Wedding color palette: What's in store for 2011?

If there's anything that hasn't changed since Day 1 with regards our wedding is this:  I am more than 100% sure that I want to get married to Mr. J!  All the other wedding details have constantly been changing.  (Before) We didn't want to have a prenup shoot, (now) I've been thinking of ideas for it (which reminds me, I'd have to do a supplier spotlight soon on our wedding photographer).  (Before) I didn't want to splurge on a lot of wedding items such as the gown, (now) I seem to keep on finding new pegs to show to my designer that would ultimately mean an increase in the production cost of my wedding gown (scary!).  And for the last few weeks, I have been going back and forth with the wedding color palette I want.

Before, it used to be just neutrals; now, I've started adding sapphire blue to the mix (no, not the periwinkle-hue that most people tend to associate with sapphire --- we're thinking more of a dark vibrant hue).  I realize that I may not be the only one experiencing this kind of situation so I'd like to share Michelle Mospens' (of My Personal Artist) take on 2011 wedding color trends.  There's a lot more color combination out there, but I found Michelle's to be interesting. 

  

Source: My Personal Artist

Our official wedding theme is...

Vintage whimsy!

Unless I change my mind again.  Haha!  Truth be told, I'm already happy with this theme.  So happy and so excited that I have managed to finish my long overdue wedding inspiration board.  Been spending much of my time lately trying to piece together our wedding mood board that I will really, really be proud of.  Tonight, it's mission accomplished for me.

BUT, I won't be sharing this one until it's almost time for my wedding with Mr. J.  =P

I will share though some of the images that I had considered but was not included in the finished board simply because I couldn't use them all.

This is from Australian clothing brand Rose & Ruby.  I've always liked their collections.  They are just the right amount of sweet and romance.  Plus, I love how their collections are always cohesive without being matchy-matchy (the latter being major thumbs up for me).

Vintage floral fascinator from SchickiMickis (an Etsy seller).  Everything about this picture just screams sweet vintage to me.

This fabric and feather flower bouquet is from another Etsy find, Jewel Box Ballerina by Eliza Mariano.  If I had the talent for it, I'd probably DIY something like this for my entourage.  Pretty + Inexpensive = A Happy Bride.

  

When I saw this table arrangement in Style Me Pretty, I was transported to wedding tablescape heaven.

Deliciously gorgeous!  If I remember correctly, Pacific Weddings had a shoot for a Vintage French Farmhouse-inspired wedding and this is the dessert table.  And as much as I love, love, love this picture, I had to let it go because the blue will stick out too much for my own wedding board.  I was, for a time, flirting with the idea of having something blue as one of my wedding color accents.  I finally decided (well, for now, at least) that I'll just stick with the original colors I had in mind.

My October 2010 wedding roundup

Just a few more of the wedding stuffs I loved this month...

Lovin' Michelle Rahn's gowns especially that pretty short cocktail number.

Since it's the spooky month, groove to this Halloween-inspired tunes for your spookfest-inspired wedding theme.  In relation to this,

...why not color your nails a gorgeous burgundy?

Karen Tran and Nancy Liu Chin (together with Preston Bailey, of course) makes my floral dreams into reality.

Attending a friend's wedding and you want that chic Louis Vuitton Monogram Vernis Sunset BLVD in Rose Florentin but don't have the budget for it?  No problem.  Just rent one via Bag Borrow or Steal and hopefully get it photographed by someone as talented as...

...Lisa Lefkowitz.  I have been loving Lisa's work since I discovered it from one of the featured weddings in Style Me Pretty.

Elie Saab's 2011 Fall Bridal Gown collection rocks!

2011 Fall Bridal Gowns

Up until last night, I was still thinking of a motif that I could do for this month.  Alas, I couldn't come up with any.  I got sidelined this month from my blogging duties because I was either distracted with work and at the same time busy with my own preparations for our wedding.  I am currently DIY-ing mock ups for our stationery set.  I want to finish them now so that when Mr. J and I meet with potential florists/stylists, I could show them in entirety the theme and color motif that I want.  Yesterday, I got sidelined again.  I got so distracted viewing the 2011 Fall Bridal collection of several i-so-heart designers that I figured I might as well share them in here.

Did you see Vera Wang's drool-inducing gowns?  Her brides models were floating walking in the runway in ethereal gorgeous frocks.

After making me fall in love with her 2011 Spring collection (one of her gowns will be my own wedding gown inspiration), Reem Acra has done it again.

Interesting veil pieces.  Reminded me of Alexander McQueen.

British designer Jenny Packham is my latest find.  I know.  She's been designing beautiful wedding gowns since 2002 but I've only been familiar with her now when I checked out Martha Stewart Weddings.

I am loving her short wedding gowns.  Seriously.

Oscar dela Renta's retro-gorgeous gown just made me (for a split second) want to do a retro-diner-chic wedding theme just so I'd have an excuse to wear something like this:

There are more 2011 Fall Bridal collections at Martha Stewart Weddings.  Do check them out!

Photo source: Martha Stewart Weddings

For sale... wedding gown?

Last Saturday, Mr. J and I had the "official" wedding budget talk.  I say 'official' because truth be told, prior to that night's dinner at Yoshinoya, we never really talked about the budget.  The only conversation we've had about the topic is when he would tell me to make a list of how much money is to be allocated on this and that wedding supplier then just give him the total amount.  I do not recommend such practice.  

My wedding lesson learned #1 is that you and your fiance should sit down and really, really talk about the wedding budget.  It would prevent (and possibly resolve) any ugly money matters that may arise eventually.

Source: PreOwnedWeddingDresses (Vera Wang's Dierdre gown)

The budget we had set aside for the gown was huge.  I have this dream wedding gown designer and she charges a lot but I like all of her works (even the designs that aren't really my favorite).  You can see that they are of superb quality.  Besides, I have yet to read of an unsatisfied bride; plus, the design I want, if not done correctly, have a tendency to appear tacky.  I'm already resolved to going to this designer, but when I found out about pre-owned wedding dresses, it got me thinking.  Will I be willing to wear a used wedding gown if it means wearing an original Vera Wang or Monique Lhuillier?  Better yet, will Mr. J be willing to sell my wedding gown after our wedding?  I think I am.

How not to overdo your wedding theme

Just had to share this gallery of "Wackiest Weddings".

Source: Yahoo Australia Lifestyle section

Somehow the idea of walking down the aisle painted like Princess Fiona doesn't strike me as "wacky".  But to each his own, right?

Get inspired

There's something about weddings that have always managed to make me smile (on some rare occasion, cringe, but that's for another blog entry).  It may be the gown (oh those ruffles!), the jewelry (unlimited sparkle.. no one can possibly resist this), the event styling (from a simple English garden to an extravagant 'Alice in Wonderland'-inspired theme), the flowers (a rose is never just a rose), and everything else in between.  I suppose it's a grown-up version of playing dress up and throwing a party.  You get all of it in one big event.. and it's for you and your partner!

And because I have been surfing the 'Net for years and years now just ogling at all things wedding-y, I might as well share my finds with everyone else.

Here are several inspiration boards that I've adored over the years:

   

 

   

If you feel like creating your own board, Dessy makes that task easy.  The site also has a lot on its gallery of finished boards depending on the color motif.

Some things change.. some don't.

I emailed a friend of mine (who’s currently working in Singapore) recently.  I was asking her on specific dates she’d be available for a quick dinner since I would be in town for one weekend.  I also asked for updates of her wedding preparations especially since she’s what we consider an overseas bride (she’ll be getting married in May 2011 here in the Philippines – her home country).

I found her reply quite insightful on two things; first, decades ago, grooms were…well, just grooms.  They usually are not very active in wedding preparations and are stereotypically portrayed as the ATM machine of the couple.  With my friend (and am sure thousands of brides out there too), she was telling me how proud she was of her fiancé because of how hands-on he is with the preparations.  Secondly, in matters of actual wedding details, it seems that times may have change and motifs…well, they may also change as fast as a New York minute.  She told me that they’ve managed to reserve the church, venue and caterer already but was stuck with motifs.

When it's my time to do the wedding preps, my own dead-end would be flowers and the overall event look.  I blame Snippet & Ink (http://snippetandink.blogspot.com/) and Style Me Pretty for this. 

How about you?  What’s your own wedding got-stuck-can’t-make-decision moment?

Links.. Links.. Links

LOL.

I woke up today realizing that I had forgotten to include links to the websites that I previously written about.

So here they are.  I highly recommend checking the following sites if you haven't already.

• Martha Stewart Wedding - http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/
• The Knot - http://www.theknot.com/
• Style Me Pretty - http://www.stylemepretty.com/
• Wedding Bee - http://www.weddingbee.com/
• Vera Wang - http://www.verawangonweddings.com/
• Marchesa - http://www.marchesa.com/
• Monique Lhuillier - http://www.moniquelhuillier.com/
• Michael George - http://www.michaelgeorgecustomfloral.com/
• Etsy - http://www.etsy.com/
• Weddings @ Work - http://www.weddingsatwork.com/
• Themes & Motifs - http://www.themesnmotifs.com/

PS. Feel free to comment on any other website that you feel is a must-visit, too! =)

Love 'em websites

Date: June-July 2002

 

Title: Modern Bride

That’s in reference to my first wedding magazine. 

I didn’t grow up dreaming and building images in my head of my would-be perfect wedding.  But I did grow up loving clothes, pretty flowers, and appreciating fabulous room arrangements.  Since a wedding has all that (and more), as I grew older, I couldn’t help but be in love with everything and anything wedding-y.

 

It’s borderline addiction that needs to have a fix. 

 

To this, I have the following sites to thank for satisfying my craving every time:

Martha Stewart Wedding

     The mother of all wedding information resource for me.  Seriously.  If you want pretty, functional, and cheap DIY.. Martha is the (wo)man. 

 

Image taken from Martha Stewart Wedding

 

The Knot

     Before my love affair with Martha, The Knot was my go-to for any bridal craving I have.  May it be gowns.. decors.. or even wedding rules.  Heck, I even signed up just so I could have access to info only registered users are allowed to view.  Of course, the wedding dates and details I supplied were.. far off assumptions I had to make. haha

 

Image taken from Style Me Pretty

 

Style Me Pretty

     This is THE wedding blog for me.  Need suppliers in your area?  Check.  Searching for inspiration boards?  Check.  Detailed real life weddings? All here (and more!).  And don’t even get me started on the site layout.  Style Me Pretty surely lives up to its name.

 

Wedding Bee

     Imagine Style Me Pretty except the blog posts are done by several different people.. throughout the day.  That’s as much as 25 updates in one day.  I love this site mostly for the funny and cute and occasional inspiring stories other brides/wives posts.  It still is useful for wedding-related information.  I just prefer to get mine from my other fave sites since Wedding Bee can be a little bit buzzzzzzzy for me.

 

Rose and Ruby

     When my wedding day comes (note to self: have to get engaged first.. *wink*), I’d make Ruby and Rose my inspiration for entourage dresses.  I just love how a lot of the clothes sold here are wedding-able and beyond.  I also like that their collections are always cohesive.  This is important because I have this plan of not making my girls wear the same style of dress and possibly not the same color (different hue maybe).

 

Vera Wang

     She is couture wedding attire.  She’s proven from one collection to the next why she’s on top of the wedding gown food chain.  She has also branched out on other areas like paper products.  Couture wedding stationery, anyone?  I say, why not!?

Image taken from Vera Wang

 

Marchesa

     I have loved Marchesa way before they officially launched their bridal collection.  A lot of their gowns, red carpet or not, is worthy for a bridal march.

 

Monique Lhuillier

     I was first introduced to her work when she made Lea Salonga’s (awesome Broadway star) wedding gown.  Since then, she has managed to do her big, fluffy skirt plus ribbon combo in different equally beautiful designs.

 

Image taken from Monique Lhuillier

 

Michael George

Image taken from Michael George Custom Flowers

 

     If there’s a stylist to the stars (Rachel Zoe), this guy is the florist to the stars.  I will never be able to afford him.  Perhaps, in my wildest dreams.  But even that is still debatable.  But as I have said earlier, I love me some fabulous room arrangements.  The same applies to event styling.  And Michael George?  Genius.  I also like that in his website, it’s written that they work with all budget.

 

Etsy

     Because it reminds me of Ebay only with far more gorgeous items.

 

Weddings At Work

     Local e-group where brides usually share first-hand experience/information on Philippine-based suppliers.  Very, very informative.  Very, very helpful.

 

     Image taken from Weddings At Work

 

Themes and Motifs

     Keeps me notified on the two biggest bridal fairs in the Philippines.