Weddingbee Boards

Mrs. Dragon is a blogger for Weddingbee. She lives in Sioux Lookout, Ontario, and was married September 2012 in Brockville, Ontario.

About the Dragons

Mrs. Dragon is a newspaper reporter, and Mr. Dragon is a graphic designer. The two met and started dating after Mrs. Dragon moved to Northern Ontario to work at the same paper where Mr. Dragon was employed.

After a year and a half of dating, the couple embarked on a 10,000-kilometre cross-Canada motorcycle trip, during which Mr. Dragon proposed at an unscheduled hotel stop when rain forced them off the road in Valemount, British Columbia.

Planning the Wedding

The Little Details

• Mr Dragon first proposed with a $30 ring. He switched it out for a beautiful amethyst ring shortly thereafter.
• The couple decided on a fall wedding in Mom Dragon's backyard.
• The decision was made to keep the wedding small and intimate with a guest list of 50 people.
• They set up their website with WeddingJojo.

What to Wear?

• After narrowing down her options, Mrs. Dragon decided to wear J. Crew's Sophia dress in silk chiffon.
• Moccasins were Mrs. Dragon's wedding shoes of choice... which she bought at a gas station.
• The men went with casual look.
• The ladies in the wedding party were instructed to wear a yellow dress of their choosing.
• The little flower girls wore yellow, too!
• The wedding bands were purchased on a whim.
• Mrs. Dragon had to wear boring underwear!
• She found her rehearsal dress at H&M.
• Embracing the pouf, Mrs. Dragon chose a retro fountain veil, along with a big hair flower.

Vendors and Friendors

The Dragons worked primarily with friends and family instead of professional vendors:

• Mom Dragon worked her magic and created all of the floral elements for the wedding.
• The bride and groom opted to forgo hiring a baker and made their own cake, along with a dessert buffet. Miss Dragon had a hard time finding a decent icing recipe.
• Mr. Dragon's talented co-worker and photographer, Brent Wesley, took their mountaintop photos.
• Mr. Dragon's dad, an ordained minister, was their officiant.
• Mrs. Dragon's college friend took the wedding photos.
• Instead of a DJ, the Dragons decided to have an iPod-powered ceremony and reception. They used an awesome app to make it happen. All of their playlists can be found here.
• Dad Dragon and BIL Chris created a scrumptious Southern-style BBQ meal.
• There was no makeup artist in sight.

DIY Successes and Failures

• One special bridesmaid received a fancied-up card.
• Mrs. Dragon had a hard time finding hot glue gun sticks.
• She accidentally ordered WAY too much felt.
• Ribbon chandeliers were an easy project to spruce up the reception tent.
• After removing sticky labels, Mrs. Dragon created yarn jar centerpieces.
• The yarn theme continued with wrapped letters, a card sign, and yarn poofballs.
• EXTERMINATE! The Dragons had Daleks on their cake.
• The Save the Dates created by both Dragons followed a surprise bag theme, with calendar stickers created from office supplies.
• Not wanting to spend lots of money, Mrs. Dragon made custom hangers on the cheap.
• Felt bunting hung in the tent, though it ended up being put together differently than planned.
• An ampersand got thoroughly covered in glitter!
• Dearly missed relatives had a place of honour, in Mrs. Dragon's locket bracelet.
• Buttons and hot glue made for a moose-y garter.
• Mrs. Dragon used yarn and hardware supplies to make a card sign.
• Every mason jar glass made for the wedding had a different decoration.
• The invitation suite was a hand-painted success.
• Mrs. Dragon wanted Krazy Straws but settled for striped paper straws.
• She found an interesting way to keep wedding memorabilia, and document memories of the first year of marriage in a non-traditional scrapbook.
• After a rough start, Mrs. Dragon successfully made glittered champagne glasses.
• Inspired by BHLDN, she made spool menu holders.
• Food colouring turned mini clothespins a brighter, fun colour.
• One of the last DIY projects to be completed was the newspaper inspired programs, a homage to the Dragons' employment.

Touchy Feely

• Sometimes, the Dragons got heated and had to learn about conflict resolution.
• Mrs. Dragon pondered, why marriage?
• She struggled with choosing to change her name, mid-career.
• Who wants to be a drunk bride?
• Things got a bit stressful and the Dragons learned to say no.
• Work got in the way of wedding planning for awhile.
• Mrs. Dragon looked back on how her life has changed since high school.
• The Dragons said goodbye to Mrs. Dragon's grandmother.
• Mrs. Dragon shared her Bee's Life story.
• As an anxious introvert, the wedding day kind of scared Mrs. Dragon.
• Unexpected guest list drop-outs were a bummer.
• Mrs. Dragon discussed family dynamics at weddings.

Road-Trip Honeymoon

The Dragons had to drive to Brockville for their wedding, so they used the return trip as an opportunity to enjoy a mini-honeymoon. They started out in lower Michigan, visited Mackinac Island, then finished things off in the U.P, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Burnin' Love: The Recaps

• Our journey begins with a bit of reflection on our wedding.
• We road tripped down Highway 11 to Brockville.
• Sadness came before our joy when we found out a family member passed away.
• We rehearsed, ate pizza, baked a cake, and hot tubbed!
• The girls got up bright and early for a hair appointment.
• We put on our makeup and did our nails while everyone else took care of wedding prep.
• I became a (nervous) bride, and with dress, accessories and makeup on…waited.
• Mr. Dragon shares his side of the story.
• Both of the Dragons were jittery, but we managed to get the wedding started.
• But…where was Mr. Dragon going?!
• Everyone made it up the aisle, and it was time for the ceremony.
• We sealed our vows with a kiss.
• Inside the house, we signed our license, and took a few relaxing breaths!
• After a rocky start, we breezed through family photos.
• Most of our wedding party photos were candids, because we wanted everyone to be able to eat.
• We dug in to delicious BBQ food and sweet treats.
• Speech! Speech! Speech!
• Mr. Dragon and I did the high school shuffle, then we danced with our parents.
• The party began for real, on the dance floor and elsewhere.
• All the single ladies and dudes made their grabs for the bouquet and garter.
• Growing sleepy, we said goodbye to our guests.
• I showed off our decor details.
• The spotlight then went on our swanky duds!
• We made up a wedding hashtag that some of our guests used.
• I compared inspiration to reality.
• The budget breakdown.

Keeping up with the Dragons

Mrs. Dragon maintains a personal blog, Northern Exposure, and a photoblog, Sco0p. She's also on Twitter and Instagram. For more information check out her website!