Let the Wedding Coordinating Begin

but wait....my wedding was over a year ago....so this must mean that...

I'M HELPING COORDINATE A WEDDING!! 

That's right! In just 2 short weeks I'll debut as a Wedding Coordinator! 

Back last Fall I met Amanda through my friend Becky. Amanda was engaged and was planning a wedding for August 2010. She, like so many brides I know (myself included), was trying to plan her wedding without much outside help, while also working a full-time job. For those married ladies out there, we all know that planning a wedding could be a full time job itself so if you're going it alone then you're going to need either A) an extended amount of time to plan & prepare or B) some outside help. Well, Amanda decided to do a little bit of both...She has taken her time to plan and prepare for her perfect wedding (about a year long engagement) and she asked me to help her coordinate her Wedding day-of...things like setting up decor, organizing arrivals/departures and timelines and just generally making sure every last detail is attended to. We also began discussing design schemes early on and Amanda communicated to me that she wanted a very elegant, vintage inspired wedding. I LOVE making inspiration boards (decor is one of my favorite things about a wedding....next to the beauty and symbolism of the event itself...the organization of pulling off a flawless event comes in a close 3rd!) so I offered to put one together for Amanda. Based off of the color of the bridesmaid dresses and with keeping an elegant vintage theme in mind, I came up with this inspiration board:

I envisioned a jewel-tone color palette based off of Amanda's peacock blue bridesmaid dresses. The subtle repeating of brooches builds on the vintage theme, along with soft, garden-like florals. The addition of beautiful depression glass also adds to the vintage aesthetic. Amanda shared the inspiration board with her florist...so I can't wait

to see what they came up with. Amanda will be reusing her bridesmaid's bouquets as centerpieces for the reception. We'll also be injecting some Black and White Damask into her reception. Anyone remember these: 

Yep, these are the table toppers that my mother-in-law made for mine and Mark's wedding. I ordered the fabric from buyfabric.com and measured out the sizes then Mark's Mom graciously made 7 of these for me to use at our wedding last year. I'm happy to share these with Amanda for her wedding. We'll be using one on the Bride's Cake table and one on her guestbook table in the foyer entrance area of her reception. 

I'm so excited to be helping Amanda with her wedding. They're a beautiful couple and I'm sure it's going to be a beautiful wedding! I'll make sure to give you all a recap of the day and how everything turned out.

talk soon,

the indecisive wife :)

Conceptualization

It's no secret that I most certainly put some time and thought into planning our wedding. It was very important to me that our wedding *really* represent Mark & I - our individual personalities, our personality as a couple, and our likes and dislikes...all the way down to the food, the drinks, the flowers and the music.

One of the very first things I did when I began planning the wedding was to put together an inspiration board. It was basically a collage of pictures that inspired items or designs that I wanted to incorporate into our wedding. This collage gave the overall style and vibe of our wedding. I took this inspiration board to every vendor I met with, in hopes to give everything about our wedding a sense of unity. I kinda had an underlying theme where I wanted things to coordinate, but not match exactly. Now...you can take that idea as deep or as shallow as you'd like...but I'd like to think there's a little subconscious meaning behind it ;)

Just for fun, I thought it'd be cool to see how the ideas I started with turned into our wedding so I put together an inspiration board from pictures of our wedding. I'm going to start with one of the very first boards I made then progress to one I was using when I was meeting with vendors and then lastly, the board that is made up of pictures from our wedding.

In the beginning our colors were Pale Aqua and Black & White Damask:

 I wanted very pale aqua bridesmaids dresses and white/cream flowers. 

Next, I decided to add purple to our color palette:

I still wanted to incorporate the Pale Aqua and Black & White Damask, but I also wanted to add a very deep purple to the mix that would debut in the bridesmaids dresses and florals. 

This board was just further developing the style of the wedding:

Garden-like florals, toss cones, lots of candlelight, vintage glassware and touches of damask.

This was my Final Inspiration Board that I took around to all my vendors:

There are several items on here that were the exact items actually present in our wedding: the aqua and damask-like parasols, the purple ruffle clutch, the deep purple bridesmaid dress AND my dress. 

And lastly we have OUR WEDDING:

If you'd like to see these inspiration boards closer up then you can view them on my flickr photostream here.

So....what do ya think?? I love how it came together. There are definitely a *few* things that didn't come together completely as I had pictured in my mind, and maybe even a few disappointments, but all in all I think it came out pretty close to what I had planned.  I'll go into depth more in future posts on individual items and each vendor, but I think this last collage gives you a good idea of how the design of our wedding turned out. Also, please keep in mind that the pictures in the collage of our wedding are NON-PRO pics. ....I can't wait to get those pro pics! ;)

xo,

The Indecisive (Bride) Wife <-----HA! :)

Another great Aqua Palette

I need to give credit where credit is due...

This inspiration board that i found on either Snippet & Ink OR Elizabeth Anne Designs ( I can't remember which one - but they are both excellent wedding blogs...check them out!) is where I found the inspiration for my wedding palette. Also, if you know me and have ever been in my living room/dining room then these patterns and colors might also look a slightly familiar!). This board is also very beautiful....I love the warm tones. It's making me consider adding more creams and champagnes or this beautiful dove gray to mine!

Wedding Palette

So I've had a difficult time deciding the wedding palette (surprise, surprise huh??). Initially I was thinking aqua and red with black and white accents. It's a great color palette. My first inspiration for this came from the June/July 08 issue of Domino Magazine (LOVE that magazine, btw). There's a great room in there that's done in the aqua/red/black combo. My fiance really liked the color combo too. After we picked our venue though we came to the realization that the color combo might not work best in our space. We're getting married at an old historic home in Birmingham, AL called the Donnelly House. The ceremony will be in the garden and the reception will be in the house and in a tent behind the house.  The color palette in the house is very neutral - kind of varying shades of creams. I was afraid the red would overpower the decor in the house so then I started looking for inspiration for other palettes. I think what I'm leaning towards now is a pale aqua/black and ivory damask.  What do you guys think?