Weddings

So, funny thing. When we were a little less than a year away from the wedding, we decided to sign our contract for our rehearsal dinner venue. Why so early, you might ask? I knew our rehearsal dinner venue before I even knew we were getting engaged. It wasn’t even a question for me, so when we were engaged, I asked Sparky if he was on board and he was. Farestart Restaurant—good food, great charity via Seattle Dining There is a local restaurant that serves great food, has a wonderful atmosphere, and, amazingly enough, is a charity. I love to go to the restaurant for lunch when I can, and every Thursday night they have a guest chef night. The reason I love this place so much is that they use the money they make to do something I am very passionate about: help people. Interior of Farestart via William Wright Photography This restaurant takes people who are homeless and/or just generally down on their luck and gives them culinary training over (I think) 10 weeks. They get housing support, they get mental health counseling. At the end of their training, they get support to help them find a job. This is a place where I wanted to do my internship for school because I love it so much. So: our rehearsal dinner money will go to help people in need. It’s amazing and I’m so excited! Was your rehearsal dinner space a last-minute decision or did you do what we did and book it super early?

Engagement sessions just keep surprising me in the best way possible.  What’s better than a beach, a balloon, and cute pup for an engagement session?  How about several wardrobe changes, a photographer like MikeL Photography, and a totally B.A. couple willing to capture their love and romance in a fun and whimsical way?    Ju and Derrick seem to have combined their crazy-fun spirits with romance and mystique at the beach, the Griffith Observatory, and Chinatown.  I love the modern shots and poses that give you a hint of their bright personalities.  You just know these two are a blast to be around! Thank you MikeL Photography for sharing this fantastic shoot! To Ju and Derrick who are hopefully reveling in marital bliss and just returning from a bomb diggity honeymoon, congratulations!!! Vendor Information: Photographer: MikeL Photography Event Venues: Huntington Beach Griffith Observatory Submitted via Two Bright Lights

A Hairy Situation by Miss Bicycle I Did It!! by Miss Blue Whale Nailed It: An Epic Fail by Miss Airplane Touchy Topics by Miss Campfire, Pictorial Party: Engagement Photos by Miss Campfire Weight vs. Wedding by Miss Campfire The One With the Gifts for the Gals by Miss Camera Shoe Woes by Miss Bicycle The One with the VSQ… by Miss Camera I Was Crazy by Mrs. Lemur The Getting-Ready Playlist by Miss Mongoose

I don’t know how she does it, but Diva Productions always seems to get the absolute sweetest couples ever. They are always so filled with love, which is awesome for us, because the resulting weddings are so super special. Which means the films, already guaranteed to be fab thanks to Diva Productions, are amazing. Please upgrade your browser ColorsSeasonsWinterSettingsFamily HomeStylesTraditional Elegance From the beautiful bride … Our story begins in the sleepy southern town of Mobile, Alabama. Here, in this scenic city by the bay, Davis and I were both born and raised. We both grew up in loving homes with supportive parents. We each were blessed with two sisters as siblings who we shared a home with and grew to love. We both had a love of sports and even played ball at the same ballpark. Although we had so much in common and lived in the same place our entire lives, we never met in Mobile. It took a chance encounter on a Spring weekend in Auburn, Alabama to bring us together. It turned out that Davis and I shared a few mutual friends, and we both had unknowingly made plans to visit these friends at the same time. We met, spent the weekend getting to know one another, and each went back to our daily lives. Little did we know that that weekend would change our lives forever. From the moment Davis and I met, there was an immediate attraction. Davis began asking me out after that weekend, but I was hesitant to say yes because we lived in two different states at the time. Fortunately, Davis was persistent and kept trying until he moved back to Mobile a year later when I finally said yes. Davis and I began to hang out all the time. Before long, we were dating, and we had become inseparable. I soon realized that immediate attraction we had was no coincidence. I was meant to be his bride. After two years of dating, he asked me to marry him. On the day of our engagement, we met up and ate breakfast together. After breakfast he took off without telling me goodbye, and he left a letter on my car. Each letter had the sweetest words I’ve ever read, along with instructions and a polaroid picture of a similar letter in a location that he knew I would recognize. I was to follow the trail of polaroid pictures, each of a letter setup in a location that was special to our relationship, and follow the instructions inside. The final letter contained a picture of an island in the middle of a lake on his family’s property. There he was waiting for me, while both of our families watched in anticipation, as I said yes, and we all celebrated together. Naturally, when it came time to choose a wedding venue, his family’s property by the lake where we were engaged was our choice. After looking at both of our family’s schedules, we set a date and began plans to build our wedding chapel. Our wedding took place on January 5, 2013, so we chose a winter based theme for the wedding. We each had hundreds of friends and family members that we wanted to be there on our big day, so constructing a venue to hold everyone and decorating it to be a winter wonderland became our next focus. Having a winter wonderland wedding evolved because of the time of year, and our wedding colors. My favorite color is light blue, and I love whites and creams. We hired a family friend of ours as our wedding decorator, and I coordinated with her on a daily basis to design the decor of the wedding. Together, we were able to come up with the design for the wedding of my dreams. There are so many special things that we incorporated in our decorations and ceremony. The Mobile Youth Symphony Orchestra provided the music for the ceremony. Davis and I were married under an arbor his dad built for us. We will be putting it in our backyard to keep forever. Our aisle runner had our names hand painted on it with our wedding date, and we hope that one day our children will use it in their weddings and add their names to it as well. In order to keep it clean

I’ll admit it, I have a slight shoe obsession. Flats, heels, wedges, I love ‘em all. And my dears, if you’re anything like me, picking the shoe for your wedding day is no small feat — you want it to be a perfect match to your style and amazingly comfy so you can dance the night away. Enter Milk & Honey shoes. They’re an online boutique which designs totally unique and custom women’s shoes, allowing you to select the color, design, heel height and more. Hello gorgeous! Styles Pictured: Green Shoes / Ivory Shoes /  Purple Shoes / Red Glitter Shoes  Whether you’re coveting something sky high with gold glitter, a flat in cobalt blue silk or a sweet and comfy wedge, Milk & Honey has you covered. You can even customize the strap, toe shape, heel height and fabric! With a super easy to use site and a great gallery full to the brim with inspiration, you’ll have your dream shoes is no time. Styles Pictured: Blue Shoes / Yellow & Orange Bow Shoes Head on over to Milk & Honey to start creating your custom kicks! Happy shopping, lovelies! xo © Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2013. | Permalink | Comments | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Post categories: Sponsored Posts

Lorna & Dave were married in Southend in April. Their ceremony took place at The Culture Centre, right on the pier, and their reception was at Ocean Beach, a restaurant on the beach. “The theme for our wedding was British seaside with a touch of vintage”, wrote Lorna. “The beautiful blue sky and sunshine really made the day that extra bit special. It was amazing! The children were able to run about and play on the beach at the reception and the view from the decking at Ocean Beach was incredible.” “I run a vintage business, Latham Street Vintage, and we live by the sea in a lovely little fishing town called Leigh”, she continued. “These were our two main inspirations. Getting married on Southend Pier was amazing, especially having to get the old train up to the Culture Centre. Our guests loved that part and it made the whole day really quirky and fun. We were only the second people to ever get married at The Culture Centre too which also made it even more special.” “There’s nothing we would have done differently”, she concluded “I handmade most things which made the day really individual, personal and saved us money BUT takes a lot of time. If you’re going to DIY stuff then make sure you give yourself plenty of time as things always take much longer than you think they will! It was all well worth it though, as it came together beautifully in the end.” “I wish that we could do it all over again, it was such a fantastic day, from start to finish! This is why we’re so made up with our photos by RobWMay. He really captured the whole essence of the day… the fun, the nerves, the happiness and the amazing dance moves! We’ll treasure our wedding photos forever”.

Ellie & Jon  The historic Ripponlea in Melbourne has to be one of my favourite backdrops with so many incredible spaces to explore and what a location for engagement photos! There is so much to explore and together with their photographer Kylee of Kytography , Ellie and Jon made the most of it for their engagement photographs! The pair married in New York in March. Of how they met, Ellie recalls “My first memory of Jonathan was at a university ball. He was a major geek and I didn’t really think I would ever see or let alone talk to him again. However after the ball he started appearing everywhere I went, as if out of thin air – at the uni cafes, the uni libraries (both the main AND law libraries), the uni carpark, and even in my lectures!” Jonathan remembers, “My first memory of Ellie was seeing her asleep on the couch at the same university ball. How could I resist such grace? I was infatuated with her and naturally as I was studying law I started to do my due diligence on her. ” Ellie remarks, “Jonathan is very patient, kind, generous and helpful. He is nice not only to me but to everyone else.” Jonathan notes, “Ellie is a very loyal person. Show her genuine kindness and you will have made a friend for life. Going hand in hand with this is her very determined, driven and stylish sense of self. When she sets her mind to something she’ll make it happen, all whilst carrying herself with a sense of fashionable style and grace.” Their proposal story goes a little something like this. “About a year ago Jonathan and Ellie decided to take a last minute 6 week trip to Europe. Towards the end of the holiday Jonathan and Ellie actually took a ‘sidetrip’ to New York City. Ellie had always wanted to go to NYC. The trip was organized last minute and Ellie had no idea that Jonathan was going to propose. But Jonathan had a plan. First, he fabricated a story whereby he casually started mentioning that his friend was in town. After a few days, this then turned into the friend wanting to take the both of them out to lunch, and that he would send his ‘driver’ to pick them up in his stretch limo. Riding around in a limo in NYC was always one of Ellie’s fantasies as she is a closet lover of the teen drama TV show ‘Gossip Girl’. However, Hurricane Irene had actually just rolled through New York City and had left behind some torrential rain for the day that this ‘lunch’ was supposed to take place. Jonathan’s months of planning was now in ruin, as the carefully selected Rockefeller Center rooftop garden where he planned to propose had now become a rooftop swimming pool. Jonathan madly tried to stop the plan he had put in motion and cancelled everything. He was largely successful, but couldn’t cancel the stretch limo that he had ordered. Craftily, Jonathan instructed the driver to pretend that the friend sent his apologies and that he could not make the lunch.” “As an apology Jonathan and Ellie could use his driver as they pleased, so they ended up driving around NYC for 2 hours just for the fun of it! Jonathan eventually managed to reschedule his planned surprise. He stuck with his story of his friend wanting to have lunch, but Ellie was so annoyed at the previous cancelled lunch that she refused to go. Improvising, Jonathan told Ellie that his friend had booked a ‘private tour’ of the Rockefeller Center for them. That managed to get her out the door. All trip long she had wanted to visit the Top of The Rock but Jonathan always managed to come up with an excuse. As they arrived at the Rockefeller Center they were greeted at a private entrance, and were shown to a private lift to the rooftop garden. When they stepped out, Ellie said “Errrr, what is this? This ain’t the Rockefeller center! We need to go to level 38 not level 8! We must be in the wrong place!” Jonathan calmly but firmly ushered Ellie out on to the

Hive, I can’t believe I’m finally getting married tomorrow. I’m sitting here in our amazing room, blow drying my hair, and just had room service delivered because I realized I forgot to eat today. I spent a glorious morning at the spa getting a massage and pedicure…and remembering to eat completely slipped my mind. I got back to the room, and Mr. M came about 30 minutes later, gave me crap for not eating, and immediately ordered me room service (this is why he’s a keeper). Saying that the past few days have been a complete whirlwind is an understatement! All photos are personal. Incredible room—this is where us ladies will get primped tomorrow. Caesar salad courtesy of room service As our friends and family have been getting in to Montreal over the past three days, it’s been such an overwhelming feeling to see all these people we know and love gathering in one location. They’ve traveled from near and far to be here, and it’s just…incredible. Mr. M and I have been so busy the past few days running last-minute wedding errands, greeting people as they get to town, dinners, and more that I have to keep remembering to cherish this time and enjoy the moment. The weather has been pretty shitty here with these weird off and on showers, and there’s a good chance it might rain tomorrow, but for as much as that was getting me down (Montreal is such a beautiful city, so it’s too bad it hasn’t been sunny the whole time), it seems like all our guests so far are having a ball—people are exploring the city, trying new restaurants, going on tours, checking out the spas, etc. The welcome bags and itineraries were also a big hit, so I’m glad that worked out. After I’m done with my hair, I’ve got to get dressed for our ceremony rehearsal at 5:30—luckily there was no other event at the hotel today, so they’ve already started setting up the ceremony space (woohoo!)—then off to the Welcome Dinner at 7:00 PM. I’m a lot calmer than I thought I would be at this point—the only things stressing me out right now are the weather (which I know there’s nothing I can do about) and whether I’m going to get some sleep. I didn’t sleep well at all last night, so that’s the biggest thing I’m freaked out about. Otherwise, everything seems ready to go for tomorrow. Now I’ve just got to focus on staying as calm as possible, while enjoying every moment of this incredible weekend. All in preparation for tomorrow, which I’m expecting to be the BEST. DAY. EVER. Wish me luck, hive, and see you on the other side!!

Beautiful pictures, cute dog bow tie.

The monochromatic 'sand' tones are just lovely!