inspiration for a dreamy mint and baby's breath spring wedding

Mandy Busby Creative via Snippet and Ink | Beca Companioni Photography via Bridal Musings

Spring is almost here, my darlings... even if Mother Nature is clinging to the ice and cold.  I'm dreaming of a spring wedding in pastel hues - mint, pink, and teal, with plenty of baby's breath to make things even sweeter.  Calligraphy, antiques, bunting...

Christina McNeill via Elizabeth Anne Designs | Michael and Anna Costa via Bloomers Floral Design

How sweet is the baby's breath in this flower girl's crown and the bridesmaid's bouquet.  Baby's breath is a cost-effective wedding flower that is easy to find at the grocery store or buy wholesale and arrange yourself - and the more you have, the more amazing and magical it looks.

Beca Companioni Photography via Bridal Musings

I think a groom in a pastel bow tie says spring, don't you?  

And how perfect is that single rose?

Live View Studios

The peonies in these bridesmaids' bouquets give them major 

wow factor against their floaty mint dresses.

Weddbook from Wedding Chicks 

Another DIY to love: these doily-trimmed mint paper cones used to trim the aisles.

Mandy Busby Creative via Snippet and Ink | Brooke Boling Weddings via Weddbook from Style Me Pretty

A spring bride, an outdoor wedding, and the perfect 

strappy sandals in just the right shade of mint...

Beaux Arts Photographie via Elizabeth Anne Designs

Antique drawers full of baby's breath are the perfect escort card 

holder for a spring wedding straight out of a dream.

Michael and Anna Costa via Bloomers Floral Design

Nine Photography via Ruffled

Burnett's Boards | Ara133 Photography on Etsy via Society Bride

Pastel-hued desserts are the perfect finishing touch 

for this classic spring color palette.

inspiration: a French lavender wedding

Confession that's not really a confession time?  I love all things French, and spring always brings out my obsession.  Today I'm dreaming of a French wedding with elegant style and lavender everywhere.

"Charlotte" letterpress invitation from Bella Figura

I love the scalloped edges and cursive font on this invitation from Bella Figura!  It would set the tone for a classic wedding with just enough whimsy.

 

Gia Canali Photography via Style Me Pretty || Canary Grey Photography via Style Me Pretty

How lovely is the idea of an antique crate filled with lavender buds for an escort card display?

winter color: a cozy-glam winter wedding

Recipe for a cozy-glam winter wedding:

Style Me Pretty

1.  Bridesmaids in sparkling, ethereal dresses.

 

We Heart It || Style Me Pretty

2.  Soft, textured flowers

3.  Warm candlelight

clicks of note: we need more fairytales

get your week off to a colorful start...

LISTEN.

• Paul McCartney is quite simply one of my favorite people on the planet.  I was skeptical of his album of standards, Kisses on the Bottom, but when I caught these live versions on Great Performances I was sold - what great lazy-day music!  So sorry for sharing the perfect lazy-day music on a Monday, y'all.  But here you go.  Did you know the Beatles recorded their first single 50 years ago this week?

SWOON.

Wedding Chicks

• Wedding Chicks features a pink and gray garden wedding that is just my style: a Starbucks-loving bride, bridesmaids in unique shoes, bunting, Anthropologie "LOVE" mugs, mason jars, chalkboards... perfect shabby-vintage style, and doesn't that flower girl grab your heart?
• If you enjoyed my series on citrus-themed wedding, you will adore the rustic orange inspiration shoot featured on Glamour and Grace.
• What Junebug Loves features a stunning traditional meets modern wedding in China.
• Boston hairstylist Lindsay Griffin's blog features a traditional estate wedding that I am going to describe as Jane Austen meets Anthropologie.
• There's a delightfully offbeat Texas wedding featured on Southern Weddings - the bride wore a blush pink ruffled gown, the bridesmaids wore their own cocktail dresses and the guys wore jeans.  And it all looks great together.

SMILE.

• Snippet and Ink's late summer inspiration board marries black and white + rustic.
• 101 Fun Things To Do This Fall from Melanie A. Moore
• Matchbook Magazine's September issue includes inspiration for a farm to table dinner party, a guide to NYFW, and a spotlight on the life and style of Southern darling Margaret Mitchell.
• Love this sprinkle themed kid's birthday party at Kojo Designs - throw in some gold and you have inspiration for a Kate Spade style bridal shower or bachelorette party!
• Campbell's is releasing limited edition tomato soup cans with Andy Warhol labels!  Art becomes life.

MAKE.

• The DIY frosted glass chevron candleholders featured on Style Me Pretty are so elegant.

FLASHBACK.

• One year ago:  I recapped my wedding day hair appointment, bridal suite arrival, the girls getting ready, the guys getting ready, and our wedding craft projects. 

wedding memories: the coolest kid i know...

Family photo - please do not steal.

My favorite little girl in the world, my best friend's daughter, celebrates her fourth birthday this week!  FOUR.  It shouldn't come as a surprise to me, since she was born the summer before I started teaching and I just finished my fourth year, but it seems like just yesterday we were sticking socks over her little hands to keep her infant self from scratching her own face.  She's important to me partially because her birth was the if you leave Virginia, you'll miss a lot wake-up call I needed to keep me in this valley for the forseeable future.  Now she's wearing a child-size flapper dress and Audrey Hepburn glasses and eating cake and a lollipop at the same time.  If the above picture does not demonstrate the utter coolness of this kid, I don't know what does.

Significantly to this blog, she was our flower girl a little over a year ago!  Was it a great idea to have a three year old flower girl?  Probably not - three-year-olds are kind of notoriously terrible and she didn't have a concept of how she should behave because she'd never been to a wedding before.  I could tell at our rehearsal that she was going to either be a hot little mess going down the aisle or have a meltdown and not make it at all.  I could also tell that Mr. Q didn't care, and neither did I - we'd have a little girl in a pretty dress at our wedding, and she'd be our favorite little girl in the world whether she made it to the end of the aisle or not.  

Inspiration for a Traditional Fall Barn Wedding

This week I'm going to feature inspiration for three different wedding styles with one thing in common- a barn as the perfect venue.  Mr. Spin and I recently attended the first barn wedding we'd been to, at Panorama Farms.  It was like living on a movie set for a night.  I am now a believer in the barn as the perfect fall wedding venue.

Bowties and Bliss

Genery and Geoffery's amazing rustic cake from Modern Bride

Our Wedding: You're the world to me...

After the ceremony, we snuck back into the ballroom for some portraits!

Here's a little music for your viewing pleasure:  the first part of our Social Hour playlist, which we could hear drifting into the ballroom from the lobby where our guests were mingling...

Our Wedding: I Heart Crafting!

As you all know, I was inspired to design and create a lot of our wedding decor.  Here are some of the finished products in all their glory on the big day.

The table numbers were one of the first craft visions I had when we decided that our wedding would have a vintage theme.  I was inspired by book page table numbers I'd seen online using the ubiquitous white Ikea frames, but there is no Ikea near us so I got my frames from the Dollar Tree.  I chose 15 wedding and love-related pages from some of my favorite books, scanned them onto ivory cardstock so they'd be uniform, and stamped numbers and flowers onto them with purple ink.  The finished product was very close to what I'd visualized!

 I thought a birdcage card box would go perfectly with our vintage theme.  I ordered the set of two birdcages from Save-On-Crafts.  I lined the bottom with moss by setting the cage on top of a piece of cardboard, adding a few dots of hot glue, and adding sheet moss from Michael's.  Then, I wrapped a purple ribbon around the cage and added a "cards" sign made with cardstock from our invitations that I trimmed with my paper cutter and pearl stickers.

I knew I didn't want a traditional guest book, and Mr. Spin had mentioned that he liked the picture frame guestbook we'd seen at a friend's wedding.  We found a black picture frame with a white signing mat on sale at Michael's, but I was at a loss for what to do with the small cage until I saw some wish boxes online.

Our Wedding: The girls get ready...

When we got to the War Memorial, the girls and I were welcomed by Jeana, a staff member there and professional wedding planner who was already at work putting everything together.  We decorated the dessert table, chose arrangements to put on the mantel in the ceremony space, and did a few more little tasks before the guys started to arrive.  It was time for us to disappear and let Jeana, Coordinator C and the boys finish the work!

From the July heat and humidity and the setup, a few of my curls had started to fall out.  BM Philly to the rescue!

Sunday Simplicity #19

Style Me Pretty

DIY Flower Girl Basket

My original plan for a flower girl basket was to snag a cheapo basket after Easter and call it a day.  Then, while purging my closet in my ongoing quest to throw away anything I will not need as a married woman, I stumbled across not one, but two flower girl baskets I'd carried in weddings as a little girl.  One was the perfect size and shape, but definitely stuck in 1988 with its bright white color and peach ribbon-and-rose trim.  My solution:  rip off the old trim and give the basket a makeover.




Basket Makeover Materials:
- Small basket
- Spray paint in the neutral color of your choice (I used ivory gloss)
- Glue gun (I use a mini lo temp glue gun)
- Thin ribbon in wedding colors
- Silk flowers in wedding colors

First, the basket got a coat of Krylon ivory gloss spray paint:

As you can see, I was having a spraypaint-fest (chalkboard DIY still to come!).  Next. I measured enough lavender ribbon to wrap around the handle an even number of times on each side (4, because I'm OCD like that) and glued the ribbon in place with my Mini Lo Temp Glue Gun.  Then, I put a gob of glue at each end of the ribbon wrap and stuck a bundle of silk flowers in place (I used hydrangeas and just popped the little bud ends off the stems).  Finally, I tied a nice bow around each handle and flower bundle.

Voila!  The finished product along with the other fruits of this weekend's crafty labor.

SPRING BREAK!

Things I'd Like to Accomplish this Week:

- Block hotel rooms for out-of-town guests

- Set up our registry

- Schedule engagement photos

- Finalize ceremony readings and ask readers

- Ask ushers and attendant

- Order my jewelry and bridesmaids' gifts

- Maybe start shopping for dresses for my mom and Spin's mom?

Crafty Projects:

- Bar menu chalkboards

- Flower girl basket

Invitation and Flower Girl Success!

Two more wedding decisions checked off the list this weekend!

First, invitations. Our stationer (who is Mr. Spin's cousin!) will be custom designing invitations for us using materials and art from the Envelopments line. We ordered embassy size ecru invitations on a zircon (periwinkle shimmer) backing with lavender hydrangea artwork and names, RSVP cards with lavender hydrangea artwork and envelopes with return address printed in black ink, and envelopes with zircon liners and return address printed on the flap with wraparound art. I'll have some proofs to look over soon!

Zircon!

Second, our flower girl's dress. My mom and I took our flower girl and her mom shopping and started out at Burlington Coat Factory, where we were able to find a perfect dress for half the price the exact same dress would cost at the mall! Breanna loved getting to shop for "princess dresses" at first, and was skipping around the store chanting, "princess dresses, princess dresses!" but then had a little meltdown in the dressing room after trying three different ivory dresses on. The tags were driving her crazy. But once we got a Happy Meal in her and got her home, she was happy to try the dress on and spin around- "everybody look at me!"