Wedding Movies and Wedding Scenes

The weather here has been kind of crappy lately, and it's perfect for snuggling up on the couch and watching a good movie. Some movies about weddings or with good wedding scenes (you can check them out on IMDB or request them on Netflix!):

• Love Actually
• Mamma Mia!
  
• Monsoon Wedding
• Father of the Bride (Did anyone else know that the Steve Martin movie was a remake??)
  
• Steel Magnolias
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding
• Wedding Crashers (ha!)
• Runaway Bride
• Bend It Like Beckham
  
• Kill Bill
  
• Sweet Home Alabama
• Made of Honor
• The Godfather
  
• The Wedding Planner
• Monster-in-Law
• Clueless (at the end!)
• Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason (at the end again!)
• The Wedding Date
• The Best Man
• The Princess Bride
• The Marrying Man
• The Graduate (classic wedding scene!)
• Sixteen Candles
• Oklahoma!

Recommended wedding movies that I have yet to see:

• Father of the Bride (1950 version)
• A Wedding
• That Old Feeling
• It Happened One Night
• The Deer Hunter
  
• It Had To Be You
• Betsy's Wedding
• The Philadelphia Story
  
• 27 Dresses
• Four Weddings and a Funeral
• Muriel's Wedding
• The Bachelor
• The Other Sister
• My Best Friend's Wedding

Can you think of more? Recommendations welcome!!

Winter Wedding Invitation—Sam & Thad

A year ago yesterday Samantha and Thad were married, and I designed their wedding invitations and stationery based on the embroidered flowers on Sam's veil. These invitations were a simple but elegant way to personalize another detail of their day.

Happy anniversary you two! :)

Reflex Blue Wedding

I love reflex blue!!! It's a color in a standardized matching system (PMS) that printers all over the world use—I have a PMS swatchbook, and it's such good inspiration for finding just the right shade. Anytime I'm out and see something this shade, I am immediately drawn to it. To me, reflex blue is bold, powerful, and strong; its counterbalance would be a bright yellow. If these colors were used somewhat sparingly with mostly neutral surroundings, a modern minimalist wedding would emerge. My inspiration board:

From top, l to r: Gorgeous bridesmaid dress from Nordstrom; simple but elegant cake from the Knot (I love the brooch-like accents!); tie by Krisar; beautiful yellow bouquet featured by Olde Town Florist Weddings; Top of the Town in Arlington; Beaded purse and heels from Asos; blue bouquet seen on Something Blue; gorgeous submerged yellow flowers from a real wedding on the Knot; a fun arrangement with willow branches seen on Project Wedding; vintage glasses from my personal collection :)

I haven't been to Top of the Town yet, but I think their view is so impressive that it almost doesn't matter what the inside looks like! I want to go sometime to soak up the view and try the food... ah, research is so grueling! :)

Vintage Wedding Dresses/ Rockabilly Wedding

My friend Lea has always said that she is going to have a non-traditional wedding in Vegas. I suggested that she check out some vintage prom dresses to wear as her wedding dress—my favorite site for finding vintage dresses is Vintageous—they have SO MANY dresses! The only thing is that you have to surf often because these dresses get snapped up quick.

This is my pick for Lea:I think we could make this pretty easily ourselves, now that I think of it.

And some fun Lea shoes from Zappos:
Cute and EASY pin-up girl hair tutorial from ilovegerardo on YouTube! And slightly less easy (for me—I'm bad at blending) but very detailed makeup from askmemakeup.

Her man can get his outfit off of eBay... there are a ton of "rockabilly suits" there.

Rockabilly wedding cake? Why yes, please! From My House is Better Than Yours on Flickr, via Offbeat Bride.Or she can just go to the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel and ask for the Rockabilly Package—with optional Elvis cake add-on! (I LOVE Elvis, who doesn't??)
And the next time Lea goes to Portland to visit her friend Jessica (or the next time she shops online), she can pick up this swimsuit from Popina—the better to lounge by the pool in! (I wouldn't trust a vintage swimsuit. I guess it's personal preference...)

Wedding Snobs

I am usually very hesitant to call someone a bridezilla because it seems that anytime a woman asserts herself and stands up for herself in a business setting, she's suddenly a bitch or, in the case of weddings, a bridezilla. I mean, if I asked for and paid for a bouquet of orange roses and you bring me orange carnations, am I supposed to just say, "That's all right, I know you tried. Thank you for your service??"

However, I don't hold back from calling someone a wedding snob. Seriously, I like things to match and would love to have all coordinated items, but this post from A Practical Wedding scares me: In The Paper Store

Really? Really? Most people are happy just to be buying wedding invitations, since that means that they have found the person they want to spend the rest of their life with. And you're worried about what your invitations will "say about the wedding?" What kind of bad impression do you think people are going to have?

"Oh my god, Mitzi, did you see Bunny's wedding invitations? They are black and fuschia. I mean really, I thought she had better taste."

WTF??

He Who Pays Also Has Control

This is a classic question: how much control does the person paying for the wedding get? Should it be proportional to the amount of the budget they are contributing? How would you split up the decisions? If your parents pay for your entire wedding, do they get a final say in all decisions?

I were a parent I could see where I might want to have some control of where my money is going. I guess I would draw the line at matters of taste. If my kid likes hot pink and yellow and wants those as her wedding colors, well why should I stop her just because I think that would be hideous? But if she wanted to spend half of her budget on her wedding dress, I might step in and get her back on track.

My personal opinion is that if it is your wedding, you should be able to make decisions within reason. It's YOUR day, right? What do you think—how much control should the financiers get?

Here is are some other opinions on this classic dilemma:
Discussions on TheKnot.com, and the "expert" opinion
OK, more from TheKnot
Info from The First Dance
Question/Answer at The Wedding Bee
VideoJug (AWESOME website... I could easily get trapped here during work hours!)
iVillage wedding advice
Aussies weigh in on their views

There are tons more but they all seem to be saying the same thing I said. I have a problem with seeing both sides to the story, never committing to one opinion, but in this case I think you have to take a compromising position (ha!) on all issues.

My parents were great and literally just gave what they wanted to give and said have at it. Of course, I was so excited that I told them about all the plans, but they just said "that's nice" and "you're so organized!" Because I am. :)

Sewn Invitations

Something that I really love is sewing on paper. Well, I love the look of it. I haven't tried it yet (lazy!) but I really want to. What really kicked off this obsession was seeing Kathy's invitations (right) in The Knot magazine last fall when I was planning my wedding. She was so generous to share her how-to, supply list, fonts, etc. to everyone, all for free!

Here are some other cool examples I found:

Wedding invitation from larawysong @ Flickr via Kate's Wedding.

Simple but awesome Bar Mitzvah invitation from Luscious Verde.

Cute invitation by doorsixteen on Flickr

I like that this is a sewn booklet, but that they also did a thicker sewn trim on the covers. From Tess McCabe in Australia.


So this isn't really sewn in the photo, but would be an excellent candidate! This kind of added border sewn on can embellish almost anything. From Tiny Prints. (P.S. I really like the name Jack for a kid. So cute!)


It looks simple, but I'm not sure sewing a button on paper would be so easy. I think you'd have to do it by hand, and on some pretty thick paper. From Better Homes and Gardens.

OK, now it's practice time... :)