Category — inspiration

Every once in a while, we all have those days where inspiration is just hard to come by, especially when you’re planning an event.  So I thought it would be fun today to share a few of the places I run to when I’m in need of a little shot in the arm of creativity.

Design & Style blogs

I absolutely love home scouring decor and interior design blogs.  They are a fantastic place to find color palettes, home decor ideas that you can incorporate into your event, or beautiful scenes for your inspiration boards.  The emerald and mango board from a few months back?  Inspired by this gorgeous photo from Domino magazine via This is Glamorous.

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Recently, over at Cote de Texas, Joni profiled the two houses featured in the movie “the Holiday” with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslett. I LOVE this movie, and partly due to the two beautiful houses they feature. Being in the design field, I believe you can find inspiration from many different areas of your life - your wardrobe, your house or apartment, or even pictures of clothes or rooms you’re drawn to and like. They say a lot about you, and what styles you prefer. So today, I thought I would take a picture of one of the rooms from the movie, and try to use it as inspiration for a wedding!

I decided to use Iris’ charming English cottage:

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If you’ve ever stopped by Once Wed before you probably noticed I am a HUGE fan of the fabulous wedding photographer, Leigh Miller. I always jump at a chance to post one of her weddings, so when I came across Erin and Michael’s gorgeous wedding I was delighted Leigh agreed to a feature on EAD.

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Every Thursday Once Wed features a DIY wedding project created by the very talented Laurie Cinotto of lalalaurie. Last week Laurie created the cake box below for guests to drop their wish cards into for the bride and groom in replacement of the typical “wish bowl”.

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Once Wed grew out of my own frustration with trying to sell a wedding dress online, so I decided to launch my own listing service where women can list and search for wedding gowns for FREE. 4 months later we have close to 600 “designer wedding dresses for less” in our database and receive new, sample, and used wedding gown listings on a daily basis. Many of our gowns include designer labels such as Vera Wang, Monique Lhuillier, Melissa Sweet, and Reem Acra 50% OFF their original retail prices. Wearing a “used” gown isn’t for everyone which I completely understand, but for a lot of brides(including me) it allowed me to wear the dress of my dreams without breaking the bank. A lot of our listings include sample and new gowns as well, so there is an option for pretty much every bride. Below are some of the designer gowns we currently have on the site:

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I can’t believe it, but Tuesday was the 4 month mark! 4 more months of singledom. 4 more months of my last name as I’ve known it. 4 more months until W-day, the day I’ve been planning and thinking about since last fall. It’s coming quickly! Time to really start locking in my choices and ordering things like the bridesmaid dresses, buying the invitations, and getting on with the DIY!

I thought I’d post what I have so far, in pictures. Because I’ve changed my mind on some things - oh, how I’ve changed my mind!! You’ll remember that I’m an indecisive bride, a phenomenon that was explained perfectly over on A Practical Wedding this week (seriously, this was a *brilliant* post!). BUT!! I can confidently say that now, after thinking through a gazillion different alternatives and options, I really think I’ve found the ones that I’m truly truly happy with. Ones that make me say “Yes! That’s it!”. Finally.

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This post is a little more free form than I usually type, but I’m in that kind of mood. I’m soaking in the photo in the top left paired with this stationery and centerpiece idea. It perfectly captures summer…

{Image Source: Dustin Todd, Frolic, KatyStardust}

A wedding made of melon, pink, green, blue and turquoise would be gorgeous.

Items found on Etsy inspired by this mini board…

{Etsy Vendors: Home Studio, Walk on the Moon, Carly Belle}

All would make great gifts for bridesmaids!

A.

I know, I know, it’s an overused word - BUT on your wedding day, you want your jewelry to be special. Whether you want it to stand out and make a statement, or be simple and elegant, you don’t have to spend a lot to get a lot of bling for your buck!

These lovelies from David Yurman are gorgeous. But they will set you back $1400.

And these beautiful earrings? $1200.

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I, like many other brides, future brides, and little girls, have been a wedding fanatic since I can remember. I have issues of Martha Stewart Weddings and InStyle Weddings dating back to 1998– 10 whole years before my wedding day! I decided, on one rainy Saturday, to go through all of my magazines and start tearing out the images, articles, and advice that I really liked and felt inspired by. I wasn’t sure if I would ever use any of these ideas for my future wedding, but I was ready to get organized! I filed all of my ideas in binders with page protectors (nerd alert!) and used pretty color-coded dividers to get it all organized. 

A few years ago I found a little card in InStyle Weddings that said “dinner and dancing” in a beautiful Bickham script font and it was a pale pink and gold. I’ve loved that color combination ever since and that beautiful all lowercase font. This little card was my little piece of inspiration.

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Happy Fourth of July! I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend.

Since this is a holiday, I thought I keep it quick and show you how I’m planning on styling my hair for the wedding. After selecting my dress, and knowing that I’ve always wanted to wear one of those large flowers in my hair (ever since seeing Molly Sims wear one in a Cover Girl ad!), I knew that I wanted my hair pulled back. I wasn’t sure if I wanted it up a little high, or low and loose… at first. I made my mind up quickly, though, after seeing this picture of Michelle Williams from the Oscars a couple years ago:

{Image Source: People}

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