Keep Moving Forward #3

What are you doing this weekend? Anyone else watching the Super Bowl with their significant other?

When I married Joe, I knew he was heavily into sports. I on the other hand was far from it, but I've grown to enjoy watching football games with him. We're both stoked that our team (the Patriots) is in the Super Bowl this year! And we hope they win tomorrow. Sorry for any Giants fans out there, but get ready to get Gronk'd!

I think part of being married to someone is also getting to know the things they love and learning that you can love them as well. I don't think I've ever talked about what it is like being married, but today is our inspiration day so I'll allow myself to go into a more intimate moment. Being married to the person you truly love and respect and being loved and respected by them in return is really beautiful, and very little else can compare. So for anyone that is feeling stressed out or overwhelmed, and are ready to just call it quits on the planning, just keep moving forward.

Today's keep moving forward inspiration board contains one of my favorite photographs, which features a little tortoise taking an ambitious bite into a strawberry over twice the size of its .


(photo credits from left to rights: elephants, human hands, baby and puppy, pug in boots, ambitious tortoise)

Inspiration Board #15: Cufflinks

Do you love cufflinks? I do! It's no necessarily that I like Joe wearing them, I don't think he even owns a pair. But I love looking through cufflink designs, and seeing how many neat ideas crafters come up with! The following are some of my favorite cufflinks on the web that would make a great gift for your groom, his best man, or his groomsmen alike.


(photo credits from left to right: propellor cufflinks, vintage typewriter keys, bicycle cufflinks, pause and play cufflinks, "groom" cufflinks)

Five Honeymoon Ideas From Grooms Online

Have you considered letting your future husband choose your honeymoon location? Check out these five great honeymoon ideas from Grooms Online, complete with a masculine touch. These include the beautiful Saba Island (shown below), a dormant volcano with underwater pinnacles and lovely gardens. Though, these might not be locations for the faint of heart or for those that want to simply lounge around, they are sure to prove much more adventurous and maybe just a tad more memorable for both the bride and groom.


(photo credit: Attractive Traveler's Blog)

Inspiration Board #14: Handmade Beauty Items

Have you considered purchasing your wedding makeup through small businesses? You don't often think of finding handmade makeup and beauty items for sale, but there is an abundance of amazing makeup and beauty small businesses found throughout the web, especially on Etsy.com. The following are some great beauty care items available internationally for purchase that add a more natural feel to your wedding beauty products. A lot of beauty products from small businesses are also a lot more organic than what you find through corporate brands, and you can often find great deals on awesome products.


(photo credits from left to right: bath salts, eyeshadows, sweet citrus honey soap, solid perfume, shiny lip gloss)

Beauty & Fitness: The Best Clay Mask EVER

I'm honestly not the kind of person that uses a lot of beauty products, but there is one that I've used before that I absolutely love. It is the best clay mask out there in my opinion, so if you're looking for a mask that makes your face feel refreshed and renovated, this is the one you've been waiting for. It's great for all skin types and leaves your skin feeling truly clean. It also helps clear acne and evens skin tone. Best of all you can purchase a one pound jar of Aztec Secrets Indian healing clay for less than $15 (including shipping and handling) from Amazon.com. This is the perfect mask to start using a few months before your wedding day for both the bride and groom!


(photo credit: Amazon.com)

Eco-Friendly Wedding Exits

It's the first Wednesday of the new month, and that means today we get another wedding photography feature by the lovely Raleigh wedding photographer, Carolyn Scott. This month Carolyn shares her ideas for an eco-friendly wedding exits that will all equate to wonderful wedding images. As well as some exits you may want to shy away from.


(photo credit: Kristy Hogan Photography)

Planning on leaving your wedding in style but aren’t sure how to do it? Here are some awesome wedding exits, from the typical to the unusual, all environmentally friendly exits that don’t harm animals or wildlife:

1. Sparklers: Sparklers are a very popular and well-loved exit strategy from wedding receptions, and there’s good reason! They make fantastic exit pictures with all of the little spheres of light. Just be careful not to catch your dress on fire and watch very carefully for small children and people around you.
2. Petals: Flower petals are another great, harmless, easy to clean up wedding exit. Consider using the petals from the bridesmaid’s bouquets after pictures.
3. Bubbles: Bubbles make a great daytime wedding exit and requires no clean up outside the venue.
4. Bird Seed: In lieu of rice, try throwing bird seed instead! It’s basically the same effect, but it doesn’t hurt the birds. And who knows, some flighty friends may come to help clean up!
5. Eco-Friendly Confetti: Try putting this eco-friendly confetti into a paper tube to use as an exit! It doesn’t hurt birds and actually dissolves with water. Consider using this for a winter wedding: it’s what they use for snow in television and movies!
6. Throwing Dried Lavender: Eco-friendly and smells lovely!
7. Ribbon Wands: Definitely safe, eco-friendly, and make for some awesome pictures.
8. Noise Makers: One of my favorites. Loud, incredibly obvious, and hilarious! Makes for great pictures of guests and family members laughing while the flower girls cover their ears.
9. Light Sabers: You know… for those of you with a fiancé who has a deep love of Star Wars. ☺

Avoid these exits that can harm the environment:

1. Any Release Involving Live Animals (Doves/Butterflies/Etc.): This is terribly, terribly cruel. Oftentimes birds and butterflies die during transportation to the wedding and it is absolutely inhumane to keep birds and butterflies in tiny boxes to be released after your vows. It’s not worth killing an innocent animal to impress your wedding guests.
2. Balloon Release: Balloons float up into the environment and eventually come back down, getting caught on trees. Birds and other animals can choke on the string and balloon materials.
3. Chinese Lantern Release: Despite the advertising of Chinese Lanterns as “eco-friendly”, they actually contain wire that can take months or years to dissolve, causing the risk of an animal dying an excruciating death, not to mention the possibility of it causing a wildfire or burning down someone’s house.
4. Glitter: Not biodegradable, causes pollution, and has the potential to cause great illness for animals who mistake it for food.
5. Confetti: Same concern as glitter.

Inspiration Board #13: White, Gold + Silver

I love the sleek look of a white, gold, and silver wedding color combination, especially in accessories. The following are some of my favorite handmade finds for a romantic wedding using gold and silver touches with white.


(photo credits from top left to bottom right: gold wedding bands, white and gold bracelet, wedding gown, silver earrings, ring pillow)

DIY Project: Felt Swirls

This week I created a felt swirls DIY. These swirls are a perfect addition to whimsical wedding decor and can be used in many forms! I've added them to our twine enveloped cans from last week's DIY for a softer, more interesting look, but you can also add these swirls to a bouquet, other centerpiece forms, hair pins, brooches, wreaths and anything else you can think of!

What You'll Need:
A pair of scissors
Sheets of felt in the color(s) of your choice
Aluminum foil
A single needle and thread in the color of your choice

Cost: The sheets of felt were only 39 cents at Michaels, so the cost for the felt is $3.90 for every ten large flowers you want to create. We already had the thread, needle, and scissors. Most likely you will too. And we also had the foil already, but if you need to purchase foil, you can get a roll for around $5, making the total for this project around $9 for 10 large swirls.

Steps:
1. Set aside your needle, thread, and foil. Cut your felt into an oval. And cut the oval into a swirl pattern like the one shown in the photo.
2. Take your foil and cut a small rectangular piece. Fold it in half twice horizontally.
3. Take your felt and wrap it around the folded foil until you reach the end or run out of felt. Cut any remaining foil.
4. Take the felt wrapped foil and twirl it into a swirl. Thread your needle and create a few stitched at the end of your swirl to keep it in shape.
5. Create a few more swirls and either sew them together or glue them together with a glue gun.
6. Repeat for as many sets of swirls as you'd like. Add them to a wreath, centerpiece or simply lay them out for a whimsical wedding feel.

Real Weddings: From Around the Web #2

Happy Monday! How is your wedding planning going?

Have you gotten addicted to browsing through real weddings yet? I remember sitting down and going through real weddings for hours online when I was planning my wedding. I seriously couldn't stop! If you're getting addicted to it already or are just beginning your quest to look for ideas for your wedding, the following are some real weddings that I've recently fallen in love with from around the web.

Next Monday we have the first of our February real wedding features, so stay tuned for that!

Melissa + Chris

(photo by Ashley Rose Photography)

Nata + Jess

(photo by Studio Castillero)

Rachel + John

(photo by David Coleman)

Stacy + Jason

(photo by Mark Malijan)

Laura + Daneil

(photo by Jose Villa)

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