Board #496: Secret Garden, Revisited

One of the very first inspiration boards I ever posted was inspired by The Secret Garden, and when I saw this post over on Dress Design Decor a couple of weeks ago, I immediately wanted to revisit the theme (and hopefully improve upon it). Faded blue, vintage keys, overgrown vines, and romantic stationery pull the look together, while a chandelier hung in a tree, a unique candelabra, and paisley printed linens add something unexpected.

Mood: romantic, storybook
Palette: faded powder blue, pale garden green, white

{click image to enlarge}

Top row from left: secret garden door via Dress Design Decor, chandelier from Brides, faded blue door via Dress Design Decor, ring bearer ensemble by Marie-Chantal via Brides UK
Row 2: photo of weather vane candelabra by Elizabeth Messina, springerle cookie cake from Martha Stewart, botanical RSVP card by Austin Press
Row 3: white wine and vintage wine glasses via Style Me Pretty, vintage key via Dress Design Decor, vine save-the-date by Austin Press, The Secret Garden and vintage key via Dress Design Decor
Row 4: blue display box-frame from Cox & Cox, garden bridal hat from Martha Stewart Weddings, white garden chair with roses from Wedding Style Guide, blue paisley linen by Peter Dunham Textiles via Style Court

PS - I am so excited about being able to hang out at the Film Is Not Dead workshop while I'm here in San Diego. Thank you to Jonathan Canlas for inviting me to speak!

Real Wedding: Faye & Curt

Today's beautifully whimsical wedding was held at Faye's childhood home - a gorgeous farm in the English countryside (can you imagine growing up here?!). Says the bride:

Curt and I both wanted something fairly informal in an outdoor setting. It was really lovely to have the opportunity to hold our celebration in my childhood home. The grounds and gardens of my parents farm and home in Cheshire, a county in northwestern England, were the ideal location for the relaxed, romantic country wedding we both envisaged.

We held the ceremony outdoors (as risky as this was bearing in mind the unpredictable UK weather!), in a beautiful grotto in my parents' garden that dates back to about 1883. What is now my parents farm used to to be the site of a big country house, the remains of which were sadly demolished in the 1960s. My parents have lovingly restored the parts of the grounds and gardens that still remain, including the grotto and a sunken lily pond. The champagne and canape reception was held in the courtyard of my parents' house (which was the former stables of carriage house of the big country manor). My aunt sewed the bunting we had hanging from the railings in the courtyard and at the entrance to the farm.










It was a great stroke of luck that they were selling off the sample dress that I tried on in the shop - it was my size so I got my dress for about half price. As much as I loved my dress, during the meal I definitely wished I had chosen a style with a little more give when I could only eat half my dessert and not even a sliver of cheese due to being so tightly laced up!






Our daughter Lila was our flower girl.








My bridesmaids dresses were from Oasis, my mother made their beautiful chiffon capelets and I created their hair accessories - I have an Etsy shop where I sell handmade flower-inspired headbands with a dreamy and romantic style. The floral designer was a family friend and she created wonderful displays for inside the marquee, table arrangements, my bridal bouquet, the bridesmaids bouquets. The key flowers we chose to use were dusky pink roses which were ideal seasonally and also suited the romantic country theme.





Some advice from the bride: Delegate! Don't be afraid to accept help with the planning and getting things done. It's easy to become overly perfectionist and believe that you have to do everything yourself for it to turn out exactly the way you want it but if you take it all on single-handedly, it's a sure fire route to a nervous breakdown! Also, do your research into any other events which may be happening in the area on the day and may effect your wedding- there was a country fair happening in the village near my parents farm and we didn't realize they would be doing clay pigeon shooting displays during the afternoon which meant our ceremony was punctuated by distant gun shots every now and then!

Photography: David Murray

Venue: private home in Cheshire, England

Bride's dress: Maggie Sottero

Groom's suit: French Connection

Bridesmaid dresses / headbands: Oasis / Talking to Unicorns

Flowergirl dress: Monsoon

Happy wishes, Faye and Curt, for your marriage and for your recent move to New Zealand! See more from their lovely wedding over at Faye's blog, Talking to Unicorn.

Real Wedding: Tiff & Leo

Tiff and Leo had the sweetest spring wedding, full of cheery colors and mismatched flea market style. Erin Hearts Court was there to capture the day.






Jaclyne from Heavenly Blooms used a variety of flowers, including baby's breath and craspedia.






From Tiff: "My bridesmaids gave me a full set of random teacups and teapots for my bridal shower. I really wanted to use them so my florist put arrangements in them and hung them on shepherd’s hooks along the aisle. She also had the brilliant idea of lining the aisle with a baby’s breath garland. We used both the teapot arrangements and the baby’s breath garland to decorate our head family tables."










My maid of honor is a graphic designer, and she designed our save the dates, invites, program fans, escort cards, and our wedding tree guestbook. She created our cartoon faces and then I used that on everything. For the escort cards, she illustrated tiny maps of the venue so that our guests would be able to find their tables and the different food stations easily. We made the boards where they were posted by covering regular foam boards with fabric and stringing twine across them. We used mini clothespins to hang each escort card.






(I love this detail!) We started dating in college and we both got our degrees in nutrition, so I thought miniature fruit trees would be perfect for our centerpieces. Many of the orange trees and kumquat trees had fruit on them! I also made little tags for each of the fruit trees to show what fruit it would grow. We covered the pots of the trees in all kinds of different fabric to make everything look fun and lively. I figured it would be nice if our guests took the trees home and planted them. That way, every time they ate fruit from it, they would remember our special day.


Each tier of the cake was a different flavor: coconut, red velvet, and carrot cake. There was also a dessert buffet, with mini cupcakes, peanut butter chocolate whoopie pies, fruit cobbler, fresh fruit, and assorted brownie bites and lemon bar bites. Tiff made the cake topper herself with clothespins and other materials from Michael's. The groom's tie was made with the same fabric as Leo's tie.



Venue: The Clarke Estate in Santa Fe Springs, CA

Bride's dress / shoes: San Patrick / Old Navy

Veil / flower headpiece: Goff Couture / Twigs & Honey

Groom's suit / tie: Jimmy Au's / Tux & Tulle

Bridesmaid dresses: Amanda Archer

Flowers: Heavenly Blooms

Cake: Auntie Em's Kitchen

Congratulations Tiff and Leo! Thank you for sharing your wedding with us, and thank you to Erin Hearts Court for sending over these great pics from the day.

Board #485: A Summer Afternoon

Backyards, lemonade, dancing under the stars - these are a few of my favorite summer things, and they're the inspiration for this summer wedding board. But the overall look isn't casual or slapdash - it's actually quite preppy and timeless. Parasols, fans, and hats are available for guests to keep cool at an outdoor ceremony. Flower girls wear dresses in an unexpected black and white gingham. Hand painted table numbers are a simple DIY touch. Buttercream cake and lemon meringue tartlets are sweetly simple desserts for a summer wedding at home. And if there happens to be a wraparound porch at your venue, wouldn't it be just perfect for the cocktail hour?

Mood: equal parts preppy, vintage, backyard elegance
Palette: black and white, lemon meringue, garden green

{click image to enlarge}

Top row from left: dance floor with string lights and lanterns via Style Me Pretty, guest book table from Martha Stewart Weddings, relaxed black tie photo by Thayer Allyson Gowdy, panama hats from Brides
Row 2: lemon meringue tartlets from Wedding Style Guide, peonies and olive branches, photo of yellow fans by Stephanie Williams, photo of black and white gingham flower girl dress by Jonas Peterson
Row 3: photo by La Vie Photography, table number via Poppytalk, vintage pickup truck via The Invitation Lady, lemonade photo via Creature Comforts
Row 4: porch cocktail hour from Blue Moon Events, whimsical calligraphy by Betsy Dunlap, photo of yellow bridesmaid dresses by Mark Staff, buttercream lemon cake from Charleston Weddings

Board #483: Lilac and Lemonade

Since this weekend marked the unofficial start of summer, it seemed time to post some summer wedding ideas. For today's inspiration board, I imagined a sweetly feminine garden party - something that would work just as well for a bridal shower as for a wedding. The palette is mostly pastels, with lilac and lavender, as well as barely-there sunlight yellow. A touch of deep plum purple adds sophistication. Mismatched glass bottles as bud vases aren't the most original idea, but purple glass is unexpected (and lovely). And how about the perfect recipe for this wedding - lavender lemonade.

Mood: sweet summer garden
Palette: lilac and lavender, lemonade, sunlight

{click image to enlarge}

Top row from left: purple lanterns from Martha Stewart Weddings, lemonade with straw flags from Rebecca Thuss, stamped glassine favor bag by Passing Notes, white peony in purple bottle via A Creative Mint
Row 2: photo of peony bouquet by Jose Villa, garden table from Utterly Engaged styled by Summer Watkins, clematis styling by Randi Brookman Harris, cupcakes with flowers styled by Selina Lake
Row 3: notecard by Ice Cream Social, shoes with rosettes and purple flowers both via This is Glamorous

Board #480: Poppy and Field

After a month-long hiatus, inspiration boards are back! Thanks to all of you for being so patient and for stopping by to check in with Snippet & Ink, even when posting has been a bit inconsistent. I hope this summery orange poppy wedding board brightens your Monday...

Mood: soft and bright, summer light
Palette: summer field green, orange poppy, whipped cream

{click image to enlarge}

Top row from left: poppy fields via Little Brown Pen, orange silkscreen stationery by Igloo Letterpress via Oh So Beautiful Paper, pale green dress via Dress Design Decor
Row 2: miniature cakes from Blah Blah Blahg, sweet tea with monogram napkin and butterfly paper lanterns both from Martha Stewart Weddings, vine-motif save-the-date by Austin Press
Row 3: cake topper by Dolci Odille, photo of wreaths with orange ribbon by Duston Todd, photo of hummingbird seating cards by Lisa Lefkowitz, white garden chairs from Wedding Style Guide
Row 4: photo of kraft paper favor bags with orange ribbon by Jagger Photography, vintage getaway car via Charleston Weddings, photo of romantic wedding dress by Thayer Allyson Gowdy

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.