Photography - Check!

Mr. and I met with Punam from Punam Bean Photography a couple weeks ago (after I had been swooning over her wedding photography since...well since before I should have been looking at wedding photography). It went really well and we are so so so excited to have her as our wedding photographer.

We had a really good feeling about how we'd feel in front of her camera and we think that everyone at the wedding will feel just as comfortable. And seriously, check out some of these photos! One of my favorite things is that she has a gift registry so that our guests can opt to put money towards a beautiful wedding album or other prints instead of fine china or other things for the house that we just don't need. For us, we'd so much more rather have beautiful photographs of the ones we love rather than 5 toasters or mother of pearl cheese knives.

Oh, and Punam says that most of her photos are unposed and even the posed ones she does her best to make us not look like we're posing. Which means I won't ever have to do this...unless I want to :) Watch out America's Next Top Model...





















{ can't remember where I got this picture...anyone know? }

DIYs I absolutely MUST try - Colorful Jars

{ image from Junebug Weddings }

Oh how we all love those blue Ball jars. Throw in a beautiful huge blossom like a hydrangea or peony and I'm a happy camper. Though unfortunately for all of us who would like to fill our houses with them, they aren't the easiest to find and can sometimes be a bit expensive (especially when buying multiples).
















{ image from Martha Stewart Weddings }

There must be an alternative, you say? Oh, but there is!! And it doesn't involve stalking ebay, visiting every antique shop in a 30-mile radius, or making friends with the old lady on the block who has a collection of them.

Ok, so BridalBuzz has a feature on MAKING YOUR OWN colorful jars!! It sounds pretty easy, just some glass paint and any glass jars you'd like to use. While I would have jumped off of my futon and rushed to walmart and michaels to get myself started immediately, it's late and they're closed so instead I'll blog about it.

But why stop with just blue? Why not go into pinks or greens or how about even some indigo and violet jars? How beautiful would a collection of colorful bottles look in a guest room, bathroom, or above a mantle?

{ image from Young House Love }

Has anyone tried this though? Does it turn out well?

I DIY'd: Chalkboard Calendar

{ image from Martha }

Anyone else get Martha's daily emails? Well, I stored this one in my "collection" a while back and I've been excited to do it ever since. We were in serious need of a calendar for our new house and so I decided to give it a shot!

It was rather time consuming but the most difficult part was making the checkerboard. If I had just done a solid color it would have taken me like half an hour, most of which would be waiting for the paint to dry.

So...here's my final product:














Now, I didn't do it exactly the way Martha said to do it. Instead, there were some comments to her original directions that I followed instead. What I used:

For each paint color:
4 tsp acrylic paint
1/2 tsp unsanded tile grout


















{ pictures by me }

Other than that, I followed what Martha said and taped off the calendar, and put on several coats of each color. After the whole thing was done, I sanded it lightly, rubbed the whole thing with chalk, and then wiped it down with a damp cloth.

I love it! The best part is that you can use any color you'd like so there are lots of possibilities!

Have you tried to make your own chalkboard paint? How did it turn out?

Alcazar Inspiration

We do not want a “theme.” We don’t want people to walk into our reception and say “Oh, look, their theme is Spain” or “I wonder if they are going to have tacos?” but we still want to incorporate some *subtle* elements of southern Spain into our “wedding style.” So, in search of some Spanish inspiration, I went to Flickr and did a search for “reales alcazares”, the royal gardens in Sevilla where Mr. proposed. I made an inspiration board with the photos that I found:

















{ all images via Flickr - row 1: iron detail by joaoleitao; tiles by kirsti_sf; garden view by pietcur; orange blossoms by González-Alba; hallway by fede_gen88. row 2: tiles by Melinda van den Brink; terra cotta pot by Annie Honey; painted pot by joaoleitao; bougainvillea balcony by Baccarita; hallway by doenjo. row 3: doorway by AnnieHoney; bougainvillea by Melinda van den Brink; courtyard details by joaoleitao. bottom row: tiles by kirsti_sf; tiled garden seat by Melinda van den Brink; indoor courtyard by joaoleitao.}

So, what sticks out the most to me?

- tiles - still don't know where to use these...invitations? Menus?
- orange trees - can I find orange blossoms around here anywhere though?
- ironwork - that picture in the top left sort of reminds me of the monogram I want to use...perhaps we can meld those two together?










{ image taken from Alphabet of Monograms by Henry Lillie }

- bougainvillea - see earlier post
- planters - I love the painted planters that were everywhere (like the blue and yellow one in the center)...maybe instead I could use stone planters for the centerpieces? Or use weathered terra cotta ones?
- stuff growing up walls - can I maybe include ivy in my centerpieces/flowers?

Now we're gettin somewhere!! Excited about these :) Anyone have any other ideas? Or where I could get orange blossoms next July in eastern PA? Same thing with bougainvillea?

Anthropologie Inspiration

So I got the new Anthropologie catalogue in the mail and was absolutely inspired by their shadow photos (shocker...I'm inspired by something from Anthro):

{ images from anthropologie }

How cool would it be to use something like this for save-the-dates or invitations? I could totally see someone making a heart shaped shadow and the couple standing inside of it. I feel like this HAS to have been done already, but I just haven't seen it.

{ image from stock.xchng }

I think it'd be cute! Anyone see anything like that before?

Our Engagement & Inspiration

So, Mr. popped the question while we were in Spain. We split our 10 days there between Madrid, Sevilla, and Barcelona. Now, I’m not saying that I thought he was going to propose, and I’m certainly not saying that I didn’t think he was going to propose, but I think it’s better to tell this story if I go back and think about everything that must have been going on in his head while we were there. So, just know that I wasn’t evilly plotting and trying to throw wrenches in his plan…they did that all by themselves.

The first concern of the trip: ring transport. I guess he was worried about someone stealing it from his checked luggage but he also didn’t want to take a chance and have me see it while going through security (man, that would have been a romantic place to propose) and he and my uncle even went so far as to research how difficult it would be to overnight my ring to the friend we were staying with in Madrid. In the end, he just decided to keep it in his carryon and make sure I just wasn’t looking at his x-ray. All the while, I was oblivious. Just excited to go to Spain!

I found out later that all along his plan was to propose in the gardens of the Alcazar as soon as we got to Sevilla (my absolute favorite place in the whole world). This is where we hit wrench #1. We arrived in Sevilla on a Monday and the Alcazar is closed on Mondays. Again, I didn’t mind because I was oblivious, but apparently Mr. was pretty frustrated and really just wanted to ask so he could stop worrying about losing the ring. So, Tuesday morning comes along and we’re ready to hit the gardens, only there’s a line at least 100 yards long and there is NO way I was going to stand in that line. So although he resisted, we decided to go to a couple other places I wanted to take him and then we’d return to the gardens later. The whole time we were walking around, he kept asking questions like, “So are the royal gardens prettier than this?” “When are we going to go to the gardens?” or “are you ready to go to the gardens now?” I was really enjoying our morning stroll and liked that we were taking our time seeing the sights, sitting down under pretty trees, sipping granizadas, people watching, and I wasn’t in any hurry to stand in line with a bunch of other tourists to visit the gardens during peak hours. So, was it weird that he kept asking all these questions when it seemed perfectly fine to me that we were taking our time? Sorta…but what seemed even more weird is how Mr. refused to take off his jacket and it was about 83 degrees.

FINALLY after 5 hours of “sweaty nervousness” (so he says) we made it to the Alcazar. Then the questions began again: (when we hadn’t reached the garden part of the Alcazar yet) “How do we get to the garden part?” (then when we had gotten to the garden) “So, where’s you’re favorite spot? (Thinking back…ok, thanks dr. duh.) Of course, I continued my leisurely pace while he (as he told me afterwards) scoped out the gardens trying to find where he would ask. Only, when he found a spot, it took us a while to actually get there. Still sweaty, still nervous.



Views from the balcony:






{ all photos by me }

The spot he chose could not have been more perfect: a raised walkway overlooking the entire gardens, beautiful flowers on one side, pond full of ducklings on the other. Of course the final wrench (only moments before he asked) was that I went in for what became the most awkward hug EVER. It was like a half-hug where he raised his arm in order for me to not feel the box in his pocket. Luckily, I didn’t feel it and just a minute later he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him ☺


My ring! { photo by me }

So, between my love of flamenco and the special place in which Mr. proposed, we’d certainly love to incorporate some sort of Spanish garden or secret garden style into our wedding. It’s been tricky though since we don’t want to do anything literal, ya know? So that means no fans, no flamenco dresses, and definitely nothing Mexican like sombreros or (although they’re pretty) paper cutouts.


{ Mexican Picado Flags by Aymujer on Etsy }

I love these boards from Snippet & Ink and their Secret Garden feel:





Can you think of anything that would give us that Secret Spanish Garden style? The only thing I can think of using would be to use some sort of tile pattern. What would be some ways to incorporate it into our venue?


{ image from our venue's website }

See me at EAD!

Some exciting news...

I'll now be blogging over at Elizabeth Anne Designs! For the most part, I'll be posting the same things over there that I do here, just picking some of my favorite posts and sending them over. It's funny because that's the first wedding blog I ever found.

Thought I'd share, I'm really excited!! :)