Showing posts with label weddings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weddings. Show all posts

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Pink Ideas for Summer Weddings

Looking for pink ideas for summer weddings?
This is part of a wedding blog series I'm hosting this summer. My daughter, Chrissie, is getting married in July. She and I have fun discussing her ideas and plans for her outdoor wedding in a friend's back yard near the water. She and her fiance, family, and friends are combining their design abilities to create a beautiful wedding. For this part of the series, I'm focusing on pink ideas that can be added to an outdoor summer wedding.

Even if pink is not a bride's main wedding color, it is common to find at least a touch of pink at most weddings. It may be a tiny bow on a garter or pink roses in a bouquet or pink flowers on a cake. Especially in an outside wedding, it's easy to find pink in garden or wildflowers nearby.

Chrissie loves pastel colors. Though she has chosen the wedding colors, a touch of pink can always be added in unique ways and at last-minute decorating. So I've gone on a search for pink ideas to include in this wedding series.


Pink Petals and Bows























pink flowers on the wedding cake







Seashell bouquet with pink





pink and gray bouquet





pink sandals




pink bouquet



pink flag wedding programs



pastel peonies




candy topiaries

Thank you for touring Pink Ideas for Summer Weddings with me. Should you have other pastel color ideas, visit my quilt giveaway contest and enter your idea. Hurry because the last day of the contest is next Sunday! The grand prize is a wedding ring quilt. The bride and I will also be giving away a surprise gift to each individual who submitted a contest entry idea that she and the groom decides to use in their wedding.

I'm sharing Pink Ideas for Summer Weddings with:

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Lace Trends

Lace trends for wedding dresses and home decor are becoming more popular since Kate Middleton wore her French Chantilly and English Cluny lace wedding dress.  
Notice Kate's long lace sleeves at PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com, a website that connects buyers and sellers of new, sample and used wedding dresses. Here are a few of the lace wedding gowns they now are advertising:

Size 4
Size 4

Size 6
Size 8


Size 10

Size 14

I remember my own white lace wedding dress from 32 years ago. When I shopped for a wedding dress, I thought I knew what I wanted until my mother and aunt took me wedding dress shopping one day. "Try this one on," they both suggested, pointing to a very lacy and ruffles dress. It wasn't the style I was searching for, but I tried it on anyway to please them. I fell in love with it. Covered with lace and layers of ruffles on the bottom and sides in the back, the wedding dress was made with a high neckline and long lace sleeves, quite the old-fashioned look. 


My daughter, Chrissie, is getting married in July. She tried my old-fashioned lace wedding dress on before she chose her own design. The dress has been preserved in a large box for all these years and is in good condition. She asked my opinion about an idea she had for using my wedding dress. Of course, I was delighted. The vintage remake looks unique with its something-old-something-new design. Follow Southwest Cottage Designs June and July series of articles to see the lovely vintage wedding dress remake photos - after the wedding, of course. Remember to enter the wedding ring quilt giveaway!


A 2011 trend is to decorate your home with what you wear. Ways to decorate with lace inside and outside the home:
Lace Container

Lace Pots/Bowls

  • Decorate accent tables with lace. Cut the size of lace to fit your table, and take the measurements to a glass company to have a glass cut for the table.
  • Decorate your walls with trendy lace...
Lace Key Rack


...and in the bedroom...
Gold Settee
Lace Mirror



...for a patio...
Lace Bench
Even Lace in the Garden
    Now that's an idea for our gardens - lace shovels and wheelbarrow. Ideas for lace are endless. Visit antique stores, thrift shops, and yard sales for tables, containers, and vintage items you can turn into lace beauties.  Go have fun generating your own ideas with vintage wedding dresses and home decor finds.
    I'm sharing with:

    Sunday, May 29, 2011

    Wedding Ring Quilt Giveaway

    Got any ideas for a summer wedding outside by the water? Enter vintage "wedding ring" quilt contest beginning today. The last day of the contest will be Sunday, June 12th. Enter your country or eclectic decorating ideas for the July 30th outside wedding at a waterfront setting. The bride is my daughter, Chrissie. The grand prize is a vintage "wedding ring" quilt (old but in good condition) that will be given to the individual with the most entries. The vintage quilt is being purchased from Carriage House Antiques in So Cal. What's nice about this quilt is that you can find any color in it.
    Vintage Wedding Ring Quilt Contest Giveaway Prize
    Additional prizes (TBA) will also be given to individuals who entered ideas that Chrissie and her fiance choose to include in their wedding decorations. Blogs belonging to individuals whose ideas were chosen for the wedding will be advertised at the wedding and at Southwest Cottage Designs in August.


    This is the first day of the quilt contest blog series about Chrissie, her fiance, Elvin, and their wedding. Chrissie and Elvin devote their lives to God and youth ministry. They are scheduled to attend a youth prayer and missions trip to Chicago this year (more on this later). Check back soon for the next article in this series to learn more.
    What does the word white make you think of? White makes me think of:
    • purity
    • innocence
    • beauty
    • flower
    • weddings
    • bride
    • paper
    • lace 
    White Rose
    My eight-listed white items came to my mind in the exact order shown. If you've been keeping up with my blog lately, you know that my latest "white" passion is flowers, specifically my roses. Recently on a Sunday morning I took photos of rain-kissed flowers in my garden. One of my miniature rose plants produces white roses that are sometimes tinged with pink and look so pretty next to the pink and green sedum. Weddings make me think of little children, white lace, white and variety-colored flowers, white paper doilies, white chairs, white bridal carpet and . . . my daughter's wedding coming up in July.
    White Flowers
    My daughter, Chrissie, caught the bride's bouquet at her cousin's wedding one year before she got engaged.
    Three ways to enter quilt contest:
    1. Each decorating idea for the wedding will be counted as one entry. Please list each idea (#1, #2, etc.)
    2. Donations. One entry per $1-$10. Two entries per $11-$20. Three entries per $21 or more. No more than 3 entries will be given for donations. Donations will go toward expense of wedding ring quilt or toward Chrissie's and Elvin's prayer and missions trip. To donate, click on Donations, one of the pages listed at the top of this page. (You can also click on "Donations" listed on the left of this page to make a donation.) However, the Donations page will explain more details about quilt expense, prayer and missions trip, and other causes Southwest Cottage Designs gives to.
    3. Follow Southwest Cottage Designs and comment that you are a follower already or that you are a new follower.
    It is possible to win this contest by only submitting decorating ideas. Certainly, no donations are required. However, I did at least want to include entry options for anyone choosing to include donations. The donations will be used strictly for the purposes mentioned. I put the quilt on layaway, and the quilt will be mailed to the winner by the end of June. The additional prizes will be mailed in August after the wedding. Email me if you have any questions about the contest. Thank you for following Southwest Cottage Designs and for entering the contest. I look forward to updating you on the exciting wedding plans.
    Stay tuned! Coming next is about white lace and wedding dresses.
    I'm linking to: