Be Notorious

Homeward Bound

It's raining here in LA and all I want to do is curl up and cozy down.

What's makes a wedding cozily romantic? When it feels personal and intimate. Need some inspirational ways to add that homey touch?

How about a gorgeous lace, lily and rose two-tier cake that's almost too pretty to eat? A front-porch display of wine and candy apple parting gifts for you guests? Just add an explosion of rust-colored hydrangea and the guest will be drooling all the way home. Maybe fabric bunting flags to mark your table numbers? I know! Pie, lots and lots of pie.

Loving these very autumnal romantic bits from the blogosphere...

Coral and Ivory

Once again, I am a genius. Martha Stewart's newest wedding magazine all about Destination Weddings features, you guessed it, our wedding colors! Well, some of them. And with big scrumptious peonies no less!

Behold, Martha's and my mind melding in a cornucopia of corals and ivories:


When do you think she's going to send me that recruitment letter? I've been waiting.

Family Tree Wedding Programs

Remember forever ago when I said groomy and I wanted to incorporate our family histories into our wedding with a family tree? I have been searching for more good ideas of how to do this and came across this beautiful wedding program with fold-out family tree.

I think I can seriously get behind this idea! Isn't it beautiful?

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?

DIY Wedding Inspirations

A few snippets from the interwebs and beyond that I have fallen in love with, just for you. These are all very steal-able ideas as they are all within our color pallete! Yay!

First, these amazing invitations screenprinted on antique handkerchiefs and then wrapped around postcard response cards. How rad is that? I want them. Like, now. The blogger who made them said it was really cute, lots of the male guests wore the invites as pocket squares!


I have been searching for affordable chargers for our table decor and having absolutely zero luck, but Im not minding either one of these really cute paper-chargers from Martha Stewart.


Ahhh, inspiration boards. So inspiring! I love this flaming combo of coral, orange and red from Snippet&Ink. I would probably cry a little if I had any of the bouquets pictured on my wedding day. They are stunning.

Coral is the New Pink

I am definitely taking full advantage of my every moment as A BRIDE (it's my one shot, do you really think I'm not going to obsess?). But if I'm honest, sometimes I just can not look at one more bouquet or veil. At those times (when I am not browsing www.shopstyle.com) I like to read interior design magazines like Martha Stewart Living and Dwell. My absolute favorite blog is Design*Sponge.

Imagine my delight (and horror!) then when I was taking a mental wedding break to browse the design blogs and came across this wedding reception inspiration on D*S by the amazing blogger behind OnceWed. Not only is it a beautiful spread called "Peach is the New Pink," but it also highlights my fantastic choice in wedding colors (pinky-oranges, ivory and celadon). :)

Enjoy!

Simply lovely, isn't it?

Color Inspiration

Corally oranges, slate grey and creams look lovely together, don't you think?

Our Wedding Colors: A Love Story

Maybe I just really like art and fruit and flowers and babies... or maybe Nathan introduced me to the Idee Inc. Color Lab... you should go there.

What inspired your wedding color palette?

Color Palette Generator

For someone with a degree in art history and a past career as an art teacher, colors and images are a huge part of my life. Literally. While my college friends were off learning organic chemistry or whatever, I spent four years of my life in dimmed rooms staring at projected pictures and discussing the use of color as a form of expression. Which would you rather do?

Thus, I think I have like "schizophrenia of colors" when trying to make a definitive decision about a color combo. I just want to look at it all, all at once. Remember when I wanted to have a rainbow color palette for our wedding... Yea, not good.

So, thank you once again to Martha Stewart (or Darcy Miller more accurately) who informed me of this amazingness... the color palette generator. Say whaaaaaaaa?


Tis so simple, click here, then insert a link to any pic of your choosing that you want color coordinated and voila! Rad! It is a bit of a vortex though, I'm horribly horribly addicted.

I sort of wish I had known about this when J and I were trying to pick a color palette for our wedding... then again, I think due to my "color crazy" it may have just confused me further.

Nonetheless, this is an awesome tool. It would be great to put to use when coordinating home interiors and the like. I'm sure there are tons of these types of websites out there, I just never knew. Enjoy!