Whaaaaaat. Photo Love.

Love love love these photos on Snippet and Ink. Photography is obviously by Feather Love (if you read as many wedding blogs as I do, you can pretty much learn to spot Feather Love's distinctive, vintagey style).

Love this duo. We're doing the whole framed-photos-of-
loved-ones thing too! It's a major part of the decor!

LOVE.

I love these photos so much I want to be this bride. Literally. Her style is perfection (that veil with that dress with that jacket), the black and white perfection that captured their best moments (walking out of the church, the cake cutting).

I want to duplicate these. Consciously. As in, their poses and their perfect little moments committed to film. That's how much I love the vibe of these photos. Gosh, I can't wait to make our own moments just like these. I hope we get photos that look this happy and genuinely bursting with joy.

Engagement Photos

Anybody who is a friend on Google+ or Facebook has probably seen the engagement photos by now. They went live this morning on our fabulous photographer's website. Check out the whole set here.

Ken Clunk and Angela Clunk rock so hard. We had a blast shooting the engagement photos and the results are beyond amazing. We are so thrilled with them. John keeps saying "I've never been so excited about photos before." It's only going to get better with the wedding day fast approaching! I know Ken will document our day in a way that will make it totally on par with any of the stuff I see on all those wedding blogs!

All photos are of course located at http://www.toomuchawesomeness.com/danaandjohn and are © 2011 Kenneth Clunk.

I like this shot because it looks classy and vintage. Also, this was early in the shoot, so my makeup and hair look their best. :)

"Bow ties are cool." -Dr. Who

Such a classy shot where I'm supposedly "fixing" his bow tie, though I
think I actually made it messier...

Playing with a sweet lens Ken rented for our shoot. See how the one
half is blurry but our whole side is in focus? Love it.

Dana and John, sitting in a tree...
I like our poses in this one.

Friggin' beautiful black and white shot.

My only original fear in going with a digital-only photographer was
that I wouldn't get amazing black and white shots the way you do with
film. I don't miss the film now, that's for sure. Also, this is one of my
favorites in the whole set! 

Had to get a couple by Severance Hall. Love the tilted angle and how
he got the whole building in the shot. I love this one!

Love the coloring on this one, and John's laughter.

Perfection. For me, my personal favorite. I hoped beyond hope
we would get a good kiss shot, but this one manages to also
be so classy and vintagey (check out that foot pop) and the
colors are perfect and the framing of the shoot is perfection.

Such great sepia-goodness.

Such a beautiful and classic shot of us. I love how crisp the black and
white is; wearing white was a definite plus for these shots.

Perhaps the second favorite shot of the day. Something about the angle
of our legs and the colors and the way the shadows look at the edges
of the photo. The whole thing is awesome.

Slow dancing on the Severance lawn. Of all the
shots, this is one of the most popular with my
friends. Several have declared this the
best/favorite pic of the day.

The spot where it all began. See that front Stonehenge-thing? That's where
John first told me he loved me. Also, he proposed in this spot. Glad to
have a kiss picture here, where I'm on tip-toes because John is so tall.

The rock where the first "I love you" happened.

We brought a couple of records; I definitely wish we had done more
with this idea since it's so funny in practice. Perhaps we'll throw some
records in the car to bring to Mohican for pics before the wedding
rehearsal? There's just nothing like Coltrane staring down Stravinsky.

Like I said above, Ken is fabulous. The best investment of the wedding by far. We are so happy to be working with him and can't wait for the rest! I know he'll make our day look so incredible and capture everything brilliantly.

Vintage Book Page Decoration

I recently saw two fabulous photos where brides made use of vintage book pages in their decor, to stunning results.

Seen on Green Wedding Shoes, photos by Focus Photography 

Seen on Love and Lavender, photography by Jason and Anna Photography

The second version is a lot easier to pull off, but both are so beautiful!

The Jazz Age Lawn Fest

I've seen this on just about all my favorite blogs, and you'll soon see why...

The Jazz Age Lawn Fest happens in Manhattan every year. Folks show up in their vintage finery, roll out old cars, and have a downright Gatsby-esque lawn party. It's vintage fabulousness.

Perfection.

This image sums up a vision of what I want my wedding to feel like:

On Style Me Pretty, photo by
Tyler Metcalfe Photography and Greenleaf Images

I love the woodsy feel, mixed with the vintage photographs in gorgeous old frames.

I am currently rounding up old photos of all our sets of grandparents to display somewhere at the reception (possibly at the table with all the escort cards.

Gorgeous!!!

Wedding Favors Part 2

After my previous entry on favors, I presented the idea to my mom and fiance. Both thought vanilla extract was an awesome, unique idea. So, I bought 4 lbs. of vanilla beans in bulk and 108 amber glass bottles (12 8-oz., 96 4-oz.).

The larger bottles will go to some of the key players-our officiant, our parents, John's grandma-just as a way to show them a little more gratitude for all their love and support.

Following this tutorial on Ruffled, John, my dad and I cut up over 500 vanilla beans (!) and placed them in handles of vodka to steep. They are currently housed in the dark in my old mini-fridge from college, since they're supposed to stay out of the light. I go over and give them a good shake every now and then (once a week or so).

Next came the fun part: designing a label for the bottles! I started with a soap label (found on GraphicsFairy's amazing blog of vintage art) and massively cut it down:

 - all the excess border

- the text "Savon Olgalia au Muguet" 

+ "John & Dana's Vanilla Extract"

+ Border I cut out from another random label

=

Ta-da!

But, of course that wasn't enough. What is the use of extract if you aren't much of a baker? What ever will you use it for? That's why I decided to make a recipe card for one of our favorites, Saveur's Honey Chocolate Chip cookies. A hole will be punched in the top left corner and the card will be tied around the bottles with twine.

Front of card

Back of card

Though, depending on how much printer ink I want to buy, I may just print the recipe side and tie that on. We'll see how ambitious I get.

I love the mismatched vintage vibe of the paper goods. My goal is for things to be quirkily mismatched and yet cohesive in their aesthetic.

A Loving Tribute

I love this idea from an old Ruffled post: the bride displayed her mother's and grandmothers' dresses on dress forms at the entrance to the reception.

Spotted on Ruffled, image by Claire Barrett Photography

This is such a sweet idea! If I could have fit into my maternal grandmothers' dress, I would have worn it; I love it so. I wonder how hard it is to get ahold of vintage dress forms? Would I be able to borrow, or can they be rented? I would love to ask around; this would be such a neat idea!

Pig Wedding

I was scouring Etsy this morning, looking up vintage graphics (if you've been to the wedding website or seen the save the dates, you know I love that aesthetic).

What I didn't expect to find: Pigs getting married from phenomenon1859. I wonder what their original use was? Perhaps to not-so-subtly tell somebody you didn't approve of their marriage?!?!

They're ridiculous!