Happy Weekend!

I've been thinking about Monday's post, which I think conveyed my feeling about the parts of wedding planning that are crazymaking and emotionally exhausting. But honestly, a lot of it has been wonderful and even fun. So in addition to some fun weekend links, I thought I'd share some of the things that are helping me to stay sane and/or smiling, in no particular order:

- Ignoring anyone who tells me being a bride is all about the little details.
- Making decisions for ourselves and our families and not for some perceived audience.
- Jim and Pam's wedding (this clip is missing the part where Jim cuts his tie, but I love that).
- Miss Manners' Guide to a Surprisingly Dignified Wedding.
- Letting our wedding venue and season be a style guide.
- A Practical Wedding.
- Remembering what weddings are not.
- La-la-la-love songs.


{via We Heart It}

If I was cool I'd wear a scarf like this.

Girl crush at Design Crush.

Classified calendar.

The Jazz Singer - gorgeous.

Heirloom vegetables are delicious and beautiful.

Will someone stop by Jennifer Behr's new studio for me? via Brooklyn Bride

Exercises in gratitude, via Blah Blah Blahg.

Circus circus.

Gotta love a really cool map.

I think not.

My honey needs to start painting so we can do this.

Inspired by a midnight garden stroll.

Vintage stamps made easy, via Letter Writers Alliance.

Polaroid still lifes.

How cool is this wedding dress?

Fork and knife.

A raffle for Liam!

Two different color charts, one and two.

How trustworthy is your beard? via auburn & ivory

Have a wonderful weekend, lovelies! And if you feel like it, share what's keeping you sane and smiling with the rest of us.

Discounts, Giveaways, Etc.

Discounts

How about a pair of pearl earrings for $10? Get them at South Paw Studios until 5/5 or they sell out.

Blank Label is offering Snippet & Ink readers $12 off their next purchase, until 5/14. Coupon code: snippetink

Get 20% off your entire order at Pangea Handmade. Coupon code: SNIPPET20

Small Bird is offering Snippet & Ink readers 10% off their entire purchase until 5/23. Coupon code: snippet10

Get free worldwide shipping from Sparkle Thots until 5/31. No minimum purchase necessary. Coupon code: snippetnink

Giveaways

Share your best DIY project/s with Project Wedding* for their 2nd annual DIY Wedding Challenge, and you could win a First Prize gift card worth $500, 2nd Place gift card worth $300, or a 3rd place gift card worth $200. See details here.

Brenda's Wedding Blog is giving away a set of peacock-themed items. See details here.

Top of the Mark in San Francisco is collecting stories of proposals that happened there. Email your story to gail.gerber@ihg.com before June 15, and be entered to win a romantic weekend getaway for two at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins.

Etc.

Carelle is donating 40% of proceeds from sales of their limited edition initial pendant to Sanctuary for Families.

Check out the BRIDES Magazine's Newlywed Nest, an eco-luxury dream apartment. See details here.

Starting 5/1, brides (and up to 10 guests) can come in to one of Agent Provocateur's boutiques for a private 2-hour bridal fitting. Find the perfect lingerie for your wedding day and night with help from Agent Provocateur's expert assistants, enjoy a glass of champagne and delicious canapes, and receive a luxurious goodie bag. Minimum purchase of $750 required. Contact brides@agentprovocateur.com to make an appointment.

Real Wedding: Kate & Jesse

When I opened the email from Amy & Stuart and saw their incredible photos of Kate and Jesse's garden wedding, I couldn't wait to share them with you. And then when Kate told me that she'd found inspiration on Snippet & Ink when she was planning her beautiful wedding, that just made my day. Dear readers - I love seeing your gorgeous weddings! It was really tough for me to narrow down the photos, so this post is a little longer than usual, but I didn't think you'd mind. Kate was sweet enough to share some details of the day with us:

Jesse proposed to me on my birthday - Christmas Eve - in the garden of my family’s Ojai, California home. Within hours of the proposal, we decided we would be returning to that garden to be married. To us, the property has always been reminiscent of places like Tuscany and Provence. From the roses and lavender to the citrus groves and ancient oak trees, we felt as though we were able to capture what we love about those places without leaving home.


Jesse and I had so much fun making our Save the Dates. We took some of my old cameras up to Ojai and shot a series of Polaroid pictures that our talented wedding planner, Emily Kelly from Unscene, Inc., laid out and printed for us.












It was 103-degrees that day in Ojai(!), so we served lavender-infused lemonade before the ceremony to help guests cool down.


Our wedding party was comprised of our parents, step-parents, and siblings, but we also wanted to honor our friends in some way. We asked our dearest friends and siblings to come stand around us in a circle at the start of the ceremony while everyone took a moment to silently make a wish for our future. In looking back on the photos, we're so happy we made the decision to do that - it was such a beautiful moment! We both would say that one of our favorite moments was hearing each others' vows for the first time. Jesse brought the house down with his, and I surprised Jesse by reading from the first love letter he wrote to me over 10 years ago.






















Instead of having our florists arrange flowers for the cocktail tables, bar, and cake table, we spent a day potting succulents in pretty containers and putting together bud vases of roses from the garden. My sister and I also went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market where we were able to buy lots of the little touches at very reasonable prices, like trays and cutting boards for the dessert table and umbrellas to shade the guests from the sun.






The Italian-inspired dinner was served family style and included panzanella; grilled peach, arugula and prosciutto salad; pan-seared sole; chicken milanese; and gnocchi with peas and sage. Mmmm...




Our parents all got together and surprised us by making medicine pouches in the Native American tradition for all of our guests - medicine pouches are something I’ve always loved and I was given one as a child. They were set on the tables with a little note explaining their meaning and how each parent contributed to it. It was an incredible surprise and meant so much to both of us.










We laid out rugs and pillows on the grass, served desserts and Chai tea, and projected an old black and white film in the garden.

Venue: private home in Ojai, California

Invitations: Lauren Spencer King, a friend of the couple

Other printed materials: designed by the couple, printed by Emily Kelly

Bride's dress / shoes: Carolina Herrera / Christian Louboutin

Groom's suit: Band of Outsiders

Floral and event design: R. Jack Balthazar

Chalkboard lettering: Jane Anne Thomas, a friend of the couple

Catering: Josh Jackson at Great Taste Catering

Cake / desserts: Jamaica's Cakes

Music: Valida

Rentals: Classic Party Rentals

Planning / coordinating: Emily Kelly at Unscene, Inc.

If only all of us were so lucky to have such a dreamy garden, I don't imagine there'd be anything but at-home weddings! Congratulations Kate and Jesse - thank you so much for sharing your charming wedding with us, and all of these fun details. And a big thank you to the talented Amy & Stuart for sending over these beautiful photos - I hope you'll be back on Snippet & Ink soon! You can see even more from this wedding in the slideshow here.

Real Wedding: Neda & Sati

As much as I love all of the pretty little details that go into a wedding (love them), few things inspire me more than wedding photos and movies where you can really see how much the couple loves one another - where you can get a sense of the joy in the day. That's why Neda and Sati's incredible wedding film is what's inspiring me today. It is utterly joyful.



Now what if I tell you this is the first wedding film by Rob, Jesse and Nick, the team at Cherish Films? No really - this is their first wedding film. Rob's story is inspiring in its own right - he left a successful job in the advertising industry to follow his heart, to tell beautiful love stories. What could be better than that?

Congratulations, Neda and Sati! Thank you for sharing your beautiful wedding with us, and thank you so much to Cherish Films for sending over this incredible film - I can't wait to see what you've got in store.

Weddings and Blogs

Happy Monday morning! I apologize that I don't have an inspiration board to share with you today - I haven't been feeling super inspired by pretty pictures for the past couple of weeks, so I keep starting inspiration boards and then getting bored with them. Inspiration boreds. (Sorry, sorry!)


{Not that it has anything to do with this post, but who doesn't love kisses and puppies? via We Heart It}

Part of it might be that my honey and I are in the midst of our own wedding planning (Yes! We've set a date and picked a place and everything! Well, not everything, but you know - we're on our way.), so that's sort of dominating the wedding part of my brain, which is interesting when I sit down to create a blog post, because it's not all pretty details and inspired ideas. It's the budget and guest list and vendor decisions and what I guess you could call the bones of a wedding. It's trying to hear 8 million opinions graciously and without heading straight to Crazytown (I get about a C-minus in that area; hoping to bring it up to at least a B). And I'm just not so sure about putting all of that on Snippet & Ink.

Thinking about my own wedding can make blogging a little tricky, and being a wedding blogger has shaped my planning process. In lots of ways it's been amazing (I've made some really wonderful friends who have been such incredible resources and so supportive) and in other ways it's been overwhelming (I have so many ideas, yet nothing seems original because every clever wedding idea anyone ever had has been posted on a blog somewhere and then re-blogged a hundred times over). There's also this thing where everyone seems to think that because I blog about weddings, I should know exactly what I want my wedding to be. (People. I've been engaged since last May. Between then and August we changed the date twice, at three different venues, in two different states. And then we put things on hold. Does that sound like a person who knows exactly what she wants for her wedding?)

So, that's kind of where my brain is (at least, one of a few places). I'll be back with inspiration boards just as soon as possible, but in the meantime, I hope you'll share some of your thoughts here in the comments - what's inspiring you, or how's your planning going, or anything else you feel like chatting about.

Sunday Edition #82

by Will Keeler

Real Wedding: Janet & Ben

Stephany at EyeSpy Photography shared this DIY summer wedding with me, and the couple, Janet and Ben, shared some of the details of the day... "We began the day with a picnic barbecue, lawn games and garden strolls on the grounds. We then gathered in the gardens for a sunset ceremony, beautifully officiated by our friend, followed by a champagne toast, strawberry shortcake dessert and dancing under the stars."

We had picnic blankets and baskets of snacks for everyone to enjoy during the day as well as seating and dining in the LuLu Belle’s Roost building, a tent for extra space and a huge deck for dancing. All of our family and friends brought yard games: ladder golf, bocce ball, washers, Kubb and croquet.


In addition to wonderful wedding craft ideas, our dear friend JoEllen designed our save-the-dates, invitations and gave us elements from the graphics to create stamps and programs. The programs contained the day's events and a map of the gardens for everyone to enjoy.


I changed into a Jim Hjelm bridesmaid dress I ordered in ivory. I added vintage embroidered lace to the dress and the same lace to my J.Crew flats. The lace was from ParisPennsylvania’s Etsy shop and though I bought it long before I bought the dress, it matched perfectly.




It was difficult to have a nice I'm-getting-married-blissful smile during pictures. I had a big goofy grin on my face the whole day. I was so surprised at how I could not control my expression at all. Big grin when everyone arrived, big grin and tears going down the aisle. My cheeks hurt and I still grinned. It didn’t always make for the most, er, perfect wedding pose, but it was exactly how I felt that day. I loved every minute of it.


My mom is an AIFD certified florist and I’ve watched and helped her design many wedding flowers. It was important to both of us to enjoy doing the flowers together. I collected antique aqua jars and milk glass, along with a few family heirloom silver serving pieces to create a mix-match of containers that we filled with Casablanca lilies, hydrangea, veronica, roses, alstroemeria, rosary vines, succulents and some leggy green beans from the farmer’s market and as many herbs, dahlias, lisianthus and succulents as we could get from our own gardens. We made table numbers out of wood slice coasters with numbers cut from various patterned papers.




My niece took her role as flower girl very seriously and did a wonderful job. She wore her own dress with my mother’s turquoise necklace and tiny flowers added to the straps.









Venue: Berwood Hill Inn in Lanesboro, MN

Bride's dress / shoes: Jim Hjelm / J.Crew

Groom's suit: Banana Republic

Music: Joel Schann during the day / iPod in the evening

Catering: Canadian Honker

Rentals: Majestic Tents and Events

Congratulations Janet and Ben! Thank you so much for sharing your charming wedding with us, and thank you to Stephany at EyeSpy Photography for sending over these wonderful photos!