The Engagement Photos : Fields & Tracks

Our whirlwind engagement session was coming to an end, but there were two places that I wanted to take some pictures before all was said and done.
Any of you that have read this blog for any length of time might have picked up on my slllliiiiight obsession with pictures taken in fields {see here, here, here, here and here}. So I knew that we just had to find one. A little patch of tall grass on the side of the road was as close as we got to a field, but it did the trick.
Our last stop was at an old abandoned train depot near our condo. We loved the

railroad signs that we just sitting around. Perfect to pose by.

And then we scampered over to the brick exterior of the train depot, where I made Chris gaze adoringly at me.

So there you have it, some of our favorites from our engagement session with Nicole Green. Do you love them as much as we do?

Related post: The Engagement Photos: Cottage Edition

Related post: The Engagement Photos: Lake Edition

The Engagement Photos: Lake Edition

We stepped away from the pretty little cottages and took a stroll down to the piers that jutted out onto the lake that I have spent so many hours on over the past 16 years.

You might recognize the picture above, it was the cover of our blurb guest book {in color}. I cannot help but love the color in these photos. The pretty sailboats and cute shoes {more about them in a moment} don't hurt either.

We made our way off of the dock and onto the seawall to snap a few shots with the most beautiful light.

Hello beautiful summer light. It's February and I miss you terribly. Come back soon. xoxo.

We headed over to the sailing club that my parents have been members of since I was a little girl. After a change of clothes, we were ready for some pictures on the pier with the sail boats. And with a change of clothes comes a different pair of shoes....and reason for a shoe shot, naturally.

As an only child, I would swim for hours in that lake racing myself, practicing my dives off the pier and avoiding any fishies. As a teenager I didn't dare actually swim in the water, for fear that my hair might get wet...God forbid. I tanned on that pier for hours, brought friends up to the lake to hang out with and made friends with other kids on the lake. I remember one day while sitting on the pier and gazing out onto the lake, I thought about how big the world really was and how somewhere out there my future husband was growing up and living his life. I secretly hoped that we would meet soon. This next picture is my true favorite, for so many reasons. There we were, my future husband and I. Sitting on the dock overlooking one of my favorite places in the world. The dock that I had spent so many hours on as a child and that held {and still holds} so many fond memories for my parents and I. As I look at the picture of the man that has come into my life to sit next to me on that dock that I used to day dream about him on, I cannot help but think what a lucky girl I am. My daydream has turned into a beautiful reality.
Related post: The Engagement Photos: The Cottage Edition

The Engagement Photos : Cottage Edition

I realized while writing this post that I never really posted more than two of them on this little bloggity blog {found here}. So, I've taken the liberty of picking my favorite 15 {or so} to share with you over three posts. I hope that you enjoy!
Our pictures were taken on the lake that I grew up on. The cottages dotting the shoreline made for the perfect backdrop for the start of our shoot.

One of the things that I learned by browsing countless blogs while wedding planning was that I loooooved it when the couple would wear bright colors for their shoot! After all, you're wearing white and black on your wedding day, so sport some color for your engagement photos!

Doesn't he just have the best jawline? Just had to throw that in there. People think he looks like Nick Lachey. I'm quite the lucky girl.

This last one is my new favorite. It was taken in front of a boat storage shed. Yes, those are cobwebs. And I love them.

all photos taken by: nicole green

How I Tied the Knot: Centerpiece Vases

Previously in the post Tying the Knot: Reception Details, you saw our lovely centerpieces. Since then, a lot of you have been asking for me to let you in on how I tied the ribbon around our centerpiece vases. Well, today is the day my little bloggity blog friends. I put together a little 3 minute video tutorial {on youtube} that you can watch here!

If you have any questions after watching, please just leave a comment or send me an e-mail!

Below are two pictures of the finished products in action at our reception. I hope yours turn out just as beautiful!

p.s. I am not a professional DIY advice giver/video tutorial expert. This video was filmed at about 2am while my husband and I were attempting to move out of our house by noon the next day. It was now or never for this little tutorial and all I could muster was one take. So it's not perfect, by any means, but I hope that you find it helpful!

Back to the Beach

Last Saturday night {when I fell asleep at 9:30} I had a dream that I was reliving our honeymoon. Perhaps this weekend the dream will become a reality. One can wish, right?
I love everything about these two photos: the blue wall, a couple in love and a beautiful beach and water. Take me there.
Have a great weekend!
Photos via: tec petaja

We Met In A Bar

we met in a bar is one of my favorite daily reads. So, when I saw the following photos from an engagement shoot by next exit photography that were taken in a bar, I just had to post them. If you really did meet in a bar, what better place is there for your engagement photo shoot!? What is there not to love about these photos!
My personal favorite from the shoot.
A little ring shot doesn't hurt either!Did any of you meet in a bar!? Chris and I met after a {Rascal Flatts} country concert when my friend and I were walking to the parking lot asking for directions to the nearest bar. Read the full story here. I decided that an empty parking lot and/or a crowded country concert would not be the best location for our engagement pictures, so we did them at the lake. Quite happy with the results, but I realized that I never really posted any of them on here. Look for them sometime next week {along with the tutorial of how I tied the ribbon around our centerpiece vases that I keep promising}!

Poll: Get the Word Out

As most of you know, I started up my own little business Penned & Pretty not too long ago. The response, for lack of better words, has been overwhelming and humbling. It's safe to say that March and April will be quite the busy time for our little shop!

But, I need your help. The months of October - February will be slower months for us {and the wedding industry as a whole} and we are toying with the idea advertising. Now we know that every bride is different and therefore every bride takes a different path while finding vendors for her wedding. Question is, how do you/did you find your vendors {your responses will help us determine where to advertise!}?

1. the knot, wedding wire, elizabeth anne designs library
2. vendors recommended by other bloggers
3. word of mouth from friends/family/other vendors
4. bridal shows/expos
5. good ole Google search
6. other

Please vote {poll located at the top right of the blog} and/or leave a comment with your thoughts, we appreciate it!

Oh, and if you didn't know, Penned & Pretty has it's own little blog that is updated daily with darling little invitations, announcements, and all things paper from some of our favorite little shops. Add Penned & Pretty to your reader and follow along as we bring you only the prettiest little paper goods we can find!

And now for a pretty picture for this pretty little post. I never thought I could love a picture in which neither the bride nor the groom is looking at the camera or at the other person...until I saw this picture.
p.s. a wall of ivy is my new favorite background.

photo by the ever wonderful jose villa

Hugh's Series

While perusing one of my favorite daily reads, we met in a bar, I was lead to the blog of hugh forte and the beautiful pictures from this wedding.
As I mentioned before, there is nothing I love more than a lovely series of {unposed} shots from a photographer. These pictures, below, of a couple's first look truly warm my heart.

If you have a moment today, use it to check out hugh forte's little blog. He has quickly become one of my favorite photographers. I hope he brightens your Monday as much as he has mine.

Our Labor of Love

Let's face it friends, it's Monday and we all are in need of some serious inspiration. I was on the prowl for some photographers to add to my google reader when I rediscovered our labor of love and their blog: our blog of love. If you have a few minutes to spare today, head on over to the our blog of love wedding category. The images will make your Monday just a little more tolerable, pinky promise.

For instance, pictures from the wedding of Melinda & JJ {11.30.08}:

I love this next little series of the bride & the groom. Wouldn't these pictures look great framed & hanging side by side?

Everything about this photo makes it into such a beautiful bridal portrait. The light streaming in the window, the stunning bride, the relaxed feel of the moment and the antique/sepia photo finishing.

A nontraditional, but lovely, shot of the bride with her bridesmaids in the distance. Have I not mentioned that the bride's dress is adorable and perfect in every way?

How could I leave you all without the shoe shot? Loves it.

There. Isn't your Monday a little better already?

Bake Off

We had a bake off at my client yesterday. Those of you that know me know that I could survive for months off of turkey sandwiches, chicken noodle soup and diet coke. Needless to say, I don't cook and or bake. So, naturally, I made rice krispie treats for the bake off. I maintain that it counts since I had to melt the butter & marshmellows over the stove....which is essentially baking.

image found on the bride chic blog...i think

But if I was actually blessed with baking skills, I would have loved to have made a cake like the one above. Isn't it lovely in every way!? Unique, adorned with flowers and perfect in every single way. Quite the wedding cake, if you ask me.

Lavish Petals

I'm not usually one for lavish details at a wedding. I suppose that I prefer the details that make the day more personable.

But even I fell in love with the ample amount of petals scattered up the aisle of this ceremony location. And then there is the breathtaking design {mimicking the couples monogram, perhaps!?} made by the rose petals at the end of the aisle that I absolutely adore.

via: style me pretty

Wouldn't you just love to see your future husband standing smack dab in the center of the arrangement of petals as you walk up the petal-filled aisle?

EAD Library

Just a shout out to the ladies over at Elizabeth Anne Designs for including Penned & Pretty as a member of the EAD Library ! We are tickled pink....or raspberry.

Head on over to the {newly redesigned} EAD Library to find wedding resources and professionals in your area!

How I Tied the Knot: Cocktail Napkins

Previously in the post, Tying the Knot: The Reception Details I shared some of my favorite pictures from our wedding reception. A few of you lovely readers wanted to know a little more about our cocktail napkins.

Weren't they just lovely? Our napkins came from etsy seller Designs By Tine. Unfortunately, Tine no longer makes custom cocktail napkins. Never fear, you can still find custom cocktail napkins on this etsy listing {from a different seller}. We also purchased 300 plum napkins and 150 raspberry napkins from our local party store and intermixed them with the custom napkins. In the end, we had WAY too many napkins for our 150 guests and I am still attempting to use them all to this day. Obviously, the personalized napkins are not a necessity, but they surly were adored by all of our guests.

Don't Be Confined

As I said before, in this post, I was set on having plum and raspberry as the only two colors that appeared throughout our wedding day. If I could go back, would I change it? Perhaps. I probably wouldn't go bright & bold, but I would try not to confine our color scheme to only two colors.
Looking back now, I would love to pick two or three colors and blend them together. The colors in these photos do just that. Delicate shades of strawberry combined with mango, white and a soft green make for a beautiful palette that can be infused into the day through bridesmaid dresses, table decor, paper goods and pretty little details.

So, when choosing the colors that will be present throughout wedding day, don't confine yourself to two or three. Instead pick a few pretty hues that you adore and incorporate all of their various shades into the details of your day!

pretty pictures from chelsea fuss

Poll: The Colored Bridal Shoe

So unless you live under a rock, I feel as though you should have seen the "trend" of the colored wedding shoes. If you haven't, just read my post here. Let's just have a little chat about this "trend," shall we? I am personally a fan, as evidenced in the photo below.

I love my plum shoes more than any other bridal white shoes I found during the process of planning our wedding. They added a splash of color and an adorable detail, in my opinion. But there is a little piece of me that is secretly hoping that I don't look back on the picture above in 40 years and think to myself, "why in the world did I wear colored shoes on my wedding day!?". And then there is the dreaded point in time that I might have to tell my daughter "oh, but that was the trend/style back when we got married. everyone was wearing colored shoes!" after she flips through our wedding photos giggling about what in the world I did/wore on our wedding day.

And so, to go along with yesterdays wonderful post, let's partake in a little poll {located at the top right of the blog}. Have you/did you wear a colored shoe on your wedding day?

1. Love{d} the colored shoes. It's all about the details, baby.
2. Went with white.

3. Colored shoes weren't a trend when I tied the knot

If you would like, leave a little comment about your thoughts on this trend. Do you think it will stick around? Do you think it's overdone? Do people give you odd looks when you tell them that your wedding shoes were not/will not be white {i got those looks all the time}?!

A pretty picture {that you should save in your inspiration folder} by jonathan canalas to end this post.

Pick Your Peeps

Below are just a few of my favorite shoes snatched from photographers blogs over the last few months. Aren't they lovely!? I just can't pick a favorite. Each one is special in it's own little way. I should warn you, all of the shoes below are peep toes. I have a deep deep love for peep toe shoes, as if you didn't already know.

Pretty bows along with the detail of gathered fabric makes these shoes {above} a definite necessity if your wedding contains a hue of deep pink. The yellow shoes {below} just look like they would make your feet happy.

If I could ever pick one pair of shoes to buy {but never wear} and place on a pedestal in my closet to admire, these green louboutins {above} would be it.

What pretty pretty blue shoes {above} with adorable little ankle straps! I had a hard time putting these plum/purple shoes in this post {below}. I wanted to include mine, but I know that you all have already seen them. So I suppose these will have to do.

As if the fuchsia heels weren't beautiful enough, there is an added bonus of some rhinestone bling. Words do not describe my love for the shoes {and the shot of them}, below. I love the color {you could so wear these again}, the peep toe, the broach, the {metallic!!!} heels.....pink: divine light photography, yellow via: the brides cafe , green via: elizabeth anne designs , turquoise: travis hoehne , purple: pen carlson , fuchsia & champagne: bobbi + mike