by Blue-Eyed Bride on February 29, 2008
Ever since the day that Todd and I were walking through the Horseshoe and saw about 12 little girls celebrating a birthday and running around in pink tulle dresses with fairy wings and wands, I realized that planning birthday parties could be so much fun!
I have a lot of friends that are about to plan their child’s first birthday– you know who you are! I’ve been having a lot of fun with Photoshop brainstorming event ideas and I created two inspiration boards for birthday parties; one for a girl and one for a boy.
The first is a pink paisley inspired garden party.
The second inspiration board is for a boy’s pirate inspired birthday party.
by Blue-Eyed Bride on February 27, 2008
These are just a couple of things that I think are wonderful, adorable, or essential.
definitely not essential, but certainly wonderful, adorable and nice to look at!
from the Williams Sonoma acorn line… too pretty to use!
if I could find this, I’d use it at the wedding and at home… gorgeous!
i think we can all agree that THIS is essential!
our every day china pattern by Juliska– pretty essential, I think.
These pewter chargers and glasses from Williams Sonoma are the perfect blend of masculine and feminine. Probably not essential, but they’d make any table look beautiful!
by Blue-Eyed Bride on February 27, 2008
The first official day of Spring is so close, but the weather seems to be getting colder with each passing day. We were in the 70s and wearing shorts a few weeks ago and now we’re all bundled up again. I’ll be the first one to tell you that I’m in no hurry for our usual South Carolina summer, but I’m ready for something to give a little toward the 60s and 70s.
That Maui honeymoon can’t come fast enough! The weather should be in the 80s and the resort is just stunning. We brainstormed a lot over where to go on our honeymoon and knew that if we went to Europe we’d spend all of our money on the flights and train rides and that if we went to the Caribbean we might get tired of the smaller resorts. We chose the Grande Wailea in Maui after many conversations and many trips to Barnes and Noble to read about our possible destinations. Our package gets us an ocean view room, a convertible for a week, and the standard lei greeting. We’re pretty excited! We’ve booked a few day trips to go hiking through the rainforest, go snorkeling, and sailing.
Here’s a picture of the Grand Wailea. We’re already starting to think about “base tans” and how we don’t want to fry on the first day or be the whitest people on the beach.
Todd and I both need a vacation in the worst way and I’m starting to look forward to the honeymoon more than the wedding. I can’t believe that on May 5 we’ll leave for Maui and the wedding will be a wonderful memory!
by Blue-Eyed Bride on February 26, 2008
Todd and I brainstormed a lot over what kind of guest book would we have. I didn’t want to use the usual sheets from my bride book as the guest book because I wanted a little more than just someone’s signature on a line. I wanted to create an opportunity for guests to leave us notes and give us a book that we’ll want to look back through later.
I love the idea of the Polaroid guest book where the bride and groom provide a big blank book and have an attendant at the entrance to take Polaroid pictures of all of the guests. Then the guests attach their picture to the book and sign around their picture. The only problem is that I don’t have a Polaroid camera and I don’t want to assign someone to take those pictures all night.
from theknot.com
I also loved the idea of a guest book quilt. The bride and groom provide little quilt squares and markers for the guests, the guests sign them, and then the bride and groom have the squares sewn into a quilt that they can use forever and pass down through the generations. It does sound like a lot of work, though.
quilt from Findgift.com
We decided on another idea. For Christmas, I used kodakgallery.com to create coffee table-style photo albums for my parents and brother. I scanned in hundreds of old pictures and then uploaded them all into kodakgallery.com. The website is so easy and you can go back and place pictures on each page just as you want it. I’ve decided to do the same thing for our guest book. I’ve created a book of pictures of Todd and me throughout our courtship and I’ve left every other page blank so our wedding guests can sign all around our pictures. I hope it goes over well. I know that we’ll go back and look through it all the time to remember the wedding day, the special guests that attended, and to look at pictures from all of our fun experiences together!
from kodakgallery.com
by Blue-Eyed Bride on February 26, 2008
A huge trend in wedding and event planning is candy buffets. We’ve jumped on the bandwagon and decided to have a candy buffet at our reception set up as guests exit and leave.
Candy buffets are all fun, but I’ve definitely seen some that are pretty and even more personal than others. Some candy buffets feature every color of the rainbow and some stick wtih the wedding colors. We’re doing the latter. Here is a picture of a gorgeous candy buffet that I recently saw. The photo was taken by candyfavorites.com. There are quite a few websites to help you locate different candies in bulk so you’re not trying to open up small package after small package to empty them all into a giant container big enough to serve all of your guests.
Restockit.com is a great resource for containers. They are just nice enough for the occassion– you don’t want to use your mother’s Waterford crystal candy jar for this!
by Blue-Eyed Bride on February 26, 2008
Everywhere I look, things are bright, white, crisp, and clean.
Cute little Westies! My neighbor has two westies that are always out on walks and just so adorable. This one in the tiny polo is even cuter!
I am not a fan of coconut cake, pie, drinks, or anything else… but it looks so yummy! Especially under this gorgeous Juliska cake stand.
Beignets!
Christina and I were in Coach on Sunday and they have affixed these little scarves to all of their leather bags this Spring. Aren’t those the cutest little scarves?
Oh… Carolina Herrera. Your dresses are so lovely!
by Blue-Eyed Bride on February 26, 2008
I wanted to post this picture of Boudreaux and me dancing in the kitchen on Sunday night. I was getting ready for the Oscar party and baking red velvet (Red Carpet) cupcakes and started singing. The dog gets so excited when we sing or dance!
I think the second picture shows the evidence that I was eating the red velvet cupcakes as I was making them. Oops.
I want to point out that the apron that I’m wearing is by Kitsch ‘n Glam and is one of the gifts that I’m giving as hostess gifts throughout the shower/wedding process. It’s so retro/I Love Lucy. There are over 10 patterns and they make full aprons, halter aprons, half aprons and even matching hand towels and oven mits. They’re so glamourously domestic!
On another note, the Gamecock baseball team won 2 out of 3 games against East Carolina this weekend. My friend, Christina, and her friend, Mark, came down to watch Saturday’s game. It was so wonderful to hang out with Christina and catch up. It was a beautiful day on Saturday and the Gamecocks were on fire! Unfortunately for Mark, ECU didn’t do very well and I took a picture of the scoreboard to remember the event. Spring is almost here!
by Blue-Eyed Bride on February 25, 2008
I attended an Oscar party last night at an old roommate’s house. All the guests were told to bring an Oscar-themed dish. I love themes, parties, cooking, and any excuse to come up with a cheesy tagline.
I decided to make Red Carpet Cupcakes– it was really red velvet cupcakes. I also brought along about 12 packs of orange tic tacs in honor of Juno.
I was seriously impressed with some of the other themed food and drinks that my friends made. One of the girls was a film major and she gets really into the movies and award shows– and she’s a certified cheeseball!
We had:
No Cupcakes for Old Men
There Will Be Bloody Marys
Milkshakes (for There Will Be Blood)
JUNO(ior) AtoneMINTS (Junior Mints representing Juno and Atonement)
We had a great time and I won some silly prizes (bubbles and Play-Doh) for predicting the most wins in our Oscar ballots.
And if anyone is interested, my picks for best dressed are Jennifer Garner and Cameron Diaz.
by Blue-Eyed Bride on February 19, 2008
I found this beautiful pink and gold inspiration board on the Style Me Pretty blog. Abby, the writer, always puts together some amazing ideas and posts inspiration boards by talented readers. This board just reaffirms my confidence in the pink and gold color scheme. I just love the detail on the plate in the center. The pink mixes some “new” in with the classic and traditional gold. I can’t wait until the wedding is over and I can put together a board with the pictures that Kelly Moore takes to showcase all of our wedding ideas.
Abby from Style Me Pretty also put together this board from some of Liz Banfield’s pictures from Tara Guerard’s (of Soiree Charleston) weddings. The peonies are just gorgeous! Can’t get enough pink!
I have had so much fun reading other brides’ blogs and expanding on some of my ideas. I doubt this little activity will go away after the wedding is over.
by Blue-Eyed Bride on February 18, 2008
I flew to Baton Rouge on Friday afternoon after work and arrived around 8:30 p.m. Mrs. Reona, the lady that kept me when I was a baby, and my mom’s Aunt Helen hosted a beautiful little shower for me at the French Market Bistro in Baton Rouge. I had such a great time. I got to see so many of our old friends and neighbors, friends from church, family from Houma, and some college girlfriends that live in Baton Rouge now.
My old babysitter, Rhonda, was there with her little girl, Rowan. I was a junior bridesmaid in Rhonda’s wedding in 1995 and now she was attending a shower for my wedding and brought her beautiful little girl.
Mom and Dad drove down for the shower and we stayed with C.C. and Aunt Helen. After the shower (where we ate warm crawfish salad and a dessert called Louisiana Lust– why don’t we live in Louisiana with this amazing food???), we went to Coffee Call for some cafe au lait and beignets. Not that we were hungry at all. I can’t pass up beignets, though.
I was so excited that I had gotten to see so many friends and family, but there was one person that I hadn’t seen in forever that I really wanted to see and hadn’t seen since she got married. My little sis from Alpha Chi days, Lauren. She happened to email me that night– thank goodness for my trusty new pink Blackberry– and said to please call so we could catch up since she couldn’t make it to the shower. I went to her house and we had the best time catching up! She taught me how to use the timer on my camera– and after some REALLY bad attempts at a picture, this is what we came up with.
It’s kind of like I’m taking a tour of my life right before we get married. It has been so much fun! This weekend, my friend, Christina is coming down with her boyfriend and we’re going to a Carolina baseball game. Todd will be away at the firm retreat and it will be great to spend some time with Christina.
Happy President’s Day! I hope I’m not the only one that had to work!
