Sweet Succulents

With four months to go until our big day, we have been focusing on locking in rest of our vendors (florist, cake and entertainment). This week flowers have been on my mind and I'm loving a mixture of local wild flowers and succulents. Below is my inspiration for bouquets. I love how the succulents add texture and compliment coral and white flowers.

Sources: 1, 2 & 3

Sources: 1, 2 & 3

For boutineers Derek is envisioning a simple succulent with a spring of lavender.

Sources: 1, 2, 3 & 4

For our tablescape we plan to fill mismatched vases and planters with local flowers and succulents. To keep our flower costs down we will be planting some of our own succulents to mix in with our florists' creations. We plan to replant these succulents in our garden after out wedding too!

Sources: 1, 2 & 3

Did you, or are you planning on using succulents for your wedding? Were you able to reuse them?

I have also been contemplating how to highlight our moms on our wedding day. Did you go with a corsage, wrislet, small bouquet or something else for yours? Would love to hear what other brides are doing!

Succulent Centerpieces & A New Engagement

Side-note before I get started on today's post... over the weekend my brother, Christopher PROPOSED to his girlfriend, Rachel!!!! They have been happily together nearly 6 years and are now engaged! I couldn't be more happy for the two of them. Let the countdown begin for my wedding and theirs! Cheers to the future Mr. & Mrs. Asimos! :)

At this point in my planning I am feeling much more relaxed. I have checked off many things on my list. On April 7th I will be meeting with my wedding coordinator and visiting a florist. Since flowers are not high on my list of budget 'must-haves' I'm interested in seeing what my money can get me.

I'm envisioning something simple, classy, and elegant. Oh, and succulents are a must. Here is some of my inspiration.

Check out these tiny white daisies below along with the tea wedding favors. (It says 'love is brewing' ... So cute!) I also wouldn't mind incorporating some baby's breath.

My friend Jessica shared with me a great idea that she used for her wedding. Reuse the flowers that are used in your ceremony and have them transfered over to your reception during cocktail hour. That way you get two for the price of one! She also advised that not every table needs a floral centerpiece. Instead every other table could have a candle centerpiece or something different.

Do you have any advice on where I could save money on flowers? I definitely want my flowers to be pretty but I don't want to spend an arm and a leg. Ideas welcome! Comment away! :)

To Invite, Or Not To Invite {The Guest List}

Yep. I'm going to talk about it. And by "it" I mean the one thing that often causes tension and drama between families when planning a wedding. The guest list. Who makes the cut and who doesn't? If you haven't argued about this, then good for you... and please share your tips. If you have had arguments about this, or at least a tense convo with your mom about who is on her "must have" list of friends and co-workers, then let's talk about solutions.

At first I hesitated about writing about this topic. But thanks to the encouragement of my friend, Mrs. Jessica Haro, I felt compelled to write. After all, there could be many of you out there dealing with this right now! Originally, it felt a little taboo to speak about such a topic on such a light and happy blog. However, this is the reality of the situation: There are some people in your family and friend groups that just wont make the cut. Period. Not to mention inviting children and offering a +1 to your single guests. There many reasons why not all of the people you want to be at your wedding can be there. The main reason for me (and most) is the cost. We have a very conservative budget, and every person means more food, drinks, tables, table cloths, silverware, chairs, etc. etc. etc. And on the "plus 1" topic, I think it's great if one of my single friends is all of a sudden dating someone super special, and in that case they should bring a date. But if they're not seriously dating someone, then I am not offering a plus one. What are your thoughts on this?

Back in September when Vinnie first proposed, we joked about how big our wedding would be because he is Italian and I'm Greek/Irish. You've seen my Big Fat Greek Wedding right? Well there's a scene where the parents of the bride say, "we're just having the family over for dinner." Then over 100 people show up! Well, at our engagement party we had 50 friends and family over for a casual bbq/brunch. We joked about how if that was any hint as to what the head count for our wedding we may be, then we're in trouble.

Well, the time has come to confirm the final list (we are 10 months out) and I'm happy to say it hasn't been as bad as I anticipated. Both of our parents have been very cooperative. And thanks to some fantastic resources online, and friends' advice the process has been fight-free (knock on wood). Here are some guidelines that helped me from weddingplanning.com

Simple Wedding Guest List Steps Recapped:

• Determine how large or small you want your wedding to be

• Determine how many wedding guests you really can afford by estimating the wedding costs and the "per guest" expenses like catering

• Determine how many guests your wedding ceremony and reception locations can hold

• Compile the "Big" list of all of the guests that you would like to invite to your wedding

• Edit the "Big" wedding guest list down to meet the established budget and capacity limits - This will be List "A"

• Create a "B' list  of wedding guests that you would like to invite but could not

• Send wedding invitations to the "A" list of wedding guests

• As "A"  list RSVPs come in you will be able to determine how many guests from the "B" list you can invite

Or you can follow this formula :)

What I also have to be prepared for are guests who RSVP with a plus one when it's not offered. If that ends up happening I plan on just being upfront and honest about our headcount. These are our friends and family and I expect that they'll understand. I have heard funny and uncomfortable stories from brides that had guests bring a date and multiple children without asking! Does anyone have a story they'd like to share and how they handled the situation?

Now let's talk about something a little more light :)  Because this fabulous blog is photo inspired, I will leave you with some place card inspiration! If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a little non-traditional; I love finding unique personal touches.

photo credit Style Me Pretty

Photo Credit Style Me Pretty

The inspiration below reminds me of the color palette of my venue, The Hotel Maya. I'm loving the mosaic tiles with guests' names. And the clementines would be a super easy and cute DIY project!

Photo Credit Style Me Pretty

And of course, I had to throw in some succulent inspiration. Notice how the grey and yellow keeps popping up.... I think I may have found my favorite color inspiration.

 Thanks for reading! If you have a funny story about your guest list experience, please share by leaving a comment! See you next Tuesday!

Succulents & Latin American Inspiration {que colores}

I have completed the most difficult and daunting task on my wedding planning list, thus far. We have officially locked down our venue! HOORAY! Vinnie and I will be getting hitched on November 4, 2012 at the Hotel Maya in Long Beach, California. Originally, we wanted our date to be October 20th, which is a Saturday, however, that changed when we saw the premium places charged for a Saturday evening wedding. (FYI, for those of you brides out there scouting out venues, you can save close to $10,000 just by switching your celebration to a Friday or Sunday.) We opted for a Sunday and pushed back our date to the first weekend in November, which gave us an additional 15% off... Score! Now that we have our venue, I've realized that my color scheme may have to be tweaked a little bit. What I know for sure is that I LOVE succulent plants, so my palette should complement that cool sage green. I also want to have some bright colors to add to our killer outdoor ambiance at the Maya. The decor and vibe there is " Mayan Mystique meets Urban Chic.... alluring fusion of Latin American and Southern Californian style."

You might be reading this thinking, 'wait a minute, didn't Taya say her dream wedding would be in Palm Springs?' Yes, you're right. In my last post I wrote about how I fell in love with the Colony Palms Hotel in the desert. Well, when I got back to Los Angeles I decided to reach out to a friend of mine, Laura, who also happens to be a wedding planner. She and I met for a glass of wine and french fries (that's how I roll) to brainstorm other locations that had a vibe I wanted, and were more affordable and easier for people to travel to. I told her how I loved the old Spanish charm of the Colony Palms, along with its cool mid-century chic vibe, and that I envisioned getting married somewhere unique... somewhere with palm trees that felt like an escape. She recommended the Hotel Maya.

Long story short: I went on my own to tour the grounds. Later that week Vinnie, his parents, my MOH and I enjoyed Sunday brunch there, and that pretty much sealed the deal. (PS, the food is AMAZING!) The hotel is owned by Hilton and they recently had a $10mil renovation. The secret is slowly getting out on what a fabulous location it is for an event. In 2009 they had about 45 weddings, last year almost 100, and in 2012 even more!

Side note: When Vinnie's parents got married in San Pedro 30+ years ago, his mom wanted to spend their wedding night at this hotel!! Even though they ended up staying somewhere else, she always remembered how special the location was. It was cool to hear them reminisce about it ;-)

Now that we have our venue it's time to send out save the dates, design invites, etc.

So, what's my new challenge? Setting the tone and vibe of our wedding through COLORS. It's likely that our save the dates will be similar in design to our invitations. I've let my creative juices start flowing over the holiday weekend and this is what I've been inspired by so far. I want something modern with a hint of Spanish/Latin American influence.

As previously mentioned, I LOVE succulents! They will definitely be  in my floral arrangements and table centerpieces. I'm also really digging the grey and yellow. What do you think?

I feel like picking your colors is the last big step in getting the ball rolling. Am I right? I'd love to hear how this part of the planning is going for you! Do your save the dates look like your invites? Once you picked your paper goods, did you feel pigeonholed into a certain color scheme? Have any advice or words of wisdom for me?

Gold + Green Wedding Inspiration

A bride wrote in about inspiration ideas including gold and green. It may not sound like the perfect pair, but these two colors go incredibly well together if it is done right. The gold details can come in the form of tableware, runners, vases, etc. Lots of romantic candle light and overhead chandeliers. For the green details, I was immediately drawn to these florals offering very organic and forest-esque additions. Adding in some simple pops of yellow, blush and white add further to the romantic details.

Credit: Flowers, Flowers, Bouquet, Green + Gold, Vases