Category — guest bloggers

Wow! It’s so exciting to be guest blogging this week for Elizabeth Anne Designs. I starting planning my wedding on April 28, 2007 and got married on May 3, 2008 and I’ve loved reading this blog to find inspiration for our big day. The images, the ideas, and the advice were so valuable to me throughout the process!

I am going to start by introducing myself. My name is Erin and my new husband and I live in Columbia, South Carolina. We love South Carolina, but I’m a Louisiana girl at heart. I have a blog (Blue Eyed Bride) that turned into a wedding blog shortly after I started it. I have loved catching up with other brides and can’t believe the great big world of wedding blogs that I never new existed!

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A. and I are so excited to bring you a fantastic guest blogger this week, Erin from Blue Eyed Bride.  Erin was recently married, and it was fabulous, but I’ll let you see that for yourself during this week as she takes you through her planning process all the way up to her big day!

Welcome Erin, we are thrilled to have you here!

E.

Editor’s Note: We asked Alexa, owner of Fiore Blossoms and writer of Fiore Fresco, to share a little bit of her expertise. We hope you enjoy her post on floral trends. Enjoy! A.

I was so flattered that the girls asked me to do a little guest post about trends in flowers right now. I’m so honored to be a part of Elizabeth Anne Designs today! This is fun. And so…on with the flowers!

Following the local food movement, many brides are looking to support local growers and use sustainable, seasonal crops. This is my very favorite trend (though I hope it really isn’t a trend and is here to stay!) of the moment. It also means that flowers are going regional. Here in the northwest, it means more local hydrangea, garden roses (which are really so much more gorgeous and fragrant anyway), dahlias, and lilies. Check out your local farmer’s market to see what local crops are grown near you, and then let your florist know that you’d like to at least incorporate some of these flowers.

Photo by David Perry, flowers by Floret.

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The minute we returned from our engagement trip, I hit the books to find the perfect wedding location. Even though I knew we had at least 18 months until the day, I was eager to get going, and hopeful that an early booking would prove financially fruitful. Seriously folks, finding a venue was, like, my job.

Spoiler alert: It took over SIX MONTHS to find the perfect place. Thank heavens I started so early!

The first place we looked was quickly written off (due to financial reasons) and then later revisited (they dropped the price), at which time it became our first choice. It was the Houdini Estate and Park in Laurel Canyon, right next to Hollywood.The story here is that Houdini’s mansion used to sit on this property but burnt down during a fire in the ’50s. Some theorize that he never even lived here, but merely owned the property. But whoever lived here enjoyed beautiful stonework-laden terraced gardens, a spring-fed pond which burbles down a stony waterfall, beautiful views, and more. Recently the property has been redeveloped and restored. The guest house has been remodeled and expanded, and the land resuscitated enough to allow people to rent the space for the first time ever.

The place doesn’t exactly lend itself to easy party-planning if you’re on a budget, because of the multi-leveled land and the fact that amplified music can only be played inside the guest house. But, if done correctly, one could have a SPECTACULAR party here. Our dream was a semi-gothic, midsummer night’s dream theme (sans Shakespeare references). The price was right, because the place is newly available to the public, and they’ve yet to generate a reputation. We thought it was a done deal.

I’ll spare you the long-winded details of how this plan fell apart, but the summary is this:
The “owner” of the property decided (just as we were negotiating the contract, after 5 months of discussions) that he wouldn’t be booking 2009 parties until January of 2009, if at all. He wanted to treat 2008 as a “trial” season and see how well the park booked. We were disappointed, and out of luck. In the end, I’m glad it didn’t work out. But, for a few days, it was a cool dream, and for a few more, it was a bad nightmare. I’m not sure what the current status of the place is, but my advice is “buyer beware” - considering the questionable reliability of the joint.

Here’s some pros and cons of the place, in case you’re interested:

Pros:
* Unusual and exciting location
* Lots of land space to play with
* Cheap (at the time), probably not for long
* Overnight rental included, so saves a bit on hotels
* Pool
* Fun history
* Ability to bring in caterers and alcohol of choice

Cons:
* Complicated layout
* Complicated and disorganized management
* No amplified music outdoors
* Renovations not yet complete
* Lack of night lighting outdoors on terracy, unsafe terrain
* Kind of loud road noise from Laurel Canyon Blvd.

It would be a great weekend rental for out of towners, or for someone who can afford a party-planner to deal with the negotiations, setup and tear down of the event. It really is a unique and lovely locale - just clearly not meant to be for us. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, so we plowed forth with a vengeance to find our “meant to be”.

Stay tuned for more on our location adventure….

Anne and I hope that you enjoyed Alissa’s week-long glimpse into her wedding!  Alissa, thank you so much for volunteering your time to share your wedding here.  The joy that you and Dan share is palpable and was documented so beautifully.

In case you missed any of her posts, here is a link to Alissa’s archive!

E.

Allrighty, for the last post I just want to share some of my favorite images from our wedding day.

I thought it was really funny Joe got this - I had just grabbed this friend to help me sneak off and use the restroom. Word of advice-if you’re wearing a wedding dress you’ll need assistance in there!

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No matter what you do with your wedding, I think finding small ways to make it personal is the most important thing you’ll do. Its hard to admit (I know!) but no one will remember the flowers or the color of the napkins. They will remember what made it your wedding. I wanted to share some of the small things that we did - and some of them we might have been the only ones who knew about them - but made the day our own.

Image from Special Effects Photography.

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Our venue didn’t really require a lot of decorating. The dark woodwork and stained glass really set the scene on its own. Since our ceremony started at seven, followed by a cocktail hour, our actual reception didn’t start until about 8:30. We wanted the reception to feel like an old party they might have had years ago in the space, cozy and classic with a lot of candlelight.

Our ceremony

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So we had the bridesmaids dresses picked out - now it was time to dress the rest of us.

Image from Special Effects Photography

Image from Special Effects Photography.

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Oh invitations, glorious invitations. I struggled big time on invitations at first. I had actually started out in school as a graphic designer, and ended up working as one for four years. So it seemed simple enough that I would design my own! Turns out I’m my own worst client. Nothing I came up with seemed right! And one of the main reasons was that none of my designs we’re gorgeously stamped into thick yummy paper…I had a crush on letterpress. After visiting with my favorite local letterpress studio, I unfortunately thought the letterpress of my dreams was out of my price range.

Enter Etsy’s Blackbird Press. Spectacular letterpress invitations - in my price range - and an amazing designer, Melissa, to work one-on-one with. I had recently purchased a lace pattern vector from istockphoto that I really wanted to incorporate.

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