Real Wedding by Lisa Vorce, IV 20 Nov 2008

I wanted to share a few more pictures of today’s featured wedding, plus the details from Lisa at Oh How Charming!

photographs by Lisa Franchot

From Lisa at Oh How Charming!

The draping that we chose for the dinner reception tent was such a beautiful shade of blue. It created the most serene atmosphere. We combined the soft beachy blue hues of the wedding with “beach chic” elements from Classic Party Rentals such as bamboo folding chairs, wicker chargers, bamboo flatware, and wood tables. I had Barker Decor add their amazing bamboo dance floor and stage, and my absolute favorite…7500 square feet of their sisal flooring in the tent. It was extraordinary!! The sisal mixed with the blue draping was such a gorgeous combo.

For the florals - we struggled a bit to really figure out what Courtney loved. Everything we came up with was pretty — but just didn’t have that “wow” factor. So — at the very last second — we collectively decided to change the florals (it was very exciting!) to ALL daisies. The amazingly talented Mindy Rice and I were SO excited that Courtney was daring enough to let us rock out the daisies. There were daisies everywhere! Mindy did beautifully aged galvanized buckets of daisies, and peppered in some super sweet hand tied bouquets of chamomile and feverfew. Mindy also painted all the weathered signs that we had throughout the wedding.

Carlos and Anna at Tabella did a fabulous combination of washed linen and delicate embroidered silk runners on the wood tables. They were stunning. Amy and Jeremy at Vanilla Bake Shop did yet another extraordinary dessert display and a spectacular cake!!! Everything was captured beautifully by the super talented Lisa Franchot. Aside from all the beautiful decor, the wedding was truly stunning because of Courtney and Andrew and their awesome families and friends. It was an event filled with a ton of love and laughter. We were delighted to be a part of it!

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Source: Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog | Abby Larson

Fabulous Fashions by Coren Moore, III 20 Nov 2008

Just in case you weren’t already head over heels in love with these dresses by Coren Moore, I saved this particular group for last. I know I said it once, but I am truly in love with the gorgeous color scheme and sweet sophistication of these gowns. Enough of me, I’ll let the dresses speak for themselves, enjoy!

The detail work in these dresses is that perfect combination of chic without being fussy. From the subtle, scalloping on the neckline of the Francie Bridal Gown to the sweet ruffles on the bottom of the green Rose Dress. Each one is completely gorgeous in it’s own unique way!

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Post tags: Bridal Gowns, Bridesmaids Dresses, Coren Moore, Fashion
Post categories: Bridal Party, Little Black Book Blog, Wedding Dresses, Wedding Fashion

Source: Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog | Theresa

Real Wedding by Lisa Vorce, III 20 Nov 2008

Lisa Vorce of Oh How Charming! just might be my wedding muse. Every wedding that she sends me, whether it’s perfect in its feminine charm or stunning in its modern sensibility, is a reflection of who she is as a designer. Sophisticated, warm and utterly chic…

photographs by Lisa Franchot

From Lisa…

Courtney originally called me from New York. During our first conversation, I fell in love with her amazingly sweet nature. When she called back the next day to book me - I was delighted! I immediately started dreaming up some design thoughts about her wedding. When I finally met Courtney and her awesome fiance Andrew, in person — I was able to immediately refine the concepts that were in my head. Their wedding is a true reflection of who they are…genuinely kind, laid back, and simply elegant.

Since their wedding took place in the gorgeous Emerald Bay of Laguna Beach — we wanted to create something that was refined and elegant, but at the same time, was able to capture the informal spirit of a beach town. Starting with their Save the Date - Courtney and Andrew chose colors that were reminiscent of the beautiful sea glass treasures we used to find as kids along the beaches of So Cal. We took that color scheme and ran with it.

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Source: Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog | Abby Larson

Rockabilly brides get all the best updos 20 Nov 2008

Why is it that rockabilly brides always have the most fabulous wedding hair?

I’m totally in love with the 1940s ‘do that Laurenn and her fabulous smile are rocking in this shot from Bonnie Berry Photography.

If you want to see the full series from Laurenn and Alex’s Austin, TX wedding, head on over to Bonnie’s blog. There’s a gorgeous red dress, cupcakes, paper lanterns, cute kids and a smiley dog.

(Oh and thanks for the heads up, Kat!)

Source: Offbeat Bride | Ariel

Paperwink 20 Nov 2008

Paperwink is our newest discovery in all things fabulously green, wedding, and if you haven’t guessed by now…we love packaging and design and these gals nailed it!

The dynamic duo, Tara and Darcey, started this company after they met while designing for the fab brand, Knock Knock. And now they are bringing their design expertise to the world of weddings.

First up on our favs list is this Besheret letterpress design. The suite conveys the notion of fate - Besheret, that brought the couple together and the fate that would bring their loved ones together on their wedding day. The hand-drawn bulb on the activities card is a map that lets guests know about the different activities to do in town, as well as offers guests insight into the couple’s relationship.

Once at the wedding, guests were even given favor boxes with matching bulbs in them. Can you say genius?!?!?!

Source: Bridal Bar Blog | bridalbar

Sheri & Theo’s 18th Century Scottish Harvest Wedding 20 Nov 2008

The offbeat bride: Sheri, Curriculum Developer

Her offbeat partner: Theo, Software Test Engineer

Location & date of wedding: Carrigan Farms, Mooresville, NC on November 4th, 2007

What made our wedding offbeat: My husband wanted to wear a Great Kilt in his family’s tartan, so we decided to use the 18th century as inspiration and the plans grew from there.

I was so lucky to get my corsetted gown, headpiece and jewelry made by Elnara as her first commission. We found a Celtic fusion rock band for the reception through our bagpiper - they were so awesome!

My Mom and I did all the flowers and decorations. We ended up climbing through the woods in the days before the wedding to pick fall leaves and grab whole branches for centerpieces. My husband wrote the ceremony and six of our friends participated in the handfasting by telling sweet stories about us and pledging their support to the marriage as they tied the cords around our hands.

The whole focus of our wedding was to have the community of people we love as the true officiants - we had each of the 40 guests sign as witnesses on the Quaker Wedding Certificate we had made. Our little Leaf Fairy wore a custom-made fairy outfit complete with cellophane wings - I still want my own pair!

Our biggest challenge: Trying to please my very literal future husband who wanted to follow the rules of the 18th century to a “T” and still have all the beautiful stuff that I wanted to incorporate. I love him very much, but the fact that most women in the 18th century would’ve worn cotton or wool at a wedding wasn’t going to keep me from the silk duponi I was so in love with! In the end, we split up the decisions and went for it.

What was funny and surprising to me was the family response - they were thrilled to experience something different. Even if they didn’t do the garb thing, they embraced the concept with open arms.

My favorite moment: The focus of our ceremony was our “community” recognizing and supporting the marriage, so each of our attendants participated in a six-cord handfasting that my husband wrote. While we weren’t able to keep our own vows a secret (we were so excited about what we wrote that we ended up sharing those with each other before the ceremony), our attendants’ parts were a complete mystery.

What was funny and surprising to me was the family response - they were thrilled to experience something different. Even if they didn’t do the garb thing, they embraced the concept with open arms.

Each one of our attendants came up with sweet, personal things to say and ended their part by asking us a question that we could answer before the cord was tied. The one that brought down the house was my husband’s (now our!) 17 year-old son who’s been acting on the stage for years. What he said was impromptu (he didn’t have anything written down, which made us nervous). His voice was sure and clear, but what he said was so heartfelt and he had huge tears streaming down his face.

Having his sweet and shy older sister bring us our rings and beam at us as we shared our vows with each other is a very close second.

My offbeat advice:Here are the things I would tell a friend during the planning process:

—If it’s something that you love and that’s personal to you and your future spouse, incorporate it. The less “weddingy” it is, the better!

—Even if you feel that it’s frivolous and you don’t like being the center of attention, get bridal portraits done. My wedding day was such a flurry and my photographer showed up an hour late, so the shots of my dress from the day of aren’t nearly as good. It was also a nice dress rehearsal to see everything put together and make the needed tweaks.

—I know that many many ladies find gorgeous wedding dresses at the standard salons, but please consider finding a talented dressmaker! My experience with Elnara was an incredible one and I ended up with a wonderful friend in the process. I’m also hunting for other reasons to wear my dress again - masquerade balls, renaissance fairs - I’m there!!

—Don’t be afraid to start removing things from your DIY docket near the end. Those things you obsess over (my frustration was that one of my Aunts ended up being listed twice on the seating chart!) will be side notes when it’s all over.

—Find a community of like-minded folks to bounce ideas off of. While my friends and family were interested during the planning process, they didn’t have the helpful suggestions that the ladies at IndieBride, Offbeat Bride, WeddingBee and Medieval/Renaissance Weddings did. Having those groups kept me from making my friends completely crazy.

—Plan and document to your heart’s content before the wedding, but on the day of, leave the details to someone else. I’m so lucky that my Mom’s five sisters came to the wedding and descended on the ceremony/reception locations the morning of to pull things together. I was there for a couple of hours to help, but I was NOT in charge. It felt good!

—Walk to your groom slowly. Even with the incredibly long walk I had in the processional, I wish I’d paused to take it all in instead of making a bee-line to my “spot.”

Enough talk — show me that wedding porn: Click the photo below to see shots from Sheri & Theo’s 18th Century Scottish Harvest Wedding!

Source: Offbeat Bride | Shrie, the offbeat intern

Kathleen & Gilbert’s Multi-Cultural Mambo/Swing Fiesta Wedding! 19 Nov 2008

The offbeat bride: Kathleen, Non-Profit Arts Administrator

Her offbeat partner: Gilbert, Web Designer

Location & date of wedding: Casa Maria in San Juan Bautista, CA on October 11th, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: My husband and I have been collaborating as artists for the past five years together. Our relationship was built on putting together DIY events at the non-profit art gallery we both work for (where we met!) and our wedding was no different.

While we didn’t necessarily rule out tradition altogether, we tried to stay as true to ourselves as possible, which basically meant following a skeleton form and fleshing it out as we saw fit. We did and made everything ourselves, from the invitations and decorations to our vows. And that which we couldn’t do, we asked our friends and family to help out with.

Our officiant was our friend Sam, a transgender filmmaker, who was also with us on our first date five years ago. He told a sweet story about that day as an introduction to the ceremony. We asked our friends and family to bake us cakes to help bring a more intimate feel to the reception. Our friend Rebecca, a professional photographer, insisted on photographing the wedding for us. Both my husband and I have volunteered working for her film festival in the past, so it was a trade off of labor in the end that helped save us quite a bit of money. I walked down the aisle to the theme song from the film Vertigo because the town where we were married was featured in the film.

Everyone in the wedding party all either carried or wore dahlias, both as a tribute to my grandparents who were avid dahlia gardeners and also as a tribute to my husband’s heritage (which is Mexican). The dahlia is the national flower of Mexico, as well as the official flower of San Francisco, where we met and fell in love. Our color scheme was basically every color in the rainbow, which was another part of Mexican culture that we borrowed from.

My favorite moment was seeing the dance floor filled with all our friends and family, from so many different cultures and generations, dancing to a live Latin Jazz band and looking so happy.

And lastly, one of the reasons we chose the town of San Juan Bautista because the San Andreas Fault, a mutual obsession of ours and a topic that we have addressed in several of our collaborative art projects, runs right through it. Our ceremony took place directly on top of the fault. We felt that the energy of the fault was a necessary element in the act of combining our lives together.

Our biggest challenge: Our biggest challenge was preparing for our wedding while simultaneously preparing for our first museum exhibition. Talk about timing! It was a mixed blessing because while it was stressful at times to be thinking about two major projects, it was helpful to have them both to retreat to when one or the other got to be too much. We didn’t go out or see anyone for basically the entire the summer, but everything turned out fine in the end.

We pulled off a successful wedding and a successful installation within weeks of each other, and even brought our wedding guests to the museum for an informal walk through as part of our wedding weekend.

My favorite moment: My favorite moment was seeing the dance floor filled with all our friends and family, from so many different cultures and generations, dancing to a live Latin Jazz band and looking so happy.

My offbeat advice:Learn everything about what to do to prepare for a wedding and then toss it out the window. Let yourself indulge in the whole process but keep your sense of humor and humiliation. Whatever you do will be incredible as long as people recognize that it’s still you and not a social construct.

Enough talk — show me that wedding porn: Click the photo below to see shots from Kathleen & Gilbert’s multi-generational and multi-cultural dancin’ fiesta wedding!

Source: Offbeat Bride | Shrie, the offbeat intern

Brand New Monique Lhuillier 18 Nov 2008

Hot off the runway in New York, the newest collection of Monique Lhuillier. Need we say more…
Photos by Get Married.

Source: Bridal Bar Blog | bridalbar

Really? 15 Nov 2008

So instead of sharing a fabulous themed wedding today, we thought we’d scare you a bit (or delight you depending on your taste). Check out this themed and colored hair dye (for hair down there). That’s right, add another step in your beauty regime ladies, and be sure to use Betty to be perfectly color coordinated before your big day!

Source: Bridal Bar Blog | bridalbar