Ruffled

Sarah + Reed’s 4th of July Wedding, Part III

amanda — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:32:16 +0000

What about a summer wedding with lots of activities for everyone? Sarah and Reed’s wedding had croquet, tug-of-war, and a parade from the ceremony to the reception lead by an accordian. Basically, their wedding makes everyone jealous to those who didn’t attend (like myself). Big thanks to Joel and Mary from Blue Window Creative.

Sarah and Reed are talented videographers from Grow Film, and on their wedding day they let their guests use their cameras to record the day. The result is magical – the imperfections make it so much more special. Some of their guests had never used a Super 8mm camera before! See the video HERE.

Sarah + Reed’s 4th of July Wedding, Part II

amanda — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:24:20 +0000

Sarah and Reed were married at Red Barn Studios in Chehalis, Washington where they had a whole day of games and activities after the ceremony. The bride’s vintage inspired wedding dress and the groom’s outfit (and his shoes as well) were both custom made by Adam-Arnold. Amazing photography courtesy of Mary and Joel from Blue Window Creative.

Check back soon for their reception photos and the super 8mm video made by their guests!

Sarah + Reed’s 4th of July Wedding, Part I

amanda — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:39:32 +0000

This vintage 4th of July wedding is a gem! Sent by the utterly talented Mary and Joel from Blue Window Creative, this vintage Americana wedding may be one of the most fun fetes ever featured here on Ruffled. Sarah and Reed are amazing videographers who made their super 8mm camera collection available for guests tp use to record their wedding day (we’ll be sharing the finished product in a bit). Besides this special DIY idea, the couple also DIY’ed everything else.

Next up is the ceremony, so check back soon!

Boutonnières for Spring

amanda — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:46:13 +0000

If you follow me on Twitter, you might remember my tweet about how much I wished for snow. Well, I’ve changed my mind. With a snowstorm coming up this weekend, I am longing for warm weather. Loving these cheery vintage inspired, handmade boutonnieres. So pumped for spring!

Here are some of my favorite finds, and first up are striped bouts:

Orange and aqua bouts (loving the leaves on the side):

Vintage inspired bouts. The vintage beach bout is beyond adorable (loving the doily detail, it reminds me of coral):

Woodsy bouts:

Rows 1 and 2 by Peppermint Cloud and rows 3 and 4: Erica Cavanagh; both from Etsy.

Printable Getting Ready Door Hangers

amanda — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:31:01 +0000

Happy Friday indeed! The amazing Carolynn from Two Brunettes strikes again with another amazing free download designed exclusively for Ruffled! She created door hangers for the bride and groom getting ready rooms, and a “Just Married” sign.

Download Getting Ready Bride and Groom, Just Married Door Hangers.pdf

We will be a doing a Valentine’s Day round up, so check back soon!

Vintage Love Shoot

amanda — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:38:03 +0000

Jesse and Paul have been together for over a decade but decided to tie knot with a very intimate ceremony. Their engagement was short despite all the years together (just one month to plan everything eek!), so they decided to have a photo session done a week before the wedding. Jesse designed the shoot herself, bringing what she had at home to decorate it. Jesse’s gorgeous dress is by Colette Dinnigan. Shot by the wonderful Sydney photographer Trish from Tea Lily Photography.

Don’t forget to enter to win an engagement session by Jenny Sun in NYC. Just one day left to enter!

Erica + Collin’s 60s Wedding

amanda — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:54:15 +0000

I stumbled upon Jacob Pritchard’s work the other day and had to share this quirky 60s wedding that I saw on his blog. Erica, the bride, shares all the tidbits about her wedding day:

Collin and I made the CD – the picture is the same one we used on the front of our wedding invitation, which we designed and had printed at a postcard place. We’re both sci-fi dorks and I use sci fi costumes and plotlines a lot in my artwork. The songs are all songs that Collin and I have made together or separately over the course of the probably 15 years or so that we’ve been making music.

Their wedding rings had each others’ fingerprints on the outsides.

I wear a lot of 60s/70s/80s clothes but was definitely feeling more of a 60s vibe at the time and thought that would be a good visual theme to the way we looked. I thought I would try on a million different wedding dresses, but I saw that one online and just bought it, and that was that. I had it tailored by this awesome woman Ann Hamilton, who specializes in vintage wedding dresses. She was excited that I was keeping the dress’s poofy arms (one of my fave features on a dress), as most of her clients have her remove the arms from their dresses. She took out the lining of the arms and also replaced the lining of the entire dress, which was this really stiff kinda cheap fabric that made a swishy noise when I moved in it. I also retooled my mom’s veil, replacing the lace and tool, and that felt kind of nice.

Cupcakes – we asked some friends and family to contribute one dozen cupcakes each of their choice. We did still have a small cake to cut – it was one that my mother made – my favorite recipe of all time. And we had a few dozen cupcakes made from the same recipe. so the end result was a nice assortment of different familiar flavors in a handy pre-portioned size. No plates needed!

I’m usually a natural light kind of girl, but I’m loving the use of flash on these photos:

For the dresses for the bridesmaids, we went shopping one afternoon at a few vintage/thrift stores I knew carried a lot of 60s/70s clothing and each of them got a dress within a 60sish palette I was looking to use. I tried to convince Collin to wear a wacky/hokey 1960s or 1970s suit but he preferred to rock a more sophisticated modern look. We had a hard time figuring out what to do with the guys, but ended up finding them shirts (at Express) that more or less matched the ladies’ dresses.

As for other stuff relating to the aesthetic – I designed some fabric that we used for the backdrop for our photos at the hotel. I had it printed at spoonflower.com. For centerpieces, we planted various plants in milk glass containers that we collected at various thrift stores and tag sales over the course of the summer – 3 per table. We found some really cool and unique pieces, and people seemed to enjoy bringing those home. Each group of 3 sat on a square of the fabric that I made. We also hung some big white lanterns in the barn to lighten up the space, though the barn itself did have a very excellent warm and homey rustic vibe to it. I also tried to aim for a bouquet that was sort of sixties-esque in that it had a cascade. We also had these cool floral bracelets for the ladies which were a nice touch on the florist’s part.

The band – Collin’s family is very musical – his dad has playing guitar for most of his life, his brother Scott is an awesome drummer, and his brother Kyle played guitar back in the day and picked it back up again for them to play at Scott’s wedding in April 0f 08. Collin makes music and has been in a band and plays the guitar and bass. I sing and make music, and my mom sings in the Hartford Chorale. My dad is a huge music lover and got me interested in a lot of music when I was younger. He bought Nirvana’s Nevermind before me – I think that helps to put it in perspective. Anyway…Collin’s family plays together and my family really doesn’t, so I thought it would be cool to join forces and make a supergroup of members from both sides. I sang on most songs and was joined by Collin, his dad Mel, my mom Elaine and my aunt Missy, who’s also a singer and musician. My dad also sang and played keyboard on Whip It (one of his karaoke faves). We were only able to practice twice but it was great fun and I think we did an awesome job.

This is my favorite part of their wedding story:

Also there is a cool story about our engagement. I wish we could just send you a video clip from the ceremony but we haven’t actually digitized it yet. I’ll just briefly go over what we did. My friend Sarah married us, and we worked with her to develop the ceremony and vows. We more or less wrote our vows the night before, which was kinda stressful, but worked out fine. For the readings, we had friends read poems and song lyrics that we wrote over time about each other, and we also had them talk about and demonstrate the Proposal Box, which Collin used to propose to me. He works with electronics and designed this cute little box to ask me to marry him. There was a “yes” and a “no” button and some LEDs. When the YES button was pushed, the Beatles “The End” started playing – right at the part where it goes “OH YEAH! ALRIGHT!!!” We’ll have to put up a video of that in the near future!

Wedding Vendors: (Wethersfield, Connecticut)

Venue: Webb Barn
Photography: Jacob Pritchard
Florist: Gordon Bonetti
Vintage wedding dress: Vintage Wedding
Vintage Dress alterations: Ann Hamilton (NYC)

Sponsor Shout Out: The Vintage Bride

amanda — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:56:47 +0000

The Vintage Bride is a Ruffled’s reader dream come true. They carry a gorgeous selection of vintage wedding dresses from all decades and offer free shipping on all items. You can also return your dress in case it is not what you were expecting (if it didn’t fit right, changed your mind etc), which I think is a make or break deal when shopping online for vintage garments.

The pink ruffled dress on the right reminds me of this gorgeous vintage bride I featured a few weeks ago!

Left, 1950s wedding gown; right, pink ruffled 50s dress

Left, 1940s wedding dress; right, 1960s tiered wedding dress

Bird Cage Wedding Decor

amanda — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:40:42 +0000

This is a trend I am dying to see more of. Vintage birdcages are no longer used just as card holders and now are popping up as centerpieces, lighting accessories and an all around whimsical item must have. My personal favorite is the pagoda bird cages, often made out of wood. If you used vintage bird cages in your wedding and no longer need them, don’t forget to list them on our classifieds page. I’m sure many of you will be looking for them after seeing these awe-inspiring images…

You can find vintage inspired bird cages like the bamboo bird cage (above left), here and here. Loving this iron bird cage card holder.

First row: left, hanging bird cages photo by Bonnie Tsang; right, bird cage wedding decor via Perfect Bound. Second row: centerpieces and hanging lights shot by Stephanie Williams. Third row: vintage wooden bird cages styled by Duet Weddings photo by Corbin Gurkin. Fourth row: left, Neiman Marcus via Heidi Ryder; right, Country Living. Fifth and sixth rows: photo by Stephanie Williams. Last row: left, West Elm; right, Newport Nautical Decor

Handwritten Regency Valentine’s

amanda — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:42:00 +0000

Shanna Murray from Hello Handmade and Betsy Dunlap from B.Dunlap have teamed up again this year to offer handwritten Valentine’s Day letters. Shanna’s design is envelope free, another huge plus in my book! They will also donate 10% of each Regency Valentine to the American Red Cross relief for Haiti. I love the idea of a handwritten love letter as wedding invitations…currently swooning over Shanna’s design and Betsy’s calligraphy: