Is Geek the New Chic?

Brainiacs seem to be a trend right now… Ok, just hear me out on this one.  This month’s Brides magazine featured a page on chemistry inspired wedding accessories and I have to admit, they are super cute!  Preppy college weddings filled with books and apples have been all over the blogs in the last few years but this pushes the idea to a whole new level.

It’s not just a new wedding trend though, I have noticed the brainy guy popping up everywhere lately.  He has starring roles on TV shows and movies so of course the wedding world is not far behind… well at least he’s in the shows I watch.   So, this week’s Inspired By is straight from the books of a chemistry nerd.  Check it out!

Photo Credits
Photo 1) Todd Pellowe Weddings
Photo 2) Style Me Pretty
Photo 3) 100 Layer Cake
Photo 4) One Lovely Day

The Honeymoon

The honeymoon is a tradition most couples take part in today, and I suggest you get away after the wedding.  It doesn’t have to be fancy, even going to a bed and breakfast a half hour away would be great!!  Just get away, turn off the cell phones, relax and soak in all the the greatness that just happened.  Enjoy one another, rest and recover.  If you plan on waiting until the snow hits or you have more vacation time that’s fine but take a day or two to be alone.  Just you and your new partner.

As you can tell, I don’t particularly care how this tradition started because I think you should just do it!!  But, it wouldn’t be called Redecorate Tradition if we didn’t talk about why it started and how to make it your own.  So, I covered making it your own above it is seriously that simple: just do whatever you want as long as it includes a recently married couple and a bottle of bubbly (alright you can even leave out the bubbly if you must!).

So onto how it started.  They say the honeymoon vacation was born in Britain but it was really just borrowed from the Indian Elite who traveled around visiting friends and family after the wedding.  The term honeymoon though started as a way to describe the sweetest time for the couple, a time of love and passion fueled by the new nuptials.  So however you choose to honor this tradition, I wish you a happy honeymoon!!!

Photo Credits:

Photo1) Apartment Therapy

Photo 2) Italy by Susan Wright Photography

Photo 3) Marvin Maximillian

Photo 4) Wit & Delight

Photo 5) Apartment Therapy

My Style

I am always asking my clients to define their personal style and it can be a hard thing to do!  So, I thought I would put myself up to the same challenge and share my personal style with all of you.
I think style translates in many ways but the easiest way to understand it is to look at your home and your clothes.  My home is decorated in a modern, semi simple way.  I love accenting neutral walls with unexpected art and patterns.  I adore mirrors and tend to accessorize with animals (for those of you who read the Young House Love Blog, yes I am almost as obsessed as Sherry).  I tend to create art instead of buy it and I feel like the key to a good looking room is texture and pattern.  If you layer texture and colors in the right way, you will have a winning room every time.  Oh, and there always needs to be an element of glam in the room, just that little something that sparkles or feels decadent.  Just check out my For the Home board on Pinterest and you will see what I mean.

My personal style is pretty eclectic.  One day I am wearing pearls and a ruffly blouse and the next skinny jeans and a t-shirt.  I tend to keep clothing items neutral and in solid colors but mix it up with stripes or a bold pattern here or there.  I am a bling girl and I follow the philosophy that any outfit is made by the accessories. So bring on the chunky necklaces, statement rings, watches and shoes!!!  Accessories can dress up or down any outfit and if you get the right pieces they are timeless.  If you want to see more of my style inspiration, guess what … I have a Pinterest board for that too- see Style board!  Weird right?

Wedding inspiration can come from so many places, fashion, interior design, travel, your favorite restaurant, a picture, book or a movie you love. The more you understand about your style and what you like the better.  It can be hard to put style into words though, so collect inspiration. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Photo Credits:

Photo 1) Tobi Fairley

Photo 2) Decor Pad

Photo 3)Design by Meredith Heron photo by Paul Orenstein

Photo4)  Lipstick & Ruffles

Photo 5) Shopbop

Photo 6) Tumblr

The Bridesmaid Dress Dilemma

I am here to tell you that the bridesmaids don’t matter!  Well … they do matter but their opinion on their dress?  Not so much.  I understand brides that want everyone to be happy and if that is your main concern, then go with mismatched dresses and help them each pick a dress they love (but that is an entirely different post).  If you want matching dresses, I hate to break the bad news but not everyone will love the dress.  And that’s perfectly fine.  Let’s face it, they probably won’t wear the dress again especially if it is in line with the traditional bridesmaid frock.  So do what you want.

You are the one who will have the pictures to flip through for years to come while they donate the dress to Goodwill.  You don’t want to look back at the pictures and wish you had gone with something else.  But what about your dear friend in the dress she hates you ask?  Well, if she knows the bridesmaid code she will keep her mouth shut and you won’t even know about her dislike for her wedding day get up.  But I guess I might be being a little harsh on bridesmaids in puffy sleeves everywhere.  I get it, they don’t want to shell out cash on yet another dress they won’t wear again but it comes with the territory and is an essential bridesmaid duty.  And to brides who have a fussy bridesmaid, I promise you on the wedding day she won’t be thinking about the dress and if she is, the champagne waiting in the limo will help her forget!

Photo Credits:

Photo 1 Style Me Pretty

Photo 2 Mismatched Brides from Weddingbee

Photo 3 Ruffled

Wedding Magazines

Sometimes Brett will bring me breakfast in bed. It’s usually just a chocolate Long John (no sprinkles) but I am a doughnut loving girl so it’s all the same to me. Last weekend neither of us had anything pressing* to do, which is a rarity in our house so we lazed around in bed for a few hours. Brett watched Sports Center and I futzed on my computer and read a few magazines. I always get so excited when one of my favorites arrives on my door step. I have even been known to squeal when I see a new issue of Southern Living Weddings.

So today I thought I would share my top three favorite wedding magazines.

Southern Living Weddings: This one is packed with the most beautiful pictures, mostly pictorials of real Southern weddings. You won’t find instructions on DIY projects, advice about how to keep crazy Uncle Bob from making a toast or lists of stores to purchase the napkin rings you saw on page 32, but the details are amazing. There are minimal ads and it is full of great ideas! Laurel from Bloom introduced me to this one and I LOVE it!

Brides Magazine: Come on now, what bride to be doesn’t like this one? Brides is full of helpful tips, etiquette advice, fun items you might not find yourself and TONS of ads for dresses if you are still looking for the perfect gown. This one is a great place to gather ideas and get advice.

Martha Stewart Weddings: Martha is brimming with fresh ideas, DIY projects and cute pictorials. There are always easy projects for the DIY bride, my only caution here is that Martha sometimes shows things that aren’t possible unless you are Martha Stewart. Love you Martha, but you have a farm in Ecuador grow monster mums that the general public has no access to and you create things that would topple over if a child even looks at it. You can still use many of the ideas in this one but beware, your fave picture might only be possible in Stewart Land.

I have a huge library of wedding magazines that any of my brides can borrow; it’s a great resource for fun new ideas. Alright, so there is a rundown of my favorites. What are yours?

Spring Internship

I am currently looking for a qualified intern for the Spring Semester. Please see details below.

We are looking for a Proactive, energetic and positive intern to assist with a variety of duties including social networking, event preparation, client intake and other various marketing duties. A qualified candidate will be pursuing experience in the events industry and must be receiving school credit for this unpaid internship. Interest in the wedding industry is a plus and experience with social networking is desired. Candidates must be comfortable working on their own, be detail oriented and resourceful.

Internship responsibilities will include:
• Managing content for social networking sites.
• Interacting with vendors and clients.
• Inventory preparation for weddings.
• Office organizational tasks.
• Marketing in various forums.

Candidates must receive college credits for the internship.
Resumes can be sent to Amanda Felsman at info@tailoredengagements.com.
This is an ideal position for someone looking to gain experience in the growing events industry.

Giveaway!!!!

Tailored Engagements offers styling for every piece of your wedding and you don’t have to be one of our brides to take advantage of our wedding design services.  We can assist in designing everything from your invites to your centerpieces and even your attendant’s attire.  One of our most popular add-on packages includes assistance in styling one of the most important parts of the day … the bride!!!  This week we are giving away a custom bridal styling package where Amanda will help you make sure you look seamless on the big day.  You will get assistance in picking out everything from the dress to suggesting hair and makeup styles and of course help in finding a fierce pair of shoes!!  If you already have the perfect dress picked out we can help pull the whole look together.

To enter just have all of your friends “Like” the Tailored Engagements Facebook page and leave a comment with your name.  The bride with the most comments between now and Friday at noon will be styled from head to toe!  (Bridesmaid Styling can be substituted)

Photo by Katelin Wallace Photography

Wedding Day Timelines and Tastings

Last week I got to join one of my brides at her tasting.  I love going to tastings because they usually allow me tons of insight into the wedding day (no, it’s not just the tasty lunch I love).  The venue or caterer typically has a lot of questions and decisions that are helpful for me to be a part of.  Many times I don’t even taste, I just observe, which always brings up new questions and ideas.

The tasting was at the Grand Geneva and let me tell you, they know how to host a nice tasting, but it was also overwhelming.  They had tables set with different linen options, a display with what felt like fifty different napkin folds, lighting, candles, table numbers, wine, cake and of course food selections.

We talked about timelines, Hors d’œuvres, wine service, music, place cards and a million other things.  Luckily, it was in a beautiful setting and the food was delicious!  The bride and groom were also quick to compromise with each other, which helped speed up the process.  Since I am styling the wedding, we had already spent hours discussing table linens, votives, table numbers and anything else décor related so the day wasn’t nearly as crazy as it could have been.

As usual, the most complicated decisions had to do with the timeline so we decided to do a little more research before making any final decisions.  It reminded me again of how important working with all of the vendors on a timeline is.  This is why it is so important to ask your planner, venue, photographer and caterer about your plans BEFORE invites go out and it is too late to make changes.  I love working with my couples to create a timeline and it can often be one of the most stressful parts of planning so having the input of an expert is always helpful.

My Brides and Shoe Love

I  am obsessed with fashion.  I know, it probably doesn’t show but I can’t get enough of wedding attire.  As you all already know, I am even more obsessed with wedding shoes!!  Wedding style has changed so much in the past few years.  In the past, most brides picked something plain and white and called it a day but today shoes are a carefully selected element in each wedding I work on.  From time to time I get texts and emails with shoe pictures and if anyone else is around when I get them they are going to know about it.  Not only because I show anyone within earshot, but because I typically squeal with excitement (seriously, I do … I am a dork that way).

This year my brides all have different styles, but they each picked out a sick pair of heels to wear on their big day.  In no particular order, here are a few sneak peeks.  It should leave you drooling and waiting for the wedding posts!

 We will kick things off with these adorable Bagley Mischka heels

and throw in these amazing Jimmy Choo’s

Add a little something blue by Paris Hilton

This little number that fit the wedding and the bride’s personality to a tee!

The bride selected these shoes in blue, and they are beautiful!

Kate Spade polk a dots are you kidding me?!

Love the bow, love the color, love Badgley Mischka!!

Sparkly Tom’s … Need I say more?

Something blue and sparkly, with a peap toe to boot

Thanks ladies for sharing, they are all amazeballs as Guiliana would say!

Sumner and Mike

Sumner and Mike are getting married  tomorrow and it is going to be a beautiful day filled with vintage touches and special details.  This wedding is one I have been waiting for, I love all of the weddings I style and this one is no exception.  Sumner has great taste and a really awesome fashion sense.

Mike and Sumner’s engagement shoot was no exception, it was also covered in detail and brimming with adorableness!  Jaci from Gloss Photography Studios worked her magic and the couple went with whatever Jaci asked of them which always makes for the best pictures.  Sumner even laid on the ground in a white dress … what a dare devil!

I can’t wait to get these two married in a day full of loveliness!  Congratulations to the couple!