Weddingbee Blog

As I mentioned, we know we want our cake design to be based on our invitations and to include our monogram. However, I’m not really sure of the best way to go about doing that.

I’ve come up with several different designs that reflect our invitations and other elements in the wedding. Sorry for the terribly quality; I was just throwing stuff together in Photoshop. The thick black line would be a black ribbon.

Design #1

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When we came up with our budget (I use that term loosely, as there was never a definite amount we agreed to stick to), we agreed that photography was the top priority and videography was unnecessary. So we splurged on our photographer, and opted for a DIY wedding video by asking all our friends with camcorders if they would mind recording at least some part of our wedding, so I could edit and splice the videos together later.

And then I saw good, nay, fantastic, goosebump-inducing videos, like those from StillMotion. And suddenly, videography was very important to me.
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The printer I am using for our fauxtobooth is a Canon Selphy ES2. My parents bought it last spring to use at my grandmother’s 90th birthday party for a photo guestbook. Soon after the party, I claimed it so I could figure out the best way to make it work for our fauxtobooth.

Source: Canon USA

The printer is fairly intuitive to use. There’s a menu where you make all your selections on formatting and number of prints. For my initial tests, I chose a four-pictures-per-page layout. If this were at the wedding, I would have also selected to print two copies (one for the guests and one for us), but for my tests, I just did one copy.

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One of the things I would really like to fit into the budget is a photobooth. Yes, it’s trendy. But I don’t care. It’s an awesome idea. And also a budget-buster.

Source: Party Booths

So for more than $1000 less, we are having a fauxtobooth. This is, essentially, a fake photobooth. People come up, dress up in whatever silly props they want, pose in front of the backdrop, and four pictures are taken. These four pictures are printed on one 4×6 piece of photo paper - one copy for the guestbook and one copy goes to the people in the picture as a favor. Our venue has a great little area right off the main ballroom that would be perfect to set this up.

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Cake is my favorite food, so you can imagine how giddy I was at the idea of a cake tasting. Last May, we started our hunt for the perfect cake designer. We went to a few tastings over a couple weeks (and I swear I meant to get pictures but got so excited about eating cake that I forgot my camera). Scheduling cake tastings was a little tough, because most places have set days they do it on (usually either Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or some combination of the three). So I would have to wait for Mr. Fondue’s work schedule to get posted every week (usually on Thursdays), see which of those days he had off, then try to schedule the appointment for sometime after I got off work.

The second place we went to was Maples Wedding Cakes. We had talked to them at a local bridal show in January and have always enjoyed their samples.

Here are some examples of their work, so you can see some of their gorgeous designs:

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I’ve been married before. I was 20 years old. We did the whole wedding thing, and we were separated a little over a year later. So, when Mr. Fondue and I started talking marriage, I originally wanted to elope. I wanted to be married under a waterfall in Hawaii. Just us. No one else.

The problem was that Mr. Fondue hadn’t been married before and wanted all his friends and family to be there. So, the wedding planning began. (I wonder now if he regrets this decision.)

At my first wedding, my dad walked me down the aisle and presented me (even at 20, I didn’t want to be “given” away). Being older now, I thought it might be nice to walk down the aisle by myself, to show my independence. This is nothing against my dad, of course. I love him to death. But this being my second wedding, I thought it was a little silly.

I casually mentioned this to Mr. Fondue, and he suddenly turned all traditionalist on me.
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Although we had originally decided to have a full open bar we are now leaning toward beer, wine, and one signature drink, for budget reasons.

Mr. Fondue was a bartender for several years, so I naturally turned to him for recommendations on what our drink should be. We decided it should be a red drink, since that’s our accent color. Mr. Fondue said he thought a vodka and cranberry would be the simplest and tastiest choice.

I did a taste test on Halloween (so never mind my zombie appearance) and approved his decision.

But of course we want to give it some sort of snappy name to put on our bar menu.

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Note to Mr. Fondue: Dress pictures ahead! Stay away!

After purchasing my dress, I began thinking of what to wear underneath it. I loved the fullness of Mrs. Shortcake’s gown. I already owned a hoop skirt, but I also purchased a petticoat so I could experiment.

Happily, my dress came in last week. I went and picked it up like a giddy little girl, but didn’t bother to try it on at the store, since I wanted pictures and they don’t allow them. At home, I tried getting into the dress by myself and got stuck. I nearly had to ask for Mr. Fondue’s help to remove it from me. Luckily, I freed myself in time, so I was able to keep the dress a secret. After that fiasco, I hightailed it to my parents’ house to enlist Mama Fondue’s assistance.

I tried the dress three different ways: without anything underneath, with just the petticoat, and with both the hoop and the petticoat. This gave me three different fullness levels that I could present to you, so you all could help me decide what looks best! Mama Fondue was very thorough and took both full-length and close-up shots, so there are a lot of photos to assist you. So, without further ado… (Ignore my lack of make-up and makeshift hairstyle.)
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I’ve shown you our urban shots, so now it’s time for some fun! All of these were taken at the Tennessee State Fair.

We changed into some more casual outfits, and I pulled my hair into pigtails. My make-up was still holding up (i.e., I hadn’t rubbed my eyebrows off yet).

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Hmm…I’ve already told you about my eyebrow issues and my cosplay hobby. You must be wondering, “How much weirder can Miss Fondue get?”

Let’s talk irrational fears.

Irrational Fear #1: Eyes
Specifically anything not normal about eyes. This includes touching them, seeing other people touch them, contact lenses that make eyes look unnatural, and, oh yeah, those people who can make their eyeballs pop out of their head. *shudders*

Back in 2004 or 2005, I somehow acquired pink eye. I was in denial for quite some time, and Mr. Fondue urged me to go to the doctor. But I knew what would happen. I had seen that episode of “Friends” where Rachel got an eye infection.

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When we decided where we wanted to have our engagement photos taken, we knew we wanted somewhere fun. We love amusement parks, but there aren’t really any that close to here now that Opryland has turned into a shopping mall, so we decided to schedule our session during the state fair. However, I always loved the textures of urban shots, so one afternoon in September, we met our photographer, Kate Crafton, in downtown Nashville for the start of our engagement session. Whitney Lowe, whose work you saw in my hair and make-up trial, did my hair and makeup for this as well. Forgive the number of pictures; there were so many great ones, I couldn’t really narrow it down!

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Coming soon… our engagement photos!

Photo by Kate Crafton for Studio 5 Photographic Artists.

Note to Mr. Fondue: If you are on Weddingbee, please avert your eyes to another post lest you spoil my surprise!

I love buying gifts for Mr. Fondue. In 2004, when we started dating, I had bought his Christmas present by July. Of course, I couldn’t wait until December for him to have it, so I ended up giving it to him in October. Then I had an excuse to buy more presents for him, so he’d have something to open on Christmas. This is typically how my gift-giving goes.

Mr. Fondue, on the other hand, is always stumped on what to get me. I make lists for him, but he says he doesn’t want to buy off a list, as it doesn’t mean as much. So he’ll usually get me something random the day before he is supposed to give it to me. Sometimes it’s something I like, sometimes… not so much.

So, naturally, I’ve already bought his wedding gift, and he is panicking that he has to get me something. I’ve told him not to worry about it, and that I didn’t get him anything big, but he’s convinced that he now has to find the perfect gift. I try to help him by leaving catalogs around the house with pages dog-eared on the things I like, but I’m not sure he gets those hints.

But I wanted to share with the hive the little gift I got for him!
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With the holidays approaching, we are starting to hear the questions we get every year. “Are you coming here for Thanksgiving?” “Whose turn is it for Christmas Eve?” “Where will you be Christmas Day?”

Mr. Fondue and I have been splitting holidays between our families since our second holiday season together. Typically, we go to one family for Thanksgiving and Christmas Day and the other gets Christmas Eve. The next year, it switches. Our families know this, but I still sometimes feel we are disappointing one or both of them when it’s not our turn to go there for a certain holiday. Admittedly, even I sometimes feel that way. I love his family, but it’s still not the same as spending the holidays with my own. We have very specific traditions, and I feel like I’m missing out when I’m not there. I’m sure Mr. Fondue feels that way as well sometimes.
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Last time, I discussed the basics of tying a chair sash. This time, I’m going to show you how to do a more complicated tie (although it’s still fairly easy). This is the Obi on BBJ Linen’s website.

The Obi

First, as with the others, find the center of the sash and center it with the front of the chair back. For this one, then adjust it so that the right tail is a few inches longer than the left.

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