1970s Wedding Inspiration: The Daisy Jones Effect
I am, at the moment, having a bit of a love affair with 1970s fashion— especially 1970s wedding fashion. On most any given day, I would be happy to dress like Emmylou Harris or Ali MacGraw (and I would be thrilled to have a Steve McQueen type by my side, but that is a conversation for another day).
A New Year’s Blessing
Beginnings and endings are difficult for me-- including the beginning and ending of each year. What intensity of emotion, what weight of reflection, and what pressure I feel to begin or end well. I want these closing and dawning moments to unfold with the reverence, beauty, and formality they deserve. I fear that I will somehow fail to live up to the moment, and so feel overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of beginnings and endings. When I was a little girl, I even felt crippled by the task of writing the first page in a new diary-- felt the burden of expressing myself with a worthy introduction. Not much has changed, hence, this delay in composing Chapel’s first entry of the new year.
Five Fashion-Forward Fall Color Palettes: Autumn Wedding Inspiration
Imagine a pastel yellow cake adorned with buttercream bows, frosting garlands, and delicate rosettes. Such a cake would look like a girlhood dream, a vision from her someday-wedding. Bouquets of butter yellow roses would fill her dream chapel, and maids would process down the aisle in pastel yellow gowns. Even the candles at the altar would be a champagne yellow. For the wedding exit and honeymoon flight, she would opt for an elegant, nostalgic suit—butter yellow with bracelet sleeves, a matching hat, and ivory gloves.
While many would imagine pastel yellow in the context of spring weddings, the color takes on an unexpected richness when paired with mocha. Imagine pale yellow peonies tied with a mocha ribbon, or a buttery rose bouquet arranged with a hint of chocolate—cosmos flowers, naturally. We are perhaps accustomed to seeing chocolate with jewel tones, so the color looks fresh and fashion-forward when paired with pastels instead.
How to Create Beautiful Wedding Welcome Baskets
One of the great blessings of my life is having a mom who gives gifts that look and feel like a work of art. How can I describe, without sounding boastful, my enchanted childhood? When a little girl has a mother like mine, everything that surrounds her is sweet, gentle, graceful, and pure. Everything, from the clouds of tulle that float above her canopy bed, to her lovely doll collection. Even the littlest details of my girlhood were exquisite—my pretty hair ribbons, my whimsical wardrobe, even the peanut butter and honey sandwiches in my school lunches, bore the imprint of my mother’s love. Every day, I received a little a note in her beautiful handwriting, telling me I was loved. And I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, it was true.
Wedding Guest Dresses Inspired by the Victoria Series
The first time I fell in love with the Victoria series, it was with a color—a queenly teal. During the opening credits, Jenna Coleman as Victoria is filmed in various stages of her royal career. Hair down and looking girlish; then hair upswept with a tiara; eyes mischievous and flickering, then set in the most commanding gaze, her growing authority shimmering through her manners. Victoria changes, but her teal background does not. Deeper than peacock and bluer than emerald, it is a jewel tone that doesn’t feel like one. Instantly, I was besotted. *This* was the most ravishing, regal color I could envision; sophisticated, sublime; a color that belonged in the parlors of the great old homes and in the settings of the royal jewel collection. I wanted to live inside this color.
Bohemian Wedding Registry
Lately, I’ve been enamored with the classic French song “La Bohème” by Charles Aznavour. It touches on some of my most profound longings: to create and consume art, take flaneurial walks through Paris, and be memorialized in verse or lyric by a poetic man. The song fills me with the desire to be even more bohemian than I already am, embracing my unconventional sense of fashion, eclectic apartment, and devotion to art, music, literature. As I listen, I imagine the lilacs in Montmarte and Paris in a particular era, vibrant with art and love.
Exotic Summer Wedding Guest Dress Edit, Inspired By The Art of Embroidery
Recently, while scrolling Instagram, I discovered the work of a group of (mostly) French textile and embroidery artists. Instantly, I was absorbed. What world was this? A world, as it turned out, full of color, fabric, artistry, and stories told through stitches. I discovered tapestries woven with intricate scenes, and dresses embroidered with artwork so beautiful, these pieces looked as though they belonged in a museum—not an ordinary wardrobe. There were also handmade ceramics and fascinating objects: a ceramic dish with a pearl in its center, assiettes hand-painted with flowers, tiles shimmering with patterns from Tunisia. But the textile and fiber art captivated me most, from the lovingly embroidered tapestries to the work of an artist who weaves sculptures on vintage fishing nets.
Hotel Portofino Inspired Edit
There are few places as conducive to falling in love—or to having a languorous honeymoon—as Portofino. Portofino: a pastel painting, a pearl. It’s easy to imagine days here devoted to nothing more than aimless strolls and sun-drenched aperitivos, wearing wide-brimmed hats and linen dresses. The little town offers beauty so opulent, it’s difficult to know what to admire first: perhaps the villas painted in ochre, sepia, red, and yellow, “like the bright spines of so many books crammed together onto a bookshelf,” muses author Lucy Foley, “a quiet spectacle.” Walking through Portofino, even the most prosaic scenes move the heart—morning markets are filled with jeweled fruits, and there’s always laundry on the line, hanging in plain sight. As evening sets in, the bay takes on a poignancy, as fisherman return home.
The Most Exquisite Wedding Cake Artists Today
Many of us, when we were girls, dreamed at some point of opening a bakery. The bakery of my girlhood dreams was part flower shop—surprise, surprise—a Swiss chalet style building with flowers hand-painted on shutters, and great window boxes overflowing with flora. The doors would open to a space fragrant with fresh flowers and baking bread (how would those comforting fragrances combine? Unclear.). Daily, this bakery would offer be-ribboned boxes of pastries and bundles of flowers, little things to uplift an ordinary moment. It was a bit like Holly Golightly nibbling a Danish outside the Tiffany’s window, only in my version, the heroine longed for flowers with her breakfast pastry, not diamonds.
10 Scriptures to Prayerfully Consider For Your Wedding Ceremony
Nowhere in the construction of a wedding is there a more beautiful opportunity to proclaim your faith than in your ceremony. The exchanging of vows, the act of entering a union, is sacred and precious in God’s sight. Beyond promising love to your spouse, your ceremony provides a tender opportunity to glorify God and bless His name before others.
Below, I am including 10 passages from Scripture and from Christian devotions to prayerfully consider for your wedding ceremony. Whether you encourage your pastor to include these passages or read them yourself, my prayer is that these words, spoken from the heart of faith, deepen your sense of the sacred nature of your promise. May God use your faithfulness as a means of blessing others and ministering to hearts as only He can. And may the moments of your ceremony be blessed with His heavenly light, with a majestic sense of His Presence and nearness, as you commit your union to His care.
The Honeymoon Edit: Inspired by Sofia Richie Grainge & the South of France
Anyone who knows me well knows that, for the entirety of my adult life, I’ve been besotted with the South of France. When I dream, I dream of purpled pathways in Provence—of walking the lavender fields at dusk (presumably while carrying a basket purse and wide-brimmed sunhat). J’apprends le français depuis quatre ans et j’adore la langue, la culture, et bien sûr, tout ce qui est mode française. These French reveries and this admiration for the French style is hardly unique to me. Perhaps we all dream, at least once, of having a sun-drenched summer on the Côte d’Azur. Of a languorous honeymoon or romantic getaway with nothing on the agenda but gentle strolls, terrace aperitifs, beachy romps, and day trips to Italy.
The Coronation: 5 Ideas for Brides to Adapt the Exquisite Style of Catherine, Princess of Wales
It’s been a week, and still, I find myself dazzled by the poise, stateliness, and serene regality of Catherine, Princess of Wales—and her beautiful family—at the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. For weeks, I wondered what Alexander McQueen might handcraft for the Princess; the exquisitely embroidered, ivory silk crepe gown exceeded all expectations. But it was more than a fashion moment—it was an historical moment. As the Wales family walked to the Abbey—and, in an especially poignant moment, when Catherine looked from the rain-covered window of her carriage—these photos held so much. The Princess exuded a certain settled quality, a wisdom which only deepened her beauty. As one would expect, she seemed changed from her wedding day, but time and experience have given her an air of wisdom and grace. She has so entirely embraced her royal role and life of public service, and her title fits her stitch by stitch, like a hand to a very fine glove.
The Ultimate Floral Glossary: Demystifying Every Essential Floral Term & Type of Installation
Having spent nearly a decade as a floral designer, one of the best pieces of advice I can offer couples is this: leave room in your floral budget for one outstanding installation. Give yourself clemency, even, to skip small floral pieces (like boutonnières) and let go of high-volume pieces, like arrangements for every table. Instead, dedicate your budget to an exquisite floral installation. Encourage your floral designer to create a masterpiece of beauty that translates the very essence of your wedding design. Guests will return to this piece of artwork, remember it, talk about it. A piece like this promotes conversation, and it inspires memories, reveries, dreams. It does so much more than twelve boutonnières or fifty small arrangements can. When expertly executed, a floral installation can embody the very heart of a wedding’s design.
Grandmillennial-Inspired Wedding Registry
If there’s any fashion movement that resonates with me, it is that of the Grandmillennial—and more specifically, the values that style embodies, the traditions it seeks to revive. The Grandmillennial has a style that’s a bit high society, but full of charm and joie de vivre. Above all, she’s some to whom elegance and etiquette is important. She carves out a bit of extra time to write letters on personalized stationery, sending ‘thank you’ notes for the smallest gestures, and invitations for pretty teatimes. She loves the traditions that uphold and make life beautiful: making a home, hosting loved ones, and setting even weeknight tables with her Grandmother’s Italian pewter candelabra. A sense of modesty and decorum carries her through the rituals of everyday life, and she has such a lovely way about her—such politeness and poise. The Grandmillennial puts the proverbial wax seal on every letter to which she lends her touch. She gives grace.
Garden Party Dresses
For years, I’ve dreamed of the ultimate, enchanted garden party. I imagine a scene where guests mill about the garden, with gowns adorning the lawn like wildflowers in pastel colors-- butter yellow, blush pink, powder blue. I picture garden party tables set with floral cloths or left bare, except for a slip of fabric. A gauzy runner so nonchalantly placed it seems like an afterthought-- a wedding veil left behind by a runaway bride. Floating florals sprawl across each table, a meadow in miniature.
11 Exquisite Reasons to Plan a Micro-Wedding
If there was one undeniably positive thing to come from 2020, surely it was the renaissance of micro-weddings. From at-home weddings reminiscent of Father of the Bride to destination affairs endowed with natural beauty; from museum weddings that feel artistic and cerebral to private villa events that explore the grandeur of architecture and landscape, micro-weddings demonstrate the expressive and emotional potential of weddings. The creative possibilities are quite nearly limitless for the bride whose design process is unconstrained by guest considerations. She can wear something couture and unexpected; she can deliver a poetry recitation or read personalized vows; she and her fiancé can steal away somewhere unimaginably beautiful and remote. Tables can become architectural, a study in lines and curves; flower can take on a sculptural and abstract quality, reading more ‘art installation’ than traditional wedding. The styling of the entire event tends to take on a more couture quality. More importantly, freed from the demands of planning a complex event, couples can spend more time praying for and nurturing their union, cultivating spiritual graces which cannot help but suffuse a wedding day with loveliness. A micro-wedding can feel as intimate as prayer, as hushed and sacred an event as any life offers.
Italian- Inspired Wedding Registry
Every year, I dream of having a languorous, European summer. It hasn’t happened (yet), but still I dream of sun-drenched days on the Italian Riviera-- in Portovenere, Portofino, Amalfi.
I imagine taking gentle strolls, drinking in the beauty of the village, the flowers, the sea. Some days are devoted to spectacular outings—a boat ride, a sea bathe—while others are blessed with the Italian art of far niente. Evenings draw me out for beautiful dinners with a beautiful, possibly professorial, gentleman (this is a honeymoon, after all), to a table where daytime gingham tablecloths are traded for exquisite floral prints and Ginori china.
How to Write Beautiful, Personal Wedding Vows
When we think of creating a beautiful wedding ceremony, we tend to lavish attention on the visual aspects. We imagine our wedding gown, and the floral arch that awaits us at the altar. Colors, flowers, and fabrics fill our mind. But to create a truly meaningful moment—a moment filled with intangible beauty—we should not overlook the spiritual and emotional aspects of our ceremony. For there is a beauty that transcends the visual, moments that are powerful for the depth of love and grace they hold. We all long—perhaps every moment of every day—to encounter such a moment: the kind of moment we only experience a few times in life. I am not arguing to scorn visual experience, but instead to nurture prayerful, invisible beauty as well as beautiful design. To seek this inner truth and beauty first-- and experience the surpassing beauty that follows.
When it comes to creating unforgettable ceremonies, we should not leave unexplored the unseen beauty of words, vows, and above all Scripture and prayer. And one beautiful way to bring this beauty your ceremony is by writing personal wedding vows.
Destinations as Dresses
The enchantment of certain wedding dress collections lies in their ability to evoke a sense of place. Some talented designers, working from an intimate understanding of home, seem to translate the essence, style, and soul of a place through a language of silk, lace, and satin. From the nonchalant chic of French separates to the sensuous beauty of a Spanish silk gown, certain collections transport you to their place of origin, as surely as architecture, music, literature, folklore, or poetry does. Sometimes, however, the associations are poetic and abstract—a dress can feel like a place without being made there. The way a fabric drapes, the placement of a freshwater pearl, the commanding presence of a long train—all these things can, in some abstract way, speak to the attitude of a place.
White as Snow: A New Year’s Prayer
“You can begin again as if nothing had ever gone wrong. White as snow.” -C.S. Lewis. This is the beauty belonging to the new year—this promise of a clean slate, a fresh start, a snow-white hope. This spiritual longing lives in all of us. We long to be forgiven, long to be cleansed, freed from guilt and fear. What we would give for some blessed release-- from the past and from our failings. What we would give to feel a sense of permission and clemency—a sense of clearance and release-- to move forward.