Here are the photographs from Anna at Red October Photography. Let’ start with one of me in the room all set up, because why not!?

At the workshop, we talked about all things blogging, but what I was most excited to share was my tips and advice on how to fit blogging to your work day. Attendees also had the honor of hearing from my friend Myrna of Mezzohead Media. Myrna talked about SEO (search engine optimization) and the world of online marketing and what all of it means for those of in the creative small industry space. The online world is changing so fast and the old, marketing techniques don’t always apply in the age of social media. It was truly a gift to talk with Myrna, hear her perspective and listen to her talk about SEO in a language that we all could understand!

BLOGGING SWAG

The room at Sprinkles was very modern with its white tables and chairs and pink floor. So, I went with the same gray and yellow theme as my first blogging workshop in Maryland and I loved how it all turned out! It was so bright and fresh, perfect for blogging all day! For each attendee, I made them a tote bag to take home all of their swag and blogging materials. (These tote bags were the same that I made at my last blogging workshop and you can find the DIY tote swag bag instructions right here!) On each bag, I made the name tags using my new (and very rough!) brush stroke skills that I learned from Michelle at Meant To Be Calligraphy at her modern brush stroke calligraphy class.

At each attendee’s place setting, they received my custom blogging workbook to take notes and follow along with the presentation, a few pencils, a blank notebook, and their personalized blog and website review in a gray folder. For the favors, I made a custom yellow, gray and white sprinkle mix in a jar with a sticker that said “Sprinkles Make Blogging Better,” because well, they do! (Don’t worry, I’ll be sharing my DIY instructions for how to make your own custom sprinkles mix!) Each guest also received a little glass milk bottle with a sticker that said, “Blog. Sip. Repeat.” I also put little signs in the bowls of chocolate kisses that said, “Kiss Your Blogging Mistakes Away.” As a little to-go treat, the guests also received custom cookies made by Tiffany at Sugar Studio Co. She was able to hand pipe the icing onto the cookies in the different blogging phrases of “Your Blog Is Like Really Pretty,” “Blog It Like Its Hot,” and “You Can Totally Blog With Me.”

Running your small business and your blog, it all about the sugar and hydration! Here are the rest of the pictures…

Photo Credit: Red October Photography

So, there you have it! You can clearly see that I’m all about the sweets, the hydration and the blogging!

Thank you so much to Red October Photography for taking such beautiful pictures and really capturing the workshop. A special thanks to my friend and DC area wedding planner, Janice, at Bellwether Events, for helping me to plan and execute the workshop. It takes a village!

If you want more small business blogging advice, you can check out my posts on the topics. You can also sign up for my email newsletter to get tips and be the first to find out about my next workshop.

The post The 2nd B.Y.O.B. Workshop Photos & Recap appeared first on Stylish Wedding Garters & Modern Heirloom Bridal Garters :: The Garter Girl by Julianne Smith.

Using the lace from her mother’s wedding dress, I made Sam the most gorgeous something blue custom wedding garter you ever did see! Sam sent me the lace pieces for the family wedding dress and we designed her bridal garter after my romantic wedding garter style using the lace in layers to form ruffles on her wedding garter.

You can see all of Sam and Michael’s southern vineyard wedding right here on Style Me Pretty!

Photo Credit: Amy Arrington Photography

For more press and praise of The Garter Girl, check out my blog, or you can order your own wedding garter here in my shop.

The post Featured: Style Me Pretty appeared first on Stylish Wedding Garters & Modern Heirloom Bridal Garters :: The Garter Girl by Julianne Smith.

It is really sad when a bride wants that picture of her wedding dress, but what they don’t realize is that even the tiniest detail, like the hanger that the dress is hanging on, is part of what makes it so beautiful! So, treat yourself and order a pretty hanger for your wedding dress!

Luckily in this next Garter Girl Loves feature, I’m sharing a collection of bridal dress hangers that you are going to love! Bridal gown hangers come in all shapes, designs and sizes everything from custom monogramed to glitter dip dyed! Here is a collection of beautiful wedding dress hangers that you will love for your wedding day…

Shop this bridal dress hanger:

Floral wedding dress hanger

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Shop this bridal dress hanger:

Engraved wedding party set hangers

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Shop this bridal dress hanger: 

Pretty wedding dress hanger

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Shop this bridal dress hanger:

Hanger with name and wedding date

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Shop this bridal dress hanger:

Gold sequin wedding dress hanger

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Shop this bridal dress hanger:

Engraved wedding party set hangers

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Shop this bridal dress hanger:

Calligraphy wedding dress hangers

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Shop this bridal dress hanger:

Feminine wedding dress hanger

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Shop this bridal dress hanger:

Personalized wedding dress hangers

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Shop this bridal dress hanger: 

Flowered wedding dress hanger

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Shop this bridal dress hanger: 

Bride and groom calligraphy hangers

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Shop this bridal dress hanger: 

Mrs. wedding dress hanger

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Shop this bridal dress hanger: 

Sparkle wedding dress hanger

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Shop this bridal dress hanger: 

Gold wedding dress hanger

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Shop this bridal dress hanger: 

Simple wedding dress hanger

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Shop this bridal dress hanger: 

Modern wedding dress hanger

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How will you hang your wedding dress the morning of your wedding? Better yet, how will your bridesmaid’s hang their dresses? If you are looking for a fun and super personal gift for your bridesmaids, don’t forget that you can get them a hanger too!

The post Garter Girl Loves: Wedding Dress Hangers appeared first on Stylish Wedding Garters & Modern Heirloom Bridal Garters :: The Garter Girl by Julianne Smith.

The bride for this custom garter loves blush pink, but she really wanted that soft, delicate pink that is so light it is almost white. For her custom garter, I used the light blush pink satin as the background and did an overlay of ivory satin and finished it off with the chicest little navy satin bow tied just in the center. For the tossing garter, she wanted to use a light ivory satin and the same matching navy satin bow tied in the center.

Thank you so much to this beautiful bride for letting me be just a small part of something so special! I wish you nothing but the best and a lifetime of love!

For more, check out my custom wedding garter album, or don’t forget that you can design your own garter here on my website.

The post Custom Garter Spotlight: Blush, Navy Blue and Lace appeared first on Stylish Wedding Garters & Modern Heirloom Bridal Garters :: The Garter Girl by Julianne Smith.

This beautiful bridal boudoir session first appeared on the fine art wedding blog, Burrnett’s Boards. I handmade few different wedding garter styles for the bride to choose. I designed three different romantic wedding garter styles that featured lace and delicate luxurious details, which coordinated very nicely with the soft and feminine vibe for this boudoir session. All of the wedding garters were custom designs and went perfectly with the fine art style and so if you look closely, you’ll see a few different garters make an appearance!

Check out the boudoir photographs from Audra Wrisley Photography. Good luck picking your favorite romantic moment in this bridal boudoir session. This session will completely change they way that you look at boudoir, in the best way possible!

Photo Credit: Audra Wrisley Photography

The following wedding professionals helped with this bridal boudoir session:

Photography: Audra Wrisley Photograhy
Vintage Ring: Trumpet & Horn
Ring Box: The Mrs. Box
Bride’s Lingerie: Free People
Garter: The Garter Girl
Hair & Makeup: Lori Nansi
Floral Design: Studio DBI
Shoes: Betsey Johnson
Venue: Audra Wrisley Photography’s Old Town studio in Alexandria, Virginia.

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So, what do you think? Did that completely change your mind about bridal boudoir? I can’t stop looking at these feminine and ultra romantic images!

For more wedding ideas and inspiration, be sure to check out my blog and remember that you can shop for a wedding garter anytime in my site.

The post Feminine & Romantic Bridal Boudoir appeared first on Stylish Wedding Garters & Modern Heirloom Bridal Garters :: The Garter Girl by Julianne Smith.

How to have a pain free garter toss at your reception and avoid those awkward moments is next up in my wedding garter 101 series. In this wedding advice series I talk about all about garters and answer all of your bridal garter questions. And believe me, there are many! From start to finish, your wedding should be a fun and celebratory day, but it does require quite a bit of planning to make sure that it all goes off without a hitch. This planning and forethought also applies to the wedding garter toss ceremony at the reception.

Photo Credit: Renee Hollingshead Photography

The garter toss is purely optional, you don’t have to do it at your wedding. If you don’t want to do the garter toss, don’t do it. End of story. In fact, more and more brides are getting a garter, skipping the toss and instead saving their garter as an heirloom and keepsake from their wedding. But, if you are planning on tossing your garter, I’m going to give you a few pieces of advice for how to make sure that your garter toss is the fun wedding tradition it is supposed to be!

You want your wedding and your garter toss to be memorable…in a good way! Not in the awkward, “I can’t believe that just happened” kind of way! (And, if you’ve ever been a wedding guest, I think you might know what I’m talking about!) Here are my tips for how to make the wedding garter toss pain free and not at all awkward for yourself or your wedding guests:

Make Sure Everyone Knows

If you want to do the garter toss at your wedding, make sure that the garter toss is included in your day-of-the-wedding timeline and that all of your wedding vendors know. Your wedding planner, your DJ, your band leader, your venue coordinator, your catering manager, they all need a copy of your wedding timelines and they all need to be in the loop on how you want your wedding day to flow, especially the different wedding reception elements like the first dance, cake cutting and, of course, the garter toss. If all of your wedding vendors know, they will help to prepare you and your guest, and help to keep everything running smoothly.

Make An Announcement

Have your wedding DJ or band leader make an announcement that you are going to do the garter toss ceremony and that everyone should gather around a pre-determined location (see below for advice on this!). My recommendation for the garter toss is to have the DJ or the band leader also invite everyone – all the wedding guests – to participate in the catching of the garter. If all of your wedding guests crowd around to see the garter removal, then they will all be there for the toss. This way the single guests aren not singled out and the garter toss becomes something fun for all of your wedding guests and not something awkward for everyone, especially the single guests.

Put The Traditions Together

Nothing is more frustrating to your wedding guests is when the night is constantly interrupted with different traditions, like the first dance, toasts, speeches, the cake cutting and the garter toss. Your DJ is butting every half hour with a new break in the action, or a new reason for them to pay attention to what is going on or be in a certain spot. You want to have as few wedding reception interruptions as possible. Try to group your traditions together as much as possible so that there is enough time for your guests to enjoy themselves, the music, the food and spending time with you. The garter toss goes well with the cake cutting and the bouquet toss. Talk to your wedding planner and your DJ about their experience with blending these wedding reception traditions together seamlessly.

Make It Later

You want to time the garter toss ceremony for when your wedding guests have had a chance to settle into the reception and enjoy a few adult beverages. You don’t want to make the garter toss too late that guests are tired or inebriated, but you don’t want to make it right after the cocktail hour either. Give your wedding guests some time to get settled and relax, and then you can do your wedding reception traditions.

Have A Plan

Both you and your partner need to be on board with the wedding garter toss ceremony. If so, talk about it before the night of your wedding, right before it is about to happen. When you are going over your wedding day timeline is a great time for you two to discuss what you are thinking for the garter toss. Do you want to sit down? Where will the garter toss be? Do you want to include any fun surprises? Are you nervous? Are you really excited about the garter toss? Talk through some of the issues and have a little plan between the two of you for how you want the garter toss to go at the reception.

Relax

If you are nervous for the wedding garter toss, it will show. It will show in your body language, it will show on your face, your wedding guests will be able to feel it, and most importantly, the garter toss nerves and awkwardness will show in your photographs. Take a deep breath and do your best to relax. Remember that the garter toss is supposed to be something fun to do at the wedding reception, not a source of stress and drama.

If you are really nervous for the garter toss, read the next tip…

Don’t Do It

You are scared or feeling funny about the wedding garter toss, don’t do it! You can easily skip the wedding garter toss and just wear your garter on your wedding and save it as a special keepsake. You don’t have to toss your garter if you don’t want to do it! And, this goes for both of you. If you partner isn’t into the garter toss, but you are, or vice versa, I’d say consider skipping it all together. This is a great chance for a marital compromise, because nothing is more awkward when one person is into the garter toss and the wedding guests can see that the other is not so much having fun.

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Those are my tips for how to avoid those awkward moments during the wedding garter toss ceremony. What did I miss? Have you been a part of an awkward garter toss? What could have been done differently? Leave a comment and let me know!

Don’t forget, you can find a unique wedding garter here in my shop, or look through all of my wedding garter 101 advice blog posts for lots more garter help and info. All of your wedding garter questions are answered in this series!

The post How To Avoid Awkward Wedding Garter Toss Moments appeared first on Stylish Wedding Garters & Modern Heirloom Bridal Garters :: The Garter Girl by Julianne Smith.

For my blogging workshop, developing the course materials and the blogging workbook was a total breeze – at least for me! It was everything else, such as the branding materials, the logo and the business collateral that I needed to have the workshop look professional and get other creative businesses to attend, that was the hard part – at least for me!

Ribbon & Ink is a graphic designer and artisan branding company based here in the Washington, DC area and she was so great to help me out with the first blogging workshop. She helped me with my blogging workbook and designing the blogging phrases that I used for these super fun DIY swag bags that we made! But, it would have been much easier – on both of us – if I had a solid suite of branding materials to get us started on the workshop. That’s why I was so excited that she is offering these super, simple, yet super pretty, pre-made branding kits!

Here are few a pre-made branding kits that I love:

Photo Credit: Ribbon & Ink

The pre-made branding kits from Ribbon & Ink include all of the essentials to get started building your brand:

• Logo
• Patterns
• Icons
• Business card design
• Email signature, and
• Note card and envelop design.

Even in the early days of my wedding garter design business, The Garter Girl, it would have been amazing to go with one of these pre-made branding kits. When you have an idea for a creative small business, you want to get going on the idea and hit the ground running doing whatever it is that you do! You don’t want to get bogged down in the details and the design process of having to have everything perfect right from the start. You have to see if you even have a viable business first, before you invest in all the perfect branding and marking materials, am I right!?

If you purchase a pre-made branding kit from Ribbon & Ink, she will work with you to tweak the colors to really make the logo and the branding collateral your own, perfectly suited for your business. And, the best of all is that each pre-made kit will only be sold once! Does it get any better than that!?

For 25% off of your branding kit purchase, you can use the code: garter25off 

Check out Ribbon & Ink’s semi-custom pre-made branding kits for creative small businesses here on her website. For more small business blogging tips, I hope you’ll look through my posts on the topic and find helpful information for your business and your blog.

For more of my wedding ideas and inspirations, be sure to check out my Garter Girl Loves blog series and you can see all of my wedding garter designs right here.

With love, The Garter Girl

Some of the above product links are affiliate-connected and purchasing through these links helps to support the blog.

The post Garter Girl Loves: Easy Logos For Creative Small Businesses appeared first on Stylish Wedding Garters & Modern Heirloom Bridal Garters :: The Garter Girl by Julianne Smith.

I hand made Callie’s heirloom wedding garter with the lace from her mother’s wedding dress. Callie was first interested in my exquisite wedding garter style that features an overlay of vintage lace and is detailed with ivory pearls on a something blue satin background. After she purchased her garter, Callie contacted me saying that she had her mother’s wedding dress and could I use the lace from the dress in her garter. Of course!!

As it turns out, Callie’s mother’s wedding dress was hand made by Callie’s grandmother, making the whole experience that much more special and sentimental. Her new wedding garter was so special and it is keepsake that she can have in her family and be able to pass on through to the next bride to be!

Here are her real bridal garter photos and few more from their sweetly southern wedding soiree from Amy Arrington Photography. Don’t miss the amazing photos of her bridal party helping her get ready and put on her wedding garter, it is too cute!

Photo Credit: Amy Arrington Photography

Thank you so much to this beautiful bride for letting me be just a small part of something so special! I wish you nothing but the best and a lifetime of love!

For more, check out my custom wedding garter album, or don’t forget that you can design your own garter here on my website.

The post Real Garter: Callie’s Exquisite Heirloom appeared first on Stylish Wedding Garters & Modern Heirloom Bridal Garters :: The Garter Girl by Julianne Smith.

Here is her wedding dress. Isn’t it stunning?!

For this custom wedding garter, I did an ivory satin background with a layer of the champagne shimmer lace and finished it off with a dark red satin bow tied just in the center.

Thank you so much to this beautiful bride for not only sharing her wedding dress with me, but also letting The Garter Girl be just a small part of something so special! I wish you a lifetime of love and happy memories!

For more, check out my custom wedding garter album, or don’t forget that you can design your own garter here on my website.

The post Custom Garter Spotlight: Ivory, Shimmer Lace & Red Satin appeared first on Stylish Wedding Garters & Modern Heirloom Bridal Garters :: The Garter Girl by Julianne Smith.

These DIY wedding garter without sewing instructions first appeared on one of my favorite wedding blogs, Wedding Chicks. I did a DIY garter for that blog and two different wedding garters for the feature. I wanted to be able to share both garters with you. So, here is the first DIY gold glitter garter and the instructions for how I made it. And, today I’m going to share the instructions for how I made this sweet little polka dot wedding garter with a little pink flower.

How To Make A Flower Wedding Garter

Materials:

• Decorative stretch elastic
• Silk flowers
• Hot glue gun
• Glue
• Scissors

Directions:

1. Turn on your glue gun.
2. Prep your flowers by cutting them from the stems. Cut as close as you can to the base of the flower, which still keeping the bud in tact. If the bud comes apart, you might need to glue the flower pack together petal by petal.
3. To measure the elastic, stretch it around your leg where you want to wear your wedding garter under your bridal gown. Pull it tight, but not too tight. You have to wear it all day!
4. Snip the elastic, with just a little bit extra, about an inch.
5. Lay the elastic that you want to use out on a table a so that the wrong side of the elastic is facing you.
6. On one end of the elastic, place a small dot of glue on the wrong side of the elastic on the very tip, just about 1/4 of an inch from the end.
7. Take the opposite end of the elastic that you didn’t place the glue on and bring it over to the glue side to meet the glue dot so that the right side of the elastic sticks to the glue dot, forming a circle with the elastic.
8. This is area were the ends meet is now the back of the garter. Add extra glue if needed to fully secure.
9. On the front of the garter on the right side of the elastic, which is the halfway point from the glued end, place a few glue dots.
10. Layer your silk flowers in the glue starting with whatever you want in the background, such as leaves.
11. Add more glue as needed to secure the flowers to the garter.

And, here are just a few pictures of how I made this super cute silk flower wedding garter…

 Loving this wedding garter and loving even more that it didn’t require a sewing machine!

If you use these instructions to make your wedding garter, let me know! Leave comment or send me a picture to info@thegartergirl.com, I’d love to hear from you!

Remember, you can see this full feature and more pictures and silk flower wedding garter ideas and how to make a flower wedding garter over on Wedding Chicks.

For more wedding ideas and inspiration or DIY wedding projects, be sure to check out my blog and remember that you can shop for a wedding garter anytime in my site.

The post Simple DIY Flower Wedding Garter appeared first on Stylish Wedding Garters & Modern Heirloom Bridal Garters :: The Garter Girl by Julianne Smith.