Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
With our wedding quickly approaching and RSVPs coming back, it’s tough to look at some of the “no” responses. Some of our closest family friends and relatives cannot come, and although I expected it, it’s still tough to swallow.
But there’s one emotion I didn’t expect that came along with the guest list and invitation process that’s taken me completely by surprise. There’s just one invitation I wish I could have sent—an invitation to my birth mother. I’ve known I was adopted for as long as I can remember, and I truthfully LOVE my family. They’ve been so supportive, and I’ve never felt like an outsider. As a matter of fact, my Dad is also adopted, and I think that is a special bond we’ve always had that brought us closer. People will always say, “you and your Dad look so much alike!” We just laugh and agree. I guess I see the resemblance.
I know very little about my birth mother, but I do know she was very, very young and completely committed to my adoption. Read more…
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
We’ve got this idea, and like most of my ideas, I’ll need the hive’s help to pull it off. Instead of having the traditional table numbers, we’d like to add a bit of romance to the theme. So this is what we’re thinking: Each table will be named after the word “love” in a foreign language.
Here’s the list we’ve got so far:
If you look at this list, you might see a problem. First, most of the traditional romance languages are very similar: “amore“, “amor“, “amour”. So that leaves us only one choice out of those. Secondly, how will guests realize that their table number really means “love” if they can’t pronounce it or decipher the language characters? Read more…
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
I’m sitting at work and just got this email from Champ:
FYI: It is 9 degrees (feels like -1) in Vail today. Brrrrrrrr!
Oh man. It’s gonna hit me hard in a few weeks! So, considering that over half of our guest list is traveling from out of town, and most will be trekking over 500 miles from where it’s not quite so cold, I figured we would welcome them with a little warm Colorado cheer.
In each bag, we’ll add a bit of warmth with a pair of HotHands hand warmers. We’ve actually arranged a get together with all our guests that will be in town the Thursday before the wedding. After a few apres-ski drinks (mountain slang for happy hour), we’ll take the gondola up the mountain and go tubing! I’m certain these will come in handy!
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
Clever title, huh? Cut me a little slack—with less than a month until the Champ wedding, I’m a little dry in the creativity department. Less than a month…. eek. Anyhoo..
Ever since I saw a picture of a cake with a monogram on it, I knew I had to somehow incorporate a monogram into our design. I asked around, and it seemed like all of the bakers we had to choose from did their monograms freehand, so I searched for some inspirational photos to show to our baker. Read more…
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
Okay, so I will completely admit that many documents and designs are so much easier with Photoshop, but I’m simply not willing to shell out the money for a program I’ll use a few times. I’ve searched and searched the Microsoft Word functions, and I didn’t see anything that would let me do circular text. I called my brother, who told me to check Avery.com for some free software. It was seriously SO easy, I had to share.
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
Part of our invite design incorporated one of our monograms onto a belly band around the invitation. When our guests started receiving them, I heard from so many people they didn’t know what to do with it- slide it off, cut it off, tear it off. Who knew belly bands were so uncommon in the land of non-weddingbee readers!? I thought I would share with you how I created our belly band.
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
I always knew we would end up with a pocketfold invite, but I guess I never considered that they would be significantly heavier than your average invitation and would require a lot more postage. The invitations Champ and I have received were usually delivered with two stamps, and I figured ours would be no different. Just to make sure, I decided to go to the post office to get them weighed (which I highly suggest you do if you’re unsure). The first post office I went to quoted me 76 cents per invitation—a hefty price tag, but one I was expecting. The second post office I went to told me that our invitations were too stiff for their machine and we would have to send them at the package rate of $1.51 per invitation. Um whaaaaa? At nearly twice the original quoted price, I took my chance at an eighty-cent stamp and mailed them out at the post office where I was quoted the lesser amount. Risky? Perhaps, but I saved a good chunk of change.
Here’s the stamp we chose. It’s really the only 80-cent stamp I could find, but I thought it actually fit our winter wedding perfectly! Read more…
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
So, my first job as a teenager was as a pizza delivery girl. It was fun, I made great money, and I met some nice people at the pizza shop. My second job was as a flower girl. In the summer, Vail is booming with gorgeous flowerbeds and arrangements along the public walkways and streets, and I worked for a company that was responsible for keeping the town in bloom. It was by far my favorite job, and there are times I wish I would’ve ditched the whole Optometry school thing for a flower shop. Along the way, I got to work with fresh flower arrangements as well, and I loved creating arrangements for people to enjoy in their homes.
A wedding bouquet is really no different, and can definitely be an area to save some money if you’re willing to arrange your own flowers. I found this helpful video in the about.com Style section that does a wonderful job explaining how to make your own bouquet.
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
I can now safely say that Champ did an excellent job with our honeymoon plans! Until about a week ago, our honeymoon location was unknown to me. Champ really wanted to plan the whole thing, and I certainly wasn’t going to say no! He’s such a perfectionist, so I knew it would be somewhere special. My only request was that I be able to sip a fruity drink on the beach and relax. Here’s where we’ll be spending two wonderful weeks:
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
You’ve probably had your fix of winter weddings from me, but I just have a few more to share before I share our own! Time is flying, and the list keeps growing, and my thoughts have turned to the ceremony itself. There are so many details that can be overlooked, and I sort of forgot about flowers for our church. Then I realized that the lights from Christmas will still be lit, and there’s not much you really need to do with a natural snowy backdrop.
Weddings during the holiday season can take advantage of the color, lights and decorations. Here’s how some brides chose to accent the time of year in their weddings:
Saint Phalle Photography:
I love this ring shot on the tree. Reminds me of all the gorgeous reader ring shots we’ve seen here thanks to Anne Ruthmann’s post!
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
I just wanted to give a congrats to any readers who got engaged this winter—it seems like love is definitely in the air! I got to thinking about our wedding and realized that of course not every bride chooses a winter wedding, but some couples choose winter engagement photos instead! I thought I would share some of my favorite winter shots.
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
I guess I should start at the beginning. You may or may not know that Mrs. Tiramisu and I are good friends. We are in the same profession, and we met along the way. Basically, she introduced me to Weddingbee, and I was quickly obsessed! She also introduced me to the Gocco, and truthfully, after we did our save the dates on her Gocco, I knew I had to purchase one for myself.
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
Hi hive. It’s Miss Champagne. Remember me? The holidays have come and gone and a lot has happened! I’ve consumed more champagne and holiday cookies than I would like to admit. Any previously lost pounds have been gained back, Champ finally revealed our honeymoon destination (I whined so much that he told me!), and our invites are in the mail! Following the Christmas rush, I started to reconsider my thoughts about a wedding around the holiday season. I mean, c’mon—turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy—how is a girl to say no?!
My plan was to share our invites with you, but I got a new camera for Christmas and I’m still not quite sure how it all works so in the meantime I’ll share some winter wedding inspiration for you fellow brides who may have forgotten why we picked the food-filled holiday season to tie the knot. Here’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout:
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
Remember the secret life of Miss Champagne? In a nutshell, I’ve always been involved in the arts and music has had a huge influence in my life. So through my music experiences, I’ve been so lucky to work with some seriously talented folks. One in particular is our pianist. She’s unbelievably talented and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her have to look at a sheet of music—she just plays… I get goosebumps just thinking about it! Anyway, she’s agreed to play during our ceremony and she directed me to a website that has wonderful guidance for prelude, processional, ceremony, and recessional songs. We’ll also have a violin, so I was looking for songs that would fit for piano and a violin.
The website is My Wedding Music and it’s run by two musicians, the O’Neill Brothers. This site is so helpful because it actually allows you to listen to each choice, and recommends songs for each section of your ceremony.
There’s one other thing I love about this site—the celebrity song choice section! Read more…
Mrs. Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
(Calligraphy by Michele)
There’s one other thing I love about this site—the celebrity song choice section!
