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All posts in category Wedding

Going Lovely

Apparently I’m not good at blogging while traveling. Woops. Well I’m back home and catching up after an amazing (and much needed) 2 and a half-week vacation. The first week and a half was spent on a European cruise with Troy and two other couples that we’re good friends with, and the latter part of the vacation was spent visiting with my in-laws in New England AND THEN from there we flew to San Diego to celebrate the wedding of my good friend from SCU. I know, crazy, right? So fun though and once I edit my pictures I’ll be sure to share.

So that’s the reason I’ve been so MIA the last few weeks. Now onto some exciting news….

I started this blog in an attempt to corral my creative endeavors and to journal my exploration of how I can continue to do the things that I really enjoy doing. As a kid I was always rearranging my room, creating furniture for my dolls, drawing, and sewing doll clothes. Clearly I was creative from the start and very crafty ;) . But somehow my passion for creativity got pushed to the side as I went on to do other things. Then I discovered the world of decorating blogs, and once I planned and designed my own DIY wedding, I knew I couldn’t stop there.

To keep it going, I decided to blog, continue to do DIY projects around the home, learn some new skills, and talk to other creative professionals. After talking with my good friend Margie about my plan, she suggested that I meet her friend PJ who is SUPER creative and has been doing visual displays for Anthropologie and Bloomingdales for the past few years (so cool, right?!). A friend of Margie’s is a friend of mine, and I knew I wanted to pick her brain, so back in May we got together for coffee.

Well about three hours later, we left the coffee shop with a decision to partner together on a new venture doing event design and coordination – Going Lovely. This all happened right before I left for India for a work trip and everything has been falling into place since. Amidst my travels we’ve been busy working away on updating our website (huge thanks to Sarah Hoag for the AMAZING pictures!), putting together our business plan and planning and designing 4 weddings taking place from August- November. We’ve also signed up for floral design classes together which start at the beginning of September!

 

So there you have it. Amazing how things just fall into place sometimes. Check out our website, Like our Page and spread the word if you know of anyone in need of event design or coordination! So excited to see what’s to come and I’ll keep everyone posted along the way!

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by christienoelle on July 25, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in DIY, Life, Wedding

Posted by christienoelle on July 25, 2012

http://christiescreative.com/2012/07/25/going-lovely/

Album Affection

When I first met with our wedding photographer Kate Harrison in her office, I not only fell in love with her soft and romantic photography style, I also fell for the beautiful albums she offers.  Her pricing is a la carte, and the albums were a bit out of our budget, so I didn’t include one in our package and hoped that maybe down the line we could get one.

Well, shortly after our wedding, my wonderful dad and his girlfriend decided they wanted to get us an album as our wedding gift. YAY!! I was so excited. Once we got our pictures back from Kate, I found myself looking at them constantly, so I knew the album would be well worth the purchase and would be something we’d cherish for years to come.

Kate uses Cypress Albums and they are AMAZING. They are individually handcrafted, photographic prints are flush-mounted to heavy-weight 6-ply pages, library bound style binding, custom presentation boxes are available to store and protect the album, and they are available in over 20 fabrics & ribbons.

I decided to go with the 10×10 (which I think is the perfect size) linen bound album in english linen and included the presentation box with an ivory ribbon. I went with Kate’s simple option where I chose the pictures I wanted included in the album, placed them in a folder in my preferred order, and left the design up to her. While I typically enjoy being more involved in the design process, I’m really glad I went this route and Kate DEFINITELY did not disappoint.

I’d say the hardest part (besides waiting for the album!) was narrowing down my selection to only 55 pictures. There were so many that I loved! I started with a larger folder of my favorites and then chose 55 pictures from there that I felt told the best “story” from the day.

I’ve been having a bit of a stressful week; so the delivery of this bad boy came at such a good time! I seriously couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

 

For all those brides out there I highly recommend that you get an album if you can. Totally worth it. For all those photographers out there – definitely look into Cypress Albums. I can’t speak on behalf of other photographers, but as a customer, I couldn’t be happier.

I head to India on Friday for the next three and will be trying to keep up with the blog posts as much as possible and plan on sharing some of my adventures along the way! Hope everyone is having a great week!

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by christienoelle on May 2, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Wedding
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Posted by christienoelle on May 2, 2012

http://christiescreative.com/2012/05/02/album-affection/

Love & Lavender- Our Wedding!

Ahhh! Our wedding was featured on the wedding blog Love & Lavender yesterday! You can check it out here. When planning our wedding, I turned to blogs as a source for inspiration, so it’s very exciting to have our wedding featured in one of the blogs I checked daily.

Hopefully I can pay it forward and inspire other DIY brides out there in the midst of their planning!

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by christienoelle on April 5, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by christienoelle on April 5, 2012

http://christiescreative.com/2012/04/05/love-lavender-our-wedding/

Wedding Wednesday: French Farm Mood Board

A friend of mine at work is getting married in September on a farm outside of Paris (I know…lucky girl, right?!), and she asked if I’d mind putting together some suggestions for her big day. Ummm…yes please! Now that my wedding has passed and I’m experiencing some wedding planning withdrawals, I’m happy to help whoever needs it.

My friend told me that their colors are dark blue and white and they planned to use bright flowers in magenta, pink and orangey reds. Their ceremony is going to be outside in an enclosed, small courtyard and dinner will be taking place indoors on long banquet tables. They want their look to be clean, but not too high maintenance. I started to pin with this information (which you can see here) and took my first stab at creating a mood board.

  1. Large frames like this can be found at most flea markets and thrift stores. Simply spray paint the color of your choice. The menu can either be printed on a large sheet of paper or the original picture in the frame can be turned into a chalkboard with a little chalkboard paint. Vintage bottles can also be found at most flea markets as well as on ebay and Etsy.
  2. Table runners are an easy way to add visual interest and look great on long banquet tables. I think this Waverly fabric would contrast nicely with the bright and colorful flower centerpieces.
  3. Orange, magenta & yellow flowers. I love the loose wild-flower look which is also a good option for DIY flower arrangements.
  4. What says “French” more than macaroons?! These are so colorful, fun, and look very yummy!
  5. Using flower petals is an easy (and inexpensive) way to add some additional color and decor to a ceremony space. I also love the idea of using potted plants to line the aisle.
  6. These DIY table number ideas fit in with the French, and vintage theme. One uses vintage books and the other is a DIY take on vintage door knobs.
  7. I absolutely adore this unique guest book idea that I came across on Etsy! Guests sign the personalized 3D hearts which can be made in the colors of your choice. It also doubles as a pretty piece of personalized art!
  8. Mercury glass is soooo pretty but can definitely be pricey. DIY your own using this technique. You can even mimic these votives from BHLDN with cheap mismatched votives from thrift stores.

Ahhh…I love weddings.

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by christienoelle on April 4, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Wedding
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Posted by christienoelle on April 4, 2012

http://christiescreative.com/2012/04/04/wedding-wednesday-french-farm-mood-board/

Keeping it Personal

A few weeks back I shared some ideas for creative bridal shower gifts (you can check them out here). This week I thought I’d share some of the creative and personalized wedding gifts we received that we think are just are oh-so-special!

Personalized gifts can be tricky; there’s a chance the recipient doesn’t appreciate the same things you do and may not actually use what you get them. However, I fully believe that it’s the thought that counts! I must say though, our friends sure know us well and we just LOVE the extra thought they put into personalizing our gifts .

Burlap pillow with our wedding date:

I love the texture of the burlap and the font used for the numbers. It’s personalized and has a homey feel without being cheesy (which I think can happen if personalized pillows aren’t done right – think screen printed images). The pillow currently lives in our entryway on a bench that doubles as storage.  We picked this bad boy up for $20 on Craigslist and covered it with some fun patterned fabric.

Personalized sign:

Our good friends have one in their house and they remembered us telling them we liked it when visiting a couple years back (before we were even engaged!).  So thoughtful! We had the perfect spot for it in our loft on an exposed beam above our kitchen. It works perfectly with our colors and décor!

Personalized vintage sign:

This gem just showed up at our place last week and we have no idea who got this for us! If the gift giver is reading this – please reveal yourself so we can thank you personally! Troy and I met at a sports bar in Palo Alto called the Old Pro (I’ll save the story for another post), so this personalized sign is extra thoughtful.

We hung it on a small wall/nook right by the window.

Ahhh…we have such great friends and such great memories.

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by christienoelle on March 29, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Decorating, Wedding

Posted by christienoelle on March 29, 2012

http://christiescreative.com/2012/03/29/keeping-it-personal/

Budget Friendly Wedding Video

I can’t believe it’s already been 6 months and 3 days since our wedding! One year ago today I was planning away, anxiously awaiting for my wedding day in September to hurry up and come. Crazy how time flies.

One of the first decisions we made after choosing our venue was picking our photographer. I became obsessed with Kate Harrison and the minute I came across her work, I knew she was the one for us. We were fortunate enough to have her shoot our wedding, and she definitely did not disappoint -I  couldn’t have been happier with the gorgeous pictures she took of our special day. She was such an amazing person to get to know and work with. I highly recommend her to anyone looking for a photographer to capture their big day! You can see the slideshow she put together for us here.

After deciding on Kate (and splurging a bit on our original budget, oops!), we weren’t planning on also having a videographer. I mean, how often would we really go back and watch the video?! As we got closer to the big day, I discovered the latest and greatest in wedding videography. Long gone are the days of having a huge camcorder documenting from one stationary spot. Now, videographers collage beautiful stories with footage that could pass as high-end music videos or Hollywood trailers.

A couple of my favorite vendors are Lovespun Handmade Wedding Films and Same Day Edit. Seriously, I think I spent hours watching all of their videos online.

Much to my dismay, we didn’t have any budget leftover for these guys (which can run anywhere from $2,000-$5,000), BUT I became hooked on the need for a wedding video of my own. In order to save some money, I started to look around on Craigslist for some students that I hoped could get the job done in a much more budget-friendly fashion. I figured I’m helping the students get experience and saving money at the same time – win win, right?! One day, I stumbled across a comment made on a friend’s Facebook about wedding videography.  After some investigating, I learned that my friend’s cousin was a film student at UC Santa Cruz! She had done a couple videos with her friends and was available on our date, so we signed them up to document our big day. You can check out their Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/5slugsvideography.

They did SUCH an amazing job on our video! They made us both a short trailer (6 mins) and also a longer video (40 mins). I think the best part about our videographers was how they used our feedback and suggestions during the editing process (which I enjoyed!). I’m so happy we decided to get a videographer – I actually watch the videos all the time! Not only do we have beautiful videos to look back on and share with family and friends, but we also spent about 1/4 of the cost of what “professionals” would have charged.

Hope you enjoy our trailer and think about students as an option when looking for a videographer for your big day!

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by christienoelle on March 26, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Wedding
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Posted by christienoelle on March 26, 2012

http://christiescreative.com/2012/03/26/budget-friendly-wedding-video/

Before & After: the story of the vintage desk

Once upon a time I found a picture on The Knot of a vintage desk that I pinned to Pinterest and became determined to replicate for my upcoming wedding.

I scoured Craigslist and found a desk loaded with potential that I picked up (along with 4 large vintage frames) for a mere $40.

I sanded the desk down, primed and then painted it with a few coats of martha stewart paint (color coming). The hardware was removed and updated with grey spray paint before being replaced.

The desk was then used on our very special day to hold our non-traditional “guest book”, a vintage type writer and cigar box (both belonged to my husband’s grandfather in college), and some vintage medicine jars that were scored on Ebay.

 

Following the wedding, the desk got a new home in a nook in our loft that used to house a $20 Ikea desk. It was styled with a DIY chalkboard, made from one of the frames it once lived with before, as well as a lamp, a vase and some books.

The desk will likely move to new places in the future and will be updated in the process, but I’m sure it will live hapliy ever after.

The end.

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by christienoelle on March 21, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Decorating, DIY, Wedding

Posted by christienoelle on March 21, 2012

http://christiescreative.com/2012/03/21/before-after-the-story-of-the-vintage-desk/

Creative Bridal Shower Gifts

A friend of mine recently asked me for some creative bridal shower gift ideas for her best friend (since my own bridal shower was not too long ago) and I thought I’d do a little write up of what came to mind. 

Some brides really prefer getting gifts from their registry, but I also think heartfelt and personalized gifts are so fun to get too (especially because there is a surprise element to them – let’s be honest, most brides check their registry regularly and know when someone has gotten something for them).

Here are some favorites that I found:

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Personalized sign from mrcwoodproducts on Etsy (I got one for my best friend and she used it in her engagement pics, at her wedding and now it looks great in her beautiful kitchen).

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Monogrammed chevron tote from Luxury Monograms. Fill it with goodies to be used on her honeymoon or a day of wedding survival kit!

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Personalized journal as recipe book from Pinhole Press. Create the book with pictures of friends and family and have them send you their favorite recipes to print out and include in the book.

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These personalized acacia slabs from West Elm are so cute! Have them monogrammed in the couple’s new monogram. Perfect for the friend who loves to entertain!

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I just LOVE the colors and prints in these monogrammed plates from La Plates. The site has tons of other great personalized items too. These would be fun to hang on the wall, on a shelf, or for fun serving dishes. Lots of options.

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I personally want one of these monogrammed necklaces from Moon and Lola so bad (*hint hint to the husband if you’re reading this)! You can find these at lots of other sites and on Etsy as well if you want to do some price searching.

What are some of your favorite ideas for creative shower gifts?

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by christienoelle on March 2, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Shopping, Wedding
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Posted by christienoelle on March 2, 2012

http://christiescreative.com/2012/03/02/creative-bridal-shower-gifts-28/

Back at it

Things in my world have been a little busy and I kinda failed to keep this thing going. Now that I’m all married and no longer have a wedding to plan, I vow to get back at it! The last 8 months or so have been filled with lots of ebay-ing, craigslis-ting, etsy-ing, and DIYing, so I definitely have lots to share.

Here are a few sneak peaks of what I crafted and styled for my wedding. Stay tuned for more details!

DIY fan programs

Vintage finds

DIY honey jar favors that doubled as seating cards

Paper covered Mr and Mrs sign

DIY photo booth

Rustic dessert table

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by christienoelle on October 11, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in DIY, Wedding
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Posted by christienoelle on October 11, 2011

http://christiescreative.com/2011/10/11/back-at-it/

Capturing the Moment

I have to brag a little – my fiance is amazing. There are tons of gushy reasons why (which I’ll keep to myself), but I thought I’d share with you a blog post from the photographer he hired to secretly capture our proposal. Here’s a sneak peak of one of the pics.

Check out the talented Rhee Bevere’s blog for more details and to find out how I was surprised with the amazing photos! All I can say is it was the best.present.ever.

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by christienoelle on February 8, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Wedding

Posted by christienoelle on February 8, 2011

http://christiescreative.com/2011/02/08/capturing-the-moment/

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