Eco-Vintage Weddings

Showcase Wednesday: Tessa Kim’s Etsy Shop!

Good Wednesday morning to you all!

Today I wanted to share a wonderful Etsy vendor with you. I came across Tessa Kim’s Etsy shop on one of my marathon searches for birdcage veils. Since our wedding is a combination of vintage and rustic elements, I have known for some time that I wanted a birdcage veil.

Tessa Kim’s Etsy shop offers AMAZING handmade veils at seriously competitive prices.

Here’s a few of my favorites:

I just love this bandeau birdcage veil! I tried on a veil like this one while on one of my many shopping trips for a bridal gown, and I am so happy to report that it looks great with my facial structure! I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up sporting a veil like this on our wedding day.

This veil comes as a package deal with the beautiful fascinator flower you see in this photo – all for only $94.00! Since bridal salons usually charge upwards of $100.00 alone for a veil, Tessa Kim’s shop is a total bargain!

This veil is a more whimsical choice for brides:  the veil material is embellished with chenille dots to give it a polka-dot appearance!

Click over to Tessa Kim’s Etsy shop before January 1, 2010 to receive $10.00 off of your order!

I’m signing off for the week to enjoy the New Year – see you next week with new posts!

[All photos via Tessa Kim's Etsy shop]

Our Wedding: Flower Girls!

This past week, J and I attended the 8th birthday party for Emma, a little girl that’s dear to our hearts. She’s the daughter of my academic adviser (and life mentor!), and she’s an absolute sweetheart. Emma has a little sister named Hannah, who’s also a complete cutie.

Prior to the party, I put together two identical little costume boxes for Emma and Hannah as combined birthday and Christmas gifts. Here’s a breakdown of my spending, for those of you who are curious:

• I picked up two red damask hatboxes from Hobby Lobby on a 50% sale, so I spent a total of $7.00 for two hatboxes. I also picked up a bow for $1.00.
• I also picked up two size 12 play dresses (the girls are both tiny, and I wanted the dresses to feel like dress-up, so I got a larger size) at Once Upon A Child, our secondhand children’s store here in town, for about $10.00 total.
• I also grabbed two pairs of sunglasses for $3.99 each, totaling $8.00.
• At the $1 Dollar Store, I grabbed a four-pack of necklaces for $1.00, two four-packs of headbands for $1.00 each, two lip gloss/chapstick packs for $1.00 each, and two picture frames for $1.00 each, totaling $7.00.
• At Walgreens, I printed 7 photos at $0.39 cents a piece, totaling roughly $3.00 with tax.
• At home, I grabbed six beaded bracelets that I never wear, and I threw those into the hatboxes as well. I also utilized tissue paper that I already had on hand. Price for these items: FREE.

TOTAL AMOUNT SPENT: $36.00 for two fun-filled costume boxes. Pretty good, I think!

After my shopping, I packed all of the items into the hatboxes, covered them up with tissue paper, and put bows on the top (I had one bow on hand).

A few weeks before the party, I had lunch with my mentor and asked him if he’d be willing to allow his daughters to serve as flower girls at our wedding. While we have a BEAUTIFUL newborn niece Harper that will certainly be a part of our special day, we wanted to also honor the other special girls in our life and have them walk down the aisle for us. He was honored that we asked, and he proceeded to give me a children’s book entitled “Lilly’s Big Day” by Kevin Henkes. My mentor gave me the idea to trace a scene from this book onto a paper card for each of the girls, cards which I would give them at Emma’s birthday party later that month.

I spent one entire Sunday tracing and coloring these cards, and making them special for Emma and Hannah, and the finished product was (in my opinion) spectacular. Sadly I didn’t snap a picture of these cards before I gave them to the girls, but the front of the card was a scene from “Lilly’s Big Day,” while the inside of the card read, “Will You Be Our Flower Girl?”. They were cute cards, and I was proud of them.

I tucked the cards inside the top section of these hatboxes, and the girls opened them together at Emma’s party. One of Emma’s dear friends read the card aloud to Hannah, who is still learning to read, and when she read, “Will You Be Our Flower Girl?” Hannah’s little heart melted. She turned to J and I with huge eyes full of excitement, and she said, “REALLY?!” We giggled and said yes, and she gave us a huge hug. Emma too was thrilled that we asked, and they both seem very, very excited to participate in our big day.

They’re such special girls, and we’re so happy that they’ve agreed to be a big part of our wedding day!

For more, check out our Wedding Party page!

Who are you asking to be part of your big day?

What creative ideas do you have for asking the special people in your life?

Green Monday: Winter Weddings

Having a winter wedding? You’re likely already saving some “green” by having your wedding off-season; great job! Here’s a few more “green” tips for you:

1. Utilize the holiday decor that’s available to you in your venue(s)! Winter is a time marked by garland, wreaths, twinkle lights and pine trees, and you could save a fortune by embracing these winter staples.
2. For your flowers, think white! Like the blankets of white snow covering the ground, use beautiful white flowers for your arrangements, such as white roses, lily of the valley, baby’s breath, and calla lilies. Remember to use flowers in season to save some “green,” or use synthetic silk flowers!
3. For other decor, think cozy fabrics like velvet. To you reception tables, add velvet table runners in your wedding colors, and you have instant warmth! Yardage of velvet is rather inexpensive, but will make your guests feel the warmth that wintertime lacks. As an added bonus, reuse these runners around your home to adorn your holiday tables, or sew these runners together into a quilt as a holiday gift!
4. Red and green color patterns are so overrated. Silver metallic is a great hue to utilize if you’re saying “I Do” in the winter. Think grey suits and silver bridesmaid dresses for instant chic. Check out retailers like Rawganique for suits for your guys and Two Birds for your girls. Shabby Apple is also coming out with a bridesmaid line in February 2010, according to their web site.
5. As an overall tip, the white hue of snow looks beautiful, and can only help to showcase the special details of your wedding more by providing a blank canvas for colors to pop.

Do you have any other tips for green winter brides? Please share!

[Photo credit: Big City Bride]

Showcase Wednesday: Bowtie Fun!

Today’s post is all about fun ways to dress the guys in your wedding!

I honestly have always loved the idea of bowties, even before J and I got engaged and decided to have a vintage-inspired wedding. To me, bowties always reflect the whimsical aspect of getting all gussied up, and since our wedding is part rustic, part whimsy and all parts love, having our guys don bowties is a fitting choice!

I came across the Me & Matilda shop on Etsy one day when looking for bowties, and, let me tell you this:  Me & Matilda makes bowties for EVERY occassion! Whether you’re attending a Christmas party, or its a wedding party you’re looking to dress, look no further than Me & Matilda. From ready-to-ship bowties to custom-made pieces utilizing your wedding colors, Me & Matilda does it all. The shop has even been featured in Brides Magazine, and a feature is forthcoming in The Knot’s wedding magazine!

Click here to view Me & Matilda on Etsy!

Happy Christmas to you all – I’m signing off until December 28. Wishing you and yours a wonderful, restful holiday season!

[Photo courtesy of Me&Matilda on Etsy]

Our Wedding: So Many Blooming Choices!

Happy Tuesday, readers! For me, today marks my second-to-last day at work this week – yay for Christmas! I am anxious to spend time with family this week.

Today’s post is all about flowers!

I already plan to incorporate green(er) floral choices in terms of our reception decorations – my Mom and I have discussed planting wildflowers in her backyard garden and utilizing these in mason jars adorned with lace and twine for our reception tables. I’ve also thought about frequenting the local farmer’s market the week of the wedding and picking up a few collections of flowers to utilize on our wedding day.

As you recall, I’ve expressed my disdain for shelling out hundreds of buckaroos for real wedding flowers that will merely die in a week, so I’m making friends with the idea of carrying silk or synthetic flowers. However, the more I think about it, I would love to carry real flowers myself on my wedding day. (As I say that now, I’m wondering if that’s fair to ask my girls to carry synthetic florals and to carry real ones myself?!)

Remember this inspiration board I made a few months ago on the Style Circle?

While I know that my girls will be carrying sunshine-colored flowers, I still haven’t concepted a clear-cut idea of what flowers I want to carry on our wedding day.

My Mom has always loved yellow roses and daisies, and I think they would make a beautiful combination for my wedding bouquet. I also LOVE these little button mums (that’s probably not at all what they are, but I love them), so I’d be delighted to have those in my bouquet as well. I also am a HUGE fan of sunflowers.

Yet, I once saw a bride’s bouquet that was completely beautiful – and white! She carried only one bloom, but it was beautiful – she carried only lily of the valley, tied with a ribbon. Here’s a lily of the valley bouquet found via the Boards on Wedding Bee:

How sweet, simple and lovely!

What are your thoughts, readers?

Real or synthetic flowers for me? For my girls?

What blooms should I carry?

What is your favorite yellow flower?

Green Monday: Eco-Beautiful Weddings Magazine!

Happy Monday, all! This week marks a short work week for me because of the impending Christmas holiday, so I plan to post daily until Wednesday this week, and take the long weekend off from posting for the holiday.

Today I wanted to share with you an important resource available when planning a green wedding: Eco-Beautiful Weddings – The E-zine!

Eco-Beautiful Weddings Magazine is a mag full of green goodness that was launched this December. Promising bi-monthly issues, this e-zine is literally green because of its format. Eco-Beautiful Weddings Magazine is only available online, which means, as editor-in-chief Katie Martin notes:

• No printing.
• No paper.
• No post-consumer waste.
• Carbon-free.
• Wind-powered.
• Socially responsible.

Can you get any greener than that?!

More about what’s inside:  look for Real Wedding features, along with DIY and design projects, upcycled projects, recycling redos, organic cuisine, green wellness and beauty, and eco-product spotlights! What more could you ask for in a green wedding magazine?

Editor-in-chief Katie is also making available to wedding professionals Eco-Beautiful Weddings Seminars! Are you utilizing a green space, caterer, photographer or the like? Make your green vendor aware of these seminars!

To view the premier issue of Eco-Beautiful Weddings Magazine, click here!

To view the Eco-Beautiful Weddings Magazine blog, click here!

Check back for some Our Wedding goodness tomorrow!

[Logo found via Google; property of Eco-Beautiful Weddings]

Green Friday: Cans & Vintage Labels

I have this not-so-secret love affair with projects listed on I-Do-It-Yourself. Luzel, the author of this smashing blog full of DIY goodness, is a seriously smart gem of a DIY’er, and she’s honed in on an ever-growing market: brides who DIY.

Whatever the reason you’re DIYing (out of concern for your wedding’s environmental footprint, for budgetary reasons, or for the fun of the projects), you have to check out I-Do-It-Yourself.

This project comes from a post on I-Do-It-Yourself offering free (yes, FREE!) vintage labels. As Luzel mentions in her post, she has a thing for vintage labels and tea tins (what lover of all things vintage doesn’t!), and she’s concepted an idea for vintage brides!

I seriously thought about incorporating tin cans covered in these vintage label beauties for J and my gift-opening brunch, but a wheelbarrow full of other projects have taken precedence. However, if YOU are still looking for reception centerpieces on the cheap, take a look at Luzel’s post over at iDIY!

As an added bonus, use recycled cans for this project! Or, to establish and encourage community between your family and your new in-laws, ask a few members of your soon-to-be spouse’s family to help you collect cans, and have them all over for a rousing DIY party! (Just be sure to provide snacks and libations!)

[Image and project from Luzel of iDIY, www.i-do-it-yourself.com]

Our Wedding: Unique Bridesmaids

Happy Thursday, readers!

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about me and my girls’ chosen bridesmaid dress. I really love the dress, and I think it will be flattering on everyone, but I’m struggling with the extreme continuity of it all.

To begin, I understand the importance of continuity in terms of dressing a wedding party. I want all of J’s guys to look smashing in the same grey tux/suit, and similarly, I should want all of my girls to look great in the same dress. It’s all about creating a unified and continuous canvas, and I’m all for it. It’ll look great in pictures, and when the dress is beautiful and the tux/suit is fun, what’s wrong with continuity?

I know that my girls will look fab in this dress, and that somehow, they’ll each rock the frock in their own way. However, I want to give my girls the opportunity to let their personalities show through, despite the fact that they’ll all be wearing the same dress with the same yellow ribbon tied at the waist.

Options for accomplishing this?

1. Encourage the girls to wear their own shoes, as long as they’re in the grey/silver family. I think this will be budget-friendly (the girls can choose to spend however much they’d like on their shoes) and also give my girls the opportunity to choose the height of the heel, along with how strappy and fun they want the shoe to be.
2. Encourage the girls to choose their own hairstyle, provided that their hair is up. I have only been in one wedding, and we didn’t have our hair professionally done, but I know that I’d like the opportunity to either select a hairstyle from the wealth of options available on The Knot, or to let the hairstylist have at it and work my hair so it’s fun and flattering.
3. Personalize the girls’ flower hairpieces so they’re similar, but unique at the same time. I think that I can accomplish this by using different adornments or embellishments in the same hue.

Any other ideas?

Our Wedding: DIY Progress

Good morning, readers! I thought I’d give you all a taste of what DIY wedding projects I’ve been working on these past few weeks.

1. Task Numero Uno for the past few weeks was to finish our Save the Date cards. I showed you the finalized product in an earlier post, and we just got proofs back from my father’s company last week. After a few more tweeks, we’ll be ready to print!
2. I’ve also collected about 10 letter ‘G’s’ for our centerpieces at our reception. While I had hoped to have these letters crackle painted by now, I have been rather busy with work. Hopefully we’ll get these letters painted yet this month! I also need to get 3-4 more letters; I’ve bought out Hobby Lobby’s stock each time I’m there, so hopefully next time they’ll have enough!
3. On another trip to Hobby Lobby, I purchased two notepads full of decorative paper. I plan to use this paper for my bachelorette party invitations as well as to adorn the inside flap of the envelopes we’ll be sending our Save the Date cards and our wedding invitations in. I also went to Michael’s Crafts and found little white doilies to adorn the inside flap of envelopes, too. So many choices!
4. I also purchased four ivory flower pins that my mother and I are going to attempt to dye grey – these are for my bridesmaids to wear in their hair on our big day! We plan to purchase the dye soon, along with some test fabric.
5. For our engagement shoot, we brought along hearts on sticks and mustaches on sticks, two DIY projects that were super easy and (I hope) turned out cute in our pictures! I’ll have a DIY project for you tomorrow, where I show you how to make them.
6. I also purchased little bookmark-sized papers for our wishing tree, which will be at our reception space. I plan to dye these papers in tea, round the corners of them with my super awesome corner rounder punch, and use a hole punch to poke holes in them and tie a string of twine through them. I hope to put a stamp of some sort on the paper, too, but I have yet to find one I like that’s small enough.

That’s where I am so far in my DIY project list; here are my goals for December/January:

1. Print the Save the Dates, adorn them with vellum paper and buttons and GET THEM OUT THE DOOR!
2. Get started on designing our wedding invitations (I have the entire design concepted and the font chosen – all that I have to do is get J started on them!)
3. Purchase fabric to make napkins for the wedding (my Mom is researching what type/weight of fabric is customary for cloth napkins); begin to sew napkins
4. Order miniature flags (plain canvas) and stamps/iron-on templates for send-off flags
5. Begin concepting wedding program ideas (I’m thinking of making fan programs)

Have a great Tuesday!

Green Monday: Botanical Paperworks

Happy Monday, all! I apologize for the utter drought in posting last week – I came down with a killer cold that literally knocked me out on Tuesday and Friday morning, and I also started a new part-time job at a local kid’s clothing store in the mall (student loans sure don’t pay for themselves!), so needless to say, it was a crazy week.

For today’s Green Post, I wanted to share a great resource for brides who don’t want to sacrifice paper goods at their wedding, but are looking to cut down the footprint of such goods. Look no further than Botanical Paperworks, which provides paper that literally can be planted post-use!

From holiday cards to invitations to journals to paper in bulk, Botanical Paperworks has it all. I’m thinking about utilizing plantable paper for our wedding menus, because while I have a creative idea for our menus (I’ll share that with you sometime!), I don’t like the idea of creating yet another paper good for our guests to discard.

By simply making guests take notice of the paper you’re using and asking them to plant the paper in your honor after the wedding, you’re dramatically reducing the environmental footprint of your wedding by reducing waste.

How do you plan to reduce your wedding’s environmental impact?

[Image taken from Botanical Paperworks, www.botanicalpaperworks.com]