Weddingbee

Mamita Pom is often seen wearing fabulous jewelry designed and created by her good friend Lisa. She has earrings galore from Christmas and birthdays past—and they have always been meticulously made, oh-so-Bohemian, one-of-a-kind creations. So of course, when Lisa offered to help me make my wedding day jewelry, I eagerly nodded “yes!”

Before discussing my design ideas with Lisa, I wandered around the blogosphere searching aimlessly for inspiration. I wanted something different, but subtle. Something that would accent the simple lines of my dress and add a little sparkle to our wedding day. When I stumbled on to this collection of celebrities wearing long necklaces, I fell head over heels. I mean, check out this gorgeousness—how can you not swoon?!

Image via wireimage.com via entertainment.uk.msn.com
Isn’t the fringed diamond necklace that Nicole Kidman is wearing here just delicious?


Image via wireimage.com via entertainment.uk.msn.com
I love this pearl and gold combo that Naomi is rockin’!


Image via wireimage.com via entertainment.uk.msn.com
Jennifer Beals is wearing a nice simple collection of necklaces that I think work well together.

Image via wireimage.com via entertainment.uk.msn.com
Ooh, Uma! I think I’m in love with your necklace!

So it was set—I decided that I really wanted a simple long sterling silver chain accented with a random assortment of sparkling objects. I asked Lisa what I would need to purchase so that she could put it all together—and as Tim Gunn says, “make it work!” She made me up a list and I headed to the bead store, or as I like to call it, “Heaven.”

What I bought: 100 inches of fine sterling silver rolo chain, a strand of large glass teardrop crystals, a half dozen small crystal briolets, a half dozen tiny freshwater rock pearls, seven square freshwater pearls, a bag of sterling silver beads, and two sizes of rhinestone beads.

This past weekend, Lisa came up to drop off a little DISE surprise she had created for my bridesmaids, and to put together my bridal bling. We unpacked my bead store findings and she got to work while I knitted my shrug and my mom worked on some other black glittered projects.

The unpacked goodies were placed on a ridged dish so that Lisa could easily grab pieces as needed.

Lisa planned out the necklace by placing groups of beads next to the chain to see how it would look when finished.

One of my favorite things about having Lisa create my wedding day jewelry was that she’d say a little prayer when finishing a section. Every so often, she’d call out, “this one is for a baby!” or, “this one is for fighting fair!” They were all random and she wouldn’t know when one would come along until she had the feeling for it. Each of the prayers were for a positive influence on our marriage and would give us good luck when I wore the finished necklace on our wedding day.

Image via SunflowersDesigns @ Etsy
Here I am modeling the final product.


Image via SunflowersDesigns @ Etsy
A closer look at the entire necklace.


Image via SunflowersDesigns @ Etsy
Some of the random details. Please excuse my linty tank top!


Image via SunflowersDesigns @ Etsy
Another close up of some of the random pieces.

I absolutely love how it turned out! I can wear it many different ways, as it’s one long necklace—almost 124 inches long—so I can wear it wrapped around as a shorter layered necklace, a choker, or a longer draped necklace. It will definitely get some use on special occasions!

Best of all, I managed to convince Lisa to open up an Etsy shop, called SunflowersDesigns, so that other brides-to-be could benefit from her fabulous beading skills. It’s her first online store, so she was pretty stoked to have me there to help her technologically-not-so-savvy self set up her shop. It was the least I could do in thanks for all of her beautiful work. I’m super excited to see the other custom pieces she ends up creating in the process.

What kind of jewelry are you wearing on your wedding day?

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