Finding Inspiration III

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I thought that I would leave you with some inspiration for the long holiday weekend. The images above are all from my favorite floral designer, Vicki Sanders. She and her team at Branching Out are quickly becoming the most innovative and sought after event designers/florist in the South. Yes that is her on the bottom row.

A while back I clued you in on a wonderful rental company that I always seek out when I am in need of inspiration, Fabu. I also gave Sarah a whack of the pencil for not having a great website so I didn’t have to fight the traffic to get to her shop. Well great news, Sarah’s website now has an extensive catalog of fabulous thing that you can peruse to your hearts content. Not only that, but she has opened a new show room for the event rental side of her business to make viewing easier. Incidentally, if you like Sarah’s taste as much as I do you should check out her gift shop. With the holidays just around the corner I know I’ll be there at least a few times to find the perfect little gifts for everyone on my list.

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Filed Under: Finding Inspiration, Flower Friday, Real American Wedding, Wedding decor Tagged With: , , , ,

Virtual Wedding Planner Tool

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By and large I am not a fan of big box stores; I much prefer the hands on customer service at a local salon. Having said that, one of them has done something right.

David’s Bridal has launched a virtual wedding planning tool that I can see as the cause of countless hours spent online. Dress Your Wedding allows you to play around with all the many different aspects of the look of your wedding. You can customize the coloring and physical features of the bride and groom and all the members of the wedding party. Add a bridesmaid, delete a groomsman, shrink one to a ring bearer. Mad at the groom, insert his best friend, is after all a virtual world. What fun.

That is just the beginning of the fun. As you would expect you can play dress up to your hearts content (as long as you want something from David’s). Like the style of the dress but not the color? Change it.

Keep going and you can just move your wedding if you don’t like the location. They offer a variety of different ‘location’ backgrounds from which to choose. Of course you can also manipulate a variety of little things like flower color and such.

I wouldn’t say that this is the planning tool to end all others I’m just saying it is a heck of a lot of fun and even if you aren’t planning on shopping at David’s you can still play with their toys. Hehe

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J. Jennings Bridal Collection

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I stumbled upon the fabulous designer Jason Jennings, J. Jennings Bridal Collection on Monday. Jason’s range is full of interesting lines and gorgeous fabrics. One of the hallmarks of his Spring/Summer 08 collection is bead encrusted cutwork lace. The gown Jason is holding is a good example, you get a taste of it in the straps but those straps fan out across the shoulders accentuating the cowl draped back. His gowns are not for the faint of heart, but if you have the figure to pull them of they are truly stunning. Oh, and Jason is a darling.

J. Jenning Bridal Collection is available in the U.S. at Kleinfelds.

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Trend Watch/ Harrogate

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The first trend to really pop out at me for Spring/ Summer 2008 is about the fabrics. There is an abundance of sheer fabric overlays done over a soft satin base. On some the base color is white or ivory with the overlay adding a bit of color but mostly it is the other way around. There are gowns with spun gold under and sheer white lace over, or a rosewood base with a sheer chiffon overlay. Quite often the overlays are embroidered or lightly beaded.

The other trend has to do with the hem lines. I saw several gowns yesterday with fuller A-line skirts that had outer layers getting progressively shorter revealing either beautiful laces underneath or heavier satins and taffetas in a tiered effect.

Big on the runway were pleats. Any thing pinch pleats was in. Used in the beautifully soft sheer fabrics being employed it was adding a very flowing fullness over a touch more fitted gown on up to the other extreme of fullness. All in all a soft romantic look.

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Day One at Harrogate: Friends Moving Up

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Today was about connecting with old friends.

Friend of the Dish, Leanne Stoiche has taken the leap of launching her own line, Tsarina Couture.Quiet sophistication says it all in a phrase. I know she is launching for Spring/Summer in the UK market but I don’t have any word on when she will hit the US. If you are interested drop me a line and I will let her know.

Another dear friend, Rani Totman and St Pucchi are showing for the first time at Harrogate. Lucky me! I got a sneak peek of the line almost two months before it launches in the US. All I can say is WOW! Of course if you have been reading the dish for a while you know that this is one line I just can’t be objective about, I love Rani’s work. End of story. I will have a full picture editorial after couture week in New York.

I also saw several new designers that I will get you more details and images for tomorrow. I also say the new range from Sophia Tolli, again, full details tomorrow.


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What Not To Do

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~sigh~ every now and then I wonder what planet some brides really live on.

I met my friend Courtney for lunch last week. Courtney has lovely shoulder length blond hair, or I should say did have. What she had on Friday were four hours worth of hair extensions. When I asked her about it she laughed and then almost cried at the general absurdity of the situation.

Courtney is in a wedding in 2 weeks and the bride has insisted that her bridesmaids have hair extensions put in so that they can all have the same updo! Excuse me, that’s excessive. My question was why so early? “So we have time to learn how to take care of them before the wedding” was Courtney’s dead panned response.

OK, come on. Can we all not clearly see the insanity in this? Is this bride even cognizant of what she is doing at this point? The bridesmaids were also required to have their gowns at the MoB’s house in Michigan 3 weeks before the wedding so that mom could make sure that the bustles were all identical and the bride could be reassured that they were there on the wedding day. Wonder if identical panties are required. They were allowed to choose their own shoes…as long as they were black strappy sandals with 3’’ heel. Hmmmmmm.

At what point do you just have to say enough is enough? Is it a wedding or a Busby Berkeley musical?

To add further insanity to the madness; Courtney is a first class wedding and event planner. She has worked all over the world for a client list that reads like a who’s who.

Her offer of coordinating the wedding as her gift was turned down.

Courtney has promised a full review upon her return, assuming she survives.

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Filed Under: wedding humor, Wedding planning advice, What Planet? Tagged With: , ,

Escort Cards

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Maybe one of the hardest tasks you can take on in getting ready for your wedding is planning the seating arrangement. You know what I mean, where are you going to put weird old Uncle Lou that he won’t offend your guests and where are you going to seat the boy’s frat brother that has dated and jilted almost every woman at the wedding? The last thing you want is bloodshed after all.

Since you have gone to all that work don’t you think that the escort card table deserves to be just a little special? I love it when the escort card table is the talk of the cocktail hour, it becomes the centerpiece of the room and gives your guests an excuse to meet and mingle while they seek out their card. So…let’s give them something to talk about.

Here are some galleries that have some interesting ideas.

The Knot

Flickr

Martha Stewart Weddings

Think outside the box. So often I see beautifully lettered very formal escort cards just set up on a table. Yawn. How about tying a very simple card to a small favor box, or pinning them to a board or a “bouquet’ of branches, if its Christmas hang escort card ornaments on a tree. Use your imagination and have fun.

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A Most Elegant Reception

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I love this head table; if you are going to have one you might as well do it all the way. All told, this table seated 30 and visually dominated the room with the other tables dancing around it. Centrally located in the enormous ballroom of theLoew’s Vanderbilt Plaza it edged up to the dance floor.

Since I was there for the floral, I have added some pictures of a few of the different centerpieces we used. I think that large glass cylinder is absolutely gorgeous.It is filled with dendrobium orchids and ivory rose petals

Reception décor by Alice Hendry, wedding coordinator, Branching Out event floral and design and T & M Event Rental
All images David Wright Photography

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