Under the Weather

So I know I promised a lot of meaty posts about all the wedding-related things I'm getting done with my time off, and I'm sorry that I haven't lived up to that promise. I've been sick.

I don't remember the last time I had a cold, complete with a sore throat (the kind where it hurts to swallow), so you'll have to excuse my lack of enthusasim to blog, or do anything really. Since Monday, I've been pretty out of it. I'm trying to rest a lot so that I'm well for work on Monday. You'd think I'd use this free time to gather up wedding inspiration, but I'm not.

We did go to a tasting last night and yes, big news:  we have decided on our caterer!! The food and service was hands down the best we've discovered yet and there's really no doubt in our minds we've found the company we want to work with. I'm going to try to work on my big vendor review - caterers post this weekend, and share everything soon..

In the meantime, here's some lovely inspiring images from the blogsphere.

Totally into butterfly designs right now...

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What bride wouldn't want to walk down this aisle?

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Check out this bride's shoes. So unique and cute.

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Awesome wedding cookies... I might be biased cause they are our colors.

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Hoping to feel better and blog more soon...

Have a great weekend!

Garden-Inspired-Butterfly-Theme Wedding, That's Us!

It took me awhile to commit to a theme.

Remember I mentioned we spent the first few weeks going over various ideas, but never came up with anything concrete that we could really use as a wedding theme? We thought about using our faith as a focus and realized that was a bit too broad. We thought about doing the cherry blossoms since our wedding is in April and we live near Washington, DC, but we know other people with this theme and it's not something we're passionate about.

We looked into having a candy theme, but it didn't seem appropriate with our historic manor venue. We really like the love birds theme, but both of us feel it's a little played out (no offense to other love bird couples out there)! And well, the list goes on and on.

I actually started to think we weren't going to have a theme.
I was pretty discouraged that we hadn't come up with anything concrete and couldn't come up with new ideas, no matter how hard I tried. Then it dawned on me to look at what we had decided on and what we already knew for sure was going to be a part of our big day. Advice: if you can't think of a theme, draw inspiration from other parts of your wedding that have been decided.

Our venue was the biggest thing. It was the one decision we had made and moved forward on... So we asked ourselves what's special about our venue? The garden ceremony. Definitely the garden.

Volia! We're having a Garden Wedding!! We've had this theme all along and we just never knew it! We picked the spring time of year, when gardens are in full bloom, and we picked a venue with a garden ceremony site! Not only that, but the one and only consistent thing (as in cherry blossoms, candy, love birds) I can stand is butterflies...

I kept running into butterfly inspiration, too.


I mentioned in my intro that I don't have a butterfly tattoo, but I do have a butterfly shower curtain, pillow case, and a huge collection of butterfly broaches. I've always loved butterflies and everyone who knows me, knows this. During our vacation when Mr. B proposed, we stayed in the "Butterfly Cottage." He knew that place would make my heart stop ... and it did!

So whether we knew it or not, we've been building up to a garden-inspired wedding. It's the only thing that makes sense with where we are right now and I must say I'm relieved to finally have a theme.

In honor of this new revelation, here is some garden/butterfly inspiration:

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What's your theme?

How was your theme inspired?

A Vibrant Vintage Chic Wedding

I absolutely love this wedding I spotted over at Wedding Chicks a few weeks ago. The bride is stun.n.ing! The colors are vibrant and the feel is totally chic and vintage, what more could a bride ask for?

I'm inspired, needless to say that our wedding will look as fabulous! Check out the bridesmaids attire, I think their look is my favorite thus far!!! I heart the junior bridesmaid in a different color! It pops! She must have special so special too! I never would have thought of that, but it's worth considering, seeing how awesome the bridal party pictures look.

I'm definitely loving, let me emphasis... LOVING this color scheme too. How would of thought turqoise and pink? Only a bold bride with an eye for style, right?

Wait, wait! I lied. My favorite detail is definitely the escort card display! Those green apples are after my heart! Favorite color alert! Green anything is beautiful in my eyes... 

{Anika London via Wedding Chicks}

Real Wedding Teaser: A Doughnut Cake

Last weekend one of my distant cousins, Meagan got married! I've only seen a few pictures of the wedding and I'm anxiously awaiting the rest (so that I can report back to you with all the details), but this is something I just couldn't wait to share.

Check out their awesome doughnut cake:

Doesn't this picture make you want a doughnut, like right now?

Please note that unfortunately, I do not have the name of their photographer to credit this photo. I promise to update this post as soon as I get that information. More of this real wedding soon!

Yes, Another Post About Invitations

I've been obsessed with wedding invitations lately.

I know, I know. What else is new?

It's crazy. I feel like a germaine shepherd looking for a missing child. Seriously, that's how I feel. Whenever I see invitations, my ears perk up, my sense of smell improves, and my eyes pop out a little. I feel like I need to find them. Like I should have found them yesterday.

I know it's going to take me aaawwwhhiillleee to decide on our invites. It takes me aaawwwhhhiiilllleee to decide on pretty much everything, so the invitations (being one of the most important elements of our wedding) is hardly an exception. I worry that if I don't find them, when the time comes when we have to order something, I'm going to be a ball of tears crying, "but, but I don't know what I want!"

Like many of you,  my search began on the internet. I searched thousands of stationary web sites -- thousands, I tell ya! Who knew stationary was such a booming buisness?

I even ordered samples! I've ordered about a dozen and each time hoped they would be the one. Too bad, I only really like one (of the six) samples I ordered from Wedding Paper Divas (seebelow). It's termography printing. Swwwooon!

{Source}

My other inspirations are solely from online. I haven't seen these in person, but I still think they deserve a spot among my favorites. Remember the invitations I swore were perfect a few weeks back? Those pretty green and peach ones I absolutely adore! Here's a picture to jog your memory:

{Source}

Well, I think I can add the Whimsical Scroll Wedding Invitations from Blush Paperie to my invitation inspiration file too. They almost have the ones above beat. I love the swirls. I'm really into swirls right now!

Purple is definitely not my color, but the good news is that fonts and colors are customizable!

Yippee!

Look at these same invitations in our colors:

{Source}

Gorgeous, no?

Big difference, huh?

Way big difference. I love this design in the green and pink. It's festive, feminine, and do you see those butterflies?!? Where did they come from? They weren't on the original design, but I love them! These were obviously made for me!

They are subtle and go really well with our garden theme...

Could these be the ones for us? More to come on this later.

Are you constantly inspired by invitations (or is it just me)?

How did you decide on your invitations?

I'm Inspired By This

Inspiration Board Inspiration!

This inspiration board is really, really close to the feel I'm looking for at my wedding. Every element you see below is somehow tied into what I invision for our big day.

I want invitations, bridesmaid dresses, and a veil like this!

The Betsy White Stationary is simple, elegant and has a hint of green (my favorite color). I love the use of the monogram. It's a cohesive element that we can use to carry throughout the wedding from invitation to favor.  I love, love, love this bridesmaid dress. It's a really good depiction of the type of dress I would love for my girls to wear. It's a JMendal , it's short, and it's got a bit of ruffle, all things I love.

Even though a part of me really wants to rock one of the hip birdcage veils everyone loves, I'm probably going to end up wearing the more traditional veil, like the one you see by Elizabeth Messina. Mine even has the same lace around the edge!

I heart flowers, hanging lanterns, vintage pieces, and straw hats...

Who can resist the charm of flower balls (photo by Megan Sorel via Style Me Pretty) and hanging lanterns? There's something really whimsical about hanging decorations and these pieces are timeless. I love the vintage tablescape of classic novels and a bouquet of daisies (via 100 layer cake). It's so garden-esqe!  

I love love love these hats...

Another reason I love this board is for the straw hats (photo by Josh Goleman)! How weird is it that Aaron just bought a hat like this last weekend? He's wanted one since last summer and finally got the nerve to wear one this year.

I love, love, love Aaron in this hat. It fits his personality so well, it's laid back, yet sophisticated. We've been talking about getting a hat like this for each of his groomsmen. How cool would those photos be?

I've always had a thing for clothes line escort cards...

I'm a Southern girl and I like all things practical! I still have no idea what we'll do to display our escort cards, but I hope it's as clever and practical, and of course, pretty as these.

So there you have it. All the reasons why I love this particular inspiration board.

Are you starting to see the vision of our day that I see? I hope so.

Go to Flights of Fancy here to see photo credits.

{Various credits available on Flights of Fancy}

Ahh. Awesome Butterfly Decor!

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There are no words to express my love for this decor!

As you know, we have the whole "garden chic," and "garden whimsical," as our theme and these butterfly danglers would be a perfect addition to our decor ideas!  It's fun and whimsy, but not also very elegant. 

The lighting in this room is really cool too. Having spotlights on the danglers and on the center of the tables gives the room depth. I love the pop of colors too. Orange and green are two of my very favorite colors.

All I can say is...

I hope we can come up with something this cool.

{Weddings & Pretty Things here}

Help Design My Dancefloor

I need your help. I want something fun like this at our wedding:

Tanja Lippert via Style Me Pretty

I love these pictures and I love these lanterns. I like how the lanterns give the room a jolt of color and how they really make this seating area stand out. I'd love to have lanterns or something similiar hanging from the ceiling in our dance room. Something like this would be perfect:

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The problem is that we're getting married during the day and I don't think it will be dark outside for much of our wedding. Plus, I'm not sure we can hang anything from the walls or ceiling. It'd be really cool if we could hang drapes like these:  

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Do any of you have a design suggestion for this area of our venue?

I want something that sets our dancefloor apart. Something that is going to define that space. Something that is going to bring color and life to the drab room. I like this a lot too. Love this I should say. Probably because of all the green:

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The picture below is the room where our dancefloor will be. I took it back in when we found our venue. The DJ (or iPod station) will be set against the back wall of this room. From what we've seen of other weddings at this venue, the dancefloor will be directly in front of the DJ area and adjacent to the fireplace.

*my photo*

See that boring white ceiling: what is something creative I can hang from there?

How would you decorate this space?

The Invitation Inspiration File Keeps Growing

A few days ago, I shared that Mr. B and I wanted to make our invitations and provided some examples of invitations we found inspiring when we were planning a fall wedding. Obviously, choosing to get married in a different season changes a thing or two, including the design and colors of a the invitations, so that's why I have twice as much inspiration as the next bride :)

That and I also have this theory that kind of like falling in love with her wedding gown, a bride has to have a connection to her invitations. A few people I know (some that aren't even engaged yet) know exactly what kind of invitations they want, but something like that would never happen to me. I mull over decisions. I'm very indecisive. I fall in love with something, quickly fall out of love, and in love with something else. Nevertheless, I think I'll connect with the invitations that are for me. Is that crazy? To think paper will speak to me? Haha! Probably.

My indecisivenss is pretty tiring for Mr. B, because he never waivers when it comes to figuring out what he wants. He just knows it when he sees it, but it's not that simple for me. Another reason why I have so much inspiration :)

So although it may not seem like it with jumping from fall to spring motifs and DIY to designer, I am getting closer each day to finding and crafting our perfect invitation. For instance, I know that I want romantic. I want our invitations to be timeless and have some fancy script.

I also like soft colors and I wouldn't mind a picture of flowers as a part of the design, or even a butterfly. All of which would be fitting for our "garden theme." Of course, the color green has to be in there somewhere and I want a package deal too. I don't want my guests sorting through unorganized pieces. I want an open and close dohickey, where they recieve a pocket with all of the various peices organized nice and neat.

Here's the invitation I liked way before I got engaged. I'm not crazy about it now. It's just too modern. I like the flowers and we will most definitely have daisies at our wedding, but the connection just isn't there anymore.

I do love the green. One of the great starting points for me has been the color. That is the one thing I do know for sure - that we're definitely using the color green, and maybe some yellow, or pink. When I'm searching through big websites like Wedding Paper Divas, I always sort by color. Here are a few from there I really liked:

Wedding Paper Divas

So, I definitely like swirals and flowers, but again, none of these are the one! I know what you're thinking! How much inspiration do you need? A bit more. Please! Amuse me!

So none of the above will work, even though finding them and ordering them would be easy and quick. Of course, I want something more. Something more unique. Who would of thought I'd care so much? But being engaged MAKES you this way. It's got to be some kind of chemical imbalance in the brain when a wedding is lurking. It makes you really think, so much so that you end up spending hours debating paper weights and fonts.

A few other invitation favorites?

How about these beauties from Blush Paperie:

Blush Paperie

I've learned if it's got fancy type, and the words whimsical or florish in the name, it's probably up my alley. Like these lovelies from concrete and honey, which are yet another favorite for the invitation inspiration file. When I found them, I quickly sniffed out the source, which was by no surprise Style Me Pretty and I started saving all the pictures I could find.

Like I said, I'm getting closer.

:: sigh ::

Stationary by Laura Hooper, Photo credit to Steve Steinhardt, Designer is Beth Helmstetter

Do you have a lot of invitation inspiration?

Did you know your invitations when you saw them?  

Easter Inspires Me

It's a good thing... spring that is...

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting a lot lately. Work has been really, really busy and I swear it's true, that's not just an excuse. Things should be slowing down this weekend, just in time for Easter, and one year mark until our big day. I'm so excited.

I've been really intrigued lately by all of the Easter and spring decorations on the blogs and in magazines. It just makes me so happy that we've decided to push the date back (from fall 2010) and get married this time next year. It's just such a lovely time of year!

I'm also happy that I'm not faced with sending out our Save the Dates yet! I've been working on Engagement Party Invitations (more on that later) and it's a lot of work! It's another reason I've been M.I.A... I suppose all the labor is good practice for when it's time to send out our wedding invitations. Although I imagine I'll probably be twice as picky and twice as nervous...

So here's a bit of inspiration I picked up online of things that excite me about a spring and having my wedding the weekend after Easter. If you have Easter and/or spring wedding ideas, please share the wealth. I can't get enough!

Thanks for stopping by!

 {Country Living}

{Hostess Blog}

{Porter House Designs}

  {Martha Stewart}

{Unknown}

 

 {Weddingbee}

  {Readers Digest}