Hey friends! Guess what? We're starting a new thing where, every week, we'll recap the best things that we've seen on the web! These will likely be things that we've talked about elsewhere- on Pinterest, Facebook, etc. but there might be some new things mixed in as well. It will just be a cool mashup of all of the week's wedding offerings- in case you missed them. Check back every Sunday for cool new wedding recaps, news, and links to the best of weddings that the web has to offer! So LET'S GET STARTED!
This week had a lot of LOVELY bright colors, and gold. I think we're all sick of this dreadful weather and are trying to recall more colorful time. The lovely bouquet featured above comes from our Fab Flowers board on Pinterest, and is originally from this awesome Russian wedding website.
Something that we have yet to talk about, but is definitely worth discussion, is Zac Posen's new line for David's Bridal. These stunning, elegant, modern dresses are a great option for a high-fashion bride on a budget! Read more about these here, and shop the line when it comes out this month here!
Wedding Snapshot:
Wedding Date: 11/25/1989
Ceremony Location: Salem Lutheran Church, Sycamore, IL
Reception Location: Matthew Boone's, DeKalb, Illinois
Number of Guests: 300
First Dance Song: Color My world (Our song was sung at wedding): Always by Atlantic Star
Bridesmaid dress color: Black and white
How did you meet? Matt was moving a relative out of one of my parent's apartments. I answered the door after hopping out of the shower, dripping wet! The next week Matt came looking for me at a Sycamore playoff football game.
When and how were you engaged? June 6, 1987 at my high school graduation. Matt got down on his knee and asked me to marry him at my parent's house right before the graduation ceremony.
Most memorable wedding day moment? It snowed in the morning and it was so beautiful.
If you could do it all over again would you change anything? We would have gone to a different honeymoon destination because we were in a car accident in Longboat Key, Florida. We also wish we would have hired a videographer because we don’t have a video of our wedding day.
What is one piece of advice you can give to our Bride and Grooms? Forgive and communicate. Enjoy the day and don’t worry about everything.
If you are interested or would like to submit a family member or friend to be featured in an upcoming Throwback Thursday feature please contact amanda@ladievents.com
You know what's adorable? Ring Warming Ceremonies. Wait, you've never heard of a ring warming?! OMG well let me explain.
I also had never heard of a ring warming until I stumbled across this TOTALLY AMAZING wedding on the Weddingbee Boards. If you are not already on Weddingbee, I suggest you get on that ASAP. Not only is it FULL of awesome tips and info from other real brides, the message boards are also like watching a million wedding reality shows at once. There's A LOT of drama, intrigue, and suspense, and also a lot of super nice, helpful people.
Here is the basic idea: Place your rings in a visible spot near the entrance to your ceremony as guests are walking in. Make sure you designate a groomsman, usher, or other trusted person to be on ring watch. Then put up a sign that invites guests to "warm" your rings, while holding the rings and making a happy wish! Here is an example of a sign that another Weddingbee member made:
Adorable right?! Here's a super cute ring warming action shot:
Now the only question is, how do you appropriately display these rings? Well, some people use ribbons to tie them to something solid, so that no one accidentally walks off with them. See here:
But my favorite option is to have a very lovely ring box in which to display your rings, which you can save as a keepsake after the wedding! Etsy seller FloMade designs lovely proposal boxes, which could easily be customized into ring warming boxes. Aren't they pretty?
So what do you guys think about ring warming ceremonies? Are you as in love with this idea as I am? Will you do a ring warming at your wedding? Is this the most heartwarming thing you've ever seen?
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!
Hey Friends! How is everyone's wedding planning going? Who's getting excited? Who's getting a little stressed out? Who's freaking out about the get-fit goals that they set for themselves? Oh, good! Me too.
It's pretty common for brides (and grooms, mothers of brides, bridesmaids, guests) to set serious fitness goals for themselves before weddings. If you're unfamiliar with this phenomenon, please reference this shirt, this questionable Canadian reality show, and this heartwarming Verizon commercial:
I thought that a good way for us to ease into this wedding fitness regimen would be to discuss workout programs that you can do at home. No need to join a new gym or sign up for a marathon just yet. Below is a breakdown of a few at-home workouts that I've tried, lived through, and in some cases, even liked! You may have seen infomercials for some of these programs. I am very susceptible to advertising, so infomercials get me every time. Disclaimer: all of these workouts are basically intended to be done every day to achieve their claimed results. I've never done any of them every single day of the week, but I still believe that I can speak to their effectiveness.
Is your final dress fitting rapidly approaching? Well no worries, because this program claims to be able to knock you down a dress size in just 30 days! And I believe it. This lady knows what she is doing when it comes to toning up and slimming down.
The picture above is actually three separate sets of Jillian Michaels DVDs. I've done them all, and they are all SUPER good workouts. Ms. Michaels is a firm believer in the principle of muscle confusion, which is basically where you are constantly focusing on muscles in all sections of your body, but you're mixing up the way you're working those muscles so that your body never gets used to the movements. You'll never find yourself working just abs, just legs, or just arms; every move is going to target everything. She's right when she says, "Just thirty minutes a day can replace hours of phoning it in at the gym!"
The Good: It works. You will see results, even if you don't do this every day. She understands women's bodies, so you'll get a lean look that's not as bulky as you'll get with other workouts. Your arms will look gorgeous and not at all manly in your sleeveless gown. Also, this very intimidating, odd woman makes for a surprisingly good motivator.
The Bad: The awkward interactions between Jillian and her workout buddies are just uncomfortable. I am never a fan of people pretending to be besties.
Do you see how ripped those people are? I DARE you to try to count the number of abs in that picture. Hint: it's a lot. The reason that they have all those killer abs is because they are all nuts, and have managed to do this crazy workout every day for 60 days in a row. Insanity relies on a principle of max interval training. Basically, get your heart rate up and keep it there for long periods of time. It sounds like a great way to have a heart attack, and honestly, I felt like I was going to die by the end of pretty much every workout, but it's a proven method that works for obvious reasons.
The Good: There are 10 DVDs in this set, so there's a lot of variety that will keep you from getting bored. And while these workouts are uber-tough, completing a workout this challenging makes you feel AWESOME about yourself. If you do this for 60 days in a row, you'll privately consider yourself a serious athlete, and you'll be right!
The Bad: THIS IS SO HARD! I workout regularly enough, and every time I did one of these workouts, I was mentally writing my own will within 10 minutes. However, I've heard from people who did the program correctly (i.e. every day for 60 days) that it gets significantly easier as time goes on.
This is like the tough guy's version of Jillian Michaels' workouts. This is also based on the idea of muscle confusion, so you see a lot of the same stuff in both programs. There are some key differences: Tony and P90X place a much higher emphasis on weights and resistance bands. The idea is this: Because muscle burns significantly more calories than fat, lifting weights and adding muscle to your body will burn more calories all day long (even when you're just sitting around!), compared to cardio, which really only burns more during the time spent actually working out.
The Good: Like Insanity, there are a lot of workouts and a lot of variety. There's interval training, plyometrics, boxing, yoga, weights, you name it. There is a schedule, and there's a lot of mixing and matching that prevents boredom. There are 12 DVDs in all, including some very targeted workouts that are super effective. I think the Ab Ripper X Workout is only 20 minutes long, but your abs will fill sufficiently ripped by the end.
The Bad: This is a real time commitment. Because you are mixing and matching these DVDs, you can generally expect to commit over an hour a day to your workout for 90 days. The yoga workout is almost 2 hours long on it's own! Also, BE CAREFUL when you're doing this to make sure that you are not building man muscles. I noticed about a month in that I had developed a noticeable bulge on my shoulders near my neck, which is apparently the scapula muscle, and can get overdeveloped if you scrunch up your shoulders too much while lifting weights. I did not like it then, and I would especially not like it in a strapless wedding dress.
So pick your poison ladies, and let's get ripped like Kelly Rippa! Have you tried any other at-home workouts that have really worked? Do you have and wedding-get-fit tips that you think we should know about? Share your experiences in the comments section. Yay Fitness!
Want to see something GORGEOUS?! Of course you do! Well you're in luck, because Kelli and Aaron's gorgeous Blumen Gardens Wedding was just featured on Style Me Pretty Illinois, and literally everything about it was breathtaking. We are so happy to have been a part of this amazing day, and to have helped make Kelli and Aaron's dream wedding a reality.
I think we're all in agreement that floral centerpieces are absolutely gorgeous. You know Anne Hathaway? Well before she won like every award on the planet for playing Fantine in LesMiserable, she spent a solid $100,000 on flowers for her super secret wedding. Unlike last minute wardrobe changes, flowers are always a do. (OMG what was the deal with her Oscars dress, amiright?!)
However, that does not mean that you HAVE to stick to a strict garden theme when deciding on your centerpieces. You've got options ladies, so feel free to mix it up. Your wedding is a reflection of you and your style, and if your style is a little less floral than most, that's okay!
So with that, I'd like to present some lovely centerpiece options that are not garden grown.
Teacups:
How adorable is this?! I have been obsessed with this image since I saw it for the first time on Martha Stewart Weddings, and I cannot wait for a La Di bride to run with this idea. It's such a sweet and timeless way to infuse elegance and femininity into your wedding, while still doing something unexpected. And (bonus!) the teacups can double as wedding favors for your guests, allowing everyone to take home a permanent and memorable fixture of your big day.
Lanterns:
Oh hey, GORGEOUS! This is a real La Di Wedding, and it looked even more OMG breathtaking in person. Lantern centerpieces allow you to capture all of the romance of a candle and make it the focus of your table in a simple, clean, controlled way. This is a perfect option for a bride planning a rustic country wedding with a modern twist. (BTW: This lovely lantern/flower combo was brought to you by The Petal Boutique. Tiffany is amazing.)
Books:
What is more reminiscent of a classic love story than a stack of classic love stories? This is such a great personal touch for big readers, academics, or anyone who just really loves the look of a stack of vintage books (i.e., everyone in the world). It allows you to either incorporate items that you already own into your centerpieces, or to build a fantastic library that you can display in your home after your wedding as a subtle reminder of your special day.
Cakes:
Have you ever met a person who does not love cake? Yeah, me neither. Cakes, much like flowers, are universally beloved, and making them your centerpieces is a sure way to make all of your guests giddy about your wedding. I actually attended a wedding with cake centerpieces and people flipped out. "Did you see that there's a little cake on our table?! OH MY GOD, I LOVE IT!" Guests have become accustomed to receiving some kind of cake-like dessert at a wedding, but putting it whole and pretty on their tables from the beginning of the night is a lovely unexpected twist. PLUS, because cakes can be decorated essentially however you want, making the cake your focal point allows for a pretty much unlimited color/style palate.
So brief recap: Flowers are AMAZING. Anne Hathaway's Oscar Dress was of questionable taste. Centerpieces can be tailored to reflect your personal style. Teacups, lanterns, books, and cakes are all good options. People get crazy when presented with desserts. And now I want cake. That last one wasn't really part of the recap, but I felt like it was important that it be said.
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.
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