We Live a Sweet Life Filled with Wild Adventures.



Showing posts with label details. Show all posts
Showing posts with label details. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Inspiration vs. Reality: Honey Style

Hi Hive! It's been awhile, heh? I got married, knocked out my recaps and even shared the Honey budget with you only to fall off the face of the earth blog. Yup, life happened...lots of good married life stuff! I thought I'd pop back in with a few more things before writing my final post, because even though I was over my own wedding, I just can't quit the 'Bee!!

I figured the best way for me to re-join the hive after a few months hiatus would be to take on the Inspiration vs. Reality series. Perhaps a memory walk down the Honey wedding planning lane (woah, say that three times fast)...
Mr. Honey and I decided on a Colorado winter wedding, with our venue sitting on the very lake where Mr. Honey proposed. I had visions of a rustic yet whimsical affair, with hopes of fresh snow on our wedding day. After securing our venue, which allowed for our request of having our dog be allowed at the space, I nailed down our off beat color scheme of Navy, Gray and Peach. I jumped on the best wedding train yet, mismatched bridesmaids dresses, and put faith in all eight of my girls to find their best navy dress. My wedding dress was the second dress I ever tried on, and even though I had moments of second guessing, the final result was exactly as I envisioned. The outfits for my groom and his men fell into place rather easily and my decision for flower girl attire was even simpler. I dove into the DIY world and became the bride with a craft room so I could make yarn spheres, dessert plates, glitter jars, my garter, and even all our paper pieces. Wedding details came together as my mom and I designed our tablescapes, our best man & Mr. Honey contributed by collecting rocks to contribute to our rock guest book, my dad hand built our wedding arch and I created our mailbox that would double as our card box. I slowly collected all the pieces of my bridal attire from the cardigan to the jewelry. I realized my anemone dream would come true and Mr. Honey's dream of plentiful BBQ became a reality. In the final weeks before the wedding, we created our ceremony and before we knew it our friends and family where gathering to celebrate our love with us as the perfect Colorado snow storm blanketed our wedding day.

Whew! Thanks for following along as I reminisced and remembered just how much work goes into the day!

Of course I had a vision from day one, and to say it's gratifying to see the vision come together is an understatement. It's hard to narrow down your entire wedding down to a few key details, so I stuck with original ideas that I was able to bring to life, which also happened to be some of my most favorite details.

Honey Wedding Inspiration:
Allure 8806 via Allure Bridals / Puppy Dog by Luster Studios / Cardigan Bride by Shannon Nicole Smith Photography / Whimsical Arch via Elizabeth Anne Designs by Apertura Photo / Yarn Spheres via Oh My! Creative / Burlap Table Design via Style Me Pretty by Carrie Paterson / Navy Mismatched Bridesmaid Dresses via Style Me Pretty by Watson Studios / Groomsmen via Ruffled by Katie Day Photography / Anemone Bouquet via Southern Living by Q Weddings / Flower Girls in Tutus via The Knot by Millie Hollowman Photography / Rock Guest Book via Polka Dot Bride by Ira Lipke Studios / Outside Winter Ceremony via Rockway Glen

So, how did we do?!

Honey Wedding Reality:
All Photos by Zak Fleming Photography
 Mrs. Honey becomes a bride in Allure 8806 / Zeus walks the aisle and rocks a tie /  Mrs. Honey wanders in the snow, thankful for that cardigan! / Ceremony arch set up / Yarn spheres decorated the reception space / Burlap table runners showcasing our taplescapes / The Honey bridesmaids pose in their mismatched dresses and cowboy boots / Mr. Honey and his groomsmen look styl-ee in their suits / A close up of my grocery store bought Anemone bouquet / The three flower girls lovin' their tutu's! / Hand collected rocks for our guest book  / Our snowy ceremony space

I think we did pretty good! In our opinion, we had just the wedding we wanted: fun, casual, and affordable. Everything else was just details that helped contribute to the atmosphere we wanted to provide that day.

I love details as much as the next bride, but it's so easy to focus on the material 'things' that people will see at your wedding; these are the details that are natural to envision and put a picture with...but it's the non-material feeling you are left with after W-day that you can't put into a vision board- a husband/wife, a marriage. And I love that feeling :) With that being said, I could not have had my vision come together better without the use of the inspiration board!

Married Bees, how did your inspiration vs. reality turn out? Bees in planning, are you using inspiration boards to help guide your vision? Where have you found to be the best place to make inspiration boards?

Monday, April 2, 2012

Honeys Do: Sweet Details and a Sticky Conundrum

We finished up with pictures and had about 45 minutes to spare before our ceremony start time. I was in a pretty little bubble, hugging people and swooning over our details. Even though I had a pretty good idea of what the space looked like when I left it the afternoon before, I soaked in the finality of what our guests would be seeing in the minutes and hours to come.

Enjoy the sweet details :)

Forever ago, I told you how I initially didn't consider our venue because of my first impression. Now, not to brag (or maybe to brag), but had I seen a picture more like this, there wouldn't have been a hesitation!

 Don't worry, the chairs are just missing because they were used for ceremony seating as well.

Our dessert buffet came together so perfectly...it was the best way to include special people and to also save a ton of money. We had nine people hand bake with love fifteen varieties of desserts. I made little dessert flags and left them on one of my hand made stands so when that person arrived with their dessert they knew where to put it. We had three varieties of pies, four varieties of cookies, two banana breads, three different cakes and three flavors of cupcakes.


Mint Chocolate Cake

Champagne, Lemon and Red Velvet Cupcakes 

The only dessert that wasn't hand made by a loved one was the 'semi official' wedding cake we fully intended to decorate with rock candy (my mom even made the dang rock candy!), but time slipped away and the rock candy just didn't get stuck to the cake. I ended up loving how adorable and simple our wedding cake looked though. And yes, our pet topper did make it's way on to the cake even though I intended for it not to be. So we got moss but no rock candy, what can ya do?

Photo by BM Mae

Our tables were set with the white tablecloths, burlap runners, twine and glitter jars with candles, and vases containing single anemone stems were scatted amongst the jars.


At the last minute, we ended up acquiring four of these decorative trees...sparkle branches with a river rock base, perfection!

In my opinion, the room was pulled together by the yarn spheres; the way they looked suspended from the vaulted ceiling just made the room feel that much more whimsical. They were a lot of work, but worth every.single.second.



Our take on a guestbook, hand collected river and creek stones, sat outside in it's own rockin' (ha!) display.



Something I never shared with the hive (forgive me!) was the Pom Pom project. Inspired by Mrs. Magic and then again by Mrs. Macaroons, I started the Pom Pom project a year in advance but I still didn't fully complete it. I even threw a Pom Pom making party with my girls and then recruited BM Cruise and GM Steele to help me make more the week before the wedding (that was entertaining) but I only ended up with around 200 when I would have liked to have had closer to 500. I wasn't going to let the ones we did make go to waste though, so I picked up 20 paper doilies and made cones for the first 20 guests that picked one up. I gave a bunch to the flower girls and put the remaining ones in a basket for guests to just take a few if they wanted.





A last minute project I also didn't share (my goodness, I'm a bad blogger bride!) was the super quick banners made for the bar (Cheers!), dessert bar (Love Is Sweet) and the dance floor (Just Dance!). They spruced up the blank walls and added a little sparkle...sparkle makes anything more pretty, right? These just required triangles cut out of card stock, tape and glitter, a heart hole punch and colored twine. Easy peasy.



Decorating one wall was also our framed Yarnogram that the hive helped me so much with. This picture just doesn't do it justice because it actually turned out really cute!

Photo by BM Scoot

My dream of having anemones came true, thanks to our local grocery store and my mom's great friend who put together all of our flowers. I ended up with ten stems of anemones, the eight girls each had four stems, all six guys, both dads and Officiant Mark had one pinned to their vests and my mom pinned one to her dress. While not the biggest and fluffiest bouquet of all time, flowers weren't a priority for me and it was really easy on the budget...which was good because anemones aren't known to be affordable. I was a happy bride.

Photo by BM Scoot

  
 And, oh what's that I see? My Mini Me Moniker and the Bees...the Hive was with me that day!


And, last but certainly not least was my dad's arch...and also the first thing guests saw as they arrived at our venue. A perfectly crafted rustic arch with a few yarn spheres and white lights for a whimsical touch.


All of the above was (mostly) positive, so what is the sticky conundrum I referred to in my title? One of the things I would change about our day (trust me there are only like three minor, minor things).

Our Sticky Conundrum:
Being that we did our first look and formal pictures at our venue, after we were done we all migrated to the inside of the venue. Due to the snow storm, however, some of our guests started to arrive early in anticipation of snow accumulation on the roads. When guests arrive early in a snow storm, they certainly aren't going to (nor where they expected to) wait outside for the ceremony to begin. Naturally the early arriving guests also moved in doors. Where the wedding party was. Where the parents where. And also where this bride was casually hanging out, clinging glasses with her girls. Conundrum (really I just like that word).

I was standing outside oogling over the guest book, when BM Kel Bel approached and asked if I really wanted guests to see me already. The answer was no, no I didn't. I kind of forgot that even though Mr. Honey had seen me in my big white dress, our guests still had not. And we had not planned out a hiding place for me to go to in the event of snow. What we should have done instead is the first look and formal pictures at another location, like the home I rented. This would have allowed us to relax without those early arrivers getting glimpses of the wedding party. Take note if you are doing a first look to think about this situation! Also, have you noticed that I haven't shared any family formals? That's because of the conundrum. Sure we finished with wedding party early, but even then we had people showing up...preventing us from taking family formals. Not to fret, I do in fact have pictures with my family and I can't wait to share our problem solving with you, but it still presented a problem. Back to figuring out what to do with the bride...

I got stuck on the very back of the porch, under a fleece blanket with a glass of wine for about 20 minutes. But once I started getting chilly, I pulled the Bride Card. I decided I was taking over one of two restrooms and declared it my safe haven. Yes, I spent the final ten minutes of single life in a bathroom. In the moments leading up to aisle time, my eight bridesmaids and three flower girls joined me in the bathroom...something we never planned but that will never be forgotten. It's those moments you'll remember when you are old and gray!

Photo from BM Mae

With everything in place, guests waiting, we had nothing left to do. My groom gave the thumbs up...

Photo by Aunt M
And it was go time!

*Unless otherwise notes, all Photos by the talented duo of Zak Fleming Photography


·         We had a busy wedding week
·         Teamwork made our Dream Work
·         We rehearsed casually
·         There was a pizza party!
·         Friday night was Princesses, Panties & Practice
·         Bridal details made me reminisce my morning  
·         I became a bride!
·         The Honey Girls took a walk in the snow
·         The Dudes got handsome
·         We did our First Look, with our doggy!
·         The Honeys posed as bride and groom
·         The Honey Dudes played in the snow
·         20 People and a Dog posed