Happy Sweetest Day!

What better day to start catching up on my wedding blogging? If you've never heard of Sweetest Day, you aren't the only one. Google it. I think of it as an October version of Valentine's Day, but more simple. It's a day to celebrate the people who help to make your life sweet.

Besides Dylan, most of the people who help to make my life sweeter were present at my lovely bridal shower, so that's what I wanted to share today.

First, the bridal shower invitations:
(I blurred some of the personal details to protect privacy.)

These invitations were the cutest! They're actually from Martha Stewart, and you customize them yourself. They include the adorable pop-up wedding cake invitations, the printable inserts, RSVP enclosures (which we used as direction cards instead), the eyelet lace belly bands, and envelopes. I added the little daisy embellishments, which were also from Martha Stewart.

The morning of my bridal shower, my maid of honor Melissa, my dear friend Samantha and I all went for mani-pedis at a local beauty school.


My mom and her best friend Amelia hosted my bridal shower at Amelia's beautiful home. They put on quite a spread! Samantha made devilled eggs, and my friend Joanna made the fun cupcakes!

My mom has always been quite the chocolatier, so she made tuxedo chocolate covered strawberries. She also played bartender, and made us huckleberry mojitos!

My mom and Amelia both made different kinds of pasta salads.

We toasted with white peach puree and champagne from Ambrosia Bistro -- Yum! My mom gave a really beautiful toast that sent me right into the ugly cry. Thank you Mom! :-P

My favorite girls! From left to right: Bryne, Joanna, Melissa, me, Kristi and Samantha.

And now with our lovely Pink Mustaches for Girls! (I love this picture the most.)


It was the most beautiful bridal shower I ever could have hoped for!

Green, Brown and Acorn Wedding Theme

I know it's been a while since I've posted an inspiration board, but it's because I have had a mental block. I've been really straining my brain trying to work with some colors and details for our wedding, which seems to require an extra effort. It's fun and a little easier for me to detail color palettes for inspiration, but a little more tricky when I decided to incorporate some of the specific elements we plan to use.

Here are some of the goals for our wedding:

We want autumn warmth, without being cliché. That means no pumpkins, and avoiding the more traditional orange, yellow and red palettes.

We love the symbolism of acorns and oak trees, so we want to feature them in our details, but in cute and hopefully not cheesy ways.

A little DIY craftiness is a plus, because it emphasizes heart-felt sentiment when you know that someone put the time and effort into making it themselves.

Here are some of the things we're going for:

cozy

expressive of our personalities (go ahead, you can call us "nuts")

intimate

rustic
woodsy

sentimental

romantic

elegant

comforting

celebratory

So what do you think? What comes to mind when you look at this board?

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The green oak leaf menus, the green napkins with green acorns, and the pinecone and acorn boutonnieres are from Michelle Rago.

The oak branch candle holder centerpieces, the acorn cakelettes and the acorn ornament are from me. The acorn cakelette pan is from Williams-Sonoma.

The acorn boutonniere in the top right corner is from Martha Stewart.

The bowl of green acorns was photographed by Kathryn Kleinman.

The chocolate tablecloth is what we're supposed to receive in the mail any day now. The green fabric is a sample of what we're considering for an overlay.

The lime green twig ball pomander with mini leaves is from Modage Floral on Etsy.

The green paisley fabric is a close-up of a Brioni handmade silk tie from europeansilkcompany on eBay. We love paisley, so I'm thinking about splurging on it for Dylan.

I don't know who made the chocolate cake, but it looks delicious so I thought I'd use it as an example of our desire to serve delicious comfort foods. (To my future mother-in-law Jinx, who can't eat chocolate: don't worry, we will have some kind of cake that you can eat, too!)

The tufted moss ring pillow is actually a really great DIY project from Once Wed. I love the faux bois ribbon around the edge, but you can customize it however you'd like!

Adorable Woodsy Rustic Wedding Finds!

I've been on the prowl for some aisle decorating ideas since I posted last. Since then, I've found a couple of great woodland decorating details that I wanted to share.

For starters, I found a simple solution to the "How do I decorate an indoor aisle when there are no pews to attach decorations to?" issue. There's a website called saveoncrafts that has really great prices on almost anything you'll need for wedding decorations. On that site, I found what they call an Iron Tulle Stand (or wreath stand) that would allow me to put up decorations without worrying about jabbing anything into the ground (not an option for an indoor wedding), putting the decorations on the floor, or attaching things to chairs (not so simple if you're using chair covers). Maybe everyone else already knew about these, but just in case there are some other brides out there who have been worried about the same thing, I thought I'd share the discovery.


Next, I'm excited to have found these adorable Lime Green Twig Ball Pomanders with Mini Leaves from a LOCAL artist via Etsy! Modage Floral is right in Coeur d'Alene (only about a half an hour from Spokane, for those of you who aren't from around here.) It was pure coincidence that she's local, but it just makes it that much cooler of a find for me!

I got excited when I saw them, because I love pomanders and kissing balls, but I was having mixed feelings about how many flowers you have to use to make them. These would go great with our theme, and they might just be a great option for our aisle decorating dilemma! Hooray!

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Thanks to the wonder of Craigslist, we also found these cute twig and moss baskets. It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but they're actually wooden boxes that are decorated on the outside with twigs and baskets. Lin (the woman we bought them from) just put a potted plant in each box, then topped them with some artificial moss to fill them out. I'm not sure what we'll end up putting inside of them, but I'm excited to use them for some general decoration around the room. We also bought a bunch of the hurricane glasses pictured, because we want lots of candlelight! Thanks Lin!

I bought some of the chocolate brown tablecloths I mentioned before off of eBay. I ended up buying them for cheaper than it would've cost to rent them! I also bought a couple of sample napkins from an online store, so I'm excited for everything to arrive so we can put together some color combinations and try to narrow down our color palette.

There are several local bridal events in Spokane this week that I'm excited to check out. If you're one of the local brides that reads my blog and you'd like to know what I'm talking about, please feel free to drop me a note and I'll fill you in!

Some of Our Own Wedding Inspirations!

I have been a brainstorming maniac lately. I haven't had enough time to organize some of my ideas into an inspiration board just yet, but since these are personal inspiration ideas I figure it's okay to share them just as photos. If you've been reading the blog, you know that we want to include acorns and oak leaves into our autumn theme. These are some of the things we have so far:

These are the oak branch and acorn candleabra centerpieces -- they were our first wedding purchase!

These are the acorn cakelettes and the pan from Williams-Sonoma that I made them with. I made them with a spiced pumpkin bread recipe. I like to use real maple syrup to coat the tops of the acorns, then roll that part in raw turbinado sugar for texture. They're both delicious and adorable -- one of my favorite combinations!

These are some mini acorn ornaments that we want to incorporate into our wedding favors.

We don't have these tablecloths yet, but these are some of the linens we're considering. I've actually found them for purchase for only about $2 more than it would cost for us to rent them locally, so I like the idea of just buying them and then passing along the bargain to another bride after our wedding. I'm all for sharing a great bargain! We're trying to decide what other colors we want to use with the brown. We're thinking greens, but maybe also incorporating some champagne or some other soft color. We'll see!

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I'm also excited because today we're going out to Jacklin Arts and Cultural Center to have a meeting to discuss the possibility of using them for our venue.

Dylan took these pictures yesterday. They were set up for a local event (not a wedding) but I thought it was cool to see the main hall without all the tables set up.

We both like that this venue has history and character, unlike some of the more corporate event centers we've seen. Fingers crossed that we'll be able to work something out with them. I'll let you know, of course!

Pistachio Green Wedding Palette

I think this beautiful soft green is both refreshing and comforting. It could be considered sage green, or mint green, but I like to think of it as pistachio green.

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The green stationery, the cucumber mint gimlet cocktail, the cookie bar, and the chocolate cups with pistachios and toasted coconut are all from Martha Stewart.

The green candy buffet is by the ever talented Amy Atlas.

The light green bridesmaid gown is called Sam by Thread.

The cute green shoes are DKNYC Foxy Pump in Bamboo Green from Endless.com.

The photo of poppy greens is by Kathryn Kleinman.

Limeade photo by Lisa Lefkowitz.

I love the oak leaf menus, but I’m afraid I can’t recall where that picture came from. If you know, email me, because I’d love to give them credit.

The rest are my Etsy finds of the day:

The Pistachio Bloom earrings on the left are by dkjewels. Right now they're even offering a 20% off sale!

The beautiful Mandizzle is modeling her silk flower hair clip called The Lucky in the top right corner. She has one of my favorite hair accessory shops on Etsy!

Next to her, the AAA Green Amethyst Faceted Pear Briolette beads are from bismillahgem. Amethyst is my birthstone, and in the last couple of years I have become mildly obsessed with the green variety. If you’re crafty, you could make your own custom wedding jewelry for yourself and your bridesmaids!

Kitschy Woodland Wedding Theme

I keep seeing all these cute kitschy woodland wedding details lately that I finally had to put it together into an inspiration board. Even if this theme isn't your style (and I know it won't be for everyone), today is a GREAT day of wonderful wedding finds. Make sure to check out some of the artists and shops I'm featuring today, because they're really exceptional.

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I really wanted to showcase Rifle Design today. They are responsible for the custom stationery designs featured in the center of the inspiration board, and the thank you cards above. I just really like their artwork. It has a sweet folk art and almost campy feel to it, but in a really good way. I love flora and fauna, and the idea of using custom artwork for wedding invitations. They were a big part of the inspiration for today's board.

Martha Stewart Weddings magazine this month featured a really whimsical wedding that included the fantastic butterfly bouquet, the dainty butterfly placecards, the brightly colored dessert buffet, and the perfectly coordinated groom. I love how free-spirited and playful all of their details are.

The lush berry patch photos with invitations and coordinated badges or buttons were taken by the very talented Tec Petaja. This is a silly example of his photography skills, but his work is gorgeous. If he gives me the thumbs up, I'll have to highlight some of his work in a future post. Lately I've been researching for local photographers and I'm having a hell of a time. I'm dying to find someone like Tec Petaja, Jose Villa, or Stephanie Williams in Washington state. If you know a fantastic fine art style wedding photographer, send me an email!

The perfect little toadstool boutonniere is a Fritts Rosenow Bespoke Boutonniere. They have some of the BEST non-floral boutonnieres I've ever seen. They really customize them for each guy's personality, and they are incredibly detailed.

The ornate and delicate butterfly cupcake wrap is by Paper Orchid Stationery.

The daniblack Wanda Slide Sandal with the red and white polka dots just reminded me of the cute toadstool details.

I love to bake (even though I haven't had much time to do it lately) and I went bonkers when I visited the newly opened Layer Cake Shop. Dylan and I are both huge animal lovers, we want to include acorns in our theme, and I am the squirrel queen. It's a long story. But regardless, all of those things combined made my heart go pitter-patter when I saw all of the adorable cookie cutters and fun cake decorations on their site. I'm waiting for them to get back to me about some acorn possibilities, because I'm all over that. They even have a July special for free shipping with a $50 purchase. Another really cool thing they carry are really inexpensive and cute labels like the ones below. Wouldn't those be great to label some home baked goodness, especially if you're giving away edible wedding favors?

Bottle Green and Dark Cherry Red

I've been brainstorming for this theme for a while, but it took a little extra time because I decided I needed to make two inspiration boards to really get the idea across the way I was hoping.

If you're planning an early July wedding, it's the perfect time to use fresh cherries. There are several delicious varieties of cherries available, but I looked for bing cherries for this palette. On the other hand, this color palette could be made really versatile for almost any season.

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Martha Stewart is responsible for the majority of luscious cherry desserts I used in this style board. The bing cherry mojitos look especially terrific!

The heart and star shaped pocket pies are actually from Williams-Sonoma. If you've got a knack for baking, what a cute DIY idea!

The fresh cherry topped wedding cake was from a real wedding on The Knot.

The individual boxes of cherries for wedding favors are by Intimate Weddings. I've just started exploring that page, but I'm definitely going to spend more time there. MS had a similar idea, but her cherry favors are in scalloped paper bags.

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I decided to call this color bottle green, but I would also consider it a tourmaline green. Tourmaline is one of my favorite stones, so that's what I searched for on Etsy to find some beautiful accessories.

Etsy finds (from left to right):

• Royal Ann Pearl Earrings by The Peach Tree (these are perfect for this theme!)
• Green Tourmaline White Gold Ring by mastergoldcraft (they use conflict-free diamonds!)
• Tessa Earrings with Green Quartz and Rock Crystal by L'atelier des Bijoux (I love the little green quartz rondelle beads!)
• Sterling Silver and Pearl Bauble Ring by TZTUDIO (you can custom order this ring in a ton of gorgeous color combos -- these would be great bridesmaid gifts!)

The Green Tourmaline Raw Circle Solitaire Ring pictured on the top and bottom of the center row is by singleBbeautiful. Her rings are gorgeous, and many of them are stackable. I love that they're simple, handcrafted and lovely. She also uses recycled metals and gives the option of conflict-free diamonds.

The gorgeous green dress, the burgundy satin halter dress, and the longer burgundy lace halter dress are from Amazon. They're all less than $100! The dress on the model is scarlet tissue taffeta by Lazaro.

And last but not least, the shoes are all from Endless.

From top to bottom:

Mia Mabel T-Strap Pumps in Hunter Green

Nine West Hearts Mary Janes in Dark Red

Seychelles Silver Spoon Leather Wedge in Green

Rustic Wedding with Birds and Acorns

I've been brainstorming over the last couple of days about our own wedding. Part of me imagines something very classy and elegant. While we are most definitely on a budget, I do have a keen eye for detail and I am a budget-shopper like you wouldn't believe. The other part of me loves quaint, charming and quirky. I'd like to be able to incorporate both elements, but it's a little harder than I would've imagined to find a good balance of both.

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Here are some of the key elements that I wanted to include in this inspiration board:

We live in "The Evergreen State" (Washington), so it's easy to imagine a woodsy element for our wedding. I'm a little too girly to go for full-blown rustic, but I like the idea of rustic with a touch of crafty cuteness. (Etsy, here I come!) I included pictures from Suzi Q (upper left corner) and Josh Goleman (lower right corner) to highlight a feeling of rustic elegance and whimsical romance.

Speaking of rustic elegance and crafty cuteness, I love these Penny Loves Kenny shoes! And they're less than $40!

As is probably apparent by now, I'm mildly obsessed with lovebird themes. I found the cute lovebird cake toppers at RedLightStudio on Etsy. The love bird ring nest is from Y&E Bridal on Etsy.

I designed the wedding invitation in the middle. It's harder to tell in this format, but it has a wood-grain background. I changed our names for privacy.

The acorn boutonniere, dessert tableau and the white chocolate speckled quail eggs are by Martha Stewart. I'm not sure how they did it, but they have a moss table covering on the tables that I think gives a great enchanted forest feeling.

If you saw my first inspiration board, you saw that we'd like to incorporate acorns into our wedding. When I saw this acorn cakelette pan at Williams-Sonoma, I thought they would make adorable wedding favors. I've baked them a few times now using different recipes ranging from a delicate maple flavor to a sweetly spicy pumpkin flavor. To add a little extra oomph, I brush the acorn caps with maple syrup and then dip them into raw turbinado sugar. (Although I didn't take this picture, or ever put my acorn cakelettes on the floor for a photo op.)

The oak branch and acorn candle holders retail for about $100 each, but I did some negotiating and I bought several of them for about a fourth of that! They're really high quality and heavy weight, and we're hoping to use them as part of our centerpieces if we can find a venue that allows us to use them. Otherwise, spoiler alert for friends and family -- you may be getting one of these for Christmas, or as a thank you for helping us with the wedding. Act surprised!

The earthy brown and green candy buffet is by Rebecca Thuss, one of the queens of event planning.

Peachy Pink and Soft Moss Green

Today’s palette is a peachy pink that makes me think of pink grapefruit, balanced with a soft moss green.

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Martha Stewart always provides lots of wedding inspiration for me. Today she's responsible for:

• The ribbon and floral boutonnieres
• The ranunculus bouquets (you know how I love ranunculus bouquets for weddings!)
• The bouquet of dahlias
• The pink table setting in the center of the board
• The pink grapefruit mojitos that I am dying to try
• The green stationery
• The pink dogwood flowers
• The cutely packaged pink and green wedding favor

The pink table setting in the top left and the gerbera daisies are both from The Knot.

The bouquet of lovely pink roses are from Costco of all places! I think they’re one of the best deals you can find on roses.

The fantastic pink candy buffet is by byrd + bleecker. They have another great pink grapefruit addition – those pink grapefruit candy slices. I love those darn things!

The Marilyn style sage green satin halter dress is on Amazon. It’s available in sizes XS-3x, so it’ll fit almost any bridesmaid!

The fantastic star paper lantern is by Luna Bazaar.

Muted Tea Green and Mocha Brown

Despite the color names, today’s palette is inspired by earth tones, not your local espresso stand.

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The stationary showcases are both by Martha Stewart, as is the gorgeous clematis topped wedding cake, and the gladiolus bouquet.

I think the clematis cake is fantastic, but I think the green hydrangea cake at the bottom is also a nice way to work in this color scheme.

The tiered chiffon gown is the same style that I used yesterday in red, still found on Amazon. The other dresses are by Watters. They use color names like snapdragon, meadow and acorn. I don’t know if I could’ve pictured what color snapdragon would be, but I like it.

The cutesy lovebird cake toppers are from Red Light Studio on Etsy.

The glammed up champagne silk stiletto sandals are by Delman. The fun green pumps are DKNYC Foxy Pumps in bamboo green. I like the pattern on them, it’s somewhere between eyelet lace and paisley.

On a last note, something that really helps a wedding look well put together is to incorporate the palette throughout the wedding and reception. With this palette, I love the idea of using something like limeade and iced tea or sweet tea. It's nothing too fancy, it's budget friendly, and it just helps to bring the look together.

These are both pictured with lemonade, but you get the idea.

Chartreuse -- A.K.A. Bright Yellow - Green

Today's inspiration board is another non-traditional color choice, but I'm digging it. I think I'd call this color chartreuse:

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I was inspired by the totally adorable dress that I found on J. Crew. It could be a sweet bridesmaid dress, a rehearsal dinner dress, an engagement party dress, even a "Let's run down to the courthouse and get hitched!" dress. I love the ruffle, the bow, and the details on the sleeves. It comes in several cool colors, but I think this one is funky and fresh. (Funky fresh? Really?) Okay, so how's this -- today's board is sponsored by the letter F because it's fun, feminine, flirty, funky and fresh! YEAH!

The shoes I used on the board are also by J. Crew, but I found a couple other pairs that I like with the dress. Seriously, Endless.com could be my downfall. Just click on the shoe to get their details.


I love the fiddlehead ferns (I told you, sponsored by the letter F) in the bouquet to balance out the light and bright colors of the flowers.

The clematis boutonniere is also a sweet idea. I'm a fan of clematis and I think this is the first one I've seen used that way.

On a final F-related note: My fiance has finally finished school! He had his last final today. He graduates on Saturday! HOORAY! Way to go, baby! I'm so proud of you!

Hot Pink and Green - Watermelon?

Today's theme is all about bright and summery. I've always liked pink and green together, so I decided to amp up the combination by focusing on the bright and bold side of the spectrum.

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The majority of these pictures came from The Knot. The hot pink bridesmaid dress on the right is by Watters. The fuchsia luster satin pumps with the cute bows and ankle straps are by Electra. The green peep toe pumps are from J. Crew.

I thought this color combination lent itself nicely with this picnic reception idea. When I saw this picture, I swooned a little at the idea of a romantic picnic blanket reception. I'm guessing that particular event wasn't especially budget-friendly, but it certainly has possibilities!

And don't forget the watermelon balls!

Wedding Succulents

Okay, I can admit it. I may be a little obsessed with succulents. I’ve always thought they were interesting and attractive landscaping accents, with their firm plump leaves and tricky “I look like a flower, but I’m not quite!” appearance.

When I found this bouquet by Ink and Peat, I was enamored.

The echeveria succulents, combined with unripe blackberries, hypericum berries, and scabiosa pods are such an amazingly earthy balance to the delicate roses and ethereal tufts of feathers and smokebush. I think it’s lovely, and it’s the bouquet I featured in our own wedding inspiration board.

Since then, I’ve started to notice that I’ve actually developed quite a collection of wedding related pictures of succulents. Yesterday I saw some pictures by Stephanie Williams that just about made my head explode. I had to send her a little note of admiration, and she’s given me the thumbs up to share some of her work.

Her gorgeous picture of a raindrop covered succulent was enough to inspire this unorthodox inspiration board. Rather than showcasing a specific color palette, I’m showcasing my love of these strange and versatile plants as wedding flowers and décor.

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Stephanie Williams also took the photos of the boutonnieres with the pearl pins.

The bouquet with orchids on the left, the centerpieces with lavender roses and succulents, and the succulent nest placecards are all from Martha Stewart.

Bright Purple, Green and Pink.

Today's theme is a beautiful summer assortment of bright purples, greens and pinks. Or in fancier terms: plum, orchid, chartreuse, and fuchsia. I was speaking to a young bride-to-be a few days ago, and she’s thinking about fuchsia and lime green. This was my own take on that.

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With colors this bold and lively, I tried to keep the details relatively simple. Fresh flowers provide most of the decoration.

I LOVE ranunculus and dahlias for wedding flowers. I love how delicate yet dramatic they look, and both manage to be full and hardy. It’s the best of both worlds! The purple ranunculus bouquets are photographed by Stephanie Williams -- I think they're the best part of this board. (If you haven’t checked her out yet, you should. She’s fantastic!) There is also a unique usage of purple tulips strewn about haphazardly under water in big cylinder vases. Kind of funky, but may be a better way to be able to use tulips since they tend to not hold up as well as you’d hope. Orchids are another obvious choice color-wise, but I know they can be spendy and I try to go for budget-friendly.

Speaking of budget-friendly, I found the pretty purple gown on Amazon of all places. And the bright chartreuse gown is from Spiegel for less than $50! I love empire waist gowns in soft fabrics. They're romantic and figure flattering for most of us! Plus, neither of these gowns look like the traditional bridesmaid / prom dress, which is a bonus in my book.

Rosy Copper, Mossy Green, Warm Brown

Some of the inspiration boards I've put together have been for us, while others have been for friends or just to have fun with different color combinations or themes. This is our current favorite for early autumn wedding. The colors are rosy copper, mossy green and warm brown.

I wanted to make an autumn inspiration board, but avoid the more stereotypical autumn decor (pumpkins, oranges, yellows, reds). It was important to keep a warm, cozy, autumn feeling. We love the idea of incorporating some flora and fauna with vintage romance. We especially love the lovebirds theme, and acorns because they're a symbol of good luck and potential for the future.

The emphasis for these boards:

• elegant
• vintage
• romantic
• whimsical
• woodsy

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My favorite parts of the upper inspiration board are the rich textures, the acorn boutonniere and the bouquet with succulents, scabiosa, roses and little tufts of feathers. And my ring, of course!

I found the adorable ring bearer's "nest" and flower girl's basket on Etsy.

We aren't religious, but we love the symbolism behind the Jewish chuppah, and the intimate space it creates for the bride and groom during the ceremony.

We'd like to have an outdoor ceremony, but I think my head would explode if we had to gamble on the weather. We're hoping to bring some of the outdoors in with elements like the oak branch and acorn candleholders (on the top row) and the woodsy decor.

So that's my latest take on an autumn wedding, I hope you enjoy it!