This week's inspiration:

This wedding! I am loving the lace, one shoulder gown, the simple air comb, the hints of burlap; everything so classy and pretty.

Embracing the great outdoors: Rustic Weddings

A beautiful example of a simple, well done rustic wedding. Outdoor ceremony and reception, dance floor under beautiful strings of light, and lots of celebratory good times. I want people to dance the night away at my wedding, laughter floating through the night sky, a celebration of life, love, family and friendship. Just realized that I'm a giant cheeseball with a Cinderella complex. Let's settle for love and see if everyone joins in the celebration.

I've been corresponding with my cousin via e-mail over wedding dresses, and I think we might have reached a consensus and perhaps even found THE dress for the ceremony. It's airy and beautiful, without being an overdone mess of a Shelby dress (if you didn't get the Steel Magnolias reference, we can't be friends). It has a bit of a floral motif, so maybe the bridesmaids dresses can reflect that with their dresses.

I've decided that I want two dresses for the wedding: the main dress which  will be used for the ceremony and part of the reception, and then change into a lighter, shorter dress for the rest of the night. I might just be looking for an excuse to show off the gorgeous heels I plan on wearing that day. Let's dance the night away!

Don't let Mother Nature ruin your big day

Unfortunately, when having an outdoor wedding there are many things to consider. Luckily, I don't live anywhere near a dessert, but I do have other climatological issues to deal with such as rain. Lots of it. One of the issues with living in a tropical country, no? 

On the lookout for the perfect gown

I am many things, but a princess I am not, so let's just nix the 20 foot train + matching veil, the $10,000 wedding gown by such and such renowned designer and the $700 shoes with matching purse. There's a wedding budget to keep in mind, plus I'm a rather practical shopper and excellent bargain finder, so I have no doubt the dress I have in mind is out there. It just needs to be found. Let's get started then!

    

      Light and airy, it has a rather vintage 60's feel to it. 

The Vintage Wedding Dress Company

BCBG Max Azria Tiered Lace Gown

Lily Wedding

I don't remember where I got this from, woops.

The Limited

Textured bride and another orphan image. 

Something Old

If you're looking into buying a vintage wedding gown, The Frock has a bridal department with unbelievable vintage wedding gowns by top designers. Prices are steep, but you might just fall in love all over again.

I Do by Seychelles

I LIKE:

I Do by
Seychelles

How gorgeous are they?! I'm absolutely smitten.

Martha's Vineyard Wedding

I'm loving this simple, meaningful wedding on Martha's Vineyard. Notice the twine and the mason jars, items I would also like to incorporate in the wedding reception.

Alix & Ollie | A Martha's Vineyard Wedding Trailer from I Do Films on Vimeo.

Go Big or Go Home

Somehow we became that couple that wears matching costumes. Drew's outfit had two secret pockets sewn to keep his cellphone and cash; one inside the red sash and another one somewhere on the white tunic. We never actually discovered the last pocket; that's how well hidden it was. 

Another costume surprise: somewhere around 12 midnight it suddenly dawned on me that my costume was not bathroom friendly. By that I mean, it was so complicated to take off, that in order to go to the bathroom I would have to dismantle the entire outfit. It somehow didn't matter anyway, because I was sweating ever so profusely under layers of makeup, leotards, satin, synthetic hair, cardboard and pantyhose that I never had the urge to use the bathroom until the very end and by then I was ready to go home (attending a civil wedding, driving two hours, taking an hour and a half to get my costume on, and then attending a huge Halloween party all on the same day will do that to you). 

Drew lucked out with his costume because he was basically wearing a pajama. It was also his first adult Halloween where he dressed up. It took some convincing, but once I showed him pics of past halloweens he decided to go with it. We had such a blast!

The eyeliner marker I bought didn't last a minute, so I had to resort to my trusty old pencil eyeliner. Max Factor, you have tricked me! The eyeshadow (Revlon Matte Eyeshadow) lasted All. Night. Long. and all through the day as well. It stained my eyelids a soft blue that could be seen in bright daylight. Not even makeup remover could erase it! Took a couple of showers and some effusive face and eyelid scrubbing to finally come off. 

This is the first time I truly make my own costume and it was worth it! 

Crepe Paper Pom Poms

I decided to try making some big pom poms with crepe paper I had lying around. I used crepe paper, but most tutorials suggest tissue paper. Next time I will be using tissue paper because I think the end product looks better. The crepe paper is simply not stiff enough. But hey, it was fun trying it out!

I was racing to finish the pom poms because there was a storm threatening to rain on my parade. In the end, I wasn't able to take appropriate pictures because the weather turned all of a sudden and it got really dark and windy, which doesn't help when the item you want to photograph is made of paper. The pom poms were bouncing about, smashing into each other quite aggressively (Take that you poncy pom pom!). 

I used clear fishing line (it has a different name in Craftyland, but it escapes me now. P.s. I am probably the worst definition of crafty ever) to hang it from a low hanging tree limb (minutes before it started pouring as you can see from the erratic bouncing of the green pom pom).

Some of the pom poms' edges were cut in a round fashion, while others were cut in a pointy fashion. I am not putting a tutorial because there are plenty online, plus it's a little obvious that mine didn't come out very pretty, but were good enough for a trial run. 

How to make tissue paper pom poms

Been flirting with the idea of hanging big tissue pom poms in the reception hall for the wedding and didn't know how to go about it, but this video makes it pretty easy to do (just realized that I won't be able to use crepe paper for this, as I think it is not stiff enough).

Another great wedding blog and a world of pom poms

This one is in the UK. Love most of the things they have featured, plus it goes hand in hand with the theme of what I would like to do in my wedding. I've got a lot of crafting to do. Today I bought plenty of crepe paper to start making some pom poms. Directions which you can find here.

I also want to buy some yarn to make some old school yarn pom poms. I remember making one as a kid; it was dark green and purple. We'd wrap the yarn over and over around a cardboard circle, then cut the ends. The point was to end up with something akin to a koosh ball (if you had to click on the link because you have no idea what a koosh ball is, I feel sorry for your childhood).

Found a kind of cool looking one shouldered sequined wedding gown for dirt cheap, but there is something about it that is not convincing me; maybe it's the fact that I am leaning towards a more traditional fabric instead of white sequins (very glam, but not exactly what my wedding is about). I'm enamored by lace and would love for my dress to have a touch of it.

Also thought that maybe I can buy a very simple wedding gown and dress it up via a sash (look online for bridal sash prices and your eyes might pop out of their sockets and roll down the hall). Is there space on my ever growing To Do list for a DIY bridal sash/ribbon? Thought I might even make one for each bridesmaid and for both mother of the bride and mother of the groom. Hey, let's do it FOR EVERYONE IN THE WEDDING/TOWN/COUNTRY/WORLD.

At some point this has to stop, right? There is no possible way I can do all the DIY projects I have in mind. I already feel like I'm running behind on stuff. Doesn't help when my mom calls me freaking out about the wedding. I've already mentioned that on the day of the wedding everyone is getting a helpful helping of Valium to keep us all mellow and not raging Type A Bridal party (We of the Bitchy Bride Parade).

DIY Bunting Inspiration

Some of the websites that inspired me to make my own bunting (bunting is a really funny word and one I don't use often, but from now on I'm going to find every excuse to insert it into a conversation).

Vintage Wedding Bunting and Easy Peasy Crepe Bunting. I decided to forego sewing my bunting because I have zero skills and don't have a sewing machine, so I glue gunned them. I did get some burned fingers, but nothing too severe. This was an easy project that took a couple of days to complete. I haven't finished all of the banners that I had in mind, but I was able to make some of the reception banners that will be giving the rancho some life.

I'm also dreaming about doing this absolutely gorgeous lace-ball lamp. Need doilies first and foremost. Wouldn't dream of making them out of paper and burn the whole place down.

I'm loving this Southern California wedding! How tasteful and beautiful.

Bamboo-zled

I've been playing around with ideas that revolve around burlap, twine, bamboo, a touch of lace, and the colors: blue, yellow, white. That is real bamboo behind the blue mason jar. We have a bunch of big, beautiful bamboos growing in our backyard, so I took advantage that the gardener was pruning them and had him make me a little bamboo vase. Clever and cute! 

Palette which I found online and which has become my go to on everything wedding + reception colors. 

Everything is going rather well, except for a minor dress setback. The order for a really pretty simple dress I found online and on sale, did not go through because I am a nitwit and forgot to change the billing address. What aggravation! I thought I could stop worrying about the dress and focus on other crap, but now I am back to square one. Square one sucks, btw. 

Two weekends ago I went on a short trip up to Volcan with my love. I took pictures of lots of flowers and ate my weight in huevitos de leche. It was truly enjoyable and oh so very beautiful. 

Translation: "Whoa, check this out! The plant that lays eggs! Yes, you can touch them."

Burlap Bunting DIY

Spray paint, burlap, cardboard for the cutouts. 

I am sure there are easier ways of doing this, but why go for easy when I can go for complicated and messy?

Do you like my work station? Solid as a rock, ha ha ha (oh...).

The wonderful things you can do with spray paint and a little bit of creativity.

By flipping and spray painting over again you can even make plaids. 

All strung up. 

A bit o'lace.

Polka dots! One of my favorites.

The completed project.

Friggin' adorable!

Inspiration

I literally spent hours last night on this blog: www.kissthegroom.com. She takes such lovely pictures! And her wedding photographs are dreamy and stylish, what a great combo.

Seaglass picked from Taboga's Playa Honda

My mother introduced me to beach combing when I was a small child, and ever since then whenever we're on a beach we comb it for seashells and if we're lucky, seaglass. I think its so pretty when its in a clear bottle. The indigo blue seaglass is my favorite because it is so rare, followed by the palest of pink bordering on white seaglass; it's like a slight blush.