Weddingbee Blog

One advantage of getting married in our hometown was being able to take photos at locations that sparked memories of our dating days. One such spot was right next to the chapel where we were getting married, and also the spot I chose for our first look.

On one of our earliest dates, for some reason Mr. Sunbeam and I ended up strolling through the college in town late at night, only to be caught in a thunderstorm. We took cover underneath a patch of trees that hung over a few benches (psssst, see the benches above?). Eventually a little orange kitty found us and waited out  the storm on our laps. I named him Orville Redenbacher, because it was fun to say! We must have been there for hours, and the storm only got worse. It was getting late and we knew we were out past our curfew, so we made a muddy run through the rain to my parents’ house. We were soaking wet, muddy, and I’m pretty sure we were in trouble for being out late. Now we were back again to celebrate our marriage, and hopefully stave off the rain for at least a few more hours.
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The time had finally arrived. It was time to slip on the dress I’d been wanting to wear every day for the last 3 months that it had been hanging in my closet. Would it fit OK? Would it look as fabulous as I had remembered? Would Groombeam love it?? We were all getting ready in my old bedroom which I had always thought was large—until you get a bride, five bridesmaids, and two photographers into it! So, my Maid of Honor had the solo role of getting me into my dress. And with one zip, I became a bride.

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I hadn’t given much thought to the old tradition of “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue”. I guess I just had so much going on that it was the very least of my worries. A few days before the wedding though, I saw my perfect something old, borrowed and blue all in one on my mother’s hand!

My great grandmother’s engagement ring. I remember the days of my mother asking for her grandmother’s engagement ring from my grandmother and the emotion and love behind the request. My great grandfather couldn’t afford a diamond for my great grandmother’s ring, so instead he chose a beautiful setting with a blue glass stone for her.
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The ladies and I had been getting ready for two hours, starting at 10 AM, when the men gathered to start getting ready at noon.

We put up our OOT groomsmen at a local B&B not 5 minutes from Mr. Sunbeam’s parents’ house and this is where they all gathered to get dressed and get Mr. Sunbeam ready to say “I do”. Unfortunately our photographer’s assistant didn’t take many pictures of the men getting ready because I guess he didn’t like the lighting, but I’ll share the few he did take.
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I’m having such a love affair with my dress, and these photos make me want to jump on into it again! When we last left off, the ladies and I were busy getting beautified together. Our hair appointments went off without a hitch and my DIY makeup was going just as smoothly. Meanwhile, my dress and shoes and our rings were off having a well-deserved photo shoot of their own!

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I woke up at 6 AM on our wedding day. I couldn’t sleep any longer. It was time to bask in the fact that today was our wedding day! I loved our engagement so much and all of the planning that went into our day. When we set our wedding date I thought our engagement was SO long (15 months) but half-way through, I loved it so much I could have been engaged for a year longer. But now the time to be a bride had come. I fluffed out a few last minute poms, had some breakfast, printed out some extra timelines (which I think no one held onto, myself included) and waited anxiously for the first thing on the list: Our hair appointments.
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One last stop before the wedding day! I thought this would be a good time to show you all the “papery” details from our wedding. I say it in quotations because we didn’t get many real life photos of our menu, ceremony card, etc., so I have a few screen captures from Illustrator instead.

Our Wayne Theibaud inspired evite

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We had just finished up our rehearsal and moseyed on down to my parents’ house for dessert. But before we went inside, one of our fabulous friends pulled us aside to take some photos of us with the sunset. When he couldn’t find a good spot for us with the sunset, it turned into a little pre-wedding mini-shoot!
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Screeeech - My recaps are a bit out of order! Before we get to the wedding I want to share our rehearsal and a gathering at my folks’ house! I hope you’ll hang in there with me just a bit longer!

It was the day before our wedding. I woke up with 101 things to do, as you may have guessed from my previous post. One thing that wasn’t mentioned was that among my already scheduled appointments and to-dos, I found out I had to completely redo our seating chart. With no time to do this, I ended up fixing our seating chart in the car on the way to our rehearsal dinner, which was scheduled for 4:30PM.
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’Twas was the night before our wedding. We had just finished dessert with our guests and were heading to our reception site. On the list of things to do: the flowers, seating cards, various decorations, making our signature drink, numbering and moving our tables if need be. A group of guys had set up the tables the day before, but since it wasn’t able to be set up as planned, everyone wanted to get my final approval! This happened more often than I anticipated.
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When we left off, Mr. Sunbeam and I were busy as could be to get everything in order before our friends and family arrived. Besides visiting our reception site, I visited our church to make sure our decorations would hang properly, we were stuffing OOT bags, fluffing poms, emailing vendors, and running to Pittsburgh to pick up cheese for our reception. I was starting to wonder if I should miss out on the bachelorette because there was so much to be done, but decided ’no way!’. We had to let go and start having some fun!
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It’s time for some recaps! It took longer than expected to get all the photos gathered up. We hired a photographer, but had few talented friends with fancy cameras there as well, and I couldn’t go on without the whole lot at my fingertips. After sorting through the 3,500+ photos and having a new found love for Mobile Me, I’m ready for some sharing!

Mr. Sunbeam and I went home a week before our wedding day and the week became a whirlwind of activity, sprinkled with a few hiccups—one of which was the weather forecast, which toyed with me by having conflicting reports of rain, sun, and downpour on each of the three weather apps I downloaded!
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So I only made you wait a day; that’s not so bad! Now that you have seen my beautiful veil it’s time to learn how it was made! As promised, here is: The making of Miss Sunbeam’s veil. A step by step tutorial by Mrs. DG.

*All photos taken by Mrs. DG unless otherwise noted*

First pick an appropriate length of tulle. A typical veil is 108 inches in width, though the narrower the width, the less poufy it will be. Other common widths are 72 and 54 inches. We chose 54 inches for Miss Sunbeam’s veil to keep a narrow profile and less poufy attachment.
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If you remember, about one month before the big day I was still debating about which veil to choose. Truth be told, I liked the third least popular veil the most, but it was also the most expensive option.

While I had been given money to afford the veil, thanks to a generous Momma Sunbeam, I just could not bring myself to spend it! This would reflect my father’s traits in me! $500 for a veil, that I will wear for mere hours? No. Couldn’t do it. But I also couldn’t picture myself without it.
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Our out of town bags were a labor of love, but lacked a plan of delivery! Sadly, I think half of our guests went home without them because we forgot to drop them off at the hotels, and then forgot to bring them to the reception! Luckily we were able to pass some of the baggies out, so it wasn’t a total failure of delivery! We also ended up having favors at the wedding, so hopefully everyone left with a little something.

We purchased 50 8″x 10″muslin bags online and decorated each bag with a custom stamp I had ordered from Impress Rubber Stamps of our invitation motif. Then came the fun part - filling the bags!
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