Weddingbee Blog

I must warn you: this may be my first post about wedding cakes, but it will most certainly not be my last. You see, I have a mouth full of sweet teeth (and miraculously enough not a single one of them has ever had a cavity!). Every member of my family is a huge fan of candies, cookies, cakes, and most of all: frosting. When we were little we used to express our desire for a little something sweet after a solid meal by explaining that our dinner shelf was full, but our dessert shelf was empty!

Did someone say dessert shelf? My hometown bakery / Image via NorthshoreUpdate.com

Clearly, wedding cakes were one of the first things I started bookmarking for inspiration when we got engaged. When I look back on this mouth-watering section of my wedding folder, I notice a certain trend: ruffles! This is not too surprising, given I am a self-confessed ruffle-aholic. Here is a little sample of how this addiction translated into cake-spiration:

Read more…

It was a random Thursday afternoon. Mr. Dalmatian had come home for a few hours between his classes. I was supposed to be studying for my nursing boards. Mr. Dalmatian was supposed to be writing a paper that was due the next day. Instead, we were watching Hulu, snacking on cookie dough, and cuddling with Echo. Oops!

Can you blame me for being distracted by this cuteness?

When my phone rang and I saw it was from an unknown number, I let out a little groan. Have I mentioned I hate talking to strangers on the phone? Ordinarily, I would have pretended to miss the call and hoped they left a voicemail, but not this time. You see, 1) I was in the process of applying to jobs and figured it could be a potential employer and 2) whenever Mr. D is there he makes me answer the phone to try to help me get over my phone-phobia. He’s always making me a better person, though sometimes I drag my feet kicking and screaming. Oops!

I am awfully glad he made me answer this phone call though.
Read more…

You know what they say, the best laid plans often go awry. I already told you about the time we planned a trip to NYC, only to buy my dress beforehand in Nashville. I also told you about the time I bought a mailbox at the flea market…

That’s right, my great find is no longer going to be featured in our big day. Is it because I decided I didn’t like the idea of mailbox as a card box? Of course not! I still love this. It is because I found another mailbox that I simply had to have.

I was up in Chicago for Thanksgiving, and Mama Dalmatian and I had a day to ourselves before my other family members arrived. We decided to go antiquing together because my obsession with this activity stems directly from my mom. We were at a big antique barn and already having way too much luck when I spotted something in the next booth. I’m pretty sure I literally gasped. Granted, I am pretty easily excitable—but this was seriously a kick-butt find.
Read more…

In my opinion, there are a lot of things country music stars do right. First and foremost, the music. I had no knowledge of the genre before I moved to Nashville five years ago and, to be quite honest, I really had no interest in learning. But then a funny thing happened.

My mom and I took a day-trip from Chicago to Nashville (thank you Southwest deals) to visit Vanderbilt. Mama Dalmatian says she knew right away that I would end up there, partially because I was completely enthralled by Vandy’s blooming gardens and pedestrian bridges (I really love me a pedestrian bridge), and partially because as we explored the city in our rental car I had the country music blaring and a huge smile plastered across my face.

My favorite pedestrian bridge at Vandy / Photo via DonHardingGroup.com

And thus, my love for fiddles and honky-tonks was born. But we’ll get more into the music part in a later post. Right now, I want to talk about another thing that country music stars do right: LOVE.

They throw adorable rustic weddings with cowboy boots and all. Proof:
Read more…

Let me just preface this post by saying that I love my dress and every lovely detail of it. But let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Okay fine, not so much nitty gritty as silky smooth, but that just doesn’t have the same ring.

Ever since I started looking at wedding dresses (we are talking long before my engagement here, bees), there was one little detail with which I was completely enamored: buttons. I loved the look of a little row of buttons all lined up down the back of a dress. It just seems so much more special than a zipper, even if there is a zipper hiding underneath. I was completely drawn to these little suckers, and couldn’t get enough. Buttons all the way to the ground? Love. I do not care that the skirt of a dress does not need to be buttoned. Like most obsessions of mine, my fascination with buttons had nothing to do with practicality. Rather, it has to do with the romantic feel they embody. I can’t quite explain it, but something about pictures like these just make my heart melt:

Image via DressesDenimAndDiaperBags / Dress by BHLDN

Read more…

…or multiple stamps, as the case may be!

Let the invitation games begin! No, we are not getting married until May. Yes, we just sent out our save-the-dates. Yes, the wheels have already started turning about our DIY invitations. I have a plethora of inspirational design ideas to share with you, but let’s start with a jumping off point: my first invitation-related purchase!

Let me start by briefly explaining my shopping habits. I love online shopping. I also love a good deal (almost as much as Mr. Dalmatian does). Thus, flash sale websites are right up my alley. In case you couldn’t guess, I also love weddings. So when I heard about DressRush.com, a site with daily deals for brides (and others too), I was all over it.

Now, let me briefly explain what I envision for our invitations, and pretty much every other detail of our  wedding:
Read more…

A few weeks ago I emailed our photographer with a quick question about our engagement photos. This was not an urgent question (we are not taking our engagement pictures until March, mind you). I purposely sent the email in October, however, because I knew that our super adorable preggo photographer was due to have her twins in November, and I figured I would get my question out of the way before her life became exponentially more crazy (and cute!).

So, I sent my email at 3:13 p.m. She wrote me back at 11:04 the next morning. I read the first line of her response, which read “I’m so sorry for the delay in response.” I thought that this was very nice, although not necessary (read: it had literally not even been 24 hours). Then I continued to read her explanation and learned that she had had her babies and was still in the hospital! I immediately wrote back, expressing my congratulations and telling her not to worry about responding back to me.

This made me think about a few things.
Read more…

Nope, I’m not going anywhere. You can’t get rid of me that easily! What I’m referring to, of course, is our exit from the reception or, as our fabulous venue calls it, our “gala send off.” How fancy is that? It brings something like this to my mind:

Image via FoxNews.com

I am definitely on board with anything that makes me feel like a princess (technically duchess, I suppose, but I’m sticking with princess), so a gala send-off it is!

We have a choice of using bubbles, rose petals, or sparklers. For those of you who are as impatient as I am, I won’t drag this out (because obviously wondering what item we are using at our send off would keep you up all night). For us, the choice was clear:
Read more…

It had been way too long since my last baseball reference, so I had to do it with this title. Go White Sox!

Now down to business. Since we have covered my shoes, my dress, and my veil, I figured I’d keep the ball rolling and share another piece of my wedding day look (although this will probably contribute more to our sweetheart table look since I don’t plan on carrying it around all night, but you get the idea): my purse!

Here is a pic of my everyday purse (yes, I am cruel and dragged Adam to SeaWorld San Antonio on his birthday last winter - I love dolphins that much).

Personal Photo

As you can see from the pic, it would make an excellent something blue. However, even though my wedding is be no means fancy shmancy, I don’t think my lovely Anthro bag is very fitting for a formal occasion. This means I will need a wedding day clutch.

Read more…

I have already shared a couple of photos of how drop dead stunning my sister, MOH A, looked on her wedding day last May. But in order to share another detail of my wedding day look, I am going to turn to a few more photos of hers.

Photo by Edward Fox Photography

Read more…

Hi there! Remember that time I started telling you about my dress shopping adventures and then totally left you high and dry without a drop of info about my final purchase? My bad! In case you missed the beginning of the story (or in case you need a refresher since it has been so long), I fawned over some inspiration dresses, planned a trip to NYC, and did a little bit of shopping here in Nashville with Mama Dalmatian.

Now, first things first:

Image via The Daily Puppy

Okay, now second things second: I have a very important warning for those of you who have not yet embarked on wedding dress shopping:
Read more…

After sharing my inspiration for a bridal bouquet, I got a little distracted by the completion of our save-the-dates (okay, I confess that not all of them are addressed yet, but they are all assembled!), but it’s time now to get back to pretty, colorful flowers!

The package we have selected from our venue includes 3 bridesmaids bouquets. Now, you may recall that I have 4 lovely bridesmaids. Luckily, our venue was willing to accommodate this and told us that they could make 4 bouquets, they would just have to be on the small side. We’ll take it!

I didn’t want to deny my bridesmaids of beautiful bouquets, but the more I looked at inspiration pictures, the more I realized that size doesn’t matter (insert inappropriate joke/comment of your choice here). Look at these darling bouquets that are small in size and huge in charm:

Read more…

The next step in assembling our save the dates was creating a card to go with the handkerchief. We figured this was needed in order to give them a little bit of structure, and so that people would have the option of either keeping the card or the handkerchief, or both!

After an epic trip to Paper Source, I had my supplies and was ready to go. This included the A2 scallop cards in fuchsia, Lokta Kiwi paper, some tape runners, and a paper cutter.

Thanks to some more design help from MOH K and Mama Dalmatian, I was ready to print the text for the cards. I printed four cards per sheet of the Kiwi paper, and used the paper cutter to cut them to the exact dimensions that I needed.

Read more…

When I was first came across handkerchief save-the-date inspiration, I could not contain my excitement. Thus, in addition to searching the web for pictures at roadrunner speed, I also immediately ordered supplies to get my project started!

I was quite pleased when I came across these on GiftWagon.com. They have a scallop edge to satisfy my need for a little something pretty, and they meet Mr. Dalmatian’s request of not having flowers on it. (FYI, they also have ones with a floral border for those of you who can convince your fiancés.)

Just to make my life more difficult (oh yeah, and also to make the save-the-dates look nicer), I decided to hand embroider a small heart in the corner of each one. The process went a little something like this:

Use a pencil to trace your shape onto your handkerchief.

Read more…

Have I mentioned that I am obsessed with our venue? Oh, that’s right, I have. If you are sick of hearing about our venue, feel free to skip this post—but if you stick around, I promise there are some sweet decor ideas amongst my gushing! You see, one of the many things that I adore about our venue is their truly amazing collection of decor items that are available for brides to use.

When we toured Cedarwood, there were many things that caught my eye. One thing in particular was a cabinet full of milk glass. Let me let that sink in for a moment—a cabinet FULL of MILK GLASS! I’m pretty sure my mouth starting watering right then and there.

Image via Ashleys Bride Guide / Photo by Dove Wedding Photography / Decor by Cedarwood

This sight in and of itself was pretty much enough for me to sign my life away to these people, and by that I mean sign a wedding contract…what, that’s not the same thing? Anyway, you get the idea.

But the amazing milk glass cabinet isn’t all. Cedarwood bouts some other highly impressive collections as well! Such as…
Read more…