I’ve said it before, but I’m all about variety in all aspects of life . & that includes this blog! I’m crazy about photography (obvi) and working with my wonderful beautiful clients, creating magical photos of their love . It’s such a rewarding job and I’ll do it as long as I’m able . But I also really love working with other artists, businesses, and organizations who are creating beautiful, useful pieces that I can use day-to-day .
West Elm Home Feature
When Josh + I moved to Portland back in January, we jumped quickly into making our house feel like home . In a new city where we knew no one, it was important to use that we felt at ease + happy in our new home . And since we both work from home, we wanted to create a space that was inspiring, functional, comfortable, + creative . We made the space inspiring by adding variety in our textures and materials, but still keeping a minimalistic design . We're suckers for Scandinavian design!
With Josh being a woodworker, our home started to overflow with his furniture pieces . The coffee table, side table, + adjustable shelf peg wall (inspired from the Pruitt's) were all made by him over the past year . You can find his work + order custom pieces here! He's so talented <3
We were thrilled to have our home featured over on West Elm's blog . Feel free to check it out + see which West Elm pieces we bought for our home! That Retro Wing Chair is my baby . It hugs me perfectly .
I love using Pinterest to find inspiration, especially on home decor + design! Check mine out here! Where do you draw your home inspiration from?
#bridalshowertakeover
Another repost, I know. But hey, I've rebranded + revamped a lot of things, this specific shoot included! Plus, this #bridalshowertakeover got picked up by Mingle Magazine! The whole event has a 3 page spread in their Autumn 2016 issue and we are pumped. Along with the photos, they also included my story about why I through the whole event. I'm so excited about the feature, but also excited to share it again here! **I've decided to make the #bridalshowertakeover more of a thing, so be on the lookout for your chance to be the next chosen bride for a bridal shower takeover in 2017! (vendors who want to be included in this, please e-mail me!)**
So here it is, the story + photos from our celebrated event :
I have a strong desire to make every bride I talk to realize what a special season of life she’s in. Engagements should be so sweet & thrilling, full of love & anticipation. A bride should be showered, adorned, celebrated . So in order to help a bride have a more enjoyable engagement, I hosted a contest/giveaway for one extraordinary bride-to-be. I hosted the event on Instagram + Facebook, asking girls and guys to nominate their friend or fiancé for this event, stating why they deserved it, and then to hashtag our event’s name, “#bridalshowertakeover”.
With this contest, over 100 entries were created with just an outpour of love and adoration for these brides to be. It was beautiful reading each nomination, lengthy posts praising and encouraging girls everywhere.
In addition to my desire to throw this shower for a special bride, I also wanted to include some of my favorite vendors from Oklahoma. Some were just simply my favorites, while others are working to get their business up and running in the wedding industry and I wanted to offer potential publicity for their hard work and creations. It all came together beautifully and all the vendors did amazing work.
With the vision I had in my mind of what I wanted this bridal shower in the woods to look like, I requested that all the girls come in their favorite little black dress. We pampered the winning bride, Emily, with hair & makeup, full wardrobe, and a beautiful flower crown to make her feel extra special.
Fruity cocktails kept the girls warm, lively and giggly all evening, desserts and award winning quiche danced on their forks, and overhanging lights and candles created a dream ambiance. We had a blast showering Emily and reminding her this season of life is such an exciting and fun one, even in the midst of stressful wedding planning.
So excited that this #bridalshowertakeover was featured on Green Wedding Shoes, as well as in Mingle Magazine. We’re super grateful for both features. Once you’re done looking through these images, see a few extra photos on GWS blog here, and buy your Mingle Autumn 2016 issue here!
*See all the amazing vendors who contributed below <3
To make this even better, we filmed it! Check out the video from the whole event here from April Kirby of Ethos Creative //
photography: Melissa Marshall // planning + design: Melissa Marshall & XO Events & Design // venue: Southwind Hills Goldsby, Oklahoma // florals: Haleigh of XO Events & Design // flower crowns: Forage Floral // catering + desserts: Take A Seed // farm tables: Kahoy Studios // makeup: Chelsey Ann // hair: blo. OKC // cocktail recipe: Chris Castro // calligraphy: Kiah Bailey // bride’s attire: Windsor // dessert table: Josh Marshall Woodworking // macrame plant hangers + wall hanger: FromAtlasOn // videography: Ethnos Creative // photo assistance: Jessi Chapman