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Last Sunday it really hit me. Not so much the “wow, we’re getting married” part…it was more a realization of how many people are going to be a part of the day. Sometimes I still get so wrapped up in the planning that I forget how cool this whole wedding thing is.

My mom, two of my bridesmaids, and I went to the Priscilla of Boston outside of Philly. The dresses were so much prettier and they had a much larger selection than where we were the previous Sunday. My mom found her dress within (max) 5 minutes, while the other two girls tried on a ton of dresses that were 10 sizes too big. We kinda started going in circles though because we pulled dresses that we liked the style of, only to find out that they didn’t come in colors that would have fit into that lighter blue category we want.

Ultimately, we came up with these dresses for my mom and the two girls who went with me:

Mom’s dress, but in capri blue instead; Bridesmaid #1 – French Blue…color is good in this picture; Bridesmaid #2 – cornflower…actual color of dress is actually much more blue than purple:

I was worried the dress wouldn’t work on my mom but she looked TOTALLY cute in it. (Doesn’t hurt that she’s 5′8″ and like 118 pounds and looks good in like everything she tries on.)

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Call me a romantic, but pink and red is one of my favorite color palettes. 

{pink and red flowers via Absolutely Beautiful Things, raspberry and light pink bedroom from Better Homes and Gardens}

{lovely bits and bobs of pink and red from Perfectbound via Oh Joy!}

{pink and gray with pops of red, from the archives, sourced here}

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When picking the flowers that you’ll hold for “the walk” (and of course, the rest of the day, too!), it seems like there are really only two options: to color, or not to color!

While I’m known to be ever-pro the monochromatic palette [like, I'm really, really into monochromatics...], this is an area that my mind flip flops around. I absolutely adore a colored bridal bouquet. I think it’s a statement. It typically pops against the dress in such a unique way. I think flowers are so gorgeous and as much as white flowers are lovely, they do turn brown more quickly than colored flowers will after a long hard day in the sun. Now- don’t take that as a warning. Just entertain the idea of taking the risk of holding a bold color against your lovely white dress!

The PROS of holding colored flowers as a bride:

-Brings in the colors of your wedding to your ceremony site. If you’re getting married at a church, typically you’re a bit more limited on how much ambiance you’ll be bringing into your space- so say it with YOUR flowers!

-Stands out against your dress in your pictures

-Hello, you can match your lipstick (or at least, contrast your lipstick) and then you’re ALL poppin’, all over the place

-Brings a modern elegance to your wedding

-Gives you the option to give your bridesmaids white flowers, which will be the contrast to YOUR flowers, as your flowers are the contrast to your dress (and their flowers are the contrast to their dresses)

-It’s fun. Seriously.

Some pictures of real In The Now weddings this year where the brides packed a serious PUNCH with their flowers:

Erin and Justin, photographed by Mathieu Photography and flowers by your favorite EAD blogger [and team of course]- ummm ME!

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By now you realize how indecisive I can be.  I’m afraid to make a solid decision because most likely I will change my mind.  This happened with my wedding dress and now my save the dates.

Remember my original save the date?

I made this months ago and loved it (until I tried to print it.)  When I went to print it, it never came out right.  The resolution of the photo wasn’t high enough, the sizing didn’t work, the colors were off.  After weeks of trying everything possible to make this save the date work, I gave up.  It wasn’t working and I was wasting A LOT of time.

So then…

I create a new save the date! The new one has a completely different look and feel and it ended up changing my whole color scheme.

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A couple weeks after Matt and I got engaged, I traveled home to Louisville with the mission to find a reception venue.  We got engaged on August 22, 2008 and set our wedding date for July 25, 2009.  We had to base the date around Matt’s work schedule – which meant I was deciding when we got married based on the NBA Draft, Summer League, etc.  Late July worked for everyone – my only issue was the heat.  An outdoor reception was not an option.  My mom made a few appointments for us and off we went.  The first place we looked at took about 3 seconds for me to decide it wouldn’t work.  But the second space, well, it was The One.

The Henry Clay was built in downtown Louisville in 1924 and was only turned into an event space a couple years ago. I loved the history of it. I loved the colors. I loved the character.

The walls in the main ballroom are gold tones. Instead of fighting the room’s natural beauty – gold, ivory and black became our wedding colors. I eventually added in blush pink to soften the decor. Below is the inspiration board I designed soon after booking the space.

Next up: we talk paper!

Every year my mom sends me this and I think it’s neat to see which colors are predicted to be the trends for that season. It starts out talking the color trends for Summer 2010:

“Wide-ranging agreement at the latest biannual color meeting organized by Eurovet: stylists and industrialists agreed that the market demands color. Stars of the season: the greens. Guests of honor: nuances of red and soft and refined pinks, mauves and neutrals in full evolution. And essential are bright – almost neon – accents targeted at beachwear which is ever-more influenced by the street and clubbing. Last but not least, white (color 26!) and indigo blue remain very much in focus. ”

{ image via fashion trendsetter }

And on the topic of fashion:

“The background and shapes: the Capri spirit of the Fifties, haute couture precision, the desire of a perfect, radiant elegance… Motifs and prints are rich, lines emphasize the contour and strike the right balance, details and finishings are perfect. Nothing is left to chance, nothing is vague: everything is well conceived, neat, pretty, ravishing, harmonious, graceful.

“The most demanding design direction with its apparently contradictory, subtle mixtures of authenticity and the new modernity. The desire for durable luxury with genuine lingerie fabrics but now in the revolutionary lightweight fibers. Collections combine perfect performance, generous volumes, details which project natural eccentricity, hand made and artisan effects, as if aged by time…”

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I am not sure how I came across this blog, but I believe that finding their logo is an omen:

{ images from Orange Blossom Ink }

Seriously, someone’s trying to tell me to go with this orange blossom thing…so off I go for some orange inspiration!

Recently I have been seeing lots more oranges (or kumquats) used on tables or flower arrangements:

{ photo from Details Details via Style Me Pretty }

{ photo by Josef Isayo via Style Me Pretty }

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Something big happened during my wedding week…something bigger than a rehearsal dinner, bigger than a bachelorette spa day, bigger than getting my favorite peonies for the bouquets…

my best friend and bridesmaid Lisa got engaged!

Now, not only did she get engaged…she also managed to hide it from me for roughly 20 hours until I realized something was up and dragged it out of her.  Just goes to show what a great friend she is–she didn’t want to distract from the wedding at hand.  I’m SO glad she ended up telling me, though…it made my week that much more special and I’ve never been happier!

Lisa’s favorite color is yellow, just like her bright, sunny, cheerful, sweet personality…so I thought I’d create an inspiration board for her wedding that fits right in with her bubbly-ness!

{Clockwise from top left: Salt and Pepper shakers from MissGaylee’s Etsy shop; invitations from Tulaloo’s Etsy Shop; flowers from Martha Stewart Weddings; dress by J.Crew; car photo from National Geographic; boutonniere, Our Labor of Love Photography via OnceWed; shoes, The Studio Nouveau photography via Lucky Me!; dress, Anthropologie; bouquet from Martha Stewart Weddings; cupcakes from Our Labor of Love Photography via OnceWed}

Yellow is such a fun, upbeat color, especially for such amazing and laid-back folks as Lisa and her now-fiance Eric.

I can totally see them using lots of Billy Buttons, the groomsmen in seersucker suits, Lisa in beautiful yellow flats, and the lovely couple driving away in a classic yellow car!

Lisa, if you’re reading this…you’d better let me help you plan your wedding! ;)

Much love,

-B

Choosing the wedding colors was initially really tough for me. I knew I wanted a main color that would work well in the fall (i.e. not seem out of season, like a light pink or turquoise might) and then one or two complimentary colors, but it was really hard nailing down a palette that felt right.

First I thought maybe navy and a green color (all images courtesy of snippet & ink, unless otherwise noted):

But something about the green made it feel summery, which I didn’t want.

What about white? Very bridal (obviously) and sort of a-seasonal (if that is even a word, probably not).

So wintry, though… and I feel strongly that the word snow is a “bad four-letter word” – so white is a no.

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So how do two stridently independent and opinionated lovebirds get married in the age of Platinum Weddings, anyway? Like so many things that would follow, we found our inspiration in the world of wedding blogs.

After months of floundering for a wedding vision that felt like our own, I stumbled upon a blog post featuring a wedding “monogram” that looked like a campaign logo. I was instantly, head-over-heels smitten with how un-wedding it was. After all, politics run through both of us. I’d been writing about candidates long before I was old enough to vote, and the two of us never would’ve met at all had Trevor not been working on a political campaign. The discovery of that logo put the entire wedding planning process into focus for us. Suddenly, we weren’t grasping for wedding ideas anymore, but were full of them. The idea of a red and blue wedding felt fresh and new to us – neither of us had ever seen one before – and we loved the challenge of making sure it didn’t look too “4th of July” by using a palette of shades and a slew of mix-and-match patterns.

Blue would work wonderfully with our beachside location, and also meant that Trevor could wear his grandfather’s seersucker suit. Strong punches of red suited my sensibility perfectly – in flowers, on tables, and most importantly, in a killer pair of red satin heels on my feet! Very quickly, our wedding vision started to feel more like us than like a “normal” wedding, which was exactly what we’d wanted all along. Here’s our original inspiration board, featuring the wedding logo that kicked the whole thing off:

Meanwhile, in other stroke of blog-world luck, I won a contest online where the prize was a custom wedding logo designed by the one and only Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo of ABCD Designs (now a contributor at EAD Living!). I couldn’t believe my luck – we finally had our wedding inspiration, and now we had a super-talented designer on board to create our official “campaign logo,” too! Over the phone, I laid out our election theme for Amy to explain why we wanted her to design a campaign logo for us instead of a typical wedding monogram. Amy didn’t just get it, she loved it. Here’s the “campaign logo” that Amy designed for us. More than any other single detail, this logo set the tone for our crazy election-themed wedding:

Adams-Hanger ‘09… the ticket of a lifetime!

Next up: From logos to letterpress!

I have a love/hate relationship with inspiration boards.  I LOVE to look at them….but I somewhat “dislike” making them…am I the only one?  Maybe it’s because I’m so critical of my own work that I never seem to be happy with the balance of the boards that I make…but the ones I’ve seen around the blog world…absolutely inspiring.

Well shortly after booking the venue (we’re talking hours here) I decided to just get on with it and make my own…knowing the venue along with the look and feel I was after.

(Oh did I mention our colors yet?!?…yeah ok well there’s a quiz at the end…see if you can figure them out on your own ;) )

OK my first go:

row 1: style me pretty, jennifer brum, saladito’s flickr photos via a farmhouse wedding row 2: browers photography, amy squires, TBC row 3: style me pretty, jcrew, punam bean photography

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Anyone who knows me, knows I love black and white together. I love the damask pattern, black and white check tiles, gingham, b & w photos – you name it. So when it came to colors for our wedding (I have really been trying to say “our” not “mine” – it’s very hard) I figured I would be inspired by black and white. I wasn’t and I surprised myself. I don’t consider myself a very colorful person, but in my daily internet exploration, I came across this site and found the fabric below:

Flamingo Disco Dot is the name of the pattern. I was hooked! But how was I going to use this awesome, fun, fabric? I mean – I couldn’t wear it. I couldn’t make my matron of honor wear it – and then it came to me….a photobooth! I bought about 6 yards of this fabric and my sweet mom is going to make a drape to hang between two trees at the reception. Then my guests (ours, not my) can have their pictures taken in front of the fun filled color fabric!

Have I said “fabric” enough?

Anyway, the polka dots above are my inspiration. I love the bright simplicity of the colors. On our tables we are having pink and orange dahlias. My sister and I are carrying dahlias as well.

Bill and I bought Vera Bradley ties and cuff links in a great pattern: Raspberry Fizz.

I am excited to see this all come together. Because I have planned everything down to the teaspoon, I have this “vision” in my head of what it is going to look like. I can’t wait.

Did you surprise yourself with your color choice?