The Bridal Cherry on Top

Oh veils. What is it about a yard or two of tulle attached to a comb that can make you feel so bridal?

Image via Stylemepretty.com / Photo by Corinna Raznikov’s

I have a love hate relationship with veils. In theory I love them in all their frothy dramatic here comes the bride wonderfulness but in practice I’m not a fan. They get in your face (duh that’s the point right?) they can get in your way and for our tiny little wedding a veil might be a little too much. Sigh…I love them even if there too much for our wedding so I’ve decided to indulge in my love in moderation and sport a birdcage veil on our day.

After some shopping I’ve decided that a delicate tulle birdcage veil was exactly what my day of ensemble needs. Something like this-

Photo via weddingchicks.com Veil by Tessa Kim

Or this-

Veil via Twigs and Honey

Or even this-

Veil via Twigs and Honey

And if I was bold enough this-

Veil by Tessa Kim

As of right now I think I’m leaning towards the first one. It’s just enough veils to feel bridal but not to much that it overwhelms. I’m also a big fan of the puffiness of number two and the last one is so dramatic and lovely that it makes me rethink my whole bridal look.

Anyone else feeling the love for the tulle bird cage veil? What are you ladies topping you wedding day look with?

Put a Pin on It

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with BM S and SD to discuss all things bridal shower. The girls pretty much had all the details handled but there was one element that I volunteered to take the lead on and that was the favors. Like the lovely Mrs Socks lately I’ve found myself swooning over fabric flower pins like these from Emerson Made.

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I knew the style and feel of these playful pins didn’t quit jive with the overall look and feel of our wedding but our shower now that’s another story.

I know it’s a little odd for the bride to be creating her own shower favors but with all the other tasks the girls are taking on I didn’t want to burden them with another project and to be honest the crafty girl in me was itching to take a crack at creating some of these little beauties of my own.

Since I absolutely hate hand work (I blame my Sample Making I teacher) I had to come up with a way to create the look of a flower with little to no sewing which is how I came up with these-

All you need to make these little guys are a small or medium pom pom maker, chiffon and jersey fabric scraps, and some thread. They come together super quick and If you want to make them into pins like mine all you need to add is some felt scraps a pin back and hot glue.

Once you have all your supplies together prep your fabric by cutting it into long thin strips. I highly recommend you stay away from any quilter cotton fabric as it doesn’t really shape well in pom maker and just looks like a mess once you’re done.

With your fabric strips ready simply wrap them around the pom maker until both sides are full. Once completely wrapped snip the fabric along the ditch and tie together with embroidery thread.

Remove from the maker and give it a quick fluff between your hands and you’re done! If you want to add a pin back all you need to do is take a scrap piece of felt and cut a circle large enough to glue your pin back to. Take your glue gun and add a small bead of glue and gently press onto your felt circle.

Once cooled take your pin and felt circle and apply a generous amount of glue to the back and press onto the back of your flower and you’re done!

Easy peasy flower pom pins with no sewing!

Oh and if you’re a bride trying to green up her wedding these poms can easily be made by slicing up some old t-shirts. The black pom above was actually made using the sleeves of one of Mr. CCandy old t-shirts!

Take a Picture It Lasts Longer

The other night while I was looking through our vendor contracts it dawned on me that I never shared with you ladies our wedding photographer. Like most brides today photography ranked pretty high on our priority list second only to the venue and food. Photography was so high on our list of priorities that I actually began searching and contacting potential photog’s before Mr. CCandy and I had official set or date or even started planning a wedding. I know I was an eager beaver but let’s be honest folks searching for a photographer is kinda just an excuse to look at wedding porn and believe me friends I looked at a lot of porn during our search.

I first stumbled upon our photographer website during our search for a venue and I actually shot off an inquiry email to her at the same time I was contacting the venue. I was super disappointed when I heard back that she wasn’t booking for 2011 for another 4 months and had to anxiously wait until the first opportunity we had to meet with her and reserve our date. So who exactly is this awesome photographer that kept us waiting? Well folks meet the wonderful and talented Heidi Ryder.

One of the first things that jumped out at us when we first stumbled upon her work was her ability to capture the emotion of the day in every image she takes.
I was also happy to see a large diversity in the couples and wedding she features on her blog. Let’s face it’s easy to beautifully capture perfectly styled weddings with model couples but seeing her wonderful images featuring weddings of all sizes and couples of different ethnicities gives me piece of mind that we’ll end up with wedding pictures just as beautiful as those featured on her website.

Our e-pics with Heidi are scheduled for early May and I’m giddy with excitement to see what wonderful magic she’ll work for us with her camera! Tell me Hive what about your photographer won you over?

All Images by Heidi Ryder Photography

100 Days and Counting....

Last week we officially hit 100 days out and things are happening at the Cotton Candy house! Projects are being finished to-do’s are being crossed off and money is being spent. One of the most satisfying check mark on our list has nothing to do with DIY, décor or attire and everything to do our budget.

In the many months since we officially began planning our wedding, Mr CC and I have been diligent with our budget. We have spent many evening reviewing our budget and discussing our saving plan in hopes that come our wedding all the need funds are in place to pay all our vendors. This month all of our discussing and planning paid off because we officially booked our final vendor and now know how much money we’ll be shelling out to vendors in the weeks leading up to our wedding and more importantly we know how much money we need in the bank to pay all our vendors off.

Thankfully for us our money saved out numbers our money spent and we are officially on our way to paying off all our vendors with a little wiggle room for any unexpected expenses along the way! I’m not going to lie to you Hive I was a pretty scared to start crunching the numbers but once we did it was time for a happy dance! Relieved doesn’t even being to explain how we feel to know all our careful planning had paid off! Now we can get back to more important things like finding a bracelet and convincing Mr CC that he indeed needs to buy a new suite.

Have you hit any planning mile stones? Has anyone else felt the relief of knowing you’ll actually be able to pay for your wedding?

Dressing My Entourage

I have a confession to make Hive. When it came to picking out bridesmaid dress I gave girls zero input into what they would be wearing on our day. Now before you go thinking I’m some crazy control freak bride let me plead my case. See about a month before me and Mr. CC officially started planning our wedding I stumbled upon and purchased this pattern by Cynthia Rowley.

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It’s safe to say my love for this pattern runs pretty deep. Originally I had planned to use it as a base for my own wedding dress but as time passed and my vision for my dress evolved I decided that the Cynthia Rowley pattern was no longer a fit for me and filed it away for the future. It wasn’t until I was discussing possible bridesmaid dress options with my mom that I remembered my beloved sewing pattern and dug it back it.

I decided then and there that this would be the dress my girls would be walking down the aisle in. The dress is a wonderful mix of modern with a bit a girly fun in the ruffle and since we’ll be having them made by the same seamstress contracted to make my dress the girls will be able to alter the skirt and bodice to flatter their unique figures. win win all around!

The seamstress is still digging up fabric swatches for us to choose from but as of now my heart is leaning towards a rich silk shantung in gun metal gray.

Oh and for Mr CC little sis who’ll be standing with us as a junior BM she'll be rocking this skirt also by Cynthia Rowley in the same fabric as the older girls. I'm not exactly sure what type of top she'll be donning on the day of since a cardigan may be to hot for our June nuptials and a tank maybe to casual.

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So tell me ladies am I forgiven? Has anyone else picked their BM dresses without any input from their girls? And what the heck is Mr CC little sis going to wear with her skirt because I sure as hell can’t send her down the aisle half naked!

Damn You Kate Spade!

The other night I was casual browsing Nordstrom.com for potential wedding day accessories when I stumbled upon this vision of perfection-

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Pearls and sparkle in one bold package I was in love! Than I saw the price and almost cried. At over 200 bucks is about 4 times what i had budgeted for jewelry and no amount of fudging the numbers will make spending that money on a bracelet possible. I even went as far as checking www.bagborroworsteal.com and renttherunway.com to see if it was available for rent but alas no luck.

I guess I'll have to admire this beauty from afar but if any of you know were i can a pearl and sparkle bracelet like this let me know because a bride with a naked wrist is just sad...

Do Us a Favor...

...and help us fancy up our favor boxes! The boxes for our favors arrived on our door step this week and although I’m not quite ready to share what will go inside them I need the Hive’s help with the outside.

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Our boxes are 4x4x2 plain craft boxes alone their pretty plain and I’ve been trolling the internet for the past couple of days in search of some possible ways to pretty them up. I’ve narrowed them down to these 6 but can’t decide which one I like the best.

a. source b. source c.source d.source e.source f.source

A.Take advantage of my new found pom pom making skills and top them off with a poms

B. Go the simple route and tie them up in a bow

C. Bite off Mrs. Penguin and top them off with a tissue pom

D. A fanciful scroll

E. Bite off Mrs. Sprinkle and give them the Faux Bois treatment

F. Make use of all of the leftover yarn from our pom pom garland and seal them up with yarn

So tell me hive which one should we go with? Do you have any cleaver ways to fancy up our boxes?