Inspiration from a random place

I haven't mentioned anything about my dress yet.  That's a story in itself.  For now, I'll say this - before I knew my dress, I wanted our wedding color scheme to have bright, bold, beautiful colors.  I had five months worth of idea sketches, and had even interviewed four florists based on that color scheme.  I wanted fun, wild, fresh-from-the-garden COLOR!  Colors like this:

Style me Pretty

Enter The Dress.  After eleven shops and a lot of budget stress that I'll go into later, I fell in love with a very soft, romantic gown in a very soft, ivory color.  It has delicate pearl and crystal detailing.  And it totally does not go with bold, wild colors.

Image Source

Ever-stressed about the whole gown situation, after the dress was purchased I was tossing and turning about how it completely didn't go with our original vision (FI was really into the colorful look too).  It seems silly now that I look back on it, but it really was keeping me up at night.  On one such night, I made a trip to the bathroom and was staring at, of all things, my shower curtain.  And it all came together.

My muse, aka my shower curtain

I began a brand-new Pinterest board with new bridesmaid dresses, flowers, table settings, etc.  And I was excited again!

BHLDN

BHLDN

Style me Pretty

Style me Pretty

Who else made a drastic change to their color scheme well into the planning process?  What caused the change, and how did it / is it working out for you?

Pinterest = Everyone Knowing My Plans!

I love love love Pinterest, especially now that I'm planning a wedding.  I have 8 boards going on right now organizing my wedding ideas:

1.  Our Wedding Style, which was my first board, holding decor, bridesmaids dresses, flowers, pretty much everything!  I like to have all images side by side to make sure colors and concepts look good together.

2.  'Maids & 'Men, which holds attire ideas for the bridesmaids and the groomsmen.

3.  For the Moms - because as I was looking for bridesmaids dresses, I kept seeing dresses I thought my mother would look fabulous in.

4.  Wedding DIY, which contains things I'm interested in making for the wedding.

5.  Invitations (self-explanatory)

6.  Wedding Etc, for wedding-related items that aren't necessarily part of the ceremony and reception.

7.  Wedding Photos - when I see a shot of someone's wedding that I love, I save it to show my photographer.

8.  Honeymoon - lots and lots of dream trips/hotels/excursions I'd love to do with my FI.

I am the type of creative person who loves to bounce ideas off of other people, or shall I say, select people... by that I mean, not my entire Facebook friend roster.

If writers can have pen names to conceal their identity, why can't I have a Pinterest account that conceals the identity of my wedding? 

So I do.  And it's awesome.  And I never even use the account linked to my Facebook page anymore.

If you are planning your wedding and are computer-savvy enough (and obsessed with your wedding enough) that you are reading this blog, and other wedding blogs, and you do not have a Pinterest account to keep track of your findings... WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR???  Get on that sh*t!

DIY Invitation Progress!

I'd been collecting invitation ideas for days, but yesterday FI and I agreed that this style was our favorite:

From Golden Rectangle Press

It's vintage, it has garden elements, it's perfect for our wedding.

So I spent a few hours today on Adobe Illustrator working on my own version!  The current plan is to have this made into a rubber stamp via JL Mould and then use it to emboss invitations ourselves.

Made by me!  Info changed for privacy purposes.

The font I used is called FontleroyBrown, which was a free font from webdesignledger.com.  I drew some of the elements myself, and others I pieced together using some free floral clip art from freevectordownload.com.

Color and paper are TBD.  I'm concerned about some of the smaller elements when it comes to embossing.  I'm going to try super fine transparent embossing powder first.  I also read that you can apply the powder directly to prints still wet from your inkjet printer, so I'll try that before I spend the moolah to order the 5x7 stamp.

If anyone has DIY embossing tips, please share!

Improv Bridal Shower Game

Of course I'm not going to plan games for my own shower.  But yesterday I responded to a board asking for a fun game, so I submitted one that I kind of made up once for a friend's shower (it's based on other games I've played).  Thought others might appreciate it too!

ONE TRUTH, TWO LIES

If you have a crowd of witty and creative people I highly recommend this improv game:

Step 1.  Set up three chairs at the front of the room

Step 2.  Have everyone write their names on index cards along with a vague 1-2 sentence funny story they know about the bride, it could be some kind of an inside joke or just something random (example: "the time Jennifer made Kool Aid without sugar")

Step 3.  You have to be the moderator here.  Scan through the cards and pick one you like.  You know who's story it is, but the rest of the crowd doesn't.  So for example, the Kool Aid story is by Aunt Sharon.  You put Aunt Sharon and two other random guests in the chairs at the front of the room.

Step 4.  You read what the card says out loud (other than the storyteller's name, of course). 

Step 5.  One by one, each of the ladies tells the story.  Obviously two of them don't know the story, so they have to make one up on the spot.  Aunt Sharon is telling a true story about how 8-year old Jennifer accidentally made Kool Aid with salt instead of sugar.  But college friend Tiffany makes up a story about how Jennifer made Kool Aid with bubblegum vodka, got really wasted, and ended up dancing on the hood of some frat guy's car shouting OHHH YEAHHH (like the Kool Aid guy).

Step 6.  The audience votes on which of the 3 they think is the real story.

Step 7.  Jennifer reveals which one is the real story.

Step 8.  Repeat as desired.

It's KIND OF complicated but it's fun because it brings up a lot of old stories that may have been (or should have been) long forgotten (friends, use discretion in selecting your "true" stories!).  When we played this at my friend's shower we laughed so hard we cried - mostly at the fake stories.


Anyone else make up an awesome bridal shower game? 

To bead or not to bead?

I just fell in love with this bracelet from BHLDN:

Lattice Bracelet, $180

I think it could be perfect for my wedding day.  But not $180 perfect!  And that's marked down from $380!

I'm looking at it, and I'm thinking, once I get the right beads, I could totally make this myself.  It can't be THAT hard, can it?

Vintage-style watercolor invitations

Yes, I'm still thinking about making my own invitations.  But today I stumbled upon these on weddingpaperdivas.com, when I haphazardly clicked on an ad while on Facebook:

Washed Floral

Rustic Garden

Painterly Passion

I probably should clarify that although my wedding is on an island, it will take place within a garden from the 1800's.  I feel like the watercolors really go with what I've been envisioning as far as bridesmaid dress colors and other decor.  I especially love the handrawn elements in the third invitation.

These lovelies are actually in my budget.  Even though I like to DIY everything, these are tempting... it would be a lot easier... what do you think?

Lost in Paper

It dawned on me yesterday that I need to figure out our wedding invitations.  I set a goal with my mom to have them in the mail by December 1st, before everyone gets really busy with the holidays.

Now, I absolutely LOVE paper.  Letterpress, oh, yes please... I've just spent the morning pouring over beautiful work on Etsy by shops like Print and Promise and Elf Letterpress.

"Jubilee" by Print and Promise on Etsy

"Swag" by Elf Letterpress on Etsy

Interjection of the "B" word.  For better or worse, we've been pretty flexible with our budget thus far - we increased our original allowances for our videographer and for our band because our original estimates just weren't going to get us the quality we want.  Videography, very important, documenting our wedding day so we can share it with our children and grandchildren years in the future... band, very important, sets the mood for the whole wedding...  invitations, vital ONLY for the information they contain... 

Here's the thing:  All Uncle Melvin and Aunt Joan need is to know they are invited to my wedding at such-and-such place at such-and-such time.  I don't need to spend fifteen dollars to tell them that.  And anyway, Aunt Joan is going to lose my fifteen-dollar invitation in a stack of People magazines, and my mom is going to have to call Aunt Joan a month before the wedding to ask why she didn't RSVP, and Uncle Melvin is going to answer the phone and say, "What wedding?  Which niece?"

To be fair, the sites I mentioned above are ALMOST in my price range.  The Print & Promise invites are $6 each once you add in the shipping, and the Elf Letterpress invites look to be a little over $7 each when all is said and done.  Both suites include the RSVP cards.  But they don't include the little extras, like lined envelopes, map inserts, and web address inserts.  And my budget for 100 invitations is a mere $500, (thankfully) not including postage.

I'm pretty design-oriented, and pretty crafty, so I think I am going to make the invitations myself... but I have a lot of techniques running through my mind.  Like rubber stamping:

DIY Rubber Stamp Invitations
Stamps by Antiquaria

I also came across JL Mould on Etsy as a source for custom rubber stamps.

Next I started to wonder about embossing:

DIY Embossing
Source: Weddingbee

And while we're at it, hey, how about some water colors?

From oncewed

Aren't these bridesmaid cards gorgeous?

From glamourandgraceblog

I want awesome invitations because I love them, and I know there are others who will appreciate them too.  But I'm not going to spend a fortune on them because of all the Uncle Melvins I have.

Who else made their own invitations?  I'd love to see pictures and hear about the techniques you used.

DIYs I can’t wait to get to

I am dying to start making things for the wedding!  But it’s still too early =(  Mainly because I have to move out of my apartment soon and it would just be ridiculous to start putting things together and then move it all to a new place.

But these are a few things I know I am going to try...

Garland swizzle sticks made from Christmas garland pieces.  These shiny little poof balls on a stick make me unreasonably happy:

Image via marthastewart.com

The “Just Married” letters (our getaway vehicle may be a rickshaw; the sign will have to be sized accordingly):

Image via stylemepretty.com
Photo by amyandstuart.com

Ribbons, ribbons, and more ribbons:

Image via marthastewart.com

Image via stylemepretty.com
Photo by lanedittoe.com

Image via stylemepretty.com

I am kind of obsessed with ribbons.  I need to consciously remind myself not to overdo it with the ribbons.

What DIY details are you in love with for your wedding day?

Party on, Party People!

I’m a theme party kind of girl.  I get it from my mom.  When I throw parties, I go all out.  For my sister’s 30^th the theme was “Kid's Games” so we piled the tables high with everything from Mousetrap to Hungry Hippos and I spelled out ‘Happy Birthday’ on a Lite-Brite.  For the holidays one year we had a “Biergarten” themed party and I made about a hundred soft pretzels from scratch.  For my 21^st birthday, my roommates and I threw an “Awesome 80’s” party complete with 200 hot pink and black balloons on the ceiling of our living room.  You should see what I've pulled together for baby showers... and don’t even get me started on Halloween!

So when it came time to plan an Engagement Party for Mr. Palm Frond and me, there was no way I could stay out of the fun of planning it.  The first step?  Choosing a theme, of course.  

When my sister got engaged, we centered her party around Italian food and wine.  Picture giant antipasto platters and candles burning in vintage Chianti bottles.  It was lovely, and the food was fabulous.

I’ve gotten to the point where I like the food to be an integral part of the theme.  At some point in the party brainstorm, someone mentioned crawfish.  Cajun.  And then I started playing with words as I so often do.  Cajun... Ragin’ Cajun...  Ragin’ Cajun Celebration of Engagin.’  Boom!

I designed our invitations in Adobe Illustrator with artistic input from Mr. Palm Frond.  I had a cutesy alligator in an apron on them at first, but Mr. PF wanted something a little more fierce-looking, and this is what we came up with: 

I used Vistaprint.com to print them and they were mailed out in bright red envelopes.  We had a lot of friends say they thought it was the coolest Engagement Party invite ever!

I’ll post pictures from the party tomorrow.

So… who else digs theme parties?  I’d love to hear about some good ones!

Planting the "Let's Get Engaged" Seed

If you read my last post, you know how Mr. Palm Frond and I met, but now let me tell you about the sneaky way I hinted to him that I thought getting engaged sounded pretty good...

First of all, let me say that we had already started talking about marriage, but the subject generally only came up after drinking a bottle of wine or two, if you know what I’m saying.

After living with Mr. PF for over two years, I was headed to grad school.  This was during the recession.  He had a great job, but I had no job, and he had no prospects near the school I was going to.  So our relationship became long-distance.  It was very difficult, but it was the best decision we could have made for our future.

In the summer before school started, I couldn’t help myself from perusing photos of engagement rings online.  I collected a few pictures of my favorites and saved them in a folder on the desktop of his computer.  I labeled the folder ‘Top Secret,’ hoping the name would entice him to see what was inside while I was away at school.  I also included a little notepad document that gave him my ring size!  Passive-aggressive much? 

It turns out that he didn’t notice the folder until over a year later!  At that point, he was already looking at rings himself, and had his eye on the perfect one, the one he proposed with a few months later.  He actually designed it himself on bluenile.com.  At least my folder helped him with the sizing. =)

This is the ring he designed for me, more beautiful than I ever imagined it would be:

Did anyone else try to plant the marriage/engagement ring seed in their S.O.’s head?  What did you do, and did it work?

Meeting Mr. Palm Frond

I was a sophomore in college who had been living the single life for a few months when my friend J said, ‘Miss Palm Frond, what exactly is it that you are looking for in Mr. Right?  I didn’t think too hard about it, just made a few casual comments on what I was typically attracted to:

1. Brown hair, blue eyes, taller than me
2. Sense of humor to compliment my own dorky sense of humor
3. Smart, but not showy-smart
4. Non-pothead or at least an ex-pothead
5. Creative or artistic in some way or another

J asked me if he should be a musician.  I said I wasn’t into musicians but it would be okay if he played bass guitar.  J said, ‘Hmmm… who do I know that fits that description…” and then he took me down the hall to meet a friend of his, let’s call him X.  X was preoccupied playing video games and we didn’t carry on too much of a conversation. But there he was, brown hair, blue eyes, seemingly tall enough… he even had a bass guitar in the corner, though he quickly stated he wasn't any good at it.  He had painted the walls of his room blue with red paint dripping from the ceiling edges... creative, right?  J started rambling about how X met my qualifications, which made the introduction quite awkward!  And the premise of finding someone based on an impromptu checklist didn’t really seem feasible to me.  So that meeting didn't last too long. 

A few months later, I ran into X at a social event and I couldn’t help but lay on the charm… our chemistry was crazy strong and afterwards I could not get him off my mind.  I emailed my best friends a few days later telling them how I was NOT going to let myself get too attached, but that I was pretty sure I was going to marry this guy!

Fast-forward to the present:  X is in fact Mr. Palm Frond, and we are tying the knot… ten years after we first met!

So I want to know, who else has met their Mr. or Mrs. Right through a friend?  And how long was it before you decided to get married?