Weddingbee Blog

I think it’s safe to say that majority of brides imagine their wedding days with blue skies and the sun shining—a picture perfect weather day. I’m going to share the story of our wedding week weather with you because I was not in that weather camp and also because when I share our pictures with you in the recaps, I want you all to know how perfect the weather was for us.

We planned our outside winter wedding in anticipation of the weather being winter-y. We had outdoor heaters, we passed along wise words to dress warm, and my mom even bought 30 fleece blankets at after-Christmas sales. What we didn’t plan on was unusually warm weather. By January 10th, Durango had not even a flake of snow since the first week in December, and the highs were nearing the mid-50s. When trees are dormant and all that remains from the last snowstorm is brown ice and brown dirt, the landscape is far from pretty.

On January 11th, the day our 10-day forecast was available, it predicted sun, sun, and more sun all the way through our wedding day. What was the problem with all the sunny weather predictions?
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Three weeks before our wedding and I still didn’t have the slightest clue of what gifts to give to our wedding party. When you add our parents and officiant, we were buying for a total of seventeen people. We decided we wanted our gifts to be simple, meaningful and cost effective.

Let’s start with the boys. We briefly contemplated custom cuff links, but couldn’t decide on what exactly we would pick out…kayaks, skateboards, snowboards, states? We couldn’t pinpoint any one idea so we scratched it. We both really liked the idea of flasks, but felt like it was too common and expected. The solution came when I realized how much Mr. Honey really enjoys drinking beer out of a frosty beer mug (seriously the man loves an ice cold mug straight out of the freezer for his brew).

Ah ha! Custom made beer mugs for our groomsmen, dads, and officiant! We picked up this glass etching glue and this reusable stencil set from Hobby Lobby for a total of $13 (after a 40% off coupon). After browsing Ross & TJ Maxx for an affordable set of large (Mr. Honey requested they be large in size) beer mugs; we happened to stumble upon the Dollar Tree. Gigantic beer mugs for one dollar! The etching process was pretty dang easy: apply stencils, secure with tape, slather with etching glue, let sit for one minute and rinse!

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Quite a while ago, I posted about how we fell into a free photography contract with an acquaintance of mine who offered it up. Many of you expressed concerns, and at the time I had faith it would work out; it had to work out because we had no other option. I should have listened to you, hive! About six weeks before our wedding, I opened my Gmail to find an email from said photographer. My heart sunk. He was writing to tell me that his photography was going in a different direction and he “no longer needed wedding photography for his portfolio.” Six weeks before we needed him; six weeks in which everything else was coming together and many months too late to start a new photography budget. I was a mixture of emotions, from being completely pissed off to the feeling of total betrayal. We emailed back and forth, and it came to him agreeing that he would honor his contract and shoot our wedding “if that’s what it came to.” Long story short, I was getting the many hints that our photographer just didn’t want to be there for our wedding.

One night I had one of those wedding nightmares that so many Bees have written about. My nightmare? That this photographer just didn’t show up. I mean why would he? He had no vested interest in our day, no deposit to return, no money to collect. I laid in bed thinking how awful that would be and my mind drifted to a different thought. What if he did show up but was just so-so in his efforts? Which situation would be the worst?
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Seriously, I’m so giddy to be able to use those nouns! We used fiance/ee for so long that finally getting to say husband and wife is just…right. We’ve only been married for three days, but each time I stare down at my engagement ring that is finally accompanied by its partner, the wedding band, I feel so complete.

Our wedding weekend was amazing and our wedding day was perfect. My new husband (!!!) and I aren’t taking a honeymoon right away so we are settling back into the real world. I will tell you that Sunday morning we both woke up and sighed a very large sigh of relief. We had done it. All the planning, mind space, and money spent had actually concluded in us becoming husband and wife.

While we wait for our pro pictures, I have a few things I would love to share with the Hive that I didn’t get to before the wedding. But to hold you over, here is a teaser picture from good ol’ Facebook.

The Honeys really did get married in a Colorado blizzard:
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Hi hive! I’m here at a beautiful mountain cabin with eight of my favorite ladies the night before my wedding…I’m surprisingly calm, it’s very surreal. BM Fawn made me a panty line, we choreographed a dance to push it, sat by the fire and drank cocktails, and laughed our booties off in true Miss. Honey fashion.

Thank you for reading the Honey story and following our wedding journey…we can’t wait for Sunday, to be husband and wife. I’m so grateful to be a part of this incredible online community of women, wow! You ladies have encouraged, suggested and supported so many details of our wedding that I’m eternally grateful.

I’m off to write my vows…and signing off for last time as MISS. HONEY!!

To Mr. Honey: I’m ridiculously excited to be your wife, you are my true other half and you make me feel whole in every sense of the word. I love you with every ounce of me and can’t wait for forever!

Xo. Miss. Honey.

A few weeks ago, amongst our RSVPs and Christmas cards, I received this little cutie, addressed solely to me:

My bridal shower!! MOH Stac, BM K, and BM Candace worked together and threw me one helluva bridal shower. I gave a few guidelines on what I saw happening for my shower: champagne, finger foods, and no toilet paper wedding gowns. My shower invite list was ridiculous, coming in at 33 invited women. I could have chosen to do two separate showers, but in my book, the more the merrier.
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I’ve shared with you my dress, my boots, my rings and garter…now for the rest of my wedding day accessories. Earrings are an everyday staple for me, and necklaces and bracelets are worn almost as often, so wedding day accessories were a must.

I started with my necklace. I knew I wanted something big and bold—statement making. I couldn’t add anything until I had the necklace. I found loads of inspiration but by far my favorite is this picture:

Image via Style Me Pretty/Photo by Alders Photography

The best part? This gorgeous bride made the gorgeous necklace and provided the tutorial here.
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Just because we aren’t doing the bouquet/garter toss, certainly doesn’t mean I don’t want my thigh to be looking pretty on our wedding day. In fact, part of the reason I didn’t want to do a garter toss is because I’m quite in love with the circle of lace I’ve set aside for my thigh. My thighs are far from my best feature so this really is my only chance to dress it up with something feminine, pretty and sexy.

I wasn’t really looking for garters; I hadn’t even really thought about if I would wear a garter. I was just browsing the  web one day and this picture made me stop dead in my tracks:

Image from Etsy Listing/All About Chic by Antiya

I loved the style—the more artsy take on the garter. I liked that it wasn’t delicate tulle, but a more bold design. At $33, the price is actually quite reasonable, but I decided I would make mine…I mean it’s just lace, some fabric and beads, right? Actually, yes, I was right.

A long, long time ago I stumbled upon this fabric flower tutorial and have been diligently making fabric flowers for a few other elements in the wedding.
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Putting our ceremony together was oddly simple. We have been on the same page since day one that our ceremony would be short and simple; having an outdoor winter ceremony has helped us keep it to that.

We needed an officiant and we knew right away that our officiant would be someone special to us, someone who knew us. We aren’t church-goers and so having a church officiant didn’t make any sense. While it took a couple months into our engagement to actually decide whom that person would be, once we thought of it, it was like, “Duh!” Our officiant is Best Man Cruise’s dad, Mark. Mr. Honey has known him for years and years and while I’ve only known him a couple years, he is the perfect person for the task. We asked him over for wings and beer one night and he happily accepted. In the months to come, I did some research on how Mark would become officially officiated. I found the best website to be openministry.org where the ordination was free, so I even splurged and spent $14.95 on a certificate. We celebrated with margaritas and Mexican food that night.

We have an Officiant!

Once Mark had “the power invested in him” as he likes to say, I outlined the flow of our ceremony, leaving the word content in Mark’s hands. So, here’s how our short and sweet ceremony will go.
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Last Christmas Mr. Honey bought me one of those flip-a-day calendars—365 days of cat tips, advice and quotes. There was one recently that said this: “If you plan on having your cat play a role in your wedding, make sure you take her to the site so that she becomes familiar with the space”. HA, yeah right. If you have ever travelled in a car with your cat, you know that they don’t do well under stress. Needless to say, our kitties won’t be with us on our wedding day. As you may or may not remember, our doggy Zeus, will be. We just bought a handsome new leash and his tie should be in any day. I first told you about all four of our furbabies a long time ago, but in light of this post, I will just say again that in addition to Zeus, our three kitties are super dooper special to us. They make us smile and laugh a thousand times a day. Since they can’t be there physically, I wanted to represent them in some way. Enter the adorable phenomenon that is custom cake toppers. Normally couples have themselves customized, but I skipped us and went straight for our pets.

I searched the holy grail of custom toppers, Etsy, and fell in love with too many shops. Most of them came with a high price tag to match, but I finally stumbled upon IttyBittyWoodShoppe and commissioned a topper of just animals for $40. I sent the owner pictures and placed my order. They arrived last week and I put some finishing touches on it and am ready to share!
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This is a story of diamonds; the old, the new, and the newer.

My “Something Old” came to me six years ago in the form of the most spectacular ring I’ve ever laid my eyes on. It’s a piece of jewelry that I’ve always ogled over, and something that brings back very fond memories of two incredibly special women in my life: my great-grandma and my grandma, so affectionately called Big Nana and Little Nana.

My Little Papa, Big Nana’s husband (are you following?), gave her a ring for an anniversary gift a very long time ago. We are thinking it was sometime in the ’40s. Because they were so poor when they got married in the ’20s, he couldn’t provide her with a diamond ring, but more than made up for that 20 years later. I remember the ring on my Big Nana’s finger when I was younger; the light would hit the diamonds and easily catch anyone’s attention. My Big Nana passed away when I was in high school and it was naturally passed down to her daughter, my Little Nana.

Little Nana was a fan of jewelry and her husband, my Papa, spoiled her with rubys and diamonds.
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Where we will actually be standing for our ceremony is pretty bland, aside from the surrounding scenery of a frozen lake and *hopefully* snow covered landscape, so this is where my dreams of a handmade arch came into play. For our wedding arch, we wanted something natural and rustic, to complement the outdoor winter setting. Aspen trees are plentiful in our part of Colorado, and to us, are the perfect winter tree. The white bark is beautiful all by itself, even without the foliage to complement it.

Every year we go out into the National Forest surrounding Durango, hand-pick, and then chop down our Christmas tree. It’s a tradition I’ve participated in with my family for years and years, and now that I have Mr. Honey by my side, it makes the tradition even more special. This year, in addition to the Ponderosa Pine we would be chopping down, we added Aspen trees to list. We bought a permit for $22 which allowed us to cut 20 Aspens down. This not only provided enough trunks to hand build our arch, but we helped thin out our forests, too. Yay for preventing forest fires!

My dad happens to be the most handy, creative man I know. He can build anything, fix anything, and tends to go big when doing so. I left this project in my dad’s very capable hands, after showing him a couple pictures of what I was envisioning, similar to this:

Image via Elizabeth Anne Designs/Photo by Apertura Photo

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I’m pretty in the middle about the bouquet/garter toss. It’s fun when the couple does decide to do it, but if they don’t, I certainly don’t miss it. One thing that bugs me about the toss  is trying to get people on the floor; having to yell and convince people to get up there. Singling out the singles. There are the shy and single ones that just don’t want to participate and then remain in the back of the crowd (you need to make the catch!), there are the engaged folks who don’t need to participate but are persuaded somehow (you aren’t married yet!), and of course, there’s usually one or two that are actually dying to catch the bouquet or garter (just throw it directly at me!).

Here’s proof, from BM Scoot’s wedding a couple months ago. I was happily sitting with Mr. Honey when I got called out from across the room to join in with the toss, I declined more than once, but eventually made my way up and tried to stand in the back…then got pushed to the front of the crowd (because hey, “you are the next to get married, so you might as well catch the bouquet”) and was forced to compete with the one girl who really wanted and deserved the bouquet! And you see those 4 ladies behind me? They are all single, too. I felt bad that the bouquet got thrown at me, when I didn’t need it. I will admit, it’s a pretty funny action shot:

Image from BM Scoot’s wedding/Photo by Newell Jones & Jones Photography

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I thought I would take an afternoon off from wedding tasks and shift my focus from said wedding to Christmas. I needed a way to display Christmas cards our friends and family have been sending us. Well, leave it to bride brain to turn a Christmas project into a wedding project.

Heading to Pinterest for inspiration, I found the perfect solution and immediately picked up my supplies. A $5 picture frame from the thrift store:

And clothespins and jewelry wire from Wally World:
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This is the final post in my Sweet Suite series. I even debated if this post was necessary but I remembered how useful I found these types of posts when I was starting to brainstorm the process of how to create our invitations.

I had an overall vision of how I wanted our invitations to look when they were put all together, including the map insert, the twine and the mini-moo. Translated to words, it was like this: the invitation would be the largest element, the RSVP postcard would be the middle piece and our map/directions card would be the smallest. I had originally envisioned the map and directions on one side and a bit bigger than the RSVP, but it just didn’t work out that way. I printed a ton of samples until I got the sizing right, which ended up being two  invitations per page and four  map/directions per page. My steps will begin after the printing step, which is an obvious beginning step.

Step 1:
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