Weddingbee Blog

The invitations process that nearly killed me, that is.

OK, so you saw my lovely inspiration and my notsolovely pencil and paper sketches last time. My awesome step-mom took my sketches and designed these guys:

Incorporating our heart, the stripes I love, and the scrolly and bold-y fonts

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You’ve seen a sneak peek of my invitations here, but I wanted to back up and tell you how I was inspired. Ever since I first started reading Weddingbee, I was always way into the invitation posts, and extremely impressed by everyone on the blog and boards. I mean, I even ordered a damn Gocco for Pete’s sake (and no, I still do not know how to use it).

I think it would have been mad awesome to say “Hey, guess what? I made those invitations!” But, I probably would have had to say that through a mic stuck in my padded cell at a mental institution. So, I got someone else to do it themselves, that someone else being my fabulous and talented stepmom.

Here is the inspiration I have been lusting over!

The Fabulous Stripes Invitations

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OK, I complained just a teeny tiny bit a few weeks ago about invitations. You may have thought, from reading that post, that I designed the invitations myself. Or, you know, had to cut them out. Glue pieces together. Used a Gocco and sewed them with delicate gold thread and what not.

Nope. I just had to stack, tie, stuff, and stick. And it ’bout nearly killed me, and sure as heck disrupted my exercise plan for good, it seems.

At the beginning, it was fun. These are the pics from when I was so excited to get started! Woo hoo! Invitations!!! It’s all really happening!!!

I thought it would be a good idea to make an assembly line to assemble these little guys, and to sit on the floor. Because I forgot that I am 31 years old, not 23.
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Mrs. Sloth, that is.

So, Mrs. Sloth said her goodbyes yesterday and I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little sad about it [sniff sniff]. I met her in real life, and I was all like “OMG, Mrs. Sloth, all my friends and I just think you are the coolest thing since sliced bread. They are all like so totally jealous that I am hanging out with you right now. Can I get a picture?”

In her other life, she provides some awesome fashion advice. I love to read her blog What The Frock for a number of reasons. 1. It’s a super cute blog design. 2. I always wanna look like a celebrity on the cheap. And 3. You (yes, you!) can write to her and get real live (OK, live over the internets) advice on your very own personal dilemma.

So, I sent her my very own personal dilemma with the white, shiny dress and she tried to fall it up for me (although she says the white is fine, she does think it is too shiny for a casual bbq and I TOTALLY agree!).

Image via What the Frock

David’s Bridal Dress $99 - Forever 21 Earrings $6 - Anthropologie Top $98

Seychelles Shoes $70 - ASOS Bag $39

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I am having another attack of dress doubt disorder!!!!!! Cue freak out here.

Image via Pitch.com

The good news is, unlike the last bout of this disorder (which is apparently cyclic), the doubt is not about my wedding gown. That is amazing and beautiful and basically the best dress in the world. Insert sigh of relief here.

The bad news is, the doubt is back and I think it’s here for a legitimate reason this time. You see, as a church going little girl raised in the South, my grandma taught me that you cannot wear white after Labor Day. And what color is my rehearsal dinner dress?
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It may very well just be a Magic-specific problem, but I have run into some problems with beautiful sticker address labels that I created myself. I wanted to post about this as a Public Service to brides around the world, as well as to find out if I just have some sort of specific disability when it comes to mailing things.

The first time around was with the Save the Dates. I made beautiful wrap around address labels, and many recipients told me that their envelope was all marked up when it got to them. Also, at least four were returned, because the post office thought our address (on the back) was the send to address. Boo.

For the invitations (post coming soon!), I nixed the problematic wraparound label and created beautiful, straight forward sticker address labels with my Silhouette—you know, that machine that I barely know how to use. I printed them on full page sticker paper and had the Silhouette cut them out. It made me want to die, and caused me to write this post and this one too about how much everything sucks.

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brownies from scratch are so much better than brownies from a box.

So, ’member when I wrote about middle brownies being da bomb, and you all posted a bunch of recipes, and I said I would make every single one? Well, I didn’t do that…yet. But I did make four brownie recipes that The Hive suggested, and two from a box. After I did all that, I wiped my sweaty brow, declared that I hated brownies, and I never wanted to see, much less taste, a brownie again.

Then all my girlfriends came over and we ate the brownies and drank milk and wine. And all was better again.

Also, I made them taste test the six different brownies BLIND. I mean, I didn’t blind them. But I put tiny brownie bites on plates, and a sticky note in front of each plate, so they could write their thoughts and opinions down. [Yeah, I should have taken photos of all this, but after baking six batches of brownies in a row, I was feeling a little bit lazy...sorry.]

It was completely obvious which brownies were made from a box and which were made from scratch, which really impressed me…I felt like they would be more similar, but clearly, I was so wrong. I might never be able to make brownies from a box again!

Guest Amy was the first person to respond to my previous brownie post, and she recommended salted fudge brownies. I was all like “Salt and fudge?!? Yes, please.” So I made them.

Image and Recipe from Tasty Kitchen

Even though I over baked these (oops), they were delicious…definitely a favorite of the ladies!

Coffecake suggested Alton Brown’s Cocoa Powder Brownies…so I made ’em.
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Alternate Title: “Why Are We Having a Wedding Again?”

Or, “Man, I’m Tired”

So, I’m kinda over all this wedding stuff. I mean, yes, I am excited to marry Mr. M and be his wife and all that. And, I’m excited to see all our friends and family. And I’m most excited to wear my pretty dress. Just kidding…not really.

But, I’m soooooooooooooo tireddddddddddd of making decisiooooooonnnnnnnnnnns [that’s my whiny voice]. Like, for instance, what to name our tables. We could number them…or we could name them after cat breeds…or we could name them after Harry Potter things (like the Shrieking Shack and the Whomping Willow, and wouldn’t it be fun to put people at the Slytherin table???)…or we could name them after trees, since we sorta have this tree theme going…sort of.

The Whomping Willow via Harry Potter Lexicon

The Whomping Willow is a tree! OMG, also, I feel like I am distracted all the time, and like I’m hopped up on meth too, not that I actually know what meth is like, but I can imagine. In my mind it’s like “buttons, seating chart, hair, make up, rain, rain, tent, freaking tent, coffee, fall, leaves…” and on and on and on all freaking day and night long.

Ahem.
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I don’t think I’ve told you about my veil yet. You’ve been waiting, I know. I’ve actually had my veil forevah-evah…I bought it before I bought my dress. Allow me to explain.

I tried on the dress that is The One, which I haven’t technically revealed to you fully yet, but did give you a partial view. OK, fine, here’s another snippet.

Crappy photo of lovely dress and Barbie veil, courtesy of Yours Truly

I hadn’t bought the gown yet, or even fully committed to it, but I had tried on veils with the dress that would become The One, and I knew that the veil I wanted was a Barbie veil. That’s not the actual name for it.

I guess cathedral veils are really in these days, but when I tried those on, they made me feel like, um, what’s the expression? A wolf in sheep’s clothing? No. A whore in church? Eh, closer.

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(This is a Harry Potter reference laden post. Just thought I’d warn you, in case that’s not your thing.)

10. Ask your house elf to do the invitations. House elves are super competent and love to be helpful. I’m not insinuating you should get a slave to do it, though. Everyone knows you’re supposed to pay your house elves nowadays, duh.

Image via Wizarding Life

9. Use those magical office assistants that Professor Umbridge had assembling that Anti Muggle Propaganda. They were super efficient and would probably prefer working for you anyways.
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Recently, I went to get a makeup trial done. On the advice of my hairstylist, I went to see her cousin who works at ULTA but also has done bridal makeup for years. I talked to her cousin on the phone and she was super polite and upbeat, so I had a good vibe.

I made an appointment for a trial during an event they were having. That seemed like the easy, affordable way to go, but wasn’t the best idea in the end. Each makeup artists was only allotted 30 minutes per customer, so it felt kinda rushed. Plus, we weren’t really supposed to be talking about bridal makeup…it was a covert operation. So I couldn’t really go into too much about what I wanted, which is really something like this:

Carrie Underwood / Image via Zimbio

When all was said and done, I liked the foundation fine, and the blush was OK, and the lips were good…but the eyes were bad. My immediate thought was, “I look like a zombie.”

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How did I find Weddingbee?

I don’t remember. I’m telling you, my memory is total crap. I know I found it after I was already engaged. I’m not sure how I didn’t find it sooner because I sure as heck was Googling wedding related things for years before that.

I think what had happened was, I was searching for something wedding related online, and the majority of searches came up with Weddingbee results, because let’s face it, us bees are some creative and awesome brides. At first I was like, “What the heck is a Miss Cheeseburger?” In fact, I think I decided this site was for wackos (sorry!) and vowed to stay away. But Google kept punting me back here and I was quickly hooked.

I loved both the blogs and the boards and read and posted a lot on both. And I knew right away I wanted to be a bee, so freaking bad….

My Application Story

What’s a Blog?

Once I realized that people actually blogged about their weddings, and then figured out what a blog was (I’m technologically impaired), I got myself one faster than you can say “Accio Blog.” I had always enjoyed writing fictional stories as well as personal pieces, and had started writing before about my life in general, but it always petered out because I didn’t have a focus.

This wedding blog served a couple of purposes for me. One, it gave me an outlet for talking about my wedding plans, fears, and freak outs without subjecting actual living humans to listen to me. Did you know that not everyone likes to listen to me talk about wedding stuff? I know…crazy, but true. So this was good for me, and for them.
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Insert your favorite expletives above.

I don’t know what the %#@! problem is with tents. They are super pretty, right?

Image via Perfect Wedding Guide / Photo by Karla Fountain Photography

Image via The Merriment Blog

But for some reason, we are having a really, really difficult time conceptualizing this whole tent thing. Hence the use of multiple expletives…often.

I feel like this is a math problem that I am trying desperately to solve, but I can’t because math is stupid and sucks. But I’m wondering if I maybe explain the problem to y’all, maybe one of you will be blessed with the intelligence, experience, and rational thinking skills that I seem to lack in response to this #^%$@! $#@!%^& tent problem.

Here’s the situation. We have rented a place called The Barn at Valhalla. It consists of a structure referred to as a “barn,” but it’s not really a barn, and if you refer to it as such it will piss Mr. Magic off to no end. (I know, there’s already a lot of factors in this problem, right?!?) This structure is not big enough to seat everyone for the reception.

How big is it, you [gutter minded girls] ask? Well, it’s, like, this big…

Image via A Wedding Minister

Ok, fine, I’ll give you some not exactly precise measurements in just a minute, but first, let me just explain that there is the inside part (see?) and an outside covered porch on either side (you can only see one of the covered sides above), and then an uncovered porch (that’s it on the right side of the photo).

Image via Duffy Gilligan, Owner of The Barn at Valhalla

Note that the 50 x 30 for the Main Hall includes the space for kitchens and bathrooms. Below are my crappy diagrams where unusable space is blacked out. The first one is the sunny day plan.

We could also put a couple more tables on the dance floor and then break them down…but that seems like such a pain.

Here is the rain plan.

So, this one has all the guests seated in the tent. Dancing and stuff would be in the barn.

[Ugh, I feel so stressed just writing this blog post.]

Ok, so, we obviously need to rent a tent in case it rains, and probably a 40×60 tent (I have been advised that size is best, and that size is bigger than the one in the above rain plan).

But, here’s my big question. Do we just commit to using the tent rain or shine, as it will be more roomy and will give us more piece of mind…or do we use the tent only as a rain plan? If you are thinking the latter (which is somewhat more cost efficient…might save us 500-800$…which in the big scheme of things is like a drop in the bucket…might as well go ahead and rent some pink ponies while we’re throwing this big huge freaking wedding…), let me tell you that first we put down a deposit, but then at most places we have to cancel the tent order one whole WEEK before to avoid paying the rest of the cost (we still lose our deposit). So, in some ways, it makes more sense just to spend the money, embrace the tent, have plenty of space and peace of mind.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but it’s like, two days until our wedding. OK, ninety something. Whatever…feels like two. Anyways, today a thought struck me as I was driving along. We need a cake topper! And the best place to go for cake toppers, in my humble opinion, is Lollipop Workshop on Etsy.

Image via LollipopWorkshop

But, last time I checked, that shop was temporarily closed. And sure enough, it’s still closed. The Lollipops are on vacation in Norway.

What the hell.
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Last time I whined a lot about working out and how I don’t wanna miss this on television this week.

Image via Paid Content

This time, I’m getting serious. For real. I heard you guys loud and clear about drinking water and exercising in the living room during commercials, and I am taking it to heart (except True Blood…which just watching shirtless Eric is a workout, eeper, I totally agree!). The carbs thing, I shall consider…are garlic fries made of carbs?
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