Winter

It feels like spring is going to be whizzing in soon enough. How is it that I despise winter all season, and suddenly become nostalgic as soon as there are hints of warmer weather to come.

I'm out of town for the weekend, so posting will be a little slow over the next couple days. Enjoy this inspiration board filled with winter whimsy. It makes me want to have a winter wedding really bad! I love the look of a bride with a cozy wrap or jacket. Photos courtesy of Style Me Pretty

Tying the Knot

How cute is this collage from Carpe+Item?!? She's a blogger from Denmark- it's always neat to see how weddings are different/similar around the world. I can see the green and white cards (both on right) being used in a preppy, New England wedding with a nautical theme. For a Cape Cod wedding, I would use white/coral/navy. As sailing has also become more popular in the south, you could add some pink/green/madras for a southern preppy touch. I'm always a sucker for a play on words!

Pretty Day

It's almost 60 degrees today! The weather was super cold at the baseball game last night, so it's nice to see the sun out again today. Quick Polyvore of the perfect outfit for today!

Feb-26 - by sgarrison on Polyvore.com

Invitations

Invitation from Smashing Cards. I love how the couple chose to write "Respondez s'il vous plait" versus the normal RSVP, espescially considering most don't know what RSVP stands for. A little homage to my love of French!


Brides are always trying to put a creative spin on their big day, wanting their guests to be entertained and intrigued. Invitations are such an important part of the process, as they set the tone for your event.
A handwritten invitation sends a message that the affair will be casual, and most likely intimate. While the above invite is indeed handwritten, it's completed with a letterpress of the person's handwriting. This look could be completed by penning the invite yourself, or for the couple with a larger budget, letterpress of your own handwriting.
This invitation suite is from Lucky Orchid Designs, with calligraphy by the lovely Laura Hooper. If only we had a larger budget! In my opinion, Laura Hooper is the end-all be-all of calligraphy. The hand drawn map lends an informal look to a formal main invitation. I'll post more on Laura's work down the road.
The Braelyn design from Sanskripts is fantastically whimsical, while still maintaining a feel of elegance. I love how birds have really taken a forefront in event design. They're such a great motif for a wedding, and something that can definitely be easily carried through an event. Sanskripts has new invites up on their Etsy site (www.sanskripts.etsy.com) and is also available for custom work. Enjoy!

Princess Girl

The "about me" section mentions that I love my puppy- but I've never posted a picture of her. I'm in transition with laptops, and my Duffie folder is on the older computer. However, she got groomed today and I was able to snap a quick picture for your viewing pleasure.

Perfection

Picture from here
Hello, Gorgeous! Carrie Underwood never ceases to impress with her red carpet looks. I honestly can't think of a time that I didn't love one of her outfits. We saw her last spring at her Opry induction and Fan Fare at LP Field. She is way cuter in person, it's not smoke and mirrors. Goal upon moving to Nashville: find Carrie's hair stylist and book cuts/blowouts for the next 5 years!

My first set!

Today is the first baseball game of the season, and I made my first set as something to wear. I love how Hopsy on Monograms and Manicures always has the cutest Polyvore sets for things that she's doing during the day. I'm ready for spring, but the weather is still stuck in winter! The sunglasses, breezy necklace, and hobo hint at the warmer weather to come. The jeans and crisp top remind you that we're still in February. Good luck Phoenix!!


First baseball game - by sgarrison on Polyvore.com

Polyvore

Will you be mine? - by Lauren Elizabeth© on Polyvore.com

This image was made on Polyvore by one of their users. It's a great way to create inspiration boards for a wedding or special event. The above image was an outfit inspiration for Valentine's Day. It would be great to make something like this and bring it to a vendor meeting. For those of us that have creative ideas in our heads, but have trouble physically getting them out on paper- this is a great outlet!

Wordle

About six months ago I came across an online program called Wordle. It allows you to input your own text, choose colors and fonts, and create a personal masterpiece. Frequently used words are bigger, and you can choose to have some words not displayed at all.

This would be a great gift for a friend, parents, or significant other. Because you can input whatever text you want, the image could be personal text or copied from a published work. Aside from creating a gift for someone special, this is a great way to display text that has special meaning to you. It'd be great to input your wedding vows and create a framed image to hang on the wall. For the image above, I used a ceremony reading from The Knot. You can see the original text below.

What would you use this for?

"Take me to the places on the earth that teach you how to dance, the places where you can risk letting the world break your heart, and I will take you to the places where the earth beneath my feet and the stars overhead make my heart whole again and again.

Show me how you take care of business without letting business determine who you are. When the children are fed but still the voices within and around us, shout that soul's desires have too high a price, let us remind each other that it is never about the money.

Show me how you offer to your people and the world the stories and the songs you want our children's children to remember, and I will show you how I struggle, not to change the world, but to love it.

Sit beside me in long moments of shared solitude, knowing both our absolute aloneness and our undeniable belonging. Dance with me in the silence and the sound of small daily words, holding neither against me at the end of the day.

And when the sound of all the declarations of our sincerest intentions has died away on the wind, dance with me in the infinite pause before the next great inhale of breath that is breathing us all into being, not filling the emptiness from the outside or from within.

Don't say, "Yes!" Just take my hand and dance with me."

-- Oriah
Visit www.wordle.net to create your own!

To Invite or Not to Invite....

I found this image on a wedding blog awhile ago and found it to be so hilarious. There are so many "rules" regarding wedding etiquette for guest lists. Sometimes it's hard to determine whether to have someone on your guest list: your freshman year college roommate, Mom's book club friend, etc. There's also the difficult question of whether someone inviting you to their wedding means you need to have them at yours- especially when it seems all your friends are getting married at the same time.

This picture sheds some comical light on a tricky situation. Did you have trouble making your A list and B list?

Ideas for New Posts

I'm thrilled to have my first couple blog comments this week! It's incredible to see how people from all over the country, and world, can end up on someone's site. Please keep commenting and I'll be sure to try and respond as best I can. Also- let me know if there's things you think I can change or write more of. This is such a fun thing to do and I'd love to have a blog that has the following of Snippet, SMP, SWSMags, or Weddingbee. Can you tell where my interests are? I digress...

Here's some ideas I have for upcoming features:
A. Recent movie/book reviews
B. Scrapbooking/craft updates
C. Beauty product reviews (similar to mascara reviews on Yellow Brick Blog)
D. Thrifty Thursday: I'll either make an outfit on the cheap or write about some other way to save money.

I'm going to read my extremely riveting text for Responsible Leadership. Okay...and maybe a little bit of Love the One You're With

It Really is a Delightful Day

Congratulations Amber of Delightful Day Event Planning. Amber and her husband welcomed a baby boy into the world earlier this week. I've been following the Delightful Day blog for almost a year now, and I was *delighted* to find out she was expecting. If you use the Tennessee boards on The Knot, you're sure to see amber frequently posting (knottie AmberBrandon). Her wedding was beautiful, and acted as a springboard for getting into the event planning industry.

You can visit their website at www.adelightfulday.com. They're a full service wedding and event planning company in Nashville, and produce some of the loveliest events in town. Amber has her own stationery company, The Sweet Life, and creates gorgeous designs that you can print on your own. Talk about budget friendly! Amber has an Etsy site and her own blog. Please see the sweet, sweet post that she wrote to Colin the night he was born.

DIY Idol

I wish I was more crafty. I mean, I have the ideas in my head, but have a hard time doing to "physcial" elements of creating something. Enter Miss Penguin. She is my DIY Idol of all time! Seriously, there is nothing this woman can't DIY. I loved seeing her use the Gocco to make her own personalized invitations, and even thought about purchasing one myself.

Whoop whoop! Back to reality, Sarah! You're just a dreamer with artistic things like the Gocco- stick to PowerPoint monograms and the Cricut that'll cut things out for you. Isn't it annoying when people speak in 3rd person? I'll stop.

Please see the link below to Mrs. Penguin's invitation suite. She inspires me to harness the DIY goddess inside me that's trying to burst out!

Penguin

Paper News

Picture from here









Since posting about my Cricut earlier this weekend, I've received questions regarding a) what it is/does and b) where you can get one. They can be bought at Michael's, JoAnn Fabrics, or online. My mom acquired mine through an infomercial. Miss Duckling has raved about the Cricut family before and she just posted again about a SALE!! It's rare that Cricut products go on sale, so this would be a great opportunity to snatch one up. Along with the machines themselves, the cartridges and accessories are also 40%. Holy moly! You can see Miss Duckling's post here.

In other paper news, I picked up a corner rounder at Target yesterday. I'd been wanting to get one for awhile after seeing them posted about repeatedly on DIY wedding sites. Rounded corners ad such a chic look to paper products. The nice corner punchers are around $15 at Michael's, but were on sale at Target for $6.99!!!!!


I'm thinking that I'll design invitations myself and convert to a vector image, then I'll have them printed at a local print shop. Note* local shops can be easier to use than Kinkos because they'll be more experienced with printing versus copying. Most print shops can also fold and cut the paper. I can clip the corners myself and tie a belly band myself. Viola! Haute invitations on a shoestring budget! More on those to come...

Bachelor Recap: The Women Tell All

Last night was The Women Tel All episode of The Bachelor. This is my first season of watching The Bachelor on a regular basis: admittedly, I've watched every. single. episode. Maybe some of them even twice when a friend missed the DVR episode.

Originally I thought that Melissa was going the distance, but Jillian came to the forefront with a potential threat to win. On the families episode, Jason and Jillian appeared like a couple that had been married for a couple years! I found Molly's family to be quite awkward and I'm pretty sure her mom is a former teacher judging by the picture she made Jason draw. They've been pretty public with the fact that Melissa's family wasn't comfortable with the "public-ness" of the process.

In New Zeland I really thought that Molly would be gone and Jillian and Melissa would continue to the final show. C and I literally screamed when Molly was given the rose instead of Jillian. True to her form Jillian remained a soldier and didn't break down until she got in the limo. She is so classy and I truly hope to see her as the new bachelorette.

Like I said before, I'm not well versed on past seasons of the Bachelor- but I would like to make a prediction for the end. It'll be Melissa. It seems like they try to show preview clips that throw you off, so they're taking the issue with her parents and blowing it out of proportion to make us think she's not going to win.

Image from "I Love Green Beans"
There's a great Bachelor blog online, I Love Green Beans, and she has way more experience than I do regarding predictions for the end. The chart at the top is from her site and it chronicles how far each girl went i the process.

So in the end I think it'll be Melissa, and the next Bachelorette will be Jillian. Until the Bachelorette comes out, could she at least move to Nashville and be my personal shopper?

Pictures from Here

Branches

Nothing really to write about today. I've been running around doing errands and schoolwork, so nothing too exciting from the internet.

This centerpiece is something that I've had in OneNote for awhile. It's a great way to have an ethereal feel without spending too much money. Now this picture has flowers included, but you could just do branches and root them in pebbles. The branches could even be from your own backyard and spray painted a metallic. Save-on-crafts would be a great place to purchase these items.

I don't remember where I got this picture, since I've had it for so long. Please let me know if it's yours.

Inspiration Board

Snippet and Ink is one of the best wedding blogs out there. Kathryn's inspiration boards have been keeping me at awe for over a year now. I love seeing how all the pictures relate, and how they can translate to an entire event. That being said- my own skills for inspiration boards are lacking. So I'll let you enjoy this one from Kathryn.

The post is titled Gardenia and Coral. When I started searching additional images of coral, they all came out much more vivid and almost red-ish. This has been one of my favorite inspiration boards yet, and I could really see this being brought to light in our Tennessee wedding. I'd rename the inspiration colors magnolia, ivory, and peach.

Magnolias because they have the same shades of green and are all over the south, especially Tennessee and Georgia. Another idea for the green was to use "Emerald" as the inspiration color; I've always wanted to get married in May, and it's my birthstone for that particular month. Ry is from Georgia, and I'd love to include peach to honor his family and home.

This is definitely something I've added to my OneNote notebook (it's getting huge by the way!) as a theme I'd love to implement for our big day. It really speaks to us as a couple, along with being a beautiful compliment for the outdoors of Nashville.
Inspiration Board from Snippet & Ink

Quick Notes on the Oscars

Right now I'm watching the Oscars. This experience is especially enjoyable because I started watching 30 minutes after it started and now I don't have to watch commercials. Have I mentioned that I love my DVR? The event is still going on and there are so many lovely dresses tonight that I'd love to comment about. Tomorrow there will be more pictures available, but now we'll have to work with what Perez gives us.

Honestly, the first outfit I wanted to post was Angelina's black sheath and jade earrings. I'm still kind of upset about the whole getting with Brad while he's still married thing, so I won't. Her strapless dress had the most gorgeous neckline and the green earrings and bracelet really offset the simplicity of the gown.

Freida Pinto is probably one of the prettiest people I've ever seen. Seriously, while watching Slumdog Millionaire I was so entranced by her beauty. It's been great to see her at the last couple awards shows, as she does formal so well. Here's a clip of her dress from Perez. This color is always beautiful, and I love the flow of the dress. It's young and classic at the same time.

As an end note- Freida and costar, Dev Patel, are rumored to have a real life romance. How perfect; their on screen chemistry was undeniable.

90 Days

Just checked my planner and there are 90 days until graduation.... woot woot!!!

Warm Glow

I love the warmth of this centerpiece arrangement. I'm not sure what kind of flowers those are- maybe Ranunculus? Although I tend to gravitate towards more modern color palettes like Grey/Grapefruit or Emerald/Peach, I keep going back to classic colors. I'd like to have my wedding be timeless, unlike photographs that exclaim "80s" or "90s". Depending on the flower used in this centerpiece, this design could be relatively inexpensive. Many venues provide mirrors for their tables, and votives could be purchased at Save on Crafts.

If you're feeling super motivated, or on a tight budget, the flowers could be bought wholesale and arranged by you. Both Costco and Whole Foods have great flowers available. Also, Costco has a whole section on their website devoted to wedding flowers. I'm not too familiar with Whole Foods, but I waitressed at a bridal shower where the MOB brought centerpiece peonies from Whole Foods. Hands down- they were THE most beautiful peonies I've ever seen!

Photo from www.marthastewart.com

Chapel of Love

So I wish there were more exciting things for me to write about.... maybe we can start those posts once I'm *officially* engaged and not a creeper behind-the-scenes blog stalker! There's a lot of talent out there in Nashville and I can't wait to share different vendors with you. As such, I've been researching the wedding arena in DC and Atlanta too- so I've gathered a lot of ideas over the past two years.

If you read Weddingbee you'll know that their new set of bees are going to be dog breeds. Could anything better happen!? I'm beyond obsessed with my 2 year old Westie, Duffie, and I would love to be Miss Westie. The only problem? We're not planning on getting married until 2010 and you need to be 6 months or less from your wedding to blog on Weddingbee. There were lots of votes for the Westie, so I hope whoever gets it does us proud!

On another note, K and I were really sad about the news from Miss Fondue. It was great to have Nashville represented on Weddingbee and I'll miss her quirky style and humorous DIY recounts. Besides that, I can't believe what Mr. Fondue told her regarding their breakup. I wish her the best in this incredibly difficult time- I'm sure that the Weddingbee community will be reaching out with support.

For now, I'm going to get a manicure and pedicure. Since it's been so cold (ie dry nails) lately, my polish hasn't been lasting as long. I'll be keeping it plain on top, and getting Chapel of Love on my toes. It takes a fun pink to brighten up these gray winter days!
{Picture from OPI}

Dear J.Crew,

Like many of the ladies over at Weddingbee, I've been a little frustrated by the J. Crew weddings collection. Yes, J. Crew is generally expensive. Yes, I only shop at their outlet- sale rack at that! But as far as bridesmaid dresses, theirs aren't all that costly. I love the idea of picking a color and letting your ladies pick their own style. My friends are all different shapes and sizes. They mean a lot to me, so I want them to feel beautiful standing next to me on my big day. Enter my issue...

Why are the cotton dresses so expensive? It's just cotton, J! Why are you doing this to me? The silk is nice and pretty- but only comes in as my second choice. The cotton styles are great because the can be dressed up for the wedding and down afterward for summer nights, dinner parties, etc.

Learning the Cricut!

So exciting- I have nothing to do today! Since I have the house to myself, I'll be spreading my scrapbook supplies everywhere and catching up on some much needed crafting. My parents gave me a Cricut for Christmas and I haven't had much time to play with it. I kept reassuring her that the day would come when we could play together (by her I'm clearly talking about the machine). I went to Michael's this morning and picked up a couple sticker packs, New Years and snow day. The pictures I'm working with are from August- January. I'm going to start with the oldest ones and work my way forward.

My goal is to be up to date with scrapbooking by the time graduation comes; this way I'll be able to do a super cute graduation/moving spread for when Ryan and I move into our new place. Speaking of which- we're still on the hunt for the perfect two bedroom apartment in Nashville.

Why two bedrooms, you ask? For my crafts, naturally. According to Ry it will be is "media room". We'll see how this first co-habitational compromise works out! Our requirements for the new place are as follows: two bedrooms, double vanity in one bathroom, walk in closets (I have a lot of clothes!), not first floor, nearby dog park (extra points if it's in the complex).

For now, I'll leave you with this precious note cards. I can't resist anything French!

Candystore Collection

Lists and lists...

Today I created a couple lists with the various (is that being generous?) blogs that I frequent on a daily basis. They're categorized by Nashville, Paper Paper (stationery/design studios), Wedding Blogs, and Everyday Great Reads. I think it will be a better way to organize things, and make sure I'm able to check them out everyday. I hope you'll enjoy them too.

I had awhile to scour the internet for ideas, as they didn't have anything for me to work on at my internship today. I literally let out a little squeal when I saw this stationery suite below- and it'd work for someone one a budget. The magnolia motif is vintage but also traditional since it's a single flower, while the postcard RSVP and nature of the invitation itself is quite modern. Perfection!


Pearl by Milkmaid Press
check out their Etsy store for more great designs!

Catching Up

Clearly I am doing awful with the resolution of keeping up with posts. I'm getting back on track with my spring semester and I'll hopefully have more time to write. On that note, here are some of the blogs that have been especially great to read lately.

Ashley's Bride Guide
Snippet and Ink
Monograms and Manicures
Weddingbee (especially sad with the loss of Miss Fondue- maybe I'll sign up to be the next Nashville blogger)



*Less than 100 days until my move*