BridalBuds » Inspiration Boards

Bridesmatron Recap: Bridal Shower Details

Periwinkle Blossom — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:23:12 +0000

As you may have read in some of my prior posts, I was invited to be a “bridesmatron” in my friend’s wedding this summer. Let’s just call this friend “Green”, because that’s her favorite color! Green’s mom did a great job organizing Green’s bridal shower, and included a lot of personal touches that I wanted to share with the garden! There was marriage advice collected on pieces of paper that got folded up and put into a picnic basket with some picnic essentials, there was bridal bingo with scratch-off lotto tickets for the winners, there was a beautifully framed picture of Green and her fiance placed at the escort card table for all guests to see upon their arrival, there were green decorations at the tables and on the cake, there was a raffle for each table’s 3-piece candle set centerpiece (which I won!) and there were of course favors. Green’s ceremony was held outdoors in Long Island in late August (more to come on that!), so Green’s mom gave each shower guest a beautiful wooden fan to help keep cool at the ceremony:

Photo taken by Me

Along with the fan came this cute poem:

Thank you for attending Green’s shower.
Now, we are looking forward to that special hour!
Please bring this fan as we celebrate the joining
of Green and her mate, on August 28th!

The fans were given out in little gift bags tied with Green ribbon (of course!) and a thank you charm:

Photo taken by Me

Also inside the bag was a set of Bamboo coasters:

Source: http://www.fashioncraft.com

Definitely some of the more useful shower favors I’ve seen! Hope this post gave the rest of the garden some inspiration!

Saying Yes to the Dress?

Dahlia Bud — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:38:03 +0000

So I always knew that I would get my wedding dress custom made. And I don’t mean always as in since I’ve been engaged. I mean since I realized that I am one of the pickiest people on the face of the planet when it comes to dresses – so basically when I started to dress myself for special events. This little part of my personality still comes as a shock to most, as they all know me as a “Comfort Cootie.” That nickname was lovingly bestowed on me by Dahlia Dude, and has since stuck exceedingly well. And I must say that it rings true: I’m a jeans and tshirts kind of girl. Anyway, back to being picky.

When Dahlia Dude and I first started talking about getting married, I knew that I would never be happy with my dress unless I picked it to match the venue. And so, as our ideas of venues changed and evolved, so did my mental image of my dress. And you’d be surprised at how many mental images of wedding dresses I’ve had floating around in my head. I could probably open up a boutique at this point!!

When we finally decided on a beach wedding in Cape Town, I started working on narrowing down the images that I could find online into an inspiration board of dresses. And this is what I came up with:

All Dresses Taken from Designer Sites

As you can see, there are multiple common factors throughout my inspiration board. I found that I really liked lace, organza/chiffon (I think the flow-y factor on the beach will be gorgeous!!), flowers, and just simple design. Then, a few weeks later, I stumbled upon this on Kleinfeld’s website, and my jaw dropped:

Kleinfeld Bridal

Gorgeous, right? It was at this moment that I realized the extent of my love affair with lace. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m nowhere close to actually finalizing the design for my dress. I’m definitely going shopping once or twice to see if there’s anything that I’ve missed. Hopefully there isn’t as I don’t think my inspiration board can handle any more pictures!! But I’m definitely glad to be nailing down at least a general idea so that I can start talking to the seamstress.

Before I leave you to continue with your blog reading, I wanted to show you this quote. One of my good friends from waaaaay back in high school posted this as her Facebook status after I had bombarded her with dress pictures/questions (in my defense, she seemed to be enjoying herself!!). I loved it, and it definitely made me laugh, so hopefully it will bring some joy to ladies. Here goes:

PSA: Wedding dresses can be separated into four general categories: The “I’m a pretty pretty princess with Daddy’s check book.” ball gown wonderland of silk, crystals and scary price tags; the “I’m sure a nightgown will be fine, you can’t even tell!!” silk sheath that’s 90% static electricity; the “but it’s ~DESIGNER~!” abomination of overblown ego, wild dreams and left-over fabrics; and the ever-elusive “The Dress.”

I read that whenever wedding planning stress really gets to me, and it still makes me laugh…

So what about you ladies? Did you go with the ball gown? Lace? Satin? Silk? Organza? Chiffon? Did you choose your dress before or after you chose your venue? Did you look online before going to boutiques/bridal salons? Tell me about your experiences!!

Color Palettes….

BridalBuds — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:45:52 +0000

When picking a color palette for our wedding I was apparently very tongue tied- so says my MOH/Invitation Goddess/Graphic Designer. MOH had to fill me in on how to properly name colors and carry around a palette so that I did not wind up with the wrong colors.

But first how was I supposed to pick colors!?! As a Doctor of Audiology student I am quite good with sounds and know exactly which songs to pick and what not to… but colors I believe I must have failed that section of Kindergarten. So Cherry Dude and I sat down to discuss. We came up with a bullet pointed list (ahhh how we love lists) of important points about our wedding: we wanted it to be intimate, simple, romantic, peaceful, rustic, cozy and personal. How does one put together a color scheme to fit that…? We were at a loss. So we thought of all the reasons we decided to marry in peaceful Sedona rather than here in the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix).

Souce

Because Sedona is relaxed and beautiful…. the scenic red rock is one of our favorite things about Sedona. Well that and its a good 10 degrees cooler than the Valley on any given day. But the red rock- that was our inspiration. After many heated discussions with my MOH/Design Goddess/Invitation Specialist we came up with a beautiful color pattern which came from an inspiration board I asked to be designed by the lovely Blogger at Inspiring Brides.

www.inspiringbrides.blogspot.com

I tried to make a Color Palette on my own… and this is what I ended up with:

Behr Paint Samples

That’s right folks a Behr paint sample which my MOH was none to pleased with. So she discussed with me colors …and between the photo of our favorite mountain, Cathedral Rock, and the beautiful inspiration board MOH came up with the most elegant color palate I could imagine and it was exactly what we wanted. It plays off the colors in the red rocks at sunset.

Made by MOH

Were you inspired by color? What made you choose your color palette?

Guests at a Wedding

Periwinkle Blossom — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:09:48 +0000

Last weekend Periwinkle Dude and I attended a beautiful wedding. After 11 months of engagement, our friends “E” and “B” tied the knot and we were so happy to be there to celebrate with them! The ceremony and reception were held at the Sea Oaks Country Club, near the Jersey Shore. The country club was a bright and open airy space, with windows that looked out onto the pristine golf course below. Here is a shot of the ballroom from Sea Oak’s website:

Source: http://www.seaoakscc.com/

The bride was exceptionally organized throughout the entire planning process, and was pretty much finished with most of the big items only 4 months after the engagement! …which left her a lot of time to work on DIY projects and add other personal touches. A big hit with all the guests was the salt water taffy buffet:

Salt Water Taffy Buffet

These notes for the wedding cake slices were especially creative!

The bride wore a Mori Lee dress and looked beautiful in it. Here is a picture from the bride and groom’s first dance, which shows the detail of her dress:

First Dance

But my favorite part of the wedding? Oh, that’s easy… The bride and groom were so happy to become husband and wife, and it was so inspiring to witness their joy. They are so in love and really are perfect for one another. I can say with certainly that “E” and “B” will share a long and happy marriage.

Dogwood’s Colors….FINALLY!

Dogwood Blossom — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:47:17 +0000

Ok….so after hours of deliberation (I mean seriously, it shouldn’t be that hard) I have chosen our colors! I took into account all the great advice I got from all of you. Unfortunately, Dogwood Dude’s only advice was “Whatever makes you happy, makes me happy”… I resisted the urge to tell him that he wasn’t making me happy at that moment! I decided to do some research into local flowers to see what we could get for a good price and what colors I had to choose from for those flowers.

So, here were the three choices I was looking at….and click through to see what we picked!

Instead of sticking with one entity I decided to combine elements of each! We have chosen to go with Coral, Turquoise/Tiffany Blue and White for our wedding. It took a little while for me to really be able to visualize the decor, but here is a bit of my inspiration.

Clockwise from top left: Invitation by Buddy + Bean, bangles by Aurora Bijoux, necklace by Polished Two , bouquet by Bloom Flowers, cake by Cheryl Kleinman Cakes, bouquet found at The Knot, menu card from The Knot, cake image from Sarah McGee, centerpiece by Merriment Design and dress from JCrew. Center: table decor from Brides.com

Winter Wedding Wonderland

Periwinkle Blossom — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:00:37 +0000

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to get married during the holiday season. There is something so magical about the time of year, and I think it would be a lot of fun to host a winter wedding in NYC. Want to see the details that inspire my imaginary winter wedding?

This gown would be BEAUTIFUL for the bridesmaids…

Source: Nordstrom

And would coordinate perfectly with this satin and tulle flower girl dress…

Source: My Girl Dress

Of course as the bride I would need a faux fur capelet and muff set to keep me warm…

Source: David's Bridal

I would carry these beauties down the aisle…

Source: www.1800flowers.com

Centerpieces like this surrounded by candles would dress up the tables…

Source: www.1800flowers.com

And after eating our delicious cake…

Source: www.perfectweddingguide.com

Our guests would go home with these treats in hand…

Source: www.weddingfavorsunlimited.com

Source: www.opentip.com

Wow, what a wonderful winter wedding we would have!!! :)

Has anyone else ever imagined planning an “alternate” wedding? For those of you getting married this winter, where did your inspiration come from?

Inspiration Board: Indian Celebration

BridalBuds — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:00:13 +0000

I’ve done a lot of posting about my October 31st “western” wedding, but not a lot about my November 7th Sikh wedding. I guess this is mainly due to the fact that many of the details for our Sikh wedding are being taken care of by Orchid Dude’s family – all I basically have to do is show up on the day of.

Our Sikh wedding and reception will be much less detailed than our western wedding. It is based more around celebrating the traditions of the religion where as our first wedding is based on a reflection of Orchid Dude and I as a couple – our tastes, our likes, our vision.

The colours for our ceremony are very traditional: I will be wearing a red and gold Lahenga and Chunni and Orchid Dude will be wearing a matching Sherwani and red turban. For our reception, I will be wearing a hot pink Sari and Orchid Dude will be changing into a suit.

Orchid Dude’s dad went to India to buy all of our clothing and jewelry so it was a complete surprise to me what everything would look like, but his choices were gorgeous. The rich colours and the beautiful detailing of the garments and jewelry is what inspired me for my latest board.

Photo credits: Project Wedding, Melissa McKinnon Photography & Kelly Vasami Photography

Think it, Create it, See it- The Inspiration Board

BridalBuds — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:00:13 +0000

How do you put all of your ideas out into one visual place where you can see it all come together?? The coveted “Inspiration Board”.

Making an inspiration board was one of my favorite activities, so far (I’m eagerly awaiting cake tastings). There are several ways to create the boards—until I figured it out, I thought that everyone around me was so creative and I had no skills in the world of design. You can use a fun site like Polyvore and create a “fashion” board and put some looks together. I loved using this site to see what dresses and tuxes would look like together. I’ve also enjoyed using the boards at the fabulous Wedding Wire (along with the guest tracker, budgeting, other inspiration).

This is my board courtesy of Polyvore:

You can also use Big Huge Labs and use “Mosaic Maker” within that program. This is best for creating a board using the images that have inspired you (you will have to upload them to a photo hosting site first) and customize it to fit your vision. It is easy-trust me! They walk you through everything and with a little trial and error; you too, will be the envy of new brides-to-be.

A Mosiac Maker sample (showing our engagement pics, because I did not heed my own advice and credit properly on some of my boards, so they remain hidden):

Something even more simple? Your PC office apps. I know that MAC has great tools too, but I’m a PC girl. Anyway, insert your photos into a .ppt file, arrange, “save as” a .jpg and voila! one.

A budding bride can never do enough research!! In the past seven months, I’ve “right clicked and saved” more times that I could ever count or ever repeat in my lifetime. Here is a suggestion- when you right click and save, save the name of the file/photo as the name of the photographer, bride, website where you found the picture, etc. If you use or post a photo that you don’t own the rights to, it is only proper to give credit to the bride/photographer, etc.

Wedding planning is very visual for me…. And this has help me to put my thoughts into a visual palette and see if it will “work” or not and what the overall vision can be.

Inspiration Board: Pretty in Purple

BridalBuds — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:32:57 +0000

Although I have chosen red and black as my wedding colours, I have always loved the elegance, richness and beauty of the colour purple. It has become one of the trendy wedding colours this year and I love it because it can be so versatile – from a soft lilac to a deep eggplant, there is a shade of purple to fit your every mood.

Inspired by the lavender being used for my upcoming shower, I had the urge to gratuitously search purple wedding photos and create this board – enjoy!

Photo Credits: Project Wedding & The Knot

Inspiration Board: Pastel Blue and Pink

Tulip Bud — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:35:34 +0000

I know our colors are navy and white. But after I finished creating Rebecca and Akshay’s monograms, I had to create an inspiration board based on their colors. I can’t help it, I think the colors are so romantic! This is what I fear… we still have a year away and I keep finding myself craving other color motifs. Have you changed your wedding colors more than once during planning?

Photo Credits: Couple on Vespa photo from Brides.com, Shoes photo from Southern Weddings, Tablescape by Enchanted Florist, Bouquet photo by Joe Mikos, Save The Date from With This Ring…, Place Setting by Enchanted Florist, Flower arrangement by Flush Designs, Invitation from Low Cost Weddings, Bouquet from Martha Stewart Weddings

*Make your own Inspiration Board on WeddingWire.

Inspiration Board: Vintage Halloween

BridalBuds — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:33:48 +0000

I’ve been seeing inspiration boards everywhere and think they are such a beautiful way to portray a theme or mood for an event. So, I thought I would try and make my first inspiration board based on my October 31st wedding.

Instead of going with obvious Halloween decor, we are using the colours red and black along with patterns such as damask and decor elements like candelabras and loads of candles to achieve a feeling of Halloween darkness but with an elegant, vintage twist.

Photo Credits: Taite Boudoir, Project Wedding, Martha Stewart, Style Me Pretty & Megan Harde Photography

Inspiration Board: Navy and Fuchsia

Tulip Bud — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:25:51 +0000

Continuing my search for a color to complement my navy and white theme, here’s a color palette of navy and fuchsia.

Photo Credits: Ballerina photo from Ballet UK, Cake from Brides.com, Bouquet photo from Amorology, Tie and Boutonniere from Amorology, Ice cream and Blueberries by Sara Remington, Menu from Amorology, Bridesmaids and Bouquets from JL Designs, Flower girl from SDEMKE, Album photo by Snap!

Kidding Around

BridalBuds — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:06:54 +0000

We estimate that there will be about 20 kids at our wedding under the age of 10. I ADORE children, I want 1 million of my own, however, I want the parents to be able to get wasted have fun at our wedding without chasing a 2-year-old around. So, my solution:

1. 1 Nanny/2 assistants – provided by caterer

2. A kid’s tent to keep them corralled.

3. Kids tables inside the tent with all sort of goodies, games, DVD player, crayons, etc.

This is what I have in mind from the lovely Kate Parker:

From kateparkerweddings.com

But sorry Kate, I am doing this one on my own. I am gaining FOUR sisters when I get married and 2 mothers – they are going to be my Kate! And I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

Being Flexible

BridalBuds — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:12:30 +0000

When we started planning the wedding, Lotus Dude and I had decided that our colors would be red, gold and grey. We liked the combination of these colors, and it would be easy to incorporate them both in the traditional Hindu wedding ceremony and the more modern decor we had in mind for our reception. Of course, things did not work out exactly as planned.

When I went shopping in India for a reception outfit, I wasn’t able to find anything in either red or gold that wasn’t too loud for my tastes. However, I ended up finding the perfect outfit in green and gold. So we rolled with it and talked to our wedding coordinator, florist, venue and linen rental company about the change of colors to green, gold and grey for the reception. Thankfully, everyone was accommodating and there were no problems!

I also saw that WeddingWire has a wonderful new tool to help in creating inspiration boards. The inspiration board I made several months ago incorporates the red, gold and grey we’re using for the ceremony. I just used the new tool to make another inspiration board for the reception, and here it is.

I have to say that this tool made it really easy to create the inspiration board!

Inspi(red)

Tuberose Blossom — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:35:59 +0000

Let’s do a quick rewind: my inspiration board! I made this on Microsoft Powerpoint around our half-way mark to keep me inspired to work toward my wedding vision. Ain’t it just purdy?

marthastewart.com, waikiki.hyatt.com, dcwhawaii.com, emiink.com, adelewechsler.com, theknot.com, inthenowweddings.com

What does your inspiration board look like?

Inspiration Board: Royal Blue and Yellow

Tulip Bud — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:04:22 +0000

Continuing my search for a color to complement our blue and white color motif, I assembled an inspiration board of blue and yellow…

Photo Credits: Table setting from InStyle Weddings; Bride and Groom shoes photo by Jonathan Canlas; Bouquet from ArtFool; Antique Journal from Southern Weddings Mag; Invitation from Style Me Pretty; Church photo by Jonathan Canlas; Ring shot by Ryan Phillips; Bridesmaid dress photo by Jonathan Canlas; Yellow shoes photo by Whitebox Weddings