Life. Love. Lipstick.

While looking images for a post about my wedding that I wrote for my other blog, I came across these super cute shoes!  Designed by Lela Rose especially for Payless, the Unforgettable Moments collection is really cute and super-affordable!   There is a wide range of choices for color if you want to dye them, too!  My favorite ones are the Nathalie, only $45 (Edit: sold in an undyeable variation on payless.com for $24.99).

Which pair is your favorite?

These are the most amazing shoes for a wedding!  Thanks to Kelly at Santa Barbara Chic for featuring these Christian Louboutin beauties as a ShoePick!

Recently I asked style maven Tiffany of I Am Style-ish to share some tips about fall fashion and style in general.

How would you classify your style? Classic with a modern twist

What are you favorite black pumps under $100? I don’t own any pumps under $100.  I believe black pumps are investment shoes.  With that said, my favorite black pumps are my Louboutin Insectikas.  You can see them here.

It’s obvious shoes are your weakness, but on what else do you splurge and when do you prefer a bargain? I always splurge on handbags because I consider those investment pieces as well.  I totally get my bargains on tops.  I don’t mind buying cheap tops because you can always make them look more expensive than they are with a nice pair of jeans or a skirt and some fun accessories.

What are your tips for transitioning a summer wardrobe into fall? Layers!  I love taking my summer dresses and adding tights and sweaters and scarves over the top.  You can wear everything from the summer into the fall except for shorts.  I tend to just keep shorts in my summer wardrobe.

Any fall staples every wardrobe should contain? Tall boots.  I think they make any fall outfit look great whether worn with tights, leggings or skinny jeans.  Scarves are the easiest way to accessorize during the fall so I always stock up on brightly colored or patterned ones.

I read an article in the August issue of InStyle about breaking style “rules.” The article listed rules you should break and ways to do so.  Included was “Glittery jewelry is meant for the evening,” “You can’t wear denim on denim,” and “Wear open-toe shoes only in the summer.”

What are your favorite rules to break, and how do you do it? I’m totally in favor of mixing brown and black or navy and black with outfits.  If you are wearing a black dress, add a navy cardigan for a subtle hint of color.  I think it works really well!  If you are wearing a brown dress, try it with black tights and black pumps for a sleek look.  Wearing gold and silver jewelry together is also one of my favorite rules to break.  I love the look of mixing gold and silver bracelets on one arm.  Oh and you can totally wear white after Labor day!  I’ll be rocking my white blazer throughout the fall and winter!

If you told me you saw a wedding with a bride in jeans, I would have immediately pictured a backyard redneck hoe-down.  That would be me being ignorant.   Of course in this age of anything-goes weddings a bride can wear jeans and be chic, stylish, and classy!  I don’t know what I was thinking.  Now I totally want to get married in jeans.  This gal looks HOT!

Photos by Heather Thorne

Jeans by Rock and Republic, custom stingray cowboy boots, and blouse by Tadashi.

Check out the full blog post, full of fun wedding details, at Southern Weddings!

Anna Kuperberg is a genius.  That’s all there is to it.  Her wedding images make me feel like I was there, feeling every moment and every emotion.  This wedding held at a private home is amazing.  I love the simplicity, the veil, the dress, oh… those Chanel shoes!

Photo from With This Ring.  Gorgeous black, white, and green wedding, by the way.

One of my favorite wedding details is placing a basket of flip-flops by the dance floor for tired feet!  It’s also a cute idea to supply flip-flops beachside for a beach wedding.  This Saturday, the 23rd, for one day only, Old Navy has their [solid, non-metallic] flip-flops on sale for $1 a pair!  There is a limit of 5 pairs, but if you are the least bit organized, you can recruit friends, family, and bridesmaids to help you stock up!  I have also heard brides who took advantage of this last year say that the limit was lifted near the end of the day.  Can’t hurt to check it out!

I love, LOVE this bride’s funky style.  She looks demure and pretty, then she kicks up her clunky black patent shoes and we see her fun side.  This wedding is simple and gorgeous at the same time.  And you must go see the entire blog post on Jake Holt’s blog, because he perfectly captured the love in the ceremony, and the fun at the reception!

On our way home on a road trip last week, I finally picked up a copy of Southern Weddings.  Oh. my. gosh.  I have always liked bridal magazines, but am very selective.  I like fewer ads, more real weddings.  Helloooo, SW!  

I know, there probably isn’t much to say about this fab mag that hasn’t already been said, but I thought I’d just highlight my 3 favorite things about the magazine.

• True Bride Confessions are little snippets at the bottom of every few pages.  They are exactly what you would think… My favorite?  “I want a ring bigger than hers.”  While that’s super shallow, I think there are so many ladies who can relate (btw, I’m actually not one of them because my ring is perfection, but I used to be that girl).
• This magazine is seriously packed with real weddings!  Who doesn’t love that?! It’s always my favorite  part of a magazine, and with 52 pages of the beautiful wedding pics and stories, this one is loaded!!
• I think my favorite feature in the issue is “Stepping Out,” which showcases beautiful (and colorful!) wedding shoes of real brides.  I used to do a lot of shoe posts on this blog because I LOVE them!

If you have not read this magazine yet, you seriously need to.  The real weddings are reason enough!  Even the advertisers are worthy of checking out.

I am willing to pass on my copy, so if anyone wants it, email me and it’s yours! rhondagaileubanks [at] gmail [dot] com .

I am starting to toy with color schemes and other wedding design ideas.  For over a year now, I’ve loved black, white, and green as a color scheme.  Then I made a post about those colors.  That post is by far the most-viewed on this blog, and that color palette is popping up all over the web.  I’m not sure that I want to have the same wedding design as so many other brides.  Then again, if I love it so much, does it really matter?

Anyway, one of the other color schemes I’m considering is white.  Yep, just shades of white.  Maybe with a few hints of beige and gold.  I haven’t created an inspiration board for this scheme yet.  I’m planning a future mega-post, with a few different inspiration boards, to see my choices side-by-side.

Instead, I’m bringing to the blog the bridesmaids’ look.  I love the look of whites, especially when each bridesmaid chooses her own dress, of any style.  Evidence that this looks beautiful, courtesy of Jasmine Star:

Upon seeing this photo, I headed to my go-to source for dresses, Nordstrom, then to a great shoe shop, Zappos, to create this possible bridal party look.

It would be so nice and easy to tell my bridesmaids to find a white dress and a neutral shoe, and leave it at that.  I definitely plan on making things easy for my bridesmaids.  This can be done with any color really.  It is done a lot with black, and I’ve seen images all over the web with all sorts of different bridal party looks.  There really are no rules anymore, and I’m loving it!

I have always loved for wedding details to subtly complement each other… like when a bridesmaid’s dress has the same neckline as the bride’s gown, or when the cake has the same color ribbon as the invitations. I don’t mean shoes dyed to match the exact same ivory as a gown, with shoe clips made to perfectly match the brooch on the gown’s sash. It’s more about bringing a cohesiveness to an event, rather than matching everything perfectly.

In my feeds this morning, I found this wedding shot by Jasmine Star, and immediately noticed that the bride’s shoes are perfect for the dress. The pleating matches on both. I sized down the dress images too small, I think. You probably can’t see the pleating. Go to J*’s blog and view the gown up close. It’s a beautiful wedding that you should see anyway!