Weddingbee Blog

In the week before the wedding we had some ladies over to help finish up some crafts. Sister MB, Momma MB, Grandma MB, Aunt Eileen, flower girl Abby and Aunt Annie were there to help, and so was Mom’s friend Linda. Thanks for all of your help, ladies!

I felt it was only fair to give my workers provisions. I made panzanella and minestrone—both were a big hit.
Read more…

Alright, now that I’ve got all the bad off my chest, let’s get to the good. I won’t go into too much detail, so that I can save stuff for the recaps which will be a while from now, when I get the pro pics, but here goes.

The Ceremony:

Though it was late and I goofed on the first kiss, it was absolutely perfect. Our priest did an amazing job; it was personal, he got the guests involved and everybody loved it. Even the non-Catholics didn’t whine about how long it was. (Though I have no idea how long it was, I’m assuming that a full mass is longer than some are used to.) I couldn’t have been happier with our decision to have the whole wedding in the LaCoste/Castroville area solely because of the priest.

My Bridesmaids:

Sister MoH was there for me whenever I needed her and made my cake with her friend. Little Cuz ’maid was a makeup and hair maven for all who needed it and helped me out with last minute projects whenever her class schedule would allow. London ’maid traveled way far to be there with me and rocked out the dessert table and helped folks out with the photobooth. And a shout out definitely goes to London ’maid’s momma; she was such a help. Seattle ’maid also did some traveling and was there to take care of everything she could think of. This lady gets things done.

I could not have picked a better crew! And even though most of them had never met each other, we all got along famously.
Read more…

It’s all over, and like many brides, I’ve got mixed emotions about the big day. There were things I loved and for most of the evening I was truly in the moment and enjoying myself. But there were some things that keep playing over and over in my head and are keeping me from getting some much-needed shut-eye.

source

Let’s start with the bad (I’m hoping that getting it off my chest will allow me to sleep).
Read more…

And this is what my dress looks like.

But don’t worry, I’m not. I knew that having my mom make the dress would mean we’d be pushing it out to the last minute, but I know it will be done and beautiful. Every time I get to play ’dress dummy’ I get so excited about how it’s shaping up.
Read more…

I used some scraps of raw silk, silk chiffon, lace and some beads that I had lying around. I ended up not using the pearls pictured.

I took the silk and ironed on the first side of the two-sided iron on stuff.
Read more…

In my last shoe post, I thought I was very into those blue Calvin Klein’s, but the bottom had a very ’sturdy’ sole. I know it’s silly, but I wasn’t digging the black rubber. I even found them in person and just didn’t love them enough. You do have to kneel at Catholic weddings.

So the search continued, I tried Macy’s, because I’m trying to save a few $$ at every step, but was thoroughly unimpressed. So, I headed over to Nordstrom, my trusty source for super-fun flats. They might be a little pricier, but their junior’s shoes are well priced and cute, and if I had to spend a little extra on my wedding shoes, I’d live.

I scoped the website first to see what I had in mind and found some great options.

I love the shoe jewelry look of these. And they’re ’something blue’.

source

Read more…

We’re not having a big, traditional wedding cake. We’ll be having a little cake, made by my sister (who works in a bakery). We’ll have a groom’s cake from a local bakery and a table full of other desserts that family members are making. So, I haven’t put a ton of thought into the cake, but I have a few criteria. It won’t be fancy, it won’t be too big, and the icing has to be just right. I don’t like most icings, especially the white ones. But, luckily, I love cream cheese frosting, and the off-white color is perfect for our fall wedding. For the cake, I was thinking red velvet or chocolate. But after testing out recipes for red velvet and not finding one that I’m in love with, I think we’ll be going with chocolate. Now, on to the look of the cake.

I tried out a red velvet recipe and making a tiered cake. Now remember, my sister works in a bakery and can actually ice a cake; I can’t, and this was me doing the trial run.

This was my attempt.
Read more…

You may remember my previous dilemma regarding this topic. I was in love with that gray dress (the one that didn’t fit) and lukewarm about the purple dress as a rehearsal dinner ensemble. I ended up wearing it to my San Antonio shower, (belted, as many of you suggested) and think it was perfect for that. But I was in San Antonio with access to my MOH (sista MB), another bridesmaid (little cousin MB) and Momma MB, and wanted to do some dress shopping. Since my wedding dress is being made by Momma MB, it’s the only bridal dress shopping I really get to do.

With all of this in mind, we set out to the San Marcos outlets. Now, I normally hate outlet shopping. It’s crowded and everything is always in disarray. But this time, we went in the middle of a weekday. Very few people were there and there were plenty of things to choose from. And the pluses of outlets are pretty obvious: there are tons of stores, really low prices, and I really don’t care if things are from last year.

I went into Neiman Marcus’ Last Call, and most of the dresses were still 2-300 dollars, so we walked around and found our way in BCBGirls. I’m 5’10″ and so is my sister, and ’girls’ usually equals way too short. But my cousin is 5’4″, so we thought she could find a cute dress for the rehearsal dinner there. Well, I picked something out just to try something on, and didn’t think much would come of it. Though I loved the pleats at the bottom of the skirt, I assumed it would be way too short. I tried it on, and that was it. After trying on one dress and forking over a measly 50 bucks, this trip was deemed a success.
Read more…

… And about a year’s worth of stuff to do. And all the while, my laptop is busted, I’ve been sick for almost a week, and I even got Mr. MB sick for good measure. Seriously! But one thing is going well: my paper flower wall. I worked on it when I was back in Texas.

I ventured to Home Depot, bought a $13 piece of plywood, one of those $3 sample cans of paint and a $1 foam brush.

I took this all to my Mom’s new house, which was thankfully still unfurnished and unpainted. So I could paint inside (where it wasn’t rainy, humid or hot) and not worry about spills. (Note, the sample can of paint was not enough to actually coat the piece of plywood, but since I was covering it with a bajillion flowers, I just thinned it with water and finished the job.)

We fiddled around with making a stand for it similar to a large picture frame, but plywood is heavy and we decided it could just lean against a wall.

Read more…

So, I think I’ll be going for it with the DIY flowers. I bought some flowers 5 days ago and they’re still looking great. I’ve kept the corsages in the fridge for a few days and they’re still looking good, so I’m feeling OK about it all. But, my grandmother did call me up the other day to tell me she wants a wrist corsage so that she doesn’t mess up her dress. Well, all I know about that is that wrist corsages are hard to make. If you don’t believe me, take a look at this tutorial. At the very least, it would take a lot more materials and would involve drying time. These are definitely things I don’t want to be worrying about a day or two before the wedding. So, I thought, why not make a corsage that attaches with magnets!

Since none of our wedding blooms have great foliage, I decided I’ll have a fabric leaf with a magnet attached as the base of our bouts and corsages.

To make these, start with the desired fabric, attach iron-on adhesive, peel away the paper, lay down some well placed floral wire, lay down the second layer of fabric and iron all that adhesive into place.

Read more…

After the bitter disappointment relayed in my first flower post, I had to come to terms with reality and started looking at what was actually available. So, the florist and I talked about what I could actually get, and it wasn’t too bad. There would still be a bunch of different kinds of mums and carnations that could be the (cheap) base of the bouquets. Sunflowers could still be in the mix, and there was a brushy looking filler called limonium (I think) that could add texture. We decided to add some alstromeira, because they’re cheap and are different from the mums and carnations. I’m also considering dried eucalyptus that I am assuming is also dyed, as it comes in a deep brown color.

Armed with that knowledge I headed to Trader Joe’s (still wish we had those in Texas) and got some flowers to see what these bouquets would look like. I was able to find sunflowers, what I think is limonium, alstromeira and mums. Of course, TJ’s had celosia thrown in their bouquets, but I had to make these without that, because I haven’t sourced it yet (though I’m still trying).

Read more…

I went to an HEB Plus while I was down in Texas. It’s like the Super Target of Texas. They have a floral department, so I took a look around and saw these gorgeous wildflower looking bouquets. They had celosia, sunflowers, mums, thistle and some other things. There were oranges, deep pinks, yellows, the brown centers of the sunflowers, and basically most of our large color palette. There were loads of different textures as well, and I was smitten.

Read more…

Finding the Blogosphere…

I’d been hearing about blogs for a few years and had read a few, but I definitely wasn’t a real member of the community. I then started a small blog to keep in touch with my family after I moved away to Seattle. I didn’t update it regularly or do much with it other than use it as a Christmas letter. Instead of sending out a letter, I sent out Christmas cards with a web address on them and then filled a blog with the year’s big events and lots of pictures (gotta keep their interest). Most of the people in the family liked that, but Mr. Moonbeam’s parents insisted we still send out letters for those that are less web savvy. Most of the people in my family live close enough to someone that can show them the website, so I didn’t have to worry. After that, I started a blog about some of the things I made here and there, but with no large project looming; it just sort of languished. Then we decided to get married and I got sucked in. There are so many great blogs out there and Weddingbee had so much content. New ideas every day, of things I just had to do that would get weird looks from people I was talking to about them. “What, you didn’t know that all brides these days wear crazy candy colored shoes?”

Weddingbee, specifically has meant so much to me. Since leaving my friends, great apartment, beautiful neighborhood and fantastic job in Seattle, LA has hit me kind of hard.
Read more…

Shower #2 was held in my hometown of San Antonio at a friend’s neighborhood pavilion. My lovely hostesses got tablecloths and flowers to coordinate with our wedding colors, prepared some quesadillas and other Mexican goodies and planned out a lovely afternoon for us all. And check out these cuties (they’re 2 of my 3 flower girls).

Read more…

Sorry, I’ve been out for a while. I’m in Texas and had both of my wedding showers this past weekend. Shower #1 was hosted by Mr. Moonbeam’s aunts over in Houston on Saturday. There were mimosas, very yummy food, cake, lovely guests and lots of gifts.

Read more…