Weddingbee Blog

The Dude and I took our engagement pictures a couple weeks ago with our wedding photographers, the Nichols. They’re a husband + wife team based here in Austin, and they are amazing! When we told them we wanted a vintage-inspired shoot, they were right on board. Jennifer emailed me asking if I had anything in mind for the shoot, and I told her there was this old car junkyard that we had walked past one day and were curious about. I thought it was a long shot, but she loved the idea, and it actually ended up working out!

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I have been in love with these flavored honey favors for a while now. They’re from a company called Bee Raw Honey, based out of New York. They come in all kinds of delicious flavors, like cranberry, wild raspberry, and orange blossom. While I would love to give them as wedding favors, they are a little out of my price range. Rather than sit and mope about how much I wish I could have these little guys, I decided to make some of my own!

Here’s the plan:
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Thanks to everyone who looked at our save-the-date choices and gave their input! Although the consensus seemed to be for Design #1, the Dude and I really liked the mix tapes, so we decided to go with #3. I realize the design does not “match” our English garden wedding theme, but these STDs are really an opportunity for us to do something funky and fun. I promise our actual invites will be vintage-y, floral, and full of English garden goodness.

We had our designer/friend (I guess he’s a friendor!) move some of the text around, as well as give us some more color options. He also used a couple of different fonts for the text at the very top. Take a look at our new choices!

Color choice #1

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Our friend who agreed to design our save-the-dates for us sent me and the Dude a few choices recently. We asked him to create something that looked like a music poster, and he delivered. I’m so excited! Now all I have to do is pick one and figure out how I’m going to print them. I had originally thought I would use my Gocco to print the STDs, but some of the designs he came up with are pretty intricate, and I’m not sure I trust myself to make them happen on the Gocco. I have a couple other options:

1. try to print them on my laser printer
2. take them to Kinko’s
3. find a good local screen printer to print them for us

I think option one would be the most economical, and option three would be the most aesthetically pleasing. Maybe I should compromise and go with option two?

At any rate, here are the designs.

Design #1:

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I went back and forth on whether to change my name after marriage. My first instinct was to just do it. It seemed so romantic and symbolic, taking the name of the person I love. My last name is constantly mispronounced and misspelled, and the Dude’s never is. Plus, I’d get to jump ahead a few letters in the alphabet (and who doesn’t like getting their name called earlier?).

But the Dude and I have been engaged for a while, and I’ve had time to change my mind about pretty much everything that I originally thought I wanted, at least as far as the wedding goes.
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Lately I’ve been trolling Etsy like crazy for everything from wedding day jewelry to rehearsal dinner outfits. Buying stuff off of Etsy makes me feel good for many reasons: 1) it’s unique, 2) it helps to support independent artists and crafters, 3) it’s cheap, and 4) a lot of the stuff you can buy is made out of recycled or repurposed (upcycled) items.

During the invitation extravaganza that was taking place in my head last week, I became obsessed with looking at paper goods on Etsy. Here is just a sampling of the wonders I found.

Has anyone thought about using a handmade vintage journal like this as a guestbook? I think it would be pretty.

See the listing here!

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I knew he was going to do it. For months I had been hounding him about when we were going to get engaged. He kept telling me to just give it time–he wanted it to happen, too, but he wanted it to be a surprise. I’m not very good with surprises. He finally caved in and told me that he was planning on proposing. So I, being the utter control freak that I am, told him that I wanted to pick out the ring. He was cool with that.

We went ring shopping, and I showed him what sorts of rings I liked (Ascher-cut or emerald-cut solitaire in a platinum Tiffany setting) and we had fun trying on lots of different styles. One day, a little before Thanksgiving, the Dude came home from work over an hour late and said he had been at “the post office”. I knew something was up but let it slide.

Cut to December 19, 2007. I was sitting in our dining room, taking my last final of the semester (a 24-hour take-home). The Dude and I were planning on opening Christmas presents together when he got home from work. I just knew that my ring was wrapped up in one of those little boxes underneath the tree. I half-assed my exam, turned it in, and waited for him to get home.

Later that night, the Dude took me out to dinner to a nice little neighborhood restaurant.
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So, I showed you my wedding dress, but kinda left a little window open in case I changed my mind. Well, the inevitable has happened. With less than five months to go, and I can’t stand my dress anymore. This mostly stems from the fact that I tried to purchase a poofy, Lolita-style crinoline to give my dress more of a fifties, party feel–and it ended in disaster.

Here’s the look I was going for.

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Here’s the dress with no crinoline (please excuse my messy bedhead):
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I guess my wedding dress search was pretty atypical: I didn’t step foot in a bridal salon, I didn’t suffer from a ton of indecision, and I spent under $500.

I decided pretty early on in the game that I wanted something vintage. It goes along with the whole “eco” theme I had in mind from the beginning–you know, there’s no need to buy something new when something old will do. But also, I happened to stumble across this amazing online boutique based out of California that sells beautiful, one-of-a-kind vintage clothing and accessories, Posh Girl Vintage. They have a ton of dresses that either are or could be wedding dresses, and they also have a lot of other cute evening wear.

Right away I was drawn to these two tea-length numbers.

… but, alas, they were both sold already.
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So I think I’ve finally made a decision about what kind of save-the-dates to send out. This has been a tough one for us because originally we didn’t want to send STDs. (As high school health classes now use “STI” instead, I think we’re safe to use “STD” as the standard way to refer to save-the-dates.) I thought they were a waste of paper, and since our goal is to have a “green” wedding, the more we can cut out, the better. But I started to think about the fact that we’re getting married on a Friday evening, which means people will appreciate knowing the date in advance—especially if they need to request vacation time at work.

We’re definitely sending STDs now, but it took us a while to figure out exactly what we wanted them to look like. The Dude and I love music. Correction: I love music; he worships it. So what better way to pay homage to something we both care about than a music-poster inspired STD?

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Hello, hive! I’m so thrilled and honored to be a bee! I’ve been (obsessively) reading Weddingbee since last September, and I honestly can’t believe I’m the newest bee.

I chose Miss Mouse because my whole life I have been the quiet, shy one. In kindergarten I was so shy that I refused to say the pledge of allegiance or answer “here” for the roll call! I’ve developed considerably more social skills since then, but I still tend to be the quiet one, especially when I’m around new people. Don’t worry, I loosen up pretty quickly.

So, a little about me and my future intended…

I’ve lived in Texas my whole life, aside from a six-week program in Oxford when I was in college and a seven-week internship in Chicago during law school. (Can you really say you “lived” somewhere if it was only for six weeks? I doubt it.) Although I don’t fit in with most Texans, Austin has been my home for the past eight years, and I love it. It’s like a crazy liberal oasis in the middle of red-state desert.

I graduated from law school two weeks ago, and since then I’ve been studying for the bar exam at the end of July. Oh yeah, and I’ve been planning this wedding! Luckily I’ve been planning slowly over the past 18 months, so there shouldn’t be too much last-minute panic. In theory.
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