Pretty DIY Project: Kissing crystal

Ever wanted to have mistletoe hanging in your home but felt it looked a little blah?

Today's little project is my blingy take on the traditional hanging mistletoe in your home. It only cost me around $3 to make it too. If you're getting married and having a Christmas themed wedding, this would be a really cute favor to give to guests.

And the Winner Is.....

The winner of the Bachelorette Party giveaway is Alica Cohick!  Congratulations!  Please private message me with your details so I can mail you your kit.

thank you to everyone that entered the contest.  I hope to have many more soon!

Winter Wedding Nails

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If you're tired of the same old french manicure for bridal nails, why not try something different that goes with the season?

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If you're a winter bride, why not do something pretty like snowflake nails, silver and white stripes or something festive for the holiday season?

When choosing your wedding nails, remember the wedding is just one day; but you'll have your polish color long after.  

Don't keep a boring polish on for your honeymoon!

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I've searched for all kinds of pretty nail designs to keep the winter blues away, but still give you a feminine bridal look.

Here's some pretty winter nail inspiration for you:

Bachelorette Party Giveaway!

Planning on throwing a Girls Night In Bachelorette Party?  This totally fabulous Bachelorette Party in-a-box  is the perfect solution for you and we're giving it away to one lucky follower!  We love that it's ready to go for up to 12 people!

So In love with Vintage Garters

Emily Riggs Bridal "Vintage"

I spotted these beautiful lace and rhinestone bridal garters today and fell in love.

If you're sick of all the cheap polyester mass-produced garters (probably from a sweatshop in China) that you find everywhere, this is a lovely change.

Emily Riggs Bridal "Trousseau"

The site also has other lovely lace and jewel encrusted baubles for you to wear on your special day. 

DIY Christmas gift - Festive Pin-up girl plates

Two Completed Plates

Hi All,

Tis' the season for going broke buying those gifts for everyone....not!

To bring back the spirit of the season I'm making gifts for as many people as I can to give something personal and special (and of course fun)!

My 4 Ready to Go Christmas Pin-Up Designs

For my cousin that I love dearly, I decided to make her festive vintage pin-up girl plates. I know she will go crazy for them. I wanted to make her some festive plates because I know she loves entertaining guests and loves things that are fabulously girly (read feathers, glitter & bling) and I knew pin-up girls with fun sayings would make her squeal for joy.

Bachelorette Party Ideas

Since I recently posted about my fun day with my girls at Truro Vineyards, I thought it would be nice to put together a list of activities to do with your girls if you're planning a Bachelorette party.

If you're looking for some fun things to do with the girls, here's a list of some fun ideas:

• Pub Crawl (make up t-shirts & have games to play at each stop!)
• Do a City Scavenger Hunt (Have a lead person make a map with things you need to collect at each stop.  Whichever girl/group finishes first with the most stuff wins!)
•  Have a Spa Day (Either book a place or do at-home pampering with drinks, music and lots of options)
• Visit a Vineyard/ Winery and spend the day sipping and taking notes.
• Booze Cruise: Make sure you get one with a band/dj, food & drinks!  This actually is a great idea if you're doing a combo bachelor / bachelorette party.  I used this for a friend getting married that was stumped on what to do for a combo party.
• Male Encounters: If you want to embarass your friend or just have fun with the girls, this can be a funny thing to go to (especially when you see the little old ladies having fun!)
• Ceramics painting party: Lots of these places let you book a table ahead of time and bring your own wine.  You all grab a cast piece to paint (from plates, to mugs & more) and enjoy chatting and painting your pottery however you want.  They fire it for you and you get a nice piece to use in your home or give as a gift!  Note:  It's really nice if all the girls collectively purchase pieces in a set and paint them to give to the bride to be.  She'll have a collection of say--desert plates from all her maids that are hers to cherish.

Cyber Monday Wedding Deals & Steals!

Are you a Bride Looking for a great deal?  If you're a bargan shopper, Cyber Monday may be your chance to snag some great deals on that stuff for your wedding?

• Shop for all kinds of things on Overstock and get 10% off by clicking here
• Macy's get free shipping at $75 + save money with online deals.  Use code CYBER
• Custom Made Handbags & more  Get 30% off + free shipping.  Makes a great gift for bridesmaids, Mother of the Bride, Mother of the Groom & Flowergirls! Use Code CYBER11
•  Every shoe displayed on this page can be purchased on Amazon. Just click on them!  Get Black Friday Deals today by entering SHOECM11 at Checkout. You'll save 25% off shoes that are $75 or more and 30% off shoes that are $150 or more!
• Oriental Trading has lots of black friday deals today plus free shipping and a $10 gift card when you spend $59 or more!  Enter code WCE2507 at checkout to get this deal! 

Cheap centerpiece vase DIY project

The bonding glue

A completed wedding arrangement vase

Having been to many weddings where the bride decides on an arrangement that's too tall to talk over, I knew I wanted something that was shorter, but still elegant. Also, my fear was that a tall arrangement would be quite expensive.

Another way for me to cut costs, (while still being able to give my guests the arrangements) was to do the bases myself.

New Look Coming Soon....stay tuned!

A big announcement for our avid readers! Thank you for your support and love. I hope to grow this blog to be one of the biggest on the web for all things fun, fabulous and event related.

I hope you'll pardon the appearance of this blog as it becomes more fabulous!  I'm redoing the design and hopefully adding lots of relevant links to other blogs and vendors in the near future.  To expand and grow I hope to reach out to the Wedding and Event community and showcase at some of the local wedding and bridal showcases.

To further make this blog fabulous, I hope to make the site easier to navigate and cleaner.

A christmas cocktail party and a FREE template!

Please don't get mad that I'm talking about Christmas when it's not thanksgiving yet... 

Hey, at least I'm not one of those crazy people that puts up their lights and decorations before Halloween even happens.  Yeah, you know what neighbors I'm talking about.

Anyway, you have to start thinking about these things ahead of time, especially since everyone's party calender gets totally filled up if you wait until December.

So Today I'm sharing my DIY Christmas cocktail party invitations.  I think they're fun and festive and perfect for my low-key get-together.

Boston Brides take two big hits in a couple of months

Brides trying on gowns at the Running of the Brides

We were all disappointed to hear that the fantastic designer house, Pricilla of Boston was going out of business. This high end designer Bridal Boutique was a luxurious and well-loved fixture in the Boston Bridal scene. While many of their gowns were priced well out of reach of Brides on a budget, Boston Brides always had another source for beautiful designer gowns, for a fraction of the cost; The Running of the Brides.

A Pink and Navy Autumn wedding

Happy Halloween Everyone! Boy do I have a Treat for you!  It's a Pink and Navy Autumn wedding. This wedding took place in Gloucester, MA at the Ocean View Inn.

When we met with the fantastic Andrew Kubika of Stay Focused Photography (the talent behind the fabulous photos), we knew he was the perfect personality for our wedding.  He was fun and of course, he took some fantastic photos. His motto is "creatively capturing your most important moments". I'd say that's perfect for his photojournalistic style.

What was this wedding like?  It was a little bit of tradition and a whole lot of fun. Dig into that big bowl of candy and enjoy the Talented Mr. Kubika.

Our Wedding Menu

My husband lovingly refered to my enhancement of all wedding paper products as "be-dazzling".  One of my guests laughed when she was at the wedding. "The way he was talking, I was expecting everything completely covered in rhinestones."
I simply afixed 1 rhinestone to these menus on the end of the "swirl" of the M in menu.
If you got a chance to see my invitations, I added rhinestones to the bottom of the anchor points and 1 in the top loop of the anchor.  Nothing was over-the-top blinged out.  I'd say it was understated and made my nautical wedding a bit more feminine.

Not only did I think our Menu's were delightful, the food at our wedding was fantastic!  Not many people can say this.  Our salad was perfectly dressed and every entree was delicious.

An autumn outdoor Wedding - Template for a beautiful Ceremony

Since our local church as well as the church near the reception hall were both booked a year in advance of our wedding, we decided to have our ceremony outdoors.  It was a lovely day and the ceremony was beautiful in front of the ocean.

Since we couldn't get married in the church, but we still wanted a religious ceremony, I decided to put together a ceremony for the priest that was very traditional, but not as long as a Catholic Ceremony.  I adapted it from traditional Catholic ceremony, the royal wedding and bits and pieces of ceremony ideas from the web.  All in all I think our ceremony was perfect.  Not to long, not to short and beautifully our own.

If you are having an outdoor ceremony, but would still like it to be religious, this is a good basis to work from.  It took a lot of hard work to put this together.  I'm happy I can now share it with you.

Sneak Peak....September Wedding in New England

This Pink and Navy Nautical wedding in New England was perfectly beautiful.  Here's a sneak peek of the big day. 

The Wedding took place at the Ocean View Inn in Gloucester, MA, one of the oldest fishing villages in New England.  Stay Tuned for more shots and all the details on this gorgeous wedding!

Wedding Sneak Peek - Ocean View Inn

Stay tuned in October to see the photos of this amazing wedding located at the Ocean View Inn in Gloucester, Massachusetts. I've added a few teaser shots for you before the fun begins. This was a wedding with a budget of $25k and guest total of 133 people. By doing major DIY projects I believe this wedding turned out looking like a $50k wedding. It's amazing how a wedding can turn out when you have it planned correctly and allocate your budget to the right places.

Contact me for more information on how I can make your next event a night to remember.

How to throw a glamourous, stylish and over-the-top Wedding

I've decided to put together a guide for any Bride and Groom that want to throw a top-notch wedding on a limited or average budget.  This is for the Bride & Groom that are in love with the show "Platinum Weddings" on WE tv but can't afford a 60k+ wedding. 

10. The most expensive part of a Wedding is the food and drinks.  Keep your guest list small to ensure you get a quality day, not a quantity day.  The more people, the more extras you'll have to cut elseware making your event feel less unique, fun and exciting.

Wedding Readings

Being Catholic I've been to a lot of Catholic weddings of friends and families.  If you've ever been to a Catholic Wedding Ceremony, you tend to memorize the 1 of 2 readings that are always done.  Afraid of falling into this trap with the typical Catholic readings and trying to avoid anything with "fire & brimstone", I turned to the internet for help.  Maybe something modern would be better....

I tried looking up modern wedding readings and nothing seemed appropriate.  Much of what I found was corny or almost seemed to be a joke.  Sorry, but to me a ceremony is a serious commitment.