Real Wedding: Brock & Kylie

Jaquilyn Shumate Photography did a great job of capturing Brock & Kylie's August outdoor Idaho wedding. I love the details of the bride getting ready.

Vendor Spotlight: All Natural Skin Care

This weeks Vendor Spotlights is for Sandy Torres, Independent Consultant for Arbonne. She just returned from the annual conference in Las Vegas where the company launched an all new skin care and cosmetics line. She was so excited when sharing telling me about the new products I thought it would be a perfect post for this weeks vendor spotlight. Sandy raved about the products and how much they have help her skin, maybe they can work for you too! feel free to visit her site and enjoy the new products :)

Advice: Looking Back, What I would Have Done Different

Now that is has been almost 1 year since my wedding, I have done a lot of looking back on how things turned out and what I would have done differently.

Jeren and I had a very long engagement of 1 1/2 years and I think that would have been my first thing I would have changed. About half way through we were both wishing that the big day would be here and all the planning stress would be over. We had a LOT of family involvement which made things quite stressful at times since between us we have 8 parents...yes 8 parents! Due to the long engagement I feel like I procrastinated on the little details since I knew I had a long time to plan. The last few months went by so fast and I soon realized that I had waited too long to start on some of my DIY projects, therefore they were either rushed or not added into the wedding. I look back now and really wish I would have had some of those little details I kept seeing in my head all along.

The second and one of the most important things I would have changed looking back is not using a family friend as our photographer. I won't say much because it gets me so upset but this is one of the most important decisions you have in planning your wedding so take it seriously. Remember, you CANNOT redo your wedding pictures so what you get is what you get. This makes me so sad :(

Another thing I might have done differently is my dress. I only looked at dresses twice before buying the one I loved. The only problem, it was the last one available since the design was being discontinued AND it was a size 12. The reason this was such a problem...I am a size 1! I was determined to make the dress fit and be perfect so I found an amazing seamstress. After about 12 dress fittings the dress was practically a custom design and I loved it. Looking back at pictures I don't think that we were able to get the exact perfect fit that I was looking for but that could just be my OCD kicking in. My recommendation, find a dress that you love and you won't have to have it completely remade. It was an interesting process where I was able to spend time with my Mom, MOH, and Bridesmaids but it was very stressful at the same time since I had no idea what the finally product was going to be.

Well, I am sure over the next few months I will think up some other things I would have done a little differently but for now these are my thoughts! Hope it helps in your planning process.

Real Wedding: Margaret & Joe: A FUN Engagement Shoot!

Today I am featuring a super fun engagement shoot from Duane Peck with Digital Studios. You can tell that this couple has a lot of fun together and I am sure their wedding will express that as well! I love the red shoes with the red balloons. Hope you enjoy!

Inspiration Board: Green Combinations

I love green as for a wedding color. I actually used lime green, ivory, black, and damask for my wedding! You can combine green with brown, white, yellow, orange, black, blue, purple...the combinations are endless! Hope you enjoy :)

Photos: The Knot

Vendor Spotlight: The Papery Willow {Handcrafted Custom Invitations}

This weeks Vendor Spotlight is featuring The Papery Willow. Babette Canacari is the designer of these beautiful custom handcrafted invitations displayed below. She will work with you to create the wedding stationary of your dreams while coordinating all the details of your wedding with one theme. Items available include: invitations, place cards, menu cards, guestbook, favors, save the dates, thank you cards, reception cards, and more! Contact her today to see how she can help.

Why Hire A Wedding Planner??

Today I am featuring an article from Jennifer Grove with Sky Blue Events explaining the importance of hiring a wedding planner for your big day. Hope this information is useful in your planning process. Happy Planning!

Planning your wedding should be a joyful journey from the day you pick up a bridal magazine to leaving for your honeymoon. Most brides find that along the way they will need some help whether it's selecting their dress or their invitations, picking the right location or picking table linen colors. Getting started with the assistance of a qualified consultant is one way to make sure your wedding dreams become a reality from the very beginning of the process. A professional planner knows the wedding market inside and out, has worked with a variety of local vendors and venues and will know how to maximize your budget to help lead the way on your journey to the altar. These reasons alone will help reduce stress, save time and make the experience more enjoyable.

Additionally, many planners have built their reputations and businesses by catering to select niches that couples may find important to them from green/environmentally friendly weddings to budget-conscious weddings to destination weddings. For example, as a full-service planning company specializing in the style aspect of a bride and groom's event, our company is known for translating a couple's personal tastes and likes into a cohesive, stylized vision. Not only do we create detailed color palettes and gorgeous inspiration boards for our clients to tie every element of the event together, we'll manage the timelines, budgets, milestones, and to-do lists in order to make sure every detail is attended to in executing the overall designed vision.

We ask our prospective clients two key questions that will determine if our services will help them better enjoy the planning journey. First, how much time do they have to spend planning in between their job, tending to their relationships (fiance, friends, family) and daily life during their engagement period. Second, we ask clients how important the style factor and how elaborate their expectations are for their event. From creating a master plan and touring the most original locations to finding the best floral designers and caterers, our insight and experience will be an invaluable part of the planning process which make sense for busy, career-oriented couples who may not have the time or style expertise to do this on their own.

Does every bride need a wedding planner? I like to think that making the choice to hire an experienced consultant is one of the best decisions you can make. In addition to being party experts, wedding consultants are part orchestra conductors, part financial planners, part designers and part relationship experts. Having someone supporting you with answers to tricky etiquette questions, negotiating contracts on your behalf and serving as your spokesperson for the entire experience is worth the end result : your beautiful wedding dreams come true.