Weddingbee Blog

We’re less than 50 days away from the wedding and we just booked our entertainment. Who’s been procrastinating? But in this instance, we had to wait in hopes of getting our top choice.

You see, back in June, I was researching entertainment and came across the musical awesomeness that is Mike and Brian. I emailed them immediately requesting a quote and their availability, but the price came out to be way over our budget. Insert frowning Espresso faces. I emailed them a couple times afterwards trying to figure out how we could cut the cost down and herein lies why we had to wait. Brian informed me that if I could wait a little over a month, and if nobody booked them for that date, he would perform at our wedding as a soloist and for a much cheaper price. So we waited, and waited, and waited. We wondered and prayed.
Read more…

Time for the big reveal. I’ve kept my dress a secret until now, but here we go- let’s just get on with it.

I went to 3 bridal stores before finding, “the one” as my mom likes to call it. The first store was too expensive (but Jenny Lee I loved the way you fit!). The second had nothing I loved. And the third… was Marry Me Bridal in Orange. I went there determined I wasn’t going to find anything, and I ended up buying the very first one I picked out.

Mr. Espresso I don’t think you’re reading, but if you are, STOP now.
Read more…

Let’s see, where did we leave off? Oh that’s right- I was staring at my box of invitations thinking, “I could polish this off tonight.” Muahahahahahahaha… oh contrare.

In fact, I dedicated every night after work to them. And my workspace quickly transformed into the mess that is this.

Read more…

This past week, I had the option of getting nothing done and blogging about how I was getting nothing done (probably would have been a bit repetitive and very boring), or not blogging and getting a lot done… so I chose the latter and now we have something to talk about (hopefully it’s still not boring :)).

As you may or may not remember, I ordered my invites from Wedding Paper Divas. Of course I drooled over letterpress for months, Contemplated Gocco, and then even started researching different homemade routes made of brown paper bags (thank goodness I didn’t dive into that mess!). But in the end, Wedding Paper Divas offered me the most affordable option for the time I wanted to put in.

After perusing through the different options multiple times, we chose the Dandelion style in Lime. We had always wanted green invitations and the addition of the dandelion gave the invite a whimsical and youthful touch. Plus I loved the look of the dandelion being blown across the RSVP and Thank- You cards.

Here they are stacked and out of the box:
Read more…

And not the bathing type either … but I did take one of those too.

Yesterday I had my first (of two) bridal showers. And it was AWESOME! My bridesmaids definitely made it as personal as possible and took to heart my love for travel… which they made the theme.

They scattered vintage suitcases everywhere and hung maps on every wall. My MOH’s father also went out the morning before the shower and bought tons of flowers to decorate the house with- so pretty!

Here’s the dining room setup before everyone got there.

Read more…

Planning a wedding is hectic enough, but add in work, school, health issues, house hunting, financial issues, and job hunting—and you have yourself one busy and time consuming schedule. In fact, since we’ve been engaged I’ve juggled all of those off and on. And I know most of you have juggled hectic schedules and projects like these as well! Thankfully right now I’m only dealing with a few of the above, but two of them have really been taking up my time lately: 1) job hunting and 2) house hunting. I’m so happy to report that as of last Friday, I’ve crossed #1 off my list! Although now I’ll have work to take the place of the job hunt. But I’m going to have a paycheck finally! So now I’m left with house hunting.

If we were just looking for a place for Mr. Espresso and I, the search would have been over a long time ago. But we’re also looking for a place that will accept the third member of our family: our baby Maverick.
Read more…

For as long as I’ve been thinking about them, I’ve wanted long instead of round tables. I like them. I think they’re different, and I like the family style eating associated with them. But now I’m unsure. Our caterer said she thinks our guests’ knees will be hitting each other with the long tables. I don’t want that… but then what if she’s wrong? I’ve never been to a wedding with long tables, but I’ve seen plenty of pictures of ones that have. I also have never heard anyone complain of about this problem.

This would be my ideal look. But we can’t afford to purchase 160 different types of chairs, nor do we have the room for them. I like the simplicity and overall look of these tables and chairs though.

Read more…

On and off for the past 5 years, I have sold on e-bay as a second source of income. Besides selling for other people, I also scoured garage sales, estate sales, and flea markets for the perfect finds. The items need to be 1) cheaper than I would sell it for, 2) Light enough to conveniently ship, and 3) of my own personal taste in case I got stuck with it. Also, to ensure I spent my time and gas wisely, I put a lot of thought into deciding which sales I would be visiting.

For the past 6 months, I haven’t really gone out because I’ve been so busy, but I decided to try my luck this weekend in hopes of finding decor for our wedding. The budget has been dwindling and I needed to start getting more creative. And hive- I wish I had started sooner. Because I found so much great stuff at “Just what I need” prices.

Take a look at my weekend wedding finds. All were found at local garage sales and the grand total for everything came out to under $20. After the last picture, I’ve listed some advice on how to get the most out of garage sales for your own wedding finds.
Read more…

Every time someone asks to see my ring, I think the same thought- “Don’t look at my nails, Don’t look at my nails.” You see- I struggle from this disease called… subconscious nail biting. It’s a terrible disease that affects 1 out of every 100 brides and, it’s been known to hit both urban and rural populations. Please be on the lookout and keep your hands and nails inside the safety area at all times.

Ahem… ya, so maybe I went a little far with that, but I do have a very bad habit of biting my nails. I always have. I actually grew them out a couple of months after we got engaged. They were beautiful- I stared at my hands in awe, surprised at the wonderment of nail growth, but then, wouldn’t you know it- I got a snag. And well… let’s just say it all went downhill from there. Usually I bite them when sitting in front of the computer or when I’m concentrating on something. I do it subconsciously- which makes it even tougher to stop. But I’m making the decision to stop today- I want pretty hands and a healthier habit.

Here’s a look at what my nails look like today.
Read more…

A month after Mr. Espresso and I got engaged, we were lucky enough to receive our first wedding present. We hadn’t even thought of setting up a registry yet and we were already getting gifts- so awesome! My Maid of Honor and her boyfriend bought us tickets to go see (my favorite singer in the entire world!!!!) Ryan Adams & the Cardinals live at UCLA’s Royce Hall. While it wasn’t the normal type of wedding present, it was beyond perfect for music lovers like Mr. Espresso and I. We’re the type of people who stalk new bands on iTunes, frequent concerts, and then buy the concert DVDs of the ones we didn’t make it to. We actually just watched the Icelandic concert tour of Sigur Ros last night (shout out to Miss Pom who I know loves them too ).

Ok, back to the rockin’ gift. Not only were we ecstatic over the chance to go see Ryan Adams, but we loved how incredibly thoughtful and personal it was-, which in the end, is exactly what a gift should be.

What gifts have you received and/or registered for that are different than the norm?

In yesterday’s post, I professed my love for wax seals. So today, I’m going to show you how to use them. They can be found at most paper stores and in every design from animals to letters of the alphabet. The design I’ll be using for our demonstration is a butterfly. The wax is also available in a multitude of colors. I like how this silver one has a bit of sparkle to it. This small detail can add a lot to your invites and be done in less than a minute per invitation.

Here’s the wax, stamp, and envelope. Many times the wax will be sold with the stamp.

Read more…

Last week I was so excited to receive my bridal shower invitation in the mail. They’re the beautiful kelly green, Kate Spade invites that read, “Big Card, Small Party.” I love it! I already knew what they looked like, because my awesome bridesmaid Kristie bought them a while back when shopping with me. I protested that they were too much but she insisted, seeing that they were one of our wedding colors. So sweet.

Read more…

About a month ago, I woke up out of a dead sleep, startled at what my mind had thought of unconsciously. To make sure I didn’t forget by morning, I ran to my desk in the dark, scribbled the word onto a blank piece of paper, and fell back into bed. The next morning when I went to turn my computer on, I saw the word that had woken me up 6 hours earlier- FIRE.

Panic started to creep its way back into my nerves. We are having our wedding in an area known for wildfires. Why didn’t that cross my mind before? What would we do if that happened? What would our guests do? And what about my grandparents- would they be ok? A million questions started racing through my mind- and once again- different venues started popping into my mind just in case. NO, NO, NO! Not venues again! Anything but venues.

To convince myself I was fretting for no reason, I “Googled” fires in that region… and oh that didn’t help. Because almost all the fires listed occurred in the month of October. October?!! No!! And if that wasn’t enough- they came with pictures like this to make me feel better.

Read more…

Relationship Day is what we call the day Mr. Espresso proposed.

December 21, 2007:

After a long day of shuffling through crowds to finish our Christmas shopping, a spur of the moment date night was just what I needed. Thank goodness I had enough time for a hot shower to relax my tired, worn muscles… too many bags and a purse full of lists had taken a toll on my shoulders. Out of the shower and into some charcoal gray slacks and a slimming black sweater: my go to outfit when I need to look nice on the run. Make- up and a partial blow dry. I’m done.

“Baby it’s cold outside.”

So glad I picked up that cashmere scarf at the thrift store last week. Three dollars was such a steal! And the color- periwinkle blue- makes me love it even more. I add a black wool coat to the scarf and I’m ready to go.

Read more…

This dress by Tibi would make the perfect bridal shower dress.

Read more…