the fairmount bride

Bridal Style

It doesn't take much for me to fall in love with a wedding dress, there are so many gorgeous ones out there!  This dress is no exception, I think that it is just stunning.  It's so dramatic, but not complicated and overdone.  I really like the layers of the skirt, it lays so beautifully.  And of course the birdcage veil is quite the finishing touch!

 

  

  

  

(photos by Trista Lerit)  

My Vendors

This is just a quick note to give contact information for a couple of my vendors, both of which don't have actual websites to link to on my sidebar. 

The first is for my florist Shea Hopely, who is located in the Jacksonville area.  Her email address is [email protected], or phone, which is 904-334-4048.

The second is for my dressmaker, Kate Ramos, who is located in the Philadelphia area.  Her email address is [email protected], or phone, which is 267-808-2528. 

They are both amazing and I want to give credit, where credit is due. 

Recovery

I cannot tell a lie.  It is a gloomy Monday and I am cranky, tired, I think still hungover from my fabulous bachelorette party this weekend, and well, quite frankly do not feel like discussing anything having to do with weddings.  However...

 

...this picture made me laugh hysterically.  Absolutely what I needed.  

Yes.  I will resume regular upbeat and happy wedding blogging tomorrow.  :)

(photo from [b]ecker)

The Seersucker Suit

I have to admit, there is something about a man in a seersucker suit that gets me everytime.  If your groom is the kind of guy, because it does take a special type, that can pull one off, I say absolutely go for it!

 

(photo from Martha Stewart)

Big News!

It's official, we are a month to the day, when I am going from a "Ms." to a "Mrs."  I thought it was fitting to begin to publish the list of vendors that we are using, each of which I have had great experiences with thus far, and can't wait to work with come October 25th! 

With that being said, I am very pleased to introduce Jennifer of  The Chef's Garden, who will be contributing weekly, with her insights and know how of the wedding industry, focusing especially on food and catering!  I am thrilled to welcome her to my blog, her knowledge has proved invaluable to me with my planning, and know she is going to be a great resource for all you brides-to-be!  So, without further ado, Jennifer's first post...

I had the pleasure of meeting Kristin a few months ago when she came to town for a food tasting for her rapidly approaching wedding.  My name is Jennifer Corrente and my husband, Tony, and I own The Chef's Garden Catering and Events, in Jacksonville, FL.  Kristin is getting married at a venue where we are one of the preferred vendors.  We are an off-premise catering and event design company.  Our roots are in catering and that is what we are providing for Kristin's wedding.  She has a great menu, by the way. Have you seen it?

My mother founded the catering company 6 years ago when I went to college (Go Canes!)  I met Tony just prior to graduating and was heading in a totally different direction (clinical psychology).  However, as many of you probably know, love makes you do crazy, or should I say adventurous, things.  Tony was a restaurant chef ready for a change of pace. I was (and still am) enamored by his talent and was up for the challenge of growing a business.  Over the years we have branched out into fresh flowers, event management and design.  Today, we have this really cool company that we are very proud of, and we know how to refresh the classics, introduce some excitement, and, most importantly, make everything personal!  I have never blogged before and am exited about the opportunity. I have found that there is a wealth of information on event trends, decor, photography, etc., but limited info on food and catering.  I want to help fill this void.  So, let me know what you are interested in knowing about or what questions you have.  I am always looking to be inspired too, so feel free to share your ideas with me.  I look forward to talking with you all soon!

(photo from The Chef's Garden)

As Promised, the Bride's How-To's

Our bride Jen, from yesterday's featured wedding, was kind enough to share some of her planning secrets and how-to's of her extremely gorgeous, and totally DIY wedding.  Enjoy!

 

Christian and I approached our wedding as if it was the best party we were ever going to throw. In light of that, we really wanted the day to be an expression of who we are and what we like. We picked the location, the band, the caterer and our photographers right away. We took our time with the other details. My first priority was cost, paying for the wedding ourselves we needed to try and keep within our budget. My second priority was making things look cohesive. Mostly, things just had a way of growing.

Teacups: We spent two years at tag sales and antique fairs (as did our friends and family) hunting for antique teacups for the favors. My mother-in-law and her sister spent the weeks leading up to the wedding planting each cup with ivy (a favorite of Christian and mine). They watched each cup the day of the wedding and added ferns and other greens before adding the wooden herb tag with each guest name and placing at the table.

 

Champagne: We have often noticed at weddings that champagne toasts are expensive and underwhelming, often warm and not very good. So we tried over a dozen bottles of champagne from $10-$15 a bottle. We picked Yellow for $12 for its great flavor. We then purchased small galvanized oval buckets, wrapped each one with brown napkins (bought off ebay for $1 a piece), filled with ice and places two bottles of champagne in each. This way, all of our guests had plenty of COLD champagne. It also added to our overall table setting. It was a HUGE hit!

 

Flip flops: A co-worker of mine told me about a wedding she went to that had a small basket of flip flips in the ladies room for "dancing feet." I LOVED the idea. At the end of last summer I purchased 80 pairs of flip flops from Old Navy for $1 each (40 brown/40 pink) in a variety of sizes and stored them in our attic for the year. We bought large galvanized buckets, tied brown and pink ribbon around them, tied a pair of pink scissors to the handle (to cut the flip flop apart), filled the buckets with flip flops and put them on either side of the dance floor. I am happy to say that at the end of the day, I only had 2 extra pairs left over! Guests (male and female LOVED them!)

 

Programs:After seeing Kate & Lara's beautiful engagement photos, I asked my maid-of-honor to design a program with one of the pictures. Christian printed them all out on photo paper at our house and two of my bridesmaid's mounted them to pastel cardstock the day before the wedding.

 

Mailbox: The mailbox for cards was an idea that Christian's aunt Lorraine came up with. I was struggling to find a vessel to put cards in that would be unique, attractive and functional. She came up with the mailbox idea, a bridesmaid spraypainted it pink and wrote our name on it. It was a great conversation piece and we got lots of compliments about the idea.

 

Lanterns: I had seen a picture of a tent lit by hundreds of paper lanterns. I sent the website to Christian and he was pretty confident he and one of his best men could build it. And build it they did - Christian, his uncle and many of his groomsmen built, electrified and hung 100 paper lanterns in varying sizes. They were gorgeous once the sun went down!

 

The Tavern: in order to maximize space in the tent, we set up a small easyup 10 feet from the tent for the bar, which we labeled "the tavern." When we met with the rental company about linens, the large tent and dishes, we were originally planning to rent a bar. The woman we were working with told us they had row boat that they use for rawbars. We had the great idea to use it as a cooler and fill it with beer and wine. It was perfect! Guests loved it and so did we. We then filled a canoe with us and put non-alcoholic beverages in the canoe (an idea from our caterer). Our young guests really loved this idea and had fun going to get their own sodas/waters/juices.

 

Thank you so much for sharing, Jen!  Congratulations to you and Christian!!

 

Absolutely Gorgeous and Absolutely DIY

The lovely ladies of Studio Nouveau were kind enough to reach out to me to share this truly beautiful wedding that they photographed in early August.  The couple, Jen and Christian, held their wedding at his aunt and uncle's house in Wakefield, NH.  It is not just the beauty of this wedding that I love, it is that they did everything themselves.  The details are just amazing.   You can easily see a couple that took great pride in making their day absolutely beautiful, and all their own.

This shot is always one of my favorites. 

  

  

  

  

  

Aren't the grounds just stunning?!    

  

  

I love this mailbox! 

  

Easily one of my favorite details of the wedding are the flowers in the teacups!    

  

  

  

 

Thank you Lara & Kate for sharing this fabulous wedding with me.  And stay tuned, the bride herself will soon be sharing her secrets and tips to how they put it all together.  

(photos from Studio Nouveau)    

Hair Obsessed

I am still in the final stages of narrowing down the way I want my hair done for the wedding and need to hurry up and make a definite decision, since my hair trial is this Saturday.   And while I am pretty sure that I know what I am doing, I see things like the fabulous hair styles of the stars from last night Emmy's, and start to take on the same philosophy with wedding hair that I have with wedding dresses.  I don't want just one!  Some absolute winners from last night...

   

 

 

These two are maybe not the most practical for a wedding, but they are far too gorgeous to not highlight...

 

 

(photos from InStyle)

Welcome Bags & Tags

My latest project for my upcoming wedding is getting together the welcome bags for our of guests' hotel rooms.  I had to forgo my original idea of using silver buckets, since the logistics of getting 50 of them from Philadelphia to Florida just became a bit too much.  My mom found me these wonderful gift bags, from Noble Gift Packaging, that were priced well, and came in the perfect shade of espresso brown.

 

I then went hunting on Etsy to find cute tags that I could hang from the bags saying "Welcome to Florida."  I was lucky enough to find Pacokeco's Scribbles, and saw a tag design I really liked, but whose colors needed to be tweaked.  Cohen, the shop's owner, was nice enough to take the design I wanted, change the coloring and add the text.  She was so great to work with, and had a very quick turn around time.  I am currently waiting patiently for them to arrive, but here is a sneak peak.

 

They are so cute!  Thank you so much, Cohen! 

(photos from Noble Gift Packaging and Pacokeco's Scribbles)

  

A Bridal Body

I am pretty sure that one of the most exciting things about planning a wedding is getting to go shopping for your dress.   But, with this excitement can come the shear paranoia and anxiety of getting half naked in front of a complete stranger, and hoping that if you suck in enough, the size zero sample really will zip up.  I notice more and more, when cruising around other bridal blogs, that losing weight to look great in your dress is an ongoing theme.  I know that I fall into this category, I mean, who doesn't want to look amazing on her big day?  However, I offer the notion, of rather than crash dieting and cutting out food groups in order to lose the last 5lbs, what if you made an investment in your overall health, learning to lose the weight in the appropriate manner, so that the 5lbs you lost, doesn't become 15lbs that you gain back. 

 

In step Maura Manzo, a health counselor who will work one-on-one with her clients to help them lose weight, achieve balance in their lives, and lower stress levels all around.  Maura will design a program specific to your needs and goals, and will work with you over the course of three to six months to see that your goals are met.   The idea is to create new, healthy habits that stay with you. It is not about what you can’t do or can’t eat – it’s all about what works best you.  Head on over to her website to learn more about the program, and take the first step to not only becoming a beautiful, and healthy bride; but a beautiful, and healthy you.   

(photo from Maura Manzo)