Today’s really pretty wedding was shot by Paul Swanson of Paul Swanson Photography and offering a glimpse into the wedding and sharing some of the fun and inspiring details like color scheme and DIY projects~ is our lovely bride, Teri.

“Our color choices were fuchsia and taupe. The girls wore fuchsia dresses and the guys wore the taupe vests.  We had sort of a monogram design element throughout the wedding.  Our invites had a monogram on the outside of the folder.  Our table numbers, programs, and our thank you notes all had the same monogram. I even had a monogrammed aisle runner made.

When it came to the reception I wanted the taupe to be more of the main color and the pink to be an accent. I didn’t want the room to be a mass of fuchsia chair covers or table cloths. We went with a champagne colored sash on our chair covers and champagne napkins. We did clusters of three mint julep cups with 3 varieties of pink flowers as our centerpieces. We used Gerber Daisies as a signature flower.  I made all of my table favors, which were cones filled with candy.  I used all different patterns of scrapbook paper to add some color to the tables.

One of my favorite moments was when Mac saw his surprise groom’s cake. He has a gray electric guitar and I took a photo of it to the bakery and they made an amazing replica of it, complete with a whammy bar, which I think was his favorite detail!  I really love cake so the cake was very important to me and I was so happy with how our cakes turned out. We also had custom cake toppers made to look like us.  I loved where they placed them on the cake so that we also had room for fresh flowers on the top. (btw, the cake toppers are from Goose Grease, on etsy.  They did a fantastic job!}”

Thanks Teri and Mac for sharing your big day with us!  I can tell from the joyful smiles on your faces, what a great time you had at your wedding!  I love it~ it’s awesome!  Update: I’ve included the Save the Date that MagnetStreet Weddings custom-designed for Teri and Mac… It’s fun, energetic and offers a glimpse into their wedding colors and monogram theme.  Very Nice!

xo

You’ve heard about them and read about them.  Maybe even seen them in a distant and undefined wistful look in a friend.   And perhaps you’re wondering…  will it happen to me?

Because just like every other day, the sun will set on your wedding day too.   And, if you’ve been riding the gigantic wave of planning, DIY’g, bartering and seemingly endless conversing about your wedding, chances are~  you’re going to experience some sort of let down afterward.  No worries!  It’s only natural after spending such an enormous amount of energy concentrated on the events of one particular day.

Some welcome the end to all the activity, attention and stress that comes from planning  the big day while others are left with a void! All that anticipation and excitement  during wedding planning… it’s like poof, all done.   And still others may not even see the blues coming at all.

Do you fight it…?  Ignore it…?  Roll with it…?

Lessen it.  You’ve become a master at planning… why not plan  for those pesky blues too?  The honeymoon and the writing of Thank You notes will certainly keep you from crashing headfirst into a sea of unaccustomed tranquility.  But, keeping yourself busy in other meaningful ways will channel your energy and your passion into the beginning of your marriage.  And while it’s true that all days must end… at least at the end of your wedding day, you’re married!  And that is an awesome thought!

• start a scrapbook for your wedding to pull out on anniversaries
• take a specialized cooking class
• take an interior decorating class
• spend time getting to know new family members
• reacquaint yourself with your new found peace and quiet
• spend quality time with your new husband!!
• what else?

Are you anticipating the post-wedding blues?  How did or how will you handle them?

Here in Minnesota, we are reveling in some fabulous weather!  I don’t know about you, but especially during the first few weeks of warm, summer weather I want to spend as much time outside as I can.  If you find yourself wanting/needing a cool summer salad for an occasion on a hot summer day, I may just be the answer to your prayers.

I want to share a super easy and absolutely delicious salad recipe today . . . perfect whether you are kickin’ back at home checking things off your wedding to-do list, planning your bridesmaid luncheon or going the DIY route for your reception food.  This recipe is to die for

Sooooo yummy, and so easy to whip up.  It is just loaded with fresh ingredients either from your own garden or easily found at your local farmers market.  And, it’s so adaptable, just in case you have guests who are gluten sensitive.  Beautiful when made with heirloom tomatoes, but if not available, regular cherry tomatoes work great too.  Look at these scrumptious, healthy ingredients:

1# of whole wheat bow-tie, penne or linguine pasta (choose brown rice pasta for gluten-free)

1/2 cup pine nuts or pistachios (or your favorite nut) toasted

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup fresh mint leaves

1 cup of fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley

1 clove of garlic

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

2 pints of cherry tomatoes

Here’s what you do:  Cook the pasta in salted boiling water according to the package directions, just until al dente.  Drain, cool and place in large serving bowl.

While the pasta is cooking, put the toasted nuts, the herbs, the garlic and the freshly ground black pepper into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped to make the pesto.  Through the lid, stream in the olive oil, pulsing until combined well.  Transfer this mixture to a small bowl and add the parmesan cheese.  Pour the pesto over the pasta.

Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and add to the serving bowl with the pasta and pesto, and mix well.  Then, serve this cool, scrumptious salad!  This recipe serves four so if you are having more than 4 guests the recipe easily doubles or triples!

Best,

Cheryl

Photos courtesy of Creative Commons

It’s all about you and how you’re using the Design Studio to upload cool photos, change colors, fonts and text to create unique Save the Dates and Invitations.

Our featured couple chose Swept Away save the date magnet… the clean simple lines, great fonts and ability to share multiple photos, makes this save the date a fantastic choice.  I love the color changes our couple made ~ the colors are fresh and crisp and the photos… so fun!   Everything just works well together~ especially the green trim and accents around their photos and also how the close-up photo balances the two on the right, offering a wonderful sense of depth and richness to the overall look.  Just gorgeous!

And, this adorable bride-to-be was so sweet to share with me not only the vision for their Save the Date but also for their wedding… a sophisticated event reminiscent of all things Italian and Napa Valley.

Enjoy…

“So far the most difficult part of the wedding planning for me has been choosing my colors.  I like everything! What brought me to the STD colors were a number of things: My fiance’ and I got engaged in Napa and I am Italian so we wanted to incorporate things from those regions of the world in colors and decor.

Our reception is going to be at a golf/country club and has an Italian look with tall cypress trees and old architecture~ while at the same time, exuding sophistication and class.

Our centerpieces will incorporate grapes and grapevines to remind people of our engagement in Napa.  We are also giving olive oil as favors {one of our favorite things}.

I want the look and feel of our wedding to be glamorous as well as rustic.  That has been tough to do together, so with the use of browns and metallics with a punch of color, we are able to make that happen.

Our wedding website {designed by my aunt} features browns, golds and wine colors and was the initial inspiration for our STD.  My bridesmaids are wearing latte and both my maid and matron of honor are wearing apple green, so those colors also added to the inspiration for our STD.  The MagnetStreet website enabled me to try different colors and fonts {keeping the fonts as close to our website to keep it cohesive}.  That is how we landed on the brown type, gold background and green accents.  They just worked so well together and fit right in with what we were going for.

We have wanted to personalize each detail of our wedding so it was important to us that we could try things out and the MagnetStreet website gave us that opportunity.  Once we decided on colors and fonts, we tried different pictures from our engagement session with our amazing photographer Javon from Javon Longieliere Photography and the final product became reality!

It turned out just as we had hoped and we have had so many great compliments from our friends and family about how much they liked it!

I think we will try to stay with the same colors as we move forward.  The browns, golds, ivory/creams will be our base and the apple green and wine colors will move forward as our accents… so you will see those colors again in our flowers and perhaps even in the groomsmen ties!  I could go on and on!”

Easy to “go on and on” once we get talking about our wedding… I love it!  Thanks so much for sharing! I can’t wait to see how your vision is finally realized on the wedding day! I know it will be exquisite!

{if you’re interested in becoming a featured bride on Truly Engaging, feel free to send me an email.}

have a great weekend!