Archive for October, 2009

Kristen and Todd’s Fairytale Affair

Monday, October 26th, 2009

I’m not usually one for fairies or frou-frou, but I’m loving this A Midsummer Night’s Dream themed wedding recently featured on Brides.com. The bride, Kristen Gullion, wanted her nuptials to be a modern fantasy fairytale, which was brought to life by event designer Sasha Souza. Here are some highlights:

FAIRY FLOWER GIRLS

Can you imagine how delighted most little girls would be to not only be invited to participate in the wedding as flower girls, but also to wear wings and fairy dresses while doing it? I would have been climbing the walls in anticipation of the wedding day as a wee one!

BARN WEDDING RECEPTION

Lavender lighting? Oh, baby. I’m also digging the mismatched table linens, especially here where they tone down the fanciful bunting. I guess it doesn’t hurt that the space is awesome — for those looking for elegant reception venues, barns are not just for country weddings!

WEDDING PHOTO BOOTH

The bride and groom, Todd Gullion, took their photo booth to the next level with an interactive family photo wall featuring snapshots of family members and family members’ weddings. Guests could pose in empty frames, becoming, as the bride put it, part of the family history. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this.

Overall, the Gullions’ fairytale affair was totally not my style, but totally awesome nonetheless!

Twistie’s Sunday Caption Madness: The Intergalactic Edition

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

Greetings Earth caption lovers. It’s time once again to play Twistie’s Sunday Caption Madness. You all know how this works. I post a silly or tacky or just plain odd picture, you offer up your best captions via the comments box, and next saturday I declare a winner.

This week’s image comes to you courtesy of my personal ‘what the hell???’ file, and it looks a bit like this:
AlienCelebrant

In fact, it looks exactly like that.

Ready…set…snark!

A Weighty Subject

Saturday, October 24th, 2009

This week as I was perusing one of my favorite blogs, I found a disturbing tale of a bride who had literally eaten almost nothing for the two weeks before her wedding. Why? Because her gown was tight, and she was afraid she wouldn’t fit in it if she ate properly.

One thing that I think all of us can agree on is that a two week period of starvation is not a good idea. It’s particularly not a good idea during a time of emotional stress and major life changes.

So how to avoid needing to take such drastic measures at the last minute? I thought you’d never ask me! Follow the bouncing cut to learn more.
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Sharp and Pretty: Pink and Green

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

I wear a lot of black and gravitate toward darker colors, but I’m still of the opinion that if you’re going to choose a bright color palette — for daily wear or a wedding color scheme — then go all the way! You can’t get much brighter than a cerise combined with a lime, a scheme that comes with the added benefit of beautiful contrast AND the ability to make whites pop like crazy. Take a look at Lauren and Jim’s pink and green wedding, which featured gorgeous flowers by the talented Krista Jon and was photographed by Greg Wyatt.

pink and green bouquet

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LOVE/HATE: The Make-It-Your-Own Edition

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

I think wedding monograms are lovely… in moderation. Brides and grooms can have monograms professionally designed to use on wedding invitations, there are mass market monogram cake toppers, and a crafty couple can even try creating their own monogram like my friends Chris and Jenny. Would I recommend putting one’s initials on everything from the wedding invitations to the getaway car? No, I would not. But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t if you really wanted to!

dance-floor-monogram

Think your reception dance floor is too dull? You can always brand it with a 50″ customized floor sticker from Little Things Favors.

wedding reception table monogram

Reception table chairs can’t escape all the monogramming — My Wedding Decals makes vinyl decals specifically for your chair backs. Just be sure that your rental company is okay with your putting stickers on their chairs before you go applying anything.

monogram aisle runner

Monogrammed aisle runners (like this one from The Original Runner Co.) have been around for quite some time, now. Supposedly they make a great keepsake, but that might depend on just how clean your wedding guests’ shoes are.

wedding monogram decal

Who’s getting married? Erica and Oliver are getting married, duh.

wedding limo decal

You can get a basic wedding limo decal from DaliDecals, or you can customize your car with a wedding limo decal that includes your names, your initials, or your unique stylized monogram so everyone in adjoining lanes knows exactly who is in the limo and why.

Monograms show up on everything from wedding favors to reception table centerpieces to the seating chart, and they don’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. I can’t say that I love them, but when used in moderation they can be quite nice and add a bit of personalization to what can sometimes be a rather cookie-cutter event. I guess you could say I hate them when brides and grooms go overboard and embellish everything with their initials.

What say you?

NtB Does NOT Recommend: A Traditional Scotting Blackening

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

I’m all for a wee bit of good-natured roasting of brides and grooms at bachelorette parties and bachelor parties if the guest of honor is the sort of person who appreciates that sort of thing. One may even find that guests poke fun at the bride-to-be at her bridal shower, though the jabs are usually quite gentle and of the we-know-you’re-going-to-have-sex-tee-hee variety. I cannot, however, get behind a tradition I only recently learned of, namely the extremely hands-on Scottish blackening.

scottish blackening

There seems to be some confusion over whether this is a properly Scottish tradition or something primarily done in Aberdeenshire, so I’d appreciate it if our Scottish readers or readers who are Scotland enthusiasts would weigh in to clarify matters. In any case, the blackening ritual involves the bride- or groom-to-be being first captured and abducted by his or her friends and then covered in various unpleasant substances such as golden syrup or molasses, mud, flour or flour paste, feathers, or soot. Finally, the victim may be tied to a tree or lamppost or paraded noisily around the local pubs, much to the delight of the evening’s patrons, no doubt.

Here’s a Scottish blackening in action:

Obviously it’s all done in fun, and after watching a number of blackening videos on YouTube I can conclude that the bride and/or groom never make much of an effort to run from those wielding the treacle. Still, can you imagine having to wash all that off after your own pre-wedding blackening? Yikes! I personally have never been one to enjoy the sort of humiliation that some people are made by loved ones to endure prior to some momentous event in their lives, but I suppose one might see it quite differently if they’ve grown up expecting to be (and watching others get) tarred and feathered as a lead up to the wedding day. Still, I think I’d spend a lot of time looking over my shoulder…

Forgo the Book and Box It

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

I’m always on the lookout for alternatives to the traditional wedding guestbook, like kiosk guestbooks and the washline guestbook. Here’s another fun idea, this time from Cut the Cake Designs though I imagine you could DIY it fairly easily with a pretty recipe card box from a cooking supply shop and the right sort of printer.

wedding guestbook box

The wooden address card boxes hold twenty-six elegantly designed custom dividers and 200 address card inserts for guests to fill out with their names, addresses, and note for the newlyweds.

wedding guestbook box 2

Many of the divider designs can be customized with different colors or some alternate text, though a small fee may be added to the basic price ($35) as a result.

wedding guestbook box 4

I don’t know about you, but I like these recipe box guestbooks and think they’d make a darling addition to a rustic wedding or a wedding with a cookery theme. The added benefit of having guests include their mailing addresses when filling out the wedding guestbook cards doesn’t hurt, either.