Hit me With your Best shot!

So studying for the bar is about as fun as everyone says it is. I've been losing steam, catching up on my Google reader and basically slacking this weekend. So I decided to at least get a post out of it. Then it's back to the books! Love this "alone" moment. Love that it includes the bling. Photo By: Anna Kuberberg

For the time being I'm avoiding real planning stuff and continuing to soak in all of the gorgeous details of real weddings. I've mentioned my obsession with photographer's blogs and now that I'm engaged I've been looking at their work much differently. Recently I started saving photos that really spoke to me, photos I'd love to have recreated at our own wedding. Here is a sampling of what I have so far!So I definitely love the shoe-shot. But this one includes the groom. The groom with the bouquet! Photo by Anna Kuperberg

Bridal Line up in motion from Knottie DJRS. Photo by: Tia Gavin

Of course there are a million standard shots that I really love. The shoes, the hanging dress, the post-nuptial hand on hand ring shot, the pre-nuptial creative ring shot. All of those! And these too! The "I'll take care of you" embrace. So romantic. Photo By Jessica Claire

Group Shot-must have. Group shot in front of a barn? Yes Please! Image found at Brides
If Maverick does get to come play-I definitely want him photographed-like this! Photo By Jose Villa

I probably wont have to ask for this one....But I do love the positioning..sorry can't find photo credit
Beautiful shadowy moment. Image from Weddingbee Mrs. Lovebug. Photo by Chris Richards

I have so many more, but I must stop there. I definitely do not want to limit my photographer's creativity on the day of, but I would hope they will find it helpful to know what kind of shots I'd love to see from my day.

alright back to this pesky thing called the bar exam...

Little Lovelies

The twinkly lights strung up in this big tree really caught my eye. How easy, cheap and effectively gorgeous!

Both shots by Jasmine Star


Love this adorable flower girl from Knottie BKbistro
Love the table itself, the napkin placement and the chair decor. What I really love is the use of the flowers! It's definitely a work of art! I found this beauty at Toast and Tables



Thought this was a neat idea to add color. From Enjoy: {the blog}

Color Conundrum

I'm still hung up on my color palette. When one of my good friend's was engaged the day we graduated, it was easy to create an inspiration board for her. Why? Because she knows what she wants! She's also incredibly stylish, so certain things just remind me of her! Here's what I emailed her moments after I found out about her long awaited engagement (they've been together for nearly 10 years!)Green bridesmaids via The Bride's Cafe, Gray Bridesmaids In Style via A Bride in the Making, Cake from Rebecca Thuss, Yellow Valentino Shoes via Perfect Bound, First 3Wedding Dresses, invite, limo shot from Brides, All White Bouquet from Artfool,

Strapless Dress from Neiman Marcus

So while the DF and I were fulfilling homeowner responsibilities on our Sunday trip to Home Depot, I stopped by the paint section to play around with some color. Here's what I grabbed and took home.

Sorry it's such a crookedy picture. I should be in bed! These paints are from Ralph Lauren Vintage Masters Collection.
I'd definitely tinker with the pinks and mauves, but I like the navy for the bms (and little else) and the green as an accent. Our potential venue will have plenty of browns and greenery which I think will compliment these colors. What do you think?

So long Law school!

That's it! I've been JD'd. It sure feels good! I know passing the bar will feel even better. I'm trying to wean myself off of wedding blogs this week so I'm not too distracted this summer!

The only one with color coordinated shoes. They matched the purple in my robe perfectly!

Our lil Maverick enjoying the party in our backyard

That's me!

I'm still recovering from a VERY celebratory weekend. I will be in the thick of bar studying next week!

Fear of [color] Commitment

So far, finding a future husband has been easier than finding a color palette. Ok, so not really-but I am starting to envy the brides to be who can narrow down their color choices so that their ideas look so streamlined!

Romantic Pink Bouquet from Martha

My first color thoughts were: mauve, rose, champagne. I always envisioned my BMs wearing different colored dresses. In my head I loved the idea of a spectrum of color. From wine to mauve to champagne for instance. My fabulous wedding twin, Kate created this image on David's Bridal to give me a visual of the spectrum idea. I decided that maybe I wasn't up for the mis-match after all.

Then, as I told people I wanted a rustic feel to my wedding with a barn, casual food and a relaxed atmosphere, most people suggested the ever-popular brown bridesmaids dresses with green and maybe some pink. Literally every picture I saved for the first two weeks of wedding browsing was green! While I do like this color-combo I'm just over the brown bm's look. It's everywhere!

SMP board I fell in love with early on

Examples of the pink and mauve look

Images: Peony Bouquet via The Brides Cafe, Pink & White roses from Martha, yellow&pink garden roses from David's Bridal, Color Palette From Weddingbee

That's when I decided I wanted my girls to wear navy. It's one of my favorite colors, it looks good on all of my bm's and it is nice and dark and flattering. Now the problem is what color to put with the navy. First thought: peaches. Second thought: go back to the mauves/pinks with some green as an accent. Love this, I just haven't seen it done. I can't picture it in my head! I also feel like too much navy is preppy and crisp looking rather than rustic/casual chic. I decided if I did navy, the dresses would probably be the only things that were actually navy...Images top to bottom: Rebecca Thuss, Zenadia Designs, The Knot

I'm still not sold. Does the navy kind of ruin the rustic vibe? For a moment I thought of doing a nice plum/wine BM dress. It would be fitting of October and still dark enough to be flattering. It would make my mom ecstatic as it's her favorite color. But it's never been a color I've worn or gravitated towards. It might be a nice pop if I did light pink/mauve flowers. Hmmm. What do you guys think? I need major help. Love this look from SMP

The Graduate

I graduate from Law School on Saturday! It's been a busy week getting prepped for grad-related stuff such as: our senior luncheon, school grad party, grad rehersal, the family, graduation and my own graduation party! Since our tassels are purple and the stripes on our robes are purple, the graduation party will consist of rich purple linens and light pink roses. I didn't go all out...but of course I wanted it to be pretty!

I'm excited!

Little Lovelies

I have accumulated so many clips of beautiful things (yes in just the past few months!). Many of them, probably wont be incorporated into my wedding, but I still love them. You know, like Martha's "good things". Here are some of my little lovelies. Fruit and Scones-love it!

Amazing Rose Wreath Mel Barlow via Elizabeth Anne Designs

Chalkboard Bookmarks no longer available from Pottery Barn

I'm sorry, but so many of these images are from my early days of wedding browsing--aka, before I learned to note where I was clipping images from... I love the child-like wonder of the balloons above. I normally think of tacky homecoming balloon arches when people mention balloons at weddings, but how cute is she with the white balloons?

I was so intrigued by the burlap place setting below.

Image from Brides

Loved the color combo of this lobster affair. It was featured on The Preppy Wedding, but I'm not sure where this exact clip came from.

If I were going to do a tented wedding, I would LOVE to do the clear tent. So beautiful. Dancing under the stars..check !

Image: The Knot

These cork candles are gorgeous, especially with the monogram. Hurry, they are currently on sale for $12.99

Cork Candles From: Pottery Barn

Love this gorgeous beach towel $29@ Pottery Barn

Isn't this pool delish? Brides


So I have a bazillion more images I could post, but I imagine I'll post another little lovlies section in the future.

Enjoy!

Inviting Invites

As much as I would love to DIY my own wedding invitations, I know that I myself do not have the patience nor talent to go it alone. I have a couple of friends who I could enlist to help, but I'm still not sold on the idea completely. I do plan on doing a budget friendly invite, but am willing to spend a little more to make sure they look professional. I've been scouring the web for ideas for a long time and am still soaking it all in. Looking at sample invites is a great way to come up with a theme, design, color palette or even a venue! Many local invite-makers post samples with the name of the venue listed.

This letterpress invite from Costco was the very first invitation I ever saved. At that time I had no idea what letterpress was, more importantly I had no idea how much letterpress cost! I love the simplicity and romance of this particular invite.

Bella Flora Letter press Invite via Costco

I'd love to have a motif to use throughout the wedding. I'm toying with the monogram idea, but would also love to have something like the top two invitations below. I also love the clean look of the bottom two.

All invitations via Brides

The only "motif" I've been able to come up with thus far is the tree. My top-choice venue has a lovely old oak tree on the property. They do claim you can get married under it although I've yet to see anyone who has as it looks a bit steep, but it is quite lovely and is the logo for the venue. There's something very timeless, romantic and relaxing about a big tree. I loved all four of these invites the moment I saw them.

Clockwise from top left: paper presence, the knot.com,larkpress, kenziekate

Writing this makes me realize that I desperately need to start thinking colors. I'm still overhwelmed in that department and just can't seem to narrow it down! More on that later.

shower me

I've decided I want a themed bridal shower. My favorite theme so far: Alice in Wonderland. How bout Amy in Loverland? I could definitely go over board on the "___ me" ideas.
Love the interesting bottle used here! Can't you just see all the colorful mixed drinks? Photo: Jessica Claire

I realize that planning your own bridal shower is kind of overstepping, but I can't help but love the ever-popular Alice in Wonderland/Mad Hatter Tea Party theme. It offers endless possibilities of color, imagination and "eat me, drink me, marry me, shower me, gift me" labels. I think embroidered aprons (like the white one Alice wears) would be awesome favors! I know my MOH would be into it, even though we have different styles I know she knows how to work a theme.

This party was for three little girls. I think they were turning 6! Amazing. Photo: Jessica Claire

Loving this inspiration board from SMP

My inspirations really comes from this made for TV movie. I think it came out around 1985. My mom taped it, and well, I watched it a bazillion times. It was part of my cycle of movies I would watch over and over. Alice, then Annie, Ferris Bueller then Dirty Dancing (yea, I was like 5!) and Top Gun. I loved this Alice version SO much better than the Disney version. I used to make pretend "eat me" cakes and put them in my glass jewelry box that looked just like the one in the movie...

Does anyone else remember this classic? It was a two-part series circa 1985 photo from here

I found these perfect little cakes a long time ago. These were what reminded me of the "eat me" cake from the movie. Little did I know that this theme was extremely popular. The knot even has an article with ideas for a Mad Hatter themed shower. Read about it here.

I'm just loving this idea more and more! My MOH's family has an amazing home right in San Francisco with views of the golden gate and the ocean. It's the perfect party house and since it's right in the city, I would imagine most of my out of town friends and bridal party wouldn't mind coming out for a weekend in the city. I'm getting excited and wishing it wasn't so far away! At least now I have plenty of time to come up with even more cute ideas! adorable little cakes found here


There are so many possibilities for the invites. I've seen playing cards, a mad-hatter like poem. But I love the wording on these. I'd love to do something more colorful, but loved the detail.
A Mad Hatter Tea Party Invitation from Bird and Banner

The Final final

I took my last final today.

own it! Image: The Law Project

Three years, 30 exams, dozens of papers, thousands of hours, xxx dollars and countless sleepless nights later I am officially done with law school. I've never had a more poignant love/hate relationship with anything in my entire life. I wouldn't wish law school on my worst enemy, but I can't imagine my life without it. I keep telling myself that eventually, it will all seem worth it. But for now, I'm trying my darndest to enjoy the next two weeks. I graduate next Saturday and get to enjoy some time off between now and then and another week off before I start Barbri classes. Of course, I'll be working during this "off" time, but after law school being able to just work really seems like time off!

DF and I celebrated with a nice dinner out, some drinks and a visit with our friends. I'm exhausted from finals but can't wait to enjoy a nice normal Saturday again! Hope everyone has a great weekend!