I am Blueberry Bud and am the newest addition to the garden! My best friend first introduced me to BridalBuds when I was looking for tips myself, so being able to blog here now and show you some of my own tips and tricks feels amazing!
So I suppose I should start by telling you a little about me and Blueberry Dude.
We live together in Leicester, UK and have been engaged for just over a year after making the engagement official on the 26th December 2009 – it seems so long ago! Our wedding date is set to be in August 2013, which will give us ample time to plan, create and find lots of bargains to fit our rather small budget.
Planning our wedding is one of my favourite things to do in my spare time but when I’m not casually browsing through pretty dresses and other frilly things I find myself blogging in other areas, having fun outside of the house or socialising with my friends through a variety of mediums.
Below you can see me and Blueberry Dude on the train home from a long day in London. This was taken on my birthday, just a few days before we made our engagement official! We had had a wonderful but tiring day going round Hyde Park and visiting a close friend of ours – hence the tired eyes!
I am really looking forward to sharing my tips and tricks with you all as I progress through the wedding planning process.
This is my first time arranging a wedding and I have quite a while to wait yet – so I hope that the hints I give you are as exciting and interesting for you to read as they are for me to discover and create!
Some brief notes, so you can have an idea of what I’m— errr, we are planning:
Colors: No thank you. As of now, the plan is to put the BMs in neutral dresses (probably black or grey) and get the flowers at the last minute (day before), and put them together ourselves the day of the wedding. I can tell you that I love orange (how appropriate). Orange will be somewhere in there.
Food: BBQ/Southern comfort food. Ideally, I’d love to have someone come with a smoker… I can already taste the turkey legs, ribs, grilled corn, pulled pork, cole slaw, hush puppies… nom!
Drinks: Beer & Wine. We’re going to have a couple of different kegs of our favorite beers; and wine. Haven’t thought out the logistics of that yet.
Location: As of now, we’re considering a couple of historic sites… but more to come on that in another post.
Date: All we’ve talked about so far is Fall. Mr. Man seems to think he’ll be able to talk me into a Spring wedding, but let the record show: IT AIN’T HAPPENING. Why does he want this? Football. Surprise, Surprise. I’m pushing to consider getting hitched on a Friday (cheaper), that way we can make a weekend out of it – be lazy on Saturday, watch the Skins wherever we honeymoon on Sunday. I’m thinkin’ Sept/October. I’ll keep you lovelies updated, don’t you fret.
Dress: I’m a plain jane. My only requirement is that it not be frilly and that it absolutely, positively must have pockets. I will not budge on this.
Veil: I don’t do veils. I think they’re annoying. I plan on having a cute-as-a-button birdcage with a to-die-for fascinator.
The Boys: Mr. Man wants to wear black suits, but I’m trying my bestest to convince him to wear grey or khaki; again, I’ll keep you updated.
The Ceremony: Quick and dirty. Nothing religious. Maybe have a friend get ordained. I dig.
Since I’m new to the garden (that makes me smile), I figured I’d write a lil post introducing myself and my other half —affectionately known in the blogosphere as “Mr. Man.”
About Me:
I’m Nicole and I love all things wedding.
I’m a bubbly twenty-something who refuses to spend more than $10,000.00 on my wedding… which brings me to my little disclaimer: We’re not technically engaged yet.
Before you start thinking that I’m some creepy, wedding-obsessed weirdo, let me tell you that we’ve been together for a lot of years… almost a whole hand of fingers, and a wedding’s happening… hopefully this Fall. We’re trying to do the responsible thing and get ourselves together financially before blowing a ton of dough on a wedding.
I live in the D.C. area and was born to two pretty stellar people who love each other very much, who raised me well, put me through school, but don’t want to shell out the big bucks for my wedding. My parents aren’t horrible people who refuse to help with my wedding; on the contrary, they’re wonderful and they’re more than willing to help pay, but they don’t believe in a “one day party” that costs tens of thousands of dollars. The good thing is that I don’t either.
Right now, our focus is on buying a house. We’ve been looking for 3-4 months and are on our 7th offer. Yes. Seven offers. Believe-you-me, the market isn’t the awesome buyer’s market everyone says it is… it’s a zoo out there. Moving on; my intention was to buy a house and move into it before having to move out of my apartment. You can probably gather that that didn’t happen… I put everything I own into storage and moved into Mr. Man’s basement. Not ideal. But, alas, I digress.
I love writing, love all things wedding, love food (cooking it and eating it), love decorating things (can’t wait to buy that house); I coach varsity cheerleading, I am crazy about my crazy family, and I live for the people I love.
We have two wonderful children of the four-legged variety, we’re big Redskins fans, we love grilling out, drinking beer, watching movies and lots of other stuff.
I chose to be “Orange Bud” because orange is my absolute most favoritest color…
Hey, I’m Apple Bud (no relation to Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter). Pleasure to meet you.
I’m marrying the love of my life on September 3, 2011 in Brooklyn, New York. My saucy fiancé (who shall henceforth be referred to as Apple Sauce) and I have been together for more than 7 years — we’ve kind of lost track of the official monthiversary count — and he finally popped the question on 11/11 during our first hours of a 10-day vacation in Italy.
That's me, newly engaged and posing outside the Colosseum.
I was so excited to find BridalBuds a few weeks ago. Working through the learning process of planning a wedding, I found consolation in realizing that other Buds face this same process. These Buds also gave me ideas of how to face each of the many decisions and creative roadblocks. I decided I wanted to offer these same comforts to other soon-to-be brides, and open myself to this network as I become a Blossom.
Aside from the benefits of BridalBuds as a bride, I have never kept a blog or a journal but have always wanted to. Some recent writing assignments revealed that my once decent writing skills have dwindled with lack of practice and I felt encouraged to write more for a minimally critical audience. I am no journalist, but I do hope there will be improvement evident over the next several months of blogging, reading, and commenting.
As mentioned in my profile, I have been engaged five months. Prior to that, I was the girl who swore I would have no problem planning a wedding in less than 6 months and never wanted to be engaged longer than that. Now, 5 months in, I have a dress and we have committed to a venue! That’s it. Okay, so we have ideas for most of the rest, but this has been much more of an undertaking than I expected. One of our fellow Buds was an inspiration for our wedding location and venue, and I’m looking forward to reading more posts over the many details that I have only begun to think about. I truly admire all of the DIY and planned on doing much more than it appears I will pull off, but BridalBuds is inspiring and I hope to use some of your ideas and share some of my own soon.
Looking forward in this blog, I will begin by looking back. I have been told, experienced, and reassured by fellow Buds that deciding on a location/venue is one of the more trying challenges of wedding planning. That is where my planning began and that is where my blogs will begin. Thanks for reading and I hope to share something of interest and something of comfort with each post!
Freesia Dude and I are both passionate about nature and the beautiful world we live in. During our “engagement” road trip through the Florida Keys, we enjoyed many spectacular sunsets like the one above he photographed in Key West off of Mallory Square. We love the beach and it has been an important place for us throughout our lives and in our relationship. We cannot imagine a more perfect place to celebrate our commitment to eachother. Check back to read how we make this happen!
After shameless months of blogger-jealousy toward my real-life friends, Lavender and Dogwood Blossom, I am super excited to be the newest BridalBud! I’m so happy to have been chosen to be a part of this fantastic community and hope that my wit and planning experiences will both help any other brides-to-be, as well as provide a little comic relief.
Here I am with Olive Dude at STACK in Las Vegas, where we celebrated our 25th birthdays. (I’m 5 days older than him)
So, who am I, you ask? I’m a Jersey girl (yes, you can imagine the accent should I ever use the words coffee, quarter, bought) who permanently moved to Maryland after college for both friends and Olive Dude. We met through the Greek System at University of Maryland – were best friends for a year – then realized we were in love. We’ve been together a little bit over 4 years (lived together for a little over 1) and just got engaged on New Year’s Eve. Although I have a serious itch and would love nothing more to be married ASAP – our wedding probably won’t be until Summer 2012. In the meantime, I will take my obsessive online shopping skills and direct them towards all things WeddingWire to help prepare for the big day. The only things I’m sure of at this point is that (1) we will be having cupcakes instead of a wedding cake because I am borderline obsessed, and (2) I will be using my handy designer skills to custom make the invites. I happen to work at a print production shop as well – bonus!
Hi I’m Jasmine Bud! I found it only appropriate to refer to my fiance as none other than Aladdin – (so hopefully you can appreciate the Disney reference). I’m so excited to have the opportunity to share my wedding ideas and plans to all of your brides-to-be!
A little bit of background info on us.. We got engaged on July 25, 2010 on a cruise that traveled to the Caribbean. Our wedding is not until May 26, 2012, which gives us ample time to have everything perfect and virtually stress free come that time. Since I work in the wedding industry, you can only imagine how many inspirations boards, wedding dresses, cakes, venues, djs, and planners I have seen in my life. Despite this fact, I did my best to not plan any part of my wedding pre-engagement. I’m thrilled to finally be able to look at those images and think about, “Would that be something I want in our wedding?”
Though our wedding is a year and a half away, we have already started planning and I look forward to sharing more details with all of you!
My favorite thing about wedding planning has been blogging about it. I started writing a personal wedding blog shortly after I got engaged four months ago. I’m so happy to be sharing the details of this part of my life with my fellow buds and all of BridalBuds loyal readers.
Orchid Boy and I are an internet dating success story and after almost two and a half years of dating my best friend, we are now planning our wedding that is going to be 550 miles away on Long Island. We moved to Raleigh, N.C. from Long Island two weeks after we got engaged and are loving sharing our first home together. We have two cats and make awesome pizza.
Orchid Boy and I, are in one word, broke. Our entire wedding is on an extremely tight budget, so we are cutting plenty of traditional elements out and are getting really creative. We are both incredibly laid-back and our wedding is equally so. We’re having an afternoon wedding, where flip-flops are encouraged and ties are forbidden. We just want everyone to have a really fun day.
I’m so thankful for my wonderful family members (that includes my future in-laws) and my awesome friends who have been so helpful, supportive and understanding. I have been taking advantage of their amazing talents and words can’t describe how much I appreciate them letting me do so.
I’m the newest flower in the Garden… and it’s lovely to meet you!
I’m an elementary school teacher planning my small Italian wedding – a walking contradiction, isn’t it? Grab a chair. I’ll be tellin’ you all about it soon!
I know the trend here is to call our fiance “Dude”, but I can’t. It makes me think of “Dude, I lost my Car” and other Ashton Kutcher fiascos. Instead, he’ll be Mr. Magnolia – how’s that?
Here’s a recent photo of Mr. Magnolia and I – part of a tease for our engagement photos, actually, I don’t have all of them yet and I’m bursting to see the rest!
We’ve been engaged since August 2009, and we’re planning a July 2011 wedding. When I’m not wedding planning or teaching, you’ll find me browsing Etsy (I am absolutely addicted), baking, scrapbooking, or watching Sex and the City DVDs. I love chick flicks, high heels, sundresses, summer, cherry ice cream, and meeting people. I’m so excited to be a Bridal Bud and share my wedding planning journey with you!
Have you had engagement photos done? Let’s see ‘em!
Hey there! I’m Poppy Bud, the newest member the the Garden…and I am so happy to be here! I can’t wait to share my planning experience, gather feedback, and make new friends.
I have been engaged for almost two months now, and let me tell you…it’s been a whirlwind! No one told me so much went into planning a wedding. So far Poppy Dude and I have the “bare bones” figured out.
Who: Me and the love of my life and best friend.
What: Gettin’ hitched!
When: August 6, 2011
Where: Campbell, NE
Why: For love, of course!
Other than that, nothing else is set in stone. I have oodles of ideas floating around in my head…but we’ll get to those later! A few things you should know about me and my wedding planning process: I am a get it done, not afraid to get my hands dirty kinda gal planning a uniquely individual wedding on a budget! Both from rural Nebraska, we want our wedding to reflect upon the family values and lifestyle we hold so dear.
