Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you're celebrating with family, friends, and delicious food... if not a fondant turkey.


{Yes, that's a cake. Source here}

My new favorite...

...bag. This one's the Saltbox Geo Travel Bag and is available at Pop Deluxe. It comes in five other delicious colors and retails for $150.

{Seen first on The Bride's Guide}

A Little Southern Wedding Love

WOW! Imagine my surprise when I signed into my Google Reader this morning to see this post on the Southern Weddings BlogSite. Excuse me, what?? Would that be THIS little old blog you're writing about, Ms. Lara Casey?!

Turns out it was! Here's the story: a few weeks ago I wrote this post about my favorite notebooks by Carrot & Stick Press. Lara of SW left me a lovely comment saying she also loved them, and because I was feeling the blog love, I decided to send her one in the mail along with a note letting her know how much I admire her blog and passion and vision et al (and I do, oh, I do). And then today, her wonderful post. (In which, I might add, she calls this baby a "beautiful blog." That's right!) Just goes to show you how much a little common courtesy and southern charm can brighten someone's day, though I think it went both ways in this case!

So head on over to the SW site - IT'S AMAZING! They've got new real weddings every day, ridiculously fun giveaways, a great vendor resource list, and a charming new site design.



And lastly, make sure you enter to win one of the notebooks that started this whole blog love fest in the first place! Lara will pick the winner on Thanksgiving.

Inspiration Board #5: Blue and Orange Thanksgiving

{click to enlarge!}

Blue and orange, you say? Sounds strange, I know, but I think it works here. When you choose dusty, faded tones and mix them with gold, white, and natural tan, they somehow combine for a fresh take on a fall palate.

Also, doesn't a Thanksgiving wedding just make sense? It seems like the perfect combination of occasions, as weddings are already about celebrating and being thankful for family, friends, food, and (of course) love!

Some of my favorite details:

First row, left to right:
Pumpkins adorned with bittersweet garlands make lovely centerpieces (via All Things Lovely); pick a dahlia bouquet in rich autumn hues for the bride (also via All Things Lovely); dress up the front door of the church or reception location with a bittersweet wreath (available for purchase from Marston House)

Second row, left to right:
Send out a faux bois invitation suite like this one from Martha Stewart Weddings; order natural dresses for your maids (photographed by Melissa Schollaert and seen on Snippet & Ink); include glazed carrots as a side for the turkey - their color works perfectly with our palette! (Victoria Pearson)

Third row, left to right:
Try pumpkin pie (Jupiter Images) instead of wedding cake; hang simple wooden initials from orange satin ribbon to signal the celebration location (Martha Stewart Weddings); dress the dudes in khaki suits and a crisp orange shirt and tie combo (Martha Stewart Weddings); a wide porch bedecked with pumpkins makes the perfect "altar" for a casually elegant at-home ceremony (via Classic Bride)

What do you think? Could this work? Or would your guests resent you for disrupting their usual Thanksgiving plans?

Have a sweet Friday!

Today's post on Style Me Pretty reminded me of how much I love Amy Atlas's dessert tables. Though they made the rounds of wedding blogs a few months ago, I thought I'd dig out some of my favorites to share, on the off-chance one of you missed them!





I think her example proves that a cohesive candy bar/buffet/table is about two things: color coordination and beautiful styling. Glassine bags, white cake stands, and customized wrappers can make even dollar store candy look wedding worthy.





Really, though - you've got to see the detail shots on her site. They are stunningly drool-inducing.

S'mores Y'all

Saw this on Once Wed yesterday and thought it was the perfect way to end a reception on a sweet note. The bride, who handmade all of the wedding graphics, has recently started her own design company, Miss Pickles Press. Just like these s'more packets, her stationery suites are bold, whimsical, and impossibly cute.

P.S. I also loved her centerpieces.

A Dreamy 99 Cents

The moment I saw the spread on this celebration in the Summer 2008 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings, I knew I had a new favorite wedding.









The dress! The pink ties and mixed gray suits on the groomsmen! The cake! The engraved stationery! There simply weren't enough exclamation points to express my glee.

My very favorite detail, however, was the table settings. The guests ate not on rented china, but on patterns from the Mother of the Bride's own collection, which, as you can see, is quite large. To me, this gives the reception an elegant but relaxed feel - the most you could hope for from a backyard reception.

Ever since I saw this spread, I've wanted to do the same thing someday, albeit on a smaller scale. I probably won't be able to collect or borrow enough full place settings to accommodate my friends and family, but I'm thinking it would be a lovely and personal touch to serve wedding cake on my own china dessert plates. Between EBay, thrift stores, garage sales, etc. (and no wedding planned for the near future!), I feel like this is a manageable task.

And last week I made my first purchase! 10 Pontessa china dessert plates from EBay for - wait for it - 99 cents! That's right, 99 cents.







What do you think - worth 99 pennies?

It's almost 2009!

...as scary as that seems! But since we're almost through November, and then there's just December left in 2008, I decided to jump on a recent post over at Style Me Pretty.









This set of 12 Gocco'd calendars by Sarah Parrott is to die for! Individual month calendars have become sort of a "thing" with small presses lately, but these ones stand out from the pack. Check them out in her Etsy shop here.

Besides having delightful designs, the presentation is superb: each month's card comes tucked into its own cotton drawstring bag, and the whole package comes "numbered and packaged in glassine with a festive ribbon." Festive ribbon! I can't wait for these to show up in my mailbox.

If I were to keep these for myself, I'd either prop each month up one at a time on my desk, or else tack all 12 in a grid to an empty bulletin board.

However, I haven't yet decided whether to keep them or give them away at Christmas. What do you think?

Happy Friday!

{via Black*Eiffel}

Home for the weekend - I hope yours is lovely!

My new favorite...

...notebook. By Carrot & Stick Press. $6 each. Blank. Love.

Etiquette Dinner

A few weeks ago I attended a dinner and networking event led by an etiquette consultant. As a proud owner of this book and a generally sophisticated person (at least I like to think so!), I was surprised by the number of etiquette details that had escaped my upbringing thus far. Granted, most could be classified under "minutiae," but still...

In the interest of learning something new every day, I thought I'd pass along a few of my new bits of gracious dining knowledge.

1) Always dip your soup spoon away from you to scoop your soup. Bend at the waist to get nearer to your bowl, don't hunch over the table. (That last part I knew!)



2) If you are nearest to the bread basket, you are the one to begin its round around the table. Always offer (but don't pass) it to your neighbor on the left first, then take one for yourself, then pass it to the neighbor on your right. Bread is the only course you offer to the left - the others you should simply pass to your right.



3) In a business setting, the more senior converser should always be the one to initiate handshakes and a business card exchange. This is one "rule" I find to be frequently ignored.



4) Always match your host course for course and drink for drink - if they order an appetizer, you should, too; if they drink coffee with their dessert, consider ordering tea. For light or picky eaters this could be an obstacle, but I think we can all agree it's a good excuse to order something like this:



My favorite takeaway from the evening, however, was the simple idea that manners are only important so far as they put others at ease - whether that means a host ensuring none of her guests are still eating long after everyone else has finished, or a guest knowing the correct finish placement of a soup spoon so as to not confuse the waiter and cause a commotion.

What do you think - are rules like these still important, or are they old-fashioned and outdated?

{All photos by the dreamy photographer Victoria Pearson}

Stone Wall Votives

{Image by Ryan Benyi Photography}

Living in the land of stone walls, I fell in love with this idea as soon as I saw it. How great - simple, chic - would this be for a summer dinner party or an evening wedding?

Happy Weekend + A French Tree House

Wouldn't you like to spend the weekend in a tree house?










{Image source}

The designer and builder, La Cabane Perchee, writes on its site:

"The whole idea is to relive our childhood dreams of building tree-houses. This is a dream that we all had, as a child or later in life... Living high in the trees to observe, to read or write, to listen to music, to feel well, to dream, sometimes to be alone and sometimes to love."

Well said.

{Thanks to Rachel for the tip!}

Inspiration Board #4: Teal, Yellow, and Black

My second entry was also posted today. You can check it out on Style Me Pretty here, under "Little Black Dress, VII." Abby, the creative force behind SMP, has put up 10 boards today - and they all look great!

I'll let you know if she posts any more info about voting, but in the meantime, be sure to check back often to see the rest of the boards.

Inspiration Board #3: Punch, Blush, and Green

I've got another inspiration board for you, and another contest to check out! Here's what Abby at Style Me Pretty had to say about her most recent challenge:

"So now for the good part. We are having ANOTHER contest! It will debut after our DIY contest and the winner will receive a $300 gift certificate to the store of your choice. Here’s the deal. You have to find your favorite LBD and come up with a chic, innovative palette to compliment it. Get creative, because anything goes."

Check out the other details here.

I submitted two boards using the same Ralph by Ralph Lauren little black dress. Here's the first, with bright pops of punch, blush, and green to complement the black.


{Click to enlarge!}

I was so excited to see that she posted both of my boards as finalists today! Go here to see the first board on SMP - the post title is "Little Black Dress, V."

Sources:
Lauren by Ralph Lauren black dress at Nordstrom, K. Autumn hair flower, bout from TheKnot.com, cake by Lovin' Sullivan, bouquet by Chelsea Fuss via Once Wed

Blue Hill Reserve

Taken at the top of Blue Hill Reserve, just outside of Boston, last weekend.

{All photos by me!}

Vote!

{Image source}

What a great privilege and responsibility we have - go enjoy it!