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.
Once the rings make their way through the crowd and after the wedding party processes in, we’re finally ready to begin. Since the Baconator’s uncle is marrying us, we won’t have a homily, but he’ll do a welcome and maybe a opening prayer. We are sending him Union by Robert Fulghum in case he wants to include it. I love the way that it is so frank about what marriage might be, but the Baconator wants his uncle to have the freedom to put something of his own together for the ceremony.
Union by Robert Fulghum
You have known each other from the first glance of acquaintance to this point of commitment. At some point, you decided to marry. From that moment of yes, to this moment of yes, indeed, you have been making commitments in an informal way. All of those conversations that were held in a car, or over a meal, or during long walks - all those conversations that began with, “When we’re married,” and continued with “I will” and “you will” and “we will” - all those late night talks that included “someday” and “somehow” and “maybe” - and all those promises that are unspoken matters of the heart. All these common things, and more, are the real process of a wedding. The symbolic vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, “You know all those things that we’ve promised, and hoped, and dreamed - well, I meant it all, every word.” Look at one another and remember this moment in time. Before this moment you have been many things to one another - acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, even teacher, for you have learned much from one another these past few years. Shortly you shall say a few words that will take you across a threshold of life, and things between you will never quite be the same. For after today you shall say to the world - This is my husband. This is my wife.
After the welcome-slash-introduction-slash-description of marriage is over, one of our usherettes will be coming forward to read Corinthians. Read more…
Mrs. Pin Cushion, Oakland, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Nurse Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, PhD StudentEngagement Date: November 23, 2008Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Radonich Ranch, Los GatosAbout Me: I'm the 3 Cs: crafty, creative and quirky (oh, that's not a C? Close enough!). I'm also a recycling fanatic, fluent in bad accents and I have the loudest laughter this side of the Mississippi. I have not just one sweet tooth, but a whole mouth full of sweet teeth. I cry at 97.4% of all movies I see, but my fiance's always there to hand me a tissue. My geek-chic fiance and I are planning a wedding full of color, cookies and handmade goodness and I can't wait to spill the beans on all of our crazy ideas!
Break a record as the longest post in Weddingbee history.
Help insomniacs finally get some sleep, due to fact #1
Assist someone in writing their own ceremony (that’s my hope at least [though #2 would be nice too, since everybody needs to get some good sleep]).
When Mr. Pin Cushion and I set out to write out own ceremony, we were quite miffed with how to begin. We ended up relying on a variety of sources. We frequently looked to Mrs. Cherry Pie’s post on her ceremony wording. We endlessly googled for ideas. And we used this book:
It took quite a few hours-long sessions at coffee shops, and lots of revisions, but in the end, we were beyond thrilled with how the ceremony turned out. Many guests told us that the ceremony made them cry (which we took as a compliment!). Read more…
Mrs. Knitting, TorontoAge and Occupation: 24, Student Recruitment Assistant
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Neuroscience PhD CandidateEngagement Date: October 2009Wedding Date: December 2010Venue: University of Toronto Faculty Club
About Me: I'm a pearl wearing, etiquette book reading Toronto girl who loves cooking and baking, museums, charm bracelets, and collecting books on Jackie Kennedy (a lot). I've been known to spend Sunday mornings at the antique market, Wednesday evenings at sister sushi dinners, and any bit of spare time reading. After six and a half years of many late night walks, watching DVDs together in bed, travelling to places like New York, and Tobermory, doing Sudokus together on the couch, lots of Indian food, the occasional yoga class, moving in together and so much more, Mr. Knitting and I are planning a cozy Christmasy (it's a word!), vintage wedding in Toronto complete with many DIY projects (eek!) and lots of help from our amazing group of family and friends.
One of the other (unsurprising) ways we’ll be personalizing our ceremony is by choosing readings that really suit us. I love the idea of readings, but it was really hard to find ones we both liked because we’re not gushingly romantic people and we’re not religious, so that took out a pretty big number of possibilities. I also wanted to find something relatively unique, which I think we all know is pretty tricky in the world of weddings today! Here’s what we came up with.
With the help of Indiebride and in particular this amazing thread I found this excerpt from Miss Manners Guide to the Turn of the Millennium by Judith Martin.
Mrs. Cardigan, AustinAge and Occupation: 21, Student/Soon-to-be Special Education TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 20, Student/Soon-to-be Accounting Systems AnalystEngagement Date: August 16, 2009Wedding Date: January 2011Venue: Vintage VillasAbout Me: I'm a native Austinite who was raised as a die-hard Aggie. Luckily, I'm a pretty persuasive girl because I managed to convince my high school boyfriend (now fiance!), Mr. Cardigan, to ditch his hardcore Longhorn ways and join me up at A&M, where we currently reside with our adorable dogs, Cullen & Ranger. We're currently planning a bright, cheery wedding with a ridiculous amount of DIY projects that I can't wait to tackle! I love crafting in any form, reading, and margaritas (I think I love them the most!). Organization is what keeps me sane and I love helping others, which is probably why I ended up as an education major. It gets a little chaotic sometimes when you're planning a wedding among all of the papers, projects, finals, and certification exams, but we're having the time of our lives and we can't wait to get started on our journey as husband and wife - and we're so excited to share our wedding with the hive!
I’ve talked again and again about how Mr. Cardigan and I want to make our wedding meaningful and personal. However, most of the things that I’ve talked about so far have more to do with decorations and traditions than the actual ceremony itself. Lest you think that we don’t care about the ceremony, I figure it’s about time to tell you how we’re going to make the ceremony as special and unique to us as we possibly can.
One of my favorite personal touches we’re adding to the ceremony is our reading. Originally, I never planned on having any readings during our ceremony at all—I hadn’t ever seen one I really liked, and most of the ones I had heard were very stuffy and formal, and just not us at all. But then, I heard this poem. And before I share it, I want to say that I know it’s not the most unique choice out there—this poem has really blown up in the wedding world over the past year or so. But it’s so incredibly fitting for us. Read more…
Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
I’ve been married for almost a week, and it’s the best thing ever. Things will go wrong, surely, but things will also go well. I’m never getting off this ride!
Anyway, we’ve been thinking about all the ideas we had over our 15-month engagement. Some of them made it, some of them were altered, and some of them ended up on the cutting-room floor.
Mrs. Trail Mix, New YorkAge and Occupation: 26, PE TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, MBA StudentEngagement Date: March 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: Tannery Pond at the Darrow SchoolAbout Me: I'm a country girl who somehow found herself living in the Big Apple and loving every minute of it. I'm planning a rustic, country-chic wedding in my hometown in upstate New York and it's going to be a Party with a capital P. White wine, flea markets and running keep me happy and my friends, family and fiance are my world. I'm a little bit crafty, a little bit crazy but mostly just crazy in love.
In case you haven’t noticed yet, I’m a little bit of a hippie. My parents, especially back in the day, were even more so. In fact, they lived on a Sufi commune before I was born, which still exists today. I even attended the elementary school there from kindergarten through 6th grade.
I’m getting married about half a mile down the road from my childhood homage to hippie-dom and therefore, it felt fitting to include a Rumi (great Sufi poet) poem in our ceremony as a nod to the community that had such influence in my upbringing.
The poem is so beautiful, I want to share it with you all…
A moment of happiness,
you and I
sitting on the verandah,
apparently two,
but one in soul,
you and I. Read more…
Ms. Potato Chips, Boston/Narragansett RIAge and Occupation: 29, PhD StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Personal Trainer/Business Owner/Physical Therapy AssistantEngagement Date: January 1, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: The Narragansett TowersAbout Me: A semi-professional bookworm, if I could be a literary character I’d be a cross between Jo March and Jane Eyre, only better accessorized and much lazier. My hobbies include sleeping in, seasonal brews, running, Trader Joe’s, and watching Unwrapped and Good Eats with Mr. Potato Chips. I harbor an irrational fear of tulle, crafts, things that are fussy, and overuse of the phrase "Your Special Day". After a year or seven together, down the aisle we go, slouching toward adulthood and planning a Rhodie party with equal parts whimsy, cheer, and pizza.
I read this poem on the blog A Cup of Jo. She incorporated it into her wedding ceremony for some levity, and I love it so! As someone who misses her train (see line 3) on a weekly, if not daily, basis, and forces her obliging fiance to come ferry her from an out-of-the-way station… I appreciate the sentiment. I don’t know how many readings we’ll need/are allowed to have, but this could be a contender!
“I’ll Be There For You” by Louise Cuddon: Read more…
Mrs. Cola, Mountain View, CAAge and Occupation: 27, Product Communications and PromotionsFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Managing Partner and Senior DesignerEngagement Date: March 5, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: The Mountain Terrace, Woodside, CAAbout Me: I’m a Washington State native, enjoying life in Silicon Valley California with my fiancé, our three kitties and one leopard gecko. I like reading wedding blogs, Photoshopping wedding design mock ups, making lists, and planning, planning, planning! I’m a bit of an anomaly, on one side I’m a very girlie girl, I collect shoes, I lay out my outfits 4-6 weeks in advance, and I’d never leave the house without my hair curled and makeup on. But on the other side, I’m a total tomboy, I love to go camping and hiking, play drinking games (hey, I’m Irish!) and most of my closest friends are guys. My fiancé and I are planning a DIY-focused wedding with a balance between easygoing (what he wants) and chic and stylish (what I want), and are tying it all together with elements in lavender, sage, butter cream and chocolate.
Selecting our wedding officiant was pretty easy for us, although I know many couples that find this process difficult. But for us, it came down to figuring out which friend of ours, who isn’t in the wedding, would be good at it!
We never even considered a pastor/priest/religious figure, since we aren’t religious ourselves. And even the justices of the peace and other non-church affiliated officiants in the area were pretty expensive—the lowest I found was around $400. For an approximately 16 minute ceremony, that was pretty steep. So, we decided to ask one of our good friends to do it, and I know we will be very happy with our decision. He’s totally cool with us writing everything he has to say, he’s great at public speaking, and he’s a really fun, entertaining guy. He even took the initiative to get ordained online right after we asked him to be our officiant (even though it appears in our county they don’t actually verify if your officiant has been ordained or not)!
Ms. Potato Chips, Boston/Narragansett RIAge and Occupation: 29, PhD StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Personal Trainer/Business Owner/Physical Therapy AssistantEngagement Date: January 1, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: The Narragansett TowersAbout Me: A semi-professional bookworm, if I could be a literary character I’d be a cross between Jo March and Jane Eyre, only better accessorized and much lazier. My hobbies include sleeping in, seasonal brews, running, Trader Joe’s, and watching Unwrapped and Good Eats with Mr. Potato Chips. I harbor an irrational fear of tulle, crafts, things that are fussy, and overuse of the phrase "Your Special Day". After a year or seven together, down the aisle we go, slouching toward adulthood and planning a Rhodie party with equal parts whimsy, cheer, and pizza.
As an undergraduate, I took a literature class on Robert Frost.
It was one of those straight-from-the-glossy-school-catalogs kind of class. A real O-Captain-My-Captain sort of semester. The professor—he was about 100—was tiny and wore tweed vests and bow ties and spoke in a gravelly voice. About eight or nine of us would sit around a small conference table, gesticulating wildly with used, dog-eared copies of The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged. One weekend we all caravaned to our professor’s pastoral home, a sprawling rustic charmer amid a clearing, backed by shady woods. His wife served us sandwiches, he showed us how to fashion and use a divining rod, and we wandered around his mending wall. When the sun got too hot, we all spontaneously jumped into a nearby brook and splashed around.
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.)
One of the ways that Mr. Spaniel and I hope to personalize our ceremony is by finding readings from different faiths and cultural traditions that are meaningful to us now, or that speak to our particular backgrounds. This isn’t necessarily as simple and straightforward as it sounds, though. In our first year together, we attended three weddings, and at two of them we heard the “Apache Wedding Blessing”. It may be familiar to you:
Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no more loneliness,
For each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two bodies,
But there is one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place,
To enter into the days of your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.
Mrs. Scissors, LaGrange, GAAge and Occupation: 25, Photography & Graphic DesignFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Engineering Grad StudentEngagement Date: January 1, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: Ceremony - First United Methodist Church; Reception - My parents' house!About Me: I’m a six-foot-three bride with a fifty-foot personality! I love great art, fabulous design, intense color, tons of music, indie photography, watching movies on repeat, and being really awesome. This super-tall, Southern, loud, quirky, neurotic artist is marrying a German, quiet, silly, super-amazing roboticist in an eclectic, funky, fun, snazzy, technicolored June wedding. Anything is game for this shindig, for it is all about us! We’re bringing giant paper cranes, six-foot-tall portraits, fortune cookies, a photo booth, a club-circuit DJ, handcuffs, and possibly a kidnapping to this small Southern town. Watch out, y’all, and try to keep up!
In July, I found this post by Mrs. Candy Corn. She wrote about her ceremony reading—excerpts from Sandol Stoddard Warburg’s I Like You. By the end of the post, I was trying not to start boo-hooing. I thought it was sweet, lovely, and fit Mr. S and me perfectly. I added the book to my laundry list of things to get.
I looked for the book everywhere. Nobody had heard of it, and I think they thought I was batnuts crazy, to be honest. Why would I want this little ol’ children’s book written in 1965? I’d end up blabbering on about how fabulous it was, how I couldn’t read through the excerpts I’d read without crying, and other crazy things. I was a woman in love. Read more…
Mrs. Labrador Retriever, Athens/SavannahAge and Occupation: 24, Student/Sports ReporterFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Physical Therapy Assistant Student/Future Dr. of PT
Engagement Date: December 31, 2008Wedding Date: November 2009Venue: Whitfield Square/Savannah StationAbout Me: I'm working on my second degree from UGA (Go Dawgs!). I'm a self-proclaimed attention-w****. If it involves a camera, I'm in front of it! You'll never meet a girlier tomboy than me. I can go toe to toe with any guy on the subject of college football, and lift more than any girl in my gym, all without chipping a nail. I hope to someday be the only person you want delivering your sports news. My FI and I are the loving parents of three Labrador Retrievers (one of each color) and are planning a "Southern Romantic Charm" wedding in the beautiful, historic city of Savannah. I'm not extreme in anything except moderation... and wedding planning.
We’ve picked our wine, are in the process of writing our love letters, and have finally narrowed down the bazillion quotes floating around on marriage to 5 we really like for our love letter box! Now we need your help narrowing the quotes down to 1! We will then have that quote along with our names and wedding date engraved on a brass plate attached to the back of the box.
So which one is it going to be, hive?
To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup, Whenever you’re wrong admit it; Whenever you’re right shut up.
– Ogden Nash
A good marriage is the union of two good forgivers.
Mrs. Parfait, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 26, TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Senior Online ConsultantEngagement Date: February 14, 2009Wedding Date: April 2010Venue: Signature EventsAbout Me: I have a soft spot for all things sweet and romantic. Desserts, love songs, sappy movies? Yes, yes, and ohh yes. My fiance and I enjoy singing to our dogs, creating crazy ice cream sundaes, and generally being lovey dovey cuddle bunnies. We also do socially acceptable things like dancing, throwing Frisbees, playing high stakes board games, and taking unreasonably fun road-trips. We're planning a Korean/Serbian wedding with plenty of playful, personal touches!
Miss P.: I’m a reading person. I understand it better when I read it. Mr. P.: I’m a radar person. I only understand things through radars, so if you wrote me a note, I wouldn’t understand it. You’d have to send pictures of your day in a radar!
This is just a tiny peek at the teasing I must endure on a daily basis! Lucky for Mr. P., he’s awfully cute and, thus, awfully forgivable. But it’s true what I said, and since I understand (and like) things better when I can see the words, I’ve saved some passages and poems that I hope to incorporate in the wedding. I can picture parts of these in the ceremony, on reception banners, and in our wedding album!
You, you only, exist
We pass away, till at last,
our passing is so immense
that you arise: beautiful moment,
in all your suddenness,
arising in love, or enchanted
in the contraction of work.
To you I belong, however time may
wear me away. From you to you
I go commanded. In between
the garland is hanging in chance; but if you
take it up and up and up: look:
all becomes festival!
Mrs. Duckling, San DiegoAge and Occupation: 23, Psychology Grad Student, Youth Diversion Specialist/Marriage and Family Therapy Trainee and an Executive AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Marketing and PR CoordinatorEngagement Date: May 17, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: Rancho Bernardo InnAbout Me: I'm currently living in Orange County, but planning our wedding in my hometown of San Diego. We are a DIY wedding "2fer", as I'm the crafty one and Mr. Ducky is in charge of all of our graphic design and technical aspects. When not wedding planning or reading wedding blogs, I'm attending grad school and rotating between two different jobs to keep things exciting. My favorite things include shoes, Post-Its, Labrador Retrievers, traveling, psychology, delicious food, photography, reading, craft gadgets/supplies, and of course, my wonderful Mr. Ducky!
Alright hive, start buzzing, because I need some help. Mr. Ducky and I have been discussing what we want to do for readings during the ceremony. We will be meeting with our officiant (and close friend) tomorrow to talk about the ceremony. I wanted to find some readings in advance that we could think about.
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.
Wouldn’t it be a sign of the times if the reader at your ceremony got up there with his or her Kindle in hand? While I don’t anticipate that happening at our wedding, it would definitely make me chuckle. And, it would most definitely put a modern twist on the proceedings… don’t worry, we’re not going to take things quite that far! Read more…
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
But it’s true what I said, and since I understand (and like) things better when I can see the words, I’ve saved some passages and poems that I hope to incorporate in the wedding. I can picture parts of these in the ceremony, on reception banners, and in our wedding album!
