Guest Posting!

Still no reception photos. :( I know I keep saying this, but I'll hopefully have them soon! In the meantime, I had to share this post with you - I actually wrote it as a guest post for Amy over at Little Miss Wedding Planner who got married this past Saturday, but it's something I've been wanting to blog about for a loong time. You can read it here if you want, but make sure you still head over there and tell her congratulations! (I've successfully stalked her on facebook and she looked absolutely gorgeous!)

If you've followed this blog, it’s pretty obvious that I love weddings. I honestly enjoyed every part of our planning process and I especially loved blogging about it, reading other blogs and finding inspiration from them, and ‘meeting’ other brides. Unfortunately, I think there’s one downside to weddings today being all over the internet - Brides lose sight of the fact that each of those weddings is a celebration of two real people’s relationship. There’s so much judgment and forgetting that the point of a wedding isn’t the pretty pictures, the trendy details, or the hope of being blogged/featured in a magazine.

I’ve always loved crafty things, but I’d never really had a reason to be crafty aside from scrapbooking or making gifts. My wedding was a chance for me to enjoy tons of DIY projects and craft until I was sick of it. I loved that those details reflected my personality and hobbies. My husband, David, and I also decided we wanted to put as little financial burden on my parents as possible and that we didn’t want to go into debt for our wedding. It was our decision as a couple to have a budget wedding for 250+ guests.

Did I love our wedding? You bet I did!! But do I love weddings that have absolutely no DIY projects and cost $30,000? You bet I do! I love that each wedding is a reflection of a loving relationship and exactly what the bride and groom wanted. No bride has any right or reason to think that some detail of another wedding is ‘tacky’ (PLEASE get rid of that word!) just because she chose not to do it. You hate the dollar dance? Don’t do it. You’re convinced a first look is the only way to go? Have one. And let everyone else choose what works for them.

I can’t say that I’ve never made a comment about a picture of someone’s wedding on facebook or one of the weddings on TV (Four Weddings, anyone?), but I’m seriously making an honest effort to get rid of that negativity. The wedding blog/bride blogger network is such a great one - The only thing that would make it better is a huge push to eliminate the judgmental attitude that’s become so popular.

Ok, stepping off my soap box now. Do you agree or disagree?

J+J’s Wedding

I still don’t have reception photos yet, so the break from recaps will continue. However, I realized I’ve talked multiple times about my friend J, who got married about a month and a half after David and I on July 31st, and I never mentioned anything about their wedding. 

J went to KU with me so we were both finishing school in 3 years, in long term (6+ years) long distance relationships, and hoping for a wedding shortly after graduation. David and I got engaged in March and they got engaged in October of 2009 and we got to spend our senior year planning our weddings together. We shared vases, paper lanterns, and some other decor and she actually ended up doing a boudoir shoot after hearing about it from me! She also used the same photography company we did, but had a different photographer.

I decided to share some of their pro pictures since they were recently posted on our photographers’ facebook page! 

 

 

 

{She had the cute pink bow shoes I wanted my bridesmaids to wear, but wasn’t mean enough to make them – They were 4” heels!}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

{The father-daughter and mother-son dance – You can see my cute hubby and half of me on the far left side of the picture in the background!}

{My Dollar Tree paper lanterns!}

{All photos by Amy Stevens of Lola Jo Photo Design}

Their wedding was so pretty, fun, and them – I loved it! And I love even more that we’re now both wives and we live about 2 miles apart in cute little houses with our husbands. We love hanging out with them and we’ve introduced them to Channing and Zach, so we’ll have a little ‘married couple group’ after their wedding in April! :)

Did you/do you have any friends going through the planning process with you?

Incredible Talent

A while back I found A Very Chocolate Wedding (now A Very Chocolate Life). She was just starting recaps of her fabulous wedding, and I was SO inspired by so many of the projects she did. It's a little late in the game (we're only 7 days away from the 100 day mark!) for gathering more inspiration, but I just had to pass these gorgeous pictures along to those of you who are still at that stage. 

First of all, she made all of her bouquets out of paper flowers! And she's posted tutorials for several different types of flowers. They turned out SO well!

She made her boutouneiers as well - They're made out of modeling clay and she posted a tutorial for these as well!

And you know I loved the paper lanterns and paper poms hanging over the dance floor:

Did you notice the banners in the background of the last picture? She made all of those herself, too! They're inexpensive and they make a huge impact!

I loved her centerpieces and table numbers:

Another fun idea - Covering glass doors with kraft paper! She punched all of those holes so that light would shine through the design:

Ok, I could go on for days, but the moral of the story is you should go check out her blog! It's awesome to see the pictures from such a gorgeous wedding that used SO many DIY projects. I hope mine turns out half this well!

What weddings have you found that have beautifully incorporated lots of DIY projects?

**All pictures in this post are from A Very Chocolate Wedding

Is That My Dress?

If your name starts with D and ends with -avid, you should go ahead and stop reading right about now. Love you!

The Wedding I've Been Dreaming Of

 I've already posted about how I love seeing ideas that I'm incorporating in 'real life,' so I couldn't help but share this wedding with you all. I happened to find this bride's planning bio, and it was incredible how many of the pictures she used as inspiration I've had saved/bookmarked. She used the same colors and damask theme, had mismatched black bridesmaid dresses, had almost the exact hair and makeup look I want, and had tons of adorable personal touches that I absolutely loved. It's so fun to see how her details turned out in relation to her inspiration!

 

Love the bridesmaids' headbands!

What's that? You'd like to see more details? Ok!

(I have an upcoming project involving damask hangers!)

Love love love her makeup!

All images from her bio and copyright of Studio 563 photography

It's so exciting to see a wedding that perfectly achieved the feel I want! I love being able to see the mess of ideas in my head come together in something so gorgeous - I hope I'm able to do as good a job as she did of making my dream come to life!

Have you seen your dream wedding achieved by another bride?

A Lovely Wedding

In honor of my brother and SIL's first anniversary, I wanted to share some of the pictures from their wedding. I absolutely love fall color schemes, and their's was no exception. If I wasn't so anxious to get married (can you blame me?! 6 years is a long time!) I would've loved to have a fall wedding. So maybe the pictures can serve as inspiration to another lucky fall bride! Enjoy!

All photos by Cornerstone Photography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the overload of pictures! I couldn't choose favorites!

Which season is your favorite for weddings?