Boutonniere Blast!

Jen inspired me to pull out my Etsy find.

Tinarie21's shop has beautiful boutonnières and ring pillows.

Can you believe these beauties? They are gorgeous!

I know it's not a boutonnière but,
I'm sure you'll be able to get cut me some slack : P
Something Blue anyone?

Or you can make your own! How you ask?

Martha has the answer

{doesn't she always?}

Here are the instructions on how to make your own:

Martha Stewart

Forgotten Detail

In my excitement over my new cake stand (did you see it below? It's so pretty!) I forgot to mention the most important part.

If you go to http://www.whitneysmithpottery.com/ you can actually set up a wedding registry for these gorgeous ceramics. If only I had found that out before we got married . . .

Where are you registering? Is anyone going against the grain and foregoing a registry altogether?

It's fate!

So, you know when something is just obviously meant to be? I feel that way about my husband. I also feel that way when I find an amazing sale or a great vintage find in a thrift store. Well, right now I'm feeling that away about my new cake stand!

You see, I'd been admiring the work of Whitney Smith http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5189972 for quite some time. She has beautiful lotus bowls

and poppy bowls

But most of all . . . she has amazing cake stands!

Well, one day I was perusing etsy which I am prone to do when I'm bored, and I clicked on the "Shop Local" link. This is a cool feature that shows you artists in your hometown. I love to shop locally in general, but I'll write about that another time. Lo and behold, Whitney Smith actually has a studio just a couple miles from me! As you can imagine, I high-tailed it over there this past weekend and finally purchased my very own cake stand. Here she is:

Isn't she lovely? Now all I need to do is bake some cute little cakes to set on it. We also received a bigger glass cake dome from our wedding registry, and I am already imagining the fun I'm going to have with my cake stands (mini quiche! brie! fruit! cupcakes! muffins!). I think a brunch is in order . . .

Check out the "shop local" section of www.etsy.com sometime and see what artists are in your neighborhood!

Till next time,

Jen

contemporary * couture

I really love to check out floral design companies from all over the world and often find myself wandering into sites by accident and being pleasantly surprised at some fabulous finds. I especially love couture florals and trust me, I will post on some companies that are just ridiculously good at this particular art.

I came across this company out of Atlanta called
Buckhead Blooms

I've read reviews on them and they are all raves.
I was a bit interested in their "traditional" floral arrangements but when I looked through their couture and contemporary portfolio-I was in love.

My De-Constructed Wedding

Hello!

I am so happy to be writing here in this little space! Like Jen, my husband and I were pretty clear on what we wanted the day to be like. What we didn't feel was necessary was not going to be included just because our celebration was called a "wedding".
I was introduced to world of wedding blogs and I did pick up wonderful tips and ideas from various sites, but we chose specific ideas because we both LOVED them and not simply because it was trendy. We didn't have favors which is practically blasphemy in the Latin culture and instead spent our money on Retro candy from our childhood. I did insist on a candy buffet, but my husband ended up loving it and half the guests at our wedding had never seen one before so imagine the look on my face when I was complimented on my "original" idea, hehe, yeah I basked in it but we all know that buffet was my something borrowed....
We did go against the grain in many parts of our wedding, we had not one but four "first dance"songs, we remixed our mother and father dance and had the crowd on its feet taking the spotlight away from us onto his mother and my grandfather doing the hustle and a mambo respectively. We also did stick to some traditions, I wanted my grandfather to walk me down the aisle and my dream came true :)

People still wonder why we got married on the 29th of February.

Why the 29th?
because that's the day we chose
But you will only celebrate your anniversary once every four years.
yeah so?
That's not right.
says who?
I don't know...
we don't celebrate our anniversary now and we have had EIGHT years to do so , why start now?
Yeah, but still...
If it will make you feel better we will try our hardest every year to celebrate on March 1st and February 28th, but you know, I'll expect two cards from you every year...
No, you can't do that either

{Here is where I would throw my hands up in the air in the beginning and then just smile and nod towards the end. Smile and nod.}

This conversation, almost verbatim, plagued us for months but we were happy as can be with the way it worked out and the 29th even fell on a Friday(read: DISCOUNT).

I currently have a blog, kugab.blogspot.com, it's a personal blog that allows me to talk about upcoming events: the trials, mock-ups, inspiration, colors, materials and flowers I will use. I love to show the process as well as the end result. Showing a bucket of flowers ready to be transformed into something beautiful that will be photographed and admired long after the flowers have wilted-it's simply the best!

I hope to share with you ideas, pictures, and designs that make my head spin and hopefully dispel the old roses and babies breath make a wedding nonsense(Unless your into that, then well, I'll have to figure out a way to make it modern and chic)

So I say- its your wedding, do what you want, go against the grain,be different, be happy, be you!

Anyhow,

till then :)

Brenda

What is a de-constructed wedding?

I thought it would be appropriate to start off this blog with a post about what it means to plan a de-constructed wedding. My wedding was just 3 short weeks ago, and as I reflect on the events of the day and as I gaze at the photos that are coming in, the things I am happiest about are the little details that were unique and non-traditional. We decided early on in the process not to accept anything simply because it was a wedding tradition. Instead we took each piece of our wedding, examined our motivations for wanting to include it, and then decided if it fit "us". Only those things that were meaningful and true to us remained.

We looked at some of the traditional wedding activities such as the giving away of the bride and decided that it didn't quite fit us and our life situation, so we changed it up. Instead of walking down the "aisle" (which wasn't really an aisle, but more on that in another post) with my Dad, I instead walked to the end of the aisle with both of my parents, they gave me a hug and a wish of support, they walked down the aisle together, and then my fiance (now my husband - still haven't gotten used to saying "husband"!) and I walked down the aisle hand-in-hand. He similarly walked up with his parents and then waited there for me. There was a lot of symbolism in that for us. We were walking in the footsteps of our parents who are still happily married, and embarking on this new journey together.

There are other traditions that we embraced, and we're glad we incorporated them into the day. I guess what a de-constructed wedding means to me as that you are free to take apart the components of a traditional wedding and toss aside some traditions while happily celebrating others. You don't have to fit into a cookie-cutter idea of what a wedding or a bride should be.

I'll leave you with a photo that I think sums up the joy we felt as we prepared to walk down our pathway together. You'll notice that I'm not wearing an all-white wedding gown, and I'll blog about my dress for you another time. There is so much happiness in that moment.

Till Next Time,

-Jen