Must Haves: Bright Colors and Pom Poms!

Yay for three day weekends!

Aaron and I are headed to his hometown of Williamsburg, VA, for some fun in the sun at Busch Gardens and Water Country! I'm super excited to spend some quality time with my babe! We've both been busy at work and at home, and haven't had much to hang out! We'll probably spend about 4 hours in traffic tonight (boo), but I think we'll get a chance to talk about a lot of these, including our wedding plans! I'm going to propose a few new ideas, one being our color scheme!

I found this picture about a week ago while I was surfing the web for images of living rooms -- daydreaming about our place -- and I absolutely love it! Of course, the various shades of green caught  my eye and I love the bright pink rug! I'm not sure how Aaron will feel about it since we had discussed a darker color scheme (see here and here), but since our wedding is right at the start of spring and no long in the fall, he might go for it! My fingers are crossed.

Isn't this room great?

I've been really drawn to yellow lately. I'm not sure why, but it's definitely a spring color and would be perfect for my week-after-easter wedding. I thought I wanted my girls to wear green (olive) because it's my favorite color, but I think yellow will stand out more and it will look beautiful on them (anything would really)! I especially like the yellow with grey, which is my men's suit color of choice.

What do you think?

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The other idea I want to share with Aaron is to use Martha Stewart Pom Poms to decorate various areas at our wedding! There are a few super bare trees at Oxon Hill in early spring (you can see some photos of this here and below) and I needed a way to liven them up!

My picture

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I also wanted something fun to decorate and set our dance floor (see my post about this here), as well as a funky twist to the traditional fauxphotobooth. Here's a few pictures to give you an idea of what I have in mind:

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What are your plans for the long weekend?

Have you come up with any new wedding day details? Share!

Wedding Dress Envy

(Ahem... Aaron)

KEEP IT MOVING!

I'm in love... again!

With backless wedding gowns! This isn't the first time I've talked about liking this type of wedding dress. If you recall, last December I couldn't get this dress (right here) out of my brain. I was seeing it in magazines everywhere and when I found this real wedding, I was smitten!

My taste for backless has changed a bit since December. I'm really into a crisscross back now. I love the thought of our wedding guests stunned at the originality and sleekness of a crisscross back when I walk past them down the aisle. It'll be the ahh to the ouu of my moment in the spotlight! I get chills just thinking about it!

Here's an example of the crisscross back:

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I love it in pictures, but how will it look on me?

I've never tried on this type of gown and I have no idea how it will look on me. We've all heard stories of brides who thought they knew what type of gown they wanted, but drastically changed their style when they tried on a few dresses. This has already been the case for me, because when I went looking I didn't like anythign I thought I would! I thought I wanted something casual and simple, but I loved being in poufy-princess dresses with regal diamonds and designs! I'm not sure if that's really my wedding style or whether it was part of the glam of trying on a wedding gown for the first time.

When I window shop my taste is much different...

When I'm looking online and in magazines, I like A-line dresses with lace and thin straps. I don't like flashy, blingy, or poufy stuff, but again, this is when I'm looking online, not in real life!

So my love affair with these backless beauties is still young, being that I have not had a chance to try on this type of dress. Nevertheless, I'll be drooling over this gown until I get my hands on it and see if it's the one for me!

So here it is, the wedding dress I envy... in all its glory:

{Source via Style Me Pretty}

You haven't had enough, have you? Me either! 

Here's the dress (or at least one that is very similiar) again. I can only hope to look as great as this bride on my wedding day. She rocked it! Tell me this isn't one of the most fabulous bridal shoots you've ever seen!!

  

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If you thought that was a great bridal shoot, check out the wedding! This wedding, which I discovered on Style Me Pretty is fun and fabulous! The gown totally fit the flirty feel of this couple and their wedding!!  

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So my goal is to try this dress on. I don't care how many dresses I try on before or after this gown, I vow not to buy my dress until I've at least tried this dress on. Problem is, I have no idea where to find it. I did some searching though and found out...

Dun dun donna...

IT'S AN AMY MICHELSON!!

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Now I just have to figure out where to go to try it on! I'll keep you posted!!

Did you fall in love with a wedding gown online or in a magazine?

Was it the gown you ended up buying?  

Seating Inspiration

Here's a few great images that are making this tired Monday a bit more cheery for me! I really want to have lounge furniture scattered throughout our venue. Through Wedding Chicks right here I found the company found, which specializes in supplying event planners and brides with vintage rentals. There is a ton of great workable pieces on their web site here!

I also discovered another rental service called Party Rental Ltd, which serves the Washington DC area and has lots and lots of great items to fill your venue with style. They have a great inspiration gallery called, "Looks We Love," that will excite the bride in you! Believe me! I'd totally snag this Pear Green and White Stripe look for my wedding and the best part is, they provide you with all these pieces to make it a reality!

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I'm going to talk to a planner about bringing in furniture we own to save on money, but the problem with that is the setup and breakdown of course. There's obviously a lot of figure out before my vision of great furniture all over our venue comes to life, but we'll get there!

Luckily for us, a few folks have had their weddings at Oxon Hill before us! Here's an image I found on Event Accomplished Blog of a wedding at our venue that had lounge furniture! This is a picture of the actual foyer of our venue and I must admit, the furniture looks fabulous! It makes the room more inviting and way more upscale and modern. They got this awesome lounge furniture from Da Vinci's Florist!

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We really like the all white furniture, but there's no telling what we'll go with. We need to visit one of these rental warehouses and see for ourselves the options. Here's a few images I've collected from around the web that inspire this idea...

Lindsey Belle via Style Me Pretty

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Elizabeth Anne Designs

 

One Wed

Bride's Guide: Martha Stewart

Docuvitae via Style Me Pretty

The Weekend is Near!

Happy Friday Folks!

Here's some cool florals I discovered in a few of my favorite magazines!

Better Homes and Gardens

Southern Living

Traditional Home

Enjoy!

{Pictures by me}

The First Married Kiss!

 

Images: here and here

Beautiful Wedding Signs

Your guests ought to know where to go...

Our ceremony and reception all happening at the same location. Tricky thing is, we need our guests to walk around the manor and to the ceremony site and not inside the manor. They're going into the manor from the back, after the ceremony (unless they need to use the restroom or something, in which case we'll let em in)! The reason for this is so we don't spoil the reception reveal. We also don't want our guests to get confused walking through the reception area first and possibly not realizing they have to go back outside to the ceremony. Oh and there's the whole stunning view thing. Walking around the manor and into the garden will wow our guests with the stunning view of the potamac river...


So how's all this going to be possible? What are the logistics?

I honestly do not know yet. It's one reason we want a wedding planner (one of the many reasons) and one who has hosted weddings at our venue. My first instinct is beautiful signage. Have these stacked out when guests walk up to the manor, directing them to the ceremony...

{Erin Hearts Court via Style Me Pretty}

{The Wedding Chicks}

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{Southern Weddings}

{The Back Porch Shoppe via Preppy Chic Bride}

{Oncewed}

Did you use signs to direct guests on your wedding d?

Did you make them yourself or order them?

Happy Monday!

Check out these beautiful wild flowers from my mother's garden...