Simply Sweet Weddings Part 2, Summer

    This is the second part of my four part series on wedding tips and ideas based on the four glorious seasons! This time my focus is Summer, the most popular of all wedding seasons! The bright sunshine and wonderful weather makes it prime for outdoor weddings. Bold colors, lots of warmth, and fun themes add to your happy occassion!

Location:

    First you need to pick your venue. Again, make sure that it's available, that it will seat all of your guests, and is 100% something you are in love with. If you settle on anything for your wedding then you will be nagged by it everytime you think of your joyous occassion. So NEVER SETTLE! Have back up plans and make sure you love them just as much as your first pick!
    Popular settings for Summer weddings include beaches, vinyards, lakes, gardens, expansive lawns, and parks. Take advantage of the longer daylight hours by having an early afternoon wedding...or a late afternoon to early evening if you want to time your ceremony with sunset to add to the bold colors! A dear friend of mine got married at her parents' farm. Her father, brother, and future husband built an arbor specifically for the nuptials when they had first gotten engaged and her mother had planted purple wisteria around it. By the time the wedding rolled around not only were the lawns freshly manicured and the gardens full of summer color the wisteria had grown and vined all over the arbor. It was absolutely beautiful! And it made it more special because the arbor was a bonding experience for the boys and it's a special reminder of their extra special day.

Color Scheme:

    The colors of summer are bold and intense. You can see them in the sky, in the vivid flowers that bloom during the summer months, they are everywhere. Popular summer colors are sunflower yellows, fiery reds, spicy oranges, azure blues, jungle greens and hot pinks. Play your colors up with your wedding part and in your flower and table accessory choices. Lets say you chose jungle green and azure blue for your wedding party colors. Your bridesmaid dresses, flower girl dresses, groom, groomsmen, and ring bearers' ties and vests are all a jungle green color. The table cloths and drapery are the azure blue...if you are using an open air tent perhaps it too is the azure blue instead of the normal white. Also, instead of a white aisle runner perhaps you could go with the azure blue there too.
    Flowers are one of the most fun places to implement your colors. Some wonderful Summer flowers are roses, dahlias, red and yellow calla lillies, zinnias, sunflowers, gerber daisies, sunflowers, gladiolas, mums, and cosmos. For an airy Summer color scheme try mostly white or light colored flowers like white roses, white lillies, babies breath, white phlox, elegant white calla lillies, hydranga, snowball mums and Shasta daisies. If you are going with a bold color schemed bouquet and flower arrangements the try using punch colored gladiolas, purple hydrangas, orange cosmos, sunflowers, and varigated dahlias with baby's breath. For the airy color scheme try white roses, fresh lilac, snowball mums and maybe a few white day lillies. Wrap your bouquests with jungle green ribbon to match the wedding party.
    For your flower arrangements try setting sunflowers, zinnias, dahlias, and cosmos in metal pails tied with azure and jungle green ribbon. Another cute idea is to fill several wheel barrows with your floral arangements. Try adding purple phlox to the arrangements, their immense blooms fill in big spaces and allow for focal points in your flower arrangements, like the gladiolas, roses, dhalias, and sunflowers. Accent your hair and your bridal attendants' hair with flowers and/or ribbon to match your scheme. It gives a fun and youthful look to any wedding.

   Another option for your table arrangements is filling large glass vases with fresh lemons, oranges, or green apples. They are bright and bold just like the season. Little vases of bluebonnets, lavendar, and Shasta daisies will compliment the blue reception decor while the vases of fruit make pop!

THE Dress/Hair/Makeup:

    You've got your color scheme all picked out...now for the dress. Any bride getting married in the Summer months is lucky when it comes to picking out her perfect dress. Most companies cater to Summer brides. Roughly 75% of wedding dresses are strapless and made of thing, "flowy" material. So you are one lucky bride to have such a selection! If you are opting for a beach wedding try a slip dress or something that clings more to your body to show off your silhouette. For a garden wedding I recommend lace, again is a form hugging style. Think vintage and antique! If you are having a traditional wedding go ahead and go for that ball room gown. Be a princess, today is YOUR day afterall! And for the men's tuxedos try white or a very light gray to go along with the Summer motif. Unless you are opting for the traditional of course. You might even try having the wedding party go barefoot, it's extremely popular for beach and garden weddings!
    Once you've picked the dress make sure to pick the right accessories to go with it. Jewelry, the veil and/or cute hair accessories. Keep your jewelry simple with maybe one chunky, eye catching piece like a bracelet or big earrings. Try to keep the necklace simple if you have a dress with lots of embellishments, stitching, or "poofy" material. A long train is also eye grabbing, so if you have this, again, keep the jewelry simple.

   Next is hair. Are you going to wear it up or down, or in between? If you have straight hair the summer heat could make it limp, if you are like me with naturally curly or wavy hair then the heat could make it extra full giving you more of an afro over soft curls and gentle waves. Which makes up styles much more popular and easier to maintain during the summer months. Pair this with jewels or ribbons or pretty flowers in your hair for a simple look. If you've chosen a veil pick a pretty tiara or combs to hold it in place.

    When it comes to makeup it's okay to go dramatic on either the eyes or the lips but try not to do both or you might end up looking like a painted up, wicked city woman...the kind warned about on I Love Lucy! If the strong point of your face are your dramatic eyes then play them up. If you have full, bold lips then play them up. Either way, keep it simple and natural, the less makeup you wear then the fewer times you'll need to poweder your face or the less worry you'll have over sweating it off...those dreaded sweat streaks are awful and the camera is very unforgiving no matter how talented your photographer is.

Menu:

    Summer is a fun time full of barbeques and family get togethers, pool parties, beach parties, parties, Parties, PARTIES!!! Use this to your advantage. Keep the menu simple: Barbeque brisket, potato salad, fruit salad, sweet corn on the cob, watermelon, fresh berries, and blackberry or peach or apple coblers with french vanilla ice cream! Summer time is a good time for seafood too. Try shrimp cocktails and lobster for a more elegant menu, crab cakes, and oysters. If you live in the deep South another goodie is crawfish! Fresh sweet iced teas, lemonades, and sparkling punch are great beverage choices. If alcohol is on the menu try slushy margaritas, daquaris, sangrias, or mint mojitos! Something fun for the children on your guest list would be snow cones!

   Your cake is the centerpiece of your menu. Try a light butter flavored cake or a vanilla peach or even strawberry cake, something that won't sit quite as heavy as chocolate in the summer heat. Another alternative to the groom's cake are chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches...a long name for a big yumminess!

Favors:

    Some sweet party favors for your beloved guests would include sending them home with tiny personalized baskets of fruit, mason jars of lemonade or sweet tea from the reception, and for a beach wedding you could consider sand dollars and sea shells. You might even try wooden hand fans or simple little parasols for the ceremony that your guests can take home with them, fun and practical at the same time!

Entertainment:

Fireworks at the Sydney Opera House...I miss Australia!!!!

   Besides the dancing and possible karaoke you might be able to shoot fireworks. Some cities require a permit for fireworks shows so you might check into it with your local city hall just to be sure. It would definitely be the perfect way to end your perfect day!



   I hope you've enjoyed the second part to this series. Sorry if you had trouble loading the pictures, I've got a multitude of photos! I always found that show is often better than tell. If you have any ideas or added suggestions feel free to drop them in the comments section below! I'd love to hear them!
   

Simply Sweet: Wedding Planning Part 1, Spring

      I've recently been planning mine and my husband's Renewal Ceremony so I am ALL about weddings right now. I've helped several of my friends plan some very successful weddings, which doesn't actually make me an expert, but at least I have a good track record! =) So, this blog is all about Spring weddings, I'll explain how to cooridante colors based on the season and incorporate them into your ceremony. Keep in mind, it is YOUR wedding so you can do whatever you want.

Location:

     You've already decided to hold your big day sometime in the Spring, a time of growth and new beginnings, a wonderful time for a wedding! But now that you have the perfect time, what about lacation? Well first you need to decide if you want to hold the big event indoors our outdoors or maybe both! Of course there is always the option of having your ceremony in a church, it's very traditional and a lovely option. If you want an outdoor wedding there are a multitude of options and it's a perfect idea for a Spring wedding because you can use nature as a canvas for your wedding! If you would like to have an indoor wedding and an outdoor reception, or vice versa, then a really good option is holding part of the festivites in a barn and the other part outside.
     When planning your location you need to make sure that...

1. The venue is available the time you want. Don't be scare to make backup plans, but definitely be sure that you are nothing short of in love with all of your options. Maybe your location has a special memory or is somewhere that you would want to create a special memory.
2. The venue can accomodate your guest list. You want to hold your wedding in a cozy little church but your guest list is over 200 deep and the church can only seat 100...you may want to either reconsider your guest list or find a new venue.
3. You should also probably do a walkthrough of the venue to plan for your photography. I highly suggest taking the walkthrough WITH your photographer, they are professionals and can spot perfect settings for possible photo ops so that you will have gorgeous photos to remember your day forever!

Color Scheme:

     If you don't have a favorite color in mind and you are color coordinating your wedding to the coinciding season then Mother Nature is the prefect advisor. Spring is full of gorgeous pastels. For the sake of this example I will use Spring's color palette. Some popular color selections for Spring weddings include baby pinks, lavendar, pale blues, buttery yellows, and mint greens. You'll want to stay away from bolder colors such as navy, deep reds, and chocolate which are typically associated with color schemes from other seasons. For the sake of the example we'll say that you've chosen butter yellow, mint green, and lavendar.
     Now that you've picked out your color scheme, how do you use it? Some of the options are obvious: bridesmaid and flower girl dresses and mens' ties and vests. You've chosen mint green silk for your attendants' dresses and tuxedo accessories, but where else can you use the colors? Your flower arrangements, bouquets, and boutonnieres! For the bridal bouqet you can use pale green hydrangas, yellow daisies, fresh lavendar, and baby's breath. You can use a combination of them for the bouttonnieres and the flower arrangements. You can even add tulips, orchis, magnolias, hyacinth, and lillies for your table arrangements. Try using ribbon of a complimentary color to wrap the bouqets or tie around the vases of your table arrangements. Another idea for table arrangements is to loosely put your desired flowers into woven baskets with ribbon tied or wrapped around the handles. Use flowers or ribbons in your hair and/or your bridal attendents' hair. I wouldn't suggest doing it with your groom or groomsmen though, that might be a bit much.
     You can even incorporate the color scheme into your "aisle" runner. Sure they are normally white but why not make it yellow or lavendar? When your flower girl tosses your white, green and yellow flower petals it will compliment the runner perfectly! Try using white chairs or benches for your seating and add lavendar or yellow bows to dress them up. Mint green table cloths and yellow and lavendar linens for the reception would be perfect. Try sprinkling some of the same flower petals your flower girl had on the tables. If you are having an evening wedding incorporate votives and white christmas tree lighting for extra sparkle. You can also use paper lanterns in white or any of the colors you've used for your wedding for a cohesive look.

The Menu:

    The menu is whatever you make of it. Spring is a great time for fresh produce: baby carrots, asparagus, new potatoes (a favorite of mine), sugar snap peas, strawberries, melons, rhubarb, mangos, apricots, peaches, and pomegranites are great during Spring when these items are at their freshest! For the cake you might try a chocolate cake with a coconut icing or a carrot cake with cream cheese icing. You might even like light custards topped with fresh fruits or phyllo dough cups with mousse! For a simple wedding the "meat and potatoes" of your menu you might include a more buffet style setup. Try deli meats and cheese with fresh croissants, salads with vinigrette dressing (I recommend a strawberry or an orange vinigrette), and pink lemonade or iced teas for your non-alcholic refreshments.

     If you are aiming for a more traditional wedding reception with a multiple course menu then the same goes for the veggies and fruits. You can add them in the appetizers or along with the entree`. For your appetizer, keep it simple, try pinwheels, assorted cheese, or fresh tortilla chips with a crisp guacamole dip. Apricot glazed chicken or smoked salmon is a very good option for a Spring entree`. Pair it with asparagus or a broccoli and red pepper vegetable stir fry you have a scrumptious dinner for your guests! For desert you have the cake, or you can have lemon or peach sorbet.

Favors:

    Your guests have shared your memorable day and you want to thank them for sharing in the experience with you. What favors do you send home with them? You could send packets of spring seeds or bulbs packaged in pretty material and tied with polka dot ribbon. If it's easter you could send home chocolate Easter bunnies with your name and the date of your wedding on them. For those craft lovers out there (and if your wedding is on a smaller scale) you could consider sending home small birdhouses. You can get birdhouses and decorating supplies for cheap at your local dollar stores or craft stores. It's a fun project and it's more personal. You can also make personalized watering cans for your guests, put a satchel of Spring seeds or bulbs in them. Another good idea are birds' nests filled with "robin's egg" candies! Have you incorporated lavendar in your wedding? Try satchels of fresh lavendar to remind your guests of the wonderful scents of your wedding! They can hang them in their vehicles or put them in their home to enjoy!

Entertainment:

    Sure you have dancing but if there are a number of children on your guest list then try including a may pole for both entertainment and elegant decoration. A common form of entertainment is karaoke, if this isn't your style then try including a live band or a DJ, you can give them a list of your favorite songs or just give them your favorite genre and give them artistic freedom. At one of my girlfriend's weddings she had a painter come in to paint key scenes throughout her wedding, gorgeous and colorful pieces that now hang in her living room as a key piece of her decor!
    You are ready to leave your reception for your honeymoon in your limo, horse drawn carriage, old pickup or even tandem bike (yes, another of my girlfriend's did this as well and it was absolutely adorable!)...sure your guests could toss rice or blow bubbles to send you and your groom off...OR you could have them release green, yellow, and lavendar balloons or, my absolute favorite, release butterflies. You can order jars of butterflies from a nature conservatory (or you can catch them yourself, which I don't really recommend) and have a grogeous cloud of beautiful butterflies sneding you off on one of the most important chapters of your life!

    I adore these ideas, while I won't be having a Spring wedding myself, I hope this has helped anyone out there planning a Spring wedding, or given some wonderful ideas to anyone planning a wedding in general. If you have any extra ideas or tips to share regarding this article feel free to post them in the comments section below. I love hearing new ideas!