Weddingbee boards

Ok, so I was going to go with a little bit of a cooking/chefing (yes, it's a word oft used in my home) theme. First it was a bouquet inspired by the faux bouquet from Williams-Sonoma with whisks, wooden spoons, etc. Now that bouquet has morphed into having some flowers added and if I can find it, a hankerchief made from my mom's wedding dress. The bouts will be whisk keychains with the keychain taken off and ribbon tied around it and pinned onto each boy. The girls would hold a long-stemmed flower of some kind most likely as I have no idea what to put in their hands.

Today, while we were talking, the FI suggested taking the theme a little bit over the top, which I'm mostly fine with.

• Basically all of the guys and one of FI's chick friends (if she chooses) will be wearing black chef coats, the kind with cloth buttons. We're planning on personalizing them with their names and letting them keep them afterwards (not sure yet who will pay, us or them).
• For the other two girls, we were thinking of having them buy bm dresses of their choosing and having them wear aprons. It only took about 5 minutes for it to dawn on me that there was no way I could, in good faith, put them in full aprons and cover up their pretty dresses. So I'm thinking half aprons, but I'm not sure how long they should be.
• I've been thinking about doing "food" centerpieces. If I did that, then it would either be paper cupcakes or real cupcakes or something else entirely.
• It was also suggested that we give the girls french rolling pins made of bamboo, but I'd definitely look for some half-size ones and put a cute bow or ribbon on them. We love our own full-size one so much, that it entered the conversation almost immediately.

Any thoughts on this? I'd really love some input.

Well, I'm planning on letting the girls help pick out the aprons they like, but I'm definitely hoping for some cute ruffles and pockets! What about you gals that said to tone it down? What should I change?

@kjpugs Oh, duh, I guess I should have mentioned it, but FI just graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in August and after we get married I'm planning on taking a professional baking course. Basically, being in the kitchen is very "us". I hadn't even thought about mini spats...I guess I have a lot more brainstorming to do haha!

I love vintage aprons

I think it's a really cool theme, but I would tone it down.  Most things sound really cute, but if I were a BM, I would not want to wear an apron (not even a half one).  Maybe for a few fun pictures, but definitely not for the ceremony or during the reception.  Obviously if the bride said I had to wear it, then I would because it's her wedding, but I wouldn't be too happy about it.  The chef coats sound a little over the top too.  The bouquets and bouts sound really cute.  Those are more subtle things that get the theme across rather than having your bridal party dress up. But in the end it's your wedding and I don't know you, so you should do what you want!

I love vintage aprons too! I also love cupcake aprons...I've been dying to get my hands on one, because I'm very messy in the kitchen and I've already kinda ruined one pair of jeans with fondant.

I'm trying to decide if aprons would be too over the top or not, but I put the question to the bm's and I'm going to talk to my sister and dad about it today (she's a bm, too). That way they all have input on what they want to wear and they can maybe cheap out a little bit on the dress or not. There's no way I'd make them wear it the whole night, not unless I changed into my chefing clothes, too.

@daydreamwanderer I love her aprons and actually have the cupcake one bookmarked, but she just doesn't have half aprons and I know that if I was a bm I wouldn't want to have an apron or really anything else cover up the pretty dress I picked out.

@jennifer_espos Yea, I'm definitely going to be watching the weight on the bouquets. I'm going pretty simple for the bm's stuff, but mine I kinda want to go over the top, especially since I'm not doing a toss or anything.

@daydreamwanderer I know, I checked there first and was a little put-out about that.

@Boston Bee Sorry, I thought my post edit went through earlier, but I guess not. I would never make anyone do anything just because I was going with a certain theme. I sent out an e-mail today to ask everyone what they thought about wearing this stuff and have yet to hear from them. I don't expect them to wear it the entire night, but if they choose to do so then they definitely can.

@sewing Thanks for the linky. Those are awful cute. I may be able to fit them into the budget, because guess what?! My dad and grandfather have offered to buy my wedding dress for me for my birthday!!!! I'm so excited.

@mrsmurraytobe It's fine, I just wanted some honest answers from the hive. My FI is a chef, he graduated from a rather prestigious culinary school last year and I'm going to be a baker. Our family and friends know that we both plan on opening our own shops one day. Cooking and baking are huge parts of our lives, but not so much with our friends and family. They just never were introduced to a foodie lifestyle and don't understand that Red Lobster and Olive Garden aren't uber amazing (Red Lobster was the best restaurant my small town had growing up). Basically, it would fit best into the wedding because we won't be having a RD at all and it's iffy on the Bridal Shower as I don't really have anyone to throw one for me. Thank you for your input, though it does help to see another person's perspective.

I kinda love it. And if you do too (and it sounds like you do) then go for it.

I think this is a really fun idea.  I don't think there is anything wrong with a theme at a wedding; if you guys think it is fun (and it seems like both you and your fiance are excited about it) then go for it!  I know other people are saying that some guests might "find it weird" if you do certain things, but honestly, who cares what they think?

I think it's a great way to express the love of food and cooking you guys share, and something that brings you together as a couple.  Go for it!  The only suggestion I have is to offer to pay for the chef outfits and aprons.  Not many people would wear a chef's outfit again unless they actually work as one.

@ccranetobe I'm not upset about you giving your opinion. If I didn't want to hear your opinions, I wouldn't have posted this on here, if I couldn't handle criticism. A ruffle dress is a great idea. I know how you feel about wearing the apron, as I'm not uber excited about it either, but my FI started suggesting taking things further than I'd thought he'd even want to do. The bouquet is loosely based on this picture from Williams-Sonoma:

I'm thinking about adding in some big pretty flowers to go with some wooden spoons and a couple of whisks. Also, to go with it I'm making a large hankerchief made from my mom's wedding dress. I don't think we're planning on doing chef hats or the like, but I had considered doing something small on the invites.

@Miss Seahorse I hadn't considered that, but I don't think my FI would be interested. He hates being the center of attention and there's not many dishes we could do as a short demonstration that he or his family would probably be interested in. Plus, I can't cook, period. I can bake, because it's uber exact for the most part. We won't be having an engagement party, due to the fact that we've already been engaged for more than a year and thus everyone already knows about us.

@cakegal I would normally agree with you, but due to the fact that my FI brought it up and he's the one who has to wear this stuff everyday, so I trust that he actually will enjoy it. We can't have a signature cocktail as we won't be serving alcohol at all. The food idea is ok, except the catering is being done by us and our families who have no real training. We're planning on doing a big seafood bake. Thank you for the well-wishes.

@Brianalaura Thank you. The jackets we've picked out are only $24 each and look very nice. I haven't really looked close at aprons yet, as I have yet to hear from the girls, but I wouldn't want them to pay very much at all. We're thinking about doing cravats for everyone in our wedding colors, which we would pay for ourselves and we're also offering to pay for personalization of the jackets. Plus, 2 gms are very excited to possibly own chef jakets and the third is attending a local culinary course.

@nexus-6 I agree, but then that begs the question what is exceptional food? I mean, is it doing really over the top presentations with ok ingredients and stuff that a lot of the older family members won't eat, let alone having to skirt around allergies or is it doing something simple with great ingredients that's relaxed and down home like we are. We have a budget of about $15-20 per guest for food/drink and we're ordering through FFIL's store, so we decided to do a big seafood bake due to the time of year (winter=heavy foods) and availability of fresh seafood. Also, since we're doing most of the prep and cooking with rather limited help, we've decided not to do something over the top that people may or may not appreciate due to so many people's random food preferences. I'm not trying to say that over the top food is a bad idea, I'm just explaining why we've come to the reasoning that we have, as it might help to see our perspective on the issue. Please keep your opinions and ideas coming though ladies, it's very helpful and my FI is really enjoying reading all of your thoughts and ideas.