Author Archives: Kristi

Black and Gold Wedding Theme

The Great Gatsby and art deco styles of the Roaring 20s have inspired weddings everywhere this year, bringing with it a re-emergence of black and gold. This classic color combo is rich with the scintillating shimmer of gold and striking elements of solid black. It’s easy to create a luxurious look for less with black and gold as your wedding colors.

For your wedding invitations, we suggest something simple paired with a sophisticated script font or a modern block font. We used our Pure Tradition invitation in ecru with gold ink and the French Script font. This invite features thermography printing, which gives it an extra elegant look and feel.

Gold wedding decorations is a must! Whether you paint glass bottles like we’ve shown below, incorporate glittering gold letters and hearts or go with the always-affordable staple, helium balloons, use gold wherever you can. Chandeliers and candelabras work really well with these styles, so hit up some thrifts stores, flea markets and antique shops for some cool pieces you can paint.

Photos courtesy of:

Heart – Bramble Workshop

Balloons – Balloon Artistry

Bouquet – Danielle Capito Photograph via 100 Layer Cake

Gold LOVE – BHLDN

Shoes – Lauren Peele Photography via 100 Layer Cake

Bridesmaids Dress – After Six

Leave your commentPosted by Kristi on February 8, 2014No Comments

Colors & Themes, Favorite Themes

Inspired Theme: Playful Rustic

Rustic weddings are possibly the biggest trend in wedding décor today. Rustic weddings are so popular that there are now different types of rustic styles, like elegant rustic, modern rustic, country rustic and playful rustic.

We’ve put together an inspiration board to help you create a playful rustic wedding. We chose a romantic invitation to set the mood for the event. Hearts and Stripes is a petite z-fold invite with a charming design on the front panel, your photo on the middle panel and your wording on the last panel. Then we added lots of fun elements like pinwheel cupcake picks, a pinwheel boutonniere, recycled origami hearts, a rag-tied love banner, vintage hanging fans and, of course, a trendy flower garland for the bride.

Photos courtesy of:

Rag tie love banner – HalosHaven Etsy Shop

Recycled origami hearts – P.S. Blog

Rustic bride with flower garland – Julie Siddi Photography via Burnett’s Boards

Candy buffet – Meaghan Elliott Photography via Style Me Pretty

Pinwheel boutonniere – Evermine Blog

Leave your commentPosted by Kristi on February 3, 2014No Comments

Engagement Stories, Real Couples

A Nostalgic Arizona Engagement Session

Today we’re excited to feature a colorful, nostalgic engagement session from modern lifestyle photographer, Myrian Peery.

Myrian tells us Jordan and Andrew wanted their engagement photos to reflect the 1920s theme they had chosen for their wedding. They chose to do the session in the town of Bisbee, Arizona, where “every street looks like a movie set.”

Speaking of movie sets, my favorites are the baseball themed photos because they remind me of one of my favorite movies, A League of Their Own.

Congratulations Jordan & Andrew!

Leave your commentPosted by Kristi on November 21, 2013No Comments

Color Inspiration, Colors & Themes

Color Love: Aqua and Coral

Featured Invitation: Fairy Floral

It’s getting quite cold here in Minnesota, so we thought we’d warm up a little with aqua and coral spring wedding inspiration. Pairing these colors with natural elements like the wood cupcake stand shown below will give your wedding a rustic feel. White elements lend a crisp, clean look that’s both fresh and modern. Real linens in white and aqua are a great way to achieve a more formal appeal. It doesn’t matter what look you’re going for, aqua and coral wedding colors can pull it off.

Photo Credits:

Bouquet – Brooke Images, via Elizabeth Anne Designs

Cake – Erica OBrien Cake Design

Favor Boxes – Ann’s Bridal Bargains

Cupcakes – Logan Cole Wedding Co., via Love and Lavender

Centerpiece – Erika Delgado Photography, via Wedding Chicks

Photo Booth Stream Curtain – J.R. Clubb Cinematic Photography, via Ruffled

Table Setting – Style Me Pretty

Leave your commentPosted by Kristi on November 18, 2013No Comments

Affordable Wedding Ideas, Reception Ideas

A Fall Candy Buffet Perfect for Any Occasion

When our friends over at CandyGalaxy.com asked us to help them create a fall candy buffet, we jumped at the chance. We love candy!

Whether you’re planning a fall wedding, birthday party or hosting Thanksgiving, this candy buffet is a great way to keep guests active and mingling.

Orange and Brown Candy Buffet

We sent them a few of Ann’s products that are perfect for candy buffets, like burlap favor bags, orange pumpkin gems and one of our favorite fall invitations, Falling In Love.

Use a variety of candy so each guest will find something they love. This buffet includes Lindt Peanut Butter Truffles, gummy bears, rock candy and more. (Quick tip: We recommend using wrapped candies or liners when placing food into any type of favor box or container.)

Fall Colored Candy - gummy bears, Sixlets, rock candy, etc.

Want more candy buffet ideas?

Check out our candy buffet bargain challenge from Jackie and Carynn, and don’t forget to take a gander at the Candy Galaxy blog.

Leave your commentPosted by Kristi on October 10, 2013No Comments

Affordable Wedding Ideas, DIY Wedding Ideas

DIY Fishing Table Centerpieces for Your Wedding

Last week we shared some unique, DIY ideas for wedding favors with a fishing theme. But what are fishing favors without decorations to match?

Okay, I admit it. I’m pretty much a fishing fanatic. Fishing wedding favors just weren’t enough for me. So, I went to Jes at Imagination at Work Design Studio to find out how we could incorporate fishing into wedding décor without being tacky.

Her advice was to use the elements of nature found at your favorite fishing spot in your centerpieces and other decorations. Then, you can throw in a few fishing specific items –like the bobbers, fishing net, and the pretty, ceramic fish you see in the guest book table display above.

DIY Wedding Centerpieces

Best of all, we used items are DIY or can be purchased for a pretty affordable price – birch bark, glass bottles wrapped with twine, votive holders wrapped with burlap and twine, etc. Check out your local antique sales, garage sales and auctions to find great bottles, vases and other pieces you can dress up to use in your décor. Ready to shop for cheap wedding invitations? Check out all of our affordable designs.

Leave your commentPosted by Kristi on September 5, 2013No Comments

Uncategorized

Unique DIY Fishing Favors for Your Wedding

If you love to fish, and want to incorporate your love for angling into your wedding, this is the post for you. Your guests will love customizing their own Lindy Rig so they can go out and catch the big one. Or, simplify your fishing favors by creating a cute display for bobbers your guests can take home. Not only are these wedding favor ideas unique, they are relatively inexpensive, too.

Lindy Rig Wedding Favors

Fishing line and hooks or pre-assembled snells, beads (5-7 per rig), clevises and spinner blades.
Clear favor bags.
Favor labels or stickers to close the bags.
Paper to print messages and instructions for each bag.
Display items: containers for pieces and pre-assembled bags, chalkboard or something to write instructions on, any other items you want to use to dress up the table.

Bobber Wedding Favors

Display box
Netting
Pictures of you and your loved ones fishing.
A sign for wording – we used card stock and high quality color printing.
Bobbers – any kind you want.
Optional – string to tie a favor tag to each bobber.

There are a lot of different ways you can set these favors up depending on the amount of time you have and money you want to spend. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to shop around, and for the order to be shipped. The best website I found for the Lindy Rigs is LureMaking.com. This website is a great resource for instructions on rig making, and they have a catalog where you can purchase items in bulk. This company is in Canada, so shipping may be more expensive than U.S. based companies. You can also try Cabela’s, Gander Mountain, Amazon or eBay.

Leave your commentPosted by Kristi on August 26, 20134 Comments

Dress Up Your Invite, Wedding Stationery

Dress Up Your Wedding Invite: Snowflake Sensation

Introducing our newest blog series – Dress up Your Invite! This series is dedicated to turning nice wedding invitations into amazing wedding invitations. We’ll feature a popular wedding invitation from Ann’s Bridal Bargains along with 4-5 different ways you can add embellishments to dress it up.

Today we’re featuring a winter wedding invitation called Snowflake Sensation. The wording and intricate snowflake designs are printed using thermography, an affordable printing process that results in beautiful raised lettering. There are multiple paper options to choose from — we chose the shimmer paper for an extra touch of elegance.

Just the invitation.

Red ink with aqua rhinestones.

Aqua ink with pearl stickers.

Red ink with aqua backer, clear rhinestone and snowflake sticker w/rhinestones.

Silver ink with peacock backer and peacock ribbon.

Aqua ink with peacock ribbon and rhinestone ribbon.

Bargain Tip: Browse your local hobby stores and department stores to touch and feel the embellishments, but then purchase online to save money.

Leave your commentPosted by Kristi on July 15, 2013No Comments

Affordable Wedding Ideas

5 Days of Giveaways Sweepstakes from Wedding Wire

This sweepstakes has ended. Thanks for participating!

I love this time of year! There are so many awesome contests and sweepstakes where you can win free stuff for your wedding!

This one is from Wedding Wire, and you have until 6/16 to enter. Just fill out the simple registration form, check the boxes below the prizes you would like to be entered to win, cross your fingers and dream of what you would do if you won.

Prizes include $2,500 to Invitations by Dawn, $1,000 Bloomingdales gift card, $2,500 to Ann’s Bridal Bargains, a FLEX™ Wireless Activity & Sleep Wristband and an iPad Mini!

Enter Here!

While you’re at it take a gander at Wedding Wire’s SUMMERBOOK 2013 for tons of summer wedding inspiration.

Enjoy!

Leave your commentPosted by Kristi on June 6, 2013No Comments

Affordable Wedding Ideas, Tips for the Bride

7 Tips for Purchasing Your Wedding Dress Online

Every bride wants her wedding day to be special, and finding the perfect dress is crucial. Most of today’s brides can’t afford to pay big money for one gown, so many are turning to the internet to find wedding dresses for a price they can afford. Buying a wedding dress online can be risky though, so here are tips to ensure you don’t end up with a less than impressive dress.

1. Give yourself plenty of time to shop, purchase and get alterations for your wedding dress. If you end up ordering your dress, it can take months for it to arrive.

2. Shop bridal stores first to try on various dress styles. Write down the designer and style number of the dresses you like so you can find them online later.

3. Only buy from online retailers authorized by the dress designer. You can find a list of authorized retailers on the designer’s website.

4. If you can’t find the website in the list of authorized retailers, consult a list of websites to avoid like this one from Allure Bridals or this one from Mori Lee.

Here are some websites that are authorized retailers for many popular wedding gown designers:

http://www.weddingshoppeinc.com/BridalGowns.aspx

http://www.plussizebridal.com/Default.asp But Not http://www.plussize-wedding-dresses.com/

http://www.victoriasbridalcouture.com/index.html

http://www.newyorkdress.com/connect/about.html

http://www.houseofbrides.com/

http://www.bestbridalprices.com/

5. Before you purchase your dress online, make sure you are aware of the website’s policies on sizing, defective merchandise and returns.

6. Keep documentation of all communication with the website, including questions you ask prior to completing the purchase, order confirmations, website policies, etc.

7. Upon receiving your order, inspect the dress thoroughly and try it on. Many websites limit the number of days you have to make a return.

Following these simple guidelines can help protect you from a bad online purchase, but buying online isn’t the only way to save big on your wedding dress. Read our post, Checking it off the list! Finding the right wedding dress for the right price for more tips on how to shop and save. You might also like, Shop, Save and Support! Check out favorite charities recommended by Ann’s brides.

Leave your commentPosted by Kristi on May 10, 20131 Comment