Becca & Dustin – Married! (Part 1)

I had the best year working with Becca on her June 19th home wedding.  She is the sweetest girl, with the most loving family.  Dustin is the nicest gentleman… a real keeper (if you ask me)!  Becca and Dustin have been together since high school; soul mates, friends, and now proud parents to little baby Coralynne – who was a huge hit at the wedding!  I received a disk with  a zillion  images from the most wonderful photographer in all the world – Beth Baugher of True Love Photo.   So, here you go with Part 1!!   This first shot is of the wedding rings, held by the Best Man.  How perfectly appropriate!

The above photos of Becca is so lovely.  The ever so talented Shana Beals did the make-up artisty for the bride and several bridesmaids.  I loved the bridesmaids dresses and the fab colors of the bouquets.  Peacock feathers was one of the underlying themes to the day, and our fabulous florist, Sarah with Cuttings Floral Design, really outdid herself with the design concept.  Wait until you see more in Part 2!

 Sarah is quite the seamstress and she custom designs ring bearer pillows, too… soooo perfect; just darling! 

Meet baby Coralynne… Becca and Dustin’s 10 month old little sweetie!  We thought a halo of ”Baby’s Breath” was appropriate for this little angel.  She sat in a beautifully decorated wagon and was pulled by Dustin’s young brothers, the  ring bearers.  I had the sign made for the wagon by Lara of The Calligraphy Girl... pure delight.

Come back in the next couple of days  for more beautiful photos… design and special touches abound. 

Hillary & Shawn’s E-session

Such a happy couple and one that is knocking on the door of their wedding day… which will be held in one more week, March 27th. I strongly encourage my couples to schedule their engagement photo session sometime prior to the wedding so that they develop a relationship with their photographer and he/she can get a sense of how a couple pose or how comfortable they are in front of the camera. With the winter weather being problematic, Hillary and Shawn finally had their engagement session a couple of weeks ago.

I love this photo of my couple out in a field; great lighting.

It will be a pleasure to work, for the first time, with Gary Buth of G-Photo Design.

Football Garter Toss

If your honey man and the male guests at the wedding are known to love football, why not incorporate the actual football into the garter toss? Have the ball hidden (works best at the DJ stand), and after removing the garter, bring out the football, tease the boys a bit, then slide the garter over the ball and toss. You bet the fellas won’t have their hands in the pockets when the pass is thrown. Photo credit: Gino Creglia

It's all in the {French} details – Lisa & Darren – Part 2

After just 10 weeks of planning, Lisa and Darren held their fantastic wedding at their newly purchased home which is of French Normandy architecture. There were many lovely design touches throughout the house, and I particularly zoned in on the fleur de leis that adorned the windows, wallpaper and wrought iron.When I learned that the newlyweds would be travelling to New Orleans for their honeymoon, the wonderful continuous thread of a theme started to develop. The fleur de lei design would be a subtle embellishment throughout! Lisa found these fantastic cuff links and presented them to Darren as a wedding gift!

Sapphire blue and ivory were the colors to this wedding, and Darren loves iris. A perfect flower for this color palette.

Sarah with Cuttings created all the florals, as well as custom making this great ring pillow happily carried by Lisa’s son (and because he was old enough, it was O.K. to tie the real rings onto the pillow… something I do not recommend for the young ring bearers!)
The guest count was 36… so intimate, so perfect and so Lisa and Darren. Just very close family members and special friends. Guests sat at three long tables.
The exquisite menu cards, printed on shimmery paper, included the fleur de leis design.

I surprised Lisa & Darren with hand-made pearl studded initials to mark their chairs.

The remarkable Carissa of Sugar & Spice incorporated fantastic gold stamped fleur de lei patterned paper to line the dessert platters and plates – a perfect touch. She also had cute ribboned signs made to identify the flavors of the many small bites. The salted carmel truffles were poured into fleur de leis shaped molds. Fantastic!Beautiful wrought iron candle towers adorned the buffet table.

I was thrilled when Lisa & Darren took me up on my suggestion to have a strolling table-side magician entertain the guests during the cocktail hour. What a riot! Guests were laughing, amazed, stumped and so curious.

Darren spent some time in Japan, and Lisa has Japanese heritage, so they gave as a favor, a lovely wrapped box with unique saki cups. I love this photo… Jennifer with The Memory Journalists is just Thee Best. She set this shot up perfectly.
Merci, Lisa & Darren for allowing me to help you with your wedding planning. It was a perfectly lovely day. Laisser le Bon Rouleau de Temps!

Vintage Cake Toppers

This topic just makes me get all smoochy inside. How wonderful is it to include homage to your parents on your wedding day. Two of my recent brides used their parent’s cake topper on their very own cake. How precious and very special is that?
Jessica parents, married in 1982, had this sweet “Cupie” style bride and groom on their wedding cake that sat on one of the tiers, rather than the top of the cake.

And in May of this year, Kathleen used this very lovely and traditional style topper from her mom and dad’s wedding cake – her parents were married in 1971.