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.

{Image Source for all pics in this post}

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!

{Picture Source}

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!!!