Weddingbee bios

My absolute, perfect dress was the absolute opposite of what I thought I wanted. Well, not quite - I did know all along that I desired more of a fitted style, and I managed to not go off the deep end and buy a ginormous ballgown with a cathedral veil. It really wouldn't have worked with the venue we ended up with anyway .

So, instead of this (Mori Lee 4507 - nice, simple, classic):

I ended up with a beaded, lacy, tully gorgeousness called Milana, by Maggie Sottero!

Completely different look and style, but it had straps (which I love!) and sparkle (which I double love!). And it came in at almost half of my budget - so if you're a budget-conscious bride, there is hope (mine was under $900 - still a lot, but not when you're obsessed with watching "Say Yes to the Dress").

I had no idea that finding the perfect bridesmaid dress would be so much more involved than finding my perfect dress. But, then again, I had only myself to please with my dress, and with the bridesmaid dress I had 3 other people that needed to be happy.

I knew I wanted something simple, with straps (so the girls weren't pulling at their dresses all night to keep their girls covered). And you'd be amazed to discover how difficult it is to find strapped dresses!

But, after several salon visits (including a trip out of state), we found a dress that all the girls love (or at least tell me they love): Alfred Angelo 7016

The actual dress is in "grape" - and is beautiful on my pale goddesses.

But, after all my worries about the dress, I've told them the accessories are their problem. Yellow stilettos, bangles, cocktail rings - I don't care. The dresses are matching, but I hope they let their personal style shine through with how they accessorize it.

It was love at first sight:

And my wedding band (also featured in the photo I borrowed from our jeweler, TQ Diamonds) arrived recently. So, I now have the full set, ready for the big day.

*sigh*

So, previously I admitted my jealousy of all the lovely shoes out there (see below). But, now I found a lovely pair of purple shoes, with the perfect heel height. Want to see?

Now, my "second best" shoes will probably still make an appearance at the reception. But how lovely are thes?!? I ordered them on Monday from Endless.com (and they only had them left in MY size - FATE!!) and they arrived on Tuesday. Love them!

For those who haven't seen, it will be paired with my dress:

(picture from the Maggie Sottero website)

Previously on my bio: I'll admit it - I'm jealous of all the beautiful shoes that show up on the Bee. But, being restricted to heels between 1.5 and 2" in height, I didn't have a lot of options.

After many trials and errors (and returns to Zappos and other online shoe stores of its kind) I ended up with these by AK Anne Klein:

Source

I am still looking, but I guess I can be happy with these (they are really comfy and cute, and were super on sale).

I think I'm currently on plan 25b for how I want the centerpieces to look. I've already decided that florist-provided ones are completely out of my budget. My first plan was a wine theme with wine bottles and goblets on the tables with the bottles holding flowers and the wine glasses holding floating candles. It was great until I made a mock-up and realized that the wine glasses looked too tall for that to work. Then it was potted mums, but I couldn't find the right color purple. Then orchids, then curvy willow sticks in vases (the vase issue killed that one yesterday). Now, I'm back to potted orchids (on the tall cocktail tables) with maybe some potted bamboo plants on alternating tables, surrounded by votives. And on the large rounds . . . mums? Or another potted flowering plant surrounded by votives (I got a good deal at Michael's . . . ). And then at the end of the night, the guests can take home a living piece of the wedding.

At least, that's the current plan. I still have 9 months to come up with a dozen more . . .

FH and I just finished assembling our invitations (boxed set from Michael's). I wasn't a fan of the ribbon that came with the invites, so I bought some light blue organza ribbon to go with our eggplant/ice blue color palate. In the paper are pressed purple flowers.

I also created a special info insert that includes our wedding website that guests are referred to for more information on accomodations, parking and additional details.

Enjoy!

 

For better or for worse, we are not having programs. Nothing pre-made, DIY . . . nothing. Basically, we're having a civil ceremony at our reception site with 30-40 of our nearest and dearest. And since it's going to last a whopping 15-25 minutes, I figured that programs detailing the music wouldn't be necessary. We aren't even having a reading.

I'm thinking of this as my way to be eco-friendly - no trees are being chopped down to inform our guests that the ceremony is going to be short and to the point.

I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the you-know-where!

Anyone else forgoing the programs?

I found a great idea while surfing the internet searching for Save the Dates . . . Bookmarks! And since I love, love, love books, I just needed to convince the fiance to go along with my plan. Not a problem!

Eager to begin my project, I created a layout in Word, bought some sweet silver, metallic paper, a Fiskars punch (40% off at Jo-ann) and some ribbon. And I was off!

500 or so punches later (I had some fails), and I ended up with this for the final product:

It's pretty simple, and I didn't add anything else to the envelopes (simple, ivory envelopes, also from Jo-Anns). Total cost (excluding postage) for 150? $64.

It's finally done! I started this summer with a wooden decorative bird cage that my mom had in her basement and a can of silver spray paint. Followed that with some ribbon, card stock and scrapbook letters, and VIOLA! My card box:

 

 

 

It's all sparkly and new with our colors included in the Cards sign. The top of the bircage opens, so I'm planning on leaving it askew so people will know how to put their cards in.

Here's a close-up of the sign:

And since the bird cage came from my mom's basement (free!) and the ribbon was used on our Save the Dates (free for this project!) the total cost of the card box came to a whopping $7.

Our wonderful photographers came to my hotel room and captured the final stages of me getting ready for the ceremony.

All pictures are courtesy of Yonda Photography.

Before I knew it, the pre-pictures were done and it was time to head down the aisle at the beautiful Monona Terrace.

All pictures courtesy of Yonda Photography.

Waiting for my turn:

Here goes nothing!

Exchanging the rings:

Signing the License:

Sealed with a kiss:

Time to party!

We went with lemon cake with raspberry filling and chocolate cake with raspberry filling. And delicious buttercream frosting. Yum! Cake is surrounded by those darn origami cranes that I lovingly made.

Photos courtesy of Yonda Photography.

Close up of the detail:

Time to eat the cake!

OMG - yum!

With the help of our moms, we decided to throw an engagement party/open house 6 months after we got engaged. That way, our families could meet and finally see our house (even though we've lived there for over 2 years). In theory, it was going to be great, but the weather didn't cooperate (so it was open house/garage party, instead of all the awesome outdoor games we were going to play). And only my parents and brother were able to make it on my side. And his parents, siblings and a couple of aunts and uncles on his side. So, from that perspective, the meeting of the families kind of failed (our parents had already met the previous year). But, we did have a bunch of friends make it out to help us finish off the insane amount of food, and enjoy the college football that we had on our TVs (part of our "theme").

I'm still a little sad about it, but hopefully the wedding turnout will be better!