my favorite things, weddings, 2009

I admit it. I am a magazine junkie. Some of my recent favorites are filled to the brim with a-maz-ing bridal goods that will rock your socks off. Here are my favorites!

From Martha Stewart Weddings, Winter 2009 Issue:

Crate & Barrel - I know this is a huge franchise and I know we don't have one in Montana, but this company is brilliant. They are now offering after-hours bridal registry for you and your friends complete with food, drinks and music. This is THE place to register for kitchenware. Their prices are outstanding and their quality is beyond my expectations. I registered there when I got married back in the day in good ol' 2004, and the silverware we received is still seriously just as beautiful as it was five years ago (it's the Oona line, in case you care). So if you are heading to a bigger city for dress shopping, call them to arrange an evening for you and your girlfriends! Make wedding registry fun and memorable! Woot woot! I think some of Bozeman's popular registry stores should climb on board and do this as well.

A Cakeover - this is amazing. Floraltrims.com is an extremely inexpensive website offering my favorite cake and floral arrangement decors (click on "wedding decorations" on the left of the home page). One of my favorites is the butterflies that can be placed onto a simple cake for a beautiful effect of spring or summer. Have your baker design a three-tier cake of your choice covered in a solid color frosting without any texture, place 30-40 butterflies strategically, and voila! You will have a cake for probably less than $300. This exact cake is on the cover of this MSW issue. I've also seen a similar cake but with hummingbirds that are on a wire, and when placed on the cake it looks as though they are hovering. This site sells those as well! If you want to make it more beautiful, have your cakemaker put it on a cake stand for a little added beauty. Then serve every single memorable cake on the same cake stand . . . anniversaries, birthdays, etc. How fun!

And here is a fabulous way to kill two hummingbirds with one stone . . . if you are having a sit-down or buffet dinner, then break out your floral centerpieces into individual bud vases with flowers that double as wedding favors! Bud vases are very inexpensive, especially if you are buying them in bulk, and you can do clear, which is always the least expensive, or a style that reflects your wedding palette, such as porcelain or wood. These flower arrangements coupled with lots and lots of tealights and votive candles will make a beautiful tablescape, and you get to skip out on deciding wedding favors and spending the extra money on them.

From InStyle Weddings, Spring 2009 Issue:

I love, love, love this idea . . . mydreamlines.com will sketch your wedding dress as a keepsake, to be framed as art or used on thank-you cards. The artwork of Penelope-Anne Altmann is beautiful and the sketch is only $100, which is not a bad price for something you can have matted, framed and become a family heirloom. I think this would be a wonderful tradition to start for every generation, and she will also sketch bridesmaids dresses and baptism gowns. I'm thinking of even having my wedding dress sketched and the girls' baptism gown, since it's the same one my sister, brother and I were also baptized in and was handmade by my great-grandmother (whose name was Grace Kelly, by the way, and she was 100% Scottish. I think I'm going to adopt a Scottish accent just to spice things up a bit. Photographers sound so much cooler when they're directing people with an accent!)

And of course, since posts are more fun with pictures, I will leave you with this. I photographed a Boudoir shoot yesterday (ladies, book one! SO MUCH FUN and a wonderful gift for the groom!), which I can't show you on here, but the girls were working their own sexiness yesterday. And yes, Stella's diaper was changed immediately after this photo was taken :)

Happy Sunday everyone!