Mrs. Swan, New York CityAge and Occupation: 31, Legislative RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Finance GuyEngagement Date: August 9, 2008Wedding Date: August 2009Venue: Battery GardensAbout Me: I am an un-crafty but resourceful, Caribbean-born but New York-raised woman who's been known to analyze "Dancing with the Stars" and “So You Think You Can Dance”, buy stinky cheese, and use way too many parentheses. I keep lists for fun, am constantly daydreaming of my next international travel adventure (four continents down, three to go), debating sports (let’s Got Mets/Giants!) and dancing around my apartment to stay sane. I am excited to share our wedding planning journey as I hope to plan a streamlined, personal, and fun wedding with the greatest life partner I could ever imagine, Mr. Swan.
Luckily, our reception wasn’t all about Mr. Swan and me dancing. I think our guests had a good time too, because I think everyone managed to find a way to entertain themselves even if they weren’t dancing.
With a relatively intimate wedding, we were able to talk to many of guests throughout the reception.
Mrs. Mouse, AustinAge and Occupation: 25, AttorneyFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Civil EngineerEngagement Date: December 19, 2007Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: Barr MansionAbout Me: I just graduated from law school and will be taking the bar, getting married, going on a honeymoon with my guy, and then trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. I was born and raised in a small East Texas town, but I'm no country girl! I'm obsessed with British accents, fantasy (including Harry Potter, of course), and classic rock. My fiance and I consider ourselves both music and beer snobs--but every once in awhile we love to hear a crappy band and drink a cheap brew or two. We're planning an eco-friendly, casual, English garden affair for the end of summer, and we can't wait for it to get here!
I actually purchased the guestbook and pens months before the wedding, but for some reason I never blogged about them. And, we ended up not getting too many photos of them at the wedding, either.
But that’s OK. I took some yesterday just for you guys.
Instead of the traditional plain white guest book with lined pages, I chose this repurposed hardcover children’s book that Etsy seller Ex Libris Anonymous turned into a journal. To the original book were added 60 pages of unlined, acid-free paper: perfect for sweet little messages from our guests. The messages ended up looking more like a yearbook than a wedding guest book, but that was OK with us. Read more…
Mrs. Dumpling, Las VegasAge and Occupation: 27, FinanceFiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Real EstateEngagement Date: March, 2008Wedding Date: March, 2009Blogging Since: August 26, 2008Venue: Catholic church ceremony & golf course receptionAbout Me: I grew up in the Deep South, and while most people say I have a thick southern accent, I tend to think it only comes out when I need to use it. Living in Las Vegas has definitely been an adventure and Mr. Dumpling and I are loving every minute of it! We are planning a traditional Catholic wedding ceremony and a reception with lots of DIY! We might even get Elvis to show up! I'm a HUGE Beatles fan, love The Office and can't wait to become a Mrs.!
We named the Southern dishes on our dinner buffet after family members on my side, but we also wanted to think of a way to honor Mr. Dumpling’s family as well. We knew that we wanted a cookie buffet as our wedding favors for a few reasons. First, we could send our guests—-most of whom were from out-of-town—back to their hotel with a midnight snack. Secondly, we knew that if we had a variety of cookie choices that it would be a great place to incorporate his side of the family.
Mr. Dumpling emailed a few of the most important women in his life—Aunts, SIL, Mom, Grandma, and close friend—and asked them to participate by bringing their favorite cookie or treat to the rehearsal dinner (so I would have time to “make” the buffet). They all emailed back ahead of time to let me know what they were planning to bring so I could make the labels for our cookie buffet. This was actually a very easy project, and I’m happy to report that it didn’t enter into my “DIY screw up” file.
Here is the cookie buffet:
Here’s how to make your own cookie buffet—this would also be good for candy buffets. Read more…
Mrs. Piglet, Virginia/OahuAge and Occupation: 28, ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Entrepreneur/Fashion Apparel Wholesale ImporterEngagement Date: June 22, 2008Wedding Date: August 2009Venue: Ceremony at the Lanikuhonua Phase II private estate, reception at a historic hotel in WaikikiAbout Me: I'm an East Coast gal with intense road rage and an addiction to romantic comedies, fast food, gadgets, Korean BBQ, and my wiener dog George aka Georgia May. I carry mustard packets in my purse and I love perusing the aisles at discount stores. A self proclaimed shopaholic, I impulsively buy electronics, software, and craft tools; none of which I know how to use. I'm excited to dust
these babies off and immerse myself in DIY projects galore in
preparation for our DW in paradise!
It was time to celebrate the Piglet nuptials! Guests had four or so hours between the ceremony and reception to relax, sightsee, nap, etc. One of our friends even went surfing. By early evening, everyone began tricking in for cocktail hour. With the drinks flowing, and pupus (hors d’oeuvres) a plenty, oh yes, it was time to start the party.
Mrs. Dumpling, Las VegasAge and Occupation: 27, FinanceFiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Real EstateEngagement Date: March, 2008Wedding Date: March, 2009Blogging Since: August 26, 2008Venue: Catholic church ceremony & golf course receptionAbout Me: I grew up in the Deep South, and while most people say I have a thick southern accent, I tend to think it only comes out when I need to use it. Living in Las Vegas has definitely been an adventure and Mr. Dumpling and I are loving every minute of it! We are planning a traditional Catholic wedding ceremony and a reception with lots of DIY! We might even get Elvis to show up! I'm a HUGE Beatles fan, love The Office and can't wait to become a Mrs.!
I realize that while I was planning I omitted some of the details on the special projects I was working on, but I have an excuse (don’t I always?). Some of my friends and family read this blog and I wanted some of the wedding to be a surprise. We’ve spoken before about how un-crafty I am and how my bee status should have been revoked a long time ago—you remember the invitations, the place cards and the hot glue-gun mess that I tried to pass off as pomander, right? Sadly, those weren’t the only DIY projects I had up my (very wrinkled) sleeve.
Our wedding didn’t really have a theme other than Neapolitan ice cream, so I really tried to incorporate some of each of our heritages into our big day. We used custom fortune cookies as our STDs, so I thought it would be nice to serve Southern food at our reception. But it didn’t stop there—we thought it would be a hoot to name the dishes after family members. Sounds stupid, right? I know. It totally does. Somehow we pulled it off, and people were so touched to be included like that.
All of these were made with Microsoft Word, a black & white laser jet printer and a stack of A7 Paper Source luxe cream flat cards. Don’t be jealous of my skillz.
My mom lives right in the middle of football heaven (or hell, if you’re like me and loathe sports), so we thought it would be funny to name one of our main dishes after her. Read more…
Mrs. Sprinkle, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 26, Preschool Teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Television Production/WriterEngagement Date: December 24, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: The Marvimon HouseAbout Me: I'm a Bay Area native trying to create a life for myself (and my fiance, and our three cats!) in the vast city of Los Angeles. I love vegan red velvet cupcakes, pilates ,and mid-century furniture. Mr. Sprinkle and I met when my band toured through his city (we bonded over cake and a mutual love of Morrissey) and we are getting married on the four year anniversary of our first date. When I am not teaching preschool (or blogging!) you can find me perfecting recipes, petting kittens, hiking in Griffith Park, and overusing exclamation points. We are planning a vegan, green-as-possible, DIY wedding, and I couldn't be more excited to share all of the details!
My thoughts on sweets? Go big or go home. If I am going to eat a big white flour/sugar/fat mess, I want it to taste amazing, and I probably want to eat a lot of it. Don’t you?!
Remember when I said I was going to make all of my own cupcakes for the wedding? Well, I pulled it off. I also made just about a million cookies. I was smart enough to hire someone to make a couple of cakes and a pie (for some reason I can bake a mean cupcake, but whenever I try to make a full size cake it ends up being a huge kitchen disaster!), and one of our friends made an apple crisp. Lets just say we had a lot of yummy desserts.
The following food porn is all vegan and all delicious:
Miss Champagne, DC/Vail/ColoradoAge and Occupation: 26, Eye DoctorFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, AttorneyEngagement Date: March 13, 2006Wedding Date: February 2009Blogging Since: July 30, 2008Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin receptionAbout Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
When it came time to organize the “detail” photos from our wedding, I realized that things may be a bit out of order here, so just work with me. Recaps are tough to organize! I shared with you our day-after photos with my talented cousin (and bridesmaid) MB of Design MB Fotografie. She captured some gorgeous shots of my bouquet, so I figured I would continue with some of the ceremony and personal details.
As I mentioned probably a thousand times, I was in love with my bouquet! Read more…
Mrs. Sprinkle, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 26, Preschool Teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Television Production/WriterEngagement Date: December 24, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: The Marvimon HouseAbout Me: I'm a Bay Area native trying to create a life for myself (and my fiance, and our three cats!) in the vast city of Los Angeles. I love vegan red velvet cupcakes, pilates ,and mid-century furniture. Mr. Sprinkle and I met when my band toured through his city (we bonded over cake and a mutual love of Morrissey) and we are getting married on the four year anniversary of our first date. When I am not teaching preschool (or blogging!) you can find me perfecting recipes, petting kittens, hiking in Griffith Park, and overusing exclamation points. We are planning a vegan, green-as-possible, DIY wedding, and I couldn't be more excited to share all of the details!
Dance dance DANCE. Really, that is all I wanted to do at our wedding (besides the obvious, getting married part). Way back in the planning stages, when I was thinking about evening entertainment, I considered other things to keep people occupied. Like, performance artists and portrait drawers and such. But that would have been overkill. We had a great DJ, a photo booth and tons of booze. That was enough! Read more…
Mrs. Cloud, RichmondAge and Occupation: 25, Sales RepFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Customer Service Manager/DJEngagement Date: February 14, 2008Wedding Date: November 2009Venue: Cathedral of the Sacred Heart & The Jefferson HotelAbout Me: Mr. Cloud and I are Yankees planning a Southern wedding to show our families from Boston and New York our fabulous city. We are complete opposites, resulting in a wedding to include bridesmaids in pearls and groomsmen in Adidas shell toes. I’m a sorority girl at heart with strong addictions to my blackberry, cherry Chapstick, Coach purses, the Boston Red Sox and our fur baby, Bella. I can’t wait to the throw the party of our lives and of course, marry my best friend!
I would just like to go ahead and put this on record right now: shopping for boys is hard. I started shopping for the bridesmaids not long after we got engaged, but the groomsmen were an entirely different story. Both Mr. Cloud and I were stuck for a long time.
So, we started with the basic groomsmen gift: the flask. We got ours from Things Remembered, and while we got a good deal (I believe we ended up paying about twenty bucks a pop on sale with monogram) I wouldn’t recommend them. The quality was less than I would have liked and we had a lot of drama getting the correct monograms done. As in, we had to go back three times. Granted, it could have just been the location we were dealing with, but the experience left a bad taste in my mouth.
Mrs. Stiletto, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 26, Non-Profit/FundraisingFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Engineer and PhotographerEngagement Date: March 2, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: The 19th Century ClubAbout Me: My fiance and I love living in the city of Chicago with our cats Basil and Linus, and vow to never move to the suburbs if we can possibly avoid it! We’ve poured ourselves into planning a wedding that reflects our personal style - modern and high contrast with a vintage twist. Blogging keeps me creative, baking keeps me happy, and grande nonfat no foam sugar free vanilla lattes keep me sane.
If your mind has wandered from the Stiletto festivities because there’s so much fabulous wedding eye candy out there, let me quickly refresh your memory.
… while Mr. S donned his finest and got ready with the guys over at the church. Read more…
Mrs. Swan, New York CityAge and Occupation: 31, Legislative RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Finance GuyEngagement Date: August 9, 2008Wedding Date: August 2009Venue: Battery GardensAbout Me: I am an un-crafty but resourceful, Caribbean-born but New York-raised woman who's been known to analyze "Dancing with the Stars" and “So You Think You Can Dance”, buy stinky cheese, and use way too many parentheses. I keep lists for fun, am constantly daydreaming of my next international travel adventure (four continents down, three to go), debating sports (let’s Got Mets/Giants!) and dancing around my apartment to stay sane. I am excited to share our wedding planning journey as I hope to plan a streamlined, personal, and fun wedding with the greatest life partner I could ever imagine, Mr. Swan.
I will say that I was a little worried about the dancing portion of our reception. I’mma be real and say that I wasn’t worried about my friends and family not getting down, just some of our other guests. Then I just consoled myself by saying that at that point in the wedding it was going to be my job to make sure that I enjoyed myself and to not worry about whether other people would get out of their seats. I was going to make sure that I got my money’s worth out of our DJ, Rob, who we met through DJ Gaza. Rob did a great job mixing much of the music that we (okay, I) requested with some of his own choices. I had given him a detailed document of “suggestions” of the genres and types of songs we wanted to have played (really, they were “suggestions” not “must plays” although a few of those were thrown in). I was really glad to hear the things we wanted. I think everyone danced at some point during our wedding even if it was just for one song.
I thought I would post some pictures of Mr. Swan and me as we danced with each other and our guests.
Mrs. Piglet, Virginia/OahuAge and Occupation: 28, ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Entrepreneur/Fashion Apparel Wholesale ImporterEngagement Date: June 22, 2008Wedding Date: August 2009Venue: Ceremony at the Lanikuhonua Phase II private estate, reception at a historic hotel in WaikikiAbout Me: I'm an East Coast gal with intense road rage and an addiction to romantic comedies, fast food, gadgets, Korean BBQ, and my wiener dog George aka Georgia May. I carry mustard packets in my purse and I love perusing the aisles at discount stores. A self proclaimed shopaholic, I impulsively buy electronics, software, and craft tools; none of which I know how to use. I'm excited to dust
these babies off and immerse myself in DIY projects galore in
preparation for our DW in paradise!
I can’t chew on a Starburst without thinking about Mr Piglet. Him down on one knee, both arms stretched out, his nervous ‘Ta-Da’s as he popped the question that one lazy Sunday in June. His ingenuity deserved recognition, yah? This made favors an easy decision for us.
I took our main invitation pattern and created two templates for the wrapper; one with our names, and the other with Mahalo to thank our guests. With 120 guests at 2 packs a person, that meant a whole lotta cutting, scoring, and packaging… for Jean (my roomie) and Mr Piglet.
Mrs. Deviled Egg, PittsburghAge and Occupation: 27, Public RelationsFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, AccountingEngagement Date: December 24, 2007Wedding Date: May, 2009Blogging Since: October 21, 2008Venue: Historic auditorium and meeting hall in one of Pittsburgh's commuter citiesAbout Me: I am obsessed with all things crafty, especially scrapbooking, knitting, jewelry-making & cake decorating. I also love being an aunt, wrapping presents, watching football (Go Steelers!), shopping at yard sales and consignment stores, procrastinating, singing and learning to play the guitar. When it comes to wedding planning, I'm excited about working on DIY projects and finding creative ways to stay under budget. Of course, nothing is more exciting to me than knowing that the wonderful Mr. Deviled Egg will be my husband.
Here it was, the morning of our wedding day, and there were a few things that needed to be done before we could get down to the business of becoming bridal. First on the agenda was getting the reception room ready to go.
With our wedding taking place on a Sunday, we were aware that there would be a chance that an event could take place in our venue the night before. When we learned a Saturday wedding had been booked, that just meant we, bridesmaids, my mother, Mr. DE’s mother and I, would have to get up a little earlier on the wedding day to deliver all of the reception decorations and take care of some set up. While I would have loved to have everything taken care of the day before, we rolled with the punches and arrived early, prepared to take care of business before heading off to the salon to relax and get pretty.
The main tasks that morning were preparing the centerpieces, arranging the seating cards/favors, putting on the chair covers and setting up the cake.
The cake! The centerpiece of any wedding reception and the DIY masterpiece that was in the works for months.
In case you forgot, I was the crazy bee who, with the help of her sister, decided to make her own wedding cake. How did it turn out? See for yourself: Read more…
Mrs. Stiletto, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 26, Non-Profit/FundraisingFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Engineer and PhotographerEngagement Date: March 2, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: The 19th Century ClubAbout Me: My fiance and I love living in the city of Chicago with our cats Basil and Linus, and vow to never move to the suburbs if we can possibly avoid it! We’ve poured ourselves into planning a wedding that reflects our personal style - modern and high contrast with a vintage twist. Blogging keeps me creative, baking keeps me happy, and grande nonfat no foam sugar free vanilla lattes keep me sane.
I’m baaaaack! I firmly believe that I have loved doing my recap posts so much, I have stretched them out for as long as I possibly could. No, seriously. My time on Weddingbee is rapidly winding down, as I think I’ve shown you almost everything there is to be shown.::tear::
But, I just had to show you some live action from our reception. We didn’t opt to hire a videographer, but we had many friends who used their digital cameras to take footage of the day.
As I watch these video snippets, as low quality as they are, sometimes it makes me wish that we had shelled out the extra bucks for some professional video. On the other hand, I wouldn’t change a thing. Some of these clips captured the most random moments of the day and offbeat snippets of conversation that I doubt a professional would have captured/kept.
Beyond the special dances and other details that I won’t bore you with, here are some highlights from the day. Read more…
Mrs. Sprinkle, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 26, Preschool Teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Television Production/WriterEngagement Date: December 24, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: The Marvimon HouseAbout Me: I'm a Bay Area native trying to create a life for myself (and my fiance, and our three cats!) in the vast city of Los Angeles. I love vegan red velvet cupcakes, pilates ,and mid-century furniture. Mr. Sprinkle and I met when my band toured through his city (we bonded over cake and a mutual love of Morrissey) and we are getting married on the four year anniversary of our first date. When I am not teaching preschool (or blogging!) you can find me perfecting recipes, petting kittens, hiking in Griffith Park, and overusing exclamation points. We are planning a vegan, green-as-possible, DIY wedding, and I couldn't be more excited to share all of the details!
Just in case you are one of those people on the fence about whether or not to invite children to your wedding, I hope this post helps sway you (one way or the other…)!
I had a great time planning out the fun stuff for all the kids who would be at our wedding. From crafting activity kits for each individual child, to making sure they had plenty to eat and drink. Read more…
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Dance dance DANCE. Really, that is all I wanted to do at our wedding (besides the obvious, getting married part). Way back in the planning stages, when I was thinking about evening entertainment, I considered other things to keep people occupied. Like, performance artists and portrait drawers and such. But that would have been overkill. We had a great DJ, a photo booth and tons of booze. That was enough!
Source: Laurie Peacock
Just in case you are one of those people on the fence about whether or not to invite children to your wedding, I hope this post helps sway you (one way or the other…)!
