book covers worth drooling over...

saw these new book cover designs from fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo on penguin's website... then found images of the back and front from book covers anonymous (which is an awesome blog, btw). wuthering heights and the scarlet letter aren't my favs, but with covers like these, i'd WANT them on my shelves and would probably read them again.

don't learn the hard way...

i've been thinking about this and i wanted to give everyone who may or may not be having a wedding a little advice since i learned the hard way:

friends, if you decide you're going to have an outdoor ceremony, make sure you've got a backup plan in case it rains. no, really... make a rain plan even if you're getting married in arizona in the middle of july. if you don't plan for it, it'll happen.

i was so sure it wouldn't rain i refused to let ANYONE even speak of it... and guess what happened? of course, there was 90% chance of rain on our wedding day so we ended up moving the whole thing indoors. all of us walked down the staircase inside the house and stood in front of the front door. we had enough seats for maybe 60 guests, then everyone else had to stand where ever there was room. my dad, in his infinite wisdom, opened the bar before the ceremony, so that the people standing in back wouldn't be miserable.

all in all, i was really pleased with the intimacy of the service. my maids stood directly beside me and my parents were right behind me... i loved it. but let's be honest, considering that our wedding coordinator had to come up with three possible rehearsal plans and was worried sick the whole week leading up to the wedding, i'd say make a real rain plan when you book your outdoor site. you might not be worried about it, but believe me...someone is.

photo from malisonian on flickr

run... don't walk...

to target. these knock-offs of the jcrew ballet flats are fab, and only $20. wanted them in every color, but i was responsible and just got green...



order the merona madelena suede ballet flats in your size here.

a red petticoat...

can we talk about this fun dress, please? not my style, but i LOVE a colorful petticoat... and the POLKADOTS!





from emily takes photos.

bookshelf love...

the day that we mixed all of our books together was a really big day for us. first of all, it was the day that boone finished putting together and painting our target bookshelves we got for $1 apiece (i know!) then, we ended up on the floor with a bottle on wine for hours unpacking boxes and figuring out which books went together on which shelf and talking about why... (yep, we're serious nerds).

anyway, i love books. i love organization. but i just don't know i feel about this. design mags and interior decorators make this look so cool, but how do you FIND anything you want to read? thoughts? gut reactions?

photos from geekbuffet, bjorg, chotda

julie&julia...

boone and i went to visit the in-laws this weekend and had a fab time hiking and hanging out in the mtns. last night we went with them to see julie&julia and it was ADORABLE.

i had my doubts, but after the credits rolled all i could talk about was eating, cooking, and more eating..plus.. blogging.
my mil (mother-in-law) was so taken with the movie that she pulled out her copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and sent it home with me for a little while. I can hardly stand it... and i HATE that summer is almost over and that, therefore, my cooking dinner time will be cut in half.

well.. if julie powell can cook fab meals every night for her honey, so can i.
so tonight, we're having fried green tomatoes. ;)

a little blog love...

ran across this blog and etsy shop this weekend and spent waaaaaaay too much free time looking around. first of all, i love design of the titles of each post (because i'm obsessed with kraft paper)
second, their etsy crushes are now MY new etsy crushes, and third, i'm going to steal this fun idea for hanging small pieces of art in our office space...

you should head on over there to see what YOU can find.

you're invited!

well, i'm sure you would have been if we hadn't kept it to a very small ceremony and reception... anyway, here is the composite of the invites that erin at lucky luxe designed for us.
i wanted something really simple and classic...we must have gone through five or six designs before we went with one of the more basic ones and used just a touch of kraft paper. i LOVED it. i don't have a photo of the actual invitation or the calligraphy, but i'll see if i can round one up..

thank you notes

who's got two thumbs and is finished with her thank you notes?

this girl. ;)

photo from flikr.

something borrowed...

so i don't have any grandparents who are living, but i was very close to the three that i knew. i thought about them and how i wished they could have been with me an awful lot during the wedding weekend. because i wanted to feel close to them i decided to wear something of theirs during the ceremony. my earrings had been given to me my my maternal grandfather, the brooch was my paternal grandmother's, and the bracelet was my maternal grandmother's that my mom wore at her own wedding. this way we relied on beautiful things that we already had.


my veil was my mom's and even my dress was old... come to think of it, most things i wore were borrowed or old. hmmm.



obviously not everyone have family members that that loved fancy jewelry like mine or a (ack! *cough*) debutant dress to wear, but i'd bet that everyone's friends and family can be resources.

i mean, i know that my college roommates shared a veil and one gal from my hometown wore her best friend's wedding dress a year or two later. i bet stuff like that happens all the time...i know i'd be really honored if a friend asked to borrow anything of mine when she or he ties the knot.

the point is, asking around means that you don't have to break the bank to look lovely on your wedding day. and if you think about it this way then the "something borrowed" is more than just an old superstition, but something that actually makes sense.

our programs...

so we made our own programs... it was kind of a giant ordeal and huge hassle since we stupidly waited until the week before to print them and put them together and then the office max copy machines ate tons of the only green paper we had and kept printing the wrong things. BUT, finally, we were finished and i think they turned out pretty well.




my favorite part was the quote on the back from where the wild things are that read "And now, cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!" this was supposed to signify the beginning of the party, but apparently some people thought it was an innuendo. (can't you just see my cheeks turning bright red at the thought of it...ack! eeek! yikes!) oh well.

a little greenery...

i love greens. they just scream fresh, clean, natural.
hmm... seems like this color palette would have come in handy-dandy last year during wedding planning.

found via desire to inspire.

the deets...

so my mom is really probably the most creative and capable person in the whole world.

i think i told y'all about all the incredible things that she made for our wedding and how special it was to me, but here are some bonafide photos of all her personal details.

for her first trick, my mom made this veil for me the reception! we were worried that her cathedral length train would get muddy and trip everybody up (especially me) so she just whipped this one up after seeing a much more expensive version of it in a bridal boutique.
not everyone can even cut toole straight, much less make a handmade veil out of feathers and silk flower petals!



next, my mom and i took aluminum flower buckets and attached green ribbon around them so they would hang "just so" on the backs of the ceremony chairs. since we were planning to be outside, we knew wouldn't need much to decorate the space (hello... nature?) but we wanted something. these looked simple and still really pretty when the florist filled them with gardenias and rosemary from a neighbor's yard, and a little baby's breath. they smelled just like magic and it was so easy.



now, the my favorite detail...
my mom made us a Quaker wedding certificate! really... she wrote it with her own two hands, and another friend who's also an artist painted a border of morning glories for it. if you don't know what it is here's the rundown: since Quakers don't have ministers, every member of a congregation acts as a witness to the couple's vows. by having our friends and family sign this, we implicitly expressed that they matter to us and that the support of a community is important for a marriage.


that's all for today, but i've got a few more details to share... if you get bored with wedding stuff, don't worry. i'll get back to posting other random thoughts and inspiration really soon!

happy weekend!

sweating the small stuff...

honestly, no one told me that i'd worry about the wedding MORE afterward than i did beforehand. everyone was amazed that i didn't fall to pieces when we had to move the ceremony inside or when my veil came totally out of my hair while we were saying our vows.
"eh!" I thought "who cares? we're getting MARRIED!" but then i started getting bent out of shape a week or so later when i realized i hadn't gotten a photo with both of my parents, and that i had hardly spoken to the guests who had been sitting at tables inside. seriously, i've been waking up in the night tied up in knots about it...

but (FINALLY) i've decided that rather than keep on fretting about it, i'll take a few days to just share with you all the beautiful, special things we made for the wedding and guests that made it extra personal for me. i mean, honestly... my first attitude was the right one: "who cares? we're MARRIED!"


i already mentioned the silhouettes and the homemade praline favors. Now, here's a fun fact about our ceremony site: we ended up getting married in the foyer of a beautiful historic home. we were planning to do it outside in the garden but then it poured down rain the entire day.
instead, we had about 115 or so guests seated around us, our parents and family sitting right behind us, and our attendants standing directly beside us. it was a tight squeeze, but it felt just right and really cozy. we had wanted the ceremony to be small so that those who witnessed our vows were the people who we loved most deeply and who we knew would support us in our marriage. being inside wasn't what we had planned but it felt so comfortable and personal that it turned out to be perfect.

plus, my dad had the brilliant idea to open the bar in the sun room for people who didn't get to sit down during the service. i don't think anybody minded. ;)

feeling a little better...

i promised you wedding recaps a long time ago, but just haven't been able to bring myself to write about it. part of it is that i've been super busy, part of it is that boone and i are having tons of fun being married, but part of it is that i've been a little disappointed with the way some of the details turned out.

the thing about having a wedding is that you only have the one (unless you're liza minnelli). most of us don't get do-overs.

if it rains a ton (and it did) then it rains.
if you don't take all the photos of the details or family members you wanted (and we didn't) then they don't get taken.
if you miss talking to family and family friends at the reception because you didn't plan a receiving line (which we didn't) then you miss talking to them.

the thing is, i just got off the phone (literally, minutes ago) with one of my dearest, favoritest friends, and now i feel a little better. better enough to write about it.