There is one element to decor that I would place a safe bet on, that often gets over looked.  Care to hazard a guess?  Are you sitting down?  Seriously…. are you sitting down?!  Get it, take a seat…  I know, incredibly corny but I wanted to make a point!  So often chairs are a piece of the rental puzzle that come stock with our venue space.  In our efforts to watch our budget bottom lines, most people dont even give a second thought to what effect the look of certain chairs might have on their overall decor vision.  A great chair, can change everything.  It can help to shape & mold in ways you dont even directly realize your being influenced by.  One such company that champions a great chair is Chairished Vintage Chair Rentals.  Take this styled shoot for example.  How amazing do these mix matched cream chairs make the entire set up!  Whether its one great chair, or a whole slew of chairs, remember, what you put your bum on is just as important as those centerpieces!

Vendor Love

Event Designer: Eclectic Hive
Reception Venue: Lazy J Ranch
Equipment Rentals: Chairished Vintage Chair Rentals
Photographer: Gretchen Moore Photography

I simply can not believe that it is mid-July!  I am flabbergasted and diggin my heels in heard as I dont want summer to be gone just yet, but I digress…  With summer though comes beach weddings & with beach weddings comes all kinds of nautical flavored decor elements floating around these stunning seaside weddings.

When I stumbled upon these Design Sponge DIY Paper Clay Barnacles, I knew I had to pass them along!  These are an absolutely fantastic, seemingly simple & inexpensive way to bring out that sea life to your wedding.  I feel that used in the right places, with the right reserved hand, these lil guys can really sing!  I also absolutely  love what DS suggests at the end of the post, by painting some of your barnacles in a wash of ocean inspired hues bringing seascape full circle!  I think a genius idea as well might be to tie this in with your cake, having some well placed barnacles adorning a tier or 2!  Either way, this is a fantastic idea and as far as ocean themes go, an avenue one doesnt see too often.  Everyone plays with sea shells, starfish and so much more, so why not bring a new touch!  Xo-Jess!

*Update Already!

Thanks to the wonderful Jennifer Gillespie of Calligraphy by Jennifer & her awe-inspiring pins on Pinterest, I ran across this cake just now and it happens to fit wonderfully with today’s DIY!  This cake is from the yummy Connie’s Cupcake.  So why does this cake work?  There are actually 2 reasons that this cake works really well with a sea loving them.  Firstly, the twiglike work around the edges of the cake can easily lend themselves to a sea grass feel.  The second & more obvious reason is the flowers draped from top to bottom on the three tiers.  It is the shape in particular of these lovely sugar flowers that easily resemble our barnacles bit in a  more romantic feminine female cousin kind of way!  This is a wonderful play on a sea feel, especially when in other decor areas the theme of ocean is expressed more strongly.  This particular shape of flower is a great way to bridge between obvious ocean life & not wanting to completely let go of more traditional  touches on your wedding cake.

Guys, I am sooooo all over this one!!  Love love love.  The cuteness factor is through the roof & just about everyone is a big fan of…. SMORES!  Thats right, I am throwing your way a DIY for Smore’s Kits from Oh Happy Day!

Now hear me out….  I know this might not initially strike you as directly wedding related, BUT how amazing  could these actually be for just that, a wedding!  I see these completely friggin adorable Smore’s Kits being used one of two ways, either as a totally adorable take home for guests, OR prepped and ready for a Smore’s Bar at the reception, similar to the one featured on Wedding Bells.

*Side note on this, I am not a fan of using Sterno in this manner, something seems really odd about having something I am going to eat, so close to a chemical flame like  that.  Caterers, please fill free to chime in here about your experience with something like that!

Anywhoodle, maybe fire of another form can be used, all the same, I love the packaging idea here.  In truth, that is a big part of what makes successful decor, presentation & packaging, which this idea hits some mega high notes in those categories!  The idea is simple enough, easy to put together & totally doable.  Perhaps the only area of slight difficulty or take cruncher would be the fashioning of the  sticks themselves for roasting.  I suggest doing a few at a time each day while catching up on DVR!  Sigh, I need to find something to use these for, they are too cute to just look at on the computer screen!

*Update 9/12/2012

As you might have heard, a ‘little known’ couple get married this past weekend.  Oh you know… Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds… you might have heard of them before.  Well as it turns out, one special lil  feature that their guest were treated to… you guessed it, S’Mores!  The Lively Reynolds wedding guests were treated to absolutely delish S’mores as the official dessert!  We love their spunk & admire their passion for whimsy!  If S’mores didn’t already sound like a good idea, taking a page out of Blake & Ryan’s wedding book aint too bad either!  Enjoy! 

DIY Smore’s Kits by Oh Happy Day

I’m not over ombre, not by a long shot.  I don’t know exactly how long it will stick around, but I am totally cool with it occupying design space for quite some time.  So with that said, I have an ombre post today!  See how I did that!  Slick right.  Never saw that coming.  I know I know, I will find witt someplace along the line, swear.

Anywho, in my journey over to Design Sponge today I saw a completely amazing idea, Ombre walls!

Ok to be fair, to call this a DIY is kinda outta whack, its more like a project.  In my opinion a DIY is something that can be put together fairly easily with not a huge fuss factor.  This kinda screams high on the fuss factor to me, but the payoff, to me,  is amazing.  The post shows the steps that  Rebekah of Wild Ink Press took to create this wall, which in this case, was actually used for their booth in an upcoming exhibition.  The project definitely requires space & time, they estimate roughly 6-8 hours.  The overall cost is fairly inexpensive, but the use of a spray gun could make it difficult for some, though I am sure one could be rented.  Click here to head to the full tutorial.

So I am sure your thinking to yourself, hey thanks for showing me a wall, hum isnt this place about weddings?  Practical application, got it, so why I have passed along this Ombre nugget you ask?  I could see this used in a variety of ways actually.  This could be an amazing alter backdrop, a stunning way to divide a room, a fun photo op area, a unique way to create an outdoor seating area, albeit large, but a pretty outstanding start to escort card display, lining the walls of your space filled with photos of the couple in the past.  There are so many ways to incorporate this, you simply have to find what works best for you and your wedding.  So are you a fan?  Will any of you be adventurousness enough to tackle a full on wall for their wedding?!

I am a pretty firm believer that every now and again, decor elements dont necessarily need to jump out at you as to way they exist.  Personally I often feel its the outside the box, what on earth is that doing there, or used that way kind of thoughts about seeing something, that typically lead to stellar designs.  Today’s DIY is one of those.

I ventured over to The Twice Remembered Cottage where I discovered a super cute idea, A Magnetic Board, where in this case, has been covered in a thin layer of book pages & scrabble pieces used for the magnets.  Clearly the message fun potential is at a high here!  These can easily be used as a signage with predetermined messaging for the guest or leave the guest up to their own devices to get creative, hammering out funny quips for the bride & groom.  This might be a super cute addition to a photo op area stocked with a Polaroid camera!  Either way, be it something that blends into the background, or something you opt to be an integral part of the day, I love this idea.  I really suggest you get creative with what you use to frame your board, or even what you use to cover it, if you so choose.  How cute would faded black & white photo copies of images of the couple be all over the board!

Head over to The Twice Remembered Cottage for the complete tutorial & great step by step photos.