Hello there, friends!
The NYC bees enjoy hanging out so much that we have decided to put a monthly meet up on the calendar for the second Tuesday of every month.
Here are the details for the next meet up:
When: Tuesday, November 13, 6 pm
Where: Cask, 167 East 33rd Street
What: A night out with your bee friends in real life 
In light of what is going on right here in New York and the surrounding area, we will be using this opportunity to collect things are are needed by the hundreds of people who are unable to return to their homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Please bring one of the following to be donated: flashlights, batteries, radios, blankets, bread, apples, bananas, non-perishable food items (nothing too heavy, as I’ll be carrying it home by myself!). If you have a question about what to bring, feel free to comment here or PM me.
RSVP: PM redheadem to reserve your spot for this upcoming meet up and check this thread for updates.
In April, we revealed the first ever Weddingbee Weekend of Action—an opportunity for everyone to participate in community service projects in their hometown and represent Weddingbee. We had many people come forward to organize projects in many different cities in America, covering a wide variety of organizations, and on the weekend of June 23–24, bees around America participated in hands-on community service projects.
Mrs. Penguin rocking her Weddingbee Weekend of Action T-shirt, designed by Mrs. Cupcake
Thank you to everyone who organized and came out for the first Weddingbee Weekend of Action, dedicated to our hive member Penny Laine, whom we lost earlier this year. We hope to continue this tradition around the holidays this winter, and we would love to have even more projects and geographical areas represented all around the world. If you’re interested, please feel free to contact Mrs. Hermit Crab at hermitcrab (at) weddingbee (dot) com for more information.
Here is a recap of the wonderful work that was done in June (in no particular order):
Hi Hive! We’re kicking off a new series in which bees show off their hometowns from a girls’ night point of view! If you’re planning your bachelorette, stay tuned… the “Bachelorette in My Hometown” series is coming to a city near you!
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New York City is a great place to have a Bachelorette weekend—in fact, it’s hard to go out on Saturday night and not run into at least one (if not more!) bachelorettes and her posse out and about celebrating! Since New York is quite vast and full of possibilities, I focused my Bachelorette in My Hometown on Downtown Manhattan—essentially 23rd Street and south. All of the recommendations in this post are just based on my own experience and do not reflect all of the options that are out there!
My first tip on visiting NYC for any location is to pick up a Time Out NY when you arrive—there are always fun things happening in the city, and I have found this to be one of the most consolidated and comprehensive ways of finding out about what’s going on!
Where to Stay:
There are a million hotels all over New York City, and recently many friends and family have had luck finding great deals in the Financial District for around $100 on priceline.com. Another great option is to rent an apartment for the weekend, on a website like airbnb.com—just make sure to make the location before you commit, and see that it is near where you want to be, or at least near several trains/buses for the weekend.
What to do during the day if you want to get out and about:
It’s your last opportunity to sign up for your local event happening THIS WEEKEND! Email the project leader in your area for more details
The First Ever Hive-Wide Weddingbee Weekend of Action
Saturday and Sunday, June 23 & 24, 2012
For the first time ever, we are organizing a Weddingbee Weekend Action—an opportunity for hive members all over the world to come together through community service projects. Saturday and Sunday, June 23rd and 24th, there will be projects going on in many cities, and everyone is invited to take part as we give back locally as a global community. Right now, there are projects being organized in the following cities, with the corresponding organizers:
San Francisco, CA – Penguin
Durango, CO – Honey
Southern CT – Woodpecker
Washington, DC – Cucumber Sandwich
Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, IA – Doily
Chicago, IL – Bacon
Raleigh/Durham, NC – Cola
Omaha, NE – TKSJewelry
New York City, NY – Hermit Crab
Toledo, OH – Cannon
Philadelphia, PA – mrs_money
DFW, TX – High Wire
College Station/NW Houston, TX – Hyena
San Antonio, TX – Petit Four
Editor’s Note: We’re so excited to have you join us during our first Weddingbee Weekend of Action! See the details below, and be sure to email us if you’re interested in participating!
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SAVE THE DATE!
The First Ever Hive-Wide Weddingbee Weekend of Action
Saturday and Sunday, June 23 & 24, 2012
For the first time ever, we are organizing a Weddingbee Weekend of Action—an opportunity for hive members all over the world to come together through community service projects. Saturday and Sunday, June 23rd and 24th, there will be projects going on in many cities, and everyone is invited to take part as we give back locally as a global community. Right now, there are projects being organized in the following cities, with the corresponding organizers:
If your city is not yet listed and you would like to organize a project in your area, please email your Weddingbee name, real name, email address, and city/state to hermitcrab@weddingbee or penguin@weddingbee.com no later than May 1, 2012.
After May 1, we will release more specific information about the projects in each city and begin taking signups for participation for each project. Save the date!
This idea came out of an experience in April 2011. Many of the blogger bees came together in New Orleans for a weekend of wining, dining, and just general hanging out:
Many of the ladies in attendance for the weekend, out for the evening
Hey everyone, just a reminder about the meet up tonight! Thanks to sarahbabs for initiating!
Who: Any Weddingbee reader—waiting, engaged, married, and friends! You do not have to live in NYC to attend this event—you just have to be willing to come from wherever you are!
What: A meet up to get to know other Weddingbee devotees and talk weddings, life and just spend some good time hanging out!
When: Monday, September 19, starting at 7 pm
Where: The downstairs section of Croton Reservoir Tavern, 108 West 40th Street, right by the corner of 40th and 6th Ave (across the street from Bryant Park)
Why: It’s a great opportunity to put faces behind the names that you see and interact with every day!
Feel free to jump to this post and discuss, or respond right here! Hope to see you tonight!
Hey everyone! I just wanted to pop in and make sure that everyone in the New York City area knows about the meet up planned on the boards! Thanks to sarahbabs for initiating!
Who: Any Weddingbee reader – waiting, engaged, married, and friends! You do not have to live in NYC to attend this event – you just have to be willing to come from wherever you are!
What: A meet up to get to know other Weddingbee devotees and talk weddings, life and just spend some good time hanging out!
Read more…
Hello there, Hive! I have missed posting here regularly, but I have been popping around the boards just to make sure I don’t miss anything. I wanted to jump in with a post about a Jewish tradition that I haven’t yet talked about here, and one that I think many people will like.
Every year on the Jewish calendar, is a relatively unknown holiday called “Tu B’Av,” or the 15th of the Hebrew month Av. It occurs in the summertime, usually in August. This year, it falls on the eve of the 14th and until sundown on the 15th of August (and the dates almost never line up like this!). Historically, the holiday was known as a day of matchmaking, when women would dress all in white, and dance outside the city walls, and choose who they wanted to marry. It has been said that “There were no better (i.e. happier) days for the people of Israel than the Fifteenth of Av…since on these days the daughters of Israel/Jerusalem go out dressed in white and dance in the vineyards. What were they saying: Young man, consider whom you choose (to be your wife).”
Today, it something like Valentine’s Day in the Jewish community—a day to celebrate love and relationships, and the magnitude of choosing your partner, and may include dancing and singing together into the night.
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“To turn around and walk away… / Maybe another time, another day / As much as I want to, I can’t stay”*
Hive, it’s that time. I have been dreading writing this post for so long, and trying to think of ways to put it off. But now, on our first anniversary (OMG can you believe it’s our first anniversary?!?!), I think it’s time.
Way back in 2008 I stumbled on this crazy site called “Weddingbee.” Quickly, I became addicted to the massive amounts of inspiration and advice, and how friendly everyone was. One year and one month ago I was introduced as Miss Hermit Crab (and I still get butterflies when I think about my acceptance email!). We had a whirlwind month together as I caught you up on all my planning, and we got to know each other. And one year ago today I married the most amazing person in the world—my perfect match.
This year has had its share of ups and downs for us for sure, but Mr. HC become partners and friends and a team more and more every day, and every day I feel luckier to be able to be married to this amazing person. Here’s a tiny peek of my gift for Mr. HC on our first anniversary:
And I owe HUGE thank you to you, Hive.
Just like Mrs. Octopus, above everything else (you know, aside from actually getting married), we wanted to throw the most-fun-ever-talked-about-for-years-most-banging-bash any of our guests had ever attended. I can’t possibly capture the energy in still-motion photographs, but I sure did try. Every guest was on their feet for at least a few songs, and months later, people are still telling us how much fun they had (and would we please throw an anniversary party?)! And Mr. HC and I had the most fun of our entire lives!
Time to get real for a minute: I debated whether or not to go into detail about the things that happened at our wedding that were not so magical. In an effort to keep it real with you guys, there were several incidents that were upsetting. First, the timeline got a little wonky in the morning, and I wound up being late to the tisch. Second, we had a family member toast made that was the opposite of what a toast should be—it was actually offensive and upsetting. So upsetting that I decided to omit the toasts altogether from my recaps and just show you the fun stuff. It took me several months to get to where I am now, which is not quite so upset, but still working on getting over it. Third, there were a couple of seriously minor things that were not exactly right and I decided to ignore those completely and have even mostly forgotten what they were!
I’ve decided to share this with you now because despite everything, and believe me, these were big everythings, the wedding was hands down, no question, the best day of my entire life so far.
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I love those pictures that people get at their weddings of the whole group, but at nearly 300 guests, that was simply not an option! We were so lucky to be surrounded by loving friends and family, many whom we had spent the last three years far away from in Syracuse, and the wedding was a giant reunion! I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you a few of my favorite photos of friends and family who came to share the day with us!
This one and the next are two of my favorite photos in sequence! They’re good friends from my childhood and we’re all spread out now.
Let’s get back to the party!
This is one of my favorite photos—how adorable is my little sister??
Want to know what she is watching?
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As we take a little breather from all that dancing, I thought I would take this chance to show you a few of our reception details.
Our place cards, with calligraphy by the wonderful and talented Fran Heider of Little Flower Calligraphy, who did our envelopes
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Just in case you didn’t get enough, I’m embedding the song clip again so please feel free to pick up wherever you left off! (Music by Nafshenu)
Our epic horah continued with the traditional chairs – as we were hoisted high up into the air!
I’m only a little (LOT) scared!
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Many of you have probably participated in some sort of horah, many of you may not have. Well, when I say we had the horah to end all horahs, I would not be exaggerating! I am giving you a quickie sound bite of many of the tunes that our band played for our over-45-minute dance session! I think you will enjoy this post more if you have it playing in the background—be prepared, it’s not your usual horah music! I don’t know if I can really show you the energy, the enthusiasm, the FUN, the awesomeness that was the first part of the dancing, but I will try!
I should say here, I don’t think I have said enough about our band. I found Nafshenu online, and I quickly became their biggest fan from the demo CD they sent me! They kept the party moving from start to finish, totally read our crowd, played every song just as I had imagined it, and were so amazing from cocktail hour through to the end. People were asking if they would stay and play longer! If you are looking for a band that can play a wide variety of both Jewish and secular music, and play it well, I will totally, totally recommend Nafshenu! I will be highlighting their Jewish music in my posts, but believe me, they played everything from “The Final Countdown” to “Living on a Prayer” to “Shout!” with ease!I wish I could put all of their music in, I loved it so much (I even have their CD on as I write!).
Mrs. Hermit Crab, New York, NY Age and Occupation: 24, Youth Director soon to be Grad Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Medical Student - soon to be Surgery Resident Engagement Date: October 11, 2008 Wedding Date: June 2010 Venue: New York Botanical Garden About Me: I love all things food, books, our furbaby, Rashi, and adventures with my amazing fiance (oh, and saving the world!). This summer I will not only be a bride, but a bridesmaid, officiant, and attendee as well---it's all about weddings in my life right now, full of so many exciting moments and projects. We're planning a fab New York City wedding weekend full of family, love and lots of color!
