Hey! I just added a new home page inspiration board for Bogey + Bacall (it’s a little large if you check it out on the home page). I think this was the hardest of all the invitation suites to do just because, though I LOOOVE red, it’s a tight rope walk for weddings. Little slip and you’ve got a style I can only think of as “bad prom”. Another bobble and you’ve overshot “glam” and fallen straight into “vampire goth”. And red can be wonderfully playful with gingham and when paired with light blues and greens but a classic red with some black and white that is NOT harlequin– damn difficult.

The images in the inspiration board (Images: The Future Mrs. Darcy: Bogey + Bacall,  Claridges Luxury Hotel in Mayfair by The Creative Wedding Photographer, Tablescape by Paul Scott via Carolyne Roehm, Bride by The Nicols via Style Me Pretty, Red Shoes by Justin and Mary via Elizabeth Anne Designs, Bold by Sarah Rhoads) are great jumping off points (especially the last 3!) and here are a couple of others to take a look at that are moregood classic/glamourous weddings than reds but  I liked them:

Old Hollywood Wedding in Canada at Ruffled

Cicado Wedding by Justine Ungaro

Julia Morgan Ballroom Wedding by Caroline Tran

1930s Ballroom Wedding at Ruffled (and Part 2 is here)

NYC Photographer Belathee (check out the bridal fashion and featured weddings on their site or just google their work for tons of great stuff)

I don’t think there was a specific post in mind but Santa Barbara Chic had a bunch of nice posts.

Also some good red flowers I came across if you don’t feel like standard roses* are: peonies, anemonies, calla lillies, ranunculus, dahlias, tulips, carnations (yes, carnations) and amaryllis.

*There’s nothing wrong with red roses and I’m sure there are tons of varieties that I’m not aware of but I’m just saying it’s what you think of first and if you don’t care for them, there are alternatives.

In the meantime, very cool wedding flowers (I know, MORE flowers- I just keep stumbling over them) and I saw these cool X O X O balloon engagment/wedding shoot but I can’t find them AND they made me think of a using marquee letters which I also cannot find. I will search ardently tomorrow for them so check back.

On Ginny and Harry I had a GLUT of wonderful flowers and space for one so I thought I’d make a little montage of my inspiration overflow:

Starting in the top left and clockwise spiraling in: Bouquet via Green Wedding Shoes (which I’d never seen before but they have THE COOLEST THEMED shoots!!!), Winter bridesmaids photo by Brandy J Photography, Forest Wedding Tablescape by Once Wed, Big Feather and Lily Bouquet (Wow) by M Judd Photography, Thistle and Cornfield from the Guardian, Kanagroo Paw/Calla Bouquet by VanGo Florist, Mushroom and Moss Centerpiece by Martha Stewart, Thistle and Leather boutonniere by Jena D Events, Creeping Thistle (not sure where it’s from), Roses and Blue Thistle via the Knot.

The Nick and Nora overflow can basically be summed up by the Hendrick’s Gin website, this Annie Lebovitz gallery (which yet again proves the awesome power of Helen Mirren and that I wish I was famous so I could be in Annie Lebovitz photo shoots) and the engagement session of the couple that started it all: Mandy and Blake.

Starting with this one:

Seemingly awesome/easy moss centerpiece via Sunset Magazine. I just found Sunset Magazine/Books this fall and I loves. They always have such nice ideas that aren’t too stuffy and just plain fantastic, if you ask me, which you did not. The directions are:

Just soak floral moss in water to make it easier to work with, tear off chunks, squeeze out excess water, then place moss atop a table. (Use a cookie sheet on a water-vulnerable surface like wood.)

And then it has some varieties of floral moss to consider and in their photo they have a candle holder but what you can’t see if that there are succulents in the spaces instead of candles. So the great thing about this is, say you like the idea but have round tables: round cake pan, dudes! Simple simple. If you like this you may like everything I’ve raved about Harry Potter weddings.

Secondly, as I have been trying to update my old blogger posts so that the photos and formatting show up, I came across my “wedding invitations don’t need to be on paper” thing and was kind of tossing it over in the lower recesses of my brain and then I saw this on FPO (For Print Only):

How fun/cute/special/adorable?! I love it and am so jealous that I didn’t think of it first. AND it uses Archer my super love/hate font. You know it- it’s used in Martha Stewart and everywhere else on the face of the Earth but it costs as much as my kidneys and is slightly played out. So it’s gorgeous and I want it but it’s so default for people these days that I know as soon as I fork over the money everyone will be like “Meh, that’s so 2006″. But I love the balloon. Good job and congratulations to Jen and Kevin from L’Office Optimiste (from what I can tell, the couple are both designers).

And then shortly after I saw this:

And thought, maybe the type can do a little more too! The above is by Studio Aad for (shockingly) The Cake Sale.

And since it’s cruel to mention cake and not have more sweets: something tells me this New York Cheesecake will the the New York Cheesecake to end all other New York Cheesecakes (because that’s just the way Smitten Kitchen rolls)

While I was immersing myself in all things Alice (umm, except the movie, I suppose, because we can’t leave our pup at the moment- stitches, long story) and I came across some illustrations by Katogi Mari and really liked the idea but I wanted the flowers to be made of the suits of cards* and (obviously) there to be room to write so yada yada yada I turned it into an invitation for y’all. And by “yada yada yada”, I mean I’ve spent the last 3 days at my computer drawing drawing drawing.

So. If you download these you need to take the following oath:

I do solemnly swear that I will tell someone who: is engaged, planning on getting engaged, recently married, planning a party, having a baby, moving, or requiring a designer about The Future Mrs. Darcy.

Excellent.

These come 2 to a page and have spaces for you to fill in: “arrive promptly at:” time, “we’re all mad here:” location, “curiouser and couriouser:” for what and any other infomation and “the adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time” for RSVP.

For you very own download here: Alice in Wonderland Invitations #2!

And there’s a slew of more Alice party stuff for you to download here and here.

Also to keep you occupied for 5 minutes of the week I’m gone:

Photo by One Love Photo

I came across this LIBRARY WEDDING on Snippet and Ink in my monthly skim of all wedding blogs and I don’t even need to mention how much I love it, do I? It’s a freakin’ library wedding. I want to store everything in old card catalogs. Make sure to also read Linda’s (the bride) Planning Tips at the end. Linda, you rock, I shall drink a Guinness in your honor next week.

photo by Pam Sattler

Secondly, I came across a color palette on one of my design blogs and how freakin’ lovely?! Also it’s “Color Happy 68″ which means there are 67 other ones for you to peruse.

Images: dried flowers by Elizabeth Messina, long table by Small Masterpiece, calligraphy by Kathryn Murray, floral by Adebond

Lastly, Jane. Austen. [Pretend.] Wedding. Okay so it’s an inspiration post but I was fooled for like 10 seconds and they were good 10 seconds and good inspiration so soak it in kids. I think doilies are a little much but don’t give a crap what I think, it’s your wedding after all.

Go forth. Have a great week and a half. Be 110% Irish tomorrow and pinch people who don’t wear green.

*And yes, I do realize (now) that making a spade into a flower starts edging into the line of phallic but we gotta do what we gotta do and from what I hear, I think Lewis Carroll would have liked it that way. And what a great hen party** invite!

**Have I mentioned that I plan to use the English “hen”/”stag” party instead of “bachelorette”/”bachelor” party? Sounds so much cooler their way.

Well on my walk to yoga this morning this image of flowers popped into my head. Why? Who knows. It’s not like there are any flowers spouting up in the mid-20s weather we’re having out here. Anyway it was this image:

Though (at the time) I couldn’t remember what the name of the flowers was so I figured “Hey! If Jeri’s there I’ll ask her!” (Jeri being Jeri Solomon of Jeri Solomon Floral Design who goes to the same yoga classes I do and makes the pretty arrangements at the front desk that I fawn over as well as arrangements for weddings/other businesses/open houses/and you if you contact her). Well it turns out I was really crossing the above image with this image:

Because I thought the flowers were red and I was calling the whole shbang “narcissus”, which we quickly realized was wrong but in my [limited] defense this image was across from the original poppies image in the magazine and in my old wedding notebook:

So I’ll just pretend I’m Rain Man or something and remembered that. Jeri’s guess (which based on what I was saying was a damn good guess) was “anemones” which I now covet more than any other flower and plan on tracking some down this summer to wear in my hair.

How sexy are these flowers?

Jeri said she has a friend who calls them the “Zha-Zha Garbor” of flowers because their so “LOOK AT ME”.

So, in conclusion the reason I said I though the flowers I was thinking of looked like poppies was because surprise- they were poppies! And the name I was trying to assign to them which reminded me of narcissus was ranunculus:

And I promise not to ask any crazy question like that again.

Image credits: Top 3 images (poppies, tulips and narcissus) are from (I believe) an old Brides Magazine circa 2007. The anemones is a Martha Stewart Weddings images and the ranunculus are from a Better Homes and Garden segment about creating bouquets for Mother Day.

Doesn’t that just look fun and bright and summer-y? OH you know what ELSE looks fun and bright and summer-y and if I had known was possible would have totally been in my wedding?

Cotton! Yes! The fabric of your life! As featured in NY Magazine’s Weekend Bash in the Country. Also as in says in the caption “The best part is that cotton doesn‚Äôt die, so I‚Äôll have it forever.” Wha? I can’t testify to the accuracy of that, but even cooler if it’s true!Lastly, I kept seeing the AMAZING Jordan from Oh Happy Day! Mentioning posts she’s written for Project Wedding. Since everything I see that Jordan creates on Oh Happy Day is so wonderfully well-thought out and creative I headed over and was really surprised at what I found. Project Wedding looks like it’s giving The Knot a run for their money! There are tons of wonderful ideas like this:

DIY Weddings: Mapping it out!
and this:

DIY Weddings: The Purple Picnic

So lots of pretty pictures to look through to make it to 5pm! Enjoy!

On Thursday last week when I was gearing up for the Harry Potter trials, I found myself staring at that very last Harry Potter in the hizzouse inspired picture from Once Wed, and decided that I MUSTMUSTMUST find out more about it. To the left is the picture in question again so you don’t have to go clicking around.

The picture is the combined efforts of Joy Thigpen, who has some lovely close ups of the above table as well as fabulous inspiration boards, and Our Labor of Love photography which you are just going to have to go take a look at after this. There’s just no other way around it. Becaaaause, in addition to having awesome (what’s one step above awesome? ahh yes, of course, thank you townsfolk) wicked friggin’ awesome photos, you can totally spy on other weddings and use it as a giant inspiration board for yourself!

Like… maybe rethink the ban on line/group dances at the reception…

Or realize you don’t need to grow your hair out for your wedding when this short to medium ‘do looks so great (and thank you for the overhead shot so it will be that much easier to show the hairdresser!)…

Or find the perfect way to coordinate your bridesmaids in the winter without demanding jacket styles (the salmon colored wraps)…

Hello? Flowers? Get your printer and your pointing finger out! I want that, that and that.

Or need something crazy gorgeous that you probably wouldn’t have thought of yourself? LIKE UPSIDE DOWN FLOWER CHANDELIER THING-A-MA-BOBS?!? Yes, please.

ALL PHOTOS BY OUR LABOR OF LOVE

BRIDE BEWARE THOUGH– WARNING WARNING– if you click on the link that says “Smilebooth” on their blog, any holdout feelings on whether or not to do the whole photo booth thang at the wedding will be crushed. Obliterated. You will neeeeeed a photo booth. You’ll give up the schmancy shoes just to get a photo booth. You’ll wonder how you can start incorporating it into your non-wedding-related life. And finally, you’ll want to work at Google because they apparently throw kick ass parties for their employees.

I think I’ve mentioned before that when I went to go pick out my wedding flowers I could name four (roses/irises, which I don’t like and peonies/rananculus which were both out of season) and dislike both. Thankfully my florist had a stack of books and I went through and pointed.

Since then I’ve been getting my flower education slowly by surely through yoga. Strange, I know, but one of the women in my classes, Jeri Solomon, is a the owner of Jeri Solomon Floral Design and brings new arrangements every week and for all of us not quite in the know, leave a small card explaining what is what. I can now spot a href=”http://images.google.com/images?q=forsythiaamp;oe=utf-8amp;rls=org.mozilla:en-US:officialamp;client=firefox-aamp;um=1amp;ie=UTF-8amp;ei=qv0CSs6SLYvKlQfyiajqBAamp;sa=Xamp;oi=image_result_groupamp;resnum=4amp;ct=title”forsythia/a

in yards in the neighborhood. Today we had lovely hyacinths (which I originally thought were lilacs but hey- they’re pretty close- get off my back).

Jeri was a featured floral designer for Bloomingdale’s Registry in April and I have some gorgeous pictures that might help you forget gray skies for a bit.

I really can’t decide which one I like best. The first one is so vibrant and I love the textures but the second one had such elegant structure to it and the pop of the yellow against the black vase in the third one is so snappy. Now I suppose the real challenge now would be if I could say what everything is. I’m seeing orchids in all. Calla lilies in the last two. And I’m 80% sure those are gerber daisies in the last one. But then again, you could always just point and say “I like THAT one.”

If you’re in the Northeast definitely check out Jeri Solomon Floral Design. She creates gorgeous arrangements for weddings, corporate events, social events, and even if you just need to impress your guests with a kick ass arrangement in your house. And when I find a new spectacular flower from her yoga arrangements- I’ll be sure to let you know.

I love the idea of vintage tin cans or old cigar boxes used to carry flower, favors, or just as decoration. In the description of the Martha Stewart photo above she (or rather, her people) say “New or vintage, the containers are inexpensive and easy to find at specialty-food stores, tag sales, and online auctions.” Riiiight. I mean it sounds feasible but I bet somewhere in the world right now there’s a bride gearing up to go on ANOTHER search through thrift stores this weekend hoping to find cans like in the picture, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and wondering why the 5 cans in her recycling bins can’t just look more interesting.

So, when I came across papier valise provisions this morning I needed to share. Feast your eyes on these:

I think the question you should be asking yourself is what CAN’T you attach those to?! All for under $5 and in most cases you get several in a package. And did I mention that it’s $5 Canadian?!! Which is, as of 10:31 am on Friday April 3rd, $4.04 American dollars.

OH… planning a garden wedding… how about these for table numbers?

For the low low price of $4.50 (CAD) for 7.

Or are you having a photo booth, you lucky duck, and need some tickets?

Take your pick because the above is one of many tickets they sell.

And I’m sure you can find uses for these gems as well:

And those are only the highlights so go take a look for yourself: papier valise provisions