HaselBride

Hasel at EAD Living

Just a quick break from the wedding recaps (I'm aiming for two to three a week, by the way) to let you know that I am the newest blogger over at EAD Living!

Ami, the editor and publisher of Elizabeth Anne Designs, invited me to join the team of bloggers writing about life, travel, cooking, crafting, etc. at the suggestion of Erin from Blue-Eyed Bride. I am so excited to be able to share some of my experiences as a newlywed without the pressure of daily posts, creating a new blog, etc. Thanks, Ami, for asking me!

After the wedding recaps are complete, I hope to transition HaselBride into a source for fellow winter brides and eventually start my own blog where I can share more about my newlywed life, being a military spouse,  working in graphic design, etc. I am thrilled to have that outlet at EAD Living: head on over and check out my first post.

More Ways to Waste Time

Just wanted to share a few lovely sites I've been browsing lately while avoiding work and/or other chores. I am the queen of procrastination.

Rebecca Thuss online portfolio
This is a no-brainer as many bloggers link to it, but I discovered it early on in planning and it had fallen to the back of my mind. I spent a few hours just going through all of the images on her site the other day. So inspiring! If you've looked at it before, take a look again. I'm sure you'll discover something you hadn't noticed the first time.

Minted
From the design challenges to their gorgeous wedding invitations {available for purchase online} from brands like Paper + Cup and Mr. Boddington's {one of my favorites}, you could spend hours pouring through all of the different designs.

Jenny Packham
I can't remember if I mentioned it, but here goes. While I was very happy {and relieved} to find a wedding gown while my mom was in Mississippi, I am kind of sad I won't get to try on dresses anymore. It was exciting and fulfilling some little girl dream to try so many dresses on. I adore shopping, so that was probably my favorite part of wedding planning. In place of that I've been pouring through all the lovely gowns on the Jenny Packham website. Not only are they fabulous, but the website is incredibly innovative {although it does use Flash, which isn't exactly user-friendly}. The draping, the pleating...it is all so gorgeous. Oh and design*sponge's Grace will be wearing Jenny Packham when she walks down the aisle. Her post prompted me to spend some time pursuing the website.

Southern Weddings magazine blog
Looks like another fab wedding magazine will be hitting the market this fall. For now, their blog features great real weddings and tons of contests.

So there you have it...the things I've been reading/looking at lately. If you're not going away or don't have plans for this upcoming holiday weekend, now you have some reading material! Enjoy!

Catching Up

I'm back and have a lot to catch you up on {and to get caught up myself...I am so behind! Yay for procrastination!}.

First things first, our friends' beautiful wedding went off without a hitch, although the weather and the Air Force tried to put a kink in things. Some of the guests missed connecting flights and had to drive the rest of the way because of the rain; and because of a spur-of-the-moment Air Force related trip to Texas, Nick {the best man} nearly missed the whole thing. Luckily his flight arrived just in time for the luncheon/groomsmen hangout on Saturday morning, and I filled in as planned on at the rehearsal Friday night.

J and K at the altar with the back of Nick's head to the left; Nick and I after the ceremony.

I'm hoping to be able to share some of the details from the wedding with you, but the bride and groom {after a 24 hour drive to their new home out West} are about to embark on their honeymoon so it will have to wait until they return. We had a wonderful time, chatting and dancing with all of our college friends. I looked at Nick at one point and said, "I can't wait until December!" It WILL be great, but first I have to get caught up AND make some big decisions!

I've got some great posts coming very soon; hopefully I'll be able to get some of those up later this week. I'm in a bit of a transition right now {more on that later} and super busy after work and freelance clients {and life in general}! Haha.

That's Tops

Holy Cow! The lovely Houston-based photographer Christine Tremoulet suggested HaselBride in her list of wedding blogs for Alltop {a collection of stories from "all the top" websites} to add to their newly created wedding channel. My little ol' blog is featured right up there with Style Me Pretty and Weddingbee. How exciting! I've said it before and I'll say it again–I love this community we bride bloggers have created.

So hello to any new readers out there! I hope you'll stay awhile and introduce yourself.

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{Read more about how Christine got the ball rolling here.}

To Assign or Not to Assign: that is the question.

Great discussion going on over at the Weddingbee boards: to assign or not assign seats?

This has been an ongoing conversation in my mind and with my mother, and I have to agree with many of the people who are for it. It creates more work, but also adds another way to incorporate the colors and them into the reception site.

I am leaning more and more towards assigned tables, but unassigned seats. I want to be sure our families are able to sit together because I am planning a group photograph of my mother's entire family immediately following the wedding. My mother has six brothers and sisters and we haven't taken a professional photo since one of my older cousins was married six or seven years ago. My cousins are beginning to have children of their own and I want to document the occasion with a photo of us all. I know it will take some time and wrangling and I want to be sure they still sit near us at the reception. I think the best way to ensure this is to assign tables.

My reception venue (a hotel) wants us to have someone at the door to make sure people can find their correct table. With a giant chalkboard like in the wedding featured in New York magazine's Winter 2007 wedding issue, how could they miss it?

Image © New York magazine, photography by Shawn Connel for Christian Oth.

Thank you! And you!

A huge thank you to Abby from Style Me Pretty for mentioning little ol' Hasel Bride in a recent post about new wedding blogs.

I was thrilled to come back from a wonderful long weekend with my fiance in Atlanta to so many comments from new readers. Thank you for the warm welcome and kind words. I loved reading each and every one of them. Keep them coming! I hope you all will continue to join me on my journey to a fabulous winter wedding. I will be back tomorrow Wednesday afternoon with all-new posts! {marathon phone call with matron of honor put me off schedule!}

Image from Style Me Pretty.