Weddingbee Blog

I have been meaning to write this post for a while now, but have found myself groping for words that truly convey what I am trying to get across. It’s a bit of a heavy topic and I am honestly finding it difficult to calcify my thoughts into a coherent chunk of writing. So, I have been putting off the writing of the post. However, the recent news of Kim Kardashian’s filing for divorce after a mere 72 days of marriage (72!), spurred me into action. 72 days. That’s only four days longer than Mr. CA and I have been married. In our 68 days of marriage, I feel like we have not even scratched the surface of our love, our relationship, our marriage—72 days is just a blip in the radar of life, really.

Reading about K’s plans for divorce, part of a NY Times article really hit me, and at first I wasn’t sure why:

“…the fake reality of television shows that place more importance on a lavish wedding than on a lasting marriage.”

This. Exactly this. How dare she make a mockery of the institution of marriage? How dare she focus so much on the wedding and not on her relationship? How can they even know after 72 days of marriage if they could make things work or not?

I suppose that what has been bothering me about the whole debacle, and why the quote hit me so hard was this: the situation actually reminds me a lot of the wedding planning process these days. It reminds me of my own experience with wedding planning. Why?

Because I think we’re placing too much importance on our weddings.
Read more…

If you missed the first post, my lovely BMs took me up to Victoria for a fun, low-key bachelorette party.

Me in front of our Elizabethan cottage. I swear I was not pregnant—that dress is just a bit froofy.

Our second day in Victoria revolved around something that I was really looking forward to: Afternoon Tea at The Empress! I’m a huge tea fanatic and love all things tea, so this was one of the main draws for Victoria as our destination. I had been to The Empress several times for tea as a child and was really looking forward to going back!

Read more…

Our wedding day view

Okay, I confess, I’m into details. I’m a perfectionist, I’m detail-oriented and I pay attention to all those little things that most people overlook. I’m that guy girl. So that’s right, you’re getting not one but TWO details posts (does that remind you of an infomercial? Me too—if you send me $19.95, I’ll throw in a BONUS day-after shoot recap…ooo aah).

Prepare for reception detailed goodness:
Read more…

I can honestly say that the past two and a half months have been the busiest, most insane months of my life. OK, OK, they might be trumped by the first few months of my life (getting pushed from a nice, cozy uterus out through a narrow dark passageway tends to be somewhat traumatic and chaotic), but seriously, it’s been close.

However, now that we have moved down to Virginia (wahoo!!) and have been on our honeymoon (double wahoo!! more on that later!), things are finally settling down a bit in the California household. Sort of. Anyway, I am now hoping to get back to blogging about some of the stuff leading up to our big day.

First up? My bachelorette party!

From the get-go, I knew that I only wanted my closest gals with me—the guest list was only me, my MOH (sister), and my three BMs. Since I live on the East Coast and the ladies are all on the West, it made planning a bit tricky. But my girls took the helm and, after some discussion, settled on a place near and dear to my heart for a lovely weekend getaway. Our destination? Victoria, B.C.!

Read more…

You know, it’s amazing how much goes into the details of the day. The amount of phone calls and emails and research—the saved photos of inspiration ideas, the notes spread throughout the house…and yet, it never quite prepares you for what you see on that day. The way it all comes together—you know in your head what you want to see but it really never seems as though it will ever come to be.

And then, the day arrives.

And the details all fall into place…the world around you becomes fuzzy and that day is all that exists.
Read more…

After taking in the moment and enjoying our first look, my husband-to-be took my hand and led me to a beautiful, secluded area to share our love letters that we had written to each other.

Watch your step…

Read more…

Now that my dress was on and my sash (thanks mom!) was secure, it was time to see my groom.

Hello Handsome!

Luckily our photographers were seasoned veterans and walked us through this whole sneaky surprise. Frogger waited patiently while I mastered the art of being quiet…let me tell you, not a natural trait for me. Ahem.
Read more…

Or, “How to Prepare for your Honeymoon”

You know, because Mr. CA and I are still in that blissful newlywed stage between the wedding and the honeymoon where all I want to do is think about what an amazing time I will have on the trip with my fabulous new husband? Yeah, that stage.

{Cappadocia rock column, via Library of Congress}

Read more…

We recently took a trip to Europe and I wanted to share with the hive our favorite highlights from our time in Vienna. We were only there for a short time (one evening, one day, one morning) and so we didn’t experience much, but a little bit of research before we left ensured that we would love to go back and do it all again! Feel free to play the song below while you read this post. I don’t think the lyrics apply at all, but I had the line “Vienna waits for you” running through my head while I wrote this post.

We stayed at the Imlauer based on a recommendation from my father-in-law. Our room was much larger than what I had in Rome with my mom, and they had free internet, which is a must for me.
Read more…

So, in case you didn’t read my last post, I left off as I was about to discuss my gift for my husband-to-be.

Being incredibly modest, this gift was a pretty big leap for me. And it’s thanks to Weddingbee that I even knew what a boudoir session was!

Ha - right…

My first step was finding out if my photographer would be able to do this for me. There was no mention of it in her service list…luckily, she was willing to give it a shot. On one hand, being the guinea pig was exciting because we were able to make up the rules as we went along. On the other hand, it was a bit intimidating since there was no example to follow and well, I’d be in my skivvies.

Read more…

I know it’s been a long time since you’ve seen my icon pop up, but I’ve got a crazy story that I just had to come back and share with you!

Back in March a writer getting married in Italy was announced. Miss Carousel, remember her? I know I was really excited to hear all about her wedding, and I decided to send her an email letting her know we would be coming to Italy to find out if she had any advice regarding where we should stay and what we should see. She didn’t just write back a few ideas—she composed an extensive spreadsheet brimming with resources and an itinerary complete with estimated costs!

I wrote back a BIG thank you, and asked a few more questions, but never heard back from her. I stop by Weddingbee every so often, and I noticed she wasn’t showing up here, either.
Read more…

Finally, it was time for the meal that I had been looking forward to ever since we chose IslandWood as our venue - dinner!

Several months prior, we sat down with our coordinator at IslandWood, Marla, and the head chef, Jim, to plan our weekend menu, and specifically what the wedding dinner would include. IslandWood is focused on providing sustainable and local food wherever possible, so we knew from the beginning that we wanted this dinner to reflect the Northwest in winter time.
Read more…

Once we were finished with family pictures we could finally join our guests for cocktail hour!

Even though we’d seen a lot of our guests the day before at the welcome dinner or the bonfire, there were some guests who were only able to make it to the wedding, so I made it a point to try to seek them out first.
Read more…

Waking up on the morning of your wedding day is pretty surreal. The idea that you are actually getting married, that after the months and months of planning, the day has finally arrived…it’s just incredibly emotional—in the best possible way.

Hello lovely! PS - did you see the cameo of my DIY hanger?

Being that everyone was visiting from out of town, we had rented houses and condos for everyone to stay in. To start my day, I headed over to my mom’s house so my aunt (also known as the hair miracle worker) could do my ’do. The woman has a way with hair and considering it’s her career, I felt extremely confident (and very lucky) having her tackle my tresses…even though we didn’t do any sort of trial-run. Now THAT my friends, is trust.
Read more…

How Did I Find Weddingbee?

No idea. Seriously none. Zip. Zero memory of how I found the site!

During my early wedding planning months, I did lots of Googling. I hadn’t thought much about weddings before Mr. CA proposed and therefore had no idea what I was doing. I excessively trawled the internet, searching such inane things as “wedding coordinator vs wedding planner” “Seattle barn locations,” and “what exactly does a junior bridesmaid do?” Of course, many of my searches brought me to blog posts or board threads or vendor reviews on Weddingbee. I didn’t understand what the site really was (was it about bees? people who liked bees? people who were planning weddings and liked bees?), but I appreciated the abundance of answers to my questions and the positive energy that emanated from the Hive. I took the information I needed and didn’t give the site itself much thought. Selfish Mrs. Candy Apple!

In January 2011, another arcane search brought me to a board in the hive (no memory of which thread it was) but for some reason I spent some time just poking around the site. My interest piqued. I trawled through the boards a bit (and learned that I should never confuse the terms “trawling” and “trolling” on the boards ever, ever again). Hey, this community looks really open, friendly, and engaging! People have the same issues/ questions/ lack of wedding knowledge as I do! I am not alone! Then I found the blog. Oh, the blog! I fell in love with the idea of the bees and the concept of monikers and the darling icons, although it took me a while to catch onto the general idea of bee generations.

My Application Story
Read more…