A Whole Lotta Color

The original inspiration of this post came from the concept of color blocking. It isn't something that we have fully seen transition to weddings just yet, but it is all over the fashion industry and well, it is only a matter of time!

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What started as a post in color blocking simply turned into a whole lotta color and some of the fabulous things you can do with it. I swear, I used to be all about white, cream and ivory when it came to weddings (yes, I know those are essentially all the same color) but I feel like I have become infused with color after a long dry spell.

Source: Flowers, Card

You want to know why I didn't want a whole lot of color in my wedding? I was seriously afraid of it. Seriously and truly afraid. When you have the options of color, ummm you have like a ga-jillion options! How do you choose? How do you pick colors that match with other colors? I know this sounds kind of dumb, but it really what went through my head.

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I stuck to what I knew, white was what I knew, and I had muted tones everywhere. I kind of wish I spruced things up a lot more, but at least I had some fabulous florals to brighten things up. If any of you brides are feeling how I felt, don't let it stop you from creating something fabulous. Because as pretty as white is, color is much more fun.

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If any of you agree with me on being scared colorless (I just made that up...and I really like it!) then please do let me know and I can help you with some colorful details that fit your style and plans. I wouldn't want you to miss out on some colorful additions because you felt like I did.

{Spring is in the Air} Backyard Wedding Inspiration

In just a few months (weeks rather) my sister will be tying the knot herself. That's right, her and I will celebrate anniversaries a week away from each other :)

Source: Glitter Pops, Flowers

They are having a pretty short engagement, and we are going down a bit of a different route for her wedding than we did for mine. But, I am pretty darn excited about the whole thing. So today I wanted to share just a tinge of the inspiration we have gathered for this lovely backyard affair. There will be about 40 guests in attendance and I have some super fun ideas up my sleeve that I can't wait to start working on. Since I will be DIYing the bejesus out of my parent's backyard, we have to make sure to fill the whole space and cross our fingers hard for no rain! (But I will confess, if it does rain, I'm so excited to do the ceremony in front of the fireplace. So romantic)

Source: Peach, Throw

Source: Cake, Balloons

Source: Flowers, Pool, Dessert Bar

I'm excited for the next few months and what that will bring.  And I am excited once again to craft it up so very much. It doesn't get much better than crafting nights, now does it?

 

Vintage Typewriter Love

Kyle and I are the proud new owners of a 1920 Underwood typewriter. It's beautiful, rusty, it smells, and we love it.

It's so fun to think about the life this machine had before we found it. I mean, 1920 is a long time ago! This thing was shiny and probably finding its way into an office somewhere, or maybe onto the desk of an aspiring writer. Who knows! That's what is so fun about it! By the time it came to us (for $100 on Craigslist), it was a little broken down, didn't work too well, and needed a new typewriter ribbon. Thankfully, my future husband has that crazy ability to fix anything you put in front of him, so he shined it up, got new ribbon, and greased the wheels. It works like a charm now.

We had decided early on that we love vintage typewriters and definitely wanted one at our wedding. We want to use it as a guest book, so guests can type us a message and leave it with a Polaroid photo of themselves.

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But it was Kyle's bright idea that we use this typewriter for all sorts of other things! We both have bad handwriting, so why not type out all of the addresses for save the dates and invites?

addresses

Kyle even went so far as to type up the entire letter to the person we are asking to be our officiant! We're having way too much fun with this thing.

There are all sorts of places we can use our typewriter, and we are excited for all of them. We just love that SMACK it makes when the key hits the paper!

  tags, seating, menu

Do you have plans to use a typewriter in your wedding, or for anything else? Do you too love the nostalgic elegance of a vintage typewriter?

Vintage typewriter font has this awkwardness about it that I adore. Nothing is in a straight line, and you have to "x" out your mistakes. They're a fun throwback to a time of better spellers and more thoughtful letter writers.

Pulling It All Together...Wedding Decor.

I find that one of the hardest parts of wedding planning for me has been making sure that all these items we've chosen fit together in a cohesive way.  I've been collecting vintage items for the wedding from antique stores and flea markets.  I've also found tons of cute things on etsy, and I've been doing a little DIY here and there.  So, now I'm just trying to piece everything together and make sure they 'fit' in with our overall theme.  For our gift table,  we have vintage suitcases to hold the cards and milk glass bud vases to decorate the table.  My plan is to buy a burlap or fabric bunting that spells out 'cards' for that.

We also have a teal vintage typewriter that I snagged at a thrift shop for $25!  Although the exclamation point doesn't work so well, I think it'll look great on our guest table.

 We got these great (and funny) mad libs quizzes from etsy for our guests, as an alternative to a regular guestbook.  I'm really excited to read their replies.

And my maid of honor and I DIYed a pegboard with washi tape covered clothespins (DIY project from Handmade Weddings!) - that I'm pretty excited to display.  I've seen it in a few other gorgeous weddings, and I hope ours photographs just as well as this one below!

We also have two soda crates, they look vintage, but they're from Pottery Barn :)   I'd like to fill them with succulents and a few old soda bottles I have thrifted.  I think they'll look great stacked together on either the guest book table or gift table.  Our florist also has huge collection of rental items, so I'm excited to see what we can incorporate from her as well.

I plan of having a bunch of cute signs at the ceremony & reception - I love a good sign, both cute and informative!  Our day-of coordinator designed our invitations, and will be doing the programs and signs for our wedding as well.  I love the invitations so much that I can't wait to see what she'll come up with.  I love all things kraft paper, so that will be a strong presence at the wedding, as well as fun and quirky wording.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Is anyone else worried their vision might be a little too eclectic?   I know our day-of coordinator and florist are both really talented - so I'm not worried about them executing my plans, just worried that my plans will be a bit disjointed.  Has anyone else worried about this?  Am I just being silly?  I mean this is the biggest party I've ever planned, so I expect to be a little nervous.  But I just hope it doesn't look like I have a bunch of random stuff sitting around.  Do anyone  have any tips for putting things together?

Dreamy Desert Venues

As you might know, I'm the crazy girl planning my wedding from abroad.  That's right- I live in Austria but the wedding will take place in Arizona.  You might think that since I've previously lived in Arizona, it would make finding a venue easier...but you'd be wrong!  My fiancé and I scoured the internet for countless hours* to find our dream venue and boy was it tough.  We were looking for something with mountain views, open & airy desert landscaping, indoor+outdoor ballrooms, a customizable f&b package...all for a price that wouldn't break the bank.  Here are some that made our "short list."

Copperwynd Resort and Club

Silverleaf

Firesky Resort

and last, but not least, the venue we ended up selecting:  Seville Golf and Country Club

We loved all of the venues above for different reasons. Copperwynd has amazing views over the valley but the reception would have had to end at 10pm due to noise ordinances. Silverleaf has the most stunning facade and ballroom but was WAY over our budget. Firesky is the most conveniently located and has some really fun decor for photo ops but it lacks the mountain views. Seville ended up being our choice because they offered us an incredible f&b package (with tons of customization), the venue is located at the base of the mountains and it truly allows us to have an outdoor+indoor wedding.

*Confession:  I had contacted dozens of venues for pricing info prior to our engagement "just out of curiosity *cough cough*" so I had a pretty good list of options already.  However, it took quite a while to go through my massive list and finally make our selection.  We were under a little bit of pressure due to venue availability during our desired month and ended up making our decision just days after getting engaged.  I don't recommend having to make such a huge decision in such a short amount of time (and without ever seeing your options in person) but we are proof that it can be done!

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credits: Copperwynd 1, 2 and 3, Silverleaf 1 and 2, 3, Firesky 1, 2 and 3, Seville 1, 2, 3, 4

Lights and Love: Nighttime Inspiration

Before I get in to all the details that everyone always asks about like the venue, the dress, colors…and my obnoxiously overzealous list of potential DIY projects, I want you to get a feel for the atmosphere I’m aiming for (I’ve been told I’m a big picture person…so here goes all of my big picture thoughts).

For me, flowers aren't incredibly important (especially because my wedding will be at night...who can see flowers at night anyways?). So my focus for the wedding is on creating a dreamy atmosphere with candles...lots and LOTS of candles.

P.S. My ultimate wedding dream would be to release TONS of floating candle lanterns...thanks Texas for your constant state of extreme drought. I guess I'll have to settle for floating candles in the pool.

Do you have and neat nighttime inspiration? 

Clockwise from top left: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten

P.S. The floating luminaries above (number eight), I bought a few of them and somewhere near 100 paper lanterns...these are the best deal, a TON of votives and instead of pillar candles (which are CRAZY expensive), I bought these.

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Striped Wedding Inspiration

I have been awfully crazy busy with just about everything recently especially the Grand Opening party set for tomorrow night! We have SOOOO many brilliant vendors taking part in this fabulous party including Vitamin Water/Smart Water, Grapevine Catering, Studio Cake, Satura Cakes, A Flying Camera, Milkglass Vintage Rentals, and DJ Albert. We are so freaking excited about putting the whole party together and having a great time tomorrow night.

In honor of a fun little shindig, I have found some striped wedding inspiration. Let's face it, I am always so very late in the game, and stripes is no different. I am somehow just learning about the amazingness that is stripes. So check it!

Credit: Straws, Escort Cards, Ceremony, Photo Booth, Cake

 

 

Things That Hang + Some Big News

It's no secret that I love Milkglass Vintage Rentals. I used her for my wedding and met up with her after the fact to catch up, talk weddings, and much more. She showed me this a while ago and finally released the amazingness for everyone to see! I can't seem to get over the amazingness of it all. OMG. I would have died to have something this awesome and extravagant at my wedding!

Credit: Images By Lori

I have also become incredibly obsessed with all things that hang. I think it is a wonderful new way to show things off and create an added experience to a wedding.

Credit: 1, 2

In other news we have something exciting to get you guys all ready for! Tomorrow our wedding will be published. That is right, you can head over to Style Me Pretty for the official release of our wedding photos. :)

And you know what that means....after tomorrow I will dish the dirt, spill the beans and give you all crazy amounts of recaps on the wedding, what I loved, how I did things, where I found things, and even yes, what I would have done differently! In the meantime, head over to our Facebook Page for the final teaser before the wedding is featured! Us embracing the unpredictable weather of Carmel and looking awesome even in the rain!

Creative Ceremony Altars

A couple is at the altar for a very short amount of time, but that time is still the most important part of the whole day. I didn't want to go overboard on that area, but I definitely wanted it looking perfect. We actually use all of our ceremony decor somewhere else during the reception which was a great little perk :) These are some totally fun and amazing ways to dress up your altar. Some are simple and some....not even I would know how to do at this moment! But if you want to undertake any of these projects, I would love to learn how to do them!  And for another favorite ceremony altar idea, I posted it over here.

Source: 100 Layer Cake, Elizabeth Anne Designs, Tecpetaja Photography, Source,