Bits And Bobs and Beauty

All pics unless otherwise stated are credit: Chris Isham Photography

Friday is the perfect day to share a few of my favorite details. Wedding details for anyone new here. And because it's Friday let's go with a list of five.  

FYI-it may feel like more than five. 

1. The florals. They were, in a word, stunning. Rachel at Bella Blooms did a most spectacular job in making the vision we had for the day a reality. Her bouquets were full and fresh, so lovely and absolutely perfect for what the bride (and her mom too!) wanted in terms of bouquets, table tops, and ceremony and reception decor. 

I know I sound like a broken record, but honestly our wedding planner was instrumental in driving the look of the day and we couldn't have done it without her and her team. 

Well we could have, but it might not have been quite so perfect. 

A good planner knows the venue, and also knows what works best in terms of height, lighting, and texture. She knows the best, most reliable vendors and more importantly, which are less than reliable. She knows how much greenery is going to look like too much and how much will be perfectly understated while still making a statement. 

I enjoy planning and I love all the bells and whistles that make a celebration beautiful and special, but I am still going to say I think a professional wedding planner is worth the expense. At the very least you will want to hire someone for the day of so you're free to enjoy the event without a lot of anxiety about set up, vendor arrival, and all sorts of last minute issues that can and do arise. 

The groom's mom and I opted for small hand held bouquets to carry down the aisle as opposed to a corsage or wristlet. The wristlets sometimes refuse to stay put, and I didn't want to pin something to my dress. What Bella Blooms created was so delicate and lovely and just right. 

2. This seating chart-

There are so many creative ways to let guests know where they will be seated for dinner but I think this is one of the prettiest. Also our wedding planner made it for us, just sayin'.  

It's a piece of glass with gold lettering affixed, and best of all she let me make a million changes up until just a couple of days prior to the wedding. Seating is always tricky, and with Corona ever a factor in current events the numbers, hence the seating, changed almost daily. 

Also, might as well state for the record...I am a fan of having a seat at a reception. I don't mind if you don't assign me a particular seat, but I want to at least be assigned a table so I have a place to set my purse and my wrap without having to juggle a plate, a drink, and all the rest.  

I know it's somewhat trendy to have just a few tables and not necessarily a chair for every guest, and if that's you then you do you, but I like a seat. And I really love a place card at my seat so that's what we had for our event. The bride wasn't hung up on that, but she knows I have a love of all things paper as well as pretty fonts and shimmery ink, so we had place cards. 

3. The tablescapes. Again a team effort with the bride, the mob, the mog, the wedding planners, and the florist all weighing in on how best to capture the mood and look we were hoping for. 

Choosing tablecloths, centerpieces, dishes, soft furnishings, and more can feel a teensy bit overwhelming, and it was wonderful to have our planners steer us in the direction we wanted to go. Hubs mostly scratched his head and asked, "Wait, what? We're renting furniture???" 

The answer is yes and I need you to roll with it. 
And he does. 

The bride and I were over the moon with the end result. Our guests too. Everything was gorgeous right down to these black chargers on green velvet tablecloths-

Statement tablecloths for the cake and entryway-

...and a place to rest your feet after too much dancing-

I wanted to put these green velvet chairs in my car. Swoon!

We had a professional calligrapher address our wedding invitations in the just right shade of emerald green, and she also did the place cards using gold ink on emerald paper. 

Our wedding planner found the shade of ink we were looking for, otherwise I might still be trying to decide which one was THE one out of the 850 shades of green available for purchase. For you local peeps madebymaness did the calligraphy and Jackie was a dream to work with. 

4. Favors. Not essential but definitely a nicety. Some brides skip the favors and opt instead to put more money into extra fancy bags for their hotel guests. We wanted both and had what I thought was the sweetest little takeaway from the event. Daughter2's father-in-law has bees and offered to put some of his wonderful honey into small jars the bride and groom had scouted on Amazon. 

I ordered personalized tags from AListDesignz on Etsy, and found a black tiered tray at HomeGoods for displaying. The honey jars were tied with a narrow black ribbon and these favors were so darling and delicious. I especially love that they were 'home grown'. 

5. Gift bags.When I attend an out of town wedding I love to be handed a bag of somethings upon check in. Putting together the bags requires thought and you have to pay attention to the cost as well, because they can get a little pricey. I think they're worth it though, no matter how simple or how elaborate you choose to make them, and I had a lot of fun with ours. 

The bags included-

personalized water bottles-I bought the water, peeled off the labels (it's a snap), and replaced with personalized labels from LabelsRus (Etsy)

a personalized beverage coozie the bride and groom had chosen

personalized hand sanitizer because it's 2021 and every wedding needs some-I ordered the gel bottles from Amazon and the labels (spread love not germs) from CustomStickerandTag (Etsy)

one savory and one sweet treat-the savory were pimento cheese chips from Lillie's Q, a company out of Chicago, but the founder and owner grew up in wedding town so a local recipe. The sweet treat was a homemade sugar cookie (Mandy's cookies) in the shape of SC with a heart over the wedding city. She iced the cookies in emerald green and made the tiny heart white.

tylenol packs, a couple of chocolates, tic tacs (also personalized with labels from NotedPaperBoutique  (Etsy) and an insert about the weekends events and things to do locally (designed and created by the bride's sister aka the matron of honor)

I also had personalized stickers made for the front of the bag from BugandBearDesign (Etsy). 

Details help make the day feel extra special and personal and we loved every minute of ours. 

Happy weekend everyone! 

Here Comes The Bride

Y'all. So much has been happening here I haven't had a minute to sit down and tell you so much has been happening here.

So much has been happening here.

Is it okay to talk about Easter more than a week later? I'm going to say yes because Easter was a big day around here. For starters this happened-

If you've read here for any time at all you've likely seen pics of the boyfriend turned fiance on my blog. They've dated for 'a while', ahem, and on Easter Sunday he officially asked her to be his bride. We love them both so much and are so excited for this next new chapter in their lives.

Let's back up a bit because you know nothing is ever a straight line in our little corner of the world. Hubs drove over to Tennessee the Thursday before to collect his mama and bring her to the lake for Easter weekend. The boyfriend had spoken to hubs a couple weeks prior and mentioned it 'might' happen over the weekend but there was some sort of delay in the hardware department so it might not happen over the weekend.

I of course proceeded as if it were a done deal because how am I supposed to be an over the top excited mother of the bride if I live in a world of maybe? And I knew if it did happen I'd want to have a couple of fun little gifts for my daughter when they came back to the house. Personalized cookies wouldn't be too extravagant would they?

In my defense I told the baker it was all a maybe and she informed me I could freeze the cookies if need be.

Hubs texted the boyfriend Thursday afternoon and he said it was definitely not going to happen Easter weekend because he didn't have the ring back yet. I resisted interrogating him via hubs text messages and instead called Daughter1 and facetimed my grandson because he just makes every little thing in the world alright.

Here he is in the Evergreen State in all his Easter finery-

Have you ever seen a cuter baby boy?

Meanwhile in the Palmetto State...I had my sister and brother-in-law and my niece and her boyfriend, and my brother-in-law's brother and his girlfriend all coming for Easter dinner and I hadn't seen my sister since Christmas so I just made up my mind to celebrate this beautiful Easter day and know the engagement would happen someday sometime but not today.

Easter dawned bright and beautiful and church on Easter Sunday is always one of my favorite things so hubs, his mama, and I all had a nice morning. We came home and put lunch in the oven and then my sister and company arrived around 2 and we were all having a grand time.

Daughter2 had texted earlier saying they were hiking that afternoon but would be to our house sometime late afternoon. She texted again later saying they wouldn't be there now til closer to 5:30 because they were passing a pretty waterfall and decided to check it out.

A few minutes later she Facetimed me and with a great big smile on her face said, 'We're engaged!!' 

My first thought was to say, 'No you're not-the ring's not here', but I managed to catch myself. Pshew! Then I noticed she was wearing a ring, a very pretty ring that looked remarkably like an engagement ring.

Turns out her groom couldn't wait another day or week or minute so he asked and she said yes. We all find it hilarious that he managed to surprise his bride and both families because when two people date for a long time you feel like there's no way an engagement will be a surprise. Yet there we all were with our jaws dropped grinning from ear to ear at the loveliness of the surprise. He gave her a ring that belonged to his aunt and before that his great grandmother to wear as a placeholder until her ring arrives.

Sentimental stories are my favorite kind.

Daughter2 said they'd be to our house in a few minutes so I leapt from the table, ran to my closet to grab the goodies I'd purchased, and quickly set up an impromptu little celebration complete with an Erin Condren planner, bride bag, mug, and COOKIES!

Go big or go home, right?

Here's her grandmother and her aunt waiting not so patiently for the bride to arrive so they could give her a big hug.

I couldn't wait and had to give my hugs and kisses in the driveway.

Hubs popped the bubbly and made a wonderful champagne toast-

 ...and we all said Cheers to a lifetime of happiness for the most adorable couple we know.
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Love Is In The Details

Strap in. I've got pictures and shower details of which there are toomany.

family in the house

Daughter1's baby shower was on Sunday, and I might have had a little too much fun with the planning and the Pinteresting. In my defense she's a detail girl and relishes all the small touches. Since she didn't find out the baby's gender until three days before the shower we kept it neutral.

If you saw pics from her wedding you'll know she loves that natural woodland palette of creams, tans, and greens so keeping it neutral wasn't hard. The theme was Welcome Little Lamb and there was an abundance of sheep in the decor.  I will link to all the Etsy vendors at the bottom of this post because Etsy is pure awesomeness.

My mom got to town a week ago Tuesday and stayed with me for a few days, helping with the shower cooking and listening to me talk endlessly about how in the world I was going to arrange the tables and chairs. We were serving a brunchy kind of lunch, and since I always like a table for my glass and plate when I attend these types of events I decided to rent tables and chairs, and move some furniture.

I didn't break that last bit to hubs until late in the game, and he took some convincing, but once he's on board with a plan he is all in and was an enormous help. We had three tables of eight, plus a table for dessert and drinks.

I put all the food on my kitchen island and served buffet style. A local florist made gorgeous arrangements for the tables in shades of green and white using these precious hobnail vases, and then a larger arrangement for a side table where I set the guest book.

Daughter1 loved Are You My Mother from the time she could talk so I knew I wanted to use that for her guest book. She has some sweet messages written by her guests inside the front and back covers.

I also asked the florist to make my girl a flower crown for her head because every mother needs one. She might be having a baby but she's still my baby, and I knew she would love this.

We moved a sofa table upstairs beside the front door to hold name tags and instructions for the reveal, plus our take home favors. I'd purchased a fun tassel banner from one Etsy shop, a small colorful Oh Baby banner from another Etsy shop, and a burlap flag banner adorned with sheep from a third Etsy shop.

I was pleased with all three, and hung the tassel in my entry hall from a big cabinet I have there.

The small colorful banner went across the dessert and drinks table-

And hubs hung the burlap banner across the barn doors in my great room so it would show in some of our photographs.

We did the gender reveal first thing, because some of us knew and were worried we'd spill the beans. I wrapped a big box and tied two blue balloons to a cute little lamb wearing a blue bow, then stuffed them under the big box and Daughter1 just lifted it to set the balloons free.

There were tiny baby bottles filled with blue jelly beans as a little prize for everyone who guessed correctly. Course I also had pink balloons and pink jelly beans stashed in my closet since I needed to do it all ahead and didn't know myself until the night before. It was a lot of fun to see everyone's reactions.

We served lunch after the reveal, with little lamb placecards (Etsy!) beside each dish. There were four kinds of quiche (shoutout to my college friend Maryellen for sharing her fabulous quiche recipes!), pickled shrimp...

...deviled eggs, chicken salad sliders, pasta salad, a broccoli salad made by my sister, and a fruit salad made by my daughter's mother-in-law.

For dessert we had the most fabulous sweet potato cake known to mankind and that's not an exaggeration. My daughter's mother-in-law brought the cake from a place in downtown Greenville, famous for this particular sweet treat (Brick Street Cafe).  It honestly is one of the best desserts I've ever eaten, and that's saying something!

That sparkly gold cake topper is from where else? Etsy! and looked so cute atop this gorgeous cake. My Daughter2 has a friend whose sister makes beautifully decorated cookies, so we ordered three dozen in our shower colors and they were absolutely gorgeous. Delicious too!

She did little lambs with tiny sweet faces, baby bottles in yellow and green, and little onesies, some with a lamb on front, and some saying BABY. They were individually wrapped so anyone who didn't eat theirs at the shower could take one home.

We played one game after lunch, a simplified version of The Price is Right, then moved on to the gifts. So many lovely thoughtful things purchased for this little boy, but I have another post in mind, and will save gift talk for later. This post is already longer than anybody wants to read.

As a take home favor for our guests I'd ordered wildflower seeds from Bentley Seed Company. They are a regular seed company, but package these specifically for baby showers and across the front there's a little poem -'Plant these seeds, and watch them bloom, just like our baby who will be here soon'. My mom and I packaged them in cello bags with a little green crinkle cut filler, tied with a green ribbon.

It was such a lovely afternoon and I know the mama-to-be felt spoiled and well loved.

Because she is!


Etsy links-

Lamb burlap banner-Quaint Confections
Tassel banner-Tassel and Twine
Oh Baby cake topper-Cuts of Confetti
Oh Baby -cocktail napkins by Gracious Bridal
Little lamb placecards-Vintage Hill Creations
Bentley Seed Packet favors
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Slow Down For The Hodgepodge

Welcome to March and another edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered this week's questions add your link at the end of my post. Be sure to leave a comment for the blogger linking before you because that's how the Hodgepodge rolls. Here we go-

1. 'Slow and steady wins the race'...tell us about a time this was true in your own life.

Well, I'm going with a tried and true answer here- the house build. I'm not quite ready to say I'd do it all again, and it did take forever and a day to get here, but we absolutely positively love the end result. 

2. 'As slow as molasses'...Do you like molasses? How about maple syrup? Caramel? Butterscotch? What's your favorite of the slow moving treats mentioned here, and what's your favorite food made with that sweet treat?

Molasses is just okay, definitely not my favorite flavor. I'd say the same for maple syrup too. I like a teensy tiny bit on a waffle and I do love it drizzled over buttternut squash before roasting, but other than that I'm not too keen on maple flavoring. Of the slow moving treats mentioned, pass the caramel please. I make a delicious apple cake with a warm caramel sauce poured over all and it's wonderful.  

3. Your favorite slow song?

Just one? Impossible! How about a few of my favorites?

I Go Crazy by Paul Davis
Just My Imagination by The Temptations
The One You Love by Glenn Frey

I have loads of favorites. 

4. Your favorite thing to make in a slow cooker or crock pot?

Mississippi Pot Roast. I've linked to the recipe in case you're one of the ten people in the world who haven't tried it.

5. 'You may delay, but time will not.'~Benjamin Franklin  Are you more a hurrier or a delayer when it comes to unpleasant tasks that need doing? What are you currently either delaying or hurrying to get through this week or month?

I am a de-lay-er. I've really worked to improve in this area, but some things just beg to be delayed. Like that income tax organizer I've been moving from spot to spot on the desk. ahem. 

6. Tell us three things you encounter regularly or even just occasionally that you find to be annoyingly slow.

People who drive at or below the speed limit in the passing lane.
Airport security queues. 
My brain when it comes to new technology. 

7. March is National Craft Month. Are you crafty? Tell us about something crafty you'll try in the next thirty one days. Or something crafty you'd like to try or wish you had the skill to  make happen.

I like to think I'm crafty, and I do enjoy some kinds of crafting, but usuallyquite often my projects do not turn out as I'd envisioned. I have great vision-ha! I'm hosting a baby shower for my daughter this month and there are a few crafty things going on relating to that event. 

Does ordering other people's cute crafty stuff off of Etsy count as crafting? 

I have actually ordered several things from Etsy that fit with our shower theme, but I'm putting it all together which I think counts as crafting. 

My favorite kind of crafting is word crafting, but I think you already knew that. 

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Speaking of crafty, Daughter1 is busy zhuzhing up my blog so watch for some design changes here soon. A revamped Hodgepodge button is also in the works because it's time. Past time actually, but I'm always a bit slow to come around to changing what feels familiar. I'm ready now though. My blog is very 2009 and I'm excited for a fresh look. 

Sidenote here-did you know the word zhuzh is in the Cambridge English Dictionary? For some reason I assumed it was a made up thing, but apparently it's for real. You're welcome. 

Dots On A Map

If you're looking for this week's Hodgepodge questions, you'll find them one post down. Keep scrolling. 

I wish I had more time to write. I know that day is coming, but that day is not today. Blogging helps maintain my everyday equilibrium, and also helps maintain hubs everyday equilibrium because when I have too many words and no time to blog, well...I still have all those words that need to go somewhere. Hi hubs!

I don't think writing is ever a waste of time, but when there are beds to be made for company, boxes to unpack, and Thanksgiving dinner to plan-shop-cook for then blogging is downgraded to the middle of my to-do list and happens when it happens.

Also, I'm a little overwhelmed by all I could blog about. My daughter said I should do room by room posts, but y'all these rooms are not ready for public consumption. She pointed out that if I wait for everything to be in it's place I will likely never do a room by room tour. I'm sure that's not a commentary on my housekeeping? I know it's not. It's just a really true fact of life from someone who knows me well and knows my tendency to wait for a perfect that never comes. She's got the same DNA. Solidarity my daughters.

Of course lake living is nothing if not relaxed so I will let go of my need for perfection. Mostly. I do want to at least hang a few pictures and figure out what in the world to do with these last few boxes of 'why did we move this?' 'do I want this?' and 'what in the world is this?' before I post too many pics.

I decided to share one tiny little thing I love today and that's a start.

It's not actually tiny, and it's not something in the house, but rather something outside the house. I might as well state for the record I'm obsessed with the out of doors here so what better place to begin a home tour than out of doors?

Early in the build hubs had this idea that we should have a sign. I can't remember exactly what inspired the notion, but we've lived a lot of places in our life and times and I think maybe that was it. We've planted ourselves by choice in a quiet cozy corner of rural America, but the route that brought us here was filled with miles and years, some unexpected twists and turns, treks through big cities, surburbia, and even for a time a village across the sea. We feel great affection for the places we've lived because they built us.

So hubs had an idea and I told him I knew just the place to make it a reality. ETSY- aka the land of if you've got a clever idea somebody has the skills to make it come to life. Our somebody was Kristin at The Trashy Side, but don't let her shop name fool you...she uses all reclaimed wood, hence the 'trash'.  Apparently we were not the first people to have this idea, because she'd done a few others, each one personalized to the buyer.

Here's our sign-

It feels like the chapter headings to the story of us.

We grew into the people we are today in these place names on a map, and our lives were made richer by the people and experiences we encountered in every new city we called home. Sometimes I meet people who've spent their whole lives living in the same town, and I feel a twinge of envy. And sometimes I meet people who've moved ten times more than we have and I feel a twinge of longing to see more of this world.

There is beauty in both I think.

I sent Kristin the city names and mileage, we emailed a couple of times about how it would work, and then two short weeks later the sign was on our doorstep, ready to assemble. Easy peasy. I asked Kristin about embellishments as I'd seen them on some of her other pieces, and she recommended adding something to just a few of the cities as opposed to every location. We told her we wanted the British flag, a crab, a bear and the Big Orange T and she ran with it.

We couldn't be happier with the finished product!

You can find Kristin's ETSY shop by clicking here-The Trashy Side 

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