Valentine's Day is coming up! Or if you don't do Valentine's Day, maybe Date Night? My friends Jason and Deirdre have L.A.R.D. (Love And Romance Day). Whatever winds your clock!
Black lace lingerie is for beginners, how about the whole dress? Half the dress? A classy red one? The strapless one looks to me like a pink heart tucked into a red envelope! How perfect?
All from Mod Cloth.

I don't normally go for big glitzy earrings... but then, your wedding day is no normal day! My attention was grabbed by these elegant earrings from Design By Kara, I thought they looked expensive, kind of like something you'd see Keira Knightley or Natalie Portman wearing on the red carpet. But they're actually not expensive at all (yahoo!). I don't think anyone is pretending that they are 100% precious metal and gem, but I do think they look it. Judging by the over 500 (!) positive ratings in Kara's Etsy shop, seems like lots of her customers think so too. In fact, 100% of her customers were pretty darn pleased with their purchase and that says a lot to me. Most of Kara's comments seem to be along the lines of "They look even better in person! I can't wait to wear them on my wedding day!" and on that alone endorsement alone, I am excited to share them with you. I think the opal ones would look amazing with a 20's/30's vintage style dress! Something blue?

Just got an email from the ladies at Anthropologie entitled, "What if Anthropologie did weddings?" Surely if you know me, you know that the only other sentence that could possibly grab more of my attention would be "What if Anthropologie was giving stuff away for free?". So naturally, I had a look.
Turns out, that February 14th, Anthro is launching BHLDN (i'm pronouncing it "Beholden"?) presumably a wedding shop (online? physical stores? don't know). That's virtually all I know. There wasn't much to the email other than a bunch of gorgeous pictures of wedding dresses, bridesmaids dresses, wedding shoes, accessories and all manner of other loveliness.
I will BHLDN my breathe until I see more!

Sage advice on planning a stellar party from the uber creative Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day, applicable to everything from a birthday party to a wedding. I chose this photo from her post simply because it fits in with my recent rainbow infatuation. Seriously, I am obsessed. I shall blame it on the dismal weather.

Taking it to the next level are these gorgeous beaded and bejeweled sashes and belts to jazz up your ensemble from Bridal Couture Girls. I think these could really give a homemade/handmade dress the extra polish that comes with a little sparkle.

I want one in every color! I might even wear two to a finger if I were feeling crazy. Ever since subscribing to Lisa Eldridge on YouTube, I am obsessed with finding rings like hers (albeit less expensive). I found two sources, Robindira Unsworth, who makes all of the horizontal rings, and Pradman, who does the vertical ones. These are all sterling with gold vermeil and precious/semi-precious jewels. I think Lisa's are probably solid gold. A girl's gotta start somewhere!
Perfect gift for bridesmaids, by the way.

A couple of beautiful tea length wedding gown options from The English Dept. The one on the right is called Beatrix. Bea's golden embroidery is right up my alley!

The rainbow obsession continues. As I sit here, camped in front of the heater with two sweaters on, sipping coffee and looking out the window at about 7 inches of old snow now covered by a crusty "wintery mix" of freezing rain and slush, I am struck by how over winter I am and how much I would welcome the colors of spring.
Linda of Craftaholics Anonymous posted a wonderful tutorial on how to make your own cheerful pom pons from scraps of knit jersey. How fun would it be to decorate with loads of these in every color of the rainbow? Linda recommend making your poms out of old tee shirts - I usually give my unwanted or ill-fitting stuff to a clothing drive, but if I had tees that had holes or ones that were too worn out to donate, this would be a great use for them. (Not that I have worn a tee shirt in months... I forget what mine look like). I might also head down to my local bargain fabric store, where they sell loads of knit jersey fabric for $1 a yard. (Yeah, Lorraine Fabrics!) I love that these are made out of fabric and they could be reused, much nicer than tissue paper in my opinion, and just about colorful enough to make me forget about the wintery mix.

My newest obsession is Project Wedding's DIY section, Jordan Ferney (of Oh Happy Day) has the best ideas! These mobiles make me smile, could be because they are rainbow colored (yet another recent obsession) or could be because they cost less than $25 to make... You can decide!

Came across this yesterday on Design*Sponge... I can't tell you how much I wish there was a book like this on the shelves when I was getting married back in 2004. If you're interesting in this DIY, creative, everything meaningful, nothing glitzy, low-key, high energy vibe - this ones for you!
Handmade Weddings, by Eunice Moyle, Sabrina Moyle, and Shana Faust available at Amazon.

I love these for their wear-me-everyday-forever-effortlessness. Some are diamonds, some are not. I personally love a colorful stone, but they are all so simply beautiful! Anyone in the market for an engagement ring?
From One Stone.

Fun new game! I'll find two bridal gowns that are super similar, and you guess which is the more expensive one. And let me know which you like better.
Answer below:



Left: Aidan Maddox Strapless Beaded Gown, $279
Right: J Crew Taryn Gown, $495

Fellow Rhode Islander Gleena makes cute little pots! Great for Valentines Day or your bridesmaids!

One of my favorite wedding accessory shops, Little White Dresser, is starting the year off with a BOGO! Buy an exquisite headband, get a cute pair of earrings, or a belt, or another headband (for yourself, or maybe as a gift for your maid-of-honor?) FREE.
Let me know if you take advantage of this, I'd love to see what you picked! Everything is so gorgeous!

I have been gone for so long, I feel I owe you a little visual of what we have been up to! We had a wonderful (if sickly) holiday of stomach flus and sinus infections. Time was spent with all manner of loved ones, two and four legged. It was a beautiful Christmas. Niko found his belly button. I cut off all my hair (inspired by the beautiful Emma Watson). I also have taken up stone carving (didn't see that one coming did you)? More tomorrow, but for now I will leave you with these family pics.