Leigh & Davin's farmhouse wedding

Leigh and Davin got married this summer on a beautiful farm in the Snohomish Valley. So many things about this day stand out to me, but most especially the dress Leigh wore. I'm pretty sure my mouth dropped open a bit; I've never seen anything like it and I can't stop talking about how stunning it was, and how much it really fit Leigh's personality.

Leigh's brother officiated the wedding, which made it even more emotional and special and personal. Everyone in attendance that day was just all about spreading the love and making sure the happy couple started off their marriage as perfectly as possible. And it was pretty much perfect. And happy.

The newlyweds decided to borrow a Jewish tradition, and after the ceremony they retreated to a Yichud.

And then, it was time to have some fun.

When I first met Leigh and Davin, and asked them to sum up their wedding in a few words, they said they wanted a playful day. During the cocktail hour they set up lawn games around the farm, including croquet, bocce ball and ladder ball. Guests had a good time, after a few cocktails, relaxing and being silly together.

This was one of the most laid back and relaxing weddings I have gotten to be a part of. Leigh and Davin are just the cutest couple and are obviously surrounded by lots of love and support from all of their friends and family. It was a fun day and I know they have a lifetime of happiness to look forward to. Congratulations guys!!

Thanks to Non-fiction Weddings for the pictures. Proceeds from their wedding fees go towards their Girl World project, please check it out.

Something blue

I spotted these babies on the Bride's Guide from Martha Stewart Weddings. Occasionally those mainstream folks throw out something stunning for the rest of us. I am so in love with these: I've pinned them, I've oogled them for several minutes, and now have decided to blog them.

For real, I'm still swooning. They're blue. They sparkle. They have some serious bling at the toe. And they are reasonably affordable.

I'm pretty sure I need them.

Source: thebridesguide.marthastewartweddings.com via Rebecca on Pinterest

Wedding Voice: Gloria & Eldon.

In honor of my aunt and uncles recent 44th wedding anniversary, I wanted to share their wedding story, in my uncles words. I love the simplicity of the day. I love that the focus was on celebrating the marriage itself, with just a simple reception at the end. I love that my uncle admits he was a bit of a wreck. And I love that they decided to skip out on the reception early. Because at the end of the day, it's the wedding that is the important part. You can eat cake anytime.

We were married on September 9, 1967 at the United Methodist Church. We were on a very tight budget as I was on active duty in the Air Force and being a recent enlistee, was making virtually no money. Gloria was working as secretary and she too was making minimal income. I was on leave and was being transferred from Mississippi to Texas and only had two weeks of leave. Hence, we did not have a professional photographer and just got photos that friends took. Also, the reception was held in the basement of the church with just a cake and fruit juices.

Gloria was very cool, calm and reserved on the day of the wedding. On the other hand, I was a nervous wreck. Had it not been for my Best Man, who was staying at my folks house with me, I would have probably been late, or not fully dressed. I was so nervous that I could not even get all the words for the marriage vows out. I joke that since I didn’t say all the vows, I am not really married. 

Editors note: Those are my grandparents, on the left, at about my age, which is just strange to think about.

Editors note: See that fourth bridesmaid in? Isn't she cute? Yep, that's my mom. And the second one in, that's another aunt. 

Gloria & I were expecting some dirty tricks being pulled on us after the wedding and so shortly after the reception started, we snuck out the back of the church and skipped most of the reception.

44 years ... wow. Happy anniversary to you both. I love you! 

And to the rest of you, please send me your wedding pictures, or those of your family. I'd love to share their stories!

Shannon & Ahren are getting hitched

Shannon & Ahren are getting married a week from today! I've been saving these, but I can't wait any longer to share them with you. They are kinda bad ass, I'm pretty excited.

It's going to be one hell of a party. I pretty much can't wait.

Happy three day weekend!

Photos by Gabriel Van Wylie

Celebrating marriage equality with APW

One of my favorite blogs, apracticalwedding.com, is hosting a huge party this Thursday in New York to celebrate the legalization of same sex marriage. They are putting on two legal weddings, followed by a most awesome reception. You can read more about the couples who are getting hitched here. It is also a fundraiser for Lambda Legal, which is a great organization fighting for civil right in the LGBTQ community. You can donate here, it would be greatly appreciated.

Those of us reading around the country wanted to get in on the fun, so we decided to throw some regional parties to kick off the festivities. The Seattle area gathering was yesterday.

We met at Rosebud down on Capitol Hill (thanks to my friend Status for the recommendation). It was a small group, just five of us. We had some fun getting to know each other, talking weddings and APW, trying new drinks (um, pomegranate martini. Yum.) and eating the rainbow cupcakes provided by my friend Sarah from The Chic Cupcake.

It was a relaxing few hours, making some new friends, kicking back a few drinks and spreading the cupcake love around the restaurant. The staff and other patrons got a kick out of the cupcakes, we probably sent a dozen home with the staff, a half dozen or so to customers, and we won't mention how many the five of us went through. Rainbow cupcakes rule. Clearly.

Thanks to Jane, Liz, Hannah and Becky for spending a Saturday night with me APW style (and thanks to Jane for taking pictures).

Looking ahead to the party to come, I wish Leanne & Anne, Cory & Aaron a very happy LEGAL wedding day this Thursday, and hope the party freakin rocks! My friends over at APW are working hard to make it one hell of a day and I can't wait to see the pictures!

Wedding Dresses and Marriage

I read an article recently on NPR titled Why Are Wedding Dresses So Expensive? I thought, being NPR, that it would be an insightful article, well researched and full of information about the craftsmanship, the labor, the quality of material, etc. Though those things were mentioned, the part that got me was this:

"A bride's dress can signal how wealthy she is, what her status in society is. But it can also signal how seriously she's taking this marriage." 

Wait. What? Did the author just imply that those that chose not to spend four digits on a wedding gown aren't taking the marriage seriously?!

WTF?!

Let me just tell you that the amount of money you spend is in absolutely no way related to how much you love your significant other. If you chose to have a potluck dinner after a courthouse wedding while wearing your go-to outfit (the one that makes you feel like a rockstar), this is no way signifies that you aren't as in love as someone who fits into the '12 most expensive weddings ever' category.

Having a lavish wedding is not equal to a long and fulfilling marriage. Just ask Sir Paul. Or Christina Aguilera. Or Lady Di.

Folks please, listen to me here. Hear me. Believe me. Your marriage has no bearing WHATSOEVER on the amount of money it cost to celebrate it. Your marriage will not last longer if you spend multiple tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on the wedding. Marriage takes work, it takes compromise, it takes love and respect. It does NOT take an $8,000 wedding gown.

Eesh.

Engagement Photos: Josh & Alicia

Josh and Alicia were referred to me a few months ago by a fellow soccer board member. I pretty much want to carry them around in my pocket because they are so happy and smiley and cute and REAL. It's been a blast getting to know them and helping them plan their wedding, and I just wanted to take a few minutes to share their new engagement pictures with you so that you will love them too.

 

They have endeared themselves to me in many ways, but most importantly by celebrating their love of all things Sounders FC ; as a season ticket holder myself this makes me sososo happy.  Their wedding colors are blue and green, and they have a few other related surprises that I cannot even WAIT to tell you about.

But best of all, they are just down to earth, normal, fun folks. Alicia posted on Facebook recently that she was thinking of trying out for a local Roller Derby team. This pretty much sealed the deal for me. I want to keep her.

Thanks so much, Josh and Alicia, for letting me come along on this journey with you. You guys rock.

Engagement shots by Fred Calma Photography

Rehearsal dinners

I recently read a wedding planner blog on the importance of a rehearsal dinner. It advised couples to do things like hire their wedding photographer (for an extra fee, of course) to come shoot pics of the evening, hire a party rental company to come jazz up the dinner space, perhaps hire a mini bus to transport all the out of towners. I read this and I thought "holy hell, its no wonder people have such a hard time with the wedding industry." Eesh, when I googled rehearsal dinner, I even found a website dedicated solely to planning just your rehearsal dinner.


There is no reason you need all this stuff to make your rehearsal dinner a great event. The rehearsal, and the following dinner, are meant to ease your mind. The purpose of the rehearsal is to make sure everyone involved in the wedding knows their place, knows what to do during the ceremony. The following dinner (which is by no means mandatory, but any excuse to surround yourself with those you love works for me!) is meant to gather all the wedding participants in one place so you have a chance to thank them, and to eat, drink, and be merry. (Traditionally, parties were held on the wedding eve to chase evil spirits away. The more noise the better. Oh yeah!!).

Source: 100layercake.com via Rachel on Pinterest

In sane and practical wedding land, lets try this. Wedding rehearsal (not necessarily at the ceremony site), followed by potluck dinner at mom's house. Or, one of my favorites, one couple I worked with went to their favorite drive-in for dinner, then invited everyone back to their place to unwind. Couples use the dinner as a chance to pass out any thank you gifts, hear and give toasts, sit back, relax and still have an awesome kick-off to the wedding celebration. There doesn't need to be any stress involved, nor does this need to be a huge expense. Put a little creative thought into the evening, absolutely. But be practical. You don't need to hire a party rental  company to make the evening memorable ... you just need to be creative and happy and know how to have a good time.

Just don't drink TOO much, because the next day YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED!!

I love Jimmy

Inspired in part by this Bridal Rehab blog, I went browsing on the Jimmy Choo website again. Not a good idea, since I can't afford anything on there, nor do I have a lot of places I can wear 4 or 5" heels. But a girl can dream. So here are my new favorite shoes, which look a lot like some of the other shoes I have posted lately. But these are gold. And that changes everything.

Cutest wedding guest EVER

I might be slightly biased, but this weeks Wordless Wednesday post features pretty much the cutest little girl ever! She's the best looking guest from this weekend for sure.

Check out what this adorable dress looked like after her day of fun here.

*note, this picture was taken by my husband. You are welcome to use it, but please let me know first, and link back to this post. Thanks.

Shoes with bling

I'm getting in a little shoe fix today. I am obssesively hunting for these Christian Louboutin shoes that I saw on For Real Weddings this morning. I love the whole inspiration board she created, but I really must have those shoes. I've been looking for them for a couple hours and am not having any luck.

In my search for the above shoes, I did find these that I really really want. I do love the sparkly ones.

On the 'shoes I can afford' list, I saw these babies on postcards and pretties today. How cute are they? And for $30?!?! Awesome!

My last pair of goodness was a twitter find. The Budget Babe linked to these awesome Ivanka Trump shoes that would be stunning for a wedding. I love the sparkle!

Happy Tuesday peeps. It is time to go enjoy this beautiful, sunny Seattle day!

Erin and Mary tied the knot!!

This weekend was crazy fun! As much as I love weddings, FAMILY weddings are even more awesome. Now that the festivities have come to an end, I am exhausted! It was a whirlwind weekend full of lots of activities - my sister-in-law and her other half (**note to self: must find out how they are referring to each other now.) live on the east coast so they opted for a whole weekend of celebrations here in Seattle. I loved having so much time to visit with everyone!!

I will give a wedding recap later, when we get the pictures back. But I wanted to leave you with two little wedding tips I brought out of this weekend.

First tip. Photo booths rock. Seriously rock!! Special shout out here to Say Cheez Photo Booth for providing all the props and fun. Here is a sampling of the photo strips my little family of five came home with (taken from my smart phone, the quality is much better in person, I promise). SO! MUCH! FUN!

Second tip. Think long and hard before you drop a lot of money on the kids attire. Princessy dresses on toddlers look beautiful at the beginning of the day. But here is what happens at the end of the day, after the toddler has eaten chocolate cupcake and danced and run and had lots of fun.

It is the sign of a good time though, right? I especially love the string of tulle hanging from the skirt.

I promise to post pics of the happy couple and the most beautiful sunny Seattle day soon. But for now, it's time to get out here and enjoy the fireworks! Happy Independence Day!

Pride and Marriage Equality

Photo Credit: KING 5 news

It's Pride Month for various organizations around the country, trying to teach tolerance and acceptance of the gay community. In the wedding world I am seeing lots of posts this week, especially after the legalization of same sex marriage in New York. Having just attended the Seattle Pride Parade, I am inspired and passionate about marriage equality and felt it was time to put in my two cents.

This morning I read a great wedding graduate post on A Practical Wedding as part of their pride week. Written from one of the brides perspective, it included a piece of their ceremony that made me want to stand up and cheer, and I hope they don't mind that I share a bit of it here (but seriously, go read the whole post because it is awesome. And while you are at it, check out their blog too).

"... to those who might oppose why we're here today, I have one thing to say: you've already lost. Our generation doesn't care. Despite all the sham and drudgery in this world, we realize that love, where it can be found, should be revered, protected, and consecrated. Period."

I love this. So much. Why in the world would we want to discourage people from loving each other? I will never understand the reasons those opposed throw out there. Who cares WHO you love as long AS you love. Bring happiness to this world, find a place to belong, a corner of the world where you are loved and cherished ... that's what its all about. It shouldn't matter to anyone who you curl up with at night, who you choose to sleep with, who you fall in love with - it shouldn't matter. As I tell my kids, "as long as the person you are with makes you happy, treats you with respect and isn't doing anything illegal, I will be fine with it".

This all hits close to home for me, because this weekend, as everyone around the country is celebrating Independence Day, my family will be celebrating the union of my sister-in-law and her girlfriend. We are coming together to celebrate their love; the fact that they are happy and willing to commit to each other for life. And who wouldn't want to celebrate that? It's going to be one hell of a party - because this family KNOWS how to throw a party. And what better excuse to party than to celebrate a marriage!

I found this on the APW facebook page, and I think it just sums it all up.

“Personally, I am very excited about “gay marriage”, or as I like to call it, “marriage”. Because I had lunch this afternoon, I didn’t have “gay lunch”. And I parked my car, I didn’t “gay park” it.” – Liz Feldman

I also loved how my sister-in-law, who hates the term lesbian, put it to her girlfriend (and I am paraphrasing here). "I just love you. Why does it need a bigger label than that?"

Word.

Cutest little flats under $100

I have a bride who is a little taller than her husband to be, so she wants to wear a shoe with no heel on her wedding day. She's getting married in the spring, and her colors are blue and green. In honor of her today, I bring you some of my favorite shoe finds of the flat variety, all under $100.

1. Custom Bridal Flats from Etsy shop HydraHeart

 

2. Gisenna by Chinese Laundry

 

3. Leona Satin Flat by Vera Wang

 

4. Kortship flat by Steve Madden

 

5. Reva ballet flat by Tory Burch

 

6. Festive flat by Corso Como

 

 

You have to check out Tom's wedding line too. I love their white glitter shoes and their grosgrain ... I can't decide which I like better. These are the most comfortable pair of shoes I own! And you can feel good about buying these shoes because for every pair you purchase, they donate a pair to a child in need. Love that.

A couple more that I found that didn't quite make my top picks, but are still noteworthy mentions.

Cute flats from Chinese Laundry here, currently on sale at Macy's for under $40!

Look at these cute ballet slippers for the bride, here. They even come in their own embroidered bag and are marked at $24!

Happy shopping!

Life lessons and your wedding

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone Neale Donald Walsch

~~~~~~

Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right Henry Ford

Wise words today, quoted on one of my favorite blogs, the Broke-Ass Bride. These quotes are in reference to a big, exciting happening over in Dana's world and you can read about that here. I love how she tied her current experience into her wedding planning experience. That girl can write, you have to check it out.


Stock wedding image from arbutusphotography.com


Planning a wedding is something you've most likely never done before. It's a lot of work. It's dealing with an industry that can be crazy overwhelming. It's a lot of stress.

But in the end, when the to-do lists are done, when the cake and the flowers and the officiant and the attendants and everyone and everything else has come together to make this happen, that's when you need to look back over the last few weeks or months realize what you did.

You stepped out of your comfort zone. You may have doubted yourself for a while. There were probably tears. But holy crap, check it out! You married the love of your life and you threw one hell of a party to celebrate it. Be proud of yourself, hold your head high and go conquer the world! This is your time now, you're new beginning. You earned it. Take the lessons and the love and the empowerment that you are feeling and live your life to its fullest potential.

Just remember to enjoy the moments.

Weddings Dresses under $250?!?

Wait, what?

You heard me right people, gowns under $250.

On my recent trip to the mall, after I found the most awesome sparkly shoes I mentioned in last weeks post, I was wandering through the formal wear section and realized there are a lot of dresses there that would be stunning as wedding gowns for those of you looking for something affordable and still amazing.

Check out the two I fell in love with on the Nordstrom website.

The one on the left, a JS Boutique Beaded Crisscross Matte Jersey Gown, retails for $178. The one on the right, a Calvin Klein Sequin Trim Mesh Gown, retails for $218.

For real guys, at Nordstrom!

Over at BCBG, check out these dresses I found in the sale section.

The one on the left is called the Haute Satin Gown and is marked down to $160.80 on their website. On the right, the Timona Strapless Silk Gown is marked down to $216.00. If you go up even $100-$200 here you get several more super cute options on both their new lines and the sale stuff.

By thinking outside the box a little bit, it is possible to have an afforadble, practicle wedding without comprimising on your style. At JC Penney, for instance, there were some cute and simple dresses under $100. How about this one for a beachy wedding (click on picture to go to their site)?

Give yourself time and permission to explore places you wouldn't necessarily think to look for wedding items and allow yourself to be creative. You never know what you will find out there until you try it!

Sparkly shoes

I was at the mall the other day (you don't even KNOW how long it's been since I've been able to say that!!) and almost squealed when I saw these shoes at Macy's. I just had to share them with you all because I know I'm not the ONLY one that loves me some bling!

These are the Danee Pumps by Nine West at Macy's. They looked all sparkly and pretty sitting on display, it was hard to resist them! But resist I did, sadly.

Then I hit the shoe department at Nordstrom's looking for some Tom's and checking out the sale racks. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a very excited woman wearing the most absolutely TO! DIE! FOR! shoes. Seriously you guys, she was so excited it was hard to miss her! Check these babies out!

Enzo Angiolini Smile and the Enzo Angiolini Sully at Nordstrom

I went online to find better pictures (the one I took on my phone didn't do them justice) and found the opened toed Sully ... I can't decide which I like better. But sure enough, I can see these in my future. I can also see them on a bride, or some bridesmaids ... somebody needs to get married in these!! They are so sparkly!

For a minute I thought I might like them more than my Jimmy's. But then I went back and looked at the picture and realized, no, I still like Jimmy better. But those Enzo's are a close close second.

I do necklaces for your newly engaged friends

Inspired by this piece here on Martha Stewarts Bride Blog, I went searching for necklaces on etsy that were similar. So many cute options you guys!! Click on the pictures for links to the etsy store where I found them.







Local shop betsyfarmerdesigns

  
 

etsy shop martywhitedesigns

 

etsy shop craftybabyxoxo



etsy shop youregonnalovethis



Loving this idea!! So sweet and fun! There are more to find on etsty, check it out here.