Miss Doily, Cedar Rapids, IowaAge and Occupation: 25, Autism Paraeducator/ StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Freelance Writer/ PublisherEngagement Date: August 27th, 2010Wedding Date: March 2012Venue: Father’s Vineyard Church/ A Touch of Class Banquet CenterAbout Me: I’m an Iowan girl with a deep love of Harry Potter, classic movies, cardigans, and Post-Its. My type-A Virgo tendencies often cause me to drive my laid-back college sweetheart fiance batty with lists and PowerPoint presentations. I love to be crafty and do things myself, which explains why my two crazy kittens often will prance around the house covered in glitter and ribbons. When I am not bogged down with work, school, or wedding planning, I like to travel to visit my expansive family and have wild adventures with my best friends. After a rollercoaster ride of a love story, I’m ready to take that final plunge, marry the love of my life, and become a Mrs.!
Let me tell you something about who I was in high school. I was one of those people who went with the flow. I had my group of friends, most of whom I met in middle school. There was a group of four of us who remained friends all throughout school and even went to college together. Things changed there, but in high school we were inseparable. I was content with who I was in high school.
THEN:
I had my best friend, who I met in the seventh grade when I first moved to Iowa from California. We were more like sisters than friends.
Mrs. High Wire, DallasAge and Occupation: 23, Legal AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Director of CommunicationsEngagement Date: October 9, 2010Wedding Date: September 2011Venue: Clark GardensAbout Me: My loves include yoga, anything spicy, our eccentric cat, our rambunctious dog, and Mr. High Wire, of course! Like the steadiness act of the tightrope walker, this gal is busy balancing life while planning a wedding to the man of her dreams. We’re hosting a laid-back, vintage-inspired, bird themed wedding with heavy doses of love, good eats (did someone say tacos and margaritas?), and endless Texas charm. Mr. High Wire and I are so happy to have you along for the walk across the tight rope.
Growing up, I didn’t think too much about my wedding besides always having a current list of who would be my bridesmaids if I were to get married.
THEN
Speaking of high school, I was pretty “involved.” I played the violin in orchestra and danced in my high school’s drill team (the South’s version of a dance team) which meant LOTS of rehearsals and a packed schedule. I did well in school and enjoyed my extra-curricular activities.
Personal Photo - Officer Dance Camp
But, I had a secret side that not many knew about. Read more…
Mrs. Hot Wings, Chicago/San DiegoAge and Occupation: 28, ProfessorFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, InstructorEngagement Date: December 20, 2008Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: Ocean View Villas/Jasmine Seafood RestaurantAbout Me: I am a psychology grad student living in Chicago and planning my wedding to a fellow psych grad student. I am a Sunny So-Cal bred gal who trudged across the country to follow her love of psychology and ended up finding a partner in the process. I am overly passionate about anything I involve myself with. I am an activist, a foodie, a reality TV watching junkie, an over-analyzer, a photography obsesser, and am utterly cheesy to the core. This is a story of what happens when a boy and a girl meet, fall in love over academic dorkiness, and a shared love for life. We (mostly I) are planning our semi-destination wedding in my hometown of San Diego. We are excited to bring our families and friends together from across our lifespans to celebrate our future in a grand 400+ person culturally blended affair!
Growing up, I didn’t dream about my wedding day. I didn’t play bride with pillow case veils or any of that. It wasn’t until I went through old photos for this post that I realized that my youth prepared me for my wedding day duties. Despite my lack of wedding day dreams, I have been preparing for it all my life.
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!
Have you ever started looking through old photos with the intention of just perusing for a minute, then suddenly it’s 2 hours later and photos are covering the floor in a 5 foot radius around you? It happens to me every time. This last time, I was looking for high school photos for this here post, and found this gem:
I’ve been training for Weddingbee for years! Read more…
Mrs. Waffle, AustinAge and Occupation: 31, Costumer/ArtistFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, AnimatorEngagement Date: July 27, 2010Wedding Date: June 2011Venue: Hummingbird HouseAbout Me: My life is pretty much spent in a sea of fabric, paint, sequins and drama. When I’m not working, I play on a trivia team, take Broadway dance classes, read, buy shoes, and occasionally geek out on video games. I am an American girl who loves all things British and Mr. Waffle is a Brit who loves all things American...I guess it was meant to be!
Back in college when the first Harry Potter movie came out I went to see it with my boyfriend at the time (who had never read the books). Half-way through the movie he leaned over, pointed at Hermione and chuckled, “That was totally you in school, wasn’t it?” He was right.
Waffle Then
All throughout my school days I was a know-it-all, nose in a book, nerd girl. I was an overachiever that was involved in way too many activities. Here they are…
Show Choir…I’m the one in the gold dress striking a dramatic pose.
Mrs. Lovebird, New York/CancunAge and Occupation: 25, AttorneyFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Medical StudentEngagement Date: September 22, 2006Wedding Date: July, 2008Venue: Dreams Cancun Resort & SpaAbout Me: Born and raised New Yorker planning a destination wedding in Cancun, Mexico. Got proposed to in Cancun, so it’s only fitting we are going back to get married. I love trivia, board games, bargain shopping, asian dramas and eating yummy food!
I only have a limited amount of pictures from high school, as the majority of them are buried somewhere in my parents’ house, so I will have to make due with the few I had on hand. I’ve mentioned countless times in the past that Mr. Lovebird and I attended the same high school and that all of our groomsmen were our high school classmates. We were all part of the class often referred to as “Stuy2K.”
Here I am with GM Oliver at our prom, and no, he was not my date.
Mrs. Panther, Atlanta GA/Westport CTAge and Occupation: 24, Web WriterFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Music Recording EngineerEngagement Date: March 13, 2010Wedding Date: July 2011Venue: The Inn at LongshoreAbout Me: I'm a total goofball who goes through life at a breakneck pace, trying not to knock anything over. I tend to fall in love with everything I encounter, but more than anything, I love my two little kitties, Bela and Josie, and my big kitty, Mr. Panther! As a wannabe crafter, I'm still waiting for my artistic talents to emerge. (Any day now, really.) In the meantime, I spend my days eating anything put in front of me, buying every pair of shoes I see and absorbing wedding inspiration from every inch of my surroundings. Mr. Panther and I are hardcore New Englanders planning Connecticut nuptials from our new home in the Dirty South, and can't wait to mix our newfound love of classic Southern charm with some modern city touches.
I’ve only been out of high school for six years, and I don’t think I’ve changed too much—though hopefully I’m a little less awkward.
As a teenage panther, I was already an indecisive overachiever. As in, I picked up a zillion hobbies and then dropped them immediately when I got bored. There were just a few that I stuck with.
I took private figure skating lessons for about five years. I was not good. I never had any desire to compete. I just liked skating around with my coach once a week. This picture isn’t from a lesson—obviously, I didn’t usually skate in jeans—but it’s the only one I have, since I never allowed my parents to stay and watch:
Weeeeee!
I also took guitar lessons for the majority of my high school career. I was a little better at this, but just not serious enough to ever get good.
Mrs. Glasses, Tokyo/Los Angeles, CAAge and Occupation: 24, English teacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, English teacherEngagement Date: September 2008Wedding Date: October 2010 Venue: Parents' backyardAbout Me: I’m an expat living in Tokyo. I’ve been in Japan for almost three years now, where I met my fantastic English fiance. It’s time to leave Japan, so we are planning a fun, intimate, backyard ceremony back home in the suburbs of L.A. in October. Our wedding will be a mix of my love for food, beer, my Japanese culture, and Mr. G’s Englishness. We are on a tiny budget and DIYing almost everything!
There’s not much to say about me in high school. I was rather unremarkable. I was in a few clubs but for the most part I blended in to the crowd. I was a little weird and awkward, but not in a I’m-different-and-proud kind of way.
For the most part, my besties and I kept to ourselves. I was all about my part-time job, shopping, going to the movies and the beach with my girlfriends. I had crushes and a few dates, but nothing ever panned out and I went my whole high school career without a boyfriend. I wasn’t too interested in having a boyfriend; I just wanted to survive school. Read more…
Mrs. Lioness, AtlantaAge and Occupation: 25, Physical TherapistFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, AttorneyEngagement Date: August 29, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: Anthony’s Fine DiningAbout Me: I’m a Southern girl with New England roots. I say "wicked" and "y’all" in the same sentence and I like to drink sweet tea with my lobster. Mr. Lion and I are both former Floridians now living in Atlanta, which fortunately is still SEC country...Go Gators! We both love baseball, coffee, traveling, cooking, and playing Words with Friends with each other on our iPhones all day long. I’m very passionate about the things and the people I love, and I tend to plan things with all of my heart...our wedding, of course, is no different! Oh, and also Mr. Lion is a first generation American of Cuban descent. I may look more like Lucy than Ricky, but I’m doing my best to incorporate some Latin elements into our vintage-garden-Southern wedding!
At first glance, it doesn’t look like much has changed with me since high school. I still like baseball, I still like to dance, and I am still physically unable to get a tan. Oh and, of course, I was a Disney geek…even in 1999.
{I’m so sorry, Sister Lioness!}
Yikes. Shall we move on to post-braces days? Good. I’m glad we’re in agreement.
Mrs. Pencils, Washington DC/Frederick, MDAge and Occupation: 24, Program Director, Education Non ProfitFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Administrative Assistant, Ocean Conservation Non ProfitEngagement Date: July 26, 2008Wedding Date: May 2010Venue: Morningside InnAbout Me: I'm a nerdy Northwestern girl who always knew she was meant to live in the East, harboring a deep love of ice cream, underwear, Diet Coke with a splash of Coca-Cola, pashminas, scrapbooking, stationery, wall calendars and books written for preteens. I think every day should include good thin crust pizza, chocolate, an obscure historical monument, lots of laughter, a dash of wedding planning and, of course, amazing Mr. Pencils! I'm loving the adventure of planning a Maryland wedding and Rocky Mountain reception, and most of all, I just love love!
When Mrs. Mouse proposed the idea of sharing our high school selves with the world, I hesitated. Do I go all out and share my embarrassing amazing photos of me on the drill team freshman year? Do I blur out the faces of the innocent from my dance photos? Do I talk about the best year of high school, which, despite the serial monogamist I am, was my senior year, when I was single and had the best group of friends a girl could ask for?
The answer, for all, is a deep, resounding YES! Get excited, hive, ’cause we’re about to hop and skip down memory lane!
Let’s just start with the worst. My freshman year, I was co-captain of the “drill” (read: dance) team and for the homecoming performance, we borrowed jerseys from the varsity football team, and ended the dance by doing a dog pile—with yours truly at the bottom. I was choreograph-dragged off by my fellow teammates and the yearbook photographer caught this little gem just prior to the dragging:
This experience is a prime example of the hierarchy placed on certain boys in the social order (beyond elementary school, where the boys who picked their nose were just gross and the ones who washed their hands were gorgeous). It was THE biggest deal which boy’s jersey you borrowed for the dance and, at the time, it was THE thing we girls talked about for weeks leading up to the performance in front of the whole school.
Mrs. Sewing, San Mateo, CA/Honolulu, HIAge and Occupation: 24, Electrical EngineerFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Electrical EngineerEngagement Date: June 27, 2009Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: Anela Garden Chapel & Japanese Cultural Center, HonoluluAbout Me: I'm an easily entertained, compulsive idea-scheming machine who loves good art, good food, and a good engineering challenge. I'm planning a half-destination wedding on the beautiful island of Oahu - imagine a plethora of movies, art and games; savory Hawaiian food; blended Chinese and Japanese cultural details; lush, fragrant tropical flowers and all the air conditioning a NorCal native could want! And once I marry the love of my life, we'll come back to the 'mainland' to party it up all over again in my hometown of Salinas, the salad-bowl capital of the world!
Alright, I have a not-so-secret-secret. I haven’t changed much in the last decade or so.
See what I mean?
Maybe I was a little less jaded-by-the-world, a little more emotionally distraught (hormones!), and a lot more egotistical (valedictorian is a title much too easy to get in high school, especially since college is waiting on the other side to slap you right upside your puffed-up head). But essentially, I’m the same type of person I was back then.
In fact, the Sewing in high school looked a little like this:
Mrs. Earrings, Fresno, CA/ Nelson, New ZealandAge and Occupation: 20, Student, Wannabe Writer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 19, Photography StudentEngagement Date: February 14, 2010Wedding Date: January 2011Venue: Gardens of the WorldAbout Me: I'm a girl from down under who grew up in Indonesia and I'm marrying a California boy. I'm addicted to all things sweet, have never met a chocolate silk pie than can get the better of me, and have dreams of one day being a fulltime novelist. I go weak in the knees for lace, tea cups, and a beautifully crafted sentence. When I get excited about something (whether it is historical linguistics or the Beatles) I tend to go overboard in research, and planning this wedding is no different. Mr. Earrings is my high school sweetheart, my best friend, and somehow we combine all our quirks into one big happy mess.
Can I be honest with you guys? Writing a post for this series and thinking back to my high school days was…a little difficult for me. At first, anyway.
High school wasn’t so long ago for this girl. Just over three years ago, in fact. My early high school days especially connote some not-so-happy memories and feelings of inferiority, ugliness, and self-loathing. If you have been following me for awhile, you might remember that I developed an eating disorder during high school, and looking back at photos from those days could have been a dangerous trigger for me back into unhealthy thought patterns.
Notice I said “could have been.” Because after I mulled over this post for awhile, I realised that writing it didn’t have to be a negative thing. Instead, I could use it as part of my healing process. I have looked back at those days with clouded vision in the past…they were just too raw to face yet. But looking through the old photos, remembering things I had forgotten…all that showed me that there was a lot of good in those days too. After all, I did meet and fall in love with Mr E during that time!
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.
When I was in high school, I expressed my teenage angst through my hair. True story. Want proof? OK, I’ll show you exactly one photo and then the memories are going back into the deeply-buried vault, where I never have to relive the awkwardness that was high school again…
Can you believe that was me? Now stop laughing and focus, please.
Mrs. Starfish, Boston/NewportAge and Occupation: 25, Operations AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, SalesEngagement Date: October 8, 2008Wedding Date: October 2010Venue: The Atlantic Beach ClubAbout Me: I'm a perfectionist who is a planner at heart. I don't do well with surprises. I love planning, crafting, Newport RI, family and friends, and most importantly, Mr. Starfish---all of which will be big components in our October wedding in our favorite little city by the sea.
I’ve never been good at describing myself, so I’ll just share a wedding-related story from back in the day and some photos.
When it came time for senior prom, instead of choosing a fun bright-colored prom dress like my classmates, I chose a big white ball gown. Which cost me more than I’d like to share. Sister Starfish told me I was crazy. At the time I justified it by telling her I was going to wear it when I got married. She wanted to place a bet on it, which luckily, we didn’t do. I worked every weekend so I could afford my dream dress, and I would have worn it as my wedding dress if it still fit. It’s funny how so much has changed in seven years, but some things are still the same.
Ms. Sloth, PhiladelphiaAge and Occupation: 35, Account Manager and Fashion BloggerFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Design AdminEngagement Date: December 25, 2009Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Bartram's GardenAbout Me: I'm an internet junkie and music snob with a good eye for a bargain. I couldn't live without thrift store shopping, cheeseburgers, sushi, Coke Zero, websites devoted to silly photos of baby animals, Photoshop, and Mr. Sloth. Speaking of which, he and I are a pair of goofball homebody nerds who love our beagle (the most ridiculously adorable dog EVER) to an embarrassing degree. We're planning a low-key and intimate yet festive and quirky outdoor wedding with DIY details and deeply personal touches, and it's all taking place in the city where we fell in love and call home: Philadelphia.
I think I’m the oldest bee. At least, I’m the oldest bee who is currently blogging regularly.
So when the new “Then and Now” series was introduced, I was really excited to show off some old high school photos. Since I’m the oldest current bee, my photos are the most awesomely and embarrassingly out of date!
So, picture it: New Jersey, 1989-1992.
Then: I had some big-ass Jersey hair on which I spent a ton of time and product. Aqua Net and a rat-tailed comb for teasing were my best friends! But I was naturally curly, so I never needed a perm like most of my classmates and friends did.
I was the luckiest girl in the world back then, because my giant, frizzy hair was in style!
Now: I spend a ton of money on Keratin Treatments so that my hair looks exactly the opposite of how it used to!
Spring Wedding Favors
(source)
