Weddings

Last week was very exciting for me. Not only did I take part in my very first photo shoot, but I got to tour the amazing Martha Stewart ...

Photo: Michelle Gardella "Aaron asked me out in the most romantic way possible," Christina pretends to brag, then deadpans, "via text message." Yet despite a less-than-script-worthy start, the Connecticut couple took off and two years later, Aaron proposed. Surrounded by friends and family at a surprise birthday party for the soon-to-be bride, Aaron dropped to one knee and presented Christina with a square-cut diamond ring. "Aaron and I had the tightest embrace ever," Christina recalls, until an excited Aaron attempted to slip the ring on her finger and instead accidentally tossed the diamond onto an outdoor patio, complete with cracks. "After a few seconds of panic, one of my girlfriends found the ring and I was finally able to wear it as an officially engaged woman," Christina laughs. Photo: Michelle Gardella Working with wedding planner Ambiance Luxe Wedding Designs, Christina and Aaron crafted a quirky September affair held in rustic Deep River. With vibrant turquoise accents offsetting an otherwise neutral palette, the couple's wedding took on an atmosphere that Christina describes as "light, fun and lively." Photo: Michelle Gardella Christina spotted her Melissa Sweet gown online—and was crushed when she discovered the dress had been discontinued. Yet, by what the bride describes as a "stroke of luck," she uncovered the sweet sheath at a sample sale and snatched it up. "Once I put it on, it was love. We purchased it on the spot," Christina says. "It's so true when they say that it's just a feeling. When you know, you know." Photo: Michelle Gardella Christina adored the gown's silk organza overlay, accented with delicate polka dots and tied with a matching sash. "I loved how it was so simple, yet had these amazing and fun details that made it so romantic," she says. Plus, "it hugged my curves in all the right places, but was comfortable at the same time. Comfort is key." Photo: Michelle Gardella A champagne-colored faux floral hairpiece by Mignonne Handmade softened Christina's half-up-half-down hairstyle. Photo: Michelle Gardella Kendra Scott's chunky turquoise necklace accentuated Christina's collarbone. "I tend to gravitate towards a statement piece here and there, so decided to go with a couple of accessories to make my overall look pop," Christina explains. Photo: Michelle Gardella Aaron and his groomsmen donned slim-fit ties by Forage Haberdashery, which crafted the neckpieces from limited-edition blue and orange fabric. Photo: Michelle Gardella Bridesmaids selected from two knee-length Ivy & Aster dresses in hues of rosemary and grey. "I loved the fun and flirty feel of these dresses," the bride says. Photo: Michelle Gardella Florists wrapped bright orange ranunculus, white anemones, succulents and a few sprigs of leafy green filler with white lace to create Christina's bouquet. "Just For You Floral Design Studio translated our vision into exactly what we were looking for," the bride gushes. Photo: Michelle Gardella Dusty miller, wide green leaves and Billy Bobs were mixed with berries and small bright flowers for the groom and groomsmen's boutonnieres. "We loved how non-traditional these were and how each one was different from the next," Christina says. Photo: Michelle Gardella Boutonnieres were pinned to the lapels of light gray suits, which the men picked out at : Macy's. Photo: Michelle Gardella Christina and Aaron exchanged vows on the grounds of Mount Saint John, a high school for at-risk boys set on 80 acres of rustic Connecticut real estate. "It had a wonderful vintage feeling," Christina says of the space, "with the actual school serving as a backdrop during the ceremony." > Photo: M

In case you missed my first (and I thought only!) entry in the hair drama journal, click here for some background. Long story short: Mr. B made it clear to me that he does not want my hair fully up, even though I love having an updo. I then bought a dress that led me to believe my hair needs to be up. I thought I could get away with it. Flash forward to a few days ago: I was messing around with my hair, putting it up in crazy styles, and asking Mr. B what he would do if I walked down the aisle like that. At one point he very seriously said he knew I would not “do that to him” and that he knew I would have my hair “showing in some way.” Cue panic. What?! Why did I think he would be OK with my hair being up?! Well, now I am back to the drawing board and I need some help. My original compromise style inspiration was this: Image via Style Me Pretty / Photography by Chris Bailey Photography / Event design by Keely Thorne Events I do not plan on showing my dress but I will tell you this—it has a very pretty keyhole back, similar to this: Image via Fox Gown I cannot have my hair covering that beautiful back, can I? But apparently I cannot wear it up. So what am I supposed to do? Well, the idea hit me—what about a curly side ponytail? Let’s look at some inspiration: Image via Style Bistro Image via Celebrity Hairstyles Image via Total Beauty Or I could just have it all technically “down” but curled and to the side like this: Image via Kook Hair Image via Gal Meets Glam / Photo by Silvana di Franco What do you guys think? Can I still wear a veil if my hair is down-ish like these? Is there some compromise I am missing? Am I going to be completely annoyed with my hair all day and worry about it frizzing, un-curling, getting in my way, and just generally being a pain in my side? (That last one was rhetorical. I know the answer.)

Nicole is selling a vintage-inspired Mon Cheri wedding gown. She is asking $500 for the size-six gown. Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee Classifieds, and you might see it featured on the blog! Other great items for sale: Maggie Sottero Karena Royale, size 6, asking $750 Bubble candle holders, asking $40 per set 8 74″x14″ burlap runners, asking $40 5 yellow fedoras, asking $12

Wondering how this awesome geometric cube table runner was made in the shoot featured on the blog earlier today? Well, look no further, because Sarah Park was kind enough to share the whole project with us. Now you too can create a fun 3-D table runner that will have your guests talking for days! For this project, you will need:  -pegboard (6′x1′ to fit a 6′ table) -bamboo skewers (cut different lengths to create height) -DIY geometric cubes (DIY instruction here) -foam board -scissors -hot glue gun Instructions: Step 1: Glue foam board to the back of pegboard Step 2: Punch a hole with the skewer and place the tip into the geometric cube Step 3: Hot glue the hole where you want to place the skewer Step 4: Place the geometric cubes randomly onto the pegboard varying in heights to create a geometric cube centerpiece Such a cool idea for any crafty bride looking to do something a bit different! © Ruffled®, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Posted under: DIY Projects Tags: DIY, geometric, Lauren Fair Photography, Sarah Park Events, table runner The post DIY Geometric Table Runner appeared first on Ruffled®.

Photo: Lindsey Thorne Photography Mary Kathryn Paynter, the stylist behind Loretta Flower in Austin, Texas, created this vivid bridesmaids' posy for a bride getting married at Laguna Gloria, a historic home that sits on Lake Austin. "Her wedding was very formal, but the color palette was inspired by monarch butterflies, so it was still playful." This slightly wild but still sophisticated look (achieved here with peonies, cockscombs, ranunculus, amaranths, seeded eucalyptus, and spray roses) is representative of what brides are into now—bouquets that aren't too uniform, tight, or predictable. "It's a sign of the flood of creativity that has overtaken the wedding industry since the dawn of the blogosphere," explains Paynter. (Approximate cost, $100) —Denise Penny Shepard You Might Also Like: Browse flower and bouquet ideas for your wedding Floral Inspiration for a Summer Wedding Wedding Bouquets for All Budgets

A lot of commenters have asked me about what it was like to plan a wedding while also studying for the bar exam. It’s that time of year again, so I figured I’d address that now. Studying for the bar exam was, without a doubt, one of the hardest things I have ever done. Maybe THE hardest thing I’ve ever done. It was time-consuming, intellectually challenging, and physically and emotionally exhausting. You know what else is all of those things? Wedding planning. So here are my tips on how to combine the two without going insane. Choose your date wisely. The busiest time of studying for the bar exam is the last month before the wedding. The busiest time of wedding planning is the last six to eight weeks before the wedding. Unless you have a lot of help, I would recommend picking a wedding date that’s at least two months after the bar exam. We got married exactly two months and four days after I finished the bar exam, and I’m happy that we had that much time in between the two. Triage your to-do list early. Decide what needs to be done and when to do it. It will be unavoidable to send out invitations in the middle of July if your wedding is Labor Day weekend, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait until the middle of July to address envelopes or put everything together. Take advantage of the time you have at the beginning of the studying process and the time you have after the exam is done. The month of the exam is not the time to tackle major DIY projects or schedule a bunch of fittings. If at all possible, put things off until after the bar exam is over. Delegate, delegate, delegate. You’re marrying your fiancé(e) because he/she is a great teammate, right? Well, it’s time to pass the ball to him/her for a little while. Adam designed our invitations, figured out tuxedo rentals for the guys, put together our shower invitation list, and corresponded with vendors while I was deep in study mode. Don’t forget about your relationship. Studying is incredibly stressful. If you’re anything like me, you will have multiple breakdowns. Especially after you bomb your first practice test. (Don’t worry; everyone fails it and you still have plenty of time.) It’s so easy to lash out at your partner in times of stress, but try to remember they’re on your team. It’s also easy to study 24/7 and never let yourself have any fun. Give yourself a couple of nights off from studying and crack open a bottle of wine or go out to dinner. These date nights are also opportune times to do wedding-related tasks like choosing readings, music, or cake flavors. Yay for multitasking! I promise that you will survive this stressful summer (or winter, if you’re a February bar taker) and survive the wedding-planning process. Just keep you eye on the prize. You can do it!

Oh, this wedding. It’s filling me up with so many wonderful emotions, I could just hug these two lovelies and never let go. Their wedding was 10 years in the making, and when that day finally came, they did it oh so right (and on a budget). Each of the stunning, light-filled images from Onelove Photography are worthy of a frame and the prime spot on the mantle – so join me in soaking up every last gorgeous bit of this love-fest right here. ColorsSeasonsSpringSummerSettingsVineyardStylesCasual From one of the Brides..My wife and I kept waiting and waiting for marriage to become legal for gay couples. After 10 years, we were tired of waiting for the laws to catch up with our love, so we decided to have the wedding of our dreams and have it “sanctified” by those nearest and dearest to us. We are both native Californians and met during college in the San Francisco Bay Area. Even though we now reside in Chicago,  we really wanted to have our ceremony outside and in our home state. For a few months, it seemed that nothing in the Bay was in our budget until we found Vine Hill House, a working apple orchard and vineyard located in Sebastopol (Sonoma County). The space really represents the natural beauty that is so unique to California..plus the owners are so amazing about letting you craft the wedding of your dreams. Our two goals were to create a day that didn’t feel forced and come in at a budget of $20,000. To achieve that we first decided to not compete with the venue’s natural, rustic elements and to do what we could ourselves while relying on key vendors to give certain areas a more polished look.  I sewed oversized linen runners in different colors to get a casual, yet coordinated look (sidenote: I even got my wife to sew a few!). We made our own save the date cards and invitations (the seal on both envelopes was round cork since we were in wine country). My mom made the centerpieces from round galvanized pots with an herb variety. At the last minute, we added apples from the venue’s orchards. The table numbers represented the number of years Maria and I have been together. And one of my favorite elements was our place cards. Since I’m a librarian, my bridesmaid Nicole designed the place cards from old library catalog cards. We decided to send Guatemalan coffee (my wife’s family is from Guatemala) with our thank you notes in lieu of wedding favors. Our vendors went above and beyond to work with our budget without compromising any design. Mina, the owner of Arjan Flowers and Herbs, truly got our vision and created arrangements that were native to the area, including adding berries and apples. We hired RoliRoti Gourmet Rotisserie to cook amazing food all sourced locally. The pies were from a local bakery that used local fruit, including apples from Vine Hill’s orchards.  After being with the person I love for more than 10 years, I never imagined that a single day could have such a big impact. Everything from the people attending to the venue, ceremony, and reception told a story about us as individuals and as a couple. Photography: Onelove Photography | Floral Design: Arjan Flowers and Herbs | Event Design + Planning: The Bride | Ceremony + Reception Location: Vine Hill House | DJ: DJ St. Patrick of Golden State Productions | Cocktail Hour + Staffing Catering: Trends Catering | Dinner Catering: RoliRoti Gourmet Rotisserie | Wedding Cake: Pies from Mom’s Bakery featuring apples from Vine Hill House | Linens: La Tavola | Table runners: DIY |  Invitations: DIY | Wedding Dress: BCBG Max Azria | Shoes: Valentino | Bolero: Carol Hannah © Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2013. | Permalink | Comments | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Same Sex Wedding Post categories: Casual, Real Weddings

A long time ago, when I had time for Pinterest, I pinned the following photo onto my wedding board with the caption, “Love this look for wedding nails!” Image via Nature Nails by Tenshi no Hana When full-nail applique kits started becoming popular, I looked for the lacy look I had pinned and couldn’t get out of my mind. Imagine my excitement when Essie introduced their new line of Sleek Stick Nail Appliques, one of which was aptly titled “Embrace the Lace”! I found mine at Target for $10. / Personal photo We had our love-story video shoot this past weekend, so I figured it would be a good time to test out these babies. Cue the epic fail music. (Does that even exist? Someone should get on that.) Installing the appliques proved to be a little tricky. The package comes with 18 appliques total, so you can choose the one that best fits your nails. The instructions tell you to clean your nail with alcohol and push back the cuticle using the little plastic tool that is also included. (I used my metal cuticle tool, since the plastic one was basically worthless.) The next step is to oh so carefully apply the applique so that it is straight on your fingernail. It was difficult to get the applique to line up with all sides of my nail, and the “universal” shape of the appliques mostly didn’t apply to my fingers—I was left with empty space on the sides of my nail and excess applique near the base of my nail. Once you have the applique on your nail, you use a little file in downward strokes to detach the extra applique from the tips of your nail. The file was very rough and left me with some pretty jagged nails that I filed down with a personal file. I applied the appliques on Saturday. By Sunday they were a mess. (All photos personal) Here you can see the fraying corner from the file that I used. It is not precise enough to remove the top of the applique cleanly, so I was left with little pieces in the corners of my nail. Very soon after applying the applique, I had bubbling at the base of my nails. This became worse the longer I had them on, and was especially noticeable after washing my hands, because moisture would sneak under the loose edges. This photo shows the excess applique at the base of my nail. Definitely was not the shape my nail bed needed. I noticed the chipping very soon after I applied the appliques. I felt like I couldn’t really do anything with them on, because they started to wear so quickly after application. I tried to peel a sticker off of a hand mirror I had just purchased, and the applique popped right up. These things definitely do not get points for longevity. There was also an issue of little folds (which you can see on my ring finger in this photo) because the appliques didn’t account for the natural curvature of my nails. Am I the only one with curvy fingernails? I don’t think I am. By the end of the day Sunday, I was so irritated with looking at the bubbling and chipping that I removed all of the appliques, less than 24 hours after I installed them. They were also strangely heavy, more so than any nail polish I had ever worn. Points for easy removal Although I had been debating doing something special for the wedding day, I think I am just going to stick with a gel manicure (applied by a professional!). Maybe some of the issues I had were caused user error, but I would not waste another penny on appliques. Essie, stick to nail polish—I know I’m going to. Have you experimented with DIY nail appliques? Any tips or tricks that might inspire me to try them again?

Crazy love can offen be found folded throughout the weddings we post. That’s a given. But love paired with details so beautifully executed they only add to all that magic swirling around a wedding day; that’s a bit harder to find. But this Figueroa Mountain Farmhouse has it all. It’s a one-stop shop full of elegant, rustic details crafted by family and friends and images by Steve Steinhardt that showcase a perfect day; even if things didn’t go exactly according to plan. See all the beauty unfold right here as well as in the film shot by The Cana Family below. ColorsSeasonsFallSettingsfarmhouseStylesCasualDIYRustic From the Bride…We decided to travel to one of our favorite places, the Santa Ynez Valley, to have our wedding for two reasons: First, there was no place in the world we’d rather be. The second? It was sure to be warm… especially in November when the weather is just starting to cool back home. Well, you wouldn’t know it from the pictures, but that wasn’t the case. Our wedding day was cold. Freezing, even. So much so that we had to move most of the party indoors, leaving the string lights and adorable vintage trailer we’d rented lonely outside. In fact, there were a lot of those details that didn’t go according to plan on our wedding day… but when I look back, there’s not one thing I would change. Hearing my dad tell me how proud he was before he walked me down the aisle, seeing Mark’s face (and the tears coming down it) when I walked his way… shivering as we said our vows… and dancing the night away next to a warm fire with the best band on earth. From the sky full of stars, to each and every one of the amazing people that made the night happen, to my brand new husband who makes me feel like the luckiest girl on earth… my heart is so full of thanks. Nothing went according to plan, but what I didn’t know when I made those plans was that none of them would really matter… I married my best friend, and our day couldn’t have been more perfect. I’m a policy analyst in DC and write and edit the blog A Thousand Threads and Mark works as a business development manager for a construction company in the small town where we live.  We met almost six years ago, before we’d embarked on any of this.  At the time, we were both working at the same restaurant in the DC suburbs.  Above all, we wanted our day to be personal… more us than anything else.  So we hired a food truck and an amazing band and had a small party with 30 of our closest friends and family.  We planned it ourselves and included as many personal touches as we could.  We chose the farmhouse partly because it was brought from the east coast to the west.  Since I’m from Oregon and Mark is from Maryland, the east/west connection felt like it represented us both perfectly.  I carried each of my late grandmothers’ rings tied to my bouquet, and we both wore bottle caps pinned to our clothes (a nod to our favorite movie, Up – Mark was an eagle scout, so we have so many reasons to love it).  We gave everyone a welcome bag full of goodies from Oregon, Maryland, and California, and my aunt arranged our flowers with the help of my mother and a long time friend of the family.  Everyone really came out to help and make our day amazing… I can’t say how thankful I am for all of them. Photographer: Steve Steinhardt | Venue: Figueroa Mountain Farmhouse | Videographer: The Cana Family | Day of Coordinator: Cori Lassahn, Avante Events | Cakes + Cupcakes: Enjoy Cupcakes | Catering: O Street Food Truck | Rentals: Classic Party Rentals | Lighting + Heating: Discount Party Rental | Hair+ Makeup: Mar with TEAM Hair and Makeup | Band: Moonsville Collective | Floral: DIY, with help from the bride’s aunt | Growlers: Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co. | Dress: Ivy & Aster | Shoes: Kate Spade | Headpiece: Twigs & Honey © Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2013. | Permal