Bride Blogger Emily | Nice to meet you!

Hello E&I Readers! My name is Emily, I recently got engaged in June to an awesome guy named Ryan.   He popped the question as we were standing on Lover's Beach in Cabo San Lucas with a gorgeous custom engagement ring from Brilliant Earth, which he designed himself-major props to him!  The best part was my sister captured every moment on camera!  Ryan and I live in Portland, Oregon with our Golden Retriever-Roxy.

The photos above were taken by my sweet sister, she had no idea this was happening!  The photos she took I will cherish forever- she did an amazing job of capturing every moment while crying tears of joy and excitement!  My engagement ring is gold- with a gorgeous hammered effect all around the band.  I cannot wait to design the wedding band with Ryan- that post will come later. :)

I am so excited to share with you my wedding inspirations over the next few months!  I am an avid blog-reader and since becoming engaged have enjoyed finding wedding blogs to obsess over now too.  Our wedding will be bright/colorful, rustic/DIY and budget friendly.  I hope I can help you with ideas on where to cut cost, when to splurge and in the end still have the gorgeous wedding of your dreams!

A few weeks ago Ryan and I finally booked the venue and picked our wedding date!  We had been going back and forth with the idea of a destination wedding in Mexico or staying local in Portland, Oregon.  We met half way and decided on a mini-destination wedding in beautiful Bend, Oregon.  Bend has stolen our hearts, we love taking weekend trips with friends/family and with an average of 300+ sunny days a year, what is not to like!  We picked a venue through the Bend Park and Recreation District called Aspen Hall-located in Shevlin Park.

 

 

Source: Top | Middle Left | Middle Right | Below

We fell in love right away with the venue!  Aspen Hall had everything we wanted with indoor/outdoor space and the gorgeous landscape of Central Oregon.  Another added bonus is it was well within our budget that we set aside for the venue space.

Before signing off I wanted to include a few photos that have caught my eye to shape the vision for our wedding.

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I love this table for the reception!  I think ivory, burlap or a light brown tablecloth will fit perfectly into the indoor space at Aspen Hall.  It will compliment the exposed craftsman-style wooden beams and the huge brick fireplace.

Sources: Top | Middle |  Bottom

My ideas around the ceremony altar are crafty, colorful yet simple.  We will get married with the small Lake as the backdrop, so I do not want something that is too overbearing as the nature being backdrop is gorgeous enough.

Source: Above |Below

Thank you for reading and cannot wait till my next post is ready!

Until next time-

Emily

The Lab Event \\ Rockstar Glam by Gem Photo

Today I'm sharing another shoot from the awesome bridal event I co-founded, The Lab Event. The purpose of our event is to create a bridal experience where vendors bring their work to life and show of to brides. No booths and awkward conversations here! Nope, we have music, drinks, yummy food and SO much inspiration for our Northern California brides!

This design was based on a "Rockstar Glam" inspiration board. I love what Kate Miller Events did here. And Gem Photo captured it all oh so well. Take a look at the vendors below. Like what you see? They will definitely be there to help create the most awesome wedding for you.

Event Design: Kate Miller Events Photography: Gem Photo Floral: PoppyStone Floral Design  Cakes: Shannie Cakes Paper Design: Mink Cards Rentals: Classic Party Rentals Lighting: Creative Lighting Design DJ: Josh Dukes - Boutique DJs Venue: Cline Cellars

Designed and shot for The Lab Event

Wedding Wine Tasting

 Source for all images: Better Homes & Gardens

 Last week I mentioned that we wanted to take advantage of summer weather in Seattle to have my bridal shower, even though we still have months until the wedding. It was completely amazing and I can't wait to share details! Since the sun shines on, we've also talked about another summer party: a BBQ hosted with the purpose to pick our wedding wines.

We're going to send invites with a per bottle price maximum and do a blind test with our friends and bridal party to try and choose the bottles that we'll buy for the big day (our venue lets us bring our own alcohol). We felt like this would be a fun way to get the families together, enjoy the sunshine, and give some involvement into the planning process.

In anticipation, I've been pinning ideas for decor and food for this little outdoor soiree. Can't wait to share which bottles we chose!

{doable} Do It Yourself

This week has been full of crafting for me. Over the past few months I've realized I should outsource some of the projects (thank you etsy!) and other projects were simple enough to do myself. Here are some of the images that have inspired me to get my DIY on, followed by my personal tips to get the jobs done.

Lavender bunches with escort cards

Sources: Top, Bottom 

Menus and a lace runner for the head table:

Sources: Left, Center, Right

Metallic assorted bottles for the welcome party:

Sources: Left, Right, Bottom

This is how it went for me...

DIY No-Sew Table Runner: SUPPLIES: Lace Fabric | Fabric Scissors | Tape Measure

I bought the lace fabric at a discount fabric store for $23. I measured the fabric to make sure it would run the length of the table and have enough to hang down on either side. I then cut the fabric to the width I wanted. I realized if I gathered the fabric, as shown, the edges would be hidden and therefore don't need to be finished. I will be using the jute twine from the escort cards to tie each end like in my inspiration image. This project worked well for me because we only have one farm table as our head table. The other tables are round and will just have the standard linens. If you wanted to do this for more tables, you could easily get two runners out of the width - just make sure you get the length you need so you don't have breaks in the fabric.

DIY Stamped & Embossed Menus: SUPPLIES: Stamps | Stamp Pad | Kraft Paper | Embossing Powder | Embossing Tool

I used stamps and the heat embossing powder and tool for the top oval and 'Menu' part. For the rest, I used the white pen to write it out. It took me a couple tries to get the layout and spacing just right. To help myself from writing at a slant, I used a piece of thicker, contrasting paper and held that under the line I was writing. Then, as I wrote each item, I watched the space between my line and the other piece of paper. Slant avoided! I did enough for two per table.

DIY Metallic Bottles: SUPPLIES: Assorted Bottles | Primer Spray | Metallic Spray

For my welcome party, I knew I wanted something cost effective and related to wine since it will be held at a Springhouse Cellar - a tasting room in Hood River, OR. I found the images of gold and silver wine and champagne bottles and HAD to give it a try.

I left the labels on and used a primer and then metallic spray bottles - I just went to my local paint store and they helped me figure out what to buy. In addition to the bottles, I also sprayed some corks to sprinkle around the bottles and I called my florist who said she would provide the single stems of white and green flowers. Easy! And all-in it will come to under $90 to decorate about six tables. Not bad, right?! *Hint: take your engagement ring off and don't do this the week before your wedding - or use some gloves!

DIY Lavender Bunch Escort Cards: SUPPLIES: Lavender Sprig | Jute Twine | Cloth Pins | Small Cards (used business card sized paper from Paper Source) | Hole Punch | Pen

I haven't done this project yet, but my florist recommended grouping couples and families onto one card - that way you have less to do and the display at the wedding won't be overwhelming.

Happy crafting and happy Fourth of July to you all!

Group Pinterest Boards

One of the most fun things I've done so far with wedding planning is starting a group pinterest board to let friends and family share ideas they came across.  When I first got engaged, people close to me started e-mailing inspiration and I knew I needed to come up with a way to keep it all organized so that I could access it when it came down to deciding on the details.

 Source: Style Me Pretty

So, I started a group pinterest board and sent out an e-mail that if people would like to be involved to let me know and I'd invite them to pin to the board. A couple months later and we're having so much fun with it!  Obviously I've kept my own boards (since I don't want to bombard the group board with the crazy amount of pins I've amassed), so this has been a fun way to separate out the things that other people find that I haven't seen.

Source: Printstagram

The most awesome thing about it so far is seeing how your friends see your style. So far, everyone has been spot on pinning things I really like and ideas that I think are really creative and fun. Its a really cool feeling to feel like over the years you've developed a style that people have picked up on and that they're so excited about sharing images that fit in with that aesthetic.

Source: Pepper Design Blog

Its also been a really helpful way to have bridesmaids sharing ideas about dresses, shoes, hair, makeup, etc all in one place so that we can keep the long e-mail chains to a minimum. People can Like or Comment on pictures they find especially pretty and that gives me an idea of what my girls would like once we get down to finalizing options.

Source: Hello Naomi

These are all images that friends and bridesmaids have pinned to our board, and even though I get sucked into a ton of blogs, these were all images I hadn't necessarily pinned myself. Its fun to have a lot of sets of eyes out there in the universe to track down inspiration that might be outside of my usual network. Plus, I think they all fit together with our inspiration board really well.

Source: The Wedding Finder

If you're the type of person who gets overwhelmed with too many options, this might not be the road for you, but for me its been a terrific way to keep other people's ideas organized and to start a little wedding inspiration community during the beginning of getting this thing planned!

Sweet Succulents

With four months to go until our big day, we have been focusing on locking in rest of our vendors (florist, cake and entertainment). This week flowers have been on my mind and I'm loving a mixture of local wild flowers and succulents. Below is my inspiration for bouquets. I love how the succulents add texture and compliment coral and white flowers.

Sources: 1, 2 & 3

Sources: 1, 2 & 3

For boutineers Derek is envisioning a simple succulent with a spring of lavender.

Sources: 1, 2, 3 & 4

For our tablescape we plan to fill mismatched vases and planters with local flowers and succulents. To keep our flower costs down we will be planting some of our own succulents to mix in with our florists' creations. We plan to replant these succulents in our garden after out wedding too!

Sources: 1, 2 & 3

Did you, or are you planning on using succulents for your wedding? Were you able to reuse them?

I have also been contemplating how to highlight our moms on our wedding day. Did you go with a corsage, wrislet, small bouquet or something else for yours? Would love to hear what other brides are doing!

Colorful & Industrial Inspiration Board

In the months leading up to our engagement, I started pinning images here and there that I knew I would want to fold into our wedding day. I snuck them onto boards called “Sparkle” and “Party Time” but really, I had our someday wedding in mind all along. So when we got engaged, of course the first thing I did was to bring all those ideas back together into one board called “The Big Day” and started to pull out my very favorite images to I could put together a cohesive idea of what I wanted. I wanted to start being able to show people my overall vision in one place.

Source: Ruffled Blog

As I pulled out my favorite moments, it was interesting to see the evolution of this inspiration as Erik and I worked together to decide what our wedding day would be like. I don't think a lot of people talk about how these things come together (since it doesn't just happen out of the blue).

Our first inspiration board was put together entirely by me, and it looked like this:

Sources: Tealily Photography, Ely Fair Photography, Ashley Meaders, Found Vintage Rentals, Design Sponge,  The Rubbish Revival, Jeff Loves Jessica, Beautiful Days Events, Spencer Studio, Alexandre Weddings, Kinfolk Mag, Jonathan Ong Photography, Domus,  Juli Vaughn, Sweetapolita

I thought it was so pretty and was what I’d envisioned in the types of spaces we were hoping for our venue. But when I showed it to Erik the reaction sort of fell flat. Sure, he thought it was “pretty”, but he also felt it was a little boring and a little too natural. After all, we knew we wanted a city wedding in the springtime just after he gets home from the Navy, and we weren’t planning on a outdoor summer affair. I swapped out some of the more earthy inspirations with a little bit more fun and funky and came up with this:

 Sources (In addition to above): Todd Pellowe, Jeff Loves Jessica

And again, his reaction wasn’t that “Yes! This is OUR big day”. He simply said to me, yeah, its pretty, but where are WE? Where is the COLOR? And that’s true, I love bright bold jewel tones, and so does he. My house is certainly not the monochrome modern oasis that you might expect of an architect. And he doesn’t really have that typical bachelor style.

We went back through my pinterest boards together and when we passed this palette he said “Now, I like that!” Which was a pretty cool moment, having him get really excited about our big day. So, I went back through one more time and picked some bolder images and folded them in with the light and texture we’d loved from the beginning.

And voila! Our full inspiration came to life. Its not THAT much of a departure from where we started, but its much more “us” which really makes me happy. And it taught me a good lesson at the beginning of the whole process – which is to really consider decisions about who you are as a couple and not just what the industry or websites are telling you is pretty.

Sources (In addition to above): Bespoke Glass, Marilyn Nakazato, Canary Grey, The Creative Parasol, Sunday Suppers, Nine Cakes, Aurelio Zen

Mint to Be

In the aftermath of St. Patty's Day and with spring right around the corner, this post is dedicated to my new favorite color, mint green! I’ve always loved how this soft, sweet color pairs well with any Springtime pastel shade. Check out this darling round up of the perfect ways to keep your wedding minty fresh! Adorable (and super affordable!) dresses for the bride or her bridesmaids.

Source: 1, 2 & 3

Darling mint ph0tobooth.

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Add a little mint to your cake!

Source: 1, 2 & 3

Lollipops to find your table. Great way to re-purpose those berry containers!

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Subtle minty details

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Have you added some mint to your wedding pallet?

Spring Barn Inspiration

Spring is coming. Can you believe it? My favorite thing about spring time is the color palettes and beautiful weddings that come with this gorgeous time. Here is a perfect little inspiration board for all you pink-loving spring time brides. So tell us, what is your springtime wedding date? And where are you getting married?? I'd love to see all your spring time inspiration boards. They might even show up here on the blog! Comment below!

Little White Dress

With the Oscars last night I got to thinking about the other dresses I will  "need" for wedding celebrations. With showers, parties and our rehearsal dinner approaching there our lots of excuses to buy more than one white dress.

Source: Alice & Olivia

Source: 1 & 2

Source: BLHDN

Sources: 1 & 2

Did you wear a white dress to your other wedding festivities? Where did you shop?