Weddingbee Blog

This weekend is a very exciting one for this bride-to-be. It’s my bachelorette party weekend! I’ll be heading up to Milwaukee for a weekend with my girls! I cannot wait to see my sisters, sorority sisters, and friends, and I am so grateful that they are all taking the time to travel to help me celebrate! The girls have been pretty good at keeping their lips zipped about the party, so I have no idea what’s in store. The only instructions that were given to me were what to pack (casual day outfit, swimsuit, and dressier outfit for the evening) and to make sure to bring my liver (and an extra one, if available) and a smile. The smile, I can do! The extra liver? That one’s just not going to happen!

My new swimsuit! Now if only I could look like her!!

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One my bestest friends ever sent me an email today asking for advice. I figured, who better to ask than a bunch of ladies (and a guy or two) who think about weddings all day long? Logical, don’t you think? So here is the scenario:

One of my friends up here is trying to write a speech for her friend from high school who she really isn’t that great of friends with anymore, but still got asked to be the maid of honor. She wants to say something along the lines of how this couple has been together for 7 years and it is fantastic to see them taking the next step. But she doesn’t want it to sound like she thinks it was about time that hte ytook this step. Any suggestions?

Hmm, it seems like a little bit of an awkward position if they aren’t really close friends anymore. I am struggling for advice to give her. Read more…

As I sit here writing to avoid the thing I actually should be doing (packing for my next work trip), I find myself questioning how to balance the two. Work has been a little stressful lately, as we have a very very very important deadline coming up. Wedding planning has been no less stressful, as we are now under the 2 month mark with no shortage of tasks left to complete.

I find myself a little torn between the two at the moment. On one hand, I usually enjoy traveling for work because it means we are out visiting customers; one of the parts of my job that I enjoy most. But it means sitting in an airport and working long hours and being away from my sewing machine. Have I mentioned I haven’t finished the table runners yet? I can’t help but wish that I didn’t have to go, but then I’d be coming home after a boring day of work in the office, and sitting down with my Kenmore and knocking out a runner or two. I’d feel much more accomplished on the wedding front, but not so satisfied with my other job… you know, the one I actually get paid for.

I feel like I’ve been working two full time jobs for the past eleven months.
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I considered writing out the whole phrase for “RSVP” on our invites, but then realized people might not know what it means. Luckily, they do know what “respond” means. We’ve already got 30 of our RSVP postcards in the mail, and we just sent out the invites last Monday! Let’s hope they keep rolling in!

We opted for RSVP postcards for a few reasons, the main one being to save money on postage and to avoid having to pay for RSVP envelopes.
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Our invitations!

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So I’m fairly certain that with less than two months to go, I’ve never actually posted about my color scheme. I’m sure you could figure it out based on some of my other posts (like the bridesmaids’ dresses, groomsmen’s attire, etc.) but I never officially posted about it. To tell you the truth, I was too lazy to find the correct shades of all the colors and put them together. Don’t ask me why, because it probably would have taken all of five minutes, but I didn’t do it. But yesterday when I checked my mail, our color scheme was sitting right there on the front page of the Crate and Barrel Fall Preview catalog. So I figured since they put it together for me, I might as well share it with all of you!

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This past weekend I had my second bridal shower. I don’t have any pictures back yet from the photographer (yes, there was a photographer) so I don’t want to give a full rundown of the event until I get them back. But I do want to share a sneak peek with you of the beautiful tablescapes that were created for the shower! They were so pretty!

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It was a crazy holiday weekend! Friday morning was spent at the salon, where I had my hair trial. Based on the feedback I received from all of you, I brought in all of my inspiration photos (side bun and side ponytail) and asked the stylist what she recommended. I mentioned that it might be fun to do a bun that could transition into a ponytail for the reception. She liked the idea and went to work. After the curling and pinning my hair into a bun, we decided the ponytail might be a better choice. The bun just wasn’t doing it for us. The ponytail, on the other hand, looked muuuuch better.

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One thing about planning a wedding in a place that you are not currently in is that you have to travel a lot. I just counted, and between the beginning of May and the wedding in September, we will have traveled to the UP eight times. EIGHT! Multiply that by 5 hours each way, and you have 80 hours of driving. That is a lot of hours spent in the car my friends, and that doesn’t even include trips to other places during that time period. No bueno.

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I shouldn’t complain. I’ll admit, I’m not typically the person driving. The boy usually drives and I find things to do to occupy the time. Things like picking potential songs for the ceremony. Things like entering our entire guest list into our table planning software. Things like figuring out who all needs to be at our rehearsal dinner. Oh, and things like choosing our wedding party. Yep, that was done in the car too!
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My hair and makeup trials are taking place this coming weekend, and I’ve been scrambling to put together some pictures to show the stylist the look I’m going for. This is where the problem lies. I’m no longer certain I know exactly what look I’d like to achieve on the big day. If you remember from my last hairspiration post (which was months ago) I wanted a low side bun, much like these two.

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I like to multi-task. Even when it comes to centerpieces. Every table at the wedding will have three centerpieces; the outer two being purple vases filled with green and white hydrangea, and one centerpiece in the center (umm redundant much?) comprised of a green wine bottle with a single purple dahlia. So every table needs a green wine bottle. What else does every table need? A table number, of course. So rather than creating more work for myself, I decided to multi-task, and combine the two!

I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m rather thrifty (or “cheap” if you’d prefer) especially when it comes to things I’ll never use again. Centerpieces fall into that category. For the middle centerpiece we wanted a certain type of green wine bottle that has a unique shape… and also happens to house one of our favorite wines! So instead of buying a bunch of wine just to get the bottles (although that may have been more fun), we asked a local restaurant that sells this type of wine if they would keep the empty bottles! We’re picking up the final bottles this week. They’ve saved over 40 of them for us. And it cost us ZERO dollars. How’s that for thrifty?

Now that we have our wine bottle centerpieces, I’ve been working on how to make the bottles function as table numbers, as well. I looked to Miss Joey’s post for inspiration, and decided to use the same flourish pattern we’ve been using throughout the paper goods to liven them up a little. I put together a quick prototype to see what they would look like:
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I am still debating whether or not to make the boutonnieres for the groomsmen or just get fresh ones from the florist. It’s not really about the cost; our quote is for $10 each, which is pretty reasonable. I’m just worried that I’ll make them and then regret it when I see the pictures. I don’t intend on making one for the groom—his will have dahlias to match my bouquet and will be made by the florist. Of course I can give her matching ribbon to tie them all together, but I’m worried they won’t look right with a mixture of fresh and fake flowers.

To refresh your memory, here’s trial #1:

Here is a look at trial #2:
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I’ve always loved the look of a flower girl carrying a pomander. They are just too cute (both the flowers and the little girls of course!).

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Oddly enough, the pomander was the first elements I knew for sure would be making an appearance on our big day. As usual, I took the opportunity as an excuse for another DIY project. Here’s what I came up with:

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I recently received an exciting piece of mail! No, it wasn’t another bachelor party postcard (although I’ll be sure to report on those as I get them). The mail I received was the invitation to my second (and final) bridal shower! This one’s hosted by a family friend with help from my mother, and will consist of mostly guests from my side of the family, along with some friends and bridesmaids that couldn’t make it to the first one.

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First of all, thank you so much for all of your suggestions in part one of this series! I listened to all of them, and there were a ton of options for beautiful processional songs. The results of the poll ended up with a tie between Prelude in C and Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. So of course, the only logical choice for me was to not pick either of them… okay, maybe it wasn’t logical, but that is what happened.

My bridesmaid Anna plays the piano, and since we’re having only a pianist for the ceremony, I figured I should get some options from her. She came up with a ton of choices, and I found two songs that I absolutely love!

Remember how I said I didn’t want Canon in D as one of the processional pieces? Well… I changed my mind the second I heard this arrangement:

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Yep, you can call me a hypocrite.
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