Happy Weekend + My Weekend Travels

I have never been as into Instagram as I was today and if you are following me on Twitter, likely you have seen all the galavanting. I guess being alone for the weekend and traveling around to amazing places like Carmel and Monterey warrants some good picture-taking opportunities. First up I went to Nordstrom and through those travels I found this sparkley piece of gorgeousness for only $128. Talk about a wonderful statement necklace.

Next up I headed to my all-time favorite place in the whole world, Holman Ranch. Yes, I am officially dubbing it my all time favorite place. Look how gorgeous it was today. 75 and sunny....thanks weather, way to be awesome. Rain all over my wedding day, but be sunny at the end of October.

Next up I went to do the rehearsal for a bride's wedding I am planning on Saturday. She handed me a little gift, and when I got the chance to open it, I was amazed at the gift. How thoughtful and amazing is this iPhone case! She must be reading my blog.

Next up I headed to my hotel for the weekend, Hotel Pacific, where I snuggled up alone with take-out from a fancy restaurant, Top Model, lots and lots of work and a fire in the fireplace. What a nice little night.

Have a fun Halloween weekend! I'll be at a wedding on Saturday, followed by a night in Monterey with all the girls who agreed to come down and hang out with me for a little slumber party.

Inspired Collective Grand Opening by Delbarr Moradi

A few weeks back we held the Inspired Collective Grand Opening party! And oh, was it a fun time! Our space was decked out for Grand Opening awesomeness and we are lucky enough to have some wonderful photographers to capture the whole thing. Delbarr Moradi is one of the most inspiring photographers I have had the pleasure to meet. Her style is everything I love about photography and absolutely why I love the wedding industry. She captured a few shots of the shop before the guests arrived, and I am totally in love.

 

Over The Moon Vintage Rentals creates wonderful styled areas for Inspired Collective. This time she chose bright, fun details to celebrate the Grand Opening. I'm loving all the glitter and gold. Amazing. Come to Inspired Collective and check out the wonderful styled area she creates!

 

Delbarr has some wonderful lookbooks in the shop that are just amazing to look through. If you weren't inspired walking in, you definitely will be after checking out these wonderfully pretty books!

Huckleberry Karen created some fun little florals for the event. We went simple with white and yellow and they just added the perfect amount of florals for the shop.

If you are near by schedule an appointment to come check out the space! We are offering a great deal right now. If you schedule an appointment with one of our vendors, we are offering a free Bride Love consultation with me! Let's get started planning your wedding with our amazing group of vendors!

Studio Cake + Inspired Collective

I am sure you have heard the news by now! Inspired Collective, our wedding and event design studio is open for business in Downtown Campbell. Right now I am full-force on making our Grand Opening bash a massive success!

As far as the desserts go, we are lucky enough to have Studio Cake bringing over lots of wonderful sweets for all to enjoy. Studio Cake is a bakery located in Menlo Park that creates some gorgeous designs for weddings, among other things. And boy are they talented! Beth Ann, the fab owner, has won the Food Network cake challenge not once but TWICE! She has also been on Eye on the Bay and the Martha Stewart Show!

She will be providing a gorg-o cake for the affair, and it is safe to say the design is going to be something to see.

Here are but a few of her amazing creations...and literally the wonderful cake designs go on and on when you check out her website! I am beyond thrilled to have such wonderful company amongst us and can't wait to eat up all the yumminess!

RSVP for the Grand Opening Bash on Facebook and invite all your friends. It is going to be a great time!

 

 

The Lab :: Bring Your Inspiration To Life!

Ready for a lot of awesomeness to start out your Monday? Obvs I must be talking about The Lab event we are hosting in Sonoma, CA in January :) But here is your chance to win tickets, backstage passes, and a whole lot of pampering at this awesome showcase. The Lab is a bridal experience for crafty, awesome brides who want to rub elbows and dance the night away with some of the most talented vendors in Northern California. The event will be chock-full of incredible DIY projects, awesome details and so many things that will inspire you to create a wow-factor wedding.

We have 4 wonderfully amazing blogs ready for you to submit your inspiration boards to them. And those lucky winners will indeed get to see their very own inspiration board come to life!

Head on over to these blogs and submit your inspiration boards. 1 winner will be chosen from each blog and this group of awesome talent will bring your board to life!

Snippet & Ink

Perfect Palette

Wedding Bee

Style Unveiled

Make this event a wine-country get away for you and your besties! Tickets are currently on pre-sale meaning we cut the price down by quite a lot! So pick up your pair for your BFF's and enjoy this experience together.

Bride Love :: Revealed

I am finally sitting down at my computer long enough to write a real blog post. It is absolutely absurd the number of things that can get between a girl and her computer. And since the thing that has been taking me away from my computer the most is Inspired Collective, I wanted to touch upon a totally awesome service we offer in the shop, Bride Love. Last week , with announcing our brand new site, I announced "Bride Love" but haven't had time to really show off it's bells and whistles.

Bride Love is a way for me to download all the information you want without everything you don't want. This is a way for me to give back everything I can to the wedding industry and you wonderful brides to cut hours upon hours of research, confusion and everything else I went through. Above all else, I really just want to help any bride out there that need a sounding board and something to just talk to from one bride to another.

Bride Love is a simple, brand new consultation for brides to get down to business and get a clear path on the road to wedding planning. Think of me as your BFF, a sounding board to bounce ideas and inspirations off of to create something amazing. We meet in the brand new digs at Inspired Collective, coffee in hand, and get started.

  • We start with the basics: your style, budget, favorite location, etc.
  • We go over the budget with my brand new tool to help you stick to your numbers. Having a firm grasp on this from the very beginning will help in not going over-budget later.
  • We talk design, details, personality and how to accomplish a wedding that makes your statement.
  • This is followed by vendor recommendations as well as venue recommendations.
  • And to end things off, we of course address everything you may need help with, including those super random questions that are just bound to come up.

From there I pass you off to your vendors with an open door policy that I am only a phone call away should you need any more help.

It all started a month after the wedding when I posted a blog post  (which still holds completely true) about chatting it up with brides. And oh did you brides follow suit! You kept me crazy busy with coffee dates and phone chats answering all those crazy questions that only a bride in the midst of planning has. I also helped with recommendations, DIY ideas, vendor referrals and a whole lot more. After meeting with almost 100 brides, I saw the need for a really savvy friend that knows a lot about weddings, and can really help.

Bride Love is in no way a replacement of a planner. I still think it is incredibly important to have a planner/designer, I really do. But if you are just starting out, and have no idea where to look, I think it is equally important to gather some info before just booking the first planner you find.

Planning isn't my passion but see, weddings are. And after 2 years of studying this industry like mad, I know a lot. Not only do I know trends, designs, and DIYing like crazy, but I know vendors and venues. I have seen over 100 venues, and if you think I am lying....look at my iphoto (WAY too many venue photos going on there). And I will definitely say I know a lot about the vendors of the Bay Area.

Credit: ConfettiLuna & Chloe Weddings, Bridal Shower,

And now for the sweet deal. For the month of September and October I am offering the brilliant price of only $100 per consultation! This is such a steal for the invaluable information you will walk away with.

Let's Get Started

Shop Bando at Inspired Collective!

This sign is up! Inspired Collective is totally real :) Check it out:

All this took was a palette I got for free and a friend to get really into putting the whole thing together. I absolutely love the reclaimed wood look with white lettering, and I must say, it looks pretty much amazing in the store front.

And guess what else! We received our shipment of Bando items, and officially have them set up in the shop. Check out our brilliant selection of these gorgeous pieces. I must say I am partial to the sequin hearts and the ostrich poof! That piece is just increds.

{Inspired Collective} I Call This "Progress"

Yesterday morning this is what we were dealing with. Just putting the first pieces of paint on the walls, working with a million things everywhere, and a HUGE awesome sign that needed to be hung.

I luckily, have a few really awesome people that love to work on things like this. With the help of mostly 1 friend, we were here for about 12 hours working away. The difference from these photos yesterday morning to today are literally night and day!

As of this morning, the painting is SO close to being complete, the sign is hung, all the shelves have been built, and so many other little things that you don't realize need to be done to make a place look good!

I had no idea how much fun, and how much work, this was actually going to be. Myself, with 2 of my fave friends painting, spackling, building, and working (and Ian sitting at our crafting table working on the website :) he is so cute....) we were here until around 11 hard at work blasting Girl Talk and dancing the night away with paint brushes in our hands!

This should explain my absence yesterday, and why I have been virtually impossible to get ahold of!

Inspired Collective will be open for business on Tuesday after Labor Day! And we are most definitely on target (despite what you see in the photos above!). I hope you can all stop by at some point. In case you want to pay me a surprise visit, 327 E. Campbell Ave. is the address!

 

The Lab Event :: Tickets Now On Sale!

It's time to party at the ultimate bridal experience, The Lab Event Tickets are officially on sale!

The Lab is a not-so-ordinary bridal experience to immerse yourself in creative inspiration to define your wedding style. Are you ready for some chemistry?

The Lab is a handpicked collection of some of the top trend-setting wedding industry professionals Northern California has to offer. It's designed to be an experience for couples seeking vendors, inspiration, and style definition for their wedding day. The Lab won't have typical vendor booths or pushy salespeople. Instead, in a laid-back setting, couples will experience inspiration boards brought to life, sips and bites from some of the best caterers, sweet and treats from top dessert designers, a vendor library, a non-traditional runway show, and one heck of a party to round out the night. Come see what else we have in store - there are many secrets...

Check out our collection of vendors that will be participating at this amazing showcase of wedding awesomeness.

Buy your tickets now to receive this special early-bird pricing!

Psst, vendors, what to be part of this event? We are creating a curated library of vendor beyond the participants, because let's face it, there's far too much talent in Northern Cali to showcase in one event. Please email us for an application to become a part of The Library at The Lab.

Follow @TheLabEvent on Twitter and Connect on Facebook as we continue to share what we are cooking up!

3...Oh Wait, 4 Wedding Rings

Get ready Italy, because these girls are TRAVELING!

I have been overly excited via Twitter these days about how incredible things are in my life right now. Literally having some of the best weeks of my life all back to back. Both personally and in my career, great things are happening that only make me more and more excited for what is to come. And speaking of  good news......IT JUST KEEPS COMING!

Here is the story. After several years of wedding planning non-stop....first with Liz & Ryan

Followed by Ian & I:

and most recently, Melissa & Clayton....teaser time (if you haven't already seen the blog post)!

And after all the wedding planning had ended after the three of us tied the knot (with the other three of us being in each others weddings) we got a fun little surprise! Another BFFFFFFFF had a surprise for herself in store! Meet, Michelle and Moni.

This past weekend they decided to make it all official, bling and all! WOOOT WOOOT!

I couldn't be happier for my favorite BBF! Obvi I am so so excited to plan her wedding. She is one of the sweetest girls in the entire world, and I am so happy to have become such good friends with her. And as for him....well, he really couldn't have picked a better girl :) Love her forevvvs!

So, after 3 vineyard first looks, (despite the fact that we all actually had weddings in very different locations that all just happened to have vineyards for use) we are ready for a change of scenery.

And luckily after seeing the headaches we all had planning our weddings, she decided a destination wedding was in order. I guess the only place that makes sense would be where her family is from, which happens to be none other than Italy! So excited to trek over there in a few years and be there for the best day of her life :)

Congrats girl! LOVE YOU!

Credit: All photos by Jason + Anna Photography!

5 years ago...

5 years ago this boy and I decided to make things official and take the step as a "couple". He has made me the happiest girl in the world these past 5 years and has always believed in me and supported me through everything (I can't even tell you the number of websites he has built for me. He's a trooper, I'll tell you that!) The sheer truth is that this love dates back far more than 5 years for me, and in fact was planning our wedding far before I should have. It would be creepy and weird if we didn't end up together, but since we did it is cute story now. I fell in love with him when we were both so young, and it took time to get us both on the same page, but I never gave up hope and knew that one day we would end up together.

The day we decided to go for it I just knew that there was no one else, he was all I needed. And I knew this was finally it and one day I would be his wife.

Just before our 5 year anniversary, and almost 10 years after our first kiss, we exchanged vows tied the knot. This was the best day of my life overwhelmed with a million emotions but always knowing that he was right there beside me and would be forever more!

I love this man

Happy Anniversary HB!