My Best Friends' Weddings

I'm lucky enough to be planning my wedding at the same time of two of my dearest girlfriends, who happen to be my MOH and bridesmaid. It is such an amazing experience to share together and so perfect to have each other as sounding boards when our soon-to-be-Mr's cannot bear the indecisiveness any longer.

The most interesting part of planning has been how our personalities have so distinctly differentiated our wedding plans. I've gathered "faux" inspiration boards for our 3 weddings as an example.

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Bridesmaid S is having a modern chic wedding with a hot pink flare.

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My peach and apricot faux inspiration board.

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MOH is having an elegant and classic affair, lit with champagne accents.

Are you planning along side your besties?

Le Sigh

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What an amazingly human shot? The inward point of her feet just sums up her anticipation of walking down the aisle to meet her guy. Obsessed!

A Bridesmaid Dress Outing

I arrived home yesterday from a fantastic visit to Chicago. I was able to spend some quality time with my oldest and dearest girlfriends, many of whom I also asked to be bridesmaids. (P.S. They adored these, seriously so perfect tied around a mini-bottle of champagne).

I asked two of my girls to visit a few bridesmaid dress stores with me. I wanted them to be involved in the actual choosing of the dress, although I had a pretty strong idea of what I was looking for. We started at Bella Bridesmaids on Oak in Chicago. The store was cute albeit crowded with a couple of bridesmaid groups during our appointment. After trying on several designer collections (everything from Lela Rose to Simply Silhouettes), we found the dress.

The dress is from Coren Moore and the style is called Nolan. I wish that we had taken pictures but it somehow slipped my mind as I was gabbing and enjoying spending time with my girls. The dress was flattering on both body types and I had no problem imagining each one of my 8 ladies donning the frock. It is fitted at top with a slight sweetheart neckline and then a flirty skirt. It feels more cocktail dress than bridesmaid dress which I was digging.

All Photos from Coren Moore

As for the color, we saw it in the silver color above and I fell immediately but in looking through the different swatches, I think that the dark sage will be more fitting with our color and location (imagine it accented with apricot bouquets...swoon).

How did you find your bridesmaid dresses?

Wedding Reading: Pablo Neruda Edition

I really want to include a Pablo Neruda poem in our wedding ceremony. His love poetry is so beautiful and awe inspiring. I've been reading his work non-stop and have two in consideration at this point.

Option 1:

Sonnet LXIX

Maybe nothingness is to be without your presence,
without you moving, slicing the noon
like a blue flower, without you walking
later through the fog and the cobbles,

without the light you carry in your hand,
golden, which maybe others will not see,
which maybe no one knew was growing
like the red beginnings of a rose.

In short, without your presence: without your coming
suddenly, incitingly, to know my life,
gust of a rosebush, wheat of wind:

since then I am because you are,
since then you are, I am, we are,
and through love I will be, you will be, we'll be.

Option 2:

Sonnet 17

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

in which there is no I or you
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand
so intimate that when you fall asleep it is my eyes that close

What do you think? What are some unique wedding readings that you are including in your ceremony?

An Inspired Setting

This beautiful table setting sums up my color palette inspiration.

A Sweet Favor

I've been back and forth on favors since we started planning the wedding. Every favor that I have ever gotten has seemed almost silly, therefore I had initially decided against them. But after oogling many a cute DIY idea on all of my favorites blogs, I begin to waver in my "steadfast" determination against them.

I started with the plantable favor idea. I loved the thought of giving our guests something lasting and pretty. A couple of tulip bulbs could be tied up in a pretty satchel and presented to each guest at the table. But then I began to worry about how many would go to waste...would our guests really find the favors useful or would they be tossed away due to the extra work it would take to plant them?

And then...I saw these from Miss Apple Cider

How sweet would they look in a brown bakery box with a red/white string bow tied on them. I think it is even DIY-able for me (a non-DIYer at heart) and I'm quite sure my mom would help me bake multiple brownie batches before the wedding. All I need now is a heart shaped cookie cutter.

Love Is Sweet.

Someone Else's Inspiration Board

I have yet to create my own inspiration board. I think I'm almost paralyzed by the sheer volume of inspiration pictures I've collected. How could I possibly whittle those down to just 5 or 6? So I've begun searching for other people's inspiration boards to call my own.

Is that cheating?

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I love this apricot & pink inspiration board from Green Wedding Shoes. I would weave in some light green accents and pump up the vibrancy of the apricot a bit. But this will do for now.

Labor Day = Backyard BBQs

I hope you all have enjoyed a fantastic long weekend filled with friends, family, and backyard bbqs. Labor Day Weekend is always bittersweet as to me it represents the last summer weekend. Next year we have two (count 'em 2!) weddings Labor Day Weekend so we will not be participating in the typical Labor Day traditions.

We're thrilled though to celebrate with two of our best friends (and hoping that we can swing it with one wedding in Denver and the other in Boston).

Lastly, to all of you lovely ladies who celebrated your weddings this weekend...congratulations!

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Alchemy This

What bride does not love Etsy? I've spent hours oogling the beautiful hand made wedding wares on the site since M and I were engaged. I only recently learned about the Alchemy option after reading about it on a recent Miss Star entry.

Some of you may remember my Etsy search to find the perfect bridesmaid card to ask my lovely ladies to join my wedding party. I just wasn't totally sold on the idea and wanted to do something a bit more "me" to ask my girls.

So I decided that I would ask them with a bottle of sparkling wine and a custom gift card. Because who doesn't enjoy a little bubbly. And thus, I went on an Alchemy hunt. I posted my request this morning and before 2PM I had 22 proposals.

After sorting through them all, I immediately fell for these tags by eMeLLes

So sweet...vintage and lovely. Perfect for my girls. And eMeLLeS has been fantastic to work with so far. I should receive the tags next week...just in time for my visit to New York to ask my best friend to be in the wedding. I promise to post the "final" DI-Someone Else product.

How did you ask your ladies to be in your wedding?

Navy Obsessed!

I had my mind set on a matching bridal party. I loved the idea of my girls all wearing the same fabulous dress that went so well with my Vera.

Until I saw this.

Gabriel Ryan Photography via Grey Likes Weddings

So chic. The navy is classic and each dress conveys a sense of the bridesmaid's individual style.

How fabulous does the bride look?

Inspired Engagement Sessions

I'm so excited for our engagement session with our fantastical photographer Chad Husar. Our photographer was booked almost immediately after we were engaged...second to our venue and I immediately thought Chad would be perfect for us after not only drooling over his work but also speaking over the phone and meeting in person.

I've been gathering some inspiration for our e-session since then. I'm kind of nervous about it...I get all nerdy in front of a camera and personally do not think I'm the MOST photogenic. But all of you amazing brides out there who have had e-sessions continue to echo that it is a great opportunity to be comfortable in front of the camera and vibe with your photographer before your actual wedding day.

So we'll probably have the e-session in mid - late fall, the next time we head out to Chicago. So the inspiration I've been gathering includes more layered looks (as you can see I'm very literal).

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Only a select few from my ever growing collection. Any tips on your engagement sessions??

Aisle Decor

As I mentioned before, we'll hopefully have our ceremony on the plaza out front of the CHM which overlooks the park. I had initially been thinking that we could simply hang silver buckets filled with fluffy hydrangeas on the chairs that lined the aisle. Until I saw this on Elizabeth Anne Designs from Divine Light Photography

How perfect? Colors et al!

Flower Power

Style Me Pretty

Forget inspiration boards...my color palette can be summed up by the bouquets above.

You Are My Sunshine

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I adore a good "sun glare" wedding picture. I think there is something so ethereal with the way the light bursts between a couple as they look adoringly at each other. I'll have to tuck this away for my inspiration file.