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Holly and Matt’s Seaside, FL wedding is one of those that just makes me nostalgic for the South. Paul Johnson Photography did such an amazing job capturing all of the sweet and Southern details!

Holly is an absolutely stunning bride.  Classic, natural, and beautiful.

Her adorable King Charles Cavalier helped her to get ready (you know I can’t resist posting a good puppy shot).

Favorite photo of the event… heading to the church!

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Even though we are deep in the clutches of fall I know a lot of you are planning spring and summer events.  Peach is a color that always brightens my day and I adore weddings with a touch of whimsy - pair the two, add a splash of blue, and voila!

{Peach cupcakes by Dolce Sway My Way, bride and groom under peach parasol via Red Fish Photo, drink flags via The Bride’s Cafe (styling by Tara Guerard, photo by Liz Banfield), save the date by Maida Vale, bowl of peaches by Matt Bites via a Polk a Dot bride, flowers via All Things Bright and Beautiful (now defunct), flag bunting by Martha Stewart via Ritzy Bee}

I’m a South Carolina girl at heart, so I simply adore Kacie and Darby’s wedding, set at one of my favorite venues in the world, the Inn at Palmetto Bluff, and photographed by the incredible Nashan Photographers.

Guests were welcomed to the lowcountry with beautiful jute gift bags and lovely palm fans.

The ceremony took place in Palmetto Bluff’s Waterside Chapel - a simple and stunning small chapel with wooden pews and loads of sunshine.  Each aisle was decorated with lush pink and green florals in glass vases, tied with ribbons to the pew.

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I love love love today’s Chicago wedding, photographed by Laurie Peacock. Yes, I’m biased, since I think my city is just phenomenal, but Caroline and Edward’s wedding is too wonderful not to love.  There was an elegant simplicity to the entire event, held at the 63rd Street Beach House, and the ocean-inspired floral designs by Allison Denny at Stems are so unique!

Caroline’s navy blue and green bouquet is exquisite.  I spy cabbage, succulents, and all sorts of treasures in there!

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Every now and then I come across a wedding that is not only drop-dead gorgeous, but it’s so creative it warms my soul. That’s Kristen and Matt’s wedding. Kristen, an art director for a cosmetics company, created the entire event herself from start to finish, and the result, photographed by the talented and sweet Daisy Varley, was absolute perfection.

Kristen chose a Mexican fiesta theme for the wedding, full of bright colors, family traditions, paper flowers, and fabulous details!

Bridesmaids were asked to choose a Mexican peasant dress and hem it to their liking.

The wedding was held at Condor’s Nest Ranch in Pala, CA.  Guests were able to stay on the grounds, so signs pointed the way to the wedding and the camping!

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Mr. had a hard time with the fact that I did NOT want a diamond. He thought I was only trying to be nice and “settling” for an aquamarine since a diamond was too expensive. Not at all. I completely trusted his judgment on what he wanted to spend. Even if I could have any ring in the world, regardless of price, I would *still* choose an aqua. Aside from the fact that I love the color, I love having something a little bit different, and it means a lot to me that my aunt has an aqua engagement ring as well. Finally I was able to convince him and I’m so happy with the final product!

{ photo by me }

It’s certainly not traditional, but it seems like it’s not as unusual as I had originally thought. Ever since we got engaged, I have noticed blue engagement rings all over the place!

Liz Taylor and Princess Diana had one? According to Issue 10 of Wedding Style Guide…

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I always get so excited to see an email from Meg Perotti in my inbox!  Meg’s work is just outstanding, and her couples are always so inventive and fun.  Diana and Jacob are no exception to this, as they had a gorgeous wedding at a private home (previously owned by Mr. Warner himself) in Hollywood, which they coordinated on their own and pulled off on a limited budget using lots of friends, family, and ingenuity!

Diana is absolutely radient in her Vera Wang gown, rented from One Night Affair (what a fabulous idea!).

Jacob is a cross genre cellist and plays jazz, rock and classical music, so music played a huge part in their event.    During the ceremony, a guitar-playing friend wrote a song for Diana’s walk down the aisle, and a string quartet (also friends of Jacob’s) played as well.

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I am in love with every detail of today’s wedding, photographed by the fabulous Aaron Shintaku (assisted by Ashley Rose) in San Clemente, CA.  Nichole and Joel pulled together the entire event themselves - with the help of Nichole’s mother - and it’s one of the most beautiful DIY weddings I’ve ever seen! 

Nichole is positively stunning, isn’t she?

{Aaron Shintaku}

{Aaron Shintaku}

{Aaron Shintaku}

{Aaron Shintaku}

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With 11 months to go and the school year right around the corner, I’m a bit more antsy to make some more decisions about the wedding. I’m not talking about cake flavors or napkin folds or anything, but I feel like it might be good if I had SOME sort of idea of what this whole shindig should look like, right?

I’ve spent hours upon hours looking at beautiful weddings and have bookmarked hundreds of inspirational images or articles that I’ve loved (I know y’all feel me), it really is just too much fun! But how do I choose what I actually would like at OUR wedding? I find it insanely challenging to take all the elements that we love and put it into one cohesive look for our wedding. We just like too much of this stuff. All you creative people out there…too much coolness!! I think the biggest challenge of all is making sure that everything blends in with the venue itself. How do these wedding stylists do it??

Enter Beth Helmstetter (and on my birthday too!). I have been absolutely obsessed with inspired by this wedding since I saw it a week ago on Style Me Pretty (see also II, III, and IV). It fits our secret garden meets Mediterranean rustic vibe perfectly…AND there are succulents!

Photography is by Steve Steinhardt and the event was designed by Beth Helmstetter.

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I adored our wedding reception. It flew by like mad, but here’s what I know: I have distinct memories of everyone who was there, it felt exactly like we’d hoped it would, and we’ve never had so much fun.

Crossing the street heading over to the reception:

We chose Ray LaMontagne’s “You Are the Best Thing” as our song, and my heart bursts through my chest every time I hear it, still.

We had a buffet of local food featuring the Outer Banks at its best: fresh shrimp served with grits, stuffed flounder, seasonal vegetables, and of course… mini strawberry shortcakes, made Southern-style with shortbread biscuits. With freshness like this, who needs a wedding cake, anyway? Not us.

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We approached a reception decor plan much the way we approached our ceremony decor plan. The reception would take place across the street from the ceremony in a tented area that leads out onto the Sound. We were dealing with a standard white tent, and wanted to incorporate three big things: color, pattern, and personal touches. We’d keep costs down by reusing elements from the ceremony and making as many of the elements ourselves that we could.

I knew from the start that I wanted patterned tablecloths, and found out two things very quickly: local rental companies didn’t offer patterns, and pre-made tablecloths for sale weren’t available in appropriate colors or patterns. In other words, we were going to have to buy fabric and make the tablecloths ourselves. Searching for the right fabric - the right color, the right patterns, all at the right price - was extremely challenging. To increase the pressure, almost every decision about reception decor was contingent on the fabric decision. We searched long and hard for almost two months before making our final selections. (Nothing went to waste - a fabric we decided against for the tables after seeing it in person became our aisle runner!) Here are the final fabrics, both from Premier Prints:

The reception tables were 60-inch rounds, so we hired a family friend to make 84-inch square tablecloths (half in the red print, half in blue) to provide a 12-inch drop all the way around the table. Each tablecloth was stitched in three pieces, with the pattern lined up so precisely you couldn’t even see a seam. Having such strong linens on the tables allowed us to use the vendor’s white underlays without sacrificing color, which helped cut down on costs.

Once we made the fabric decision, it was time to call in our floral/event design guru Renee Landry to help us plan out the rest of the space. I was inspired by tablescapes that featured separate clusters of matching flowers, grouped together in varying sizes. I was also inspired by pomanders, and was committed to reusing them from the ceremony for our tables. Here are two of my favorite inspiration images, both from Martha:

We decided to use urns to hold the large flower pomanders as table centerpieces and as accents on areas like the bar. The pomander centerpieces would be surrounded by smaller receptacles holding matching flowers, and we decided that the small receptacles should add to our mix-and-match feel by introducing yet more pattern. In order to cut down on costs, we planned on using aluminum cans of various sizes and printing patterned paper ourselves to cover the cans. I got to work creating patterned sheets using the design files that ABCD had given me, while my sister headed up the job of printing the paper and covering the cans. Lots and lots and lots of cans. And did I mention that she was super-pregnant at the time? Go sis! To supplement the look of the cans and centerpieces, my mom decorated white rice paper votive holders with whimsical red and blue designs.

The look coming together (remember our pomanders and wedding wands?):

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We were married at an inn on the Outer Banks, on a deck that led from the inn to the dunes, and then the ocean. The space has the same rustic, weathered look the defines the Outer Banks. Since “rustic and weathered” wasn’t quite the look we were going for with our ceremony decor, we needed a decor plan in place to achieve our vision. My mom, sister, and I took a trip to the Outer Banks to work with floral/event designer Renee Landry and create a decor plan that achieved three things: (1) the space should burst with personality and color (2) the space should be red and blue, but use a range of palettes and patterns so that it didn’t feel too “4th of July,” and (3) in order to keep costs down, we would reuse as many ceremony decor elements at the reception as possible, and make as many elements ourselves that we could.

I fell in love with the idea of using pomanders instead of traditional altar florals as a way to add vibrant pops of color and personality to the space. (True story: the wedding that got me hooked on pomanders was right here on EAD!) In my mind, pomanders were fun, flirty, and more casual than traditional florals, so they fit into our wedding theme perfectly. The downside of pomanders is how long they take to create, which means they’re fairly expensive to use in bulk. We achieved the look of a pomander bonanza at a lower pricepoint by making fabric pomanders to supplement the floral pomanders at the “altar,” then reusing only the floral pomanders as our reception centerpieces. We had originally planned on tissue pomanders, but the high humidity and wind on the beach called for a more substantial material. My mom took on this thankless task, using pinking shears to cut fabric squares and inserting them one by one into styrofoam centers. Each pomander took up to nine hours to create, and she made lots of them. Here’s a shot from her dining room as the pomander collection started to grow:

In person, the effect was wonderful. The floral pomanders (made primarily of carnations) were beautiful, and the overall look had so much volume that you didn’t notice they weren’t all flowers. Up close, though, the fabric pomanders were so pretty that you didn’t mind they weren’t flowers - the patterned fabric added some depth to the overall effect.

(All photos by Beach Productions)

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