Two Perfect Wedding Dress Alternatives

While I want something a little more traditional, I LOVE these two beautiful wedding dress alternatives. These brides look stunning in their non-traditional gowns.

(Green Wedding Shoes, 100 Layer Cake)

Hats!?

Between the royal wedding and the Kentucky Derby it seems like hats are everywhere. The bridesmaids in my mom's wedding all wore hats (wish I had that photo to share with you now), so 70's, it was definitely a look.


Royal Wedding



Kentucky Derby


How fun would it be if all your guests wore fabulous hats to your ceremony?

(Southern Weddings 1, 5, Celebbuzz 2, 3, LA Times 4)

A couple great hat guides, here and here.

We Set a Date!!

We had pretty much decided on the venue by the time we got home from Michigan back in March, we just needed to do some follow up and make sure it all fit in our budget. After giving it a hard look, I'm so excited to announce that we are getting married on September 8, 2012 at Camp Blodgett!!!



We choose this venue for several reasons, first it really fit our personalities and vision for our wedding. Second, we have decided to rent the camp for the entire camp for the whole weekend (hence the budget issue), because we loved that our families and wedding parties could be with us for a whole party weekend.


There are definitely a few challenges to this venue, including worrying about the weather and having a back-up to the open-air deck ceremony, I mentioned the price and the fact that it's a very DIY venue. There's going to be a lot of work that comes with having our wedding at Camp Blodgett, luckily we have a great support system to execute our dream wedding day.

(Green Wedding Shoes 1,3, Forget Me Knot Weddings)

More camp wedding inspiration here.

Andrea & Thad

There is definitely a common thread to all the weddings I save to the permanent inspiration files, and that's an overall feeling of fun. This wedding is one of my favorite yet! Thad and Andrea had a colorful, slightly rustic wedding in Atlanta.

Hi Andrea and Thad, can I borrow your ring barer and flower girl, with headband?


How fun, happy and colorful does this group look?!



Hanging flower baskets, yes please.

I was thinking of doing most of the table flowers myself, so these bud vases are the perfect idea! You don't need floral experience to pull off this look.

(100 Layer Cake)

There's not much to say, besides, that wedding looks fun!

The Dress and the Tiara

Just two days before Prince William and Kate Middleton's big day and we're all wondering what dress the beautiful style maven is going to wear.






I plan on waking up early to see the spectacle and the dress but I forgot about something very important for a Princess, a tiara.

Click here to see a great post on the royal tiaras. These beauties make me think twice about a veil.

(April 2011 Vogue UK, This is Glamorous)

Sorry for the lack of posts over here, I have been neglecting my wedding while I traveled to Spain and Portugal. However, this post is very apropos as I am trying on wedding dresses for the first time this weekend!!

Whimsical Wedding

Everything about Christine and Iaan's adorable wedding makes me smile. That's definitely the emotion I hope to evoke in my own wedding.


How about the sweet invitations chronicling their story? Love.



The space is so clean, yet so fun!


Looks like the borrowed Barbie's car to drive off in.

(Southern Weddings)

See more here and here.

The Venue

We made it our goal to make moves in our venue decision by the time we go to Spain (which is in five days!), so I'd be leaving out a big piece of the pie if I didn't mention our surprise visit to Bay Pointe Inn while we were back in Michigan last weekend.

Venue #7 - Bay Pointe Inn
I'd seen photos of this beautiful inn and even knew a high school friend who got married there, but having already made seven appointments for last weekend, I didn't think we would make it 30 minutes south of Grand Rapids to Gun Lake to see this venue. Boy were we glad we did. Bay Pointe Inn is a newly renovated resort with 38 suites, a pool and a beautiful ceremony and reception area right on the waterfront. This place is definitely on the short list!