It’s that time again! Another amazing thing for your wedding! Since I have started the Honor Roll, I have wanted to showcase calligraphy, it is a wonderful way to introduce your guests to your fabulous wedding. And I also really wanted to share this with you because I happen to know a fabulous calligrapher! Her name is Shannon and she is great at what she does! I grew up with Shannon and have many crazy memories of lip-syncing to Back Street Boys or N*Sync… yea we were pretty cool… haha anyway… on to Shannon’s Spectacular work!

Shannon also sent along this nice little list of why calligraphy is important and I whole-heartedly agree!!

Reasons why calligraphy is important:

- sets the tone for the invitations – if you are spending hundreds on your invitation suite, you don’t want the envelope to look sloppy

- often the first piece of official information regarding the nuptials

- not just weddings – holidays, birthdays, graduation announcements, birth announcements, etc.  (who really wants to address 50+ birth announcements when they could be spending time with their newborn instead?)

I also think a hand written address on an invitation is so much nicer than a typed one. It makes your guests feel special!

I also wanted to include the envelope that Shannon sent her Christmas card in, when I saw it, I immediately knew it was from her, I love getting real mail especially pretty mail! Isn’t that how you want your guests to feel about your wedding invitations? So, it has been three months since I got Shannon’s card and I still have it and the envelope because the calligraphy was so special! I am sure with all the work you are putting into your invitations it would be really neat to hear that your guests kept the invite because it was so beautiful! Here it is: (sorry for the bad picture, I took it with my phone…)

Lovely isn’t it?? You can find Shannon at www.calligraphybyshannon.blogspot.com Check her out!

Happy Wednesday!

–Lindsay

So, I said the honor roll was going to be a weekly thing… well last week I was having too much fun in the snow to worry about honor roll, but this week we are back on track!

For any of you who have been following the blog for a little while know that I LOVE great shoes, I love great shoes all the time but they are especially wonderful when worn by a bride! I knew that great shoes were important to me for our wedding so, in the 13 months that we were engaged I bought at least 5 different pairs of shoes for our big day! Crazy, I know but they were all pretty affordable, and fabulous, so I had to. I just had to, if you don’t get it you are probably a man and only own 3 pairs of shoes and you are ok with that, and I am ok with that. But I am a woman, and was a bride and I needed great shoes.

Here are my great shoes that I wore at my wedding. They were great! Comfy, flat, fabulous, and hot pink!

On to the honor roll recipients. This first pair are sooo cute, and if I could have worn heels, I would have gotten these. I love the ribbon detail and the hot pink color. These are by Stewart Weitzman and the style is called “Gigiritz”. They are a little steep at $298.00, but girls, wouldn’t they be fabulous? Yes, they would. End of story.  I found these at zappos.com.

Now, if you are more traditional and say, “Well, I still want white shoes to go with the whole white dress thing…” Well, girly, there are shoes for that too! I found these at Nordstroms (they have THE BEST shoe selection) and they were calling my name, “Lindsay, Lindsay, you love me, come buy me!” But, with no weddings for me in the future and a husband who would kill me if I bought $428.00 shoes… I won’t be purchasing these beauties any time soon… nope, not me, maybe you? Yes, you pretty little bride out there, you should buy them for your wedding! They are Cole Hann’s and like I said, you can find them at Nordstroms. (I wont say the price again, because it is a little scary…)

And, if you are like me, and your groom is the same height as you, you are going to want to wear flats for your wedding day! And as an added bonus, they are way more comfortable! These cuties come in a few different colors, but the green just caught my eye! They are the most affordable at $45.90 from Blowfish and I found them on zappos.com as well. Flats are great too, because you are more likely to wear them again and how great to remember your wedding day just by putting on a cute pair of shoes? Yes it is fun.Well, that wraps up today’s honor roll, aren’t great shoes just great? I think so. They would be a great detail to add to your day. It would be neat to get shoes that match your bridesmaids dresses so then you all match! How cute? Oh- there are just a million different things that you can do with great shoes on your wedding day, and on top of all that your photographer will have something fun to take pictures of!

Hope you all are having a great week so far! It’s moving along around here… not too happy about more possible snow this weekend! Ready for spring! Who is with me?? haha We have a baby shoot this Saturday so keep checking back to see pictures of the little one!

–lindsay

Whoa, has been a while, long time no see… Sorry about that, things have been a little slow around here, picture taking wise. Life is always moving fast but we are definitely in our off season for photography. So, in effort to blog more, I have come up with The Smiths Honor Roll. The honor roll will highlight something for your wedding, something for your married life (I should know what is good for married life, I am practically an expert after a whole year and a half of being married… right…) or just something I found that I am liking at the moment! So, for the very first time, I would like to introduce you to our first honor roll recipient, Pretty Hangers.

Oh, you may be thinking that hangers on your wedding day are not that important, and maybe you have a lot of other things to think about… but a pretty hanger is a pretty easy way to add some pretty to your special day. When you look back at your pictures, you don’t want to think… “eww look at that gross, plastic hanger holding up my gorgeous wedding dress!” You want to think, “Aww look at that beautiful dress hanging on that pretty hanger!” A simple pretty hanger makes a world of difference. I wish I would have thought of this for our wedding, my dress pictures are beautiful, but my dress is hanging on that weird cardboard mannequin thing…

So, here are some specific hangers that have made the honor roll.

This first one is just a simple beauty. Imagine that bow in your wedding colors?? You can find this pretty one here, it is by tokyoblues on etsy.com. You can probably find something like it in the lingerie section at big department stores.

The second pretty hanger is personalized. How special. This is your big day, all about you and your fiance getting married, personalized details are so special! I found this one on one of the boards at The Wedding Bee. She has a whole tutorial on how to make your own!

This one is my personal favorite. Can’t you just imagine your bright white wedding dress hanging on this beautiful hanger in the summer time! Love it! Who will be my next bride to get one? You can find them here by Knicknackpaddywack and she also has other cute things for weddings on her site. Also on etsy.com, I just love etsy!!

There you have it, the first ever Honor Roll from The Smiths. Be sure to check back for more Honor Roll Recipients from time to time… hopefully weekly…

Have a great week,

–Lindsay