Hot Topic: Virtual Wedding Invitations? And a blue & peach wedding inspiration board.

Seeing as I work with colorful paper everyday and am constantly looking for wedding color trends, building this wedding mood/imspiration board was an excellent business exercise for me. First of all, can I just say, I am so in love with this color combo. Peach was an accent color at our wedding and is the main color in my business branding - but wow peach + these shades of blue is really just gorgeous - artsy and eclectic, but timeless. I haven't used peach and blue together in any of my paper flower creations in the shop  but you can bet you'll see some soon. 

Check it out. The details are listed below the image.

• Mason Jar Peach Drink Inspiration: The Perfect Palette, drink tags by Evermine 
• Blue Vintage Jar Centerpiece Inspiration: Pinterest (This doesn’t seem like the original author - if anyone knows the actual direct source please let me know.)
• Invitation: Paperless Post, Heron Heralds by Rifle Paper Co. 
• Floral Arch Inspiration: Huffington Post Article, photograph by Heart and Colour 
• Bridesmaid Dress Inspiration: Guest post by the team at BHLDN, Anthropologie’s weddingbrand on Poppytalk 
• Cake Inspiration: Wedding Chicks Compilation – Cake by Crumb & Berry andphotographed by 1486 Photography 
• Bouquet: Blue Anenomes, photograph by Watson Studios 

And now, what if I told you this was a virtual wedding invitation? Paperless Post provides the option to order paper invites as well - but in more interesting news, provides a virtual option. Ask me three years ago as I was planning my wedding and I would have unequivocally told you no, that was not an option for me. However now, I'm 90% sure I would go with a virtual option. Listen, I love stationery (recently pointed out to me that you spell it with an "e" whoops, did you know this?!) but it seems like wedding invitations are stuck on the fridge and then remain there for an awkwardly long time.
(For instance: oh my goodness did you hear so and so had a baby?! Wow, it seems like just yesterday we were at their wedding. Oh, wait - look, here it is, the invite from four years ago still on our fridge! It was September 8, 2011, how sweet. Wait, why do we still have that? We should trash that....) 

Anyway, I think I'd opt for a small magnet save the date that matches the invitation and then have the formal invitation be delivered electronically. I'm not giving up on a hard invite entirely, that save the date magnet is still there - or maybe a postcard.

But listen friends, you can either save money utilizing this option (about 125 for $90 on this particular card pictured above) or save it and spend instead on your photographers or fresh flowers (my two main priorities). And not just an afterthought, but a serious consideration - you save yourself the headache of collecting and arranging RSVPs. The electronic system Paperless Post has is easy to use and professional. It doesn't make it seem any less like a wedding, in fact, the layout of their system is very formal and aesthetically pleasing and utilizing the system to send and coordinate invites seems like a wedding related task, not like managing a random evite asking your guests to bring their favorite side and a lawn chair.

Oh and let me repeat again about the easy part. Having all of the invitations and guest count listed out right there for you? That's a game changer. Figuring out RSVPs is a last minute task, and listen - last minute bride you is a lot different than the bride who picked out her formal stationery six months prior. You have a lot less patience for the little details, and coordinating the guest list and seating chart is not little details!

Also, consider this - you can still order a printed invitation from them or another printer, maybe just a handful to send to grandparents who aren't real thrilled about this internet craze and give as a momento to parents and for yourself of course.

Like I said before, I'm 90% sure I'd do it this way if I could do it again. What do you think?! And what do you think about this color combo? What other combos would you like to see inspiration boards for?

Maryland Barn Wedding Venues

I realized that when looking for a wedding venue online, and specifically a barn, it takes a lot of effort to find pictures of these rustic barns that often aren't even advertised as wedding venues. I narrowed down my choices by searching photographers' blogs and looking at their photos from different wedding venues. It also gave me an idea of what photographers are out there, and ones that are familiar with the venue!

Below you'll find a list of the barns I have come across in Maryland that you can rent for a wedding. Underneath the different barn venues there are links to different photographers' posts with pictures of that particular venue (and some wedding planning sites). Hope this is helpful!

This is still a work in progress and I'll continue to update it with information once I have it :) Feel free to comment other pictures/places and I'll add them in, or make corrections if necessary.

Westminster, Maryland: Union Mills Homestead
Occupancy: 120 inside, additional if tents rented
Contact: Jane Sewell 410-848-2288
Price: ~$750 for venue for the weekend
Photos:

C&I Photographers

Lydia Jane 

Kevin Quinlan Photography

James Garrett Photography

Ferry Huang Photography 

St. Leonard, Maryland: Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum
Occupancy: up to 600 based on their brochure!
Contact: 410-586-8501 or jppm@mdp.state.md.us.
Price: ~$350-$1400 for venue rental depending on number of guests and extra hours
Photos:
WeddingBook
Emily Chastain Photography
David Ng Photography

Howard County, Maryland: Howard County Conservancy
Occupancy: ~130 plus a variety of gardens and outside spaces
Contact: 410.465.8877
Price: $2400 for a weekend day (7 hours)
Photos:
Dani Leigh Photography
Lisa Boggs Photography 
JPB Designs
Procopio Photography 
Jeanne Sun Photography 

Williamsport, Maryland: The Barn at Springfield Farm
Occupancy: 200
Contact: springfieldbard@myactv.net or 201-223-7229
Price: unknown
Photos:
Jessica Fike Photography 
Aesthetic Life Studio

Rising Sun, Maryland: Spring Hill Manor
Occupancy: 210
Contact: 410-658-3815 or sherrardjs@aol.com
Price: unknown
Photos:
HereComesTheGuide
Kevin Quinlan Photography 
Lauren Fair Photography 
Kat Forder Photography

Swanton, Maryland: North Glade Inn Bed & Breakfast
Occupancy: 150
Contact: Fred & Tammy 1-877-433-6911
Price: unknown
Photos:
Marvelous Things Photography 

Hollywood, Maryland: The Barn at Sotterley Plantation
Occupancy: 120
Contact: phone 301-373-2280 or events@sotterley.org         
Price: $850-$2400 depending on the rental package
Stacey Windsor Photography 
Theresa Choi Photography 
Jessica Lavoie Photography 

White Marsh, Maryland: Richardson Farms
Occupancy: unknown
Contact: 410-335-5900
Price: unknown
Photos:
Sarah Culver Photography 
Natalie Franke Photography 
DBryant Photography

Elkton, Maryland: The Tea Barn
Occupancy: 125
Contact: 410-398-1246
Price: $300 for venue
Photos: 
Emily Troutman Photography 
Luis Guanzon Photography/BeMoreMedia

*ADDED 12/9/2014
Middletown, Maryland: Three Streams Farm
 Occupancy: 100
Contact: Jodi at threestreamsfarm@yahoo.com
Price: $1,500 for three day rental
Photos:
None yet!

8 Unique & Thoughtful Groomsmen Gift Ideas

If you're trying to be unique or different, groomsmen gifts can be tough since guys really just like meat, sports and cool gadgets. Below are my top 7 ideas for groomsmen gifts that aren't flasks or related to alcohol, some of which I knew before our wedding and we used as gifts and others that I've since found out about and really love! I'm a big supporter of Etsy, so I tried to find most of these there. There are a few that I couldn't find *hint there is an Etsy market just waiting out there for ya!*

Here's a picture of the inspiration behind the gifts below. My husband had 8 groomsmen with pretty different personalities and I think the gifts below touch on every one of them.

(All of our wedding pictures are from C&I Photographers, http://www.c-iphotographers.com/. I can't recommend them enough!!)

Ok enough handsome-ness for one post. Onto the gifts. 

1. Personalized cigar boxes. We actually gave these out as gifts. I loved the mustaches, and they were really simple but a great find. Inside the boxes we put a cigar and the matching tie for the wedding. Even if your groomsmen don't regularly smoke cigars, these boxes are great to use in the future to hold anything - like watches, cuff-links, collar stays, all kinds of weird stuff guys keep on their nightstands, you know.

dazzlingexpressions Etsy Shop 

2. Speaking of collar stays - I just found out those existed after a few months of marriage. What nifty little things. These monogrammed ones are fabulous and from Etsy. I found out about these after ordering a custom pair for my husband for his birthday. They are a great gift for any guy, I really like them! 

juliethefish Etsy shop $120 for set of 5

3. Shoes. The shoes below are the shoes we ordered for the groomsmen in our wedding. Now, yes you might realize I've now already mentioned we bough the cigar boxes...and inside was a tie and a cigar...and now you notice the shoes. So yes, ok, maybe we kind of bought them a lot of stuff - but these are such fun gifts to give and we didn't really regret it until we put down the security deposit on our apartment. Just kidding. We actually were able to buy the shoes at Kohls - and for you Kohls shoppers out there, you know you can really combine some great deals when they have a sale and you have that magic 30% off coupon and Kohls cash.  If you want a unique look for shoes on the groomsmen it works both ways if you buy these as a gift, and you'll also know they will be wearing the right thing on the big day ;).

4. Monogrammed steak branders. Seriously, now this is a little over the top...but also pretty sweet. I don't really like meat but apparently most men do, and as I've recently found out - some still like to eat it bleeding. What? My jaw dropped when my husband and I went to Red Robin to eat last week and he ordered a "Some Pink" burger. What? Why. Anyway, well I've come full circle. If you're going to eat meat, and you're going to eat it rare, might as well put your initials on it. Find them here.

5. Monogrammed money clips. I really like these that are made out of copper. I also really like monogrammed things. Not overdone, but the only things I own that are monogrammed have been gifts. These are simple and guys can get a lot of use out of these. 

MyBellabyLizLollar $135 for set of 5

6. WOW. A hatchet. If we could do it over again, this would certainly be it. One of our wise married friends told us on our first Christmas, or more-so told my husband that the days of getting gifts for him are over. Every gift we receive as a "couple" are most always going to be for the girl - like a cookbook, or something for the home, etc. So, this amazing man handed my husband a package with his first married man Christmas gift, and also probably the last. A Hatchet. That also doubled as a hammer and something else with a little prong thing on it. Obviously the gift wasn't for me, but he LOVES it. I think every guy would love to get one - as long as they check their bags at the airport on the way home. I don't think TSA has approved hatchets on board just yet... You can see a groom's handmade hatchets at this blog.

7. This is amazing. Beard hats would make for a fantastic groomsmen picture. Especially if you included groomsmen gift number 6 & 7 as a combo. There are a ton of variety of these offered on Etsy with different beard colors, styles and hats. Love it.

SimplyCollectible Etsy Shop

8. Framed T-shirt from the past: A new addition from the comments section below. If you're anything like my husband and I - we have probably close to a 100 t-shirts, from college days, sports teams, 5k runs, etc. Some of these mean a lot to us but we rarely wear them. For a groom and his groomsmen, he surely has a ton of memories with each of them and likely - accompanied by a t-shirt. If the groom could get his hand on a t-shirt from each of the guys that means something special to the two of them, this could be a really great gift! One company that's new to the scene is SHART t-shirt frames. Yes, I laughed out loud when I heard the name - but that's good marketing, isn't it?

The end for now. If you have an idea please comment, I'd love to add more!

Wedding Favors - Favors by CJ

Although it is taking me a few months to get around to this, I absolutely have to write a post on our favors and desserts from the wedding.

Cassie is an old friend I made playing ice hockey at the University of Maryland. She had always coordinated and baked for our annual "Pink at the Rink" fundraiser, and the events went flawless and looked as if a team of professionals put them on when in fact...it was mostly just Cassie.  Over the years playing hockey our incredibly lucky team got to witness the evolution of the cake pops...first for the pink at the rink event, but then Halloween ghosts and spiders, Christmas trees and Santa hats, one day even a dinosaur and also ladybugs! So, as soon as my husband uttered the words..."will you marry me?" I said yes and my mind said CASSIE!

Kidding, it took about two days for me to start thinking favors...but the cake pops made by Cassie and her business: Favors by CJ ,were such a hit at the wedding and one of the best (tasting) decisions we made during the wedding planning. We didn't have a traditional wedding cake, so this was our way of including cake into the wedding. And not only did they taste delicious, but for our all grey and white wedding - they were an amazing pop of color at the dessert table.

Then - to top it off, she also made us bride & groom pretzel sticks:

In addition to being amazingly good looking - they tasted delicious as well.  I think I ate a few packs in the car after leaving the reception, even after swearing to never eat them.

Again, Favors by CJ ...highly recommend it :)

Photos by C&I Photographers

Mismatched Bridesmaid Dresses

First, these amazing photos are from our wedding photographers: http://www.c-iphotographers.com/
Here is our specific blog post. I've spent hours, probably days of my life looking at the blog. If you look, you will too.

Picking one bridesmaid dress that works well for all members of the bridal party can be really tough and probably...for those of you who have done it..uncomfortable? I wanted everyone to feel comfortable and gorgeous in their dress and figured the best way to do that was to let them pick what they wanted. This might not always turn out perfectly, but for this wedding I think it went flawless!

First, I was so surprised at how similar many of the girls' taste was. I knew we were all somewhat similar, but when it comes to picking out a dress that you love and fits your body type, a lot of them really liked the same exact style. Below are some recommendations that might make it easier for someone else who is hoping to do the same thing:

1. Talk to everyone casually about what they like, length, material, shade of the color, etc. If you find that everyone likes the same thing, it could be difficult when you tell everyone to go out and pick what they like - you might have one bridesmaid who likes a dark strapless dress and all of the rest like light halter tops. If everyone has similar taste, it's probably better if you put some parameters and tell which maid to get dark, which to get light, etc.

By the way, hangers from Whiskey & Wedding Bells, amazing.

2. In my opinion, they should all be the same length. If you are going to do something mis-matched there needs to be one element that is the same. In my personal opinion, it should be the length.  I've seen others do the same accessories, shoes, etc. Anything could work as long as you remember to keep something *noticeable* constant.

3. After deciding on a length I went to the paint store to look at all of the different shades of grey. There were about 50 of them...ha..........hahaha. Anyway, if you still haven't determined a color and you know you want your dresses to be mismatched, you want to pick a color that has a lot of good shades. If you love bright red, but you hate burgundy and you think lighter tones look too pink - red probably won't work. In this case, you might want to pick a uniform color for your bridesmaids and then they can pick the style. I'd recommend that with any bright color.  With grey, I found that the shades were either warm or cool.  Some greys leaned more towards a tan or brown color (warm), while others were more towards black or blue (cool.) I picked up paint shades that showed all of the "cool" shades of grey that I thought would look nicely together and put these in the bridesmaid packages. My bridesmaids were all pretty close and ended up going shopping together a few times, but for bridesmaids who are spread out distance wise, these paint chips could be really helpful for the solo-shopper.Because many shopped together we found it a bit easier to determine who purchased what shade, but naturally some bridesmaids will prefer a darker or lighter shade based on their skin tones - let them pick first and the others can fill in afterwards. We didn't calculate who had what shade obsessively, the girls picked what they wanted and the last few who purchased asked the group what we were lacking.

4. Material. This is really important especially because it will be noticeable in pictures. There is a big difference between chiffon and silk for instance. It just happens that I really liked the variety in color and material (this has a lot to do with the color being grey...cream would be the same way.) But most often, you'll want to determine a material for the dresses. This totally come down to personal preference.

5. Style was the most important thing for me to let the girls choose on their own.  In their bridesmaids gift I sent a few pictures I found of dresses I really liked so they would know what my style was and I trusted them to go with the ideas.  What would be most important is if you hated a particular style, you need to make that apparent early on in the process.

6. To keep things a bit more uniform since style, color and material were all matching - the girls had similar hairstyles that were down.  This really really helped to pull it all together. Some hair up and some hair down would have really highlighted the differences and I think the hair down and the length being the two constants worked out perfectly.

To further the mis-matching...I know, bold...the girls picked their own shoes (they actually all naturally went red/pink) and we had different white flowers for each girl.

<3

Rehearsal Dinner

The rehearsal dinner was held at a house in Westminster that Andrew found by searching online for a rental house in the area. It ended up being the only house for rent in the town...you'll understand if you ever visit the area.  The house was originally owned by a mother that passed away and her son's were hoping to keep the house in their family.  They hoped that by renting it out to vacationers to nearby Gettysburg they'd be able to financially keep the house. I was anxious at first to rent a house we had never seen, but after emailing I received a phone call back from the son who now owned the house. It was an Alaska area code and he explained that he now lives in Anchorage and was sorry that he was sorry he was calling so late and explained the time difference. Of course I knew the time difference and I thought it was so crazy that the one house in Westminster that worked for us was owned by another Alaskan (Andrew is from Anchorage....duhhh.)  Turns out that much of his whole family lives in Anchorage and they travel back and forth frequently.

When we first pulled up to the house to visit we were so pleasantly surprised. The pictures were beautiful, but we first had to travel down a .75 mile long driveway.  It was gravel and you could only go maybe 10-12 mph the entire time. Not to mention I had a nail in one of my tires and it kept losing air so I was a little worried...

Once you arrive at the end the house sits at the top of a hill surrounded by corn fields. The corn had just been harvested, so I was a little disappointed we didn't have that for the atmosphere but it was nice to be able to look out and see everything.  We held the rehearsal dinner on the back porch of the house and had our caterer from the wedding come out and also provide tables and chairs. The porch fit all five tables and was able to comfortably seat 40 people for a seated dinner.

The decor was all Andrew's idea and I loved it! We bought burlap and cut 1' wide strips to use as table runners.  The picture above doesn't show the floor length white linens because they hadn't been delivered yet. On top of the burlap were thin wood things? I don't know what to call them. Wood slivers...wood circles...wood slabs...anyway, they were from Michael's and we used coupons to buy all of them. He then used a wood burning kit to carve our initials and placed mason jars with candles on top. 

Andrew's dad ordered the generous favors for the guests.  They are ulu knives and are symbolic of Alaska.  The whole theme was "East meets West" since Andrew is from Alaska and I'm from Maryland! :) He used the same font we had on our wedding invitations "Scriptina." They came out  awesome!

 

Andrew's sister Erynne ordered a cake through a friend that was half covered in an Alaskan theme and the other half Maryland. 

We found out later that there was also a table set up at the rehearsal dinner covered in postcards of places that meant something to us like Alaska, Maryland and New York.  People could write a note or wedding advice and a post card would be mailed to us once a week! We got the first one yesterday, I'll have to think of something creative to do with all of the postcards. 

Everything about the rehearsal dinner was great, the food, the venue, the decor, the company! We really had a great time :)

Getting Ready!

The night after the rehearsal dinner most of the bridal party stayed the night at the house we rented. This worked out well because the next morning the hairstylist and makeup artist were coming to the house EARRRLLLYYY in the morning to start on everyone.  Knowing that the morning was going to come quick and we needed all of the sleep we could get we decided to go to bed at 1:30am. That is, after we found a baby tarantula!

Don't worry, Carrie went to tarantula wrangling school back where she is from in Connecticut and knew how to hypnotize this little beast. She grabbed him by his back leg and threw him out the back door, kind of.

Moving right along...everyone brought their robes and dresses and shoes and there was a curtain rod in my room that we were able to hang them all up on. This was the first time we all got to see all of the dresses lined up next to each other and we arranged them in order of how the girls were walking down the aisle. The colors were perfect! They also all brought their hangers we ordered from Whiskey & Wedding Bells.

The next morning the hair stylist and makeup artist arrived at 7:45 am to start at 8. The makeup artist was from Clinique at the Nordstrom's in Columbia mall and she was really great. I'd be happy to pass her contact information on if anyone would like it.

 

 

While we were all getting our hair/makeup done and eating the humungous spread of breakfast muffins, danishes and croissants my bridesmaids gave me a scrapbook they had each made a page in. I love to scrapbook and looking at all the time and details they put into each page was so nice! Each page was 100% a reflection of each person and they were all totally different.

Some of my favorite pieces of advice came from Chelsea, one of the two married bridesmaids: 

Of course I could have included many more details in this post about the conversations with the hair stylist about placentas,  how much Alex loved her hairdo and Carrie bursting into tears due to sheer joy :* but that will all remain locked away. :)