Ms. Stripes, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 29, Costume Designer/StylistFiancee's Age and Occupation: 29, ChefEngagement Date: June 23, 2009Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: Heritage Square MuseumAbout Me: I’m a type A creative with a messy streak, a loud mouth, and an uncanny knack for combining clashing patterns. I can usually be found with my nose in a book, my feet (or at least my toes) on the ground, my head in the clouds, and my arm around the prettiest girl you ever saw- aka
Fiancee Stripes. Together we’re planning a FUN vintage/modern French carnival wedding extravaganza and rockin’ dance party on a dime. (Say that three times fast!) Good coffee, long lists, Uniball pens, and my iPhone keep me sane, and making art, making trouble, and making out keep me happy! I love urban adventures, bike rides that end with afternoon drinks, breakfast for dinner, beautiful light, photography, travel, my furry family, and of course, my beautiful fiancee! I’m super excited to be here and can’t wait to share all our adventures as we craft a joyful, budget-friendly, design-savvy and all-around AWESOME wedding!
Sure, it may have taken me a few months post-wedding, but I finally made myself sit down and write this post so I could share the last (and my favorite!) installment of our invitation saga: The Heart. It’s been a while though, so I understand if you need a quick refresher! Go check out the skin, bones, and guts of our glorious invites and then come right back, mkay?
I’m a big fan of printmaking and I specifically chose to create a lino print because it’s easy and cheap to do at home. I’m really happy with the way they turned out, and I absolutely love that we were able to include an original piece of artwork with our invitations.
Mrs. Moonbeam, Los Angeles/San AntonioAge and Occupation: 26, Intern ArchitectFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Studio Analyst, aspiring ScreenwriterEngagement Date: May 20, 2009Wedding Date: November 2009Venue: Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church (LaCoste, TX) and Mary Gray Events Center (Castroville, TX)About Me: I was born and raised in Texas, but after college I moved to Seattle for a couple of years and loved it. Then I followed my beau out here to LA and we're getting settled in. I've been making things since I can remember. I was raised by crafters. I love to sew, draw, paint, build, cook, bake (anything with a tangible end result is fair game). In that same spirit, I've been hosting since I was old enough to cook and set a fancy table. I kind of take after my grandmother, who believes that your morning OJ always tastes better out of the good crystal.
Now it was time for cake. I think the general rule is to save this for a little later, because apparently many people think it’s the ’end’ of the reception. I didn’t really know that, and I just wanted cake, so we cut it. A few people left earlier because of it, which kind of stinks, but I needed cake.
Photo taken by London ’Maid
My sister and her friend made ’the’ cake (chocolate with cream cheese frosting), and I made the topper. Read more…
Mrs. 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.)
People who have been there and done that will warn you that things will go wrong on your wedding day. It’s probably true, and you’re wise to accept it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do something to prevent some disasters from ever taking place by doing just a little bit of research early on. I signed contracts with and gave deposits to at least three vendors that I would never do business with or recommend again, and I did it because I did not do my homework!
Let’s say you are budget-hunting and found a potential wedding vendor through a Facebook ad or on Craigslist. You don’t have any local bride-friends who have used the vendor, and a Google search doesn’t yield much that is helpful. Neither does a check of Yelp or the usual wedding review sites. This isn’t a red flag in and of itself, because the person you’ve found may be new to the industry and without much of a portfolio. Maybe this is why he or she is willing to offer you such a tempting deal! But before you commit, there is one site you should search if you are in Canada or the United States: Read more…
Mrs. 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.)
Well hello, Hive, remember me? I already told you that I wasn’t ready to say good-bye, but now that I’m nearing on one year of blogging for Weddingbee (holy crap; that’s coming right up!), I thought it was time to start wrapping things up with my last few recap posts. *tear*
For the sake of brevity and fairness, I’ll only be review the vendors that I would recommend—those that I’m neutral or negative on I’ll either leave in the Vendor Reviews or in my head.
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!
I picked out all the flowers I liked, and a week later she ordered the exact opposite of those because she wanted me to have a heart attack on my wedding day.
The flowers came in 3 days before the wedding and we had to prep them to be arranged for the wedding day. Here is some of what we were working with: Read more…
Ms. Stripes, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 29, Costume Designer/StylistFiancee's Age and Occupation: 29, ChefEngagement Date: June 23, 2009Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: Heritage Square MuseumAbout Me: I’m a type A creative with a messy streak, a loud mouth, and an uncanny knack for combining clashing patterns. I can usually be found with my nose in a book, my feet (or at least my toes) on the ground, my head in the clouds, and my arm around the prettiest girl you ever saw- aka
Fiancee Stripes. Together we’re planning a FUN vintage/modern French carnival wedding extravaganza and rockin’ dance party on a dime. (Say that three times fast!) Good coffee, long lists, Uniball pens, and my iPhone keep me sane, and making art, making trouble, and making out keep me happy! I love urban adventures, bike rides that end with afternoon drinks, breakfast for dinner, beautiful light, photography, travel, my furry family, and of course, my beautiful fiancee! I’m super excited to be here and can’t wait to share all our adventures as we craft a joyful, budget-friendly, design-savvy and all-around AWESOME wedding!
As I mentioned a few days ago, now that our wedding is over, I’m not so interested in weddings anymore. I am, however, significantly more interested in them than I was before we planned our wedding…if that makes any sense at all. And I’m strangely compelled to continue blabbing about them. So I probably will.
But I must admit, I am interested in very different aspects of weddings than I was when I started planning 15 months ago.
Now that I’ve been released from my (self-imposed) crafting prison, I am mostly interested in weddings because they tell a story of two people, two families, two communities coming together. And I LOVE a good story. Read more…
Ms. Stripes, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 29, Costume Designer/StylistFiancee's Age and Occupation: 29, ChefEngagement Date: June 23, 2009Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: Heritage Square MuseumAbout Me: I’m a type A creative with a messy streak, a loud mouth, and an uncanny knack for combining clashing patterns. I can usually be found with my nose in a book, my feet (or at least my toes) on the ground, my head in the clouds, and my arm around the prettiest girl you ever saw- aka
Fiancee Stripes. Together we’re planning a FUN vintage/modern French carnival wedding extravaganza and rockin’ dance party on a dime. (Say that three times fast!) Good coffee, long lists, Uniball pens, and my iPhone keep me sane, and making art, making trouble, and making out keep me happy! I love urban adventures, bike rides that end with afternoon drinks, breakfast for dinner, beautiful light, photography, travel, my furry family, and of course, my beautiful fiancee! I’m super excited to be here and can’t wait to share all our adventures as we craft a joyful, budget-friendly, design-savvy and all-around AWESOME wedding!
Mrs. Moonbeam, Los Angeles/San AntonioAge and Occupation: 26, Intern ArchitectFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Studio Analyst, aspiring ScreenwriterEngagement Date: May 20, 2009Wedding Date: November 2009Venue: Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church (LaCoste, TX) and Mary Gray Events Center (Castroville, TX)About Me: I was born and raised in Texas, but after college I moved to Seattle for a couple of years and loved it. Then I followed my beau out here to LA and we're getting settled in. I've been making things since I can remember. I was raised by crafters. I love to sew, draw, paint, build, cook, bake (anything with a tangible end result is fair game). In that same spirit, I've been hosting since I was old enough to cook and set a fancy table. I kind of take after my grandmother, who believes that your morning OJ always tastes better out of the good crystal.
It’s speech time. Momma MB gave a little welcome and thank you to everyone for coming out and then introduced our MOH and Best Man for the speeches.
Sista’ MB was up first. She gets a bit nervous with public speaking, but she had it all planned out and had been memorizing. I even got to hear a practice run. I love that she took her role so seriously, and it worked out perfectly. Read more…
Ms. Stripes, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 29, Costume Designer/StylistFiancee's Age and Occupation: 29, ChefEngagement Date: June 23, 2009Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: Heritage Square MuseumAbout Me: I’m a type A creative with a messy streak, a loud mouth, and an uncanny knack for combining clashing patterns. I can usually be found with my nose in a book, my feet (or at least my toes) on the ground, my head in the clouds, and my arm around the prettiest girl you ever saw- aka
Fiancee Stripes. Together we’re planning a FUN vintage/modern French carnival wedding extravaganza and rockin’ dance party on a dime. (Say that three times fast!) Good coffee, long lists, Uniball pens, and my iPhone keep me sane, and making art, making trouble, and making out keep me happy! I love urban adventures, bike rides that end with afternoon drinks, breakfast for dinner, beautiful light, photography, travel, my furry family, and of course, my beautiful fiancee! I’m super excited to be here and can’t wait to share all our adventures as we craft a joyful, budget-friendly, design-savvy and all-around AWESOME wedding!
Back when we were planning I would often wax poetic about everything else I could do once the wedding was over and I had all this glorious free time. So it’s pretty funny that I’m still seeing wedding inspiration everywhere! Wouldn’t this dress be awfully sweet for a little winter wedding?
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 was the day before our wedding and the scene was set. Me, crying and screaming on the bed in front of my laptop and Mr. G trying to hold me and thumping my back to control my breathing. My mom appears and (literally) thwacks me over the head (oh, Asian mothers) and scolds, “STOP CRYING!”
Not the best way to go into our wedding weekend. I was looking at our Saturday wedding forecast,
and feeling very, very sorry for myself. Just the day before we had been with Team England at Disneyland enjoying a lovely Southern California fall day—sunny, blue skies and 80+ degrees. The weather had been gorgeous all week. What did I do to deserve this? I believe my famous last words were, “The backup plan for rain is that there is no back up plan. It just won’t rain.”
I whined to my fellow bees and the love, support, and well wishes you sent my way were amazing. Read more…
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!
I’m signing off for a while. I’ve got this thing I need to do—a couple of dozen people are showing up, I’m wearing something special.
For us folks who had to get married before the Big Day (and there are a lot of us out there—insurance reasons, military reasons, and in our case visa reasons!) it’s sort of like being in limbo, huh?
I’m already a Mrs. My name’s been changed and I’ve had the title of “wife” for several months now. Our day isn’t about two souls and two families coming together for the first time in lawfully wedded bliss. Been there, done that, got the certificate, right? It’s been terrific.
But I want everyone important to me to hear how much I love Mr. G and how I promise to have and to hold him from this day forward. It really is about the white dress and the rings, the family and friends, the drinks and the dinner and the cake—it’s a celebration, heyoooo! All these months of stressful planning have finally culminated into ultimate closure. Wedding limbo is almost over, and soon we’ll be laughing the night away. I hope I don’t drink too much, I wanna remember the fun we had and the things we said!
I really loved sharing this time with you. Read more…
Mrs. Moonbeam, Los Angeles/San AntonioAge and Occupation: 26, Intern ArchitectFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Studio Analyst, aspiring ScreenwriterEngagement Date: May 20, 2009Wedding Date: November 2009Venue: Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church (LaCoste, TX) and Mary Gray Events Center (Castroville, TX)About Me: I was born and raised in Texas, but after college I moved to Seattle for a couple of years and loved it. Then I followed my beau out here to LA and we're getting settled in. I've been making things since I can remember. I was raised by crafters. I love to sew, draw, paint, build, cook, bake (anything with a tangible end result is fair game). In that same spirit, I've been hosting since I was old enough to cook and set a fancy table. I kind of take after my grandmother, who believes that your morning OJ always tastes better out of the good crystal.
I’m not going to lie, I didn’t put much thought into the food. For apps we had standard veggie, fruit and cheese trays that were gone before Mr. MB and I even got there. Whoops. And for dinner I knew our budget, our location, and the limits of catered food and went for the old Texas standby: BBQ.
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!
Since we aren’t having dancing, I thought we’d need something fun to do at our backyard wedding. We absolutely did not have a budget for a photobooth but we did have money for a fauxtobooth! We’re not builders but luckily for us, Mrs. Pin Cushion is! We ordered one from her Etsy store!
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!
Our bachelor & bachelorette party kicked my butt last weekend, but this week I got off my butt and was a busy, busy bee. Our wedding is FAST approaching and I need to get all our projects done so I can play with Team England - they are arriving this weekend!
I’ve got a lot on my plate but luckily my mom has taken over a lot. Even before we were in America, I got this gem of an e-mail from my tiny Japanese mom:
You are so fascinating for cup cakes for dessert, so, I maid two towers for cup cake. I just copy the idea from wedding bee. It looks cute tower. I show you latter.
Ms. Stripes, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 29, Costume Designer/StylistFiancee's Age and Occupation: 29, ChefEngagement Date: June 23, 2009Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: Heritage Square MuseumAbout Me: I’m a type A creative with a messy streak, a loud mouth, and an uncanny knack for combining clashing patterns. I can usually be found with my nose in a book, my feet (or at least my toes) on the ground, my head in the clouds, and my arm around the prettiest girl you ever saw- aka
Fiancee Stripes. Together we’re planning a FUN vintage/modern French carnival wedding extravaganza and rockin’ dance party on a dime. (Say that three times fast!) Good coffee, long lists, Uniball pens, and my iPhone keep me sane, and making art, making trouble, and making out keep me happy! I love urban adventures, bike rides that end with afternoon drinks, breakfast for dinner, beautiful light, photography, travel, my furry family, and of course, my beautiful fiancee! I’m super excited to be here and can’t wait to share all our adventures as we craft a joyful, budget-friendly, design-savvy and all-around AWESOME wedding!
Again- for Sloth. And any other lovelies out there who wanna continue their extreme arm toning regime on their wedding day. You’re hardcore. Enjoy the tutorial kids!
PREP:
I already had a fairly sizable collection of brooches from my awesome adopted grandma, and the rest I found in thrift stores, on eBay, and even borrowed one from the awesome Mrs. Nachos!
Gather/Edit your brooches. I used around 50! Read more…
Venue: Calamigos Ranch
Unique Wedding Favors
(source)
We used P.C.’s post as a guide…
