Mr. Mango, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 27, Stem Cell/Nanotechnology Researcher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 21, Political Scientist
Engagement Date: June 12, 2008
Wedding Date: December 2008
Blogging Since: August 4, 2008
Venue: Picking between 2
About Me: It's not who I am underneath, but what I do, that defines me (cheesy Batman reference). I'm a Pakistani-American who lives his life as a nerdy scientist by day, and a nerdy artist by night. According to many, I'm as "metro" as they come, and that's probably why I'm so interested in all this wedding business. Honestly, I've become a bit of a "groomzilla". I'm here to prove that we, as grooms, actually can work a Gocco, plan a wedding meal, create breathtaking centerpieces, and rock a dress, just as good as my female counterparts (well maybe not the last one).
As mentioned before, our Nikkah ceremony was last week, and I had been running around like a “chicken without a head” (<-how did that phrase ever come about). Anyhow, I guess I’d share one of the simpler, yet last minute, DIY projects that I undertook.
For the Nikkah reception, I wanted to create a small ceremony program that guests could refer to for questions about the night’s events, instead of them having to ask the waiters what time dinner would be served. Hmm… well, I guess that would be a reception, not a ceremony program, wouldn’t it ? Nonetheless, since our Nikkah started out with an official ceremony in a mosque, followed by a reception in a nearby restaurant, one option we were considering was giving out programs before the ceremony. However, we figured it might not be a good idea because people tend to lose things when moving between sites/venues.
So, we have decided to keep a simple, and straight-forward program tucked into the napkins on the tables at the reception, along with the wedding favors and silverware. Easy enough, right? Nope! We seem to have very eclectic guests who are either poets, singers, speakers, or just simply lovers of the limelight and feel the need to embrace it. Hence, we were told that there needed to be some cultural element to our ceremony program. Some of the things that we felt should be included in our programs were:
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Mrs. Sundae, Chicago/Lake Geneva, WI
Age and Occupation: 28, Knowledge Manager
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Investment Advisor
Engagement Date: July 20, 2007
Wedding Date: September 2008
Blogging Since: February 5, 2008
Venue: The Abbey Resort
About Me: It’s hard to believe that by the time Mr. Sundae and I get married we will have been together for almost ten years. When we first met in college we split dollar pitchers and now we share the mortgage payments. Despite our love for the city we are looking forward to tying the knot in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
I am officially entering the “tying up loose ends” phase of the planning process, and there are a lot of ends to be tied! I went on a mad dash around town last weekend to find a basket for our programs, and while I was at World Market I came across this:
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Mrs. Cream Puff, San Francisco Bay Area
Age and Occupation: 25, Illustrator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Merchandise Planner
Engagement Date: May 27, 2007
Wedding Date: August, 2008
Blogging Since: February 7, 2008
Venue: Ceremony at Crissy Field and Reception at the Green Room
About Me: I never dreamed about my wedding as a little girl because I was too busy playing in the mud or pretending to be Martha Stewart–but now that it's here, I'm having a fabulous time DIYing everything in sight! We’re planning a very fun multicultural wedding (I'm Jewish and Mr. Cream Puff is Chinese), filled with as many personal details as I can muster.
Hi Everybody!
When I posted my programs awhile back, some of you were interested in reading about the various cultural stuff we’d included in them. First comes the intro and the Chinese traditions. Next time, I’ll post the Jewish traditions. Hope this helps some of you!
A Cultural Celebration
Our cultures are important parts of who we are as individuals and as a couple. It was very important to both of us to include symbolic Jewish and Chinese traditions in our wedding ceremony and reception. In the following pages, you will find explanations of these traditions.
Chinese Traditions
Earlier in the day, the families of the bride and groom participated in a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. The groom’s parents present the bride’s family with bao (bread buns) and wine, which is then split among the families. This symbolic gesture represents the two families coming together. The couple serves tea to their parents and older relatives as a sign of respect, whereupon the couple receives gifts of lai see (red envelopes).
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Mrs. Espresso, Corona/Big Bear
Age and Occupation: 23, Community Services Specialist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 22, Maintenance Technician
Engagement Date: December 21, 2007
Wedding Date: October, 2008
Blogging Since: June 25, 2008
Venue: Outside a rustic b&b in Big Bear Lake
About Me: I'm a lover of all things good: coffee, music, travel, rain, and of course- my handsome fiance! I'm a full believer in the "Life is Short," mantra - and therefore, eat lots of dark chocolate. I'm a Geographer by degree and nerd by choice. I cook to the sound of French and Portuguese music even though I speak neither. I love road trips, camping, hiking, and capturing life through the lens of my camera. Take me to Anthropologie and I may never leave. I'm a sucker for pretty packaging, bargain finds, and old movies. Mr. Espresso and I are high school sweethearts and I am so blessed to be this amazing man's future wife.
I am lovin’ the new Martha. I have a feeling that many of the ideas from the summer issue are going to show up in the Espresso Wedding. It has even inspired me to trek on over to The Home Depot this weekend for my first DIY project- a tiered cupcake stand…stay tuned for craziness.
In addition, take a look at the fun program idea below- Love it! What a great way to entertain your guests while waiting for the wedding to start, especially since many weddings start a bit late. After reading it, I found out that I fell from the Fig tree- which happens to be one of the nicer descriptions and one of my favorite candle scents, so yay! Click here for the template and to see which tree you fell from. I love the Olive tree description of you lucky people born on September 23rd.
Do you plan on having a little entertainment before the ceremony starts? If so, please share!
Mrs. Gingerbread, Vancouver
Age and Occupation: 32, Psychologist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Software Engineer
Engagement Date: Sometime in the fall of 2004
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: March 24, 2008
Venue: Rainforest wedding, beachfront restaurant reception
About Me: I recently moved to Canada from Southern California. Trying to plan a wedding in a new city, not to mention a new country, is tough, but the fact that we can get legally married here more than makes up for it! The wedding will be an opportunity for most of our family and friends to see our new city for the first time so it will be both a wedding and a reunion. Besides my future wife, I am also madly in love with a good bargain, Swedish pastries, Tivo, and my two dogs and calico cat (in no particular order).
Several of my fellow Bees have referred to their programs as a “labor of love.” Unfortunately, love was not the emotion that Miss GB 2.0 nor I were feeling when putting our programs together this weekend, but I do relate to the labor part!
Our programs were inspired by Martha Stewart’s luggage tag program booklets.
image source
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Mrs. Canary, New York
Age and Occupation: 24, Marketing
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Journalist/Editor
Engagement Date: February 16, 2007
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: October 19, 2007
Venue: Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers
About Me: I'm a born and raised New Yorker who loves all things crafty and artsy, food (cheese and dessert!), magazines, and shoes. I'm a power shopper always on the lookout for good deals or great quality-- sometimes I'm lucky and I find both! I love to dance and "shake what my momma gave me" but can also really enjoy a quiet night in with Mr. Canary and a good episode of Seinfeld or curl up with a good book.
Mr. Canary and I were so grateful for a three day weekend to finish up on some wedding projects. We were so engrossed, we didn’t even go out to see the fireworks (plus the weather was bad so that was more incentive for staying in!). This year, peace of mind trumped patriotism.
Instead, we completed one of our biggest projects- our programs. This really was a labor of love. Considering that we hadn’t done many DIY items for the wedding, this task seemed really arduous!
Mr. Canary assembling the pages of our program.
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Miss Peacock, Chicago
Age and Occupation: 26, PhD Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Internet Whiz
Engagement Date: December 5, 2006
Wedding Date: September, 2008
Blogging Since: December 13, 2007
Venue: St. Clement Church, Cafe Brauer (or a big church wedding and a fancy party at a cafe in Lincoln Park.
About Me: I am a grad student with a secret obsession for all things wedding related. I also love to read, travel, drink champagne and go for walks with our dog, Maisy, and Mr. Peacock. We are planning our very vintage wedding in the greatest city in the world, our hometown of Chicago. I am so proud to be a Bee!
After tossing around a million ideas for our programs, I have finally decided on a design. They will look like a combo of these:
from the knot
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Mrs. Daffodil, San Francisco/Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 26, Nonprofit Strategy Consultant
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Resident Physician
Engagement Date: December 29, 2006
Wedding Date: May, 2008
Blogging Since: August, 2007
Venue: Church w/ floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Valley; Westin in downtown LA
About Me: I moved around a lot growing up, but consider myself a Southerner at heart. I love scrapbooking, dancing, doggies, and diet coke. I am all about personalizing everything and hence, I'm a DIY bride who is just loving the entire wedding planning process! Mr. Daffodil and I met in our college fellowship group and were "just friends" for three years before we started dating. We've been together for four years now and can't wait to get married in sunny SoCal, Mr. Daffodil's hometown.
I’ve been DYING to share these with you for the longest time! Here are our perdy programs…
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Mrs. Hummingbird, Toronto
Age and Occupation: 25, Publishing Coordinator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Videogame Designer/Cartoonist
Engagement Date: May 4, 2007
Wedding Date: June 28, 2008
Blogging Since: September 18, 2007
Venue: A garden wedding followed by a tented reception on Mr. Hummingbird's father's property.
About Me: I’m a pop culture loving, vintage obsessed foodie living in Canada’s biggest city with my fantastic fiancé and our lovable fluffy cat Bettie. I’m stoked to marry my best friend and to throw what I hope will be
the most fun and colourful party of our lives.
Our Hummingbird Geek Fest continues with our specially design programs! Since I have a background in journalism and spent some time after my college graduation working for an alternative arts newspaper, Mr. Hum suggested that we design our programs after one of Toronto’s popular weeklies. So, we got to work. Playing to our strengths, Mr. Hum worked on the layout and I wrote the program’s contents.
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! It’s the Hummingbird Times!
The cover of our little publication. We modeled it after Now Magazine.
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Mrs. Cream Puff, San Francisco Bay Area
Age and Occupation: 25, Illustrator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Merchandise Planner
Engagement Date: May 27, 2007
Wedding Date: August, 2008
Blogging Since: February 7, 2008
Venue: Ceremony at Crissy Field and Reception at the Green Room
About Me: I never dreamed about my wedding as a little girl because I was too busy playing in the mud or pretending to be Martha Stewart–but now that it's here, I'm having a fabulous time DIYing everything in sight! We’re planning a very fun multicultural wedding (I'm Jewish and Mr. Cream Puff is Chinese), filled with as many personal details as I can muster.
Some of you may remember my programs (I hope so, it was just last week–we better not be that old!), which were sewn booklets.
Well.
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