Joyfull Wedding

Two of my good friends are getting married next year. While I am not a photographer, I sometimes pretend to be, so I was happy (though nervous), to take engagement pictures for them.

They live in San Francisco, so we walked around their neighborhood (Castro & the Mission...lucky bums) taking pictures in random alleys, driveways, and of course, Delores Park

The lovely Ms Becca has started her own wedding blog, Joyfull Wedding, so I thought I'd send y'all over there if you are looking for new inspiration in your wedding planning (I obviously don't post much here anymore!).

Cute bridesmaid dresses

I thought these dresses were really cute, and since bridesmaid dresses are near impossible to find I thought I'd point out that Vivat Veritas is making some adorable dresses (and will custom make them for bridesmaids).


Many of them have really cute backs, like so:

They're all around $75 which seems pretty reasonable for a custom dress that (at least in my opinion is re-wearable).

Grosgrain is giving away a gift certificate for $50 towards the store, so head on over there and maybe you can cut down the cost even more!

You've Won!

Thank you all for entering the Offbeat Bride giveaway!

Random.org has spoken, and Nicole, you are our winner! Please contact me with your contact info!

Nicole writes, "My wedding is in July and I would love to have this book as I cram for a backyard, indie bride, DIY wedding!"

I hear ya on the cramming! Hope this helps!

For those of you who didn't win, you can purchase a copy of the book here.

Giveaway: Offbeat Bride

When I was planning my wedding, I was given and (stupidly) purchased several books that ended up being a huge waste. I didn't really need someone to tell me that I was a horrible person registering for my honeymoon or how to match my flower girl's dresses to my man's tie to my bridesmaid's underwear so everything would be exactly perfect for the big day. Although I'm sure plenty of people think the folks who read Offbeat Bride are pretty weird, for me it was one of those blips of normalcy among all the wedding madness.

So, I'm very excited to be giving away a copy of Ariel Meadow Stallings' freshly updated Offbeat Bride: Creative Alternatives for Independent Brides.

If you'd like to enter to win a copy, post a comment here. One entry per person. Entries will close at 11:59pm on Friday March 19th, 2010. I am able to ship to the US or Canada.

Entries are now closed! Thank you for entering!

Giveaway coming soon!

Stay tuned! A Backyard Wedding is going to be hosting a giveaway!

Reader Question: The Fascinator

Reader Question: My question for you is specifically about your fascinator flower and veil. I love it! I'd seen and saved the image months ago but could never find where it was from. Did you make it/buy it? Do you have any advice about how I could make or buy the same?

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I made my fascinator and intended to do a tutorial ages ago, but after attempts to make fascinators for a few friends I realized I couldn't recreate what I did well enough to feel comfortable sharing my methods. But, with the help of a few other tutorials, I'm going to do a quick write up of what I did here.

To start with, this tutorial seems pretty good, as does this one. If what I'm writing makes no sense, maybe try one of those?

Both are similar to what I did, in that i started with a felt base (mine was two layers glued together). I then glued my first layer of feathers down and waited for them to dry, then my second layer of feathers and let them dry.

For the flower I took apart a fake flower I liked the shape of and used it as a template to cut out new "petals" from raw silk I owned (you could just use a pre-made flower, but I liked the color/texture of the silk I had). I sewed and used a tiny bit of glue to attach the longer feathers to the center of the flower, and then sewed the stones I used (they were actually stone beads) through the center of the petals to stick them all together. I wrapped ribbon around the top of a hair comb and sewed that to the felt on the bottom of the fascinator.

The veil was actually entirely separate. For that I removed a piece of vintage veiling from one of the way too many vintage hats I own. I scrunched up one side of it until I liked the shape, sewed that together with white thread, and then attached it to my hair using bobby pins!

I did base my fascinator design on the ones made by k. autumn, so she'd be a good place to start if all of this looks totally overwhelming. One of my friends had a k. autumn fascinator and loved it. I will say it might be worth trying to do it yourself first if you are on a budget. I spent a total of about $15 making mine, and I know the pre-made ones run at least $100. Hope that helps!

San Telmo Loft has a website!

I've sung the praises of the apartment we stayed at in Buenos Aires before, but they've recently started up a website for their rentals so I thought I'd give them another shout out. They are now located at http://santelmoloft.com.

Staying at the loft was a different experience than any other vacation rental or hotel I've ever stayed at. I think there is always a concern when you stay at a rental on vacation that you might be sacrificing quality or the helpful advice of hotel staff. Not so with San Telmo Loft. Best concierge service ever! (Although it feels funny to call what they provided a "service," as I now think of Angela as a friend). While the plane fare makes it hard to get back down to South America, it will happen sometime soon enough, and when it does we will absolutely stay with them again!