Martha Stewart-Inspired Details

So I've been loving Martha Stewart's Weddings, especially her "Good Things" feature for Summer Weddings. I really like the tissue paper pomanders, that are available ready to make at Michaels.  I'm definitely thinking about using these for my wedding. 

This is a super cute idea for Thank you notes!

I love these candle holders, simple, but dressed up!

These are really adorable ideas for favors and totally complement the pomanders above.

These little buckets are so cute with rock candies.

Nice use of bowls and awesome and vibrant flowers.

Nice boxes! Different use of a table number that works great!

Thanks Martha! :) www.marthastewartweddings.com

Wedding Planning: Picking Color Palettes

Oh man, I've been such a slacker! Having a real world job gets in the way sometimes.

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Anyway, I was cruising one of my favorite wedding blogs, Janie Medley's awesome The Bride's Cafe, and she has a whole section showcasing color palettes.

Some of my favorites:

I love color! But I'm stuck on what to do in terms of flowers with a color palette of chocolate brown and pool blue...

Invitations!

Invitations and ideas for invitations have been running around in my head for the last week. Tomorrow officially marks eight  months to go. Everyone keeps telling me "YOU have soooo much time" but considering that we are already half way through November, those eight months are going to fly.

Anyway, I really love the look of letterpressed invitations, but it's totally out of range for our budget. But like Miss Fondue on WeddingBee, I'm loving the look of heat embossed invitations. They look have the textured look to them that I think is so pretty, not to mention a lot more affordable! I'm definitely considering this option because I do want to DIY my invitations because all the premades aren't quite speaking to me. I think they are totally beautiful, but I'm a custom on a budget type of gal.

I'm also thinking about poketfolds and the possibility of making them myself. I know that they are available on www.cardandpockets.com and at around $1 each, that would mean about $200 just on the pocketfolds! There are a ton of great tutorials online, including Road to the Aisle and Miss Ballet Flat and Miss Fondue and Mrs. Daffodil on WeddingBee.

Some things to think about!

One-Stop Shopping for Inspiration

If there's one blog that I can rely on for everyday inspiration of amazingly beautiful weddings, it's the Southern Weddings blog. I discovered them just a few months ago, and it's one of my daily reads and has some serious eye candy. Lara Casey and her team do a great job of showcasing so many lovely, yet unique, weddings.

Take a look:

Jane & David by Heather Forsythe

Shalyce &Ian by Michele M. Waite

Katie & Torsten by Kate Benson

 
Miriam & Jon - This one was shot by our awesome photographer, Travis Hoehne!

Check out Southern Weddings if you haven't already!

All photos from the mentioned photographers, collaged by Southern Weddings.

Invitation finds on Flickr

Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been away on business in Denver for my real job -- attending a statistics conference. I'm no statistician, but I do work on statistics books.

While hanging out in my hotel room and enjoying the free wi-fi, I came upon some great finds on Flickr. It's such an awesome photo community and some etsy artists as well as freelance invitation designers showcase their work on Flickr.

User UglyKitty has some lovely designs which are hand Gocco'ed. Etsy Store here.

 

Hiu and Kent  

  

Becca and Matt  

So does MewPaperArts and Etsy Store here.

 

Chocolate Damask  

  

Invitation  

  

Wild Ginger  

  

Mandala

Love this bio!

I found this awesome Knottie bio thanks to WeddingBee! WB is my resource for almost everything! Knottie TDiddy2 has a very helpful, thorough, and totally stylish bio. She has reviews of her vendors and commentary throughout, including FAQs which I'm sure she received via the Knot and email. She has so many great ideas and wonderful style. She also set up a married bio to show everyone how it all turned out! You can check it out here.

Here's a sneak peek!

Cocktail table pieces (Photo from TDiddy2)

Jewelry made by MrsTDiddy2 (photo from TDiddy2)

Thank you MrsTDiddy2 for a very helpful and inspirational bio! Thanks to Mrs. Bird of Paradise on WeddingBee for sharing!

Details!

I love details at weddings. I love it even more when photographers capture each and every little aspect that goes into the wedding. It's the personal touches that the bride and groom have put into the wedding that not everyone may notice, but the newlyweds will certainly remember, most especially if it's DIY!

Lyndsy & Elon via Elizabeth Anne Designs

Antonio & Heather via Trista Lerit

Jennifer+ Michael via Boutwell Studio

 Jill + Harry via Michael Norwood Photography

Click on photos to enlarge.

Check out these photog blogs for more eye candy!

Inspiration Boards

The lovely and wonderful blog-read Snippet & Ink provides great inspiration for color palettes and detail ideas. Thank goodness for labels on blog posts! I found the inspiring palettes that include blue, one of the basic colors I will be including in my wedding. Thank you Kathryn for pulling these together everyday for your readers' inspiration and enjoyment!

Floral Opulence 

Japanese Magnolia

Cinco de Mayo

Early Spring Sweetness

Blue and Orange

Amanda's Blue and Yellow Wedding

A Maine Coast Wedding

A Little Bird Told Me...

Check out Snippet & Ink!



All inspiration boards created by Kathryn of Snippet and Ink.

Favorite Blogs: Snippet & Ink

What can I say about Snippet & Ink? It's another one of my daily inspirations. I don't know how Kathryn does it, but I'm so glad she does. She is so talented in assembling gorgeous combinations of flowers, dresses, venues, and details. Her daily inspiration boards generate ideas in my head for my own wedding. One day, while in between meetings, I clicked through every single board created. There's such a huge range and so many beautiful colors, it would be hard NOT to find your colors!

If you haven't been to Snippet & Ink, you are missing out! I found Kathryn's blog while reading another blog. Since that day, I added it to my Google Reader, and drool daily over all the beautiful and lovely ideas. It's inspired me to come up with my own board, which is still in progress.

On a whim, several weeks ago, I e-mailed Kathryn about inspiration boards in my colors. While she no longer comes up with boards for free, she generously sent me the links to two boards that she had created that would fit in my color scheme. Thanks so much! I really appreciate it!

Board #88: Jess's Garden Wedding


Board #79: Landra's Jamaican Wedding


Be sure to check out Snippet & Ink!!

My Latest Obsession...

...has been figuring out what to do with my invitations.

When I emailed a mock up of a possible invitation to my mom, she said, "Wow, so you really don't want anything traditional!" I'm not sure what that was supposed to mean, but it's true. I wouldn't call myself ultra modern or country chic by any means, but I also don't want cookie cutter invitations from a catalog. I like a lot of invitations on Wedding Paper Divas -- the colors and styles are great! However, I still wanted another personal touch.

I've been skimming through different posts on Wedding Bee, checking out the pocketfold route, looking at some of the bees' letterpress designs, and other custom/DIY/fabulous ideas.

Here's some of my inspiration:

Wedding Paper Divas - Canna

Wedding Paper Divas - Floral Flurry


Wedding Paper Divas - Branch of Flowers


Minted.com


Miss Pineapple - Invitation Concepts


Since I'm pretty sure that our colors will be chocolate brown and pool blue, I'm really digging the Canna invite from Wedding Paper Divas. There's just something missing from it though, for me. I'm no graphic designer, but I've become pretty adept at Illustrator and Photoshop, which I coincidentally have been taking at a Community College before I knew we'd be getting hitched. Everything's still on the drawing board...

Inspiring Colors: Blue

I love the color blue. A couple summers ago, on a whim, I went to Lowe's and purchased a gallon of Caribbean Blue paint. I painted two and a half of my walls. I knew that blue was definitely a color I wanted incorporated into my wedding scheme. Luckily for me, my fiance was on-board with the blue color. One time I saw girl wearing a scarf in the perfect shade of pool blue. I pointed it out to him and he said that was the color he was thinking of! It's like we have a psychic connection.

I've been scouring the internet for weddings with blue as their theme. I found a wonderful blue inspiration board on Lucky Me! blog for Lucky Designs. Thanks for featuring this one! It's just the right shade of blue that I'm looking for.


(all images courtesy of eluckydesigns.blogspot.com)

Favorite Blogs: The Bride's Cafe

Since becoming a "Bride-to-Be" a couple of months ago, I've been scouring the Net for ideas. My good friend Google Reader suggested The Brides Cafe, a blog by Janie Medley of JM Flora Design. She features wonderful floral and reception decoration ideas, as well as beautiful Real Weddings. I find Real Weddings especially inspiring because, as the name indicates, it's real. Someone made those dreams and ideas come true.

I've been really excited about creating the "look" of my wedding. I've been considering chocolate and a blue/turquoise/aqua color. I like the look of low centerpieces. I like the look of candles. I'm really looking for a lovely, cohesive look.

Janie has featured so many lovely ideas. I put together some of the reception ideas that I found while browsing The Bride's Cafe. Thanks Janie for posting such great inspiration!



Don't forget to check out the latest Real Wedding!