The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 23,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 5 Film Festivals
So, I have this obsession with rings. Big time. I got this brilliant idea last week – why don’t I show off my FRIEND’S rings instead of random pinterest rings?! So I begged some friends, who were all gracious enough … Continue reading
Can we please discuss the absolute perfection of this custom Valentino gown Anne Hathaway wore at her wedding this past weekend? I mean, it’s a floaty, cloudy, heavenly dream.
“According to a rep for Valentino, the design team created a strapless ivory silk point d’esprit tulle dress, which includes a pink hand-painted shaded train embroidered with satin flowers. The 1920s-inspired veil consists of a lace ribbon with a large flower, adorned with small crystal beads.” – Original article found here.
And then it gets even freakin’ better. Check out the sketch from Valentino himself.
Die. Seriously. Total perfection.
That is all.
My wedding hairpiece / garter designer and now email buddy Molly Gee is the Southern Bride of the Month over at Southern Weddings! Check out the post here. She is an AWESOME designer and is very inspiring – to be so young and have your own business! Talk about chasing your dreams!
I shared photos of the garter and hairpiece she made for my wedding below. Photos by Stephen DeVries Weddings.
I spotted a GORGEOUS pair of mint gowns on one of my blogs yesterday and learned that it was part of the Reem Acra Resort 2013 Collection. I knew I had to google that collection RIGHT AWAY and boy am I glad I did. There was SO much gorgeousness packed into one collection, I knew I just had to share with my readers! Let’s dive in, shall we?!
Um, hello gorgeousness. These were the gowns that caught my eye, and for good reason! The color, the sashes, the necklines, the lace, the draping…truly flawless!
Here’s some more of my favorite looks. Notice the color palette (some jewel-tones, some nude, some metallics, the details, the elegant use of sleeves, and the abundance of lace. It’s no wonder she’s an incredible bridal-wear designer as well.
This dress above is very similar to the dress Julie Bowen wore to the Golden Globes this year. Olivia Wilde has also worn this gown.
GORGEOUS.
LOVE LOVE this one. Such a unique neckline!
SO so honeymoon resorty glam.
So what are your favorites of the bunch? I love the last one, the mint green ones, the pair of nude ones, and the pair of coral ones the very best, but I really love them all! Don’t forget to view the ENTIRE collection here. You won’t regret it for one second!
In honor of Spider-Man coming out the other week, I thought I’d do a post about my favorite red carpet fashion maven, Ms. Emma Stone. I love her for more reasons than one. She’s a great actress, she’s incredibly stylish and poised, and she is, best of all, absolutely hilarious. She’s almost a year younger than me but is definitely far more mature! Enough of that, let’s get to the fun stuff!
Favorite Emma Stone movies (all of which are really, really good and really, really funny): Crazy Stupid Love, Friends with Benefits, The Help, Easy A, Zomebieland, Superbad, and Housebunny
Favorite Emma Stone looks:
Emma Stone in Martin Grant at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards. I love the volume and angles of this outfit and the pink lips.
Emma Stone (in Bottega Veneta) at the Amazing Spider-Man premiere in Rome. Such an elegant and unique evening gown. I love the peplum and the high neckline.
Emma Stone (in Chanel) at the Los Angeles premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man. I absolutely love the contrasting colors and elaborate details in this gown.
Emma Stone (in Gucci) at the premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man in Paris. She never ceases to surprise. Going for the goth glam look at this premiere.
Emma Stone (in Elie Saab) at the London premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man. This is absolutely one of my top looks for her. It’s so modern and glamorous and age-appropriate.
Emma Stone in Giambattista Valli – Oscars 2012. She is a total knockout in red. I love the oversize bow, cat eyes, and smooth hair.
Emma Stone at the Met Gala wearing Lanvin. I love this gown because it is playful and flirty. Amazingly, it has 3,000 plastic flowers sewn to it!
What is NOT to love about this Lanvin look she wore to the Oscars this year? I love the peek of red down the sides, the detail on the shoulder, and the rock and roll belt. Such an age appropriate and glamorous look!
This is a FANTASTIC menswear look by Gucci. I LOVE the emerald green against her hair color and the smoky eye.
Another fabulous emerald look from Emma, this time she wears Dolce and Gabbana. I LOVE the lace, and pairing the red lips/nails and leopard pumps with the gown takes it to the next level.
This is a love or hate look and I tend to LOVE this Giambattista Valli look. The color combo and unique waistline is SO quirky and cute. She pairs it with simple nude pumps, any other color would have been too much!
Emma Stone in Tom Ford at the Crazy, Stupid, Love premiere. I absolutely love this dress, again for the unique details. The volume at the waistline and the laser cut lace with the nude background is so glam! I also love her soft hair and red lips.
Emma Stone in a silver Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière gown with a gilded chain-link collar. This look is SO sultry and sexy and such a change with the blond hair.
This is such a simple and figure-flattering gown by Calvin Klein. Love the clutch and the updo and the color of the dress.
This is such a unique Bottega Venetta gown. She clearly loves lace and layered colors. The fringe at the bottom is a playful and fun detail that makes it appropriate for the event. Note the fun clutch and shoes too!
These are just a FEW of her best looks, but I love almost everything she wears. What are your favorites? I love the 2 menswear inspired looks, the D&G lace look, and the Calvin Klein coral number.
Radiant cut white sapphire – .75 ct. The band is a REAL TWIG set in 14k recycled gold. It’s only $785 too! Click on the image to go to the seller’s site.
Classic brilliant cut diamond with a pave setting and pave wedding band.
The groom MADE his ring. Whoa. And the bride’s rings are custom by a place called Virtu in Chicago.
I love this band. Love. This. Band. $1,920 for 22k gold.
Gorgeous ring. I couldn’t find the image source!
This is a classic setting with a contemporary twist, set in rose gold. Love!
Bezel set brilliant cut diamond flanked by two round sapphires. I love the bezel set diamond wedding band too. This is so unique and gorgeous!
Gorgeous pink engagement ring. I’m not sure what this stone is, but I love the color of it against yellow and gold and diamonds. Stunning.
Cushion cut diamond flanked by a trilliant cut diamond on each side with a brilliant cut infinity band. OH MY GUH.
Antique style engagement ring. Lots of brilliant cut diamonds = expensive!
Classic and stunning. I have NO idea what this cut is. It’s similar to emerald but much more facets..
Such a unique and beautiful 3 stone ring. I’m in love with the proportions of the side diamonds to the center stone.
This is so beautiful! 3 stone brilliant cut diamonds surrounded by pave diamonds.
I saved the best for last 
3 pear shape diamonds. I love how the side pears are turned sideways. So unique and blingy!
These are just some of my favorites from my pinterest boards. Trust me, there are many many more!
I probably don’t tell her this enough, but Whitney, I love you and I thank God for you every day of my life. All photos by Stephen DeVries Weddings.
So…I’m so obsessed with my own wedding, that I decided to make an inspiration board with 100% of the images pulled from our day. Special thanks to Stephen DeVries for the amazing photos.
1. Koozies – Corey designed the koozies, and Personalized Drinkware printed his custom design on their neoprene koozies. We loved them!
2. Save the Dates – Corey and I designed the save the dates, they are printed on paper from Paces Papers, and we got them printed and cut out at Sam Flax. We loved the fun quirkiness of postcards! Read more about our paper products here.
3. Initials – My mother sewed the ‘placemat’ under the letters, assembled the letters on the base, and Corey spray painted them. The letters are plain cardboard from a local craft store. This was a $5 project.
4. Shoes – Kate Spade’s ‘Crown’ – you can read ALL about them on this post.
5. Straws – We already had the straw holders and mom printed paper labels to cover the Coke labels on them. The striped straws are from Kikkerland.
6. Cake – I loved loved loved my wedding cake. I designed it and Hilde from Magnificent Cakes brought the design to life. It was delicious too! The bunting cake topper was from an Etsy store called domesticcharm. Katelyn, who owns the store was so great to work with!
7. Bridal Clutch – I ordered this custom clutch from Waterpath Designs on Etsy. I loved how I was able to customize the fabric and they even sewed a grey lining on the inside for me! It was only $30!
8. We collected glass bottles from EVERYWHERE. Ikea, Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, antique stores, relatives’ attics, you name it! All in all, there was about 150 bottles! The great thing about the bottles was that they were high impact, so we didn’t have to have lots of flowers to make an impression.
9. Bridal Bouquet – I asked the florist for dusty miller (how appropriate), coral colors, succulents, billy balls, and something white and fluffy. This is what they came up with and I ABSOLUTELY loved it. The florists were Rachel Gaudel and Andy Boyles. I told the florist to wrap a swatch of the leftover chevron fabric around the base. It turned out adorable!
10. Bridesmaids’ bouquet – I love it just as much as mine. The white tulips were such an elegant addition!
11. Boutonniere – The florist wrapped the fabric around his bout and used succulent, dusty miller, and billy ball.
12. Bridesmaids dresses – I let the girls all pick out their own Lula Kate style and choose from three colors I thought looked pretty together. The dresses are all from Bella Bridesmaid in Birmingham. I thought they looked gorgeous and the Silk Shantung fabric coordinated beautifully with my gown.
Designing invites, programs, save the dates, signage, and RSVP’s was one of the MOST daunting tasks we underwent during the wedding process, but it was so worth it. If you design it yourself, it really has YOU in it and you know that you will be 100% happy with it. I definitely don’t recommend it if you don’t have Adobe Creative Suite to help you out though! My biggest advice with DIY invites, is don’t procrastinate (like we did) because it makes life so stressful. Also, ask for a fresh set of eyes ALWAYS to help you proofread. The last thing you EVER EVER EVER want is a misspelling or error on something that you could have prevented! And be aware that you will need to print things constantly to check it all, so have one handy! Now for the fun part!
Invite inspiration
Loved the shape of this so much! Click the image to see the original post!
I really liked the narrow chevron and the paper texture. I also loved the location of the chevron at the top.
Corey designed the adorable logo on the RSVP. The Aerialist Press letterpressed the invites and address on the envelope on gorgeous Crane textured paper. Corey and I designed and laid out all of it. We loved coordinating the stamps to the invite colors and we tied yellow baker’s twine around the suite.
Save the date inspiration
We really liked the postcard idea and the layout on the back. We also loved the metallic paper. Click image to go to the etsy listing!
We loved the white blocked out squares on the bold yellow background. We incorporated that onto the front of our save the date. Click the image to go to the designer’s site.
Finished result of our save the dates. We designed them (Corey drew the adorable logo) and had them printed at a local art store called Sam Flax. We ordered linen finish 80# metallic paper from Paces Papers in Buckhead. We were so pleased with how they turned out at the end! Notice the coordinating stamps 
Program inspiration
We liked the shape, again, and the logo on the front of the bifold program.
Loved the chevron background of this and the script combined with the block font. Please do yourself a favor and click the image, the wedding is GORGEOUS.
The beautiful wedding programs. I was so thrilled with how these turned out. Corey had a heavy hand in designing these – he came up with the logo on the front and drew the map on the back. He also came up with the idea of using light grey chevron in the background instead of yellow. I used the same font that was on the invite and RSVP for the script front. My mom printed these and folded them for us too!
Everything together! I can’t forget the Rehearsal Dinner invites, which were designed and printed by Darby Cards in Nashville. She was GREAT to work with and we loved them!
So there you have it! I would love to hear what you like best!
