Okay, here are some ideas that Laura took from her recent trip to Paris on wedding bouquets. Brace yourself, people…these bouquets are kind of amazing.

Fleur couture. In addition to deriving inspiration from history and nature, French florists are influenced by haute couture fashion, which creates incredible excitement and innovation in their designs. In my strolls through the Parisian fashion district, I noted how the new trends – structured, architectural shapes, strong, primary colors, exquisite hand-detailing (ruffles, layers, pleats), etc. will provide rich inspiration for nouvelle bouquets this season. To create the fleur couture style, use fashion-forward colors in chic monochromatic combinations, incorporate layers of textures (including a variety of natural materials), and add special flourishes and finishing touches (plaid ribbons, tweed wraps, jewel accents) fresh from the fashion runways.

More to come!

We are chatting with Laura Dowling of Interieurs et Fleurs about her most recent trip to Paris…she’s sharing the latest trends in Parisian Floral Designs. Let’s face it, this really is like a wedding blogger’s dream come true.

Marie Antoinette luxe. As enduring style icon and the archetype of luxe, Marie Antoinette reigns as the ultimate taste-maker, and her legacy continues to influence contemporary trends in French fashion, décor, and floral design.  At the Grand Palais, Marie Antoinette’s objets de luxe were celebrated in a special exhibit that generated rave reviews and renewed interest in her vision.  To achieve the look of romantic decadence and sumptuous opulence in your party décor this season, incorporate signature design elements such as boules de plume (feather balls), romantic flowers (Yves Piaget garden roses), and layers of posh fabrics (tulle, silk, taffeta).  Use rich color schemes (French blue and silver, Versailles pink and gold, royal purple and peridot green) to create a sense of unabashed, over-the-top, classic French style.

Thank you so much, Laura, for sharing these incredible ideas…I am kind of in love with the overflowing, completely romantic style of these arrangements. But, I have to say, this next one is actually one of my favorite (along with the very first one that I posted earlier) as purple is just one of those colors that I am nuts about this season. Plus, it’s kind of Martha Stewart meets Abby Larson…Tailored and elegant, with a bit of flair.

Stay tuned to find out what Laura’s doing with bouquets!!

Our resident Parisian floral expert, Laura Dowling, has been at it again. Some of you might remember her incredible feature that we posted a while back on Style Me Pretty (you can see the full posts here and here) that I am literally still getting emails about. Needless to say, I am so excited that Laura is back to share her adventures in Parisian Floral Designs from her latest trip to Paris!

From Laura Dowling of Interieurs et Fleurs…

Bonjour!  I am happy to be back at Style Me Pretty, and am excited to tell you about the latest Parisian trends.  This summer, I travelled to Paris for special classes in French floral design, with an eye towards gathering new ideas for the fall season. Several top designers at L’Ecole des Fleurs and the studio of Pascal Mutel shared their latest tips and techniques for creating cutting-edge floral decor, fresh color palettes, and chic nouvelle designs.  The results were magnifique!  We made lush, garden-style bouquets with tumbling vines and branches, adorable country-style bouquets that incorporated fruits and vegetables from the French markets, and haute couture arrangements that were based on colors and trends from the Parisian fashion runways.  Here are all the details, including new ways for you to use romantic French flower trends in your own wedding and event décor now and in the upcoming seasons…

Bouquet végetal. Fruits and vegetables, always a key ingredient in the French bouquet, are especially au courant this season. At Catherine Muller’s design studio, we added a sprig of plaintain bananas, a single courgette (zucchini), and a ripe plum to a romantic bouquet of blue and purple hydrangea and pink garden roses.  Other ideas include surrounding a vase of elegant white lilies with fresh green beans and using large orange carrots to form the base of a striking bouquet of fuchsia phaleonopsis and pink mokara orchids.  Fruits and vegetables add color and substance to floral arrangements, making the “bouquet végetal” not only trés jolie, but cost-effective, too!

So much more to come!

And I promise you’ll love these dresses too! As I mentioned yesterday, Bridget owns this lovely boutique and also happens to be the wife of Nick Brown, a Style Me Pretty favorite! But back to the dresses! They are oh-so charming with their simple silhouettes and modern touches. Truly, these chic dresses make every bridesmaid beautiful! Bella Bridesmaid features dresses from Jenny Yoo (another SMP favorite), Charsa, Two Birds and more!

These Vendors are members of our Little Black Book.
For membership information, click here

Bridesmaid

Jenny Yoo

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Here is the last bit from Beth and Mike’s GORGEOUS real wedding. I am so impressed that this lovely couple pulled off this beautiful affair for less than $10,000. Just goes to show that a little DIY and a great sense of style go a long way in creating an affair that you and your guests will always remember!

From the beautiful bride, Beth…

For another little touch…we designed custom menus. I printed out the menus using luxe white cards and used as matting some country floral wrapping paper that I also found at paper-sourceand cut to size.  I taped the menus to table tents also from paper source.  On the other side of the menus were the table “numbers” which were actually locations that were significant to my groom and me.  We had an Oberlin table (where he went to college), a “Dominican Republic” table (where we were engaged and went on our honeymoon),  a Red Hook table (where he used to live while we were in a long distance relationship), etc…  I found pictures of the locations on the internet and printed them out on cardstock and used the country wrapping paper as matting again. 

The out of town bags were a real labor of love, as well.  I bought a bunch of reusable canvas bags from cheaptotes.com.  I printed the cardinal image on transfer paper, cut out the cardinals and ironed them onto all the bags.  I bought various snacks (fruits and nuts, peanuts, goldfish, bottled water, gum, cheerwine (the softdrink of North Carolina).  I filled them up in bags I bought from Nashville wraps and used lables with the cardinal on it to seal them. 

A few other tidbits…My hair and makeup were done by Salon Medusa, which, along with my caterer, I can’t recommend highly enough.  I walked into that salon the day of the wedding a wreck and walked out beaming.  They knew exactly what type of style I was going for a did a great job. 

For the first part of the reception, we used a jazz band, run by Wally West, (my sister, who is a professional pianist knew them and recommended them highly and they were great!). Wally became our DJ the last part of the wedding, where we had him play (almost exclusively) Motown (or Motown-era) songs.

Also, we found our photographer, Linday Brooke Emeigh, on Craigslist (in Greensboro) about 2 weeks before the wedding. She was just starting out and is working to build her portfolio, so she was really inexpensive.  We were planning on not having a photographer at all (!) to cut costs since many of our guests were professional photographers, but I’m glad I did now. The photos all turned out beautiful!

Thank you so much to Beth and Mike for sharing their big day with us! And, if you are a DIY lover like myself, I would love to see your favorite DIY projects for our contest. The deadline for entries is October 15th, so you have a bit of time to craft something fun!

Lucky for us, I still have quite a bit more to share with you from Beth and Mike’s DIY inspired wedding!

photographs were taken by the oh-so-talented Lindsay Brooke Emeigh

From the bride, Beth…

In terms of decor, we bought the paper lanterns from Target and hung them up ourselves using lightbulbs and wire. Turns out we didn’t need as much light as we originally thought (even though the farm gets incredibly dark at night).  We had a “red light” section, too, where the bar was, which we made by hanging up red lanterns and tiny lights on an old oak tree.

The flowers were from Corum’s, in Pleasant Garden, North Carolina (very close to my family’s farm).  I have an Aunt who works for a funeral home and recommended them highly.  They grow their own flowers there.  I had always envisioned a wildflower wedding, and they did an amazing jobs.  Wildflowers wouldn’t necessarily work in an enclosed in environment, but outside they really popped.

The cakes were from Maxie B’sin Greensboro.  I had initially planned to do cupcakes but as the country theme of the wedding began to really take shape, I decided that I really wanted to have a bunch of different cakes on unique cake stands, to give it a country fair feel.  I scoured the Internet to find deals on the cake stands.  I think it turned out really well.  We had very southern type cakes–hummingbird, 7-up cake, strawberry buttercream, lemon poundcake, and devil’s food cake.  It was a big hit.

Even more to come!!

What I really love about today’s featured wedding is that the couple seemed to edit their wedding style. What I mean is that even on a budget, they were able to pull together a look that seems really cohesive and expensive. It’s charming, it’s elegant and most of all, it’s filled with this incredibly sweet personality…

More from Beth, the gorgeous bride…

The details were really important to us. We crafted pecan pralines favors using pralines that I bought at Trader Joes. I printed out the Thank You tags (featuring the cardinal) and cut them out myself and tied them to the bags myself.  A labor of love, but everyone loved the pralines!

Also, our Polaroid guestbook was a big hit.  I pasted in the little photo tabs for the pictures into the album, bought the camera at a yard sale and the film (which was pretty costly) on ebay.  The album was bought on sale at Paper-Source.

I bought the program fans from Asian Ideasfor $60, printed out the ceremony programs on the Epson printer I bought for all these projects (a good purchase) and on luxe white cards from Paper-Source (aka my second home), punched holes in the programs and attached them to the fams using ribbon and a crochet hook (my mother actually did most of them!). 

So much more from this beautiful wedding! And, if you haven’t already, check out the details from the DIY contest that we announced today!!

I have so much more from Beth and Mike’s gorgeous DIY inspired, $10,000 wedding that I am dying to share with you. So let’s just dive right in!

More from the bride!

Our invitations were custom-made by Leslie at Unlesssomeonlikesyou.  The designer let us use the cardinal (which is the state bird of North Carolina) featured on the invitations as our theme for everything:  thank you cards, program fans, menus, out of town bags, labels for the food in our out of town bags, escort cards, etc…I bought the envelopes for invitations and thank you cards very cheaply at envelopemall.com and addressed them myself.

I printed off the escort cards myself and placed them in trays filled with birdseed. I bought the trays for nothing at a craft store and stained them myself.  The birdseed was just from Wal-mart.  Very cheap project that looked great, I thought.

I found one of the most important tools for my DIY projects was dafont.com–a free font website.  Having a great font really helps make DIY projects look more professional.

SO much more to come!!

In honor of today’s DIY contest, I am so excited to share this DIY inspired wedding with you (that literally just came into my inbox this morning…it’s fate!). Beth and Mike were married on Beth’s family tobacco farm, an absolutely gorgeous 100 year old farm that provided the perfect backdrop for their under $10,000 affair…

all photographs by Lindsay Brooke Emeigh

Beth has been sweet enough to stop by for a bit to share a few of the amazing details…

Here is the basic Breakdown for our $10,000 wedding…Music 15%, Caterer, Beverages and Cake 39%, Tent and other Rentals 20%, Flowers 15%, Wedding garb, hair and makeup: 3%, Photographer: 4%, Invitations and other projects: 4%.  There were about 80 guests at our wedding.

We were married on September 20th at my family’s tobacco farm in Greensboro, North Carolina.  We had a budget wedding (under $10,000–I’m still tallying the final costs) that we made work by DIYing a lot and cutting back on some tradiitonally expensive categories (wedding dress, photographer) and focusing instead on food and music. 

My husband and I are from Chicago, so we heavily relied on my family for help with vendors. The biggest expense by far was our caterer, Sweet Basil’s, in Greensboro, but they were by far worth every penny.  They use organic food and locally grown produce. The food was AMAZING!  Renee, who runs a restaurant and catering company, also acted as my de facto wedding planner, and came out to the farm on a number of occasions just to help with the set up and lighting.  Also, Renee let us bring our own Beer and Wine, which was a huge cost saver.  We bought the wine from Trader Joe’s and the beer from Costco.

The venue was free, as it was my family’s 100 year old farmhouse.  The officiant was our friend (actually, the person who introduced me to my husband in law school!), and performed the ceremony for free.  I kept my engagement ring as my wedding ring, which also cut down on costs.  My dress was the infamous Sophia dress from Jcrew.  I stayed away from the Bridal boutiques because I didn’t want to end up with a dress that cost half my budget.  I’m a real clothes shopper, so that was very hard for me, but, in the end, I’m glad that I saved on that.  The dress was very soft, minimalist and simple and fit the atmosphere of the wedding.  My groom used a newer suit he had bought for work, and freshened it up with a fun tie. 

Etsy was a complete lifesaver for my wedding. My hair flower was from Myra Kim at twigs and honey.  My necklace was probably the best deal of all.  An etsy jewler, Deb from BlazerArts, replicated an incredibly expensive necklace I loved but was out of my budget.  I gave her a picture of the necklace and she made one from scratch for me and even let me pick up the stone–all for a fraction of the cost. 

Stay tuned to see how the rest of Beth and Mike’s wedding turned out and find out the incredible sources where Beth found most of her details!

Our resident Brit, Nick, of Nick Brown Photography is really one of my favorite people! Who wouldn’t love a photographer who, at the end of the night, jumps into the pool with the entire wedding party to capture some amazing (and truly one of a kind) underwater photos? Nick recently won the “Best of the Bay Area” award for the best One Stop Wedding Shop. Nick’s studio is right next door to his wife Bridget’s shop, Bella Bridesmaid! How sweet is that! If you’re in the Bay Area check out Nick’s work, you’ll love it as much as I love him!

We’ve done it before and it’s been WAY too long. Seriously too long. So, it’s time for another Wedding Do-It-Yourself Contest! Whether it’s a gorgeous invitation, a perfect favor or just about anything else that made (or is going to make) your wedding that much more unique…we want to see it!

This insanely fabulous DIY project was crafted by the OH (emphasizing the OH)-so-fabulous Ez of Creature Comforts…

For the complete instructions on these brilliant custom candy bars, check out Creature Comforts. I promise, it’s worth the trip…Ez’s blog is filled with adorable DIY projects (including free templates and instructions…love that), great craft finds, wardrobe inspirations and so so much more.

Okay, back to the contest! All we need is a series of how-to photographs sent as jpeg attachments, along with step-by-step instructions as to how to complete the project (in the body of the email). All images need to be at least 600 pixels across. If you don’t have step-by-step photographs, just send the end result! Email entries to abby@stylemepretty.com.

I am going to choose my favorites to go up on the blog and will choose a winner with the help of a panel of guest judges. All entries must be received by October 15th. We’ll announce the prize a little later in the week.

If you have questions, just leave a comment and I will make sure to answer!

I’ve received a handful of emails lately requesting a source for great fabric that can be used as a backdrop for a photo guest book. Something fabulous like the Kelly and Colin’s gorgeous backdrop that we featured a few weeks ago. Well, I discovered Fabric Supplies while poking around etsy one day and I fell in love! These gorgeous fabrics are perfect for guest book backdrops, bundling favors, using as table runners…the options are endless!

For more of Kelly and Colin’s wedding, click here, here and here!

When we launched our newly designed site, we included this really cool event calendar with the hope that you guys could find out about great events in your area…but, it’s been broken for the last few weeks so we haven’t been able to put it to good use!

We are hoping to have it all up and running in the coming days, but until then, I HAD to tell you about this awesome sample sale that Tulle Bride on Martha’s Vineyard is having this weekend…

The only reason that I am even mentioning this is because Tulle carries so many of my FAVORITE designers…Stephanie James, Amy Kuschel, Monique, Carolina and the oh-so-fab Lela Rose. They are featuring gowns from $700 and have 60+ bridal gowns at over 50% off. They are also featuring mother of the bride gowns at 60% off, as well as veils, accessories and gifts.

The event is today from 4PM-8PM and over the weekend (Saturday AND Sunday) from 10AM-4PM. They do recommend making an appointment if you are checking out wedding gowns.

So, if you are in the New England area…I promise this is worth the trip!! If not, the girls at Tulle have also put together a pretty awesome blog that you really must check out!

Lara Helene is another one of my new favorites in wedding dress design. Just look at these beautiful gowns that are a part of her recent collection…

Okay, the dress in the top right corner with the huge bow…umm, it’s pretty fabulous. I am also in love with the delicate black ribbon on the dress in the top left corner. So simple and yet so over-the-top chic.  Lara Helene’s couture studio is located in New York so if you are lucky enough to live in the area, definitely stop in and see their gorgeous work.

If not, they have a great online gallery!

We are wrapping up fashion week on SMP today, but not before I share a few more of my favorite wedding dress designers…the first being the oh-so-talented Olivia Luca! I have talked about Olivia’s work on SMP before, but she’s recently shot some pretty amazing photographs of her new designs…

photos were shot by Jasmine Photography

Let me tell you why I completely love Olivia Luca. For one, her designs are classic and understated and yet they have this chic element going…the bold colors on the belt, the modern but totally feminine silhouettes. Every dress just screams sophisticated luxury.

Second, Olivia’s dresses are all custom made, designed exclusively for you and your body type using completely sustainable fabrics. Yep, AND…they are affordable. I am not sure if it gets any better than that.

More to come!

One last piece of hair eye candy…this INSANELY gorgeous picture was sent to me by anna be, a beautiful fashion house and event planner out of Denver.

If this stunning picture doesn’t make you want to jump all over the netting trend…I’m not sure what will! We have so many more fun fashion posts coming tomorrow, so until then!

How gorgeous are these hair pieces by etsy seller, Sweets n Lo…

So, so incredible!

Okay, I LOVE these hair pieces by Textures on Etsy…

So they definitely would not go with just any dress or any style of wedding…but for the right bride, wow. They would be so gorgeous. More to come!

I have to say, my favorite hair accessory is a simple flower, tucked into a low, messy bun. It’s how I wore my hair at my own wedding and it’s how I always encourage my girlfriends to wear theirs. A low, easy bun is just so effortlessly chic and the addition of a gorgeous flower…perfection.

With that said, many flowers won’t make it through the night before they start to brown. Instead, go for a pretty silk flower that adds that same touch of romance without the high maintenance element, like these by Amelio designs…

Or these a-a-amazing silk flowers by House of Telsa…

Both Amelio Designs and House of Telsa have incredible pieces online, so definitely check out their sites when you have a minute! Amelio Designs actually has a pretty awesome selection of custom gowns, as well.

We have more fun headpieces on the way!

It seems like every time I turn around, I am falling in love with another wedding style trend. And the birdcage veil is my latest passion. I just think that they add a sense of glamour, of unabashed romance to a wedding dress…

Melody, of Birdcage Veils in Dallas has totally devoted herself to these little pieces of heaven and she’s stopping by today to share some thoughts!

The birdcage veil brings a new but vintage look to the fashion of wedding attire. Reese Witherspoon wore a birdcage veil in the movie ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ in 2002….which we all fell in love with. When a bride asked me to design a birdcage veil just like the one Reese wore in the movie, I scoured the stores until I finally located a netting source which would help me to duplicate this look.

After posting some photos on my web site, a few brave brides decided to step out of the traditional attire and walk down the aisle wearing netting instead of tulle over their face.  Naturally, grooms, bridesmaids and families’ reaction was mixed as they had not seen this bold new style. And yet, once a few brides began wearing birdcage veils, brides from both the east and west coast liked what they saw and began requesting birdcage veils more and more.  Requests from the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia seemed to be next to request this unique new style. I now shipped birdcage veils to every state and to about 25 countries across the globe.

Birdcage veils or hat veils work best with trumpet or mermaid style dresses.  Any dress that is lace is complimented with the French net look of a birdcage veil. The birdcage can be as simple or as dramatic as the bride wants depending on the overall look that she is going for. Plus, photographers love to capture images of brides in birdcage veils…they are just so chic!

Thanks so much Melody!! Stay tuned, we have more great headpieces on the way!