First comes love

Le sigh

Swoon!

(From Style Me Pretty)

What a ma(ca)roon!

I adore a macaroon.  No, not the dense coconut-y sticky sweet macaroon, but more accurately the French macaron. This delightfully light and crispy treat also has the unequivocal advantage of being highly photogenic and finds a natural place in a wedding.

You can forgo the traditional wedding cake with a tower of macarons:

(From left to right: Martha Stewart Weddings, Le Petit Patissier, and Mark it With G.)

They're versatile enough to hold their own as a delectable dessert:

(From left to right: My Tartelette, Luxe and Tux, Create my Event.)

Or you can package them up prettily for your guests to enjoy later:

(From left to right: Lavish Gifts, Scott and Jen's Wedding, Celebrations.)

J'adore!

The best wedding march. Ever.

I don't even know these people and it almost brought tears to my eyes.

And if you liked that, you'll also thoroughly enjoy this one too.

Dress detail: The french bustle

The first time I went wedding dress shopping with my friend Kris is when I learned about the importance of the bustle.  For the uninitiated, very simply, a bustle is when you take some extra material of the dress and gather it in a variety of ways.  It not only helps keep extra fabric out of the way (ie for walking or dancing) but it can aesthetically transform the dress as well.

I thought this illustrated the concept beautifully:

(wedding images from here and here)

Like the rest of the dress, there are endless ways of doing the bustle and it really depends on the dress and the bride's style.  I think the one above is an example of a "multiple point french bustle" (also known as an under-bustle), where you secure the fabric underneath at, well, multiple points and you get the little poufs. (For contrast, compare with a single point french bustle)

I'll keep an eye out for pictures of other types of bustles because I think they're a super fun way to personalize the dress.  In case you're wondering, I haven't decided what kind of bustle I want for my dress because I haven't even bought The Dress yet. Still.  Urgh.

Paper lanterns

Pretty lantern projects make me wish we were having an outdoor wedding.

Same with this:

(tutorial here)

Afterwards, you could hang them in your backyard or porch.  If I made these I would tart them up with some ribbons or maybe use printed tissue paper.  Or both, because the version in my head is over the top and still somehow fabulous.

Butterfly cakes

In the list of "wedding stuff" I'd have to say that the cake rates pretty low for me.  I don't have much of a sweet tooth and it kills me to think of spending hundreds on something that will be demolished in a few hours.  Mind you, I have seen some  gorgeous confections that make my eyes pop out and jaw drop, but I know in my heart they don't really have a place in our day.

Now, just because I don't particularly care doesn't meant I don't want it to look nice.  When Kris gave me the Winter 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings I thought the cover was stunning:

A plain 3 tier white cake from Marks&Spencers can be under 200 pounds.  The fabric butterflies are cheaper than I imagined as well.

But say those butterflies are a bit too realistic looking for your taste, you can also put a little DIY time in to create some beautiful origami versions like these:

(from here)

Here are a variety of butterfly origami instructions.  You would just have to attach a bit of wire (or an unbent paper clip) to the butterfly and stick it onto the cake.

Save the Date card idea - photobooth magnet

We've hit a bit of a speed bump with wedding planning but now that the 1 year away mark is quickly approaching we've had to sit up and take notice.

First thing is the Save the Date cards. 

Fun fact: Did you know on many wedding websites people shorten this to "STD cards"?  I don't care if it's immature of me to be slightly disgusted with that, I will never refer to them that way.

We have an idea of what we want to do for them, but I'm keeping that under wraps until they're sent so that there's an element of surprise for the recipients that are readers of this blog.  It's been pretty tricky to come up with something that ticked all the boxes for me:

• Is it within the planned budget?
• Is it something I could imagine someone holding onto, put on their fridge, stick on a bulletin board?
• Is it different enough but still wedding-ish but not cheesy?

That last box has proved to be the trickiest!

Since I can't share what we're going to do, I'll share with you a really cute idea I found - photobooth magnets! AND it's DIY!

From here

I've been kinda hesitant about using a picture of us for these cards but that was when I was imagining formal engagement session photos.  You wouldn't even need a photographer for these (check out the DIY instructions, you don't even need a photobooth). I love that they are useful and it would just blend in with the other usual bits people stick on their fridge.  I swear this isn't what we're thinking of doing but damn if I'm not tempted!

Letting go of Monica

Before today, if I saw that at my own wedding I think I would have a panic attack. All those words, not aligned! Not centered! Uneven! If it's not a right angle, it's a wrong angle!  What is going on?!  (Besides the fact our names aren't Vince and Melissa)

But then you see it in the context of this entire beautiful wedding and it just works, (particularly alongside this image).

The bride and groom are an art director and a style director, so I'm entirely sure this was an intentional element and even if it wasn't I love it for teaching me that it's the imperfections that give something character and depth.  (and how gorgeous is her headpiece?!)

Condolences

Apologies for the silence recently.  A flurry of out of town guests and general busy-ness have had me thinking about things other than The Wedding (gasp!).  I'm also working on some behind the scenes bits but I haven't had the time to really finish it up to kick things off again.

It was nice to be reminded that there's other things in life besides wedding planning (gasp!).

Then this morning Craig showed me an ad on the work bulletin with someone offering to give away 30 (30!) wedding magazines left over from their wedding. 

Kinda tempted but man, I already have at least 10, all precariously stacked on the bookshelf in different states of research.  Plus a binder. And books.

Do I really need another magazine to tell me what the average budget is and make me start (mis)judging ourselves?

Besides, I've already decided I'm not THAT into the UK wedding mags and I'm much more grateful for the issues of Martha Stewart and The Knot that my dear bridesmaids got for me.

And like I have the entire Internet at my fingertips for an endless amount of info and ideas.

In case you didn't guess, 2 people already beat me to the stash so now I'm just consoling myself.