Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Rustic winter wedding inspiration

So it's been a while, but I thought I'd kick off my holiday posting with some bridal inspiration.  I have been inspired since my own wedding and I have always felt a pull towards the creativity and element of design that goes into a wedding. I think that this inspiration board speaks for itself, but this is a great way for winter brides to keep the winter elements soft for her wedding without giving into the expectation of an elaborate winter wedding where guests leave covered in holiday glitter. Enjoy! My favorite part are the favors, baileys diy hot chocolates for guests and blankets while they sit for the ceremony.






These will keep guests warm n cozy while watching you exchange vows.



A blush dress allows for a bit to pop in your centerpieces.






Delicious eggnog, recipe can be found on marthastewartliving.com
Nothing adds romance like sparkle. 
Happy winter wonderland!

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Favor

I have always been interested in party favors as you know I have a particular obsession with weddings. 
 They are a way of saying thanks for coming. I smile in thinking about ours, we wanted our guests to have activities to so if dancing wasn't their thing or they wanted a break. On each place setting we put a hilarious mad lib that we'd written and had a rock candy lollipop on each napkin. The mad libs were returned at the end of the night into a box and my husband and I made a book of them and read them afterwards. We had a family emergency in between our wedding day and the first day of our honeymoon that was terrifying and we were so exhausted with worry and being broke from our wedding it was nice to read the mad libs and just crack up at the things people wrote. We also had an amazing characature artist and people were pretty much in line for him all night, he was amazing and the characatures really made people laugh. 
Again a favor. Something that is done in thanks and it ends up making us smile. 
I tend to read a lot of inspirational books, especially in this year when I've wanted to give up, we've faces my spinal fusion surgery, my loss of income, my husbands loss of income for the five months that I happened to be off, I faced other health issues, a miscarriage, everything we tried to do to make our lives better just kept getting beaten down by something that we had no control over. For a while I was broken, my husband was, and it was hard just trying to keep each other from giving up. We've shared more tears this year than all the others combined. 
I am a spiritual person so I believe in something called none other than favor and the power of words.  If you talk to a quantum physist, even scientifically they would agree. Your emotions and mental thought process, what you speak out does create a mass that affects the energy around you. I have to constantly say that I have favor and truly picture the things that I think are positive and focus on them.
I have never written a post like this, it is always about crafting, beauty, wedding ideas and such. I have been down in this holiday season because we can't really afford Christmas this year....but as I was reading this morning I realized something.  I have been praying, hoping and asking  for years for us to be able to go to New York to visit my husbands family as his father has been battling illness since we've been together. Before my surgery a very special client who I've always perceived as blessed, have us that gift. He and his wife are such positively nice people. Always smiling. He too recently spoke to me of tough times as we were discussing surgery. And I realized how many hard things they have been through. Everybody has their Achilles heel or their demons or their struggles that they think they can't handle either. This morning I just realized that by daily asking for favor with those who are a part of my life from my parents to my insurance agent to the person on tech support at AT&T. I actually recieved this huge gift of something I've been asking for. And I never stopped to put the words thank you out there. Of course I have thanked my client and his wife multiple times but I didn't thank god and the universe for bringing something to me that I put out there. I was too busy focused on how we will be trying to have fun with friends on pennies when I just have to try and focus on the fact that we even get to be there. Luck comes is so many forms. Whether to you or it be from a higher being, a friend, an enemy, the universe or God. 
My goal for 2014 along with all my crafting, wedding and beauty love is to just focus on what's supposed to be right for you and your family and to enjoy and cherish even the smallest things that bring you happiness this holiday season. Mine will be seeing snow, which reminds me I need to stock up on heat pads for my healing back. Titanium gets cold, but it's really really strong. ;)