Mrs. Lox, BaltimoreAge and Occupation: 33, Government WorkerFiance's Age and Occupation: 35. IT ConsultantEngagement Date: May 8, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Vandiver InnAbout Me: I’m an East Coast gal born and bred and a suburban brat turned city rat for the last year. Now Mr. Lox and I enjoy walking all kinds of places, having the coolest things around in our backyard, and especially our garage parking. I love gadgets, toys, Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream, monkeys, and our insane cats. I’m a blonde by birth and a redhead by choice. I’m that girl in the cubicle farm with all the cool toys and the file cabinet covered in magnetic poetry. I still use smiley faces in my emails, whether people like it or not. This is not the first rodeo for Mr. Lox nor me. And together, we are planning an intimate afternoon wedding on a budget we can afford by ourselves.
So this weekend, Miss Sparkler reminded me about my plan to walk down the aisle alone. I know the last time we talked about it, I seemed like there might have been some wiggle room in that decision. That was a little unfair of me because there isn’t. For all the reasons I gave there and then some, I still plan to do this one by myself.
But I haven’t been able to shake the fact that I wouldn’t have made that decision if my step-father were still here to step in. It would have been his greatest joy to escort me down the aisle and I would have been delighted to have him do it. But it is what it is and he isn’t here with us, so that is not a choice I get to make.
So my dears, that brings us to the question of why on earth I’m writing about this again. I mean, if nothing has changed, then why bother to re-open the topic? Well, because something has, in fact, changed.
Like I said, I keep thinking of my step-father when I think about this. So it occurred to me that maybe I could find a way after all to take him down the aisle with me. Enter, my keychain:
Mrs. Sparkler, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 27, Communications AficionadoFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, PublisherEngagement Date: July 21, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Chicago Illuminating CompanyAbout Me: I’m a Southern lady living in the big city of Chicago. Well, lady may be a stretch, but I’m working hard to keep some Virginia charm in our sleek, urban, wedding-palooza! I’m addicted to marathons, not-so-famous bands, Chicago restaurants, and Mark Twain. I cry during SPCA commercials, and I think LOST was the best show to ever hit television. Mr. S and I met at a classy college mixer and, 7 years later, he’s still by my side. He’s the only child, laid back, free spirit... I’m the oldest of five kids, type-A, organizer. It doesn’t work on paper, but we’ve never paid attention to that stuff anyway. Somehow it works. And like they say, sometimes when you know…you just know.
I have a confession to make, hive. There’s a big part of my life that I haven’t yet divulged to you. But it being Mother’s Day, and with other things weighing on my mind, I wanted to put it all out there and recognize the person in my life that has always been there for me: My mom.
When I was a younger Sparkler, I lost my Dad. I’ve already told you that he was a Marine, but what I didn’t tell you was that he was a test pilot. This very honorable career was also very dangerous, and one July, while co-piloting a flight of the V-22 Osprey, he made the ultimate sacrifice.
Dad and me… waaaaay back in the day.
In the blink of an eye, my Mom was left alone with a growing family (my youngest sister was only five months old).
Mrs. Crepe, Queens, NY/Nashville, TNAge and Occupation: 28, Jewelry DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Animation DirectorEngagement Date: September 28, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: A church in downtown NashvilleAbout Me: I'm a native New Yorker who has always been a DIY kind of girl and loves tackling creative projects while getting the most out of a dollar. I'm marrying my college sweetheart and we love frequenting antique stores, exploring together, and playing with kittens. We're planning a fun, "us" wedding in his hometown---with as many handmade touches as we can pack into a day!
But what fun is that? At this point, Mr. Crepe is saying to me, “Everything you do has to be quirky.” Well, deal with it. I’m sure you knew that’s what you’re signing up for. And this thing is $40, which I guess isn’t a ton of money but if we can save a bit AND be quirky, all the better, right?
I came across this cute little rustic candle holder on Etsy: Read more…
Mrs. Lioness, AtlantaAge and Occupation: 25, Physical TherapistFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, AttorneyEngagement Date: August 29, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: Anthony’s Fine DiningAbout Me: I’m a Southern girl with New England roots. I say "wicked" and "y’all" in the same sentence and I like to drink sweet tea with my lobster. Mr. Lion and I are both former Floridians now living in Atlanta, which fortunately is still SEC country...Go Gators! We both love baseball, coffee, traveling, cooking, and playing Words with Friends with each other on our iPhones all day long. I’m very passionate about the things and the people I love, and I tend to plan things with all of my heart...our wedding, of course, is no different! Oh, and also Mr. Lion is a first generation American of Cuban descent. I may look more like Lucy than Ricky, but I’m doing my best to incorporate some Latin elements into our vintage-garden-Southern wedding!
Nothing better illustrates the differences between my personality and Mr. Lion’s personality than how we respond to a to do list. I look forward to crossing off each item with pride and a satisfying sense of accomplishment because I’m just a bit type-A. My laid back husband, on the other hand, needs a deadline. ”This has to be done by when? Oh okay, I’ll make it happen.” But, don’t you want to just do it now? Wouldn’t that just make you feel like you could take on the world?!
“Assemble the chuppah” was on Mr. Lion’s to do list for months.
For months, our living room was home to 8-foot aspen poles that had nowhere to go. By the way, we ordered these from Nature’s All, Inc., a company that sells aspen and birch poles specifically for chuppahs and arbors. This way, you can be certain that the width, height, and shape of each pole is uniform throughout.
Mrs. Crepe, Queens, NY/Nashville, TNAge and Occupation: 28, Jewelry DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Animation DirectorEngagement Date: September 28, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: A church in downtown NashvilleAbout Me: I'm a native New Yorker who has always been a DIY kind of girl and loves tackling creative projects while getting the most out of a dollar. I'm marrying my college sweetheart and we love frequenting antique stores, exploring together, and playing with kittens. We're planning a fun, "us" wedding in his hometown---with as many handmade touches as we can pack into a day!
As much as I loved the mossy teacup idea, the book ring holder won out. It tied into the stacked book centerpieces so perfectly and that detail was hard to resist. I’m also trying to keep the ultra-girlie-ness on a leash, since this wedding is for both of us and keeping the mister’s preferences in mind helps me with that.
I started out by using a small book from a used bookstore—Mr. Crepe found this little one and the cover was just so incredibly pretty.
Mrs. Crepe, Queens, NY/Nashville, TNAge and Occupation: 28, Jewelry DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Animation DirectorEngagement Date: September 28, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: A church in downtown NashvilleAbout Me: I'm a native New Yorker who has always been a DIY kind of girl and loves tackling creative projects while getting the most out of a dollar. I'm marrying my college sweetheart and we love frequenting antique stores, exploring together, and playing with kittens. We're planning a fun, "us" wedding in his hometown---with as many handmade touches as we can pack into a day!
The ring pillow was one of those unimportant details to Mr. Crepe and me—we probably aren’t going to have a ring bearer so having a pillow seemed unnecessary. But you know how it is. You come across photo after photo of adorable creative solutions for something so seemingly simple and then it doesn’t seem quite so unnecessary. Besides, it’s such a tiny project, right? Justification is the word of the day. (Or month.)
Mrs. Pancakes, New York/Costa RicaAge and Occupation: 26, Law School StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Latin American Policy AnalystEngagement Date: March 12, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Casa Punto de VistaAbout Me: I’m a perfectionist with a big heart. I love a good laugh and firmly believe no one has ever regretted being prepared! My motto is “go big or go home.” I am incapable of doing anything in moderation, especially when it comes to shopping, TV, food and travel, and some would say wedding planning! The other half of this nearlywed team is a laid-back, adventure-loving, accident prone, sweetie from LA. He makes me laugh, is always down for an impromptu dance party, and totally indulges most of my hare-brained schemes. Now, in my final year of law school, we’ll be spending the spring abroad in Amsterdam and planning a DIY, whimsical, detail-filled destination wedding in Costa Rica!
First of all, I want to apologize for my absence the last few days. That being said, our wedding is NEXT MONTH!!
Despite all the wedding planning I should be doing, and thesis writing I should be finishing, in the last month, I have been to Spain, France, Belgium, and Germany. Along the way I’ve managed to collect a number of great little trinkets to include in our big day. I’ll blog about all the great stuff I’ve picked up, but today I just want to talk about vintage hankies! Read more…
Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, ItalyAge and Occupation: 29, International Product ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End DeveloperEngagement Date: May 29, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
Mr. Caro and I will be celebrating our wedding in a converted church. It took us a while to find the right ceremony venue but we are very happy about our final choice: we think this church has a great intimate vibe and it fits our style perfectly.
The only thing I do not like about it is… the transparent chairs…
Don’t get me wrong: I think transparent chairs look really chic and cool in the right ambiance! I just don’t think the intimate and historic atmosphere of the church fits well with those stylish contemporary chairs for our wedding… Read more…
Mrs. Lox, BaltimoreAge and Occupation: 33, Government WorkerFiance's Age and Occupation: 35. IT ConsultantEngagement Date: May 8, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Vandiver InnAbout Me: I’m an East Coast gal born and bred and a suburban brat turned city rat for the last year. Now Mr. Lox and I enjoy walking all kinds of places, having the coolest things around in our backyard, and especially our garage parking. I love gadgets, toys, Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream, monkeys, and our insane cats. I’m a blonde by birth and a redhead by choice. I’m that girl in the cubicle farm with all the cool toys and the file cabinet covered in magnetic poetry. I still use smiley faces in my emails, whether people like it or not. This is not the first rodeo for Mr. Lox nor me. And together, we are planning an intimate afternoon wedding on a budget we can afford by ourselves.
In our initial meeting with our officiant, she asked us a series of questions so she could learn a little bit about us to help her customize our ceremony. There weren’t very many questions in that she learned how much Mr. Lox and I love wine. In fact, I would wager that it is our most prominent shared hobby. We frequent wine tastings and wine dinners. The owner of the best local wine shop knows us by name. We just really enjoy learning more about wine, and well, drinking it!
After figuring this out, she suggested we add a wine toast to our ceremony. A what now? I mean, that’s what we thought, at least. Please bear in mind, this is before wedding blog land entered my life. Right, so back to how this works. On a table near us during the ceremony, there will be a glass of red wine. At some point, the officiant will say something like this:
Mr. & Miss Lox, because you have pledged your love to one another through the exchange of vows and rings, it is appropriate on this joyous occasion that you make a toast—to life and love!
This wine represents the sweetness and bitterness of life. Throughout your lives, may you find life’s joys heightened, it’s bitterness sweetened and all things hallowed by true companionship and love. As you share the wine together from this cup, so too may you share joy and fulfillment from the cup of life. Drink now, and may the cup of your lives be sweet and full to overflowing!
Mrs. Lox, BaltimoreAge and Occupation: 33, Government WorkerFiance's Age and Occupation: 35. IT ConsultantEngagement Date: May 8, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Vandiver InnAbout Me: I’m an East Coast gal born and bred and a suburban brat turned city rat for the last year. Now Mr. Lox and I enjoy walking all kinds of places, having the coolest things around in our backyard, and especially our garage parking. I love gadgets, toys, Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream, monkeys, and our insane cats. I’m a blonde by birth and a redhead by choice. I’m that girl in the cubicle farm with all the cool toys and the file cabinet covered in magnetic poetry. I still use smiley faces in my emails, whether people like it or not. This is not the first rodeo for Mr. Lox nor me. And together, we are planning an intimate afternoon wedding on a budget we can afford by ourselves.
When we first met our officiant, she really put us at ease and we felt we had connected with her. That’s why we hired her. Well, that and the fact that she came up with some great ceremony ideas that we had never heard of before. One of them was our stone ceremony, which we promptly fell in love with. But that wasn’t her only idea of the day.
One of the things she asked us was if we wanted to incorporate my engagement ring into our ceremony. Now at the time I had never heard of that being done. For what it’s worth, I also hadn’t gotten fully consumed by wedding blog land yet either, so there you have it. But it was new to me so that was pretty cool!
So what does that mean? I’m so glad you asked. It means that I will go down the aisle with zero rings on my finger. Right hand, left hand…no rings. You get it. After we do the exchange of the wedding bands, our officiant will say something like this: Read more…
Mrs. Lox, BaltimoreAge and Occupation: 33, Government WorkerFiance's Age and Occupation: 35. IT ConsultantEngagement Date: May 8, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Vandiver InnAbout Me: I’m an East Coast gal born and bred and a suburban brat turned city rat for the last year. Now Mr. Lox and I enjoy walking all kinds of places, having the coolest things around in our backyard, and especially our garage parking. I love gadgets, toys, Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream, monkeys, and our insane cats. I’m a blonde by birth and a redhead by choice. I’m that girl in the cubicle farm with all the cool toys and the file cabinet covered in magnetic poetry. I still use smiley faces in my emails, whether people like it or not. This is not the first rodeo for Mr. Lox nor me. And together, we are planning an intimate afternoon wedding on a budget we can afford by ourselves.
So, I feel like we’ve talked about pretty much everything *but* our ceremony lately, and that makes me sad. I remember that our officiant was one of the very first vendors we booked. And when we met with her, I told her that my main priority was to create a meaningful and personal ceremony. And the ceremony was at the forefront of my priorities because it alone is the reason for the entire day. And I meant it. And I still do.
So I want to start a series of posts about how we’re making the ceremony portion of our day as special as we can. And the start of that is the music.
Mr. Lox and I are having a DJ for both the ceremony and the reception. We wanted a string quartet…I mean, right up until we priced out a string quartet. I have to tell you, that is too rich for this budget bride’s pocketbook. So I reasoned with myself, a DJ is the next best thing. I mean, we were largely after string arrangements of contemporary music. And DJs have access to a whole host of things fitting that description. Plus the DJ was an incredibly reasonable rate for the entire day. Reasonable you say? What’s reasonable to you Miss Lox? Fair question. Read more…
Mrs. Waffle, AustinAge and Occupation: 31, Costumer/ArtistFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, AnimatorEngagement Date: July 27, 2010Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Hummingbird HouseAbout Me: My life is pretty much spent in a sea of fabric, paint, sequins and drama. When I’m not working, I play on a trivia team, take Broadway dance classes, read, buy shoes, and occasionally geek out on video games. I am an American girl who loves all things British and Mr. Waffle is a Brit who loves all things American...I guess it was meant to be!
Life is extremely crazy at the moment. Most days I feel like a little leaf being swept along by a raging river. There are very big wedding items I need to tackle, but my brain and body are a bit too exhausted to put an energy towards it at the moment. Several people involved in the ceremony have started asking me questions about it and I seriously have had nothing to share with them. No ideas. Nothing. Until this morning.
Luckily, I don’t have to go into work until this afternoon today. I finally had a moment to sleep in and snuggle with Mr Waffle (who just got back from 3 months in LA). The moment was so perfect. The morning sunlight was seeping in, diffused by the curtains and everything was still. I could hear the silent whisper of the AC and Waffle’s breathing. So still and so peaceful. I looked up at him in that perfect moment and he didn’t even have to say anything. The smile in his eyes said “I love you,” and I laid my head back down for a few more moments of peaceful sweetness.
I wanted to bottle that moment up and keep it with me forever. Read more…
Mrs. Ostrich, San Francisco/HawaiiAge and Occupation: 30, Fashion Buyer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 38, CopywriterEngagement Date: October 4, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: Sweet ceremony by the sea and sunset celebration on the North Shore of HawaiiAbout Me: Born in the city of angels and residing in the city by the bay, I’m a fearless fashion buyer by day, a passionate blog author by night and a dreamy bride-to-be in between. I thank my lucky stars to live in such a stunning city that gives me gifts like organic honey lavender ice cream, movie nights in the park, tucked away beaches, legendary record stores, '80s dance parties, awesome sports teams, stellar flea markets, and vintage bookshops. Oh, and I love to dance! We always find every excuse to escape to the beach, and decided a little seaside wedding in Hawaii is our idea of bliss. Full of our favorite people, music, food and sparkly lights, this is one sunset celebration we will always remember.
Mrs. Glasses, Tokyo/Los Angeles, CAAge and Occupation: 24, English teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, English teacherEngagement Date: September 2008Wedding Date: October 2010 Venue: Parents' backyardAbout Me: I’m an expat living in Tokyo. I’ve been in Japan for almost three years now, where I met my fantastic English fiance. It’s time to leave Japan, so we are planning a fun, intimate, backyard ceremony back home in the suburbs of L.A. in October. Our wedding will be a mix of my love for food, beer, my Japanese culture, and Mr. G’s Englishness. We are on a tiny budget and DIYing almost everything!
It’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty. Let’s talk about the actual ceremony portion of our wedding. I think this is the most wide-open detail of the day so I’ve really dreaded putting pen to paper, so to speak, and writing out what will go down. It’s also touchy for me because I know Mr. G’s parents won’t be there to celebrate with us which makes me want to cry! It would be really nice to have both of our parents there but Mr. G’s parents will be with us in spirit; I’ll leave it at that.
We won’t be having a religious ceremony as Mr. G is atheist and I’m Buddhist, but want to keep it as neutral as possible. And oh yeah, we’ll already be married! See what I mean by wide-open? All the traditional things that usually happen at a ceremony don’t need to happen at ours!
We need to pick an “officiant” of sorts who can at least MC what’s going to happen. We want our ceremony to be silly and fun and emotional and meaningful. Just how will we accomplish this? Read more…
Mrs. Sushi, Hershey/HawaiiAge and Occupation: 27, Air Force PhotographerFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Laborer/Aspiring Hip Hop ProducerEngagement Date: December 25, 2007Wedding Date: March 2009Blogging Since: October 9, 2006Venue: Byodo-In Temple, Luau ReceptionAbout Me: I’m a notorious people-watcher who loves all things paper, food, traveling, grubbin’ on food, gossip magazines, food, sock monkeys…did I mention food?! Mr. Sushi and I are both haolepinos (half Filipino, half Caucasian) and hope to be able to somehow incorporate our cultures at our destination wedding in Hawaii. All while planning from the sweetest place in earth, Hershey!
Mrs. Sushi was married at the Byodo-In Japanese temple in Oahu, Hawaii. This post was originally published on October 27th, 2009.
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Our guests then went off to tour the temple while Frank went all paparazzi on our arses. We had about a lil’ over an hour to do photos before we had to load into the shuttle to make our way to the “reception”. Not having a wedding par-tay meant that whole hour was dedicated to us. That’s a whole lot of photos, yo.
For being a “small” temple, there was lots of scenery for photos.
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