More Love for Sullivan

One of our favorite cake designers, Kate Sullivan, recently updated her website, and we were happy to see several new cakes in her portfolio- especially these from InStyle Weddings "Sweet Inspirations" cake feature.

Acara Cake


Calligraphy Cake


Blossoms Cake


Cane Cake


Boontje Nature Cake


And more new cakes...(also see mod cake below)

Danish Modern Cake


Red Bird Cake

{photos from Lovin Sullivan}

Modern Reception

This is Brides' version of a contemporary reception, with bold patterns and bright colors. Some of it is a little over the top, but I still think Kate Sullivan of Lovin Sullivan Cakes can do no wrong. I especially like the octagon luggage tags from Decorative Things (pattern no longer available, of course!).

{photos from Brides}

Paul Johnson Photography

{photos by Paul Johnson}

Paul Johnson is a super-talented photographer based out of Florida whose work has been featured numerous times in Brides and other wedding magazines. Even more fun is his blog- Paul has blogged about 68 weddings (!!) so far that are so easy to get lost in, I was surprised when I recognized a familiar face after stumbling upon these pictures from the Cox & Brantley wedding (not this adorable little boy, the maid of honor).


{photos by Paul Johnson}

Tim Gunn

Saw a preview for Tim Gunn's new Bravo TV show called "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style" and I literally squealed with joy. I love that man so much- during each season of Project Runway, my favorite treat is to download Tim's podcast and go for a run, I could listen to him forever. So on Thursday, September 6th, at 10pm I will be glued to the TV wearing this:

(I'm not joking, best birthday gift ever last year.)

Blooming Invitations

In our search for the perfect wedding invitation, we found ourselves gravitating toward modern floral designs with either a single or a pair of big blooms.

{Clockwise from top left: Blossom Deary by Cheree Berry, Bouquet by Greenwich Letterpress, Josephine and Edward by CeciNY, and Sunshine by Thistleberry Press}

Backyard Wedding

{photo from Brides}

We fell in love with the pictures from Sasha and Abel's wedding when we first spotted them on Brides, so I was so excited to find more pictures on photographer Mel Barlow's blog, thanks to the girls at SocialDesign. First, we love the portraits in front of this turquoise wall, which the groom painted on a wall in Sasha's childhood bedroom so the couple would have a bold background for their portraits.


And the photos of the bride and groom at the fair...



But Faye and I's favorite part is the actual ceremony, which was held in the bride's parent's backyard. It looks like a total blast, and we love that they kept it an intimate affair in a naturally beautiful (and meaningful) setting.


{all photos by Mel Barlow}

Modern Press

After seeing this post on Oh Joy! about Oslo Press, I remembered these laser engraved wood details from Brides.

{photos from Brides}

The "Just Married" sign and napkin ring are just two pieces from Modern Press's Earth collection, which also includes laser engraved invitations, wooden spoons, and stemware seating tags.

{photo from Modern Press}


{photos from Modern Press}

Enchanted Florist

We love the work of The Enchanted Florist based out of Orange County, California. Pink and turquoise could look too saccharine-sweet very easily (think Victoria's Secret Pink), but we love how the colors come together here. The overall effect is perfectly sweet and elegant. Check out Nisie's featured weddings gallery for more pictures.

{photos from Enchanted Florist}

Bake Me A Cake

I got lost yesterday looking at the weddings cakes by Bake Me A Cake, a pastry shop and bakery in Orlando, Florida. I especially love the quilted details on some of their fondant cakes, and their authentic looking sugar calla lilies.


{photos from Bake Me A Cake}

Good on Paper

We know you have all seen pictures from the wedding of Lisa Wong, the amazingly talented graphic designer behind Good on Paper Art & Design. But we can't help ourselves- it is just too pretty!


{image from Martha Stewart Weddings via Good on Paper}

Of course, the stationery designed by Lisa is perfectly pretty with a bird motif and chocolate, green, and turquoise colors. We also love the calligraphy by Bluebird Studios, as you can get a glimpse of on the envelope (top right) and the placecards (bottom left).

{photos from Good on Paper}

And we love the wheatgrass and twig centerpieces by Nancy Liu Chin Designs...

{photos from Nancy Liu Chin}

Of course, the K. Autumn handmade hairpin (top right) is a unique veil alternative that looks both modern and retro at the same time. We also love that their Boston Terrier, Pixel, was the ring-bearer! Most importantly, the photography by Lisa Lefkowitz captured every single detail perfectly.

{photos from About Weddings}

Little Tree Press

We first fell in love with Little Tree Press, a boutique stationery and design studio based out of Virginia, when we found their letterpress calendar at Anthropologie. Their wedding collection is also eye-catching, blending modern colors and style with the vintage letterpress printing method. We especially love these yellow collections:

{Top to bottom: Southern Charm, The Modernista, Malibu Floral}

We also love these botanical prints with a little retro feel:

{Top to bottom: Polished Petal, Enchanting Meadow, Floral Breeze}

Confetti Cakes

We love these cake designs by Elisa Strauss of Confetti Cakes. She is a former textile designer for Ralph Lauren, and incorporates interesting textures and patterns into her hand-decorated cakes. Browse through her website, especially the specialty section, for more amazing cakes!

{Top, L to R: China Pattern from Brides, Hummingbird from Brides, Dolce from Confetti Cakes;
Bottom, all cakes from Confetti Cakes: Golden Elephants, Embroidery cake, White Hydrangea}

Louella Press

We love almost every design by Louella Press, a line of engraved wedding invitations by the same designers from Two Paperdolls custom stationery studio. I seriously want someone to get this Vintage Wrangler invitation suite and send me an invite. I promise I won't come, I just want to be able to look at it and hold it.

{photos from Louella Press}

Outdoor Lounges

We love outdoor lounges at weddings- they are such a great way to make guests comfortable and get people talking to each other. Plus they just look awesome!

{Top: (L) The Knot, (R) Brides; Bottom: (L) Brides, (R) Brides}

Bridesmaid Dresses

I had to laugh when I read this post by SocialDesign a few days ago because they are so right- the entire bridesmaid fashion industry is a total rook! The truth is that there are so many better alternatives if you just do a little research. Trust us, sometimes non-matching bridesmaids can look eclectic and really cute.

Both of these brides chose colorful bridesmaid dresses, but be careful with this idea- you don't want to end up with a jelly-belly wedding:

{photos from The Knot from Rachel & Mike and Brianne & Derek}

Here the bridesmaids looks are more uniform but still do not matching exactly; in the first wedding, the bride chose a mix of nutmeg-brown and antique gold dresses and in the second wedding, the bridesmaids wore dresses in shades of green.

{photos from Brides from Rebecca & David and Katrina & Jason}

We decided not to have a traditional wedding party because my new sister-in-law is 16 years old and I have one cousin who is 15, so we thought it would be perfect to have the two girls in the wedding with his sister next to him and my cousin standing by me. After researching bridesmaid dresses on the internet, Faye and I were both appalled not only by the style and quality of many of the bridesmaid dresses we looked at, but also the styling of the pictures online- almost all of them feature ridiculous cleavage and windblown hair to the point where we sometimes felt a little dirty just looking at the pictures! With only two bridesmaids, we knew they should probably match, and because they are so young, we quickly decided to look elsewhere like J.Crew, Ann Taylor, White House Black Market, E-Dress-Me, and Nordstrom. Finally, we found the perfect dress for everyone's comfort level at Anthropologie of all places, which actually has a nice selection of both patterned and solid short dresses. We chose the Crosswinds dress in nautical blue, made from summery crinkled gauze with a v-neck and a smocked waist, and for only $88. I should add that I liked this dress so much when I modeled it for my fiance, that I bought one for myself! I know both me and the girls will wear this dress over and over again.

{photo from Anthropologie}

If you are absolutely bent on having your bridesmaids match, one good option is for you to choose the fabric and color and let them choose the best style for themselves.

{photos from Brides}

Finally, we agree with SocialDesign's recommendation to look for designer dresses that will often be less expensive than traditional bridesmaids dresses and will look so much better. Check out these foxy Catherine Malandrino dresses with metallic sandals- if the bridesmaids must match, make sure they all look and feel beautiful and comfortable!

{photos from Brides}

Cheree Berry

It seems like Cheree Berry is everywhere I look lately- I first saw a save the date designed by her in the Winter 2006 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings, and more recently her work has been featured in the spring issue and in the May/June 2007 issue of Cottage Living (via Orange Beautiful). Cheree is a graphic designer and formerly the principal creator of Kate Spade's wedding & stationery line through Crane & Co. before moving back to her hometown near St. Louis, where she started Cheree Berry Paper last year.

Cheree also has a beautiful line of non-wedding stationery designed separately for men and women on her website, and Greer Chicago also recently started carrying some designs by Cheree, including this one that has my favorite tiny red foil bee on the inside of the notecard.

{images from Greer Chicago}

Finally, here is one impressive custom-designed wedding invitation done by Cheree for AmalfiWedding:


{images from AmalfiWedding}

For tips on budgeting for wedding stationery (probably wasn't an issue for the couple above!), read {frolic!} guest blogger Elisabeth's tips- her expert advice is very helpful!

Save the Dates from A Day in May

We love stationery from A Day in May- their letterpress designs are unfussy but sophisticated. A while back, we posted about this great customizable invitation option for destination weddings, but here are our favorite save-the-dates. We love the idea of a simple calender with either your wedding date circled or punched out. Save the dates don't have to be extremely complicated, nor they do necessarily have to match the rest of your wedding invitations that will come out later. If you need to send them out and have yet to decide about the design for your wedding invitations, just keep the save the dates simple, elegant, and to the point.

{photos from A Day in May}

Let's do it all over again!

A few weeks ago I posted some really pretty pictures from a Napa Valley wedding featured on Brides.com. So yesterday I was browsing through the real weddings on Brides, and I stumbled upon two eerily familiar smiling faces...

{(L) Napa wedding, (R) Webster, MA wedding}

This is just fascinating to me: they had a destination wedding with a Mexican feast in Napa, then had another wedding at a lakeside campground near Boston...both of them publish-worthy! There were some repeats, like the dress (above, which I would have been so paranoid about keeping clean and pristine if I knew I had to wear it again), the bride's hairstyle with silk dogwood flowers, and the guestbook using mini business card envelopes...

{Top: (L) Napa, (R) Massachusetts; Bottom: (L) Napa, (R) MA}

What I love about the second wedding is that the bride designed the theme around the ridiculously long name of the lake where they said their vows (the second time)...are you ready for this? Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. I love how she printed it on napkins, the pages in guest book, and it was even written around the cake!

{photos from Brides}

Did you, or have you known anyone, who had two full weddings? Faye, you up for it? :)

Hello Little Miss Engaged

Now that the wedding is over, I can't believe how fast the time went by! I remember one week after I got engaged, a package from my best friend arrived in the mail with a really sweet card and a Christmas ornament that she had engraved with the date he proposed (we got engaged in December). This gesture meant so much to me, so I have vowed to do the same thing for my next friend to get engaged. If you have any friends that are recently engaged, send her a congratulations card for her engagement- I promise she will appreciate more than you know! My current favorite is this letterpress card from Mr. Boddington's Studio, available at Luxe Paperie. And to our new friend, Sarah Dennis: if we knew your address, we would send you this card- congratulations!

{card by Mr. Boddington's Studio at Luxe Paperie}