Well it is offically here, wedding week! We have already run into a few hiccups but what I have learn thus far is to keep you cool and utilize your resources. I am so excited to see all of the final pieces come together. I will be sure to share all of my final details and the finished products!
Piece by Piece is a new series where we will go through small and large pieces of the wedding and provide top inspiration of them all. The goal of this series is to help dissect your wedding day and offer design advice in one awesome series of posts. Today we are focusing on a sometimes forgotten piece of the wedding, the bar. I'm loving all the creative bar styling I have been seeing and I hope that more brides put time and attention to these often overlooked pieces.
Are you bring your bar up a notch and providing a design element to it? Would love to hear your plans!
This past weekend Derek and I hit up a local french cafe and pastry shop Petite Reve Cafe we had been meaning to try and were pleasantly surprised with some wedding cake inspiration. What could be better than hundreds of layers of crepes to impress your guests? While waiting for our coffees Derek spotted some photos of some stunning crepe wedding cakes. He spoke with the owner and learned that she is one of the only people on the West Coast who makes theses special cakes and that they can be customized with any flavor filling and to match our wedding flowers.
Sources: Lavendar & Twine (1, 3 & 4), N Barrett Photography (2)
With dessert being one of our favorite things in the world (no meal is complete without amazing dessert!), we have some pretty big sweet teeth to satisfy for our wedding day. With so many wedding cake options these days we would like to do something a little less traditional and on the smaller side for ours, especially since it seems like most guests do not even end up eating the wedding cake and we plan to have several other dessert options.
For me, the simpler the cake, the better.
And, of course we have a special sweet spot for cake pops too.
More to come in the next few weeks on our other non-cake dessert ideas.
How did you decide on your wedding cake? Did you go for a less traditional option? I certainly can't wait to start tasting!
One of my favorite things right now is the color Seafoam. I'm totally obsessed with this simple and calming color. I think it is the perfect color for a wedding. Here are some fun details that fit the seafoam simplicity. Hope you all are loving this much column as I'm loving sharing them!
Today I'm excited to share a very special wedding with you all. Remember one of very first E&I brides Kate? She was our fabulous Rustic Chic bride planning a Pennsylvania wedding. Well, she has since tied the knot and had her wedding featured on Style Me Pretty!
I loved everything about her fabulous wedding day. So many crafty details, a gorgeous dress and some totally awesome florals. Check out some incredible shots from her wedding day. Big huge congrats to Kate and we wish her all the very best.
See how she planned her wedding and follow her journey here on Engaged & Inspired.
Photography: Sanderson Images / Venue, caterer, and cake artist: Normandy Farm / Florist: Love N Fresh Flowers / Music: Synergetic Sounds Day of Coordinator: Molly Hartman of Glitter + Rye
After spending a year oohing and ahhing over all of the gorgeous invitation suites I saw on Pinterest, we reached a point where we finally had to come up with our own. And as with everything else, to my fiancé's dismay, I needed it to be DIY. Let me briefly digress by saying that every line on my exhaustive (and exhausting) budget is a chance for a little competition. Hence the overkill on DIY projects.
Oh, hello budget. You think my invitations are going to cost $800? Well, think again!
Anyways, after several trips to Paper Source and FedEx Kinko's, and after a couple of crying fits in front of Photoshop, we finally finished our eco-friendly DIY invitations. Et voilà!
And here is the whole thing constructed and deconstructed...
"One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple." - Jack Kerouac
Remember the Kerouac quote on the envelope? It's one of our favorites, so we tied it into the invitation wording :)
And Kyle even drew custom maps for us!
I have to admit that even though I never wanted to look at another invitation in my entire life by the time we got these in the mail, I was quite eager to hear what people thought. I mean, I watercolored 199 pieces of paper and Kyle typed 106 custom RSVP cards and envelopes after all!
Here is what we did in summary: I designed the invitations on Photoshop using some cool free fonts, Kyle drew the maps by hand and we scanned them in, we bought all of the paper products from Paper Source (all at least 30% recycled!) including the vintage San Francisco postcards, bought eco-friendly hemp string and antique sailboat charms from etsy, found some great 1950s sports car stamps for the postcards on ebay, bought the rest of the stamps from the regular old Post Office, had everything printed and cut at FedEx Kinko's, glued the envelope liners into the envelopes, watercolored a bunch of things, tied figure 8 knots on all of the strings to attach the sailboat charms, typed the RSVP cards and envelopes on our 1920 Underwood typewriter, drank a bunch of wine, and finally put all 53 invites together. Phew!
ALL of this, all of the postage, paper, supplies, sticky tape, paint brushes, printing, etc cost $360. Well under my $800 budget. Take that budget!!
So, what do you think? I'm dying to hear!
I got a call from my future sister-in-law (or just sister to me!) the other day with a very excited "Hey!!!". It seems that she was wondering if we had made our registries yet while on her lunch at work and decided to turn to Google to find the answer. Upon googling our names, she came across the Save-The-Date Video that the Mister had made for our wedding website. This of course reminded me that I haven't shared anything about our choices for a wedding website with you lovely readers! Surprise, we made one!
After sampling lots of different options we ultimately went with Wedding Wire's offerings. With unlimited pages and lots of add on's like maps, the ability to check on accommodations and even a reception song request tab, we couldn't go wrong. I also loved that the important things were available through a mobile version for people that were accessing the site through their phone.
Source: Our Website on Wedding Wire
With that said....I have to admit I am also using Appy Couple. The overall design of the app is ridiculously cool and new features are added all the time. I also like that our friends and family who have smart phones can follow along on our journey right from their home screen!
Source: Our app from Appy Couple
I"m really happy with how both sites are turning out and cannot wait for our guests to use them.
What lead you to choose your wedding website host? How do you feel like having an app just for your wedding info?
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This past week has been a busy and productive one! I've been checking things off my list. Here's what I've done:
Finally found a caterer who is listening to what we want and working with us to make it happen! Fingers crossed that this one works out. Future post to come.
Got in contact with a friend-of-a-friend designer for our wedding invites. She seems awesome but working on the details of style and printing technique, which both effect cost.
Set up multiple appointments to try on wedding dresses in the coming weeks. October=operation wedding dress.
Built our wedding website! We are going to use it to get the word out about accommodations since our destination is a small town and already booking up for next July. You may remember my post about wedding websites, here, where I talked about going social. I ended up going with Weduary and am really happy with it so far!
Solidified our condo rentals for the wedding party.
Started our wedding registry. This brings me to the topic of today's post - wedding china.
I'm sure many of you have thought the same thing - do I really need china? Does the tradition of creating a family heirloom outweigh the fact that I won't be hosting Thanksgiving until I have a house or apartment big enough for a table with a leaf?
As of now, I'm undecided on whether china will be a part of our registry. But, these pictures are making me see the appeal! They also remind me of my grandma's collection of teacups with saucers. She has all different styles and gets a new one every couple years. I would be so excited to have them one day and it's not because she got them for her wedding, it's because they remind me of her. So, I don't think you have to have wedding china to build something to pass down to future generations, but it would be fun to have a fancy set for holidays and dinner parties.
Did you, or are you going to, register for china? How did you decide whether or not to do it?
Not gonna lie, people..... the bridal anxiety has set in. I'm trying my best not to freak out, but omg the big day is here in just 33 days! I'd like to have 95% of my work done 2 weeks before, which means I have 2 WEEKS to get my butt in gear! I have plenty of little things that need my attention. one of which is seating. Should I have a map/list of guests' names & tables with a name card at their seat, or should I make escort cards and have guests seat themselves at the table? Well, if I do escort cards I would like something cute and/or clever.... like any of these:
photo credit: www.elizabethannedesigns.com
photo credit: poptasticbride.com
lavender escorts double as pretty table decor
These succulent escort cards double as party favors :)
Thank you Allison for emailing me some escort card inspiration and for the advice. You're totally right- "You can do something simple and just add a tiny twist to make it kind of different. For example, an escort card with something that matches your wedding taped with a little piece of glitter tape." I think the simple route is the direction I'm headed ;)
What are your thoughts, brides-to-be? Anyone else only a month a way? Or perhaps you just had your big day? Any words of wisdom for me as I wuickly approach mine???
xo, Taya
I've been a little quiet over here. Luckily these fabulous E&I brides have been holding down the fort talking about the pretty weddings they are planning while I work on kicking things into high gear over here. The site is going through a re-design and re-development, so you can expect lots of new things coming to this here inspiration hub in the next few months.
Columns + Series are going to be a fun new addition to this blog, and I can't wait to show you what I have up my sleeves. Today we are starting with a new color series I like to call "The Colory". Think of it as the place to go for all things color!
Fall is upon us which means changing color palettes and beautiful weddings in lush color palettes. Luckily for us, gold is in all year long and actually makes a perfect fall color. Check out this fabulously gold mood board filled with plenty of ideas to incorporate a little something shiny into your wedding day plans.
Source: Cake, Packaging, Sarah Seven, Drinks, Cupcake, Invitation Suite, Shoes, Gold Animals, Chairs
Looking for a little help incorporating gold into your wedding day? Engaged & Inspired offers a series of services including design, crafting and consultations allowing you to get organized and get your design on track. Let's tackle your wedding together!
