Seriously, what did Brides do before Pinterest?!@

 

If you have not yet joined Pinterest (particularly if you are planning a wedding, party, having a baby, know someone having a baby or once were a baby…) then you need to get onto it immediately! Seriously! It is my new obsession and has taken over from Facebook as my procrastinator when I should be doing anything but surfing the net.

Not only is it full of the prettiest things in the world but it educates me about something every single time I log on!

It’s basically like a big online pinboard. You can look at pictures that other people have pinned from the net, they can look at things you have pinned from the net, your homepage is a timeline of ‘pins’ from all your ‘friends’ and if you click on a pin it takes you to the webpage where it originated. It’s a great way to bookmark webpages especially for ‘how-tos’ or things you might be thinking of buying and it is a great marketing source for blogs, websites and products too!

And you can have as many virtual pinboards as you would like to organise your thoughts, events etc. So for example I have one for wedding inspiration, one for work, one for uni, one for inspirational words and even one entitled ‘hounds’…

Whenever you see a pin that you like you can re-pin it onto one of your boards or just ‘like’ it if you prefer. You can imagine the way that popular pins can trend and word can spread via the use of a particularly pretty, witty or compelling pin. Creativity is championed and originality is encouraged too and that’s one of the reasons I love it!

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s users are mostly 20-50 year old females but it’s got a much wider audience really and it’s growing! Even Simon has an account! He likes to pin pictures of Superheroes mostly…

Anyway you need to request to join Pinterest or someone who is already a member can invite you so drop me a line if you want to join, I’ll more than happily add you! Just be warned, your browsing time on the internet will never be the same again!!!

Happy Day!***

P.S Abby Larson founder of Style Me Pretty (my favourite wedding blog from my previous post here) is going to be featured/interviewed on another beautiful blog that I follow The Everygirl! How exciting!!!

My Love Affair with Style Me Pretty Weddings

 

As some of you may know I have been a little bit obsessed with bridal magazines, blogs and websites, ‘pinning’ this that and the other willynilly! Well today I want to share with you one of my favourite wedding websites Style Me Pretty. I’m sure any blushing brides reading this will know all too well the fabulously beautiful, chic and cleverly curated American website that has regional editions, including one for Australian weddings!

Check out their current home page here.

And here is some of the yummy goodness…

Here is the link to a beautiful wedding in Santa Barbara, California where the bride wore these stunning Louboutins on her peppers;

I die!

Now I am about to let you in on a little secret… The following are my DREAM wedding shoes and if I can get my hands on them I WILL buy them and I WILL wear them and my heart will be HAPPY;

They are just so perfect for our wedding and this lucky bride thought so too! Seriously, if anyone finds these Melissa by Vivienne Westwood shoes in this colour combo in a size 7 I wanna hear about it!!!

And here are those shoes again;

Just in more ‘wedding’ type colours this time in Somona, California.

And for something closer to home, here’s something from Perth;

Of course I LOVE her shoes

I just love this picture with the huge Aussie flag!

And they served Lavender Lemonade;

Now, let’s have cake!

Soo classy! From this couple in the Napa Valley.

And I just love EVERYTHING about this LA wedding

Have I mentioned I LOVE Californian weddings??! Seriously, I’m such a West Coast girl

Check out these beautiful Bridesmaid dresses;

So versatile and Summery not to mention a great colour.

They were the attendees of this beautiful bride from Tennessee.

And here’s another little treat from Tennessee;

 

Serious cuties!! And her dress, ahhh.

OK and this next one is cute cute cute!

Don’t you love the soda bottles?! Very trendy vintage chic ha! And I also love the Bridesmaid dresses, unique and bright and wearable.

Check out more of that wedding here.

And here is some fun inspiration.

Simon and I both want to make our wedding as fun as we are and fun always involves games! This Style Me Pretty Inspiration came from one of the Style Me Pretty girls’ own wedding. Check it out here. I also LOVED her veil!

It was makeshift on the day because she had left her original veil at home in Dallas (they got married in Fredricksburg, Texas) so they had to run and get some tulle and attach it to a hair comb she had purchased from etsy.

 

Love it!

And stickin’ in Texas (seriously between California and Texas all my wedding dreams come true lol!)

I love this cross and I’m trying to get Simon to make me one

Check out more here.

And, moving on, what a cute but stylish idea is this?

It’s from this wedding re-do in Kansas!

Two weddings! A bit greedy! I think I’ll just get through one at this stage lol… But I might pinch some ideas…

Now there is one wedding ‘trend’ that I am honestly obsessed with which I know will not be ‘on trend’ when I look back in 10 years time but I just don’t care because I LOVE Mason Jars!!!

This particular mason inspiration came from Colorado here. 

And I better leave it at that because I just get soooo carried away on Style Me Pretty! I go ‘pin’ crazy (more on that in my next post).

Thank you Style Me Pretty for enough inspiration to get married every single Saturday for the rest of my life! I <3 U XXX

Are you also obsessed with Style Me Pretty or other wedding websites like The Knot? Which wedding is your favourite? Is it the Santa Barbara Louboutins, the home-grown wedding in Perth or the cuties from Tennessee?

Happy Day!***

2012 Inspiration (in April…)

 

 

I know, I know, you’re supposed to determine your inspiration for the year at the beginning of the year but, like many of you, not everything goes exactly according to plan in my life. So here I am writing about my one word inspiration for the year 4 months into it…

Many of you will know, I usually love using as many words as possible to get my point across but, for one of the busiest years of my life, I’ve decided I need to keep my inspiration down to one word!

I had several ideas about what this word might be…

I had wishful thinking with words like ‘delight’, or ‘sanctuary’ or maybe even ‘balance’… But who am I kidding? This year is not going to be any of those things it’s just not realistic. Hopefully there will be elements of each of those, like I really hope to look back on this year and say it was delightful, and I really hope I am able to find sanctuary when I need it and I really do need balance in my life but as if I’m going to get it this year!!!

Then I thought about words like ‘purpose’ or ‘dream’ but I don’t think I am really lacking in either of these. Happily I would say that I lead a fairly purpose-filled life with lots of opportunities to dream…

And then there are the cliche’s like ‘peace’ or ‘family’ or ‘beauty’ or ‘love’. Not to say that those words aren’t GREAT words to have as a focus or an inspiration but none of them really seemed to sum up the intensity and depth of commitment I am making in my life this year… Obviously Simon and I are starting our own extension of our families and any bride will know that beauty and love is a big part of getting married but none of those words seemed enough…

So then I moved onto the word ‘matrimony’, that certainly sums up the biggest part of what I am entering into this year and it certainly has a depth of meaning. But really, do I want my entire year JUST to be about ‘the act or state of being married’?! It certainly conjures up images of commitment and it's certainly more about the future life between two people as opposed to just a wedding day but I think this year is about more than that…

This year I am entering into an agreement with Simon that I will love and cherish him in the good times and the bad times for ‘as long as we both shall live’. But I also believe that we are entering into a new spiritual commitment with each other and with God as well. We are planning on making a public statement about our love and our devotion to our friends and family and for the state, to be recognised as a legally binding family. But we are also committing our relationship to God. There is a word that sums this all up that requires careful (and prayerful) consideration over a long period of time (like a year) and requires spiritual preparation as well and that word is ‘covenant’.

Simon and I are entering into a covenant with God and with each other with our love for one another as the focus. We are asking that God will use us, take us to new horizons, as a couple, as a family. We take this very seriously and plan on committing to this covenant in November and we know that God will come through on his side of the covenant for ‘as long as we both shall live’.

This certainly isn’t the first covenant that I have gone into personally. Shortly after I was born I was Dedicated to God, that was a covenant that my parents entered into on my behalf. I gave my heart to Jesus when I was 4 years old praying with my Dad and my big sister, although I probably wasn’t able to understand the enormity of the covenant I was entering into but I did it earnestly and with an honest open heart. Then later on me and my three siblings (older sister, younger brother and younger sister) were all baptised in the Lutheran Church, another type of covenant. A couple of years ago I entered into a covenant called ‘Soldiership’ in The Salvation Army. This is an agreement that I believe God was calling me into. An agreement that would allow Him to bless me further. From taking on that covenant (which is a little more involved than the others) I have not only been able to grow in spiritual maturity but I have been able to be used to bless others far more than I would have otherwise. It’s interesting the way that works… And in fact without the covenant of ‘soldiership’ I probably wouldn’t have moved to Bendigo to work for The Salvation Army and met Simon. And now we are entering into the covenant of ‘marriage’ together.

It’s weird going into a covenant with someone else other than me and God. I gotta give up some more of the control and allow Simon’s relationship with God to influence me (and vice versa) a bit as well. Simon and I are actually quite unique at this moment in history as he has taken on the further full-time ministry covenant of ‘Officership’ in The Salvation Army, a covenant that I don’t believe God has called me to yet. Up until quite recently (surprisingly recently!) Officers of The Salvation Army could not marry non-officers, weird huh?! So before they changed the rules our relationship would either have been 1. even more taboo than it already is (considering I was dating my supervisor), 2. not even been a consideration since I am very confident in my relationship with God and what he is and isn’t calling me to and the fact that Officership is not it right now or 3. Very strained with HUGE pressure (not that there isn’t already) to become an Officer. All three of those things seem completely ridonkulous to me so I’m really glad The Salvation Army in the Australia Southern Territory made the decision to revoke that rule. I do understand why it was in place and there are many places in the world (including most if not all of the United States) where the marrying Officers thing is still the rule but it puts so much unnecessary pressure on unmarried officers and anyone that enters into a relationship with them.

Anyway all that to say my word for the year is ‘covenant’ and I think it’s going to take all year to prepare!

Happy Day! ***