Lately I am really loving navy, pink and white together. The addition of stripes, chevron and other bold patterns in navy with accents of delicate pink and white just compliment each other so well, don’t you think?
{Photos: Left Column: Paper Bouquet: Sunny & Stumpy via Emmaline Bride; Centerpieces: Glessner Photography via Wedding Chicks; Right Column: Chevron Cake: Jenna Rae Cakes; Card Case: Lover.ly; Shoes: REAL Simple; Seating Assignments: Glessner Photography via Wedding Chicks}
There is a ton of waiting involved in wedding planning. Yes, between vendor meetings, tastings, fittings, etc, you have plenty to keep you busy, but after each one of these comes more waiting. Waiting for it to all come together and turn into the wedding day you’ve been dreaming of months (heck, maybe even years). That is why I love engagement photos so much. In the middle of all that waiting comes an actual finished product! Lovely moments that tell the story of the two of you as a couple that you can finally share with your family and friends as a pre-celebration of the vows to come.
We are super excited to share Morgan and Brett’s engagement photos with you today, captured by the awesome A . Shore Photography. Morgan and Brett are such a fantastic, laid back couple that are so easy to be instantly comfortable around. They are super fun-loving and, as you can see in these photos, clearly smitten with one another. We are so excited for their upcoming wedding in May!
Not had enough eye candy yet? You can see more of Morgan & Brett’s engagement session on A. Shore Photography’s page here.
Photo Credit: Rosie Parsons Wedding Photography
Wedding cake is one of my not so secret pleasures. I mean, I LOVE the stuff. But, although fondant can make a cake look beautiful, let’s be honest, it’s not exactly tasty. So, I am loving this new trend of stripping all that gummy, chewy cover right off and letting your cake go, erm, commando. I think the effect looks absolutely gorgeous and for those of you icing lovers, there is still plenty of room for that yummy sweetness in between the layers. We had the pleasure of trying a naked cake at a wedding several months ago and it was just as delicious as it was lovely. Here are a few of my favorite naked cakes.
Is your mouth watering yet?
Photo Credits: TOP: Rosie Parsons Wedding Photography; {Collage} LEFT: Sarah McKenzie Photography via Style Me Pretty; TOP RIGHT: Du Abu Blog; BOTTOM RIGHT: AC Ellis Weddings
Have we told you guys how much we loved working with Emily and Josh? Sometimes you have such a good time working with a couple you kind of have withdrawals from them after the wedding day is over. These guys were such fun and creative people and it showed in every aspect of their wedding, from the DIY lawn games and flowers, to the gorgeous spread of food prepared by the family (read more about it here). That’s why we are so excited that their day was featured yesterday on Borrowed & Bleu‘s lovely blog. Go check out the post immediately for some more glorious eye candy brought to you by Chris and Adrienne Scott, Photographers.
Well folks, after a small break it’s finally time for another DIY Friday (*cheers and applause)! Today’s project will be making a wooden photo frame with the help of some modge podge and scrapbook paper. I love making these little pretties, and although they do require some time, they are not too difficult to make!
For this project you will need:
Ok, I know that sounds like a lot of stuff, but a good deal of these things I already had from other craft projects. The rest you can easily find at a craft store and local home improvement store.
First, you will need to find a good piece of wood to use. I usually go to Home Depot or Lowe’s and look for particle board, around 3/4 of an inch or so thick. This time around it was a piece of particle board shelving. You won’t find any cut this small, but if you ask, they can cut it down to just about any size for you. You can get several frames out of one board, depending on the size frame you prefer. Once you’ve got your board, cut down your scrapbook paper to the cover one full side of the board. When I saw this scrapbook paper, I knew I had to do something with it before Valentine’s Day.
Next step is to Modge Podge the scrapbook paper to the board. Do a coat directly on the wood first, line up your paper with the edges of the board and press down, making sure there are no air bubbles trapped underneath. Then follow with a coat of Modge Podge on top. I usually do 2-3 coats, letting each one dry in between.
Once these coats of Modge Podge have dried, take one of your washers, coat the backside, then stick it to the top center of your frame. Give it a healthy coat of Modge Podge on top and all around, then smooth down and make it all look even by giving the whole thing one last coat with the roller. Let that puppy dry.
Once your washer is secure, you can finish prepping the board. I like to paint the sides and the back to cover up that particle board look and cover up any Modge Podge overlap from the top. I chose an ivory, acrylic paint for this frame and used a foam brush to cover.
While all your paint is drying, you can work on the button which is how you will attach the photo to the frame. This is where your pretty button comes in. Using a pair of needle nose pliers, pull off the back of the button. Then, put a healthy glob of E6000 on the back of your magnet and press it do the button back. Once you’ve pressed them firmly together, put something heavy – like a book- down on top of them for a bit to clamp them together – maybe 20 minutes.
Then, once all the paint is dry, I attach the ribbon using the E6000 glue. It gets kind of goopy, but just spread it across the side the best you can, then press down the ribbon.
Then, oila! Set in your display stand and you have a homemade wooden photo frame.
I love the little heart on this design so much, I could just as easily forgot the photo, magnet my button to the washer and be done with it. 
The last step is to attach your photo!
That wasn’t too bad, now was it? Remember, you can play around with sizes, different display stands, buttons and ribbon. Make it your own! Here’s one of my early trials at this where I used a 12″ x 12″ board and the top of the clipboard to attach the photo. The washer and button is definitely waaay easier.
If you are in the Nashville/Murfreesboro area, Becca and I have these little frames and bunches of other handmade goods available for purchase at Simply Southern Marketplace in the Boro.
Good luck and have a great DIY (and Super Bowl) weekend!
Day one of our honeymoon: circa 2009
Marriage is not always glamorous. Especially when some of the newness starts to wear off and the grind of day to day life starts to take over. It’s easy to lose sight of what’s important when you get wrapped up in your own issues. There was a time, not too long ago, when I was stuck in a horrible, dead end job. I didn’t get along with my boss, my colleague was constantly trying to one up me and I had to travel quite a bit during the week. I was flat out miserable. The stress was almost more than I could handle – I would drag myself out of bed each day, suffer through the afternoon, then burst into tears the minute I got into my car to go home. I dreamt about the day I could walk out of the building, maybe throw a few choice words at my boss, and never come back. My hubby, always the sensible one, reminded me constantly, that just wasn’t practical. We had a car payment, rent, mountains of student loans. I had to stick it out until I could find another job. And it’s not like I wasn’t looking. I would spend hours sending emails, revising my resume, and writing cover letters. The fish just weren’t biting.
I’m not gonna say I didn’t resent my Stefan for “making me” keep that job. He had a cushy job working from home for a company out west with a boss who loved him. He rolled out of bed at 9am each day and walked into the spare bedroom to work. He didn’t even have to put on pants! I was so depressed and miserable, it effected everything else. I walked around like a zombie. I ate the food in front of me without tasting it. I would have these elaborate daydreams where I would just run away from everything – skip town –the country even– and not look back. I wasn’t present in my marriage – I went through the motions of daily married life, but to be perfectly fair, I wasn’t a very good wife. All I cared about was my own misery.
My hubs noticed my downward spiral and recognized that it was no longer just your normal “I hate my job” talk. He started hoarding money. He poured over the budget and found areas we could skimp and cut and save. He surprised me with a gift certificate for a massage (one of my all time favorite things) and sat me down and told me that if I needed to quit my job, quit. He understood and he supported me, whatever my decision. We would find a way to make it work. Just having that support from him, knowing that he did understand and was willing to risk our financial situation, our comfortable little house and everything else so that I could be happy, changed everything. It made it somehow tolerable. I realized how lucky I am to have someone who loves me that much and because of that, I decided to stick it out. For him. For us. I was going to be a present and active member of our lives. Just because things were bad at work, didn’t mean they had to bad at home. I was just making them that way. And things started to get better. A short time later, my opportunity to get out finally came. I am so thankful to my hubs for sticking it out with me through that awful time. And for reminding me that I needed to get it together and stick with him as well.
To my amazing husband, I vow to love you and to stand by you as you stand by me. In sickness and health, through messy houses, stressful jobs, credit card debt and loss of loved ones. Through times when we couldn’t keep our hands off one another and times when sweat pants and an hour of Downton Abbey sounds like the perfect date night. Thanks, bud.
New Year's 2013: 3 years down and going strong
Join us February 16 for Vowentines and a chance to renew your marriage. Tell each other once again what made you fall in love and why, even if it’s not always glamorous, you still want to experience all the love, pain and even boringness of life together.
Did anyone find a sparkly new ring underneath the Christmas tree this year? The holidays are a big time for engagements and new year’s resolutions to plan the perfect wedding. Then January comes and the thoughts of venues, cake, DJs, rentals, caterers come crashing down and it can definitely be a bit overwhelming. Where do you start?
Before you do anything else, I would sit down with your future groom (isn’t it weird calling him your fiancee?!) and come up with a budget. Having a realistic, detailed budget that you can stick to, will help tremendously when you are planning so that you don’t end up spending $9,000 on catering on a $10,000 budget.
Making a budget can be scary. Whether you have a large amount to spend or a small one, it’s hard to know what to do with it. There are lots of sites out there that will tell you how much you should spend on each different element, but this is something that is unique to every couple. We like to recommend that once you guys have a realistic goal in mind for your total spend, you talk through what is most important to you for your wedding day. Do you want to have killer photographs from your day that perfectly and artistically capture all the magic? Or maybe you are fine as long as there are some photos, but you want to be able to treat your guests to a five course gourmet meal. Or is about location, location, location? Identify the top three most essential things to you guys and then rank them in order of importance. Then start divvying up your budget that way. Allocate the most money to #1 on your list and then start working your way down. The things that didn’t make your top three will get smaller allocations – just try to remain realistic throughout the process on what you can get for what you’ve set aside. Leave some wiggle room for emergencies or unforseen costs that may come up, and make sure that as you spend, you update the budget. If you come in lower on something, you might be able to reallocate what’s left to something else.
Bridal Guide has some good tips on approaching the budget talk with one another. Click photo to read.
Having a wedding planner can be a big help through this process as well. All of our couples that use our full planning services get full budget assistance and management (shameless plug). From day one, we like to help our couples set realistic goals for their budget and work with them to make sure we can accomplish those goals. Brides can lean on our experience with other wedding vendors so that we can recommend vendors that will both fit your vision and style as well as your budget. And we can help you find creative ways to stay within budget on those things closer to the bottom of your list, without sacrificing quality.
Happy Planning!
Sometimes you meet a couple and you know instantly that you are going to love working with them. Melanie and Ben are both such genuine people that you just enjoy being around them both. They are incredibly down to earth and don’t sweat the small stuff which made for smooth sailing while helping them plan their wedding. And I mean, just look at these photos and you can tell how totally enamored they are with each other.
Melanie and Ben’s wedding was a few weeks ago and we can’t wait to share more about them and their day which included some truly unique aspects. Until then, their beautiful engagement photos are brought to you Brittney Gazaway of BSG Photography – who also happens to be one of their good friends. Enjoy!
I first met Heather while planning my own wedding. I was looking for someone who could do hair and makeup for me and my bridesmaids and she was recommended to me by a mutual friend. On the day of the wedding, not only did she do an amazing job, but was so much fun and i knew I’d made a new friend. Not only can Heather rock an awesome hairstyle, but she also does some wedding design and coordination. Since my own wedding, I’ve gotten to work with her on a few different events and we’ve always had a blast.
Fast forward to when she and Ryan got engaged. Heather called to tell me the good news and ask if we would work with her on her wedding. Naturally, we were thrilled and just knew this was going to be so much fun. And it was.
Observe…
Heather knows a thing or two (or twelve) about design and put together all of the flowers, made all her centerpieces and crafted all of the decor herself.
Heather even jumped up and did a number with the band for her new hubby. Didn’t I say these guys were fun?
Rocking the second dress.
I mean, is love not just oozing out of every one of these photos? It is so clear that these two are incredibly in love and it just makes my heart so happy to see them. So glad that Meg and Josh of Love Is A Big Deal were able to perfectly catch all of the heartfelt emotion of the day.
Congratulations to Heather and Ryan!
Vendors:
Venue: Travellers Rest
Photographer: Love Is a Big Deal
Catering: Bacon & Cavier
Cupcakes: The Cupcake Collection
Pies: Papa C Pies
Flowers: Bride
DJ: Complete Music Video Photo
Rentals: Southern Events
Hair: Salon YaYa
Planner: Modern Vintage Events
If you are like me, just because Halloween is over with, doesn’t necessarily mean you are finished with pumpkins for the year. I’m just getting started with all the yummy pumpkin recipes (my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are pretty fabulous) and pumpkin decor. Unfortunately, our neighborhood has been blessed with a plethora of huge mutant squirrels with large appetites who share my love of all things pumpkin. Therefore our lovely jack-o-lanterns that we continue to labor over each year usually last about a day and a half before they are hollow faceless wonders and the squirrels are sitting fat and happy up in the trees.
So this year, I decided to incorporate real pumpkins into my indoor decor where my lovelies would be protected from the vicious gluttons hiding behind those cute fuzzy faces. I’d seen photos of drilled pumpkins floating around pinterest and the interwebs, so I thought I’d try some for myself.
All you need to start is a pumpkin, a knife for carving, a drill and some small lights. I used the little pie pumpkins for mine, but you could really do any size. Ready? This is so easy, you will be amazed.
First, cut a hole out of the bottom of your pumpkin, then scoop out the insides and clean it like normal. Then figure out what pattern or design you want for your pumpkin. You can predraw it on with a pencil or just go freehand. I just winged it (wung it?).
Take a drill with a 1/4 inch bit and just drill your holes through in whatever pattern you want. This part can get a wee bit messy.
I did three with different patterns. For the one with the bigger polka dots, I used a 1/2 inch bit.
Once you’ve finished drilling your pattern, simply shove your mini lights inside and turn them on and….
Ta da! You have a lantern! Easy as pumpkin pie.
What are your favorite pumpkin projects?
