Ms. Potato Chips, Boston/Narragansett RIAge and Occupation: 29, PhD StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Personal Trainer/Business Owner/Physical Therapy AssistantEngagement Date: January 1, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: The Narragansett TowersAbout Me: A semi-professional bookworm, if I could be a literary character I’d be a cross between Jo March and Jane Eyre, only better accessorized and much lazier. My hobbies include sleeping in, seasonal brews, running, Trader Joe’s, and watching Unwrapped and Good Eats with Mr. Potato Chips. I harbor an irrational fear of tulle, crafts, things that are fussy, and overuse of the phrase "Your Special Day". After a year or seven together, down the aisle we go, slouching toward adulthood and planning a Rhodie party with equal parts whimsy, cheer, and pizza.
Like Miss Pretzel, my preferred footwear is a pair of these:
I even rock my Chuck Taylors when I teach, paired with a blazer and dress pants. (Yeah, I’ve totally given up the illusion that I’m any sort of authority figure. Or the sneaks bring me one step closer towards that absent-minded, crazy-haired, ink-stained-missing-buttoned-leather-elbow-patched professor I’m so bent on becoming.)
Dare I say, the sneaker-with-dress-clothes combo is becoming increasingly popular? I’ve seen lots of inspiration photos of groomsmen in Chucks (jealous!) and the sneakers-with-nice-clothes is even in the pages of the ‘Crew!
Miss Cola, Mountain View, CAAge and Occupation: 27, Product Communications and PromotionsFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Managing Partner and Senior DesignerEngagement Date: March 5, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: The Mountain Terrace, Woodside, CAAbout Me: I’m a Washington State native, enjoying life in Silicon Valley California with my fiancé, our three kitties and one leopard gecko. I like reading wedding blogs, Photoshopping wedding design mock ups, making lists, and planning, planning, planning! I’m a bit of an anomaly, on one side I’m a very girlie girl, I collect shoes, I lay out my outfits 4-6 weeks in advance, and I’d never leave the house without my hair curled and makeup on. But on the other side, I’m a total tomboy, I love to go camping and hiking, play drinking games (hey, I’m Irish!) and most of my closest friends are guys. My fiancé and I are planning a DIY-focused wedding with a balance between easygoing (what he wants) and chic and stylish (what I want), and are tying it all together with elements in lavender, sage, butter cream and chocolate.
Right from the get-go, I knew I really wanted us to have an extensive and super informative wedding website, especially with about half our guest list being from out of town.
Trying to be cost conscious as usual, I looked into all the free options, like on theknot.com and the Wedding Channel, but they were so basic. Then I started looking at wedorama.com and some other sites with fees, but that would give a little more flexibility. However, none of these jumped out at me, they limited the number of pages I could have and seemed to have pretty cheesy templates. Where were the wedding website services that would just let me do what I wanted?
Miss Rainbow, TampaAge and Occupation: 22, Makeup ArtistFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Electrical Engineer/ProgrammerEngagement Date: November 27, 2008Wedding Date: May 2010Venue: The Gamble PlantationAbout Me: I'm a quirky (and slightly Type-A) freelance makeup artist who was born in Washington State, raised in Alabama, and now living with my one and only in sunny Florida. I'm fashion and beauty obsessed, and have recently discovered my inner domestic diva extraordinaire. I'm a wannabe chef, decorating addict, and trying desperately to be as crafty as possible---albeit only with a glue gun. I'm hopelessly in love with my fiance, and all things sparkly and feathery. Despite the glittery exterior, I'm a total hippie on the inside. When I'm not making up pretty faces, I love doing what I can to help people, animals, and the environment. Someday the FI and I will change the world, but first we're tackling our modern-vintage-Marie-Antoinette-meets-Alice-in-Wonderland inspired wedding. I just can't wait to be Mrs. Rainbow!
That’s what we’re currently doing to our guest list, and it feels oh-so-good.
I have found that, when it comes to the guest list, I am quite different than your average bride.
If we could get our guest list down to 25 people, I would be in wedding planning euphoria. Well, today, I’m happy to say that we’re close to that number. Very close. Closer than we’ve ever been before. We started of with 75, then we cut it down to 50, and then… and then.. 30! That’s right, we are inviting 30 guests!
We wanted something small, intimate, personal. That’s not to say that a wedding with a 300 person guest list can’t be personal, but logistically, it is much more difficult to incorporate those personal, homespun touches that I love so much.
That said, I’d like to share my personal guest list dwindling mantra:
BrooksnTiff handmade fern nests for their organic looking peony centerpieces.
Keep on loading your inspirational wedding pics to the gallery to see them featured here on the blog! Remember, your images must be under 1MB in size, or they won’t load.
Miss Pudding, Greater Toronto Area/VermontAge and Occupation: 26, High School TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Computer EngineerEngagement Date: August 2008Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Catholic Ceremony, Cultural Hall ReceptionAbout Me: Quite literally a citizen of the world, I was born in Poland, grew up in Canada, and now live in the beautiful state of Vermont. I love reading historical biographies, multi-tasking, teasing my hair, and, despite my height, wearing high heeled shoes. I am the ultimate klutz with an uncanny ability to put on a graceful front. Mr. Pudding and I have been dating for over six years, and are very excited to finally merge our (very large) families. We are planning a traditional Polish-Catholic wedding that is anything but predictable.
Even though I liked the first draft of our STDs, I was still so in love with the fabric idea. I knew that the yellow pattern stood in the way of the fabric backing, so I reworked the design completely to complement and not compete with the fabric. Here is what I came up with:
Miss Ramen, PhoenixAge and Occupation: 26, Optometry StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Industrial DesignerEngagement Date: January 3, 2009Wedding Date: December 2009Venue: Phoenix Art MuseumAbout Me: I'm an SF-born, Seattle-raised girl, transplanted to Phoenix where I'll be getting married, and planning all the way from Orange County where I go to school (yes, it feels as crazy as it sounds). I loooooove Yogurtland, am slightly very obsessed with all things paper, am heavily addicted to wedding blogs, deeply desire a puppy, thoroughly enjoy cooking, cry when I watch (almost all) movies, thrive on solo car-karaoke, can't stop being sarcastic, am neurotic about taking pictures of almost everything I eat before I eat it, and aspire to travel the world. My super-talented fiance and I are attempting to DIY a majority of our massive (~350 guests) "clean & modern, yet romantic, but completely unexpected, with a teeny dash of vintage" wedding, stay within our not-so-massive budget, and somehow get a really luxe (but still fun!) look/feel at the same time. In music terms (since we're both really into music) think Coldplay meets Motown meets Kanye meets Sinatra.
I know it’s a bit pathetic to post about something so miniscule, but it was a huge relief to start checking things off of my list!
A few weeks ago, I was back home, escaping school. So we decided to go get our marriage license!
You can’t bring cameras into any of the AZ courthouses, so we just took a picture of ourselves at my house. When we first arrived at the North Phoenix facility, there was no wait! We just had to fill out some paperwork and give them our driver’s licenses… yeah, except for the fact that I LEFT MINE AT HOME. So we drove all the way back to my house and then back to get our license. I think Mr. Ramen was a wee bit frustrated, but he quickly got over it.
Miss Spaniel, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 28, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, PsychologistWedding Date: March 2010Venue: Calamigos RanchAbout Me: I'm a third-year law student trying to balance graduating with starting my career, keeping up a relationship, and, oh yeah, planning an Old World, multi-cultural, "mountain lodge" wedding for 180 guests! A South Asian Jewish girl getting ready to marry my handsome Catholic Dane, I'm hoping to blend our cultures in our wedding just a bit more gently than by providing samosas as appetizers and offering æbleskiver for dessert. (Although that would also be awesome.)
Here are a bunch of lovely bridal outfits from Bargello, all made in Pakistan. They range from around $1,600 to about $2,200, and probably weigh about a thousand pounds each! I’m not really into the red and gold people usually associate with South Asian weddings, as you can probably tell.
Miss Snow, Madison, WI/Asheville, NCAge and Occupation: 28, PhD student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Graphic DesignerEngagement Date: August 5, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: Claxton FarmAbout Me: I am true Southern gal displaced in the beautiful and blustery midwest. A true theatre geek at heart, I love any kind of performance and spend most of my time researching old productions in dank library archives. When not in the library, I love music (punk rock, bluegrass, and everything in between), design in all forms, any reality TV show on Bravo (especially those that feature housewives or sharp knives), beer and wine from Oregon, and exploring the outdoors. My fiance and I are true best friends, and he inspires me every day. After a long and happy dating relationship, we’ve decided to tie the knot in the mountains of North Carolina, our home state. We’re planning a long-distance, largely-DIY, eco-conscious hip farm affair that celebrates family, friends, and love.
As I’ve been researching our wedding and elements I want to include, I’ve noticed that I struggle to isolate something like “shoes” or “flower ideas” and find a bunch of different examples. I get too overwhelmed. However, I am excellent at isolating entire weddings I want to steal (is steal too strong a word? Borrow? Be “inspired” by? Hah!). There’s something about seeing one seriously gorgeous wedding and pinpointing all the stuff you love from it! I take all the things I love and combine them into a long laundry-list type document. Maybe it is a little haphazard and hopefully I’ll work up the nerve to tackle an isolated area like “birdcage veils” (oh, yeah!), but for now, I add another entry to my Wedding Envy series! Read more…
Miss Cheeseburger, Baltimore, MD/State College, PAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Medical StudentEngagement Date: June 28, 2008Wedding Date: March 2010Venue: Catholic Church Ceremony & Hotel ReceptionAbout Me: I'm a passionate girl from Pittsburgh, currently living in Baltimore for school, who loves Penn State, seeing movies, football, thunderstorms, black and white photos, Christmas, good beer, my amazing friends and family, and of course, my mister! We met, fell in love, got engaged, and will be married at our alma mater (go lions!) in a traditional Catholic ceremony followed by a hotel reception with lots of DIY details. It means so much to have our families and friends meet at our favorite place on earth to celebrate our love for one another - I truly couldn't ask for anything more!
I am so, so thrilled that I will have all my best girls accompanying me to the altar on the big day. There really never was a question in my mind about who to ask, but I had to think hard about when and how I wanted to ask them.
Cheeseburger SisterMOH was easy. She was actually in Europe on the day we got engaged, so as soon as I could get a hold of her and tell her the good news, I asked her on the spot. Not that it was really a surprise to her, she’s always known that she would be my lady of honor. After a few months of engaged bliss had gone by, I wanted to make sure that she knew how special she was to me, and that I was so honored that she would be by my side on the big day. I picked a special arrangement of lavender roses and had them sent to her dorm room as a surprise. She loved them, and I was glad that she got to feel special on that day (as she should every day!).
I also wanted to ask SisterBurger in a special way, because it means so much to me to have her in the bridal party as well. I knew she liked colorful flowers like gerbera daises, and I found a beautiful arrangement of tulips that I sent with a little note. She was really excited (and said yes!) and so was I - she is the best, and I’m so excited to gain another sister.
For Cousin Cheeseburger, I was lucky enough to make it home for a family wedding and got to ask her in person - which meant a lot to me. She is much younger than me, and she (along with her brother and sister) has always been like a sibling to me.
The rest of the Cheeseburger Girls (my 6 best lovies from high school) are spread all across the country, and I really wanted nothing more than to ask them all together. Unfortunately, after the holidays came and went and I realized that we wouldn’t all be together for quite some time, I knew I had to ask them another way. Read more…
Miss Trail Mix, New YorkAge and Occupation: 26, PE TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, MBA StudentEngagement Date: March 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: Tannery Pond at the Darrow SchoolAbout Me: I'm a country girl who somehow found herself living in the Big Apple and loving every minute of it. I'm planning a rustic, country-chic wedding in my hometown in upstate New York and it's going to be a Party with a capital P. White wine, flea markets and running keep me happy and my friends, family and fiance are my world. I'm a little bit crafty, a little bit crazy but mostly just crazy in love.
… for our wedding photos. Although I have yet to reveal our photographer to you guys yet (I will soon, I promise), I am happy to share some of my inspiration photos that I plan on showing to our photographer at our next meeting.
I seem to be constantly drawn in to photos that use sunlight as a way of creating a mood in the picture. Almost all of these present the couple in front of the light, suggesting an ethereal, dreamy quality that I adore. Read more…
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After a few months of engaged bliss had gone by, I wanted to make sure that she knew how special she was to me, and that I was so honored that she would be by my side on the big day. I picked a special arrangement of lavender roses and had them sent to her dorm room as a surprise. She loved them, and I was glad that she got to feel special on that day (as she should every day!).
