Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

I hope you all had a wonderful day. We enjoyed our first Christmas with our daughter, Raleigh. It was so much fun to watch her...and her grandparents!

This year, my holiday event was so lovely. We had beautiful pepermint and poinsettia centerpieces, similar in idea to the one below. The feature of the evening was a hot chocolate bar...a fantastic winter addition to any winter party. Offer an array of liqours and stirrers to spice things up!

Christmas Wreaths

I love wreaths. I always have one on my front door. They change with the season, but are always bright and inviting. Here are some of the gorgous and unique ones I've found.

From the HGTV blog:

clockwise:
Magnolia Leaves from Pottery Barn
The Fabulous, previously featured, Alphabet wreaths from Ballard Designs
Succulent Wreath from Viva Terra
Birch Wreath from Wisteria

I love this lovely holiday wall decor idea from Pottery Barn:


From Country Living

A colorful array from The Company Store


Directionss for replicating this one can be found on the DIY Network

A "Home For The Holidays" Event

It can be easy sometimes to get carried away with a 'theme'. At Christmas...I see way too many events that take the christmas theme too far. The above picture is too me, an incredibly beautiful example of a "Home For The Holidays" theme christmas event! I love the rich homey feel of the chocolate color in the chivari chairs which pops with the bright red. Soft lighting and the garland hung from the ceiling makes this event feel like a warm and inviting Christmas at home!




There's something really beautiful about this "Christmas Present" Cake Idea. I love the idea of having tree banches and glass ball ornaments decorating the tree as well. It becomes a lovely little centerpeice to the room. I would have used more greenery on the table and a rich red linen.

Centerpieces:




Photos courtesy of The Knot.

Shannon & Andy

I had the honor of both planning and officiating the wedding of Shannon and Andy. It was an incredibly intimate and chic wedding held at Chocolate Pink Cafe. They were so much fun to work with and it was an honor to be a part of their day.


Shannon's dress was absoultely stunning on her...the bow on the back was incredible!


Guests were sent home with a sweet little treat from the cafe!


The beautiful flowers were courtesy of On Occassions of Atlanta.


You can see more images on Sky & Carla's blog here.

Black Friday Sale

The always incredible Sky & Carla are offering the following special:



check them out here.

Happy Thanksgiving

In honor of Thanksgiving, these are the Top 5 things I am most Thankful for:
1. My beautiful perfect daugter and her handsome Daddy.
2. My family: My 5 sisters and 3 brothers, Madeline, Ed, mary Katherine, Mackenzie, Elizabeth, John, Anne and Michael...I love you!

3. My incredible clients...You each inspire me everyday! You allow me to do what I love and for that I am grateful!

4.Jack...the best dog ever!

5. My friends...You know who you are. I love you all for the support and encouragement, the love, the good times and alllll the laughter :)

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!
M

Style Me Pretty "DIY Contest"

Once again, Abby at Style Me Pretty is running a fabulous contest: Here are the details:

"Just send me three to five photos of your best DIY project, along with a brief list of "how-to" tips and your sources where we can find the materials. I know that not everyone is graphic design savvy, so really...let your imagination run wild. I will post the top two projects in each category, then you guys will vote. Simple as that! The winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to the online store of their choice!

All entries must be emailed to me (abby at style me pretty dot com) by December 15th, 2007. We will vote the following week, so the winner will receive their gift just in time for the holidays!"

Below are a few of the DIY projects from my wedding:




Top to bottom: 1. Centerpieces made with orchids, sea fan and Giant Murex shells with a 'reserved' sign printed at home 2. Home printed place cards tied to green sea urchins. 3. Personalized coloring books for the kid's table. 4. Handmade buckets for the flower girls!

Winter Wedding Detail

These Beautiful Wreaths are found at Ballard Designs

Dress them up with ribbon, berries, fresh flowers...whatever!! They are reusable as well...think front door of your home for years to come!

My Two Year Wedding Anniversary

It was on November 5th, 2005 on Anna Maria Island in Florida that I married my best friend. We had a very small destination wedding surrounded by a small group of close family and friends.



The Promise

"Across the years I will walk with you
In deep green forests, on shores of sand,
And when our time on earth is through,
In heaven too, you shall have my hand."

Robert Sexton

M

Happy Halloween

Glitter Graphics - GlitterLive.com






A very Happy and Safe Halloween to you all !!!!

A Fashionista Detail

Toast & Tables has a gorgeous sketch of a wedding dress in their blog header. Doing some research through old posts...I found her source:

The artist is a friend, Brooke Hagel, a graduate of Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

All you have to do is submit pictures of yourself in your dress to her and she will create a framed memento in your image.






Brooke will replicate every detail of your gown – down to the bows, pleats, crystals and lacy embellishments. If you’re interested please contact her at
fabulousdoodles@gmail.com

I absolutely Love Love Love this idea....what a special way to remember an incredibly important part of your wedding!!!

Surrealien

Theck out the interesting wall paper designs from surrealien wallpaper, a wallpaper company that lets you warp the pattern of the paper over existing objects on the wall. Pretty crazy...check it out!

Something Blue... for Every Season

Spring

Summer

Fall


Winter

Preston Bailey Has a blog!

check out his blog here!!

The Mingle Plate

While Blog Hopping...I came across this fabulous post on At Home with Kim Vallee

Everyone has done the awkward mingle juggle at a party. Food in one hand, drink in another, an introduction is taking place and you have no free hand! So Kim posted her wonderful find: a glass tapas plate designed for d'dimension from Sweden.

"Johan Sandström designed a plate suitable for both sweet treats and tapas, the salty small dishes. We can read about this young designer on d'dimension Web site:

Johan provides solutions to our everyday problems in a Scandinavian steadfast manner. The outcome is an innovative design combining style and functionality.

Something called social plates, mingle plates are a must because having a free hand while you are socializing at a cocktail event is a necessity.

As you can see from the picture, d'glas fits on top of almost every shape of bar glasses. And when comes the time for bite-sized desserts, I am guessing that d'glas can stand on top of a regular teacup with saucer.

Buy online: d'glas mingle plate for d'dimension at Scandinavian Design Center - price: $33.95 for 10 plates
Learn more: Products of d'dimension "

Check out Kim's post Here.

A Halloween Fete to be Remembered

I'll be honest...I'm not one to decorate for Halloween. However, when I came across this partyscape on hostesswiththemostess.com I wanted nothing more than to throw a Halloween bash! I love that it is a chick and adult twist on a fun theme!






So this got me thinking about food...which planning a party always makes me think of!
Williams-Sonoma was featuring these fantastic little treats
(available online only!) The Halloween Carmel Apple with Nuts ($22), Jack-o-Lantern and Creepy Spiderweb Caramel Apples ($16.50/set of 2), and hand-crafted Halloween Truffles by celebrated Oregon chocolatier, Moonstuck ($15/set of 4)

Martha Stewart has these test tube favor kits, subsitute Orange and Black candy and they are simply perfection!


(P.S. Martha is also the source of the stickers for the glasses!)