Tag: flowers

April (Bridal) Showers 2013

Published on by Sarah Lubetsky1 Comment

Last year was one busy year. So busy that I hardly had a chance to share about all of our wedding festivities and preparation. Thinking back on happy memories is a great way to lift ones spirits, so I thought I’d begin the process of looking back and sharing our wedding journey :-).

We started with an engagement BBQ party hosted by my parents, and then another joint engagement party hosted by Brian’s parents celebrating his sister’s and our engagement. The coolest part: Brian’s parent rented an ice cream truck for the engagement party! We were so caught up in the excitement that I never got a single picture of the fun. If you are looking for engagement party ideas, I highly recommend a summer party with an ice cream truck, it was a hit!

California Shower

Brian and I went on our first date April 6th, 2010. Three years later, on April 6th 2013 my best friend Micah and a close family friend hosted my first of 3 wedding showers. It was a gorgeous, sunny, California day. Sitting out in the bright mid-day sunshine, sipping on mimosas, surrounded by women I love, we celebrated our love and future! My favorite part: copious sunshine and my closest friends 🙂

MicahSarah_ReadySetSarahBlog
Me and one of the beautiful hostesses, my bestie Micah!
Bridesmaids_ReadySetSarahBlog
Bridesmaids shot!
My mom with my best friends mom. They're the cutest.
My mom with my best friend’s mom. They’re the cutest.

Michigan Shower

A little later in April my mother-law’s friends got together to throw us another lovely wedding shower! They rented a space at a golf course and hosted a lovely lunch. Though we got some actual April showers that day, it was a really nice gathering and we were really grateful to have the chance to celebrate with Brian’s family. My favorite part? The AMAZING gluten-free cakes from Rumi’s Passion Gluten-Free Bakery in Plymouth Michigan. The hostesses were so thoughtful and even picked up some of Rumi’s Passion’s gluten-free dinner rolls for me to have with our lunch. I love this bakery, it is a fully gluten-free bakery with a ton of sweet and savory specialties.

My friends at the Michigan Shower.
My work friends at the Michigan Shower.
My in-laws. I <3 them.
My in-laws. I ❤ them.
Gluten-Free Carrot Cake from Rumi's Passion Bakery.
Gluten-Free Carrot Cake from Rumi’s Passion Bakery.
Gluten Free Chocolate Cake from Rumi's Passion Bakery.
Gluten Free Chocolate Cake from Rumi’s Passion Bakery.

 

Work Wedding Shower Tea Party

At my old job I worked with an amazing group of women who became great friends (and luckily, I think this will be true for my new job as well). These lovely women put together an adorable tea party themed bridal shower at the office and I was happy as can be. One of my colleagues formerly worked at a home for aging nuns. There she met many older nuns who have a LARGE collection of assorted tea cups and saucers, and they were kind enough to loan them to her for the party. Each cup was unique and had that feminine delicate prettiness that makes tea parties so adorable. It was really a special day, I felt so loved and cared for with my work family around me, I will always be grateful!

Tea party gluten-free cupcakes!
Tea party gluten-free cucumber sandwiches and gluten-free cupcakes!
One of the many pretty tea cup sets loaned by the nuns.
One of the many pretty tea-cup sets loaned by the nuns.

Garden Shower/Bachelorette!

At the beginning of June, Brian and his best friends headed up north to a rented home on Torch lake for a weekend of Bachelor party debauchery. To keep my mind of things, and as a loving gesture, one of my bridesmaids (the Best Man’s wife and amazing hostess-with-the-mostess, Jes) hosted a garden shower/bachelorette celebration that was absolutely divine! Jes has incredible taste and throws great parties. She pays attention to every detail and it always comes out beautifully. We started the afternoon with a backyard brunch. We all had a fair share of  delicious (and strong) champagne punch, and were soon dancing away! We ended the night out on the town. We didn’t get into too much trouble though ;-).

The garden party settings.
The garden party settings.
Beautiful table setting.
Beautiful table setting.
The spread, it was all delicious.
The spread, it was all delicious.

 

Lox (smoked Salmon) for the bagels.
Lox (smoked Salmon) for the bagels.
Cucumber appetizers.
Cucumber appetizers.
Gorgeous, gigantic home grown peonies.
Gorgeous, gigantic home grown peonies.
My favorite flowers. Pretty, pretty peonies!
My favorite flowers. Pretty, pretty peonies!

 

The lovely hostess
The lovely hostess
Ladies night on the town.
Ladies night on the town.

Wedding Planning at the Airport

Published on by Sarah Lubetsky1 Comment

I’m headed to Atlanta for the week for what I hope will be an awesome health communication conference. Exciting right?

After nearly missing my flight due to takeoff time confusion (you mean my flight is at noon? Not 2pm? Crap!!!) and a harrowing drive from Royal Oak to DTW; I made it to my seat just in time to learn the plane was broken. Sad. face. Sarah.

We sat patiently on the plane as our takeoff went from 12pm to 1:30, then from 1:30 to 3pm… They finally let us off to get food only to ask us to get back on the plane to grab our stuff and head to the other side of the airport. And now, as I wait for a 5pm flight to Atlanta what else should I do but plan my wedding?

Thank you Delta. Thanks.

So- here are some inspiration boards I have been piecing together with Picstitch using images I have found on Pinterest. Here is a link to my pinterest board where you can find links to all of the image sources (these are not my images).

Bridesmaids and Groomsmen (Images from multiple sources, see Pinterest here)

I really want a warm feel for the wedding, classy but not uptight. We chose a Wtoo bridesmaid dress Macadamia (tan/champaign colored) for my ladies, which means the men will be in rich navy blue suits instead of tan linen as Brian had hoped…. But I think it looks fabulous!

Since more than half of our guests will be coming from out-of-state (the wedding is in Berkeley, CA where I’m, from Brian’s from Michigan) I want to draw in a few little nods to our home states. One of the ideas I’ve had for this is to find vintage travel postcards for Michigan and California cities to use in place of table numbers. Brian says if we do this the bridal party is sitting at “Detroit“. I’m down with that.

Greetings from California- Image from here
Greetings from Detroit (Image from here)

My mother and I both love cobalt blue glass. I thought it would be cool to make our centerpieces from little clusters of different size and shaped blue glass containers (bottles, vases, pitchers, jars), and to fill them with fluffy flowers like peonies and vintage roses in white, pale yellow and pale orange. Like this-

Potential table settings for the wedding (Images via Pinterest)

Oh look, now the sign says 6pm takeoff. I’ll be done planning before I reach Atlanta at this pace! Ok, I was nearly done already, but you’ve got to look for silver linings right? Thank goodness for iPhones and charging stations.

I’m really liking how the blues, yellows, golds, oranges and tans are all coming together. It will all go nicely with my dress which we found when my mom was in town last week! It’s a stunner if I might say so myself… and it is much more dramatic than I ever would have thought I’d choose. Since I can’t show off the dress, I’ll just share a few pics from the dress shopping adventure.

My dress shopping crew! Mom, Bride (me with raccoon eyes), Bridesmaid Teja (Image by Ready Set Sarah)

I ended up falling in love with the first dress I pulled off the rack and tried on a The Wedding Shoppe on Woodward. It was meant to be! The consultant, Natalie, at the Wedding Shoppe was awesome. I would definitely recommend her if you are looking for a wedding dress in the Detroit area. When we went back to take pictures of the dress the next day I noticed the adorable sign welcoming the brides with appointments! I’m the first one on the list!

The welcome sign for ladies with appointments at the shop. (Image by Ready.Set.Sarah)

Update- I finally made it to my hotel in Atlanta at 10pm… that’s a 12 hour travel day for what should have been a 2 hour flight. I could have driven here at that rate and seen a whole lot more of the country!

12 hours and 13 minutes drive from Detroit to Atlanta? I’ll take it (Image by Ready.Set.Sarah)

Calistoga Wedding Weekend

Published on by Sarah Lubetsky2 Comments

The Beau and I got back from California a few weeks ago, and let me just say that the trip went well. VERY WELL. We were in the Golden state for 10 days to visit my family and attend the wedding of one of The Beau’s cousins. It was a beautiful affair in wine country in the quaint town of Calistoga, CA. I haven’t been to Calistoga since I was a kid when my parents would take us to swim in the mineral pools while they enjoyed a spa mud bath.

The Past Loves tree in downtown Calistoga, CA Images by Ready.Set.Sarah.

It’s a romantic little town in wine country with nice shops. Since we were in Napa for the wedding of another one of his cousins last year we decided to just hang out this time and enjoy the pool and sunshine. We stayed at the Calistoga Spa Hot Springs  which has awesome mineral water pools (all different temperatures), and it was über relaxing just hanging out around town.

The bride and her friends/family were staying at Rancho Wikiup. This stable turned vacation rental/event venue is where they held the rehearsal dinner. It was a really unique venue with gorgeous wood patterns, flowers and friendly faces.

Rancho Wikiup Rehearsal Dinner, Images by Ready.Set.Sarah.

We had a great time hanging out with The Beau’s extended family and getting to know some of the new cousin-in-law’s family who had come from all over the globe for the wedding festivities; There were people from the East Coast, Liberia, Ghana, England, all over!

The next morning I woke up at 5:30 am, still on Michigan time I guess, but it’s lucky I did since my mom had texted to ask if I needed the pink dress that was still hanging up at her house in Berkeley! Well yes, I definitely did need the dress for the wedding that night! The Beau and I ended up making a wee-early morning drive back to Berkeley through the morning mist and budding summer sunshine. We were back at the hotel before anyone missed us and spent the day checking out the shops, swimming in the mineral pools and enjoying lunch at a seemingly popular breakfast place, Sarafornia.

It was a beautiful summer day in wine country and very sunny during the outdoor ceremony at Hans Fahden Vineyards. Thankfully they handed out pretty parasols to shade the guests while we waited for the processional to begin. It made for a lovely sight!

Hans Fahden Vineyards wedding, Image by Ready.Set.Sarah.

Best memories of the wedding:

  • The moment when the bride and groom opened the great big wooden doors that lead into the wine caves where we had our reception meal. It was magical. Twinkling lights and candles, everything was gorgeous (Check it out here).
  • The laughs and bonding at the “cousins” table during dinner. I really love The Beau’s family.
  • The Liberian and Jewish wedding dances- really all of the dancing! We got down like nobody’s business and my feet were aching by the end of the night.

Between the two family weddings last summer and this one, I can’t wait for the next wedding to come 😉

Pond at Hans Fahden Vineyards, Image by Ready.Set.Sarah.

Instagram Obsessed

Published on by Sarah LubetskyLeave a comment

On the off chance that you aren’t already obsessed with it as well, I thought I’d share. I’m completely hooked, not that I needed another ridiculous and wonderful app/site to spend time on.

The Instagram app is a quick and easy way to share your pics (and crosspost to FB, Twitter, etc). Check out my photo feed here- http://instagrid.me/sarah_ivy/

Instagram flower- Image by Ready.Set.Sarah!

After tooling around with Instagram for a while I also discovered the app Pic Stitch. This app has many features you can purchase, but there is plenty to do with the free stuff. I’m loving all of my new little obsessions 🙂

Pic Stitch collage by Ready.Set.Sarah!