Columbia Style Week 2012: Wedding 101

Wedding 101 was held on Saturday morning and I left work for about an hour to make it! I love all things wedding and figured this would be IDEAL for yours truly. After interning at Bayside Bride last year, I felt like I learned SO much, so I really knew what to keep my eyes out for!

Wedding 101 was also held at Tapp's and converted into wedding wonderland!

The showcase itself was presented by Weddings 101, a local wedding planning service. They did a wonderful job showing us all some great designs! (Minus the clamps used to secure dresses! I wish they found a different way to make them work because they were a teensy bit distracting!)

We got a chance to see designs for the Mother of the Bride, Bridesmaids, Brides, Grooms, Groomsmen, and even a ring bearer! My favorite options were the bridal dresses we saw!

This boatneck dress was my FAAAAAVORITE of all the dresses we saw--LBP loves a boatneck wedding style!

The white dinner jacket look was my pick among all the groom looks! This guy ROCKED it too!

In front of me, so technologically savvy, was The Fat and Skinny on Fashion--a blogger I was lucky enough to meet because of CSW! She's totally a local fashion blogger worth checking out. I also got to meet Josh Ratliff, a stylist who's gotten the chance to work in a TON of places and Mike Kelton, one of the US Weekly fashion police! I was lucky enough to get the chance to hang out with these guys for all of the events on Saturday!

Wedding 101 was a great event and I had a blast yet again getting to cover Columbia Style Week!

xxKatie

Are You Ready to Be Smitten?

Smitten Magazine!

Smitten is the new "it" magazine for all things fabulous, wedding, and southern! What a triple threat, huh?!

From the fun, whimsical design to the amazing features in this "e-glossy" you can't help but flip on through!! I was lucky enough to read it on an iPad which was an even BETTER experience if you can even have one!

Chock full of fun inspiration you're bound to find something you love in this sweet little package! There are fun additions for brides, bridesmaids, wedding lovers and just the normal magazine browser. The site was so easy to use and "flip" through, it was a breeze to read. My favorite section(s) was all the different features on the individual brides from so many areas up and down the Southeast! 

These bios and fun snapshots of all the different brides were great fun!

Another one of my Charleston favorites, LulaKate was featured! 

You MUST head over to be Smitten!

xxKatie

Wedding Pins via Pinterest

Anyone who's made the Pinterest transition knows I've been pinning up a storm! I go from this board to that board to every other board to repinning and liking so much! It tends to get out of hand sometimes, but I just love the live element of the inspiration board. I'll never forget any of it! Here are a few of my favorite weddings pins:

And last but certainly not least, my favorite:

All of these images can be found on my Wedding board on Pinterest! Need an invite? Leave a comment with your email address that you check most often OR shoot me an email and I'll get y'all on the bandwagon!

xxKatie

(P.S.: On both of my tests this week I got A's! I have to brag a little bit, I'm SO proud!!)

Charleston, SC Recap

Just yesterday I got to spend all day in Charleston, SC! What a bad city to be stuck in--right? (wink-wink). I had internship training all day on Daniel Island and we wrapped up earlier than I expected so I got to entertain myself for 2 hours. Not wanting to spend any money but still wanting to shop I found myself in a bit of a bind. Unless you're like me and love weddings...I managed to take what I called in my facebook status the "Charleston bridal boutique tour". I hit up all kinds of different stores along King Street and even headed into a store on Church street when I went back to where I was parked! These were my favorites:

1. Lula Kate

First I headed into LulaKate! I saw this the first time I went to Charleston but unfortunately they were closed. This time I got to window shop for a little longer than what most people would consider "normal" but they had a stunning sleeveless, ruffled v-neck dress. I couldn't get enough! It was similar to this dress from their blog:

2. Modern Trousseau 

They're by appointment, so I browsed from the outside again. I've seen many of their dresses in different magazines but have fallen in love with this dress:

I love the playfulness of the polkadots! I would probably remove the belt because I'm not cool enough at all to pull that off but I love the shape and inlay of the polka dots. It would be so fun with the right colors!

3. Fabulous Frocks

I'd written about Fabulous Frocks during Southern Weddings Week ! I was on my way back to the car when a dress in the window caught my eye. I didn't even realize it was Fabulous Frocks so I got so lucky! 

This dress was in the window! I went in to inquire more about it (and as I told them..."It's never too early! Right?"). This Romona Keveza dress was beautiful in the window. The ruffle detail was so pretty and feminine and delicate that I had to ask! The sales team was all so friendly and nice (even though they're by appointment too I had to pop in) and they even had a Charleston Fashion Week designer in their company!

Then a friend (HEY SASS--enjoy your shoutout my lunch buddy!) and I went to lunch at Virginia's on King which was Southern deliciousness. I had the grilled chicken sandwich special and he had a fab looking tomato and grilled cheese combo! We had a great time and got to enjoy a perfect perch right by the front door which was great for CHS peoplewatching!

As you can tell I had a wonderful time playing around in Charleston! I was very lucky to get this internship as well as have enough time to dillydally around in such a beautiful city all day long!

xxKatie

Let's All Tumble

Tumblr.

It's the new blogging. It's like combining Twitter + Blogger. I love it. It's taken me awhile to get the hang of it (and remember I have one) but it's all the rage. I've been tumbling for awhile on and off but I'm really going to try to make a better effort to tumble more over the summer. (I have a HUGE summer to do list, look for a post coming up soon.) It's like a stream of consciousness of things you see and can immediately post. Here are some of my tumbled faves:

(this is my current BBerry background...#SINS if this is a picture of you...)

You can post a lot more than pictures on Tumblr, but it's harder to transpose the quotes, YouTube videos, and song lyrics on here! Check out Tumblr and let me know if you have one so I can see all your tumbles in my dashboard!!

xxKatie

Spring Break: Books

Little known fact: I LOVE to read. I read tons of books over the summer and I hate that I can't really read during the school year. I take complete advantage of any break and extra time that I get apart from school to read a bunch, this spring break isn't any different. The Target book section isn't huge, so I was a little bit nervous about my prospects when I went shopping there a few days ago. I browsed and browsed and was lucky enough to find two books that sound SO me:

1. The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean

I know you're never supposed to judge a book by its cover...but come on! Just the title drew me in! It sounds so cute, and takes place in North Carolina! Even on the cover it says, "Never underestimate the power of vintage...", naturally I was sold!

2. There's Cake in My Future by Kim Gruenefelder

Anyone remember Southern Weddings Week? I did a post all about the southern tradition of cake pulls, and that's what this story is all about. A bride carefully organizes all the cake pulls to go to certain people for specific reasons, but somehow it gets all mixed up! I'm really looking forward to this beach read! 

Anyone read either of these? I can't wait to dive in! Both have 4.5 star ratings on Amazon so I'm pretty excited! Less than a week until SB2011!

xxKatie

Love Story 6.0

Remember when I wrote a post called 'A Free Wedding?' a few months ago? The gist of it is that a HRSM (Hotel, retail, and sports management) class here at USC is taking on designing a wedding. They handle everything, planning, venue, food, dress, everything! Well, THE WINNER IS BEING ANNOUNCED ON MONDAY! You can LIKE it on facebook and stay up to date with all the wedding details! Any USC readers here should certainly follow along. 

The class is going to announce the winner on USC's historic horseshoe. I work right on the horseshoe so I sure hope they're announcing it when I'm there! Annette Hoover of All About Brides & Events Annette Hoover is the class' professor and the organizer of the HRTM 362's "Free Planned Wedding" class! I can't wait to hear all about the plans and everything they're going to do for it!!


xxKatie

Southern Wedding Week: The Traditions and Winners Announced!

Reese Witherspoon as Melanie Smooter in Sweet Home Alabama

Southern weddings tend to be steeped in tradition. Whether it's the type of flowers used in the decorations or the ceremony or the cake served, most every part of a SW has some tradition linked to it. Typically your southern brides will always be given away by their daddy, wear white, have their shoulders covered (after mom and grandma officially OK the dress...thank you Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta for teaching us all that lesson) and carry white flowers.

Cake pulls are another southern tradition still used today. Small silver charms intended for bridesmaids and members of the bridal party. Each charm tells a fortune or prediction for the future and is a quaint memento of the wedding celebration said one site selling the charms. Each charm has a different meaning: rings, hearts, red beans, stars, anchor, four leaf clovers, all mean something different.

Grooms cakes are another very popular southern tradition. I've seen countless grooms cakes on Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes pretty frequently as a fun way to honor the groom's hobbies, talents or interests! Most recently, I saw a fast food groom's cake, too much fun!

Rice throwing is also a very southern tradition. A sign of fertility, plentifulness and abundance! What a nice message to send your newlywed friends with!

A funny little guide to helping every southern bride out there was written a few years ago called Somebody is Going to Die if Lily Beth Doesn’t Catch That Bouquet: The Official Southern Ladies’ Guide to Hosting the Perfect Wedding! What a title, right? I also love the double name thrown in too, talk about southern tradition!

Now for our Southern Wedding Week winners:

Southern Weddings winner: living well

Natalie Franke Photography: raymond08

If you both will email me with your contact info I'll connect you with the right people!! Thanks for all the entries!!

Also remember that you can still qualify for Natalie's 10% off deal! Take advantage of that!!

xxKatie

Southern Wedding Week: The Reception

One of the best ideas I've ever seen for a wedding was featured in Charleston Girl's post about her sister's wedding! First of all it was pink and green, so naturally I'd love it! Second of all, I loved what she did so much I immediately emailed it to myself so I could remember to do this one day...it was that good! For all of the reception tables with a location that was significant to them both, had a photo in that location and noted the reason it was important on each place setting.

Think of all those special places to you and your husband/fiancee/boyfriend and you could easily come up with enough to organize tables:

• Where you met
• Location of your first date
• City of your respective college(s)
• Hometown(s)
• Location of first kiss
• Spot where he proposed
• City of the wedding

I can think of so many fun possibilities for different tables! I love this idea so much and will probably steal it one day for my big day!! I've been storing this up for a future post, but it was a perfect addition to Southern Wedding Week that I couldn't pass it up!!

What's one of your favorite wedding traditions? Have you ever been to a wedding with this type of table organization??

xxKatie

Southern Wedding Week: The Dress

A few weeks ago when I was in Charleston, Aly and I were window browsing just about every store we could see! There were so many little boutiques (90% out of our college girl budgets) that had dresses and party essentials that we couldn't really help ourselves! Among my favorites were all the wedding dresses that we'd pass from window to window. The periodic tuxedo was so precious too, I mean how can you not just swoon over a tux and bowtie combo? Gets me every time. Although we didn't see Fabulous Frocks, the idea behind it is so cute, I had to pass it on to any ladies in the area after a reader of mine told me about it!

Fabulous Frocks specializes in consigning wedding dresses that have been "wed" already! What a good idea, right? I mean my mom's never gonna wear her dress again, and isn't this a great idea for any bride who won't use her dress for anything else! There are some criteria for each dress to be consigned, but how cute is this? What a good idea for the bride on a budget or looking to get a designer gown for far way less!

Fabulous Frocks has brand name designers (including my 2 favorites!!) ranging from Badgley Micshka, to Carolina Herrera, to Modern Trousseau (one of my favorites!), to Rivini (my other favorite...remember this dress...MY dress?) to Vera Wang. There are currently over 80 dresses listed online for you to check out and have even more in store to choose from personally! Also, go visit store manager and recent Gamecock grad, Mary, to help you out, she's adorable and in the planning stages of her own Southern Wedding!!

Next time I'm in Charleston Fabulous Frocks will be a definite stop just for fun...I mean you can never start too early right? No way! No go follow Fabulous Frocks on twitter at @FabFrocksBridal to see what they've got going on!

xxKatie