Lovely Little Details.

On one of my adventures around the world wide W-day web (not so frequent these days to be truthful) I came across Jacin’s very pretty and well designed big day blog. After a quick nosey around at the eye candy (lots!) I noticed Jacin had a link to her own wedding so (naturally) I went for a good ‘ol butchers at that too.

I found myself doing the whole “ooh” and “gorgeous” and “what a clever idea” the whole way through, and not in a “this is delicious but too aspirational” way, but in a genuine “this lady put so many lovely but simple little details together to make her day personal” way. And yep. You guessed it, Jacin’s blog is appropriately named just that - Lovely Little Details.

Jacin: I actually started the blog back in September 2009 as my diary to the altar, as we planned our entire wedding while living across the country. I wanted a way for family and friends to keep up-to-date with our planning and really didn’t think anyone besides my mom and cousins would read it . Now that the wedding has come and gone, I still find myself loving weddings more than ever, and I am so passionate about what I write. I told myself once the passion goes away, I will stop blogging. Hopefully that day never arrives!

We very rarely post anything from the U.S of A, this is after all a UK wedding blog and a big % of our readers (about 90% of you to be exact) are part of the beautiful Brit pack. However, sometimes there is a whole lot of inspiration to steal regardless of location or climate.

And these lovelies are what I think you might want to half inch from this Connecticut Yacht Club soiree:

The Veil. So intricate, so wow-factor, so beautiful.

Jacin’s hair do. I want. Now.

The mason jar pew ends, so effective and so pretty.

Jacin had the best “getting ready to be a bride” dress I’ve ever seen (cute with a capital C) and great for the images of that all important part of the day.

Stripy straws. Every wedding should have some.

Maids in the same colour but different design dress. Maid of honour also with a different colour (hot pink) sash to really stand out. Love that.

The blooms. Football chrysanthemums apparently. Whatever – I die.

There is a shot of the wedding party IN. A. SUPERMARKET.

Anyway, it’s not like I need to tell you all of this, you can go see for yourselves folks…..

Rock My Wedding, bringing the sunshine to your Sunday

Fate

My dress was a custom design from a little dress shop in Hoboken, New Jersey called Ally Bridal. I had searched high and low for a dress that made me feel like it was “the one” and I actually thought I found it a few times, until I found this one! It was a boatneck dress with straps when I first saw it, but Ally, the designer, convinced me to try it on because she could alter it to a strapless sweetheart neckline.. Once I put it on and she worked her magic with safety pins here and there, I looked in the mirror and thought “this could be it!” All it took to seal the deal was for me to look down at the bottom of the dress and notice a swiss-dot detailing that was so different and fun… When I couldn’t stand to take it off and continued to daydream about the dress, that was when I knew it was the one.

Purchasing my dress at Ally Bridal was the best decision I could have made – I had several appointments at Kleinfeld Bridal {where the show “Say Yes to the Dress” is filmed} and they were all cancelled due to snowstorms. I considered this a sign when I went in to Ally just to look around and her dresses were not only custom, but they were a fraction of the price compared to name brand dresses! It was truly meant to be.

Something Borrowed Something New

I wore my mother’s lace mantilla veil that my grandmother made for her when she was married. I have always had my eye on it and was so honored to wear it on my wedding day as well – it was so special to be including something from my parents’ wedding in my big day as well. In my hair I wore a single gardenia flower, which was a tribute to my late grandmother, Mimi, who loved gardenias and passed away just months before our wedding.

We also had a matching gardenia “corsage” made for Mimi that we put on her grave the morning of the wedding so she could have her flower, too.

Oh, the shoes. The most magical shoes I ever did see, that I scoured the earth and beyond to find. I am a laid back girl whose favorite outfit consists of a white t-shirt and jeans, but had my eye set on a pair of wedding-day Christian Louboutins since before I could remember. I wanted that sexy flash of a red heel to be a special addition to our wedding day, and when I found the right pair, I convinced my fiance that I had to have them. I’m embarrassed to say how much I spent on them but let’s just say they were almost as much as a month’s rent . The stipulations to my purchasing the shoes were that I would sell them after the wedding to make money back – and sell them I did! I was happy to make another bride as excited as I was over a pair of shoes and had no problem selling them after the big day.

The shoes were the Christian Louboutin Parisienne Plato in Nude Chiffon and they were oh-so-gorgeous {but honestly, the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever worn haha!}

Beauty Queen

After meeting and working with the lovely and talented Jennie Fresa of Jennie Fresa Beauty Library at my cousin’s wedding the year before, I knew I had to have Jennie do our makeup for my wedding day as well. She is sweet as can be and really focuses on keeping you looking natural and fresh, taking your visions/ideas and bringing them to life. Oh, and false eyelashes were a MUST and Jennie made sure to take care of that!

My hair, Hmm…. How to say this. Well, let’s just say that my hair was probably one of my least favorite things about the big day. Unfortunately, I planned my entire wedding from across the country, as I lived in California and we were married in my home state of Connecticut, so I wasn’t able to really spend as much time as I would have liked on hair trials, etc. I learned that no matter what, sticking to what makes you look good on a regular day can sometimes be best on a big day like your wedding, because lets face it, although your hair can look like Carrie Underwood, if the face doesn’t match, sometimes it just doesn’t work

Slate, Pink and Khaki COOL

The guys all rented black tuxes from Men’s Wearhouse, and Pat differentiated from the pack with an ivory tie and vest with the rest of the guys in all black. The ladies wore all different styles of Lula Kate dresses in the same slate color with off-white shantung sashes, and my maid of honor wore a fuchsia sash. Our colors were slate blue, hot pink and khaki and we pulled that in wherever we could!

The Handsome Groom

Pat wore a tux from Men’s Wearhouse with an ivory vest and tie. His boutonniere was a simple pink ranunculus flower with dusty miller as an accent. He looked so handsome and it was all I could do not to give him a kiss right then and there!

Big Day Blooms

I loved choosing flowers for the wedding, it was one of my favorite parts of planning! We chose football chrysanthemums and ranunculus along with hydrangeas and dahlias in shades of white and pink. Eucalyptus leaves made a lovely accent to represent California! Our amazingly talented florist was Jennifer Hodgins at Branford Flower Shop.

Capturing The Heart

I could go on and on and on about our photographers!! This part was a tedious process for us, to choose just the right team to capture our day! In the end after speaking with numerous photographers we chose to work with Graham and Ashley Scobey, the husband and wife team who make up Scobey Photography and we could not have been happier with the decision to do so. They not only captured all of our most important moments, but captured the hearts of all of our friends and family, too. Everyone LOVED them!!! They are so sweet and genuine and did I mention, talented? See, I told you I could go on and on! I heart the Scobeys!

The Sound Of Music

For the cocktail hour, we hired close friends, JA2M to play guitar and sing tunes by Dave Matthews, Ray Lamontagne, and laid back music perfect for hanging out before the dancing began. We hired a DJ for the reception because we couldn’t justify spending a million dollars on a live band, and everyone loved the music so it worked out fine!

I will say that we had a “do not play list” that was about 4 pages long, though, because we didn’t want the Macarena or Chicken Dance to rear its head

We took a while to choose our first dance song and were torn between a Bruce Springsteen song, Kingdom of Days, and the song we chose, which was John Legend’s Stay With You. We chose Stay With You because we both just really loved it and it seemed very “us”.

Lovely Little Details

Oh all of the lovely little details were created and planned out with a great deal of love and thought! We used tissue paper pom poms in different sizes and shades of pink and hung them from the ceiling in the ballroom using blue and white baker’s twine. Blue mason jars lined the fireplace surrounded by eucalyptus and filled with flickering candles, and we also used masons for our centerpieces, straw holders, and to decorate the aisle at the church. Masons are a big part of my life as my grandmother taught me to make jams and pickles at a young age and the mason jars remind me of her. We also used beach stones as placecards, which incorporated the shoreline beachy theme, and they were set on top of a burlap table runner given to me by a very good friend {and fellow blogger of Sparkle & Hay}.

I created table numbers using wine corks and baker’s twine, and custom designed all the paper from menus with embossed silverware to signature cocktail signage. These were the details I had so much fun planning, once the big ticket items were taken care of!

The Best Advice

I think my favorite part about our wedding was that it was so US. Friends and family left and told us later that they felt like it was so comfortable, fun, and a great representation of who we are as a couple. We tried to bring in little details to represent our family, such as wedding pictures of parents and grandparents, and lots and lots of mason jars. We made a special effort to choose music we loved, but also polled our guests in our invites to see what they’d like to hear throughout the night {my favorite response was a friend’s 70+ year old mother who requested “Hey Ya!” by Outkast}. So many brides now a days are subject to what I call “inspiration overload” especially with the many wedding blogs out there, and my biggest piece of advice is to stay true to your initial vision and don’t let others sway you just because bloggers say certain components are “overused” or going out of style.

If you love it, and its something that represents you, then go for it! My other advice is to Make. A. List. For. Your. Photographer. Seriously – I love our photos but on the wedding day, the last thing in my mind was taking more pictures – I just wanted to party and have fun with everyone we love! If I took 10 minutes to jot down a list for my photographers, I would have had more of the pictures I realized afterwards that I would have liked to have. Overall – enjoy every moment, even the ones where you feel crazy from planning – because it will fly by in an instant!

Brides Gown – Ally Bridal

Make-up - Jennie Fresa

Blooms – Branford Flower Shop

Maids Dresses – Lula Kate

Photography – The Scobey’s

I hope you enjoyed a little bit of Real Wedding loveliness on a weekend (we like a bit of change every now and then) and if you are still in need of further W-day inspiration and advice (Jacin even does baking!) then head on over to Lovely Little Details for a peeky.

With thanks to Jacin and her husband Pat for sharing the Connecticut L.O.V.E

Big California Dreamin’ Love

Charlotte xxx