Friday Gown Showdown: Ivanka Trump Edition

Hello, gorgeous! Would you take a look at this dress. It is so stunningly timeless. The sheer lace sleeves... the train... Oh yea. You did good, girl.

Happy Halloween Everyone! Enjoy your weekend. :)

Those Irish Eyes

We have been playing with the idea of a Dublin honeymoon, and it seems the world wants us to do just that. DailyCandy just wrote a piece on all of the swank places to wine, dine and sleep in the great green country, like the Dylan Hotel.

Nice, eh? Check it out!

Banquet Centerpieces & Runners

Behold. The cause of my sleepless nights: our very bland and concrete reception event space.



Here is a view of the olive wood chair and canvas covered banquet table set-up. Imagine two of these end to end "banquet style" in about 5 rows surrounded by concrete floors and navy blue curtain separators. Now welcome, you have entered into my decorationally challenged personal hell. My head is swimming with way. too. many. ideas.



What to do? How to transform this mess into something that is:



1) Romantic
2) Relaxed but elegant
3) Deserty without being cactusy
4) Personal and sentimental
5) Cohesive in style


Oh internet, you are my friend! Here is what I have spied while perusing the "long banquet table decor" tab of the interwebs. From centerpieces to runners to table numbers to chargers, I am trying to piece together something unified.


I know this is not a banquet style set-up but it is pretty much perfect in my book (except maybe the candles on a cake stand, that's just weird). This is my ultimate aim, only paired down. The green baby hydrangea with pink peonies and the ivory candles not only fall into our color palette but their arrangement is so simple and effortless looking, I am truly loving this. Ok, off to a great start but still not the right type of tables!




Hello, candles!!! This is truly beautiful and simple. So far, the sum of my decoration purchases have been candle holders; LOTS and LOTS of candle holders. Anyone know a good, inexpensive wholesale candle broker?



Next, this is taking into account the "greater picture" if you will. I like all of the hangy balls, and I really like the different colored muted table runners. I am having a really hard time deciding on our runners. Part of me wants a nice soft green patterned fabric that will look nice over the canvas and part of me is thinking something with more texture like a soft green linen (or a subtle burlap?) will look more elegant and less backyard bbq.



One of my other concerns is that our food will be served family style on big platters, taking up most of the tables. Does that mean I should aim for smaller centerpieces? Or should I still decorate as I normally would and just assume they will remove the centerpieces if there isn't enough room for food?

Confused! Let's see what other people did with their runners...

These are all patterned and they look pretty nice. Our friend's Katie and Steve had the most amazing damask table runners at their wedding, they looked so chic.

These floral patterns below definitely hit on the casual side.

On to the solids. Burlap or linen... Linen is so nice with a long colorful stripe, yea? I looove the very last look, but maybe it's the contrast of linen on wood. Hmmm.... Ok, I think I definitely prefer the solids but I am still going to have to search for just the right material.

Whew! One reason that I blog is to air all of the ideas running around in my head, and this definitely got them out! I have a much better idea of what I am planning to use for table runners now and I know I want candles, candles, candles. Still working on the florals and how to incorporate palms into the mix... Stay tuned!

Flower Girl Dresses

More dresses?! I really just can't get enough of flower girl frocks. They are SO darn cute.

Annie Girl Plays Dress Up is a really fun site for picky little flower girls that know exactly what they want. The site starts you out with a basic dress silhouette in white or ivory and then you can pick and choose your own flowers and sashes in a variety of colors and materials. The dresses are a bit on the pricier side, but if you can't find exactly what you want elsewhere, it's good to know you can start your little lady out getting EXACTLY WHAT SHE WANTS from a young age. :)

Another more cost effective flower girl dress shop is The Briar Patch. They have such a large range of dresses and their prices are incredibly reasonable compared to most. These were my favorite as my flower girl has demanded she MUST HAVE A FLOWER on her dress...

Happy Shopping!

LP Mommy and Minnie

Cute little wiggly toes? Nah. Contagious and unwarranted giggling? Nah. A small bundle of warm wonderful love? Nope!

Mostly I just want to have little babies asap so that I can dress us both up in Lilly Pulitzer Mommy and Minnie! I know some people might think that dressing up as twinsies with baby is kind of horrifying in an overtly WASPish way, but I find it endearing. Plus it's Lilly! You know you love it.

Is it creepy if I buy a matching set right now? I mean, they're probably going to sell out of some of these design pretty soon, let alone have them in a few years! I'm eyeballing this first set hard.



Wouldn't that ivory little girls dress make an adorable flower girl outfit for a winter wedding?

Netflix Marathon

I haven't been feeling well... I think it's time for some lemon tea under the covers and a serious wedding movie marathon.

Whose with me?

Friday Gown Showdown: A Few Good Men('s Suits)

We are getting married. It's kind of a big deal. While we want everyone to be relaxed we really don't want our wedding to scream casual, and if anyone shows up in denim J has already promised they will be ejected from the premises. That said, we have made a few bridal party fashion choices that, if not executed properly, could hit the wrong note of "casual bumpkin" wedding.

Namely, we decided to go with a lighter look for the fellas. As we are having a spring wedding in the dessert and have a fairly soft color palette we decided tan or light grey. But alas, finding a tan/sand/khaki/light grey suit during fall and winter is turning out to be a bit of a challenge. Let me re-phrase that... Finding an appropriately semi-formal sand colored suit in a material other than linen or cotton is turning out to be difficult.

I particularly like this look. I think this guy is pulling off semi-formal relaxed elegance in a super way. Although this may in fact be a cotton summer suit, nothing about this reads: I may wear this suit coat over my jorts at the fair later.

This is my second favorite look. We are letting our g-men pick their own attire once we choose a color for picky groomsy, but I like that in this photo you definitely know which one is the groom. It's his day too! His suit is also a bit more formal than I've seen in tan and I really dig the soft pink ties.

There are two major problems we are encountering while shopping for J's tan suit. Problem #1 is definitely that most sand colored suits come in linen. That is just so not happening. This groom doesn't look bad though, right? Just a bit rumpled. I mean if we were in Jamaica...

Problem #2 is that most non-linen sand colored suits come in cotton and as nice and comfy as that is, I think you can end up looking like an IT professional, a la this guy. He looks nice enough, but not exactly special on his big big day. My man has WAY too much style to be looking this drab. You know what, upon further inspection... maybe it's just the IT guy's shoes that are ruining it?

This one I'm including to show you how nicely the sand color compliments the ivory, coraly pink, grey and green (the grass!) we have chosen for our color palette. :)

The final option (and my personal choice) is to go with a nice light grey suit, although the only one we found in stores that was the right light grey was $1800!!! Anyone want to buy J a suit?! This one from J.Crew is considerably more affordable at $500, and a very nice slim-cut style.

I suppose we could also go for a darker grey, and I think that would be re-wearable for my groom, but it's just not as Springy. This guy is pulling off a darker grey 3-piece nicely, but I would ix-nay that black shirt, stat.

We may just wait until closer to Spring and hope there is a wider selection, but in the meantime we are definitely keeping our eyes out. What do you think? Grey or sand?