This next set is all girl. It’s pretty, it’s frilly, it’s totally feminine…
Top Row: flowers by grandiflora, ribbons by Blush / Middle Row: flowers by Soiree Floral / Bottom Row: bridesmaids’ flowers by Blush, pink flower by grandiflora
I am a girly girl to no end, so I love these looks. The peony is hands-down my favorite flower and paired with pretty pink ribbons and details, well, it just works!
Continuing on with our pink inspired florals, I just about died when I saw these gorgeous designs by Installation Floral in Dallas. The various hued pink flowers paired with the lacquer and matte black vases…perfection.
And speaking of modern, fresh designs, I am also loving the oh-so-now purple hues in this next set of flowers. The purple undertones add a bit of depth and dimension, so the end effect isn’t quite as girly as your standard pink style…
Top Left Photo by Linda Baldwin Flowers, shot by China Jorrin / Top Right Photo by All Things Beautiful shot by KMPhotography / Bottom Photo by Waterlily Pond shot by Erin Beach
Pinks tend to go in one direction or another…either a bit red/orange or a bit blue/purple. The purple hues are perfect for a bit more edgy, modern affair. I love the sleek sophistication of the bottom photo…a more architectural approach to floral design.
To cap off our Pink Week Stationery feature, I wanted to share some HUGE news that we have here at SMP! I’m sure many of you know that I have been a huge Lisa Hoffman of Ceci New York fan, for a very long time. I believe wholeheartedly that her work is some of the best that there is and that she is one of the foremost trendsetters in the world of stationery design…
Well, lucky lucky us…Lisa is joining SMP as a featured writer, with a monthly guest blog all about invitation design, color trends and so much more!! Lisa has designed for the likes of Katherine Heigl, Diddy and Billy Crystal and now, she’s joinig the SMP team to share invitation ideas that are one part inspirational, one part educational. Ideas for REAL BRIDES on real budgets and ideas for those who simply love stationery design…
New York Magazine said that Lisa was “arguably the most talented custom-stationer in the city.” She was named a Top 25 Trendsetter by Modern Bride and is regularly called upon for advice by New York Magazine, InStyle, Town & Country, Elegant Bride and Modern Bride to name a few. So needless to say, I am beyond thrilled that she has agreed to be a regular contributor to Style Me Pretty!
You can look for LIsa’s guest blog on the 15th of every month, launching in November. She has so many beautiful ideas up her sleeve, I can’t wait to see what she’s up to! And, to celebrate Pink Week and our new Ceci NY addition to SMP, we are giving away a set of 50 letterpress notecards from Lisa’s Social Collection…
Just leave a comment with your favorite design from Lisa’s collection and we’ll pick a random winner!
For other giveaways, check out today’s features on Chewing the Cud and Byrd + Bleeker, Olive Route, Cat Seto, Love at First Invite and Paperzest. We’ll announce all winners this Friday!
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And the winner is…Juliette!
“I adore her work! She perfectly fits/matches/wears my personal view of how an elegant and precious and unique invitation have definetely to be.”
I thought these pink inspired designs by New York based ABCD Designs Papercupp were so completely adorable, I just had to share!
And check out this next set…I never would have thought to use an elephant motif, but it’s so stinking cute!!!
We have more stationery giveaways to come, so stay tuned!!!
Here is another real wedding by James Abel!
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I believe when you get married, it’s the one and only time you’ll have that particular group of people together, so your wedding should reflect who you are as a couple.
When Elyse and Joe came to us for their wedding in an old Broadway Theater in Manhattan, we were able to take advantage of their love for the theater and the uniqueness of the event site.
photos by Andreas Rentsch, invitation photo by James Abel
We set the tone of the wedding with the invitation, which we handmade to look like a theater, complete with a red silk curtain. The tables were named for Broadway shows — as opposed to numbered — and since the theater was Art Deco, we used deep reds and classic silver containers to style the lobby where the cocktails were served. It was very old school. Inside the theater for dinner, the look played off the rich golds in the space and the dramatic crystal chandeliers. We capped off the evening with a candy bar featuring Elyse and Joe’s favorite candies. Guests made their own gift bags filled with M&Ms, Snowcaps, Juju bees and Skittles to name a few.
LOVE IT! Thank you so much to the oh-so-talented James Abel for spending the day with us and sharing these incredible weddings!
James is back to share some incredible ideas behind one of his favorite real weddings…
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These days when it comes to weddings you can get as creative as you want to. It’s perfectly acceptable to make your wedding as unique as you are.
When NYC restauranteur David Massoni and his fiance Rachel Bergman came to us to plan their October wedding, we decided to do a true New York wedding with a non-traditional twist. She was from Michigan, he hailed from Maryland, but New York is their home so we wanted to showcase who they are as a couple. The planning of this wedding was a balance between utilizing New York as a backdrop for the event and pulling together the details that were most important to the client.
all photos by Whitney Old
The ceremony was held on the water with views of the Statue of Liberty in the distance. With food and wine being so important to David, we allocated more of the budget to the menu. We decided to have a Sunday morning brunch at a park venue. This allowed us to keep the feeling of the event intimate and elegant. We kept the decorations simple because the setting was spectacular — the venue had large windows overlooking the New York harbor and the park proved the perfect spot for wedding photographs.
Lucky for us, Barb has one last real wedding inspiration for us!
With the Empire State Building as their backdrop and John Lennon’s “Grow Old With Me” in their hearts, it was a day I’m sure they’ll cherish forever…
Art and Laurel were such a cool couple. We paired Laurel’s love for vintage flair and Art’s love for the Beatles and created their dream wedding. Our favorite details were the matching Beatles album pins that we gave to Art wear in lieu of a boutonniere and we pinned on Laurels bouquet. Their wedding was held at The AVEnts Event Loft. Thanks so much to Chris Leary for capturing the day perfectly.
Thanks Hatch Creative Events for sharing these amazing inspirations with us!
This next board was designed by Tiffany for her November wedding in Albany, NY. She and her fiance were looking for a color palette that wasn’t too girly but that reflected the warm autumn colors. Orange, raspberry and brown seemed to be the perfect hues….
I love the warm hues in this board…just seems so romantic and cozy!
Stephanie Land, the photographer behind these beautiful photographs, is working on getting me some more images that haven’t already been published…but, in the meantime, I wanted to share a few more that I did have!
More details…
*Jelsen is a designer and designed our invites himself. My only request was that he would use the Kraft paper, because I love the organic look of it. Our RSVP cards where postcards that guests returned with messages written to us. It was great because every day we would receive postcards from around the world. (Norway, Germany, Italy, U.S etc). The envelopes where handmade by a stationer in Chicago, Amber Favorite.
*We showed our baker a picture of a cake we liked and she made it with all the little changes we wanted. Legos has a special meaning to us (Jelsen’s cufflinks were made of legos and my necklace reads LEGO), and she made these great cake toppers for us. The cake and all other sweets she made for the guests were amazingly tasteful.
*Planners, Maya & Sara of Titans of Industry, were kind enough to take on the task of helping us towards the end. Two weeks before the wedding, I realized that I didn’t want to be the one that everyone would turn to for questions on my wedding day. I also didn’t want to be the one that told our families what to do at the rehearsal, so we decided to hire on this great team to help us out. And did they help! They handled everyone in our families SO well, and if there was a problem at the wedding, I didn’t know and I still don’t really know because they took care of it!
Words can’t describe just how much I love this wedding. Sent to me by Stephanie Land, the whole day just seems so dreamy! The couple, Jelsen and Bahareh, have some seriously great taste…throwing a party that anyone would be lucky to attend in Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan…
Some Details From Bahareh
*The theme was cherries and honey and we tried to carry that over the entire wedding. (Jelsen proposed to me in the Cherry garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden).
*We got married by the Hudson in Fort Tryon Park. By the time the ceremony started at 7pm, the sun was setting and we got an amazing view. Since the ceremony was in a public park, we had a lot of “uninvited” guests that were casually strolling through the park, but it didn’t bother us at all!
*Guests were handed programs rolled and tied with pieces of my dress ( I had so much left over after altering my dress) and I walked up the aisle to “My Cherie Amour”, performed acoustic by our good friend and artist, Sarah White, accompanied on guitar by DJ Don Cuco.
*Jelsen’s sister and one of my sisters each read a poem for us (which made everyone pretty teary eyed) and we finished the ceremony by honoring our ancestors. First by doing the Persian honey tradition were the couple dips their pinkies in honey and feed each other to symbolize a sweet life together, secondly the african-american tradition of jumping the broom.
*Jelsen wore a three piece suit from Dunhill with shoes and shirt from Ted Baker. His green socks were purchased at Clark’s Register in Soho and his cufflinks from etsy.
*My dress is Norwegian Wedding Atelier, Agape. I altered it somewhat. I couldn’t find any shoes that fit the image I had in my head, so I decided to pull a Sandra Lee and semi-home make them. I purchased and had them dyed at Coloriffics.com and then made the pearl ornaments to go on the tip of my toes. My veil was from etsy and the lace bolero an Ebay purchase. All the jewelery I wore were gifts from Jelsen from previous occasions except my “something old”, a bracelet that has been passed through generations in my family.
*My Maids wore traditional Norwegian formal gowns (I was born in Iran, but grew up in Norway), which looked amazing in this setting and I suspect they got more attention than me – I didn’t mind at all because I loved it.
More to Come!!
**update…I just saw that this wedding was also featured on Brooklyn Bride, so I am hoping to get some new photos that haven’t already been posted!
Until this morning, it had been a while since I checked out the LovinSullivan site…and wow, I was completely blown away! Their cakes have always been fantastic, but they’ve added some new designs that are almost too pretty to eat…
These cakes are so gorgeous and yet they really don’t take themselves too seriously. They are full of personality and whimsy, perfect for a more untraditional affair, and yet they are so beautiful, they could be just as lovely in an elegant ballroom setting. Although the designers at LovinSullivan aren’t accepting new cake orders, they are featuring an online gallery that could provide HOURS of inspiration!
One of our loyal SMP readers, Annette, recently emailed me images from her gorgeous New York City wedding…and I was floored. Annette designed a wedding that could easily be featured in a magazine, all while sticking to an under $20,000 budget…a feat nearly impossible for a New York City affair!
Photographs by Envi Photo and Kate Leigh.
Here are some of the cost saving tips that Annette discovered…
-First, I used Target.com to find my bridesmaids dresses. They were $50 each and free shipping. I couldn’t believe how pretty they were and how well they worked within my vision. I brought my dress at David’s Bridal, always thinking I would wear a Kleinfeld gown, I chose a Oleg Cassini for under $1500. My guy’s tuxedo was rented and because 5 of them had to rent tuxedo at Men’s warehouse, his tuxedo was free.
-As luck would have it, I woke up on the day of my wedding to a monsoon. After a glorious week in NY, I was completely disappointed. But, I ended up finding these great pink and blue umbrellas at CVS that made our pictures so incredibly fabulous…the rain turned out to be a blessing!
-I didn’t decorate my ceremony at all, I kept the entire area bare. I walked down the aisle with a lily of the valley bouquet, a homage to my mom (she walked down the aisle with the same one) and a surprise! She had no idea until she saw them and then tearfully she began to say how this was the happiest day of her life. I also carried my grandmother’s rosary. My bridesmaids had hot pink bouquets with rosaries that I gave them at the bridal shower.
-Our reception was at Arthur’s Landing in Weehawken, NJ. I chose the site for it’s view of the NYC skyline and for it’s amazing, catering manager, Jody Reynolds. I wanted a NYC feel through the entire wedding and looking endlessly in Manhattan, we just couldn’t afford it. Jody bent over forward and backwards to accommodate our needs within my budget.
-The first month of wedding planning, when I started looking for decor, I saw something on SMP that I loved, terrarium centerpieces. I went to about 6 florists and no one really understood my vision. Seeing how frustrated I was becoming, my mom’s friend, who is a “florist” volunteered to do them. We ended up with these gorgeous, glass apothecary jars filled with moss we brought at a floral wholesaler, butterflies, bees and one hot pink orchid for the wow factor. They were about 15 dollars each and I had about 20 of them, not bad at all. She also did our bouquets for about $20 each.
-I had a local designer, Jennifer Palacio from Laura Clare decorate my reception site. She hung hot pink lanterns in various shapes and sizes across the length of the skyline and we hung a chandelier over the dance floor to separate the dance area. The look and feel was magical. She also hung tons of ivy w/ pink ribbons and more lanterns were used over the bar area.
-One of my husband’s friends volunteered to use his iPod & equipment (he is a musician) to host the wedding. I gave him free range and he and my hubby arranged the night’s music. They surprised me at the end with a small serenade that they both sang to me as I danced & cried. One of my most touching moments of my life.
If it wasn’t for the tireless help of our friends and family, this day wouldn’t have happened.
First of all, I am so sorry that there were not any posts for you yesterday. I was actually in New York for the morning and ended up sitting in six and a half hours of traffic on our way back to Boston. So, I couldn’t get anything up for you guys! Hopefully, the weekend posts will make up for it.
You know, I very rarely talk about food on this blog. And to be honest, I don’t know why. Aside from the fact that I am a huge foodie, I also really believe that good food and good drinks will elevate a nice party, to a truly memorable party. So, I thought I would take a couple of days to highlight some caterers that are doing really unique work with the hopes of inspiring you to think outside the box when planning your own wedding menu.
Creative Edge Parties in NY has such incredibly chic ideas in catering…and yet, the food seems hugely unstuffy and fun…
Top Left: Mini Bistro Burgers with Ketchup and Bacon. Top Center: Boneless Chicken Wings with Celery Skewer and Gorgonzola Sauce. Top Right: Llez Pizzas Pumpkin, Caramelized Onions, Bella Paese and Sage. Center Left: Bruscetta Bar with Plum Tomato and Basil Oil, Olive Oil and Cured Tuna. Center Center: “Creative Edge” Deviled Eggs, Truffled Yolks and Buttered Brioche. Center Right: Raw Bar Alonso with a Cocktail Mignonette. Bottom Left: Smoked Salmon Club Sandwich with Cucumbers, Herb Mousse and Caramelized Shallot. Bottom Center: “Bacon and Eggs” using Six Hour Braised Bacon and Quail Eggs. Bottom Right: Chicken Rillettes on Garlic Bread.
How completely unique is this stuff! I love that it is all comfort food of sorts, presented in such a thoughtful and clean way. There is nothing better than a wedding with your favorite eats in bite size form. If you can convince your catering team to serve mini burgers or something similar at 11:30pm (or right before the night is about to end), you’ll leave your guests feeling both satisfied and charmed.
