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I don’t know of many bakeries who actually still wrap their goodies in that red and white twine anymore, but wouldn’t it be just wonderful if more of them did? I mean, it’s just so lovely.

{ image from Bliss Weddings Market via Classic Bride }

But hey, why do bakers get all the fun? How about some wedding uses too!

{ image from Mika 78 via Style Me Pretty }

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Who says your girls have to pick one style or one color they like?  Why not have your maids wear different dresses in shades of a color!

Love these mismatched blue tones from Chrissie and Brian’s wedding:

{Tinywater Photography via Green Wedding Shoes}

I’ve saved my favorite element of our wedding for last:  Photography!  We funneled any would-be videography budget all into photography and I’ve never had a second doubt!  Photography is the element of your wedding that captures every other piece and freezes it together with all the other details forever.  All that planning and energy and effort you put into all the little design elements can last forever through your photographs (even though they are all a blur on the day of).  As you’ve seen throughout this week, I love Stacy Sodolak’s photos and am so glad that we found her!

So to close out my time here on EAD Weddings, I leave you with my favorite moments of our wedding - the sweet and the silly, the serious and the celebratory:      

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My last two posts of my week-long wedding recap are mostly photograph-based.  Not that I don’t love gabbing about our wedding incessantly, but I think the pictures speak for themselves when it comes to little itty-bitty details (and when it comes to my last post: my favorite photographs - obviously).

I will say this… the details made our wedding.  Even if no one notices the little things separate and apart from each other (as you will), they notice the big picture - which is comprised of all those little things.  So chin up as you obsess about escort cards and chair ties (oh the arguments my mother and I had about chair ties), guests will notice that you put the time and effort into making your wedding personal!

Some of our “little things”…

• Our tables were all named after important places in each of our individual lives and important places to us as a couple (our birth places, our colleges, our universities, where we met, our favorite vacations together, etc).  My mom hand-wrote all the escort cards in her fabulous handwriting and they were displayed on a French Memory Board that I made out of an orange silk fabric and lacy ribbon.  Continuing with the “important places” mini-theme, Evan and his mom danced to “In My Life” (”there are places I remember“) by the Beatles for their Mother-Son Dance.

• My love of paper was carried out through the celebration: hurricane candles wrapped in yellow and ivory paper hung from the trees at our ceremony and the same paper formed the cones filled with flowers marking our ceremony aisle and wrapped the vases of our tall centerpieces.

• The Groom’s Cookie Bar that was featured yesterday not only boasted over 700 cookies homemade by my grandmother, but also included take home bags emblazoned with “k & e: how sweet it is.”  Our first dance was James Taylor’s “How Sweet It Is.”

• Lots of “our songs” were not quite first-dance-appropriate… so we featured our favorite quote from one of them - Widespread Panic’s “Climb to Safety” - on our wedding program.

• I’ve already written about my mother’s wedding gown, but I also wore the garter that she and all my aunts were married in, as well as the six pence they all stuck in their shoes!

• My dad, who is not a tuxedo kind of guy, sported his custom made Chuck Taylors that I got him last Christmas at our reception - they were a huge hit!

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a sixpence in your shoe. According to The Knot, “something old represents continuity; something new offers optimism for the future; something borrowed symbolizes borrowed happiness; something blue stands for purity, love, and fidelity; and a sixpence in your shoe is a wish for good fortune and prosperity, although this remains largely a British custom.”

I mean, do I even have a sixpence? Doubtful! I hadn’t thought too much about this tradition until this week, when my sister mentioned taping money to the inside of my peep toes. The easiest to fulfill is obviously your something new: new shoes, new headpiece, new dress…. for me, my new Rickard Shah shoes! =

The others, I hadn’t thought too much about.  After my mother stopped joking around about my something old being “a really old pair of underwear!”, my dad presented me with this to pin into my dress:

It’s the compass my late grandfather used to carry with him. When he gave it to me, my dad told me that if I wore it, my grandparents would always be there to show me the way.

::Insert sob here::

I’m getting very weepy as this week goes along! Next up: my something blue. My mom reminded me of this beautiful necklace made for me by her father, who also has passed away. So although I’d had something else in mind…it’s going by the wayside. This necklace is way too close to my heart to pass on.

Something borrowed: My sister’s pearl earrings.

What were your something olds, news, borroweds, and blues?

-B

So light and pretty - this corkboard displaying handwritten escort card strips in vellum envelopes works perfectly for an outdoor affair!  The butterflies add interest and a whimsical feel.

{via Craftzine}

While invitations are undoubtedly the most important element of a wedding stationery suite, it’s equally as important to not forget about other wedding paper ephemera - like seating cards!  Whether place cards or escort cards*, seating cards can help carry design elements from your invitation suite or wedding theme through to the reception and create a cohesive wedding style.  Here are a few of my favorite seating card options:

I love the contrast between the handwriting and yellow zig-zag print on these place cards, which were made by folding flat notes by Linda & Harriett:

{photograph by Jennifer Kloss via Linda & Harriett}

For an alternative escort card display, try using repurposed items, such as old doors or windows, as well as materials such as twine and mini-clothespins:

{photographs by Beaux Arts Photographie via The Bride’s Cafe}

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Tell me that somehow this could be used in a wedding… because it’s absolutely gorgeous.  Paper doilies and thumbtacks… that’s some serious creativity.

Ideas, people?

{citypix via Creature Comforts and Oh So Beautiful Paper}

Sigh.  Is it just me, or could every wedding use a slew of candles in mason jars?

{Source, via Offbeat Bride and East Side Bride}

I love signature drinks - whether they are used as an accent to your open bar or as your main offering (a big budget-saver), they add a fun twist to your wedding.

{Kiwi Martinis from Rachel Ray Magazine via Wedding Tulle}

Are you having a signature drink at your wedding?

I get giddy when I see a beautifully packaged and presented wedding invitation - it can be something as simple as a handwritten card letting your guest know where to meet you for the ceremony or as elaborate as this boxed folio invitation sent to us by Stephen of Love Life Images.

Jason and Catherine are having a destination wedding in Los Cabos and this gorgeous invitation designed by Love Letters incorporates a few of my favorite things: a photo, a motif, and a pocket.

Great packaging too!

All of these gorgeous photos are by the fabulous DC-area photographers Love Life Images.  Their blog is just full of eye candy!

E.

Jenica and DJ’s Hilton Head wedding had such great details, but none were cuter or more thoughtful than paint brushes left for guests so that they could brush the sand off of their feet.

{Jenica and DJ’s wedding, photographed by Laura Negri Photography}