Weddingbee bios

My FI, Greg, and I met in March 2007.  I only remember this because when I started dating him, I didn't expect anything serious to come out of it.  So when something did and he asked when did we first start dating for anniversary purposes - I had no clue.  So we had to look at bank records to see when the first date was.  Yes seriously.

He's really laid back and I'm always on the go but somehow it works.  We're both really silly (especially him when I want to take pictures), addicted to Wii (although he gets WAY more time to play than me), love a good beer, into music (I sing and he occasionally makes trance music or plays guitar in his friends' man caves), and love hanging out with our friends and family more than anything in the world.  

 

 

IT'S HERE!  IT'S HERE!  OUR WEDDING WEBSITE IS FINALLY DONE! WWW.BECOMINGTHESHAVERS.COM

Please feel free to stop by and leave a note there :)

My DH proposed after dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Five-Sixty in Dallas on 9/9/9 (its a revolving restaurant that allows you to see the full 360 view of the city).  He had made a slide show on his phone and when I asked for the time he mentioned he had something to show me on his phone.  I'll tell the story after the slide show (its just easier this way lol).  As you scroll down, each picture/drawing was a slide:

 

 

The proposal story:

Part 1

Location: Grapevine, Texas

Photographer: Josh Thatcher of Thatcher Photography

My parents got married in Grapevine, Texas in a small park.  Today, that park is now a small botanical gardens and we thought it would be romantic to have our wedding journey start there! 

We also visited the historical Main Street area and Train depot about a mile away.

 

                              

After getting back over 400 pictures, we noticed that my groom-to-be at the time was making weird faces in about 3/4 of the pictures.  Either squinting, half smiling, or both.  We both had originally wanted to take some pictures our local Rahr Brewery, so we called up the photographer and brewery and arranged for a supplemental set of pictures.  And we loved them!

Our fun Brewery Engagement Pictures!

And here's the reaction when the FI slips the tongue in to be funny. 

 

 

I knew my adorable two-some would be my ring bearers.  They seemed game in their cute tuxedos as well.  But the question remained....what to do with the doggies during the wedding and reception?  So my mom had a wonderful idea of just filming them.  She made a short film (if you knew how un-technologically savvy my mom is, you would understand what an accomplishment that was for her) and it played before I walked down the aisle.

Stars of "The Ring Bearer":

RIP Mr Rugsy.  He passed on 9/24 (the day of my shower) at the age of 10 and will be missed.  Luckily we captured enough of him to honor his role in the short film.

Here's my yorkie Zeus.  He was nonetohappy with this particular costume.  His look says something like: I will pee on you in your sleep for this, just you wait."  But he was nice enough, in spite of this, to star in his debut short film.  

View the debut short here

THE DRESS

So the dress has changed!  I got engaged and immediately got a dress because I was in love with it.  But about 50 pounds shed and the dress couldn't be taken in anymore.  So I went to David's Bridal to try on different styles and started searching for a dress I would love just as much.  And lowandbehold, I fell in love with a David's Bridal Dress -- a Galina Signature SV415 in white.  And I thought I was in love before.... Im more so now.  Please ignore my hair and lack of make up.

 

ACCESSORIES

Earrings

 

Bracelet

SHOES

The FI is 6'1 and Im 5'10 so heels are out of the question for me (don't want to be taller than him on our day and in our pictures).  So I knew I had to have flats.

For majority of the wedding and my something blue.

These really matched my first dress more but Im totally going to use them for my rock the dress session. 

HAIR:

Love my Etsy.com finds!

Location: McKinney Cotton Mill

Photography: Josh Thatcher of Thatcher Photography

And on a side note...Here are a few outtakes

My DH was my helper for the day and wasn't being very helpful lol....

A guy behind me dropped a pane of glass and scared the bejesus out of me.....in the middle of a few frames...

Location: Off the Grid, Dallas Tx

My Bouquet

I knew I didn't want real flowers but the search has been so hard for me.  I finally found my dream bouquet!  I can't tell you how many hours I have searched for inspirational photos.  This bouquet is like the designer went into my head!  Wedding Clay Collections on Etsy is awesome! 

Fun Fact I learned afterwards: (Im got married in a theater) It is considered bad luck to use real flowers during a theater performance, so fake flowers are used instead.

This is what I order but a customer order (in white instead of cream):

UPDATE: MY FLOWERS ARE DONE!!! 

My Bouquet and the boutonnieres:

My Bouquet and FI's boutonniere:

Mom's coursages:

Groomsmen and Dad's boutonnieres:

Groom's boutonniere:

Source

Bridesmaids

I made these myself.  They are paper lanterns with about 3 marabou feather boas that have been glued on.  After making them, I hung them outside on a windy day and let them 'mulch'.  At the end, I took my blow dryer (on cool) and got any left over feathers that I could.  The end result was that the girls, in black dresses, had zero feathers on their dresses!

 

My Fortune Bouquet:

My next DIY.  I got the hydrangeas, roses and peonies at Pier 1 (although Hobby Lobby now has the real touch ones for a little bit more) and the filler flowers at Michael's for $1 each. I used wire cutters and stripped all the leaves and cut the stems to the same length. 

I distributed all my flowers evenly for 4 bouquets and then wrapped each bouquet with floral tape.  Then I used black ribbon and hot glued the ribbon to the top and bottom after wrapping each one.  On the 'inside' of each bouquet, I have attached a charm and card with its fortune/meaning (inside of the bouquet meaning the charm/card will be turned into the inside to be hidden). To hold the bouquet together before the toss, I am used clear rubber bands. 

I bought a new Playbill off of Ebay, scanned in the musical ads and used it's format to re-create my own.  Email amyisgettingmarriednov112011@yahoo.com if you would like the template (it is formated in Microsoft Publisher).

 

 

Not gonna lie, this wasn't hard but it took about three hours to create.  I used Microsoft Publisher and a high-resolution picture (I needed it 36x56).  Google images for the graphics at the bottoms (well I recreated the Rated R one) and overall poster design.  

For whatever reason, the resolution is not great on here but its super duper from publisher.

I print mine in tiles and then put them together.  Since no one will be able to see them that closely, if put together correctly, you can't tell that it's multiple sheets of paper.  If you need a hard backing, just glue it to poster board after putting it together.  I have done this for past parties and when I go to throw the posters away, people ask why I was throwing it away because it 'had to have cost me a lot of money'.  Nope.  Just a ream of paper and paper glue. 

If you want multiple posters, delete the picture, insert another, put it to the background, and change your quote.  Ta-da!

The images are shrunk when you upload them, so here they are not blurry:

  

In Action:

Our Theater Wedding!

Scene: Ceremony Details

Description: Theater Wedding at Lakewood Theater in Dallas, Texas

Photography by Thatcher Photography

 

 

Cast Party for the "Wedding!" Production (aka my wedding at Lakewood Theater)

Location: Level Two, Dallas

Photography: Thatcher Photography

The figures were not DIY but the custom hair and goatee were DIY!

My DIY Bling Cake Topper

The Popcorn Bar and DIY Concession Stand Sign:

Labels were left-over wrap around ticket labels with ribbon.  Self-sealing popcorn bags were available in the showtime box (somehow I never got a picture up close of either lol). 

The Prop Trunk in Action and DIY sign:

My DIY Flip Flop Basket! (And my reception program):

The Cakes:

My DIY Faux-Crystal Chandeliers with Feather Toppers (I did everything but blow the glass and grow the bird that had the feathers):

DIY Beaded Globes:

Instead of a speech, My DH and I gave away Parker-Shaver Awards:

Waiting to be announced....

 

Announcing the wedding party...

Announcing Mr & Mrs!  We Rick Rolled as our entrance song (Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up)

First Dance (to La Vie en Rose -Wall-E Soundtrack):

Making a flipbook (this is a 15 second movie turned into a book on site!):

These little books literally stole the show.  The reception area would be empty but this booth was PACKED!

What open bar does to people.....Im so glad my photographer caught this.  It was a surprise gift when I got my pictures back.

Leaving the Reception....

 

Our Red Carpet / Theater Wedding Cake!

My design (above)

My Inspiration:

So for months I scoured wedding cakes and although I saw a lot of beautiful cakes, nothing really called to me.  I was about to do a package cake deal from pre-selected designs at a high-end bakery until I stumbled upon the cake on the bottom right.  It hit me that I could tie in my ceremony location and reception site with little touches of the theater.  Starting with the cake.  On the top left is my incredibly awesome Microsoft paint skills hard at work (yeah, I know it looks more like the robot-building-transformer off of the movie Big because of my awesomeness).  So, I included the inspirational pictures so that way you could see it in action instead of seeing my robot-drawing.

I enlisted the help of my Dad to make the topper - it will be about 8"-10" tall most likely of wood.  And all the solid black areas I will E6000 it up with Swarovski crystals. 

I 'customized' the couple because they only came in one design with porcelain paint and it was placed next to the cake.

As for flavors, we were simple.  Chocolate cake but we threw in rice crispies as a second layer.  Yeah -- it went fast!  People loved it!  Don't be afraid to be different brides :)

Theater Wedding at Lakewood Theater in Dallas, Texas

Photography by Thatcher Photography

The Bride and Groom with their parents:

 

This is more like it

My sweet nieces and my DIY feather aprons and baskets.

My Parents and Me

My Parents and me in our more natural environment..

Some of the Bridesmaids..

The Wedding Party

What happens when you let the ushers loose with the photographer....

 

Our Theater Wedding!

Scene: Ceremony

Description: Theater Wedding at Lakewood Theater in Dallas, Texas

Photography by Thatcher Photography

 

Touch Ups...

About to walk down the aisle....

Here's what happens when your dress takes out all the glass votives along your way down the aisle.  People thought I had bells under my dress and the moment was so funny it kept me from bawling my eyes out.

Giving Away the Bride

Exchanging of the Vows

First Kiss!

One of the groomsmen I consider the Russian Judge of First Kisses.... can you guess which one?

The send off to the reception....

This would probably explain how I found popcorn in the bed the morning after our wedding....

OUR DIY THEATER MARQUEE BLING CAKE TOPPER

First, I used poster board paper (available in 11x14 sheets at Dollar General for $1) to make the patterns.  I put them together to make sure they would have enough room to glue each piece together and it would stand on its own with no problem. 

I traced the patterns onto craft wood, had my dad cut the wood with a saw (although you could have cut this pretty easily with a box cutter), and painted them (tempura paint) the same color of the jewels that would go on them. 

 

I assembled the pieces in two major pieces, the base and the marquee.  This made it easier to jewel.

I propped the pieces together to get an idea of how they would look and what needed to be done prior to gluing them together. 

**A quick tip for jeweling if you don't want to use a hot fix tool: Get small paint applicators that have applicator tips and put your glue into them.  You can draw a line or dots onto your piece and then apply the jewels.  Takes half the time off.  The glue will dry out if left out too long, so do not put too much E6000 into the applicator.**

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Here is the finished product!  And here's a hint to all those jeweling their own cake toppers, acrylic beads are sparkling a little better than the Swarovski crystals.

After all was said and done, there were about 2800 crystals used to create this marquee. 

If you wanted to short-cut it, pour glitter into your paint (you will need TONS of it) and than use a lacquer finish.