My Big Fat Hot Pink Greek Summer Wedding

I am under the W.E.A.T.H.E.R. today.

And I forgot to post this yesterday.

Crazy how things work out sometimes!

Inspired by John & Chatty's fabulous wedding, here are a few more ideas for a Hot Pink Greek Summer Wedding.

If you are going HOT PINK you can either totally go for it and pair it with other bright bright colors like this inspiration board from Zenadia...

Or turqoise...

Turquoise with a side of kitsch ala Michelle Rago...

OR you can make hot pink classic (like John & Chatty did)

{Photo courtesy of Colin Cowie}

By pairing it with softer colors and fabrics...

{Colin Cowie}

And using it in traditional applications

{Michelle Rago}

If you loved Chatty's bridesmaids dresses as much as I did, try Melissa Sweet...

Which has this very similar dress in tons of colors, they are off in these pictures, I have seen them in person and they are much prettier.

I love love love Greek food, what better way to celebrate ones heritage at a wedding than with delicious passed appetizers!

(all via Knot.com)

Mini lamb pitas

A twist on the traditional Greek Dolmas, Lobster and Basmati Rice!

Artichoke leaves with Feta...yumm

And of course you can't have a greek wedding without some jordon almonds!

What a cuke idea for the presentation!

White Monogram Cake via Martha Stewart Cakes

This Monique Lhuillier reminds me of Chatty's Dress

Especially with the lovely lace detail on the shoulders...

But if you REALLY want to go for it, what about this Oscar de la Renta Grecian dress?

Famously rocked by Serena van der Woodson herself!

Real Weddings: Chatty & John

Chatty & John's wedding was the first wedding I have been to where I really knew both of them, and their relationship, really well. It brought a whole new meaning to the idea that the people in the church are an extension of your relationship and are there to support you not only in the exchange of your vows, but in your marriage as well. Needless to say, even though I couldn't understand a word of their ceremony (It was beautiful, and in the Greek Orthodox church, and I don't speak Greek) I still found it incredibly moving and cried like a wee little baby.

Chatty's family is Greek so they held the ceremony at the Greek Orthodox church in Houston. Although it would be hard to tell from the outside, the church is incredibly ornate on the inside, which informed a lot of Chatty and John's decisions regarding the attire of the bridal party.

The Bride had her dress made, a great option for anyone who just can't seem to find their hearts desire out there. Look at that beautiful pleating detail!

"A white sport coat, and a pink carnation, whoaaa I'm in the mood for romance"

The groomsmen all wore white dinner jackets which is such a great twist on the traditional Tuxedo, especially for a Southern Summer Wedding.

As you can see the inside of the Church was incredibly ornate and did not need too much in the way of additional flowers or decoration...

The hot pink bridesmaids dresses (What a kind bride Chatty was to outfit her ladies in these gorge Tadashi dresses that they can definitely wear again) looked fabulous against the background of the Church.

Hot pink and white sport coats, perfection. What a good looking bridal party!

Not to mention...I know they say rain on your wedding day is good luck...But weather like this? How could that be anything but a major blessing!

Their reception venue could not have been more convenient...directly accross the street from the Church so guests just walked right on over. In the dining room they decorated with this beautiful gauzy drape with twinkly lights strung behind it, it made it feel glowey and magical!

I LOVED the flowers and cakes. The brides cake was a pure classic white with their new monogram.

And the grooms cake (a southern tradition, it can be anything from a dark chocolate replica of the brides cake to a more whimsical Ace of Cakes style confection depicting the groom and his hobbies/interests) was a fishing basket complete with trout! Adorable.

What a beautiful couple!

Opa!

One of my favorite parts of the evening, the Couples getaway!

The left in this rickshaw! So hillarious and joyful!

Congratulations to John and Chatty. Your love and marriage is a blessing to all of us who know you!

I will be back later today with fabulous ideas for a Big Fat Hot Pink Greek Summer Wedding inspired by John and Chatty!

Inspired by Ali and Lance: A Preppy Nautical Affair

I know it may seem like a cruel tease to start posting beautiful Summer weddings just as the season comes to a close, but there is a method to my madness! Most people who are planning weddings right now, and who would find a guide like this most useful, are those planning for weddings that will occur 6-10 months from now! You know, the sensible kind of Bride who does not choose to torture their family and friends with 18 month engagements...(ahem)

Unfortunately most bridal magazines do not accomidate this fact, and theme their issues based on the current month. By the time all of the issues with the great ideas for summer weddings come out, it is too late for brides to incorporate them into their rapidly approaching nuptials! Well I think that is just silly. Over here at FYB, we live to serve...Thus, the summer wedding post in the Fall...

Not only did Ali graciously provide some great advice and DIY inspiration by sharing her beautiful nautical wedding with us, but she also reminded me of an essential online resource for brides! 

TheKnot.com 

I have registered with them, and they have great tips and inspiration from real weddings, as well as a host of resources and vendors from across the country. I was so inspired by Ali and Lance's beautiful wedding that I perused TheKnot.com, and one of my other faves, Brides.com, to bring you even more inspiration for a preppy, Cape Cod, wedding.

{Beautiful Cape Cod aisle featured on TheKnot.com}

{Tent and lanterns like Ali & Lance's at The Knot.com}

{Party favors from TheKnot.com, LLBean tote bags, inexpensive ($17.95) and you can personalize them by filling them with treats themed for your big day, great for a destination wedding}

{These Lobster Lollypops found at TheKnot.com were used for seating assignments at the reception!}

{I have long admired these invitations, although the stationary company now escapes me, so cute, I would do them in navy and white with sailors rope for a nautical nuptial!}

{This Oscar de la Renta dress would be perfect for a preppy Cape Cod wedding!}

{AND the skirt detaches for a sleeker, more formal, look!}

{Preppy.Nautical.Adorable}

{Sparklers for the grand exit!}

{This cake is beautiful, and it has Ali and Lance's colors and the light house motif!}

{OR if you REALLY wanted to go all out, how about the nautical flag cake?}

Thank you again Ali and Lance for inspiring us with your beautiful wedding, hopefully these will give anyone planning a preppy, nautical affair a few more great ideas!

Real Weddings: Ali & Lance

As promised, this week I bring you the first Real Weddings post on FYB! Ali and Lance met and started dating our Freshman Year at Kent, and just had THE most lovely wedding this summer. Ali was incredibly gracious and agreed to not only share the pictures from their big day, she also gave me some great tips she learned along the way. Please enjoy!

The Engagement:

Every Fourth of July weekend Lance and I go to Nantucket to visit his parents, we always invite my parent but they have always been busy with my brothers. Finally, when they were able to make it out, Lance decided to take them out to lunch while I was at work to ask their permission. The day after lunch he invited my mom to go with him to get my ring.When my parents were able to come to Nantucket, I thought that this would be a perfect time for Lance to propose, but he said that he was too scared to ask my dad and I knew he wouldn’t propose without asking. Before we left for Nantucket I did a little snooping and unfortunately I didn’t find anything so I decided we weren’t going to get engaged. Lance knew I would look through his bag and asked for a bag to put the ring in and hid it under his orthotic in his shoe. 

{Editors note: Sound like anyone else you know??}

On July 5th it was pouring which threw Lance’s plan off to get me to our favorite beach. Luckily he came up with a last minute plan to get me there. He said they were building a snack shack on the beach, which made me furious because the beach we usually go to is quiet and we didn’t want it turning into a crowded place, we needed to check it out rain or shine. We parked and got out, it was pouring and made the trek over the dune.  When I got over the dune I saw Lance and NO snack shack and I knew. He got down on his knee and after almost 8 years asked me to marry him. With lots of tears and yes’s we were finally engaged and the rain actually made it very romantic.

The Location:

{I love love love this lighting idea, and it would be so easy to recreate!}

The wedding was at my family’s beach house in West Falmouth, Massachusetts (Cape Cod). At first I was all about having a huge wedding at a venue and getting married outside, but after Lance and I talked about it we decided this place would have the most meaning, plus no one would have the same wedding pictures as us! We then talked with my grandmother who owned the house who said she would love us to have our wedding there. She passed away 3 months later, and I feel like when we got married there she was looking down on us giving us such a perfect day and it gave the location that much more meaning.

Wedding Planner:

We really thought about having a wedding planner but I was nervous about it taking away from the process. I really wanted to feel like everything in our wedding was my idea and exactly what I wanted. Now that I have gone through the process I would say unless you have A LOT of time you should definitely get a wedding planner.

I love the color green and had this vision of a green and yellow wedding BUT when Lance said he wanted Nantucket red pants that vision totally changed. 

{How great do the guys look in their Nantucket Reds!?}

I loved the idea of Nantucket reds. In Cape weddings everyone wears the “Cape Cod tuxedos” which consists of Khakis and Navy blazers, so to have something a little different but just as casual was perfect. Those pants sparked the idea of having a nautical themed wedding. We didn't want to get as into the nautical theme as wedding crashers with personalized vows about captains and first mates. We wanted it to be very classic, preppy, and casual all at the same time. I decided that for the girls navy dresses would be perfect. So our three colors for the wedding (in weddings everything is in threes) were Red, Navy, and Light Blue.

{I love the table settings, they definitely fit with the nautical theme without taking it overboard. The white makes everything so classic}

Bridal Party:

The bridesmaids dresses are from J. Crew. I love that they have different styles in the same color and fabric. I was all about the girls picking their favorite style because they all have such different body types. Surprisingly they all picked the "Erica" style. I loved the J.Crew dresses because they can totally wear them again, they are just classic navy strapless dresses!

{Such a great (and budget friendly) option! And the fact that each girl got to choose her dress, perfection. How beautiful do all Ali's bridesmaids look?}

The girls wore Jack Rogers in Navy/White. What girl doesn’t need another pair of Jack Rogers? I love them and knew I wanted the girls to wear them for my wedding. I just think they are so classic and for a beach wedding they were perfect.

As part of the bridesmaids gifts I gave them square knot earrings to go along with the nautical theme. The girls all wore the earrings the day of as well as Cape Cod bracelets.

Invitations:

"Dot the I" Stationary did our wedding invitations. This was one of the hardest steps for me because I think the invitations really set the theme for a wedding. Even though our wedding was a little more casual I wanted a more formal invitation. On "The Knot" I found some feedback about "Dot the I" and so I e-mailed the owner Sara. We did everything online. She sent me a few samples in the mail from other weddings she had done. When I saw the quality of her work and how heavy the paper was (loved it :)) I decided to go with her. I knew I wanted to use Sankaty lighthouse on the invitation because it is one of both Lance and my favorite places to visit in Nantucket, so she made the lighthouse graphic on the invitation. The panel invitations were made and sent to me to assemble. I knew I really wanted a pocketfold invitation but instead of buying them from Dot the I decided to save a little money and bought them from cardsandpockets.com and decided to DIY. I had my girls over and we put them together. I used the lighthouse graphic on just about everything including the closure on the invitation to the personalized stamps. 

{SO classic and pure...}

I asked the Sara from Dot the I where she bought her paper and bought some of my own to make the accommodation and direction card to fit in the pocketfold. I later used the extra paper to make my fan programs.

{First Ali is amazing because she made these. Secondly, how brills to have the wedding program function as a fan??}

Special Part of the Day:

It is hard to choose the most special part but two parts of the day that stand out are right after we got married we turned to face the crowd and just looked at each other and were SO incredibly happy and in love. It just felt so amazing to finally be married! 

Another part of the day had to be when we went out on the jetty for the sunset. The photographer was pretty far away and so we were alone for the first time that day and it was incredible. We knew once we went back it would be a whirlwind again. While we were out there it was like time stood still. We felt alone but when we turned around everyone was watching us and the sunset...

 

{SO precious.}

Advice:

I would say don’t second guess yourself, if you want something get it. This is your day. Listen to others advice but do not let them make your final decision. It will feel rewarding knowing you decided and did everything you wanted to make your day perfect.

The wedding planning process was amazing so live in it! 

People tell you not to stress on the small little details but I did and I am so happy I did. A lot of our guests noticed and it meant a lot because I worked hard on them. 

On your wedding day you and your new husband should sneak away from the crowd for a little bit and really enjoy each other because the day flies by!

Married life is AMAZING. It feels great to be a wife and to have Lance as my husband. I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful husband and being married is truly a blessing!

Thank you so much, Ali and Lance, for sharing your beautiful day! And a special thanks to Ali for sharing all of your great tips and advice! We wish you all the best and many, many years of happiness to come!