Bush Wedding Photos

The White House has released a few photos from Jenna's wedding this weekend (they are from White House staff photographers, not her actual pro-pics).

I must say I'm really impressed with how normal and low-key her wedding looked. She literally could have had anything that she wanted...price was no limit...and yet she chose a really elegant and casual affair.

^ I think her dress fit her like a dream. And no stiff, elaborate updo for her...just soft, natural, wavy hair.


Not a handcrafted sugar flower in site....just real flowers and simple sweet buttercream frosting.


^What a beautiful setting for a ceremony




^No tuxes here....the bride's father wore a suit


^The family photo


^The inside of the wedding tent. I don't see any towering centerpieces or matching glass goblets anywhere (but I do spy those chivari chairs!)


^The outside of the reception tent.

Doesn't this feel like a wedding you could have thrown yourself? I love it. If money was no object do you think you'd have enough self control to go low key or would you go all out?

So True!

^ I saw this today over on Blah, Blah, Blahg (the blog of the designer who did my wedding labels) and immediately identified. I start out each day with so many goals I want to accomplish for work, home, and life in general, and instead of getting anything done I'm distracted by some shiny wedding thing.

Yummy Texture from Papel Vivo

I was trying to clean up my list of "Favorites," when I rediscovered, Papel Vivo. I know that letterpress is all the rage, but for a different type of texture, I love what Papel Vivo is doing with embossing. Don't you want to just run your fingers over it? And a bonus feature is that all of their paper is handmade. It just adds to the textury goodness. Most of their invitation sets are around $6.50 each which I think is incredibly reasonable.

Things That Annoy Me About Wedding Planning - #2

If you remember, #1 in my occasionally updated list of things that annoy me about wedding planning, was: Dress stores that don't let you take pictures. And for #2 I'm going to have to list

#2 - Overused phrases in the wedding blog world.

I've been planning my wedding for oh-so-long, and when I first began there were oh-so-few wedding blogs. Now there are oh-so-many and there is one phrase that most of them use oh-so-often. I have to admit that in the beginning I was so oh-so-guilty as well. Every wedding I saw was just oh-so-cute and oh-so-beautiful and oh-so-elegant.

I'm not sure where this phrase came from...I believe it may have been a play off of the truly oh-so-wonderful and oh-so-charming events of wedding planning company extraordinaire Oh How Charming! All of her weddings were oh-so-amazing, so people had to find a way to express that and developed an oh-so-creative play on the company's name. Now every blog, whether big or small, uses this phrase oh-so-frequently.

Well, maybe it's because I'm near the end of a long planning time and am starting to burn out a bit, but every time I see this turn of phrase I find it oh-so-annoying. Sadly, I see it on a daily basis, multiple times a day, on oh-so-many blogs. Now I know imitation is oh-so-flattering, but as a group of wedding bloggers and oh-so-talented writers, lets see if we can all find an oh-so-new way of expressing how oh-so-spectacular some of these weddings are. I'm begging on my oh-so-painful knees, for my oh-so-fragile sanity, or maybe it's just time for me to take an oh-so-needed break.

Tsumami Kanzashi for Your Wedding

Remember those awesome boutonnieres I posted about earlier this week? Well unbeknownst to me they are actually a unique Japanese art form called Tsumami Kanzashi. Apparently, Kanzashi are a type of traditional hair ornament and Tsumami is a particular type of Kanzashi...from what I can tell they are hair ornaments made out of cloth (traditionally silk is used) instead of metal or other materials. It is also constructed using a traditional method. You can read more about it here.

Though normally worn in the hair, the Tsumami Kanzashi we saw earlier were turned into boutonnieres and are from the Etsy shop of GocheMoche. Below are some samples of her Tsumami Kanzashi bouts and pins from her shop. They are a total steal and range from between $8-11

Some other Etsy shops that do Tsumami Kanzashi are Marissa Joanna Rojas :

And AtelierKanawa:

The other White Dress....

I am heading home to NY tomorrow for Mothers Day Weekend. While I am home I will be attending a Friend from High School's Bridal Shower, I will definitely report back on what I see there! Next weekend is FI graduation from graduate school, both of our parents are coming up for it--So I know that we will have a lot of wedding talk the next couple of weekends. However, the Thursday before FI graduation his work is having a gala of sorts. Black tie, men in tuxedos and woman in ball gowns---somehow I have nothing to wear. This has had me in a mad dash on all the normal websites trying to find a gown for Thursday evening! Mama Alexandria and I are going shopping when we are home in NY , so I am hoping to find something than! While I was searching earlier today I stumbled across a dress at Macy's that I think would be perfect for the Rehearsal Dinner, let me know what you think!




^ It is from the Ralph Lauren Collection and I think it is Stunning. It is just what I had in mind!

Handmade by Allison

If any of you frequent the Maryland knot.com board then you are probably already familiar with the work of Handmade by Allison. During her own wedding Allison handmade practically every part of her wedding and now she does the same for other brides. Save-the-dates, invitations, aisle runners, calligraphy....you name it, Allison does it. All I ever see are raves about how much brides love her work and how reasonably priced she is.

Allison has also started a blog and she's featuring some of the items she's created for brides. If your sick of DIY, don't have the budget for a high end designer, and really just want someone else to do it for you then check her out.

All work below credited to Handmade by Allison

Agent Provocateur Bridal Line Debut

As I promised, I'm letting everyone know that the Bridal Line at Agent Provocateur has hit the stores! Some of it is just a little bit too spicy to post on this blog but beautiful nonetheless. Below are some of the more tame options.


^Sophie Babydoll - $250


^Kate Corset - $335


^Sophie Waspie - $315


^Wedding Set Tie Sides - $70


^Wedding Set Tie Sides back - $70

Vintage Bobbies from Sproutstudio

I love these vintage style bobby pins below. They are all from Etsy shop sproutstudio and are such an elegant alternative to some of the flashy blingy hair ornaments out there.




^Daffodil floral cameo - $9.00


^Ivory Roses set- $14.00


^You can get matching earrings too. -$18.00

I <3 Paper-Source....

FI and I have decided on our invitations! As you know from an earlier post, I loved the lady that made our Save the Dates and Engagement Party Invitations--but it was just too expensive, so FI and I decided to take over some of our paper products--okay make that ALL of our paper products. Right now the first thing we need to get done is our invitations. Our goal is to have the invitations put together the last weekend in June/first weekend in July. Since we are currently in MAY ( where has the time gone?!) that does not leave much time!

A couple of weekends ago, FI and I went to Paper-Source in Georgetown on a lazy Sunday. Originally we were just going to check out paper/supplies that we might need and to see if anything gave us any ideas. That was when we found our design. It was one of those moments when you KNOW that is what you are looking for.




^ This picture doesn't even do it justice, but we loved the look of the design, exactly what we were going for and the crimson letterpress was amazing! We are still going to print the inserts and menus/programs on our own, but we will incorporate this design ( they sell the design in stamps so you can use it as you wish!). What do you think? It turns out pricing is only about $100 over what we would have spent for the invitation part and it includes the paper we want and the envelopes we want! We are going with the Stardream Quartz paper and Stardream Mars Red envelopes . We are also going with a Silver pocket fold's that I will show you at a later time. I am now looking for envelope liner paper ( I haven't found anything I LOVE yet)--I must admit though it is very exciting to see the color scheme and all of these pieces fall together!

Couture Cupcakes - Cupcake Bouquets

Today Daily Candy had a great post about DC based cupcake creators Couture Cupcakes. Not only do they design beautiful cupcakes, but they can also create cupcake bouquets! How much fun would those be as a centerpiece at a wedding? And instead of taking home the centerpieces at the end of the night, each guest could just eat their own cupcake!

This also seems like something you could try yourself if you're throwing a bridal shower.

The Names They Are A Changin

Leave it to California to always be a step ahead. Thanks to a lawsuit filed by a man from Los Angeles, it is now just as easy for a Californian man to take his wife's last name as it is for her to take his last name!

Michael Buday wanted to take his wife's last name and was surprised to find that doing so would be a lot more complicated and expensive then the other way around. So he and his wife filed a lawsuit, and now state law guarantees the rights of both married couples and registered domestic partners to choose whichever last name they prefer on their marriage and driving licenses.

I'll be taking my fiance's last name, but I do believe it's an individual choice and people should be able to chose whatever name or combination of names that best suits their situation. Yay for California!