break the record: upcycled cassette tape wedding centerpiece

{ music lover red cassette tape LED-lighted centerpiece }

this is just the coolest idea! '80s theme? rock n' roll wedding? it takes me way back.
oh mix tapes. How I crafted you so lovingly. How I listened to you over and over when someone made you for me. I kept every single one of you, even though I no longer have a way to play you.

we are both musicians, and incorporating music into our wedding was so important to us that our wedding invitation was a hand-letterpressed mix-cd for all of our friends and family. (I will one day post step-by-step instructions for how to DIY your own!)

You can get these in all sorts of colors -- plus you're supporting an awesome single-mom crafter and her two girls. Maybe the best store motto I've seen: Music + Recycling + Craftiness = Break the Record.

(plus check out the amazing vinyl record cake stand!!)







more at breaktherecord.etsy.com

my heart's in egypt wedding sampler

{ cairo vintage map necklace by ivcreations55 }

one of my dearest friends is spending yet another birthday on an amazing trip, this time to Egypt, that I was invited on but couldn't swing. I would like to be in Egypt right NOW. (not working.) RIGHT NOW.

someday I will go to Egypt and see Cairo and the Nile.
For now... thinking of you, Delly -- happy birthday.










{each photo links to its etsy shop}

a practical wedding, on bridesmaids and accessories

{ letterpressed "will you be my bridesmaid" card by drippyink }

better late than never, celebrating blog-friend Meg's first Huffington Post article, "Your Bridesmaids are not Accessories and other Truths" -- in which she lets you off the hook for any fears you're doing the bridal party thing wrong. THERE IS NO WRONG.* There is only Zuul.

[update! plus her must-read series of posts on etsy's blog:
A Wedding on Your Terms: The Stuff
A Wedding on Your Terms: The Registry ]

If you don't already read A Practical Wedding it is just *great* -- I still do.

Plus check out her new book! A Practical Wedding: Creative Ideas for Planning a Beautiful, Affordable, and Meaningful Celebration -- filled with sane sanity, which is not redundant when you're planning a wedding.

(I'm so pleased to feature it in the first ad I've ever posted on this site. We started our blogs around the same time [don't compare, APW is all grown up!] and it has been a pleasure and inspiration to watch her grow ever since.)

(and of course if you need accessories for your friends-who-are-not-accessories:)







{each photo links to its etsy shop}


*ok, technically there may be a wrong way, which would be to let the wedding-industrial complex make you feel like you have to buy 15 matching sets of everything or to think there's only ONE RIGHT WAY and every other way is TACKY, but we're not here to judge if that's what makes you happy, do your thing.

on cherry blossoms, and a film you need to see

{ "wrapped in romance" cherry blossom kodak dualflex viewfinder print by seelifeshine }

over the weekend we caught up with A's friend Lucy Walker, a truly gifted, brilliant filmmaker (nominated for two Oscars!) and dear soul, after her Environmental Film Festival retrospective. Lucy and our friend Aaron have made a gorgeous short documentary called "The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom" and you *must* keep your eye out for it where you live -- a profoundly moving film of catastrophe and beautiful redemption. Showing in Durham NC's Full Frame festival next month among others, and eventually on HBO.

then on Sunday we biked down to DC's own cherry blossoms, here early this year -- 100 years and every year a miracle.

there's an enormous variety of cherry-blossom-themed invitations on etsy (click here to see the latest) -- and here's a sampler of other lovely ideas. Bonus points to anyone who recognizes my favorite pink-haired anime ass-kicker. Happy spring!










{each photo links to its shop}