Hive, I’ve been delaying writing this because I just can’t believe this is my final Weddingbee post. I’m having trouble finding the right words to express what the ‘Bee has meant to me. What better way to say goodbye than doing a sort of twist on the Bee’s Life and Secret Life of Bees series!?

Come on Mr. D, one more! | Photo via Laurel Mountain Photography

How did I find Weddingbee?

Probably Google, honestly. I’m sure I searched something generic like “wedding decor ideas” and a post from the boards came up. I’ve loved weddings for a really long time, and once I found Weddingbee I was hooked. All the ladies blogging were so charming and real. I loved reading about their actual experiences, both the joys and struggles.

… read more

While I was out bacheloretting, Benjamin had a few hours to kill before his own party. In addition to making a hell of a lot of rosemary simple syrup, he was in charge of dropping off the welcome bags for our out-of-town guests on his way into the city that evening.

To me, welcome bags feel like a relatively new phenomenon. When I’ve traveled for weddings, they’re a pleasant surprise, but I don’t think I’ve even noticed if a couple chose not to do them for whatever reason. Still, with our date being so close to the holidays and so many people traveling so far to be with us, we wanted to make people as happy and comfortable as possible, so I decided to take on the project.

I looked into boxes but couldn’t find a cost effective version I liked, so we went with classic white bags. I stamped a little Mae on each one and used the same gold ribbon as we used on our invitations on the sides of the handles.

Ribbon with twistable wire = pretty curls!

And the insides, you ask? After a fair amount of online research, we chose to include the following items, and went with Chicago or Midwest options whenever possible:

… read more

Hive, what can I say? Thanks for the warm welcome, for reading, for your comments and suggestions, and for being such a great community.

Wedding planning was an interesting but good journey with a lot of ups, downs, and lessons learned. I would, in spite of the hiccups, do it all over again if I could as our wedding was truly an amazing day for Mr. Horseshoe and me. Our honeymoon was really the icing on the cake.

Our spring wedding was pretty awesome. | Photo by PMG Image

I wanted to share a few final pieces of advice as a married lady…

… read more

Previously on Eels…

Episode 1: The One Where We Kick Off Our Wedding Weekend
Episode 2: The One Where We Get Ready
Episode 3: The One With the Gifts
Episode 4: The One With the First Look
Episode 5: The One With the Bride and Groom Portraits
Episode 6: The One Where We Say “I Do”

Yes! The ceremony was done and we were officially husband and wife. It was time to “get this party started on a Saturday night” a la Pink. But before we could officially start the celebration and mingle with our guests, we needed to take a few extended-family photos. We had two helpers that ushered our family members along when it was their time to take a photo with us. This helped move things along quickly, and in about 15 minutes we were officially done with posed photos for the day!

… read more

I realized I’ve posted a lot about personal frustrations, and a lot about fairly run-of-the-mill planning stuff, but very little about what I’ve LOVED about planning.

Sums up how I’ve felt about a lot of planning. | Image via Easy Weddings

And you may remember from one of my early posts—I’m kinda dreading the wedding. I might be a bit of the anti-bride, at least for someone having a pretty traditional wedding. But that doesn’t mean I’m not having fun. In fact, some parts of wedding planning are super fun.

… read more

Got a burning question or dilemma that you’d love more opinions/advice on, but maybe don’t want to attach your name to? Whether it’s sex, in-laws, friends, spouse, money, kids, fights, etc., submit your dilemma anonymously. Current and past brides will weigh in with their take on your dilemma, and we’ll leave the comments open so the hive can weigh in as well!

To submit your Anonymous Dilemma, go to this form, fill it out, and hit submit.

~~~

HELP! My husband had a house for five years before we met. I moved in a year before we got married, but he always referred to it as “his” house. Four months ago, after our wedding, we bought a newer, bigger house. Well, he couldn’t get the loan, so everything with this house is in my name and I pay all the bills because he said he is still paying for his house (which is dirt cheap).

Anyway, “his” house hasn’t even been on the market four months (winter months), and he decided to rent it out. He did not tell me, and I just found out the renters are moving in in three days. I still have belongings at this house and had no idea he was even considering renting this out. I know he doesn’t know a thing about being a landlord, and I don’t even know what kind of rental agreement he has. When I found out (which was through a friend) I confronted him. He said it’s his house and it doesn’t concern me. He said he doesn’t want to pay for something he doesn’t live in. I asked to please give me a year to try and sell it and he went ahead and did this.

Am I wrong for being upset? He is calling me crazy and said it’s his and shouldn’t concern me and now he will be able to help with our new house bills. Can someone please give me some advice?

Save

After a hectic day at work and dinner/gifts with my newly-arrived fam, I woke up the next morning and hit the ground running. I grabbed my sister from the hotel at 8:00 AM, and we assembled bouquets (more to come on that debacle), packed our PARTAY stuff, and picked up the rental van. I got my parents situated at my apartment: my mom was working on assembling favors, my dad was there to take care of Mae, and Benjamin was on his way to his own bachelor party in a few hours. In the madness, I hadn’t had a chance to make the rosemary simple syrup for the signature cocktails, so Ben graciously offered to take care of it. The cocktail signs at our wedding really should have said “hand-crafted by the GROOM” because he gets sole credit. Pro-tip: Don’t underestimate the amount of work these tasks require. Poor Ben.

My sister and I had to leave for the city midday, as we had a 45-minute drive into Chicago to get one of my girlfriends who had arrived the previous night before heading to Milwaukee. We were running about an hour behind at this point, which meant we were going to miss our first brewery tour. I allowed myself a little time to mourn/melt down (as I had tried SO HARD to not run late), and then I got over it. The Mars Cheese Castle helped.

If this appears to be a random-ass, castle-shaped cheese store in the middle of nowhere, that’s because it is. Also known as: one of my favorite places ever.

Wisconsin-y snacks procured, we amended the plans to check into the Kimpton Journeyman (AKA cutest hotel of all time), pick up the rest of the girls, have a quick drink at the hotel’s happy hour, and then head out to a pub/”cheese bar” for a beer before our tour at Lakefront Brewery. And that’s what we did.

… read more

No, this is not a political post, but an adventure in planning…and logistics.

I’m going to do my best to leave my personal politics out of this, but here’s the thing. The real (non-alternative) fact of the matter is: a lot of people just don’t like President Trump. And millions of those people, across the country, are exercising their constitutional rights to peacefully protest.

But here’s the thing…I’m getting married on tax day. And when Mr. W and I picked the date, “President Trump” was a punchline, not a reality.

And now, the plan is for hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets and protest the fact that the president hasn’t released his tax returns…on tax day…in major cities…all day long.

… read more

All right, hive, let’s do this. RECAPS INITIATED!

I suppose it all started on the Wednesday before the wedding. I was taking Thursday and Friday off from work (and then Monday through Thursday the following week), so I was trying very hard to get everything ready for my substitute teacher. My students would be taking their final exams while I was out, so that was a beast to tackle before the wedding madness began.

I had been very diligent in trying to leave as little as possible to do during this final week. I had also gotten a massage on Monday to try to alleviate stress, but I still found myself rushing on Wednesday. After school, I ran over to the med spa to get a hydrafacial (cannot recommend these enough), then back again to werkwerkwerk until I had to pick my parents and sister up from the airport. I left around 6:00 PM to get them, and once they were safely in my little Corolla, we set off to grab a bite and a beer in the suburbs near Ben and me.

Similar to the scarf we gifted to my dad | Image via Nordstrom

… read more

Previously on Eels…

Episode 1: The One Where We Kick Off Our Wedding Weekend
Episode 2: The One Where We Get Ready
Episode 3: The One with the Gifts
Episode 4: The One with the First Look
Episode 5: The One with the Bride and Groom Portraits

Once formal pictures were done, there was nothing left to do but wait for our guests to arrive before starting the ceremony. Our entire wedding party went back to the bridal cottage to wait in the cool, air conditioned room while everyone else had to sweat it out and wait outside. Sorry to our wedding guests!

Ceremony decor in lieu of an arch

Unfortunately, August in Hawaii is hot and humid, and with a ceremony start time of 4:00 PM, the sun was still up and not quite ready to set. The one saving grace was that our ceremony area was shaded by trees and near the water, so the occasional breeze was hopefully keeping our guests cool. And even if it wasn’t, no one complained to me about it. #BridePerks

… read more