Weddingbee Blog

Makeup.

I thought of it as “make stress,” personally. Like other bees around these parts, I’m not big on makeup. I pretty much rock the natural look…the bulk of my morning “beauty” routine is spent on my hair. My daily makeup application goes like this: some mascara, a little eyeliner (shadow if I’m feeling particularly ambitious), a brush of blush, swipe of lip gloss and out the door.

OK - if I’m being really honest, there are days when I mix it up with concealer or bronzer.

Anyhow, the truth is, I never feel like I have too little makeup on…but I have definitely had times where I feel like I have too much. So, when seeking a makeup artist for the wedding, I really focused on those who had good reviews by brides who wanted to look “natural.”

I know, I know…”natural” is a total buzzword in the wedding world (goes with “classic,” “traditional,” etc) and my “natural” could be very different from your “natural.”

For reference, here’s my makeup “spectrum”: sans makeup (rocking the specs), daily wear and with “fancy” makeup (at a wedding - did it myself).

I know - the difference is minimal

I consider each of these pictures to be natural in their own way - clearly the right being most appropriate for a formal event - if you must choose from the selection above.
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After a particularly busy day at work, on a dreary, rainy night, I received the following note from my wonderful bridesmaids.

Lists? My bridesmaids know me too well

The rainy, dreary night was turned around when I thought about the prospect of a fun girls’ weekend on the horizon and all the amazing ideas they had brainstormed. To be honest, I feel like I had almost forgotten about this part of the wedding festivities. Exciting!

However, they had put the ball in my court, which made me a bit nervous, as I was now under pressure to pick a location for the celebration.

So, what was on the table? I’ll share with you some of the letter below:

Dearest Bride-to-Be,

The time has come to celebrate all things almost Mrs. B and plan your Bachelorette Weekend!
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You just heard about Eagle’s “to black tie or not to black tie” dilemma. For us, black tie wasn’t ever something that was truly “debated.” It had been lingering in the back of our heads for a while, but, with a nighttime wedding (ceremony at 6:30pm, cocktails at 7:30pm), we knew that the overall vibe of the event would be on the formal end of the spectrum.

Many of my inspiration photos involved candles Source

Black tie was one of those “we’ll figure it out later” things.

When the venue changed, we had to rethink a lot of the details of the reception. After all, we were going from a unique, completely open space with lots of light to a more traditional ballroom.

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Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you how to wash. These are bridal shower tips.

As I mentioned, I am a two shower bride. The next shower is in my hometown in upstate NY in March, so I have some time to prepare. And there are some things I need to change adjust for the next time around.

I’m not going to share things that I knew before (and you likely do too)—like ensure you share with everyone who the gift is from when opening it, have someone keep track of who gives you what gift (in case cards get replaced), greet all your guests, thank your hostess(es) at the end publicly, etc. etc.

These tips are some that I haven’t seen shared around these parts (not that they haven’t been…). To make my point, I’m going to be sharing the good, the bad and even some ugly with you all. Get ready.

Vintage-y photos with rounded edges courtesy of Cousin E; other photos by Mom.

Tip #1: Wear something comfortable / long enough

I’m going to get real with you right away, ladies. Sitting and opening presents can be awkward.
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There are two dress brides and two shoe brides, but I was lucky enough to be a two shower bride! Due to travel schedules during the winter, Mr. Turkey’s cousins were kind enough to throw me a bridal shower this fall (that is why we registered so early).

How beautiful are these invitations?

I was very excited about this event, but also a little nervous*. Despite my years performing in front of people, for some reason, in smaller settings, when I’m the center of attention, I get super nervous.
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and hopefully gone before June!

Unlike fellow bloggers Hawk and Uni (do you mind if I call you Uni?), I am NOT in love with my hair. I’ve gone through a number of styles in my 29 years…and some of them have been pretty rough. Don’t believe me…check it out:

I created this to be like the Transformation feature from InStyle for a team event a while back

As you can see, I used to be blond*. And tried to hold on to that color for a bit past its peak. There were many dollars spent on highlights which were probably not good for my already tough-to-manage hair.

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We all know brides get to be pampered throughout their engagement, but what about their friends? Yes, their guests are treated to a fabulous wedding (and often, welcome bags), but what about the other events?

As a bridesmaid, while prepping for the bride-to-be’s bachelorette weekend at the beach, I decided to put together some fun goodies for the entourage.

Flip flops EVERYWHERE

The first project was to make personalized cups for each of the attendees. I used plastic martini glasses purchased from Party City and a simple Sharpie. Each glass had the girl’s name + “C___’s Bachelorette 2010″ around the base.
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If you missed anything, here are links to Part I, Part II, and Part III.

As you saw, we had five top choices from our engagement session for the photo on our save the date…so which one did we choose?

They’re HEREEEEEE. Seriously, when I picked up this bag I was giddy with excitement.

In the bag was the final product. Drum roll, please…

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Our engagement session came just shortly after our venue change, so we felt like we had a fresh start! The plan was to do photos around the historic Old City section of Philadelphia since we would be on the other side for the wedding. (Mr. Turkey is also a big history buff.) We had a GORGEOUS day for our engagement pictures with our fantastic photographer, and our slight nerves were calmed almost instantly.

All photos in this post are by Philip Gabriel Photography.

There were definitely some awkward photos at the start!

As I mentioned, we wanted to use a photo from this session for our save the dates. Gabe had seen the design, so we felt hopeful that we would have a lot of good choices to select from.

In the end, we had too MANY. I’ll share with you the top five options.

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This is a bit out of order, but since I’m about to tell you about our engagement session, it probably makes sense to tell you about our photographer (you know, the one taking the pictures).

Although I haven’t talked at all about photography, it was something that was very important to us. I LOVE pictures and am known for always having a camera with me (seriously—every day). In fact, in college, many of my girlfriends didn’t have cameras since they knew I would be prepared.

My love of photography led me to peruse many blogs and websites after our engagement. Too many to even remember. I didn’t even keep track, to be honest. Yes, I’m a terrible blogger.

However, at some point I stumbled upon Philip Gabriel Photography…and never looked back. Although I spoke to several other photographers before making the final decision, it wasn’t really a comparison.

I loved that the photos captured moments…

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…handwriting.

As I mentioned, we received our save-the-date envelopes early so that I could get working on the calligraphy for the envelopes. My main artistic skill has always been my penmanship—since I was a kid (sorry—no long lost samples of my journals to insert here). And to answer one of the most asked questions—no, I did not attend a Catholic school.

I thought it would be fun to do the calligraphy for our paper products but, somewhat more importantly, I thought our friends and family would expect it. Seriously—for those who know me well, if I had paid for calligraphy it would have been…I’d argue…disappointing. Even Mr. Turkey took it for granted.

So, to start, I looked online to get style inspiration. Like our paper products, I was going to go more modern with the save-the-date calligraphy and more classic for our invitations. I saw a lot of fabulous work on the web—so many talented people!!

Besides the bright color, I liked the extension of the letters. / Image via The Social Life of Paper

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While reading this post, you may question my choice of title…but stick it out, OK?

It was an average fall day…one of my final summer Fridays* of the year. The sun was shining and there were just over two hours until I planned to spend my afternoon wandering the Philadelphia streets for a bit. (I really wanted a late lunch from the Guapos Taco truck.)

Where my brain was / Image via design-phan

As I was imagining my delicious Mexican snack, my phone buzzed on the desk, listing “Jen from Kimmel Center” as the caller. I picked up and cheerily said, “Hi Jen—happy Friday!” Her response did not seem as peppy, and when she mentioned that her colleague was with her on the call, I got a strange feeling. However, I did not expect what she said to me:

“Miss Turkey, we’re sorry to tell you that we’re no longer going to be able to hold your wedding at the Kimmel Center on May XX, 2012.”

Cue tires screaching, glass breaking, lightning striking…WHAT???
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So the paper-store route did not work out, and I was headed down the custom path. I started Googling away for “custom invitations Philly” and found that, in the area, there seemed to be a lot of options…all with great reputations. I looked at all their samples, blogs, client commentary, etc. However, I kept going back to the website of one—Two Paperdolls.

Image via Two Paperdolls

Photos like the one above were drawing me in—so pretty! So coordinated! I couldn’t resist scheduling an appointment.

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When I last left you, I was armed with my doodles and heading off to visit some vendors who might be able to help me with our paper products. As fun as it might have been, I did not think that I had either the talent or tools (no Cricut or Gocco for this girl) or time to conquer them on my own!

I started with a trip to the new Paper Source store in Center City on my walk home (dangerous…dangerous, I tell you).

When I walked in, there was only 1 employee in the store. She was helping a customer with thank you notes, so I perused the invitation books and waited. As I was waiting, a number of other customers came in, so I maintained my spot but tried to catch the employee’s eye so that I would be helped next. About 10–15 minutes had passed at this point. No other employees had surfaced. and although it was getting a little frustrating, I was still hanging in there. There were a lot of pretty things to look at, after all.

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Time to get to what was/is probably my favorite part of the wedding-planning process—paper products!!

I love paper. I have a ridiculous collection of stationery (including way too many thank you notes), and if you put me anywhere near a Paper Source or Papyrus, I’m guaranteed to walk away a little lighter in the wallet.

Last Christmas I think I sent over 100 holiday cards. (Imagine the bill at Papyrus.)

So clearly the wedding would be no exception. Before choosing anyone to help with the execution, we had to get our design ideas clear.

We decided to have our wedding brand of “modern elegance” define our paper choices.

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