Life. Love. Lipstick.

I honestly don’t do my fair share of donating and volunteering.  I really don’t have extra time, and feel like I “need” every dime I have.  However, photographer Erin Hession made a blog post today that caught my attention from the second I saw the beautiful smile of Jessica.

Taken from Erin’s blog:

“This incredible woman with the beautiful smile is Jessica Dean, she has an amazing story and she needs your help. Her best friend, also named Jessica (Jess) is a regular on my blog and we’ve done a ton of photo shoots for her and her family. Well, a few years ago, we met Jessica Dean through her friend Jess when we found out that Jess was throwing Jessica a surprise bridal shower. You see, Jessica never had the big wedding…she never had the dream dress or all of the pomp and circumstance that goes with most weddings because her fiance had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. In order to get him the help he needed financially (mostly through her insurance) they decided to marry in a courthouse to make it legal and begin their lives fighting to save his. She sat with him in the hospital rooms, drove him to and from appointments and stuck with him through everything. She dealt with this for 2 years until he decided he wanted to move on with his life and surprised her by filing for divorce recently. Their divorce became final the same week that she found out that she now has breast cancer. She has already been through one surgery and has at least 2 more scheduled soon…she will be dealing with chemo and radiation treatments, an MRI, wigs and even more travel expenses over the next few months.

Her best friend, Jess, contacted me about this last week and we came up with a plan to help Jessica financially through this journey. Jess is selling raffle tickets at work and online through a new website that she set up called Jessica’s Fund. Local businesses have donated products and services for her to raffle off as donations come in through the website. For every $10 that is donated, your name will be placed in the drawing twice and for every $20 that is donated, your name will be placed in the drawing for 5 chances to win one of the awesome prizes she’s raffling off. We donated a gift card for a free portrait session with a high resolution CD included (valued at $599.00), a local dentist office donated a free Zoom whitening session, an optometrist donated a gift certificate for free glasses/frames and more donations from local restaurants and businesses have been pouring in over the last few days…so there are a few ways we’re asking for help from our faithful blog readers:

1. You can make a donation on her website (and indicate “Raffle” in the subject line) which will automatically enter you into the drawing for the great prizes and most importantly, it will help a very worthwhile cause!

2. If you are a local business owner or manager and would like to donate something for the raffle, please contact Jess at Jessica@JessicasFund.com

3. Or if you’re like us, you can do both!

The drawing will be held in about two weeks and Jess has not told Jessica about any of this…it’s all a complete surprise…hope she doesn’t follow this blog! LOL  So, if any of you know her, please do not tell her about this, we want to try to keep it a surprise for her. Jess will be surprising her with the savings deposit slip showing the amount of money we’ve all helped raise for her when she does the raffle drawing with her in 2 weeks. I’m so lucky to have such amazing clients like the two of them that I can call my friends. ”

So Please, please, take the time to make a donation.  I will be doing so, even though I live too far away from Erin’s area (Indianapolis, IN) to even collect the prize.  I am going to specify that if I were to win the raffle, Jessica is to have my prize.  I urge you to do the same.

I have got to give Miss Lovebug from WeddingBee a huge pat on the back for making these awesome VIP passes for her close friends. Not having a bridal party, she still wanted to have her close pals get ready with her on her wedding day. So she made “backstage passes” as a symbolic way of inviting her friends to join her in the excitement of wedding preparation. I adore this idea, and hers are super cute!

Oh WOW, this wedding is amazing, and the photography… well, it’s off the charts!  There aren’t words to describe the awesomeness.  Just a couple of screenshots here…  You’ll have to go visit the LM blog if you want to see the rest (and trust me, you DO).

I have been working on this board for a long time.  I’ve been really busy, and have been very choosy about what is on this one.  I guess that’s because it is one of my top color scheme ideas for my own wedding, so it had to perfectly fit my vision.  What is that vision, you ask?  Eclectic, kitschy, gypsy-boho-yet-modern-and-crisp.  Weird, I know.  But I love the end result!  This scheme defies defining specific shades and hues.. it incorporates many shades of blue and green.  Inspired by the moon brooch, here it is…

Credits:

• Paisley invite by Wedding Paper Divas
• Ribbon ceremony decor – source not noted (oops)
• Green sash from knottie bancbev
• Moon brooch from Reed’s Jewelers
• Table setting from Love and Splendor
• Groom and his cronies from Perspecta Photography
• Shoes from PolkaDot Bride

I was skimming through my feed updates, when this photo caught my eye…

I seriously had NO IDEA that you could get chivari* chairs in so many different colors! This is exciting news for me, as I love a pop of color in unexpected places.

Thanks to Soiree Special Events for informing me! This picture were taken on a visit to Party Rental LTD. The rest of the post is here.

* Is it chivari or chiavari? I’ve seen it both ways.

I tend to lean toward simple in the area of wedding-planning, but every once in awhile, I like an extra dose of glamour and romance.  Enter crystals.  Crystals dripping from centerpieces, trees, ceilings… I love the glamour it creates, without being too much.

In the last few years that I’ve followed wedding trends, crystals have always played a part.  However, it used to be just a subtle touch here and there.  I first saw crystals as a wedding must-have probably 4 years ago.  Silver candleabras with crystals dropping from them were all the rage on the knot.  Now, the glimmering strands are hanging from any surface imaginable!  Take a look at what I have come across in just the last month alone.

From Boutwell Studio…

From Love and Splendor…

From WeddingBee‘s Miss Flamingo…

And from Trista Lerit…

I absolutely love this picture from Jake Holt‘s blog.  I love pictures of children dancing at weddings, and this is probably  my favorite yet!

Finally, I have enough pics of fun bridal shoes to make a post of!  I really have not been running across any lately… lots of whitish shoes.

But I do have some, and here they are!

Top to Bottom:

• Photo by Amy Martin
• Photo by [b]ecker
• Photo by Ashley Bartoletti
• Photo by Shyla Photography
• Knottie MrsStephM
• Photo by Studio ATG
• Photo by Erin Hession

I subscribe to feeds for a lot of photographers… over a hundred, actually. However, having so many subscriptions has led to my eyes sort of glazing over, and just scrolling through the photos until something catches my eye. Today, the newest addition to my feeds stopped me in my tracks.

John and Joseph Photography is amazing! I don’t know how I didn’t know about this one! I feel like I’ve been missing out on something wonderful! Let these photos speak for themselves, then get yourself over to the blog to view them ALL!

Here’s my first post of 2008! I hope to update more this year, and this is a new segment I want to do… featured weddings. I run across lots of photos of AWESOME weddings. You’ll never see me feature a wedding that’s cookie-cutter. It’s just not my thing. But as I find fabulous weddings that speak to me, I’ll post them here for your enjoyment!

First up, Tessa and Tobias, as shot by the fantastic Jason Domingues. I don’t usually get excited about winter weddings, but I believe you’ll see why this was the exception.

I love how different and simple the bridesmaids dresses were, and the bride’s dress was amazing! I absolutely adore tea-length dresses on brides. This couple has definite style. There are lots more pictures on the blog entry, and I encourage you to go check out Jason Domingues’ blog in its entirety.

Happy 2008, everyone!