Wedding Do or Don't: Mismatched Bridesmaid Dresses

I love this trend. Gone are the days where all of your bridesmaids have to wear the same dress, color, cut, shoes, jewelry, and hairstyle. Bridesmaids have the freedom to accessorize their dresses to show off their own personal style (with the approval of the bride, obviously). 

Not all of your bridesmaids are going to have the same body type, so why assume that one style is going to look good on all of them? A flat-chested girl is going to feel more comfortable in one style, while a girl with a larger chest will feel more comfortable in a different one. To me, a bride should want her bridesmaids to feel as comfortable in their dresses as possible. A comfy bridesmaid = a happy, confident bridesmaid.

Of course there are guidelines that a bride can follow to ensure that her bridesmaids look coordinated, without looking too random:

1. Same color, different styles

This is good for a bride who wants to embrace the trend, without straying too far from tradition. 

2. Same color, different shades

This is a great way to showcase the trend. 

You can go from each end of the color spectrum, or stick to a few key shades.

3. Same dress, mismatched accessories

This is a good way to let your bridesmaids express their individual styles, while still looking uniform.

4. Complementary color palette

Whether it's jewel tones or pastels, make sure the colors really complement each other, or else you run the risk of looking like your bridesmaids picked random colors.

 

The rules are pretty limitless when it comes to your bridesmaids. It's really just up to the bride to keep communicating with her girls to make sure that they like their dresses. Whether you choose to keep them in the same dress or mismatched, the most important thing is that they're happy. The last thing you want is for your bridesmaids to be trash talking the color or style choice to anyone who will listen (and trust me, they will).

(images from Belle the Magazine)

Winter Wonderland

I would love to have a winter wedding. The idea of getting married while there's snow falling outside around the holidays is so romantic to me (but with our luck, the year we get married we'll have 2 inches of snowfall all winter). The holidays also happen to be my favorite time of year. I love giving gifts, snuggling in front of a fireplace, and holiday parties. I also love winter colors. Deep, rich reds and blues, accented by gold or silver are my ideal holiday shades. 

Here is some winter wedding inspiration courtesy of The Knot and Style Me Pretty.

Gorgeous shot. Probably really hard to recreate.

Perfect favors

I love the touches of gold. Subtle and not overwhelming.
The feather against the contrasting burlap table runner give a nice "city meets country" feel.

I absolutely love the tented ceilings. The lights are great too.

The silver tablecloth, crystals, and white flowers are great colors for a winter wedding.

I love this center piece.

Tree branches painted white are a great, easy way to add a winter feel to the wedding.

Not a huge fan of the tablecloth, but I love the ornaments hanging from the tree branches over the table.

Pinecones are a winter staple.

This is a great coat to wear over your dress when you're taking pictures outside.

You Mean I Can't Just Throw Some Roses in a Vase?

Wedding flowers. This is definitely one of the wedding aspects that is meant for the bride to oversee. My fiancé couldn't care less about floral centerpieces, bouquets, or anything having to do with flowers. I could pick some tulips from someone's yard, throw them in a glass vase, and stick them on the center of a table, and he wouldn't know the difference. 

Depending on how important they are to you, you're either going to spend a little or a lot of your budget on flowers. Being a stickler for details, I place a lot of importance on the them in a wedding, so I don't mind spending a little more money to get the centerpieces or bouquets that I like. With that said, I know absolutely nothing about wedding flowers. I don't know what terms like biedermeier, pomander, or nosegay mean. (I'm a vocab freak, so you can bet your butt that I'm going to learn) All I know is that calla lilies and orchids are my favorite flowers. How they will be arranged and incorporated into the wedding will be decided by me with a lot of help from a florist. 

Thankfully, The Knot has provided a list of 15 wedding flower mistakes to avoid submitted by florists and event planners with a ton of experience. Below are a few of my favorite tips:

This one may be a little hard for me, since I'm such a control freak. But we'll make it work :)

Some people may find this idea tacky, but it actually makes a lot of sense. 

I like this idea, especially since my favorite flowers are on the pricier side.

This is very true. I'm all about minimalism, so the less cluttered and 

more coordinated a table looks, the better.

(tips and images from theknot.com)

VIPS #2

If you don't know what VIPS means, refer to this post. This week's VIPS is one of the most informative wedding planning sites I've looked at. The Knot should be one of the first websites a girl goes to when she gets engaged. Not only is it a great resource for planning your wedding, but it's a great place to look when you just want to find inspiration from other weddings.

One of my favorite features of The Knot is their "Just Engaged"section. It gives a list of the 10 things you need to do first after your groom-to-be pops the question. Items on the list include picking a date, setting a budget, and getting engagement pictures taken.  

Another great section is The Knot community. It's a series of message boards where brides from all over the country can post anything from pictures, to suggestions, to reviews. The boards can also be viewed according to geographic location, so it's easy to find suggestions on local vendors or venues. 

The Knot has an amazing library of images that you can view for inspiration. They have over 35,000 that are sorted by wedding color, style, season, or even flower so that you can narrow down your search and find what you're looking for without looking through thousands of pictures. 

There are a ton of other features that I could write about, but that would just be tedious and would spoil the fun. Once we decide to actually start planning and looking around at different options, The Knot will definitely be one of, if not the most, useful site for me.

(all images from theknot.com)

Themed Tuesdays

Tuesdays are going to be all about themed wedding ideas. Before getting engaged, anytime I heard about a themed wedding, I pictured a corny Under the Sea theme with hors d'oeuvres being served off of seashell shaped plates and awful sea green mermaid-cut bridesmaid dresses. After a little bit of reading and researching, I've found that themed weddings aren't nearly that terrible. 

This week's post looks at vintage weddings. There's a fine line between a great touch of vintage and a 20's-themed halloween party. I've found some gorgeous weddings on Style Me Pretty that had the perfect hint of nostalgia, without compromising the couples' own individual styles. 

While a vintage wedding may not be for me, I definitely have a great appreciation for a well done themed wedding. I don't find them any less beautiful than a non-themed wedding or any other wedding, for that matter. What's most important is the bride and groom sharing their love for one another with their family and friends. Ew, that was too corny for me. I shouldn't write these posts before I've had my morning coffee. Enjoy your vintage inspiration below.

Peacock feathers, hydrangeas, and old postcards give this program table a great vintage feel.

The pearls and fishnet veil are the perfect touch of old glamour
without looking too kitschy.

Vintage-style stemware, cutlery, and plates with simple vases to display the flowers.

I love the peacock feather and vintage font on this drink menu. 

(Images from Style Me Pretty)

DIY Sunday

I'm going to dedicate Sunday posts to creative DIY ideas that I find. This Sunday's DIY comes from mydiyweddingday.com via wedding and event planner Angela from Oh So Joyous. I'm not sure how much money this idea would actually save you, since the materials used for this project can be pretty expensive, but for craftier people, this idea is really cute.

Thank you cards are (hopefully) one of the last expenses a couple needs to worry about for their big day. Angela came up with an awesome DIY thank you card that looks very professional and polished, but adds that personal touch from the newlyweds.

(Taken from mydiyweddingday.com)

"This thank you pack includes an embossed card and the couple’s favourite wedding photos all wrapped in a pretty little pocket folder and finished off with a ribbon."

What you will need:

• watermark ink or embossing ink

• ink of your colour choice (I used black)

• thermal embossing powder of your colour choice (I used gold)

• rubber thank you stamp

• rubber stamp of your choice for front of card (I used a custom monogram stamp)

• heat gun

• cards and envelopes

• ribbon

• luggage tags

• pocket folders

• a selection of your favorite wedding photos

Here's what to do:
1. Using a thank you stamp, stamp the luggage tags with the regular ink and put aside.
2. Press the rubber stamp on the watermark ink and stamp the image on the card by pressing down firmly and removing the stamp quickly.
3. Shake the thermal embossing powder over the image until it is completely covered. To remove the excess powder tap the card over some paper and then empty this back into the thermal embossing powder container. Make sure the card has no flecks of powder by brushing them off.
4. Turn on the heat tool and melt the powder this may take a few seconds.
5. Once you have filled in the cards with your note and enveloped them you can insert the card and photographs into the pocket folder and seal it.
6. Put the ribbon through the luggage tag and tie it around the pocket folder, finish it off with a tie of your choice and voila!

You can check out mydiyweddingday.com for a picture tutorial of how to put the cards together, but here's a picture of the finished product from the website.

Wedding Do or Don't: Colored Wedding Dress

I'm saving the big "dress" post for later because it is far too early for me to begin thinking about the most important dress I'll ever wear, and it will most likely be more than one entry anyway. Even though 99% of all brides won't consider wearing anything but white on their wedding day, I explored the idea of wearing something other than the traditional color. Brides initially wore white to signify their purity and virginity, but let's face it, my fiancé and I have been living together for 2 years. Draw whatever conclusions you want.

How important is it to me to wear white on my wedding day? Most likely I'll end up wearing white, but I decided to take a look and see what a colored wedding dress would look like. Forget the fact that most of the dresses I found looked like cupcakes, colored wedding dresses quite honestly, don't look like wedding dresses. To me, they look a lot like what you see a 17-year-old girl wearing to her prom. However, I managed to find a couple of exceptions that made me think twice. (See Gwen Stefani and the last picture in the set below) So I ask this: Are colored wedding dresses a do or a don't?

These colors aren't terrible. For wall paint.

I don't mind the color as much as I mind the swirled yogurt design of the dress.

Gwen Stefani took the traditional white gown, and put her own ombré spin on it.
I love this dress on her.

This dress reminds me of a dead crow I saw on the side of the road one day.
I would wear this dress to Elton John's funeral.

Marchesa 2012. I'm torn on this. I like the dress, but not for a wedding.

I love the touch of color this bride put under the sheer layer in her skirt.
I'm not a big fan of the cut of the dress, but she looks fabulous.

Is this a wedding or Prom?

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I like to think that I'm pretty low maintenance. I don't wear a ton of make up on a daily basis, the only hair products I own are shampoo, conditioner, and a small can of hairspray, and I go to the salon maybe three times a year. So naturally, I want my wedding look to reflect my style, while upping the glam factor just a little. The last thing I want on the biggest day of my life is to be walking down the aisle with 100 bobby pins in my hair and an up-do that will take 2 hours to take down. 

Don't get me wrong, up-do's look great on certain girls, just not me. If you know me, you know that my hair pretty much does nothing but lay straight and hold curls for about 15 minutes. I wish I could pull them off, but in my past experience, every up-do I've had made me look like a pageant queen or a 6-year-old going to Glamourshots. (If you don't know what Glamourshots is you obviously didn't grow up in the 90's, and for that, I feel sorry for you) I'm not entirely opposed to a casual up-do, but I definitely don't want to look like I'm going to Senior Prom either.

Here is some hair inspiration for your viewing pleasure. I still don't know what I want, but thankfully I have a lot of time to think about it.

(Pictures from Style Me Pretty)

STD (Not What You Think)

The Save the Date (STD) is a couple's first introduction to the wedding guests who haven't had a chance to meet your bride/groom-to-be. To me, the STD is extremely important. I believe that it should coincide with the theme that you want for your wedding. It sets the tone for the type of wedding your guests can expect.

Most STD invitations that I've found have been very traditional, with one or two cute pictures of the couple looking very much in love, "Save the Date" written in a scripted font, and the wedding date. Don't get me wrong, these are a nice way to tell everyone to clear their schedules for your big day; however, if you're someone who gets at least two Save the Dates a month, they all tend to look  the same. After browsing Pinterest and other wedding planning sites, I've found some adorable Save the Date ideas that will definitely grab your guests' attention and leave them saying "I can't wait to go to this wedding!"

Adorable luggage tag invite for a destination wedding.

This timeline is a cute spin on the traditional engagement picture invite.

I love this idea, especially since my fiancé loves going to the movies.

Last Christmas we played a joke on my mom with a fake lottery ticket, so I know she would find this one funny.

(Sidenote: You can see us pranking her here)

Another cute idea is to send out Save the Date "tickets."

I found this one to be really funny. Right to the point.