Blog Bliss: Zenadia Design - For Me?

Zenadia Design's Blog is one of my favorite daily stalkings. Smart, funny, crafty, creative - and just a bit edgy. I love it!
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About Me

Zenadia Design (pronounced zen-ah-dee-uh) creates custom invitations and stationery for those looking to make a lasting impression. Rather than using ordinary materials, we use natural and extraordinary materials to make our designs stand out. Please contact us to discuss the endless possibilities that await you!

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So, the other day, she posed a question to the readers asking what color combinations we would like to see on her new inspiration boards. Being the no-so-quiet blog stalker I am, I commented with (big surprise) my wedding colors! Since, as I mentioned before, I hadn't seen anything like my color combination before, not only would it be beneficial to me, but to the bridal blogging world in general since it would be new and different!

And she did!!! And it rocks! Look closely and that is actually the dress that Eldest Sister in Law (Really need Bloggy nickname for her) will be wearing!

LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! =)
Inspiration Board MANY THANKS to Zenadia Design!
Go, read, and enjoy!!

Blog Bliss: Weddingbee Inspiration Board

Remember how I said that no one's inspiration boards really inspired me for the feeling we were going for?

Well, I stand corrected. I still wouldn't say this one is my perfect inspiration board, but this one that was made for a Weddingbee/Minted/Polyvore contest captures the feeling beautifully. (And it won 3rd place out of 2300 entires!)

So I thought I'd share "Sunrise/Sunset" by kalync!

And as a recap - here's mine:


oooh - and as I was looking through some of the other boards she made, I found this one.


If there were any Indian influence or heritage in either of our families - this would have been a great board for us! I love that its beachy but not kitschy, and beautiful all the while. She has several boards here that you can peruse through: each one is very unique.

I love unexpected finds! Anyone else see one of the contestants and love their work?

From Moving Inspiration to Movie Review

I just saw this board posted on Style Me Pretty. This just makes me want to have a glass of lemonade and jump in a pool! ahhhh - I love summer! (Also a very big fan of the bottom left picture with the sliced limes under the glass top - what a fun fresh idea!) (Side note: I actually just found out that this board was designed by the oh-so-fun Lucky Me!)

So that was my initial reaction...

Then came the moment when I read the necklace "P.S... I love you", which makes me feel like I should toss out a movie warning for any bride-to-be or newlywed or anyone in love. Especially if the fella you fell for is incredibly thoughtful.

Adam and I had the chance to watch one of our Netflix movies the other night. He chose (from HIS list mind you) P.S. I love you.

Holly Kennedy is beautiful, smart and married to the love of her life - a passionate, funny, and impetuous Irishman named Gerry. So when Gerry's life is taken by an illness, it takes the life out of Holly. The only one who can help her is the person who is no longer there. Nobody knows Holly better than Gerry. So it's a good thing he planned ahead. Before he died, Gerry wrote Holly a series of letters that will guide her, not only through her grief, but in rediscovering herself. The first message arrives on Holly's 30th birthday in the form of a cake, and to her utter shock, a tape recording from Gerry, who proceeds to tell her to get out and "celebrate herself". In the weeks and months that follow, more letters from Gerry are delivered in surprising ways, each sending her on a new adventure and each signing off in the same way; P.S. I Love You.

For anyone in love with a romantic thoughtful guy... I highly recommend NOT watching this!! The only exception to this is if you are in need of a good, heartfelt, 2 hour long CRY. I wasn't in need of such a cry, but watched it... and cried....a lot. Beware.....

My first Inspiration Board! - Redux

Ok, so in case it wasn't obvious, I am new to blogging. It didn't occur to me that 1/2 my board would be cut off because its too wide! I suppose I should I have noticed that everyone else makes theirs vertically... and now I know why. So we are going to try this again....

In response to the "there are tropical boards out there" musings about why I didn't feel the existing ones "fit" us... i thought I'd specify a few things about us and the things we want in our wedding.

We want a tasty cake. (No fondant here, even if it means waiting until the last second to bring out the cake. Tasty substance - not perfect image, please. We have literally seen a cake cutting, done with a SWORD (military), where the fondant icing BROKE THE SWORD!!! A cake should not double as a weapon.)

We want a breezy at ease feel. Sparkles? Sure. But we aren't trying to look like a princess wedding.

And finally, the main reason non of the boards I've seen would work for us (I feel like I will be bridal-blog-stoned for this next statement) we aren't into vintage. If its a vintage car, awesome. I loved my 1966 Mustang. But we wont our wedding to be here and now. Many years down the road, our wedding album will be full of "vintage" photos because things change at a rapid pace. We don't feel the need or understand the draw of Super 8 film, or decorating the place to look like the 1940's. (I'm ducking now.)

Anyone else feel like a bridal outcast for not going with an incredibly popular option?

My first Inspiration Board!

I've seen so many beautiful inspiration boards by professional wedding planners, but none have really captured the feel or look that I am going for. If its blue, it tends to be navy and a nautical theme or a kitschy beach thing with seashells everywhere. Beautiful - but not us. Or if its a brighter blue, its paired with brown and is a classically styles... again, beautiful, but not us. So when Style Me Pretty started posting their reader created inspiration boards, I started fiddling with Photoshop. I need a better name for it, but what we are going for is a Tropical fete. Fancy looking, comfortable feeling. Cocktail dresses, and barefeet. Sunshine, and stargazing.

(Images From Brides.com, RaeLeytham.net, Dessy.com and OlioStyle.com)

Ok - so I am no photoshop whiz, but I think it's not 1/2 bad for my first inspiration board attempt! Anyone else not see what they want and strike out on their own?

Blog Bliss: Style Me Pretty

When I first got engaged, I should have bought stock in wedding magazines because between my mother and I, we bought them all!! I would scramble through every page and article, cut out anything I loved to put in a book of ideas, made notes in my wedding notebook, and then exchanged the magazine with my mother for whichever one she had bought... of course hers were always fully in tact and the ones she got from me were shredded..... for some crazy reason she thinks she was getting the short end of the wedding magazine stick! Some people! =)

But magazines aren't cheap and they are usually only updated once a month or so... not enough to fill my curiosity. As I said before, I had no preconceptions about how my wedding would be. I didn't dream of it as a kid, and I hadn't spent any time focusing on it as an adult. So now I was curious and loving a wide variety of ideas since they were all new ideas to me!

Enter the best email I ever received. (at least wedding planning related - I have some really great romantic ones from Adam saved somewhere!) My newest sister-in-law suggested I check out some wedding blogs for ideas. Specifically, Style Me Pretty. I was skeptical because I never read blogs and wasn't so sure I wanted to trust ideas from people I didn't know. WOW was I wrong! So I thought I would begin a section of my blog focusing on the blogs I stalk and why I love them. Hence - Blog Bliss.

First up, the first blog I started to follow, and still one of my favorites: Style Me Pretty. Abby Larson has an amazing talent for beautiful and unique inspiration boards and fun fresh ideas for wedding details. Abby also does an "Ask Abby" section where the questions are relevant to almost every bride-to-be. Her writing is fun and witty while being knowledgeable and unpretentious. If any bride-to-be (or any other wedding style craver) doesn't have SMP on their list - add it now and go through her archives and inspiration boards for some astonishing eye-candy! These are some of my favorite inspiration boards, and some of the reasons I really became a blog-stalker of SMP (which lead to other blogs she featured and now my google reader has 40 some odd blogs I have subscribed to!)

I absolutely love the bright colors and unique look combined with a relaxed but stylish fete that this board brings out:

This one is just fun and relaxed while incorporating naturally beautiful elements like coral and seashells. I can almost smell the salt air breeze off the water:

If I had an unlimited budget, I'd consider having a wedding somewhere in Europe using this bright beauty as my inspiration board. Anyone else thinking Greece?
Peach is not exactly one of "my colors". I don't think I own a single peach article of clothing. I am normally a vibrant, bright color person, but I love this board. It makes me want to serve Bellinis and sorbet at the beach in Apalachicola, Fl.

And as if all those beauty's weren't enough, Abby is also a papery person with an eye for style. She finds beautiful calligraphy and invitation companies and artists and posts articles and interviews explaining why each is wonderful and special. I am not a invite-oriented person. I had to be talked out of email invitations. But the more I look at some of her finds, the more I think... hmm... letterpress - lovely... belly bands - beautiful...etc.
And to top it all off and REALLY solidify the SMP obsession - she features Real Weddings too!

This was one of the first real weddings I saw featured on SMP (before I learned to stalk to archives too!) and I fell in love with the romance of the roses and candlelight.

Oh - and looking for a vendor in your area? Check out her Little Black Book section. She only features the best and brightest of each field in each location. Need more reasons to look and love SMP? If you answered "yes", you have ISSUES!!!

(All images courtesy of: Style Me Pretty)