Manolo for the Brides

What better way to let your guests know that you’re planning a destination wedding than by re-imagining your wedding stationery as passports and other travel-themed things? A friend of a friend did just that, working with Serendipity: Beyond Design to create pretty passport wedding invitations. Apparently, Serendipity liked the idea so much, they’re now offering custom passport wedding invitations in their Etsy shop!

Serendipity says: “Passports are a great way to excite your guests about the trip! Multiple pages provide enough information about traveling, accommodations, wedding day events and more. Personalize your Passport with a monogram, photo, history, stamps and map.”

Isn’t that almost disturbingly like the first page of a real passport? Well, putting aside the photo of a happy couple where a glowering “I just stood in a line at the post office and all I got was this awful picture” singleton ought to be. As you know, I’m a big fan of taking a theme all the way, and I think this wedding stationery does just that.

In keeping with the theme, the RSVP card is a boarding pass! Sweet!

Aren’t these just too pretty? LaVieja Tun Tun’s bridal necklaces, hair clips, hair pins, and other bridal accessories are feminine, romantic, and perfect perhaps for the bride who wants a striking piece of jewelry to complement her classic, Hollywood, or vintage wedding day look.

Hand formed soft fabric roses are paired with glass pearls, Czech beads, semi-precious stones, and brass links to make all manner of bridal jewelry (that is also nice for the bridesmaid or even the non-bride). Apparently, LaVieja Tun Tun will happily custom make a necklace or other piece using your wedding colors, but I’m having a hard time confirming that. I’m envisioning the brighter counterparts of the accessories above on brides who want to add a little more color and flair in their bridal ensemble.

What do you think? LaVieja Tun Tun’s designs are quite chunky and can dominate. Too much? Just enough?

We love weddings around here. We also tend to assume that by the time you come here, you’re probably involved somehow in a wedding (I know it isn’t always the case, but the majority of the time that’s why people are looking for bridal blogs in the first place). We further assume that you know your own mind and heart. The fact remains, though, that most of us at some point in the wedding process wake up in a cold sweat wondering what the holy heck we think we’re doing.

In the vast majority of cases, this is just jitters over a major life change. Many of us have experienced the same feelings over a significant move, applying to grad school, buying a house or car, or even a really drastic haircut. It’s human nature to panic a little over new experiences, and the bigger the change the more likely it is to induce a small freakout or two. The less comfortable you are with being the center of attention, the bigger the panic is likely to be.

Since getting married is a pretty huge change that puts you squarely in the spotlight, the psyche can go a little nuts in the short haul.

Every once in a while, though, it’s not just a momentary worry over doing something really unusual. Sometimes there’s something more serious going on. So how do you tell if you’re just on edge about standing up in front of everybody making a huge life-changing move in public, and how do you tell if it’s your inner compass telling you that you’re headed in completely the wrong direction? Read on and find out.
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This is one of the most contentious questions in wedding planning, for some reason. I’m really not quite sure why it makes so many otherwise perfectly reasonable people froth at the mouth and arm themselves with the verbal equivalent of thermonuclear devices. It’s just a question and there honestly is no universally right or wrong answer to it. Even Miss Manners et al agree that it is perfectly proper to make either decision.

And yet one side claims that allowing children in the door is tantamount to turning your wedding into Romper Room, leading to social disgrace and a miserable married life while the other side claims that anyone who wants a kid-free celebration hates all children and therefore has no business getting married.

Both sides have blown the thing entirely out of proportion. That’s right, I said it and I stand by it. I’ve been to a metric buttload of weddings in my day, and you know what didn’t determine whether or not it was a nice wedding? Whether or not children were invited. On this question, I am Switzerland… and a Switzerland that feels way too many other countries are being entirely too overwrought to make much sense.

The fact is, there are plenty of reasons to make either choice that do not include failing to take your wedding seriously or hating children. Even if you do have a preference for the less adult things in life or really do think children should be put into stasis from birth to age 21, it’s really your decision. You get to make it, and it’s okay.

But what if you’re not sure which way to go on this one? How do you decide? Take a look after the cut and see.
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How cute are these itty-bitty bottles of soda with custom labels? Mike 78 recently posted an easy-peasy DIY pop bottle tutorial – with pics! – over at 100 Layer Cake. She suggests using them as reception seating cards, but brides and grooms could bottle just about anything (juice, cider, champagne, local water, etc.), slap labels on them per her instructions, and give them away as wedding favors. Maybe not for a chilly wintertime wedding, but imagine how grateful your guests would be to find themselves in possession of an ice cold drink custom made by you at your outdoor summer wedding or unseasonably warm springtime affair!

Yes, you read that right. I’m talking about cake hats. For those who want to top their wedding cakes with something other than the usual bride(s) and/or groom(s) statuettes, sparkle monograms, and anthropomorphic animalia, Alison Dawson of Toronto, Canada founded Chapeau de Gateau.

Dawson creates custom cake hats using the finest quality Mokuba ribbon, and each wedding cake topper is made with the couple’s wedding colors or theme in mind. Or, if you already have a cake design in mind, I’m thinking you could have a ribbon model of your wedding cake created in miniature. (Put a hook in it and you have a keepsake decoration — I’m thinking a wedding cake on your Christmas tree.)

I definitely don’t hate cake hats, since they’re rather pretty and you’re not going to see them on every other wedding cake. I do think they’re a bit silly, but these are wedding cakes we’re talking about here. How dignified can a cake possibly be? Conversely, how much will a wedding cake’s innate dignity suffer if you put a little fancy hat on it? My guess: Not much.

What say you?

Remember Omnibus Driver? She wrote to ask a favor of us and it’s such a little thing that I think we should all do what she says (and no one gets hurt).

Please spread the word among your readers about this effort to help out a Chicago police officer who was paralyzed in the line of duty and the lovely lady who has been the rock by his side every step of the way. Come on! Help them get the wedding of their dreams!

Here’s the skinny: Densey and Mary want to win the Ultimate Wedding Contest. Yes, they’re already married, but they never had their dream wedding and now medical bills have pretty much made it an impossibility.

On May 27, 2009, my fiancé Densey, a Chicago Police Officer, was paralyzed in a head-on collision while responding to a burglary call. He was in a coma for four weeks, but we were married in the hospital when he awoke. Almost a year later, Densey grows stronger daily, but our lives are forever changed. With mounting medical bills, we can’t think about our dream wedding on a beach in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. Densey has a machine that helps him stand for 30 minutes. To see him waiting for me, words cannot describe the feeling that would give me.

Here’s a pic of Densey and Mary:

You can vote for Densey and Mary here. Yes, you have to create an account, but it doesn’t cost anything and I think if anyone is deserving of a dream wedding, they are. Or just do it because Omnibus Driver is a cool chick.

When I was small, grape hyacinths were my absolute favorite flower. They grew in abundance in our neighborhood, and I routinely found myself in trouble for picking them in neighbors’ yards. As tiny as grape hyacinth blossoms are, I never really considered how they might be used in wedding flowers like bridal bouquets and reception centerpiece arrangements. Until, that is, I came across a beautiful photo of a grape hyacinth and paperwhite bouquet created by Flowers by Paula Cosgrove in the hands of a bride.

Pretty sweet, yeah? I love the delicacy of the flowers in the bouquet, and especially how they contrast with the thickness of the base of the bouquet. I was inspired to look for more grape hyacinths being used in weddings and, while there’s not much out there in terms of photographs from real weddings (since it’s not the most popular choice), I did find some imagines that you may find inspirational.

What do we have here? Have a look (in a clockwise direction):

1. Grape hyacinths in a recycled clementine container from Real Simple – this would be such an easy DIY centerpiece at a semi-rustic wedding!
2. Grape hyacinth invites from The Botanical Concept
3. A bouquet of naught but grape hyacinth In Style Weddings
4. A bright and colorful grape hyacinth centerpiece in tin from BHG
5. Grape hyacinth boutonnieres by Belle Fleur of New York
6. And grape hyacinth wedding favors laid out on table settings