Ruffled®

Bottle Your Brand

sarah — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:37:51 +0000

Calling all DIY brides! I’d like to introduce you to Bottle Your Brand – a company that can help make your wedding “branding” happen. You can choose from their large selection of snazzy designs or create your own monogram/logo with their easy to use tool. They print water bottle labels, wine labels, beer labels as well as packaging labels for your wedding favors and other wedding related goodies.

Their website has a clean and user-friendly navigation that makes it easier for brides to design their labels. With Bottle Your Brand’s design-it-yourself tool, you can add images, designs, and text to our labels without a hitch, which gives you the ability not only to play around with their label designs until they look how you envisioned, but also to see exactly what the labels will look like before they are shipped to you.

Rather than spending hours trying to make peace your printer and finding the right label material (does it need to be waterproof? is it laser compatible? is it ink-jet friendly? …) to print your labels at home, I say – skip the trouble and headaches and let them take care of that for you!

Their custom labels come in two shapes (square and rectangle) and in six sizes (3?x3?, 4?x4?, 5?x5?, 2?x3?, 3?x4?, 4?x6?) and they’re all waterproof and completely self-adhesive. These would look so cute on favor boxes or favor bags – even as wrap around address labels that I know you love! You can also brand your or your friend’s bridal shower, from the invitations to shower favors, creating a seamless flow to your decor vision.

Bottle Your Brand is sweetening the deal by offering a 10% discount exclusively to Ruffled readers. Simply enter RUFFLED10 at checkout (valid until October 31, 2010).So head over to their website and start designing. Just be careful, creating custom labels is surprisingly addictive!

Vintage DIY Wedding

Amanda — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:20:53 +0000

This laid back vintage-inspired wedding was sent by Veronica, who you may recognize a few of her DIY projects we shared here a little while ago, including her gorgeous Easter Lily backdrop that she made for the altar. From the bride: We were married at my parents’ house, my childhood home, and I immediately imagined a very old-fashioned, personal wedding. We never lost sight of our guests during our planning – we wanted them to feel comfortable and happy and very much a part of the day. I always, prefer vintage over new and brought in as many vintage elements as I could. I wanted it to feel special and handmade and for each guest to know I had made something just for them.

My first purchase was the vintage wallpaper that we used as table runners and everything was built up from there. I seriously DIYed the entire thing. The bouquets and boutonnieres (for the wedding party and all of the guests), decorations, table numbers, menus, the stamped napkin placecards, etched water bottles, tote bags for overnight guests, our invitation suite, the chandelier and altar and much more . . . seriously everything. I even made my dress and veil. My mom made the beautiful beaded necklaces my bridal party wore, and two of my aunts potted all of the centerpieces (those flowers are still thriving, by the way!). My dad completely transformed the backyard – dramatically changing the landscaping and even taking down sections of the fence. It was DIY MADNESS!

Veronica’s advice: Our rentals were not in great shape unfortunately – pretty rusty and there were even some holes in the roofs of the tents. I would really suggest researching your rental company ahead of time and making sure they have top quality items – that was something I really took for granted. And as for fun advice – make sure to look around and take it all in – the love and the happiness is so overwhelming. It still warms my heart when I think of it.

Handmade Backyard Wedding Vendors (Sandwich, IL):

Ceremony and reception location(s): Private residence / DOC: Lisa Gordon / Florist: Johnson’s Floral and Sandwich Floral / Photographer: Innerlight Photo / Dress and Veil: Veronica Sheaffer / Shoes: Aris Allen /Jewelry: Handmade and Target / Bridesmaid Dresses: Bari Jay and Jasmine / Groom’s suit: Formally Modern Tuxedo / Caterer: The Catering Gourmets / Wedding Cake : Sweet Sensations / Transportation: First Student

Check out Veronica’s DIY Entries on how to make her gorgeous accordion wheel DIY rosette table numbers, her bridesmaids’ DIY fabric bouquets and her jaw-dropping Easter Lily altar backdrop.

Weekly Wrap-Up

Amanda — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:56:26 +0000

I usually don’t post this late, but I have been working on some final details for the new site. Looks like summer came and went, and Labor Day is already here to let me know to put away my beach gear. I will leave you with this water balloon engagement I posted a few months ago and a must-see recap of the amazing weddings we recently featured.

Must see links for your weekend:

+ Gorgeous mismatched tweed bridesmaid dresses from this vintage wedding
+ Citrus greens, yellows and blues from this beautiful and sweet Georgia wedding
+ Lightbulb terrarium favors that doubled as place cards. A must add project to your DIY list!
+ This DIY wedding in yellow and blue is a must see…check out the bride’s gorgeous vintage inspired wedding dress!
+ Quirky animal details in this New Hampshire quirky wedding
+ A vintage nautical wedding with a double rainbow
+ If you missed this vintage British wedding, you *might* want to take a peek. The bride aaand her bridesmaids wore vintage floral dresses, and their choice of shoes are just adorable.

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We are wrapping up some final details for the new site coming in the next month or so this weekend. If you’re a vendor and would like to be part of our Vendor Guide when the new goes live, please apply here (we will send you more information). Apply now to receive pre-launch rates!

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Don’t forget to get started on your DIY projects this weekend! We just launched our DIY Contest. This time we’re raising the bar, bringing you renowned DIY experts from around the web to be the judges, not to mention the rewards the best projects will receive. Just as a sweet reminder why you should start sending over your DIY projects asap, the prizes are:

First place will receive $500
Second place will receive a $300 gift card to ModCloth
Third place will receive a Silhouette Machine, a $299 value

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Vintage Carolina Wedding

Amanda — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:13:16 +0000

This Colonial inspired North Carolina wedding has all the right ingredients for a sweet Southern wedding. The result is playful and marvelous, including the real vintage shots from Richard Israel. From the bride: Our wedding styles morphed from Jesse James/old west to Colonial, to 1920′s-1940′s Clean-Country to Antique. As the bride, I think my problem was that I had too many ideas. Overall themes were as much as possible homemade, Old Time-Folk, and antique.

From the bride: Our wedding styles morphed from Jesse James/old west to Colonial, to 20′s-40′s Clean-Country to Antique. As the bride, I think my problem was that I had too many ideas. Overall themes were as much as possible homemade, Old Time-Folk, and antique.

As far as feel, we wanted to combine the simplicity of how incredible love is and make any and everyone a part of our big day that wanted to be there. We wanted our friends and family to see us as we were and keep things as personal as possible and make it the best hoe-down they’d ever been to!

I called our wedding “clean country”, with cream and brown linens, bales of hay, folk music, open air dancing, bbq family meal, lots of greenery and trees.

A theme was antique, with our guys in suspenders with their hair combed tight and everyone in leather shoes. Six of the girls wore peach cotton skirts that the bridesmaids and I made, and two wore matching dresses. Our color scheme was peach, cream, and browns.

Advice from the bride: Have a short engagement (more than 6 months would have been too long to wait for me -when you know who you want to marry!), and don’ t waste time on DIY projects because the hardest part for us was having our best friends working hard with us the week of the wedding on finishing things up. We had hoped to have some great down time and just enjoy all of the people that were supporting us, then the week before, for example, the girls were all cooped up helping me sew through the night.

Wedding Vendors (North Carolina):

Florist: Amanda Bradley/Cherilyn Christie, flowers from The Fresh Market / Photographer: Richard Israel / Wedding Dress and makeup: My friend Casey McCuller made my dress with me, Casey McCuller also did my hair and makeup. / Shoes: Dillards / Wedding invitations: self-designed, letterpressed by Blue Barnhouse

DIY Contest

Amanda — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:26:54 +0000

It’s that time again – I’m beyond excited to announce our next DIY Contest! If you think the last one was popular, hold on to your chairs, because this one is going to be off the charts. Our DIY Contest participants will have carte blanche to create their do-it-yourself projects (vintage, modern, it’s all game!)…which means that there is nothing stopping you from coming up with the best DIY projects.

Because DIY projects take some time to prepare, we’re giving extra time to participants. You will have till Sunday, October 3rd to send over your submission(s). That gives everyone plenty of time to put their crafty gloves on and get to work! Your project can be anything wedding related with the exception of wedding invitations where the core of the project is graphic design. You can submit as many projects as you can handle!

This time around we will be awarding First, Second and Third places prizes.

First place will receive $500
Second place will receive a $300 gift card to ModCloth
Third place will receive a Silhouette Machine, a $299 value

We will be posting our favorite entries starting on October 4th. Once we start publishing submissions we will not be able to accept new ones, so make sure to beat the deadline! This time around we’re adding a panel of DIY expert judges to choose the finalists, which will compete for the prizes. For general guidelines and policies, click here. Everyone is welcome to enter: brides, Etsy sellers, event designers, …everyone with a good idea!

Source: instructions for the project pictured above – DIY Teacup Cake Topper, washi tape via PuglyPixel

Colorado Bridal Shower

Amanda — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:26:29 +0000

We generally don’t post a lot of concept shoots, but we always have the doors open for wedding ideas that are beautiful and that readers will love. The beautiful colors of this lingerie bridal shower shoot organized by a collaboration of several Colorado wedding vendors, are spectacular and the careful details will make you want to see more and more! Thanks to Cori of Cori Cook Floral Design for sharing with us!

Bridal Shower Vendors (Denver and Boulder areas, CO):

Event Planning and Coordination: Rachel at Talia Events / Floral Design: Cori Cook Floral Design (based in San Diego, CA) / Photography: Becky Young Photography / Invitations and Paper-ware: Red Tandem Studio / Cake and Mini-Desserts: Teacup Fine Baked Goods and Confections / Jewelry: Angie Star Jewelry / Linen: Chair Covers and Linens / Lingerie: Pampered Passions / Chairs: Joyful Furniture

Rowboat Engagement Session

Amanda — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:05:06 +0000

This editorial worthy engagement session of Tayler and Nate sent by Sheena Jibson is the epitome of late summer romance. With Labor Day quickly approaching for us here in the US, I can’t help but think about how perfect it would be to do something like this with my husband. Specially loving the last few images:

A Texan Etsy Wedding

Amanda — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:59:24 +0000

This wedding sent by Abdi of Three Photographers of his friend and Texan photographer Jackie Ray is the sweetheart of all weddings. Pinwheels were incorporated as the groomsmen’s boutonnieres and used as bridesmaids bouquets, as well as decoration for their wedding cake. Plus, I don’t think I will ever tire of the bright combo of yellow and gray.

From the bride: The style we envisioned was fun, traditional, but with a few twists. We tried to do things that were nostalgic and we mismatched things.

Remember you can download our cootie catcher template that we posted a few years ago!

We used yellow and gray as our colors. Every dress was different for our bridesmaids, along with the junior bridesmaids and flower girl. We also had a painting done of me and my Husband. Since I am a photographer I wanted to do something unique and again something that was kind of old school and unexpected.

Advice from the bride: Do the little details. It makes all the difference. Having a color scheme made my planning so much easier. I really enjoyed the Vera Wang bridesmaids dresses. They had an edgy look. Also, let your bridesmaids pick their dresses! They will really appreciate it!

Wedding Vendors (Lufkin, TX):

Ceremony and reception location(s): Wisteria Hideaway and The Lodge / Florist: Gladys Swanson (Bride’s aunt), purchased from Brookshire Brothers / Photographer: Abdi of Three Photographers (based in Brooklyn, NY) / Wedding Dress: Maggie Sottero, Lesa’s Bridal / Veil: Etsy designer Fascinating Creations / Shoes: Christian Louboutin /Menus: Etsy designer katskrafts / Table Numbers: Etsy designer BGDesignstudio / Pinwheels for bridesmaids: Etsy designer twirliewhirlies / Guestbook: Etsy designer cutthecakedesigns / Bridesmaids fascinators: Etsy designer LittleWhiteDresser /Painting: Shanna Crew / Makeup Artist: Leanne Modisette, 832-790-5648 / Bridesmaid Dresses: Vera Wang / Flower girl dress: Etsy designer faithworks4u / Groom’s suit: Lesa’s Bridal / Tie: Express / Ceremony Musician: Vista String Quartet, 936-569-6404. / Reception Band: Bryan Harkness Band and Steven James / Caterer: Traditions / Wedding Cake: Brookshire Brothers

Fall 2010 Martha Stewart Weddings

Amanda — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:21:26 +0000

Received my copy in the mail a few days ago, and let me tell you how much you will love this issue. Aside from offering gorgeous wedding ideas as always, in this issue there is something extra that will make you giddy to see more…

Remember this awesome DIY Decoder save-the-date I posted back in February? Well, they got templates and instructions that you wanted so badly :)

You can find spy glass decoder lens here or here, but you will have to keep your eyes peeled for when the downloads go live on their site!

Their article on wedding cakes inspired by Fine Arts is unbelievably beautiful.

Their fashion articles in this issue are chock full of amazing vintage-inspired looks. The Martha Stewart Weddings Fall 2010 issue hits newsstands in just a few days, so you can your get copy soon!

Vintage Seaside Wedding II

Amanda — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:53:44 +0000

Continuing with Mercedes and Andy’s wedding, now moving on to their reception! If you missed part I earlier, you can see it here. Thanks again to Matthew Morgan for sending these fantastic images!

Andy and I wanted a semi destination wedding. So we started looking north along the Coast. Online we found a beautiful White barn that sat on a little beach town off the coast. Cayucos, The Cayucos Creek Barn! Don’t let the name throw you off. Cayucos is bright, welcoming, and a perfect combination of country and small beach town. We had the ceremony and dinner right outside the barn and reception in the barn. Perfect!!! The weather, the fresh ocean air, the fun laid back feel of the barn, Motown music in the background. Perfect!!!

More sweet details from Mercedes: Most of the decorations were home made or found at garage sales and thrift stores. We started right away looking for mason jars, old books and candlesticks on craigslist, or second hand stores. I also hosted a few wedding project nights at my house. Where the girls and I polished tin trays, candlesticks and cake platters. We also covered old tin soup cans with burlap to be used for vases around the barn.

The soup cans were collected for me by the mentally disabled adults that I work with. My Designer and friend made this beautiful frame display out of fishing wire and plastic tubes used to hold water for flowers after they’ve been cut. We used the frames as the back drop of our ceremony. My husband and his guys made an amazing chandelier out of rope, old glass bottles, and light bulbs that hung on stage above the band. I created a L.O.V.E sign out of fabric letters from Anthropolgy, chicken wire, ribbon, and an old frame. The Love sign hung at the entrance of the barn and above our head table.

Advice for Brides: Don’t do it all yourself! Its more fun for everyone promise :) Love your Fiance’ through the whole process of the wedding. Not because your getting married but just because you love him. Don’t make your wedding the focus of the relationship for those few months. It’s refreshing :)

Wedding Vendors (Cayucos, CA):
Venue: The Cayucos Creek Barn /Photographer: Matthew Morgan / Event designer and Florist: Christa Rose / Groomsmen shoes: TOMS / The Band: The Blue Breeze Band / Caterer: The Sea Shanty / Wedding Invitations: Kendall Riley / Videographer: Ariel Amaro