Friendly Inspiration: Emma

Week Two: Emma

Our Relationship: I met Emma in the dorms freshmen year and now we live together!

Her Major: Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behaviour (she wants to become a surgeon!)

Her School: University of California, Davis

Her Interests: Country Night, TV (we both watch a long lists of shows), eating (especially Hershey's and In-n-Out)

(Emma is on the Right)

Emma's Questionnaire:

Colours: White, Light Grey, & little bits of Deep Purple

Feeling: Winter Elegance 

Dress: Mermaid, Lace Shoulders, Very Classy, Light Sparkle - Not Obvious

Location: Outdoor Ceremony; Reception in Old, Dark, Wood-type Room

Special Requests: Likes White Roses

"It would be my dream to get married in the snow like Phoebe [on Friends]." - Emma

Emma's Dream Wedding:

The Invitations: Lace-wrapped invitations in cream and white introduce the winter elegance of the wedding.

The Attire: The dress that I found was everything Emma wanted in this dress by Claire Pettibone and to add to the winter feel of the wedding, we added a coat (much like Phoebe's) to keep her warm.

The Bride's Accessories: To allow the bride's bouquet to stand out, we chose white roses with some extra silver accents. Emma also loves unique shoes, so these offered just what she wanted.

The Bride's Beauty: For Emma's makeup, we chose Emmy Rossum's classically glamourous look; for Emma's hair, a romantic up-do like Nina Dobrev's was chosen; and for her nails, silver sparkles.

The Bridesmaids: To be in accordance to the bridal bouquet, we gave the bridesmaids plain white roses with an added accessory to match the grey dresses.

The Groom & Groomsmen: To stand apart from the bridesmaids, but still match, the groom and groomsmen are wearing charcoal grey suits with wintery boutonnieres and grey ties.

The Ceremony: Unfortunately, it's hard for snow to be available in California, and Emma really wants to get married on her grandparents' property, so I decided to create her own unique winter wonderland. My inspiration came from all-white ceremonies, drawing on the monochromatic colour scheme and elegance. To line the aisle, I chose birch trees accented with fake snow. To light the aisle, I chose to use uniquely shaped vases with candles that had a look of melted snow on them, set in snow-like glitter. (I chose battery-powered candles so that we didn't need to worry about fire while enjoying the outdoor ceremony.) I would also set out white blankets for the guests incase they got cold.

The Cocktail Hour: Emma loves food - particularly comfort food. I decided that mini versions of  would be perfect for guests to snack on during the cocktail hour.

The Reception: Emma would love to get married in a wooden structure, so I went on the hunt to find one close to her grandparents' location; however, they are hard to come across. I did, however, find something similar at the Mill Valley Community Center.

The Reception Decor: My inspiration came from different winter weddings I had seen, and from there, incorporated my own take on them. In the Community Center, there are floor-to-ceiling windows, so to create a snow-like feeling, twinkly lights will hang to cover them and create an intimate feeling. To decorate the tables, finding a way to incorporate a little bit of the deep purple colour was on my mind. The table settings will be created using a silver tablecloth, silver chargers and plates, and a deep purple cloth napkin fastened with a silver snowflake. To add some candlelight, I found different sizes of crystal candle holders and silver and crystal candle bases. I would also add purple and white orchid petals to the table with some purple roses. Huckleberry willow branches in vases to will be added to create some height.

The Escort Cards: Pinecones dipped in silver sparkles will hold the escort cards.

The Cake: To incorporate the purple accents into the cake, this ivory cake was chosen. For the guests - and Emma's love of white roses - these cupcakes were chosen.

The Favours: Silver boxes with snowflake cutouts hold delicious chocolates for the guests to enjoy.

The Extras: Some extra little details to help make Emma's day unique.

For the children during the champagne toast, Emma wanted them to have milk and cookies.

Emma is very much in love with hot chocolate, so what better way to personalize the reception than to have a hot chocolate bar?

Come back next weekend to see what I've planned for my high school friend, Jamie!

xo

Sources:
Invitations: Etsy
Bridal Gown, Coat: Claire Pettibone, D H Gate
Bridal Bouquet, Shoes: Style Me Pretty
Bridal Beauty: Style Bistro, Style Bistro, The Miners Wife
Bridesmaids: Bari Jay
Groomsmen: The Tie Bar, Alfani, 
Ceremony Inspiration: Karen Tran, Style Me Pretty, Colin Cowie, Snippet and Ink
Ceremony Decor: Save On Crafts
Reception: Mill Valley Community Center
Reception Inspiration: Junkerman Jones, Odina Cruz, Christian Oth, Charlotte Geary
Reception Decor: Save On Crafts, Weddingomania
Escort Cards: Photo Livika
The Cake: Lily Rose Cakes
The Favours: Favor Warehouse
The Extras: Style Me Pretty, My Stuff Room

Friendly Inspiration: Bethany

Welcome to Friendly Inspirations, my weekly planning session!

How it Works: I sent out the following questionnaire to some of my friends and from there chose things for their weddings. Each girl has a board on my Pinterest account (link below) where I showed them some of my ideas and they told me what they liked and disliked.

The Questionnaire: For your dream wedding, if you could have anything you wanted:

Colours (or theme if you want a theme):
Feeling (warm, cozy, modern, extravagant, etc):
Season (spring, summer, fall, winter):
Dress Style (halter, ballgown, sparkly, lace, etc.):
Indoor/Outdoor Ceremony/Reception (location):
Any Special Requests:

Week One: Bethany
Our Relationship: Bethany is my younger sister!
Her Major: double major in Communications & Editorial Photography
Her School: Sacramento State University
Her Interests: Photography, Alpha Chi Omega, Make-up, Beauty, her YouTube channel (check it out!)

(Bethany's on the Left)

Bethany's Questionnaire:
Colours: Sage Green, Butter Yellow, & Cream
Feeling: Warm & Cozy but Elegant
Dress: Lace
Location: Preferably a Winery

Bethany's Dream Wedding:

The Colour Scheme: Colours of the Ranunculus Flower

The Invitation Suite: Introducing the colour scheme and feel of the wedding for the first time.

The Dress: Justin Alexander dress with Queen Anne Venice lace.

The Bouquet: Bethany completely fell in love with this wild flower bouquet!

The Bride's Beauty: Bethany wanted a natural make-up concept, including her nails, with her hair in an up-do.

The Bridesmaids Dress: Dessy Collection dress in Kiwi.

The Groom's Attire: Calvin Klein suit in black, matching tie to the bridesmaids dress, and a unique boutonniere.

The Flower Girl Dress: Dessy Collection dress in kiwi.

The Ceremony Location: In keeping with Bethany's winery request, we found her a beautiful location to hold both the ceremony and the reception in Napa Valley - the V. Sattui Winery.

The Ceremony Decor: To decorate the ceremony space, we decided to line the aisle with an ombre effect (created with petals), along with hanging candlelit globes in the surrounding trees.

The Rings: Bethany's ideal ring would be a simply designed diamond ring like the one below.

The Cocktail Hour: To decorate the cocktail hour space, we chose to add lighting under these ruffled tablecloths to add some flare.

The Reception Location: The V. Sattui Winery offers a barrel cellar to hold the reception, which was perfect for Bethany's wishes!

The Reception Table Decor: Lining the tables will be similar flowers to the bouquet, tying all the colours into the reception space.

The Escort Cards: To add to the winery feeling, cork place card holders are used to hold the escort cards.

The Cake: The butter yellow cake is simply elegant.

The Favours: In keeping with the winery setting, Bethany chose to give her guests maple leaf wine stopper favours.

The Getaway Car: Bethany is an avid car lover, so I thought it would be appropriate to give her a vintage car (in keeping with the colour theme) to leave in with her future husband.

I had so much fun planning a wedding for my younger sister! Next week, I plan to show you what I've come up with for my best friend, Emma's, wedding!

xo

Sources:
Colour Scheme: Design Seeds
The Invitations: Martha Stewart Weddings
Bridal Gown: Justin Alexander
Bridal Bouquet: Style Me Pretty
Bridal Beauty: Sunday in Bed, Mac, OPI
Bridesmaids Dress: Dessy
Grooms Attire: Calvin Klein, Dessy, The Knot
Flower Girl Dress: Dessy
Ceremony Location: Vsattui Winery
Ceremony Decor: The Knot
The Rings: Kristin Vining
The Cocktail Hour: The Brides of Oklahoma
Reception Location: Vsattui Winery
Reception Table: Style Me Pretty
The Escort Cards: Wedding Favor Discount
The Cake: Brides
The Favours: Wedding Favor Discount
Getaway Car: Cars with Distinction

Something New

Starting on Friday, I'm going to begin my series called Friendly Inspirations. Every weekend, I will plan a dream wedding for one of my friends. Included in their plan will be their wedding dress, bridesmaids dresses, bouquets, locations, colour palette, etc.

We can't help it: every girl in their twenties plans her wedding, so this gives my friends an opportunity to share their ideas without having to do all the work!

This week's Friendly Inspiration will be for my sister, Bethany!

Stay tuned!

A Trend that's Classic

For the past couple of days, I've been perusing wedding dresses and found a common theme: more than half of the dresses were lace. There is something so timeless and classy about lace - it's elegant, sophisticated, and uniquely sexy.

Here are the TOP 5 dresses that I fell in love with, all of which are done in LACE:

"Windsor" by Maggie Sottero

Found here.

"Lotus" by Dennis Basso for Kleinfeld

Found here.

"Catherine" by Alyne Bridal

Found here.

"Hanako" by Enzoani

Found here.

BLU by Mori Lee

Found here.

Sincerely,

Wedding Day

Why Hello There!

I have a confession...I love weddings and I love planning! Whenever I find myself having free time, I'm constantly on my wedding Pinterest! I have always loved planning get-togethers and parties for my friends, and over the past couple years, I have had the guilty pleasure of planning weddings. My friends have told me that I should be a wedding planner (and honestly, that would be my dream job), so I thought why not get a head start!?

A little bit about me: (That's me down there...)

My name is Ainsley and I am currently a student at University of California, Davis. I was accepted into UCD as a biomedical engineering major, but after two years in that major, I realized that I was just kidding myself - I hated it! I am now double majoring in Organizational Studies and Managerial Economics and I love it! I love learning how people work and how they interact with one another and I've also always been very good at solving problems and mediating between people - I am now thinking HR (if becoming a wedding planner doesn't work out).

I love my family and friends more than life itself. They make my world go 'round and are so supportive and caring!

I am also a woman of God. I was saved four and half years ago and my life has been so much better ever since. I am continually finding new ways to show my love for the Lord and his Son.

Here's to a new adventure full of my wedding obsession!

Enjoy!