Two short years ago...

I said I would post some detail pictures of our wedding yesterday, but between a softball double header and an unexpectedly (but appreciated) busy work day I must apologize for getting to it a day late! This wedding was 15 months in the making, and I had fabulous day of assistance from Courtney Arnold with Stellar Events. I would advise any bride-to-be to invest in a planner for at least the day of. Family will offer, but by the end of the weekend you'll all be so stressed that it's really not worth it. When it comes to a day you will (hopefully) only do once, unless of course you renew your vows but that's a bit different, having someone who is there to solely bring YOUR vision to life is priceless.
Here we go!

Engraved first toast glasses from The Knot, which we forgot to use (HA!) but I get warm and fuzzy every time I see them on our side bar!

Our Ceremony was on South Beach of Bald Head Island and we had parasols (as seen on the left) for our guests

The "Guys" wore navy and white seersucker suits and had Orchids as their boutineers. Perfect look with the white sunglasses! ....oh boys....

We bought bamboo poles and glued ribbon in two shades of teal and lime green to line the path down to the beach for our guests

At the bottom of the stairs to the beach we had raffia tied bunches of Ginger flowers. This added a nice punch of color outside of the teals and greens from the rest of the wedding

Our wedding cake was a sandcastle inspired by all of the ones I made on the beach with my dad! The baker at Sweet T's in Wilmington was SO excited we wanted the "real sand" look and she did an amazing job on the look, and the taste! In order to make everyone happy, we had 4 flavor combinations:

Marble Cake with peanut butter buttercream - Kyle's pick

Chocolate Cake with Kahlua buttercream - My pick

Strawberry Cake with Chocolate buttercream - for a chocolate covered strawberry effect

Lemon Cake with Raspberry buttercream - just in case you aren't a chocolate person

On our gift, food, and other accent tables we had arrangements like this above with bear grass, shells, and submerged orchids. I fell in love with the look of different levels of flowers versus one big arrangement. We bought all of our flowers wholesale and my aunt put them all together so I got to go a little orchid crazy...

The main wedding flowers were orchids (green and white), roses (desert and cream), hydrangea (blue green and cream), and calla lilies (white and green). We had champagne silk linens with sand dollars on each napkin, shells on the tables, and our table names came from lighthouses (in frames) from North Carolina. Frames we hand painted, distressed, and lettered

Detail of napkin shot

The reception was held at the Bald Head Island Club with indoor and outdoor access. This amazing draped tent was open on the sides and covered our white dance floor (Kyle insisted that it be white). This area offered the perfect sunset setting for this:

I love this picture so much I printed it and stretched it on canvas to make a conversation piece. BIG thanks to Matt McGraw for the talent to snap pictures like this on our big day!

It was my original intent to show you all of my wedding style, at least for my personal day, here but I've realized there are WAY too many pictures to choose from! I am going to do a separate post later about my paper accents like invitations, programs, and gift bag cards. When you have people travel to a destination like this, you need to make sure you say a proper thank you! I personally LOVE putting gift bags together for weddings, and finding all of the perfect things that represent the location and the couple!

One day we'll renew our vows and I'll get to plan something else like this, but until then I will share this part of my passion with other people. For me, I'll have to transition it to my house and the home makeover that will take over most of my upcoming blog posts!

I hope you find a Chic Moment in your day today and remember to Dabble in the things that make you happy!

Until Next Time

Dabble

She's a Maniac

Where do I even begin on a night like tonight? How about something like doing a running man dance in place to  "She's a Maniac"? That would pretty much sum it up! Last night I wrote a post about Definition of Self and Style because I needed a moment to just be myself and realize that to have a successful style vision, I needed to have a good self vision. Ironically, it catapulted me in front of the "public" like I did not expect at this point in my blogging or my social media "efforts" to have a response quite like this mainly because the general public seems to have a clear idea of what it wants and it's quite intimidating.
Dabble in Chic was mentioned on this e-publication in the #inspire section. I entered into a contest with Olioboard for a paint package from Benjamin Moore. Exactly what I need because, as previously mentioned, I am embarking on a house makeover! From there, I have had more mentions, retweets, Facebook love, and blog views in a single day than ever before. I wasn't sure if I should get myself a martini to celebrate, or just keep riding the wave. Unfortunately I haven't been able to do either yet because I spent the afternoon picking up and shipping out custom designed print work for Printing Chic, the printing and graphic design arm of Dabble in Chic. Tonight I am planning on joining the conversation on Twitter for #AllThingsColor. In celebration of today's "success" I will have some red wine!
I started taking my "before" pictures for the house makeover today and I will only post them once I have the next step complete....total removal and purging of the chaos that has taken over our home! I've already had the carpeted areas upstairs measured for hardwoods (Bamboo!!!) and I'm working on some great new boards on Olioboard! I was talking to Dablet's Fairy Godmommy earlier today about my undertaking, and we've agreed that if I'm going to do this, I want to do it right! So of course we will have to get her down here for some assistance and contribution from her fantastic designing mind. She's an amazing designer in her own right, and I'll be having her do a guest blog appearance as things progress. The Fairy Godmommy shenanigans will most likely include chicken fingers getting stuck to some child's booty during a "business meeting" (this seems to be a required activity when your children come to business lunches with you), and lots of drool spilling on things we'll only dream of adding to my mix. Dablet will appreciate that someone else will drool on the furniture now besides her!
Again, I have to thank everyone who has shown me love and encouraged me to continue the style vision I am pursuing, one that starts with self first! To kick off my personal definition of style, I am going to post some of my favorite detail pictures from my wedding tomorrow (our 2nd anniversary is coming up in just under 3 weeks!!!!!)

Time for a quick dinner before the Twitter Chat!

Dabble

A Touch of Tory

Here's my "Chic Moment" of the day. Abby and I are getting ready to go visit her fairy godmommy (aka her godmother) on Long Island this weekend. It will be her first plane ride, and her first girls shopping weekend. The last time I went up to Long Island to visit Lindsey we hit the outlets and I came home with a fabulous pair of Hudson jeans, a Juicy shrug, and a Kate Spade diaper bag (mind you I wasn't pregnant yet...but trying). Needless to say I blame Lindsey for being the "bad influence" on me and claim no responsiblity myself (of course).

Here's what I have my eye on for this trip:

These Tory Burch flats are classic, and I have had a mild love affair with Tory Burch since I got married. My "something blue" was taken care of entirely on my feet

I LOVE these shoes, and have worn them VERY frequently since their debut a year and a half ago. Given our beach wedding they were the perfect Chic Moment in the sand. So now about these flats....I've seen them everywhere, usually in the classic black with a silver, gold, or black logo, but I'm drawn to the nude. I feel like I have SO many pairs of black shoes, and while I might not be ready to rock something like these to work

(also Tory)....nor are they practical for the winter, I think a fabulous ballet flat is totally justifiable, and if you don't agree with me just ask Abby's fairy godmommy and she'll set you straight.  Spit up machine is awake now, Chic Moment over!

Dabble