Dress the Chair: Flower Garland

{Project wedding diy}

This gorgeous little garland is packed with "wow" power and will add a nice touch of elegant drama to your standard wedding chair. A perfect way to make the bride and groom stand out...just a little more.

Here is the easy-peasy how to:

Flowers that work well for this project:

Asters (pictured),

Chrysanthemums,

Roses or rose petals,

Carnations,

Marigolds

You will need:

About 10 -15 stems of fully opened flower blossoms (for a standard Chivari chair),

Fishline,

A Needle,

Scissors,

A spray bottle with water,

Ziplock bag,

Ribbon (around 2 yards)

1. Clip the stems off all the flowers so they can sit flat. Measure the width of your chair and times it by 2. For the standard Chivari chair that we used, we made about a 12" garland

2. Cut a length of fishline to match your measurement. Thread a needle through the fishline and tie a knot at the end of it. Push the needle through the bottom of the flower and repeat. String together all the flowers until the garland is full.

Tip: Mist the garland with water and keep in the fridge overnight in a ziplock bag.

d.i.y: Pie in a Jar

{all photo credits to green wedding shoes}

We found this awesome DIY great for favors, giveaways, or just to do...b/c its soo cool!! Thanks Green Wedding Shoes for sharing this great DIY.

Ingredients:Pie Crust Dough (fave recipe or pre-made)2 12 oz. cans of cherry, apple or your favorite pie filling2 Tb of sugar1 large egg beaten

Supplies:6 4 oz. mason jars, cleaned with lids and labels removedHeart shaped cookie cutter1 Cookie sheet


Directions:Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Press the unrolled dough bit by bit into the jars a bit at a time (not too thick!) until the jars are lined with the dough up to the rims. Reserve some dough for toppers. Next, fill jars nearly to the top with filling of choice.


Roll out reserved dough to roughly 1/8 inch thick and cut out 6-8 hearts. Place the filled jars on a sturdy cookie sheet and place into oven.

Bake at 325 degrees for roughly 30-35 minutes or until dough becomes a light golden color.
At that time, arrange the dough hearts on the pies, brush the hearts with the egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes until dough is golden brown all the way around the jars. If needed, place foil over the tops of the jars to keep the hearts from burning.
Remove and let jars cool on a rack. Decorate with ribbon, tags, or labels on lids as desired and give to your family, friends or wedding guests!

Inspiration of the Day: Pheasant Feathers

Such gorgeous detail was found in this Inspiration Photo shoot. It was featured on Style Me Pretty. Modeled after Ralph Lauren, I seriously cant get enough of these photos. Everything is so chic and original.

The feathers...are not your typical peacock feathers that are becoming popular wedding themes...but these are Pheasant feathers. And when mixed with the natural tan, wood and black tones....you get a very elegantly inspired affair with a ton of old world charm.

Lovely table-scapes

Love the dessert table and the very simple but dramatic cake.

Do you see the hint of riding boots peering from her dress?

Smitten for all this detail...the cloth and burlap runners, crisp white flowers, bunches of grain stalk, antique style candle holders, rustic table, black chairs, feathers....*sigh*

You can check out the rest of the photo shoot Here

{Design: The Stylish Soiree}

{Lens: Studio 28}

Have a Splendid Year!!

{via polyvore}

2011 is here!

and my oh my, has the past year gone by ridiculously fast.

2010 was a seriously big year for us and I cant help but look back in gratitude of all the wonderful things that have happened and are still going on. The year was full of love, dreams, challenges, experiences and realizations

Getting married to the love of my life this year was the most fabulous thing by far. Definitely a day...in fact a month to remember. I would love to do it all over again. We were blessed with an opportunity to buy our first home and family car together....(no there is no bun in the oven just yet)

...and with the launch of Pink Peony Weddings last year to top it off!

Being able to finally settle back into our hometown area and to re-connect with old friends was such a great feeling and meeting new people and being inspired by kind and humble encounters definitely kept us in check.

With wonderful weddings of friends and clients, Pregnancy news from amazing women in our lives, and side projects that are near and dear to us in between, everything has just been grand.

It has definitely been a very fast paced year and I relish the small opportunities like this one to stop and reflect on everything.

Moving forward will only call for bigger and better "awesomeness"...not out of greed or material want, but out of our desire and calling to always strive to do our best and make ourselves better.

This will be a big year for Pink Peony Weddings, with more and more weddings in the books, and big ideas fluttering around in my head....it makes me really excited to move forward. I have a great supportive network of friends, family & mentors to thank for motivating and grounding me to keep pushing PPW upward.

Here's to a year of unfathomable greatness for all of us!

xoxo
Annaliese

What we love: Little Details

1. Felt flowers

{The brides cafe}

I love all the new alternative Bouquet Ideas I have been seeing. The last post was on vintage brooch bouquets but here are some made out of felt flowers...they are so adorable. YOu can also choose to wear a collection of these in your hair.....did i mention this is a DIY project? check out the "how to" on the Brides Cafe Blog


2. Wicker

{The bride's cafe}
These photos were part of a collection of photos from a wedding in Costa Rica. The wicker adds great texture to the setting and the decor of the event. It totally pulls together the beachy-ness of the style but its so versatile that you can play with it to make it match other themes and styles.

3. Lace Doilies

{Ruffled}
Especially when they are made into these cute little envelopes. Yet again, another DIY project. Check out the how to...here

4. Wooden Words

{swiss-miss}

Not just any wooden words...these ones called "nuzzles". I love the style and typography as well as how the letters are split into pieces and they link together like a puzzle.

From the Nuzzles website:

"Nuzzles™ are custom designed wooden typographic puzzles handcrafted by John Christenson since 2008, each with its own unique characteristics. Every Nuzzle is crafted from a single block of wood, and the characters interlock with each other in a way that creates a sense of harmony and integrity"

5. Pears

{style me pretty}
A different take on the "candied" apple. such lovely presentation as well.

6. Caligraphy flags

{Southern weddings Magazine}

I know, such a random and precise detail. but I seriously love these little suckers. They are so dainty and cute...adding a little playful-ness yet the calligraphy keeps it classy. Not to mention they make great markers or ways to label items as well as place holders. Instead of personalized napkins with your name and date, you can have straws such as these with flags, so they can go into every one's drink.

Upcoming Trend: Vintage Brooch Bouquet

Ive been seeing these mentioned all over twitter the past couple days so I had to check it out! and sure enough...they are gorgeous. To be honest I haven't seen these before. Vintage Brooch Bouquets...made custom for your wedding!! What a great keepsake for your big day! Imagine incorporating a brooch from your grandma, or mom rather than just wearing or fastening it to your floral bouquet.

There were so many to look at...just google-ing "vintage Brooch bouquet" but I did stumble upon the site of Fantasy Florals (picture above and below) through Brenda's wedding Blog. She does amazing work. You can check out her blog where she talks about her process as well as testimonies from brides. Seriously beautiful stuff!!

I also had to search my beloved "etsy" to see what they had going on in the brooch bouquet department...and they didn't let me down. I especially liked the work and presentation of seller: TheRitzyRose. Some of their work is pictured below.

These gorgeous beauties can range you from a couple to a few hundred dollars...but with how beautiful and unique each one is, it may be worth trying to stretch a few dollars.

Inspiration of the day: blue & pink

Taken from my saved archives of pictures I see and save...because i think they are pretty. This is back in September. One of my Fav blogs "Oh Joy" has an occasional series "Closet & Casa" where they put together things from...well...your closet...and casa. After I saw this photo, I wanted to transform it into a wedding board and got my chance when one of my good friends told me that her color choices were blue and berry for her wedding.

BTW...I totally "heart" that gold sequin skirt!!