Conquering Your Color Scheme



www.sweetandlovelylife.com

So it's time to plan the wedding of your dreams. One of the first big decisions that you must make is the colors and theme. You probably have already had this whole thing mapped out in your head since you were six (or if you were anything like my daughter is, 3). I know, I know Barbie and Ken's wedding colors were the perfect shade of turquoise and fuchsia, but a lot has changed since then. For one, you have a real live breathing partner with real human emotions and opinions to take into consideration.

First think about some of the reoccurring themes and intimate moments you and your fiancé share. Where was your first date? Which shirt of his makes him look the most handsome? Where did he propose to you? Where was your first kiss? Every one of these moments has a mood that they invoke. And if you were to pick a color based off the most potent of those memories what would it be?



The Perfect Palette

Next think about the season in which you plan on getting married. This will help you decide which tone of your colors will be easier to find and which seasonal flowers will help to enhance your event and help your budget. Let's say for instance your main color is purple. If your wedding is in the spring then you would look at more of a lavender or a paler shade of purple. If you decide to get married in the fall then you would use a richer jewel tone like Plum.

Lastly look at your venue. Is there wallpaper? Is the color of the rug very noticeable? If there are things that really do stand out then why not just work with them instead of against them. Use some of your supporting colors to help enhance the smaller details of the event. Accent colors tend to be on the opposite side of the color wheel, but that doesn't have to be literal. The opposite of purple is yellow, and camel (a yellowish brown very close to khaki) works great with all shades of purple and is basically the matte version of metallic gold.

Color schemes have proven to be one of the most stressful aspects of planning a wedding, and being that I was a visual-art major you could argue that I am a bit bias. But thanks to the Internet there is a lot of help out there. There are millions of websites with idea boards and examples you can reference. My favorite is The Perfect Palette; they have so many examples to choose from that you can look up based on color and/or season. Pintrest is also a great place to look (there are millions of girls out there planning their make believe weddings). Also doing a Bing image search can help you get a few inspirational pictures that best illustrate your colors, theme and mood.

Good Luck!

Money-Saving Monday: Tadashi Shoji @ Nordstrom

Nordstrom.com

Happy Monday Everyone!
Here is your Monday Money-Saving eye candy. If you act fast you can get this knockout Tadashi Shoji mermaid at a fantastic price. At 40% off this bandeau style, strapless, bead and sequins embellished mermaid beauty is only $406.90. Currently it is still available in all sizes, 4-16, so act fast before your size is snatched up.

Money Saving Tips For Your Wedding Dress

Fox & Bear Vintage 

Raise your hand if you know the difference between Swarovski crystals and regular rhinestones. Raise your hand if you can eyeball a picture and tell the difference between inexpensive satin and higher end satin. Still no hands? Ok, how about this, raise your hand if you know what your paying for when you buy a custom made wedding dress.

When planning a wedding there are so many things to consider and the wedding dress is one of the most important factors. But lets look at what's really important when considering the dress. This is the one time in your life that you get to go all out and feel like royalty so its understandable that you would like to spare no expense, but you will only wear this dress once. It will however, live forever in pictures so you do want to take into consideration style and presentation, but that doesn't mean you have to spend thousands of dollars.

When your paying for a dress you are paying for essentially parts and labor, just like your plumber or mechanic (keep in mind an Italian or french worker will be paid more than a Chinese worker). You are then charged wholesale markup so that the dress company makes profit, and the store's markup so that they can also make profit. Before you walk into a boutique there are a few questions you need to ask yourself:
 What is more important, dazzle or fit? How much beading do you really need? More times then not less is more when it comes to wedding dress fashion.
Here are some tips to saving a lot of money on your wedding dress

• find a fashion school near you and ask them to help you find a student who can do bead work and/or tailoring for you. 
• ask if they have your dress or a similar dress in a less expensive fabrication. A man made satin can look just as good as one made of silk.
• See if your favorite designer has a lower-end line. Often times designers have a line that is much lower in price with the same body and design concept.
• Look up sites that sell vintage dresses, hand made dresses and used dresses for a fraction of the price: Etsy, Preownedweddingdresses.com, Craig's List and Ebay. Note: be careful with Ebay. be sure that the seller shows pictures of the actual dress and tags not just the magazine photo.

With any website try to get one size up as apposed to the size you would like to be on your wedding day. There are no guarantees that you will hit your goal weight and a dress too large can always be taken in. 

Just keep in mind that you looking good an a perfectly fitting dress with a glowing face will be a much better topic of conversation than your overpaying for a designer name.

Be Productive Today!

At this very moment I may have spread myself too thin. I am not only a stay-at-home mom of two, I am now a freelance writer for two great new blogs, MommyNoire, and Black & Brown News and I am a veil designer. All of which require a lot of social media work including this blog. So it is important that I manage my time.. a task I have yet to master.

As a bride-to-be you are consumed with ideas, budgets, fittings, bridesmaids' complaints and oh yeah your job and relationship.

So here are some time managment tips that I have been reading about (during my long bouts of procrastination). 

1. Time yourself

Set aside 10 mins per day and attempt to knock one of your tasks off your massive list. 10 minutes is a comfortable amount of time and before you know it you'll be so engrossed in what you are doing that time will fly by and you'll be able to knock it completely off your list. This will work well for party favors, address labels and other tedious tasks. 

2. Make a list of importance

There are a lot of small details involved in planning a wedding. Some of them are more important than others. Get some of your more important tasks out of the way first before you become bored with all of the wedding hoopla.  

3. Ban yourself from social media (with the exception of this site of course)
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Take a day off from Facebook, Pintrest and Twitter. I know, you're gagging right now. But I promise you will survive a night of not knowing what Lady Gaga had for dinner.

4. Put a movie on
Sounds redundant right? But I find that I get the most work done when I put on a good romantic comedy, or something with a simple story-line that I have been looking forward to seeing. It's also important to pick a task off your list that doesn't require concentration like wrapping and tagging favors or printing out table assignments. Do avoid making an evening cocktail. It's bad enough your watching a movie, add alcohol to the mix and your asking for a sloppy mess.

5. Think about the BIG DAY
The only thing that is worst than a looming deadline is to rush around right before it. Just remember what the day is about; the celebration of you and your fiancee's worlds coming together. The more you put off the more stress your adding to yourself as you get to your wedding date.

This time of your life is suppose to be special not stressful. Pace yourself so you can enjoy every part of the journey. 

Money Saving Mondays: JCP Steal

Liliana Ruffle-JCP.com

Check out this ultra chic one shoulder wedding dress from JCPenny.com . With a ruched bodice and one ruffled shoulder this dress fit most body types and every budget at just $90. Comes in sizes 4-16. Can somebody say "STEAL!!"

Welcome to Beyond a Veil Brides. I'm pretty sure that by now you have heard a million times that the average cost of a wedding is well over $20,000. Well BAVB is a place for fashion forward brides to find budget saving tips, tricks and inspiration. Stop by weekly for fresh ideas, beautiful images and stories from real brides.