Weddingbee

Mr. Cupcake and I got engaged in February, and when we started talking details, we weren’t 100% set on any particular date for our wedding. We knew that we preferred a Saturday evening reception, but otherwise we were fairly open to seeing what was out there.

No more than two weeks after Mr. Cupcake proposed, Mama Cupcake and I were playing hooky from work and spending the day checking out various reception site possibilities in the area. Mr. Cupcake was perfectly content with us doing the leg work and reporting back to him, and this was fine with me. We weren’t as interested in having a city wedding as we were hoping for a more relaxed setting in the Main Line area of the Philadelphia suburbs, so that is where we began our search.

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Since the exciting purchase of my vintage-inspired gown, I have been thinking about ways to add other vintage details to our wedding.

On Perfect Bound a few days after buying my dress, I happened upon this:

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** Mr. Cupcake, I know you are probably not reading this…. but if you are, READ NO FURTHER!!!! Seriously!!!!!! **

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Some brides-to-be dread dress shopping. They don’t like putting on garments that are ill-fitting, undressing in front of bridal consultants, or searching through piles of satin and taffeta to find “the” dress that is supposed to be the absolute end-all, be-all of bridal gowns.

I am NOT one of these brides.

I L-O-V-E-D loved dress shopping! It was so fun seeing all of the amazing (and some, *ahem* interesting) dresses out there, and figuring out all the little things I liked and disliked. It was fun to feel pampered with bridal consultants bringing me dresses and catering to my needs. Getting helped into dresses by bridal consultants really didn’t bother me, which I attribute to years of being involved in musical theatre with co-ed dressing rooms(!). And, for once in my life, I got to try on clothes that are actually made for women with more than a B-cup bra size!

I began on a mission to find a particular Jasmine dress that took my breath away when I first saw it online:

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One of my favorite magazines is Martha Stewart’s Blueprint. Its tagline is “Design Your Life” and it is identified as “The fresh, fun guide to personal style.” That it is, Martha; that it is!

For a while I was reading/trying to get into Martha Stewart Living, but it was just a little too far beyond where I am in my life. As much as it was chock full of great ideas for entertaining, organizing, and cooking, I would always come away from it feeling a bit inadequate. I can’t cook all that stuff! (My oven is like 9″ wide and there is no window or light so I can’t even see what I’m cooking most of the time.) I can’t afford all that stuff to organize my laundry room! Heck, I don’t even HAVE a laundry room! It was nice to ponder and dream about someday having a summer house and a craft room and an entire built-in shelf system completely devoted to organizing my personal photos, but it just wasn’t practical or attainable for my 27-year-old-still-grasping-the-concept-of-adulthood self.

Blueprint is so much more my speed and style. It has that magical Martha touch with a bit more of a youthful sensibility to it. Unfortunately, it was just announced that this publication will soon be a distant memory, as it has only one issue left I found this news via Perfect Bound, one of my favorite blogs, and nearly cried.

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A few months ago I helped to host a bridal shower for my future cousin-in-law (Mr. Cupcake’s cousin’s fiancee… got that??). I was put in charge of the favors, so I went to Ikea — one of my favorite places to just wander and imagine all the possibilities — and got these cute little jars that are like miniature versions of old school candy shop jars. For 36 jars, I paid about $28. They can sit upright or tilted on their side. I bought a slew of lavender satin ribbon from papermart.com to wrap around the lids, designed little labels with the happy couple’s names and wedding date, and filled them with mini pastel mints.

Voila! They were a big hit with guests of all ages. Cute, no?

On February 10, 2007, Mr. Cupcake and I had plans to meet two of our friends at Monk’s, a great Belgian bar in Center City Philadelphia. We took a cold walk to the train station in our quaint little town to catch a train into the city, arriving early enough to walk around before meeting our friends. Since we had some time to spare, Mr. Cupcake suggested that we head over to the municipal building, where there are life-sized game pieces surrounding the building.

You see, three years prior, Mr. Cupcake and I ventured to this same place only a few months into our relationship; after spontaneously hopping a train from Manayunk to Center City on a lazy Sunday afternoon, we enjoyed lunch at Fado and strolled from the municipal building and City Hall down towards the Kimmel Center, talking and people-watching. We took fun pictures with the giant gamepieces at the municipal building and enjoyed each other’s company; something happened that day that could never truly be explained, and the day became known as “the day we fell in love.”

Miss Cupcake and a big ol’ Sorry gamepiece, four years ago

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When I was ten years old, the unthinkable happened: my parents got divorced. Divorce is one of those things that a kid never imagines can happen to their parents, and, for me personally, it pretty much came out of nowhere and I was shocked. Granted, I was ten, so my “shock” came out more like stubborn tears and awkwardness in school when I had to tell my friends. But nonetheless, it was completely unexpected and felt surreal.

Since then, I have come to realize that we are all better off since the divorce. My dad is remarried, my mom has an amazing man in her life, and my brother and I were lucky enough to have two parents who stayed civil with one another for our sake and never, ever fought in front of us. We are all who we are today as a result of that decision; now it is hard to imagine that my parents were ever married to each other because they have grown to be very different people, but I think that proves that they weren’t meant to stay together. It is strange that I really don’t remember what it was like to have parents who were married, aside from a few very vague memories from my childhood.

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During the summer lull in the land of television, I watched an old favorite, The Wonder Years, every night at 10 p.m. on ion. As a true old soul at heart, I am a sucker for any show with a nostalgic vibe…. who cares if I wasn’t even alive in the 60s? I think we can all relate despite what decade we grew up during.

I was only 8 years old when The Wonder Years premiered, and from the very beginning I had a HUGE crush on the adorable Kevin Arnold (played by Fred Savage). I especially loved the scenes with him and Winnie Cooper, since no matter what the era, I think we all can relate to their young love. Silly fights, jealousy, the anticipation of a first kiss, the nervousness of attending a make-out party. We’ve all been there in some way or another. Through everything, Kevin and Winnie always came back to each other and just “got” each other.

I always wanted my very own Kevin Arnold to my Winnie Cooper.

Is there a couple (fictional or not) that you always daydreamed you’d be like someday?

I have really been wanting to create an inspiration board for my wedding. I have been collecting photos since day one (well, er, before day one!), and I was ready to put everything together to see if I like the direction things are going in. I spent some time getting all the images together in a QuarkXPress layout. I have been worried that the colors won’t be vivid enough, or that they’ll be too vivid and not classy enough, or everything won’t represent my “vintage charm meets modern whimsy” theme quite enough, but now that I have my inspiration board together I’m confident that I’m happy with where things are going!

Click on image to enlarge

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