Branches filled with love...

I have acquired a love of Manzanita branches…which will tie in nicely with the bird/tree décor inspiration that I’ve accumulated thus far! My biggest inspiration, and hopefully a huge focal point for our venue, is a wish tree guest book.

This is the initial photograph that sparked my interest…(you might recognize this as one of Miss Frozen Yogurt's inspirations as well!)

Herecomestheguide.com

I love the idea of setting up the tree in a place where it will make a statement.

And I have the perfect location for it…

As guests arrive at Carlouel, they will walk into this front entryway. The couches will be removed, but in their place, we are placing a large table with the wish tree on top! Guests won’t be able to miss it, and they can take the opportunity to leave us a note either before the ceremony or during the reception.

I love that the tree will transform from bare branches to ones that are filled with beautiful papers replete with advice and well-wishes for our future! I’m going to have to scour some stores for crystal garlands (I’ve seen some great ones at Target around Christmas-time) to hang in the tree, and I’ll have to find some beautiful paper that the guests are able to write their messages on (and figure out the perfect size for them as well).

Herecomestheguide.com

It’s a go! Now…I must shop for some of those dad-gummed Manzanita branches…

Custom Dress Illustration = Divine!

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So...rewind a few months to this summer, when I was in the midst of wedding dress shopping...I was buried up to my nose in wedding magazines, and my eyes were crossing from staring at a computer screen for hours at a time, searching endlessly through wedding dress inspiration!

Anyway, as I was contemplating my dress budget and the like, I started to ponder the thought of what exactly I am going to DO with my dress after the day is over. What is a girl to do? I could preserve it, and hopefully have a daughter someday who might be interested in wearing it...or I could sell it, and let some other bride enjoy it in the more immediate future. Either way, the dress is either going to be in a closet or out of my hands after the wedding. But, there might be an option to keep it in view on a daily basis (with the exception of our pro photog's pictures)!

I recently stumbled upon Aboutthedress.com, a company that creates custom bridal gown illustrations! You send them a few pictures of yourself wearing the dress, and their artists create a custom fashion illustration of you! for $425 (plus shipping), you get an 11"x14" illustration that is double matted and framed.

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What a unique way to remember your gorgeous dress after the day is over! However, kind of pricey, and I am hoping to find something a bit more...fashionable! So, I thought I'd check out one of my favorite places, Etsy, to see if there was anything available at a more reasonable price!

How about these beautiful sketches from MeganHamilton?

And, if you want to include your man's suit/tux...you can do that too!

MeganHamilton

I love love love the idea of having a custom sketch of my dress! This could also be a wonderful first anniversary present (cough cough...any husbands/fiances out there cough cough)...

If you don't want to purchase the illustration, but like to see the juxtaposition of a designer sketch to its actual conception, Brides.com has a featured section called "Sketch to dress Spring 2010" on their site right now...you can see your favorite designers' sketches next to photos of the real thing! So cool!

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James Clifford

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Monique Lhuillier

So...are you doing anything special with your dress/to remember your dress after the wedding?

Flowers in her hair...

Lets talk about hair pieces! In the course of my dress shopping process, I did try on a veil or two, but was left feeling a little "blah" about them. They are classic, but are they "me?" I wasn't so sure. I knew that even if I did wear a veil, it would only be for the ceremony, so I reasoned that it would probably be a better use of my hair stylist's efforts to wear a beautiful flower instead! I would be terrified to make the switch post-ceremony without destroying my hair!

So, I began my Etsy search for the perfect hair flower. And I'll be honest...I'm not done quite yet. I came across this flower first from Y&E Bridal, and I quickly purchased it:

When it arrived, I tore into the package with reckless abandon (ok, scratch that...I was actually very careful because of how delicate it is...but you get the point)! I took a few crude pictures with it shoved into a ponytail...

I really do love the flower; the lace matches the color of my dress PERFECTLY, so I know it would be a great compliment. However, part of me also longs for something that makes a little more of a statement than this flower, since I plan on wearing very very little jewelry and a simple hair style; maybe something a little bigger perhaps? This flower does lay rather flat. Thankfully, I have it on hand just in case I can't find something I like better in the coming months!

So, what do you think hive? Should I go big or go home? What kind of hair piece did you/are you wearing?

Partial to Pintuck

Our venue includes white, floor length table linens. At first, I thought that these were sufficient as a part of our wedding day décor. Hey, free is nice, right???

But then, I discovered pintuck…and it has gone all downhill from that point.

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I love that the pintuck linens are textured, yet still solid. The satin sheen gives the tablecloths such a rich and elegant look, without being too busy. I am really partial to implementing green pintuck tablecloths or runners. I personally love the celery color (the first picture below). I think that the light green will blend very well with the venue, as well as provide some softness in comparison to stark white tablecloths. And, the lighter green will possibly be less distracting than a bright lime green hue (the second picture), which might be overpowering.

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But, what I am cringing over? The price. These lovelies ring in at over $30 a tablecloth for a rental. So, I ask…is it worth the splurge? I’m weighing some of the pro’s and con’s. If I am going to splurge on a décor item, I want to make sure that it provides maximum impact. In this case, I think it might be a worthy item to splurge on, since the tables will be one of the main focal points of the reception! I am going to keep the florals to a minimum on the tables, so having linens that make a statement will be a tremendous help in the overall effect at the event.

So…did you splurge on table linens for your reception? Were any of you lucky enough to have venues with linen rental included?

Save the Date's: What I learned

I promise, this is the final post about my Save the Date’s!

I know that I already lamented about our printer problems, but there are a few things that we learned with our Save the Date process that I’d like to mention…because if I could do it all over again, I would change a few things! Perhaps you will be smarter than me, and potentially learn from my mistakes?

*First, make sure you are using a computer that isn’t going to freak out on you when you’re printing. Unfortunately, Mr. Buttons and I are the not-so-proud owners of a very basic, very slow, and very dumb printer. And yes, we printed each of the envelopes one by one. I know some of you are probably screaming at the computer saying "Miss Buttons, why in the WORLD would you not use mail merge? Really now...you are so silly!" Sadly, when I downloaded the free font that I used, I didn't realize that the font did not include every single character (there was no apostrophe, comma, etc.), and when I tried to merge, the font did not apply to everything as I wanted. So, it was either do a mail merge, then go through and fix each address individually, or just type them all one at a time and hit print. I figured that it would take the same amount of time...so, this leads me to the next point:

*If you are downloading a font to use, make sure all of the characters you want to use are included! Oooops.

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*Third, I would make sure that my magnets/Save the Date’s included the city where the wedding is taking place. Since our current address is in Virginia, and the wedding is in Florida, I didn’t realize that it would cause confusion! Someone called my parents and asked if the wedding is in California! I am really not sure why they thought that…perhaps the VA on our return address looked like CA to them???

*Next, I would be certain that we sign both our first and last names in the cards for guests who don’t know us well! This wasn’t a problem for most of our guests, as most of the guest list was aware they were receiving a card in the first place, but there were a few of my dad’s coworkers who had no clue who we are based on first names alone. D’oh! I felt incredibly dumb.

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*Last, but not least, we would make sure my mom checked the glue dot package strength before sticking them to the magnets/cards. As we were doing it, I thought to myself that the glue dots felt pretty strong, but we kept going anyway. When I got home over Thanksgiving, I asked my mom if she still had the package the dots came in (she has just given me the roll). Sure enough, on the package the box was not marked “low tack,” or “medium tack,” but SUPER HIGH TACK! Well, no wonder people were having a hard time taking the magnet out of the card…sorry everyone!

All in all, I’m glad that we were able to see what problems arose while creating our Save the Date’s…I’m thinking of it as a practice run for the invites, and I am hoping that we won’t run into similar problems with those!

Did you learn some important things while creating your invites/Save the Date’s? Any good tips to share to keep people sane?

My feelings on “THE dress,” part 2…we go shopping…

So…I had my dress inspiration. Next up, the shopping began!

The first shop we visited was Olga’s in Tampa. My mom and I were on our way to the mall, and we stopped in just to take a look. I tried on 3-4 dresses in that shop; and my favorite, hands down, was:

Harlow by Maggie Sottero

It had a sweetheart neckline, lace, and it was form fitting. My mom loved it. And, with a price tag in the $800’s, it was in my budget. But, it was the first place we’d stepped foot into; we felt like we needed to see more dresses before any decision was made! I wish I had a photo of myself in it; alas, one does not exist!

A few weeks later, my grandparents were in town, and my mother, grandma, and I went on an all-day shopping trip!

First stop…David’s Bridal.

I’ll be honest. I didn’t really like a single thing I tried on there. The consultant listened to me and brought out dresses that relatively fit my description, but there was just something about them that wasn’t hitting me. I didn’t take any pictures, because nothing was really striking me. Here are a few that I tried on:

All images from David’s Bridal

I would only consider this with the straps removed…I’m not a huge fan of spaghetti straps in general.

This was the one dress that I disliked the least in the bunch, but the price tag was over $1,000, and I knew I could find a more “designer” dress for the same amount of money. Yes, I’m a snob…I’ll admit it. *Hangs head in shame.* So, we moseyed on down the road...

Another stop on our shopping trip was The Dressing Room in St. Petersburg. The owner of the shop was hilarious. It is a small shop, and she locked the door as we walked in so we wouldn’t be disturbed. Pretty cool. Our trip to The Dressing Room was for one purpose; they had the Agadir dress from Cymbeline. If you need a refresher…

Cymbeline

I HAD to try it…(ignore the lack of boobs I have, and that the halter top neckline is spaced too far apart because the dress is too big!)...

And, what was the outcome? *Sigh* Ok…so I wanted to be in love with it. And it WAS gorgeous. The champagne lace was a great color against my skin. BUT, alas, my mom and I decided that it looked more like something you’d wear on the red carpet rather than your wedding day. Single tear.

I felt a little dejected, but then the owner suggested that I try on another dress from Cymbeline that I had overlooked at first. It didn’t completely meet my dress requirements, but I was willing to try it out! Here is the Colibrie:

They informed me that they could turn the neckline into a sweetheart for me if I desired. The skirt was just so…swishy and dreamy. I realllly liked it. What I didn’t like? The price tag was over $2,000. Gulp. I'd have to do some major reasoning with myself to justify that purchase.

So, without further ado we left the dress shop…I was starting to wonder if I’d ever get that magical “I FOUND THE DRESS” feeling that I was hoping for…

Did you shop at a lot of stores before you came across your dress? Did you find something that you loved, but was out of your price range?

Save the Date's: The big reveal

Ok, so I left you in "Save the Date: suspense...sorry! The drama ensued with the address labels, but thankfully we were able to get ourselves out of the weeds and work out a system.

Now, I’ll show you what these bad boys looked like!

Here is our little setup: my trusty google doc spreadsheet with addresses (yes, they are color coded in blue for Mr. Buttons' guests, and pink for mine…), the magnets, glue dots, the cards and envelopes (clearly), and the ink pad/stamp.

I printed the envelopes while Mr. Buttons attached a glue dot to the back of the magnet and placed it inside the card.

I painstakingly placed each adorable little bird stamp in the left corner of the address. I had originally wanted to order a custom monogram stamp; but when I went to Michael’s one day…this bird stamp was waiting there for me!

I may have had a glass of wine or two during the process…

And…here you have it folks! A little peek at the finished product…I’m so glad that they are complete!

So much for anonymity...haha...

The next day, Mr. Buttons and I headed to the post office to drop them off…so sad (yet relieved) to see them go!

Gotta love the awkward blue trash can in the picture...

See ya, Save the Date's...

Were you relieved when you got your Save the Date’s out?