Happy Friday!

A teaser of a wedding to come next week!  Now this is what I think of when I think of Royal!

By Sweet Monday Photography.   Happy weekend!

My Royal Hen Party

I was looking over some waaaay old posts and missed the personal part of my writing.  So today, I'm switching it up!  In honor of the Royal Wedding going on tomorrow, I'm sure they had a royal hen party and so I wanted to share mine!  (PS. A hen party in the UK is a bachelor/ette party for us!) I've never shared any pictures and I am going to be choosy.  Not all are blog-friendly!

Vegas was the way to go for us.  It was about 10 of us, 5 girls and 5 boys.  We hung out all day and parted ways at night.  I think it definitely was the best way to go!  So much fun!  Rosie was my road dawg!  We came in a couple days before everyone to soak in the sun!

We gambled!

...and we were silly!

The customary sash!

...and crown!

My husband to-be and man of honor getting ready to...do whatever they did.  I conveniently snuck in this picture today because it's my husband's birthday!  Happy birthday babe!  I ♥ you!

Wait, I think these are all the pictures I can/should share!  At least I reminisced!  I can't believe this was 2 years ago!  Time flies!  The bridal shower was nice and fun, but our hen party was seriously (to quote our past bride, Bowie Bride) amazeballs!

What did you do or are you doing for your hen party?

Inspiration Board: Brown, Blush Pink and White!

As promised, here is the other inspiration board an October bride is having a hard time deciding from!

Wedding bridesmaid dress
brown square background
Pink and Gray Modern Inspiration | The Wedding Chicks
Real Weddings - 3 Designer Weddings - Formal White Wedding Reception
Wedding, Flowers, White, Brown - Project Wedding
Real Weddings - An Indoor Wedding in Bonnet Island, NJ - Pink and...
Real Weddings - Karla & Brian: A Formal Wedding in West Linn, OR - The...
Rental Wedding Cake and Cupcake Combo | Sweet Retreat
Decorati | Soft Pink by Benjamin Moore
Decorati | Aspen White by Benjamin Moores

Just a hint of blush pink instead of the green.  I have a feeling this one might be it!  Which do you prefer?

Inspiration Board: Brown, Green and White!

We made two inspiration boards for one of our couples getting married in October, yes 5 months away!  She knows she wants brown, but is debating what to pair with it.  She's a pretty sweet, traditional meets modern, and soft so I went with the first brown and green to accentuate the venue.  There's already lots of greenery and the views are beautiful!

brown square background
Real Weddings - An Eco-Friendly Mountain Wedding - Repurposed...
A Rustic Wedding - Brown Escort Cards
Real Weddings - A Casual Wedding in Mifflin, PA - Green Reception...
Real Weddings - A Woodland Wedding in New York City, NY - Natural...
Green Weddings | District Weddings
Garden Green and White Boutonnieres | Wedding Ideas Blog | Once Wed
Green Wedding Cakes, Wedding Cakes Photos by Laurel Designs
Carnton Plantation Wedding Franklin TN | Inspirations & Creations -...
Decorati | Aspen White by Benjamin Moore
hunter green square

Tomorrow I'll have the other up.  It's a bit more soft and feminine.  Which one will she go with?

Kyoto Wedding Teaser

Happy Monday everyone and Happy Easter to all those who celebrated too!  I was at home with a bug, but my husband was nice enough to bring me an Easter egg full of loot.

This weekend we had a wedding at the Kyoto Grand and it couldn't have turned out any more perfect!  As always, I give you my iPhone teaser!

The Kyoto rooftop is perfect!  Definitely has a wonderful view and the staff was awesome.  Only downside is the street noise.  Luckily we didn't have sirens pass by during the ceremony but it very well could have happened!

Contact us soon if you need a fab duo to coordinate, plan, and design your day!  We still have a few dates open this year and have already started booking for 2012!

A Rocker Wedding!

When I saw this shoot, I swooned.  Then I saw Ms. Tashina's gowns and fell even more in love!  Melissa of The Loveliest Day and Amber of Pitbulls and Posies were also part of this fabulousness.   Amazing girls!

Look at that sweeeeet light!

For more rockin' goodness, see full post over here.  Photography by Courtney Lindberg.

Dishing for Dana!

Here's a FUNdraiser for all you people out there, especially if you're a foodie and want to help out a great cause!  I've got lots of love for Dana from The Broke-Ass Bride and she's been going through a lot lately!  Read more here on below in a jiffy and help out!

The problem

 
♥  When I was 19 I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Uveitis.
♥  My immune system doggedly attacks my eyes causing inflammation, visual disturbances and blurriness. It is incurable and will cause blindness if left untreated.
♥  I also have a very rare deep-tissue form of a disease called Granuloma Annulare, causing a different type of inflammation in my foot, for which I had surgery last year. It is so rare, I am unable to find a doctor who knows how to treat it moving forward.
♥  I’ve had 11 surgeries (at least one, each year, for the past 5 years), to control my diseases and their side effects.
♥  Last month my left eye came out of remission and I’ll be having a 12th surgery.

My surgeries and ongoing care (even with health insurance) have left piles of bills in their wake, and I am now at a point where, without help, I cannot pay for my medical care.

The solution

Our (amazing) friends in the online community have encouraged us to hold an online fundraiser, but receiving without giving isn’t really our jam. To that end…
♥  We’re compiling beloved comfort food recipes and the stories behind them from the most bad-ass bloggers and beyond… available in varying forms, in exchange for donations to my medical care.
♥  There are incentives for varying levels of donation, which you can learn about here.
♥  The recipes, photos and stories will be teased here on our Dishing for Dana blog, and once a donation is processed, a password to access the full recipes will be released to each donor.

The Goal
 

♥  $13,000 to cover my current medical bills
♥  $6,032 to cover our health insurance premiums for the remainder of 2011
♥  $2,000 to donate to the American Autoimmune Related Disease Association toward helping others with autoimmune disease
For a total minimum of $22,000.

Note that this does not include the costs that will be related to my upcoming surger(ies) and ongoing care, nor for prescriptions or post-surgical supplies such as gauze and tape for my eye patch, or prescribed drugs to aid the healing process and protect from further inflammation and prevent infection, etc.

The Details
 

♥  You can donate any amount you choose, no minimum, no rules. Because every quarter is a quarter more than we had yesterday. It all adds up.
♥  We will donate 10% of all proceeds up to our goal, to the American Autoimmune Related Disease Association, so every dollar contributed not only goes toward my medical care, but also toward researching a cure to benefit everyone with autoimmune disease.
♥  Anything raised in excess of the goal will be split 50/50 with the AARDA – our portion of which will be saved in a dedicated, interest-bearing account toward any future surgeries and ongoing medical care.

Photo by Dan Chen

We just pitched in our two cents, now it's your turn!  Good luck and best wishes to our friend, Dana!

An Easter Wedding?

 You can totally pull off an Easter wedding with these beauties!

Our friends over at Fleuretica are sooooo talented!   They created this gorgeousness for a birthday.  Isn't it pretty?  What's even more amazing is that they created everything including those darling eggs!

These next two are my favorite!

These are just pretty to stare at and I love the idea of having them at an Easter weekend wedding!  ...or maybe you just love eggs?  Visit them for the full post!

Happy Friday!

This is a special kind of Happy Friday post!  As some of you may know, I'm part of Wish Upon a Wedding in SoCal and what we do is grant wishes to terminally ill couples.  Right now we're in the process of planning our second wedding and their love story is out.  Filmed by New Classic Films, this goes straight to my heart and makes me happy to be part of such a great organization!



Wish Upon a Wedding - Lisa & Doug - Love Story from New Classic Films on Vimeo.

We are ALWAYS looking for new sponsors for our weddings, please sign up today!  You don't realize the big impact you'll have on these lives! 

Monique Lhullier 2012

NYC Bridal Market is here!  How I wish I was there!  Here are some faves from Monique:

These next couple of gowns are to die for!

I like the peachy hues!

Back to white!

...and I have to finish off with my perhaps my favorite from this line:

Yay or nay?  Agree or disagree?  Can't wait to see some of these in person!  All pics via Brides.com

Happy Friday!

Love this shot by Paul Johnson!   I love his work and I guess I love pink too!  Hope the weather shapes up this weekend.  It's going to be a busy April!

Hotel Maya Wedding Teaser

A full post to come soon!  In the meantime, feel free to hop on over to Shannon Lee Images for more eye candy!

Happy hump day!

Inspiration Board: Ethereal + Clean

This board was made for one of our couples tying the knot in July.  We're UBER excited about it!  We just had a meeting with them last weekend and we came up with this for them:

Solid Silver Gray Crib Sheet, $22
Outstanding New York Bouquets | Wedding Flowers |Wedding Ideas |...
Pink Preppy Lilly Lover
Pink Preppy Lilly Lover
Wedding shoes
Great Wedding Finds
Southern Weddings - Southern Weddings Magazine
Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » Pink and White Ranunculus
Decorati | Pink Powderpuff by Benjamin Moore
Decorati | Soft White by Benjamin Moore

Besides the couple being the sweetest two, we're looking forward to working with Stephanie Williams and seeing her capture the beauty of their special day!

Happy Friday!

If you've read our blog long enough, you'd know I love Jose Villa and Elizabeth Messina.  Jose has recently come out with a book and I missed his book party this week!  Sadness!  Especially after a friend told me Elizabeth was there too...

Speaking of Elizabeth...

Incredible right?  See more of her amazing work here.