Weddingbee Blog

Now that I’ve revealed our invitations, I’m ready to get into the details. Since our invites were closely related to our save the dates, let’s do a really quick inspiration rewind. Our main inspiration was the string tied around the finger motif from a (slightly creepy and not pictured) “don’t forget”-themed knick knack that I had found at a thrift store, and the graphic from our cake:

We loved our save the dates, and I was so pleased with how well the black string and bow graphic ties in with our bridesmaids’ dresses.

You may remember that we were very lucky when it came to our STDs:

Read more…

Our invitations were mailed out a little over a week ago, and now that they have reached all of our guests, I am ready to reveal them!

I’ve tried to put this post together to show the visual steps that a guest would take as they opened our invitations. I also did this because I had a hard time understanding how to “stuff” all of the information, and hope this visual will be helpful to the hive.

I will do another post with the details of our invites. For now, just think of them as eye candy!

Let’s start at the beginning…

Read more…

Mr. Taffy is technically in charge of all things music for our wedding. He is doing a great job, but we have really been stuck on ceremony music, especially the song for the processional! Lately, when I’m blogging or working on wedding projects on the computer, I have been listening to tracks from the Beatles Anthology. Two days ago, as I was listening, it hit me: the perfect song for our processional had been right under our noses the entire time!

I mean, come on! How could I have been listening to this song, one of my absolute favorites, over and over the last few months and not see how fitting it was for our wedding? Maybe I wasn’t paying attention after having given the responsibility to Mr. Taffy. Although our music will be instrumental, I love knowing how cute the lyrics are:
Read more…

As an artist and designer who avidly studied life drawing and fashion illustration, and as a girl with a serious obsession with lingerie, I have always loved the concept of boudoir shoots. Have I mentioned that (one) of my dream jobs would be designing intimate apparel? Had I not gone straight into automotive design after fashion school, I would have most definitely been cranking out the undies (and hopefully still will someday!).

As most designers like to build collections for reference and inspiration, I have accumulated vintage pin up calendars, centerfolds and books over the years. I have been slowly building my lingerie collection for about the same time, and have found some really great pieces. While I’m not prepared to show you my undies, I will gladly share my pin up/burlesque references with you for boudoir shoot inspiration.

“It’s All in the Eyes” by Joe Demers. Scanned from my copy of The Great American Pin Up.

From a life drawing perspective, I love the poses and play of light in vintage pin ups. From a fashion illustration perspective, I love seeing how the hair, makeup, and different fabrics are rendered, especially the sheer fabrics and any embellishment details. From a boudoir perspective, the poses, hair styles, expressions and colors can be a fun source of inspiration.
Read more…

Being a May bride, my original floral plan was to go with white peony centerpieces. I reasoned that they were the perfect choice, considering that they are large blooms and are (usually) in season on our date, making them not only beautiful, but economical.

image source

This ultra simple and beautiful arrangement has been my main inspiration image for centerpieces. The image is from Bridgewater Gardens, a great resource for fresh cut peonies that is a mere 30 minutes from our house! Unfortunately, our wedding weekend is a bit too early for them. Since our wedding date is at the very beginning of peony season here, our florist asked me to come up with a back up flower, just in case.

I decided that white tulips would be a great substitution.
Read more…

I was so excited the morning of our shower. Everything was really starting to sink in - the wedding is getting close! Mr. Taffy, the Taffettes, and I met up with mom and sister Taffy early to help set things up.

I knew that things would get crazy once the guests arrived, so I tried to organize some pictures beforehand! I am very grateful for the wonderful ladies who took images with my camera during the shower. It was so nice to see everything in action after the afternoon was over!
Read more…

Once Mom Taffy had the spring theme in her head, her plans really started to blossom! In this post I will share some of the fun, colorful details from our shower.

First up - check out these adorable cupcake holders that we found! I love the vintage, graphic look of the tulip inspired print and the scalloped edges.

Although we did have cupcakes at the shower, my mom used the cupcake holders above to hold M&Ms and Skittles on the tables for our guests - a colorful tribute to my sweet tooth!
Read more…

Mom Taffy really wanted to give packets of seeds to the guests at my shower, keeping in line with her spring theme. I will show you the steps that we took to create the favors and display, and a tutorial for the easy homemade yarn signs. I think that this would be a really fun favor for spring or rustic-themed weddings.

Here is one of the finished containers holding vegetable seeds. Don’t mind the crazy sheet or background; we were in full crafting mode when this was taken!
Read more…

Read more…

While Mom Taffy has been planning our upcoming shower, Mr. Taffy and I have had some discussions on whether the groom should or should not be present. Some might argue that the groom merely needs to show up toward the end of the shower, to help with the gifts. Others might say that he doesn’t need to be present at all. I would like Mr. Taffy to be there from start to finish! After all, people are there to share in our joy and shower us with gifts for our life together. To back up my opinion, I busted out some pictures from my mom and dad’s shower.

Mom & Dad Taffy circa 1977

I love checking out the pretty vintage gift wrap!

As proof that my dad didn’t just “pop in” for a quick hello, I found these pictures of him:
Read more…

Mr. Taffy and I had really been looking forward to our tasting. Our caterers only hold one tasting per year! The tasting date was cutting it quite close to the day we needed to give our entree options for our invitation reply card, so we were hoping to make a final decision at the tasting, or directly afterward. After all, we had been combing over the menu for months, crunching numbers and discussing the different entree choices! We had a menu in our minds, but wanted to try everything to make sure it was as tasty as it sounded.

I wish I could say that it was that easy, but this tasting was full of surprises, and quite frankly, some disappointments.

At least we had another couple to cope with! Jessie516 and her fiance, who are getting married the same month as we are, were also at the tasting.

The four of us have been really sick with the sinus infection / bronchitis plague going around Ann Arbor, and joked about how much we would actually taste due to our symptoms.
Read more…

I didn’t think twice about bustles before my first dress fitting. I had no idea that it would be such a difficult decision to make! I went to my first fitting alone without a camera, and that wasn’t a very good idea… I didn’t have anyone to bounce my opinions off of, and didn’t have pictures to show anyone afterward. I ended up going back to the salon a week later so my mom could see the different bustles in person.

During the initial fitting, the first bustle that the seamstress/shop owner tried was the popular French bustle. I have seen these many times, and found them to be quite lovely. I assumed that this was the bustle I would go with—another reason that I didn’t do any research before the fitting. To my surprise, it just didn’t work with my dress style. The underpinning hid a lot of the lace, and the width of the underbustle looked weird against the silhouette of the dress.

The seamstress then tried an overbustle. It started out simple, but soon had many, many points. It was way too complicated for my taste, and I began to worry. The dress would be bustled for the majority of the time that I would wear it, and I really wanted to be happy with it.

I didn’t get any pictures during the first fitting, but I brought my camera for round two.

Mr. Taffy, do not look any further!!!
Read more…

I am very excited that we have made the decision to have a portrait booth at our wedding! Including the booth at our reception was something that we had discussed early on with our fabulous photographer, A Girl in Love, but we did not make the decision until this week. Melissa posted a cute “kissing booth” entry on her blog that reminded me to bring it up. Michigan brides, check out the entry for details on a portrait booth special!

Here is my favorite shot from the “kissing booth”

Image Source- A Girl In Love

The lipstick marks in this shot are adorable.
Read more…

Like Miss Peep Toe, I have been having quite the time finding shoes for the big day. In a perfect world, I would love to find a pair of shoes that are the exact blue that I have fallen in love with, has ankle straps, a 3 to 3 and a half inch heel, and for them to be comfortable. Since I am very sensitive to color, the obvious choice would be to find a dyeable shoe. I have searched far and wide for dyeable shoes, and was not thrilled with any of the styles. Besides the ankle strap and heel height, I really wasn’t even that picky!

When dyeables weren’t looking promising, I scoured the internet for cute blue or ivory shoes, all to no avail. I have spent way, way too much time searching, and was about to give up and buy an ivory pair that I wasn’t really into. I have already started dress fittings and have been using black heels as a surrogate. Time was not on my side!

There was one place that I didn’t look during my crazy search- Payless. They just unveiled a new line of dyeable shoes by Lela Rose called Unforgettable Moments. The styles that I viewed online were super cute, but I was a little wary of the quality, so today I went to a store to see them in person.
Read more…

It has been well over a month since I wrote about how my sweet tooth was getting in the way of my fitness goals. I am very happy to say that I have successfully swapped my sweets! You all had such good advice for healthier snacking alternatives, which has been a huge help. In the beginning, I made yogurt, honey and banana shakes to calm my sweet cravings. For the last few weeks, I have been eating strawberry & mango fruit pops from Trader Joes and Whole Foods. They are all natural, super sweet, and full of vitamin C! I have only eaten ice cream once since I vowed to swap, but I don’t feel like I am avoiding it, or even missing it.

My fitness plan is going really well, although I have missed exercising for a total of two weeks, first for a cold, and now for a nasty sinus infection and cough. I know it is not a great idea to work out while I feel like I have the plague, but it is so hard to sit so many days out. (Jessie516 is unfortunately in the same boat. I think we may have even caught the same bug, as we are both in Ann Arbor!)

When I am not suffering from the plague, I have been working out at home. Budget constraints have pushed me to cancel my YMCA membership, but I have found some good DVDs and enjoy working out at home.
Read more…