"Sweet Love" {Wedding Wednesday #3}

For my third Wedding Wednesday post (here are posts #1 & #2), I'm featuring the Sweet Love "sweets bar" I had at my wedding! Ultimately, all the credit for this amazing spread goes to my mom, from choosing the sweets to decorating and arranging them in the most darling way! She's amazing.

Rather than going for a traditional candy bar, we decided to create our own special coffee shop/bakery, calling it Sweet Love. At the coffee bar section, guests had the option of ordering regular coffee or our specialty drink, a vanilla chai tea latte (it's one of my personal favorite specialty drinks thanks to one of my bridesmaids, Amanda, who makes them better than anyone! oh, and Reed isn't a coffee fan, so that's why we went with my favorite!). Having just one specialty drink as opposed to opening up a full coffee bar definitely helped keep our costs down, yet still provided a special option for guests who wanted more than regular coffee or the other classic beverage options that we offered.

As for the sweets bar, it was fun to incorporate a variety of treats like cookies, cake pops, and cupcakes in addition to classic candies. Branching out from just using candy helped add lots of dimension and variety in both size and color of the different sweets bar items. I loved the center Eiffel tower as the anchor piece for the table and the use of different sized jars, bowls, cake tiers, hat boxes and the cute malt glass to display all of the sweet treats. The cute peach and mint table was painted by Reed and was the perfect display for all that sweetness!

"Sweet Love" was definitely one of my favorite details from our wedding - these photos bring back so many sweet (pun intended) memories! If you're ever in charge of creating a candy/sweets table, hopefully this post provided you with some inspiration! Let me know if it did! :)

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family! I'll be back next week with new posts! :) Thanks for stopping by!

Brides of Oklahoma {Wedding Wednesday #1}

I've decided to start a new segment on the blog called "Wedding Wednesday" where rather than doing one giant post or a 3-part post about my wedding, I'll be breaking it down in smaller segments every Wednesday. Even when I run out of material from my own wedding, I'm the maid of honor in one of my best friends' weddings later this year, so hopefully I will have plenty of material for a while.

It's hard to believe that Reed and I got married almost 5 months ago! I can't help but smile every time I look at our wedding photos because the overwhelming joy felt on that day comes rushing back! Photography was pretty much at the top of my "wedding priority list" because, let's face it, the photos are the only aspect of weddings that live on when it's all over...well, besides the marriage of course! :)

I was super thankful we snagged our favorite photographer, Derek Green, for the wedding! Derek is incredibly talented, down to earth, and has the cutest family! You can check out his blog here. I was also super thankful that we had the opportunity to take many of our photos outside, even though our ceremony and reception were indoors (I'll expound more about this in later posts).

Today's post is focused on the special feature we were blessed with in the July 2013 issue of the Brides of Oklahoma magazine. One of our friends who works for the magazine was so kind to make this happen for us - it's such a special keepsake! This magazine is truly a stunning work of art in the bridal industry. Many of us Oklahoma girls anticipate its release twice a year. In this post I've included the photos we submitted for our feature. Choosing six photos was nearly impossible because we loved all of them so much!

I look forward to sharing more details of our wedding in future "Wedding Wednesday" posts! Thanks for reading and giving your feedback!

Peach + Polka Dots

- photo details - 
photographer || Reed Ewing
location || Ocean Maya Royale (Playa Del Carmen, Mexico)
occasion || honeymoon dinner #5

- outfit details -
top || Forever 21(similar)
shorts || Target
heels || Charlotte Russe
clutch || Francesca's Collections
watch || Target
necklace || Francesca's Collections (similar)

This is the last of the "honeymoon dinner" outfits (see others here: 1, 2, 3, 4) I've been posting over the last couple weeks. It was fun dressing up every night after lounging by the pool & beach everyday. Those polka dot shorts are the most comfortable pair of shorts I own! Also, this outfit totally channels my wedding colors, peach & mint!

style tip || Another way to style a statement necklace is to wear it around the collar of a blouse buttoned all the way to the top - this creates a classic, clean look & really puts the focus on the statement necklace.

style tip || Balancing athletic & feminine throughout a look can provide a nice contrast - in the look above, the shorts & watch bring the "athletic" element & the sheer blouse, necklace & heels balance out the "feminine" element.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a blessed weekend!

Mono-Mint

Coat: Macy's (similar)
Sweater: H&M
Pants: Forever 21
Scarf: Nordstrom
Bag: Steve Madden (via Ross)
Heels: Charlotte Russe 

For me, wearing black head-to-toe seems to be the most common (and least intimidating!) execution of the monochromatic trend. I am, however, starting to experiment with other colors! First up? Mint. 

Wearing one color head-to-toe is very flattering on nearly all figures. Don't worry about pairing pieces in the exact same shade of a certain color - in fact, it's sometimes better to have variating shades, especially if you're going with a brighter color. Add a few neutral accessories and your monochromatic look is complete! 

Tomorrow I'm excited to share some photos from the adorable "tea party" bridal shower my aunt and grandmothers threw for me this past weekend, so I hope you'll come back to check it out! 

Thanks for reading!

- Lael