FABULOUS Video Idea!

I have no words to express how freaking awesome this video is.

I wish TR & I would have done this!!!!

{Found via Polka Dot Bride}

Christmas Centerpieces

Now that Thanksgiving is a day behind us, I've allowed myself to start focusing on Christmas decorations & wedding ideas! As always, Better Homes & Gardens' website is overflowing with great ideas, so I thought I'd share:

Glass + ornaments = easy, cost-effective & elegant! I love these mini-ornaments (below)! You could use an array of glassware that you already own (or buy the glasses in bulk), and place a few of these ornament arrangements on each table at your reception.

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Quite similar to another post of mine regarding Fall decorations... here are some lovely glass cloches encasing an array of ornaments (below). I really like how full the cloches are and how each one rests on top of an antique-y silver tray. Again, these would make great reception centerpieces.

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Using grass as an integral part of reception decor has been a trend this year, but mostly with Spring & Summer weddings. Here (below), ornaments are nestled between blades of grass ~ just think how cute this would be as an escort card arrangement! Just write guest names & table numbers on cardstock and attach to the top of each ornament. The ornaments could even be favors for your guests to take home!

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I love the simple look of clear candlesticks with plain matte ornaments resting on top (below). Using glitter glue or glitter paint, you could write the letters of your new last name on the ornaments and place them on candlesticks of varying heighths. This would be a smart arrangement for a guest book table, or spread out along a long head table.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I would like to wish everyone a fabulous Thanksgiving tomorrow! I will be hosting dinner for my in-laws and am actually kind of excited to cook for them. Hopefully all of my dishes will turn out well! I have so much to be thankful for this year... my husband, my family, my friends, my luck in life... my job, my house, my education... I am so blessed! Somehow I ended up with a pretty super life.

**Lindsey**

Wedding Weather Tracker

My intent is to show you this tool so that you may make educational guesses as to what attire would be appropriate for your wedding day, what time to take sunset photos, etc. NOTE: I did not say that my intent is to draw out your inner OCD qualities... those qualities that make you obsessively check the weather every single day leading up to your wedding... those qualities that make you freak out if the forecast mentions any chance of precipitation... those qualities that - okay you get the picture. Please don't use this tool for off-label purposes. There. I've said my disclaimer.

Without further ado, I would like to introduce Weather.com's Wedding Planner tool. What it allows you to do is track average temperatures and precipitation, down to the DAY of your wedding, as well as sunrise & sunset times (so that you and your new husband/wife can sneak away for perfectly-timed glowing sunset photos).

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With this tool, you can set the date and location of your wedding and see the average weather conditions are for that location/date. In the picture below, you can see averages for each month in Indianapolis, and even compare another city (in case you are deciding between two different locations).

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You can click on each month to get an even more detailed daily estimate of temperature PLUS sunrise & sunset times.

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Please play responsibly!!

My DIY Fall Decorations

I had the house all to myself today, so I was finally able to make some Fall decorations for my house! A little late, I know, but I'm hosting Thanksgiving for my in-laws next Thursday and I want my house to look festive!

I found some awesome inspiration all over the web for these projects, so I'll try to post the original links in case you want the directions for each project.

Here's an overall view of my new buffet with most of the decorations on top...



My first project was the plaid "artwork" with brown yarn string... I got my inspiration from Better Homes & Gardens' article: Easy Holiday Decorating with Ribbon. Although this piece doesn't involve ribbon, it does involve using up a leftover piece of padded poster board and some $1.50 fabric from Walmart. :) I added the brown yarn after viewing how Miss Blush packaged her bridesmaid gifts over on Weddingbee.



My second project was making yarn pom poms. These turned out so cute!!! I was inspired by Koala Brains' Billy Buttons tutorial. Once I had three poms in each color, I put them in a clear narrow vase from Walmart and wrapped each vase in some orange ribbon I had left over. I also stuck some straw in there for good measure.





My third project was making the leaf candle holders. Michael's has all of their fall decor on sale for like 70-90% off (don't quote me on that... but they were super cheap), so I picked up some semi-translucent artificial fall leaves for 75 cents. I can't remember where I saw this idea, but it's so simple... I just used double-stick tape to stick each leaf on the candle holder, then secured with a straw bow. I found my candle holder at Walmart. In fact, all of the glass items I used today were from Walmart.





The last DIY project for this post (I did a few more things, but forgot to take pictures!) was the clothespin place card. I actually thought this up myself! I bought the clothespins for another project (Christmas gift: fun paper-covered clothespin magnets), but thought it would be so much fun to attach name cards to the clothespins and clip onto the side of each guest's wine glass. For an added touch, I stuck some small fake leaves to the bottom. I love how these look, and I just know my guests will love them, too!

Summer Floral Inspiration

On such a chilly day, it really brighted my mood and warmed up my thoughts when I saw this array of beautiful orange, yellow and pink flowers over on Mindy Rice's website (found via Style Me Pretty):




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The splash of aqua (the cake! the tie! the bike!) adds such a refreshing coolness to the warm color palette. I just love it! I also adore the long rectangular tables, the vine-ripened oranges hanging overhead, and the rustic urns that the cake & flowers sit upon. There isn't anything I dislike about this decor!

What is an Event Designer?

Event designer: noun. A person who designs events. :)

Ok, here's the real definition (according to me)...

An event designer is a super-human made up of three distinct alter-egos, which I will describe:

The Designer
Obsessed with color, detail, lighting, & space.
Enjoys browsing those huge linen binders full of fabric swatches.
Regularly utilizes Polyvore to create inspiration boards for decorating.
Has an unhealthy fascination with paper products, typeface & letterpress.

The Planner
Obsessed with having a plan A and B for everything.
Enjoys double- and triple-checking plans to ensure everyone's on the same page (and providing everyone with a detailed itenerary so no one forgets his/her duties!).
Regularly utilizes a Franklin Covey planner to map out all of life's details (through 2020).
Has an unhealthy fascination with lists and file folders.

The Assistant
Obsessed with harrassing non-RSVP-ers until their reply is accounted for.
Enjoys DIY projects and doesn't bat an eyelash when asked to create, bottle & label homemade honey favors for 250 guests.
Regularly utilizes safety pins and duct tape to fix anything (like MacGyver!).
Has an unhealthy fascination with the Tide Stain Stick.

What I'm Loving...

Hi Friends!

I have just added a Google Reader widget-thingy to my blog (right side), which posts a link to everything I "star" on my Google Reader. How fun! Now you can see what inspires me on a daily basis - and you will most likely see some blog posts that reference a starred item. If you haven't started subscribing to your favorite blogs & websites via Google Reader or another RSS feeder, you don't know what you're missing! To have everything in one place really makes my life easier.

**Lindsey**

Cake-tastic!

One of the most fun items on my wedding planning to-do list was choosing a cake. I don't know how many work hours were lost to browsing Brides.com's cake gallery... Cake-searching truly is an addiction! Speaking of cakes, I'd like to share a few of my favorite cakes with you...

First up, the inspiration for my wedding cake. There's something about a plain white cake with adornment that gets me every time:

Next, a beautifully simple square cake with ribbon trim.

Here is a GORGEOUS chocolate brown cake with sugar apple adornment.

And finally, the coolest idea ever: Reese's Pieces cake!

{All cake pictures taken from Brides.com's Cake Gallery}

Awesome Autumn Wedding

By now, you should know that I love Fall-time. It's pretty obvious that I have a thing for the colors, the leaves, the crispy weather...

I saw some pictures of a wonderfully creative & chic Autumn/country wedding over on Brides.com (found via Hostess with the Mostess blog) and had to share!

First off: Here is the setting for the wedding. Note the haystacks!

And could their escort cards be any simpler (but still adorable)?!

Using table letters instead of table numbers is a great way to mix things up ~ I love the typeface and colors she chose (the bride went to school for graphic design ~ a degree that becomes extremely useful when planning a wedding)!

They even dressed up their reception tent by adding (my favorite) paper lanterns in their wedding colors.

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Assisting Circle City Planners

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to assist Darcie, an ABC Bridal Consultant and planner for Circle City Planners, with the set up and coordination of one of their largest weddings of the year at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in downtown Indianapolis. I was so honored to help and tried to soak up as much knowledge from Darcie as I could ~ she was so knowledgable about everything. Although set up was laborious and long, I absolutely loved seeing the plain ballroom transform into the vintage-glam setting that was the couple's wedding reception. For some pictures of the event and Darcie's take on the entire day, head on over to Circle City Planners' blog post.

Friday (set up)
Darcie taught me how to tie bows with chair sashes and schooled me on which linen dimensions go with which table sizes. All afternoon, we slipped on chair covers, tied chair sashes, arranged tableclothes & overlays, folded napkins, placed favor cards... my back and feet were aching at the end of the day, but MAN did that room look amazing!!!

Saturday (wedding day!)
I arrived at Scottish Rite four hours before the wedding and helped Darcie finish setting up the ballroom and South lounge (where cocktail hour was held). Another assistant, Christina, showed up and Darcie delegated tasks for the rest of the evening. I steamed bridesmaid dresses, tied more sashes, pinned bridesmaid bras to dresses to prevent slippage, attempted to pin corsages (Christina had to fix my work and taught me a neat "taco" technique for pinning them correctly), corralled groomsmen so they weren't walking all over the cathedral (and risking the groom seeing the bride), signaled soloists to begin singing during the ceremony, helped guests find their tables at the reception, led children to the babysitter's room, and whatever else Darcie wanted me to do! It was non-stop action and the entire night seemed perfect!

The bride & groom were SO. HAPPY. Their families were happy. Their guests were happy. And that's all that matters!

Ooh La La!!

I'm not normally a fan of garters (because I hate when anything constricts a part of my body that is more flab than fab), but I absolutely LOVE the garters from PretereneDesign. Why go with a boring cream or white garter (guilty!) when you can go with vibrant purple or rich amber or glamorous platinum?? And why not add feathers or leaves while you're at it?? Please enjoy the following garters that I wish I would have seen about 5 months ago so I could have bought one for my wedding (you lucky, lucky readers!):

Rodelinde...

Lady Roma...

Roxanne...

French Country Cottage...

Macaroon Croquembouche

I've already posted about the French wedding cake: the croquembouche. Over on Design*Sponge's blog, I saw the best variation on the French wedding cake: the macaroon tower! In your wedding colors, this dessert would be a perfect substitute for the traditional wedding cake ~ and delicious, too! While I was in Paris this spring, I had the most scrumptious pistachio macaroon at midnight in the outside courtyard of a corner cafe... oh, I want to go back so badly!

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Bustle Interview: Laura

I am so happy Laura agreed to be bride #2 in my new Bustle Interview blog segment! Here is her interview:

When were you married?
We were married on 10-18-2008

How far before the wedding did you start planning?
My sister and I started planning about a year before the big day.

Did you hire a wedding planner? If so, how much was he/she involved?
No

What percentage of wedding planning was done by you and what percentage was done by your spouse?
My sister and I did all of the planning my spouse did not help at all (at my request)

What wedding planning tasks did you delegate, and to whom?
I delegated as many tasks as I absolutely could. Anyone who was willing to help was given a task. Being in school and working full time didn’t allow me to spend as much time to invest as other people might have, so I took all of the help and suggestions that I could get.

What were the three items/services you did NOT want to skimp on in terms of budget (i.e. photography, food, location)?
I absolutely did not want to skimp out on the photographer, while some people may consider that vain, your photos are the one thing that can be passed down to future generations, even after Dusty and I are gone.

If you had $1,000 more dollars available in your budget, what would you have spent it on?
I would have invited more people. We had to cut back our guest list because we simply did not have enough money.

What part of planning your wedding did you enjoy the most?
I enjoyed it all, it was stressful at times but there is not one aspect that I enjoyed more than another.

On your wedding day, besides saying your vows, what was the most memorable moment?
I do not have a single memorable moment, the whole day was perfect from beginning to end and I would not have changed a thing.

What would you have done differently if you had to do it all over again (given that hindsight is 20/20)?
I can’t think of anything that I would have changed, the day was beautiful and I could not have asked for more

What advice would you give to brides currently planning their weddings?
My best advice is to not sweat the small stuff, this is a once in a lifetime event (hopefully), you only get to do it once and you don’t want it to be a bad experience because you spent the whole experience fretting about everything. There are going to be things that don’t go just the way you wanted, and there is not going to be anything you can do about it. So just enjoy the day and have as much fun as you can!!

Real Party: Emmy's Princess Ball (aka 4th Birthday)

I had so much fun setting up for Emmy's 4th birthday party today!

Here are some pictures of the party area before the party started:





[Yes, those are Martha Stewart's tissue paper pom poms... they were so easy to make, cost effective, and really gave the room a whimsical feel!]

Here are some pics of the tablescape... I loved the cupcakes with the jeweled rings stuck in the icing!!



We also served pink lemonade to coordinate with the pink & purple princess theme!



As an activity, all of the princesses in attendance decorated their own tiaras:



Here's Princess Emmy (aka "the birthday girl") decorating her tiara:



And here's big sister/Princess/Tinkerbell Gracie showing off her lipgloss ring (favor):



Here's a group shot with all of the princesses wearing their sparkly tiaras:



As you can see, the girls had a great time being princesses, making sparkly tiaras & eating bejeweled cupcakes... and I had the BEST time planning the party!

{All pictures in this post were taken by me.}

A Tribute to Linc

I said my final goodbye to my pup Linc this morning. He was such a good, sweet, loving dog and I will miss him forever!



{(Above)Picture taken by Lemongrass Photography on 8-8-08, my wedding day. I'm so glad Linc stuck around to see me get married!}



{(Above) This was taken 2 years ago at Thanksgiving... just hanging out with the fam.}



{(Above) TR and Linc were buds... Linc loved being scratched on his lower back and would always put his nose in the air while being scratched there... he was such a funny dog.}

I don't have any older pictures to share, but trust that Linc was about 10 shades browner than the pictures above! He was the cutest little half-dachshund-half-cocker-spaniel ever! I'll miss you, Linc!!!