Make My Day — Dahlias

I think fall has officially fell here in Mid-Michigan. The leaves are slowly taking over the ground, flip flops are since retired, and sweaters are out in full force. I like fall, but not as much as summer. The light and dainty flowers of summer have now turned to seed and some of my perennials are already ascending into the ground.

The one bright and beautiful flower I still see around town are the dahlias. They've been catching my eye recently, especially when everything else is turning brown! Dahlias come in so many colors and have such interesting patterns and textures. You could literally build an entire wedding around this amazing little flower.

Don't feel like your options are limited if you're having a fall wedding, check out all of these colorful options!

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

Try It On tool from OPI

Most people don’t know this about me, but I love nail polish! Maybe it’s the clean lines of the glass bottles all lined up in a neat row at the salon, or that tiny brush that creeps into every corner of your nail. Whatever it may be, it’s fun and feminine!

The reason most people don’t know I like this stuff — is because I never wear it! You see, I’m the type of person who thinks only certain colors of nail polish look good on me. In my mind, I will never be able to pull off bubble gum pink, goth black, or really any shade of red. I usually stick to a nice neutral shade of skin tone pink, or a cream color.

On my wedding day, I went with those simple tones, but would have loved to experiment with something a little more interesting, if only I had this tool —  Try It On from OPI! It’s the perfect little palette to experiment with any color your little heart desires.

Above are some of my favorite shades.

Travel Themed Place Cards

I love the whole travel themed idea for weddings, especially when they're executed like this one, featured on Style Me Pretty! Holly and Sean had lots of little details from around the world, like their world map seating chart, their Singapore Slings cocktail hour, and these crafty little place cards!

Holly found a bunch of vintage envelopes from the 50's and 60's on ebay, so she encorporated small shipping labels tied around the vintage envelope that had the guests' name written on them. Here's what Holly had to say:

When you got to your place, the envelope was there, acting as your seating card, and you opened it to find your menu inside, which Sean made — we had four courses and we named each course as though you were on a plane: the amuse bouche was “Check-In,” then the salad was “Take-Off” then the entree was “Airborne” and the dessert was “Touchdown.

Real Wedding: Jennifer & Ray

I don't usually feature real weddings on here, but one has come to my attention that I just can't pass up. Jennifer & Ray were married in Dana Point California, and boasted a fresh and fun color palette. The wedding was put together so well, with fresh florals, timeless bridesmaids and some pretty funky invitations, but the thing that I liked the most were the way they executed their place cards.

To keep with the funky pops of color, they added a variety of patterned napkins to each table, and then used tiny swatches from those patterns on the guests' escort cards! It's an entertaining way to guide guests to their appropriate table, and adds a ton of flavor to the wedding decor! Table numbers were also present, but I like the matching game more!

You can find an easy how-to guide at the Martha Stewart website here, or see the featured wedding details here!

Artichoke Color Inspirations

I’m not sure what draws me to them, but artichokes have my attention! I love their rustic color, unusual shape and ability to transform into a place card! I love those prints you can sometimes find of vintage artichoke diagrams and what not, I covet them for my kitchen.

While the artichoke is awesome and all, I’m not sure it’s appropriate to carry a vegetable through out your wedding décor. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use it for inspiration! Here are a few of my favorite artichoke inspirations.

Sources: table number, place card, cake, vintage print, shoes, bridesmaids, bouquet, artichoke dip, place setting, invitation.

Vintage Hair Accessories from Lottie Da Designs

I’m all about brides ditching the veil if they so choose, especially if it doesn’t suit their updo or gown. To keep that bride feeling though, sans veil, maybe try incorporating a smaller detail in your updo — like these lovely creations by Lottie Da Designs.

Wear one in lieu of a vail, or to spice it up for the reception!

Invitation inspiration from lillyella

I ran across this adorable blog called lillyella today, and saw that this fabulous jewelry designer also created her own wedding invitations. I love it when creativity spreads from one medium to another!

I just wanted to share some pictures she has up on her blog, as they are beautiful and oh-so creative! You can read the full story here!

I think my favorite part about these is the little booklet style invitation, and how the back cover wraps around and is sewn in place. I can just imagine the delight of her guests as they receive this pretty package in the mail — and opening it to find a small booklet designed just for them!

Wine Cork Place Cards

I like these, I really like these — unfortunately I have nowhere to use them. Our dinner parties are much too casual for seating cards, and I don’t plan on helping with any tuscan weddings in the future… but I liked them so much that I thought I’d do the math for you…

So say you stuck with the one wine cork per card, and you have 200 place/escort cards for the reception, that would work out to about 210 corks (200 plus a few extra for mistakes).

If you’re planning with a year to spare, that would mean finishing about 4 bottles of wine every week, if it’s just the two of you. You could always you enlist help from both sets of parents, which would equal a more realistic 6 bottles a month from all 3 parties.

You could always ebay the corks, but that’s not as special at collecting them yourselves. Another, more realistic option would be to use corks for the table numbers only, or for little signs all over the reception (menus, drink cards, etc.)

Here is a great tutorial from Weddingbee's by Mrs. D’orsay, on how to make these little card holders.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

Autumn Mood Board

It's getting closer to that time again... yes, autumn! Luckily I love this time of year, where the smells and scenes tickle your senses. Aside from all the goodies fall brings, the colors put on a show of their own!

I absolutely love the deep saturated colors we often see in autumn, especially when translated into a wedding. However, sometimes it seems like brides feel the need to incorporate every single fall color into their wedding, resulting in a tie-dye effect. Since the colors are already so bold, think about possibly picking just one and carrying it throughout the wedding. You could even go so far as to choose shades of that same color, like this mood board from green wedding shoes. I love the dark pink and plum shades!

Source: green wedding shoes.

DIY scratch off tickets

I’m slightly hooked on scratch off tickets — not sure why, but they’re a hoot anyway. I saw recently a little project via iDIY where you can make your own scratch off tickets! The original tutorial is from Artmind and seems very self explanatory, with lots of great pictures to help along the way.

While the options are endless for this project, I like to think it would work well for save the dates (scratch off the date, or name), bridal shower games, or favors.

The tutorial is geniuos in every way, but I can’t help but want to alter it a bit, so I’ll share… Instead of just painting the silver mixture freehand on the card, I think I would probably use a stencil, or create a custom template so that the lines are a little cleaner (OCD is coming out full force today, hah).

Bakerella does it again

From time to time I like to browse creative blogs like Bakerella — you know the one. I'll sit there and dream about the hobbies I might have, if I had enough time for hobbies to begin with. I've always loved baking, and severly salivate every time I see new projects from Bakerella, but this latest project triggered some wedding favor ideas!

Bakerella spruced up a recipe for Cowboy Cookies, coincidentally turning them into Cowgirl Cookies with some pink m&m's. She then made some cookie mixes from that same recipe, creating a gorgeous little take-away gift for all to enjoy! I loved this idea so much that I decided to share it with you all —as a favor idea. Just think, m&m's come in every color under the sun, so these would be an easy and fun project to customize with your wedding colors!

Add a little tag or sticker with your names and some light directions and you're golden! I bet you could even cut the recipe in half for a mini-batch in some smaller (easier to lug around) jars.