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Win the Ultimate Wedding!

Hold the presses! Two fantastically exciting pieces of news this Monday morning.

First, Daily Candy is starting a weekly wedding edition. Must sign up immediately!

Second, they are partnering with Crate & Barrel on a contest for $100,000 for the Ultimate Wedding!

Prizes are amazing…even down to the honorable mention in which 15 winners will receive $1000 C&B gift cards.

Enter here!

A Fresh Idea

I am still not quite sure what we will do with our place cards for the reception. I want to do something really unique and the florists we met with had some great ideas that we will consider once we actually make our final decision on the florist.

Isn't this a really gorgeous fresh idea?

Fits perfectly with our wedding colors.

The Tail of the Broken Prong

via Martha Stewart Weddings

Okay so that would hardly be a very riveting tale but that is exactly what I found today as I innocently folded my hands in my lap during a rather dull meeting. I felt a small shift in the side stone of my ring almost like a loose tooth feels when you are little. I looked down to examine my baby and lo and behold one of the prongs was missing on the setting of that stone.

Bummer huh? Well to M's credit after I called him in a panic, he observed that it would have been a much bigger bummer if I had not noticed the missing prong until after the stone too was missing. So off to the lovely jeweler my ring goes for a quick repair. It's funny though how it almost feels like a missing limb. I never realized how aware I was of the ring at all times. Throughout the afternoon, after I had locked my ring away in my desk drawer for safe keeping, I would have a near start when for a split second I would think my ring had fallen off of my finger.

All's well that ends well though I suppose. I'll feel much better when that ring is back on my finger.

I Love Goooold & Cupcakes

Martha Stewart

I have a secret. Sometimes I wish that we were having a cupcake wedding. This secret wish was further fueled by MS Weddings Fall issue which featured these gilded cupcakes. Swoon.

Designer Duds Without Guilt

Hello. My name is Couture and I'm a fashion and designer label addict. I am obsessed with all things fashion and style...I spend the first week of each month drooling over my fashion magazines and dreaming of Marc Jacobs, Chloe, and Stella McCartney. (Clearly, Couture Bowl was a fashion blog before I arrived in wedding land).

I am so looking forward to buying new outfits for all of the fun wedding events preceding the big day. Yet my bank account (and fiance) are slightly more weary of these new outfits. I have tried to justify them to myself and him..."But this will be my only bachelorette party EVER, I have to look amazing". That only works so long until I tried it last week when we were going to register and I said "But how many times can I wear the same old outfit when I'm registering for our WEDDING!" Woops, may have pushed my luck just a bit there.

Still, I'm on the hunt for some "bargain" priced designer duds for the rehearsal dinner, bachelorette weekend, and wedding shower next year. Alas, I have fallen in love with the great vendors who have created designer flash sales online at warehouse sample sale prices.

Some of my favorites include:

If you have not signed up for any of these sites yet...I beg you to do so immediately! (Let me know if you need an invite and I'd be happy to send along). Essentially, all 3 sites have daily flash designer sales. They send out an email when the sale opens up each morning and they have between 15-20 select pieces that are on sale at insanely affordable prices. Designers include, Marc Jacobs, Vera Wang, Chloe, YSL, BCBG, and more than I can list here. Along with clothing, they at times carry gift products like D&G Candle Co. and Dyptique...so there are great opportunities to score some fantastic hostess gifts along the way.

So far I have actually purchased a gift set of candles and a pair of J Brand jeans from Haute Look. I have a feeling that my list will grow much longer as we move into the holidays and then wedding season.

Do you have any super secret shopping sites that you love?

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?

Flower Power

Style Me Pretty

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

Oh So Obsessed with Oh So Beautiful Paper

I am on a paper blog rampage right now as yesterday I had my first conversation with our invitation designer. Our designer is an old colleague of my dad's who has since started her own design company. I had gathered inspiration for our Save the Dates (sorry I just can't bring myself to abbreviate) and invitation suite but had not gotten much beyond that. In talking to her I suddenly became overwhelmed by the decisions.

Paper Texture, Paper Weight, Envelopes, Liner, Pantone Colors, Font, and a million others that I cannot remember.

So I've been on an inspiration mission...mostly focused on Etsy and my new favorite blog Oh So Beautiful Paper. It's a MUST for all of us paper novices...

I sent our designer a huge word document with images of different invitations that I love. I found that many are not the entire look I like but may have the font or the color or the detail.

As for content...after 15 versions we have decided on:

Save the Date
Hilary and Michael
Chicago
June 26,2010


Short and Sweet.

i carry your heart with me

I love words. I always have. When I was a little girl I wanted to be a poet when I grew up. Can you imagine that being your job? Sigh...a girl can dream. Regardless of my transition to corporate America, I'm so looking forward to instilling our wedding ceremony with a few select poignant readings.

We have asked my youngest brother to read something at the ceremony (he's also a groomsman). We are best friends although he lives across the country from me. I'm so excited for him to have such an important part in our ceremony. I had initially thought I wanted to find something non-traditional for him to read. But I keep coming back to ee cummings:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate, my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world, my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows

higher than a soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

ee cummings

Cake-spiration

Wayne Yuan via Style Me Pretty

This is the cake for me. Simple and sweet. With a fluffy floral garnish.

The Story of Us

After all of this wedding talk, I figured it was probably time to share the story of how it all came to be. M and I have been dating on and off since we were 18. (wow!) We met our freshman year in college and immediately clicked. Well...I was shy at first and thankfully he was persistent to the point that he kissed me for the first time in a frat basement when I had both hands occupied by red plastic cups filled with watery beer. (romance, anyone?)

We have spent the past 8 years more on than off but did spend some time apart when I was abroad in Florence and M was chugging along through his engineering degree in Boston. We ended up back together as we graduated college and continued long distance for two years as I worked in advertising in Chi-town (wah wah!) and M was in the ATL pursuing his masters in engineering. (I landed a smarty!) When M graduated we both decided to move back to Boston together after all 2 years apart was enough for us and we knew it was the real deal.

Back in Boston, we are still the same goofy couple who fell in luuuurve at 18 but enhanced by a grown up understanding of what it means to be with someone that is your confidante, best friend, and partner in life.

And then of course there is our lazy beagle who makes us both super happy...Edison.

Bridesmaid Invites

I've been inspired by my best friend and soon to be bridesmaid L. She is getting married on May 1 and just asked us to be bridesmaids with the most adorable cards I have seen.

So I've been all over Etsy searching for an adorable bridesmaid invite for my bridal party. I love the cards with the dress silhouette on the front.

From Pink Avenue Brides

From Design with Style

Or maybe something a bit more sassy...

From Little Lady Company

What do you think?

Ceremony Location in My Dreams

source

M and I are really struggling with our ceremony location (more on that later) but wouldn't it be delicious if we could just say our vows on the top stop of this beautiful stone building?

Honeymooning Thoughts

M and I spent a week at the Mandarin Oriental in Riviera Maya in January. Let me say it was a spectacularly luxurious vacation which ended after days of sunbathing with mango margaritas with a very romantic couples spa massage.

We're going back and forth about where we will honeymoon and we need help! We don't want to waste time on a long flight but want to really feel like we have gone someplace that is different and exotic.

Greek Isles? Aruba? Caymen Islands?

Inspiration without the Board

So it's been a bit tricky for me to put together the inevitable bridal inspiration board. Simply because I change my color crazed mind every two seconds. I wish I was the bride to be with a color theme in mind as it would help me to shape the cluster of boo-tiful images in my mind that lead to June 26, 2010.

Alas, I'm still at square one (which is currently light pewter, champagne, with a pop of apricot).

Regardless, I have hundreds (maybe thousands) of wedding-y goodness photos saved to google reader (love it) and some of my faves are below.

Unfortunately most of these were clipped before I started noting the source (with the Martha exception below) so if an image is yours please let me know and I will source ASAP.

Adore this for a fun favor.

Bistro inspired menus...yum

Simply Candle Chic