Weddingbee Blog

Not everyone lives in L.A., Chicago or New York City. Some of us also don’t live in Atlanta, Tucson or Colorado Springs. Hell, Mr. Mary Jane and I don’t live in Knoxville, Syracuse, or even Fargo.

We live in Grand Forks. It’s a decent, small city. A college town, too. We’ve got access to all of the basic stores: Office Max, Michaels, Target, Walmart, JCPenney, Sears… you get the picture.

We do not have a Saks, a Nordstrom, or a Neiman’s. There’s no PaperSource. No David’s or Men’s Wearhouse. No Trader Joe’s and no Whole Foods. No Costco, either. And that’s not because the town’s already satisfactorily filled with independent boutiques and crafters’ havens. It’s got a few, but mostly: there just isn’t the market for that stuff here.

This post is for the gals who live in places like mine. I bet you look at a lot of the awesome things other women have done for their weddings and you think: “I could do that too, if I only had a _________ store in my locale.”

I’m here to tell you: don’t sell yourself short!
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How’d you spend your Labor Day? I spent mine (or at least a small part of it) making a 3rd (and final) sash. See, on Monday morning, I tried on my dress to make sure my undergarments were fitting properly with it. They were, but I saw something else — something kind of bad: my sash was entirely the wrong color.

It was lime, and my shoes are “bamboo”. That’s somewhere between light green and grass green, but it’s definitely not lime. It was a very noticeable color difference. Too much of a difference to write off as an “almost”. It wasn’t even in the ballpark.

How did I not notice this before?

Crap.

With little time remaining until our wedding day, I decided that I needed a new sash. I didn’t want to take any chances, so I slipped in to my wedding day shoes and out the door I went. Thankfully, I easily found some better-matching ribbon at Micheals. It was wider too (which I’d originally wanted). Sweeeeeeet. I bought it, along with some more beads (since it’s a wider ribbon).

I apologize in advance for the bad photo: I had poor lighting, but no other opportunity to correct it. Here, you can somewhat see the color difference (and widths) between the two ribbons.
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Green!

I decided very recently that the pearl necklace I’d planned to wear — while absolutely lovely — just wasn’t fitting my “look”. A delicate white gold or sterling silver necklace was what I needed. After scouring various quick-shipping resources online, I came to the conclusion that I really liked the idea of wearing a peridot necklace. Peridot is not only Mr. MJ’s birthstone: it also matches the hue of my shoes and sash.

Alas, with the wedding day fast approaching, I couldn’t find anything online that’d be shipped quickly enough. And I couldn’t find a cheap solution at any local department or discount stores either. With Mr. Mary Jane’s encouragement, I hit up River City Jewelers (where we bought our rings). I spent a lot of money (well, a lot given that my budget for this was ummm, zero dollars) and picked out the exact shape, size, and color peridot I wanted. They ordered it, mounted it, and had it ready for me on Saturday!

Here’s everything together.

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When I first started planning our wedding, I knew one thing for sure: I was going to make/wrap the bouquet myself. Then somewhere along the line, I changed my mind. I received the name of a local florist who can ’work with any budget’, and started to daydream about how nice it would be to have a professional bouquet ready-made (with no effort from me). But after speaking with the florist, I realized that their version of ’any budget’ was different from mine. To the tune of $50 for five flowers (calla or roses).

So that pretty much made up my mind: I am making my own bouquet!

I have never, ever done any kind of flower arranging before. I’m also kind of a black-thumb, and not very delicate sometimes. Because of this, I decided I ought to give it a preliminary try to make sure it was doable (though at this late date, it is probably pretty much my only option).

I did a little research in Weddingbee’s DIY section, taking advice from the posts of Mrs. Quiche and Mrs. Champagne (great video link!). Then I set out to get my supplies.

Items purchased:

• 1 dozen white roses: $9.99 (Super Target)
• 1 roll of floral tape: $1.99 (Michaels)
• 1 package of corsage pins: $1.79 (Michaels)

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Ever since Mr. Mary Jane and I decided to get married at the courthouse, I’ve waffled repeatedly on whether to create some type of invitation for our very small amount of guests.

There were a few reasons I didn’t want to create these invitations:

1. Lack of time. I have tons of other things going on.
2. Possible tag-alongs. If FMIL were to put it on her fridge (for example), a few extra relatives might pencil us in to their calendars. Our event is very small and intimate, so we’d rather not have this.
3. There are only 7 guests! We can just tell them when and where!

Last week, I changed my mind after having been asked by each of the guests when, where, and what time the wedding was being held. A few of the guests have asked me multiple times. I decided perhaps they needed a specifics-card of some sort.

I also thought the moms might want to have something as a keepsake, perhaps to scrapbook. And I won’t lie: I wanted something to scrapbook, too. All of our paper products have our picnic information on them, and I really wanted to have something that recognizes our actual wedding date!

Our wedding is fast-approaching, but that’s not a bad thing!
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You could probably tell by my previous post about the sash I made that I wasn’t entirely pleased with my sash-sewing skills.

I looked at the original sash (the black one) and made the realization that it was nothing special: it was just a piece of ribbon! *I* am capable of cutting a piece of ribbon! This was one craft I could definitely handle without too much of a time commitment!

Except for one problem:

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Mr. Mary Jane and I won’t be doing the “groom’s cake” tradition. Since our wedding will only be attended by 7 guests, we’ll all probably have trouble finishing the normal wedding cake. Even though I’ve never been one to complain about too much cake, I just couldn’t justify spending the extra money on something I was going to have to explain to room full of puzzled relatives. (”Why are there 2 cakes that don’t match??”)

I’ve seen tons of groom’s cakes made to resemble the Wii, Mario Bros, various sports mascots, and other great representations of a groom’s interests. Mr. MJ is a computer/math/science techie who loves gadgets and computery stuff, but he’s not necessarily defined by any of one thing in particular. I haven’t (until now) been able to think of something that would really be awesome. Today though, I stumbled upon a cake that would have been perfect for Mr. Mary Jane.

[more photos here (source)]

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So you’re trying to take some photos of your bling. Or your finished DIY menu cards. Or the sweet shower invitation you got the other day. And you already know Anne Ruthmann’s tutorial like the back of your hand. But the pictures just aren’t coming out right. Why???

My hunch is: You’re probably not playing close enough attention to Step #3.

Good light is ESSENTIAL to a great photograph! The easiest light to work with is natural light because it’s the most powerful and consistent. Make your way to a nearby window or take it outside. If you don’t have any natural light to work with, you can get creative with a flash light, the light coming from your computer or TV, or just any ol’ light in the ceiling or from a lamp around your house. In order for the light to be bright enough in an artificial lighting situation, you may need to get closer to the light source, which is why a flashlight may sometimes work better in these situations.

The first time I tried to take these shots, it was a gloomy day and I was trying to use the natural light from a north-facing window. Every single shot I took was blurry. Since I don’t have tons of artificial lighting in the house, I decided to be patient, knowing that the best shots I take are on sunny days.

And a few days later, I got a perfect day!

I positioned myself under this west-facing window on a sunny afternoon:
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Mr. Mary Jane’s aunts threw me an awesome shower this past Saturday. I brought my camera, but I was having such a good time, I forgot to take a single photo! Until I get the photos from other attendees, you’ll just have to trust that there was plenty of this…

[source]

And many of these thoughtful things…

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There are some break-ups and divorces you hear about and think: ‘I saw that coming a mile away.’ Those are not what I sat down today to blog about. I’ve had this blank text box staring at me for hours now because I was unsure of how to approach this post (though I really feel that I need to say something). So here goes.

We all have them in our lives: “Perfect” couples. Couples everyone knows were meant to be together. Couples we envy because damn, they’re just sooooo right for each other. Couples who announce their engagement and receive reactions of “Well duh! Of course!” We’ve also known friends, coworkers and loved ones who’ve paired up and married partners who (in our opinions) aren’t very compatible with them. As non-judge-y as you may try to be, you can’t pretend that you never felt a lump of concern in your throat as a dear friend gushed over his engagement to That Awful, Manipulative Woman, or as your coworker emailed out elopement announcements for her quickie Reno wedding with That Guy She Met Online Last Month. I do have a point with all this, I really do. And I think it is this: we all mentally weigh the possibility of relationship success when it comes to our loved ones.

And that’s why it hits us (or me, at least) so hard when I find out that one of those “perfect” couples is calling it quits.
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Check it out, check it out, Check. It. Out!!!

After an anxious wait, we have Mr. Mary Jane’s ring! We picked it up from River City Jewelers (where it was custom-made) late last week. Isn’t it pretty?

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Mr. Mary Jane and I attended a relative’s wedding this past weekend, and one of the events that transpired got me thinking. See, the couple was afraid that their mischievous friends, siblings and cousins would turn their vehicle in to something like this:

[source]

They didn’t want their car trashed, so they enlisted their parents’ help in transporting them to and from the ceremony and reception. No one wanted to decorate the parents’ cars, of course. So, what were a bunch of well-meaning pranksters to do?
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I’m so glad that Weddingbee decided to do a series about what it takes to be a bee, because lately, I have definitely been feelin’ it.

But let’s not talk about that quite yet.

First, Let Me Tell You How I Found Weddingbee.
I went to college at the University of Oregon and graduated in 2005. While there, I met a fabulous group of friends. One of them was the couple you know as Mr. & Mrs. Cherry Pie. I don’t live on the West Coast any more but thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I’ve managed to stay in touch with my friends. And in 2008, when Cherry Pie announced that she’d joined the ranks at Weddingbee, I found the site. And became addicted. And decided that when I became a bride-to-be, I was going to blog there too.

In the meantime though, I was absorbing everything the site had to offer. I loved reading posts from Mrs. Lovebug, Mrs. Onion, Mrs. Candy Corn, Mrs. Penguin, and all of the other then-current bees. I went there every day, and read every post. And I wasn’t even engaged!

Why Would Weddingbee Want Me?
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The other night, FMIL Mary Jane called and said she wanted to come over. She had books full of cakes to share with me! Personally, I would have preferred Tupperware containers full of cake. But I still let her come over.

She brought me four books: three “Wilton Cakes” books and a photo album showing some of the cakes that her friend has made. She told me that the friend could make any cake in the books. I was impressed! There were some really elaborate cakes in there. What an awesome talent.

Some of the many cakes she’s made:
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…Is anyone else trying to resist using this excuse to spend money on stuff they don’t need?

For me, the obsession of late has been cake toppers. If you recall, a friend of my FMIL’s is making our cake and we don’t even really know what it’s going to look like. We don’t really care, either, as long as it tastes good. It isn’t going to be a big cake either: probably just one tier, to feed 9 people. (The picnic will have cake or dessert also, but that’s still TBD.)

I decided several weeks ago that a cake topper wasn’t necessary. Frosting decorations will be fine, thank-you-very-much. They taste a lot better than porcelain or plastic, anyway.

But what did I spend a good portion of yesterday evening doing? Looking at cake toppers on the internet.

I’m not a fan of monograms: they look beautiful and are perfect for others, but just not for me. Maybe I’m just slow, but I always had trouble figuring out whose monogram it was or what it stood for. A big “H” for “Hislast” would completely ignore the bride’s family’s involvement, in my opinion. And those three-letter designs with the couple’s first initials flanking the big “H”? I tend to focus on those when I see ’em, trying to determine what kind of inappropriate phrases could be made from the acronym. (Yes, I’m a 13-year-old boy at heart.)
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