One of my favorite non-wedding blogs, Black .White. Yellow, featured the work of photo stylist Lo Bjurulf, the other day and I was blown away. I ventured over to the website and found some great wedding inspiration-SCORE!!! Take a look at these settings…these combinations could be beautiful in a wedding.

I love the use of lemons in this one!

And this one has so much warmth and comfort….perfect for a fall wedding.

Hope you can take some inspiration from these- Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday everyone! You’ve probably noticed that the past 2 weeks I haven’t posted anything on the blog. Ugh! It’s so frustrating- grad school is kicking my butt! Thanks for bearing with me as I try to carve out time to do what I love- my blog! Things will pick back up around here soon.

I put together this sweet, fun board in pretty pink and blue…seems like it would be a fun wedding, right?  :-)

Have a great weekend!

photo credits: hairpiece (Twigs & Honey), vintage glasses (The Storque on Etsy), bird (FFFFOUND), doily clock (and further more on etsy), flowers (Hello Lucky! via FFFFOUND), pink shoe (Squaresville Studios), escort cards (the Knot)

There’s something very soothing about this combination….

credits: cupcakes (Martha Stewart via ffffound), wedding dress (perfect bound via fffound), birdcage (unknown), table (Lisa Vorce via Style Me Pretty), favor (Jose Villa via the knot),  bride (austie on etsy), fabric flower (linen me on etsy),  soft decor (reyaveltman on etsy)

Caitlin might just be one of the cutest brides I’ve seen! I absolutely love her dress, and her choice of flowers. I was so excited when she agreed to share some of her budget details for the blog! Thanks Caitlin!!!!

Couple: Caitlin & Josh
Location: Upstate NY
Number of Guests: 115

Reception/Ceremony site: approx. $9,000 “We chose Belhurst in Geneva, NY. It was a gorgeous location, and we had our ceremony outside on their lawn overlooking the lake.”

Officiant: $0 (Josh’s father is a pastor.)

Bridal Gown: $550 (Casablanca style 1816, ordered from Rebecca’s Bridal) “I fell in love with my dress at one store in Syracuse where I tried it on. To begin with, it is a older Casablanca style so they were willing to sell it to me for $700. I shopped around a bit in Syracuse however, and found a smaller shop that was willing to order it for me for $550. Sold!  I highly recommend finding out what your dress designer includes in the price. Casablanca includes a “hollow to hem” service where the dress is actually made to your height. This saved me tons in alteration fees later.”

Bridal Accessories: $147 “I bargain shopped for my earrings (TJMaxx, $12), veil (Rebecca’s Bridal, $100), and shoes (DSW, $35).”

Hair and Make-Up: $0 “My good friend Emily Taylor did my hair and all five of my bridesmaids, and WOW did she do an incredible job. Myself and my bridal party gave her a gift, but she did not charge us anything. I did my own make-up.”

Bridesmaid Dresses and shoes: $140 (dress $120 from David’s Bridal, shoes $20 from Payless)


Tuxes: $125 (Mr. Tux) We used Mr. Tux. My husband used his free tux to discount our groomsmen’s price, so each guy paid $125.
Flowers: $1000 (Sandy’s Floral Gallery) “I love orange and peach roses, and knew that I wanted them for the wedding. While my bouquet and the girls bouquets were of good size (and gorgeous!) each table a very simple centerpiece of 3 roses and some greenery. I bought the vases for each table from a bulk online store for $2 a piece which also helped. I also purchased small candles in from TJMaxx.”

Photography: $2500 (James Peluso from Alexandria Photography) “James offered us the CD, the rights, online viewing at Pictage.com and all our images (all 700!) printed in 4×6 size – all for roughly $2500. Pricey, but worth it to us.”

Ceremony Music: $0 Josh & Caitlin’s friend is a professional singer and performed at the ceremony.

DJ: $800 (Joe Quatella from Q-Music Productions)

Invitations: $150 Josh designed the invitations and programs.

Cake: $230 (Lori Legotti from Bagels and Cakes) . “It had our bakers signature strawberry filling (tasted like strawberry shortcake!)”

Favors: $0 “My Grandmother made our favors. They are called “capias” and are a traditional Spanish tradition at weddings. Traditionally the bride pins one on every guest as she says hello to everyone. We didn’t pin them on everyone, but almost everyone did wear theirs! It was fun, festive and free thanks to my incredible Grandmother.”

Rings: $2000

GRAND TOTAL: approximately $16,400 (not including the tuxes and bridesmaid dresses/shoes)

More tips from the bride:

Our biggest money saver was our location. My husband and I live in the Boston area, but I am originally outside of Syracuse, NY. By having our wedding in Upstate NY we estimate we payed only 1/3 of what we would have in the Boston Area. We also kept our wedding on the smaller side (final count of 115) which saved us a bunch as well.

Lastly, we picked a few non-negotiable and then were pretty flexible with everything else, which in my opinion is more fun and allows for financial flexibility.

We also did some fun free things with our friends/family. The night before our wedding we had everyone who could make it, meet at a nearby pub and to just relax and hangout. We didn’t pay a dime (everyone kept buying US drinks) but it was wonderful to see everyone – especially our out of town guests. I know there is a popular trend to do “out of town” or “hospitality” bags. This night was our “out of town bag” but it was free to us and all allowed us to spend quality time with those people which is a more meaningful gift in our opinion.

My husband and I also took a smaller scale honeymoon. We rented a cabin in the Adirondacks Mountains rather than going somewhere exotic which saved us a lot of money (and was more “us” anyway!)

I’m so in love with navy blue in weddings right now. Often, it’s paired with pink or yellow, but what about orange?

Wooden accents would be a nice complement to this palette- I see lot’s of rustic details. Side note: how good does that cupcake look?

~~~~~~

photo credits: flower (Saipua via ffffound), accessory (Millie Holloman), Mel Barlow, blueberry favors (Alison Rosa viaBrides.com), shoes (unknown),tux (Ming Ho Photography via theknot),  tree (Ecletic Images via theknot), cuppcake (Whiskie Bits Bakeshop via fffound), ticket (Stephanie Colgan Photography via theknot)

This wedding has more than just a little splash of color- it would be great for a fall affair, but really it doesn’t have to be limited to any season.I picture golden accents rather than the usual silver. I love the richness of this board!

Photo credits: Table, Lanterns, Flowers (Jillian Kay via Once Wed), Venue (Elizabeth Messina), bridesmaids (Thorsen Photography via the Knot), Blue table (Meghan Aileen Photography), m&m favors (Hostess with the Mostess), ring shot (Boutwell Studio via Style Me Pretty)

I was so excited when Katie from this post told me she would share her budget with me. And I was even more excited when I saw that it was a $10,000 budget! I love this wedding!

Couple: Katie & Matt

Wedding Date: 10-11-2008 (what a great day that must have been, cuz it’s my birthday!)

Number of Guests: 86

Initial Budget: $10,000

Ceremony & Reception Site Fee: $762 – “We had our ceremony and reception at the same place so this is for the ceremony site as well as the reception hall. This saved us a good bit of money and also made it easier since we had quite a few out of town guests.” Price also included chairs and tables.

Officiant: $0 – Matt’s family friend officiated.

Catering/food: $2,454 total (about $24 per person, they estimated 100 people), $250 beer/wine

Rentals: $850 ($600 for linens, $250 plates, glasses, silverware)

Bridal Gown & Alterations: $450 “I purchased a really lovely bridesmaid dress. It was simple but that, again, saved a ton.”

Bridal Accessories: $90

Hair/Makeup: $150 ($90 for the bride, $60 for mom and maid of honor)

Groom’s Attire & Accessories: $180

Groomsmen Attire: $140 for ties and pocket squares

Paper: $250 all paper was DIY including my menus, invitations, save the dates, comment/escort cards

Transportation: $50

Photographer: $2,080

Videographer: $0

Ceremony Music: $0

Reception Music: $0 “we downloaded songs onto our mp3 players”

Flowers: $175

Other décor: $400 paper lanterns, skeleton keys, glass pieces from thrift stores, candles

Favors: $0 “we didn’t do favors but some of our guests took our table numbers and the keys attached to their escort cards home with them which was actually really sweet.”

Cake: $270

Wedding Planner: $0

Gifts: $280

Day of Grand Total: $8,831

Rehearsal Dinner/Day after brunch: $500 for casual rehearsal dinner at Matt’s parents’ house.

Honeymoon: $500 “we are so lucky –a family member contributed a beach house for use for our honeymoon as a wedding gift”

Wedding Bands: $400

FINAL GRAND TOTAL: $10,231

I am so grateful to my brides from this week that were willing to share. Thank you Katie! Your day was truly gorgeous and obviously a reflection of you and your husband!

Advice from the bride:

Best cost-saving advice: One of the things that saved us the most was finding a good deal on the site that we used for both reception and ceremony. We looked with the local parks department and found a bunch of duds and one beautiful site that was a fraction of what we would have paid for a private venue. It was really worth looking a little harder for our site. I would also say for any DIY brides, to calculate the cost of doing it yourself vs. paying someone to do it and make sure it’s actually worth doing yourself. Buying decorations and DIY items gradually also helped us spread out a lot of the cost. We were also really fortunate to have friends and family who offered different things to help us (a family friend cooked our rehearsal dinner, for example) and not only did it save us money, it added a really special touch to our day.

If you can splurge, do it here: I’d say that’s a personal decision. Matt and I followed the old advice about picking 2 things that are most important to you (in our case food and photography) and prioritize that in your budget. We ended up very happy with how we spent our money.

Don’t bother with: Anything that is not important to you. Do not stress about something that barely matters to you because chances are, most of your guests won’t even notice – your friends and family are just happy to be there to celebrate with you.

Other Advice: Work with vendors that you trust and if you can minimize the number of vendors that you have by letting one vendor take over several tasks, then that is less headache for you! Our vendors were amazing and the way they handled our event totally made our day extra super special. Most importantly I would say – have fun.  When it’s all said and done, it is your special day and you are the one that will remember it most so have the best time of your life and don’t stress about small things. Things are going to go wrong, that’s just the way it is but it’s up to you how much it affects your day.

Photos by Whitney Elizabeth Photography

This wedding looks like pure fun. I’m really loving the color combo- the blue and green with the brown…ooh and the hanging lanterns… LOVE! Images are from Paul Johnson Photography- one of my new favs!

You can see more from Katie & Steve’s wedding and Paul Johnson here. Congrats Katie & Steve!

Happy Monday everyone! I want to start the week with something good that I saw last week. I follow Millie Holloman Photography on twitter and last Friday, Millie had my attention for hours as she posted these tables one by one. Each one is great inspiration, especially for the bride that’s going for something a little easy-going, a little etsy-ish (handmade & unique). Photographers Millie and Amanda took these at the Orton Plantation in Winnabow, North Carolina. All designs were done by Jennifer of Salt Harbor Designs.

~table 1~

~table 2~

~table 3~

~table 4~

These are just some highlights-there are more images from each of these tables over at the Millie Holloman blog- definitely check them out! It’s hard for me to choose my favorite- do you have one?

I love this wedding. The muted colors, the softness- it’s kind of got that secluded ranch in the desert feel. The bride’s dress is unique, elegant, with the perfect details. I can’t get enough! Erin and Courtney are such a talented team. Brett & Bowen were married at Pomona College in Claremont, CA. These first pictures are in the classroom where they first met!

One of my favorites:


I love the use of patterns and succulents at this wedding. The bride put together the table numbers, signs, and recipe favor booklets. The escort cards were tea dyed by Courtney (from Erin Hearts Court and Flush Designs) for a vintage look. The flowers and potted succulents, with the exception of the bouquets and boutonnieres, were done by Bowen as well. We love DIY brides!

I would have loved to see this wedding in person~ maybe even just for that chips & salsa table (Yummy!!) Congratulations Brett & Bowen! You’d think I took all the pictures from this wedding but there are more! Visit Erin Hearts Court here.

P.S. Courtney, from Erin Hearts Court, also has a custom invitation company, Flush Designs. She did the invites AND the bouquets and bouts! Talk about multi-talented! (*running over to Courtney’s other blog now.)

I’ll feature more from the Flush Design collection in a bit!