My Favorite Inspiration Board

If I had to pick a favorite inspiration board that the lovely Kathryn at snippet and ink has whipped up, it would have to be this one "Bottle Glass & Black."

I love that bottle glass color. It would be the perfect accent color to a traditional black and white wedding color scheme. It may be hard to find bridesmaids dresses, ribbon, linens, etc in the exact bottle glass color, but I assume it would be worth the work needed to bring everything together under this fabulous color combo.

You can see the board and Kathryn's words about it right here.

Pretty Plum Wedding Bouquets

Take it from me {a bride that could not find flowers in juuusst the perfect hue}, plum {and/or raspberry, for that matter} flowers are hard to come by. Luckily, with blogging little florists like JM Flora and other blogs featuring more real weddings, it's getting easier and easier to find legitimate floral inspiration for your big day.
If only I had pictures of this bouquet to show my florist. It would have made things so easier. Did I ever tell you that I cried when I saw my sample bridesmaid bouquet? Instead of plum and raspberry it was more violet, orange and bright pink. You would have cried too.

I wanted to share the picture below because its the same bouquet as the one above, but it looks totally different propped up against this gold chair. It just goes to show that you can change the look of a bouquet entirely depending on the table linen/bridesmaid dress/etc that it's

accenting. So with the same flowers, you can have one look for the ceremony and another for the reception all while keeping the entire day cohesive. Looking for more plum flower ideas? UBB posted a great little feature on plum flowers that you can find right here. Or you could browse through all of my favorite bouquets and flower ideas I've posted right here.

Pictures above courtesy of JM Flora and photos by Katie of Open Air Photography . See the full post with even more gorgeous bouquets here.

e-plan my wedding

The lovely April of April Foster Events has recently launched a new wedding resource for busy, tech-savvy, budget-conscious couples who desire help from a professional wedding planner and love the convenience of the internet.

Here's what you need to know about eplan my wedding:
"The average wedding can take between 100-200 hours to plan. Our goal is to save a majority of time for you by completing those time consuming tasks. All the information/ideas/inspiration we collect and organize on your behalf is sent to you via your wedding eBinder where you can view the information and reply on YOUR schedule. With all that extra time, you can choose to either spend your hours crafting DIY details for your wedding or at work to keep your boss happy."

Just some of the services provided by your eplanner at eplan my wedding are timeline management, budget creation, rehearsal dinner location suggestions and out-of-town guest coordination {hotel rooms & transportation}.

For more information email: info {at} eplanmywedding {dot} com

p.s. my little calligraphy blog is a sponsor of eplan my wedding.

Nautical Engagement Pictures

I recently saw this incredibly gorgeous and completely nautical engagement session over at grey likes weddings {right here } and just had to share. After all, the nautical-ness that you are about to see is what tying the knot is all about. Sailboats, a wooden dock, buoys, sailing rope and blue skies. You just cannot go wrong.
I am loving the use of oars! The middle shot is just adorable. The couple could display a few of these pictures at their reception and have guests sign an oar instead of the traditional guest book!
Usually it's the bride-to-be's shoes that are featured in the famed "shoe shot." However, these Sperry Top-Siders totally stole the show {and the shot}!
This straight up nautical session is courtesy of yuriy manchik, a Seattle-based photographer. The entire engagement session can be seen right here.
As much as I loved the nautical-ish engagement photos of ours seeing these makes me wish that we would have taken it one step further and gone all out with a full-blown nautical engagement session!p.s. A little shout-out to Summer of grey likes weddings. She always features the best weddings. Reading her blog is a little slice of sunshine everyday.

Plum Bridesmaids Dresses {with pockets!}

I would have given my left arm to have seen these bridesmaids dresses before our wedding. I would have swiftly zipped each one of my bridesmaids into one of them. I love the flattering shape of the dress as well as the neckline options. Not to mention the stunning color!
And did I mention/did you see...the dress has pockets!!! My best friends wedding was last weekend. Our bridesmaids dresses {cobalt blue & seen here} had pockets and I couldn't keep my hands out of them. Not to mention they come in handy to hold lip gloss and kleenex.

All pictures courtesy of jessica strickland from the wedding of kristi and matt

Engagement Pictures at the Speedway

Indianapolis is gearing up for the Indianapolis 500 and I couldn't resist sharing a couple pictures from this engagement session shot by Nicole Green at the Indianapolis 500 Motor Speedway!

All of these shots were taken on the historic bricks that are still exposed on the track. You all know that I love the "shoe shot" that also provides a close up of the bricks! Thanks so much, Nicole, for sharing these pictures!

Nautical-ish Bouquets

This past weekend I threw a nautical themed bachelorette party in Chicago for my friend Debbie. I'm still recuperating from planning and throwing the party and I'm absolutely still in the nautical themed mode, so I thought that I would share these adorable nautical-ish bouquets.
When I think of a "nautical" bouquet, it's always white. Then, its accented with green to provide a preppy nautical look or accented with a red {see below!} to provide the tried and true nautical color scheme. Both are gorgeous, in my opinion.

The striped wrap is just the icing on the cake, if you will, for these bouquets. And, it's what brings the nautical flare to these pieces.

I just had to sneak a picture in of the magenta {red} and white bouquet. Isn't it stunning!?

Janie from The Brides Cafe is the designer behind Janie Medley Flora Design and is consistently creating the most delightful bouquets which, I am sure, are even more beautiful in person!

p.s. The white bouquet contains Peonies, Scabiosa, Hypericum Berries and Scented Geranium Leaves. The red and white bouquet below contains Peonies, Dahlias {my favorite!}, Seeded Eucalyptus and Scented Geranium Leaves.

p.p.s. Bouquets designed by Janie Medley Flora Design and photos taken by Katie of Open Air Photography. used with expressed permission of Janie Medley Flora Design.