Mrs. Avocado, SeattleAge and Occupation: 23, StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, ConsultantEngagement Date: July 27, 2008Wedding Date: October, 2008Blogging Since: June 30, 2008Venue: LDS Seattle Temple & Hotel 1000About Me: Somehow this little farm girl found herself a genuine Pole to fall in love and eventually move away to Poland with. I am an LDS bride attempting to plan a private religious ceremony, ring ceremony, seated reception for 100, and an open house while coordinating for guests flying in from across the United States and as far away as Poland. I try to avoid fads, excess waste, and saturated fat. I strongly endorse photography, DDR, calorie counting, rss feeds, cooking, and utilizing your resources.
After I posted about my bridesmaid birdcage veils, Miss Dumpling and Miss Sea Breeze asked how I did my hair for the veil modeling, and I decided to do a little video to show you how insanely easy it is. I’m sorry that the fan in the background is so loud and distracting, and that the quality of the video isn’t that great (I had to optimize it to a very low quality in order load it onto YouTube) but I was rather impressed with how fabulously my little Pia II handled my first attempt at video making.
Miss Lemonade, Austin/San AntonioAge and Occupation: 28, BureaucratFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Music ManagementEngagement Date: December 21, 2007Wedding Date: April, 2009Blogging Since: August 22, 2008Venue: Country Club ceremony, ballroom receptionAbout Me: I’m a total wonkette who is lucky enough to be surrounded by her favorite things on a daily basis – awesome music, the great State of Texas and of course, Mr. Lemonade! I find any excuse I can to craft something and am completely infatuated with the 1950’s, all things Kennedy, and my furbaby Vida.
I’m pretty close to completion on my current little diy goodness and I figured I’d show it off.
Way back when we first got engaged, I came across this lovely image (it was so long ago and I have no clue who it belongs to; if you do, please let me know!):
Since I’m a preppy monogram fiend, I HAD to have our initials in some sort of organic matter. Since I’m cheap, I knew I had to figure out to create them myself. Turns out it’s not that bad. Read more…
Mrs. Shortcake, VancouverAge and Occupation: 24, Marketing Manager/Children's Lit WriterFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Master's Student/Personal TrainerEngagement Date: August 7, 2007Wedding Date: October 2008Blogging Since: Venue: Ceremony in a historic church, tented lawn reception at a golf and country clubAbout Me: 1950's housewife sent to the future, reborn as crafting-obsessed, jill of all trades. I enjoy decorating, writing, baking sweet things, singing show tunes/dancing in public, wearing pearls, and knitting sweaters for my furbaby, Harvey, to chew upon. I heart pink, and believe that sparkles are the new black.
Thank you everyone for your kind comments on yesterday’s post! After going through the flames of one certain very hot place in order to get them finished, it meant a lot to have so many people love them as much as I did!
However, I totally did not finish that post, because I forgot one of my very favourite components of the invitation suite… Read more…
Miss Hot Cocoa, Boston/Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 31, JD/PhD StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Medical StudentEngagement Date: May 30, 2008Wedding Date: March, 2009Blogging Since: April, 2008Venue: Ritz Carlton, Marina Del ReyAbout Me:
I am a professional student by day and an amateur cupcake taster, bargain shopper, and wedding planner by night. I am obsessed with NPR, the Food Network, paper, dance shows, Anthropologie, post-structuralist theory, Weddingbee!, "The Office," and celebrity gossip. When not procrastinating from my dissertation, I spend time catering to Jellyby, our overly anxious shih tzu, and getting to know Mr. Hot Cocoa. We have only been dating for fifteen years, so it's like I'm in love with a stranger! From the East Coast, we are planning a Jewish-Chinese Extravaganza in L.A., where we both grew up.
For me, it was when I discovered that Kleinfeld’s charges you $50 if you miss an appointment. You know the feeling…that sense of outrage (or exasperation) that comes from the realization that the wedding industrial complex is out to squeeze every last cent out of you that it can. Arrrrgh. So in my first real Weddingbee post, I thought I’d introduce a few web-based applications that I’ve found really helpful and [insert happy dance] are free.
1. Free fonts
If you’re like me and can wax poetic about the refined elegance of Garamond or the graceful beauty of Zapfino, you are going to heart dafont.com. Hundreds of easy-to-install and creative fonts- free for personal use. I’ve been completely obsessed with Jane Austen lately- perfect for penning snarky love/hate mail to your own Mr. Darcy. And I can’t get over the quirky, simple lines of Rough Typewriter, which would be a chic font for retro wedding or for a ransom note.
Mrs. Flamingo, Montreal, CanadaAge and Occupation: 25, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Nursing StudentEngagement Date: December 2004Wedding Date: June 21, 2008Venue: Imperia Hotel (modern chic hotel)About Me: I am a passionate designer who loves anything pretty. I heart all paper products (eco-friendly of course). My passion revolves around anything considered glamour; vintage and modern. In my free time, I love reading Martha mags, designing jewelry and making a pit-stop at Starbucks for a chai latte. I'm also a chocoholic at heart and my family drools over my homemade truffles.
Ever since I blogged about our invitations, I’ve been receiving emails left and right about my chandelier illustration. A reader asked me if I could vectorize an image for her; a chandelier of course. I guess I didn’t explain it in detail, so I figured - what the heck, here is Flamingo’s Vectorizing crash course.
Now I’m no pro at this - I literally learned about Illustrator’s CS2 Live trace option at the beginning of the year (thanks: Bird of Paradise, Lemon and Plumeria!). Here are the steps to create a vector with no need of doing hours of tracing with the pen tool. Hurray for live trace!!!
Now to be able to trace any image you obviously need to have the software: Adobe Illustrator CS2 or up. For those of you who don’t have it, you can download a free trial here. Read more…
Mrs. Daffodil, San Francisco/Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 26, Nonprofit Strategy ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Resident PhysicianEngagement Date: December 29, 2006Wedding Date: May, 2008Blogging Since: August, 2007Venue: Church w/ floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Valley; Westin in downtown LAAbout 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.
Now that our table cards were finished, it was on to the place cards! We opted for sweet, simple, and similar-to-our-invites! You’ll recall that we had used the Prima paper flowers on the main body of our invite. We also used them here, accenting them with small pink sticker gemstones (which should be available at any scrapbook store). I was also able to use the scrap piece of metallic cardstock that had been cut off during the construction of our pocketfolds! The simple how-to below! Read more…
Mrs. Canary, New YorkAge and Occupation: 24, MarketingFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Journalist/EditorEngagement Date: February 16, 2007Wedding Date: July, 2008Blogging Since: October 19, 2007Venue: Pier Sixty, Chelsea PiersAbout 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.
Don’t you love weekends where you barrel through wedding projects and craft to your heart’s content? Seriously, I do. Crafting is a zen thing for me. It’s the only time when I’m not freaking out about logistics and can just focus on the task at hand whether that’s gluing stuff down or cutting perfect edges.
So this past weekend, with my sixteen year old cousin, C as a helper, I finished off the details for our guest sign-in table. Here is a general mockup (it’s missing another framed photo– same as the one on the left) and a digital photo frame that will include a slideshow of Mr. Canary and me through the years, as well as photos of other family members.
Mrs. Daffodil, San Francisco/Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 26, Nonprofit Strategy ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Resident PhysicianEngagement Date: December 29, 2006Wedding Date: May, 2008Blogging Since: August, 2007Venue: Church w/ floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Valley; Westin in downtown LAAbout 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.
Mrs. Daffodil, San Francisco/Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 26, Nonprofit Strategy ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Resident PhysicianEngagement Date: December 29, 2006Wedding Date: May, 2008Blogging Since: August, 2007Venue: Church w/ floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Valley; Westin in downtown LAAbout 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.
Now it’s time for the finishing touches, namely the outer portion of the invite! Read more…
Mrs. Cupcake, PhiladelphiaAge and Occupation: 27, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Construction Project ManagerEngagement Date: February 10, 2007Wedding Date: September, 2008Blogging Since: December 7, 2007Venue: The Desmond Hotel in Malvern, PAAbout Me: Mr. Cupcake and I hit it off at a Halloween party and immediately began a long-distance relationship. After two years, he moved to my neck of the woods, and a year and a half after that, he proposed at the “place we fell in love.” I am a true perfectionist who enjoys designing and creating more work for myself, so wedding planning is my perfect outlet. Mr. Cupcake and I are both old souls, and we hope to weave that aspect of our personalities into our wedding day.
Over the last 16 months of wedding planning (sheesh!), I have come across a lot of ideas for guest books, but none of them has really struck my fancy. I’ve seen engagement photo guest books, wish bowls, wish trees, and Polaroid guest books, but I wanted to do something a little different. (One of the curses of doing too much research!)Last month in the Spring issue of Inside Weddings, I came across a twist on the traditional guest book that I really liked:
photo from Inside Weddings
