Whit's Wedding Plans

How long have you been planning your dream wedding? I've been planning my wedding to Prince Charming since I was about five years old. Here's Whit (5) telling us all about his dream wedding.

He wants to marry Bell because she's his best friend! How cute is that??? 

Fancy a Budget? :: sad face::

  Unfortunately, unless you're Kim Kardashian, you probably have some sort of budget for your wedding. I'm not sure if everyone knows this (I'm totally sure my boyfriend doesn't know this) but weddings are really expensive. The average American wedding cost in 2013 is about the same as a buying a brand new car and according to CNN.com the wedding price tag is only going up.

Data Source: TheWeddingReport.com

   Don't worry, there are so many resources out there for help with budgeting a wedding. Seriously. Go to pinterest and search "Wedding Budget" and an overwhelming amount of tips and tricks about budgeting your wedding come up. You're not alone. Everyone has a budget. Don't feel bad if yours is only like a quarter of the average wedding cost, because according to Borrowed and Blue Events you can have a fabulous wedding for under $1500.

Borrowed & Blue Events

   I'm not here to tell you how to budget your wedding, just to tell you that you're going to have to do it and you're probably going to need help doing so.

Fancy a Food Truck?

Found on unitedwithlove.com

So food trucks are super trendy in general right now and let me tell you, having a food truck at your wedding is oh so trendy and there is a reason why (the reason is because food trucks are awesome). It may seem difficult to imagine how a food truck could be a fabulous addition to your magical event, so let me paint you a picture: a food truck rolling up to your rocking reception would absolutely be the icing on the cake for your all guests, especially the ones who've partied hard and are in need of some re-fueling.

Rock'n Dough Pizza Co. in Memphis, TN does a particularly good job at satisfying wedding reception guest. Just when you're guest think the night is winding down, they've lost energy and partied all they can, Rock'n Dough Pizza Co. will pull their adorably shabby chic truck right up to your doorstep and surprise everyone with their delicious pies.

Rock'n Dough Pizza Co. has two brick and mortar locations in Tennessee and a mobile location (that means a truck) servicing the greater Memphis area. For more information about Rock'n Dough Pizza Co. click HERE and if you'd like to find a super cool and awesome food truck for your wedding that might not be in Tennessee, check out The Daily Meal's list of 101 Best Food Trucks in America.

Fancy Flappers?

Period films and television series have been making a splash in all aspects of our culture lately. If you haven't attended a "Gatsby" party in the past year or so you've been living under a rock and if you haven't been watching Downton Abby or Boardwalk Empire you are seriously missing out on a huge cultural phenomenon.

This makes me so excited to write about because even as a child I've loved all things antique (I'm obviously an old soul). Thankfully, the wedding scene in particular has really embraced this historical trend.  2014 has seen various takes on the antique trend from heirloom weddings ceremonies to roaring 20's themed receptions. Just like any trend or fad, the presentation can become a little redundant.

My advice to stay current and unique with this particular trend is to stay away from the go to sites like pinterest and weddinggawker.com when planning a period themed event. Get totally old school and research vintage photographs, antique magazines and newspapers. Try to gather inspiration from the real thing. Just a simple google image search such as "1925 Hollywood Glamour" will bring up gorgeous images that are sure to get some creative juices flowing.

Now, don't just think about the decorations. Events always seem more polished when the theme is evident through out all aspects. Implement aspects of your chosen era into your food, beverages, music, and even activities. An authentic Jazz band would certainly be a classy touch to a 20's themed reception.

Fancy a Fascinator?

Laura Gordon Photography

This is my third post for my little baby bridal blog. I'm just taking my first steps. I want the blog to be about trends in the wedding industry as a whole. Not a blog with sections about DIY, or Real Weddings, but a blog devoted to spotting trends and highlighting them. As a designer, this will help me stay up to date and I hope my readers, whether they be brides or wedding industry professionals will enjoys seeing the latest trends as well. I find that a lot of blogs about weddings are often trying to cover too much, which I think makes them less user friendly and a bit over whelming. That's why I've tried to narrow down my niche to simply "trends." Fashions that are in vogue. Whether it be bridal fashion, ceremony ideas, or reception design elements, as long as it is a trend, something new and something for fashion foward thinkers, I will cover it in my blog. My hope is that my blog will keep your designing juices flowing, keep your ideas fresh, and not to jump around from subject to subject.  Let me be your muse. With all that being said, let the games begin:

2014 has been the year of the headpieces when it comes to bridal fashion. We're quickly seeing traditional veils fall to the wayside making room for gorgeous flower crowns, jeweled combs, headbands, headchains, and absolutely fabulous fascinators. The flower crown in particular has been dominating the pinterest boards of soon to be brides. "And now, what [flower crowns] was once confined to the heads of 1980′s Bride, in all her frilly and pouffy glory, is gracing the heads of many of the most chic and stylish brides, featuring in many of the top wedding blogs and appearing in the glossiest of wedding magazine" -Chic Vintage Bride. 

bridesofadelaide.com.au, LaurieL Photography, & Burnetsboards.com

There are so many varieties of flower crowns out there, but in my personal opinion, when it comes to crowns of any kind, go big or go home.

UnTamedPetals & Michelle March Photography

Bridal Comb are a sweet alternative to the traditional veil or they can be a lovely addition to a beautiful veil.

Be Something New, Rose Red Rose White, & Un Beau Jour

Headbands, headchains, and fabulous fascinators are also gracing the pages of all the latest bridal magazines.

Planning a Wedding? Follow these chicks on Twitter...

I've really been slacking in my twittering lately. This semester, I'm planning on honing my twittering skills and becoming a total tweet machine boss. I've been doing a little research on the who, what, and where when it comes to wedding blogs lately and here's who've I've found is doing a fabulous job when it comes to tweeting and weddings:

100 Layer Cake

So, last week I mentioned 100 Layer Wedding Cake. If you like looking at pictures of fabulous weddings, you should definitely follow this account. The images they post are really crisp and beautiful. Lots of cool wedding inspirations and relevant conversation about event planning. 

Style Me Pretty

If you're an actual member of the wedding industry you cannot consider yourself a professional if you do not follow Style Me Pretty. That is just a fact. Whether you love them or hate them, if you want to stay current in what is happening in the industry follow their blog, follow their instagram, follow their twitter. Just know Style Me Pretty or get out. 

KnotsVilla

Knotsvilla is a Toronta based wedding blogger. Her blog is basically your standard wedding blog, but here's what's interesting about her twitter: she hosts a weekly Live Tweet convo called #weddingchatter that is really popular and has some really great conversations. Definitely a do-not-miss event for industry members.

Ruffled

Ruffled -great blog/twitter account to follow if you are interested in DIY or budgeted weddings. New York based, this blog is quite creative and sometimes a little off beat. Very cute. Not necessarily for everyone, but definitely a good blog for creative and fashion forward minded wedding designers.

Hello World! My name is Fancy That.

Hi Classmates! My blog is called "Fancy That." I currently work for Southern Bride Magazine and I am going to use this blog to make note of all the cool and interesting wedding "trends" I uncover this semester. I'm really excited to see fall/winter 2014 has in store for weddings.

GreenWeddingShoes.com

• Green Wedding Shoes is a cute little blog all about personalizing your wedding. They offer DIY ideas, reall wedding inspiration, as well as original content to help brides and grooms give their weddings a personal touch. 
• Green Wedding Shoes has a very specific niche. It is marketed towards brides who are looking for individuality. The target market is hipster, middle class girls who are looking for something a little bit more interesting than what they'll find on Pinterest. They reach this market really well. Everything about the site is catered to these types of brides, all the way from the interface, the language used, to the content. They really have got a handle on what cool white girls like. 
  
• I think they have a lot of images, which in theory, is a good thing, but the amount of visual content on this blog is a bit overwhelming.
  
• While they have really excelled in hitting a specific target market, I feel like they cover too many topics. There are vendors, and real weddings, and honeymoons, and DIY. I think the content could be more specific. I think a competitor could hit the same market in a more "user-friendly" and comprehensive way.
• The blog seems to really be on top of responding to comments and they have 50K followers on twitter... so I'd say they've cultivating a pretty darn active community.

100LayerCake.com

• 100 Layer Cake is a wedding/event planning blog created by three event designers. The blog is all about how to plan love filled events but places a focus on weddings. 
• 100 Layer Cake is all about design and they execute this really well. They have an absolutely beautiful interface, they have a tab devoted solely to "color stories," and when they post images of real weddings the images are clearly focused on the presentation of the design. 
• The direction or focus of this blog is not initially clear. Until you locate the "About Us" section, which is quite difficult to find, you don't realize the blog is meant to be from a designers perspective. 
• The blog, in my opinion, may be technically a little over the head of the average bride. I believe this blog is a blog for designers by designers. I think you could present a blog coming from a focus on design but target a larger market. 
  
•  The comment section is quite hidden. I think this is an element of the design. A jumbled comment section would distract from the beauty of this blog. However, their twitter page is done qutie well. They have 193K followers and seem to tweet and retweet quite often.