Wedding Music That Doesn’t Suck: “Hard Sun”

If you haven’t seen the movie, Into the Wild, you really need to. While I don’t remember particularly loving the book in high school, the movie is awesome. It’s an emotional roller coaster, full of challenging life questions & discoveries, and has given me one of my most favorite quotes of all time:

“Careers are demeaning twentieth century inventions, more a liability than an assett.“

The movie also has an incredible soundtrack by Eddie Vedder. He wrote (and performed) original songs for the movie, one of which is called “Hard Sun” and gives us our song suggestion for today’s Wedding Music That Doesn’t Suck blog post.

“When I walk beside her
I am the better man
when i look to leave her
I always stagger back again

Once I built an ivory tower
so I could worship from above
when I climb down to be set free
she took me in again”

The acoustic guitar strumming and powerful lyrics would be a beautiful, modern song to walk down the aisle to, have your first dance to, even for a father-daughter or mother-son dance at your wedding reception. Enjoy!

Happy Friday!

Here are some of my favorite things from the week, to get you to the weekend. Hope you all have a good one!

1. I effin’ love Frank Turner. So should you. His new music video:

2. I started a pinboard on Pinterest specifically for my best friends’ upcoming wedding (next August). Check it out here.

3. This intimate, retro 1950s themed wedding included an “I Love Lucy” picture. Love this one from Bridal Musings.

4. A beautiful Annapolis wedding by Gabe Aceves.

5. One of my favorite wedding blogs is doing a wedding photography giveaway to unique & offbeat couples! UM – get over there right now and enter!!!

6. Someday, my baby will wear this.

7. You think your apartment is small? How about living in a 4-foot wide one … literally smushed in between two buildings?!?

Now, go have a fantastic weekend!!!

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Capitol Wedding: Amanda & Alonso

A while back I did a post on alternative garden wedding venues in the Washington, DC metro area (here if you want!). I have been anxious, ever since that post, to actually have a real Washington DC wedding to feature from one of those venues.

Enter Chris and Adrienne Scott Photographers (& the fabulous Two Bright Lights).

Lucky for me (and you), I now get to share with you a beautiful, classy wedding at the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Northern Virginia.

Amanda & Alonso‘s beautiful garden wedding in Northern Virginia

A bit about Alonso & Amanda, and their wedding:

Alonso and I met working at a Country Club in the catering department. We knew we wanted a classy, detailed event and had lots of ideas from our experience in the hospitality industry. Alonso is a banquet manager and I am a meeting planner.

We wanted a fall wedding at an alternative venue. Being two different religions we didn’t want to get married at a church or synagogue AND since my husband works in a country club, he wanted a different type of venue for his wedding. We chose Meadowlark Botanical Gardens for the beautiful indoor atrium with a creek and trees that light up.

Although the had a fall wedding, Amanda was adamant that they didn’t do the usual fall color scheme. She shares:

We didn’t want to use typical fall colors of red, orange and yellows so we kept rich colors and incorporated teals and purples! We wanted unique, textured arrangements of different types of wild flowers instead of classic arrangements.

Love those purple flowers … and coupled with the bridesmaids in teal green? Beautiful!

The groom reading a note from his bride. *Tear* !

And now it’s time for the First look!!! On top of a bridge … like seriously, this is  a romance novel, no?

Click inside to see the rest of the First Look and all of Amanda & Alonso’s details from their beautiful, modern purple & teal wedding!

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DIY How To: Jar Etching with Weswen Design

Today’s DIY wedding project comes to us from the ever-amazing Wendy, of Weswen Design. Not only is she a super-fab, talented graphic designer, it also turns out that she is a DIY maven too.

What the heck?? Those multi-talented, jack of all trade type ladies get me every time! But… fortunately for me, Wendy is also a friend of mine, so she agreed to let me share her awesome DIY project on my blog for today’s DIY Wednesday post!

Behold: DIY Customizable Etching Jars

You can already see where I am going with this for a DIY wedding related project, gift, or decor idea, right?? This would be an AWESOME bridal shower favor, DIY gift for your bridesmaids, or could be used for adorable, customizable DIY table numbers at your reception. Follow Wendy‘s directions below to make awesome, easily customizable DIY etching jars!

First, a note from Wendy herself:

Before I explain all that went into this project, I should caveat this with the fact that I am NOT a crafter. And after this project, I think I know why. Patience….. don’t have ‘em for things like this. BUT, I am so happy I endured and love the results. And, in case you’re wondering if this is something you could pull off…. pa-lease… on a scale of 1-10… 10 being Martha… I’m probably about a 5. I much prefer computers, but it’s fun to do things like this from time to time too.

Materials:

1. Glass jars (I bought these from World Market in various sizes. And I happen to like the air-tight kind because of what I’m planning on storing in them).

2. Etching cream, a brush and alphabet stickers (I personally went for the nice slab serif font but there are tons to choose from).

Click inside to see the instructions on the rest of this DIY Wedding Tutorial!

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