Get it?
My husband inherited a TON of old tintypes and b&w photos of the Bay Area that are over 100 years old. I totally want to drive around and follow suit. What an awesome idea.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Looking Into the Past
Someone commented on Design Mom with a link to Jason Powell's crazy set of photos called Looking Into the Past:
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
LWN.
This is a very, special edition of Love.Want.Need. I am ever so excited that Creature Comforts introduced me to Basic French, an online French lifestyle store. You have NO idea. Putting aside all jealousy that they stole my idea of opening a store of all French goods (and thus requiring me to fly to France on a regular basis and deduct it as a business expense, winkwink), I can't help but forgive them. Because they carry...
PRINCE CHOCO!!!
Vanilla cookie chocolate filling sandwich deliciousness! Mmm...
Now if they would only carry Z'Animo, I'd be in heaven. :)
PRINCE CHOCO!!!
Now if they would only carry Z'Animo, I'd be in heaven. :)
Trendy Tuesday
The best of trends from around the web! Today's trend is...
Vintage Whimsy
The Trend: Kites, Pinwheels, Bright Colors, Playful details, and anything vintage Carnival/Circus (really could be it's own trend, but I'm including it here).
Vintage Whimsy
The Trend: Kites, Pinwheels, Bright Colors, Playful details, and anything vintage Carnival/Circus (really could be it's own trend, but I'm including it here).
Tuesday Tunes
I am so diggin' the return of the banjo. Check out the banjo fanciness that is Mumford & Sons
(warning: a bit o' British swearing here and there).
(warning: a bit o' British swearing here and there).
Modest Wedding Dresses
I think it's refreshing that with the growing love of all things vintage (and all things "Mad Men") has come a return of the modest dress. I'm a big fan of dresses with sleeves.
I recently posted about my own wedding, and while I loved my dress, that might be the one thing I would have changed - it was so difficult to find a fashionable wedding gown with sleeves that I bought a strapless dress and extra fabric and had the seamstress make sleeves. I would have much preferred to just find a ready-to-wear dress, with set in sleeves.
Thankfully, I've seen a whole wealth of lovely, sleeved wedding dresses as of late, so I thought I'd share a few...
I recently posted about my own wedding, and while I loved my dress, that might be the one thing I would have changed - it was so difficult to find a fashionable wedding gown with sleeves that I bought a strapless dress and extra fabric and had the seamstress make sleeves. I would have much preferred to just find a ready-to-wear dress, with set in sleeves.
Thankfully, I've seen a whole wealth of lovely, sleeved wedding dresses as of late, so I thought I'd share a few...
Monday, August 16, 2010
Bohemian Garden Party
It all started with this page from an Instyle magazine in 2004 (yes, I have saved it all these years):
It's from Natasha Gregson Wagner's bohemian themed wedding. She's an actress. What has she been in lately? Is she still married? I don't know, neither do I care. Her wedding was GORGEOUS. French food, (cheese and crepes), a vintage feel lavender cake, and red velvet couches set out on. the. lawn. Sigh.
Lately I've been thinking more and more about this beautiful boho event, the more I want a bohemian garden party of my own. I've put together an inspiration board to help me plan it all out:
You'll probably have to click on the pic above to get the full feel. I went a bit more exotic and colorful - I love the lavender color palette but I wanted something a bit more bold and jewel-toned, more lanterns than chandeliers. It's a bit eclectic, a little vintage, a little homey, and lots of color and textures mixed together. Bohemian can mean SO many styles these days, but this is my version. I'd still love to do a more "french vintage" type of boho party, but this is what I was feeling at the moment. I can't wait to see the real thing... hopefully soon!
What do you think? Would you want to join us at this outdoor living room?
Sources:
Lanterns (cannot find for the life of me! If it's your photo, please let me know!)
Thursday, August 12, 2010
My Wedding
A friend of mine recently commented that looking at all the great wedding details out there makes her want to go back and get married all over again. I totally agree!
I love looking at dozens of gorgeous, thoughtful weddings each week, but I feel a bit mixed about it. I compare it to prom - for years after high school I would look at each seasons prom dresses and feel a bit jipped. Why didn't they have dresses that cute when I was shopping for prom?!
Weddings are the same for me. Every time I look at a beautifully planned wedding I think, "Ooooh, why didn't I do that?"
Since I post on weddings all the time, I thought I'd drag out my wedding pictures to share. And as much as I love all the weddings I see online, in retrospect four years later, mine is still very much me. I'm so glad. :)
All in all, it was a wonderful affair. We didn't really have a "theme", per se, but I based our color scheme around a special photo album we had - green, brown and cream. I don't remember all our sources now, but it was a very "DIY" wedding, long before the DIY wedding movement had really taken off. It just the easiest way to make sure things were the way I wanted it (hello, OCD), and to keep costs down. By far the most expensive stuff was the food and site rental, then my dress. Besides that, everything else didn't cost that much.
Here's a few tips if you are planning on a DIY wedding:
1) Decide what is important to you
We really didn't want family to be cleaning up a kitchen post-wedding, so we knew we needed to shell out for a site. Music was also SUPER important to us, so I made a burned CD of all our obscure songs for the DJ. AND had a backup! (Besides La Vie En Rose, I walked down the aisle to an Eels cover of "Can't Help Falling in Love", and "All You Need is Love" played when we walked back as husband and wife).
2) Look in uncommon places for your details
Looking for the unique details was one of my favorite parts about planning my wedding. You just have to be willing to find the diamond in the rough (and if you don't have time, use the money for a planner)! I had a great time perusing the flea market for my vintage purse. A ginormous centerpiece wasn't important to me, so I found some cheap cylinder vases at a craft store and filled them with green apples and some brown ribbon. Voila! The green parasols my bridesmaids carried I found online at The Oriental Trading Company. I designed my own invites with envelopes from Paper Source, paper from Office Max, and - believe it or not - Microsoft Paint and Publisher (it's what I had at the time).
3) Don't be afraid to use up-and-coming vendors
Our friend Lori from Images by Lori is the BOMB photographer. At the time, she was an assistant to another photographer and hadn't launched her own business. WE knew how talented she was, and got her for a steal. And then told everyone! (Maybe we should have kept our mouths shut, hehe). Our florist was the wife of a co-worker who did flowers out of her house. We had a couple of glitches, but overall the flowers were exactly what I wanted and gorgeous... and cost me literally a fourth of what I would have spent at the local well-known flower houses.
4) Get a 2-for-1 deal where you can
One of my bridesmaids had gotten married at the same golf course, so I knew that a wedding coordinator was included with the price of rental. And she was good! Too good to pass up, so I got married there, as well. :)
5) Roll with the punches
This really is more of a time/emotional saver than a money saver, but trust me - stuff WILL happen. You will wish you had eloped at some point. But ultimately, you're there to get hitched to your lifemate. So enjoy! The End.
I love looking at dozens of gorgeous, thoughtful weddings each week, but I feel a bit mixed about it. I compare it to prom - for years after high school I would look at each seasons prom dresses and feel a bit jipped. Why didn't they have dresses that cute when I was shopping for prom?!
Weddings are the same for me. Every time I look at a beautifully planned wedding I think, "Ooooh, why didn't I do that?"
Since I post on weddings all the time, I thought I'd drag out my wedding pictures to share. And as much as I love all the weddings I see online, in retrospect four years later, mine is still very much me. I'm so glad. :)
My sister
My shoes and vintage purse (found at a flea market in Seattle)
I loooved my bouquet!
Place cards (brown with gold ink). I wrote them - not perfect calligraphy by any means, but I liked them. :)
Our awesome cake! Two flavors - chocolate with chocolate frosting, and vanilla with apricot. Yum!
My husband made homemade caramels. I ordered the custom labels and cellophane bags online.
My ring. I wanted something flat so I wouldn't hit it on stuff (because I'm a klutz). I still love it!
My beautiful bridesmaids! They had wrist corsages instead or bouquets so they could carry parasols. They walked down the aisle to Madeleine Peyroux's version of La Vie en Rose.
You may kiss the bride!
Hello hottie.
I call this "cream puff in a car!"
All in all, it was a wonderful affair. We didn't really have a "theme", per se, but I based our color scheme around a special photo album we had - green, brown and cream. I don't remember all our sources now, but it was a very "DIY" wedding, long before the DIY wedding movement had really taken off. It just the easiest way to make sure things were the way I wanted it (hello, OCD), and to keep costs down. By far the most expensive stuff was the food and site rental, then my dress. Besides that, everything else didn't cost that much.
Here's a few tips if you are planning on a DIY wedding:
1) Decide what is important to you
We really didn't want family to be cleaning up a kitchen post-wedding, so we knew we needed to shell out for a site. Music was also SUPER important to us, so I made a burned CD of all our obscure songs for the DJ. AND had a backup! (Besides La Vie En Rose, I walked down the aisle to an Eels cover of "Can't Help Falling in Love", and "All You Need is Love" played when we walked back as husband and wife).
2) Look in uncommon places for your details
Looking for the unique details was one of my favorite parts about planning my wedding. You just have to be willing to find the diamond in the rough (and if you don't have time, use the money for a planner)! I had a great time perusing the flea market for my vintage purse. A ginormous centerpiece wasn't important to me, so I found some cheap cylinder vases at a craft store and filled them with green apples and some brown ribbon. Voila! The green parasols my bridesmaids carried I found online at The Oriental Trading Company. I designed my own invites with envelopes from Paper Source, paper from Office Max, and - believe it or not - Microsoft Paint and Publisher (it's what I had at the time).
3) Don't be afraid to use up-and-coming vendors
Our friend Lori from Images by Lori is the BOMB photographer. At the time, she was an assistant to another photographer and hadn't launched her own business. WE knew how talented she was, and got her for a steal. And then told everyone! (Maybe we should have kept our mouths shut, hehe). Our florist was the wife of a co-worker who did flowers out of her house. We had a couple of glitches, but overall the flowers were exactly what I wanted and gorgeous... and cost me literally a fourth of what I would have spent at the local well-known flower houses.
4) Get a 2-for-1 deal where you can
One of my bridesmaids had gotten married at the same golf course, so I knew that a wedding coordinator was included with the price of rental. And she was good! Too good to pass up, so I got married there, as well. :)
5) Roll with the punches
This really is more of a time/emotional saver than a money saver, but trust me - stuff WILL happen. You will wish you had eloped at some point. But ultimately, you're there to get hitched to your lifemate. So enjoy! The End.
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