I know how much you Bride's Guiders love our real weddings, so when Shira, our real weddings editor, asked me to share some behind-the-scenes gems from my wedding (which is featured in the current summer issue of the magazine), I jumped at the chance.
This first post is all about -- what else -- the inspiration for my French garden party, well, party. It didn't really begin that way, of course, but my inspiration binder helped me get there.
1 On the left are swatches that helped me build my wedding color palette. some i had purchased while in France visiting my sister who was studying there. On the right I gathered inspiration for my look (the dress, shoes, and bouquet).
2 This is a photo of my grandmother in her wedding dress in 1952. I wanted to find a dress which mimicked this style, and I especially loved the idea of tea-length because you can show off your shoes.
3 On the left are swatches that influenced the bridal party's color palette. The swatches turned in to ties for the groomsmen and the girls wore kelly green dresses.
4 This was my floral inspiration. I wanted loose, natural looking arrangements that were vibrant in color.
5 A fantastic scalloped dress by Philippe Venet who apprenticed for Givency.
6 a pack of vintage Parisian sewing pins that inspired me.
7 this is an older kate spade ad - I just loved the composition of the shot so we tried to mimic it while we were taking our portraits.
8 This damask pattern later influenced my stationery suite design.
Our vision for our wedding was inspired by both of our childhoods and our combined love of the outdoors, great food, live music, and our families. In the end, we decided on a color palette of stone gray and poppy red, with accents of cream, white, and kelly green (think bright red strawberries, not Christmas.) This palette relates to the venue’s natural surroundings, my partial French heritage, Craig’s partial Irish heritage (kelly-green...wink!), and our shared love of summer berries. Our wedding was everything we hoped it would be: personal, colorful, homespun, and surprisingly chic.
Next week, I'll have more from my wedding, including how we took all this inspiration and made it a reality.
Is anyone else keeping an inspiration binder? What kinds of things are you including in it?
From: Lena | 8/11/10 at 2:26 pm
I just featured your lovely wedding on my blog this weekend-what a beautiful event! My wedding binder is stuffed with photos from your big day!
From: Kellie | 8/11/10 at 2:36 pm
I've been keeping a virtual binder on imgave. I haven't had time to cut things out so I bookmark all the beautiful things I see online. Unfortunately I've gone bookmark crazy and now I need to weed through it...maybe it is time for a real binder!
From: Raquel | 8/11/10 at 3:18 pm
I'm so happy to know that there are other people out there creating inpiration binders just like me!
Here in Brazil this is not commom at al!!
I also had this french bistro idea for the brunch I throw to my groomsmen and girls as an oficial invitation to be so.
Each table had a special patterned (floral) table cloth and my pallete is lilac/pale pink!
I put something from my inspiration binder at the blog I created, so everyone who is invited to the wedding can feel close to this organization path!
http://www.theeternalsonata.blogspot.com/
Just loved your ideas and inspiration!
From: Shalini | 8/11/10 at 5:02 pm
I don't have a binder, I went green and created a blog of posts and photos (many of them from here at Martha Stewart!).
http://weddingbellblues.tumblr.com