Real Wedding - St. Louis, Missouri

I am excited to share this wedding with you today, which I had instant affection for because it shares both the same date and a similar color scheme with my own wedding. The pictures are full of sentimental details and emotion, so I am sure you will adore all of them as much as I do! Allow me to introduce you to Jennifer and Jim. They were married on September 20, 2008 in St. Louis, Missouri. They are High School sweethearts who have been together for eight years and also have an adorable son, Jack. Jen's bouquet consisted of hydrangeas, roses and hypericum berries - beautiful inspiration for any of you that are looking for a green and white bouquet. Her dress is Mikaella style #1260 (you can search for that style number on the website to see additional pictures) and was purchased at Simply Elegant Bridal in St. Louis.

If you look closely at the next picture, you will notice that Jim and Jen are both wearing small silver bracelets on their right wrists. When Jen went away to college her Mom gave her a Sandy Comstock bracelet that reads "Remember" on the outside and "I am always here for you" on the inside. So for his wedding gift, Jen bought Jim a bracelet of his own.

As you can see, the inside of Jim's bracelet reads "I am always with you." Such a great gift and a meaningful keepsake.

Little Jack got ready with Jen the morning of the wedding and sported some seriously cute suspenders, complete with a bow tie and a hat. Isn't he the cutest?

The bridesmaids wore black tea length dresses from David's Bridal, with a honeydew colored sash.

As a "thank you" to their guests, Jen and Jim provided each person with a green coozie and also had a candy buffet at the reception. In addition, they rented a photo booth from CI Photo Booth and guests were all able to take home a copy of any pictures they took during the reception.

There is just something about the moment that a bride and her father share before walking down the aisle...

The aforementioned candy buffet, full of a variety of green and white candy:

It wouldn't be a wedding post without the cake! I am always a fan of simple wedding cakes and this is no exception. The polka dots are so sweet (pun intended).

A sweet moment between the couple during the toasts...

All photos in this post were taken by Stevie Photography, who comes highly recommended by the bride. Thank you so much Jim and Jen for sharing your wedding! If any of you are interested in submitting your wedding to be featured on the blog, just send me a quick email with the details.

PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com - Sponsor Announcement

You all know that PreOwnedWeddingDresses is a great source for buying and selling your wedding dress, but now there is also a section for accessories! Just launched this morning, you can now use the site to buy and sell your wedding veils, shoes, purses, etc. There are already a bunch of beautiful options, I am even thinking of selling the pearl hair pins that I didn't use. Check it out!

Technical Difficulties

I am having some major trouble with my feed and don't know enough to work out a solution! If you're somehow reading this in a feed reader, could you click onto the blog and leave a comment to let me know? I will try to get this fixed as soon as possible...

Inspiration

It can be found in the strangest places (inspiration, that is). Last night I was watching an episode of Brothers & Sisters online and was completely distracted by the background image they continually use throughout the site (above). I love the lanterns hanging from the tree, the table with the mismatched chairs, all of it. It would be such a perfect setting for an outdoor wedding...there is something about beautiful lanterns and chandeliers outdoors that just oozes romance. For example, this image I found from The Flashdance via Green Wedding Shoes: And of course, the ultimate use of outdoor lighting is from the ever amazing Elizabeth Messina's own wedding:Ahh, outdoor weddings. If only Wisconsin were warm enough in September. I hope you're easing into your Monday and gearing up for a wonderful week. I have two beautiful weddings to share with you this week along with an exciting announcement on Friday. Stay tuned!

Custom Hearts

These custom embroidered hearts by Miniature Rhino are simply too cute (found via Chelsea). Not only would they be a great gift for some newly engaged friends, they could possibly be used as ring bearer "pillows?" I am thinking you could tie some ribbon to the top of the hoop and attach the rings accordingly.

The shop owner seems to be taking a break from making them right now but hopefully she'll be back to work and filling orders soon.

Real Wedding - Phoenix, AZ

When Stephanie contacted me to share her wedding photos, I knew that you would all love her color palette. Obviously I am a fan of black & white paired with another bold color and Stephanie did a great job by adding in some red. Stephanie and Tyler were married at the beautiful Stonebridge Manor in Phoenix, Arizona and held their reception there as well. The bridesmaids wore black tea length dresses with white sashes, and carried out the color palette by carrying red bouquets. The boys wore red roses on their black suits.
I adore the way that Stephanie decided to do her hair. If mine would hold anything resembling a curl for longer than 3 seconds, I would have gone for something similar.
I asked Stephanie where she found this cute sign and she said that it is part of the venue! I so appreciate a well thought out space.
Stephanie designed all of the paper products for the wedding by herself. She bought the cardstock from Michaels, download the Scriptina font (the script font used for their names) for free from dafont, and then assembled everything with permanent glue runners.
The sand ceremony vases were purchased at Crate and Barrel - a great example of finding a use for something that isn't necessarily designated for that purpose. This is the large carafe and these are the smaller ones. I've also seen these used for a sand ceremony and they are quite cute as well.When I asked Stephanie about the centerpieces, this is what she had to say "The wedding venue provided the vases and candles. I wanted to do more with it so I bought the polka dot ribbons from Michael's and the red decorative plates from Crate & Barrel's for $3 each (12 tables) and liked them so much that I would use them again for dinner parties! Being deaf myself, I wanted to have centerpieces that weren't too tall and in the way for our guests to communicate with each other, since we had invited our deaf friends. " Thank you for sharing, Stephanie! You can see some more pictures from Stephanie and Tyler's wedding at her blog, Luxe Chandelier. All photos in this post were taken by Fotos by Flint. Want to submit your wedding to be featured on the blog? Just send me an email with the title "Real Wedding."

Bakery Bar

I was reminded of the Bakery Bar yesterday and realized that I hadn't posted any of their lovely cakes on the blog before. Not all of these are in their "wedding cake" category but I thought that this strawberry cake was too adorable not to share. When you're looking at bakeries and trying to get an idea for cakes, don't just focus on the pictures of wedding cakes. There are often a lot of great and unique options that have been used for events other than weddings.

If anyone is feeling inspired enough to order up that strawberry cake, you just let me know. And while we're on the subject, if anyone ever needs a friend to attend a cake tasting I am your girl. I am just that kind of friend.

Bridesmaid Dresses?

I was browsing for sale items at Banana Republic this weekend, and couldn't help but think these dresses have bridesmaid potential. They are all under $200, extremely cute, and could be worn again and again. The strapless dress above kind of looks white in this picture but it is actually khaki. I feel like this second one (also in navy) would be universally flattering and has the cutest back: This yellow dress also has a cute back - the straps cross. What do you think?

Engagement Book

Seeing as how I love all things letterpress, I am a fan of Studio on Fire and their beautiful blog. When they wrote about their first ever "engagement book" production last week, I was immediately emailing them to ask if I could share it with all of you. When Craig knew he was ready to propose to Sarah, he turned to Studio on Fire and asked them to create a book of all the love letters they have ever exchanged (that were in email format, naturally). Four years worth of letters were bound into this beautiful book...I am still having trouble getting over how completely lovely and thoughtful this is. Not only did Craig have the forethought to save all these emails, now they have a keepsake that can be poured over for years to come. Can you even imagine getting this as your proposal?The pages were actual sewn into the custom book cover. And Studio on Fire happily confirmed that she said "yes!" You can go here to read the rest of the post and see some additional pictures. I think I speak for everyone when I say - well done, Craig.

Here Goes Nothing...

{Image by the incredibly talented bakerella}

On the off chance that you just need more With This Ring, now you can find me on Facebook and Twitter. I even posted some "never before seen" wedding pictures to entice you...

Our Wedding - The Reception

Since we got married on a lake, Brad came up with the idea to take a boat from the ceremony to the reception. It made much more sense than a car but I initially thought it would be cost prohibitive. After some research it turned out I was wrong, and it all worked out perfectly. I bought the letters that were hung on the back of the boat from Land of Nod. They weren't quite hung straight, but they were cute nonetheless. And the most important part was that there was chilled champagne waiting for us as soon as we were on board.

We rented the boat from Gage Marine, which is why the letter "G" appeared throughout the decor. The irony is that our married name starts with a "G" so it looks like the entire boat was customized just for us!
A few months before the wedding, my Mom and I took advantage of a sale at Hobby Lobby and bought 100 white sandwich bags to use as luminaries. Seeing as how I don't know when to quit when I am ahead, I also bought a hole punch and cut out a lace pattern in the top of each bag.
At the end of the luminary lit path, this was the view through the window...
I decided to use small envelopes for escort cards, along with the wishing rock idea. The sign asked guests to hold their respective rock in their hand and make a wish, like a lucky penny. Then they put the rocks into the large vase in the center of the table (purchased from Pottery Barn). The escort cards and envelopes were purchased from Crane's and the calligraphy was by Michele Clark.
In this picture you can barely see the green paper that I used to line the envelopes. When I cut the liners for our invitations, I made the cut so that there was a strip left over from each page that fit the escort card envelopes.
We used both low and tall centerpieces, and if I had it to do over again I might have just stuck with the low ones. I wasn't crazy about the way the tall centerpieces worked out, but hindsight is always so much clearer! Instead of colored tablecloths, I took some inspiration from Kelly Oshiro's wedding and used two different runners. We rented green runners to go under the damask ones that my Mom made, which didn't turn out to be quite the color of green I remember ordering but again, oh well!
Our table numbers were moleskin notebooks, which were covered in several different types of paper. We got some amazing responses to our "Advice For the Bride and Groom" request that was stamped onto the inside of each booklet. You can see the full instructions on how to make them from the amazing Laurie Cinotto on OnceWed.
The menu cards (the chicken quesadilla horns were so tasty). When we got back up to our suite at the end of the night, the resort had packaged up two of the dinners and put them in our mini fridge. It was so sweet and so very appreciated!
I included this one because it gives you another look at the runners and the entire table setup. We opted not to have a head table, but instead just sat with our wedding party at a table in the center of the room.
Since we had a photo booth, our guest book was a blank album with space for our guests to paste their pictures and leave us a note. The way the booth was set up, there were two printouts of each picture so that our guests could also take one home as a favor. So that they weren't carrying around loose pictures in their purses and pockets, we provided some envelopes that perfectly fit the 4x6 pictures.
Our custom stir sticks and napkins were ordered from For Your Party. There was also a green version of the cocktail napkin with white print.
The first dance - I was nervous about dancing in front of everyone but when it came down to it, I didn't even realize they were there.
And last but not least, the bathroom baskets! The beautiful flowers were recycled many times over. The small tin buckets they are in were used at my shower, and the actual arrangements were our rehearsal dinner centerpieces. The green tray and the oval tin were both purchased from The MacBeth Collection and they are now hanging out in our house.
And with that, our wedding posts are complete! Thank you all so much for reading along and participating in this entire process. I can truly say that it wouldn't have been the same without you. Have a lovely weekend - I have another fun announcement for you next week!

The Bride's Guide

A huge "thank you" to Shira over at the Martha Stewart Weddings blog, The Bride's Guide. She wrote a little article about our wedding and the blog today and I am both honored and grateful. You can go here to read it and see some picture that haven't been posted here (it is the first glimpse at the table runners!)

Our Wedding - The Ceremony

We wrote our entire ceremony ourselves, which I highly recommend if you have the opportunity. It took some time for sure but every word was personal, sentimental, and so very "us." After we had put so much time into its creation, I didn't want to just hand our officiant a file folder of paper to read from. So, I turned to the ever amazing blurb and ordered up a small, square, hardcover book. Give yourself some time if you decide to go this route because it takes a few weeks to produce and expedited shipping will significantly increase the cost. It now sits on our bookshelf and I can only hope that our kids will enjoy reading it someday. I know I would love to have something like this from my parents wedding! Also, if you decide to write your own ceremony, I can't recommend this book enough. It made the whole process quite simple.
If you've been reading for awhile, you will no doubt remember my months of whining about a "stick altar." In the end, none of the men in my family were having it didn't give into my pleading (not the first time for that). So our florist provided me with an alternative and agreed to fill the spray painted buckets with baby's breath. We bought the buckets on sale at Lowe's and Brad just coated them with some black spray paint. After the ceremony, they were brought over to the reception and sat outside the doors of the tent. If you have the chance to make something work in more than once place - do it!Our sand ceremony vases were set up to the right of the altar. They actually turned out to be one of the funniest parts of the ceremony, which you will see evidence of in just a second.
I made these paper envelopes for our readers, so that they would have their respective passages handy. I used leftover green paper from the envelope liners, printed out a damask pattern, and glued it all together.
Our adorable ring bearer, who was pretty happy to be running around in his shorts also provided some comic relief at the beginning of the ceremony. My Dad and I were still up in the boat house, waiting to walk down, so I didn't see any of the mayhem but we could sure hear it (and caught the tail end of it all). The little guy walked down the aisle just fine, handed the pillow to his Dad as planned, but then instead of sitting down next to him he bolted back down the aisle frantically searching for his Mom. My Dad and I could hear the screams, and when we rounded the corner to head down the aisle he was coming right towards us frantically shouting"MOMMY! MOMMY!" at the top of his lungs. She was behind him trying to catch him the entire time, and he finally saw her and calmed down. My niece is the little cherub on the right, who could have cared less about any of the people staring at her and instead preferred to stop and admire the candles and flower petals. The older flower girl took her job quite seriously and was tugging her along while systematically dropping petals (a girl after my own heart - just look at the determination on her face).
"No seriously, I have to stop and get a closer look at these. Maybe I'll pick one up for our stroll."
"Are you not seeing this? What is your rush? There are candles and flowers down there."
Meanwhile, my Dad and I started our walk down the ramp from the boathouse. I was sure that I would by a hysterical mess by this point, but I wasn't feeling anything except for complete calm and extreme joy.
When we rounded the corner to start down the aisle, that is when the little ring bearer was coming at us. You can see him in the top left of this picture, no doubt consumed with relief for having found his Mom.
The sand ceremony took place towards the end of the ceremony, right before we exchanged vows. The idea behind it is pretty self explanatory - just like our lives from now on, once the grains of sand are combined they can never be separated again. To make it a little more personal we each used sands from our childhood. Mine (the white sand) is from the beach in Florida where we use to vacation every year. Yes, I am the type of person that saves sand, its a lengthy discussion for another time. We got married at the spot where Brad spent most of his summers, so we took his sand from the beach there. And that is where things went South...
I had asked a certain someone to go get some sand the day before, so that it would be dry and ready to go the day of the wedding. That didn't quite happen. As soon as we saw Brad's sand we knew something was amok and I instantly broke out into nervous laughter. Wet sand doesn't pour, it comes out in huge messy clumps. You can see that the whole bottom of the vase is my sand. I kept pouring and pouring and looking over at him, and he was shaking his vase like mad just hoping for a few measly grains. One final shake and it came out...oh did it come out.
It went all over the table and into my shoes, but luckily some did make it into the vase. Our officiant started laughing and so did we, which turned out to be one of my favorite moments from the ceremony. I love that his sand is just a big mound on top of the vase!
Here is a look at the little grassy patch where we said our vows. It wasn't a big wedding, it definitely wasn't perfect, but everyone we love in the world was sitting behind us as we became husband and wife. And that is what made it a perfect day.
When the ceremony was over, I was filled with such a huge sense of relief and happiness. We did it, we were married, and now we were going to go celebrate with all our friends and family. I think I pretty much floated the whole way back down the aisle.
Tomorrow is the final installment - the reception. Thank you all for your sweet comments and emails, I am so glad that you're enjoying it!

Our Wedding - Before The Ceremony

Deciding whether or not to see each other before the ceremony is a very personal decision. I can definitely see both sides of the coin, but for our own reasons we decided to spend some time together before saying "I do." In retrospect, these next few moments were the only time we had alone together all day and are therefore some of my favorite pictures. I love how the pier looks empty in the bottom two pictures even though it most definitely was not, which is why the picture above cracks me up.

If you look closely, poor Brad is already at the end of the pier practically baking in the sun. We wanted the picture of me walking down to meet him, so the girls went down the pier and asked people if they wouldn't mind getting into their boats for just a few seconds, because there was a bride walking down to meet her groom. Almost everyone excitedly complied, except for that guy in the trunks there. The girls are laughing because they had already made one pass down the pier, and this guy was like "What? Why is there a bride here? I am tying up my boat!" So the picture below is taken at an angle (which I love) because I eventually just gave up and walked past the grumpy half naked boater.
Important advice for anyone else considering the "groom waiting at the end of the pier shot." One of our lovely photographers, Lajuanna, made sure to tell Brad to keep his hands in his pockets and not hanging down at his sides or slightly in front of him. Apparently, when the groom's back is to the camera and his arms are slightly in front, it winds up looking like he is "relieving himself" off the end of the pier. Sage advice, I tell you. Anyway - after we had our moment and came back down the pier, we went to the little boathouse for some group shots.
There are a lot more than this, but I know you all want details so I am trying to be as brief as possible! After the boat house, we decided to head over to the ceremony site so we wouldn't have to rush around. We had asked our families to meet us at the ceremony site so we could also take all the family pictures prior to the wedding and also spend a little time with everyone.
I wasn't around for this one, so I was kind of surprised when I saw all the crazy foot work. I took ballet when I was younger, I believe what we're witnessing here is both first and third position. Beautiful demonstration, boys.
My bouquet all wrapped up and ready to go...Last but not least, Lola came over to meet us for her big photo opp. I know I keep saying this, but this one is also one of my favorites from the day. She was so happy to see both of us! This is going to sound totally pathetic, but when she came running towards me that was the first time I cried that day. I kept bursting into tears at random moments, and that was a big one.
Again, so funny. I was walking with the photographers and we were all behind Brad when he picked Lola up to walk back up to the boat house. We all started laughing and they began snapping away...
The sweet family picture...
Followed up by a very bored and tired Lola.
Love how she looks like the only guest at the wedding here (and a disinterested one at that). But she is rocking those pearls!
Check back later today for pictures from the ceremony, and tomorrow will be the reception!

Our Wedding - Getting Ready

Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for (okay not really, but I've always wanted to say that). I am going to take the rest of the week to recap our wedding and give you as many details as possible. If you happen to use any of these images on your blog, please credit Browers Photography as well as With This Ring. And with that - here we go! The image above is actually my rehearsal bouquet, which was so pretty that we kept it around all weekend. My cousin forgot to bring along the ribbons from the shower, but I was more than happy to have hydrangeas instead.
We stayed at the same resort where our reception took place (as did most of our guests) so we had a suite for the weekend. It was the perfect place to get ready and do a little relaxing. As you can see, my shoes are below which are by Something Bleu and were ordered online (except they've apparently gone up in price a bit).
Our ring bowl from Paloma's Nest, which we didn't actually use in the ceremony but I wanted some pictures of anyway. It says, "For Who You Are" which is a phrase that has been around since we started dating. Brad and I were sending each other emails (the modern day version of love letters, no?) and he used that phrase in one of them. In fact, I still have the email. His ring is also engraved with that phrase and now the little bowl is the resting place for our rings each night.
If you remember, I had some seriously unsuccessful hair and makeup trials in Lake Geneva. Our budget just wouldn't allow me to bring both a hair and makeup specialist all the way from Chicago, so I had to pick one. I am not a huge fan of the way that I look with my hair up anyway, and the wedding was quite casual for the most part, so I decided that I would supplement my severe lack of skills in the makeup department and hire a professional. It was one of the best decisions I made! I can't say enough about Marla Del Angel, who drove up to Wisconsin with no complaints and was totally patient with my being picky. To be quite frank, I had a monster of a blemish taking up residence on the right half of my cheek the day before the wedding and Marla made that sucker disappear completely. I looked exactly the same way at midnight that I did at 10AM...if only she could come over before work every morning.
This is one of my favorite pictures from the day - my Mom is taking my dress out of the bag and giving it a final inspection. I don't know why, but I get emotional whenever I look at this one.
Originally, my dress had a corset back. I loved the way that the corset made the dress fit, but we wound up taking it out and putting in actual satin covered buttons instead. They look beautiful, but those little buttons are not easy to fasten. So now, I give you the "we will complain about our fingers for the next decade because of these rotten buttons" collage. It took my Mom and both bridesmaids no less that four and a half days to get me in that bad boy. Look at the level of concentration...
Don't be deceived, the bottom right picture is the only one of me smiling through the entire process. They kept whispering behind me all "don't get her all worked up, act like everything is fine" and it was making me bananas. But alas, they got it buttoned and then my Dad came in to see his only daughter in her wedding dress. I love his face in this picture while they are putting on my veil.
Ahem. Meanwhile, in the boys room...
I love the array of items on the dresser. Vodka, orange juice, sunglasses, a lint brush (at least they removed their lint) and our rehearsal dinner invitation. They got dressed in our best man's room, so apparently he was worried about missing the dinner the night before. I also like the hand in the back left of the picture, apparently in motion and frantically reaching for his vodka and OJ concoction.
These are the nice pictures, I've left out the shots where they put the hotel robes on and acted like they were performing karate (seriously). But Brad does get some credit for this printout on how to fold his pocket square:
On the video you can hear one of our photographers saying "I am so impressed, most guys just shove those things in there." Another budget cut was the boutonnieres for all the groomsmen, ushers, and the dads. They all work pocket squares instead and I have to say that while I was sad about it at first, that day I didn't even notice.
And now, back to our suite for a highlight of some of my most sentimental things. This brooch is my Great Grandmother's and it is pinned to lace from my Mom's wedding dress (which you can see her wearing here). We later tied it around my bouquet before I walked down the aisle.
This pin is from my Great Great Grandmother, which is sitting on a handkerchief I had made for the wedding. I wound up with two handkerchiefs - one that my Aunt made and then this one that I ordered.
And lastly, this is my cousin and maid of honor pinning my Grandmother's earring into my dress. My Grandpa gave my Grandma gold and pearl earrings while they were married and all of her daughters (my Mom and my Aunt included) wore them on their wedding day. So now, my cousin and I each have one. This picture makes me a little weepy, too.
This picture just makes me laugh, I had to include it. Yes, you are in fact looking at the toilet in the bathroom of our suite. I had nothing to do with the green ribbon around the spare roll of toilet paper, it was like that when we got there. But no less that four people accused me of putting it there, with a mixture of sympathy for obvious ensuing insanity and complete horror. For the record - I realize that I was a little obsessed with the details of it all, but I stopped short of decorating the toilet paper.
At this point, after a minor bridesmaid dress debacle, we're all ready and getting preparing to go meet Brad and the boys. The wraps were part of my gift to the girls - aren't they just the most adorable bridesmaids ever?Tomorrow I will share some portraits and a few pictures from the ceremony, then Friday will be the reception and all those details. I hope you are enjoying it all!

White Dresses

I had a request from lovely reader Lindsay, who is on the hunt for a white dress to wear to her upcoming bachelorette party that is taking place this spring. Additionally, Lindsay prefers that the dress be under $100 (understandably so). While I was able to find a few that are under that price point, the majority of the dresses I found are just slightly over $100 (think $120-$150 range). I am going to show them all here in case you're in the market for a similar dress, and even though I am going to show those that are over Lindsay's price point I'll offer up a suggestion. You'll also need a dress for the rehearsal dinner, so if you have to spend a little over your limit just make the dress do double duty! Put a cardigan over it and accessorize it differently to make it appropriate for both events. And if you got some of the "dressier" options, you could even change into it to leave the reception (if you're doing that sort of thing).

So - first up are the under $100 options. The dress pictured above is from Nordstrom, several of which you will see in this post are in the juniors section. But if you look at the size charts, you'll see that a lot of them correspond to "adult" sizes. The dress above is $68.00. This next one is also from the Juniors section, but is one of my favorites. It would be so fun to change into during the reception, and its only $72:
Also from Nordstrom, $68:Nordstrom again, $65:
These next few are were found on Bluefly. I am not entirely sure they would work for a bachelorette party, but if you accessorized right they might be a good fit. The first one is $78:
I really like this one, $74.99:
This one is $74.99 as well:
The next two are from jcrew, both of which I think would work not only for a bachelorette party and the rehearsal dinner but on your honeymoon as well. The first one is $98:
This one is on sale for $98. It is actually a light pewter color, which I haven't seen in person but seems like it might work from the picture:
Now we're leaving the under $100 category and getting into a slightly higher price range. But like I suggested, pick one that can do double duty. I love these first two! This one is from White House Black Market and costs $158:
And this one is from Banana Republic, at $130. They always have some great sales, so if you held out for a bit I am sure there would be a coupon:
All the rest are from Nordstrom again, at varying price ranges. The first one is $128:
This one is the most expensive, at $168:
Nordstrom again, $148:
This one is likely too sweet for a bachelorette party, but I threw it in there in case any of you are also looking for rehearsal dresses (and really, this could work as a casual wedding dress) It is $118:
And finally, this dress is $138. I think it might fit really cute when tried on:
I hope that helps, Lindsay! If any of you have some additional suggestions, throw them out in the comments. And if you ever have a question, just send me an email. I most definitely don't have all the answers but I will always try to help!

Justin Fone Productions

Kaori & Chris from Justin Fone on Vimeo.

His philosophy really says it all, "Whatever you thought about wedding videography...think again." Justin Fone has studios in both San Francisco and Los Angeles (but is happy to travel) and produces some of the most beautiful wedding videos I've seen. Check out his blog to see more and if you're anything like me, make sure kleenex is nearby. I am not sure why I cry at strangers wedding videos but I most certainly do.

Well...

The six month mark is quickly approaching and we still don't have our wedding pictures. They are, however, starting to trickle in online so I am just going to start grabbing them to share with you. You can only be denied the table runner pictures for so long, after all! I've already got some posts scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, so I am thinking we'll start the wedding recap fest towards the middle of the week. Hopefully after all these months it won't wind up being the most anti-climactic set of posts in the history of the bloggin' world. You're all still excited to see those river rock escort cards, right? ((looking around nervously)) Right?

Cake Inspiration

Etiquette of Chocolate is a fabulous confectionery in Orange Park, Florida who makes chocolate goodies as well as wedding cakes. I first heard of them via Style Me Pretty and have been reading their blog ever since. I recently went into their archives to read some old posts and was fascinated by this particular post about sources of inspiration. You can obviously go check it out for yourself (and should look around at the rest of their blog as well) but the gist is that they took this wedding dress:
Decided to make the cake "flow similar" to the design of the dress (tiered band around the waist, etc):
And then used silicon molds to make "lace" similar to the lace on the dress. Such a beautiful cake! Its so great to see a drawing transform into the real thing.Beautiful work, Etiquette of Chocolate!

Tablescapes

These tablescapes that Jordana photographed for In The Now Weddings are truly beautiful. Go to the Hazelnut Photography blog to see the rest (mason jars and sparkling pom juice - what's not to love?) I think this setting with the grapes in the arrangements is my favorite...

Navy and Magenta

{Bouquet, Blueberries, Macaroons
Dress, Car, Escort Cards}

As promised, here is another take on yesterday's inspiration board. I think the color scheme works equally as well with a more brilliant shade of pink. And I absolutely love that jcrew bridesmaids dress. I know everyone says that they want a dress that can be worn again, but this one definitely could! I know a friend that bought it to wear as a guest to a wedding this summer. What do you think - do you have a favorite of the two color combinations?

Pink and Navy

When I asked all of you to respond to the survey a couple of weeks ago, there were some specific requests for inspiration boards. One of them was "pink and navy" which I can't think of any other way than as a preppy affair. This is my first take on the palette, and I have another for you tomorrow that is more of a magenta and navy board. So enjoy this one and come back tomorrow for another one! (The second one involves macaroons as well, just because I can't help myself)

{Cake, Dress, Escort Card Tree
Feathers, Peonies, Monogram
Pillow, Shoes, Macaroons}

Centerpiece Inspiration

Centerpieces don't always have to be the traditional floral arrangements - they don't even have to include flowers. These inspirational pictures are from Donna Hay and they aren't technically for weddings, but with a little imagination they can easily be transformed into reception decor. One of my favorites might be the sand and candles in mason jars. You can get an entire box of mason jars for just a few dollars, and if you bought them in varying heights and ordered the candles online it could be a very inexpensive and beautiful solution.
I am also always a huge fan of flowers in unexpected containers. Hit up some flea markets or browse on ebay and pick out any vases or glasses that speak to you. A few buds in each one and they are beautiful grouped together!

mmmm...cake

I am feeling a little blue, but the promise of some warmer days and (this is going to sound pathetic) pictures of cake usually cheer me up! The Cake Girls continue to produce some of my favorite wedding cakes and it doesn't hurt that we share this lovely windy city. Did you know that they were on the We Channel? I certainly didn't, but you can watch a clip here.
They also make cakes for all sorts of occasions other than weddings. This one is listed in the "bridal" category - some lucky girl got this as her shower cake!

Jenny Yoo

I was looking at Jenny Yoo dresses yesterday, when I realized that she posted her own wedding on her website. If you click on the album she also lists her vendors at the bottom of the page. She and her husband were married in Las Vegas in 2007, the beautiful bridesmaids dresses were of course her own design...
Love this idea for place cards, you could easily replicate something similar for relatively small cost (and they could also serve as a portable candy bar of sorts). Just small glass containers (I bought a cute one with a hinged lid at Hobby Lobby this weekend for .50) filled with candy.Such a beautiful wedding! You can see more pictures and read about her vendors, here.

Stuck Labels

I could sit and shed a little tear over how much time these labels would have saved me on my paper related wedding projects! The ever amazing Jordan has expanded her line of stuck labels to include these two shapes. Swoon...

DIY Monograms

Crystal Kluge creates beautiful calligraphy and has also created a custom font that is perfect for monograms (and in fact inspired by the custom monograms she created for clients). The font is only $29.95 and it includes 10 framing options. You could use one monogram on your invitation (just your first initials, for example) and then change the frame and use your married monogram for your menu cards at the reception. So lovely! You can buy the font here and here, and you can take a peek at Crystal's flickr stream for some more lettered inspiration.

Peonies and Polaroids

I am sure you've heard, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention that my favorite Scottish blogger has opened her own etsy shop. Stop in and get yourself a little something lovely to lighten your mood. You can also gaze at her flickr stream - it makes me happy.