This picture makes me smile. You just know that little girl felt like the most important person there for the rest of the day! Photo by Justin Hackworth.

I actually have nothing against Shirley Temples — those sweet concoctions of lemon-lime soda and grenadine. But I don’t drink, so it always makes me happy when I go to a restaurant, and they have interesting non-alcoholic drinks that don’t involve cherry syrup (my most recent favorite involved apple cider, seltzer, and a secret fruit ingredient I’m still trying to figure out).


Homemade Ginger Ale {Gourmet, via Epicurious}

I’ve been noticing this trend more and more , and it seems I’m not the only one. Last month, the New York Times ran a piece on the rise of “mocktails” in New York and I, for one, applaud the consideration on the part of New York’s dining establishments. It’s long been a frustration of mine that those of us who choose not to drink are limited to soda (which I don’t often drink because of an allergy), and water (although sparkling water is lovely). Where’s the creativity for us?

All over the place, it seems!! I loved some of the descriptions in the NY Times article (which I came across courtesy of the Culinary Crafts blog): Asian citrus with rose syrup, pomegranate with lemon-lime, chamomile-grapefruit and hibiscus…even if the flavors aren’t your cup of tea, you have to admit that they sound interesting, and far more grown-up than that cherry syrup!

Hibiscus Punch {Outdoor Entertaining, via Epicurious}

When my husband and I got married, having an interesting option for the toasts was important to us. I love sparkling apple cider, but for our wedding, we wanted something a little different, and the Brick Hotel, where we had our reception, was kind enough to accommodate our wish with a signature non-alcoholic drink. I don’t remember what was in it now, but it was pink and fizzy and delicious (I tried to convince my husband that it was really light red, but I’m not sure he bought it!).

Papaya Melon Citrusade and Watermelon Lemonade, both from Martha Stewart.

If you are like us and looking for a fun, non-alcoholic signature drink for your reception, there are so many great options out there. What’s your favorite?

I am what might charitably be described as Type-A…all the way! So when it came to planning my wedding, I didn’t just have a notebook, I had a notebook, a file folder, a binder, an online wedding file, and a step-by-step guide to our big day. As you might imagine, then, wedding organization is a topic that is near and dear to my heart.

Let’s take a look at some of your wedding planning and organization options—mix and combine as much as you like to find your wedding planning style!

Wedding Planning Professionals
First, a word about wedding planning professionals. I cannot stress how critical it is to have someone else to take care of the details in the days leading up to your wedding. There’s a lot of talk now about “day-of” planning packages, but personally, I’m not a fan. If you were NASA, would you want a new pilot to step in on launch day? Well, same thing with your wedding! If you’re going to take care of most of the details yourself and then hire someone to come in and help you pull it together, I recommend bringing them in at least two weeks before your wedding day. Take my word for it, the last few days before your wedding are stressful enough and you don’t want to be trying to bring someone up to speed on top of everything else. Plus, their professional reputation is on the line! Any planner worth their salt is going to want to start working with you before the morning of the wedding — if someone offers to charge you $200 to come in that morning and take care of things for you…run the other way, fast! The money can be spent on better things than handing over your wedding to someone who hasn’t been involved in the wedding before the day of!

If you can hire a wedding professional to help you design, plan and coordinate your wedding, do it! You can still be involved in the planning, and you won’t have to deal with adding hundreds of wedding tasks to your already busy schedule — you’ll have someone to help you through all that!

If you can’t hire a wedding professional to help you with (or handle) the details, then make sure you have designated family and friends standing by to help, and make sure they know who is doing what — true funny story from my wedding: I got a call in the limo asking if I knew where the toss packets were! Um…not in the pocket of my wedding dress! Which goes to show, even the most Type-A people can overlook details (like asking someone to take care of the toss packets!), which is why it is CRUCIAL to have help on your wedding day. Personally, I recommend starting that policy a few days before your wedding. Just like it’s a good idea to take time to enjoy being engaged before you jump into wedding planning, it’s nice to have a few days to savor being almost-married.

If you’re going the DIY route, there are a multitude of wedding planning tools out there!

russell+hazel Wedding Tools

If you’re like me and still love writing things down, then russell+hazel is about to be your new best friend. They have a wedding organizer, planning notebook and lots of other wedding prettiness to keep things organized without looking cutesy, which you know I abhor :)

As much as I loved my paper notebook, I did most of my planning online, and there are so many great options out there. A few of my favorites:

WeddingWire
You can look at vendor reviews (including those who have received WeddingWire’s Bride’s Choice Awards), keep track of your guest list and RSVPs, and manage all of the other aspects of your wedding using WeddingWire’s planning tools. I primarily used WeddingWire when I was planning my wedding.

Google for Weddings
A new option on the online wedding planning scene, Google for Weddings is a joint collaborate between Google, Michelle Rago, and Style Me Pretty. If you’re a fan of Google Docs, this one is for you!

Evernote
No, it’s not a wedding planning website, but I use Evernote for everything. Every single thing I plan, from a small dinner to a big shindig, from grocery lists to daily downloads (speaking of which, are you participating in The Challenge?), gets its own entry in Evernote. You can store text entries, photos, web clips, scanned notes (text inside your images is searchable). You can store anything. Seriously, if Evernote went down I would be in big trouble!! 

And because I can’t end a post without sharing a gorgeous inspiration photo, how great of an idea is this to dress up your wedding idea board?

Corkboard and shutters? Yes, please! Photo via Laura Winslow Photography.

How are you organizing your wedding planning details?

Elopement + modest style = gorgeousness. Photos by Lang Photographers, via Ruffled.

Having spent a good of my childhood in Pensacola, FL (aka practically Alabama!!) and Tennessee, I am fairly conversant in Southern wedding traditions. Including bridal portraits, usually displayed at the wedding or reception. I didn’t choose to go that route; I’m shy enough that I threatened, on my wedding day, to barricade myself in my dressing room and make my husband and our pastor come to me, rather than walk out in front of everyone! Luckily, my sister and cousin talked me down off that particular ledge, and the ceremony went off without a hitch, but having a portrait of myself on display was simply not going to happen!

I might have had to make an exception, though, for a custom bridal illustration from The Illustrated Bride. As a wedding gown designer, artist Jennifer Hancock saw how much sentimental meaning those first sketches of a bride’s gown were, and the concept for The Illustrated Bride was born!

Jennifer creates custom illustrations from photos of your wedding gown and/or bridesmaids’ dresses, giving you a gorgeous keepsake to complement your wedding album and remember your big day!

Here are two examples of Jennifer’s work, with the wedding photo that inspired her illustration:

Aren’t they great? Jennifer also does technical sketches, for any brides who are interested in designing their own gown, like many of you may be in the process of doing. Wouldn’t this make a wonderful wedding gift (drop liberal hints as necessary) or bridesmaids gift?

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday…I was in bed all day, fighting the flu (or The Plague, as I assured my husband in my more melodramatic moments). Today it looks like I’m going to remain in the land of the living, so I’ll have a couple of posts to make up for it!!

Did you see this wedding? Well, all of the gorgeous photos of the dress made me curious about the designer. So I did a little bit of research on Melissa Blackburn and she definitely has a new fan!! Here are a few of her custom dress designs:

This dress is definitely one of my favorites:

{Photos by OpieFoto}

I love the Regency feel of the ruffles on this dress:

{Photo via Melissa Blackburn}

She also does other dresses too-here’s one she altered for an engagement shoot:

{Photo by Katherine Loveless}
Melissa has some photos of her work on her website, but many more on her blog. Go check it out!!

Although this was a winter wedding, the bride’s bright shoes and that fun balloon remind me that spring is coming! Photography by Elisabeth Kate Photography. Wedding featured on Style Me Pretty.

Happy Friday, everyone! As I’ve mentioned before, I love paper. All things paper. So what better way to head into the weekend than with a look at some paper loveliness? Today, I wanted to share one of my favorites: Lion in the Sun.

At their Park Slope store, they produce such gorgeousness as these invitations:

I am totally in love with these white-on-black invitations. In. Love.

Vintage newspaper style. Be still my beating heart. Seriously? So great.

Since not all of us can make a trip to Brooklyn for our wedding invitations, the brilliant people at Lion in the Sun Park Slope decided to share the love with the rest of the world, digital style. They launched their online wedding invitation shop, PostScript Brooklyn, in October 2010. 

Aren’t they gorgeous? Check out more of their work on the PostScript Brooklyn and Lion in the Sun Park Slope websites.

One Mother’s Day when I was young, my sister and I discovered a store that let you make your own custom lotions and perfumes (I’m afraid the name has disappeared into the years) and created a custom scent for our mother. Ever since, I’ve been fascinated with the idea. So when I saw Leila’s bridal shower last year, I was jumping-up-and-down excited about the perfume station.

{Photo by Jessica Claire}

When I saw that it’s creator, Ka-mil-yin, was based in California, I will admit that I was a little crestfallen. So imagine my delight when I visited their website again after seeing yet another gorgeous bridal shower, and discovered that they have a DIY version for those of us who don’t live in sunny San Diego!

Available for groups from 10 to 75, these kits come with roll-on perfume bottles, fragrant oils for your guests to mix, as well as step-by-step instructions and suggestions for blending oil. Basic labels are included, but you can also have custom labels designed to fit your party.

{Photo by Jessica Claire}

Wouldn’t this be a great activity to do with your attendants, or for your bridal shower? What scents would you choose?