One of the most tedious projects I undertook for my wedding also wound up being one of the most valuable because of what I learned.  You see, my mother became somewhat notorious for her slightly… ridiculous demands during the wedding.  One fateful night, she happened to call while I was over at my then-fiance’s apartment cooking him dinner.  Like usual, I put the phone on speakerphone (insurance for my sake, so he knew she was the one making the absurd demands and not me) and waited to see what was in store.

This time, my mother had the idea that rather than purchase yarmulkes for the ceremony as planned, she wanted to crochet all the yarmulkes for the wedding.  While a lovely, thoughtful gesture in theory, there was one slight problem with this.  My mother hasn’t touched a crochet hook since before I was born… and even back then, she was quite bad at it.  With visions of lopsided, fuzzy, misshapen doilies plopped haphazardly upon the heads of tuxedo-clad guests, my fiance started wildly waving his arms above his head like a windmill to grab my attention, and then passing his hand back and forth over his throat, the universal symbol for “kill the idea ASAP.”

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Kelly Oshiro sent over details from Cindy and Janice’s seashell-themed wedding, which was full of awesome DIY!  Kelly created much of the decor herself - it looks unbelievably good and everything was very budget-friendly.

First up, the seashell centerpieces.

{All photos by the talented Katie Moos}

To create these works of art, you will need:

{Read the rest of this entry…}

I knew when it came time to ask (bribe?) my bridesmaids to be in my wedding party, I needed to do something creative. Ideally, I think the best way to ask is to do so in person (perhaps host a nice lunch for everyone), but unfortunately, with my bridesmaids spread out across the country, I realized that there was a good chance that I may not even see some of them until the weekend of the actual wedding.

I initially thought I would send a “Will You Be My Bridesmaid?” card in the mail, but while searching online for card ideas, I came across a company which made cookies for the occasion. The cookies, in the shape of dresses and available in a range of colors, had the bridesmaid question on the cookie itself. However, at a cost of $10 per cookie, plus $3.50 in shipping for each location for each bridesmaid, it seemed like a lot to pay for one measly little cookie. And thus, the motto of our wedding was born — “I can do that myself for cheaper!”

For a grand total of $12.95, I was able to order four wedding-related cookie cutters (cake, heart, diamond ring, and dress) from The Cookie Cutter Shop and went to work with a vanilla cookie recipe and a raw-egg free royal icing recipe. To ensure that they would keep the date of the wedding free (we had already booked the venue for the wedding at this point - remember, we did this before he actually proposed), I iced the date onto the hearts.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

There’s no better place to start than the beginning, so that’s where I’ll start – with an introduction. Back in May, on a beautiful, sunny, warm Memorial Day weekend, I finally married my husband after five and a half years of dating.

We met my second day of my freshman (his sophomore) year of college. Far from love at first sight, however, I thought my husband was a pompous jerk (and his impressions of me weren’t much better!). After our paths continued to cross, we slowly became acquaintances and then friends, but I wanted nothing more to do with him. In fact, my husband had to ask me out nine times before I would agree to go out with him on one date!

Unfortunately for us, our post-marriage living situation will be a bit unconventional, and because of it, the proposal was far from a surprise. At the time when he was thinking of proposing, he was in his third year of medical school (he graduated the weekend before our wedding), and as anyone involved with the medical school process knows, you often have very little say in where you wind up for residency, particularly if you pick a competitive field, like my husband. I happen to be pursuing a Ph.D. in oncology and am currently in my fourth year, with several years left to go, so we knew there was a very good chance that we would be living apart. Knowing this fact, rather than surprise me with a proposal, we chose to sit down and discuss the situation in detail – after all, starting a marriage out living apart for the first 3-4 years is a less than ideal situation.

Obviously, we decided to forge ahead. Since I knew he was planning on proposing, we actually went ahead and met with vendors, and had signed and booked our venue before he had even officially proposed! As it turned out, my husband is doing his one year internship here in D.C. where I am located, but will be moving several states away right around our one-year anniversary, and we’ll be living apart for the next 2-3 years until I finish my degree.

Welcome along for the journey as I highlight some of my favorite projects from the wedding, and share some tips that I learned. For me, the biggest challenge that I faced was just trying to get everything done on my own – I work 80-90 hours/week in the lab and do not live near my family or bridesmaids, so all my DIY projects were really all done by me, not distributed and done with the assistance of others. Furthermore, I had the task not only of planning a wedding long distance (D.C. to Philadelphia), but planning a wedding for a city in which I have never lived (husband’s hometown) which certainly created a few challenges! But, in the end, I wouldn’t change a thing – I was able to marry my husband, surrounded by my family and friends for one of the most important days of my life, and in the end, that is all that matters.

With our short thanksgiving week this week, we’re welcoming our guest blogger a day early - meet Julie, who you may know from her blog Disgruntled Julie: A Ph.D in Progress.  We’ve all been so excited to see her wedding come to life so tune in until Wednesday for all of the fabulous details!

E.

These super-cute rehearsal dinner invitations were designed in Photoshop by crafty groom Mike of Lauren and Mike fame!

OPA!

(source)

Don’t get me wrong: I absolutely LOVE the wedding we’re planning. The Magic Carpet Ride theme, the colors, the venue, the “essence” are all just perfect for us.

But, I still can’t help my thoughts from drifting…. I can’t help it…. I (gasp) fantasize about other wedding choices!

I know, its probably really common. But doesn’t it make you feel just a little guilty sometimes? Here’s the current object of my fantasy wedding-lust.

{via snippet & ink}

Isn’t that just delicious? I wish everything in my life could be infused with those colors, and that energy. Its divine. Fresh, juicy, playful, sweet….and simple. Wouldn’t it make just a lovely wedding?

But, its just not for this wedding. Y’know? Maybe it is for one of yours, though…..

I’m just going to have to start planning frequent theme parties to satisfy my urge for other designs, I guess! Not too shabby of an idea

What wedding styles tempt you away from your one true love?

We’ve added several new links to the Library this week!  All of you new additions: we would love it if you would blog about your inclusion in the Library and direct your clients over to our new reviews page so that they can give you mad props for all of your fantastic work!

Thanks to every one of you that has contributed either by submitting a link or publishing a review. Remember, inclusion into the Library is absolutely free, and the only criteria is that you recommend them (submitting yourself is absolutely OK too!) - you can send us your links to add using the Contact page. Recent brides and grooms, please submit reviews about your vendors - all of your submissions are what will make the Library a great resource!

{BAKERS}
The Cake Shop of San Jose
Watts Farmhouse

{EVENTS}
Simply Divine Events (FL)
Belamour Design (MA)
The Savvy Soiree (OH)
Weddings With Wendy (WA)

{FLORAL}
Mark’s Garden (CA)

{PHOTOGRAPHY}
Crystal Goss (AR)
Hugh Forte (CA)
JNP Studios (CA)
Elise Gow (Australia)
Brian Wagner (TN)
Neysa Ruhl (OH)
Ashley Garmon (TX)

{SHOPS}
Sweetly Lovely
Savannah Jacks
Smolder Art Studios (AL)
Electra’s Monograms

{STATIONERY}
Betsy White
Minna Designs

{VENUES}
Viansa (CA)

We have also set up a Library Member badge for you to download if you wish! It’s available {here}.

Thanks for all of your submissions!

A.

LeAnn created her entire centerpiece and place card display.  Not only is it beautiful but get this - the total cost?  Less than $200 for SEVEN tables.  And that includes extra glass, gourds, and candles which she utilized around her venue.  Can we say awesome?

LeAnn says:

Our wedding was held in a historic mason along the Connecticut coast on October 3.  The goal was to develop a centerpiece that was appropriate for the setting, seasonal, unique on every table and for a very reasonable price.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

A few weeks ago, the girls from EAD asked their readers for comments about the blog, what they liked, what they’d like to see more of, and so on. As an avid reader since I started planning our own wedding a few months ago, I responded along the lines of ‘more real weddings - and more from the UK as quite a few of us readers are British’. Well, it seems that I, and you, are in luck. Guest poster Tiffany from Grant-Riley Weddings has already written about her London wedding and now I, Rachel, blogger and wedding-planner by night, something boring in the city of London by day, am going to write about my own English wedding which we are planning for 13 June 2009.

Where to start? Well, as for any good story you need to know the protagonists, the background and the themes before you start to flesh out the details…

I remember our first ‘date’ as if it were yesterday, only it was actually almost seven years ago. I use the word ‘date’ lightly - we don’t tend to use the word much in the UK - as we didn’t actually go out. My perception of the word ‘date’ comes from teen films and Sweet Valley High: boy picks up girl in his car, takes her somewhere, say to the cinema, they go out for some food, then somewhere to ‘make-out’ (or snog as we used to say as teenagers) and then boy takes girl back to her house before bedtime. Our first ‘date’ was nothing of the kind. I went to his house for supper and ended up leaving sometime the next afternoon (staying in a purely platonic fashion of course)! 

{Read the rest of this entry…}