Weddingbee Blog

Originally published January 20th, 2009

Mrs. Penguin nominates Mrs. Cupcake’s detailed check list on things to consider when creating your own invitations. The post came a little late for her, as her wedding was the year prior—she caught a few mistakes on her invitations after reading this post! This post is totally save- and share-worthy…make sure you pull it up when it’s time for you to create your invitations!

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In designing our wedding invitations, I was definitely at a huge advantage over other DIY brides, and for that I know I am very, very lucky. I design wedding invitations and stationery for a living, and have been a graphic designer for six years, so there wasn’t a lot of guessing about how to begin or what to include. But thinking back to when I first designed wedding invitations for a friend over four years ago, I remember how overwhelming it was, which is what a lot of you may be going through. I thought I’d share some of my knowledge with you all, since it seems like a lot of brides go the DIY route for their invitations. I am certainly not claiming to be the end-all, be-all authority of wedding invitations… but I hope this can help a few of you out who may be struggling.

1. Make sure you give yourself enough time.
Designing, printing, assembling, addressing, and mailing your invitations will take a very long time… I’m not going to lie. It may be one of the most time-consuming tasks you will encounter while wedding planning. I’m not trying to scare you — just prepare you! If you think you can complete the task from start to finish in a month, give yourself two months. Everyone works at their own pace but it is better to err on the side of caution and give yourself plenty of time to account for your learning curve. A good rule of thumb is to mail your invitations 6-8 weeks before your wedding date, leaving your guests at least a month to reply before your response date, so try to plan things out so everything is completed several weeks ahead of this timeline in the event that you run into roadblocks along the way. I mailed our invitations on July 22 and our reply by date was September 1 (for our September 20 wedding), so our guests had ample time to let us know whether or not they would be attending.

2. Think carefully about your “reply by” date.
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So much hard work and planning went into our wedding day, but at the end of the day, after the personalized cocktail napkins and cake flags were all but forgotten, the most important thing to us was that our guests had FUN. Seeing everyone having a fabulous time on the dance floor was the most amazing feeling on top of the just-married-high that was running through our veins. I had so much fun putting this recap post together, and I still smile and giggle every time I read it. It was hard to narrow down the photos because our photographers captured so many amazing dancing moments, and we’re so lucky to be able to treasure those moments forever.

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All photos below by The Wiebners. We purchased a disc of all unedited images from our wedding day, so some post-processing has been done by me for the purpose of sharing the photos with you. Click on any photo to enlarge.

I know you readers often hear apologies from us bees for falling off of the face of the Weddingbee earth for a period of time… I never thought it would take me over 3 months to get back on the recap bandwagon, but now I totally understand how it happens!
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It was almost three years ago that I started blogging here, and with the honor of being a bee came friendships, career changes, and general awesomeness that has changed my life for the better. As silly as I used to think blogging was, it has become something I really love, and I have Weddingbee to thank for the introduction to blog-land in the first place.

I’ve been fairly quiet over the last year or so since, you know, I’m no longer planning a wedding and all; while I still hang around the hive from time-to-time, I thought that it is high time I bid a proper adieu to Weddingbee. Mr. Cupcake and I recently celebrated our second wedding anniversary in September, and it struck us both that the last two years have flown by so quickly, it’s difficult to grasp the concept that we’re not quite newlyweds anymore—we are now full-fledged marrieds. Who’d have thunk it!

at a family wedding the weekend after our second anniversary

The last two years have brought both unwelcome and welcome changes to our relationship and our new life together.
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Thanks to the lovely Philadelphia ladies who came out for a delightful (albeit HOT) brunch in the “beer garden” at Silk City on Saturday! We ate, we drank, and we relished in the occasional breeze. Oh — and, of course, we talked weddings. But that’s a given, right?

flamingred’s bridesmaid Tanya, flamingred, danadelphia, me, and msgirard

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Hey hive! This is just a reminder that a Philadelphia-area bee meet-up is being planned for June 5. We’ll be getting together for brunch/lunch, chatting and merriment, and we want you to join us! Please leave a comment on this post by May 29th if you plan to attend so we can reserve a table.

When: Saturday, June 5 at noon
Where: Silk City, 435 Spring Garden Street

images via Silk City

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Ever since we got our wedding photos back from our photographers last February, I have had a very big to-do hanging over my head:

Mrs. Cupcake’s to-do list
1. Create wedding albums for parents

Finally I was able to cross this biggie off of my list this Christmas (with glee, might I add). In early December, I hunkered down and designed 12″ x 12″, 50-page hardcover albums, which I had printed by Blurb. I had never used Blurb before so I was quite nervous for the outcome, but after reading so many rave reviews from the hive, I took the chance… and I am pleased to say that I am extremely satisfied with the final result.

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One year ago today, I married my best friend.
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All photos below by The Wiebners. We purchased a disc of all unedited images from our wedding day, so some post-processing has been done by me for the purpose of sharing the photos with you. Click on any photo to enlarge.

After the good ol’ traditions and wedding rituals were checked off of our list, there was little left to do but catch up with good friends…
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All photos below by The Wiebners unless otherwise noted. We purchased a disc of all unedited images from our wedding day, so some post-processing has been done by me for the purpose of sharing the photos with you. Click on any photo to enlarge.

The dancing at our wedding would not have been dancing at all without a little traditional Philadelphia Mummer’s Strutting. When that familiar string band sound started wafting from the speakers, my family couldn’t jump to their feet quite fast enough… Mr. Cupcake’s family (who mostly live in Central PA and New York state) and many of our friends, however, looked on with confusion. It is definitely a Philadelphia thing!

Not sure what I’m talking about? Check out the video of what went down here.
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Hey hive! I had so much fun the last time I did BeeTV that I decided to give it another go. Join me at 6:30 EST on Sunday night to talk weddings, DIY, and whatever else your little hearts desire. (Oh, and I’m sure my obsession with “So You Think You Can Dance” will come up once or twice.)

See you then!

Mrs. Cupcake’s blogging story:

I used to think blogging was really, really weird. I thought blogs were just journals of random thoughts and innermost feelings that people would broadcast across the interwebs. I didn’t get it, and I never bothered to really look into it any further. I had no idea that there were blogs out there that were actually focused on specific topics.

When my best friend was planning her 2006 wedding, I designed her invitations and a bunch of other paper products for her wedding; we spent lots of time trying to find inspiration online, but never really knew where to look. There were only so many times we could scour The Knot and our overpriced wedding magazines. We managed to pull off some great details, but it was a lot harder to find unique ideas than we thought it should be!

Fast-forward to 2007, when Mr. Cupcake and I were engaged and my brother and sister-in-law were also in the process of planning their own wedding that was to take place that summer. My mom and I were visiting them in Brooklyn one weekend in the spring, when Kim and I were talking weddings. It was then that Kim spoke the five words that changed my life: “Have you heard of Weddingbee?” That may sound over-dramatic, that it “changed my life,” but it is absolutely 100% true!
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All photos below by The Wiebners. We purchased a disc of all unedited images from our wedding day, so some post-processing has been done by me for the purpose of sharing the photos with you. Click on any photo to enlarge.

I know you readers often hear apologies from us bees for falling off of the face of the Weddingbee earth for a period of time… I never thought it would take me over 3 months to get back on the recap bandwagon, but now I totally understand how it happens! Life has been extremely busy lately, and I guess I needed to take a breather from writing about our wedding. Sifting through the photos, choosing the “right” ones that will help me tell our story, and racking my brain to remember all of the moments I want to share with you all — it’s safe to say I put a lot of pressure on myself and it has caused me to procrastinate. But I am back, vowing once and for all to finish these recaps before our one year anniversary (which is just around the corner on September 20… how did that happen?!?).  I hope a few of you out there still remember me after all this time…
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Recently, Mr. Cupcake had a job interview (side note: please cross your fingers he gets this one!), and the recruiter who helped him get the interview prepped him with some questions beforehand. He told Mr. C to have a few examples in mind of times that he negotiated, in both his former job and his personal life, to get a lower price on a big-ticket item. We were brainstorming together, and he mentioned the wedding. When I really thought about it, though, I realized that we/I did not really do much negotiating — if any — when it came to our wedding.

Maybe it’s just my personality, but when someone tells me that something costs $X, I don’t really debate it. I don’t try to negotiate the same service/product for a lower price, although I could certainly see negotiating a slightly different service in order to get the price down. But it never really occurred to me to haggle with our vendors to get their prices down. If someone’s prices seemed too high for what their services were, or they quoted too far outside of my budget range, I simply went elsewhere.

Perhaps I have a soft spot for vendors and their pricing since I work in a creative industry, and often work with brides and other people planning special events. I have experienced the other side of things, and I know how disheartening it can sometimes feel when a client wants the same great product but for a fraction of the cost. It can make me feel like my time, talents, and resources are not valued, and that is discouraging. I’m not saying that every vendor experiences that feeling — but I’ve certainly seen that side of things!
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Lookie lookie what popped up on newsstands today…

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All photos below by The Wiebners unless otherwise noted. We purchased a disc of all unedited images from our wedding day, so some post-processing has been done by me for the purpose of sharing the photos with you. Click on any photo to enlarge.

After we cut the cake, we had planned to say a few words of thanks to our guests. While we didn’t write anything down ahead of time, we knew that we just wanted to express to everyone how amazing it was to have them all there, in one room, supporting our relationship and celebrating with us.
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