A Beautiful Mess

Our Wedding Reception: Dancing

Here I am on the morning of the wedding tossing confetti on the dance floor. I was just a little excited...

Jeremy chose Brian Wilson for our first dance. We listen to this song all the time when driving for coffee. If we had 'an official song' this would be one of them! We have a very strong affection for Brian Wilson. There were plenty of Beach Boys songs on the dinner playlist too.

 

For the father/daughter dance we chose Harvest Moon by Neil Young. It's one of our all time favorite songs for a slow dance. It's so charming and adorable! Jeremy covered it at a show a few years ago and everyone in the crowd was dancing. It's one of our favorite memories.

 

And here's one more song from our dance playlist, our favorite Beach House song. So pretty! We had the most magical time.... xo. Elsie 

Credits: The dance floor was designed by Sharon and Kendra. I'll be sharing a DIY for that project soon. I loved the bunting they made! It was really fun. Photography by Arrow & Apple. 

Our Wedding Reception: Decor

Our wedding reception was packed full of creative details. I owe a million thank yous to Sharon Taylor who styled it with her team from Pickwick House. Before the meeting we had several weeks of meetings where we planned out details and bounced ideas. It was even prettier than I could have imagined when the big day arrived! Most importantly, it felt really personal. Sharon used tons of vintage pieces from our shop and our warehouse along with her personal collection.

Our venue was Savoy Ballroom. It is across the street from Red Velvet. I loved hosting everything so close to our shop. The owners had the idea to play old movies during the reception, so we played Breakfast At Tiffany's and Funny Face on a projector (without the sound). It was a really cute touch! 

Here are some more favorite photos from the reception... 

Jeremy and his (wonderful) dad cut these wood place card holders for us! We found the library cards from Knot & Bow on Etsy. 

(more photos of the dessert table here.)

Love was in the air! 

And, per usual, my grandpa was stealing the show because he's sooooo adorable! 

This photo of me and Emma makes me smile. She gave such a sweet toast at the reception... tears! I ordered custom fringe banners that said Mr and Mrs to tie on our chairs (above) from Nice on Etsy. 

Isn't Katie the cutest? I made some special hand painted holgas for the tables at our reception. Can't wait to see if there are any treasures on those rolls of film. 

Here we are listening to the toasts. They were so incredibly sweet! We enjoyed every moment. XO, elsie

PS. In case you are curious... I only have a handful of wedding posts left (plus some wedding related DIYs). I never intended to break it up so much, but I am trying to keep the number of photos in each post reasonable so that they don't crash your computers. ha!.. just kidding... but really. XO, els 

Photos by Arrow & Apple. 

why i LOVED our wedding photographer...

I absolutely loved our wedding photographer, Sarah Rhodes (Arrow & Apple) for so many reasons! Our photos turned out amazing and she was incredibly fun to work with. I loved her relaxed attitude, it made everything feel effortless and stress free. She captured countless photos of real moments that I would have completely missed. In addition to being an incredible photographer, she seemed to connect with everyone and make people feel at ease. Before we were engaged we had never met and she already feels like a lifelong friend! 

Ok! so this is really exciting... Arrow & Apple have decided to offer a really really amazing special deal to A Beautiful Mess readers who book their wedding with them in the next 30 days! The are giving every couple an iPad with their wedding photos loaded on it! SO fun..... 

Here's the fine print: 

This giveaway open for every bride & groom getting married between now and December 31, 2012. The iPad will be given after the wedding, and fully loaded up with all of your wedding photographs! This giveaway is available with each of our wedding packages. To receive the iPad giveaway, contract and deposit must be received by midnight of July 30th. Arrow & Apple is based in the Tacoma, WA area, although most of our weddings are spread out across the United States! We love traveling to photograph all of our exceptionally fun, unique and crazy-about-eachother couples. We hope you'll not be a stranger and send us an email, even just to make friends! To enter and find out more about our wedding packages, email hello AT arrowandapple DOT com with your wedding date and some fun details, and mention A Beautiful Mess!

 I hope that some of you choose Arrow & Apple for your wedding photos. I'm so so glad I did! And by the way, this post is not sponsored. I truly LOVED working with them and want to spread the word about what they do. I'm so happy with our wedding photographs and can't wait to print the big album.... XO, elsie

A Summer Shop Display

This month, Kinsey and I have been working on ideas for new displays in our local shop. Above is the first display that we styled. It holds necklaces, hair accessories and sunglasses. 

Now that my wedding season's over, I'm jumping back into Project ReStyle (yay!) Above is the before photo of this wicker piece I picked up at a flea market for under $10. We spray painted it with a mint green color so that the jewelry would stand out more on our display. 

I absolutely love the end result! It's pretty, but still very earthy. It makes me happy each time I walk into the shop! XO, Elsie