My last blog was over 2 months ago. Compared to Kim Kardashian's marriage is that good or bad? Well I myself got married!
I tried to keep up with the blogging but for those of you who get married and do the planning yourself you know how absorbing it is. I day dreamed of posting the projects I created for the wedding.
So in my first post back to the real world in NYC I would like to show off some of the things I designed and created for my wedding. We got married in Nantucket Massachusetts. The photos are from
Claudia Kronenberg Photography based in Nantucket, MA. I don't know how we are going to choose which ones to buy because there are so many fantastic ones. Libby, our photographer, was wonderful and so patient with my immediate family of 25 plus my new husband's family.
I purchased my dress from J.Crew. I wanted something simple with clean lines. However, I did want to add my own touches. Many friends and strangers asked if I was making my own since I am a designer. No way. After seeing how much work went into altering the dress down 2 sizes I never would take on such a task.
Esin of Sew Elegant, a Vera Wang alum recommended by J.Crew, altered my dress. J. Crew was out of a size 2 and only a size 6 available. She brought it down to size 2 and at my last fitting I dropped a pound or 2 and she had to take it in more. She is amazing, sweet and a very talented seamstress! But I did have a sash created and added buttons I found at
M and J Trimming on 6th and 37th in NYC. Robins egg blue was the main theme color. I thought I would never find robins egg blue shoes. I was going to start checking vintage shops in NYC. My husband decided to check J. Crew for suits for the wedding. So one day we walked into one and bam! Robins egg blue shoes right there. I couldn't believe it!
A little pricey but the color was perfect. It still amazes me to this day. Ok this is perfect. Then I visited
Mood fabrics to look for fabric for my sash and the bridesmaid's sashes. After 2 visits I found a taffeta stripe that exactly matched robins egg blue and peach taffeta for the bridesmaid's sashes. Also just to note, I didn't sew these on the bias which I thought I might have to.
Finally things were coming together.
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| My sister in J.Crew dress and the peach taffeta sashes I made. |
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Another little find at Mood Fabrics were pieces for the brooches I made. The back clips I had to hot glue on. Unfortunately I was out of time to put more work into this.
I decided to make a fascinator for my hair instead of a traditional veil. I took a class at
3rdward in Brooklyn with Cha Cha, the millinery instructor.
Feathers and flower bought at M&J Trimming.
Considering the wedding was in Nantucket in October chances of it being a bit cool were highly likely. To keep me warm I bought a pashmina and on the reverse side of it I sewed fabric leftover from the fabric I purchased for my sash, the robins egg blue stripe.
As a designer I had no interest in making my own dress but I did design the flower girl dresses. My 2 nieces, Aster and Charlotte, are 5 and 6 and this was their first wedding so they were very excited. I wanted them to wear dresses they can wear again. The bridesmaids wore blue dresses from J. Crew so I started with the color. I looked around at stores and didn't find what I wanted then I looked on etsy. I found some dress styles I liked but not in fabrics or colors I wanted. I contacted a woman on etsy and commissioned her to make the flower girl dresses. Angela from
Maple Tree 2000 was wonderful to work with, very accommodating, professional and a very good seamstress.
The main fabric is Amy Butler Daisy Chain in Deco Rose pattern in Navy. I chose a matching light blue with white dots for the waistband and the bottom hem. I did want the dresses to be a bit poofy, I love how tuille lays and has some swish effect. Angela was able to also make a petticoat in navy. The girls as you can see in the photo looked absolutely adorable! Their flower girl baskets just completed their outfit. Our florist Dawn Kelly, owner and creative director of
Soiree Floral, knows her stuff!
I do want to mention that we also tied in our robins egg blue color with the groom and best men's apparel. Andy picked out a
Vineyard Vines tie with the Nantucket Island as a motif in navy and robins egg blue. His cuff links were a diy from his father. They were given to his father by his grandfather who got a coin from the year he was born and a coin from the year his wife was born. He made them into cuff links and gave them to Andy's father as a gift. Andy's father, for the wedding, has passed them on to Andy.
So I think that covers all the apparel. On to the rest!
Save the Date magnets and the Wedding invites were made thru
Vista Print. The paper for the invites we purchased at
Paper Presentation in Chelsea. I was in heaven with this store. And I couldn't believe I never heard of it. My friend Kayte used this store for her invites as well. Thank you Kayte! Andy and I decided to use a Copper Style Gothic font in robins egg blue. The whale cut out on the band is from a Martha Stewart punch I found at
Michael's Craft Store.
Another little thing, well not so little, but very good to have is a website. I created ours thru
wix.com It was really cool to have it and send people to it. The website is no longer up but I made 5 pages. The first page was a basic welcome, pictures of bride and groom from grade school and a map of Nantucket. The other pages were: how to get there, where to stay, what to do, where to be and when, and registry.
Save the dates, wedding invites, dresses and all things dress related done.
The tables.
Soiree Floral on Nantucket was a click as soon as we met with Dawn the owner and designer. We brought lots of pics and we liked her aesthetic. At our first meeting I spotted a bird cage. I just had to have it! And of course the faux bird that lived there, Mr. Peacock. This worked well since I did want some peacock flowers in my bouquet.
Being Australian, Andy wanted some native Australian flowers in the vases. Dawn found some Kangaroo Paw, Waratah and other beautiful Australian flowers. Fortunately my husband has good taste and a good eye.
We didn't want to just use white linens. I wanted to put a little of my own style into the wedding. So Andy and I decided to make table runners. Once again I turned to Amy Butler Designs. For the main runners we used Nigella Imperial Fans in spinach and river and for the cake table and cocktail tables we used Lotus Morning Glory. Dawn designed the floral arrangements so they complemented the table fabrics. Originally we were suppose to have round tables but
Unique Nantucket, who was our planner for the day, suggested long tables, Mediterranean style. This was such a fantastic suggestion. For some reason round or rectangle just weren't working out for us.
For table names I created cards with names of different parts of the island. I found a picture of a vintage map of Nantucket and tweeked the color a bit. Then I printed it at home on an Epson Workforce 1100 printed on a cream colored card stock. Dawn provided the stands for these.
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| The bride and groom table cards tied to the bird cage. | |
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For guest seat assignments and as wedding favors I made luggage tags using the Amy Butler fabrics we didn't use for the tables. We purchased alot before we decided on which ones to use. This worked out perfectly because all of the colors complemented each other. The luggage tags were a challenge to make. Once again thanks to my friend Kayte who stayed up till 3 am one night helping me cut and iron. I didn't have the time to grommet them myself so I took them to
Steinlauf and Stoller. Then used a twisted rope for the ties.
For presentation, I thought that tieing the luggage tags to apples would look cute but the tags were too big (6" long). Instead Dawn suggested lining them up in metal pans. Easy to find your name and looks very stream lined, I like how it turned out.
Lastly the cake. We had cupcakes made by
Natasha Misanko who works at
American Seasons. She made one little cake for us and cupcakes for everyone else. She creates dreamy mixes like peanut butter fluff in a chocolate cake and has a wide variety to choose from. On the filled cupcakes Natasha was able to make white chocolate whale tails for the tops. For cake toppers we decided to use woodies. These were the cutest things and weren't stereotypical toppers. The artist I found on etsy,
The Little Gift Box, was great to work with. I sent her a few pictures of us and the attire we would be wearing. She sent us a photo of the completed dolls and once we approved she sealed them and sent them off to us.
All in all we were very happy with all of our vendors and the wedding day! Just wish we got to enjoy more of it. We chilled out on Nantucket for a few more days then honeymooned in Greece for 2 weeks. Back to the grind now and sewing for the holiday markets coming up!
PS my husband proofed this post for me and did make one correction. In my profile I do need to change "my boyfriend" to husband. :)
