Wedding Season Recap: Highlights and Cool Things We Loved

Hey Friends! How is everyone?  How's wedding planning going?  Fantastic?  Hooray!

So with this wedding season drawing to a close, I thought that we could recap some unique and lovely elements from a few of our fantastic weddings this season.  We've had a lot of fabulous weddings from a bunch of brilliant, creative brides, so it's only fair that we share some of their cool ideas with you!

I'll start with Joanna & Mike's fantastic Blumen Gardens wedding, which was full of personal touches from the bride. Joanna had TONS of creative ideas for her centerpieces and decor, but my favorite element was probably the head table decoration.  She had collected hundreds of glass bottles before her wedding, which we combined with candles to create a stunning and nontraditional head table. It looked absolutely AMAZING.

The next brilliant bride we'll talk about is Gwen, who married Mike in a breathtakingly beautiful ceremony at Acquaviva Winery.  Literally guys, THIS is where they got married:

That picture is just an iPhone, no filter, taken with my very limited photography skills, so even though it's gorgeous, trust me: it was even prettier live.  And Gwen and Mike's genius was not limited to venue selection! They also were very creative when it came to their guest book which (how fitting!) was a wine barrel. Guests loved signing the barrel, and BONUS!, Gwen and Mike now have an awesome piece of home decor covered in memories from their happiest day.

The final wedding that we'll touch on in this post is Amy and Jason's, which just happened this past weekend! The weather was perfect for their outdoor ceremony at Burpee Natural History Museum. The couple very elegantly incorporated an artichoke theme into so many elements of their day, including the floral arrangements! The bride and bridesmaids all had artichokes in their bouquets, and centerpieces incorporated artichokes as well.  Here's the purple artichoke arrangement that hung on their ceremony arch:

Amy and Jason also made sure their guests were never hungry.  Immediately following the ceremony, guests walked out to find the good folks from Dairyhaus in Rockton ready to serve them delicious ice cream flavors selected by the couple!

And that's just the tip of the iceberg, friends! We've had so many wonderful weddings this season, full of a million little elements that made each one memorable in it's own special way.  We'll share more delightful details in posts to come, and hopefully we'll be able to touch on each and every wedding.  THEY WERE ALL SO PRETTY, YOU GUYS!

But for now, we would love to hear from you! What are some special wedding details that you've seen, or that you will be incorporating into your own wedding?  And don't hold back, because we LOVE this stuff! 

Wedding Dress Shopping. It's never too early.

Okay, I retract that.  I guess it's not NEVER too early.  If you're a single gal on the prowl, owning a poofy white dress "just in case" might set off some alarms in potential partners.  According to ABC news, though, apparently it's not that uncommon to dress shop pre-engagement.  I'm not here to judge.  Shop on ladies.

The point is that if you ARE engaged,  especially if you are planning to be engaged for a year or less, there's no need to feel silly about hitting the bridal salon circuit pretty early on.

Most bridal salons recommend that you purchase your dress at least 6-9 months before your wedding.  Here's why: unless you're buying a sample dress or are purchasing through a retailer like David's Bridal, it will take a while before your dress actually arrives at the store.  You do not get to take home the dress you try on. Once you "say yes to the dress,"  the bridal salon orders that dress from the designer.  In most cases, it takes 4-6 months from the time the bridal salon orders your dress to when the dress arrives at the store.

And even THEN, it's not like you can just pick up that dress and be all set for the big day. Wedding dresses come in a really limited selection of sizes, and if your shape roughly resembles that of a human person, odds are you'll need some alterations.  You will probably be fitted 2-4 times, with little changes made every time, before the dress fits just right.  If you're unfamiliar with the alteration process, here's a picture that should explain everything.

Aside from all of the logistics of getting the gown ready once you've picked it, there is the little matter of actually shopping for the dress.  If you are anything like me, Pinterest has probably convinced you that you are completely in love with about 6,000 dresses.  There are A LOT of options out there, and you want to give yourself time to try on dresses, think about them, and maybe make a few shopping trips before making your final decision.

So get shopping ladies! If you need a little inspiration, check out Glamour's slideshow of the top wedding dress trends of 2013.  And if all of this bridal boutique protocol has you thinking that you're a sample sale/David's Bridal type of girl, you might like Glamour Closet, a bridal store that only sells designer sample dresses.  You might also want to check out Melissa Sweet's line for David's Bridal, which I may or may not be obsessed with.  Okay, I am. The dresses are gorgeous.  I love them.  But I'll worry about me and you go shop.