Real Wedding {Victoria + Jared}

I'm very excited to announce that Bird Dog Wedding is now featuring *real local weddings*! This has been a dream of mine for some time. Luckily, there are tons of wonderful, talented vendors and awesome, creative weddings to showcase in the Austin area. I'll also feature some feedback from the bride on their oh-so-special day. So let's get started...

Couple: Victoria + Jared

Wedding Style: intimate, sweet, romantic, garden

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- favorite part of planning -
Since my husband and I live in Maryland, a huge perk of planning a wedding in Austin was getting to see my family in Texas more often. We had so much fun searching for the perfect venue and brainstorming what we wanted our wedding day to be like.

- favorite detail - 

All of the flowers, done by Erin at Rosehip Flora, were simply fabulous! I did not get enough time to enjoy them the day of the wedding, and I wish I could have spent hours just gazing at them. I also loved the old family wedding photos that my mom and aunt collected, to display during the reception.

- most memorable wedding day moment - 

After much discussion, we decided to do a 'first look' photo shoot before the ceremony, so that we could have more time to spend with our guests during the reception. I'll never forget the look of pure joy on Jared's face when he turned to see me that first time. Many of our friends and family were spying on us, so they were able to share in that special moment as well.

- favorite DIY project -

I'm quite proud of the program fans that I designed, printed, and assembled myself! The back of the program I designed to look like a succulent. The fans came in handy during the reception dance party, when everyone was hot and sweaty. I also loved the mini succulent plants that we put together for our escort cards and favors. 

- favorite reception song - 

For our cake cutting song, we played "Sweet Tooth" by David Rawlings Machine. The lyrics are perfect and adorable for cutting cake, and we got a kick out of playing something that was special just to us.

{CONGRATULATIONS}

- final advice to planning brides - 

Make your wedding day whatever you want it to be, even if it's something not traditional. Also, be kind to yourself and don't take on too many projects in the days or weeks right before the wedding. It's okay to not accomplish everything on your DIY list!

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{VENDORS}

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photography: Mary Sledd Photography

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venue / catering / cake: Green Pastures

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florist: Rosehip Flora

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make-up / hair: Haute Facade

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officiant: Sarah de la Fuente

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strings: Divisi Strings

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DJ: Joel - Greenbelt DJ

Christmas Sparkle!

Today is our Christmas party!

With some of the Reviva Chicks heading off in the next few weeks to other climates, the season of glitter and fairy lights has started early :)

Secret Santa is ready and we have a few little treats in store for our fab guests!

Officially now we have to sparkle and I thought I would share some sparkly inspirations with you to get into the festive spirit, all these gorgeous photos are from pinterest.

Colour.....

Be bold and make a statement with colour for your bridesmaids in gowns of rich colours. We love this deep blue dress.....so easy to wear......!!!!and check out the shoes.....!!!

Sleeves.......!!!!

Are sleeves a style consideration or a necessity? We at WSG believe it is both.....The perfect sleeve can enhance a wedding gown. A long, narrow sleeve is flattering and fashion-forward while an elbow-length sleeve is stylish but also provides coverage. If you are confident about your arms, then sleeveless (strapless) will work for you. The sleeveless gown is a signature for me as it is timeless, chic and sophisticated while also practical for dancing.
If you choose sleeves, remember the proportion of the armhole will impact the construction of the sleeve and the range of your movement. Most importantly, choose something you feel comfortable and confident in. -XO

Details {White and Yellow}

White and golden yellow with a little mid-century flair. Yes, please!

{Bouts, Seating Chart, Leaf Garland, Ice Cream Bowls, Flower Garland, Ribbon Programs, Bow-tie Napkin}

The Bridal Garter

Bridal Garters have always been a lot of fun. Even the story of their origin shows that garters are a symbol of fun at any wedding.
We would love to receive photos of your garter or "garter removal" with or without the story that may go with it.
Submit your photos or story and you will go in the draw to win a dozen SA wines.
To all our brides to be keep an eye on the website for the release of our December LOOK BOOK which will be released on 12th December 2011 as Bleu Garters in California has given us an unique garter to giveaway to one lucky bride.
Bleu Garters are handcrafted in California from fine silks and antique laces. The brand modernizes the classic garter by incorporating pops of color, oversized playful embellishments and intricate beaded lace. “A big trend I'm noticing is brides being more adventurous with color, and not sticking to white/ivory/light blue. Don't get me wrong, the classics are still the most popular, but brides have also been ordering their favorite bright colors, as well as the black floral lace garters for their wedding day!”-Jamie, creative director and designer for Bleu Garters
History of the Garter
Today, the tradition of the wedding garter is tame in comparison to France of the 14th century. In North America, the bride wears two garters; one as a keepsake garter and the other for the throw away.
Both garters are worn on the right leg just above the knee.
Before the removal of the garter, the bride first throws her bouquet to the single women.
The groom removes the throw away garter from the brides leg, sometimes he removes it with his teeth , but more appropriately nowadays he uses his hands. He does this while the bride is sat in a chair.
After the garter is removed, he then throws it to the single male guests. The male guest then takes the garter and places it on the leg of the single female guest who has caught the bouquet.
Those that catch either item are said to be the next to marry. In some instances, it is said that they will marry each other.
The keepsake garter is removed later in private during the honeymoon night.
Numerous wedding garter traditions have been obtained over the years that still seem to become rules of etiquette today. Take a look at a few that are still popular and some that have long since been forgotten.

Go to the website to read more about the history of garters!

http://www.weddingstyleguide.com.au/garters.html

Free Wedding Websites

In a world of modern technology is setting up a wedding website important?

Well the answer is Yes.

It is an ideal way to communicate with your guests, provide details of the wedding, related activities and up to date news. It also serves as a brilliant planning tool, allowing you to keep on top of your wedding preparations, updating information without having to notify all your guests individually and allows close friends, who perhaps cannot attend your wedding, to be kept in the fold of events.

Our recommendations for the sort of information you should supply on your website are basic info, names, the date and where your wedding is being held with details of the ceremony and reception.

Directions, maps, hotel information and if you are planning a destination wedding, useful things to know, restaurants, what to do, information about the area and perhaps telephone numbers in an emergency.

You can suggest suitable attire, as everyone will want to know what to wear from black tie and sparkle to perhaps laid back, casual beach. It is always nice to include wedding party info, who are your bridesmaids and groomsmen and why.

A convenient link to your wedding registry, gift wish list is useful for your guests to take a look at and of course your story, how you met, engagement, hearing about your romance will give guests an insight and envoke excitement for your big day. Don´t post up 786 photos of your last holiday though!

There are some fantastic free wedding websites out there and with little internet skills you can create your fabulous wedding website in a very short time.

Google offer a whole host of wedding tools, including websites, online planners and useful google docs. Another brilliant website is My Wedding.

Definitely worth heading over to these two websites to start creating your personal wedding website online. After my recent blog posts many of our brides have emailed me with their websites and My Wedding certainly seems to be one of the most popular.

I hope by sharing this advice we have just eliminated one more little stress!

Give a Little Somethin'

All this Black Friday madness has reaffirmed my love for online shopping. Wait in traffic another day and order the special ladies in your life something from the Internets.

If you feel like getting out and about to shop, don't forget today is Small Business Saturday so try to support local and small businesses in your area. I will be hitting up the Austin Citywide Garage Sale and the Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Market to do my part - hope to see you there!

{Bracelets, Print, Scarf, Belt, Wrapping, Pyrex, Spatulas, Earrings}

Top Five Friday

Hope everyone had a wonderful Turkey Day! Mine was filled with fun, family, and delicious food...oh yeah, and football. Here is a little eye candy while you're relaxing and hopefully not doing much of anything.

{1} Lisa + Alex - Style Me Pretty

This wedding is a fairy tale - one with tons of amazing, DIY details. Magical.

{Marianne Taylor Photography}


{2} Sam + Wade - 100 Layer Cake

Southern tradition meets whimsy. I like.

{Simply Bloom Photography}

{3} Summer + Paul - Ruffled

Summer's from Taiwan and Paul's from Ireland and they met in Amsterdam - international storybook wedding - swoon.

{Magda Lukas + Brosnan Photographic}

{4} Janine + Craig - Style Me Pretty

Folks - this is your typical BDW style - streamers, bright/bold color, pattern, flowers, and all around loveliness and fun! 

{Nancy Ray Photography}

{5} Jessa + Bryan - The Nichols Blog

I love the whole fall feel of this wedding. Not to mention an amazing color palette. But with styling from The Nouveau Romantics, who could expect anything less? Beautiful!

{The Nichols}

The Fall 2012 Bridal Collection will be at the Vera Wang Bridal Salon on Madison Avenue through Saturday, November 26th for a special trunk show. If you can't make it this weekend the new collection will be back at the New York City salon from December 22nd through January 2012...

Very exciting for anyone that happens to be in New York at this time or is thinking of travelling before your big day..........!!!!!!!!!!

Party {Pink, Purple, Orange, Yellow}

Lovely and fun. The rich purple and orange are perfect fall colors.

{Outdoor Seating, Flowers, Fringe, Serving Pieces, Ombre Cake, Paper, Fabric, Geode, Wink, Cups}

Getting Married in Marbella

This week we are creating a blog post and guiding you through the legalities of getting married in Marbella and Spain.

We will be helping you with any questions you need to know about getting married in Spain and the paperwork involved. Whether you wish to hold a catholic church ceremony, a registry office in Gibraltar or a blessing here we will be answering your questions here on this blog this week.

Carla, our head of planning and coordination will be here to answer any questions you have so if you would like to submit a question please send an email to info@reviva-weddings.com.

Wedding Venues in Marbella and Sotogrande

I love this time of year.

November is getting chilly outside and as we wind down from our flurry of weddings it is lovely to look through and study all the photos from 2011 as we create new portfolios and look books for our studio.

It does take time to process the year and reflect on our work in order to refresh ourselves for our new year.

We are now working on our 2012 weddings and have some very sparky, creative brides on board so looking forward to our winter workshops and brain storming with them!

Today I have been organising photos not only for our portfolios in the studio, but also we have been asked to submit some of our favourite weddings to many hi profile wedding portals which is very exciting.

We are currently organising photos and will be in contact with our clients should their wedding be successful in our submissions to gain approval.

Having been browsing today I had to share this fabulous venue with you, we planned and designed a wedding here in September and I am in love with these photos.

For me they epitomize a Mediterranean evening, the lighting is stunning and this wedding was certainly one big party! Set in a monastery in Sotogrande in fabulous grounds this was a truly stunning setting for our client´s wedding.

We have also been out and about as well recently looking at new venues for weddings and as well as this monastery, we now have a fabulous 23 bedroomed converted convent on our books with it´s own chapel which is licensed for weddings.

You can party all night without noise restrictions. It is beautifully presented and restored and has a whole host of interesting areas to move around in, from the chiringuito bar area for the cocktail or perhaps the inner courtyard, to a fantastic setting for the dinner and dancing, a real hideaway set in the heart of Andalucian natural parkland.

These images above were provided to us by Anna Gazda of our stunning wedding in Sotogrande and having been scouring through all our weddings I wanted to share these with you again as I love them!

I might finally add that our day of venue searching ended up with us driving around looking for a zoo, which we found but was shut, apparently this area has a fabulous lake that we seemed to have missed so we will have to head back, the town I found enchanting and has a large hotel there for guests, we ended up on this day literally driving over the polo fields in Sotogrande, so not entirely sure that Carla wants to come out with me again on a venue reccie! She seemed glad to get out the car at the end of our day! :)

Board {Bright, Bold, and Fun}

A wedding inspired by this board just seems like it would be one big party. I would definitely like to attend this bash! Cheers!

{Bouquet, Heart Flags, Bunting, Necklace, Runner, Invitation, Pennant bouquets}

Romance and Sparkle at the Marbella Club

All of us, of course, love romance and sparkle and this beautiful wedding in September was certainly a romantic story.

Karen and Taghi had been together 25 years and finally decided to tie the knot in the hugely romantic and stylish Marbella Club synonomous with romance of the rich and famous in the golden era.

Moira at Perfect Spanish weddings organised this delightful wedding and contacted us to help with the coordination, decoration and flowers and we were thrilled to be involved in the wedding of such a delightful and charming couple.

We created the bridal flowers and decorations based on the bright pinks of bouganvillea here along with the paler pinks to soften the bridal flowers. Karen wanted to keep it toned down for the ceremony but to use the bouganvillea pinks for the reception area to create a wow factor.

The table centrepieces were tall glass flutes filled with orchids and set on mirrors decorated with bouganvillea, crystals and tealights. We dressed the chairs with pink sashes and decorated the fabulous gardens, set right on the beach, with fairy lights, lanterns and candles.

The table seating plan was written on a white shabby chic mirror and the table names were given a flower name as the top table was named after their daughter Lili which we thought was a lovely touch. Mirrors always work well at the Marbella Club as they have them set in the walls within the beautiful Andalucian patio.

We gave the mirror as a gift to Karen and Taghi which we understand now is hanging in their bedroom having managed to get it home with apparently very helpful airline staff!

It was a beautiful day and the weather could not have been more perfect for this stunning day at the Marbella Club. Our thanks to David Toms, the photographer, Moira and Karen & Taghi for allowing us to share this delightful wedding with you.