Ace Space

The wonderful beautiful fabulous Erin Chaney at the Ace Hotel and Swim Club FINALLY :) emailed me pics of their finished event space, the Commune. J and I are excited to go down there and see it in person next weekend so we can make our freaking minds up about a reception site!!! Doesn't it look like so much fun?

Paletas Por Favor

Ok, so I know we aren't getting married in Mexico, but can you think of much better than sipping a margarita as the sun sets on a hot day surrounded by palm trees and luminarias?

The Bride's Guide Blog may have answered that question today in the form of paletas! What a freaking genius idea. Not only are Cucumber-chili and Mexican-papaya popsicles delicious, but they also complement our color palette most perfectly. Thank you Darcy Miller for being such a great wedding guru.

St. Margaret's Beautifulness

While looking through Palm Desert florist portfolios online I saw this pic of St. Margaret's from Arrangements Floral Design! Isn't it lovely? I'm not so into the big red roses, but the church is beautiful and I can't wait to marry my honey there... yippeeeeee!

Busiest Weekend Ever...

What a crazy busy weekend of fun... (Sorry for the lack of photos, I will put most of them up on facebook.)

After work on Friday I got to see my little bro and sissy who met up with us for dinner and then rockbandid it out over at our place. Cutest thing ever... Then we left for a softball double-header (won the first, lost the second. I blame fatigue!) and came home to a mega surprise party for Jonathon!! Wahoo!!! He was completely shocked, photos to follow.

When I finally got up on Saturday I drove down to Balboa Lake where paddle boat fun with the kiddies ensued. That park is HUGE, and believe me, I walked the whole thing. It was a beautiful day and I even saw three seperate weddings at the park! Ben had the time of his life trying to mow down the ducks with the paddle boat. That night Jon and I made a starbucks run and then rocked out at a friend's dad's concert in Westlake (hardcore!).

Sunday, after spending the morning in Malibu (Lily's breakfast burritos baby) we picked Natey up and drove to the valley for my stepmom's parents 50th wedding anniversary party. We tried so hard to stay up but were all pretty much sleep walking. We ended up leaving a bit early and pretty much crashed out at about 6pm when we got home.

Yesterday... DiSnEyLaNd BaBy!!!! So much fun. I have the cutest pics of my bro and sis ever that I will be working on soon, but in the meantime...

YEA. She's perfect.

Coral Florals

I can't keep away from bright pinky-orange florals. I try, but I fail. I fully stole this straight off of StyleMePretty's blog about Blush Floral but I couldn't resist the simplicity of that coral peony and complexity of those amazing centerpieces (gotta love a centerpiece with poppies).

The bottom three are from Martha Stewart. That lady sure knows what she's doing. Heart.

Little White Dress

Who says your little dress has to be black? Since you only get to be a bride once, I am most definitely playing the white dress thing out. This sweet Amanda Archer dress is crazy pricey but simple enough to possibly replicate. Wouldn't it be great with a fascinator or headpiece for the rehearsal dinner?

This headband is from Court and Plume and probably costs more than my wedding gown will, but its just so fantastic. Sigh.

Flats and Bows

I will most likely be wearing some cute flats on the big day since I'm such a tall lady. I'm actually pretty stoked about this since it means I will be able to wear my shoes again on the daily and think about my walk down the aisle whenever I look down at my feet! :)


Here's some super cute ones I am loving from Coach, Maloles, and Kathryn Amberleigh.

Happy Birthday Jonathon!

Today is the first day of the year Jon gets married! YAY! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY! I hope today is a perfect day. I LOVE YOU.

PS: Hope you like my cake, I slaved away making this for you:

Napa Honeymoon

Around this time in our wedding planning I have been fantasizing about beach vacations. I have been constantly bombarding friends and family with the "where did you honeymoon?" question.

J and I have been trying to think outside the box for our honeymoon but then again, if it aint broke... We will most likely do the beach thing since we're both such beachy people. But maybe, just maybe, we'll make our wedding an all-California event and do a NorCal Wine Country Honeymoon. Oooooh!


This is a gorgeous wedding that was held at the Carneros Inn in Napa that got me all excited about the possibilities.

http://snippetandink.blogspot.com/2009/04/real-wedding-saturday-juliet-gregor.html

Even More Inspirations

Yea, I know I'm obsessed. The more I look at these yummy inspiration boards the more inspired I get! Here's a beautiful deserty one from StyleMePretty combining the light greens and ivories we have all but settled on with a hint of jewely green-blues. What's more fun than color???

Aren't these bouts so cute? They fit the palette so nice! The key... perfect... and its such a cute little ranunc. LOVE.

Colors, colors, colors

And here I was, thinking that a coral and mint combo was an original idea, but alas, it's popping up all over the wedding blogs. These colors are gorgeous together and I love love love. It's really doin it for me. This amazing inspiration board from 100layercake just proves I have fantastic taste... Im thinking instead of the mocha and soft pink, I really like the idea of a blue-grey and an ivory.

In my last post about color combos, I mentioned my sad propensity for turning any palette into a rainbow... This is why I love 100layercake, they make my mistake look amazing.

The Ace Hotel is my Hero

I'm all fired up! One of my fav wedding blogs, 100layercake, recently posted a whole bloggiful shebazzle on the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs. HOW AWESOME!

If you recall from my blog about our first venue scouting trip to PS, this place is so flippin rad. It is definitely our fav choice so far. As we were enjoying the world's best free old fashioned after touring the facilities, the GM came over and chatted with us for like an hour and had us laughing the whole time. Everyone there was so genuinely warm and wonderful. If we don't have our reception there we will for sure be telling you to stay there. They had us at the photobooth...

Check out the awesome pics here:

http://100layercake.com/blog/archives/840

The Perfect Colors

Picking a color palette for our wedding has been such a challenge for me. I have been trying to come up with a combo of Pacific oceany colors at sunset. Like blue-greens and corally-pinks. Sounds pretty, right? The only problem is, it really just looks like a rainbow. But I guess that wouldn't be so bad in Palm Springs. The point is, I need to synthesize.

Enter my love for wedding-blog stalking. Today I found the prettiest inspiration board (Thank you Katie!) on With This Ring blog and I am SO excited. It melds Mr. Ford's and my own love of all things green with my love of pinky-oranges. Could this be it??? Blame it on the art teacher in me but I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate some blues in there... ENJOY!

Friday Gown Showdown

Alix & Kelly vs. Saja in the battle of the ingenue, including beatiful bridesmaids frocks. Thank you DailyCandy for making my (every)day... Oh man, so so so so so so gorgeous! I might just have to buy that green chiffon Saja bridesmaid dress for myself. Really.

Do you do?

I want me a Yudu real bad. They are magical screen printing machines that you can use for invitations, t-shirts, etc. I believe currently they are like $300 bucks plus inks and screens which is pricey, but I think they would save someone with expensive taste and a crafty personality (ahem) money in the long run.

Here's a nifty video of the thinger in action:
http://handmadedetroit.com/2009/02/28/craftervidz-yudu-screen-printing-machine/

PS: My birthday is in three weeks :)

Ooh, exciting!

I have been a faithful dailycandier ever since my long days as a high school teacher in need of mental breaks. Now, lo and behold ---> they have a wedding site that I didn't even know about until RIGHT THIS MINUTE. I'm so excited.

http://www.dailycandy.com/weddings/

I'm Loving...

Friday Gown Showdown

Oscar de la Renta vs. Reverie by Melissa Sweet in the battle of the short and sweet. Can't you just picture a trip to city hall and then you're off on an airplane to Tahiti???

Family Tree

For a wedding gift, I have been asking the families to put together a list of names and dates and hopefully even some photos for a marriage family tree just like this one!

I know I am corny, but I am so excited about this idea, and the more I research it, the more interesting ideas I find. If I had my way, I would commission a giant wall tapestry a la The Noble and Most Ancient Family Black from Harry Potter, but I think our budget and lack of magical powers might require we stick to paper.


I originally had in mind this sort of picture tree, found at (named appropriately) ClassicFamilyTrees. You order the tree itself and then put in the pieces yourself at home. DIY baby!


There are also classic family tree fans such as this one from Martha Stewart but I feel like only J and I would ever be interested in looking at this one...


Once I started researching more I found funkier stuff like this arty photo tree on a design blog called PoppyTalk and this actual tree-branch with photo charms from Heirloomery. While they both definitely look neat, neither contains any written info...


Etsy has a few good sources, although I was surprised their weren't more. Here are a few really pretty ones from katleminvitations and SimpleSweetDesign. Most of these are for new babies though, and would have to be altered to be a marriage tree.


By far, the most amazing ones I found were by JennyLeeFowler on Etsy. While they aren't really family trees, she takes a photo or a bunch of photos that you mail her and makes these amazing paper silhouettes. I'm completely in love with her stuff. Amazing...