Weekly Inspirations: Thoughts on Beautiful People, Places & Things

I love beautiful things. When I was planning our wedding, I saved hundreds of photos to my computer of stunning images. When I saw this Beautiful White Wedding last week on StyleMePretty (shot by the amazingly talented Jasmine Star) my love of weddings was once again reignited (though, did it ever really fade?)

 (images from stylemepretty.com by Jasmine Star Photography)

As I've mentioned before, I find myself constantly saving beautiful images to my computer. From home decor, to hair styles to celebrity fashion looks I love...and yes, sometimes even weddings (I know, I know I had my wedding) I just can't help but want to seek-out and cherish beautiful things.  There's something inspirational about it to me and it makes me feel a positive energy when I see and experience beautiful things.

I remember even as a young girl, I would take the time to really look at every ad in a magazine. I'd think about what I like and didn't like, the font, the colors, the model, the clothing they chose for the shoot. I'd take everything into account. When I found an ad I loved, I would rip it out and put it on my wall or in a notebook or on my school binder. I loved constantly having beautiful things around me to look at and smile at.

One of the more recent ads that has always stuck in my mind is this one by Tiffany & Co.

There's just something so beautiful about it.  I believe that the emotions conveyed in the photo are real (even though they're not, unless that really is the model's baby, LOL.) 

I often enjoy looking at the ads in magazines as much as the rest of the content. There's nothing worse than a cheesy ad. When I see a horrible one, I always think HIRE ME! I'll create something beautiful for your product! I'm no graphic designer, but I know pretty from cheesy.

It's like weddings. I never want to judge because I think every bride has her own vision of what is beautiful and appealing (and a budget of course) but you see a wedding like the Beautiful White Wedding above, and you can't help but feel completely sucked into the beauty of it all. They definitely got it right.

I also have to give a shout-out to one of my favorite mommy bloggers, Mrs. Foreste who threw the prettiest first birthday party for her little girl.  So many cute little (hand-made!) details and a great color palette- now that's a beautiful event! Go check out her great party-decor ideas! 

I'm definitely going to be one of those DIY party moms one day.  I love the process of making things by hand and seeing how they transform a room and create an entire "look." Last week, I even posted some photos of some quick 5-minute handmade cards I created.

I guess I just love all of the little details in life. I think they make a profound difference.  I see it all the time when I'm house-hunting online.  Beautiful decor can make me think an OK house must be gorgeous in person, while lack of [great] decor can make me think the house is icky, even though it would look completely different with our things in it (and a good paint job.)  I sometimes have a hard time visualizing how a space would look if there are distracting things all over the place, or if the decor is so outrageous (or just bad)... I can't look past it.

I'm not really sure where this is all going, but before I go, I wanted to share a few beautiful images I've found lately that have inspired me in some way:

Carrie Underwood's gorgeous blow-out- seriously I want hair like hers. Longer, but styled like that. Love it!

The City's Olivia Palermo's photo shoot for asos. Is she a professional model or what? I absolutely LOVE these photos. She's a natural.

Momma-to-be Miranda Kerr's gorgeous hair. I think I want to get my layers cut a bit shorter at the front just to be able to style them like this. Gorgeous!

Kristin Cavallari's pretty braid and natural makeup. There's something sad about her expression, but also beautiful. Maybe she's still sad about The Hills ending. I know I am.

Is Hilary Duff's hair great or what? She's also got the shorter layers at the front. I feel like I NEED to do this. It is beyond cute to have that little flip of hair like that at the front. What do you ladies think?

 (photos from Hills Freak)

Audrina Patridge's style- she does it right no matter what the time of day (or night!) love her.  

Who or what inspires you when it comes to beautiful things? Which websites or magazines are your go-to places for gorgeous photos?

Let me know in the comments below.  As always, thank you for reading!

xoxo,

Veronika.

Blogging: Our Honeymoon

My lovely readers...I apologize for my lack of posting, but I had an amazing time on our honeymoon/at my friend's gorgeous wedding so I'll make this post sort of a fun, lighthearted vacation wrap-up post.

Before I start, I'll share our finally blogged wedding with my fellow wedding-obsessed readers. Our amazing photographer Craig, at Studio 563 blogged our wedding here. You can also view his entry about our wedding being published here. Seeing those photos just brings back all of those lovey-dovey wedding day feelings. Sigh. It was awesome to come back home and see this.

Speaking of weddings, my gorgeous friend Heather married the love of her life Matt on the beach at the Majestic Elegance Resort in Punta Cana. She was stunning, and the wedding was absolutely incredible, beautiful and most of all FUN. They built a dance floor on the beach that was slightly elevated and we danced the night away (which IMO is the most fun a wedding can get- eat, drink and be merry...and dance all night!)

Here are a few shots of the stunning bride and her groom. Congratulations you two, love you guys! (They are on their honeymoon in St. Bart's and probably won't see this for awhile...but, here we go!)


And here's what I wore to the wedding: (Dress- Lulu's, Belt- Club Monaco)

Most of our vacation was spent laying on the beach and by the pool. I got a decent tan, but not nearly as dark as I used to get. I am so paranoid about skin cancer and wrinkles, that I wore an SPF 70 on my face the entire time and SPF 70 on my body for the first few days (I later switched to SPF 30 on the body.) Better safe than sorry, right? I did manage to burn my chest area on the very last day, but otherwise I am OK.

Here are some pics of the pool area: (so pretty)

The pool basically ran down the entire length of the resort. I laid-out on that ledge a lot reading on a pool chair: (That's Emily Giffin's "Love the One You're With" novel, which was really good.)


Here are a few beach shots:

I like to call this hair "wind-blown chic" LOL!



And some evening shots:

My awesome low-back VIX dress:

We had a wonderful time. The resort was beautiful. The customer service was a little off, but overall we had an incredible time!

Thank you so much for reading and there is a lot more to come now that I'm back to regular blogging...I've got some great "Motivation Monday's" posts coming up and some hauls and product reviews.

So, tell me- what did I miss last week in the blogosphere? I am working on catching up!

xoxo,

Veronika.

Our Wedding was Featured and the Most Amazing Necklace...Ever!

I have some exciting news. Some of my lovely readers may already know about this, but for those who don't: our wedding was featured in the Spring/Summer 2010 issue of Houston Brides Magazine.

I submitted some photos after our wedding and they ended up picking ours as one of the featured weddings. You can follow this link to see our feature, and the rest of the magazine online (we are on page 90-91)

Here is me, excited to finally get my hands on some copies!

And a shot of the inside (please ignore my goofy crazy-eyed smile!)

Needless to say, seeing your very own wedding in print is awesome. It felt like all of that hard work paid off. I have to give a special thank-you shout-out to my mother in law, who helped hand make more than half of the gorgeous Martha-Stewart style tissue peonies for my candy buffet boxes, and my beautiful bridesmaid and bestie Candice who also helped make a lot of the stuff by hand. They both helped create so much of my personalized items. I couldn't have done it without them! Advice to future brides: ask a friend or family member to help!

I'm glad I had a somewhat DIY wedding. It feels good to know that all of those little details and personalization made the day that much more memorable (at least for me, because I'm obsessed with details!)

In other news, my gorgeous necklace came in from Regina Pierallini. OMG. It is gorgeous. I saw the necklace on The Look 4 Less blog. It's a similar style to the Van Cleef and Arpels Alhambra necklace but without the 7-15K price tag (I did an online search and found out that's how much some of these necklaces go for.) I have always been drawn to that clover pattern and the length of the necklace (the longer, the better when it comes to my long torso.)

I was so thrilled to find the necklace on Regina's Etsy page called NYLightMetals. Unfortunately, it was sold out due to the popularity springing from the Look 4 Less blog. I emailed Regina, and she was so awesome and kind. It turns out she had found a few more of the necklaces in her studio and mailed one to me immediately. It was love at first sight.

Here is the photo from Regina's Etsy page. Love love love. So pretty.

Here it is on me:
If you love this necklace as much as I do, check out Regina's Etsy page and see if you can score one as well. It was 45$. Love. They come in different colors too. I would love some matching stud earrings. I am going to see if she makes or sells those.

Ok onto other cute things. These flats. From Target. $19.99. I needed flats for work. I wanted ones that were not too casual. I saw these and fell in love. I wore them with my Gap Always Skinny jeans to dinner tonight and no matter what I wear them with, they just seem to work. So versatile and awesome. Love. Lord knows I can't resist a cute bow!

I got a size 10, for reference. My feet are huge (I like to think they are in proportion to my height, to make myself feel better.)

And...because I am in a wedding kind of mood, here are a few of my fave shots from the big day:

Ok...maybe I went a little overboard there. Sigh. Memories. I still watch our wedding video sometimes (not the whole thing.) I just like looking at all of the pretty flowers. Speaking of flowers, my mom and grandma were awesome and took most of our wedding flowers back to our home after the wedding.

This is what we came home to:

It was fun to have all of those flowers in the house. I even dried my own bouquet out and still have it. There were more, but I won't bore you with even more photos.

Thank you so much for reading. For those still planning their wedding my advice is: make each detail count. You won't regret the time and effort!

xoxo,

Veronika.