wedding bells
I’ve always loved the idea of celebrating an exchange of vows with the ringing of bells. Collect vintage bells or more common hand bells for guests to ring at the end of the ceremony. And, since many venues do not allow petals or sparklers, bells are also a beautiful alternative for exits at the end of the night.
{image via Vintage Interiors}
favorite details of 2009: going to the chapel
These white chapels are just too darling for words!
{image #1 Logan’s wedding photographed by Don Mears; images #2 + 3 Harley + Duane’s wedding photographed by Millie Holloman; image #4 Jennifer + Briggs’ wedding photographed by Holland Photo Arts}
an elopement in Paris? yes, please!
Kelly and Jim are from Laguna Beach, California. They had the brilliant idea to elope to Paris. It was Kelly’s first visit to the city of light, and you can just feel the excitement in her eyes. She wore a Vera Wang gown to her wedding at Museum Rodin; One and Only Paris Photography captured the day.
{wedding planning by Rendez Vous in Paris; Macaroons by Laduree; Photography by One and Only Paris Photography; the couple stayed at L’Hotel in St. Germain}
A pillow as pretty as your ring
You’ve likely heard of Llubav – she participated in the Brooklyn Pop Up Chapel and she’s been featured on several blogs. Llubav has been kind enough to share some of her work here today with us.
Her work is stunning – truly a collection of modern heirlooms.
Interested in an order? This is how it works. To place an order, all clients need to do is email Llubav with their wedding date in the subject line of the email, then include details and inspiration of their wedding: stationery, flowers, bouquet, color, theme/mood, and all the fun stuff that us girls love to talk about, which can also include the couple’s story of how they met and/or got engaged. Llubav requests a deposit in order to send sketch ideas and color palette. Pricing for custom made pillows currently starts around $250 (pillows with more detailed work and/or embellishment do cost a little more). Once the design is chosen, she starts sewing! There is a 5-6 week lead time for sewing and shipping.
Bklynpillow
Vane of Brooklyn Bride has launched Bklynpillow. Go check it out! Congrats Vane!
Making ring pillows from vintage linens
I fell in love with a ring pillow featured in Elegant Bride made by this company, but I’m guessing many of us wouldn’t budget $300+ for a ring pillow, no matter how pretty it is, so I started thinking…what else could you use to replicate the look without spending a fortune? Vintage linen napkins came to mind.
I love the vintage linens above from The Old Lace and Linen Shop, especially the daisy napkin. And, I’ve had a lot of luck finding really beautiful embroidered linens at West End Antiques Mall in Richmond. There’s one booth there in particular full of linens in the best condition. If you make it by the antiques mall, check out the vintage handkerchiefs embroidered with a single initial – they make really special shower gifts.
Wedding readings
wedding program from Martha Stewart
The lyrics of What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life are so beautiful. You could use the 1st or the 3rd verse (my favorites) on their own in your ceremony program.
What Are You Doing the Rest Of Your Life?
lyrics by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman
I want to see your face in every kind of light
In fields of dawn and forests of the night
And when you stand before the candles on a cake
Oh, let me be the one to hear the silent wish you make
What are you doing the rest of your life?
North and South and East and West of your life
I have only one request of your life
That you spend it all with me
All the seasons and the times of your days
All the nickels and the dimes of your days
Let the reasons and the rhymes of your days
All begin and end with me
I want to see your face in every kind of light
In the fields of dawn and the forests of the night
And when you stand before the candles on a cake
Oh, let me be the one to hear the silent wish you make
Those tomorrows waiting deep in your eyes
In the world of love that you keep in your eyes
I’ll awaken what’s asleep in your eyes
It may take a kiss or two
Through all of my life
Summer, Winter, Spring, and Fall of my life
All I ever will recall of my life
Is all of my life with you
I also really love this passage by John Keats…
“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.”
Wedding readings and passages
Hand screened heart card from Beau Ideal at EtsyI love these quotes, especially the first one. They’d be lovely on the cover of a wedding program, or incorporated into your ceremony or a toast.
“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
-Emily Bronte
“Now join your hands, and with your hands your hearts.”
- William Shakespeare, King Henry the Sixth
“I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made for yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me you are bringing out.”
-Roy Croft
And, this poem is just beautiful…
somewhere i have never traveled
somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously) her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands
-ee cummings
I carry your heart
Poster from Project 8256
My friend Elizabeth and her husband included this poem in their ceremony.
It was breathtaking!
i carry your heart with me
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart)
i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear no fate (for you are my fate,my sweet)
i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)
ee cummings
