Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
I’ve stumbled upon, quite possibly, the greatest idea ever to have been invented in the history of wedding guest books. You may be thinking, “Hey Oatmeal, what gives? You’re already having two guest books at your wedding. Why are you still talking about this?” Honestly, I had no intention whatsoever of adding to the list. Buuuuuuut, something changed when I came across Thrilled For You. Check this out.
Mrs. Tartlet, Rochester, MIAge and Occupation: Age & Occupation: 27, Post-Doctoral Research FellowFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Medical StudentEngagement Date: May 2, 2009Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: The Royal Park HotelAbout Me: I'm an exuberant gal from the Midwest with a penchant for Neuroscience and anything sparkly. I'm not afraid to poke fun at myself, and I'm a believer that given the right pair of shoes, a girl can conquer the world. While an interest in the sciences threw Mr. Tartlet and me together (again, and again, until it finally stuck), we share a love for many things---food, video games, car dancing, food, bad puns, travel, did I mention food?---that ultimately led us to where we are now, less than five months from becoming Mr. and Mrs. We're planning a laid-back, romantic, garden-inspired affair with organic and quirky touches that reflect our love for the unexpected!
Hive, prepare yourselves for some lovely videos to pore over! If you’ve been hit by snow-maggedon 2011, I hope you’re safely curled up under a warm blanket in the company of a cup of hot chocolate.
When we first started planning our wedding, the term “videographer” conjured up images of Christmas past, with Papa Tartlet tottering around with a camera, trying to be obscure but failing spectacularly in an endearing way. The resulting videos were the kind that come with a motion sickness warning. Plus, anyone else hate the way their voice sounds on a recording? At any rate, I clearly needed to be schooled in how far things have progressed, and this crazy beautiful film did just that: Read more…
Mrs. Pancakes, New York/Costa RicaAge and Occupation: 26, Law School StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Latin American Policy AnalystEngagement Date: March 12, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Casa Punto de VistaAbout Me: I’m a perfectionist with a big heart. I love a good laugh and firmly believe no one has ever regretted being prepared! My motto is “go big or go home.” I am incapable of doing anything in moderation, especially when it comes to shopping, TV, food and travel, and some would say wedding planning! The other half of this nearlywed team is a laid-back, adventure-loving, accident prone, sweetie from LA. He makes me laugh, is always down for an impromptu dance party, and totally indulges most of my hare-brained schemes. Now, in my final year of law school, we’ll be spending the spring abroad in Amsterdam and planning a DIY, whimsical, detail-filled destination wedding in Costa Rica!
When I got engaged back in March, I knew right away that I had to have the best photographer (my very limited) money could buy. On the other hand, I had never thought about getting a cinematographer. The reality is that I hadn’t seen that many wedding videos. When I thought about it, I just figured that our wedding video was just going to be that video that my husband would accidentally tape over in 10 years, leading to a huge fight that would quite conveniently be resolved in 22 minutes…Yes, I watch a LOT of sitcoms and, yes, I recognize that we do not have (and will never again have) a VCR.
Moving on…I don’t really have a TV so I miss out on a lot, but eventually I did stumble across this Subaru Outback honeymoon commercial:
Mrs. Lox, BaltimoreAge and Occupation: 33, Government WorkerFiance's Age and Occupation: 35. IT ConsultantEngagement Date: May 8, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Vandiver InnAbout Me: I’m an East Coast gal born and bred and a suburban brat turned city rat for the last year. Now Mr. Lox and I enjoy walking all kinds of places, having the coolest things around in our backyard, and especially our garage parking. I love gadgets, toys, Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream, monkeys, and our insane cats. I’m a blonde by birth and a redhead by choice. I’m that girl in the cubicle farm with all the cool toys and the file cabinet covered in magnetic poetry. I still use smiley faces in my emails, whether people like it or not. This is not the first rodeo for Mr. Lox nor me. And together, we are planning an intimate afternoon wedding on a budget we can afford by ourselves.
One of the most important things to us in this planning process is making memories that we can relive for a lifetime. Because of that we chose a great photographer (more on that another day), and we’re looking forward to all of the awesome photo spots that our venue now holds. We want to be able to look at these pictures with our children someday and have them see how magical it was for us.
One of the things we thought we didn’t need was video proof of the day. I mean, who ever watches those things, right? They get tossed in a cabinet somewhere and forgotten. Right. That’s what we said.
But then I perused a ton of wedding boards where people say it was the best decision they made to hire a videographer. And those who didn’t say it’s their biggest regret. And it’s not just one person; it’s TONS of people. So I started to waiver. Read more…
Mrs. Dolphin, Gainesville, FLAge and Occupation: 24, Graduate Architecture StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Interactive Interface DeveloperEngagement Date: February 14, 2008Wedding Date: May 2010Venue: Plantation Bay Country ClubAbout Me: I’m currently a Graduate Student at the University of Florida studying Architecture. I enjoy playing Scrabble with my Fiance, rooting for the Florida Gators, making any drink that involves a blender, cleaning (yes... I’m crazy), design... GOOD design that is, the new Pepsi with natural sugar, taking pictures, discovering new places in the U.S., and obsessing over doing (and designing) everything myself for our upcoming wedding!
When we last left off, I had just arrived (a little late) to the altar. We’re going to take a moment before moving on to the ceremony (and our ceremony “confession”) and recap all that’s happened so far…through VIDEO!!!
As you can see, our wedding video is IN! I’m beyond excited. Read more…
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!
Like Mrs. Sewing’s wedding video, my best friend did our videography as a gift. I really like the look of Super 8 but the film was just too expensive, so I asked my friend to recreate the look of it for some shots. I thought the “homemade” look for our video trailer would be appropriate for our backyard wedding.
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!
When my family friend said he was building a portfolio for his new videography business, and wanted to use us Sews as guinea pigs, you better believe we were excited!
Ross was super professional, and one of the quickest, most attentive responders of all our vendors and friendors. He asked us repeatedly for our input, things we liked, didn’t like, songs, etc.—but I tried to stay vague! After all, I wouldn’t want to weird-it-up with some wacky request for synchronized light saber fights.
But you know what? Even without any direction from me, I think he captured our spirit perfectly. Check out our highlights video:
Mrs. Cheeseburger, Baltimore, MD/State College, PAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Medical StudentEngagement Date: June 28, 2008Wedding Date: March 2010Venue: Catholic Church Ceremony & Hotel ReceptionAbout Me: I'm a passionate girl from Pittsburgh, currently living in Baltimore for school, who loves Penn State, seeing movies, football, thunderstorms, black and white photos, Christmas, good beer, my amazing friends and family, and of course, my mister! We met, fell in love, got engaged, and will be married at our alma mater (go lions!) in a traditional Catholic ceremony followed by a hotel reception with lots of DIY details. It means so much to have our families and friends meet at our favorite place on earth to celebrate our love for one another - I truly couldn't ask for anything more!
I know, I know, you thought these recaps were over. There’s just one more thing that I wanted to share: our highlight film from Open Iris by Quanti Studios!
We chose to use “Tonight, Tonight” by The Smashing Pumpkins as it is one of Burger’s favorite songs and has such amazing lyrics. My favorite are the lyrics at the end: Read more…
Mrs. Kitten, Austin/Grand CaymanAge and Occupation: 25, Law StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Dental StudentEngagement Date: October 19, 2006Wedding Date: April, 2009Venue: The Grand Old House, Grand CaymanAbout Me: In 2009 I will get married (after a two and a half year engagement!), become an Army wife, graduate from law school, take the bar, move from Austin to Washington, D.C., and start my career as a lawyer! With all this going on, Mr. Kitten and I decided to have a tropical, "stress-free" destination wedding. Nevertheless, my micromanaging, detail-oriented, perfectionist side has prevailed---I am currently obsessed with every last detail of my "stress-free" destination wedding! But most of all, I'm beyond excited to become Mrs. Kitten on a fabulous Caribbean vacation surrounded by my friends and family!
This is my favorite post because it sums up the happiest day of my life so perfectly. Every time I watch it I feel like I am in the Cayman Islands again, saying “I do” to Mr. Kitten. I treasure this little three minute video!
~~~
I’m so excited to share the Kitten Wedding Movie Trailer with y’all!
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.
Oh? What’s that? You thought my last recap about our Sunday-after luncheon was my last post? No way! I’ve still got a couple more things to share before I say goodbye, and I wouldn’t leave you all without a proper farewell post!
I wanted to share with you our “behind the scenes” wedding video. One of my good friends, who couldn’t make it to our wedding, put this together for us and gave it to me last week as a surprise. He does video editing as a hobby, and he took bits and pieces of video that several of our guests filmed and created a mash-up video.
I’m calling this a behind-the-scenes video because it’s definitely not a wedding video. All of the (bumpy and grainy) filming was done by amateurs on low-quality cameras, and because my friend who edited it only had a small selection of video to work with, there’s no real timeline flow. And our guests, not being pros, filmed things more like flies on a wall, so the footage my friend had to work with was really random. Read more…
Mrs. Cloud, RichmondAge and Occupation: 25, Sales RepFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Customer Service Manager/DJEngagement Date: February 14, 2008Wedding Date: November 2009Venue: Cathedral of the Sacred Heart & The Jefferson HotelAbout Me: Mr. Cloud and I are Yankees planning a Southern wedding to show our families from Boston and New York our fabulous city. We are complete opposites, resulting in a wedding to include bridesmaids in pearls and groomsmen in Adidas shell toes. I’m a sorority girl at heart with strong addictions to my blackberry, cherry Chapstick, Coach purses, the Boston Red Sox and our fur baby, Bella. I can’t wait to the throw the party of our lives and of course, marry my best friend!
Considering that Sunday was our one year anniversary(!!!) and I am still not done with my recaps for you guys, I think it is fair to say I have been slacking. It is true what they say though, the first year of marriage can be a hard one. I’m not complaining though, please don’t get me wrong. I know that after everything that the Mr. and I have gone through in the last year, we can get through anything.
We moved, we bought a house, we started new jobs, and we did it all together. But all of those things kept me from a goal I had set for myself: to finish my recaps by our first year anniversary. It may seem like a silly goal, but I am a little upset I couldn’t make it happen to finish sharing with you guys! So without further ado, I am so proud to share this little treat (bribe maybe?) with you to hold you over while I finish the normal recaps up. We also debuted this our family this past weekend, and I hope you enjoy it as much as they did:
THE CLOUD WEDDING VIDEO!!
Now, before we get down to it I’m going to be very honest with you for a second. Read more…
Mrs. Sand Dollar, HoustonAge and Occupation: 24, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 22, Electrical TechnicianEngagement Date: January 8, 2010Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: MacLean ParkAbout Me: I'm a domestic diva down to the core. I heart cooking, sewing, baking, decorating and making sure we have a hand-crafted home. The best part about the wedding is I get to incorporate it all! I make sure I put my art degree to good use by screen printing, craft knife cutting, and a whole lotta graphic design. We're having a big-time party on a small-time budget, and I promise to show you a boot-scootin', barbecue-eatin', finger-lickin' good time! Mr. Sand Dollar and I spend most of our time on DIY projects or traipsing around the outdoors with our two pooches Rory and Juno. I'm looking forward to sharing our journey with all of you!
I mentioned before that we would be DIYing our wedding video. Bridesmaid Stacie’s sweet husband Kurt was awesome enough to volunteer to be our videographer. We had a tripod, an HD camera my mom gifted me (for her baby Sand Dollars she is convinced will be along ASAP) and a Macbook to get it done. I used iMovieHD to edit everything, and burned a super cute DVD using iDVD. Seriously, it’s awesome! We have chapters and music and menus, and it’s mega cool!
I was a little worried that it would turn out to be super cheesy, but it really is pretty cute! Yes, it looks like a home video. No, it doesn’t make it any less awesome in my eyes. Read more…
Mrs. Dolphin, Gainesville, FLAge and Occupation: 24, Graduate Architecture StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Interactive Interface DeveloperEngagement Date: February 14, 2008Wedding Date: May 2010Venue: Plantation Bay Country ClubAbout Me: I’m currently a Graduate Student at the University of Florida studying Architecture. I enjoy playing Scrabble with my Fiance, rooting for the Florida Gators, making any drink that involves a blender, cleaning (yes... I’m crazy), design... GOOD design that is, the new Pepsi with natural sugar, taking pictures, discovering new places in the U.S., and obsessing over doing (and designing) everything myself for our upcoming wedding!
I’ve been quite the little video editor this week, editing videos for two weddings Mr. Dolphin and I have been to in the past few months. When Mr. Dolphin and I first saw our highlights video it instantly took us back to that day, that special moment in our lives. We knew video was incredibly important to us and we were so happy the lovely Erika Rydell was able to be there to capture our day so beautifully.
Recently, Mr. Dolphin and I went to two weddings, one for my cousin up in Erie, PA (we drove, we are crazy) and one for his cousin in St. Augustine, FL. Both weddings were sans videographer. We wanted our cousins to have fun little videos from their weddings because a video shows emotion and the mood of a wedding so much better then any photo could ever show (we believe). Luckily, Mr. Dolphin and I are always equipped with a ridiculous amount of video/photo equipment everywhere we go (remember our honeymoon video?). Read more…
Mrs. Ostrich, San Francisco/HawaiiAge and Occupation: 30, Fashion Buyer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 38, CopywriterEngagement Date: October 4, 2009Wedding Date: April 2011Venue: Sweet ceremony by the sea and sunset celebration on the North Shore of HawaiiAbout Me: Born in the city of angels and residing in the city by the bay, I’m a fearless fashion buyer by day, a passionate blog author by night and a dreamy bride-to-be in between. I thank my lucky stars to live in such a stunning city that gives me gifts like organic honey lavender ice cream, movie nights in the park, tucked away beaches, legendary record stores, '80s dance parties, awesome sports teams, stellar flea markets, and vintage bookshops. Oh, and I love to dance! We always find every excuse to escape to the beach, and decided a little seaside wedding in Hawaii is our idea of bliss. Full of our favorite people, music, food and sparkly lights, this is one sunset celebration we will always remember.
Mrs. Zebra, Providence, RIAge and Occupation: 24 Marketing/Costume DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 26 Management/Firefighter Engagement Date: December 12, 2008Wedding Date: March 2011Venue: The Providence BiltmoreAbout Me: I'm a small town New England girl with an affinity for procrastination, crossing the proverbial line, and putting her foot in her mouth. I'm a lover of history, all seasons, sewing and Incubus. I design costumes on the side for my old high school's theatre department, which is where I met my sexy man. Our motto for our Big Fat Lebanese/Portuguese/Irish near-300 person wedding is "the more the merrier"! We are marrying in a Catholic ceremony and are hammering out the details of our Victorian-inspired reception.
If any of you are on the fence as to whether or not to hire a videographer, I feel you.I always thought this was just another waste of money forced upon us by the wedding industry.I shall now regail you with the reason I am now loud and proud PRO-videographer.
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