Category Archives: Cool Links and Stuff

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BYOS–Bring Your Own Snuggie

Mom could not stop laughing when Meghan sent us an email today.  She saw Kristen and Jeff’s blog post with the picture of the Snuggie that dad had seen on TV and wanted:

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Meghan says she loves her Snuggie and apparently enough other people love theirs as well because there are Snuggie Pub Crawls being organized in Chicago and in New York.  Too bad the NYC one is a couple days before dad will be there.  It would be so much fun to go to one, and hilarious to see a bar full of blanket covered drinkers!  Visit www.snuggiepubcrawl.com for details and if you go to one, send us pictures!!!  Meghan, we think you should go!

The 84 Year-Old Bride

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Shoes and Dresses and Cakes and More!

It has been a while since we had a blog entry just for fun so Valentine’s Day seemed like a great day to do one!  We hope everyone had a fun Valentine’s Day full of love and romance.

Mom loves looking through wedding websites and blogs to check out all the latest beautiful fashions and ideas.  We thought we’d share some of the favorites that she’s collected.

A great website for wedding ideas is Casando Ideias.  Mom doesn’t understand most of what it is saying but it has great pictures of gowns, shoes, details, and links for wedding stuff.  Two of the best pictures on the Casando Ideias blog are in a “Loving” entry. They are pictures from our own blog!  One is from Nicole and Mike’s wedding and is of Nicole’s hair done by the talented Darla Stafford.

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The other is of the vintage pink Cadillac from Katelyn and Lucas’s wedding.

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On a different “Loving” blog post mom found an awesome grooms cake that was a giant doughnut!  The original picture was taken by Brooks Weddings.

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Another unique wedding idea shared on the blog was a Save the Date personalized handkerchief made by Lucky Luxe for the wedding of photographers Alisha Clarke and Luke Walker.  It is a romantic gift to send your guests and perfect for a vintage themed wedding.  The pictures were taken by Alisha Clarke, the bride herself.  It must be so fun to work in the wedding industry and be planning your own wedding!

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Yellow and black look great together as wedding colors!  When mom saw the display with yellow candles and lemons in a blog post about table set-ups she loved it.  It would be pretty set up at cocktail hour or with lemonade before an outdoor ceremony.  The picture originally came from the D. Filipa website.

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Table settings create the look of a reception and can really dress up an entire room.  Mom originally saw the pink and green table setting by Eddie Ross on the Casaando Ideias blog but she really loved the yellow, green, and black place settings on Eddie Ross’s blog itself.

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Also on the Eddie Ross blog in a post about a “fairy tale wedding” was this cake with detailing that looked like pearls.  Mom thinks pearls are such a romantic touch for wedding accents.

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David Tutera is an incredible event planner and designer who has been on several TV shows including his own show, My Fair Wedding on WEtv.  His website has a gallery with pictures of unbelievable events.  One of mom’s favorites was the “Contemporary” wedding with white fabric draped down the aisle:

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The “Bling” wedding had bright colors and a fabulous dance floor:

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Though most people won’t be able to afford a wedding like those done by David Tutera, you can be inspired by the themes and details and scale them back to make them your own.

On Casando Ideias was a blog post about wedding gowns that “Float” with a picture of the back of a dress that mom thought was so beautiful.  The original picture was taken by Natasja Kremers.

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Mom likes looking at the bridal gown designers’ websites too.  In our blog post about Kendra’s bridal session we shared a link to Kendra’s Jim Hjelm gown.  She wore style JH8814 and looked perfect in it.

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Jim Hjelm has so many gorgeous gowns.  Mom’s favorites are the ones covered in lace.  It is part of that romantic wedding look that she loves, like the pearl accents.  Here is Jim Hjelm style JH8763:

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and very similar to that is Jim Hjelm style JH8851:

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Jim Hjelm also has a gown with a low rhinestone strap over a draping back.  It is Jim Hjelm style JH8905:

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The Paris Vogue website has a selection of Elie Saub gowns from the Spring-Summer 2009 collection that mom liked.  This one might not be a wedding gown but mom thinks it is fantastic!

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The way the material crosses and gathers is what makes this gown.

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On the Sassi Holford website is this classic gown, the Anouska.  The back of the dress is mom’s favorite part.

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Dolly Couture is a website for short, vintage inspired wedding dresses.  Mom thinks the chiffon flowers on the “Milan” are pretty for a summer wedding outdoors.

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Kate Halfpenny is a London designer and has many lacy, flowing gowns that makes mom’s heart flip.  She absolutely adores this look!

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And one more Halfpenny gown in blue that is seriously beautiful:

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Many brides talk about how hard it is to find bridesmaid dresses for their bridesmaids who are pregnant.  Mom found a pretty maternity dress for bridesmaids on the Simple Silhouettes website.  It comes in a variety of colors and fabrics.

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To complete your wedding look, you need the perfect shoes!  Freya Rose in London has some great choices.  One is the Aide Bridal, with a cute floral detail:

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The Sonrisa looks very bridal:

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Though mom has trouble walking in them, stilettos are sexy!  Badgley Mischka makes bridal shoes with a tuxedo bow on them and they are sold on the Perfect Details website.  They are even dyeable if you want to get them in a fun color to poke out of the bottom of your gown.

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Saks Fifth Avenue has a fabulous pair of Christian Louboutin satin d’Orsays.  The side bow is mom’s favorite part.  Of course, the shoes cost almost as much as some gowns but they are fun to look at!

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Luella’s Boudoir in London has lingerie, jewelry, hair accessories, and shoes for weddings.  For some bling, check out the Aruna Seth Cerise shoes which has rhinestones all the way up the heel and under the bow in the back.

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If you haven’t heard of Etsy by now, you don’t know what you are missing!  People sell handmade items and you can even have people custom make items for you.  For events like weddings or a new baby, it is a great place to get something meaningful that you can then pass down to future generations.  That is especially true if you are like mom and have no talent for making these things yourself!

The Casando Ideias blog had a post with a hand sculpted and painted cake topper made by Red Light Studio on Etsy.  They have many cake toppers with a look that is very “in” right now.

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On a blog featuring just cake toppers, Wedding Cake Toppers, mom saw these vintage choices.

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Also on that blog was a post showing a bicycle cake topper, but what mom liked was the cake itself!  It had a black tree with red leaves, which are great colors for weddings around Valentine’s Day.

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Dad said he wished him and mom got a custom cake topper made in their likeness just like those made by Lily’s Design.  They can be made to show your hobby, profession, or anything else.  The toppers look awesome!  Here is an example showing a bride and groom who sent in their pictures and wanted a Cubs theme:

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The Just Cake Toppers store has a section of exotic toppers and humorous toppers.  Mom thought it was funny that this “Sexy Rhinestone Rings” topper was in both:

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We hope all of this gave brides some ideas, or at least was fun to look at!  Now mom can finally clean out some of her saved pictures and bookmarks :) .

Only 59 Shopping Days Left!

As October comes to an end, more people start to focus on the holidays to come.  For many, that means starting the Christmas shopping!  The catalog companies definitely know that and our mailbox has been full lately.  Be sure you visit www.catalogchoice.org where you can help the environment by eliminated unwanted catalogs and mailings.

In our house, we’ve been checking the catalogs for the season’s new cool toys!  Here are a few we’ve found:


Mom has a few issues with FAO Schwartz from the past, but their toys are really cute (all available on their website if there isn’t a store near you).  All images of their toys are from their website.

Mom wants one of the Raggedy Ann Christmas Cloth Doll by Madame Alexander because she says it brings back memories.

They also have Raggedy Andy of course, as well as Strawberry Shortcake and Madeline.

Another cute doll is the Rubens Barn Original Anna Doll.  How adorable is she with her freckles and glasses?!

We are of course more interested in their boy stuff.  The Food Chain Friends is an awesome idea for a stuffed animal!  You get 5 in one!

For people with a little more money to spend, the Make-My-Own Monster Custom Design Kit is the coolest toy in the catalog.  The kid designs the monster, from what it looks like to its personality.  It is then made into a plush monster with a hang-tag telling the monster’s story.  How cool would it be to show off a monster that you designed!


Little Wonderlands has a toy that is going on our Christmas list!  They have tons of wooden toys so it is fun to browse through their website.  There we found the Barbarossa Pirate Ship and Pirate Crew and we told mom we loved it!

While you are on the website, be sure to check out the wooden treehouses too!


Kids loving having their names to decorate their stuff so Personal Creations has some good gift ideas too.  We are into dinosaurs lately so we asked mom for the Dinosaur Big Belly Bank.  It is almost 2 feet tall and eats your coins and stores them in its belly.


In our latest issue of Faith & Family magazine, they had an article with gift ideas.  We were looking with mom and saw the Knights Castle and wanted it.  It is offered by International Playthings and is a fold-out castle with a king, knights, and even a dragon!  There is a hidden staircase and a drawbridge to play with too!

Those are some of the fun things we’ve seen as we flip through catalogs and visit toy store websites.  I’m sure we’ll have more as the holidays get closer!