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?

Long Term Locks

I'm not the biggest fan of my hair and have hair envy of girls with curlier hair and girls with straighter hair. I'm also pretty awful at styling my hair and my hair has no style of its own which makes my lack of styling abilities even worse. I have weird cowlicks that cause my hair to grow funny. If I don't style my hair, one side curls under while the other side flips out, I refer to it as my hair wave. 

In high school I had long, straight hair...I would dye it occasionally but nothing to extreme. It wasn't until college that I really started experimenting. I chopped it off bit by bit and tried darker colors and highlights until I finally found the style I loved. The structured bob, that sits just below my chin, colored a medium shade of brown...and sometimes reddish highlights.

Personal picture circa 2009

Like most brides, I have been trying to grow my hair out for the big day. Yes, knowing that I like my hair shorter and knowing I look better with shorter hair. It's been rough to say the least. I haven't drastically chopped it or colored it for about a year. Prior to my recent hair cut, the last hair cut I had wasssss, well lets just say I have only had it cut once in 2011 and that was two weeks ago. On the very rare occasion that my hair is down and not in a ponytail, it looks like this:

Personal Picture in April 2011

When I went to get my hair trimmed a couple weeks ago, I talked to my stylist, who is also a great friend about doing my wedding day hair. And she is in! She will come up to the lake the morning of the wedding and do my hair and whoever else wants theirs done. And she will drink mimosas with us because she's cool like that.

This got me thinking about what I want for my "I Do" hair. To be honest I really wasn't excited about figuring out how to wear my hair because I've had bad luck with up-do's in the past. I knew right away that I didn't want an up-do, it would just be too formal for the Honey wedding, but I didn't really know where to start and didn't know what I was looking for.

Enter Pinterest. The greatest hair inspiration site ever. There are enough images being pinned daily to indulge any bride-to-be. Cha-ching! Just like my wedding dress inspiration, I have a very clear pattern in what I desire...



Image via Pinterest & Perfect Bound Blog/Photo by Kaysha Weiner/Stylist Serene Bridal Beauty 




Image via Pinterest, from SunshineandPearls



Image via Pinterest, from Style Me Pretty/Photo by One Love 

{Image via Pinterest, from Everything Fab}

...And what I desire are curls. Soft and romantic curls! Plus this is something I never do with my hair so it will be different from my daily routine. Obviously I would love for my hair to instantly be longer so I can pull of some of the longer versions, but I think even with my (almost) long hair, it will look perfect. The only style I have come across that varies from the lovely curls is the beautiful low, side chignon:



Image via Pinterest, from Martha Stewart Weddings

Unfortunately I don't think my hair would look this perfect, and you have to have some good length to make that chignon work.

My hair inspiration post may seem a little premature but I needed to focus on the long term and see where I wanted my hair to be in January. Knowing I don't have the most disciplined habits with trimming and taking care of my hair, I wanted to get a jump start. These pictures help me remember why I'm growing out my locks in the first place. At my last hair appointment I told my stylist to expect me two more times between now and January (perhaps she will help hold me to my word?), and of course we will do a hair trial closer the day.

Being that I use a hair dryer and hot iron on my hair nearly every single day, I also invested in this amazing product:

Image via Amazon



I've been using Moroccan Oil for two weeks now and it's perfect. My hair feels less damaged and it looks much more nourished than before. The fact that it smells insanely good is just a bonus.

My plan may not appear to be too hard, but considering I've very much neglected my hair over the last year I'm hoping to salvage what I've got left. Here's to happy, healthy and long hair in six months!

Are you growing your hair out for you wedding? What strategies are you implementing to get your hair to it's healthiest and longest for your big day? Fill me in on your secrets Hive!

Chevron, Banners and Dots, Oh My!

A little while back I posted about some Save the Date inspiration. I'm finding more and more that writing my thoughts out and putting inspiration pictures all together really helps me make my mind up...because just a few short days after that post, I finally finally made a decision and ordered my Save the Dates.

I kept coming back to the two below. I couldn't get over how adorable the banner was in this first one and the gray chevron stripes in the second one make my heart pitter patter.

Image via Oh So Beautiful Paper



Image via Minted

I was really struggling with finding a background for all of my previous designs and kept skipping over the chevron graphic because I thought it was too modern for the feel we were going for, but then I remembered this from my invitation searching, a banner and chevron together:

Image from Etsy seller Cheerupcherup

I loved the combination of the chevron and the banner, but I wanted the banner to be more free flowing. The invitation below has been in my invite inspiration folder forr-evah, I am so in love with this invitation, there was no way I wasn't going to use it as my inspiration foundation.


Image via Invitation Crush by Oh My Deer!



I had accomplished the background for a graphic element and the banner for a whimsical touch. Onto the wording, I had used the Wedding Chick's templates very early on in our engagement and remembered loving the wording on one of the templates, so I stole graciously copied it. I now had my fun statement that I wanted to incorporate.

I knocked out the design in an afternoon and was ready to order. (The trickiest part was creating the perfect banner. Remember, I'm using our good friend Microsoft Word, and yes they have an insert, shape, banner option but it was too structured; I was dreaming of the free flowing, softer edges of the banners like the invitation above. After hours of playing around, I found the 'edit points' in the drawing tools and started manipulating the standard banner into my own and wa-la...no longer ridgid.)

I had read tremendous reviews about Vistaprint and signed up a few months ago, well the first part of June I received an email for 100 FREE postcards plus free uploading of images. This helped put a fire under my ass, since I only had 1 week to get my order in. I opted for the color front, gray scale back and then paid $8.99 for matte recycled paper rather than the free gloss version. That put my total order, plus shipping & processing to $17.47...or seventeen cents per Save The Date. I ordered the slow option, 21 days, but much to my surprise they arrived 14 days later!

Here they are, our Save the Dates:

The front and back

Close up of front: gray chevron background with navy, peach and gray font



Close up of the back: all in gray. Banners and chevron!

I'm very happy with the way they turned out. The wording is fun and laid back. The chevron stripes add some structure to the whimsical banners and the dotted borders. The font (which is Milk and Cereal, Digs My Heart, and Never Writes Back from KevinandAmanda) has the perfect balance of handwriting and whimsy. I'm relieved to have these done and feel like I now have the ideal bouncing board to begin work on my invitations. These babies are addressed and being sent out into the world as you read this!

Hive, tell me about your Save the Dates!

Addicted to Pinning

I recently became a member of Pinterest...and in a few short minutes I was hooked- hook, line and sinker. Pinterest is like blogging on crack, in the best possible way. The prettiest, most creative, unique, ahhhmazing pictures from any where on the web can be pinned to Pinterest, to share with the other members who then pin to their own personal pin boards. It's like a bulletin board for the Internet (and I lurrrved bulletin boards when I was younger), and it's ridiculously easy schmeasy. Obviously I have honed in on the wedding aspect of Pinterest, they even a page dedicated to weddings and events, but I am 110% inspired every time (i.e. everyday) I get on by the creativity and beauty that is laid out in pictures on my screen.

The reason I'm sharing is that in the short time I've been a member, like 2.5 weeks, I have found oodles of inspiration pictures for every part of my life. And quite possibly the best part? Is that each picture references back to the original poster with the original address; score! I always have a hard time remembering where I find pictures across the interwebs, so this is huge for me.

Here's some of the goods:
Stuff for the Home...

Bright Kitchen (I Want.):

{House of Turqouise}

Patterned Staircase (I Want.):

{Conversation Pieces}

Loads of Tasty Food Ideas...

Raspberries & Chocolate Chips (Yum.):

{Saucy Sprinkles}

Cute Animal Pictures? Yes, please...

Happy Elephant:

{Google}

Heart Kitties:

{ffffound}

And Funny Stuff...

Royal Wedding & Cinderella:

{twitpic}

Thoughts on Outdoors:

{someecards}

Now, don't even get me started on wedding inspiration...I have already found SO much on there that will be inserted elsewhere throughout my blog and wedding planning, but I have found hair inspiration, jewelry inspiration, food ideas, tons of photography ideas...the list goes on and on. This is my disclaimer to say that a chunk of future inspiration pictures will be via Pinterest.

And as my weekly email from Pinterest says: Happy, Pinning!

Saving the Date

In my last paper post I wrote about my indecision making about invites. I realize I was a little premature with the invite post before the save the post but I have it set in my mind that my Save the Dates need to be cohesive with my invitation suite, they just do. I want one element on every single piece of paper used in the wedding. Obsessive, Honey? Yes. That's why I started with invite inspiration, now it's to the drawing board with Save the Date inspiration. Paper inspiration posts are one of my favorites.

I have decided we won't be using pictures of ourselves on our Save the Dates...mainly because we hadn't done our engagement pictures at the time of designing our Save the Dates. I was kind of bummed initially, because who doesn't like seeing a picture of themselves on every friend's refrigerator for six months? I kid. I was actually bummed that we wouldn't have a Save the Date like this:

Image via Love vs Design/Photo by Love me Sailor

Can't cry over spilled milk, right? This just means that instead of showing our smiling faces in the Save the Date, we will get to incorporate them into our invitation suite, yessss. I had to move past all the picture inspiration and focus on creative text and presentation instead.

Creative Text Save the Dates

Image via Wedding Wire/Designed by West Willow

Image via Style me Pretty/Designed by Marilyn Chien

Image via the Bridal Blog/Template by Wedding Chicks

Graphic Design Save the Dates



Image via Etsy Westwind Days

Image via Wedding Wire, from inkOBSESSIONSdesigns

{Image via Minted}

Whimsical Save the Dates

Image via Kaboodle/Designed by Emandbee



Image via Oh So Beautiful Paper

Utilizing Custom Stamps

{Image via Pinterest, from Flickr}



Image via Instructbles

Save the Dates with Creative Touches

Image via This Next

{Image via Pinterest, from Postcardsandpretties}



Image via Dot Girl Blog

Customized and Illustrated Save the Dates



Image via A Perfect Celebration



Image via Rifle Made



Swiss Cottage Design

See the transition from simple to impossible? Much like my invitation drooling, I started basic and kept stepping up the complication level. As much as I would die to have a custom illustrated Save the Date, it's just not in the cards for the Honey's. Looking at all the other inspiration pictures, I concluded that I like three elements: a graphic background, a whimsical element, and a fun statement...all to be accented with pretty font and our colors on a little postcard. Quite the tall order. The fact is I could go back and forth on my entire paper design for days months, but the good news is I have made progress and created a Save the Date that hopefully reflects our wedding vibe, shows creativity within our means (aka Microsoft Word) and will make our guests smile.

Who else is obsessive like me and started with invitation inspiration before the Save the Date inspiration? Tell me about a must have element for you Save the Date!

Invitations Made me Insane

Hive, I'm not kidding, designing my invitations are driving me carazzzzzy! I have invitation ADD and I have an addiction to looking at invitations, it makes for a very bad combination. Just when I think I finally found something I just have to have, along comes something else I have to have a little bit more. I'm designing my invitations, all my paper rather, by myself...with the most basic processing platform: Microsoft Word. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying it. I wish I had the funds to purchase Adobe Illustrator to just make it a tad easier. Here's my all-over- the-place train of thought:

It started with simple font and simple hearts:

{iHeartyou via Etsy seller, Little Sparks Creations}

I was fixated on the heart invite for a few months, and I love that Mrs. Lox went with this awesome design. Then I started migrating towards tree or nature inspired invites.

Lovebirds in a Tree Invite:

{Oh So Beautiful Paper}

Willow Tree Invite:

{via Invitation Crush}

I sat with a blank document forrrever and tried to figure out how I could re-create something like this, but everything I did just looked like clip art. I altered my searching and came across the image below which convinced me I needed banners and white font.

Oh pretty banners:

{Invitation Crush by Oh My Deer!}

Banner with Chevron Stripes:

{via Etsy seller Cheerupcherup}

The colored paper and white typing makes the statement in this suite, courtesy of Mrs. Pain au Chocolat:

{Miss PAC, Weddingbee}

Solid color with white text:

{I Should Have Been An Astronaut}

Next came the brackets:

{via Etsy seller Shine Invitations}

{Image via Minted}

So, to summarize, I like hearts, trees, banners, chevron, brackets, color and white text. Sweet, Honey, way to be all over the place. Looking at the images I have saved and comparing them to the ones I have recreated, I've learned this:

• I love letterpress
• I like dark backgrounds with white text
• I'm drawn to non-computer generated images
• I like having something to use on all paper elements (bracket, banner, etc.)

And you know what outlining this tells me? I have a challenge ahead of me. I can't afford letterpress. My home printer doesn't allow for white text printing. And, I'm no artist so all my abilities lie in the computer generation. I'm screwed ya'll.

I'm going to walk away and:

{via Typophile.com}

Hive, who else had invitation scatterbrain while searching for inspiration?!