Miss Petit Four, San Antonio/Isla MujeresAge and Occupation: 25, Technology teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Math Teacher and Football CoachEngagement Date: Feb 13, 2010Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Zama Beach Club, Isla Mujeres, MexicoAbout Me: I am a polka-dot obsessed, destination wedding diva living and loving in the great state of Texas. I am an island girl at heart and I visit the beach as often as I can. I am a wannabe DIY goddess, but that doesn’t mean I won’t give it my best shot. I love pearl earrings, the color pink, and ruffles are a part of my everyday wardrobe. My wonderful fiance and I are planning a destination wedding with our closest family and friends and we’re leaving a trail of glitter in our path!
I was playing around with my new Forever 21 nail polish today (which is amazing, BTW) and came upon this interesting combination…
I have seen this look on a couple of people, and so I decided to try it out. It looked pretty good, so I thought to myself, why not make it my something blue!
Mrs. Parasol, San Ramon, CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 25, Non-profit writer, editor, and bloggerFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Law school studentEngagement Date: December 19th, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Bent Creek Winery (Livermore, California); Reception: Family Residence (San Ramon, California) About Me: I am a California girl at heart. I love the outdoors, sunny days at the beach, and hiking in the woods and mountains. I also love good books and am fresh from completing my Master's degree in English and Comparative Literature in New York City. Living in NYC was an amazing experience, and while I'm glad to be back on the West Coast, I'm also thankful that my two years back East gave me an opportunity to explore new places, make new friends, and indulge my passion for Broadway shows. Oh, and I received a pretty awesome proposal from Mr. Parasol in Central Park. Above all else, Mr. Parasol is my biggest cheerleader and my best friend. But even though I'm thrilled to be marrying him, I wasn't always totally on board with this whole wedding thing and at first, I wanted to run off and elope. I've finally been convinced to throw the wedding I never thought I wanted, and so now I'm busy planning an intimate September wedding filled with DIY details. Along the way, I'm slowly learning to appreciate, perhaps even love the wedding planning process.
As with most of my wedding decisions, I went back and forth about what I wanted to do with my nails for the wedding day. I know a lot of people go with french manicures for the big day, and those can be really nice.
But I immediately nixed this as an option. I had a bad run-in with fake nails in high school (let’s just say it involved long nails and trying to get a contact lens out of my eye–not a good combination), and I’ve been too scared to try them again.
I knew I didn’t want anything too colorful on my nails, even though my all-time favorite nail polish color is Revlon’s Midnight Affair.
Mrs. Parasol, San Ramon, CaliforniaAge and Occupation: 25, Non-profit writer, editor, and bloggerFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Law school studentEngagement Date: December 19th, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Bent Creek Winery (Livermore, California); Reception: Family Residence (San Ramon, California) About Me: I am a California girl at heart. I love the outdoors, sunny days at the beach, and hiking in the woods and mountains. I also love good books and am fresh from completing my Master's degree in English and Comparative Literature in New York City. Living in NYC was an amazing experience, and while I'm glad to be back on the West Coast, I'm also thankful that my two years back East gave me an opportunity to explore new places, make new friends, and indulge my passion for Broadway shows. Oh, and I received a pretty awesome proposal from Mr. Parasol in Central Park. Above all else, Mr. Parasol is my biggest cheerleader and my best friend. But even though I'm thrilled to be marrying him, I wasn't always totally on board with this whole wedding thing and at first, I wanted to run off and elope. I've finally been convinced to throw the wedding I never thought I wanted, and so now I'm busy planning an intimate September wedding filled with DIY details. Along the way, I'm slowly learning to appreciate, perhaps even love the wedding planning process.
In spite of my best efforts this summer, I have acquired two small, but noticeable tan lines on my chest.
Personal Photo
I know they could be a lot worse, but I kind of really hate them, especially because I tried so hard to not get tan lines when I went on vacation this summer. My bathing suit and all my dresses have straps, but I made sure to take them off and tuck them away whenever I went out into the sun. These little beauties are the result of my bathing suit straps starting to peek back out again without me noticing.
The problem is that you can just see them in my wedding dress, and as small as they are, I really don’t want any pictures of me with splotchy, uneven, untanned skin. This is not the look I’m going for:
Mrs. Ladyfingers, Saint Petersburg, FLAge and Occupation: 30, Marketing ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Sports WriterEngagement Date: December 24, 2010Wedding Date: November 2011Venue: Palma Sola Botanical ParkAbout Me: I hail from Oklahoma, he was born and raised in Long Island. Fate brought us together, and now we live in a cute little rental house with our nutty dog, and our aloof cat. We both love to read, watch movies, explore our town, and laugh like hyenas. When I’m not obsessively wedding crafting, I enjoy stalking style and decorating blogs, making collages and painting, napping, thrifting, rearranging our bookshelves, and being a total weirdo with my friends. Hi!
A wedding-day fragrance wasn’t exactly high on my list of priorities — at least not until I started reading past posts by such blogger bees as Miss Beagle, Miss Apple, Ms. Sloth, and Mrs. Pencils. Then, all of a sudden, I was all, “OMG I need to find my wedding-day signature scent like NOW!”
I’ve never worn fragrance. I used to dabble in my mom’s Navy and Anais Anais, and slip my grandmother’s Chanel No. 5 out of her dresser when she wasn’t looking, but aside from playing around and wearing vanilla essential oil every day for like two straight years in college, I’m just not a perfume kinda girl. Lots of scents remind me of old ladies in my family, or give me headaches, or smell like hippies. Nothing against hippies – I just don’t want to smell like one on my wedding day… or… ever.
So I started my search at Nordstrom’s perfume counters, with this ever-so-helpful request: Read more…
Mrs. Ladyfingers, Saint Petersburg, FLAge and Occupation: 30, Marketing ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Sports WriterEngagement Date: December 24, 2010Wedding Date: November 2011Venue: Palma Sola Botanical ParkAbout Me: I hail from Oklahoma, he was born and raised in Long Island. Fate brought us together, and now we live in a cute little rental house with our nutty dog, and our aloof cat. We both love to read, watch movies, explore our town, and laugh like hyenas. When I’m not obsessively wedding crafting, I enjoy stalking style and decorating blogs, making collages and painting, napping, thrifting, rearranging our bookshelves, and being a total weirdo with my friends. Hi!
I’ve written before about how vain I’ve become since planning a wedding, all in the name of looking my best on the wedding day. Lately, I’ve taken that in weird directions—like, growing out my eyebrows because I’d like to get them professionally shaped and waxed a few times before the wedding. I feel weird, like people are going to start asking me if I’m OK. I mean, things are getting hairy up there.
But I digress. I’ve struggled with cystic acne in my past, and had finally, finally landed upon a skin care routine that worked. Read more…
Miss Snapdragon, Chicago/DallasAge and Occupation: 32,Associate ProducerFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Lighting DesignerBlogging Since: November 14, 2008Engagement Date: January 1, 2011Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Marie GabrielleAbout Me: Voracious reader of short stories, Russian literature, National Geographic and Cosmo. I'm a GENIUS at spicing up Weight Watchers recipes and a pathological cheater at board games. I run a slow marathon, but my feet are learning to move faster. Mornings aren't my thing, but I can night owl with the best of them. Don't tempt me with your Cherry Cokes---I'm trying to quit. Tomorrow. Or never.
Meet Duncan Keith, also known as “Duncan Teef.” He lost seven teeth in the process of bringing the Stanley Cup home to Chicago back in 2010. I am sure you can all connect the dots here.
Anyway. I am quite lucky to be the proud owner of every single one of my natural teef. My parents gave me the gift of good dental genetics, and so there’s a whole mouthful over here. There are a multitude of jokes that can be created out of my previous sentence—see what you can come up with.
Despite my fortuitous dental makeup, I am also an avid Coke drinker (see sidebar over thar –>). In the past six months, I’ve also picked up a wicked addiction to the green mermaid lady. People, my teef are straight-up tawny. Don’t say yellow - I’ll throw a puck at you. Read more…
Mrs. Macarons, TampaAge and Occupation: 26, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Renaissance ManEngagement Date: September 12, 2009Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Lange FarmAbout Me: I'm creative at heart and a graphic designer with an unhealthy obsession with type. I love roller coasters, spicy foods, and a good glass of Crianza. We’re planning a soft and lovely vintage-meets-modern wedding in a state that’s known for its beaches, glitz and glam. I have a ton of DIY projects and lots of little details I’m dying to share and can't wait to celebrate with our closest friends and family.
I’m Miss Macarons and I used to be a nail biter. I always assumed I’d have to get acrylics in order to have pretty nails for my wedding. Well, after 25 years of breaking, I went from nails like this:
Mrs. Candy Apple, Princeton Junction, NJ/ Seattle, WAAge and Occupation: 26, Project EditorFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, AttorneyEngagement Date: May 9, 2010Wedding Date: August 2011Venue: St. Joseph's Parish, Seattle Tennis ClubAbout Me: I am a Pacific Northwesterner, born and bred. I have lived in many cities---Santa Clara, Durham (England); Florence; Boston; Princeton Junction---but my heart will always be nestled up near the Cascades and Olympics, which is why we are holding our wedding there. I am a bookworm and a History nerd: I love that my life consists of books, books, and more books, since I work in Publishing! Recently, all waking time not consumed by work and my daily commute has been overtaken by wedding planning. Well, that, and watching Premier-League soccer. There is nothing I love more than a good Tana French mystery, traveling to new places, Anthropologie shopping sprees, Iittala dishware, Kate Spade shoes, impeccable typefaces (think: Archer), and a nice English ale (hellooo, Old Speckled Hen!). Oh, and did I mention my obsession with wedding blogs? Yeah, there’s that too. Join Mr. Candy Apple and me as we prep for our wedding, and, more importantly, our marriage!
I know that I owe you another post on our fabulous invitations, but I wanted to take a time out for a sec. As we creep closer and closer to W-Day, I am starting to think about little details that have slipped my mind up to this point. Such as, you know, my “something blue.” Little things like that, which aren’t really important (to me, at least) in the grand scheme of things, but would still be a nice touch. Since I’m not wearing a garter, I was thinking of other ways to work in the color blue. Think think think. And then, in my post on W-Day nail polish, it hit me over the head when someone made a suggestion in the comments—toenails! Polish! Blue toenail polish!
Duh. It looks awesome in pictures and, because it would be on toenails that are covered by my big ol’ dress, they wouldn’t be easily visible (and thus look out of place against our palette).
Doesn’t it look fab?! I love it. And because I like sharing, I wanted to share some of my favorite blue polishes for your toes (or fingers!), just in case you’re still looking for your “something blue.”
Mrs. Teaspoon, Sydney, AustraliaAge and Occupation: 27, Medical ScientistFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, BankerEngagement Date: June 4, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: St Aloysius' College, Milson's PointAbout Me: I am a mad scientist who enjoys swimming at the beach in summer and skiing powder in winter. Our favourite times together are spent with the sand between our toes, cooking up a storm, re-watching and re-reading every Harry Potter ever made, and spending time with our dear friends and family! We have travelled the world together in our 6 years of dating, from Paris, to Thailand, to Las Vegas, and we are tackling the many challenges of planning our special day the best way we know how---together!
How often have you smelt the rain before it rains, or realised there were ants around because you could smell them, or smelt your man after a long day and thought that he smelt more amazing than when he left that morning? (OK, I’m pretty sure that last one is called pheromones—whoops.)
Mrs. Teaspoon, Sydney, AustraliaAge and Occupation: 27, Medical ScientistFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, BankerEngagement Date: June 4, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: St Aloysius' College, Milson's PointAbout Me: I am a mad scientist who enjoys swimming at the beach in summer and skiing powder in winter. Our favourite times together are spent with the sand between our toes, cooking up a storm, re-watching and re-reading every Harry Potter ever made, and spending time with our dear friends and family! We have travelled the world together in our 6 years of dating, from Paris, to Thailand, to Las Vegas, and we are tackling the many challenges of planning our special day the best way we know how---together!
So like many a crazy-vain bride before me, I am already starting on my plan to ensure that I look more than picture perfect on our wedding day. I have taken a three-fold approach, which so far seems to be working!
Mrs. Biscuit, Morgantown, WVAge and Occupation: 24, Dental StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Chemist at a pharmaceutical companyEngagement Date: April 2010Wedding Date: July 2011Venue: Catholic Church, Lakeview Golf Resort and SpaAbout Me: I'm an engineer who decided to trek back to my hometown three years ago to become skilled in the arts of drilling and filling. I'm engaged to a pretty awesome guy who tests your assorted benzodiazepines by day and home brews by night. Together we have two fur children, Tsali and Tobias N. Fünkat. I'm a lazy perfectionist and eternal sorority girl who enjoys running, crafting, string cheese, good beer, and bad reality TV. We are planning a Big Fat Italian/Sicilian/Polish wedding filled with DIY details and are expecting 300 +/- 50 guests. Our whimsical summer affair is themed "Alice attends the Mad Hatter Vintage Garden Tea Party in a Ballroom. She Thinks That The Venue is Odd for a Vintage Garden Party, but is Tripping on LSD, so She Doesn't Really Care." Yes, I am the Dickens of themes.
Mrs. Snow Cone, Pittsburgh/Johnstown, PAAge and Occupation: 23, Public Health Graduate StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, EngineerEngagement Date: April 9, 2010Wedding Date: August 2011Venue: OMOS Church ceremony/Sunnehanna Country Club receptionAbout Me: I’m one of the lucky ones---I met my future husband at the ripe old age of 13, started dating him as a mature woman of 15, and have been enjoying the ride ever since. Here we are, 8 years later, living in Pittsburgh, planning a "homestination" wedding in the place our school romance began---Johnstown, PA. I thrive on talking a mile a minute, eating my weight in chocolate, and internet shopping. I love a lengthy to-do list almost as much as I love a healthy amount of chaos in my life. Mr. Snow Cone and I watch countless episodes of Friends and The West Wing on repeat, root for rival college sports teams, and make each other laugh each and every day. We’re putting together a small-town wedding with a big personality and a classically modern (or modernly classic?) look for 250 of our closest family and friends. It’s been 8+ years in the making, and sometimes I still can’t believe I’m finally getting to marry my high school sweetheart!
Let me break it down for you. My heritage consists of the following: Irish, German, Swedish, Dutch, and English. This means that I have five kinds of pale skin tones all blending together to form a super-pale experience that is often unparalleled. Tanning isn’t really in my skill set; if I’m lucky, a week at the beach involves two things: the avoidance of a painful burn, and enough minor and brief sun exposure to result in a subtle pink that could maybe pass for brown(ish). Despite my genetic predisposition to paleness, I still enjoy a hint of color on my skin. Because of my genetic predisposition to paleness, I’ve never set foot in a tanning bed and never plan to. As a result, my options for getting a sun-kissed look are pretty limited.
During high school, I tried Mystic Tan for proms and formals, and I was always pleased with the result. Minus the day of gunkiness immediately after getting sprayed, it got passing marks in my book. Relatively inexpensive, relatively long-lasting, and relatively stress- and complaint-free. As long as you follow the instructions, that is..
Mrs. Cinnamon Bun, Calgary, AlbertaAge and Occupation: 26, Stage ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Theatre TechnicianEngagement Date: June 22, 2010Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Calgary Opera CentreAbout Me: I'm a life-long crafter and bookworm living in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. Some of my loves include Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes, knitting, opera, musicals, Etsy, baking, and of course, Mr. Cinnamon Buns. We're keeping our wedding close to home---the venue isn't very far from our house, and we live within walking distance of 6 bridal salons. I'm using the wedding as an excuse to try out every craft project I possibly can, with the endless help and support of my fiance.
After getting my nails done for the wedding, I realised that I really like having nicely done nails. For the wedding, I just had a very natural French manicure done, but one of my bridesmaids had hot pink polish put on. I think it looked extra-good because she had her nails trimmed quite short, so they were just little pops of colour. Then, I saw this photo on Pinterest via Design Crush:
Mrs. Macarons, TampaAge and Occupation: 26, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Renaissance ManEngagement Date: September 12, 2009Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Lange FarmAbout Me: I'm creative at heart and a graphic designer with an unhealthy obsession with type. I love roller coasters, spicy foods, and a good glass of Crianza. We’re planning a soft and lovely vintage-meets-modern wedding in a state that’s known for its beaches, glitz and glam. I have a ton of DIY projects and lots of little details I’m dying to share and can't wait to celebrate with our closest friends and family.
My skin is generally clear, but when I’m stressed, which is exponentially more often now, acne likes to rear its ugly head. The last thing I want is a major breakout on our wedding day so it’s important to have it under control. I have fairly sensitive skin and have struggled to find products that work for me. They’re either too gentle and don’t help or they’re too strong and prevent me from using them on a regular basis. Up until a year ago I was caught in a vicious cycle of breakouts followed by sensitivity and peeling. I can finally say I have clear, healthy skin, and the following things have made a world of difference.
Miss Doily, Cedar Rapids, IowaAge and Occupation: 25, Autism Paraeducator/ StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Freelance Writer/ PublisherEngagement Date: August 27th, 2010Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Father’s Vineyard Church/ A Touch of Class Banquet CenterAbout Me: I’m an Iowan girl with a deep love of Harry Potter, classic movies, cardigans, and Post-Its. My type-A Virgo tendencies often cause me to drive my laid-back college sweetheart fiance batty with lists and PowerPoint presentations. I love to be crafty and do things myself, which explains why my two crazy kittens often will prance around the house covered in glitter and ribbons. When I am not bogged down with work, school, or wedding planning, I like to travel to visit my expansive family and have wild adventures with my best friends. After a rollercoaster ride of a love story, I’m ready to take that final plunge, marry the love of my life, and become a Mrs.!
I was having dinner with a friend a couple of nights ago when she innocently asked me if I was covering my tattoos up for the wedding. I wasn’t sure how to answer. I have had a couple of other friends in this same position before. One of my friends had an entire sleeve, and she said that she paid so much money for the thing and it was so painful that there was no way she was covering it up. I had another friend who just had a little bird on her shoulder and did cover it up. I honestly had not given it any thought before my friend asked me that question.
I don’t have a lot of tattoos. I really only have three, two of which may or may not be visible. The one that is almost never visible is a snitch from Harry Potter on my hip. Obviously, this is not going to be visible in a wedding dress, therefore, no need to cover it.
Personal picture
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
