Weddingbee bios

I am an Arizona transplant from Napa, CA and I work at the family business my parent's moved here to buy in 1994.  I am an encore bride, planning this wedding with two beautiful kids along for the ride as well.  Balancing a full time job, two kids, a wedding, and various church activites is a challenging juggling act and I don't think I could do it all if it wasn't for my man.  I relieve stress and relax by reading blogs, digital scrapbooking, and watching reality TV mixed with a few sitcoms.  I love fountain diet coke with LOTS of ice, taking pictures of anything and everything, sunflowers, the color purple and Orbitz gum.  I hate cleaning, hearing people chew and being excluded.

He is also an Arizona transplant, but from San Diego,  He misses the beach and the weather the most.  He is a hard worker and hates to sit behind a desk.  He is currently an assitant manager at a retail store in town.  He is a first time groom and a soon to be step father.  He shares my love of fountain drinks, reality shows and Orbitz gum.  He loves to joke around and is constantly tickling me.

We have been together since February 2007 after being set up by a mutual friend.  He proposed 2 years later on the anniversary of our 1st date.  We are planning an Arizona wedding set at my parent's home.

 

 

This is the story of how we got set up.

I was working at a preschool, mending a broken heart after pinning over a boy (well more like a man-child) for over a year. I was at the point of just wanting to go out with a man. I wanted to go out and have fun and great conversation. That is when I heard a co-worker talking about her long term boyfriend's best friend. She was trying to get another co-worker to go out with him, but I jumped in and claimed him. As I was leaving work that day I left her with my phone numbers and didn't think too much of it. That is until he called.

He had such a warm voice on the phone. He was so easy to talk to and before I knew it we had been on the phone for hours. The next night the pattern repeated. We talked about everything ... family, work, my kids, likes and dislikes. We just seemed to click. By the end of the week he asked me if I wanted to meet. My heart leaped and I said yes. My ex would have the kids for a weekend visit and I already had plans to get my hair done on Saturday morning so I thought it was perfect timing.

I decided to be safe and meet him at the resturant. On my way there I called one of my friends and freaked out to her. Why was I on my way to meet a stranger? What if I didn't like him? What would we talk about? A million questions ran out of my mouth from my very confused head. Luckily she was able to talk me down and calm my fears. I hung up and got out of the car.

I had let him pick the resturant. I walked in and didn't see anyone else waiting. Those few minutes of sitting there waiting for him seemed like eternity. I thought I got the resturant wrong, or maybe I had the wrong time. Then I saw him. Walking up to the door with a beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers. I don't really know how I knew it was him. I had only seen a couple pictures of him and he had only seen a few of me.  Our eyes met, and we both just knew. I accepted his beautiful flowers and we went and got a table.

Even though I had been freaked out before, dinner was just like our phone calls had been all week. The conversation just flowed. After dinner we walked to the movie theater. I kept wondering if he was going to hold my hand, or put his arm around me, but he never made a move. I could barely watch the movie when it started because I kept thinking how I wanted him to hold my hand!

It was late by the time the movie got out and because it was February it was COLD! I only had a thin jacket on so even though it was a short walk back to our cars I was almost shivering. Of course it was THEN that he finally made his move and put his arm in mine. As we reached my car we stopped and then before I knew what happened I was completely wrapped in his arms as he kissed me. The perfect ending to a perfect evening.

Our 2nd anniversary was a Tuesday so we both had to work. Towards the end of the day he stopped in at the shop. He wished me a Happy Anniversary and told me to meet him at my house when I got off. He said my mom was gonna pick up the kids and that we had dinner plans. I got home a little earlier then normal and he was already at my house. He had a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me and I saw a gift bag, but he wouldn't let me have it. I freshened up my hair and makeup but I must not have taken long enough because we had time to watch the news before he said it was time to go.

He grabbed the gift bag and out the door we went. Of course he drove because he was the one that knew where we were going. We started driving toward the mall. Which has about a dozen restaurants, but I had a feeling I knew where we were going. Sure enough, he pulled into the parking lot at Famous Dave's. The restaurant that we had our first date at 2 years previously. When we walked in the manager took us right to a table ... not just any table, but the same table we had sat at the very first night. He had it all arranged before we even got there. We had a nice dinner, but I knew what was coming at this point and my stomach was in knots so I could barely eat!

After dinner he gave me the gift bag. He said to read the card first

Then I reached in the bag and felt a big bow attached to a little box. My heart started to race! This was it!!! I smiled at him as I pulled out the box.

Then I opened it ..... it only had some chocolates in it. I laughed and looked up at him, then he stood up. Reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring box. He got down on one knee. There was no big long speech (that I would forget), just a simple "I Love You" and "Will you marry me"

Of course I said YES! and hugged him, then he put the ring on my finger. We smooched and sat there a little while longer. On our way out we got congratulations from a few waitresses and the manager. Then it was off to my parent's house to pick up the kids.The bad ring photo on my hand taken in the car on the way home.

The better photo taken the next day with the flowers he had given me.

 

All photos are copyrighted to the FABULOUS Jill at Jill's Fine Photography.

I have been married before, I had the big dress (an Alfred Angelo BTW)  This time around I wanted somthing a little different, a little more me.  I couldn't find exactly what I wanted so I had it made custom.

My requirements for a dress were:
Short (between knee & tea-length)
NOT white
Full A-Line skirt
Colored Petticoat
Straps (no strapless at all)
Affortable

I did a Google search for short wedding dresses and found Dolly Couture. I fell in love! The prices were right, and because Dolly does custom dresses I could get ALL my requirements met!! After seeing probably a 100+ dresses and saving the images on my computer I had a good idea of what I wanted to ask for when I finally emailed Dolly a few weeks ago. I showed her my collection of inspiration which included a few of hers. I told her I wanted a cross over type bodice with a royal blue petticoat and it to not be white! She suggested we take her popular <span style="font-style: italic;">"Manhattan" and add a custom bodice and add the blue petticoat. This is the sketch she sent:

 

This is my dress (with the wrong color petticoat )

 

We knew from the beginning that we would be buying a suit, so when he saw a sale ad for Kohl's that interested him in the newspaper we headed down. Friday night after dinner and before our movie we stopped in. The color was perfect, the fit was fantastic and the price was just right. I did end up ordering the vest from the suit online from Kohl's but everything was 55% off including the shirt and tie.  I found the converse shoes on ebay for half of retail.  The grand total for his whole Wedding Day attire was less than $300!

When I started looking for inspiration I had two elements in mind, blue & sunflowers.  Finding inspiration to bring the them together has been a journey.  Here is a collection of the images I put together

It is so special to me that my mom gave Mr. B my grandmother's wedding set.  The ring isn't big and flashy, but it fits my finger perfectly and has more sentimental meaning than a brand new ring would have.

 

Here is my DIY trial version based on the below inspiration

I will be making my own sunflower bouquet.  My inspiration is very simple.  Only sunflowers and a simple hand tied stem.

We have a friendor making our cupcakes because I could not find a local bakery that would make the flavors we wanted, decorated how we wanted.  Here are pictures from the first set she made for us to decide which sunflowers we liked.  She made different types, with different techniques and varying sizes.

Here are our three favorites:

The inside ... chocolate with peanut butter filling!

 

As a gift for my future husband I had boudoir pics taken.  Here is a small sampling of the first "costume" ... my man's favorite jersery