Friday, June 24, 2011

A Love Story...

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I have a dilemma. This weekend was full of laughter, love, family, friends, and so much more. Yet, I have no postable pictures of Brando and I, as we were too busy facilitating the weekend, and the few we did get were on someone's camera who doesn't know how to email them to us. So, I have decided to show you the sweet details of a young love story. As Tolly pointed out in her comment, Brando and I were married very young, and it was so very interesting to see another very, very young couple go through what we went through at a slightly younger age than even we were. I was one month older than both of them, and Brando was four months older. It was also interesting to see them go through it without a baby, as we had a one and a half year old at the time. They were so much more aware than we were, maybe not of responsibility, but of wedding details. Still, a lot went over their heads, but in a way that was a good thing. They had the innocence of being able to do the strange, but special to them, details they wanted without caring what anybody else thought. For example, a lego playland for all the kids who came that they have cared for or babysat over the years,

bare feet during the ceremony because, well, the reason my boys don't care about having bare feet is because of their cousins (otherwise, they'd be paranoid messes, like me),

all different shades of lavender and purple for the bridesmaids,

balloons released by the flower girl during the kiss instead of flowers being thrown,





books with space carved out to hold the rings for the ring bearers--yes, that's my sweet little man on the left in both photos,

the guests interspersed without the formality of chairs--there's my other handsome man,

a lego car for him and a red VW bug for her on top of their rice krispy treat cake--yes, you heard me right,


and the inclusion of their favorite black-bottom cupcakes made by his grandma, and all the bachelor and bachelorettes along with the bride and groom the day before, as the main dessert,

walking through the fountain after their vows (although, he actually slipped and fell and injured his knee, though he was very proud she didn't touch the ground, please pray for his knee as they are off on their two week honeymoon to Belize without having been able to see a doctor beforehand!),

her handsewn wedding dress (as you can see, it didn't fit quite right, but was beautiful nonetheless)
the inclusion of ivy as it means friendship, and the lilac in her hair symbolizing first love and young love,
the playground fully utilized by the kids and the bride and groom playing right along with the kids after the ceremony,


the ringbearers along with the bridesmaids and groomsmen sitting with the bride and groom at the round main table,

and my favorite, favorite part - their handcarved wedding rings made by the groom who is a woodsmen by trade.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Flowers Complete

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I had offered to do the flowers for my nephew and niece's wedding, as after  the absolute blast I've had with my few experiences helping florists and doing my own flowers, I couldn't wait to get my hands on flowers again. Unbeknownst to me, at first, they took me up on it. As soon as I found out (about a month and a half ago), I went to town on planning, running flowers by the bride, deciding, creating arrangement and price list spreadsheets, picking up supplies and placing orders.

Monday I went into decision-maker mode and powered out all the arrangements, boutonnieres, corsages, and bouquets with six helpers for six hours and we used every minute. Who knew such attention to detail took SO long? Not to mention the three hours picking them up, filling in any blank spaces, and transporting them the day before, as well as the hours of brainstorming the perfect flower for the bride's taste in style and color, planning, and ordering. Now I realize why florists might go the easy route of a single rosebud for a boutonniere. These things were detailed. I love all the design and thought we put into each one, and when it came down to it, I loved making the final artistic decision on every single detail while putting them together, right down to wrapping the ribbon around the bouquets, and grabbing the leftover flowers, arranging them beautifully in less than five minutes. The bridal bouquet was lavender hued crystal blush calla lilies accented with sprigs of ivy symbolizing friendship. The bridesmaids bouquets were white and lavender calla lilies.

The boutonnieres were lavender calla lilies, grass blades, queen anne's lace, and ivy.
Those calla lilies are troopers--they were still completely fresh this morning. Brando got the above photos of the bouquets and boutonnieres, which gave me a sigh of relief as it was such a family run wedding and I was so busy running around helping out, taking pictures, and making sure flowers got where they needed to go that I completely forgot to take any pictures of the corsages or other arrangements at the wedding. The corsages were gorgeous as well with white hydrangeas, lavender-hued seafoam statice, and ivy.

Updated to add: I realized I took one of the arrangements home, so here are some detail shots a few days after the wedding (thus the slight bruising of the delicate white hydrangeas). The arrangements were hypernicum (green berries) and purple and white hydrangeas, among other small lavender flowers.
Green hydrangea, and lavender statice - this is what the corsages were made of, except it was white hydrangeas
Lavender statice, hypernicum, and Queen Anne's lace
Hypernicum, Queen Anne's lace, and white hydrangeas
Queen Anne's lace, a lavender flower, and a white hydrangea
Queen Anne's lace, lavender statice, and green hydrangeas

This whimsical arrangement of purple turned lavender allium and limes below (again slightly bruised as it is a few days old at this point) was another arrangement I brought home and was designed by two of the people helping out - my niece and a family friend's son. They did an absolutely beautiful job. Even though it didn't match the florals of the rest of the wedding (I had picked up the allium with the other florals because it was too fun to resist), it turned out to be the absolute perfect arrangement for the table that held a Dr. Seuss book called Oh, The Places They Will Go for the weddings guests to sign. As my niece pointed out, the allium looked like Horton Hears a Who flowers.


Monday, June 20, 2011

In Honor of my Nephew and New Niece

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A romantic photo...

The actual wedding and celebration with only family invited was Friday. Tomorrow is the wedding and bigger celebration with all their friends invited. So much to do!! They've been staying by a house on the lake and spending time with all their family who has flown in to see them this weekend. So much fun playing at Austin's Parks and Pizza with them yesterday, and having brunch at Cannoli Joe's with them today. What amazing people to be so gracious to their family and those who came to see them marry by spending time with them on their honeymoon. I love my nephew so much and am so glad he has such an amazing woman in his life that has a big of heart as he has, and just as big and crazy of a family, too. And Happy Father's Day, honey. Thank you for giving up your father's day to help me pick up and organize flowers.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Canary Yellow

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As we have company coming in tomorrow, a wedding on Friday, and another wedding on Monday, today was the day for a mani-pedi. I went for canary yellow. It makes me feel like I have sunshine on my toes. I have been wanting to try yellow nail polish since seeing it around the blog world recently, and my toesies were the perfect place to test it out.



originally inspired by Love Maeagan... and confirmed by Artfully Awear's bright green nails. And since I don't have much to say today other than yellow feels like sunshine on my toesies, take a moment and go check out both of their lovely blogs. But before you do, follow me on Pinterest!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Chapeaux & Lace

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Did you know chapeaux means hat in French? When Brando and I attended the Grounded for Music Chapeaux & Champagne event at the beautiful Travaasa hotel on Sunday I wanted SO bad to incorporate lace for the Everybody Everywear event. Unfortunately, the ONE piece of lace I own was just not going to work for the event. But since the lace was just perfect with the hat or 'chapeaux', the hat stayed when it came time to incorporate lace.



 Hat ~ Put together by me and inspired by gorgeous Etsy creator, Two Black Flats, Earrings ~ Lucy in Disguise, Necklace ~ The Farm Bakery & Cafe, Bracelets ~ Burlington Coat Factory & Forever 21 Vest ~ GAP, Lace Tank ~ Macy's, Shorts ~ Fox, Shoes ~ Target

Lace | Everybody, Everywear

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