Weddingbee Blog

Last night I had dinner with my MOH. I gave her a draft of our wedding day intinerary. We are having a morning ceremony followed by an hour of cocktails then our reception, all at Westbury Manor (WM). Because we are getting married on location, we don’t have a lot of time for pictures. Mr. Violet and I originally agreed that we would not see each other before the ceremony. The only problem with that though is that it leaves us with very little time for pictures. We are only going to have one hour to take all the wedding party & Groom/Bride pictures during the cocktail hour. The good thing though is that it’s all on premise because WM has a beautiful garden, so we won’t need to travel.

When I mentioned the option about seeing each other before the ceremony to Mr. Violet last night, he flipped out on me. I asked him what he thought about it and he was very against it. I asked him why and he said that seeing me walk down the aisle is going to be a very special moment. But then I said that it would still be a special moment even if I see him before I walk down the aisle, no? Even better, we’d be seeing each other in private, and not amongst all our guests. I wasn’t trying to pick a fight with him, I was just trying to see what our options were, but from his reaction, I realized that it probably wasn’t a good idea after all. I don’t really care either way. I can totally see his point of view because I too had the same idea in mind before…. but now I’m just worried that we won’t have enough time for pictures. But, perhaps I’m just getting worried for nothing. The photographers are professionals right, and they should certainly know the best method to capturing all the pictures that are needed given the time constraint, no?

Do you plan to see your SO/FI before the ceremony? If you did or do plan on breaking tradition, was it a huge discussion or was it pretty unanimous?

Thank you for all your advice. Unfortunately I can’t dive nor can I swim, but yes, I do snorkel (with a life jacket of course)… and I’ve snorkled twice. The best experience I’ve had snorkeling was in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It was seriously unreal. I should really get back to wedding planning, but vacation planning sounds more fun, doesn’t it?

Since we’re going on a cruise for our honeymoon and this will be our third one, I thought I’d share some cruising tips.

1. Before you book a cruise, a good way to get a feel for the ship is by googling reviews of it. Tons of people have cruised and many write detailed reports. I’m not one of them, but you’ll find plenty of worthwhile reads.

2. If you care about your weight, try to eat very healthy prior to the trip because let me tell you - no matter how good you try to be, you will most likely gain weight after the cruise. It’s just too hard not to with breakfast, snacks, buffet lunches, afternoon tea, 4 course dinners and midnight desserts. If you have a no gain plan please tell me!

3. Luckily there is a gym!

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Mr. Violet and I love to travel.. and as expected, have been asked many times about our HM. It was actually very hard to plan this task because we had a list of no-no’s.

1. Must be relatively affordable. (We spent a lot of money in Japan earlier this year, and since we are paying for the wedding and furniture for our new home, an expensive trip to Tahiti, Maldives or Fiji was out of the question.

2. A place to rest & relax and enjoy an adventure too. (We’ll get bored just hanging out on a beach.)

3. A place not too far. I think we’ll save the Far East for 2008.

4. We also didn’t want to have a huge itinerary. The less planning, the better. Read more…

For those that love shabby chic like I do, these fabulous labels from The Decal Cottage make the perfect embellishment. The shop is filled with decals ranging from Cottage Bath and Paris French to floral; these would really dress up any furniture. I think these would look great on the buffet table, reception table or menu cards for weddings too.

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I’m super excited to announce that we found our officiant! It’s such a relief to find someone who we both feel comfortable with enough to marry us. I can’t tell you how much I was fretting this task. With everything else I’ve had to do - finding a venue, getting a dress, DJ, photographer etc., I did fairly quickly, but I really dreaded looking for an officiant. To make my life easy, I used weddingbee!

I reviewed all the officants that other bees have used and called up Mrs. Spider’s pick. I had a really good intuition about Pastor April. We met her at what we thought was her house but turned out to be her friend’s house. We also met her dog, Sebastian, a lovely fella who instantly fell in love with Mr. Violet. The dog immediately nuzzled his nose under Mr. Violet’s hand so that he could get pets! Our dog does the same thing! How funny is that.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I think this may have been the first time in my life that I’ve ever spilled so many private details about our relationship to an absolute stranger. Using our stories as reference, she quickly wrote up our ceremony. It was just a first draft, but can you believe that she made me cry? First off, I rarely cry over good things; I only cry over bad stuff… so it took me by surprise that I got so emotional!

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Weddingbee Reader Didi asked, “i was browsing thru your blogs and came across one that mentioned you and mr. violet living together. i’m full fledged chinese and was wondering how you told your parents about you living with mr. violet?”

Didi, I’ll try my best to explain how I (sorta) did it. First off, my Chinese parents are very traditional - especially my mom who believed that I should only date after I finished college; stay thin so that I would be attractive and find the best man out there; live at home until I got married, and so on.

When I was younger, I had a 7pm curfew which I did try to stick with. I tried to be a good daughter by my standards, but I had to lie in order to appear like one. I lied about where I was, who I was with and what I was doing plenty of times. I used the library excuse very often. Although my childhood was very restrictive, I found ways around it. Then college came around, I got older and realized, “I’m tired of hiding” (although my Dad is quite strict too, he worked very late hours so he was not around enough to tell me what not to do).

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I apologize for the unprofessional looking pictures. I nearly forgot to take a picture so when I remembered to do it, I did it rather sloppily because I was pretty tired after we finished these. I think I made 50 in total, which is small in comparison to a lot of other weddings, but still labor intensive nevertheless. I didn’t keep a tally of how much things cost and bought extra. (Since I am a crafter, I always have room for extra supplies.)

Outside Envelope

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I was watching Sugar Rush earlier today, and saw these wonderful favors. They are sugar covered almonds that the Italians call “Confetti.” These Italian sweets look very tasty, and I loved some of the packaging so I thought you might too. They’d be great as centerpieces - each guest could pluck a flower out at the end of the night as their gift, or you could individually place one on each plate.

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I’ve returned from Japan and am still recovering from jetlag. It was an amazing trip and I am so happy that Mr. Violet and I were able to spend some time with my sister. I think Japan would be a wonderful honeymoon spot. If you decide to go to Japan, make sure you visit an onsen. Most onsens divide the men and women, but I’ve heard that you can pay extra to have your own private bath. The onsen was definitely my most memorable experience.

I’ve never made resolutions so I really don’t have any, but this trip has given me an opportunity to refresh. I’ve realized that I’ve put too much on my plate this past year - so it’s time I refocus. I will be be putting most of my efforts into etsy and of course I still have a wedding to plan. I am a bit sad to announce that I will be leaving Weddingbee as a full-time blogger. However, Mrs. Bee has kindly allowed me to continue as a Guest Blogger and I get to keep my name! Woohoo! So, although you’ll be seeing less of me, I will still be around.

I wish you peace, prosperity & happiness in the upcoming New Year!

Miss Violet

I’ve been thinking lately of not going with the traditional petal toss for the flower girl. Instead, I want to make her something that she can keep after the wedding. I’ve been inspired by the picture below.(see link for DIY instructions)

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Lately I’ve been inundated with a lot of pressure at work, and keeping up with my social calendar has hindered me from fully focusing on my wedding. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that my wedding is 8+ months away. It seems like some brides would freak out over that number because they feel like they are running out of time, but no, not me. In fact, I feel like we’re slowly crawling to our Big Day.

Most of the major items are taken care of (I think) and there are of course, a million little projects I have to work through. But I feel like it’s just too early to be doing them. For example, I have a sample of the invitation I plan to make, but I don’t want to make all 50 of them yet because I think it’s too early - just in case I need to make changes, etc. I’ll probably send out the invitations early though, like 5-6 months before the event. We were planning on doing Save the Dates, but in the end decided not to. It looks like we are going to be inviting more people than we want, so we really didn’t think STD’s were necessary. Another dilemma I’m having is regarding the favors. I think we will be doing edible favors with a packaging that is elegant yet different.

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This centerpiece speaks straight to the heart of DIY bride, don’t you agree? All jokes aside, it’s a pretty neat ribbon vase. Look at all that ribbon! Ribbon is so versatile. Typically used to tie a present, but it can also be used in a number of ways for weddings.

According to the Zagat Survey (2003), former dancer Ben-Israel was named “The Wedding Cake Master.” These original designs are like pieces of art work. Don’t you agree? I’m amazed at what one can do with sugar. It looks incredible.

His shop is located in Soho. I don’t know how much he charges for a cake, but I’m pretty certain it’s not cheap. It makes me wonder, what lengths will brides go to find their perfect cake? Would you pay for a cake that may indeed cost as much as your wedding dress or would you settle for less? Call me cheap, but I think I’ll settle for a cake that tastes good and looks decent enough. I don’t need a masterpiece, but if it were free, that would always be nice too.

Thanks Jen for the recommendation!

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I found these Victorian style clipart and just had to share. These would be great for table cards, STD’s, programs, etc. You can download the small & medium sizes for FREE. If you need a large size, it’ll cost $3.95.

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I learned about this company through benditlikebeckim. I was browsing the website and found some beautiful and quite inexpensive jewelry pieces. They look gorgeous in the pictures. The lady behind The White Aisle is Rebecca Garrison-Sokoloff, who created the website in 2002 after having her own Jamaican wedding. The company is also an affiliate of Martha Stewart.

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