Accessories. If there is one thing I really need to work on, it’s my ability to accessorize.
I sometimes look at girls who walk around in their fabulous outfits and think “Howwww do they do that?! They look so amazing!” and I would realise that not only are they wearing “outfits” (as opposed to “just clothes” that I throw on every morning when I’m in a rush to get to work), but their accessories are perfectly coordinated and make the whole thing look “just right.”
Clearly, I will need to wear some jewellery on my wedding day. I had initially thought about wearing the red heart Swarovski necklace Jack bought me for Christmas last year, but as the neckline on my dress is pretty high and has enough detail already, I won’t be.
When I first met Jack, I had loads of piercings, and the majority of those were in my ears. I had a rook (top one—left photo), a tragus (middle one—left photo), an orbital (the hoop on the right photo—my absolute fave), and five lobe piercings.
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All photos personal
We’re all guilty of it—giving in to the constant barrage of Western culture telling us that our biggest, most special day ever is the perfect time to spend oodles of money on silly, unnecessary things. American consumerism at it’s finest! All those fancy wedding blogs only make things worse. Well, of course I absolutely must have fun sunglasses at our wedding. And let’s not forget a new, special perfume just for the big day! Did someone say paper parasols? Those would look amazing in our wedding photos. I’m ordering nine of them!
Image source via: lazygamer.net
And that’s how you end up spending all of your hard earned cash on silly, unnecessary things. Right now I feel like I could just take my paycheck, turn it into a paper airplane and just sail it off the top of a skyscraper. Poof! Gone forever.
So why all this unnecessary spending? I think that part of me is terrified that I will look back on our wedding with regret. I will lie awake at night sweating over the sparkler exit that we skipped because I didn’t feel like spending $65 on sparklers. I hate feeling regret. What a silly emotion because of course, we can never go back and fix things so it’s best to just accept things as they are and move on. Unfortunately, my brain does not often listen to reason and I assure you that I will still lie awake at night regretting stupid, irrelevant things. So, in a frantic attempt to bypass future regret, I have plowed full speed ahead into unnecessary wedding details. Right now I have 100% control over what will and will not be purchased for our wedding and I feel like it’s now or never for these little special splurges. We are only weeks away and my checking account has been feeling it hard lately!
And so, without further ado, I bring you the insanity that is an American wedding:
1) A Signature Scent
I had my second dress fitting recently, and so far all is good! Bridesmaid A came along with me for squeeing, moral support, and photo-taking (thanks, boo!). It had been nearly three months since my first fitting, so it was exciting to see the dress again and what changes had been made. Because I’m on the shorter side, the seamstress had previously cut a lot from the bottom of the dress during the first fitting. This time around, the bottom had been hemmed and looked brand new. As for the bodice, there still needs to be a few inches taken in on both sides as well as right above my hips (thank you, MyFitnessPal and P90X!), which I think will be finished in time for my third fitting next week.
For this second fitting I had all the same accessories I brought along the first time, with the addition of my wedding-day jewelry from Etsy (delivered one day before the fitting). I had this necklace and these earrings favorited on Etsy for MONTHS—I knew I had to have them when I initially read the words “vintage” and “peacock” in the description. So I finally decided to pull the trigger a few weeks ago…and I absolutely love them!!
Image via Etsy shop Azure Treasures
Once I had my dress and my shoes, it was time to accessorize!
During the not one, not two, but three times I went to try on my dress while I was contemplating the purchase, the consultants at I Do Too were happy to “jack me up,” as they say, with the outrageously overpriced accessory stash they had in the store.
Back up—I should say they were overpriced for my budget. Yes, I will admit to dropping $300 on a pair of shoes, but I wasn’t able to spend that much (or more) on jewelry or a headpiece for the big day. It was hard to resist—I definitely fell in love with several of the pieces the consultants at I Do Too showed me. But in the end, they were still above what I was comfortable spending. So, I did what any thrifty bride would do—I turned to Etsy!
First, I found a pair of pink pearl earrings from an Etsy shop called Twisted Silver Design. Because my dress is fairly simple, I wanted to echo that simplicity in my jewelry. These fit the bill perfectly.
Image via Twisted Silver Design on Etsy
Hive, I am having a necklace dilemma.
I love large (slightly obnoxious) jewelry. I have been on the statement necklace bandwagon since I was about 14. I love to wear a basic outfit with a bold pop of jewelry. Also, one of the perks of having a small chest is that I can rock long, chunky necklaces to my heart’s desire.
When it came to planning my bridal look, of course, I was all about the dress. I wanted the dress to be gorgeous and classic. And thankfully, it is turning out the be absolutely beautiful. (I am having it custom made.) So here is the problem: I have no idea how to incorporate jewelry. I want to find pieces that reflect my personality, but I don’t want to draw attention away from the dress. The neckline of the dress is rather dramatic and, realistically, I should probably just nix a necklace altogether. But deep in my heart of hearts I have to make sure I absolutely can’t make it work. Yes, I could wear bold earrings instead, but it just doesn’t feel the same.
Here are a few contenders:
1. Paro Necklace by St Erasmus
Image via St. Erasmus
We haven’t really decided what we’re doing for our send-off at the end of the evening, but we do know one thing for certain—we’ll be walking back to the hotel.
It’s a five-minute walk away, so not a journey long enough to warrant a beautiful car. Nor do we really want to get a taxi…plus, walking around Brighton is so us.
The Lanes are beautiful—who wouldn’t want a leisurely stroll down these streets at gone midnight?
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Image via Dean Harvey at Brighton Daily Photo
So with that decided, I realised that upon leaving our reception we’d hit the cool autumn air. September weather has been pretty good these past few years, so I’m hoping the temperature won’t be too low, but I will probably need a little something to keep the chill off my arms.
Now a part of me wishes it would be cold enough so I could wear a coat or cloak of some kind. Did anyone else drool over DeathByDesign’s cloak?
I had my first dress fitting last Thursday and it gave me an opportunity to give my new wedding accessories a spin to see how they look together with the dress. Now that I finally know what I will be wearing, I’d like to share some of my wedding accessories with you, starting with the most important one: the headpiece.
Image 1 via Dolores Petunia; Image 2 via Twigs and Honey; Image 3 via Erica Elizabeth Designs; Image 4 via: Amanda Judge
The days of rocking only a veil on your wedding day are long gone. There’s an overwhelming number and variety of bridal headpieces that you can wear on your big day. I knew that I didn’t want to wear a veil or a large flower, but that left a dizzying array of options from all over the internet. The biggest issue? Price. Many headpieces run anywhere from $100 to $700! I know girls who don’t even have a $700 dress budget! Unfortunately, the very high cost deterred me from purchasing any of the lovely headpieces above, but I did use them as inspiration to find something more in my price range.
Read more…
We all know the phrase, “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a silver sixpence in her shoe.” (OK, maybe not everyone is familiar with the last part (myself included) until Mrs. Archer sent me her sixpence to use on my wedding day. Yay!)
My guess is we’ve all probably wondered what we’d use for each of our “somethings” on our wedding day at some point during the planning process. That said, I’m a big advocate for making your wedding your own and making it unique and personal to yourself and your partner. So who cares if you have all your somethings picked out way in advance or if you scrap them all together? Since there was a piece of me that wanted to complete my “somethings,” I decided to go ahead with them, but in my own special way.
Something old: Grandma Sword’s handkerchief, passed down to her from the Grandmother who raised her. Her Grandmother received the hankie as a gift when she was working at a hospital in the 1930/1940′s. The handkerchief is decorated with beautiful Japanese embroidery, and my favorite part is that you can’t tell which side is the front and which side is the back. Does anyone know what that technique is called?
Something new: Our family tartan! While the standard answers of dress, shoes, and jewelry are also fitting, there’s nothing quite as new as our newly minted tartan! It doesn’t exist anywhere else. Mr. Sword and I designed it together and had it wove in Scotland and then shipped to the US. Boss Lady has made me a beautiful tartan shawl to wear on the wedding day and I couldn’t be more thrilled to match Mr. Sword’s kilt!
Alternatively titled: “My Irrational Fear of Having Kids in the Wedding Party”
Sooooo, basically I never, ever, EVER thought I would include flower girls or ring bearers in my wedding day.
Although kids are, in fact, absolutely adorable, I just never really envisioned them being involved in my wedding. This probably stems from the fact that as a guest at weddings in the past, every time the bride and groom had flower girls or ring bearers, inevitably I’d be distracted by whatever the kids were doing instead of paying attention to the happy couple’s vows. They’d start crying, or sit down at the front of the church, lift up their dresses, and show their undergarments to everyone in attendance, wouldn’t stand still, would start talking right in the middle of the ceremony, would pick their nose, play with the basket or pillow or whatever they were holding…you get the picture; it goes on and on. And I don’t expect little kids to be able to handle the flower girl/ring bearer job flawlessly. When you’re five years old, standing in front of a huge group of people for 20 minutes probably is the last thing you’d want to be doing, and I don’t fault them for it. In fact, I’ve come to expect ceremony shenanigans when kids are part of the wedding party. It just comes with the territory, basically. And I knew I didn’t really want those shenanigans at my wedding.
Remember when I introduced my dress and said I was excited to make it my own? Well this post is just about that! I also posted about shoes and whether or not I should splurge for expensive heels or go with a simple sandal. This girl is still undecided! But today let’s talk about wedding jewelry.
I’ve seen a lot of pictures lately with necklaces that look something like this, and they kind of make me swoon. Especially the ones with birdcage/short veils because that’s what I’ll be wearing!
Image via A Low Country Wedding / Photo by Tamiz Photography
Happy Valentine’s Day, hive!
Our sweet friend Jackie of Merci New York launched her line of stylist-approved lingerie, accessories and clutches, specifically for brides. Since getting a sneak peek of them at market this year I couldn’t wait to share them with all of you, and with a discount code available today only in honor of V-Day, what perfect timing!
These romantic little pieces of arm candy are embellished with vintage-inspired brooches…perfect for bridesmaids gifts, but even more perfect for yourself. How cute would your bridesmaids looks carrying one in each color?
Classic Coral Faux Leather Clutch
It’s time for a “How To” on the necklaces MOH Big Eyes and I made for the women in the bridal party. I say this with the utmost sincerity, please do not try this at home. In fact, don’t ever attempt to make jewelry out of wool. It’s just a bad idea. Wool is not a good medium for creating pretty, dainty things. But DO make the necklace, just use different fabric.
THAT SAID, we did the best with what we had. And I think our necklaces turned out absolutely gorgeous, thanks to Sister Big Eyes and her ingenuity.
There were a lot of ideas thrown around over the past few months regarding bracelets and necklaces and the tartan fabric. The question was how could we gift the bridal party a piece of our family tartan? (The men will get to keep their bouts even though they’ll never have another reason to wear them. They’ll probably just hold on to them for sentiment’s sake, HA!) Ladies of the Sword bridal party feel free to read on about all the frustration love that went into your jewelry! 
Let’s start with the inspiration for this necklace.
image via Pinterest
If you click on the link to Pinterest you’ll find lots of ideas and versions of this beautiful necklace. Most fabrics will move a lot easier than wool. Two things to note about working with tartan fabric, 1) It is very stiff and doesn’t bend well, 2) It frays badly immediately after being cut.
Great, now that you’re excited, here is the step-by-step version of how we made our very own washer necklaces with our tartan fabric.
STEP ONE: BUY YOUR SUPPLIES. You’ll need enough washers for each necklace and Sister Big Eyes says odd numbers look best, so we figured about seven per necklace plus quite a few extras. We also decided we wanted to paint the washers, so picked up ivory and forest green spray paint.
I knew I wanted to gift my girls something awesome. Save my sister, I’ve been in (or will be) in all my ‘maids’ weddings, and they were incredibly generous with their gifts…like, really generous. Plus, they took a lot of the good ideas!
First, in lieu of a card, I got everyone a copy of this book:
(Photo via Deep Discount / Book by Sandol Stoddard Warburg)
We’re using part of it as one of our readings, and I love how it appropriately translates from how I feel about Wolfman to how I feel about my ‘maids. Some sample pages:
You all know the saying: something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.
These are the things that every bride is supposed to have with her on her wedding day. I’ve always loved this little tradition, and was happy to fulfill it (and go above and beyond, really) on my wedding day. Here are my “somethings.”
Something old: I wore a brooch on my dress from the 1940s. I hope that someday, I can pass it down to my daughter or daughter-in-law to wear on her wedding day.
Something new: I had lots of new things. My dress, bolero, veil, necklace, shoes, and wedding ring were all new, but I guess if I had to pick just one thing, it’d have to be my dress.
I have this fashion philosophy that for every outfit, there should be just one “wow” component. If I’m wearing a print, everything else will be somewhat neutral. Statement necklace means the rest of my accessories are simple. If I’m wearing something short, then I won’t show any cleavage. Some people are really good at knowing when to mix prints or layer necklaces—I’m just not one of those people, and it helps me to focus on one element.
Long winded intro, but for my wedding look, I’m trying to decide what my “wow” accessory is going to be. I’ve decided this is going to be one of three things: earrings, a belt, or a hair piece.
Before I get into options, here’s something I’ve already picked out: a simple necklace.
(Photo via Edor on Etsy)
I got this one, except for two hearts. Super simple, and brings in some of my green color. (Side note: I am OBSESSED with Edor. I can’t remember how I first found the shop, but it’s perfect for minimalist, everyday jewelry—super affordable too. I think everyone I know has been gifted an Edor necklace from me recently.)
So, I have some places to play around. Perhaps some spangly earrings that bring in my colors?
