Monday, October 26, 2009

Chelsea & Andre


Chelsea and Andre were special clients of mine- Chelsea was a good childhood friend of my brother-in-law, so I had known them for a while. I was absolutely thrilled when Chelsea contacted me to do their invitations and when I saw the photos from their amazing wedding, I had to ask to share them with all of you.


Their ceremony took place at St. Francis Xavier Church in Winooski, VT and they took a cool vintage car to their reception which was held at Chelsea's parent's home in Jericho. They have a beautiful view of the mountains from their property and even though the morning was a little overcast, the sun came out for some great photo ops later on.


I love the photo with the umbrellas! So fun and colorful. There were so many good pics to choose from, it was hard to decide on just a few to share. Congratulations Chelsea and Andre!

All photos are by Raiden Shine Photography.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Fall Wedding Details


Many months ago I got to create some Engagement Party Invites for Jenn and Jason, so I was thrilled when Jenn contacted me recently to do her wedding elements. Above is a sweet sign (ha! pun was so intended) for the candy bar.


Here is the menu, which sounded delicious bytheway. It's hard to tell, but around most of the signs and the menus was a great textured paper that looked like the bark of a tree.


A fun sign for the apple cider and donut pre-ceremony gathering.



The programs were one of my favorite projects that I put together for Jenn. A rich chocolate background with white reverse type, then rolled and tied with satin ribbon in a cranberry red.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Tom & KK


I just finished these gorgeous Wedding Announcements for Tom & KK. They got married in a small ceremony on Prince Edward Island and wanted something to send to all of their friends and family. The text is printed on vellum overlayed over their picture and secured with dupioni silk ribbon.


I love the bag piper in the background. So lovely.


One of my favorite Robert Frost poems. Love the fringe on the ribbon.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Flowers, Candles, and Embiance


I wish I had more photos of the flowers at my wedding. I poured over many Martha Steward Wedding magazines and I had this great Wedding Reception magazine I found in the grocery store one day, that gave me all of the inspiration for my flowers. I was so happy when I found A Schoolhouse Garden, in Waitsfield, and the talented Nancy who made all of my flower ideas come to fruition.


I knew I wanted a big wreath hanging above the barn door welcoming people in, and big hurricane vases with candles on wrought iron stands at each post inside the barn. On the tables, instead of floral centerpieces I wanted to showcase the elements of the season- red and orange maple leaves, slender stalks of wheat, and plump berries on branches. These were encased in more glass vases with candles.

It was the perfect balance of rustic and elegant that I wanted to my wedding to embrace. When I first met with Nancy I could tell immediately that she 'got' my vision and then she ran with it.


Everything was so beautiful, I wish the flowers, heck I wish the evening, would have lasted forever.
I am bummed the photographer didn't get a picture of the wreath that was outside- nor did I think to take the wreath home with me! The night just went by so fast and everything was such a blur I forgot details like that until many months later. It's true what they say- it really does go by in the blink of an eye. So make sure you try and stop and enjoy the moment!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Food- The Most Important Part Of The Wedding! (no, really it is)

Clockwise from top left: The Antipasto board, selection of fruit, Artichoke & Spinach dip, Stuffed Chicken Breasts, the amazing Mashed Potato Bar (everyone's favorite), and Roasted Seasonal Vegetables

The one thing that both my husband and I really wanted for our wedding was amazing food. We had been to a lot of weddings where the food was sub par, at best, and we figured if you are going to spend thousands of dollars on a wedding and people were coming from thousands of miles away to attend it then the least we could do was feed them (and us) a decent meal. It was the one thing we were prepared to splurge on.

I can't even remember how many caterer's websites I looked at or if I even talked to anyone else before I contacted Spice of Life catering. That's because as soon as I tasted their food everything I had ever eaten before immediately was forgotten. Yes, it was that good. We met with Matt and Maggie, the husband and wife team behind SOL, at the Ethan Allen Club in Burlington where they were in charge of providing dinner. It was a little strange since the Ethan Allen Club is a men's only club and so I was the only female in there, other than Maggie. But they set us up in a secluded corner and just started bringing us out sample after sample after sample. And we just kept eating and staring at each other in a hazy food coma wondering how each thing could possibly be better than the last.

So we booked them- right then on the spot. Then the fun part of browsing through all of their selections came. It took us a long time to narrow it down to just a few items. And everything we picked was so amazing. All night long all we heard was how great the food was. My Mother-in-law personally thanked them and immediately started recommending them to all of her friends. In fact, a couple of years later when my brother-in-law was getting married she hired them to cater the rehearsal dinner (having abandoned the idea of cooking all of the food herself, again, as she had done for ours).

They did not do the cake, but I couldn't do a food post about our wedding and not include a picture of our wedding cake, could I? Ashley Woods, based in Waitsfield, made our cake and it was another item that I was intent on being amazing. Wedding cake sort of has a bad rap as being pretty to look at but not so great to eat, and I wanted to make sure our cake didn't fall into that category. Ashley really delivered and the cake was amazing.


The bottom layer was chocolate cake with a chocolate mousse and raspberry coulis filling, the center layer was white cake with a lemon mousse filling, and the top layer was the chocolate again. The frosting was just a simple buttercream and Ashley put a monogram of our initials on the front and our florist put a cascade of flowers on the top. It was exactly what I envisioned.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Three Years Ago


Three years ago I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I was fretting over the fading foliage, the weather forcast, and shoot! we totally forgot to make signs for the road so people knew where to turn! Yes, that's right, I was mere hours away from my wedding day.

The days preceding my wedding are a blur- filled with last minute details and finally letting go of the idea that I could do it all. (Maybe hand-stitched hankies was going a little overboard?) My relatives were starting to arrive and my phone was ringing off the hook with questions and concerns. My parents had arrived and were each fielding requests from their families. My soon-to-be in-laws were also welcoming house guests and shuttling grandparents to and from the hotel. It was chaos. It was pandemonium.

That night, of October 13th, 2006, we all gathered in my in-laws home for the Welcome Dinner. I have no idea how many people were there, but we were spread out on every seat in the whole house. My soon-to-be Mother-in-law and her sister had prepared all of the food from scratch. It was amazing.

After dinner my father called everyone out to the back deck then he set off the most fantastic firework show feet from where we all stood breathless. The bursts of green and purple filled the sky above our heads and the booms and bangs were so loud we all expected the police to show up at any moment. My friend Tara's four month old baby slept through the whole thing. It was almost the best night of my life.

Except the next day I got to do this:


Thursday, October 8, 2009

Gorgeous Travel Themed Wedding


One of my favorite bloggers, Holly Burns of Nothing But Bonfires, recently got hitched in idyllic San Diego and not only was her wedding detailed on her own blog (for months, really, but I gobbled up every post), it was also a featured wedding on Style Me Pretty. It's not surprising, either, when you see all the awesome handmade details that Holly and her new husband Sean put together for their special day.



Holly is a travel writer and has lived in many different parts of the world and her and Sean have done extensive traveling. Plus their friends are so widespread that most of their guests traveled from far away to attend their special day. So it just made sense to do a world-travel themed affair and everything they did was so creative and charming! From the 'Where in the World Are You Sitting' seating chart to the vintage map lined lanterns on the table, every detail was perfect.

Check out all four installments here, here, here, and here!
All photos are by Erin Hearts Court.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Awesome Give-Away!

If you are not already familiar with the blog This Little Life of Mine by the wonderful Talia, then you should definitely head over there right now! Especially since she is hosting a great give-away with goodies from some of my favorite fellow bloggers and Etsyians!


I am especially drooling over this adorable wallet from Your Wishcake that I have to bookmark on Etsy so that even if I don't win (fingers crossed though!) I can get one anyway :-) But this is just the tip of the iceburg for this give-away. There is a total of NINE items up for grab, including a bonus $10 Starbucks Gift Card. Yum- I can taste a tall skinny mocha with almond syrup shot right now.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Sorry I've Been Away

I was doing so great with this regular blogging thing! So what the heck happened over the last couple of weeks? Well it was a combination of being overwhelmingly busy with life, getting horribly sick for four days, and not having a whole lot to blog about. Which probably has a lot to do with the being busy part. Coming up with something to write about was downright exhausting to think about, so I took a little hiatus.

Now it's time to get back into the thick of things! Thankfully my schedule is a little less jam-packed and with Winter right around the corner I should have plenty of time, snuggled up in my house and not wanting to go anywhere, that I can devote to blogging.

So thanks for your patience!