Weddingbee Blog

After a nice time at Designer Loft, I decided to walk a couple of blocks to David’s Bridal to continue on the dress hunt. I arrived without an appointment at around two and waited about half an hour before seeing the inside of a changing room—not so bad. My attendent was from Santo Domingo, and after some quick bonding over our shared Caribbean heritage, she asked me to pick out dresses from the catalog to try on, as many as I wanted. You should never say that to a bride! I went a little crazy and asked to try on about a dozen or so. Some are real contenders, while others are real nightmares. On to pictures…

Dress#1: Was my favorite in catalog pictures, but too matronly on me.

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tracey82 is selling a bridal clutch with a rosette embellishment. She is asking $45.

Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee Classifieds, and you might see it featured on the blog!

Other great items for sale:

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The next few posts are going to be about my experience with finding a venue. This was such an important aspect of the wedding for both of us, so I want to make sure that I spend the time to describe the process and hopefully give some advice to brides and grooms that are going through this step!

Mr. Coyote and I are having what I like to call a semi-destination wedding.

Say wha?

Image via LOLCAT Generator

No, we’re not getting married on a secluded island or on top of Mount Everest.

Instead, we are getting married in my hometown, which is about three hours north of where the mister and I are living right now.

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Or not to be traditional?

So many of the wedding “traditions” that have made their way into the American definition of a wedding are really more modern developments in wedding customs. As we’ve moved forward in this wedding planning process we’re finding ourselves having to make decisions about what traditions we want to include… and which ones we want to forgo.

Now, Mr. O and I don’t really see ourselves as the “traditional couple,” but at the end of the day it really just depends on which tradition we’re talking about and whether or not that tradition fits our personalities.

One tradition we will most definitely not be partaking in is the garter toss. Something about having Mr.O reach up my skirt while an entire crowd watches just doesn’t seem… kosher? I’ve seen this done tastefully at plenty of other weddings, but I guess it’s just not for us. We’re not by any means an anti-PDA (public display of affection) kind of couple, but I feel like I have to draw the line somewhere.

Whatever “floats your boat” I guess…we’ll save it for the honeymoon.

Via Nubia Photography / Photo by Nubia

Another tradition Mr. O wants to skip that I kind of want to keep is the cake cutting.
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Love is in the air, and you know what that means…it’s time for our FIFTH annual Weddingbee Valentine’s Day swap, organized this year by our fab Community Coordinator, Bakerella!

If you’re new around the Hive, (welcome and congrats on your engagement!) we do these swaps a few times a year. Essentially you get three partners, they send you a card (and if you have amazing partners, sometimes recipes or sweets), you send your partners likewise. They’re easy peasy, and put a smile on your face because it’s mail that doesn’t come with a request for money at the end!

For all the details, head to this thread to check out how you can participate. The deadline to sign up is Monday, January 16, 2012, so head on over, sign up, and get swapping!

And for a fun trip down memory lane (and to get inspired this Valentine’s Day!), check out the previous swaps here, here, here, and here!

I previously promised that I would share some of the inspiration for our new venue. In fact, when I go back and look, I realized that the only real reception inspiration I’ve shared with you all at ALL was in my post about the wedding brand. Bad blogger.

I mentioned early on that we were big on making the reception our own and avoiding the “I’ve seen that before” syndrome. However, now that we are in a more traditional location (with more weddings under their belt), there are likely to be fewer elements that would be completely “new.” In fact, we know there are guests who have attended other events at the Rittenhouse (weddings, bar mitzvahs, etc).

To be honest, after the drama of the venue change, we realized that in the greater scheme of things, being completely unique just wasn’t that important anymore.

So, we “borrowed”. A lot.

Inspiration for having both high and low centerpiecesKristina & Todd’s Rittenhouse wedding - Sophia Negron

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Stress is a you-know-what. I’m no stranger to stress. I am a tax accountant. Three and a half months out of every year are filled with deadlines and stress, but after over ten years in the industry, I feel I manage it quite well. Wedding and emotional stress, however, is a new beast.

I knew that planning a wedding would be stressful at times. Our engagement was just over 15 months long and for the most part, I handled the crazier moments quite well. It wasn’t until the week before the wedding that I realized I was holding on to some major stress, and obviously was not managing it at all.

I, like many, many other brides, grew my hair out for the wedding. One week prior to the 31st, I took a shower and noticed I was losing more hair than normal. I’ve been using the Wen hair care products for a few months now and I use a comb in the shower to work the product through my hair and untangle any knots. Well, I ran the comb through and it came out FULL of hair. It completely freaked me out. I thought maybe it was a fluke, but the next time I washed my hair, the same thing happened.

I was trippin’ big time so I reached out to my fellow bees to see if anyone else had experienced this.
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With a few major holidays stacked together in December, January, and February, this time of year is when many newly engaged couples are dipping their toes into wedding planning. That means it’s bridal show season! While these events are a lot of fun, they can also be exhausting and overwhelming. You can also leave these shows with your arms full of brochures and business cards from vendors you didn’t even know you “needed” when you started planning.

With a few of these events under my belt, I thought I’d share three suggestions for navigating the bridal show waters effectively.

1. Be stingy with your contact information

I believe that you are under no obligation to subject yourself to spam and junk mail when you attend a bridal show.

Most large wedding shows attract hundreds (maybe even thousands) of couples. Their registration lists are used to push out a steady stream of emails and mailings to engaged couples. Some of the communication you get might be from a vendor that interests you, but a lot of it will be spam. I think that it is perfectly acceptable to use fake contact information and a slightly altered name at the registration desk of the huge bridal shows at exposition centers.

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COLOURlovers is one of our favorite color communities online, where you can create and share colors, palettes, patterns and color trends, so we were thrilled when Allison of COLOURlovers reached out to ask us what we think are some hot and unusual color trends and combinations we’ll be seeing this year!

Check out our predictions for colors and trends that will be big this year, colors we don’t see a lot (but should!), where we get inspired, and the best design advice we’ve ever received over on the COLOURlovers blog today!

I’ve thrown out my predictions…what color combo do you think is going to be hot this year? If you’re getting married in 2012, what’s your color palette/combo?