Thoughtful Thursday | Planning A Fall 2011 Wedding?

Start scouting your local home décor and crafts stores for deals on their fall décor now. You will be amazed at the deals you find as they try to make room for the Christmas décor. My personal favorites are Pier1, HomeGoods, Michael’s and Hobby Lobby.

My only caveat, develop your design plan first.

Not everything you think is cute will compliment your OVERALL wedding design. Buying without purpose will not save you money, it will cost you major bucks and take up lots of space in your home for an entire year! If you think it’s too early to think of your entire design plan, only pick up small accent pieces for the cocktail hour or a great stand alone piece for an escort card or sign in table.

Check out these swoon-worthy images of fall decor inspiration from the talented photographer Geoff White.

Artificial pumpkins will be super easy to find this time of year!

Simple fall foliage added to a napkin, can be a great accent to any place setting!

Floral filled metal pails make great pew marker for an outdoor fall wedding!

Try filling them with acorns with a brightly colored ribbon attached!

Absolutely love the rich hues in this stunning centerpiece!

Ever considered a tall, robust wooden candlestick as a floral container?

Fall accent pieces look great on cake, sign in, and escort card tables.

Try finding a fall themed stamp to make place cards and table numbers.

We're in The Knot...

I figured I would dust off the old blog with this knot-worthy update (I'm a dork...I know!). We are in Spring/Summer 2010 Edition of the knot Georgia magazine! Be still my heart. Thanks to the wonderful Aliaks K. of DomFoto for submitting the photo. Look for it under the knot's notebook section "guilty pleasures". Check us out! The carat cake...I love it!

My Video Debut!

Okay, because I am creative I have my hands in all kinds of things. Although video production is not my forte', I figured how hard could it be to do a slideshow and add music {this is my favorite song, by the way}. So here it is...my video slideshow debut!

video courtesy of Ciao Bella Weddings {of course!}

Would you pick up the tab?

Can you imagine having to foot your own bill at a wedding reception? Well, apparently, that’s what some couples are trending towards. I guess this is the new generation of “sponsored” weddings. I was first introduced to this concept a few years ago. We were attending a wedding in which the couple did not register, so it is apparently an unspoken rule that they wanted monetary gifts. I am not object to giving monetary gifts, because this lets the couple purchase whatever their heart’s desire, without the hassle of taking unwanted or duplicate gifts back to the store. {Can you tell, I’ve had experience!} However, it wasn’t until my husband stated our monetary gift must equal the cost of our dinner at the reception…each! Apparently, I had been living under a wedding gift etiquette rock, because I had never heard of such a thing. Being an Atlanta native, I was figuring about $200.00, BUT the wedding was in New York. It was until then that I found out just how expensive weddings in New York are compared to Atlanta. I could have died when we forked over almost $400. That was the most expensive dinner, I've ever eaten. I would have much preferred to give a setting of Villeroy and Boch china, but that’s just me.

Within the past two weeks I have come across two articles with the same subject matter, wedding guests picking up the tab. The above example is in a suddle, indirect way, but today’s couples are becoming bold about what to expect from their guests.

Question!

How would you word that request in an invitation? With all the tricky wording for invitations, I can only imaging the etiquette for notifying your guests that they will be paying for their meal. A wording example on the response card…”when responding to confirm attendance please insert a check in the amount of ______, to cover your meal. If you would prefer to pay by credit card, please respond via email and we will send you a Paypal request.” Ha! What do you think?

Where to Start?

courtesy of Photography by Jacquelynn Buck

It's amazing how overwhelming planning a wedding can be, especially if this is the first time that you have ever been exposed to "Wedding World". No friends or sisters have set the template for you...you are suddenly the wedding pioneer with no place to start. Once engaged the typical reaction is to run and buy every wedding magazine and book on the shelf. While laden with great articles and a wealth of ideas, they can also blur your vision. My advice to all brides is to pick three to four things that are the most important to you and center everything in your wedding around those. Those might be the cake, location, and transportation for you or music, dress, and photography for someone else.



Their are a few reasons behind this method. For one, if you try to incorporate every cute thing you see in the magazine...you will end up flat broke with a wedding that has no true sense of style, just a winding road with no destination. Two, it will reduce indecisiveness leading to less stress. Three, you are able to alter your budget and still get the things you want if you budget those first. Four, it will give your wedding a sense of direction, which will ultimately lead to a well thought out execution of your style.



I was an easy going bride. The alter-ego of Bridezilla. I had four things that were important to me...my bridesmaids, food, music, and photography. I was so open to color, no structured plan here. I decided on the color scheme and theme for my wedding, based on the bridesmaid's dresses. I planned a bridesmaid's outing to a local bridal salon. Everyone picked out dresses in colors and styles that they were most likely to wear. { I hadn't even picked out my dress yet!} And of course everyone picked different styles and colors that flattered them the most, however their was one style that looked good on everyone's body. The great empire waist dress. We ended up going with a long cream chiffon empire waist dress with braided waist and strap adornments in bronze. Everyone looked like a goddess, so my theme was roman-inspired.



See how easy that was!

A blogger's beginning....again!

(not related, but love the pic!)

I have been missing in action for quite sometime. Reinventing my brand and evolving into a new generation of wedding event design and decor. So in a sense, I guess you can think of it as a rebirth. Hence, the title of the post...a blogger's beginning. When I first started this blog, that was my title. Since I am kind of starting over, I thought that I would use the same title.

It's definitely a challenge to post on a daily basis. You become engulfed in the mundane details that accompany the fact that you are now an adult. At the same time you begin mastering the craft that is multi-tasking. But essentially that is what planning a wedding is, while having a full-time job. I am soooo glad that's over! Life doesn't automatically stop (nor slow down!) when you say that you are getting married. So the best thing is to prioritize. Do a little here and a little there. Have a focused plan to accomplish on a daily basis. If you are organized, you can marry the best of both worlds (no pun intended). If not, hire a planner!

I think I got off topic here, but at the same time provided advice. I hope you find that helpful, as well as the future posts ahead.

A TRUE Inspiration Board

With the sudden news of Michael Jackson's passing, I decided to pay homage by creating a concept board inspired from one of his songs. I am not sure if I am creative enough to incorporate a red leather jacket and glittered glove into any wedding concept! This is untraditional to say the least, but M.J.'s creativity was never contained to a box. I think the following embodies his spirit...I present "Black and White"