Weddingbee Blog

So originally, I was 100% about the milk glass for our centerpieces, but I started thinking that I wanted to supplement them with something else for a more eclectic look. While flipping through Domino: The Book of Decorating, I spotted this little detail in one of the rooms:

Um, hello missing piece! Thanks again, Domino! (P.S. I miss you!) I’ve always loved silver, but I had never really thought about combining it with milk glass. After seeing this picture, I am determined to make it work! I love silver and I love milk glass. So really, this is just me, approaching our wedding style in the same way that I do my personal style or my decorating style. Instead of letting myself get stuck in a matchy box, with swatch cards always in hand, I choose to combine everything I’m drawn toward, random things that make my heart happy. I’ve never designed a wedding, but this usually seems to work for me. So I guess I’m crossing my fingers! Hopefully our wedding style will be totally unique and representative of the Turtles’ tastes, rather than one big sloppy mess.

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One of the earliest decisions I made regarding our wedding was to use some kind of unique, vintage vases for our reception centerpieces. Shortly before we got engaged, I had started to collect hobnail milk glass. (Mr. Turtle even gave me the “wedding jar” piece to add to my collection on the night he proposed.) So between the sentimental value and the fact that it is white, I decided pretty quickly to use milk glass for our wedding! With this in mind, I began adding to my collection whenever I spotted a piece I liked for a good price at an antique store. When my mom heard about my growing collection, she began to scour eBay, randomly surprising me with more pieces! My personal collection still consists of my beloved hobnail pattern (the ones with the little bumps on them!), but in order to expand the collection for the wedding, my mom and I also added a lot of pieces we’ve liked that are not hobnail.

First the collection filled up my hope chest, (the one from the proposal). Eventually it grew to dominate our dining room. Oops! Here it is in all its glory:

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A few months ago I decided that it was about time for us to book a florist. At first I felt totally overwhelmed, because for a girl who claims to love flowers, I suddenly realized that I knew very little about them! Sure, I love picking up a bouquet at the farmers’ market, but I had no idea what most blooms were called or which kinds go well together. I became determined to show up to florist meetings with a binder full of inspiration pictures and the impression that I know what I’m talking about. So in the days to follow, I made it my job to find out all I could about flowers!

Unfortunately, I quickly realized that my expensive taste carries straight on through into flowers. My favorites don’t come cheap! I made a list of the names of all the flowers I love: peonies, garden roses, ranunculus, sweet peas, hydrangeas, lisianthus, tulips, dahlias, and anemones. I’m definitely drawn to blooms that are fluffier and full of petals, rather than structural and architectural.

I began collecting inspiration for my bouquet. Here are some pictures I collected that I took with me to communicate what I like to my florist:

For my bouquet, I love the pop of pink against a white dress! (Photo source: OnceWed)

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Soon after letting it sink in that Mr. Turtle and I were engaged, I turned to the Internet, hoping to become inspired about this wedding that everyone kept asking me about. I can’t remember which blog I first saw it on, but this is the first wedding picture that I saw that caused me to think, “I want our wedding to be like that!”

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I don’t know what about this picture made me love it so much, but I immediately dragged it to my desktop. Not too long after this, I came across this picture and fell in love once again:

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I love cupcakes. I’ve always loved cupcakes.

Proof: That’s mini me, circa 1992, making sure that no one steals my cupcakes as I sleep in the car.

Does that prove my point? I even made these cupcakes in my ceramics class during my sophomore year of college:

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One benefit of having a 22 month engagement is that there is plenty of time to brainstorm and to change your mind. For me, I still haven’t decided whether this has been more of a drawback or an advantage. I definitely have a specific style. Whether in fashion, interior design, or art, there is a certain look that draws me in.

Since I am such a visual person, the wedding planning tool that has been most effective for me is style inspiration boards. Inspiration boards are very popular right now in the world of wedding blogs, but because of my art education, I have been making collages, essentially inspiration boards, for years! This is the first inspiration board I made for our wedding after Mr. Turtle proposed:

(Photo credits left to right: Cooper Carras via Snippet and Ink, personal photo, Style Me Pretty, Style Me Pretty, SLO Cakery, Style Me Pretty, Style Me Pretty, Style Me Pretty, Chelsea and Tec’s Wedding via Once Wed, Stock Photo via Corbis, Style Me Pretty)

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I was definitely never the a little girl who had her wedding all planned out. There was no beach or castle or anything like that where I had grown up imagining my special day taking place. Lucky for us that this was the case, because after we got engaged, Mr. Turtle suggested getting married in his grandparents’ backyard on California’s Central Coast. It wasn’t crushing any of my dreams, because at that point, our wedding was a blank canvas in my mind. In fact, I loved the idea! I could not imagine us getting married indoors, and of course I love the sentimental value of a backyard wedding, so I immediately agreed!

(That’s a panoramic view of the yard I made on Photoshop right after we made the venue decision. The yard is actually curved in a big U-shape.)

I like to think of our wedding as a backyard wedding, even though it’s going to be a liiiittle bit more upscale than that. (I’m definitely not thinking bare feet with hot dogs at picnic tables and Dad on the grill a la the daydream that Steve Martin has in Father of the Bride.) But I do like the old-fashioned feel of a backyard wedding.

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Mr. Turtle and I have known since early in our dating relationship that we would get married someday. Although we had already made this lifetime commitment to each other in our hearts, back in the summer of 2008 I did not see a proposal or a wedding anywhere in our near future. This was mostly due to the fact that we are young and due to my nature as an obsessive planner. I felt that the timing had to be just right. It wasn’t part of my “life plan” to get married before I graduated from college, so the very earliest we could get married would be the summer of 2010.

Meanwhile, Mr. Turtle had a different plan. In June, while I was off in Hawaii on vacation with my family, Mr. Turtle had a conversation with his parents about our plans to get married sometime after graduation. They urged him to propose in plenty of time for me to enjoy planning the wedding. So while I was off in Hawaii, totally oblivious, he decided to go ring shopping. By the time I got home from Hawaii, he had purchased a ring and come up with a plot to propose in December.

He knew that my favorite time of the year is Christmas, so he decided to do it then.
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I guess the best way to begin my wedding blogging journey is by telling the story of me and Mr. Turtle, (considering that without him there would be no wedding, and therefore no wedding blog!).

I first spotted Mr. Turtle on the first day of our freshman year of high school. He was the class clown and I was the new kid. He was in three of my classes. I thought he was too cool for me and it turns out that he thought I was too cool for him. So we never talked to each other, with the exception of a quick “hello” in passing. (Later on we discovered that we both had a secret crush on each other that entire time.)

Sophomore year came and we shared mutual friends; we even sat at the same lunch table sometimes. We both went on the same choir trip to Hawaii and still didn’t say a word to each other the entire time! At the end of sophomore year, our mutual friends decided to transfer to different high schools. Over the summer, I guess we both realized that we were the only ones left in our group of friends, so hanging out just felt natural. On the first day of junior year, we spotted each other in the hall, gave each other a quick hug, and we’ve been pretty much inseparable ever since!

After graduation, we both went away to college for a year in San Diego and then moved back to our hometown where we are both currently finishing up our bachelors degrees at different universities. Mr. Turtle and I are truly best friends. Our personalities are very different, but our interests and hobbies are similar.

I’ve always thought that older married couples who claim to have married their high school sweethearts have the most wonderful love stories.
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Dearest hive,

I cannot possibly express how excited I am to be Miss Turtle!!

I came across this fabulously creative and genuinely friendly community shortly after getting engaged way back in August of 2008. My first impression was, ‘Who are all of these insects and desserts planning weddings? And how am I supposed to remember the difference between Miss Cookie and Miss Cupcake?’ But like the rest of you, I quickly became addicted and developed some serious bee crushes on girls like Avocado, Perfume, and Cowboy Boot.

Of course I had a secret desire to become one of these “bees”. (I mean, really, who wouldn’t?) But the closer the eight-month mark came, which meant I’d be eligible to apply, the more nervous I became. I didn’t think I had what it takes. A few months later, I realized there was nothing to lose, so I decided to go for it! I submitted my blog, crossed my fingers, and promised myself I wouldn’t get my hopes up! And today, I came home from work and discovered an email from Mrs. Penguin waiting in my inbox! I was prepared for rejection, my mouse already hovering over the delete button, when I reread the first line. “… think you’d be a great addition to the Weddingbee team!” Wait. What? Me??? Well I am still in shock, and writing this post is so surreal that I keep having to remind myself that I am not some awkward turtle rehearsing in front of the mirror. This is for real!!
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