If your project is featured in DIY Friday, you’re eligible for a special Weddingbee badge for your blog or website! See instructions on how to grab the badge here!

Binder Clip Escort Cards by Nikki414

Pocket Fold Grey and Yellow Wedding Invitations by chinvicky

Flower Petal Aisle Runner by bobbileach

Burlap Flowers by aboutX0

“Love” Water Bottle Templates by xo

~~~

For more great DIY projects, be sure to visit the Weddingbee DIY section, conveniently organized by type of project. Submit your own, complete with tutorial, and you may see it featured here on the blog! If you’ve seen any great DIY around the hive and think it should be featured, feel free to email us at cathy at weddingbee dot com!

Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee Classifieds, and you might see it featured on the blog!

Other great items for sale:

6 tall hobnail milk glass vases, asking $9 each

Galina SV9635 Ivory V-Neck A Line Size 2, asking $300

Tapered ivory veil, asking $10

Pre-cut purple and plum tissue paper for pomanders, asking $80

Image via Wiksten / Ring by elephantine on Etsy

Here are some lessons I took with me:

1. Never underestimate the love-fest. I had no idea how emotional the day would be, for me. It’s really difficult to sum up the amount of pride and joy I felt that day for the BM Cuz and her husband. I was happy to be there for her and beyond honored to have a part in their day.

2. MOH: You better work! Being MOH is a lot of work. And there were two of us at BM Cuz’s wedding! I was under the impression that being the maid of honor meant throwing parties beforehand, going to dress fittings, standing in when the fiancé is unavailable. But it was so much more on game wedding day. And you know what? I enjoyed every bit of it. I was happy to be there helping her get dressed, I was happy to keep her dress off the damp ground (and man, that enormous ruffled skirt would NOT cooperate), and I surprised myself at the number of things I managed to remember. How many times in a woman’s life can she say she had the honor of holding her bestie’s wedding dress up to help her pee? That’s work AND commitment wrapped into one.

There I am, tackling her train! Beautiful Cuz! (Personal snapshot)

3. Write it down! And make it known! There were a lot of things I forgot in the last-minute rush. So the lesson is, make a list! Then check it. Check it again. Then tell someone about the list so they can help you keep track of things. I dropped the ball on three very simple things:

• Her wrap. No one had considered getting a wrap for the bride before the wedding, not even the bride herself. Good thing she was too happy to mind the November chill.
• Comfy shoes for the reception. I meant to buy something for her, and I forgot in the last-minute rush. So did my co-MOH, but had we discussed it maybe one of us would have remembered!
• Her overnight bag. This is something we failed to discuss before that night. She didn’t have any comfy clothes to change into for the next day. I meant to add an extra set of PJs and sneakers to her “bridal rescue” bag and give it to her before I went up to bed after the wedding, but it was late (like 2 AM) and I might have been a little tipsy.

Thankfully, I remembered the bag in the morning, and I hung it on the doorknob of their suite. She didn’t miss it, by the way—they stayed up and partied long after I went to bed. So all was not lost!

Every one of those things I forgot could have been remembered if I would have mentioned them to someone else, by the way.

4. Be prepared! You can never be too prepared. I put a bag together with all the things I thought she might need: sewing kit, safety pins, Shout wipes, mints, deodorant, brush, etc. And though we didn’t need everything in the bag, what we used was crucial! We kept her hair looking nice, made sure her makeup stayed put, and helped “fix” her bustle when it broke (do they always break?), even though it broke again after that.

Looking very dutiful, but I’m just holding back the tears. (Personal snapshot)

5. Toss your phone (for the day). A bride must get rid of her phone. I grabbed a bunch of numbers from Cuz’s phone before it died. And I was prepared to handle any possible phone drama—thankfully, there wasn’t any. But there were way too many calls coming in before her phone’s battery gave out. I decided that for my wedding day I would assign a go-to bridesmaid and hand her number out to my vendors, then make a list of all my vendors for my go-to BM and give my phone a rest.

Have you even been a bridesmaid or maid/matron of honor? Did you learn any lessons you used for your wedding?

The priest scooted all pertinent parties to the back of the church to work on the processional. We paired everyone up and set the order of the various grandparents, parents, and bridal party members. Mr. Snow Cone and I had sorted out each honored guest’s escort—we aimed to have family walk with family to make it comfortable for all involved individuals. So, it’s easy to understand my minor discontent when our carefully crafted processional was met with a bit of hesitancy from the priest. Specifically, when he asked who would be escorting Mr. Snow Cone’s mom down the aisle, I responded by saying that Mr. Snow Cone’s dad would be (doesn’t that make just a lovely image? A married couple, parents of the groom, walking hand-in-hand down the aisle to watch their son say his own vows? There’s a method to my madness, I swear).

The priest expressed that that isn’t the way things are typically done and suggested that Mr. Snow Cone serve as his mom’s usher. I politely responded that while I understood that having husband escort wife wasn’t typical, it was how we wanted it to be done. The priest pushed back ever so slightly, but ultimately relented. With that victory under my belt, the rehearsal continued.

We spent what felt like an eternity practicing the perfect pace to process; it became clear that the priest wanted us to get a very slow pace into our muscle memory so that when our nerves took over for the big day, even a hastened version of that pace would be acceptable. We watched every single pair walk down the aisle, being instructed to go slower… slower… slower.

Mr. Snow Cone, probably walking too fast

Double-brother-usher duty with my mom, once again, probably walking too fast.

Finally, it was my turn to take that majestic little stroll with my dad.

I think my dad could tell I was a little on edge, so he did his best to lighten the mood.

We finally made our way up to the altar and got to the actual meat and potatoes of the ceremony.

We went over where and when to stand, sit, and kneel. I paid extra attention to the parts of the ceremony that required Mr. Snow Cone and me to say or do something specific, because each special direction to us was followed by Mr. Snow Cone leaning over to whisper, “There’s no way I’m going to remember all this.” I wasn’t willing to surrender to the difficulties of remembering what to do during a Catholic wedding ceremony, and I most certainly wasn’t interested in having a ceremony with (gasp!) mistakes on our part, so I burned every instruction into my memory for the following day.

We actually said our vows out loud during the rehearsal, which was a surprise to me, but I went with it, given my previous quasi-temper tantrum. And then the priest decided to drop this bombshell: the phrase “you may now kiss the bride” is nothing more than theatrics and has no religious foundation; as a result, it’s not used in Catholic weddings. He instructed us to exchange our first kiss as husband and wife during the sign of peace, an exchange of hugs and handshakes that comes during the middle of the ceremony. Insert quasi-temper tantrum number two. I told him that we’d rather wait and kiss until the end, when people would actually be expecting it, rather than sliding it into the middle and catching everyone off-guard. He looked at me like I had suggested wearing a camouflage leotard to my wedding, but I stood my ground. He relented, saying if I was OK surrendering a special spiritual opportunity to give my new spouse a sign of affection in order to play into the theatrics of a forced moment, he was OK with it. Turns out, I was. And, just like that, our first kiss got bumped to the end of the ceremony.

The rest of the rehearsal was uneventful, just practicing the processional and recessional a couple more times. As the rehearsal went on, though, I fielded a lot of comments from various members of the group, often calling me “quite the pistol!” Apparently I had surprised/impressed/startled/scared some people with my unwillingness to take “no” for an answer on a few fronts. Being stubborn to a priest isn’t necessarily a favorite pastime of mine, but given the importance I had placed on those few aspects of the ceremony, a little forcefulness ended up going a long way.

What would you have done in my situation?

All photos by my brother P

• We spent a low-key night with some of my friends and family.
• We ran some errands and received some one-of-a-kind brewskies.
• I had a moderate-sized freak-out at the rehearsal.

I kept it simple and typed everything directly into Vistaprint’s program. (In the end I probably complicated things more than necessary, but such is life.)

So here they are:

Personal photo

Personal photo

For $33.28 we ordered 100 postcard save the dates. Timing wasn’t right so we missed the free postcards, and we upgraded the paper. We were pretty happy with the quality and the speed with which we received them.

Now, I had a wild hair to “paint” the edges of the postcards (see the random silver marks along the bottom?). I thought I could use a silver pen to color the edges—fail. If you choose to do something like this I will be of no help, but I would recommend actually following a tutorial. Do not, I repeat, do not use silver markers. (The tip slips slightly and makes the lovely marks you see here.)

Back in November, Minted asked Weddingbee to help choose some of the next generation of community created designs that they’d carry in their newest wedding invitation collection. You voted, and guess what? The hive’s favorite design is now in shop at Minted! Check out your favorite: “Love Story” designed by Cadence Paige Design!

Minted “Love Story”

We’re super excited to have taken part in choosing Minted’s next generation of wedding stationery! And if you love all things Minted, right now they’re giving away $500 toward Minted wedding stationery every Thursday for the next 4 weeks…which means there’s four chances for you to win!

Head on over to Minted to enter, and good luck!

What do you think of the hive’s invitation pick, “Love Story”? Are you a sucker for bunting like we are?

Except there might be one person who disagrees with that. Who might that be?

My mailman.

As most of you may realize, during your engagement there tends to be a lot of packages delivered to your house. I have ordered many supplies and accessories online so far. Which means USPS, FedEx and UPS have been constant visitors of mine.

After I place an order, I typically stalk the tracking number. Then when it gets close to being delivered, I impatiently away for the arrival. I didn’t notice how bad this was until recently.

An important package for the wedding was set to be delivered on a Friday. It was supplies for a project, and I had planned for my entire weekend to be dedicated to crafting this project. If the supplies did not arrive that Friday, then my weekend was ruined. Okay not ruined, but a whole lot less exciting.

I started to incessantly worry that a signature would be required, and what if I wasn’t home when it was delivered?

Then they would leave a notice on my door, and I would have to come back to the post office at a later date to pick it up. I was not having any of this. I thought I had a great idea to leave a note on my door for the mailman. Obviously he would understand my concern and be accommodating, right? I mean, I did use a smiley face.

Believe it or not, the mailman never called me. I know, crazy. Luckily though, he left the package and there was no problem.

When I got home and saw the note still stuck to my door, I had to laugh at myself for being such a total dork. Who does this stuff? Apparently crazy stalker brides such as myself. Luckily, as far as I know, my mailman is the only one who probably thinks I am totally nuts.

It made me realize how planning a wedding can make you do some pretty silly things. I wouldn’t normally write a strange note to my mailman, but when there is a wedding involved…I guess I can be a little quirky.

So while I might be for the most part fairly level headed, my freak outs strike in other ways.

Has planning a wedding led you to do things you wouldn’t normally do? Also, please tell me I am not the only one who leaves odd notes for the mailman.

Who do you stalk when it comes to your wedding? The mailman? Your photographer’s blog? Someone’s twitter account? Spill it.

These really were a labor of love. They were time consuming and tedious, but I don’t regret it in the least. I think they turned out better than I had hoped for, and I think they are the perfect introduction to our wedding celebration!

The whole suite! / Personal Photo

My mom and I tied twine around each set and stuck them in envelopes. I printed every envelope on my cheap little college printer. / Personal Photo

The invite, wedding website card, and the RSVP card. / Personal Photo

One of my favorite little details / Personal Photo

And the other favorite little detail: the horse and shoe. / Personal Photo

I know lots of bees have made gorgeous DIY invites. Anyone else out there give DIY a shot? Did the process drive you crazy, or did you love it like I did?

I spy a puppers!

Holy moose. All I could think was, “what on earth did I order?!”

Oh right. That would be a bajillion glasses and jars for the wedding.

First up: mason jars for the drinks! These were actually quite cost efficient if you order them sans lids - $6.24 for a case of 12. That’s only about 50 cents apiece! Now, they aren’t they cool Bell mason jars, but they are similar and cheaper and that’s really all I was concerned with.

Just imagine them with some trendy stripy straws and a delicious, colorful cocktail!

Next: glass jars for the bubbles. These were $21.84 for a case of 24—more expensive than just buying test tube bubbles, yes, but I promise they will be SO cute once I’m done with them. I have plans. Oh yes.

Then we have some more glass bottles for our favors. I’m not quite ready to spill the beans on them yet, so I’ll let you ooh and ahh over how cute the bottles are and take wild guesses as what I will eventually do with them.

Now, these were really all the bottles I needed. However, since glass is just so darn heavy (and I was ordering 100+ of each item), shipping was astronomical. Ridiculous. All sorts of adjectives that describe the absurd. It was actually unbelievably cheaper for me to buy extra glasses to reach the cost that qualifies for free shipping than it would have been to pay for said shipping—so that’s exactly what I did. I threw on an extra case of masons, but with lids (in case I decide to start canning…? or you know, just put all over the house), as well as several larger cork top bottles.

I don’t have an exact use for these tall guys yet, but I’m thinking infused olive oil as Christmas gifts next year, perhaps? Either way, I’m sure I can come up with a use for them! I’m also hoping that, after the wedding, I’ll be able to sell most of the masons and get at least some of that money back. By the way, Foxy Mama: this is what part of that much appreciated contribution went to. Lots and lots of glasses. <3

Has anyone else gone as nuts over glassware as I have? Even better, have you ordered something (large) that you totally forgot about and were completely surprised upon receiving it? I’m not going to lie, it was kind of awesome!

(P.S. All glassware was ordered from SKS Bottle & Packaging.)

Engagement Session photos by Philip Gabriel Photography

or this:

At the finish of my leg of the Walt Disney World Marathon Relay in January

But it didn’t come because of something sweet that Mr. Turkey said or the joy of completing my first half marathon…so, why the big smile, Miss Turkey?

Because….my dress came in!!

I am so excited I can hardly stand it. The call came mid-day after a particularly hectic morning, which turned my afternoon around…especially since the dress arrived 3 weeks earlier than expected. However, my excitement faded just ever.so.slightly when I discovered that I couldn’t schedule my first fitting until the end of March (yes, March) due to a lack of weekend availability. What a tease!

Oh, and since you’ve all been so nice about me keeping my dress under wraps until the wedding, I’ll share a tiny sneak peek with you.

You now know the dress has a sweetheart neckline (but no more hints!)

The photo is with the designer, so if you recognize him, you’re one step closer

Were you SO excited when your dress came in? Did anyone else have to wait a month and a half for their first fitting?!??

Keep on loading your inspirational wedding pics to the Weddingbee Gallery to see them featured here on the blog! Remember, your images must be under 1MB in size, or they won’t load.

If your photo is featured as the Gallery of the Day, you’re eligible for a special Weddingbee badge for your blog or website! Check out instructions on how to grab the badge here!

Video via YouTube

This Robin Sparkles. My Canadian beauty.

Photo by Lucy Clement

She’s the one on the left. *wink wink*

Mr. M did a fantastic job picking her out. Yes, I know it’s a little annoying that I named her, but humor me.

She wasn’t exactly a surprise. Nearly a year before Mr. M proposed, we started talking about engagement rings. We found ourselves inside our local Tiffany & Co., trying on rings even though I had my eye on these beauties by Sarah Perlis:

Ring images via Sarah Perlis

He was not a fan. He wanted a more traditional ring, and I wanted something different(!!!). The only thing we agreed upon was that my engagement ring had to be conflict free. So, after some digging around on the internet, I learned that Tiffany & Co. carries conflict-free diamonds. That was all it took to convince me—that, and the fact that we happened to be walking one sunny afternoon.

I had no expectations when I stepped inside. I didn’t even think I liked diamonds (gasp)! I didn’t want anything too traditional, too popular, or too sparkly: I wanted something I’d never seen before.

Once we started trying rings on, all my “don’t wants” went out the window. I was nervous! And I was shocked to be having FUN—our sales associate let me try on a three-carat oval solitaire. Do you know how exciting that was?!

Aside from the fun, I wasn’t finding anything that felt like “me.” That was until I tried the emerald-cut solitaire with tapered baguettes. I gasped and, according to Mr. M, my face lit up. I was sold. The ring was classic enough and delicate, the lines were clean, and the proportions looked perfect on my hand. This was something I could be very happy wearing for the rest of my life.

We left on cloud nine that day, but I wasn’t satisfied there. I’d heard of Brilliant Earth, and I wondered if they had anything similar. And wouldn’t you know it?

Image via Brilliant Earth

They did.

I sent the link to Mr. M and told him that I would be happier with a ring from Brilliant Earth. I felt more confident in their practices and the overall value of their jewelry. Our sales associate at Tiffany & Co. was too vague about their mining practices for me, and I wasn’t convinced that we wouldn’t be paying a premium for the little blue box. Also, I loved that Brilliant Earth donates a portion of their profits to communities that have been affected by mining practices. What I didn’t love was that a ring from Brilliant Earth would have to be ordered online so we couldn’t see the quality in person. AND I still loved the rings by Sarah Perlis.

So I stopped thinking about it and I let him decide. I wanted a surprise as much as he wanted to surprise me.

And SURPRISE! I got my traditional engagement ring from Brilliant Earth with a certificate that tracks her back to a mine in Canada, which is how she got her silly name (that, and our love for HIMYM).

How involved were you in selecting your engagement ring? Did you get to choose it?

~~~

Hi hive! A few of the NYC blogging bees and I will be attending an exclusive screening of Edward Burns’ latest film Newlyweds at the Tribeca Cinemas and we’d love for you to join us!

The event is being hosted by the new GORGEOUS wedding inspiration search engine, Lover.ly (which is so amazing and I can’t wait to tell you more about!) and a whole slew of fun people will be in attendance including cast members from the movie, NYC bees (of course!), wedding industry faves from Martha Stewart Weddings, BRIDES Magazine, Brooklyn Bride, Shawn Rabideau, Diamond in the Rough, Gilt Groupe, FourSquare and more. We’re so excited to be in attendance and we want YOU to come along with us!

The screening will be this coming Monday night and will be followed immediately by cocktails and mingling at the Varick Room at Tribeca Cinemas.

We’re giving away 5 tickets to the event right here! You must be in NYC on Monday to attend the event.

All you have to do is head to Lover.ly, sign up for an account, and then come back here and comment on this post with your Lover.ly username you’ve chosen. That’s it! We’ll pick 5 winners on Friday at noon EST to join us on Monday.

Psst: Diamond in the Rough is also giving away some tickets…head to their Facebook page to enter there as well to increase your chances of winning!

Hope to see you in NYC on Monday!

Early early into our unengagement I came across Lego cake toppers. Let me pause here: both Sweetie Scone and I were giant Lego nerds growing up, so these were just too fun not to look at in Fall 2009.

Image via Etsy / From Folded Fancy Creations

Well one day I came home from school and Sweetie Scone had a surprise…she had custom designed and ordered our very own Lego cake topper! (FYI, it was less expensive than buying one on Etsy.) Our cake peeps are still in pieces waiting for their grand entrance.

I pooooositively love that we have a Lego cake topper, but I have a secret fear…that one day our (nonexistent) kids will find our cake topper and disassemble it and the pieces will be lost unto the ages. While this would certainly not be the end of the world, I would love to have a part of our wedding cake present for milestone anniversaries like the 25th or the 50th! At my parents’ 30th wedding anniversary we located the pieces of their topper and put it on the cake. It was seriously one of my favorite things. So I have been thinking about supplemental options that could join our fantastic little Lego friends. The idea of a couple strategically placed flowers is appealing to both Sweetie Scone and me…like so:

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by JL Photographers / Cake by Cakes to Celebrate

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Orange Turtle Photography

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Gina Meola Photography / Cake by Classic Cakes & Confections

While we could get fresh flowers from our florist…we could also go to Etsy (because that solves all problems, right?).

So I am thinking about one of these lovelies:

Image via DK Designs on Etsy

Image via DK Designs on Etsy

Image via DK Designs on Etsy

Image via DK Designs on Etsy

What do you think?

When it came to thinking up ideas for escort cards my brain made a nice little “hummmmmmmmm” sound in the background. It seemed so trivial to think about when you have a 1 1/2 year engagement, until I realized I have about 50 days until the wedding and I better make some type of decision on what to do.

There are so many cute ideas out there and I liked a bunch of them.

At first I was really gung-ho on saving the environment and using non-paper options. Because, suddenly I am all about saving the trees? Okay, truth is, I was just being a lazy poser and the real reason I was resisting making little cards is because it’s just so many little pieces of paper to write out!

My venue, however, asks that you put each guest’s dinner selection ON their escort card (please don’t get me started on how this irks me) so this was posing a problem. On top of this I kept worrying that when it came down to it, committing to a seating chart like this would be too risky. If it was necessary to add last minute guests or change-up seating, it would be difficult to make the necessary changes on a pre-printed framed seating chart or on a permanent chalk-paint chalkboard.

So, back to square one. I decided I liked clothespins. Why? Um…I got nuttin’ for ya.

I decided I really liked the tag idea as well and checked out a few websites to find the necessary materials. I ended up ordering a bunch of clothespins & a bunch of little tags. I plan on coffee-staining the tags to make them look a little vintage, clipping the cute little clothespins to each one (makes a handy little escort card handle) and BAM, done. You know, done once they get here and I make time for the project…

I like that it’s simple, a little rustic, and a little different. I figure I can stain the tags while I stare blankly at Real Housewives of some stupid city or another, and write out the table assignments at my leisure (probably two days before the wedding as I down glasses of white wine at my in-laws while cursing at myself for procrastinating).

Did you have any last minute epiphany ideas for your wedding details?

Image via Abundant Moments Photography

Image via Marley & Mel Wedding Photography

I love the nostalgic feeling I get when I see photo guestbooks. They remind me of yearbooks from the good ol’ days. The shiny new yearbooks would arrive and everyone would flip through its pages, leaving silly notes for their friends and promises of great summer adventures together. As soon as our engagement photos arrived I set to work on creating our guestbook. There are a ton of programs out there that can help you create your own photo album. For me, it came down to AdoramaPix or Photobook America.

In the end I decided to go with Photobook America. It has some mixed reviews, but overall I was pretty impressed with what I read. Oh and I stumbled across a great Groupon deal which may or may not have influenced my decision. I was a bit nervous since I had never designed a photo album before, but I have to say that I found their software to be pretty easy to use. Even though it was hard to initially navigate, once I got the hang of it, it was smooth sailing. As a side note, if you are planning on making your own photo album and are having trouble deciding on which company to go with I highly recommend checking out PhotoBookGirl as well as Jason Dunn’s in-depth reviews. They both created photo albums with at least a dozen different companies and detailed their experiences. It was infinitely helpful to me.

(Personal Photo)

(Personal Photo)

Are you going the photo guestbook route? Tell me about your experience (and what kind of pen you’re using)!

PS. 100 Wedding Bee points to anyone who gets the reference in my title.

Let me start from the semi-beginning. I was super excited when I chose navy as our primary wedding color because I thought, “That’s so easy! Navy is so simple!” Turns out, there are millions of shades of navy and there is no such thing as just “navy.” I realized this when I started designing things for the wedding and found so many great templates and pictures I could use online that looked like they were the same color, but when put next to each another were very different. I most recently found this baby, and I’m pretty much obsessed:

Image via stock.xchng / Isn’t she a beaut?

And I loved her! I immediately began fidgeting around to see what kind of monogram/date I could fit in, when I realized my standard navy blue shade looked nothing like this one. I’d been trying to match everything I downloaded to one, but seriously it is impossible. There are just too many colors.

I wondered to myself whether people would actually notice. And then I thought, “You are crazy. No one will notice but you. But you will make yourself crazy if it doesn’t match.” Don’t ask me why, but this was an issue that kept bothering me. I needed my navy to match!! And with that, I had almost given up when I decided to inquire with the one who has all the answers: Google!

Google brought me to Whatsitscolor and I uploaded my image within seconds. I was a little skeptical when I saw the background color, but I quickly looked below and saw this:

Personal screenshot

And there it was, first row, second in: my color!! It looked a little green to me, to be honest, but I plugged her into GIMP and came up with this:

Personal screenshot

This is zoomed in and super pixelated to show the similarity, but isn’t it perfect??! I am using this site all the time now, and I can’t even tell you how excited it makes me that these colors are perfect!

I don’t claim to know anything about fonts, design, or art, so this might totally have been a roundabout way of figuring things out, but maybe it can help you, too!!

The website also gives you a palette of colors that match the photo you upload (or get from the internet), which is also super helpful to find matching colors as well!

Does anyone else think this is the coolest thing ever? Or have any ideas on matching colors when creating your wedding designs??

I liked the idea of getting them jewelry and I probably still will get them each a nice necklace or something, but I wanted to do something a little different. (I promise, this is cool! Keep reading.)

Before I show you…

Now that they are gone, let’s get to the good stuff.

I found this awesome service called Birchbox that sends out different beauty samples every month right to your door.

Image via Birchbox

I thought it would be really fun to get a 3-month subscription for each girl; that way they could get to try new makeup and also have a package to look forward to every month! Who doesn’t love getting packages?? Especially when it’s not something you ordered yourself. For me, it’s like Christmas when I see a package sitting on my doorstep.

So what do y’all think? Would you like to receive a BM gift like this? DW brides, what are you gifting your bridesmaids?

I’m so grateful to the bees who blazed the wearing-white-to-other-wedding-events trail before me. That was sarcastic actually. If I hadn’t decided I needed a new white dress for every event, I’d be a lot better off, I imagine. I want my money and naïveté back! And my closet space too. For those of you who haven’t considered the fact that you have to wear white to all wedding events because you’re the friggin’ bride I apologize for giving you the idea now.

I decided to make a dress to wear to my shower (possibly both showers) because it would be “cheaper” and I could “make it look however I wanted.” I seem to have forgotten that buying fabric is rarely cheaper than just buying a Forever 21 dress. I also seem to have forgotten that I suck at sewing, so it’s literally impossible for me to make it look however I want. But I did my best!

Personal pic

I promise you I’m not wearing opaque white tights. That’s my real leg color…

I wish I could provide you with a tutorial, but I actually used a pattern for the bodice (crazy, I know). It’s the dress pattern featured in the Burdastyle Sewing Handbook, if you’re curious. I also used Casey Brown’s circle skirt tutorial, and I sort of haphazardly attached the top to the bottom. You don’t want to see a close-up of the zipper area. Trust me. You’ll notice the skirt is really poofy too, sort of Mad Men-esque, to use an already overused phrase.

Image via The Gloss

I was going for a less costumey version of Betty Draper. As I always am…

When this show first came on the air, I stupidly thought her skirt was poofy because it had a lot of fabric, or maybe because the fabric was stiff and draped differently. Both are partly true, of course, but now that I’ve been reading sewing blogs a lot more, I realize she was most definitely wearing a crinoline! After all these years of failing to achieve maximum poofiness–exhibit A, my engagement pics dress–I finally discovered the secret to poofiness!

You’re probably familiar with crinolines if you’ve started looking at wedding dresses already because many of them require one. For those who don’t know, a crinoline is also sometimes referred to as a petticoat, pettiskirt, or slip. You can buy them inexpensively from various Etsy sellers, square dancing costume sites, and yes, wedding dress shops. Here’s more info on Wiki for those who love fashion history.

Image from My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding via Unreality Shout

Without the crinoline, or its cousin the hoop skirt, dresses like this wouldn’t exist! And that would be a tragedy.

I tried to make my crinoline using this tutorial from Sugardale, but I wanted to make an elastic waistband (I’m a beginner! Leave me alone!) and I also ended up buying the wrong fabric (I’m a beginner!), plus I ruffled my fabric way more than I was supposed to (I am a friggin BEGINNER, people!) so the tutorial didn’t end up applying to me very much. I ended up making more of a tutu…

Personal pic

Personal pic

This was the most difficult thing to photograph ever.

And even though it looks ridic by itself, it gets the job done under the skirt.

Personal pic

I purposely bought pink netting so it could peek out cutely, but I think it’s too light to really make a difference. Still, it happens to match perfectly with my favorite pair of shoes (bought for $9.99 back in 2004–best purchase ever) and my beloved bow belt.

Here’s a quick and dirty explanation of how I made the crinoline: I first decided how long I wanted the crinoline to be (based on the length of my skirt) then divided that number by 3–for 3 tiers–and accounted for seam allowance. The first tier is an elastic waistband attached to some lining fabric that I gathered against the elastic. It’s 7 inches wide, as all my tiers were (to make a ~21 inch long crinoline). The second tier is ruffled netting that’s 7 inches wide and several yards long. I think 12 yards? I kept adding more because my machine ruffled it too much, so it wasn’t long enough. The third tier is more ruffled netting, about 16-20 yards I believe. Again, it depends on how ruffly you make it—mine’s a tutu, remember? Then you attach all three tiers to each other and you’re done. I suggest using a real tutorial though.

And here it is in action:

Personal pic

I’m not sure why my calf muscle looks like it’s birthing another calf muscle. I’m not even athletic.

Stay tuned for yet another white dress I’ve procured for the wedding! Did you guys get caught up in buying other white dresses for wedding events?

Mr. Mink, on the other hand, has been to every sunny vacation destination you can think of. Name a tropical island and he’s probably been there. As a result, I told Mr. Mink that he could decide where we’d go, but I had two requests. First, there must be a beach. Second, I want to see dolphins. My response to the idea of swimming with dolphins is a lot like Kristen Bell’s reaction to the idea of meeting a sloth, which you may have seen on the Ellen show recently.

Via The EllenShow Channel on Youtube

For what it’s worth, as an animal lover, I also feel this way about the prospect of meeting a panda, elephant, sloth, sea otter, or seal pup.

Shortly after articulating my two requirements, I thought the dolphin request might be too limiting, so I retracted it, but Mr. Mink said that if I want dolphins, we’ll find dolphins.

After evaluating all the options, Mr. Mink decided that we are going to Jamaica. Apparently, there is a cove where visitors can interact with trained dolphins. When Mr. Mink read the description out loud, I almost lost it. I read reviews of the experience on TripAdvisor.com and they are mostly positive. I told Mr. Mink not to make a reservation at the dolphin place just yet because I want to do more research about it, but I’m thrilled that we have a destination chosen.

Of course, now we have to figure out exactly where on Jamaica we’ll go and where we’ll stay. For a relatively small island, there sure are a huge number of options for resorts there! Mr. Mink wants to go to either Negril or Ocho Rios and each have the popular all-inclusive reports that are popular with honeymooners. There are also some lesser known resorts in both locations. To say the options are overwhelming would be an understatement. We could spend weeks reading reviews online.

We need to book soon, so I’d love some direction. What websites did you use to settle on your honeymoon destination? Any tips for Jamaica?

You know those songs that aren’t technically a one hit wonder, nor are they necessarily a guilty pleasure? I’m talking about those songs that  come on in a bar, a party, or a wedding where everyone gets up and dances?

I am talking everyone….no matter if they are young or old, male or female, their preference on toilet paper being hung over (right way) or under (wrong way). You get my drift; they are simply…super awesome songs. If these songs come on, there is no way people can stay seated. They must dance.

They are usually featured in movies as well.

Here are a few examples:

Ferris Bueller at the parade singing Twist and Shout. When this song comes on at a wedding, you bet everyone is going to get up to dance.

{Video via You Tube}

Who doesn’t love Bennie and the Jets? Whenever this song comes on, you know everyone is going to get up and sing the wrong lyrics together. A shining example is the bar scene from 27 Dresses.

{Video via You Tube}

You also can’t forget Old Time Rock and Roll. If this song comes on…you know you’re going to party. Don’t try and tell me you haven’t tried to mimic Tom Cruise in Risky Business…it’s okay, we’ve all done it.

{Video via You Tube}

You see, the only way to describe these songs are that they are super awesome. Anybody will get up and dance to these songs. I’ve added these three songs to my list for my DJ to play, and I am on a quest to find some more.

What songs can you think of to play at a wedding that would get even the must stubborn person get up and dance?

And I love it.

The main reason I had trouble putting together a color story was the darned uniforms! But after struggling to find colors I liked that didn’t clash with the uniforms, I realized something: the uniforms don’t have to match anything! And a friend pointed out that they don’t even match themselves sometimes; all the medals, ribbons, and badges are designed to stand out from one another.

The color palette should have been set, right? But of course it wasn’t because I also tried to avoid black—the black and blue combo didn’t feel “summer-y” enough for our July wedding.

Welp. I love black, always have and always will. And white—I love white. And it’s hard to use text as inspiration without it. Gold wiggled into the palette as an accent color in our flower containers, and hopefully in our invites. And I’ve been smitten with various shades of pink as a substitute for red, another one of my favorite colors.

I still can’t let go of the sea glass color, from my original palette, so I’m going to find a way to work it in. And I left the uniform colors up there so I can see that they still look good against the color palette, even if they don’t exactly “match.”

So there you have it. It’s bold. It’s sophisticated. And it’s still appropriate for a summer affair.

What do you think? Military brides—is your SO wearing a uniform? Did the colors throw you off a bit? Or did they work for you?

Image via The Knot / Photo by Carrie Patterson Photography

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Jamee Photography

Only without the circle top. There are a few things that Sweetie Scone really really cares about, and this is one of them. I don’t really care as long as our cake is simple and tasty…so we are having a square-circle-square cake.

Now here is the scoop: I like the simplicity of the top one, the width/circumference of the bottom one, and maybe a slightly taller layer than the bottom ones show to get a similar proportion to the top cake.

I ended up getting a wild hair because this isn’t necessarily our baker’s specialty style, so I am going to do a mock-up soon. Styrofoam, frosting…maybe even the Lego peeps and fresh flowers. I hope it turns out well and that it will give us the ability to give specifics to Margie. We likely won’t see Margie again until the wedding day, and even then we might not see her. This is me trying to manage my type-A so I am not worried at the wedding.

Are you playing with shapes for your cake?

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Fox image via Roseanna Piter

She gone?? OK good.

This weekend I’ll be heading to my old turf back in Philly for brideslady M’s surprise bridal shower. I know that generally you are supposed to buy gifts off of the bride and groom’s registry for these types of events, but I had an itch to do a little something different. While brideslady A (also invited to said shower) and I will be splitting a gift for M, I felt the desire to do a bit extra. Get my DIY on. Display my creativity and whatnot.

I forget where I originally saw the idea, but I wanted to create a quick and easy yet pretty looking monogram-in-a-frame for M and her soon to be hubs. After a quick trip to Michaels and scrounging around my arts and crafts box, I had my supplies.

Three letters, a shadow box, glitter glue, and teal card stock (not shown: paintbrush and glue).

I didn’t want to go too overboard with anything, since I’m pretty good at completely effing things up when I try and get fancy. I figured a nice coat of glitter paint on the outside of the wood letters might spruce things up and create a bit more 3D effect.

Ehh, a bit too bare; so I added a second coat which really helped!

I cut the card stock down to the size of the frame, then glued the letters onto the back and onto each other.

I then assembled everything into the frame, and presto! A shadowbox monogram!

As a final step, I also added a thin strip of glittery card stock around two sides of the frame. I could say I meant to do this from the get go and be all artsy fartsy with it, but that would be a lie. In all actuality, I realized a bit too late that I glued the letters on off-center and needed to fill up the right side somehow. You can sorta tell in the next picture.

I promise it looks better in person than it does from my phone’s camera (taking pictures with my dSLR was just way too much work last night). Foxy even said he wanted me to make one for us eventually! I’d count that as a win.

Anyway, I just thought this was a fun, relatively easy little project that you could do a lot with and might be a nice little gift for any number of occasions! And hey, if brideslady M hates it…it was maybe a total of $20 after coupons and such. I won’t be offended.

What are some other creative monogrammed gift ideas you’ve seen out there?

After some planning and time, I decided to create one for a couple of reasons:

1. You can get a decent template for free!
2. They are fun, and you can share more informal information on them than you can in invitations.
3. They are a good way to spread info to all parties.
4. You can link to your registry.

I haven’t been to too too many weddings, but in some of the ones I have, the registration information was included with the informal invitations. I hadn’t thought anything about that again until I read on the Weddingbee boards that it’s not really good wedding etiquette. (Who knew?) With that, I then decided pretty much to create a website so that our wedding registry information could be translated appropriately.

I also plan to include on there details such as accommodations, directions, and specifics about the meals.

And the online RSVP? I’m still not feeling it. I’m not against anyone who is super tech savvy that is doing it themselves, but it just isn’t for us. I like getting mail and, frankly, want to make a pretty RSVP card, so we’re holding off.

Anyway, back to the website. Of course, because I am completely indecisive, it took me weeks to decide on a site, and I played around with almost all of the top sites that offer free websites. (Even though I think the site is important, this is not something we budgeted for; therefore I’m not going to go overboard.) I was actually surprised at how many sites are available that are useful and aesthetically pleasing for FREE!! I went through a BUNCH and created sites on Wedding Paper Divas, The Knot, Nearlyweds, Google, and more.

In the end, I decided on a website the same way I decide everything else in life: I analyzed every option available, picking a favorite 12 times, and then in the end picked one when I had almost driven myself nuts from my own indecisiveness:

I went with mywedding.com mostly for two reasons: 1.) they had so many designs to choose from that I thought looked professional, and 2.) the page was really able to be customized. I could add and delete things as necessary and only make visible the information I wanted until I was finished with a page. Plus, I had the opportunity to make up pages such as the dorky “How well do you know us?” quiz. As a bonus, the site that our guests have to go to is just mywedding.com/ourlastname as opposed to site.anothersite.randomname.

Any other good free sites out there? Did anyone else start a website on five-plus sites before making a decision like I did?

I really should go back and delete all of those…

I thought that an upcoming wedding would be a big motivator to be in the best shape ever, but honestly it has had the opposite effect. And really, that makes sense, because when I was in my best shape ever, I was spending 20-30 hours a week training, and was laser-focused on competition. These days, not so much. However, all my clothes still fit and I don’t feel horrible so I have had a hard time seeing a “problem.”

Well, I must have missed the memo that all brides are fitness-crazed, calorie counting, and worried about the fit of their dresses. Lucky for me, a few months into my engagement this was pointed out to me. The kicker? It was pointed out by an acquaintance! Someone I knew, kinda, but in any other situation would be totally inappropriate for her to comment on my weight or size. We were talking about getting ice cream (or was it doughnuts?) with a group and she looked at me and said,

“But you have a wedding dress to fit into!”

My jaw dropped. OK, first of all, I did not yet have a dress, so if this ice cream outing somehow expanded my girth noticeably, I could buy a dress to accommodate. Second, the idea that an ice cream cone 7 months out will have any effect on my size in April is insane! And really, is it any of your business!?

At the time I just laughed and made some comment about not having to worry yet…

I thought this would be a one-off thing, but it wasn’t. My family members have said it, friends have said it…I’ve heard it so many times I am starting to believe it!

But then I look at my other clothes. I look at my skinny jeans and there is still no muffin top. I look at my tailored clothes, and they all still fit and lay just as nicely as they did when I bought them. I have not expanded at all, I am still more-or-less the same shape, even though that shape is just softer than it used to be.

This leads me to believe that the only thing prompting these “You have a wedding dress to fit into!” comments is the fact that I am getting married. I am (or was) very comfortable with my body. I feel good, I look good, (most of the time, if I put in effort) and I do not see a pressing need to change my body for a one day (non-athletic) event. If I were training for an Iron Man or something that would be different, but I am not.

I am comfortable in my own skin. Mr. Aardvark likes how I look, I like (most of) how I look, and I have even enjoyed the boobs that not training all the time has granted me! I am healthy, I eat pretty well, I exercise a few times a week, but I am not as hardcore as I once was. Maybe when the madness of wedding planning dies down that will change, but for now, it works.

So please, when I reach for that cupcake, cookie, or extra scoop of baked macaroni, I do not need to be reminded of my upcoming nuptials. I am aware that I am getting married. I know that I have a dress, and the last time I tried it on (even after eating) it looked amazing.

Have you found that people comment more on your weight or eating habits now that you’re getting married? How do you deal with it?

Why then, do I find myself thinking thoughts like:

“Ooh, I should remember to pack some of our favourite tea bags!”

“Maybe a box or two of granola bars for snacks?”

Luckily, I hadn’t gotten as far as wondering if I should pack 3 weeks worth of cereal, but that isn’t too far off from those original thoughts.

Every time one of those thought bubbles putts its way across my brain, I remind myself that we want this vacation to be different from home. We want to try new things! So what if I don’t drink of cup of Stash’s Meyer Lemon or Green & White tea for three weeks? It’ll be waiting here when I get back. I don’t eat granola bars on normal days anyway, why would I drag a box all the way to Costa Rica? It isn’t like they don’t have things like tea or snacks. I want to truly experience the country, be immersed in it. Bringing things like that from home waters that down a bit, I feel.

Have you experienced similar thoughts when planning a trip?

We started with a textured, sparkly paper that I got from Michaels on sale. / personal photo

I printed everything from Adobe Photoshop onto the paper, and then used a paper cutter borrowed from my mom’s office to make sure everything was nice and straight. Plus, it made the process fast! / personal photo

We then used this little scrapbooking tool to round off the edges. Luckily my mom had this sitting around our house. It really finished off the look. / personal photo

We stacked all the pieces up so we could finish them off. / Personal photo

We tied twine around each set of invites to finish off the suite. It took some time, but I think they look pretty darn cute all lined up! / Personal photo

After several nights of hard work I finally got these in the mail.

How long did it take you to get your invites in the mail? Days, weeks… months?

Remember that I already made my ladies these awesome hair pieces to wear day of, but it just simply wasn’t enough for those kind women who are standing up with me on that biggest of big days. So I started searching around for some jewelry. My DIY prowess is legendary in my family, but I knew that the bling was way out of my expertise. Where did I look for those who do? Etsy of course!!

I did a lot of looking and price comparisons, and finally I struck gold! I found Merelani Designs and knew instantly that she was the one I wanted to buy my jewelry from. So I found my favorite stuff and sent her a quick email about a custom listing and BAM! She set it up the very next day. Want to see what I got my pretty ladies?

Well, each one of my BMs is going to get a necklace like this, with their initial:

And to pair with that, they are going to get these earrings:

I like how simple the jewelry is. I think that all of the ladies will wear at least the necklaces pretty regularly, and hopefully the earrings on great occasions.

What do you think? Did you get your BMs jewelry as a gift? Did they wear it again?

Mother Nature seems to have different thoughts, as Philadelphia has experienced uncharacteristically warm weather lately. In fact, I’d take some of the recent weather days for our wedding day!

The last time the Turkeys wore their heavy winter coats—January 2 for the Winter Classic

But back to the honeymoon.

Unlike Dalmatien, we weren’t looking for a pure vacation. We learned early on that the two of us can only do full relaxation in small doses. One, two days max.

Mr. Turkey, reading in a hammock in Palm Beach

Once we hit that relaxation threshold, we start to go stir crazy and require some activity.

Example: in 2009, we went to Aruba and although we loved our time on the beach, reading and taking advantage of early happy hours…we most enjoyed our day out on the ocean, snorkeling.

Dorky snorkelers—water camera and all

So, when we looked at honeymoon options, we wanted to find a balance. We know that relaxation is likely to be most important in the early days of our honeymoon—heck, we’ll probably sleep through at least one day after the wedding exhaustion. With that, we took our #1 choice—Europe—off the table.

Maybe for our 1 year anniversary…sigh Personal photo of Venice

We have been talking about going abroad together since we started dating and although many couples have enjoyed fabulous European honeymoons (Argyle’s honeymoon in Greece is a DREAM)…it would be too much for us. Our personalities would not allow us to miss a single second of the sites around us—whether in France, Italy, Germany or Greece—meaning some exhausted Turkeys on the back end. No one wants to start their married life tired, right?

With Europe out of the running, we decided to focus our honeymoon search on places that would find us that “balance” I mentioned before. Where could we go that would give us time to relax and read some good books (Mr. Turkey already has 5 laid aside), but also keep us busy with various activities and sightseeing?

We were looking for something that could give us this:

Image from Hilton Bora Bora Nui Resort & Spa

but also have plenty of options like this:

Kayaking in Florida

Ultimately, when factoring in cost, travel time and complexity (language barriers, money exchange), we decided that Hawaii was the right location for us.

It’s a fairly “typical” honeymoon venue, but believe it or not, we had a few people question our decision since I had been to Hawaii before. Although the naysayers bothered us at first, it didn’t sway our decision. The bottom line is that this will be the first visit to Hawaii for us. Together. Mr. & Mrs. Turkey (eek!). Even if we visit some of the same places, it will be a completely different (and special) experience!

And, honestly, even if you’ve seen it 100 times over…who can turn down views like this,

Personal photo - Lahaina (Maui) 2008

water like this,

Water view from Wailea (Maui) - 2008

and fun like this?

Miss Turkey catches a (very small) wave - 2008

We are very excited about our Hawaiian honeymoon and have started planning out some activities to keep us busy throughout our 12(!) day trip.

Is anyone else going on a honeymoon somewhere they’ve been before? Did you have people question your decision?

We knew once we had moved into the officially engaged stage (pre-reqs and rings checked off) that people would want to know when this party would kick off, so we started talking dates. Here are all of the factors running through our heads:

• Sweetie Scone’s sister was head over heels and had marriage on the horizon sometime in 2010/2011.
• My cousin was getting married in May 2010. We absolutely did not want people to feel financially stressed with weddings too close together.
• Prop. 8 had started its way to the US Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals was hearing arguments, and it was clear that one way or another this could seriously impact our legal standing. We wanted to give the repeal ample time to make its way to the highest court in the land.
• I was in grad school and was slated to graduate in Spring 2011.
• We had no idea if we would still be living in California or if we would move to Oregon for work opportunities.
• Sweetie Scone’s work is very seasonal—June, July, August, September, and October tend to be pretty busy.

All of these factors led us to a long engagement. We were initially planning on May 2012 for a hot minute.

Image via The Daily Cookie /Photo by Benefit Cosmetics

A couple weeks after pinning down Memorial Day weekend in 2012, I was contacted by my College Class Board and asked to co-chair my 10-year college reunion in Massachusetts the weekend before our tentative wedding date. Reunion is a weekend-long event where alums come in from all over the world to catch up. Here’s a little window into reunion:

Image via Mt. Holyoke College Alumnae Association

Image via Alumnae Association of MHC on Facebook / Photo submitted by Genevieve Davila

Having two large weekend-long events in a row, across the country from each other wasn’t really feasible. Sweetie Scone and I had many conversations about what it would mean for us and…

…in the end we decided to push the wedding back to July 2012 and go full force for the Summer of Events 2012: Reunion in May and our wedding in July.

Did I bite off more than I can chew?

Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee Classifieds, and you might see it featured on the blog!

Other great items for sale:

Unique picture frame photo booth in Austin area, asking $500

12 black vases, asking $3 each

Purple Badgley Mischka heels, size 10, asking $80

La Sposa “Denia” gown, size 4, asking $1,500

And now, I’m happy to report that the Coyotes have finally decided on a florist. Yippee!!

To recap, Momma Coyote and I met with two florists. One was very straightforward and gave me exactly what I showed him in photos while the other was more creative and kind of ran with my inspiration to create something new. Both were great options, but after a few conversations with the more creative florist I realized that we just had two very different visions. I found that I had trouble explaining to her the kind of feel I wanted for our wedding—something that I did not run into with the other florist.

We are meeting with our florist in a few weeks to nail down the specifics and in the meantime I’m gathering some more inspiration so I’m better prepared for our next chat.

I still luuuurve calla lilies (though I don’t love the dolla signs that come with them) so I know without a doubt that at least some burgundy callas will make an appearance and maaaaybe some hot pink ones too:

Burgundy calla lilies image via Aruntx

I’d also like to add some pink orchids and alstroemeria to the mix:

Finally, I want to try and break up all of that pink with some white hydrangea:

It’s so difficult to imagine how all of these separate pieces will look together, but our florist has offered to do a mock-up for us and will work with us to make sure that we get the exactly what we want. I’m hoping for that simple-yet-elegant-OMG-look-how-purty-those-flowers-are look that I’ve been envisioning in my little bride brain. You know what I’m talking about, right?!

I’m so happy that we have finally decided on a florist and even happier that I’ve (somewhat) narrowed down my vision for wedding day flowers.

How did you decide which flowers to use?

I GOT A WEDDING DRESS!!

I didn’t think I’d ever catch Mr. Woodpecker reading Weddingbee, but apparently men are full of surprises and I found out he had already my first two dress posts. That sneaky Woodpecker!

Anyway, after five stores and 50-plus dresses, here she is:

Image via Watters.com

Here she is, the Watters Pasadena. She’s everything I had hoped for…a sweetheart neckline, alençon lace, and quite the beauty. I had a hard time deciding between her and one other, but in the end I just love it!!

Once again, she was a size-12 sample, so I am super super duper excited for when mine comes in and is in my size!! As much as clips can do, every dress that I have tried on in my size has just felt so real and different. I also am getting the dress in white and white. (I think here it is ivory and nude or white and ivory.)

Personal photo from Mama WP’s iphone

*Please excuse the picture (sisters WP were not present to take photos), the fact that this dress is way too big (and not clipped), and also please excuse that I have a woman’s jacket tied around my waist in lieu of a belt. I’ll tell you the story of that later.

This was my fifth store that I searched for a wedding dress at. It was a small store on the town green next to mine, and I didn’t have too high of expectations. However, they had SOOOO many beautiful lace dresses, and every one I tried I love more than the others. I had gone there hoping to see the Wtoo Delphine and Natalia, my previous #1 choices, but once I tried them on, they were a bit less than I was looking for. I definitely didn’t feel like the real dresses lived up to their pictures. I wanted to love them, though, I really did.

Overall, I found the search for a wedding dress one of the hardest parts of wedding planning so far. Maybe it’s the constant changing of outfits, or the fact that every dress is twice the size of me and a foot too long for my short stature, but I really found the process exhausting! I definitely had several Goldilocks moments—”too much, too little, too poufy”—and sincerely felt bad for those who were trucking around with me for appointment after appointment!

Now it doesn’t matter, though, because I HAVE A DRESS!!!

Dear Mr. Hawk,

Exactly 100 days from today, we will be married. We have been engaged for just shy of a year now, but it almost feels like forever ago that you proposed to me while we vacationed in NYC. Being engaged has been awesome. I’ve been busily planning under the notion that it was all in preparation for some distant, far away date. Sending out the save the dates was a big “this is getting real” moment, but for some reason seeing that countdown clock hit 100 changed things. It got me excited and giddy because I know it’s not some distant date down the road. It’s actually approaching, and rather quickly at that! We’ve got most of the major details locked down, but these next couple months will probably be a whirlwind. Most likely I’ll get caught up in silly details, and I can almost promise you that at some point you will find me on the floor crying surrounded by ribbons, paper, and/or fabric scraps. Thank you for your patience.

I want you to know that while it may seem like I’m focused and caught up in all of the pretty, beautiful details, I am more than anything, first and foremost looking forward to marrying you. I probably don’t say that enough. I love you. And because I’ve been on an Avett Brothers kick lately, this is for you (just ignore that January bit…)

“…And in January [100 days] we’re getting married…”

Hive, was there a moment that changed things for you?

…thanks a whole lot!

<3,

M

The sad part is that there were many more paint chips once upon a time. I took a trip to Home Depot after I realized that I had way too many ideas swirling around in my head. The key, for me, is to think visually, and then get organized to start narrowing my thoughts down to a cohesive look. And since I didn’t have a Pantone chip set laying around, the paint section at my local Home Depot had to do.

And you want to know a little secret? I went nuts in there, grabbing paint chips left and right. And I went back a couple times. I collected these colorful paint chips like a little kid might collect toy cars. I organized them again and again: take out the red, add a blue, take out the blue, add orange. No, no orange…

And then I thought I finally had something!

Did you go to unusual lengths to figure out your color palette? Have you utilized any interesting materials to put together your color scheme?

We will be performing routine maintenance on the boards tomorrow, Thursday February 9th, around 10AM PST. We expect for the boards portion of the site to be down for about 1 hour. Feel free to join us right here on the blog during the outage!

Let me know if you have any questions, or if you want to commiserate about boards withdrawal symptoms you may be experiencing during the downtime, you can let us know in the comments. We feel you.

I let out a big sigh once we got to the church, or, at least, I tried to. Instead of being relieved that we had arrived and could get this show on the road, I was inundated with more reasons to worry. Namely, I walked through the doors to the church to find about 25 people all looking expectantly back at me and one person even announced “Wow, everyone beat you here!” It definitely didn’t help my stress level. I couldn’t even process what was going on, and then I was all of a sudden being told to go up to the altar to meet with the wedding coordinator, who then proceeded to ask me for my unity candle and a sample wedding program… neither of which had ever been mentioned as “must-haves” for the rehearsal. I embarrassingly told her that I had neither, to which she responded with a “Well, um, that’s OK. We’ll just have to make do, I suppose.”

Perfect, thanks for that vote of confidence.

I returned to the pews, where everyone else had assembled, and officially felt like I had earned the title of “Most Disorganized Bride Ever.”

The fact that I didn’t think to bring a program or the unity candle (despite the fact that I was never asked to bring them) made me feel like SUCH an inadequate human being. Seriously. I started to get shaky, nervous, and sweaty. The priest then called me back to try and find the readings I had selected (which were listed in the MIA program), and thankfully we were able to remember which readings had been selected. I had been at my own rehearsal for about 5 minutes and had already committed a big handful of no-nos. I was a mess. The palms of my hands were drenched in sweat, I felt clammy, and I thought I was about two  seconds from a serious bout of some dry heaves. And, fun fact, I get stress hives on my face if I have a mildly stressful conversation about paying the cable bill, so you can imagine how blotchy and itchy I was getting at this stage in the bridal-fail game.

Once again, I tried to collect myself, with Mr. Snow Cone reassuring me that now that the rehearsal was underway, things would be fine.

Please note the death-grip I had on Mr. Snow Cone’s hand during all of this.

Photo by my brother P

Our priest led the group in a prayer session, reflecting on our reading selections and commenting that they were rather peculiar for a wedding (again, thanks for the confidence). He then asked our readers to come forward and practice their readings… which, they had never laid eyes on. Fortunately, we picked two perfectly literate individuals to do our readings, so they were able to nail the text on the very first go. Plus, they had the foresight to not totally throw me under the bus regarding my inability to give them a preview of their readings ahead of time. That, my friends, is why you give important roles to awesome people. The way they nailed the potentially-difficult Biblical verses set the tone for the rest of the rehearsal. I started to feel like myself again, rediscovering the task-masker, organized bride inside me. I tried my best to lower my stress level, get rid of my itchy hives, relax my over-active sweat glands, and calm my stomach in order to get through the rest of the rehearsal.

• We spent a low-key night with some of my friends and family.
• We ran some errands and received some one-of-a-kind brewskies.

We planned our outside winter wedding in anticipation of the weather being winter-y. We had outdoor heaters, we passed along wise words to dress warm, and my mom even bought 30 fleece blankets at after-Christmas sales. What we didn’t plan on was unusually warm weather. By January 10th, Durango had not even a flake of snow since the first week in December, and the highs were nearing the mid-50s. When trees are dormant and all that remains from the last snowstorm is brown ice and brown dirt, the landscape is far from pretty.

On January 11th, the day our 10-day forecast was available, it predicted sun, sun, and more sun all the way through our wedding day. What was the problem with all the sunny weather predictions?

Both Mr. Honey and I just wanted one damn snow storm.

We wanted fluffy white ground, a frozen lake, and snow-tipped trees. Keeping in mind that a Colorado bluebird day would not be that awful, and that we cannot  control the weather, I tried my damnedest to just accept it. I honestly did. But I prayed to Ullr anyway and requested everyone I know do the same to help this winter bride out. In case you aren’t familiar with Ullr, he his believed by many mountain townsmen and women to be the God of Snow and he is summoned when the winter is looking rather bleak. I have no idea the authenticity of the legend, but I do know I had nothing to lose by requesting a little precipitation.

On January 16th, the Monday of our wedding week, we got snow. Whether it was Ullr or just a change in the forecast, the once brown ground was finally covered with the white stuff! We even got enough snow for our flower girls to build this giant snowman:

We got our one snow storm, and I’ll admit that half of me was content with whatever the weather presented come Saturday. The other half of me? I got greedy: I wanted more snow. Throughout the year and a half of us planning, the possibility of a snow storm was there but I didn’t realize just how much I wanted that snow storm until the reality of it not being there was in front of me. Deep down I wanted a snow storm on our wedding day. There, I said it. Call us crazy—it’s okay… I realize how few people would actually say those words.

As the week wore on, the chance of snow on our Saturday grew more and more. It started with something like 10% chance after 10 pm and by Friday the chances were up around 60 or 70%. I didn’t believe it though…Friday was a beautiful day with clear skies and warm weather. Saturday morning I woke up to pretty thin clouds; they were not typical snow clouds. The forecast had something else in mind, though. There was a 100% chance of snow accumulation of up to 10 inches. The flakes started falling around 10 am and did.not.stop. We had the most perfect Colorado snow storm: fluffy snowflakes, a mild temperature, no wind, and a serenity that is only felt when a storm like that is happening.

My girls rocked their short dresses. Our photographer did have to run around with a pink fleece over his camera. Sure, guests got a little wet. And yes, it did cause a little bit of chaos. BUT it was the way our wedding weather turned out and it was amazing. We keep saying that if we could have  had control of the weather, a snow storm would have been our number one choice.

What started out as a less-than desired weather forecast turned into our weather wish. While no one can tell a bride to avoid looking at the forecast, it is safe to say that no matter how many times we do look at it, there’s no telling how quickly that forecast will change. Whether it’s my case of hoping for sun to change to snow or the normal situation of rain to shine, I hope you all have your version of perfect wedding weather. I’ll leave you with this one last teaser picture of the Honeys happily walking around in the perfect snow storm:

Photo by Zak Fleming Photography

Now, hopefully you are ready to see the snow-filled goodness from our wedding, because the Honey recaps are about to start!

Did anyone else have crazy weather on their wedding day? Any other brides hoping for something other than a sunny day?

Image via Wedding Cakes for You / Cake by Lorelie Carvey

Today, not so much. I could totally fall for this lovely lady. (Cakes are people too, you know.)

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Julie Mikos / Cake by Perfect Endings

But realistically that won’t fly with my better half or our baker (no sugar flowers—no problem). Sweetie Scone and I both love a simple delicious-looking (read: not so perfect) cake. We are lovers of butter-cream frosting, and there will be no fondant on our cake. We want people to look at the cake and go “Mmmmm, I want a piece.” My nieces are known swipers, and I don’t want to be peeved that my perfect cake has a finger swipe visible, so we are aiming for texture and not so perfect.

We might go for a straight up dirty frost.

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Sarah Yates Photography / Cake by Sweet & Saucy Shop

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Lane Dittoe

Or a textured pseudo-dirty frost.

Image via Style Me Pretty (who else?) / Photo by Caroline Tran / Cake by Christine Dahl Pastries

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Katie Lewis Photography / Cake by Nichole’s Fine Pastery

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Yvette Roman / Cake by Vanilla Bake Shop

But then there’s also the tailored frost.

Image via Kara’s Party Ideas / Cake by Couture Cupcakes & Cookies

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Mastin Studio / Cake by Cherry City Cakes

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Paper Antler

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Red Ribbon Studio / Cake by Cocoa & Fig

Or maybe we really like bold pipes.

Image via i am baker / Cake by Amanda Rettke

But also we like the visual interest of having different textures…

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by She-N-He / Cake by Blue Note Bakery

Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Gerber + Scarpelli / Cake by Silva’s Patisserie

Image via Ruffled / Photo by Soul Mates Photo / Cake by One Divine Party

I sourced all of that inspiration in my obsessive blog searching, and then our fantastic florist had to share with me this fun bit.

Image via Ritzy Bee / Cake by Liz Shim with Eat Cake be Merry

What do you think, can we hide the finger swipes and have a simple, tasty-looking cake? Don’t you just love…

Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee Classifieds, and you might see it featured on the blog!

Other great items for sale:

3 circular outdoor chandeliers, asking $25 each

David’s Bridal L9479 wedding dress, size 12, asking $475

Bunting printed on sheet music

Ivory satin jacket, size 4–6, asking $40

I used to love running. I never ran competitively, but running was my outlet. I used to burn stress and calories away and clear my mind. But somewhere between school and work I had let it go, and now I’m at the point where I leave when it’s dark out and and come home when it’s dark out. I’m not comfortable running in the dark, even though we live in a safe neighborhood, so I’m pretty excited about joining a gym!!!

Is anyone else completely intimidated by the gym?

I really really hate it, because I always think everyone is staring at me thinking about how slow I’m running (ridiculous, I know). But this time, Mr. Woodpecker and Little Sister Woodpecker are joining with me, so I think that will make me a whole lot more comfortable!

I’ve also made it my new year’s resolution to drink two to three of my huge bottles of water per day, and I’ve also been more rigid about my skincare routine. (I’m now forcing myself to do it when I just wanted to skip the facial scrub and moisturizer before bed.)

Anyone else doing anything way in advance to get their body/skin in shape???

If I learned anything from our morning, it’s to have a designated place for the men to get ready that has been run by everyone involved.

We planned on the boys getting shaves in the morning, then coming back to the Baconator’s mom’s room to get ready and have photos ops. Apparently we never ran this past his mom, so when he and the guys got to her room with tuxes in tow, his whole family was in the room and there was no place for them to get dressed. With no space to change, he and the guys went to his dad’s room instead…but the second shooter didn’t know that and found only family members when she arrived in MIL Bacon’s room and no one gave her directions on how to find the guys. FIL Bacon’s room number was a mystery and for some reason we didn’t make the appropriate phone calls to figure out where they guys were and suddenly it was time for the tea ceremony.

So, there are no adorable photos of the guys putting on cuff links or snapping on the rental ties or tying their embroidered sneakers. Instead, we only have a handful of post-tea ceremony shots of them eating lunch and the Baconator prancing down the hallway that our photographer managed to sneak in.

In short, take our morning as a precautionary tale. Don’t forget to ask yourself as you plan out the details of the morning “Where Them Boys At?” because the groom and groomsmen really can’t take care of themselves and your photographer can only do so much seeking if the subjects are hiding. Oh, and make sure that someone other than you has your man’s number in case he goes missing.

What are your boys going to be doing the morning of the wedding while you and your ladies get glam?

**All Photos Courtesy of JordanQuinn Photography**

Did you miss a Bacon recap? Don’t worry, here are some links to catch up!

• We came back with some reminders on how we made it to the big day.
• We whirled, we primped, we rehearsed, and we dined!
• The big day began with mascara and curlers.
• We served lots of Chinese tea and did lots of kneeling.
• My dress got her moment in the spotlight.
• The Bacon Bridesmaids got glam.
• This Bacon finally got to put on Big White.

Upon further inspection, I thought the robes seemed a bit short. The description says they are knee length, but they seemed to hit mid-thigh on most of the women I saw in pictures on the blogs. Maybe they’re knee length before they are tied? They also seemed a bit expensive in light of what they are. They’re $65 for very lightweight cotton.

From Green Wedding Shoes / Photo by Aaron Delesie

I started to look for alternatives and came across this pretty robe on the Pottery Barn website.

At $59, it wasn’t really a better deal, but I decided to wait around and see if one of those lovely discount codes might come by way and knock the price down a little. I put the idea of getting robes for my bridesmaids on the back burner, but I checked the Pottery Barn website every now and then to see if they had gone on sale.

The Giselle Kimono Robe / From PotteryBarn.com

Two weeks ago, I got a message from a hotel chain’s frequent stay program saying that some of the points I’ve accumulated over the last decade of business travel were about to expire. I thought I’d see if I could redeem them for something wedding related and went shopping on their website. I had no idea that points could be redeemed for gift cards! I didn’t have enough points for any of the gift cards, but I quickly logged into another company’s frequent guest site and found that I had the points needed for a $200 gift card.

I had to wait a week for the physical card to come in the mail and right when it arrived, I heard that Pottery Barn had sent 10% off and 15% off codes to some people on their mailing list. What a great news! Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of the lucky ones to get a code. I put out pleas for a code on Twitter and Facebook and a day later, a local photographer sent me her 15% off code. Jackpot!

After entering in the code and my gift card information, I would up paying $10 for four robes. I think this qualifies as the best deal I’ve gotten during wedding planning, outside of winning my wedding gown. The robes arrived this morning and I love them!

Photo by Miss Mink

What was the best deal you got for something related to your wedding planning?

I mentioned earlier that I’ve rediscovered my dependency on checklists. I blame The Knot for rekindling my love affair via their comprehensive checklist tool, featuring over 160 things to do. Which is conveniently located next to the huge, glaring countdown to my wedding day, which to me reads more like “You only have 143 days to get all this shit done, fool! I will own you!”

Screenshot via The Knot

How is it even possible that I’ve only completed one third of my tasks? How??

My to-do timeline is simultaneously the bane of my existence and the only thing keeping me sane. I log into my Wedding 2012! Google doc several times daily to make sure I haven’t forgotten to check something off. I started breaking large tasks up into several smaller tasks so I can check more things off. I’ve added a veritable rainbow of colors to my timeline color-coding system (which used to be merely “yellow=done”). I now have a color for tasks that are done, tasks that are undone, tasks that are partly done, tasks that are assigned to someone else, and tasks that are scheduled to be completed on a certain date (such as our tasting).

This is what it looked like a few weeks ago. It’s a lot more colorful and confusing now.

My “git ’er done” ‘tude has not gone unnoticed. Mr. Unicycle has had it up to here (pretend I’m raising my hand like 6 feet in the air) with me insinuating that this wedding is more important than, say, passing med school. My parents are all “Really? Still talking about that wedding?” Other acquaintances have literally said “Wow…I never realized…weddings were this…involved…”

Image via Wikipedia

Retro side-eye. That’s how I look at people who come between me and my damn timeline!

And I have no wonderful conclusion to this post wherein I list the ways I’m overcoming this problem. I am literally just driving myself crazy dreaming of checklists, waiting for the wedding to be over so I don’t have to do so much stuff all the time anymore.

How have you guys dealt with to-do list stress?

By far, our favorite response came from Man of Honor J5. Along with his RSVP card, he sent in a hilarious letter written in Old English which declared his intent to attend the wedding. He stained the letter in coffee and burned the edges to give it an ancient look. Proof  that you can put to use what you learned in elementary school.

Mr. Warbs and I spent a good fifteen minutes reading, laughing and rereading the letter. I seriously had uncontrollable cry-laughter at the pure randomness of it. I knew he was planning on doing something crazy, but I was not expecting all that. Most people don’t get our humor, so I understand if you don’t find it funny Hive. Don’t worry, I won’t hold it against you.

An excerpt reads: “I do beseech thee to save on my behalf the following: the largest of breasts of the smallest of poultries, the mignonest filet of the magnitudinous calf and the searest of salmons of the saltiest of fresh water oceans. With due regard, if time and intestinal space permit, I do also request the most formidable slice of baked artistries and velvety reds.”

I enjoyed opening every single one of our RSVPs, but the fact that MOH J5 put the extra time and effort into his was freaking awesome. I have the best MOH ever. Seriously. He will beat yours in any food contest, GUARANTEED.

All photos are personal

The second part of the letter was a list of his “humble requests.” I leave you with a few of my favorites:

• Seventy three scented post-it-notes
• Ninety-six unsharpenable pencils
• A partridge in a fig tree
• A silk scarf imported from the northern tip of South Korea

What was the most hilarious or random RSVP you got back?

Image via Style.com / Photo by Yiannis Vlamos

According to Style.com, the show was inspired by a hope chest that a bride might pack. And the story behind the makeup? Well, according to Pat McGrath (via Allure.com), the makeup artist, “The story was a girl who goes to get married and then runs away.”

Well, I was with her right up to the “runs away” part.

Image via Allure.com / Photo by Monica Feudi

I think this is the look I want to go with: voluminous lashes, flushed cheeks, and bright rosy lips.

Image via Allure.com / Photo by Monica Feudi

I like this picture because it gives me a better idea of what this makeup will look like on me—I’ve got dark hair, dark eyes, and a similar complexion. It’s still very soft, very bridal.

Image via Allure.com

Gorgeous. Fresh. Lovely.

That is the look I’m going for.

What about you? Where did you find your makeup inspiration? What look are you going for?

The door opened and the house smelled like freshly baked cakes. After escorting us to her dining room table, she and Sweetie Scone chit-chatted a bit about Margie’s daughter-in-law (a college friend). There was an unassuming white cake box on the table and a couple of photo albums. Prior to our meeting Margie had asked what kind of cake we liked from her list; the list didn’t include my favorite (butter yellow cake, mmmmmmm). We asked if she was able to do butter yellow, and she said she would work on it. Now let me tell you, the fresh-baked-cake smell was butter yellow cake—I knew in an instant the smell. (Word to the wise, I bake by smell. No timers are used in my baking, so I know a thing or two about the smell of cakes.)

The unassuming white box opened, and we found six very large cupcakes (pupcakes if you are my niece). Two red velvet, two butter yellow, and two chocolate large-and-in-charge pupcakes. We cut them in quarters (because they were no small thang) and tasted the different options. She nailed the butter yellow cake, which was from scratch. The cakes were all light and moist. We then tossed them in the trunk of the car where they rested for 36 hours or so until we got to a friend’s house. Around 10 PM the next night we busted out the cupcakes that had been sitting in an abnormally warm trunk, and they were as good as they were fresh out of Margie’s oven. Strangers that did not know her said they were great. There was only one thing I wasn’t super excited about—the frosting was flavored with amaretto, and I prefer vanilla, which she was totally open to doing. Frosting question: Is flavoring completely regional? What flavoring do you like for your frosting?

With one cake tasting down, we went to our meeting with the second one. Due to a scheduling error she wasn’t available, but several day-old cupcakes of hers were available to taste. Twist my arm, we tasted them. She works closely with our DOC and florist, so we trusted that she wasn’t a flake and that she just had an honest to goodness scheduling issue.

Let’s get back to the important stuff: the frosting was awesome, not going to lie. The cake was kind of dry. We had a taste helper, our friend that tasted the abused day-and-a-half-old pupcakes the day before. All three of us agreed the frosting was awesome but the cake from Margie won the battle. And I am a cake person, not a frosting person. Decision made!

Would you like to know the best part??? Margie is one of the least expensive cake bakers (save Hy-vee) in the Kansas City area. Mmmmlicious! I can’t wait!