Yellow Shoe Inspiration Board

Like several stylish Bees before me, I am wearing colorful shoes for my wedding. Remember Mrs Joey's beautiful yellow ones? I pretty much died when I saw she posted about them and decided right then that I had to have yellow shoes for my wedding.

I'll admit, I haven't quite stumbled upon the perfect pair yet (not that I haven't looked) but I'm kind of holding out until spring, when yellow is a more common color for shoes.

I did somehow (and believe me, given my severely limited computer and internet knowledge, the italics are very necessary for that 'somehow') manage to make an inspiration board of what I might be looking for.

Warning: Serious shoe porn below....

(Top Left, Top Middle- Personal Photo, Top Right ,

Middle Left, Center, Middle Right,

Bottom Left, Bottom Middle, Bottom Right)

So pretty, right? I may end up going with a softer yellow but right now, my favorite are the J Crew ones (surprise, surprise).  I'll have to wait and see what my favorite prepsters come out with this spring. And I love the idea that if it rains, I'll be able to wear bright yellow rainboots!

Are you wearing traditional white shoes? If you're wearing colorful shoes ,what color and why?

Band vs DJ: The Great Debate

I wanna rock and roll all night!

That is my theme for our wedding entertainment. I want it to be a party. I want people on the dance floor the entire time. I want to shake my groove thang and fist pump to Journey's Don't Stop Believin'.

My dilemma was how to go about making this happen. I love live music but a DJ can play anything I want. So like the little organized wedding maestro that I am, I sat down and made a list of the pros and cons of both.

Live Band

Pros

-Awesome atmosphere

-Provides a party feelings

-Adds own twist on songs

-Furthers sing-a-longs (a must, in my book!)

Cons

-Expensive

-Can't play everything I want

-Can be difficult to negotiate with

-More people to deal with and house and feed

-Band requires more space (which means possibly renting a bigger tent)

DJ

Pros

-Cheaper than live entertainment

-Can play any song I want

-Songs will sound like themselves, not twisted versions

-Takes up less space than a band

Cons

-Could end up with someone like this:

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So what's a poor bride to do? Band or DJ, DJ or Band....Argh, the great internal debate rages on!

What form of entertainment are you having at your wedding? What were your deciding factors? Which one should I go for? I'd really like to know!

Beautiful Wedding Gifts From Michael Aram

Presents have already started arriving on our doorstep (which, btw, is an AWESOME perk of getting married, every day is like christmas!) A few have been off of our registry, one or two have been a little, um, special? And some, like the ones I'm about to show you, are simply gorgeous.

Enter Michael Aram. He's an American artist who works primarily in metals and his pieces are clearly inspired by nature. I would never have known about him except we received 2 separate presents from his collection. Both were from different stores (Macys and Bloomies), so he is clearly a well-known home goods designer. Who knew?

Then a recently married friend of mine told me she and her fiance actually registered for their wedding at his online store! Amazing idea and clearly, worth taking another look-a-see.

Here's what we've received:

Hydrangea Picture Frame

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Lemonwood Tray

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So pretty, right? Our home decor was instantly upgraded.

For the record, I am not getting paid to endorse Michael, I am just truly amazed by his homegoods collection and no matter your price point or your style, there is something for everyone. I think it's safe to say that anything by him would be a hit as a wedding present (even Mr Trail Mix thinks both of our gifts are "cool".)

Without further ado, here are some of my favorites off of his website:

A lovely flower bowl makes any table pretty.

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These Gingko servers are only $59.00 but so pretty! A perfect gift for a guest on a budget.

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For all you cake-stand hunters out there, how beautiful is this one?

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This river rock lamp, well... rocks.

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I am beyond obsessed with anything coral, so I had to include:

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I think a set would go perfectly on my mantelpiece.

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What do you think? Anyone else received something from Mr Mike A? Should we register here? Would you?

An Ode to Beautiful Lighting

Lights and lanterns, you brighten (ha!) my wedding world and I can't stop looking pictures of magical outdoor weddings with incredible lighting. So much so that while I was once certain of my lighting concepts, I am now a doubting Thomas (Sidenote: Is there a female version of the phrase doubting Thomas? Doubting Thomasina?)

Let's start with lanterns. I love this shot with the setting sun pouring light into the room. Gorgeous.

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I had never considered rectangular lanterns until I saw this picture. The bamboo poles give the overall look a slight asian flare and it reminds me of a Japanese garden party. So elegant.

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Magicalness.

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Tiny lights give an intimate party feel. Le bliss.

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These big lights I believe are called cafe lights. Color me in love.

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I love the way these lights look in pictures. They give the shot an old-fashioned, vintage theme.

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Dreamy Dream.

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My wedding's going to be in a big tent and I think any one of these ideas will look wonderful but I can't decide which one to pursue. What lighting do you like? Lanterns? Cafe lights? Perhaps a mix of the two?

Lavender Love

When it comes to shabby, country chic, I think lavender flowers take the (wedding) cake for reflecting that sensibility. It's not a flashy, overstated flower; it's sweet, simple and smells divine.

I thought about using lavender for my bouquet. Something like this:

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I do love the idea but it doesn't really go with our color scheme and not quite what I'm envisioning for my bouquet. It would smell so lovely though...

I found this picture from Oncewed and was head-over-heels for the look, especially when arranged in the yellow gravy boat. So simple yet perfect.

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Then I found these two pictures and suddenly, a way to incorporate lavender into our wedding became clear.

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I've decided to change my favor idea a bit and instead of putting dried flowers in little vases at the tables, I want to make little lavender bundles and place them next to the menu card at each setting. The mini-lavender bouquets will each have a little tag on them with our wedding date (6/2010) on it and a quote on the other side.

I hope our guests take the lavender bunches home and think of our (hopefully) fun, beautiful wedding whenever they smell them.

What do you think? Do you like lavender? Should I do something else for favors in addition to this?

Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine 15th Anniversary Party!

If you've been following this blog, you know that one of my bridesmaids (J) is a photo editor at Martha Stewart Living. J graciously invited me (her wedding obsessed friend) to the 15th anniversary party of the Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine. It was at the Plaza Hotel and it was oh so posh. There were tons of big names from the wedding industry there (Darcy Miller, Mark Ingram and Mara Pearlman, to name a few).

For me, one of the highlights was meeting Bee Kim and Penguin from my favorite wedding blog, Weddingbee! Ok, I confess, I knew they were going to be there and I totally stalked them at the event. Luckily, Mrs Bee is about 8 1/2 months pregnant, so they were easy to spot. I didn't get a picture with them but it was definitely cool to introduce myself and tell them how much Weddingbee inspires me!

Here's some pictures from the part-tay:

The centerpieces at the cocktail tables. The general color scheme of the night was blush pink and gold. Sweet, girly and perfect for the event.

There was a soup station, serving butternut squash and tomatoe bisque soup shooters. Love this idea for a fall, outdoor wedding.

These were the centerpieces in the main room, behind the bar. In front, you can see one of the signature drinks, called the Blushing Bride. It involved grapefruit juice, vodka and a sugar-encrusted glass rim and it was delicious. I love the idea of putting the sign on the jars with ribbon.

Amy Atlas did her usual amazing thang at the dessert bar, and believe me when I say I did some serious damage to that delicious buffet (Petit fors, mini cupcakes, pink marshmallows and chocolate truffles? Yes, yes, yes and yes!) Yum. The blush and gold color combination is so pretty.

Here's a shot of the side dessert table.

The band was rockin, playing everything from Michael Jackson to Guns and Roses to Mary J Blige. Fun!

Sushi bar. You better believe I took advantage of that~

Bridesmaid J with the new MS Weddings Stylist, Corrine. She's getting married in February in New York City, can't wait to see pictures of her sure-to-be-chic wedding!

And of course, because no wedding event would be complete without the requisite photo booth, here's the 2 pictures we managed to get, in between stuffing our faces with mini grilled cheese sandwiches, mini burgers and mini lobster rolls.

Pretending to cut the cake.

I decided I needed practice holding the bouquet.

All in all, a fantastic party that I was so thrilled to be invited to! Here's to many more years of gorgeous wedding magazine fun at Martha Stewart!

The Housing Lottery?

Anyone else's college have a housing lottery? It was always kind of stressful, trying to figure out who was going to live with whom and how to best configure all your friends in the best location possible. Well, that is how I feel about figuring hotel logistics for the wedding.

Ohhhhhhhh, college....(Le sigh.)

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Here's the problem: I grew up in the middle of nowhere. By deciding to get married in the middle of nowhere (my hometown,) I gave up the idea of having everyone stay in one central location. I then had to do some serious research on various ideas for lodging. The logistics have been pretty mind-boggling, to say the least. There have been several times in the past few months that I seriously wished I had opted to have the wedding at a place where everyone could stay.

After practically going cross-eyed trying to figure things out in my head, I finally sat down and made an excel spreadsheet. I'm pretty worthless with Excel, so it's a very basic spreadsheet using columns for various information, such as the guests' names, addresses, etc. It's been somewhat helpful but I'm still stressin' over hotels versus bed and breakfasts, televisions in the room, discounts for the entire place, two-night minimums and other fun details.

Right now, I have 6 different places where guests will be staying, including 4 bed and breakfast's close by the reception site, one nicer hotel about 30 minutes away and a Ramada Inn about 20 minutes away.  The list may end up being 7 or 8 places by the time we get to the wedding.

Oh right, and there's also transportation to and from all these places. Ack!

Anyone else getting married with tricky hotel logistics? Who did the smart thing and is getting married at a place where everyone can stay?

Almost Famous

I think it's safe to say everyone loves the Martha Stewart Weddings magazine, ya? I was looking at the current fall issue online and found this picture, which I am beyond in love with and had to share...

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Ok, I confess, there's an ulterior motive for posting this picture. Not only is it a beautiful shot but that pretty little red-headed lady sitting there is my Maid of Honor!

Yes, it's true, I have a model for a MOH (and a professional cheerleader for a bridesmaid...I got me some hottie friends, apparently.)

I'm gonna get her to autograph my copy and who knows, you may be seeing more of her in upcoming issues.

If you feel inclined, leave a (nice) comment for her so when she next reads this, she'll be all blushy and giggly...

Pip, you're gorgeous, I love you, congrats~

A-Mason' Centerpieces

Did you like my little pun in the title? If you haven't already figured this out, I am beyond obsessed with mason jars in general and blue ball mason jars in specific. I've already found enough to serve as flower holders for the centerpieces at my wedding, so I thought I'd do a little research and find some inspiration for the flowers and settings of these beautiful jars. Here we go:

There's just something about the combination of blue and yellow that slays me every time. I like both of these flower arrangements, even though they're very different.

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Apparently, I am not the only one who likes this color combination. I'd say the majority of blue mason jar centerpieces I found involve yellow flowers. Excellent!

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I love the easy, wildflower feel of these flowers. The mason jars look so pretty against the yellow and green linens.

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Now we move on to clear mason jars in this picture, whose flowers I'm totally digging. I love how full this arrangement looks.

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You can't go wrong with peonies. Ever.

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I believe (and please, correct me if I'm wrong, Mom) the white flowers here are dahlias. Love love love 'em! I'm also appreciating the ribbon tied around the jar.

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I want to do something similar to this one, tying (yellow?) rustic ribbon around each vase. I love the flowers in this arrangement too.

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My conclusions based on these pictures and the rest of my research is that the flower arrangements need to be big and lush in order for my wedding to feel country-chic and not country-cheap. Although I still want to keep things feeling organic and hand-picked, I need to tell the florist to keep the flower heads big and fill in all the empty spaces with smaller buds. All this inspiration has got me pretty pumped for my own centerpieces, so I ask you all, have you caught the mason jar bug too? Or are you going for a more polished look with your centerpieces?

PS- A brilliant idea for what to do with all the left-over mason jars AFTER the wedding :) Hello, christmas presents next year?

An Exciting Discovery!

For those of you who live in normal-land (i.e. not New York City,) there are probably a plethora of craft stores within an easy drive (or at least one). Here in New York, that is not the case. It is a well-documented phenomena within the NYC crafting set that the store options are few and far between. While it's true that you can get anything at any time in the city, you pay the price for that advantage. Any crafting item can usually only be found in specialty stores, for which one pays an arm and a leg for. I'd heard that there were no Michael's or Joanne's or Hobby Lobby's in Manhattan and that is in fact, true. I googled. Even Target is far away (Harlem? Sorry but um, no) and is usually a disaster zone.

Which is why, ladies and gentlemen (ha! like any self-respecting boy would actually read this blog...even Mr Trail Mix doesn't read this blog), you can now fully understand my excitement when on a whim, I went to the Michael's homepage and entered my zip code into the store locator, determined to go to Queens or even Jersey for this hallowed mecca of crafting.

Fact: None of my wedding projects will look anything like the ones in this picture. That's ok, I try :)

Imagine my excitement and surprise when the search revealed a store in Manhattan. But wait, it gets better. The website said the store was located on 100th street. I live on 101st street. That's right, Michael's has opened a mere 1 block and 2 avenues away from my apartment! And I work on 97th street on the same avenue, bonus!

This is doubly exciting because in New York, everything is a schlep. Dragging bags of groceries several blocks to the subway, up and down the subway stairs and then up 5 flights of stairs to my studio is exhausting. The thought of all the crafting materials I hope to purchase would be overwhelming if I had to use public transportation to get everything home. But no, the wedding gods are clearly smiling on me and my crafting ambition, as this new Michaels (the only one in Manhattan, for gosh sakes!) is opening. IN. FIVE. DAYS. Coupons are printed and ready to go, hold me back until Sunday. HOL. LER.

Any other New Yorkers excited about this discovery? For the rest of you, are you are into Michael's as other bloggers I've read about? What's your favorite craft store?

Where'd The Running Posts Go?

You may have noticed a distinct lack of running posts lately. That is for a variety of reasons, the primary being that there has been a distinct lack of running in my life lately. I got a nasty cold a few weeks ago, the effects of which I'm still feeling. I've gone on some 20 or 30 minutes easy-peasy runs in the last 2 weeks but that's about it. I'll be back and starting my training for Boston pretty soon so just hold tight and I'll be back and running (harhar) with the other half of my blog in the near future!

xoxo

Also, just for fun, a beautiful wedding inspiration photo:

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Changed Tablescape= DIY Organza Flowers

A few months back, I purchased some blue organza table overlays from another bride on Weddingbee.com. They were beautiful but now my table-scape has changed and I'm not going to use them so I was excited when I saw this post over on You Can't Take It With You. Thanks for the tutorial and the inspiration, these organza flowers were super easy to make and look really pretty, so I now have a great use for my cast-off overlays. Here's my watered down version of a tutorial, check out Stacie's for the full-on instructions.

These were my materials. I picked up the buttons at the flea market on Sunday at $1.50 for 5 . They're all mis-matched, which is fine with me.

First, I cut out circles, from biggest to smallest. As you may notice, my circles are in no way perfect but it doesn't matter in the end so chop away.

I placed all the circles on top of one another, from biggest to smallest, and then sewed them together using a (VERY) basic cross-stitch (the only reason I know it's called a cross-stitch is because that's what Stacie Marie called it...)

This is where I differed from the tutorial slightly. Stacie goes on to use the candle to curl the fabric before sewing on her button. I sewed the button on right away because I hate threading needles and try to keep that to a minimum in any project. Anyways, I sewed on the button and then came the fun part: Melting the edge of the organza to make the "petals" curl up. It's surprisingly simple, just put the edge of the organza close to the flame (I burned a few edges but ended up leaving the burned parts since I think it gives the flowers a little more texture). Also, it helps to hold the flower directly over top of the candle in the direction you want it to curl, the heat works almost instantly on the fabric.

I was trying to show how I went layer by layer, melting the fabric but this picture turned into a gratuitous ring shot...(oopsies) Oh well...

The finished product!

Here's a shot of the flower "in the air," which is a potential use for them, more on that in another post. Please excuse my messy apartment.

Here's a few different sized flowers I did.

I haven't talked about what I'm going to use these for, I already mentioned I'm saving it for another post but I've got a few ideas bubbling. Either way, I'll need at least 20 of these, possibly more than double that number. So I guess my question is, do I have what it takes to finish that many of these before June? Anyone else done this project? Success? Failure? Share any other DIY decor ideas too!

PS- Just for fun, here's a cool shot of these antique glass Japanese fishing bobbers that I picked up at the Hell's Kitchen Flea market...I may throw these somewhere (escort card table? gift table?) as an added decor element but for now, they are glorious on my mantelpiece...