More photos from Jessica Claire

I just must show you this photo of a totally stunning wedding. Beautiful couple, wonderful flowers and an amazing light all very beautifully captured by Jessica Claire.



See more photos from the wedding here.

I soo wish my weddingphotos will turn out this nice!

Something warm

It is getting a bit cold outside and I thought that sometimes it can be a bit cold late at night in August as well. On the other hand it can be a lovely summer’s night but lots of mosquitoes. Something to cover the shoulders might not be such a bad idea... It shouldn't be too warm, but still not too thin.
My first though fell on a bolero of some kind, but a bolero is not my favorite directly... Very small and hard to get in and out of =) To get inspiration I headed over to etsy and started looking for something fitting (wedding/clothing category).

It didn't take long until I found something called a capelet, which seems to be exactly what I'm looking for. A short version of a cape which is closed by a button or brooch in the front.
It also seems like capelets are in fashion at the moment, Just take a look at this blog.

Hmm... I'm not very good at knitting but maybe my mother could do something like that... just need to find a knitting-pattern. What can a capelet be called in Swedish?? After some googling I found something. It is called 'Axelvärmare' in Swedish and I have found some nice patterns here:



This isn't so bad either:



I also found some others... I hope I can get someone to knit any of them for me.

Save the date

Now is it time to start thinking of inviting people to the wedding. We have a long list of people we would love to see on our wedding and many of them are busy working hard. So we thought that a save the date card would be good to keep them from booking something else on our big day and some do have a long trip to plan as well.

My fiancé and I have been looking at different styles for invitations and programs. I find it a bit difficult to select colors... the Victorian Lilac, which is in the dress, is a bit hard to match. The color wheel tells me I should go for orange or maybe blue/dusky pink. The dusky pink fits very well together with the lilac in flowers but the orange gives a hint of warmth and sunny. Maybe we can use all three??

The design of the save the date card will be a petal envelope. Something likes this:



Ours will hopefully be lilac with a white or cream inside and then some ornament. We sat down yesterday night and tried to decide which font to use. I think the Bridezilla is starting to show up. It is just a font and I want it to be perfect... *sigh*
I'll create some examples and then we'll have to pick one. I already have the cut file (WPC) for the Bosskut Gazelle ready, so it is just to go. If you are interested in the cut file please leave a comment on this post with your email address.

Now it is definitive =)

As I wrote in this post, not all the money needed for the wedding was secured, but now it is! We are going to contact the church and the 'castle' where we are going to have the reception and do the final booking. Oh... I guess it is usual to have 'second thoughts' now when it is really definitive. =)
Don't take me wrong, I do very much want to marry my fiancé and live the rest of my life with him, but it is sooo much money! I have a million things I could spend them on instead. =)
But this is what we both want to do and if we are going to do it, it should be proper and as we dream of. I don't want to feel too much hold back because of the money.
Enough talk about money!

I want one of these pretty please

I know, I'm way too influenced by all the American weddingblogs, but just imagine a hot August summer day. Can you feel it? The sun is blazing and you wish for a little wind to blow.
Wouldn't it be great to have a parasol then?
And what more? Yes, it can be used to advantage in the photo shoot. Just look at this cute photo



But I would prefere another color, maybe something like this?
Ivory Parasol or a lilac one?
But this is the most beautiful I have found (still looking for more)



It is available here and here. *hint hint*

Talented photographer

When I was doing my usual blog-hopping today I run into the blog of Jessica Claire. She has just gotten married herself (and had a wonderful autumn bouquet), but she is also a talented photographer. She is showing some of her photos in her gallery and I particular liked the photos from Trisa & Doug. They are such a good looking couple and the photos perfectly capture their love.

I hope we will be able to find such a talented photographer for our wedding, who will be able to capture both feelings and the light and atmosphere. Jessica, you don't want to go to a trip to Sweden? =)

When talking wedding photos... I'm not sure if we are going to do the photo shot before or after the ceremony? I feel a little bit stressed over doing it after the ceremony since all guests have to wait for us and I'm afraid I can't relax and enjoy the moment.
On the other side, if we are doing it before the ceremony, then we might not be able to relax because of what is coming. You out there who already are married, can you give me any help? How did you do and how did it work out?

Weddingflowers part 2

Just though I should show you some of the nice wedding flowers I've been seeing during my inspirational tour on different websites and blogs.

The first one is a simple bouquet with sweet peas, stock and roses. I particularly like the color scheme and the form and ribbons on this one. I think it is my favorite.



This is also a lovely bouquet in the same color scheme as the one above.



Then we have a nice rose bouquet in hot yellow. I love the color but it is a bit too much for my color scheme. I LOVE the grass and the small details such as the pearls and lace or ribbon.




Here are some with trailing designs, but not too much. I like the round form, but my fiancé likes a more trailing form, so maybe something in between in style with these?










The design on this bouquet is a bit different, but I don't like the color on the roses and I think I would like some more flowers in my bouquet.




This one also has a wonderful design




And I also found a table decoration that would fit perfect in front of the bride and groom.




I nearly can't wait until I get to speak with the florist. That’s the problem when you are living away from the area where the wedding shall be. All contact with local suppliers has to be done in such a concentrated form, and maybe not when you are in full mood for planning.
We will try to be able to look at the castle, visit the person who should fix the hair and hopefully the make-up as well, visit florists to choose one and talk about the bouquet design and also make a visit to the church to have a look inside. *phu*
And I have probably already forgotten something.... oh, yes; we need to visit someone who has grooms outfits as well. All this should be squeezed in into a couple of days and hopefully before or just after Christmas!

Wonderful flower inspiration

This is amazing! What wonderful flowers! For those of you, including me, who loves the cottage garden feel of flowers. Cottage roses and peonies are abundant and lots of other flowers.

What am I speaking of?

Have a look at the Flower Magician blog and homepage and see all the wonders for yourself. Lots and lots of wonderful inspiration both of colors and forms.



I wonder if it is possible to get David Austin roses in Sweden in August... Just look at this bouquet. It features the 'Rosalind' rose, which might fit into my color scheme.

Color wheel

I found this helpful little color wheel when I was looking around for inspiration on flowers and wedding colors. This can be used to find matching colors for your wedding.



You can choose colors from the same 'slice' and create a monochromatic scheme.
You can choose colors opposite to your primary color, or you could choose colors on either side of your primary color. These are the most common chocies, of course you can do as you like too =)

This video explains a bit more

Flowers...

Found this link when looking for inspiration. The flowers are wonderful and just the style I like =)
Here is a taste

Weddingflowers part 1

Today I'll look for inspiration on wedding flowers. I'm a bit lost here, I and my fiancé are not fancying the same things and I have a bit difficulty to put a finger on what I really like. So I'll start here by trying to describe that for you and then maybe it gets easier...

I'm very much a country girl and like to grow my own flowers in my own garden. I would love to be able to grow the flowers that are in my bouquet. Just the feeling of being able to walk outside in the summer and pick my wedding bouquet once again is wonderful. Maybe not as nicely tied as from a Florist but still, it is the same flowers, the same fragrance and the same colors. I actually think this is the most important part of the bouquet!
So where to go from here... Scented flowers, easily grown in our climate and nice colors that enhances the dress. The form of the bouquet is less important for me, but not too big and heavy. I also like ribbons and the natural feeling of the American type of bouquet where the stems of the flowers are wrapped in ribbon.



Flowers that come to my mind for easily growing are roses, stock (Matthiola incana) which scents wonderful, sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) also scenting, Lavendel, Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla mollis), Dahlia, Hydrangea, Scabious and lots of others. For greenery there are ferns, different grasses and berries and leaf from different trees.
This means that we also can grow some of these flowers ourselves for the wedding and we don't have to buy so many... that will at least save some coins.

Regarding color I'm totaly lost. Should I go for lilac and purple and what can I mix them with? Or should I go for white/creme flowers? Or maybe something yellow or orange? What do you think?? Please leave a comment and let me know!

Now I'm off looking for flowers in magazines and the internet (what a great resource!!).

In search of shoes

Argh! I one of them that have a love hate feeling toward shoes. They should look great and they should feel great and that often don't come in the same package so to say.
When it comes to wedding shoes my hopes isn't very high to find anything I like. Either do they have sky high heels or no heels at all. Either are they very pointing in the front or very round, looking kind of childish. Just look at these (pictures borrowed from Dreambride:





So when Annette at Dreambride told me that she had contact with a shoe manufacture that create the shoe just as you want them I became a bit relieved actually. The manufacture's/shoe's name is Melody and the price is very competitive.

So all I had to do now was to decide how the shoe should look. That’s all...
Well, my imagination isn't that creative so what I did was starting to search the internet for a nice-looking shoe.
I found some... what do you think of these?









I also found this one which is the one I'm going to custom order:



I will have the heel about 6 cm high and I'll also have the ankle band a bit wider. Then we comes to colors again! You can have the shoe made to 'custom' color. At least you can choose between a lot of different colors. Of course the lilac color I have in the dress is hard to match and I don't dare to go for any other lilac or purple color since they kind of remove the brightness from the lilac in the dress. I don't want white/ivory shoes since then you can't use them again without everyone thinking about wedding. I hope to be a bit economic here and be able to use the shoe again in other affairs.
I limited the choice to silver, gold and black. The dress is so long so the shoe won't show if I don't pull the dress up. Most important for me is that the shoe, if I choose for example black, don't show in church. I think I have shocked my mother and mother-in-law enough by having color in the dress ;)
Silver and Victorian Lilac have we already discussed in this post. The gold is looking kind of yellowish. I'm not very happy with the color sample giving poor guidance.

I'll go for a safe card and choose black! In this way I have all possibilities to use the shoe again and I might shock anyone when I get in and out of the car or up a stair =)
To make the shoe a bit more sparkling, I'll add silver glitter on the loops just like on these shoes:



What do you think?? I hope they are comfy enough!

Something for him

Now that I have decided which jewelry to wear it isn't more than fair that my fiancé gets something too. I know he wants a watch and I found these sweet cufflinks on Etsy:





In the same shop I also found this wonderful pocket watch:







Isn't that a beauty? It is brand new, but old looking and both I and my fiancé is please with my find =) this will adorn him on the wedding day.
The shop on Etsy selling these things is called Moda Designs Jewelry and have these steam punk jewels to prices that don't eat too much of the budget.
Maybe something to give to the groom? Or the Best Man??

Still in the bridal shop

Yes, we are still in the bridal shop trying to decide which color to have on the wedding dress.

My fiancé likes Eggplant best, Annette, the shop owner likes Tealness, and I like Victorian Lilac.

Annette suggested that I would try the one Alfred Angelo dress she had in the shop on and then we could see the colors both on the dress and against my skin and hair. Said and done. We picked the dress and I jumped in. Well, not as much jumping. The dress was size 36 and I'm at least size 40, so we couldn't close the dress in the back, but we hold it up in the front so we could have a look. Thanks Annette for your help!!
So standing there with a big wedding dress in a small area with two helpers and very bright light I was trying to decide which color. Not an easy task, but my fiancé helped a lot. We changed a lot between colors, even the ones we had excluded beforehand and after at least half an hour we had decided.
Do you want to know??

Ok. I'm going to have Victorian Lilac =) It is not too dark, not too light and I like the color. The kind of grayness speaks to me and together with the Ivory in the dress they color doesn't look grey.
But, my fiancé can't have a silver frockcoat as we had talked about. Together with silver the lilac color will just become a grey mess. So I think we opt for black and ivory. The cravat will be in Victorian Lilac. We will buy a piece of cloth from Alfred Angelo and have it specially made for him. I think it will look great!

Here is a fake picture of the dress with the Victorian Lilac color. It isn't good, but it'll give a hint of where we are going.

Front (actually from a very similar dress but not number 1516):


Back:


And here is the color sample close up:



It feels good to have decided color for the dress. We also decided to go for Ivory in the white. I like the really sparkling white of pure white, but in the middle of the summer hopefully with a bright sun it can become too much.

Now I'm off looking for inspiration for the other parts... need shoes, a clutch, flowers, still need to do the invitations so I have to decided colors and style.
Anyone out there who has a clue what color to compliment the Victorian Lilac with? If so, just leave a comment!

Another visit to the bridal shop

Tonight my fiancé and I visited the bridal shop Dreambride again. We should try to decide the color of the dress. Both the white one and the color. So many choices! So hard!
As usual Annette, the owner of the shop, greeted us and we had a look at some shoes and clutches she had picked together for me. The shoes was very simple and looked really nice, but was too big. The clutch was also to big... Who wants to have a long package under her arm? This was nearly 30cm long, way too long for me. All other clutches was... well not in my taste either. So no luck there, I had hoped to find something nice for a bargain.

We moved on to the tiaras. I have decided I want a tiara and no veil. I want something to match the necklace, but it shouldn't be too much. We had a look at the newly income tiaras and sure, they were pretty, but I'm not in the mood to pay about 1000 Swedish crowns (100$) for a tiara. That would certainly break my bank. Lucky I, Annette had some tiaras left from the old shop which is now on sale. I found a gorgeous one. Maybe not the best handcraft, but who cares? I should only have it a couple of hours and if you don't look on the back it looks sparkling and just wonderful.

I'll post a picture here later... and here it is, better late then never.



Now time to move on to the dress =)
I showed the flower girl dress that so reminded about the wedding dress I've been looking at for my fiancé. He had already seen pictures of the real dress on the internet, but as you know, that is not the same as feeling the dress!
I wouldn't dare to buy a wedding dress over the internet without having been to a shop and feel the quality first.
Anyway. He liked the dress just as much as I and Annette showed him the color samples. A lot of colors to choose from! I showed him which colors I had excluded and why. We where choosing between Tealness, Eggplant, Riviera Sky and Victorian Lilac. Riviera Sky was removed almost immediately. It was too light and did nothing to my skin or eyes. Tealness enhances my eyes very well but I'm not overly fond of the color. My fiancé thought Victorian Lilac was too light and too grey. And yes, I must admit, the color is grey looking when compared with the other lilac colors in the color sample.
But, and this is very important! We held the colors up one by one towards an Ivory dress and they change. It is as if you changes the light in the room or removes all other colors. Toward that white they all looked sparkling and lively. But we still couldn't decide. My fiancé likes the Eggplant best; I think it is too dark.

... will continue in next post...

Looking for inspiration

I'm out looking for inspiration. There are lots of nice american wedding blogs. But I must admit, they are a bit... American =). It is a pity that we in Sweden don't have the interest from the vendors and others to support blogs about weddings. Have you seen any Swedish weddingblog like this? Green Weddingshoes
This is a good start if you want to see more weddingblogs from America.

Anyway, on my trip around American weddingblogs I found a link to this WONDERFUL necklace!! Just look:



It is a girl at Etsy who creates these pieces of jewelery. Her shop is named Penellibelle. I felt I just had to have this. So I contacted her and started talking to her and now she is making a custom necklace and bracelet just for me! I'm soooo excited!! Here is the moodboard we put together, notice the colored crystals that will be in a lilac color.



The bracelet will have the simpler brooch and will have two strand of pearls.

At the bridal shop

It took some time, and I was near to give up, but at last did I find the shop! It was hidden inside a barbershop...
I went in and was told that the shop had moved and just the old inventory was left to look at. Ohh no, I was so looking forward to try the dress and talk wedding dresses with the owner.
But, it wasn't as dark as it looked like. The owner of the bridal shop has just moved to her own place a couple of hundred meters away, and the shop should be open. So I hurried away across the square and found the small shop.

I was warmly welcomed by a very nice young lady and she started listen to my whishes. She didn't have the dress in the shop, so I couldn't try it on, but she had a flower girl dress in the same cut and with the same (but smaller) trail as the dress I've been looking at. The fabric is satin and very thick and heavy feel to it. It felt luxurious. The color in the trail was red and a very nice color, but not 'my' color.
She also had a wedding dress from the same manufacture (Alfred Angelo) in the shop so now I have a pretty good feeling for the quality of the dress. She also showed pictures of some other dresses with color so I could get a feeling for what I really want. I must tell you that I stick to the Alfred Angelo number 1516 dress. It seems so lovely on the pictures and the quality of their dresses also seems lovely.
The shopkeeper had color samples and I and her spent more than an hour trying to decide a color for me =) We eliminated all pinks, the lighter colors and most of the greens. The red was also eliminated after some while. Left was blue, bluegreen and purple. Here is a link to the color chart.

I do like the Victorian Lilac color very much, but I also like Riviera Sky (a bit too light maybe), Eggplant (too dark??), Indigo and Tealness. Tealness match my eyecolor very well.
My fiancé will have to come with me and have a look at the color samples. I can't wait....

Weddingdress found

I have now have time to look at the pictures of the dress a couple of times and I like it more and more the more I look. I have also been able to locate a bridal shop that sell the dress. There is actually just 2 shops in the whole of Sweden selling dresses from Alfred Angelo. And this must be my lucky day! One of the shops are located just a 40 minutes drive from our house!

I'll go over there this weekend and have a look. Maybe she has just that dress in the shop to try on?
At least I hope she has some color and fabric samples to look at. Need to decide the color!!

What should he wear?

Now, when we have a plan for my wedding dress it is time to start looking for something for my fiancé to wear.

I think it is very classic and beautiful with the penguin suit, sorry, I mean the dress suit! =) But it puts some requirements on the guests... Should they also wear dress suit?
I would like to see my father in one ;) For the first is he a bit round around the belly and for the second is a dress suit not in his taste. For the third... a dress suit costs money that probably are not available. The same is true for many of our guests, so I think we will go for something simpler.
Another very good reason to not choose a dress suit is that the wedding is in the middle of the summer. A dress suit gets pretty hot and it is not very stylish to take the coat of.
This also limits the colors for the groom to mostly black and white...

The second alternative is the frockcoat. This is longer than an ordinary jacket and often has a waistcoat and a cravat. The cravat and waistcoat makes it possible to match the colors in my wedding dress.
This also looks very stylish! Just look at these examples:





To keep within budget I think we need to rent his cloths. But he will need a pair of new shoes at least and then some accessories.

Any dress...

...or maybe not. Actually it is pretty hard to pick a wedding dress.

As with any other dress it should fit your personality and style, but it should also be something extra. For us this extra was to add some color to the dress. Not just plain white.
Well, that shouldn’t be so hard today with all lovely dresses coming in different colors! And with my love for simple lines, a classic A-line dress suites the picture. After browsing through some old (very old) wedding magazines I had an image of the dress in my head.

My fiancé and I went to the big city and visit some of the shops selling beautiful dresses. Ohh, there was a lovely mermaid dress, but no additional color to the white. Yes, you can put a nice belt in any color around the waist, but my fiancé wants some more color.
A couple of shops later and very tired feet and a start to a headache we hadn't found anything both could agree on. Maybe I shouldn't have included him in the wedding dress plans... But still I want him to like my dress =)

Home again I started to browse through the internet in my search for a fitting wedding dress. And some couple of hours later I found it! And I love it and my fiancé loves it!
It is an Alfred Angelo dress number 1516 and it is a simple A-line just as I was looking for. Here is a picture of the dress:

Front:


Back:



Now it is just to choose the perfect color! And to find a shop that sells this wonderful creation.