Good morning from the beach!
Yesterday, a little after 5 p.m., Ryan, Sadie and I drove to Jacksonville Beach to spend the weekend with our friends Kaitlyn, Laurel, John and Kailon. We haven’t seen any of them since Laurel and John’s wedding and since Kaitlyn recently moved to Jacksonville from Boston and Laurel’s birthday was last Tuesday, we bookmarked this weekend as a reunion weekend to celebrate and hang out on the beach!
After we arrived in town, we headed out to Engine 15, a brewery and pub for drinks before dinner.
We initially had plans to eat dinner at TacoLu , a crazy popular Mexican restaurant nearby, but since they don’t take reservations and were told the wait would be more than an hour and a half for our group of eight (my sister and her fiancé joined us as well), we scrapped our original plans and went to a different Mexican restaurant.
After lot of chips and queso, margaritas and burritos, we called it a night and said our goodbyes. I ended up staying up rather late chatting away with my sister about wedding ideas. We flipped through magazines and she told me about ideas she has for colors, flowers and more.
I haven’t looked through bridal magazines since I was planning our wedding, so it was so fun to do it again. I am thrilled for Leslie and Ross!
Since Pinterest wasn’t the monstrosity it is today when we were planning our wedding, I relied on bridal magazines as my main source for inspiration and ideas. My favorite magazines were Martha Stewart Weddings and The Knot: Florida. I loved the localized version of The Knot and thought it was so cool to see wedding pictures from places I recognized as a Florida resident.
Aside from magazines, I loved the wedding blog Style Me Pretty and The Wedding Chicks website. We actually used a template from The Wedding Chicks website to make our save the dates!
Breakfast
I just polished off breakfast and now it’s time to head out to hang with my friends!
Enjoy your Saturday!
Question of the Morning
- If you previously planned your wedding or helped a friend/family member plan their wedding, did you use bridal magazines, wedding websites, Pinterest or anything else for inspiration? Any favorites?
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Pinterest played a huge role in helping to plan my brother’s wedding. Although, I did put aside some ideas that I really liked and would eventually like to use myself someday, thank goodness for secret boards!
I wish your sister the best of lucky! I’m not married, and I can only imagine all the stress. But I think she’ll have fun with it 🙂
Planning now and I agree – I love Martha Stewart and Style Me Pretty. 100 Layer Cake is another blog that is a great resource!
It must be SO exiting to be back into wedding planning! I’ve basically already mapped out my life for my boyfriend and myself on Pinterest ;). That site is a goldmine of ideas for everything under the sun!
Pinterest wasn’t really a big thing when I was doing my planning, either. I had a destination wedding in Mexico, so my favorite magazines were Destination Wedding Magazine and Destination I Do magazine!
Julie, if you get the chance to go to TacoLu sometime, I HIGHLY recommend it. Also, awesome choice on Engine 15 🙂
Pinterest wasn’t around when I was planning my wedding either! (Not sure if that is a good or bad thing? Ha!) My favorite magazines were definitely Bridal, Martha Stewart Weddings and The Knot (especially the local editions), and I liked Style Me Pretty and the Wedding Chicks too! 🙂
When I was planning my wedding Pinterest had just gotten started, so it was definitely a combination between magazines (Martha Stewart definitely !), the knot, style me pretty and Pinterest. I’ve seen friends plan their entire wedding using Pinterest: from music to venues, flowers, cake and attire, you can pin whatever you like and have or all in one place! I can only wish Pinterest was as big when I was engaged as it is now… 😉
Macadamia Nuts <3 I love looking through Bridal magazines and I'm not even close to getting married. I really love to watch Four Weddings on TLC and see all of the different color combinations and ideas for meals, receptions, drinks, etc. It's a great show to watch!
I was overwhelmed by the idea of a big wedding so we eloped to Maui 🙂 I just winged the whole thing which is so not like my type A personality.
I just got married in June and I used Pinterest, weddingbee and southern weddings! All three have amazing inspiration!!
I’m completely a noob when it comes to wedding planning and the like. I have attended quite a few of my relatives and friends. Pinterest seems to be everyone’s BFF. I love theknot!
There are a lot of great wedding blogs out there that give great info and inspiration too.
So exciting for your sister!! I’m getting married in October and my fav wedding magazine is Southern Weddings. They have a super cute website too at iloveswmag.com. Your sis has to check it out!!!
I have been a fan of your blog for several years now, you were my introduction to following fitness blogs! If Leslie is looking for some inexpensive custom designed invitations I’d be happy to offer my services!
Any wedding planning is so exciting, whether it’s your own or one of your closes friends. When I first got engaged, I bought several wedding books, but found out I would only liked one or two articles and I was wasting money. So I turned to Pinterest for help, and I found so many ideas that I made myself and also used as a start with my vendors. We also used Pinterest for our picture ideas. We got married on a golf course and we wanted fun cute pictures that incorporated the golf balls, tees, and putting greens. It was a lot of fun. Sending luck to Lesli!!
I’m planning right now, and I am using a combo of everything. Theknot.com is great, and so are wedding blogs. I recommend searching local wedding blogs so you can see what other people in your area are doing. I also loooove pinterest and have been pinning away! I even have a “secret” board for gift ideas for family, bridesmaids, the groom, etc.
We just celebrated our first anniversary last month. When I was planning I used a lot of pinterest but basically just to find photos to explain my ideas. When you register at Sears you get a huge bag of wedding magazines and I used none of them.
I am so close to finishing planning mine! 2 weeks from today is my wedding. I started getting The Knot magazine and Brides, but neither one did anything for me. I did use theknot.com for planning, and looking at places nearby. I loved Pinterest for things.. I used a lot of ideas from there!
Awww I miss planning my wedding! Pinterest wasn’t around when I was planning but I sure wish it had been! I see so much now on there I would have used!
I have various friends that may or may not have their weddings already planned on Pinterest…even if they have no plans on actually getting married >.>
So fun! Pinterest wasn’t around when I got married but I made my own inspiration boards in excel and PowerPoint because I am caaaraaaazzzy! 🙂
It was really helpful though – my mom, the florist and the caterer all could visually see what we liked and wanted so they had clear direction and examples.
Oh, fun! I loved bridal magazines! I liked my local edition of The Knot too!
I definitely used bridal magazines (I bought tons!) and I also used the Knot.
Have a great time at the beach!
I got married May 4th this year and got a few magazines at the beginning and while I liked some of the tips here and there, with Pinterest and so much stuff online it was just easier and free!
I loved http://greenweddingshoes.com/ !! I was just starting to use Pinterest, and that was super helpful!
LOVE your save the dates!! So cute!
My wedding is next may in St. Lucia! Most of my planning for that is done by the resort, but we’re having at at home reception that I use Pinterest for! I’m big into DIY projects, so I’ve found some awesome suggestions on there!
Any of the “southern” ones, and I also loved the Martha Stewart weddings believe it or not! I tried to avoid spending too much time on Pinterest- I didn’t want my wedding to look like EVERY OTHER Pinterest wedding out there 🙂 I eventually deleted my wedding pin board because I was overwhelming myself and started to stray too far from ME!
I am planning my wedding right now too! I have found A Practical Wedding blog very helpful…lots of good tips and ideas!
Have you found Snippet and Ink? Great blog!!!
Has anyone said weddingbee? I thought it was a great place to chat with other brides to be / read the more personal personal stories of girls planning their weddings.
I got married in 2004…so pre-Pinterest. I used some Internet, but mainly magazines. 2004 feels like ancient times now LOL :).
Well,.. I haven’t yet had a chance to plan one,.. BUT,… if I were, I’d definitely browse google for motivating and beautifully planned weddings or bridal magazines. Me and Pinterest just don’t get along that well,.. 🙁
I haven’t bought a single bridal magazine yet but I have been pinning away planning our March wedding! I love how easy it is to get a ton of inspiration 🙂
I’ve not planned a wedding before but I know so many friends that used Pinterest as well as buying stuff much cheaper on Etsy. Things like a blank drawing of a tree and having guests leave a fingerprint in green to create the leaves of the tree and then they sign their initials. I always love weddings with a candy bar too 🙂
Hey Julie, I have been reading your blog for awhile now, love it! Just wanted to let you know that a good friend of mine is a photographer in ponte vedra beach and your sister should definitely check her out for her wedding. It is Melissa Robinson Photography!
I am currently planning my own wedding, which is only 12 weeks away (eeeee!). I have used Pinterest A LOT and am so thankful for it 🙂 I even have a page on Pinterest that I share with my bridesmaids so they can pin their favorite ideas as well!
Love your Save the Dates!
I used bridal magazines when I was planning my wedding almost 13 (gasp!) years ago. I’m sure there are a billion ideas on Pinterest though. You just have to stay focused so you don’t fall too far down that rabbit hole! Wedding planning is so much fun!!!
LOVE TacoLu! Imagine how long of a wait it used to be in the smaller building! Enjoy your weekend in Jax!
Those Save the dates are so Cute! Looking for some DIY ideas also get you really into the wedding, save money, and can be a fun way to have a date too!
Pinterest is amazing for wedding inspiration!!! I find that wedding magazines are overwhelming and full of too many ads 🙂
Thanks for the wedding website links. Our wedding is next August and since we got engaged in May I’m always on the hunt out for website blogs/DIY ideas for our wedding! 🙂 Pinterest has been my main grouping of ideas. It’s going to be so handy to pass over to my hairdresser/cakemaker and say ‘This is what I like!’
I’m planning on using ebay to get several items much cheaper than they would otherwise be as well.
I am SO glad pinterest wasn’t as big when I was planning our wedding. I would have NEVER been able to make a decision. I had a hard enough time as it was! I’m one of those people who just doesn’t care that much about the little stuff…like what napkins to use, etc. Like you, I like the local magazines…Alabama Weddings, Alabama Brides, The Knot: Alabama. We were actually featured in Alabama Weddings after our wedding.
So fun being able to go through the planning process with your sister!
Not getting married anytime soon, ha…but I think I’d personally want to spend much less on the wedding and devote the money to travel (honeymoon) and whatever else is on their respective bucket lists. Have fun planning! Will be interesting to see the contrast of your own bridal dress to your sister’s…interesting to see the varying preferences and personal tastes.
I just got married last week and pretty much exclusively used Pinterest. I did use your save the dates as the inspiration for ours and did the same thing!
Love that you’re so involved with your sister’s wedding planning! I am sure it means a lot to her! I got married last October and loved planning every little detail! I loved the Southern Wedding Magazine/blog, Pinterest, and…well everything wedding;) I would suggest looking to find guides in the area she chooses to get married for local ideas. My wedding was in Charleston where my hubby and I were 1st together and fell in love. There are several blogs specific to that area that helped see different vendors, etc. I live in St. Augustine if you all need any resources here:) Happy Planning!
I am wedding planning at the moment, and I started off with bridal magazines (I agree – local ones are great and nice to see what can be done with different venues). I then joined an online forum thing, and now I’m all about Pinterest. I did love being given old wedding magazines when I first got engaged and sifting through them for ideas.
I had so much fun planning my wedding! It was finally a real reason for me to make many, many lists!
I had to plan my wedding when I was living in Indonesia, so I didn’t use any magazines, just the internet. I’d just started using Pinterest and that was one of the main things I used for inspiration.
Happy planning to your sister!
I was lucky enough to be able to plan my wedding after Pinterest became a big hit! I used it, the Knot website and a couple of bridal books that I got from Amazon to plan our wedding in November 2012. The combination of those made for some really fun aspects to our big day!
I hope your sister enjoys every moment of this exciting time!!