Weddingbee Blog

Originally published on October 27, 2008

Mrs. Teacup nominates Mrs. Deviled Egg’s post on how to make pocketfolds. It inspired her DIY spirit and helped her create 175 of her own!

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Pocketfold invitations are all the rage, but buying them can be costly if you need to purchase a large quantity. Making them yourself is a great option if you are on a budget and have a few months before it’s time to mail the invites. So, I thought I’d show you how I made one from some old card stock. This pocketfold is made from one sheet of 12″x12″ scrapbooking card stock and cost me less than 20¢ thanks to paper purchased during an open stock paper sale at Jo-Ann’s.

1. Start with your sheet of 12″x12″ card stock and use a paper trimmer to cut it down to 7″x12″. Keep the remaining piece for making the pocket.

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I truly apologize for disappearing from the blog for so long. I hate excuses, but I have one. I have a few, actually. I could blame our 10-month home renovation, work/job-security issues and taking on a new opportunity, typical busy married life, being late to the game in getting our photos back from our photographer and, of course, plain old laziness. All are the truth, but the biggest, most honest reason is that some things got sucky and revisiting our happy wedding day just didn’t seem too enticing. While I think our start of married life has been pretty awesome overall, not everything has been sunshine and roses.

Thankfully, the part that sucked was not my relationship with my husband. Despite the curveballs thrown our way, we’ve been rock solid and I think we’ve learned so much and grown closer.

Unfortunately, the sucky part has everything to do with infertility. The big IF. And it has a way of invading and bringing down just about every aspect of your life.

Putting this post together has been tough, but I do believe that infertility needs every voice it can get. While I’m well aware that Weddingbee isn’t supposed to be about babies, I do think all aspects of marriage are fair game. And since (for most couples, anyway) children are part of the marriage equation at some point, I’m going to continue with this post. (Sorry in advance for any TMI content.)
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I’m coming out of hiding because I can’t pass up the opportunity to talk about the royal wedding. After watching the fictional (and rather cheesy) portrayal on Lifetime of how Prince William and Kate Middleton became romantically involved, I will shamefully admit that my interest has grown even more. Of course, I’d love to offer my predictions for how things will unfold this Friday.

First up, what seems to be the best kept secret in the universe—the dress! It’s been rumored that the dress was designed by the bride-to-be herself and will be created by Sophie Cranston of Libelula. I’ve also read/heard rumors that Kate has had multiple dresses made in case details leak. Although, I’m assuming multiple dress designs will almost certainly make Kate a two- or three-dress-bride. How could you choose just one when so many gorgeous dresses were made for you? Considering the events planned for Friday’s celebration, I’m guessing there will be one dress for the ceremony, a second for the reception and a third (Yes, a THIRD!) for the final, private party of the evening. A wedding this grand is so rare, I’m going to have to go with the prediction of three dresses!
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I love the post about making our wedding cake. It’s my favorite for two reasons. One being that I think making our cake was one of the most fun parts about planning our wedding, so sharing it with the hive was really exciting. The other reason is that I was overwhelmed by the support I received and all of the nice comments. I think the positive feedback was a huge push for my sister and I to confidently pursue a side business. (We’ve been very busy and have been doing cakes almost every weekend for the past 6 months.)

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Thanks to all of you who expressed support and encouragement when you commented on my post regarding making my own wedding cake. As a few mentioned (and I agree!), decorating fake tiers isn’t exactly the same as decorating a real cake, but I do think some skill is needed to make the real cake tier we are incorporating look the as close as possible to the fake tiers that are comprising the bulk of the cake.

With the wedding just over 2 months away, I thought it would be a good idea to try out the DIY cake decorating and see if we could produce a cake worthy of being the centerpiece of the wedding reception.
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I know I’m biased, but I think we had the cutest little wedding party members in the history of children being in wedding parties. My heart melts at the sight of kids in formal wear.

Seriously, how cute is this?

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All dressed up and ready, it was time for the ceremony to start. We lined up outside and waited for the signal to enter. First up, the guys, along with our Pastor, emerged from a super secret room. I really have no idea where they were hiding while all the guests were filtering in. I was just happy that they were all there on time.
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Yesterday was a momentous occasion for the Deviled Eggs—we celebrated our first wedding anniversary! We’ve been through a lot in the last year. But no matter what life gave us, we took each challenge as an opportunity to grow together in love and as a couple. We celebrated the day by enjoying a fancy dinner in the ‘Burgh and then went home to enjoy the top tier of our wedding cake.

But for those of you who remember my DIY wedding cake, the top tier wasn’t real. It was just a decorated cake dummy. In order for us to do the traditional wedding cake sampling on our anniversary, I had to make a replica of our cake as a substitute for the fake one.

Here’s how it turned out:

Courtesy of my iPhone—sorry for the poor lighting.

And, for comparison sake, a shot of the original:
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Before I take you through our first glance, I wanted to share with you all of the pretty little things and some great ring shots by our photographer, Ticia.

First up, my engagement and wedding rings resting snuggly in Mr. DE’s wedding band:

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After we all had our hair and makeup done, we headed back to the Cathedral so we could put on our dresses. For photography purposes, I would put mine on last. It stayed in this spot, hanging on the ledge of a large mirror, waiting to fulfill its purpose while the rest of the bridal party dressed.

I never officially revealed my dress for Weddingbee, so this is it—my Mori Lee “Only You” collection, diamond white wedding gown. It was purchased at a Running of the Brides sale at Filene’s Basement in Washington, DC, in August of 2008.

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The reception set up went off without a hitch and it was time for all of us ladies to be treated to a little pampering at a local salon, CJ Cochran. It was very convenient in that the salon was only a few blocks away from the venue.

Having a Sunday wedding meant that we had the entire salon to ourselves. Lucky us, huh? The salon provided fresh fruit, breakfast pastries and beverages, and all were delicious! As planned, our photographer was set to arrive in time to snap some shots of me getting my hair and makeup done. It turns out she got there a little early and was able to get some great photos of my adorable niece, Aidyn, as she sat in the hot seat. Since there are so many pictures of this, I thought it would be best to put them together in an Animoto video for easy viewing. I love each one of these photos and figured this would be a fun way to share them with the hive.

Some of her facial expressions are priceless! Check it out:

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Here it was, the morning of our wedding day, and there were a few things that needed to be done before we could get down to the business of becoming bridal. First on the agenda was getting the reception room ready to go.

With our wedding taking place on a Sunday, we were aware that there would be a chance that an event could take place in our venue the night before. When we learned a Saturday wedding had been booked, that just meant we, bridesmaids, my mother, Mr. DE’s mother and I, would have to get up a little earlier on the wedding day to deliver all of the reception decorations and take care of some set up. While I would have loved to have everything taken care of the day before, we rolled with the punches and arrived early, prepared to take care of business before heading off to the salon to relax and get pretty.

The main tasks that morning were preparing the centerpieces, arranging the seating cards/favors, putting on the chair covers and setting up the cake.

The cake! The centerpiece of any wedding reception and the DIY masterpiece that was in the works for months.

In case you forgot, I was the crazy bee who, with the help of her sister, decided to make her own wedding cake. How did it turn out? See for yourself:
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Back when I first started mapping out the details of our wedding day, I knew our (OK, my) style was leaning towards a more traditional and elegant wedding. Our venue was determined partially for looks, but mostly for convenience and costs. I also picked the car to serve as the inspiration for the colors. But, a signed contract with a venue, a set of complementary hues and a decision on transportation never really gave me the warm fuzzies when it came to picturing how things would turn out. I knew everything would be fine, but I just wasn’t really able to fully comprehend how all of our plans would translate into reality.

And, maybe not until the actual wedding day, I realized that the affordable, elegant wedding I had been planning for months ended up, almost accidentally, being a classic, vintage-inspired affair. A vintage-feel for our day wasn’t in the plans, but it was a very welcomed result.

Silly me for not realizing I would get “vintage” when I included some very vintage elements:

One (DIY) birdcage veil and fascinator.

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We woke up on Day 5 of our cruise knowing that this was it––the last day on board and the last full day of our honeymoon. Day 5 was a scheduled “Fun Day at Sea”, which is a poor PR spin on a day spent traveling without any port stops. We were on our way to Ft. Lauderdale from Belize and there would be no time for anything but cruising.

For our fun day, we decided to sleep in. We had both checked the Cruise Compass, the newsletter delivered daily to each cabin that outlines all the important information and lists the day’s schedule of events, and decided there were some things we wanted to do together and some things we wanted to do on our own. Yes, we spent time apart on our honeymoon. It was only about 2 hours, though.

Mr. DE wanted to hit the fitness center and work out. The activity on the itinerary that caught my eye was scrapbooking. We agreed to meet up for lunch, did a quick kiss goodbye and were on our own separate ways.
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I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions. I usually set goals for myself throughout the year and do my best to achieve them. But as 2009 comes to a close, I’ve spent a little time reflecting on how great this past year has been for me and what steps I can take to make it a year where I’ll remember the good things. Not every second was perfect. Some moments were down right impossible. But the magical moments overshadow the negative. Ultimately, my resolution is to cherish the positive moments that made up this past year and focus on moving forward into a lifetime of love and happiness. As a 2009 bride, there may have been a few little things I regret about our wedding, but, in an effort to move on, here are my resolutions:

• While it’s easy to get hung up on the people who didn’t show at our wedding, RSVP or not, I will focus on those who were there. Lucky and loved is the couple surrounded by people who would travel near and far to be there to celebrate one of the most important days of your life.
• Instead of focusing on what pictures of moments I think are missing from our photographer’s coverage (even though it’s probably only one or two—I understand that she couldn’t have be everywhere at all times), I’m going to be thankful for all of the photos I do have. I have only ever seen one picture from each of my grandparents’ weddings, so I know that even a single photo can tell a story.

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Honeymoon Recap Slackers for 400, Alex.

Question: This Weddingbee blogger set sail on a cruise and left you hanging with a story of a rocking ship.

Answer: Who is Mrs. Deviled Egg?

Yep, that’s me! Our honeymoon at sea was smooth sailing until our third night. We had spent the day in Cozumel, enjoyed dinner with our table mates, checked out the pool party and were settling into bed. There was lots of wind and the boat was a rockin’. But, the Enchantment of the Seas started to shake a little more violently than we were prepared to experience as we inched our way to Belize. The reason?

May 28, 2009 – 2:30 AM

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