Autumn is Just Around the Corner

My brother A. and his fiance D. have just started planning their October 2010 wedding and what a fete it is going to be! At the stunning Hotel Allegro in Chicago no less.



 

And so I've located some inspiration for the lovebirds, using shades of orange as a starting point. Who says this fab fall hue has to come off looking like a punkin' patch?

Source

Of course, there are other ways to play with orange that are modern and unexpected! Look how great it looks when paired with chic, cool gray!

snippet and ink does it again



Oh but how does one invite someone to an orange themed wedding? With a little bit of Hemingway style, that's how!

Source

What are your wedding colors?

Bridesmaids

Nobody has a better group of bridesmaids than me. Some might have it as good as me, but nobody has it better. These ten (yes, ten!) ladies represent a cross section of my life from as far back as I can remember! And I love them! So I've tried really hard to be good to them during this process. After all, a wedding is about gathering together all the people you care about in celebration, and the rest is really just "terminal silliness," as my "favorite" supreme court justice would say.

Oh Justice Scalia...

So my bridesmaids all got to pick one of eight potential dress styles, in the hopes that they'd all feel as good as possible in them. I don't really mind what shoes or jewelery people wear, I'm not making everyone get their hair and makeup done, and I'm totally ok with the fact that these amazing women with jobs and lives may not make it to every single event.

Some of my bridesmaids dresses in my color, moss green. I hope they love them as much as I do! (Source)

And that's why I have to take a stand against all the crazy ladies out there (you may or may not know who you are) who sit around and demand people shell out crazy cash for their 7 day bachelorette extravaganzas, or force their friends to pay for hair and makeup they hate. I know someone who has been told in no uncertain terms that she will be making a multi-thousand-dollar contribution towards the bachelorette party for a bride who chose to have a 5-star wedding. I know another person who was asked to buy a dress that cost upwards of $500 and needed much alteration, and was then required to pay someone to tease her hair into oblivion and apply harem-style lipstick. This for a girl who usually wears her perfect skin bare, with lip gloss and mascara. Its a miracle friendships survive this kind of madness.

I'm not saying a well-planned destination bachelorette party can't be wonderful or that hair and makeup aren't worthwhile- they certainly can be, and I'm usually the first to sign up to for both! But there is a not-so-fine line between asking someone to don a dress and stand up for you, and asking them to completely ignore their own interests and personalities.

Yes, I consider myself a feminist. And that may not mean the same thing to me as it does to you. But it makes me sad when women turn a ceremony about love, commitment and community, into an awkward, me-first extravaganza of selfishness.

Soapbox concluded.

Have you known any bridezillas in your life?

Unify This!

Why must unity candles be so.... predictable? I feel like I see overpriced-candles covered in plastic pearls all time time, and if you like that sort of thing, I won't judge, but personally its not for me.

I do, however, love all that a unity candle symbolizes. The coming together of two families into one, united. And I don't mind that its only a 30-40 year old invention of the wedding industrial complex, according to wikipedia.

So of course, when it came time to consider the unity candle for our wedding, I wasn't about to buy one! Nope, instead I went back to Wedding Bee (yep, I'm a certified WB stalker) and found a wonderful tutorial from Mrs. Deviled Egg for making your own unity candle. Impressive, no?

Miss Deviled Egg's Candle

I also found designs like this one on Road to the Aisle, where DIY-ers printed images on vellum and then finished the look with Ribbon. It really is cute, and adds a great personal touch!

Heather's Candle, from Road to the Aisle

With this wonderful inspiration in hand, I set out to create my own personalized unity candle:

(1) Like Mrs. Deviled Egg, I taped two floral foam bricks side-by-side using floral tape. This became my base.

(2) Using hot glue, I covered that bad boy on three sides with moss, leaving the bottom flat. Messy but worth it!

(3) I then secured candle holder picks on either end of the brick, and a pillar candle platform in the center.

(4) Next, I layered a few types of ribbon I had on hand until I liked the look, securing the layers with spray adhesive. I made enough to cover all three candles.

(5) Using iron-on transfer letters leftover from a previous project, I carefully ironed our monogram onto a piece of my layered ribbon for the center pillar candle.

(6) Once finished, I cut additional layered ribbon wraps to size for the tapers, using more spray adhesive to make sure the ribbon stuck to the candles.

(7) I stuck some coordinating bows, mushroom birds, and clay flowers into the foam and voila! The great thing about using moss is that you can make a mistake in your placement and change your mind- you can't see the holes you make through the moss!

I love how the moss is rustic and holiday appropriate, but not too fussy!

Awe look at that cute lil' guy! I seriously can't stop using these peeps.

And that's the story of how we got our unity candle using (mostly) leftover craft supplies. Whee!

Are you incorporating a unity candle into your ceremony?

If Money Were No Object

I have a not-so-secret confession to make. I. Love. Paper. So. Much. Yep, I'm fully aware people throw wedding invitations away, but that does not mean I love them any less. So one of the things I've spent a gazillion hours obsessing over is how to address mine. That said, J. and I made an early decision to try to save money on our wedding paper so that we could afford other things like our great band, and my fabulous dress (J. don't even think about clicking on that link)! While I really wanted some heavy-weight, letterpressed fabulousness from the White Aisle, it just wasn't going to happen unless I won a contest (I tried and I did not win).

Ultimately, I found great invitations at a great price (to be discussed after mailing), so it all worked out. But a small, whiny, vociferous part of me still felt like, hey, if I have to compromise on the invites, can't I at least have calligraphy?

I mean really, when you look at something like this, how can you not luurve it? And in my beloved Bickahm font too? But all this gorgeousness comes with an experienced calligrapher and a hefty price tag- $4 per envelope! I could not justify spending more on calligraphy than I did on my invitations! (Source: Rose Calligraphy)

So I turned to the ultimate wedding survival resource, Etsy, and found that there are many calligraphers outside of New York City, who will charge significantly less for similar services. For example, DancingPen charges only $1.25 per envelope for this cute french script! But as lovely as it is, the price was still more than I wanted to spend, and not quite "us," so I continued my search.

The next place I looked was the Wedding Bee boards, where I found Calligraphy by Tammy! Tammy's work is simply lovely, and her pricing was spot on- $93 for all my invitations! But I just couldn't pull the trigger. So I did what any responsible person would do (something quite uncharacteristic of me): I slept on it. And I talked to J. about it. And we both felt that if we were going to spend $93 on something that would be tossed away with the envelope it was written on, we really ought to love it. So I kept thinking.

One idea I stumbled upon, which held real potential, was that of "faux-ligraphy." The idea is that you use your home printer to print addresses on your envelopes in the desired font using the lightest possible gray ink. Then, you trace over the print with an ink pen. Apparently this technique is quite effective. Card Girl's tutorial makes it looks easy! But I lack a steady hand. And my slippery metallic envelopes might not survive the printer. And would I have the patience to do this 100 times?

I turned to The Martha. And she was there for me in my time of need with this great idea for wrap-around mailing labels. Vintage? Check! Pretty? Check! Cheap? Cheeeeeck! Martha's weren't quite right for my theme, but armed with inspiration, much research ensued!

Friends, let me tell you, there's so much free mailing label goodness on the internet superhighway. Whether you want polka dots, cherry blossoms, or damask, its out there. Unfortunately, free vintage-green labels were more difficult to find. Back to etsy I went!

And that's how I found Sarah Guze Brown at Belletristics! Sarah worked with me to choose colors, fonts, sizing and spacing, until we created the perfect wrap around mailing label. We went through a couple of rounds of proofs and for the low low price of only $10, we had mailing labels. Ta- da!

To see my wrap-around label in all its glory, and many other fabulous designs, visit Belletristics' blog!

Sarah made the labels in a word document, so that I could add the addresses and print them myself on a package of $15 sticky paper. Then I can cut them out and apply them to my envelopes. Considering that a package of basic Avery mailing labels costs about $25 (which while effective, does not exactly make me feel weak in the knees) I'm pretty psyched at how my alternative came out!

How did you address your wedding invitations?

Photobooths and Fauxtobooths

My girlfriend P. is, like me, planning her wedding right now, and she's planning to incorporate one of my most favorite trends at her reception: the photobooth! Who doesn't love making silly faces four times and displaying them on the fridge! Plus, many photobooth vendors will set up a "guest book" for the bride and groom, with copies of all the photos taken during the reception, thereby creating an amazing keepsake! J. and I would love to do this ourselves, but alas we've run out of budget, so we'll just have to live vicariously through P.!





Option #1 considered by P. is NYC Photobooth, which has a very nice looking photobooth you can rent, but it takes vintage style digital photos, not the film strip style she really wants. Renting one of these is about $1000, which is not terribly costly when you think about what you're getting.

Source: www.polkadotevents.com/blogs/index.php

Option #2, Classic Photobooth, is even cooler. These cost a bit more to rent (ok, like twice as much) but they actually develop film strips of four photos in color or black and white for the guests. And they'll give your guests these perfect photo frames to keep their photo in.

Option #3, from Aardvark Amusements, is less pricey than # 2 and does digital photos in the film strip style. Do you miss the actual film strip-y-ness for these, or are they a good close second?

Option #4, Party Booths, is actually the least expensive, starting at $845, and they have a cute looking booth and the photos look fun! They aren't vintage-styled though. Would you mind?

If you're out there wanting a photobooth like but don't have the budget, there are still options though. Consider a "fauxtobooth" for your wedding! Brides and grooms everywhere seem to be coming up with great, low-cost and no-cost ways to incorporate this element into their weddings!





For example, Sasha Souza worked with this bride to create this fun backdrop for photos. Check out the action over at Kiss the Groom to learn how they did it!

And Miss Bunny over at Wedding Bee came up with a great, FREE way to use her macbook to capture fun pictures of family and friends at her wedding.

I've even heard about folks breaking out their old Polaroid cameras for some good clean shake-the-picture fun!

Would you have a photobooth at your wedding?

A Basket For My Flower Girl

Its no secret in the world of weddings that little details cost big bucks. For example, flower girl's baskets from my florist start at $50. Heck, just a bag of rose petals is $30. What's a girl to do?

Make one of course!

I actually sort of made this up as I went along, based on a little moss basket I found at the Christmas Tree Shop after Easter for $.50. I don't think Christmas Tree carries them anymore, but I found these from A Beautiful Life at 2 for $26, so I'm sure a savvy shopper could find them for less.

Anyhow, my less-pretty version of the basket came with funny looking garland around the top. Which was not going to work. So I ripped it off and hot glued some "artfully curled" [read: haphazardly applied] white ribbon to cover the rough edge. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Add some mushroom birds, white clay flowers (to make your own, check out The Martha's How To) and a basic
bow, and you've got yourself a cute, Christmasy flower girl basket for less than $5!

What will your flower girl carry down the aisle?

A Latin Inspired Fiesta for Norkle

I have a friend, whom I will refer to as Norkle. Norkle is not engaged, but because she lives abroad, I want her to become engaged so I can come to her fabulous destination wedding! I started thinking about all the fun ways one could put together an elegant, latin-inspired affair, and look at all the eye candy I found online!



Check out this lovely Mexican inspiration board from Style Me Pretty. I love the delicate papel picado and
vintage table linens! Swoon!



I am equally enamored with this board, from Snippet & Ink. From fruit kebobs to dreamy dresses, and a recipe from The Martha for Mexican Wedding Cookies. Yes please!

There is a great tutorial for these wonderful DIY fan programs on Wedding Bee right now. These would be easy to customize for any wedding theme, and would be such a fun, whimsical way to keep guests busy during the wedding wait!



And finally, no inspiration post would be complete without a dress. I'm crazy about this lovely from Alix and Kelly... as seen on Daily Candy Weddings!

Cheers to you, Norkle! xoxo!