Wedding Inspiration - Part I

One of the most fun parts of wedding planning has been checking out other weddings in search of inspiration. As I have previously suppressed my girly-girl side (I blame this on being an engineer) I honestly never really paid much attention to weddings until I actually got engaged. I'm surprised at how much is out there!

At the very, very beginning of my wedding planning - before we even nailed down a state, let alone a venue I came across the wedding of Jay and Jessica in Chatham, MA in the Brides.com magazine.

I had snuck into a bookstore near where we live and unbeknown to Mr. Panda was secretly flipping through bridal magazines. Not that Mr. Panda would have minded - at the time I just didn't want to admit that I had been swooped up in the all the hoopla and craziness and WAS READING A BRIDAL MAGAZINE (gasp)!! Don't worry I've since given up that facade months long ago and now indulge. Even though I don't always want to admit it maybe I do have a girly streak ;)



Anyway, my peak at Jessica's and Jay's wedding was a moment of definite inspiration that admittedly got me pretty hooked on having a Cape Cod wedding ;) At the time I thought "Sold, I'll just buy that wedding! Done! I love it - no additional planing required." Wouldn't that be great if you could just pick your wedding out of a catalog or magazine? Perhaps others are cringing at this thought but seriously you have to consider how much easier would this all be???

Anyway, now that I'm further along in the wedding process it's fun to reflect back on this initial inspiration and how my wedding is actually shaping up to be similar. No surprise here!

And now for the eye candy introducing Jessica and Jay's wedding

Source: All images and descriptions of events from Brides.com, Real Weddings, Boston, Jay & Jessica

"After meeting in law school, Jessica and Jay decided to return to the bride's childhood Chatham, MA summer home to celebrate their nupitals"



Check out Jessica's beautiful hair and elegant lace dress. For some reason this dress screams Cape Cod to me.



Buckets of hydrangeas - these are all over the cape in the summer.


"Guests donned bibs to feast on the traditional clambake dinner, catered by White's Catering. On the menu: clam chowder, lobster, corn on the cob, and watermelon." I LOVE Lobster and am obsessed with eating it. Mr Panda has TONS of pictures of me chowing down on Lobster. I'd be totally game to do this in a wedding dress. Plus, I love the plastic bib - awesomely classy!


"Hand-lettered escort cards were tied with ribbon to lobster-shaped lollipops."


I love this photo of Jessica & Jay dancing. Jessica's dress is so elegant as it spins, I also really like the informal atmosphere of the tent.


Last but not least "In addition to two types of pie, Ben & Jerry's ice cream was served for dessert. The treat was a nod to the state of Vermont, where the couple met." How cool is this? Something different from the traditional wedding cake is so refreshing! Doesn't that ice cream look refreshingly yummy??


How have you been inspired by other weddings? Was this by attending another wedding, flipping through magazines, or another source?

Photo Inspiration - Pirates and Seamen

i LOVE the internet. Where else can you get free "inspiration" (read ideas to copy) at the tips of your fingertips??

Lately I've been thinking a lot about photos. Mr. Panda and I are crazy about photography and we want to share our love of photos with our guests. We've decided to place disposable point and shoot cameras at each table with instructions for guests to fill up the camera.

Mama Panda got these on clearance for us at Hobby Lobby. Check out these beauties!! I love how cheesy they are..... Wow we even get a flash!!!!



Having pictures of each table will be nice but someone it's still somewhat unfulfilling for me. I'm mean how great are photos going to be of everyone just sitting around eating? Hmmm....

Then a DJ that we were considering pitched selling us the portable photo both package. I would LOVE to have a photo booth but at a $700+ price tag it was just to pricey.

That's when the online inspiration came in. I was digging around the Martha Stewart website and came across a wedding where the bride and groom constructed several make-shift photo backgrounds out of different patterns of cloth fabric. Their photographer then matched various outfits to cloth patterns and took photos of guests.

The red cloth - Source Martha Stewart Real Weddings





Yellow Cloth Background






Very cool idea, but how comfortable would guests be letting loose in front of a photographer that they didn't know? Many people hate having their pictures taken and I just didn't see guests lining up enthusiastically to pose in front of a cloth background for a photographer. Plus, when would our photographers have time to capture all this? Perhaps during cocktail hour but we also wanted photos of cocktail hour!

Then I found a posting from Wedding Bee Blogger Miss Cowboy on her photo booth. She had taken the cloth background idea but incorporated it into a DIY photo booth. Genius!!






The camera is already set up on a tri-pod and programmed to shoot after 10 seconds so guests simply press the photo button and scramble into place. Your very own make-shift photo booth!

To spice things up and add to the photo booth atmosphere Miss Cowboy provided props Cowboy hats (her wedding was ranch themed) and a blackboard. This allowed for some creative photos.






I showed these photos to Mama Panda who is an ex-elementary school art teacher and it took her literally 10 minutes to produce a PVC pipe background support (something she had previously used for creating shadow shows on a cloth background).



The frame is a bit too narrow but could easily be widened by replacing 3 pieces of PVC with longer ones. Plus, this frame is SUPER lightweight and actually very sturdy. All I will have to do is cover it with cloth. Better than the clothesline used in the Martha Stewart shots.

Mr. Panda will have to help figure out how to make the lighting perfect - actually the part I'm worried about the most. Not sure if we can rent a diffuser.

As for props my wedding theme is basically all things Cape Cod so I was thinking along the lines of fishermen (think bright yellow rain slickers, fishing nets) and pirate stuff to use as props. Mama Panda dug through her Halloween & art school collection and produced some very cool FREE props. I don't want to give away all the props but below is a sampling.

Wow, how lucky am I to have Mama Panda? What other bride would have a mother that already owns a pirate treasure chest?













Sister Panda gracefully modeling one of the hats.


If you could create any photo booth imaginable what would you use for props?

Shoes on fire

Our photographers Chris & Andy of Bello Photography are obsessed with capturing shoes. I have a feeling this has more to do with Chris's fascination of shoes rather than Andy's but regardless....Check out their amazing shoe shots!

The classic getting ready photos with ring around the shoes






The unusual



and the just plain fun


Image Sources: Bello Photography Blog

I've never really been a huge "shoe girl" but now I must admit given our photographers propensity to shoot shoes I feel like I really want to now find something funky & fun to create our very own cool wedding shoe shot. What better way to do this than to go all out bright orange to match my color scheme?

And so today marks the beginning of my quest for a fabulous pair or orange shoes. I've spent a huge part of the day surfing online websites for shoes. Unlike with the ties I'm coming to the realization that I've already missed the Fall season (and even clearance season) for orange shoes. The options out there are pretty limited right now. Booo!!

Still I had some luck on the following sites. I thought I list some quick links to try for those of you brides out there also scouting out shoes.
Zappos.com
DSW.com
Piperlime.com
Barneys.com
Nordstrom.com
Shopbop.com
bluefly.com
urbanog.com

I fell in love with the following pair I dug up in a collage on a Google Image search


Unfortunately I have no idea where these came from and my shopping searches haven't pulled up anything similar. So sad.

Never fear there will be more. Next I fell in love with these:


These look like they'd have more support than stilettos and they are on sale!!!! For ONLY $489.99 Gulp, no misplaced decimal point here. Never mind.

What about a pair of nice comfy flats? I'm pretty tall so these Ann Taylor ruffle flats would be PERFECT if only they came in orange....






This last option also might work - Not quite as exciting as I wanted but definitely comfortable for an evening of dancing. Plus, I could potentially jazz this up with some cloth flowers or something. Hmm..... I'll keep this in mind as a good back-up/second pair option.


The hunt continues....

Tie saga

As Mr. Panda and I have worked our way through our giant "to do" bulletin board I've been overjoyed to cross off the BIG items such as booking venue, finding caterer etc. Now the task list is littered with much smaller but also important items such as "find ties for Mr. Panda & groomsmen".

Now how hard can finding some ties actually be? Surprisingly this task took WAY more time then I thought & recently consumed our entire weekend!! Welcome to the world of wedding planning! Disclaimer: I think we went a tad bit overboard but ties are important right?

As with many things, I started my search online. I'd seen a few striped ties in Bello Photography's blog that I absolutely loved so I wanted to find something similar.



I was also a bit leery about finding an orange tie. Orange just seems like one of those colors that can go wrong if not chosen carefully. I can't exactly quantify why but here are some orange ties that totally make me cringe! Yikes! Not a fan!






Searching online proved to be VERY frustrating and time consuming as many websites didn't allow you to just search "orange tie" but instead forced you to look through their entire collection. This coupled with the mounds of hits for cheap but iffy ties from questionable online retailers prompted us to hit the mall. Shopping in person was WAY easier (for this task at least). Amazing how fast you can scroll tables upon tables of ties at department stores.

The good news - orange ties abound and they are all on clearance!!! I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier but orange is a FALL color so it's only sold in the fall. Duhhh! Now that it's November retailers are liquidating their stock of orange ties. I'm SOOOO glad we started on this now instead of waiting till a few months before the wedding. This would have been July/August time frame as I'm not so designers would have released their fall 2010 collections by then. I can assure you that finding a stylish orange tie in November is 100x easier than locating one in July. Important lesson: when shopping for color specific wedding attire (or anything) carefully consider the buying / typical retail cycle and PLAN ahead.

I unfortunately didn't heed this advise for shoes and am running into lots of trouble locating orange shoes right now but I digress... this will be the topic of another blog.

The bad news - everything is on clearance. This, coupled with undisclosed major department store's amazingly accurate inventory system (note the sarcasm dripping off the page) made it very frustrating to track down three of the exact same tie. Thank goodness we only have two groomsmen.

Needless to say we persevered and after visiting virtually every mall in the greater Boston area and calling mama Panda to search in Colorado we now have quite the selection and inventory of ties.

As Mr. Panda didn't have a strong preference for one specific tie I wanted to show the various options to brother who lives in town and is also one of the groomsmen.
Here are the choices in no particular order. Mr. Panda is expertly modeling each one with a Navy suit jacket. Isn't he such a good sport???

Which tie is your favorite? I'd love your input on this. PLEASE CAST YOUR VOTE HERE


The Great Tie Line-up







Choice #1 - Tommy Hilfiger bright orange satin
This tie is the brightest of the bunch. The material is also a bit different. While the other ties are typically one solid similar type of material this tie incorporates
a satin orange stripe. Definitely the most modern, hip choice but is it too informal?





Choice #2 - Brooks brothers
Definitely more formal but it's a deeper orange so I'm thinking this is too reddish. It actually looks more orange in person but almost comes out red in the photos I took.





Choice #3 Nautica with baby blue





and last but not least....
Choice #4 Tommy Hilfiger with thin blue stripeAll one solid material so looks a bit more formal. Still the bright orange but thinner stripes.




Thanks to ample return policies we have three of each of the choices above and are awash in ties!!!! It looks like we have hundreds of groomsmen - we actually have two + Mr. Panda. LOL - perhaps they could each wear 4 how's that for stylin'

Color scheme: A bit of fall balanced with a sailor classic

First off I'd like to make a disclaimer. I am an engineer - a Chemical Engineer. I'm used to dealing with numbers, facts, procedures, etc. so actually having to incorporate a coherent color scheme non-the-less actually DESIGN said color scheme was initially a bit intimidating. While I don't completely fit the engineering stereotype (thank you I can match my socks and work outfits) I've never been one of those really "girlie" girls that contemplates design,color, etc on a regular basis. Perhaps this is why my selection of a color scheme got off to a slow start....

I've actually been thinking about and color scheme for months now. This has mainly consisted of hunting around photographers blogs online and cropping out various shots in different color schemes. Needless to say, I've put together quite the collage.

I originally liked a lot of the "classic" summer cape cod colors. Think of Vineyard Vines on crack. Navy, white, and light pink



Or perhaps the green, brown, and pink shown below in the collage from Bello Photography....


Then I decided I liked the light pink, Navy but could couldn't live without the light blue. I'm a blue fanatic. I LOVE blue and the fact that my wedding would be by the ocean I wanted to incorporate as much blue as possible.

So I proposed the following: light pink, Navy, baby blue, white



This idea abruptly came to an end when my non-engineering & more design savvy best friend (and also maid of honor) pointed out that this color scheme looked like a nursery complete with baby girl & boy colors. Oh no! Not quite the look I was going for in my wedding. Back to the drawing board.

The more pictures I cropped and bridesmaids dresses I look at, the more I kept coming back to Navy. For one thing many of the bridesmaids dresses looked pretty awful in lighter pastel hues (trust me I tried on many) - a not ever wearable again Easter look. Secondly, Navy is such a part of the sailor, by the water theme.

Stuck in a color rut I went round and round throwing up all sorts of color combinations with Navy. I felt paralyzed and unable to make a decision moving forward. What was up with this??? Some sort of weird wedding disease? I'm generally good at taking decisive action!!

Thankfully a couple of key people moved me forward. The good old maid of honor - suggesting a few key color combo choices with Navy & the amazing mama Panda. I came home for a few weeks in November fired up the laptop with Mama Panda looking on and made a decision within thirty minutes! There's just something about that motherly touch.

So Drum roll please......

NAVY & ORANGE

The Navy goes with the nautical theme. Orange goes with the fall. It's a fun funky accent color (much like my own style). Plus, although fuchsia was also fabulous with Navy I'm just not that much of a "pink" type of girl. Never have been.
Welcome Orange!!!

The visions of Navy & Orange now dancing in my head.......















P.S. Just realized my bathroom is ALREADY Navy & Orange. Ha!Ha! Look not beyond your own doorstep for inspiration. You just might have already picked out a wedding color scheme you love.