Happy Summer Board!

This board and its summery colors just makes me happy.  Enjoy!



The photo in the board that served as my inspiration is from www.ruemag.com.

Desert Beauty

I'm so excited to share this next board with you.  My bride had very classy, sophisticated, yet simple taste - she loves neutrals, textures, and wanted to incorporate some of the southwest into her destination wedding.  We created the most beautiful wedding, which will be ready to show soon!  But in the meantime, here's the board full of gorgeous, creamy ivories, subtle sparkles of gold, and a few  succulents to top it off.  Dreamy.

Bridal Show Booth Design

Twice a year, I've had the honor of being asked to design the Phoenix Bride & Groom Magazine booth at the Bridal Fashion Debut Show. You can see past designs here and here, and every time I base the concept on the latest magazine cover, which is always fun. There are thousands of vendors with booths at this show, and probably almost 5,000 people attending, so I always try to make the booth stick out and capture everyone's attention.

Here's the latest magazine cover, from which I drew the concept for this year's booth:

Beautiful, simple, clean, elegant, couture! I immediately gravitated to the green bear grass, pearls and white orchids Brady's Floral designed in this stunning headpiece. So, here's what we came up with for the booth, with the help of Brady's again, who made my floral dreams come to life, and KOOL Party Rentals and Classic Party Rentals who furnished the booth, and BBJ Linens who provided the gorgeous Grass Twist linens.

Gray & Purple Wedding Inspiration

It's Friday and I'm obsessing over this color palette and inspiration board I designed this morning. One of my darling new brides likes gray & purple, and here's what I've come up with to inspire her modern (yet romantic) wedding dreams.

I wanted to select a neutral, light-ish grey and a variety of purples to add sophistication and interest to the palette. I started with the plum color (the left one on the palette)... I think without this red-based color, the gray would look too 'cold', as the other purples are blue-based. The plum just warms up the palette and adds a lushness that I love.

I used the floral photo on the left as inspiration for the palette because I love the bright orchid and magenta colors against the perfect matte gray. I absolutely love the simple circle design on the bottom of the cake and how they create the new shapes at their intersections.

Yay for new inspiration boards! They're my favorite.

Scott & Lela's Vineyard Destination Wedding

Oooh, I've been so excited to share this absolutely gorgeous wedding with you! My sweet friends and neighbors, Scott & Lela, were married in the most romantic northern Arizona vineyard a few weeks ago, and Christine Kay Photography captured all the beautiful, sweet details so well!

Scott & Lela are such outdoorsy people that they knew they would have an outdoor destination wedding, so when we found Dancing Apache Lodge, we all just *knew* it was the perfect venue!

The color palate for this elegant affair was inspired by the beauty and simplicity of a purple fig. Since both Lela and are I total foodies - we LOVED this idea and incorporated figs into the menu and cake decor as well. The perfect pale pink of the fig's flesh and the blue-ish purples of the skin made the most amazing color palette I think I've ever worked with. And the fact that the grapes on the vines were gorgeous and plump and purple made everything work so well. Since we were on a vineyard, we also incorporated fruit into the harvest-feeling of the fall wedding by using various purple fruits like blackberries in our florals and centerpieces, and even adding them to the pink champagne! Other decor elements you'll see are mirrors, mercury glass, and clear crystal to emphasize the beauty of the environment.

The list of incredible talent who helped make this wedding possible:
Photography: Christine Kay Photography with Chris Maddox 2nd shooting
Venue: Dancing Apache Lodge, Page Springs AZ
Invitations and Beer Labels: Todd McQueen
Cake: Sedona Cake Couture
Band: Easton Ashe
Catering: Main St. Caterers (Flagstaff)
Rentals and linens: Classic Party Rentals
Special linens: BBJ Linens
Floral: Garage By Ivy
Gown: Mariee of Scottsdale
Hair: Lindsay Hausch
Makeup: Liz Margin


My husband actually designed the Save-The-Dates with blue burlap and wine corks, as well as the hand-letter-pressed invitations on cherry wood veneer.

Greeting each guest was an adorable welcome bag full of delicious Arizona-themed goodies, including a sucker with a real scorpion in it (my son loved that!) and these amazing wine bottle cookies, made with love by the groom's aunt, Marilyn, who happens to have a fabulous little blog about her cookie creations!


Since Lela's dear dad is no longer with us, she honored him with this antique locket that carried his photo, and she had it wrapped around her bouquet to keep it close to her heart.



Even though Scott & Lela hired me as their planner, this was still such a DIY wedding! Lela and her sister handmade these necklaces for the bridesmaids...

Is this gown not to die for? The 'hidden' roses are all I can take. Honestly, Lela looked like a Greek Goddess and she happens to be THE most photogenic person I've ever seen. Such a beautiful bride.






We carried the blue burlap from the Save-The-Dates through just about everything, from wrapping the boutonnieres with it, to making pillows out of it for the homemade adirondack chairs, to having The World's Longest Table Runner sewn (more on that later!)





Lela's sweet brother walking her to meet her groom...


For the ceremony decor, we used hanging glass orbs from the hand-made arbor the groom created. The orbs were filled with champagne grapes and fig-colored peonies with spanish moss.





To start the cocktail hour off right, a few members of our band, Easton Ashe, played an acoustic set while guests enjoyed playing lawn games and writing Wedding Mad Libs as the guest book.


Lela and her family made purple crystal wine charms for the escort cards, and we had at least a dozen hand-painted adirondack chairs with various colors of pillows for the guests to relax in.

Some of the guest favors were pashminas for the ladies and home-brewed beers for the guys.

Upon entering the dinner reception, guests found the menu for the evening hand-written onto a beautiful scalloped mirror, and one long feasting-style table with mirrored candelabras, small circular mirrors for place cards, clear Ghost chairs for the bridal party, clear plates, and lots of mercury glass votive holders.



As I said before, we created what I like to call "The World's Longest Table Runner!" - it was one long piece of burlap (lined beatifully with satin, of course) - it was 96 feet long, and so much fun to put on by myself. ;) I'm going to be giving Guiness Book of World Records a call soon.






And now on to some incredibly dreamy photos of the bride and groom enjoying the vineyard at sunset...






Breath-taking, right?

Their first dance as the sun was setting...


And the speeches, the party, the band, the dancing... it all was so fun!


We ended the night one of Scott's favorite ways... guests sitting around a campfire while his AMAZINGLY talented friends sang and played guitar, while everyone enjoyed a very well-stocked S'mores bar.




And one of the sweetest moments of the night was Lela snuggling with her mama under the moonlight...