Grey Likes Weddings

Can you imagine being the owner of a bridal salon…and then getting engaged? Um, how fun would it be to shop for your wedding dress? Or impossible? Either way, we’re excited to be featuring the engagement session of Chelsea and Timmy. Chealsea owns Everthine Bridal Boutique in Connecticut (which if you are a New England bride, you MUST check out…it’s so cute!). Their engagement photos on the New England shore (shot by our new Grey Collective member, Michelle Gardella) are just as fun and lovely!

We were quite taken aback upon discovering Launderette…a most dashing mini haberdashery run by a group of, we can only assume, well dress ladies and lads. Besides offering a sampling of bow ties for purchase, their blog has also produced a twofold tutorial for any handsome man in want of bow tying skills. First, a graphic tutorial by Jared Purrington, which is both helpful and well-designed (a unique combination of attributes that is ever increasingly difficult to discover).

Second, to ensure every gentleman is readily prepared, our new found friends at Launderette have also provided a video tutorial. This video involves French and humor–so don’t let the word tutorial fool you into fearing boredom and resisting the urge to press play. We promise, you’ll love it…even if you are a lady without need for tying bows like a man. But we’ve already said too much. We thought we’d let Launderette make the proper (and more apt) introductions below.

The pièce de résistance to our lessons and guides, Launderette is proud to introduce its very own instructional bow tying tutorial. With so many, quite serviceable, bow tie videos out there, we knew ours had to be something unique. So in homage to our favorite new wave auteurs, we put together a how-to film with a french twist. It figures Cahiers would have wanted you to know how to get these things around your necks as much as we do.

We hope this inspires a few of you to maybe try an alternative to your bolo. Rest assured, with a little practice it’s as easy as tying your shoes.

When it comes to honeymoons, there are so many places to choose from. Outside of beachy locales, couples that are looking for a little more fun and excitement have the option of being city bound for an urban honeymoon! One of the best cities in the world — New York — is a perfect place where honeymooners can have the best of both worlds: excitement in the city, and total relaxation in your hotel. One of the recent gems we’ve spied that’s perfect for the city chic couple is the The Setai Fifth Avenue Hotel.

We love The Setai Fifth Avenue because they offer a honeymooner package for your time spent relaxing indoors:  breakfast in bed, a bottle of champagne, chocolate covered strawberries, couples massage, and even a personal assistant–all enjoyed in an enormous one bedroom suite overlooking Manhattan. Setai is currently offering a special three night deal just for honeymooners that want to experience the finest of New York, which means it might be the perfect stop to pamper up before you head on to your next destination, or you can extend your stay in the city and take in all that Manhattan has to offer.

Oh and if you book now for a stay in 2012 they are offering a complimentary upgrade to an 1,100 square foot one bedroom Avenue Apartment Suite when you mention Grey Likes Weddings. Soooo…it pretty much seems like something you might want to do even if it isn’t your honeymoon! Grey loves NY!

The Setai Fifth Avenue is a sponsor of Grey Likes Weddings.

I don’t know what it is about southern weddings…but they are always so charming. It must be the combination of meaningful traditions and a classic aesthetic that never goes out of style. Photographer Ali Harper, who’s joining the Grey Collective, captured all Natalie and Conar’s beautiful wedding images on film (have we mentioned we love film? We have. Oh, okay. So you know, then?). This is our absolute favorite type of wedding: timeless and elegant. Want to see more of this wedding? You can head here to Ali’s blog!

And, my sweet Tennessee brides, were you wondering how this wedding got so pretty? You ought to call of the lovely Mary Alice of A Delightful Day. Her event design savvy helped put all of this together!

I love what photographer Ali shared about her bride and groom: Natalie and Conar were married in the town Natalie grew up in — Gallatin, Tennesse — and it had the best small town charm, just like you’d expect. They had quite honestly one of the most gorgeous fall days you could ask for, and filled the tiny downtown chapel at dusk with their dearest friends and family. One of my favorite moments of the day was getting to witness Conar open up the gift his bride gave him moments before their first look… a set of embroidered handkerchiefs. That sweet token, along with a handwritten note made all of us stop and simply take it all all in. After all the “big” things have been planned on a wedding day, I always find that it’s usually about the love in the little things that become so very meaningful…

Lovely resources and vendors for this wedding: Venue: Fairvue Plantation // Photographer: Ali Harper Photography // Event Planner: Mary Alice Sublett, A Delightful Day Event Planning // Florist: Gallatin Flower Shoppe // Ceremony Music: Innocenti String Quartet // Reception Music: Pat Patrick Band // Linens: La Tavola Linens // Rentals: Liberty Party Rentals and The Premiere Event // Wedding Cakes: Parry Bartlett and Allison Clifton // Calligraphy: Samantha Martin Curlicue Designs // Invitations: Rohner Letterpress // MonogramDesign: Number Four Eleven // Bride’s Dress: Vera Wang // Bride’s Shoes: Jimmy Choo // Groom’s Tuxedo: Gucci // Groom’s Shoes: Salvatore Ferragamo // Cuff Links: Robin Rotenier // Makeup: Bridget Pilkinton for MAC // Earrings: antique, gift from the groom // Hairpiece: custom by Jennifer Behr // Wedding Clutch: Judith Leiber // Rehearsal Dinner clutch: Judith Leiber // Rehearsal Dinner Dress: Monique Lhuillier / custom skirt by Kerried Away Couture // Rehearsal Dinner Shoes: Valentino

Merry Monday! Today we are feature one of our favorite types of weddings–one where the couple comes up with creative ways to express their personalities. Devon and Ryan thought up wonderfully brilliant ideas to incorporate their hometown roots, favorite foods, and even Ryan’s job! If you’ve ever wondered how a twitter employee might make a nod to his company, check out their place cards, which feature Twitter handles instead of names. They even included the hash tag #LOVE on their dessert table!

Lots more lovely images, ideas, vendors, and a great description from Devon below! Special thanks to onelove photography for sharing their beautiful work with us!

We wanted our wedding to showcase our personalities – we’re total tech dorks. Ryan works at Twitter and most of our friends are in the tech space as well. Our programs and menus had everything listed by Twitter handles and our name cards were also by twitter usernames. Our favors table had #love in large wooden letters. The overall look and feel was supposed to be relaxed and very New England. Nothing too fancy–simple hydrangeas and snowbells (in lieu of lily of the valleys) were our main flowers and linens were kept very natural as well as the rustic chairs. We wanted people to be comfortable but to see a rustic elegance. In order to make our guests feel welcome we did welcome boxes with Ryan’s family recipe of homemade chex mix and salt water taffy from Maine.

Ryan and I are both transplants to Northern California and we wanted our wedding to reflect where we came from, him from Michigan and myself from Maine. We flew in Lobster Bisque from our favorite restaurant in my hometown. We ended the meal with white chocolate covered cherries from Michigan. The highlight of the menu was our favors–whoopie pies–a Maine staple that were handcrafted by one of our favorite food carts in San Francisco that encompassed our two homestates. Steven, the vendor and our dear friend tells the story of the Matching Half Gobs on his blog here!

Also at the ceremony we had our french bulldog, Stella, as the best dog, who despite being very well behaved generally attempted to pull my dress off mid-vows. Our ceremony was also officiated by one of our best friends. We wrote our own vows that not only reflected our love but also our dorky sense of humor and love of tech.

Check out the place cards, which denote attendees twitter names instead of first names!

Resources and vendors — Photography: OneLove Photography // Floral Design: Pat Gibbons Floral // Designer: Weddings by Jonette // Venue: Silverado Resort // Stationery: Love vs. Design // Dress: Novella Bridal // Sweets: Kara’s Cupcakes // DJ: Ingar Brown // Makeup: Sherrie Long // Shoes: Pour La Victoire // Menswear: J. Crew