Weddingbee Blog

[All photos in this post are credited to Shawna Noel Photography.]

After slipping on my beautiful new ring, we headed inside to snap some portraits. Shawna and Kory had arrived at the courthouse early and scouted out a bunch of great photo opportunities. We laughed, joked, posed, and followed their lead, trying to take full advantage of the amazing turn-of-the-century architecture and style found throughout the courthouse.

Read more…

[All photos in this post are credited to Shawna Noel Photography unless otherwise noted. I’ll take credit for randomly cropping some of ’em. Hehe.]

When I left off, Mr. Mary Jane and I had finished dressing and primping at home and were ready to head out the door.

The wedding was at 4:30, and we were going to meet our photographer at 3:30 to take some photos before the ceremony. We drove down to the courthouse in our own car, with our good mutual friend Bob*, in tow. I originally figured that he’d be bored watching us get our picture taken (and he probably was), but he was also extremely helpful in holding things we needed held during this time (like our marriage license, rings, and even my bouquet occasionally).

Little did I know, Bob also had something *else* in his possession.

Now, Mr. MJ had made a couple of comments earlier in the day that left me a little suspicious. For example, when I put on my bracelet and other wedding jewelry, he was persistent about what I might wear on my right hand (my answer was: nothing). So I was half-expecting some sort of shiny gift (and may have hinted once or five times throughout the summer that such a gift would be welcomed!).
Read more…

Confession: I don’t have any pics us getting ready, and that’s how I wanted it. Why? Because it was a process pretty similar to when we get ready for work in the morning, but with more hairspray and fancier clothes.

All of our getting-ready efforts took place here:

Our one and only full bathroom. I started by taking a shower. I shaved, plucked, scrubbed and conditioned.
Read more…

We woke up to the alarm clock at 7:30 on September 9, 2009. Everything felt the same… our bed, our house, our routine. But today was definitely no ordinary day. It was our wedding day!

Mr. Mary Jane showered and got dressed in his usual clothes, while I selected sweats and an old Grateful Dead t-shirt. I didn’t shower… yet: the wedding wasn’t until 4:30 and I wanted to be fresh and clean at that time!

Mr. Mary Jane made me some coffee in my travel mug and we hopped in his car at about 9 AM. He planned to attend his class (at 10), but we had one little matter to attend to first:

The cake!

The cake was delivered to MIL’s house, 20 miles away, and since the family would be traveling directly to Hillsboro for the ceremony, she had no way to get it to Grand Forks for our evening celebration. Across the rural countryside we tore, in excess of 90 mph. We found out cake in a large Rubbermaid container in MIL’s front room (”Hi FMIL, I’m greasy, smelly and not wearing a bra!“), loaded it in the car, and gingerly drove back to the city (now painfully wary of every bump and crack in the road). Thankfully, the cake survived the trip. We plopped it on the dining room table and Mr. Mary Jane was off to class.

I bet you want to see it.
Read more…

Well, this is it! The start of my recaps. It’s going to be the worst kind of recap though: the kind with no pictures. Sorry, next time, I promise. I’ve been posting sparingly over the past few weeks, but I hope most of you will remember me: the courthouse bride. I was married on September 9.

If you’ve been following my posts, you’ll know that Mr. Mary Jane and I hired very few vendors for the big day. So on Tuesday, September 8 (the day before our Wednesday wedding), I had some running around to do!

I knew my day would end with me picking up my parents at the airport in Fargo, so I woke up early in the morning and did a whole bunch of last-minute cleaning. I needed to have the home looking its best, you know?! Then I was off.

My first stop was a little hole-in-the-wall nail salon in a local strip mall. I decided, last minute, to get a manicure. I have awful, chewed up nails and I really didn’t want them featured in photos. An hour later, I was cruisin’ across town with new French tips.

My next stop was the jewelry store, where I had my e-ring shined up. Sparkly!

And finally, the fun part: flowers.
Read more…

For a week or so, talk of announcements and Thank Yous and presents for parents has been pretty much on hold. This is (mostly) because we’re still waiting on our pro-pics. Sure, I’ve got plenty of friend-and-family photos, but I want you all to really experience our wedding (by being bombarded with all the photos, all at once!).

Well guess what? Our pro-pics are alllllmost ready! I’m hoping to pick them up on Monday.

[Shawna Noel Photography]

Are you ready for some recaps? I’m gonna start cranking them out next week!

Compromise can be a bad word, or it can be the best thing ever. In a recent post, I talked about the fine line between expressing yourself and alienating your guests. Some people choose to walk it, and others choose to place themselves squarely on one side or the other. Mr. Mary Jane and I chose to walk the line… just a little.

Before I show you our design, I’ll show you our inspiration. First, recall my original inspiration, the Mascaras’ Save The Dates.

I was all set to create that design… and then I saw these.

Read more…

I’m still waiting for the professional pictures from our photographer, but I stumbled upon another awesome courthouse wedding this morning and just had to share!

First off, San Fran courthouse = amazing. Second, check out this bride’s beautiful dress! See all the photos over at Rock ’n Roll Bride (that’s where I got the three photos below).

Read more…

I’m in the process of trying to create our wedding announcements. These’ll be sent primarily to out-of-staters and others who could not join us at our celebratory picnic.

With our other paper products, I knew what they needed to say (and pretty much what they should look like, too). They were serving a specific purpose. These wedding announcements? I thought we could have a little more fun with them. Be creative. Really make them our own.

Yet, my designs say stuff like “We are pleased to announce our marriage!” and “We said our Vows on the Ninth Day of September, Two-thousand Nine, at Four O’clock in the Afternoon.”

I feel like I should straighten my pantyhose and lift up my pinky finger or something.

[source]

Read more…

If you do a Google search for “Courthouse Wedding”, you’ll come up with links like this and this. The first one has statements like “More than 4 out of 5 marriages that start at the courthouse will end at the courthouse. The courthouse is where you go for a divorce, not a marriage.” That other one paints a really vivid picture: an arguing couple on their way to divorce court, metal detectors, and prisoners in shackles. Both of them are written by ceremony officiants for hire. Surprise, surprise.

You know already that our courthouse wedding vision got off to a rocky start. Namely, it was hard to find a courthouse that would actually marry us on the date we wanted! And a lot of the courthouse-type-people I spoke with on the phone were kinda rude. And Grand Forks County’s weddings are done at the jail. That’s a little too close to the “prisoners” image, which the author admitted was a worst case scenario.

You’ll hear about our ceremony and everything surrounding it soon, but I just wanted to say this:

I would not change anything about it. It was perfect. A perfect, beautiful venue (oh mah gawd, wait till you see the photos!). A wonderful day. A friendly deputy clerk. Our closest loved ones.

My point is that you can (to some extent) control the circumstances under which you get married, even if it’s at a courthouse.
Read more…

Before my first wedding, I didn’t actually know that weddings were supposed to take place on Saturdays. It never really occurred to me at all. I picked a date that worked with our schedules, and thought nothing of it until the responses to the save-the-dates started coming back:

“Did you know that’s a Thursday?”

And then I found out that People Get Married On Saturdays. Oh well.

When Mr. Mary Jane and I got engaged and started thinking about a date, I was armed with the knowledge that Saturday = Wedding. And we thought about a lot of them. 10-10-09 was one. 12-11-10 was another. 5-15-10. 6-19-10 (my parents’ anniversary). So many Saturdays to pick! Which one would it be?

But then we started to evolve our plan, and we decided to get married at a city hall. Each of our sets of parents did it, so why not? Except, courthouses aren’t open on the weekends. So a weekday, it would have to be! With such a small wedding, the amount of guest conflicts would be minimal, at least. (And aside from convenience for guests, I’m not sure why weddings are always on Saturdays.)
Read more…

Mr. Mary Jane and I took our rings to the jeweler today. We really didn’t want to part with them, but we had a few matters to attend to.

First off, I needed my wedding band re-sized. I had the e-ring re-sized back in March, but never the wedding band. It was a bit too big, and I need that corrected. It’s a little weird wearing two rings of different sizes on one finger!!

And, speaking of two rings… not for long! I’m also having them soldered together. My wedding band is a ’half eternity’ band, and in spite of its Euro Shank design, it kept spinning around. It and the e-ring were getting all scuffed up due to the friction between them, too! Not cool. I made the decision to solder them together months ago, but I think that even if I had been unsure on our wedding day, this past week of straightening and re-straightening would have convinced me.

If you are planning to have your rings soldered together after you marry, I have some advice for you:
Read more…

I read a lot of wedding planning blogs. No surprise, right? Wedding blogs are different from many other kinds of blogs because usually they have a climax: the wedding. When you start reading the planning posts of a bride (or groom), you generally expect to see the result of all that planning come to fruition within a period of months. As you read, the blogger is progressing toward a definite goal, a goal that you feel like you’re a part of because she chose to share it with you on the Internet. And then afterward, once the happy couple’s had a break from all that is wedding-related, you’ll probably find a post that says something like this:

“Being married is amazing!”

“I can’t believe we’re actually married!”

“Married life is spectacular: better than imagined!”

I’m about to say something that a lot of people don’t say. Maybe it’s because they don’t want to ruin it for the unmarrieds, or maybe it’s because I’m kind of weird and most people don’t feel this way. But…
Read more…

We did it!

I am still amazed by that, considering how many variables I’d only “loosely” tied down. Heading in to the week of the wedding, I didn’t have a photography contract, a venue contract, a restaurant reservation, an idea of what the cake would look like, a source for flowers, or even a guarantee (aside from a verbal “OK”) that the JP in Hillsboro would definitely be available on our day.

But everything came together, happened so flawlessly, and was over in the blink of an eye. I don’t even know if it’s hit me yet that I’m married! Our picnic was Saturday and it was, in a word: awesome. So many people came out to wish us well, see each other and enjoy some delicious ribs and chicken. The food was amazing, the cake was beautiful, and the company was grand. MIL and FIL really went over the top!

Our pro pics are a few weeks out still, so I’m going to push off the recaps until then. And until that time comes, I leave you with a sneak-preview of the happy couple (us!):

Read more…

It’s our day.

When the two of us met a little over two years ago, neither of us would have ever dreamed that we’d end up together. But six months ago, he proposed. And today, we’re officially becoming a family.

A lot has happened in half a year:

• It took me four changes of heart to find the right dress.
• I centered my colors around a shoe and a convenience.
• We opted out of throwing a big party, and were offered one instead.
• I thought forgoing a photographer was sensible, but then I came to my senses.
• I nearly had a breakdown over saving the date.
• I realized that it’s actually kind of hard to get married in a courthouse.
• Mr. MJ melted my heart by doing all the hard parts of the assembly for our picnic invitation suites.
• I almost lost myself in a sea of ’80s tulle and color-changing fountains.
• Mr. Mary Jane got a ring to be reckoned with.
• I was showered by both of the sexes.
• I found out that while I may not be America’s Next Top Sash Sewer*, I can slap together an agreeable bouquet in 30 minutes flat.

And did I mention that in the same time frame: I became a bee (which is awesome, but big commitment), we bought a house, and we are/have been enduring a huge amount of financial-stability-related stress? Where we find time for school and work, I’m not sure. But one thing remains constant: our love and support of each other.
Read more…