If you have long hair, and are thinking about cutting it short, you best think twice. I cut my hair short a while back, and don’t get me wrong, it was fun, looked good, and saved a lot of time, but man, oh man is it annoying growing it back, especially the bangs! My bangs are currently at the too-long-to-wear-down-and-too-short-to-wear-behind-the-ears-so-I-guess-I’ll-just-pin-them-up-in-this-little-twisty-doo-sort-of-thing stage. It’s really hard trying to figure out what kind of hair style I want to wear when I’m not even sure how long my hair will be. There’s always extensions or clips, but its still hard to plan.

Here are a few picture of hair styles that I like:

I’ve really been digging on the Fishtail Braid lately. I’m hoping I can grow my air out long enough, but I doubt it. I’ll most likely get clips made or extensions put in. I can’t wait to have long hair again. So much work, but I like it long. I know I’ll end up cutting it all off again at some point. I want to be able to grow it out long enough to cut it short and donate it. We’ll see if that ever happens.

It took me all of 30 seconds to determine what shoes I wanted to wear with my Sarah Seven dress, and they definitely aren’t high heels! I would end up falling flat of my face if I wore high heels, so I’m going with your good ole trusty flats!

I’ve got one word for ya: Toms! Toms, Toms, Toms, Toms, Toms! I love them. Buy a pair of shoes, and they give another pair to a child in a another country that can’t afford to have a pair of shoes. Yeah, their shoes are a bit pricey, but what pair of shoes isn’t now-a-days? And hey, did you know that they have a section on their site for WEDDINGS? Yes, they do! And I’ve got my eyes set on these babies:

Tom’s Ivory Grosgrain Classics! I received the Toms email newsletter one week that featured all of their new Wedding Styles, which was a happy coincidence, and found them on their site. right when I saw them, I knew these would be the ones I would end up getting, though I have not ordered them yet. They are simple, cute, and have just a enough ivory-gold shimmer to match my dress perfectly. I am very much looking forward to ordering them, which I should do very soon!

The dress.

I’m not going to post a picture of which one it is, but I’ll post a link to the sugary sweet dress I ordered. Some people would gasp if I posted a pictures of it (even though everyone I know already knows what it looks like, including the groom, get over it).

“With a deep desire for the romance and the simple decadence of a bygone era of femininity, Portland, Oregon designer Sarah Seven is able to create unique pieces that are vintage inspired but decidingly modern. Her bridal, special occasion and ready to wear collections are a rare glimpse into the perfected and intricate arrangement of blossoming ruffles, delicate fabrics, and flowing layers. A true Portlander at heart, Sarah Seven uses natural fabrics, silk, wool, linens, cotton voile as well as recycled vintage fabrics.”
~ Rebecca Birt

I believe I came across these dresses on Etsy one day and really fell for them hard. I’m so glad to see that she now has a complete website up and running rather than just an Etsy store. All of her dresses are beautiful, and not all of them are wedding dresses. She’s actually got a line of simply fashionable everyday dresses coming out soon.

***

My mother and I were planning a trip to Northern California to move some stuff out of my Grandpa’s vacant house (as he passed this past year) and though that we should just keep driving up to Portland (what’s another 5 hours after a 12 hour drive, anyways, right?) in order for us to swing by Sarah’s showroom and take a gander at all her lovely pieces. Luckily she’s rather quick at replying to emails, so when I emailed her wanting information on her showroom, she helpfully pointed out that she was doing a Trunk Show in Beverly Hills that very weekend that I was emailing her. So, my mother, sister and I went down to Beverly Hills and met with her. She is such a lovely woman. I only had the intention on trying on the one dress I know I wanted (and when I know I want something, I know it. I’m a stubborn mule when it comes to getting things I know I want) but mother and sister insisted I try on a couple other dresses. They are all relatively the same style, but with different fabrics and lengths. After trying on the three dresses I confirmed that I was right. The one I wanted WAS IN FACT the one I wanted. So I put in my order for the dress, and she even offered to make a custom belt that matched my color scheme to go with the dress. I was pretty happy with that. I think all felt a lot better meeting Sarah face to face, and I’m looking forward to wearing her dress quite a bit!

**EDIT: How did I not mention that %5 of all her sales are donated to 2 different charities?!

Like everything else I have been posting, I just randomly came across this delightful website called Twigs & Honey. I found it a while back, and just now browsed through it again. It looks like they added a new line of products just as amazing as what was already there.

I was very interested in getting a piece from this site for a while, but soon realized that it was most likely not in the budget. Now that I re-visted, I’m already re-thinking that! I’m hoping that I can use these as inspiration and make my own little piece to wear, something a little more simple (and less expensive) and created with my own hands. I think that will be a bit more special and it will allow me to incorporate motifs and colors from my decorations.

These are the pieces that I am in love with!

(my most favorite are the center and right ones in the first image)

I am slowly beginning to realize just how much effort it takes to plan a wedding. It is a lot of work taking your ideas from book to reality. What makes it worse is that, quite obviously, (most) brides have never had to plan a wedding before. Where am I supposed to start? Where do I go to get everything I need? What needs to be done? This is probably why a lot of people get wedding planners. Too bad I’m control freak and a perfectionist and won’t let anyone else plan for me. I know I am going to take way too much on to get everything done the way I want it, but at least I will know that it is exactly the way I want it.

I am really thankful that I have so many people in my life that are there and willing to help me with anything I need. It really is great to have so many people wanting to help out. By myself, every time that I get one thing done, I feel accomplished, but then I see the list of things that need to get done and the. I feel like I’m behind. It doesn’t help that I am a very indecisive person. One week I’ll have an idea set and ready to go, then the next week I’ll find something different that I like. It doesn’t help when everyone keeps asking me about how the planning is going. I know people are just trying to be nice, but when I get the same questions from different people, it starts to feel like nagging rather than curiosity.

Keep that in mind. When your about to ask a bride a wedding-related questions, just assume that it’s already been asked at least 15 times that week, so when we give you and irritated answer, it’s not you, its all 16 of you together. If we wants to talk about it, we will.

This is an AstroStar Starlight Projector. They under $10 on ebay or amazon and look amazing. Granted, you to have to put the together and I’ve heard it can be a tad challenging, but I think it will be worth it to get a couple of these. I honestly don’t know why I haven’t already purchased them yet.

I’ve always wanted to go somewhere where I can see the stars and since that is nearly impossible in SoCal, I’ll have to settle for lots and lots of twinkle lights and what-not. It will be so awesome if I can pull this off the way I want. I already bought 8 boxes of lights but I am starting to think that may not be enough. I’ll have to see if I can find a place to buy them in bulk.

Terrarium Centerpieces by Indie Bliss

I stumbled upon this page a while back and instantly knew that I wanted to feature these in my wedding decorations. I’ve already got some old glass jars set aside for these. I plan on adding some small twinkle lights to these as well as the majority of my decorations will be lights. I’ll post an update on these once I’ve actually made them, but it won’t be for a while so don’t stay up waiting for it.

Flowers are a key thing to any wedding, anybody can tell you that. But what do you do if you aren’t interested in having many real flowers? well, you can make paper ones. I randomly came across this Paper Flower Tutorial and fell in love with the idea. It’s so simple and charming and you can do whatever colors you want and whatever sizes you want. I will be doing these papers flowers for my accent pieces, but O’l be giving them my own little twist of taste.

These two pictures cover exactly how I want my wedding to look like and feel like. I’ve always been a pretty simple person so I don’t see why I should plan something that would cramp my style. You’re already getting me in front of over a hundred people, don’t push me too far!