New Color Combo: Charcoal & Emerald

I'm going to be a bridesmaid in a September wedding in which one of the wedding colors is charcoal. While the bride is doing a lovely combination of charcoal against soft pastels, I also love when this dark neutral is expressed with bright pops of color, such as canary yellow, featured in the image below.

However, lately I prefer unexpected color combinations. So I came up with an emerald green and charcoal palette, offset by the cool crispness of white.

What are your favorite unexpected color combinations for a wedding?

DIY Project: Cameo Brooches

As a bride on a budget, I'm so excited to begin my DIY project series and share my first project with you!

Since my wedding is having a vintage vibe and I'm incorporating brooches (for example, I'm wearing one on my bracelet, to be featured in anther post), I knew I wanted to use one to jazz up my bouquet.  I really feel like it's the little details in a wedding that make it special, so I began scouring Etsy for affordable brooches ($10 was my maximum) that would fit with my Christmas winter wedding.  I initially found some lovely ones that were in the shapes of snowflakes and wreathes, and was strongly leaning towards one of them because I loved their combination of crystals and pearls, which I will also be wearing.

 

 

The above all fit within my budget, but then I also though it might be cool to search for pins of the letter G, as that will be the first initial of my married name.  I actually found one here and loved it, it was in immaculate condition, but over budget at $25 :-(

I was really tempted to blow the budget and just purchase the G brooch, but something inside me told me to keep looking, and I decided to change course and do a search for cameo brooches.  I've always admired cameos because they really take me back in time, as my grandmother loved them and always wore them.  I have fond memories of being a little girl and rifling through my nana's jewelry box and admiring all her lovely cameos.  

So when I came across a set of three cameos featuring mermaids, my heart literally skipped a beat. Not only did they cost a mere $1.50 for all three, but the mermaids on them are very sentimental for me.  My mom has made a tradition out of always including something with a mermaid in our Christmas stockings, and every year my sister and I look forward to her latest find.  I knew that this would be the perfect addition to my Christmas wedding, and loved the fact that I could purchase three, one for me and two for my bridesmaids, who include my sister and future sister-in-law, so we can continue our tradition.  And who knows, maybe mermaids will become a part of our family's wedding tradition too now!

I only purchased the cameo featured on the bottom, of the single mermaid, from Cathysjewels.  There was only one problem: these were not set in anything, and the vendor didn't have anything in which I could set them.  So after a lot more searching, I found a vendor who sells antique silver plated settings that fit the cameos.  The settings were only $2.75 each from Dangled, and here is a picture of them:

The great thing about these settings is that he sends you the pin backing to attach any way you'd like, which works well because my brooches are horizontal, and it was challenging to find a setting that was oriented correctly.  So basically all you have to do is superglue (or, the vendor recommends using E6000 glue, which you can buy here) the pin onto the brooch in the correct direction, and then attach the cameo to the front of it and walla! You have yourself a cheap, cute DIY cameo brooch!

I don't have a picture of my final project to show you yet (I promise to add some after my wedding), but here is a picture of a gorgeous bouquet with a cameo. I will not be adding a bow to the cameo, but it is really pretty and I'm sure it would be easy to do.

A Winter Bouquet

In my search for the perfect winter bouquet to compliment my white and silver color palette (also including touches of navy), I recently stumbled across a couple of examples that I adore.

This first picture is my absolute favorite. Including metallic pine cones in the mix is just brilliant. I've always loved peonies and know I want to include them in my bouquet, and I love how they are mixed here with ivory roses.  I was never sure about mixing ivory and white flowers before, but I have to say, this has assuaged by fears. Lastly, in case you're wondering what those little grey/silver balls are, they are called silver brunia, and I am now obsessed with them as well. Who would of thought that you could actually find silver flowers to include in your bouquet?

Another lovely winter bouquet below also features silver brunia.  I think the green is very pretty as well, and love the little pieces of crystal bling scattered throughout! It's not really my style, but I do think this would go well with a snowflake themed wedding.