New Celebration Collection!

I got my bridesmaid dressed on sale for $99 from the Ann Taylor Celebration Collection. I think this line is so brilliant. I've always been a fan of Ann Taylor's style and value. I have items of clothing from Ann Taylor that I've had for years that have held up very well. I even bought a super cute pair of wellies from Ann Taylor (there is a matching umbrella that will be coming to Burlington just in case it rains on our wedding day)!


Photo by Daria Bishop

I digress -- so I just got an email announcing Ann Taylor's NEW Celebration Collection and wanted to share with you. Not only do they make lovely bridesmaid dresses your friends will most likely want to wear again, they make wedding dresses for those on a smaller budget with classic taste.


They also recently added flower girl dresses to the collection. We had our flower girl's mother buy her the brown sash to go with my bridesmaid dressed and she is going to look cute as pie. We are going to tie the bow in the back -- her mother was kind enough to get her dressed and send me this picture. Here she is in her dress (I kept her face private).



And here is our bridesmaid dress (sadly I don't have a picture of any of the girls in it -- that will have to wait until the wedding).



And while I'm at it...the bridesmaids shoes. They are Nina and we got them on sale on-line from Macy's.



For more on the Ann Taylor Celebration Collections click HERE.

I was very aware that my girls couldn't afford a $200+ bridesmaid dress, so that was a big part of my choice. What did you do for your bridesmaids? Did you get them custom matching dresses? Pick a color and let them pick something in their budget? Did you pay for them?

Videographer regret no more!

So, last week I was starting to regret not having hired a videographer. I went around in circles when we made our budget, knew we couldn't afford it and honestly didn't think I'd miss it that much. Then I thought about how many brides say the day flies by and there is so much that they miss. I didn't want to miss or forget our ceremony. So I shot and email to Wilson Fontaine and Wes Jones on the off chance that one of them was not booked for our wedding (22 days later). I just didn't want to kick myself later, and what did I have to lose, right?

Wilson was booked, but Wes just happened to have our date free (the only open date he had in 3 months)! I couldn't believe it! He was recommended to me by another NY area bride, then I saw that he's also filmed the recent wedding of Miss Snow Pea and the wedding of Mrs. Firefly. I was sold, then I started figuring out how I was going to afford it. We had a number of people decline our invitation to the wedding so there was some "extra" money in our budget. Also my mother decided to take back a very expensive dress we'd gotten for her to wear to the wedding and she said "take it back, get the coffee tables you guys wanted and put the rest toward the wedding." I have worked VERY hard to stay right on target the entire time and because I accounted for everything (tips, tax, delivery fees, etc.) I was able to be very true to my budget. Between my accurate budgeting, the 20+ guests not coming and my mother's extra dress money, this almost did it.

Knowing we were still short Mr. Onion (who I love for so many reasons) said, "If this means I have to wait a few more months to get a laptop, then that's what it will be. We can't go back and get this footage later!" What you have to understand about this offer is Mr. Onion has a desktop that he built himself close to eight years ago now, so it's really slow and old. But he could see in my eyes I really wanted to do this.

Hooray! Any married ladies out there hire a videographer at the last minute? Were you happy with your choice? How did you feel about having them there along with the photographer? Did it feel like you had paparazzi? Was it worth the extra money in addition to your still photographer? Have you actually watched your wedding video more than once post wedding?

To learn more about Wes Jones and to see samples of his work go to www.filmjones.com.

And just because I love him so much and this picture is so freakin' cute -- here is Mr. Onion as a little boy "helping" his dad. Note Mr. Onion's plastic hammer! I L-O-V-E this picture :)

Historic Family Photos Part II

Last time I shared some historic images from my family. Today I wanted to share some images from Mr. Onion's family. First up -- his parents wedding. His mother was 19 and his father was 25 when they got married. Doesn't she look SO young?! She is wearing her mother's wedding dress that was also worn by two of her sisters.




This photo is from Mother-in-law-Onion's bridal shower!


Mr. Onion's maternal great-grandfather and great-great-grandparents


Mr. Onion's maternal grandparents when they were first married


Mr. Onion's father and grandfather


And just for fun -- a picture of his parents smooching, and then a picture of my parents smooching! I couldn't resist.


Mr. Onion's parents


Miss Onion's parents

And both our parents are still married (happily most days)! ;)

Spa Day/Bridal Shower Surprise!

My bridal shower was this past Sunday. I knew the shower was happening that day but knew none of the details. It made it much more fun.



Here I am with my beautiful bridesmaids. From left to right, L, R, Miss Onion and A. Sunday morning I was told to "stay in my room until I was called." Downstairs my mom and bridesmaids were busy bees (haha) and it was killing me not to be down there with them.

Around ten o'clock I was instructed to head out the front door and get in a bridesmaids car in the driveway. We pulled into a day spa -- oh boy! I had a half hour massage, a pedicure and manicure.


Enjoying my pedicure


Post massage!

My bridesmaids got a few treatments too and then I was told it was "off to the next location." I assumed we were going back to my mom's but when I walked into the next room -- surprise! The shower was at the spa. They opened just for us and we had the whole place to ourselves. My girls had baked and cooked up a storm. Everything was amazingly yummy. What a lovely surprise.

Here are some of the yummy treats they made:


From left to right: Zucchini bread muffins with cream cheese filling, oatmeal cranberry chocolate chip cookies, handmade chocolates and lemon squares. And YES, everything was made by my bridesmaids! Want to place any orders?!


Fruit platter


Chocolate dipped strawberries made by same bridesmaid who made chocolates


Tea sandwiches and savory scones

Then is was present time! Everyone was so generous and we got some lovely gifts, some from our registry and some thoughtful gifts that were not.




This was an amazing "basket" made by my FBIL and his girlfriend. It included a salad bowl, salad cookbook, his and hers "just married/life is good" t-shirts (oh yes, those will be worn on the honeymoon!), a travel duffel bag, travel bottles (so smart as I haven't flown since the "no liquids" law came into effect) and so many other goodies. It might have been the most thoughtful gift we got.


I'm reading a sweet card from my bridesmaids -- they pooled together and got me a gift certificate to a great lingerie shop in the city! Such a treat. I can't wait to go shopping.


A mini-prep from Mr. Onion's aunt. One of my FAVORITE gifts of the day!


The owner of the spa gave me this lovely nightgown/robe.


My bridesmaid who was taking pictures noticed as we were opening presents that my Aunt apparently had the same idea when she got dressed!

And a few more photos from the day:


With Momma Onion


With FMIL and Momma Onion


Bridesmaids with my mom

And the best for last! The obligatory ribbon hat/bouquet.

Publisher is my friend

Microsoft Publisher is my new friend! I designed our wedding menus using publisher and, with a little help from Mr. Onion for the text box layout, I just finished the design of our wedding program (and the crowd goes wild)! Ok, so I'm a little more excited about having one more thing checked off than you are, but thought I'd share my joy with you anyway.

I only did a test print which is not on our lovely card stock yet because I need to wait to hear back from our minister to finalize the order/details of the ceremony and we haven't picked a recessional song yet -- also waiting to hear back from our guitarist, Brenden Burns on that. Here are some pictures of the test print (I've blurred out personal information for every one's privacy):







Click any of the images to see them larger. It is offset so when you fold it over the left is shorter than the right and our brocade patter that appeared on the save-the-dates, invitations, thank you notes, table numbers and OOT welcome booklet will be peaking out. I couldn't make it print flush so we'll just have to trim the excess white off to get the look I want, but still so much better than paying someone else to design this last minute project.

On the back are the lyrics to the two songs that will be musical interludes during our ceremony so people can feel more involved. The Jack Johnson song will be played on solo guitar and not sung so I wanted people to understand why we picked it, and the other song will be sung and I wanted people to really understand how perfect the lyrics are!

I got the idea of the shorter fold from a recent issue of Brides Magazine that had some creative program ideas. I'll be sure to post pictures when the actual programs are printed.

In the mean time -- any thoughts while it's still in the "design" stage? I used the same colors and fonts as I used on the menu -- I'm all about consistency. Oh, and I got another use out of one of our great monograms that I choose from Creative Montage on the cover. Hooray for 5 monograms for $15 -- totally worth it! Thanks in advance for your feedback.

"Tony's Girls"

Recently I posted a few proofs from my "intime" (aka boudoir) session with NY/NJ area photographer, Tony Yang. Tony is also a talented wedding photographer who photographed the stunning wedding of our very own Mrs. Ant. Well what I didn't tell you is that I'd arranged a "marathon" shoot three nights in a row with two beautiful NY knotties. After the shoot we shared our proofs with each other and helped each other pick our "top 10" that Tony would then post process. So here we are...we jokingly referred to ourselves as "Tony's Girls," but now the secret is out!

First the beautiful knottie Soon2BeMrs.Kocal:






Next up, another beautiful knottie who wanted to remain anonymous -- very mysterious she is! If you have any questions for her please direct them to me at onion@weddingbee.com.





And here are a few more of my proofs (you can see the first few from my last post: "Intime Proofs are Here").






We each did this as a gift for our fiances for our upcoming weddings. What we discovered along the way is that it was also a liberating experience for us and we are all so pleased to have this special time in our lives documented in this way. Hopefully when we all old and happily married our husbands will remember us this way!

Note: All proofs are untouched -- Tony will be post processing 10 for each of us and I'll post again with a few "before and after" photos.

All photographs from the talented Tony Yang. Learn more about his "intime" photography here, his wedding photography here and his recent work on his blog.

And lastly, "Tony's girls" got together for dinner a few nights ago which was a blast! Here we are:



Any questions about the process, what to wear, to go alone or with someone else -- whatever you are curious about -- ask them here!