Fun at the bar

  One of the things we were looking for in a venue - although it wasn't mandatory - was the ability to stock our own bar. And luckily for us, we found a venue that would allow us to do that. Not only will we save a good amount of money by bringing in our own alcohol, but we can customize which types of beverage we want to serve, and we can showcase some local wineries, breweries, and distilleries. Because we're saving on what we're serving, I thought it would be fun to make some bar accessories to make this a really fun part of the party. The bar will be the focal point of the cocktail hour between ceremony and dinner, so I thought it would be fun to infuse people's drinks with the spirit of the event: Bright, Bold, with a little quirk. Here are some of my favorite ideas I've found so far:

Source: Studio DIY

Source: Somewhere Splendid

Source: Scout Blog

These geometric stirrers definitely capture our aesthetic, and they're really cute! I think painting each facade a different color with a stirrer or two for 150 guests might be a bit much, though.

Source: Confetti Pop

Instead, I think I'll buy plain wood faceted beads and we'll casually dip dye them in bright colors like these ones I found on etsy. After I round up the supplies I'll be sure to share how they turn out! Now that the weather is cooling down and we're coming inside from a seattle summer I've got DIYs up my sleeve left and right!

Source: Like Beads 8

 What are your ideas for sprucing up drinks for your guests

Boho Beautiful Engagement Shoot by Amy Cloud Photography

This engagement shoot is so magical, so beautiful. Amy Cloud Photography did such an amazing job capturing these two. And her outfits? I'm loving both the boho look and the sequin backless dress. She looks incredible, am I right?

Sushi Proposal Story by Jaye Kogut Photography

This is such a sweet little proposal story. Jaye Kogut Photography captured it beautifully. These photos definitely portray the raw emotion that is a proposal story. Read on, it is pretty darn cute!

From the photographer, Jaye Kogut Photography: Mark had asked me to document his proposal to his girlfriend, Kelly. He was so excited about doing this that he planned it down to the music the restaurant would play while they dined! Mark took Kelly to their favorite restaurant -a tiny sushi place in the heart of Belmar, New Jersey. The tables were adorned with flowers and the staff knew what Mark had up his sleeve! The wait staff had garnished a separate plate with rose shaped sushi and hearts with the words "Will you marry me?" on it. Mark got down on one knee in front of the entire restaurant and asked Kelly to marry him. Caught by complete surprise and a few tears, she said 'Yes!' No proposal would be complete with out a champagne toast!

Ciao From Italia

Ciao from Italia! As most of you know by now I've been planning a destination wedding (and a little trip for myself) for about a year now. And finally, finally, it has all come together! We are almost half way through our trip right now and heading to the Amalfi Coast. So far we have seen Venice, Florence and Scansano. It has been absolutely amazing. I'll be sharing more of my favorite shops and restaurants when we get back but suffice it to say, you should all go to Italy. Here are a few snapshots from my Instagram. There is so much more where these came from.

Letterpress at home

According to most wedding ettiquette guides, the time to send save the dates is approximately 6 months before your big day. Well, last week marked 7 months to go for us, so time to get cranking on getting Save the Dates ready, stamped, and out the door!

Source: Designspiration

I've been thinking for a little while about what I wanted to do, whether I wanted to buy something off the shelf, have something designed for us, or make it on my own. There are tons of ideas on my Big Day and Pretty Paper pinterest boards that are all across the charts. We're still toying with the idea of having our invites custom designed, so I decided I would save some money on the save the dates and DIY them.

Source: Lifestyle Crafts

My friend Jenny has a Letterpress set up from Lifestyle Crafts (the first generation of the one seen here) that she let me play with recently, and I was surprised that it really was an easy way to get a quality letterpress look on your own. I spent some time in photoshop and then I've ordered a custom plate and am ready to get printing. It arrived about a week after I ordered it and the customer service folks at Lifestyle were great in helping me tweak a couple things to get the best quality image.

Source: The Ravenna Girls

The nice thing about having plates made is that you have a 6" x 8" surface area to order, so you can get extra images to use for escort cards, coasters, or stationery with your new married name. Our Save the Date design is just the upper left portion of the image above. I deconstructed our custom pattern, and also added some components like calligraphy we had done for some address stamps last Christmas (calligraphy by A Fabulous Fete). Hopefully some of these components I will be able to use again and again.

Source: Oh So Beautiful Paper

I have the plate in hand and now I'm just waiting to choose which paper I'll use. I have some beautiful teal watercolor paper and was originally planning to do a painted treatment similar to this beautiful piece, but I'm not sure thats going to work with the letterpress ink so I'm still in brainstorming mode. Will keep you posted! I'm also sharing some sneak peeks of the process on my instagram account (I'm @ravennagirlb) if you want to follow along there!

Outdoor Brunch Bridal Shower

A few weeks back we showered the bride with an intimate brunch, lots of mimosas and wonderful friends. I produced the floral and a lot of quiche but Liz of 346 Living and Melissa of House To Home Blog did the rest! Doesn't it all just look so beautiful? Michelle, our lovely bride is now in Denmark on her way to Italy for her Italian destination wedding. I've been working on this one for a long time and couldn't be more excited to see it all come together!

{Ilana + Jeff} Woodsie Engagement by Erich Mcvey

I've got a good one for you today! Ilana + Jeff took to the woodsie countryside for their beautiful engagement shoot. You might know Ilana as the founder of the bridesmaid dress shopping site Weddington Way. I've had the pleasure of meeting both of them on several occasions and my oh my are they one great couple. I'm quickly becoming obsessed with Erich McVey who shot this engagement session. So dreamy.

Grand Entrance

Source: Utah Bride Blog

Remember a couple weeks ago when I was scheming ideas for our ceremony backdrop? Now that the wheels are turning there I'm turning my attention toward the venue entry to see if I can repurpose some of the DIY elements. While I love love the inside of our venue, the exterior is pretty quiet from the street. Its a sleek black storefront on an urban street. I don't dislike it, but I think i'd like to add some elements so that our guests will know that they're entering our event from the street.

I've pulled some ideas of elements we might like to add. Since we have an urban venue, I'd like to find a way to interpret some of these more rustic ideas into something that will make sense for the surroundings.

Source: The Manchiks

I like the lights in the image above to lend a vintage theatrical vibe to the entry. We don't have an overhang, but perhaps we could find an element to build upon.

I also love love the idea of a little bling on the ground as guests arrive:

Source: 100 layer cake

I also like the idea of a beautiful sign to bring in some of the design elements we've come up with so far.

Source: Meg Ruth Photo, 100 layer cake

The benefits of our venue entrance are a wide clear sidewalk, a sleek painted storefront and display windows (which we can decorate). [Thats an actual shot of our entrance below] I'm thinking of adding some simple colors to the windows, and outside flanking the entry with some greenery and bold shapes. Perhaps some acrylic shapes mounted to a sleek black archway? I've wanted some large fiddle leaf houseplants, so I'm thinking of buying them for the big day then giving them a sunny home in our living room. And who can resist a giant balloon? Can't wait to see how we can make these all come together.

Sources: Julep (bunting), Southern Botanical (Fiddle Leaf), Matt Shumate (EM Fine Art Exterior Photo) Design Love Fest (Acrylic Backdrop - by Michelle Edgemont), Green Wedding Shoes (Balloon)

Houston Engagement Session by Michelle Boyd Photography

Here is a fun little engagement session for your end of week inspiration! Michelle Boyd Photography captured these two so well with tons of color and artistic shots. The story of these photos from the bride is wonderful. Check it out:

"Alvy and I knew that we wanted to do something different for our engagement photos. I love the fashion and style of that era and we wanted to incorporate a vintage automobile in the pictures, so we thought that the early 1960's would be a good fit for that. It was a very classy and elegant period of time and we wanted to incorporate that feel in our photos. Alvy has been in love with cars since about the age of 4, a passion he shares with his father. Over the years he has had several vintage cars, most recently his beloved 1971 Chevy Chevelle. Knowing that we wanted a 1960's car for our photos we attended a classic car show in the Houston area. There we met Lou and his lovely 1962 Plymouth Fury. He and Alvy began talking cars, and Lou generously offered to let us use his ride for our engagement photos.

We decided to take our photos in Houston since this is the city where we met, fell in love and plan to reside. I really enjoyed the chance to get all dolled up in 1960's fashion, especially getting to show off my grandmother's vintage handbag. Alvy loved the opportunity to hang out in a cool vintage ride and we both had a blast during our engagement session!"

Snapshots

Booking season is upon us, huh? So many brides are planning so far in advance, I guess that is how to do it these days. 2014 is always quickly filling up, and oh wait, some 2015 brides on the books? Oh ya. These past few weeks of summer have been madness and it is only going to get more exciting when I gear up for way too many weddings in definitely not enough weeks. I'm couldn't be more excited. While things get in order, I thought I'd share a few recent snapshots from Instagram. I'll be posting more photos of this soon, but last week I was showering one of my besties. Her wedding is a few short weeks away!

I've been doing site visit after site visit and this time I was taking through amazing redwood trees. Can't beat California. Just saying.

I had a weekend off, so I decided to throw a little dinner party of my own. Complete with wrapped breads and some amazing Linnea Carta napkins.

I topped off the weekend picking up brass candle sticks from my favorite florist Floral Theory. I could just sit and stare at her collection all day. Luckily we narrowed down the 30 we are bringing to Italy to dot the tablescape.

I hope you all are enjoying this weather more than I am. I just can't wait for some boots, fires in the fireplace, and to get all wrapped up in a blanket. I'm definitely ready for fall....or rather Indian Summer followed by the 50 degree days we like to call Winter.