grade home ec class.
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The awesome friend that will be doing all the hairstyles for the bridal party (she’s a rock star!) offered to also help me with makeup, but like the new Duchess of Cambridge, I opted to try my hand at doing my own face the day of. With the exception of false eyelashes, of course. Y’all know I can’t do that for the life of me.

Here’s my naked face, eek:

And here’s the end result: Read more…

Recently, I wrote about starting to shop for a qipao of my own.

Early in the planning process, I had decided to browse around online for options. I never felt comfortable in the high, closed collar that qipaos traditionally have but something like this seemed more along the lines of what I could wear:

Source: WedCandy / Photograph by Courtney Davidson

So I went online to look for something similar.

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This might be the wrong place to say this but.. isn’t it incredibly stupid that I would let something like a dress make me completely insane? You guys know what I mean, right?

What am I saying. Of course you do. And that’s why I heart the hive.

Going back to looking for a dress I could wear to the banquet…

I shopped. Everywhere. All the formal dresses that were within my price range was made out of chiffon and that felt totally wrong for an evening affair. And anything that was made of a heavier material wasn’t formal enough (is it just me or are stores saturated with short prom dresses? Is that a thing these days? I’m so out of touch.). The more I looked, the more worried I became that I wasn’t going to find anything. I started having anxiety nightmares where I showed up in jeans, clutching a pile of hideous dresses. In my waking hours, I had 20 tabs open on my web browser, all on different clothing stores.

Finally, I decided that I was DONE.
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Just when I thought I had pretty much all the DIY projects out of the way, Weddingbee offers up a bit more inspiration. This place is awesomesauce! But I guess I don’t have to tell you that.

I’ve made tissue poms a la Martha as ceiling decorations but hadn’t thought about them for my own wedding- probably because I feel like I’ve seen them everywhere! But recently, Mrs. Hot Wings’ post about using them as napkin rings completely inspired me. Napkin rings were a detail I had given up about, mostly because I had taken on way too many DIY projects and was feeling overrun. I didn’t want to come up with any other ideas…my brain was spent.

I did a quick search online and came across this great tutorial. I had initially planned to make the smallest size they suggested, but instead cut the paper into 4×7″ rectangles because it was what worked with the sheets I had without any waste. I figured that if I did a test run and they were easy enough, I’d do the rest.

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I had just finished talking up our amazing photographers and that same day, a care package arrived with a sweet note reminding Mr. Crepe and I to take a night off of wedding planning and just relax. They included a couple of fun DVDs (Italian job and Say Anything, both of which I love), candy and popcorn! Since the Mr. and I are currently long distance, I helped myself to some…okay, all the candy.

This reminded me of something that I felt was important to mention but forgot to in my last post.
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There’s no place better to air your confessions than the internet—that’s what I think. And I have a confession to make today…I suffer from Newyorkcentricitis. This is a disease that runs rampant in New York, particularly those of us who are born and raised. I’ve tried to control it, but unfortunately, the only way to cure Newyorkcentricitis is to move OUT of New York, but the main symptom of this disease is complete resistance to living anywhere but New York.

There’s a reason I’m telling you this, and I’m getting there, I promise.

When I started planning this wedding long distance, first thing on the list was to find a photographer. This was priority #1 and before I even started looking, the big skeptic in me was raring to go, just waiting to be tagged in. I hit up the Weddingbee vendor reviews, pretty doubtful that I’d find anyone that would meet my standards—after all, I’ve been ogling wedding blogs that feature amazing photography for longer than was normalsauce. There were a few companies with really awful websites—sites that looked like they were updated in the ’90s. I was feeling pretty smug.

But it wasn’t long until I realized it was time to serve me up some…
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Something I haven’t mentioned around here is this ooone tiny little detail—we are having a second reception in NY.

source: cheezburger.com

Recently, I’ve been talking to some friends who were having the problem of location; so many couples I know come from different states, if not opposite sides of the country. It can be so stressful to figure out where to have the wedding because sometimes, just choosing the location automatically means that certain people in your life can’t (or won’t) go. I can’t tell you how many people have given me the FACE and the incredulous/pouty “Why aren’t you having the wedding HERE???”
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My hair and makeup trial is today!!! I’m going to bring the headpiece I made to see if it will work with the hairstyle Crepefriend JL comes up with. Since today’s the trial, I thought I’d show you the headpiece I made and sort of describe the process, in the case you all want to save some moolah and try your hand at it. With a little patience, time, and elbow grease (Ew! What does that actually mean?! That phrase totally gets my goat) you can make a headpiece that’s worth a few benjamins.

I can never keep a comb in my hair for some reason—it always feels like it’s about to pop off, so I decided on a headband instead. I took a bunch of sparkly things, including some trim that I was using to customize the dress so that I could tie it all together and a pair of vintage clip on earrings.

This first part takes some time and planning, but once you lay everything out the way you want it to look, the rest is just assembly. Hot glue is your best friend here. Oh, and shoebox tops, too. I like working in them because they make cleanup easy peasy. Plus you can move it somewhere else when people come over—what mess? Nothing to see here.

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As much as I loved the mossy teacup idea, the book ring holder won out. It tied into the stacked book centerpieces so perfectly and that detail was hard to resist. I’m also trying to keep the ultra-girlie-ness on a leash, since this wedding is for both of us and keeping the mister’s preferences in mind helps me with that.

I started out by using a small book from a used bookstore—Mr. Crepe found this little one and the cover was just so incredibly pretty.

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It’s almost unfair how easy it is for guys to get dressed up, isn’t it? We’ve got to worry about the gown, the hair, the shoes (okay, so that part I can’t complain about), and that’s just part of it. Mr. Crepe is a freelance animation director, which means that he essentially lives in t-shirts and jeans. The guy doesn’t own a single suit and we felt that tuxes were much too formal for our wedding style. It just didn’t make sense to rent something he was going to be able to wear at least a few more times this year.

While purchasing a suit was the easy option to us, MIL Crepe needed more convincing. She REALLY wanted the guys in matching tuxes and was convinced that buying suits were either going to be more expensive than renting. She also felt that our vision for the boys wasn’t quite formal enough because I had described this to her:

Image via JL Designs / Photo by Robert Evans / Event by Jennifer Wahlquist Events

I had somehow forgotten that she prooobably did not follow wedding blogs and would, as a result, hate this idea. Oops, that’s my bad.
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The ring pillow was one of those unimportant details to Mr. Crepe and me—we probably aren’t going to have a ring bearer so having a pillow seemed unnecessary. But you know how it is. You come across photo after photo of adorable creative solutions for something so seemingly simple and then it doesn’t seem quite so unnecessary. Besides, it’s such a tiny project, right? Justification is the word of the day. (Or month.)

1, 2, 3, 4
Source: Marthastewart.com

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I posted earlier that I wanted to use fun drinks to use with our oh so cute stripe-y straws. A couple of Weddingbee-ers suggested that I look into Jarritos, a brand of sodas that I hadn’t ever heard of before. While I was in Nashville, I found them at a local supermarket and the cost was GOOD. If you buy a case, it ends up about 70 cents per bottle! We grabbed a couple to try first.

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The first time I heard about fake lashes was from a friend who wore them to our senior prom. We all thought it looked strange in real life, but she insisted, “They look so good in photos.” And she was right. Our photos came back and whoa, totally glam.

So, I went to college and bought a pair to try, but couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to put them on correctly. They kept falling off my eyes, leaving streaks of glue. Finally, I threw them away and watched everyone else prance out the door with fabulously long lashes. I never tried to use them ever again. STUMPY LASHES 4EVER.

Fast forward to 2011. I am *sings* getting maaaaarrrried. The day of a thousand photos is fast approaching (we are at the 2 month mark, people) so I want to try this whole business again. A friend forwarded this video to me because I was being a big fat baby about this. I bought a pair of fake lashes in Nashville. We were having a meeting with a florist about my bouquet and then antiquing, so natch I thought it was time to take these babies out for a spin.

I had them on for about three hours before they got itchy. So, I tore one off while we were driving home.
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As I mentioned in an earlier post, Mr. Crepe got me an arrangement from Saipua that was so unique and I never forgot it. It was the inspiration for our centerpieces—mixed textures, with a romantic and freshly picked look.

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