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Weddingbee Blog
I might be alone here, but creating our invitations has definitely been my favorite part of planning. I love paper and I love beautiful design. Receiving wedding invites in the mail is one of my all time favorite things. I had considered designing them myself, but after a few test runs with engagement party invites and save the dates, I wisely chose the supremely talented Margot of Atelier Isabey to design them for me. Due to our long engagement, we had to put it off for sooooo long. I could not wait to get started.
We are in the middle of round two of revisions. Can I just tell you how exciting it is to see Margot’s email and know that there is a magical little PDF just waiting to be opened? I can’t really show you what we are working on, but here is my primary inspiration from her samples.
I bought my rehearsal dinner dress yesterday. Until hitting “add to cart,” I hadn’t really thought about what I would wear to that particular event. After we booked the location a year ago, I kinda stopped thinking about the rehearsal dinner altogether.
Then I saw a cute white dress on one of the one million wedding blogs that I read and I started thinking that it might be fun to wear white for the RD. I headed over the Anthropologie, which is my go-to place for… almost anything, and the first white dress that I saw was this one.
My mom is a crazy cupcake baker. She makes them whenever she has an excuse and they are always absolutely delicious. When this little gem popped up in my google reader right before Easter, I knew we had to make them.
Our Save the Dates are in the mail! It’s really official. Mr. Peacock and I are getting married. This proves it:
Featured on Weddingbee
Unique Wedding Favors
“Add a memorable touch to your wedding with unique favors that match your theme.”
There are 150 days left until our wedding. 150 days left to the wedding. 150 days left to the wedding. I will be silently chanting that all day long.
Mr. Peacock and I have been engaged since December of 2006. At the time, we had quite a few question marks looming. Both Mr. Peacock and I were thinking about going back to school. Rumors were flying around his office that his company was going to be acquired. If the acquisition happened, there was a good chance that we would be packing up and moving to either Manhattan or California. Otherwise, we wanted to put our house on the market and move closer to downtown. It was all a little too exciting. I got nervous and shoved the wedding date into 2008, under the impression that I would appreciate the extra time to plan. My best friend is getting married in June, 2008 and since we would be in each other’s bridal parties, it might be best to space them out a bit. The date was set for September 2008.
Mr. Peacock in me in our silly, just engaged bliss
After our very successful cake tasting trip, Mr. Peacock and I went to my parents’ house for a visit. I started complaining that the photo of our cake on Martha Stewart’s website was too small to really see the detail. I wanted to send the image to our baker but I wasn’t sure it would help. My dad is a computer genius so he started playing around with the photo in an attempt to stretch it out, but it was so pixilated that it looked like a big mess. I resolved myself to the fact that I would just have to hope for the best.
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
I need to preface this post by saying that this whole thing has been a total tease. I am not going to reveal my dress. Mr. Peacock has been adamant about not wanting to see it. He subscribes to the Weddingbee feed and he is slightly absentminded in his internet reading habits, I have a feeling that he might accidentally stumble upon it. He would be very sad.
I did go to one more new dress shop- the Vera Wang salon on Oak Street. I brought a whole gang- my mom, my sister and one of my bridesmaids. I had a feeling that I was going to need a team to get talked out of a particular $15,000 VW Luxe dress.
I think my last post caused a little confusion. I have already bought my dress. In fact, she is in a garment bag hanging in my mom’s closet. She is impatiently waiting to come out and get altered. I think you all will like her, even more than Dora 
In addition to all the fun new dress shops, mom and I also went to several sample shops. These shops carried dresses that had served as samples in new dress shops, discontinued dresses from other shops or dresses from discontinued shops. These dresses are usually somewhere between 30-70% off. You should have a general idea of what you are looking for because there is a huge selection which changes constantly and you most likely won’t find one specific dress from one specific designer.
Our first stop was at Wedding Belles is in Barrington. After trying on many “oooh, that’s pretty… but, no” dresses, we found this Vera Wang sample.
Dress shopping wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be. I tried on a million dresses and, until the end, I couldn’t find anything overwhelmingly wonderful and yet there were very few that I wanted to rip off my body out of disgust. I never had one of those angels calling down from the heavens, proclaiming one dress to be “the one.” I started to get a little overwhelmed after my first trip out. I really thought this would be easier. I did find an amazing dress that I have a major crush on and, even without the angels, I think that it is perfect for me.
Due to my long engagement, I put off looking for dresses until I was just under a year out. I had a feeling that once I laid down my credit card, I would find another dress that I loved and I would kick myself for buying early. I spent some time with wedding magazines and websites in an attempt to narrow the list down a little bit. I wasn’t stuck to any particular brand and I was planning to visit sample stores, but I really loved Melissa Sweet, Jenny Lee and Vera Wang. I felt like these designers were low on sparkles and glitz, but still creative and beautiful. I wanted classic, maybe lace, maybe straps, definitely ivory. My team included my mom and my sister, although one of my very honest bridesmaids came with when I found my perfect dress.
Read more…
I don’t watch a lot of television. It isn’t on purpose, I just never remember when shows are on and it takes something really killer to get me hooked. These shows include, recently, the Bachelor, House Hunters, Golden Girls reruns on Lifetime and Gilmore Girls on ABC Family/DVD. I know, I know. Blockbuster, award worthy television.
I found the Gilmore Girls as it was wrapping up its final season. I got hooked, without even realizing that the final season was by far the worst of the seven. I bought the first 3 seasons on DVD at Costco and was later gifted seasons 4-6. In season 6, the eternal flirts Luke (Scott Patterson) and Lorelei (Lauren Graham) are finally engaged. Lorelei makes almost all of her wedding plans in one day due to a series of very fortunate occurances. One of these very fortunate occurances is that she found the PERFECT DRESS at the first shop that she walked into. It was her size, just what she was looking for and on sale.
I just wanted to let you all know that I found my PERFECT DRESS. It was in my size, just what I had been looking for and on sale. It wasn’t found at the first shop that I walked into, however. Parts two and three will outline the very exciting journey from “no dress” to “THE dress.”
I have seen some really fabulous ways to ask your bridesmaids to be your bridesmaids. I had been asked a handful of times to serve as a maid before it was my turn to get married, and I had never received any elaborate gifts. The bride called, told me how excited she was and that she hoped I would be able to stand by her on her big day and we cried happy tears for a moment before she returned to her new fiance.
When it was my turn, there were a slew of engagements going down. I knew that I wouldn’t be the only one asking, or they would be trying to plan their weddings alongside me. I wanted to give them a little warm fuzzy just to ease the request in. I invited them to brunch at the southside Orange location- a very fresh and yummy brunch spot- and handed them this little basket of goodies.
Mr. Peacock and I are throwing the party of our lives. Every vendor has been considered according to how much they can add to the party - band, caterer, bar options, decor. We want everyone to stay until the last dance and then keep breaking it down all the way to the after party.
When we were considering Medinah for our venue, one of my primary concerns was transportation. I could swing the costs for the bridal party, but renting buses for the entire wedding would be a stretch. Medinah isn’t terribly close to any hotels and none of our friends or family live in the immediate area. I knew that many guests would miss our ceremony or be worrying about getting home if we didn’t rent transportation on a grand scale.
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Just in case you haven’t gotten the word yet, Etsy is launching a new focus on weddings with the Handmade Wedding series. The series will highlight all the wedding goodies that appear in their shops. Storque will also feature a series of articles and guest bloggers that will bring more attention to all the ways that you can make your wedding more handmade. You can find more information here.
Etsy is also announcing the re-opening of Alchemy. As Etsy phrases it, Alchemy is “a service which allows buyers to request custom orders. Interested sellers bid on the job, allowing you to match yourself with the perfect artist for your needs. Theoretically, you could get just about anything made.”
Here are some of the fun items featured in the shops.
Yesterday morning, Mr. Peacock and I had a late and yummy breakfast. It consisted of chocolate cake, vanilla cake and chocolate and vanilla cake. On the side, we had lemon custard, strawberry preserves and cannoli.This is how I felt about it afterward. I made friends with that cute little Italian baker next to me. He was offering cookies.
The Save the Date email for my bachelorette party went out yesterday! We are going to spend a few days on the lake in lovely Coloma, Michigan. Mr. Peacock’s family has a condo right on the lake, with a party boat in the dock and a hilarious townie bar within walking distance. There isn’t a place where I feel more relaxed and happy. I can’t wait to spend a few days lounging around in swimsuits, drinking margaritas with all my favorite girls. I love it too because it will be pretty inexpensive - it’s only a few hours drive from Chicago and there is nary a stripper in site.
I am down in Austin, TX right now with Mr. Peacock enjoying the South By Southwest Interactive Conference. The sun is shining (unlike in Chicago) and the southern accents in Texas are so lovely. The combination of receiving that save the date and the accents are making me really wish that I had a copy of one of my all-time favorite movies with me- Shag.
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Miss Peacock, Chicago Age and Occupation: 26, PhD Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Internet Whiz Engagement Date: December 5, 2006 Wedding Date: September, 2008 Blogging Since: December 13, 2007 Venue: St. Clement Church, Cafe Brauer (or a big church wedding and a fancy party at a cafe in Lincoln Park. About Me: I am a grad student with a secret obsession for all things wedding related. I also love to read, travel, drink champagne and go for walks with our dog, Maisy, and Mr. Peacock. We are planning our very vintage wedding in the greatest city in the world, our hometown of Chicago. I am so proud to be a Bee!
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