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Hair’s the Thing…

  • January 9, 2010 at 10:55 pm

The “thing” is that I won’t have any hair trials or hair inspiration posts for you. Why is this? Well, it’s because I’m (gasp!) doing my own hair for the wedding. Mostly because I am just THAT psycho about my hair and don’t trust anyone else to do it properly! Fortunately for me, one of my bridesmaids was practically raised in her mother’s posh salon in Boston which specializes in curly hair. She’s got curly hair, she knows curly hair and she’s going to help me do my (sort-of, mostly, almost) curly hair for W-day. I’m confident in this decision and happy to save some cash-money what what by doing this.

I know I want to wear it mostly down, as curly as it can get, with a few front pieces pinned back (almost a half-up, half-down style). I also know that I want to wear a wreath of flowers. I don’t really know where this desire came from but it’s been stuck in my mind from day one, so I’m pretty sure that’s what I’m going to do.

It’s definitely gotta be on the small and delicate side to avoid looking like a flower girl circa 1985:

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Holy flower wreath, batgirl!

No, that’s not the look I am going for, mmmmmkay? But traversing the internets for inspiration proved a bit difficult…

Side note: When I first Google-image searched “hair wreath”, I received a wealth of pictures involving antique, framed decorative wreaths of actual human hair. EWWWWWW!!! I definitely had to add the word “wedding” to avoid looking at pictures of old hairs… that’s a tip, kids, write it down. :)

Anyways, surprisingly, small, delicate flower (not human) hair wreaths are either out of vogue right now or just simply hard to find pictures of because the majority were either huge (like, seriously big), fake (involving lots of polyester and fake pearls…non!) or for a flower girl. But I persevered through all the fun wedding blogs (Style Me Pretty, Once Wed, Snippet and Ink, etc., etc. You know them all, don’t deny it!) and eventually managed to find a few that were along the lines of what I was looking for…

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I like this one. A lot. I want the flowers to be smaller and a bit more organic but other than that, wouldn’t change a thing…

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I love this one too, only I want mine to wrap all the way around my head and possibly have a few ribbons hanging off the back. But I think the look is so beautiful (and remember, my hair will be down so the wreath will have to be a bit higher on my head…).

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This is the picture that stopped me in my tracks. Soft, simple and understated with a dash of hippie-chic thrown in for good measure. Isn’t her dress a dream? The flower wreath suits her perfectly. I love this picture because it’s exactly the look and theme I want to convey. Le gorgeous…

So that’s my hair-spiration for you, what do you think? Is the wreath of flowers hippie-overkill? Will the ribbons hanging down be too flower-girlish? Anyone else wearing a flower wreath?


This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Pop Quiz

  • January 8, 2010 at 10:56 pm

After I eliminated guest entertainment options that would involve me crafting something, I thought about wedding games. Generally, when I hear “games”, I kind of groan and think of those painful getting-to-know-you games that they would make you play the first day of camp in middle school that were actually not games but just devices to torture me (I was shy). And for a wedding, why would adults play games? Sounds silly, right?

However, in reading about games you can play at weddings, in general it seems like they are well-received and guests appreciate them. They can often be funny, and if they’re low-pressure I don’t think they will give people the hives that I got on my first day of summer camp. (Unless playing spin-the-bottle on the first day of camp would have been the norm—I could have been all over that.)

I’m seriously considering the shoe game, played by Mrs. Eggplant and Mrs. Tomato.

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(Mrs. Eggplant feels confident, confident, dry and secure! Raise your hand, raise your hand, if you’re sure!)

(If you do not remember the above jingle, we are just not of the same generation)


With the shoe game, you seat the bride and groom back to back, in a place where everyone can see ’em. The bride and groom each have one of their shoes, as well as the shoe of the other (Get it? So the bride has her Louboutin in one hand, and his Salvatore Ferragamo in the other).

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Then, the DJ/emcee/what have you asks a series of questions, such as “Who is the better kisser?” The bride and groom each lifts the shoe of the person they think best fits the answer. Sheesh, you know what, some of the most elementary things are so hard to explain on paper. But you get it, right?

This game usually gets a lot of laughs, is low-key, and you can find various questions to ask on the internet, like here. Here are some samples:

  • Who made the first move
  • Who’s the better cook
  • Who said “I LOVE YOU” first
  • Who has the wackiest family
  • Who’s the better driver
  • Who spends the most time in front of a mirror
  • Who is most likely to eat dessert for breakfast

And hopefully, this game will not turn into something like this:

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Hee hee.

After I posted this on my original blog, I got some great suggestions for questions from awesome hive member penga and my sister, including the following:

  • Who’s got better hair?
  • Who’s more likely to lose things?
  • Who’s shoe is smellier right now?
  • Who’s side of the closet is cleaner?
  • Who’s most likely to have more of the bed in the morning?
  • Who’d be better with a gun?
  • Who has the most items of clothing?
  • Who’s most likely to be on a FBI wanted list?

Anyone else play the shoe game at their wedding or see how it’s been done? Any tips for those of us considering it? Any suggestions for questions?


This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

A Little Bit of “Hair”spiration

  • January 8, 2010 at 10:30 pm

Right after Mr. Buttons proposed, I wanted to be stubborn and keep my hair the way that I like it. Why should I have to change because of one singular day in my life?

However, the reality is that I have very very fine hair. And it is stick straight. It does not hold a curl without about 10 pounds of hairspray involved. Yummm, who likes crunchy hairstyles???

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Can you imagine how much hairspray is involved in that?

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I love this photo, as it is a beautiful example of looking natural for your wedding, but personally, I don’t want my hair to look pretty much the same as I wear it every single day. This, after all, is NOT a typical day!

After some more searching, I DID run across one set of inspiration photos that made me very hopeful. Mrs. Cheese’s inverted bob transformed into bridal hair was so extremely successful! Seriously, how beautiful was she???

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Well, call me insecure, but I just wasn’t ready to rock the short hair on my wedding day. And, as you know, I started to grow it out to a reasonable length.

The last time I visited my stylist, we talked wedding hair. Before she started chopping away a like I am used to, I asked her what I would be realistically able to achieve with the hair that I have, and how much length I could feasibly add in the time period I have to work with. I have to love her, because she immediately responded with, “I know EXACTLY what I want to do with your hair.”

Apparently, my hair will grow about ½ of an inch a month, which will put me at total growth of 4 extra inches by the time the wedding comes around. That will put me at a few inches below the shoulders, assuming that I don’t freak out and chop it off myself before then, a la Brit Brit!

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She suggested a low chignon, with a lot of teasing/volume on the top of my head. I rushed home and started to look at some ideas. And breathed a sigh of relief, because these look like feasible styles!

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I love this picture…I have long bangs like this photo, and I love how it is an “updo” without looking too formal. I think that with my projected hair growth, this is an achievable look.

But, my stylist also mentioned that we can add some “extension” without physically attaching hair. There is the option of adding some “extension” inside the chignon itself to make it look fuller. I’m digging this idea… especially after Mr. Buttons and I turned on the movie What Happens In Vegas the other night. And I fell in love with this…

And yes, after searching high and low for photos online, I had to pause the movie at multiple times to take screen shots of the hair style at all angles (how in the world are there none online???).

(all images are personal photos)

Did you find hair inspiration somewhere you weren’t expecting? How did you find the perfect coif for the big day? Did your hairdresser give an opinion of his/her own?


This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Inspiration To Reality ~ Save The Date From GENERATIONS Cinemastories

  • January 8, 2010 at 8:08 am

Since you’ve found our Little Black Book Blog, you know all about Style Me Pretty.  If you know all about Style Me Pretty, you know that one of our favorite features is the Inspiration To Reality challenges.  If … you’ve fallen in love with the Inspiration To Reality challenges, then you must also know about our Style Circle!  You see … what goes around, DOES come around (or is it what comes around goes around?)!

Well … today, we are here to tell you that inspiration boards and inspiration to reality shoots have taken on a whole new meaning!!!

ENTER ~ ITR Team #5:  SD Events, Person & Killian, GENERATIONS Cinemastories and Faxon Green 

ENTER~ SMP Style Circle Winner: Shantel’s When Life Gives You Lemons Make Love

INSPIRATION BOARD CHALLENGE #5: When Life Gives You Lemons Make Love

Inspiration To Reality #5

THIS team of ever-so-talented wedding professionals decided to crank up the volume. Rather than “just” setting up a photoshoot, they really wanted to get to know their bride and groom (the models ~ Scarlett and Daniel). 

Here’s what Naomi at GENERATIONS Cinemastories told us … “Our team got so caught up in this challenge that we got lost in the wedding – and wanted to create a couple and wedding party to really make it come to life. Scarlett and Daniel were our models. But it was so easy to forget they were only actors! ”

You are in for a real treat today on Style Me Pretty. Abby is going to be posting all the fun ~ the photoshoot and the film from this whole new concept of turning Inspiration Boards into completely Real Weddings. 

But … you can’t plan a wedding without sending out your Save The Dates now can you? One of GENERATIONS’ newest ideas is to offer their (real) clients … a Save The Date Video as part of their cinematography package. Clever idea!

Now on to the Inspiration To Reality Feature:  Scarlett & Daniel’s Save The Date!

Scarlett & Daniel from GENERATIONS cinemastories on Vimeo.

Don’t miss the full wedding over on Style Me Pretty today!!

SD Events and GENERATIONS cinemastories are members of our Little Black Book. For more information on how members are chosen, click here.

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. |
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This article was originally posted onStyle Me Pretty.

With This Ring…

  • January 7, 2010 at 11:16 pm

The journey to finding our rings for Mr. French Fries was quite simple. We went to a jeweler, he picked out what type of metal he wanted (tungsten, for the record), what millimeter width he preferred (not sure of the exact measurement… but it’s pretty wide), whether he wanted it brushed matte or left shiny (he decided on a mix of both) and was pretty much done. I love his ring (and love it even more when he tries it on “for size” and checks himself out in the mirror!).

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For me, however, it wasn’t that simple.

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For me, however, it wasn’t that simple. Because I have a halo ring (I can’t say that without getting Beyonce’s “Halo” stuck in my head, by the way), finding a band that fit flush against my e-ring was somewhat of a challenge. We went to the jeweler where Mr. FF purchased my e-ring, and they didn’t have anything that fit the way I wanted to (or at all).

I knew what I wanted: two bands (yes…one for each side, because obviously my e-ring doesn’t have enough diamonds on it already) that fit flush against the band of my e-ring. With the number of halo rings on the market now, I didn’t think we’d have a problem, but we did. The jeweler that Mr. FF purchased my ring from said they could make a custom ring, and they thought it would be in the ballpark of what we were willing to pay. With that, they took my e-ring for 10 days (side note: it was a long 10 days!) and sketched a design of what the wedding band would look like.

The day that my e-ring was ready to be picked up and the sketches were ready to be looked at, I was a teensy bit nervous. What if it was more than our budget allowed? I told myself to wait and see, and we went to the store. Inside, we got the bad news: ONE band would be more than what we had budgeted. Way more. Like… it wasn’t in the realm of possibility of working with our budget.

Dejected, and somewhat upset that their estimate was so completely wrong, we left the store and decided to wait to buy anything. Then, on a whim one Saturday, Mr. FF suggested we try a local jeweler in town. I didn’t have high hopes that they would have something that would work (they’re a pretty small shop) but decided that it couldn’t be worse than our experience with jeweler #1.

Evidently, it was our lucky day! They had a wedding band set that fit perfectly against my e-ring, thanks to little notches built into the shape of the bands. And, it was within our budget! We decided to wait on ordering them, since the totally awesome saleswoman informed us on the DL that they would be having a wedding band sale in 3 weeks, and that we could get 15% off our total order if we waited. Three weeks later, we went in and ordered my two wedding bands as well as Mr. FF’s band all for less than the quote for ONE custom band from jeweler #1. Score.

So, without further ado…my bands.

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There’s a little gap between the bands and my e-ring in the pictures, but that’s just because they’re slippery and setting them up was challenging! I haven’t decided if I want to solder them to my e-ring band just before the wedding or not. The jeweler recommended it, as the bands rubbing against each other can cause damage to the setting and to the stones. We’ll see, since that means not wearing the set until the wedding day!

And now, some shots of our rings together:

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Le sigh. I can’t wait to wear them on our wedding day… and forever!

Was finding your wedding band as easy as you thought it would be?


This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

The Go-To Guide on How NOT to Do Wedding Invitations

  • January 7, 2010 at 9:59 pm

To all my new bridezillas who are shaking off the reverie of post holiday-engagement bliss and are ready to get down to business:

Step One – let the world know. Coming up soon, your wedding invitations are going out and, while it seems easy enough (lick, seal, stamp, send), who knew there was so much you could screw up?

I came across this 29-Part Guide to Royally Messing Up Your Wedding Invitations and it rocked my world. Well, rocked is a strong word, but it definitely opened my eyes to some boo-boos from my own wedding invitations.

#7: Combine alcohol and hand-addressing your wedding invitations. Whoops. You know a Bridezilla loves her Gin Fizzies.

At least I remembered to proofread!

Typo on a Wedding Invitation

Full of important Wedding Invitation Don’ts dipped in good advice with a hint of sarcasm, this a great go-to guide for a bridezilla with a hankering for all things traditional. For all those alterna-brides out there ready to make a stand against convention, you will at least know what rules you are breaking when you choose not to include directions with your invitations (tip #6). Bridezillas don’t do anything by accident.



This article was originally posted onBridezilla.

Modern Red and Orange

  • January 7, 2010 at 5:30 pm

Long before I ever started Snippet & Ink, I was drooling over the floral designs of Ariella Chezar, and the photography of Meg Smith, two of the most talented women out there. I can probably list about five people whose work inspired me to start this blog, and Ariella and Meg are two of them. So I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was when they sent me several gorgeous and inspiring wedding shoots, and how honored I am to share them with you here on Snippet & Ink.

I’ll post a new one each week for the next several weeks, starting today with this fabulously modern tablescape. The contrast of hot red and orange against the stark white studio is such a sophisticated look – I can just imagine wedding guests coming in from the cold to find this burst of flame red and orange. I also love a bride in a chic white pantsuit.


Ariella used parrot tulips, ranuculus, nerines, clivia and Icelandic poppies in the bouquet and centerpieces.


Orange Chiavari chairs and other rentals from Classic Party Rentals.

If you are looking for an amazing floral and event designer, or an incredible photographer, you have to head over to Ariella Chezar‘s and Meg Smith‘s websites to see more of their work – but make sure you have some time, because it’s easy to spend hours browsing both of their portfolios…

This article was originally posted onSnippet & Ink.

Hidden Messages

  • January 6, 2010 at 10:44 pm

Sometimes I get surprised by how little people know about weddings who aren’t actually planning one. I was shocked to learn that some people don’t realize that you should generally avoid wearing a long white gown to a wedding if you’re not the bride, that not everyone understands that you probably shouldn’t bring an uninvited date without permission, or that some people don’t know how to fill out a response card that comes with a wedding invitation!

I suppose some response cards are less than 100% self-explanatory, and our RSVP postcards are not really any exception: they are laid out like this.



We hope that by asking people to initial their entrée selections, we’ll know how many in a family are attending, but in hindsight we probably should have replaced the “__ ACCEPTS” with “__ of __ ACCEPTS” so that they’d know to indicate a number (and also what the maximum number ought to be!). But we just couldn’t figure out a way to make it painfully clear that the “M_________” line needs to be filled in with a name! I thought everyone knew this, but as we’ve shown some of our friends the invitation suites, they had no idea… so I’m glad I checked!

To combat the possibility of having to sort through 115 sets of names to determine by process of elimination who a particular RSVP card may have come from, I did what many brides wisely do: I put numbers on each of them, corresponding to their position on a spreadsheet I’ve been managing since we started making our guest list. There are lots of ways to hide these numbers—one of the coolest I’ve seen was Mrs. Green Tea’s MOH’s black light pen method—but I already knew I wanted to add more visual interest to the back of the postcards so I decided to design a monogram where I could tuck the number into in a non-obtrusive kind of way. Here is the monogram I came up with…

And here’s what it looks like “in action”!

It was a simple little add (even though I had to actually manually change the number 115 times and hand-feed each postcard through the photo printer!) but I am super glad I did this: unlike the envelope liners, I have no post-DIY regrets and I really love the way they came out.

How did you track your RSVPs?


This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Board #452: A Taste for Timeless

  • January 6, 2010 at 11:05 am

One of the many pressures on brides today is to come up with a totally unique wedding style. Something no one has seen before. A wedding in which every last detail is a reflection of the bride’s and groom’s personalities, from the personalized vows to the napkins. I certainly have felt this pressure, and when it starts to drive me utterly bananas, I try to remind myself that what makes a wedding truly unique and personalized and yours, is that it is a ceremony and celebration for you and your partner. It’s a wedding that, presumably, hasn’t been seen before.

All of that is to say, you do not have to reinvent the wheel. Stick with classic elements that will never look dated, and do them well: beautiful engraved invitations with traditional wording, pearl jewelry and a blusher veil, white flowers, champagne toasts, a white buttercream cake. A lovely wedding that is perfectly simple and timeless.

Mood: simply classic, timeless
Palette: wedding white, touches of green foliage

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Top row from left: clematis centerpieces from Martha Stewart Weddings, dress with butterfly sleeves from J.Crew’s Spring 2010 collection, classic buttercream cake from Martha Stewart Weddings
Row 2: champagne flute photo by Marla Christina, pearl earrings from Martha Stewart Weddings
Row 3: traditional engraved wedding invitation and white flower girl dresses both from Martha Stewart Weddings, clematis and rose bouquet photo by Meg Smith, tulle blusher from Martha Stewart Weddings

This article was originally posted onSnippet & Ink.

Pompomtastic

  • January 6, 2010 at 9:00 am

Pompoms are so cheery they always make me want to laugh*; the perfect accessory to a cute, contemporary shindig. These ones from Party Poms are especially beautiful.

These minature napkin holders are cute, cute, cute!

*maybe this is because they remind me of furiously wrapping wool around two cardboard circles at Brownies. I don’t know what they were for but I remember making lots of pompoms at Brownies. How strange.

This article was originally posted onWeddings by Zoe Lingard.