If you are an avid bee reader, you may recall we had a whirlwind of wedding planning from traveling out to Jackson Hole to plan our intimate wedding of 30… to halting planning completely… to changing all our plans after falling head over heels for our venue. As soon as we saw our venue which (by the way) was under construction with puddles of water, open walls and no fixtures we were heart-eyed emojing with goosebumps.
The venue was a bank from the 1920’s – 1923 to be exact, that was restored to be an event venue. The original bank vault is in near mint condition with it’s nearly foot thick original door, and the bankers office was the perfect space for photos ahead of time with original wood ceilings and a stunning fireplace. So without further ado, please enjoy the finished product with lights, flowers, lots and lots of marble and pure perfection.
One of the benefits of this venue was that it was so beautiful to begin with that we really didn’t have to do much with the florals, or other decor, although we had some stunning centerpieces that definitely made a statement. Pro-tip: Look for a venue with natural beauty, you’ll save with the extras in the long run. Although to further show off the beauty and details of this venue, we rented six, sixty-inch mirror table tops that reflected the gorgeous original ceilings, allowing our guests to enjoy the original beauty at all times. The venue also had original bankers tables that we were able to use as bars in the main room, this pulled everything together and really tied in the history of the venue.
We were so in love with how it all turned out, how beautiful everything looked and how it all came to life for the most perfect day!
About to send out your wedding invites? Get ready for the fun with these 8 real life wedding RSVPs you may not be expecting… I realize that in the grand scheme of life, they’re not a big deal, but in the moments of wedding planning they are excruciating annoyances on top of all the last minute details. Perhaps these will even prepare you so that you might be able to laugh it off, and not be so surprised by your nearest and dearest who made it onto your guest list. I am a super organized person and we RSVP immediately to weddings (unless it’s a destination), so this was a particularly frustrating part when it came down to it. So, please enjoy this little rant… *smiles*
Image: Timothy Logan Photography
The Text Message. Yup. Sadly this happened, and it happened with a question inquiring about what the food options were available, because they ‘lost their RSVP card.’ They had texted B – had it been me, I probably wouldn’t have responded, tough luck.
The Resended RSVP. In a nut shell; “Yes! We are coming to your wedding” Then, one-week before deadline… “Some family emergency popped up, we won’t be able to make it in a month on that day.” … oh BTW there is a thing called social media, remember what you said you were doing when. #busted
The White Out. We had a few folks actually white-out the ‘M’ as a placeholder for Mr./Mrs. and replace it with their Dr. – I mean we addressed the envelope properly to them but god forbid the RSVP card be generic to everyone. We get it, you’re a Doctor!
The Dog Ate the RSVP. But didn’t eat the envelope! So they did still end up sending a piece of paper with all the correct RSVP info filled out and a sweet little note AND we received it before the deadline! It was actually kind of cute.
No RSVP. There were a handful of peeps who we never received an RSVP of any sort, no text, no call, no card… it will forever be a mystery if they just didn’t receive the invitation or if they’re just plain rude.
Directions? What Directions! We had asked people to initial what food option they wanted, since we had 4-different choices to choose from – when a family of 5-RSVPs with numbers instead of initials, it just meant we were back tracking to see who wanted what meal. People also reached out asking “what kind of fish?” or “what’s with the steak?” … and I’ll just leave it at that.
No Show RSVP. There were about 5-people who RSVPd ‘yes’ with meal choices who came to our ceremony and then completely didn’t show to our reception. That’s essentially an entire table – which is also a floral arrangement, linen rentals, centerpieces, favors, alcohol, a plated dinner, shall I continue?
The Late RSVP. This is unavoidable and extremely annoying – so to try and make my point I posted a nice little reminder on my Facebook page that read the following ❤
“RSVPs received after October 16th will be submitted into a review and approval process. Upon completion of the review process, applicants will be notified if approved or denied based on receipt of submission.
*To improve your chances of RSVP approval, be sure to do the following: send RSVP via mail in the addressed and stamped envelope, indicate if your accepting/declining, initial your desired entree (i.e. check mark, X or other symbol by entree will further delay review process and/or you may not receive your desired entree) and be sure it arrives by October 16th. Text messages, DMs, comments or other ways of RSVPing will delay and lessen chances of approval.
Thank you to those who have already RSVPd.”
So that’s it. Those invitations that you hemmed and hawed on will get lost, they won’t even get sent back or read, those stamps you bought for RSVP envelopes will go to waste… and all those hours assembling the pieces and parts will simply go unnoticed (by many, but not all!) On the flip side, we did love receiving these in little batches day by day, guessing who it would be from. A lot of closer friends wrote sweet notes on the cards or envelope so that made it even more special and exciting to receive! I am also pretty sure I had almost everyone’s meal memorized by the time our wedding rolled around… *grins*
Have a wedding RSVP that tops these? Comment below, I want to hear it!
Since we are in the prime of engagement season, a lot of you newly engaged ladies and gents will be looking to start creating your wedding registries! This is a super intimidating process, regardless if you’re needing everything new or looking to upgrade existing pieces. So here are some tips I recently learned creating my own registries, and some tricks I learned after, to help you create your dream registry! Tip #1: Take A Walk Either through your house/apartment and make a check-list for each area and start creating your wish list of things you want/need! Since everything is digital now, I also recommend going to the store, especially if you can’t decide between two stores. Seeing, touching and comparing products will help make a decision and then no surprises when you receive gifts.
Tip #2: Use Starter Guides/Check-Lists These are pre-populated lists made by your Registries and they’re life savors, more and more sites are creating these. It wasn’t until I’d already created two of our registries that I found Zolaand their check list. It was a game changer! The checklist allowed me to think of things I needed, ideas for pieces to upgrade, and filter out things that weren’t that important for us!
Tip #3: Star Your Most Wanted Obviously everything is a most wanted item, but reality check, not everyone is going to buy off your registry, and if they do – make sure you get your priority items first! I regretted not doing this sooner, as I ended up returning items in place of ones we needed more.
Tip #4: Take Your Time Since this can be a bit overwhelming, don’t feel like you need to do this all in one day or one weekend, start early, browse, shop, and add as you go and think of things. You really just want everything final about a month before your first major wedding event (people are last minute shoppers!)
Tip #5: Put a Cap on It After you have your list created you’ll quickly find out what your priority items are, so limit the number of registries you create! This will be a life savor for you and your guests.
Tip #6: Use Zola The part I love most about Zola is the behind the scenes interface for brides/grooms, not only do they have a wide variety of products and brands, on top of money funds that you can create, they also make returns, shipping, exchanging, SUPER EASY AND you can be really secretive about it so you don’t hurt anyones feelings! Their app is easy to use and their customer service is great!
Tip #7: Link to Wedding Website Be sure to link your registries with your wedding website! This will be helpful especially if you plan on using your wedding website URL on all the various invites and serves as one central place for your guests.
Tip #8: Download the App! A lot of the apps for registries make it easy to shop, check-in and have built-in scanners for shopping in stores. It can also allow you to check-in on pieces that might become out of stock or discontinued (because that happens more than you’d think!)
We had three registries; Target was a no brainer for me just based on shear convenience for myself and guests, Pottery Barn was mainly used for new dishes and few other fun pieces, and Zola was the catch-all but mainly all my dreamy Kate Spade pieces and other fun and functional pieces. This is one of the fun parts about getting married, so don’t stress, add as you think of things, and get ready for a lot of awesome new stuff!
I wanted to share some local love with the amazing team that helped me pull together my dream wedding! And I can’t stop gushing over how perfect everything was, it was so beautiful, I seriously look at pictures and can’t believe that was OUR wedding! Bouquet Studio. What sold me on our florist, Amy was her knowledge and love for what she does. We first talked in early 2017 for over an hour; talking through our initial vision before having a lot of details finalized – her suggestions of different greens and florals to use within each of the pieces were spot on. Not to mention she helped envision a grand space with different centerpieces; allowing me to have some of my dreams fulfilled from a floral perspective, including peonies!
Kelsey Elizabeth Cakes. Quickly becoming a household name in the suburbs of CLE, I’d swooned over KEC cakes and sweets on instagram for over a year plus. Our compromise was to have a special cake made just for B and I and then give our guests other sweet treats – but we picked the Hand Painted Florals Cake from KEC’s Buttercream Collection; we were able to select colors, the flavors this helped us make a statement especially after topping it with our custom cake topper.
Borrow Rentals. This was definitely one of our splurges, but it was SO worth it. We really wanted to make a statement with our sweetheart table, which included needing a grand chair – once we toured the Borrow Rentals showroom, we fell for the double wide Settee. We also ended up renting a few 60″ mirror table toppers to make a statement and play into the space of our venue with the amazing ceilings. Finally we picked out the Gigi chairs for lounge seating with a cute side table, they were the perfect touches and just enough. Furniture rental for weddings is pure genius.
Campbells Sweets Factory. We used another local sweet spot to help us fill our hotel Welcome bags with delicious popcorn and also a sampling of cake pops for guests at the reception. The flavors we got; Buckeye, Chocolate Cheesecake and Wedding Cake were eaten right up, they were so delicious!
Little Mondays. Although this isn’t local to CLE – I worked with an artist out of NYC who is a friend of a friends; she helped us create a few custom pieces for our wedding day. These were also splurges, but for me it’s all in the details. We had a series of our favorite F. Scott Fitzgerald quotes, hand drawn for added accents around our venue. She also created a wedding map for us to include in hotel Welcome bags for guests, sharing the days events and also pieces of our love story!
We also had cookies that were made and brought from my hometown by a family friend who is very talented at making pretty AND delicious cookies. She made 100 cookies for us that included our hashtag, wedding date, a W-initial and just a pattern – these were the finishing touches to our sweets and coffee table!
It was all the details that made this special for us, and all the details that came together and blew me away. Not only did these lovely teams help bring our vision to life, the customer service and passion was in line with how we felt for our wedding day! We are so thankful and lucky to have found amazing vendors for our special day.
One trend that seems to be increasingly popular is the idea of a sweetheart table for the bride and groom. I’ve read a few articles about the pros and cons of having a sweetheart table, and I am sure each bride and groom have their own reasons. For us, it’s simple. We have a small bridal party, and I think it would silly to make them sit without their sig-o’s at a table! Plus I love the idea of B and I having our own intimate spot to sit together and watch the magic of our wedding unfold.
And since we’re doing a sweetheart table, I wanted to do it right, which means pulling in the key elements to really make a statement with our table. Those key pieces to help make your sweetheart table standout are; the chair(s), floral accents, pop of personalization, and placement. The Chair: Consider a furniture rental vendor that has awesome vintage chairs or a bold settee, these will stand out from the rest of your chairs in the venue signifying these are for the bride and groom.
Floral Accents: My personal favorite for a sweetheart table is a garland floral arrangement. This adds texture and depth to your table, while also calling it to be different from the rest of the tables. Also consider bold arrangements that could be placed along side the tables or back flanking the space.
Pop of Personalization: The go-to seems to be adding Mr. & Mrs. on top of the table or a sign hanging from the back of the chairs. But consider other meaning full words that might be used or even using the initial of your new last name to make a bold pop.
Placement: When considering all of these elements for your sweetheart table, think about where this will be – if you’re going to have signs on the back of your chairs, will your chairs be in a place that others will be able to view and admire? Is a floral arch behind your table going to flow with the space or look out of place? You can also work to make your sweetheart table to be the focal point of the venue if it’s lack luster our outdoors.
Pulling these key elements together will create a special place for you and your groom to dine to enjoy your first meal as husband and wife! Happy planning!
When it comes to flowers for your wedding, there are a lot of things to consider, like… first and foremost if you even want real flowers at your wedding! There are so many alternatives from realistic fake flowers to paper flowers! For me, I knew I wanted fresh flowers at our wedding. Flowers are something I’ve always dreamed about for my wedding, lots and lots of flowers… everywhere. But as you’ll quickly come to find out, like I did, flowers are not cheap! In fact, I had a few vendors reply first stating their minimum price for an event, and it was double my budget, so I kindly responded and said thanks, but not going to work for me!
I will admit, I was a bit discouraged, and started mentally talking myself off the ledge of needing over the top florals, and starting thinking of how I would be able to simplify everything in order to at least have some flowers that I could afford. Well upon many searches and reaching out to a few more unknown florists, I found my one. Here are a few tips for when you start the chats with potential florists:
1. Have pictures ready on pinterest to share with your florist! If you’re talking over the phone, try and send these ahead of time or a link to your pinterest page so you can talk through your vision live
2. Know ballpark numbers of how much you’ll need of hand bouquets, boutineers, centerpieces, ceremony space, hand corsages, etc. this of course helps with that estimating part
3. If your florist is asking you questions about your venue and ceremony space that is making you think, for example – does your church expects that the bouquets/centerpieces are donations? You’ll want to gut check to see if other florists ask the same question, this verify’s experience and level of detail
4. Because…. if they’re considered donations you may not be able to reuse them in your venue space as additional decor or a centerpiece. Speaking of which, talk through with your florist how pieces can be used in both the ceremony and receptions spaces
5. Get ready to take notes and google a lot of different flowers, I know the basics, but a lot of what I wanted I only knew by seeing it – also ask about similar more affordable flowers that might work to get you the look you want
6. Don’t be afraid to ask your florist for a mood board/image to support pricing to make sure the vision and reality will match!
Our flowers for the wedding, are one of the things I am most excited about – besides the stunning venue and marrying my B. I can’t wait to see how they’ll turn out, they’re definitely close to the level of my wildest dreams, and I can’t wait to see them come to life, in our venue, on our wedding day!
Groomswear, because there is nothing better than a well dressed man. And one of the most essential parts of the wedding day should be making sure your man is dressed his best. A perk of having a small bridal party is that we have the luxury of ordering custom suits and having a few more options on where to shop, since we don’t have to worry about rentals. I’m personally not a fan of the renting tux’s – there is a huge risk for them to be incorrectly sized for any one of the groomsmen or groom in turn throwing off the entire look of the day. Not a risk we want to take.
The photos above are definitely a mix of inspiration, pulling pieces and parts, fabrics and colors together to give B a completely custom, fitted and handsome suit. B is deciding if he wants to go the bow tie route, or more of a statement tie. I also love the idea of having a pattern or floral’s, and even if not for the groom perhaps the Best Man/fathers. There are so many options for tie’s, we’ve looked into creating custom ties or shopping at a favorite spot; Grand Frank.
We also really like the idea of having a colored suit or a suit with a bit more texture and movement. A few other items that will also need to be determined once the suit is figured out is finding a great pair of shoes, belt, socks, pocket square and tie. I can’t wait to go shopping with B to pull our vision to life for the big day!
Did you go custom for you groom? Share tips/tricks in the comments below or on social @mmariebee.
As I am planning my wedding, I can’t help but try and find the perfect dresses for other wedding festivities, like the Bridal Shower, Bachelorette, and the Rehearsal! Since most of these festivities are in the spring/summer the clothes and options are starting to become endless and the decision is going to be tough!
Although I haven’t found my perfect dress(es) yet; I’ve pulled some looks that are serving as my inspiration, as there are a few different routes that I could go and you might be in the same boat! 01 | 02 | 03 | 04
If you’re like me and already started your hunt, consider the following…
All White: This is definitely an easy way to go and a classic option, wearing all white at any one of these festivities keeps you as the bride and truly the focal point!
Make A Statement: With a bright color! Showing up in a bright pink or patterned dress will help keep the focus on you. This might be a fun way to show off a bit of your personality too!
Know Your Venue: Is your shower/rehearsal a sophisticated backyard soiree? Or is it a casual setting at a family members house? Or maybe a tea party theme at a local country club? Be sure that you’re standing out but also dressing to your venue to keep the theme of the day/night on point.
Will You Wear It Again? Ask yourself this question as your picking out the dress. You’ll want to make sure you can wear it again for a date night, the honeymoon, a friends shower or family function! That way you won’t feel so bad if you invest a little more money that you were planning!
Happy March! For avid Bee readers, you know it’s my favorite month *smiles* and the first weekend of March was a busy but good one.
It started out Friday afternoon, volunteering with my company at a local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. If you’ve never been or heard of one of these, see if you have one near by and check it out. As they explained it, it’s like a Home Depot meets Goodwill store. They offer way more than your typical thrift store; it’s a DIYers dream or perfect for furnishing your first apartment. Not to mention you help the greater cause shopping in these stores! It was a nice way to kick off the weekend.
Momma Bee came into town, so she was at the house by the time I got done volunteering! We were in the mood for meatless tacos for the first Friday of Lent, so we ended up at a nearby spot and ordered a tray full of tacos and a few mojitos. It hit the spot!
Tacos!
At our wedding venue
Saturday dinner & drinks!
Saturday morning we got a jump start on some wedding activities. First and foremost on our agenda was seeing our finished venue. We first saw it in September, under construction, dusty with no walls or electric and we fell in love. Seeing it again brought back all the feels. It’s so stunning, I can’t imagine a place more perfect! From there we headed to see the hotel and met with a DJ! It was a very productive morning. After church we headed to one of our favorite spots for all night happy hour, yup, all night. We enjoyed cosmos, dirty martinis, and more delicious food.
Sunday’s highlight was celebrating a dear friend’s baby shower! It was a beautiful afternoon celebrating with her family and friends, and seeing all the adorable little boy outfits and stuffed animals. I can’t wait to meet her little boy.
Celebrating Bekah!
Great friends<3
It’s always hard when these fantastic weekends come to an end, but it’s these fantastic weekends that get me through the work week for more!
The Chair: Consider a furniture rental vendor that has awesome vintage chairs or a bold settee, these will stand out from the rest of your chairs in the venue signifying these are for the bride and groom.
the bee life 