Miss Porcupine, NYC/Lancaster, PAAge and Occupation: 26, Sales Coordinator/PublishingFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Assistant Manager/SalesEngagement Date: August 8, 2010Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Riverdale ManorAbout Me: I'm a born and bred New Yorker with a love/hate relationship for the city I have always called home. Although I may seem quiet from afar, I have a loud personality once you get to know me. I am a book nerd at heart, but love a night out in the city with good friends. I have a serious addiction to all things cheese, chocolate, cardigans, Mexican food, and reality TV. The future hubs and I met in college, settled in New York, and decided to go with a rustic/peacock infused wedding in Lancaster, PA, right near his hometown. Come the big day, we will be together 5 years, and we're looking forward to making it official!
Sometimes the best decisions are made under last minute pressure (or one can hope).
When it came to thinking up ideas for escort cards my brain made a nice little “hummmmmmmmm” sound in the background. It seemed so trivial to think about when you have a 1 1/2 year engagement, until I realized I have about 50 days until the wedding and I better make some type of decision on what to do.
There are so many cute ideas out there and I liked a bunch of them.
Miss Mink, Charlottesville, VirginiaAge and Occupation: 34, College AdministratorFiance's Age and Occupation: 40, Craft Beer ConsultantEngagement Date: November 26, 2010Wedding Date: June 2012Venue: Pippin Hill Farm & VineyardsAbout Me: I left a pre-war brownstone in Boston six years ago to live in a funky, Southern city where Thomas Jefferson, Dave Matthews, and urban chicken keepers enjoy equal social standing. I still love my Patriots and Red Sox, but have fallen in love with Virginia. I work in education and specialize in integrating technology into my work to improve the student experience. I’m a diehard blogger, animal lover, jamband follower, and DIYer. I paint to relax and have transferred by energy from home projects to wedding projects in recent months. When Mr. Mink and I started talking about marriage, we knew our wedding would be outdoors, that my golden retriever would be part of the day, and that the music would be fantastic. We’ve taken a few risks during our planning process and we’ve been enjoying the process immensely!
Without a die cutting machine, I went online to find paper I could run through my printer that had perforated tags on it. I found one website that had what I wanted after much searching and placed an order. About a month later, Avery came out with the same product and it’s probably at every office supply store in the country. Oh well. Next, I had to create the board. Read more…
Miss Mink, Charlottesville, VirginiaAge and Occupation: 34, College AdministratorFiance's Age and Occupation: 40, Craft Beer ConsultantEngagement Date: November 26, 2010Wedding Date: June 2012Venue: Pippin Hill Farm & VineyardsAbout Me: I left a pre-war brownstone in Boston six years ago to live in a funky, Southern city where Thomas Jefferson, Dave Matthews, and urban chicken keepers enjoy equal social standing. I still love my Patriots and Red Sox, but have fallen in love with Virginia. I work in education and specialize in integrating technology into my work to improve the student experience. I’m a diehard blogger, animal lover, jamband follower, and DIYer. I paint to relax and have transferred by energy from home projects to wedding projects in recent months. When Mr. Mink and I started talking about marriage, we knew our wedding would be outdoors, that my golden retriever would be part of the day, and that the music would be fantastic. We’ve taken a few risks during our planning process and we’ve been enjoying the process immensely!
Am I the only one who gets fired up for a DIY project? I love our wedding projects, even the ones that are a little painful to complete. The next project on the horizon is figuring out how to get our guests to their seats. I almost put an exclamation point there. Wow.
I knew right away that I wanted to use escort cards instead of a seating chart. I’m sure you’ve seen these charts, which seem to have been everywhere for the past few years:
The window pane seating plan is very cute, but if we were going in that direction, I think I’d be more tempted to try to this more polished adaptation, using a large, leaning mirror: Read more…
Mrs. Cannon, Toledo, OHAge and Occupation: 27, Financial AnalystFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, AssemblerEngagement Date: February 28, 2011Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Epworth UMC & Ward PavilionAbout Me: I'm the curious combination of being a go-with-the-flow, laid back, obsessive planner. I try desperately to stay as busy as possible at all times (and am succeeding big time right now!) My biggest loves in life are Law & Order: SVU, Community (the show, not the concept, although I like that, too), ice cream, white cheddar popcorn, beer, hiking, knitting, decorating, writing, being outside, spending time with friends and family and musical theater. Mr. Cannon is pretty sweet, too. We've had a lot of fun traveling and having adventures all over the country, but have finally moved back near our hometown to settle down. We're planning a low-key, colorful, fun wedding and an awesome-to-the-max reception.
If you remember back to when I was debating the trends of current weddings, I mentioned that I wanted to include mustaches since they are a stupid and fun part of my life, but that they would not be mustaches on sticks for a photo booth because we weren’t doing a photo booth. So, how did I incorporate them? Escort cards!
OK, I don’t know if they even count as escort cards since we didn’t really have assigned seating. But I made everyone a card with their name on it to mark their seat once they had picked one, so they wouldn’t get back from the bar and find someone had stolen their seat. I put a sign saying as much next to the table where they were laid out (in alphabetical order—I was somewhat organized!) I forget the exact wording of the sign, but it was something along the lines of, “Feel free to sit wherever you’d like. Place your name card at your spot to hold your seat!” And, in case you’re wondering, letting people sit wherever they wanted worked out fine. We made sure we had a whole extra table on top of the number of people we were expecting so people would have enough room to spread out, but not so much room that anyone was left at a table by him or herself. Everyone found friends to sit with and I didn’t hear any complaints about the situation.
Anyway, here are what the cards looked like, except instead of Beloved Guest, they had the person’s actual name, and the typography at the bottom wasn’t kind of wonky like it is in this picture.
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.
“If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.”
- Buddhist proverb
waves arms enthusiastically *
Hey hey, hive! Just when you’ve thought I’ve faded away into newly married oblivion, your prodigal ostrich has returned.
I haven’t forgotten you. In fact, Mr. O and I are patiently waiting for our dreamy wedding pics to arrive so I can share them with all of you. And since it may be a bit longer before the recaps can commence, I decided to go off the grid for a solid month and relish in newlywed bliss. You know, finding every excuse to call Mr. O “husband” with the goofiest grin, watching too many so-bad-they’re-good reality shows (the latest? Hardcore Pawn) and eating too many pieces of pie and, for a moment, escaping the wild and crazy wedding world. And it felt goooood. But before it felt too good, I had to jump back in and share the last bits of pre-wedding goodness with all of you.
Mrs. Bacon, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 26, Digital Advertising ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, IT Client ServicesEngagement Date: June 17, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Ravenswood Billboard FactoryAbout Me: I'm a Midwestern girl that can't seem to commit to staying in one place for too long and is constantly daydreaming about my next adventure. I am an aspiring foodie with a weak spot for the unusual and I love semi-reality food television. My other loves easily include laughing as a form of exercise, a book that I can't put down, summer baseball games, espresso with whipped cream, couch potato days and nights with the ridiculous Mr. Bacon, and our two kitties, Lincoln and Sawyer. We're planning a faux-destination wedding for 150 of our closest friends and family in the city we've both adopted as home that has a modern, yet whimsical twist and as many personal touches as we can manage.
The Baconator and I have gone back and forth for a while now about how guests would find their seats. He was all about a chart and I love the personalized nature of adorable escort cards. He thought escort cards were redundant and I thought a chart was boring. We were at a bit of a stalemate until I stumbled on this piece of inspiration at the People En Español 50 Mas Bellos party in New York last month (I was there for work!).
Milk Mustache props for the “Got Milk?” photo booth
Mrs. Cinnamon Bun, Calgary, AlbertaAge and Occupation: 26, Stage ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Theatre TechnicianEngagement Date: June 22, 2010Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Calgary Opera CentreAbout Me: I'm a life-long crafter and bookworm living in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. Some of my loves include Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes, knitting, opera, musicals, Etsy, baking, and of course, Mr. Cinnamon Buns. We're keeping our wedding close to home---the venue isn't very far from our house, and we live within walking distance of 6 bridal salons. I'm using the wedding as an excuse to try out every craft project I possibly can, with the endless help and support of my fiance.
Here is my idea for displaying our two digital slideshow photo frames: our venue has 3 (three!!) pianos, which will have to be somewhere in one room or the other during our wedding. They ain’t moving a grand piano downstairs for our wee unofficial party, and while one piano could be tucked away somewhere unobtrusive, three is a lot. Then my brilliant flash of inspiration came: put the two digital frames on top of a piano, surrounded by old family wedding photos in regular photo frames!
I’ve set my mum to gathering photos from her and dad’s families, and Cinnamon Buns’ mum is sourcing most of the ones from his side. I also decided that these photos would need labels so interested guests would know who is whom, and see if they can spot some of the people who are at the wedding. I made mock-ups today out of printer paper and some leftover ribbon. When I print them for realsies I will use card stock and cut them with a ruler and a knife, instead of printer paper and scissors.
I decided to kinda-continue the H <3 P theme we have going by using the same font we used when addressing our envelopes, with the little heart in between the names.
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.
“A good map is both a useful tool and a magic carpet to far away places.”
Ahhh, seating maps.
Since Mr. O’s and my big day would include about 50 of our nearest and dearest, our seating strategy was pretty easy and we knocked it out in one night. Which meant that it was time to work on the fun, number-free map we dreamed up when we first started planning this beach celebration, starring this fella:
Mrs. Bacon, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 26, Digital Advertising ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, IT Client ServicesEngagement Date: June 17, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Ravenswood Billboard FactoryAbout Me: I'm a Midwestern girl that can't seem to commit to staying in one place for too long and is constantly daydreaming about my next adventure. I am an aspiring foodie with a weak spot for the unusual and I love semi-reality food television. My other loves easily include laughing as a form of exercise, a book that I can't put down, summer baseball games, espresso with whipped cream, couch potato days and nights with the ridiculous Mr. Bacon, and our two kitties, Lincoln and Sawyer. We're planning a faux-destination wedding for 150 of our closest friends and family in the city we've both adopted as home that has a modern, yet whimsical twist and as many personal touches as we can manage.
The Baconator and I had a weird conversation the other night about getting our guests from a jumbled up mess of coworkers, family members, school friends, and random people our parents invited from cocktails into dinner. Clearly they will walk through the doorway, but how do they know which table is theirs?
Personally, I prefer the look and flexibility of escort cards. I like that we can write a note to each guest on the card along with their table name. Not to mention, the ease and flexibility of changing tables if we have some guests that suddenly decide not to come the week before the wedding. Besides, look at all these awesome, amazing escort card ideas!
Mrs. Tartlet, Rochester, MIAge and Occupation: Age & Occupation: 27, Post-Doctoral Research FellowFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Medical StudentEngagement Date: May 2, 2009Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: The Royal Park HotelAbout Me: I'm an exuberant gal from the Midwest with a penchant for Neuroscience and anything sparkly. I'm not afraid to poke fun at myself, and I'm a believer that given the right pair of shoes, a girl can conquer the world. While an interest in the sciences threw Mr. Tartlet and me together (again, and again, until it finally stuck), we share a love for many things---food, video games, car dancing, food, bad puns, travel, did I mention food?---that ultimately led us to where we are now, less than five months from becoming Mr. and Mrs. We're planning a laid-back, romantic, garden-inspired affair with organic and quirky touches that reflect our love for the unexpected!
Guest list? Check. Table arrangements? Check. Seating assignments? Oh, how we wanted to leave people to work things out for themselves! Without getting into the murky details, let’s just say there are enough delicate relationships amongst one of our families that motivated us not only to have assigned tables, but assigned seating as well. We’re hoping the extra effort will prevent explosive combinations from coming together while simultaneously taking some pressure off our guests: couples are guaranteed to be seated next to one another, friends will be clustered together, buffers will be placed in between conflicting personalities, and hopefully no one will be the wiser. In between the ceremony and the cocktail hour, an easel with our framed seating chart will be placed in the room for our guests to peruse at their leisure over strawberry lemonade and hors d’oeuvres:
Our seating chart: still a work in progress!
Each of the rectangular tables we’re putting end-on-end to create the long, banquet-style tables will have a number assigned to it:
Mrs. Prairie Dog, Cincinnati
Age and Occupation: 24, Program CoordinatorFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, PhD/Biomedical EngineerEngagement Date: December 18, 2009Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Glendale LyceumAbout Me: I'm a pilgrim soul of a girl with a house full of books and a coffee addiction that could slay Juan Valdez. My life is a whirl of grammar correction, good music, glue-gunning, and two pets named Hazel and Winston Churchill. I'm marrying my high school boyfriend in a formal-ish spring affair, roughly themed: "Elizabeth Bennet crashes a party co-hosted by Jay Gatsby and Cath Kidston, and loves it."
Do you like my creative title? Ye-ah, nobody strained any muscles coming up with that one. So, last week I wrote 3 posts with literally no pictures. I’ll try to make up for it by updating you with tangible/visible progress in slouching toward the altar.
First up, table numbers. It sounds so trite to say that I love reading. I mean, are there people who don’t? Suffice to say: books are a huge part of my life. But…books- or, at least- fiction- are my thing. Pdog only reads non-fiction about neuroscience.
Mrs. Elephant, Dallas, TXAge and Occupation: 27, Financial Operations AnalystFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, IT Student/Store ManagerEngagement Date: March 29, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: The Tribute Golf ClubAbout Me: I'm a Philly native creating roots deep in the heart of Texas. I might be a little obsessed capturing those Kodak moments of anything and everything (mainly on vacations). I've become more of a gamer thanks to Mr. Elephant, who I met online and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with. We are planning a wedding based on our favorite colors, blue and green, with a travel theme for 150 of our closest friends and family. Hopefully our long (2-year) engagement won't kill me!
Are there any other bees out there that watched the geographical game show based on the computer game? Brother E and I used to love trying to outsmart the “gumshoes.”
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego theme song via You Tube
Since our tables are not numbered but instead named after places we have traveled to, Mr. E thought it would be smart to give the guests a little help finding their tables. Read more…
Mrs. Jaguar, SydneyAge and Occupation: 27, Primary School TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, IT ConsultantEngagement Date: August 8, 2009Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Curzon HallAbout Me: I'm an Australian girl who is a self-proclaimed nerd, loves all things stationery and would be lost without books, music and the internet. Mr. Jaguar and I have been together for the past eight years and he finally popped the question last August. Hurrah! We currently live in Sydney, Australia with our adorable cat who thinks he's a person. We're a couple who likes to multi-task: we've been planning a wedding abroad, a permanent move from London to Sydney, and preparing to build our own home all at the same time. Travelling makes me giddy...as does Mr. Jaguar, of course!
Once we had made the decision to forgo traditional favours and donate to a charity instead, the question arose: how would we let guests know this? I didn’t want to clutter the tables with loads of different pieces of information—there’s already going to be enough on each one, what with cutlery, dinner-sets, glassware, centrepieces, and table numbers/menus taking up space!
Then, it hit me: what if I incorporated the message into something else that would already be on each table? I’ve been trying to avoid using traditional folded name-tags on our wedding tables, only because I’ve seen them at every wedding I’ve ever been to—and I’ve been searching for alternatives ever since. Remember when I’d decided to do scripted doily place cards to sit over the plates at the table? That didn’t work out, since our venue doesn’t have plates set up on the tables until food is served. Instead, I thought back to how the tables would look on the day, as you can see in this {slightly blurry} picture I took during a recent visit.
If you squint, you can see the favours for this particular wedding—each guest had a boxed candle and a jar of green rock candies.
Mrs. Brooch, Arlington, VAAge and Occupation: 25, Writer/EditorFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Front Desk ManagerEngagement Date: October 3, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: Oxon Hill ManorAbout Me: I’m an indecisive girlie-girl with a motor mouth, can-do attitude, and knack for making others laugh. I dream of becoming a best selling novelist like Elizabeth Gilbert or Julie Powell (a girl can dream, right?), and love long road trips, a beautiful countryside, music, blogs, books, and all things vintage/thrift/antique/or homemade. I’m a Virgo, i.e. overly sensitive, emotional, and critical, and there’s no such thing as short and sweet in my world. I want to say and do it all. Mr. Brooch grounds me. I point where to go and he figures out the way. He’s a pragmatic fancy-pants who enjoys video games and movies. We both adore our mutt, Rocky, and spending time with our amazingly supportive family and friends. We’re planning a garden wedding with a formal reception with lots of whimsy and unique, Southern-inspired details.
I was really anxious to start this, but I didn’t have a lot of ribbon. I bought wire and hung it in a large walkway in our house and pretty much hung what I had at the time.
Mrs. French Toast, Pleasanton, CAAge and Occupation: 29, Marketing & PRFiance's Age and Occupation: IT geek by day, self-proclaimed handyman by nightEngagement Date: October 2009Wedding Date: March 2011Venue: Palm Event CenterAbout Me: I’m a city girl at heart who moved to the suburbs a year ago. Now I’m adjusting to life with a front lawn, nosy neighbors, cooking attempts, and making sure the garbage pail is pulled out on time every week! When I’m not traveling, Mr. FT and I enjoy marathon sessions of Law & Order: SVU, snowboarding, photography, spoiling our 3-year old yorkie-poodle Mokka and disagreeing over what music to listen to in the car. We’re planning a small winery wedding while incorporating some cultural elements into the day as a nod to our Chinese backgrounds.
Mr. French Toast and I would like to thank the hive for your helpful suggestions and let you know that Operation Wine Cork Place cards was a success! He consulted with some colleagues at work (insert geek talk), and they suggested that he use a disc sander.
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
