Weddingbee Blog

I love how I’ve been having all of these moments lately where I feel the closeness of the wedding date approaching. The reality of the upcoming marriage is really sinking in. I mentioned in my post about mailing our invitations that I had some excitement and a realization that I was, in fact, getting married. This is officially happening, people!

Just the other day, Mr. Deviled Egg gave me another one of those “this is really happening moments” when he said the words “my wife” in one of our phone conversations. (Talking about me, of course!)

Cue the excitement! Cue the butterflies!

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Here’s the back-story on how this conversation came about.
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I can appreciate how some brides-to-be work hard to find cute vintage and recently retired themed stamps for mailing their save-the-dates and invitations. And I know sometimes the Postal Service sells stamps that go along with the theme of the wedding, making them a perfect fit for the invitation envelopes. I also think Zazzle stamps are so cute, and if they weren’t so expensive, I’d use them in a heartbeat.

In my case, I didn’t get too picky about the stamps and news from the Post Office weighed heavily in my decision to purchase one of the postage options I used.

With a RSVP reply date closely coinciding with the postage rate increase on May 11th, I figured it would just be easier on me and our guests if I used the Forever stamps for our response envelopes.

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It looks like our wedding invitations aren’t the only invites circulating among our guests. Recently, I was giving an invitation to my bridal shower!

My bridesmaids are working together to throw me a bridal shower at the end of this month.
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I truly wish calligraphy was in my budget or that I could create such beautiful characters with ease and consistency. I had dreams of teaching myself some calligraphy techniques, but every attempt was a big FAIL, and I just didn’t have the time or commitment to practice the skill. I wanted the addresses to be handwritten, so my own handwriting would have to do.

My biggest challenge was keeping the writing straight. When I addressed my Christmas cards one year, I had way too many where the names looked like they were climbing a mountain. Since I was using colored envelopes for the wedding invites, I couldn’t do the trick where you place a lined piece of paper inside the envelope to guide your writing. But, I did have one tool in my massive craft supply collection that proved to be one of the best investments I’ve ever made: The Journaltopia from Creative Memories.

Basically, this tool is an eight-inch ruler with nylon loops across the top.
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I love paper. I love different colors, patterns, textures and weights. I buy scrapbooking paper because it’s pretty, without ever really needing it for one of my scrapbook pages. (And those six for $0.96 sales at Jo-Ann’s are hard to pass up!) When it came to wedding invitations, I never really considered any other option but making them myself. I wanted to experiment with different papers and try my hand at designing them on Adobe Photoshop Elements. (Elements is great version of Photoshop for people who either lack the money to pay for the full version of Photoshop or don’t need all of the bells and whistles the pros need. If you want to try your hand at Photoshop, Elements is great entry-level software. It costs less than $100 and you can get a free trial here.)

My first step in designing the invites was deciding on the paper. I had grand dreams of doing pocket fold invites because I like how they look, but in reality, I didn’t need them. With our ceremony and reception in the same place and the vast majority of our guests not needing overnight accommodations, I didn’t need a pocket to hold all the extra information cards commonly held in the pockets of said pocket folds. The extra cost of postage and paper weren’t sitting well with me either, making it that much easier for me to justify not doing them.

I started to search online and in invitation catalogs for designs and styles that I liked.
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After hours of brainstorming, collecting inspiration pictures, playing around in Adobe Photoshop Elements, hunting down iStock images and Photoshop brushes, testing papers, experimenting with different fonts and colors, shopping for envelopes online, second guessing myself, designing, printing, spending a lot (and I mean a whole lot) of quality time with a paper trimmer, rubber stamping, handwriting addresses, stuffing, sealing, and stamping, our invitations were dropped off at the post office yesterday afternoon!

Here’s Mr. DE carrying the box of all the invites into the post office.

I have to admit that all day yesterday before our mail station visit, my stomach was filled with butterflies. Partly because I think I finally had my “ah ha” moment where I realized that this whole getting married thing is actually happening. Something about putting the invites in the mail made everything seem real and official.

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Since Mrs. Pineapple covered some great things to do in some of the rural areas outside of Steel City, I’ll try to give you a virtual tour of some hot spots in and around the city itself.

I currently don’t live in Pittsburgh proper, but spent four years living downtown during my college days and have been working in the City of Bridges (there are 446 crossing our three rivers) for the last six years. Long gone are the days of steel mills running the region’s economy and the dirty image the city is still trying to shake. Pittsburghers take pride in being the big city with a small-town feel and hometown pride is common among residents in the region. We even have our own language, n’at.

First up, a trip to Pittsburgh cannot be complete without taking in some type of professional sporting event or activity. After all, it is the City of Champions! If you’re looking for something to do in the spring through early fall, check out the Pirates at PNC Park.

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I find it rude when a cashier doesn’t greet me as I enter their checkout lane. (At Walmart, the credit card pin pad asks you if your cashier was friendly today and I’ve been guilty of checking “no” when deserved.) I’m a no-pickle-on-a-cheeseburger person, and I always request it, so I really dislike getting attitude from a fast food clerk when I bring my pickle-clad burger to the front with hopes of correcting my order. With the way our economy is heading, I really don’t understand why more employers don’t stress the importance of customer service to their employees. My money is good at lots of stores, so please, earn my business by being friendly, courteous, and concerned if I have an issue.

That said, shopping for a bustier to support the girls on the wedding day brought a surprisingly awesome customer service experience at a major department store.

Before I tell you the good, let me tell you the bad. I had my first gown fitting over the weekend, so a few weeks before, I knew I needed to purchase the appropriate undergarments to go with my dress. I needed a strapless, nude, or ivory long-line bra, so I set out to what I thought would be the best place to find one—a bridal store. I’m not going to name names, but this was a bridal chain store for which I’ve read positive reviews for their bra offerings.

When I got to the store, I told them what size bra I normally wear, but told them I was unsure about size since I heard the long-line bras fit differently. The sales attendant handed me two sizes and showed me a dressing room. She said to holler if I needed help and then walked away. Well, I’m not Gumby, nor am I as flexible as an Olympic gymnast, so putting on a long-line bra by myself was near impossible.
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Wow! I am truly flattered by all of your wonderful comments about the DIY cake trial results! Thanks! So many of you had questions, so I thought I would write up a separate post to answer as many as I could, as best as I could.

Here goes:

How much did it cost?

Adding it all up, here is what I have paid and what I’m expecting to pay for the wedding cake.

Total for Styrofoam tiers: $27.55

• 6″ - $3.25
• 8″ - $3.60 (I bought this one, but it was swapped out for the real cake. I wasn’t sure which layer to swap at the time of ordering, so I just got all of them.)
• 10″- $4.55
• 12″- $5.20
• Shipping - $10.95

Total for Fondant (estimated 10 lbs.): $10.34

• Marshmallows - ($1.00 per bag) $3.00
• Powdered sugar - ($1.12 per bag) $3.36
• Crisco - $3.98

Real cake layers -$5.24

• Cake mixes - ($0.98 per box) $1.96
• Eggs - (half dozen) $1.00
• Oil - $1.98
• Cake board - $0.30

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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. My sister, Jessica, and I set out to do a cake trial over the weekend and, as promised, here is a blog post to tell you all about how it went.

First, we started by making the fondant. The recipe I used is called Marshmallow Fondant and you can read about it on this website. Basically, you take a whole bag of mini marshmallows and put them in a bowl, sprinkle them with a couple tablespoons of water, and melt it all in the microwave.

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I’ve shared a few of the bargains I’ve scored with the hive, but now I have a super cute one to show you. Yesterday, I took a walk on my lunch hour and stopped in at the Burlington Coat Factory downtown on 6th Avenue. As soon as you walk in, the entryway is always stocked with seasonal items. This time, spring coats and Easter dresses were hanging on the walls.  My sister and I were talking about getting a flower girl dress for my adorable four-year-old niece, Aidyn only the day before this little shopping trip. So seeing the dresses reminded me to check out the rest of the dresses in the children’s department.

As soon as I went to the lower level, I saw tons of cute Easter and spring dresses. Most were pink, purple, or white with embroidered flowers. They also had a decent selection of white and ivory dresses, and I quickly scanned the racks for something that would make a perfect flower girl dress. I saw plenty of possibilities in an in-between-white-and-ivory shade, so I called my sis to confirm the size. We needed a 4, and most of the selections in the right color were size 6 or bigger, or in toddlers sizes.

After a few more minutes of searching, I found one.
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10. I stumbled upon them. I wasn’t even looking for shoes when I was at David’s Bridal the other day, and then BAM… there they were! I love it when that happens.

9. They are dyeable. I can have them dyed to match my somewhere-in-between-white-and-ivory dress, or get a punch of color by going for a nice shade of celadon green. Oh, and dyeing at David’s will only cost $3!

8. They are comfortable! They seriously have the potential to stay on my feet all night. They feel that good when I have them on.

7. They fit! When you have size 11 feet, it’s hard to find cute shoes in your size, so finding this pair was a huge relief.

6. The heel is the right height! I’ll be able to verify this for certain on Saturday when I have my first gown fitting, but from my initial calculations, they will be just the right height to eliminate the need to hem my dress. With all of the beading at the bottom, I’m excited that I won’t have to pay extra fees for alterations and beading.

5. They are satin! I love how the sheen of the fabric makes them look glamorous without being too over-the-top on the shiny factor.

4. They are peep toes! I have never owned a pair of peep toes before (this comes back to the cute, affordable shoes in my size issue) and I love that I get to wear my first pair on my wedding day!

3. They are accented with rhinestone buckles! I love how that gives them just the right amount of sparkly!

2. They were on clearance! As a bargain shopper, there is nothing better than getting something you need and love for way less than you expected to pay.

And, the number one reason why I am in love with my shoes is…
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…and properly pinning on a boutonniere is one of them!

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Let’s face it. It’s darn near impossible to pin a boutonniere (or corsage) on yourself, all by yourself. Trying to get it straight and keeping it from flopping over are some of the challenges, so be prepared to help out the guys in your wedding party by learning how to master the pinning technique.
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Fourteen months into out 17-month engagement and Mr. Deviled Egg and I have selected wedding colors, contemplated menu options for our reception, decided on favors, planned decorations and centerpieces, worked on our guest list, put together a wedding spending budget, hired a photographer, discussed details of our ceremony and completed several other tasks for making our day special and personalized. While we still have one or two major decisions to make (and what seems like a million minor tasks to complete), the planning process is wrapping up and the plans for the wedding are falling in place.

But, it’s impossible to plan for a wedding without looking past the day on which we will say our vows. Sure, it’s easy to get caught up in tradition and excitement of a wedding day, but we’d be fools to ignore the marriage itself at the expense of making one day perfect as possible. There are so many things we have to think through and prepare for prior to tying the knot. Mr. DE and I have spent quite a bit of time over the past year or so talking about how things will be once we are married. And, it seems like this topic comes up more and more in our conversations as the wedding date approaches. From housing, family planning and money to cooking and cleaning, we are doing our best to discover whether or not we have similar (or even realistic) expectations about how things will be.

In addition to our own discussions, we’ve also started premarital counseling with our Pastor. While the counseling session is standard protocol for a marriage ceremony performed by our Pastor, we both see it as an opportunity for creating an open dialog about marital life that will further prepare us for the “from this day forward” part.
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