The ceremony

Our wedding ceremony was short and sweet but I think we covered all of the bases, made sure families were happy, and most importantly made some very important promises to one another. Like I have mentioned before the weather cleared about 30 minutes before we got started and even though we were under a tent we were still surrounded by sunshine.
The bridal party walked down to a Sigur Ros song and my father walked me down the aisle to The Temper Trap's "Sweet Disposition". It was emotional and powerful and perfect.We traded rings and I promised to always fill our home with art and color while he promised to always fill our home with music. Then we both promised to always be brave.
We kissed in front of a wall of colorful fabric garlands and then walked back down the aisle as husband and wife to "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

first looks

I guess the whole first look thing is a new tradition but me and mine were all about having a quiet moment together before the ceremony to make sure we were both breathing correctly. So about 10 minutes before the ceremony began our photographers brought him upstairs to where I was getting ready, hid him around the corner, and had me head around for a first look.
It was great and I really recommend it. It gave us a chance to see each other before the BIG moment and it was incredibly reassuring to see that we were both calm, excited, and ready to take that walk. You are surrounded by so many people while getting ready that day, people that are excited, stressed, anxious, helpful, and hyper, but the one person you are thinking about is hidden away from you all day. Taking that moment together RIGHT before you have to stand in front of a huge crowd brings you back to the moment and reminds you of what this day is all about- you and them.
This moment for us was brief but I remember feeling giddy and surprisingly calm. Even peaceful. I knew no matter how crazy that morning was, he would be the one thing that would bring me back down to earth.

wedding week part IV: more fashion

Ok so I got a little behind and now wedding week has turned into wedding weeks. Today I am sharing the rest of the wedding day fashion, the groom and bridal party.
The mister knew he wanted to be in something simple, no tuxedo and no suit jacket. So he opted for an all grey ensemble with a pop of color in his tie. His pants and shirt were Kenneth Cole, his vest I found at Macy's on sale, his tie we ordered from MeandMatilda on etsy, and his watch was his grandfathers. I think his favorite part of his outfit may have been the classic wing tip shoes we got from Aldo. I thought he looked perfect and he was comfortable, which made him happy.
We asked all of the guys to wear grey pants and a white shirt and them had them accessorize however they wanted. I was impressed.

My girls are all so stylish on their own that I knew I would never ask them to wear matching dresses, that never even crossed my mind. Instead I asked them to all choose a grey knee length dress that they felt great in. Any style, any shade. They then each chose a pair of the LelaRose shoes and a color to have them dyed. They each wanted a different color so it worked out perfectly. My mom and I made the necklaces and bracelets for them, based on one we found at Anthropologie but for a fraction of the price. They were absolutely gorgeous- and I was happy knowing they were all comfortable in what they were wearing.
It was important to us to have these dear friends and family members standing with us on this special day and I think they looked pretty darn good doing it.

wedding week part III: fashion

Our attire was one of the easiest parts of the wedding to make a decision on, maybe because I had been planning this dress for years now. I didn't know the exact dress I wanted, of course, but I knew that there would most certainly be an addition of color. Layers and layer of colorful tulle, giving me the feeling I was wearing a giant cupcake. That sounds a little crazy but it was exactly how I felt and it was perfect.
So the search for the dress began and at the start I was hesitant to walk into any wedding dress shop. My poor mom and sister had to deal with a really grumpy me on our first trip but we kept looking (safely online) and surprisingly found my perfect dress at David's Bridal. We bought it the first day I tried it on because it was on sale and we could already picture exactly how we it would look once we added our touches. My friend Allison generously made the cupcake layers that after several fittings we ended up pinning to the inside lining. She did such an amazing job and I couldn't have been happier with her color placement and construction- perfect! My mom created a bustle so that after the ceremony we could pull up the back of the dress and show more of the color.My shoes were Lela Rose for Payless- we had all the girls pick a different color and had them custom dyed. Mine were my something blue. If you are looking for cute colorful shoes, this is seriously the best deal.
My jewelry was from Macy's and altered by my mom, my feather hair clip from Aldo and my birdcage veil made by Deeds and Petunia on etsy.

Tomorrow- the mister and the rest of the wedding party!

wedding week part II: details

For anyone in the midst of wedding planning I think the amount of inspiration online, on blogs, and in print can be incredible and simultaneously overwhelming. I definitely had moments of not knowing how to mentally organize everything I was seeing and how to start actually deciding what little design details I wanted to include in our wedding. There were so many diy trends and ideas that I fell in love with and I think those are the things that really make an event special. As time went on I was able to sift through all of the inspiration and was slowly able to curate, even if some decorations were made and never used, so here are some of the little details that made the final cut.
These sweet grey and white striped straws were the first thing I bought for the wedding and I love this shot of my sister and her sweet tea here.
My mom and I collected and painted these heart wreaths to hang on the outdoor chairs, at the end of each row.
My little sister picked out the perfect guest book for us.
We designed our ceremony program to be simple, legible and to match our invitation suite.
And of course you've seen the flags I created for the 100 cupcakes our dear friend made. I ordered the japanese washi tape for these here.
Lastly, I used skewers, kraft paper, and leftover fabric from the outdoor garlands for these taller flags for the cheesecakes. Unfortunately they never actually made it onto the cakes, but I still love how they came out and may add some to my shop.

It's all in the details.

wedding week part I: decor

Lot's of exciting things happening this week- photoshoots and interviews, custom projects and some new furniture being delivered- yay!

But here on the blog I am devoting this week to sharing all of the details of our wedding. I hope you aren't sick of it yet. We got our photos from our photographers this past weekend and we are so incredibly pleased with how they came out. Joey and Jessica are so talented and creative and were the perfect pair to capture all of the details of our day.

Today I want to share some of the decor and details we created and used. Inside we kept it pretty simple with some birdhouses we painted for the tables, on top of tree stumps and paired with white ceramic birds.
We scattered little hearts and circle confetti we punched in coordinating colors around the table decorations.
Behind the dessert table we layered several of my paper garlands in peaches, pinks, mustard, and neutrals.

Outside we wanted to keep it even more light, airy, and simple and it is a good thing we did seeing as we ended up having to work around a huge white tent (really the only down side to the whole day). The ceremony decor was one of my favorite projects of all. I custom dyed muslin for these fabric garlands- it was so much fun to mix and create all of the shades I was looking for. I love how these came out and hope to make some more of these for future projects or sales.

And by some miracle all of these different design elements seemed to come together aesthetically. Tomorrow- the details.

shiny and new

I am on a roll with the shop this week and have some more new items listed. Excited about the cards we have been designing as well as the new cupcake flags. See everything here.

chevron

I found and loved this little antler so much that I had the mister help me design a thank you card based on it. Will be up in the shop once we get a new ink cartridge.
bronze chevron antler by MadeByCassandraSmith on etsy.



ps The new Heart&Craft logo (designed by my sweet husband) is making an early debut above.

heyrabbit.

Hey Rabbit is my sister's band. We love them and when they asked us to design a flyer for their upcoming show we were super excited to get started. It is really interesting and fun and a bit challenging to work with the mister on a design and see how our two styles come together. He is graphic, modern, clean, while my style is more organic and subtle with some sort of hand-made touch. Besides our wedding invitations this was our first real design collaboration and I am happy with the result. Justin worked to give the graphic and layered, hand-printed feel and then incorporated my hand drawn text.
We hope to make this a much larger part of our lives- working together on design projects and just seeing what comes of it. I am really excited about that.

a mothers day watercolor soiree

I have been seeing watercolor crafts popping up on design blogs so often this season and with it being one of my all time favorite medias to work with I had to do my own spin. I have been playing around with some large sheets of watercolor designs and decided to start cutting them up for some crafts. Naturally my first design was the garland and then I used the leftovers for some gift tags and a little wrapping ribbon. I think this project is perfectly appropriate for a mothers day brunch so I threw together some of the pieces for a little photo shoot. Enjoy and give some love to your momma this weekend! (I am lucky to now have two!)
peonies and presents.
watercolor tags.
hand painted garlands.
Expect to see some watercolor goodness in the shop very soon.

the market

Just a brief interruption from wedding posts to say that spring has hit North Carolina. We are in those (very few) weeks where the temperature stays in the 70s, the nights are cool, and the only thing anyone wants to do is be outside. These days will quickly be taken over by 80 and 90 degree weather, heavy humidity, and evening mosquitoes, so one must completely savor them while they can. I began my weekend of spring time savoring with a trip to the farmers market. Never a disappointment, this week the market was especially buzzing and I came home with some great finds.fresh, colorful eggs.
peonies that won't last long but are worth every penny.
sweet berries.
a flat of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, and squash. Just enough to get our little garden started for the year. No time for seeds this go round- but I am certainly ready to get my hands dirty today.