You know when...

You haven't visited your blog in awhile when it disappears from the favorites on your Mac. Woops!
Life has been maddeningly busy for the last month, or month and a half... I've lost count. We've been putting efforts into wrapping up house projects before the gray days of winter are upon us and we're wrapping presents. Anyways, I was browsing along this rainy morning with my coffee and hand and stumbled across this funny wedding invitation I had to share...

                  {via delightfully engaged}


It's not for me (the style, obviously not the invite!) but its cute, funny and well designed. And kudos to groom for designing it!

I'm Loving

These curtains....

{via Grey Likes Weddings}

Glamour in the rough...

{via Grey Likes Weddings}

Ribbon Candy Cake....

{via Ruffled}

This kiss....

{source unknown}

Vintage Keys

I've got a lot to catch up on but I just got inspired to share this with you for now... I've been seeing a lot of vintage keys in decor recently, both wedding and home. A recent wedding featured on Style Me Pretty (and one which I had to physically push my jaw shut with my hand I was gaping so) had vintage keys as both seating cards and as favors for the guests. And I just stumbled across this frontpage post on vintage keys by Inspired By This.

{39 East Photography}

{Brandon Kidd Photography}

I have what would to most of you seem like a massive collection of vintage keys that I acquired when my grandfather passed away. For a long time I thought that I might incorporate them into my wedding but as each year passes I find that their sentimental value to me is now worth much more than any aesthetic value. What is truly amazing about my grandfather's collection (of which I have about 1/3) is that each key tells a little bit of his history and had we spent time over the years looking at each and everyone carefully there might be a very detailed story for each. I have two favorite pieces; one is a working padlock with key and the other is a key that extends to about six inches and folds into itself. Very cool. I'm looking for a way to further incorporate them into my home decor (maybe I'll fold and hang a few as our Bride and Groom markers on our chairs) but other than that, I don't think I could bear to part with the memory of my grandpa. 

{if this is your image, I'm sorry... I can't remember where I found it...}

I also recently acquired an old typewriter that was my maternal grandmother's... It's nice to have pieces that while old and relatively meaningless in this digital world still can serve a function in this day and age.

And yes, I did hang one of my globe lights! I was so excited and I am still so in love with it. Although the entryway is not used as an entryway that "room" is currently my favorite because of the soft color. One thing is that we need to install a dimmer as a 60-watt bulb in the thing is like a spotlight!

Droolworthy

Somehow it just seems like I can't help it: I have to post about my house. I just stumbled across these photos on Erin ever After and I'm in heaven. My only full bath can be described, at best, as gross. After we do the scraping and painting that is the first floor my bathroom is #1 priority. We're taking a sledgehammer to the thing and breaking some ceramic. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself but that is what I really want to do.

This I love. 

 I have been brainstorming ways to turn the bathroom into an all out shower room- tiles on the ceiling and floors with drainage in the floor- but it just seems a little bit cumbersome and too modern for this old colonial. Not to mention not cheap and our current bathroom is smaller than well, lets just say its small and the space is tight. 

The other consideration is that, as much as I am daily falling in love with our house as we make it ever more ours, we both know that its probably a 5 year (max 10 year) home so we need to have a bathtub for resale. I'm not much digging on the large concrete and wood slabs but the glass enclosure with two shower heads and a clawfoot tub thrown in is awesome. 

On another note, my globe lights arrive today and I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve. 

Friday Night Impulse Purchases

I know that I'm supposed to be posting more about my wedding planning and occasionally putting in a house posting here and there... Between salmonella and trying to put my house in as tip-top order while undergoing some seriously messy projects, I've been doing not a whole lot of wedding planning... uh oh!
I have however made two awesome slight impulse purchases. The first being, I ordered these shoes from Target. I know that shoes from Target never last very long but I guess that that is what I was going for.

I have been wanting a pair of cowgirl boots but I haven't been able to commit to the purchase and these seem to be the perfect thing to test out. If I like the look and can swing the style maybe I'll commit to a more cowgirl-worthy pair.

Second, I have made a snap decision on an entryway light. I have been coveting the Globe Pendant lights from West Elm since I found out about West Elm like two years ago (yes, I might have been living under a rock). I had wanted to do the three pendant lights together as pictured in the catalog and website for our dining/kitchen area but frankly, I don't know how to splice and dice wires and it seemed just a little bit risky and perhaps a little bit of a fire hazard in our 85 year old home. I settled on our entryway which I just repainted in Ecru from Benjamin Moore and I am SO EXCITED for it to arrive.

I don't know, maybe its a tad wee bit of a boring light but I love it. And I was as thrilled to know that BR loves them just as much and wanted to put one in the upstairs hallway as well. He also jumped on the lighting train and told me that the ceiling fan in our living room (ugly, brown and fake wood) has Got-To-Go ( I could have jumped out of my seat in complete adoration and smooch him on the cheeks that is how ecstatic I was). We're going to wait out the winter months to see if having a ceiling fan is useful, as the ceiling is so high, and then we're going to either pick out a fantastic chandelier or a better ceiling fan with a light.

Photographers

When I first started on the hunt for a wedding photographer a good friend pointed me in the direction of Justin and Mary Marantz. I liked their photographs but back then I had no idea what I was looking for. I eventually contacted them- they were free on our date!- and then dropped the ball and someone else snatched them up. What was attracting me to them was that they were also married at the Branford House and that they had a lot of experience working at the venue.

{Justin and Mary}

This photo that I stumbled across yesterday made me breathe a big sigh... It's just so beautiful. It makes me almost want a veil (I have nearly ruled one out) and it makes me want a replication of this photo {insert BR + Me}.

{Justin and Mary}

All of this having been said, I am extremely excited to be working with our photographers Oh! Darling Photography. Whitney and Dustin are possibly two of the sweetest people (albeit, we've only met via Skype thus far) and I do feel like we'll be great friends *fingers crossed*. We have our engagement shoot coming up which I'm a bit nervous about (I'm not photogenic at all) and we have some major planning to do surrounding all of that!

Bright Shoes

{via 100layercake}

{via 100layercake}

I love how brides are adding their own tastes to the traditional. Modern times call for modern brides!