Blog Bliss: Bridal Mii!... kinda

Yet again, "It's a Jamie thing.." has inspired me. But this time, instead of a creative or DIY thing, its just FUN! She posted about the Knot's "create your Inner Bride" feature. It's like making a Mii, except wedding style!!
So I spent a grand total of 2 minutes and voila!!! And then I've spent the next few hours smiling and laughing and being in a general good mood because its just fun. :) Thanks Jaime!
It's not the most technical thing, and doesn't have every option I can think of... but nonetheless I tried to make it someone representative of me!
So for obvious reasons... Not more reading Adam!!!
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*Adam free yet?
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*I am going to assume so.
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Whatcha think? Click here to make your own!

Capricious Creativity: Chair Signs

I like the idea of these chair signs. I saw the one above on Sparkliatti, and the idea sort of stuck in my head. As I have mentioned before, I am not detail oriented and I really have no patience for looonnng tedious repetitive tasks... hence the capricious before the creativity in my DIY series. So while I liked the chair signs, I certainly wasn't about to make them our escort cards. And then Jessica of Tying the Knot posted this:

hmm.. signs just for the Bride and Groom. I like it! And while the bird theme is NOT a part of our wedding (I grew up on the gulf coast - lots of seagulls; thus, in general, I hate birds), but the double layer of paper and the ribbon really looks nice! Its very neat and tidy, which is very Adam, but I could make it in our blues and making add a little sparkle to make it very me. So when Adam had a late flight, I went to Hobby Lobby. (I should never be allowed to go to a craft store alone. Great ideas! ... that tend to sit in the corner and go unfinished.) I found plain ol' 8.5x11 paper in the scrapbook aisle in our blues! Sweet! And then I found pretty sparkly ribbon. Score!

As pictured above, you can notice that I printed on regular paper 1st to get the spacing and size right. Highly recommended. Also from above you can infer that I am not a craft oriented person. See my tools? Oh yeah. Thats a box cutter and a cutting board and a 90 degree "L" ruler used for carpentry.

No cutting here! (Did I mention I am TERRIBLE at straight lines... in anything!?) I just used glue dots to attach the ribbon to the darker blue sheet.

Then I trimmed the light blue paper and added more glue dots to attach. I left the ribbon rather long so it can be adjusted for whatever looks best on the chairs.
VOILA! Chair signs!
Incredibly simple, I know. It's not exactly goccoing your own invites, but its something I made that represents both Adam and I that will be featured in our wedding. So I am proud of them darnit!
One problem... I showed them to my mother... Now she wants one's for the parents seats too! ok - back to Hobby Lobby for me!

(Ah - and for any inquiring minds - thats Zapfino font, which we will use throughout our wedding because its a little pizazz without being curly-girly, and EVERY computer program has it.)

Anyone else proud of a really simple DIY? hmm.. come to think of it, 2 out of 3 of my DIYs have been pretty simple. Oh well! (Barefoot Sandals, and guests Flip Flops)

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)