Wedding Video: Lakeside Camp Wedding in Maine

If you're thinking of great wedding inspiration for the coming spring season, look no further than 100 Layer Cake - one of our favorite wedding blogs. They cover a variety of weddings and feature top wedding vendors, from the best photographers to the best florists. We thought you'd like to see a video of one of the loveliest, most spiritual weddings we've witnessed in a long time. Click here for photographs and details of the entire wedding, and enjoy this inspirational video - you'll see the entire day-before activities, the extensive decorating of the wedding and reception venue, and great candids of the entire event.
 

Photography: Angelica Glass / Videographer: Wade of Shark Pig / Event Coordinator: AAB Creates / Hair & Makeup: Jessie Riley / Florist: Fernanda / Sweets: Two Fat Cats Bakery, East End Cupcakes,Shain’s of Maine, Blue Marble Ice Cream of Bklyn / Catering: The Black Tie Company, Lake Region Catering, Bite Into Maine / Invitation designer: Parrot Design Studios / Calligraphy: Neither Snow / Lighting: Moonlighting Production Services / DJ: Josh Sparber / Band: Shirim Klezmer Orchestra / Rentals: Leavitt & Parris / Venue: Seeds of Peace / Wine: Old Port Wine & Cigar / Artwork: Michael Arnold (father of the bride) / Bride’s dress: Ayesha Depala / Shoes: Manolo Blahnik / Veil: made by a friend of the bride / Groom’s suit: Knot Standard, shirt by Proper Cloth / Shoes: Kenneth Cole / Rings: Cameo by Rux / Flower girl dress: Pegeen / Bridesmaids: chose their own dresses

Thanks to 100 Layer Cake for their beautiful photographs, posts, and wedding inspiration. 100 Layer Cake is a unique, comprehensive wedding planning resource for and by thoughtful, crafty modern women. Their vendors, projects, weddings, resources, sponsors, and marketplace are hand-picked and thoroughly researched with the hope that every single one is a truly unique addition to both your wedding and your planning process. Visit the 100 Layer Cake website today.

If you're interested in learning more about wedding planning and decor, we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

How to Dress Up Your Walls - Part I

One of the first things I notice in homes when working on an interior design job is the artwork or lack of artwork on the walls. Usually there’s very little on the walls – just a lonely print or photograph and that’s it. I don’t know if it’s a tight budget, fear of making a mistake or just sheer laziness, but dressing up your wall can really be the easiest and most enjoyable way to establish a style in your home.  It could even be the least expensive way to liven up your interiors.

(photographs, courtesy of Sonic Editions & from left to right: Michael Ochs Archives, Peter Ruck, Michael Ochs Archives-next two, and McKeown) The first question I get usually asked is where does one start? That’s easy - usually I begin with what the client has.  This can also be the cheapest method.  I ask what kind of collections, hobbies, artwork, and photographs do they already have. Then I start nosing around in their photo albums, their closets, and their attics (with their permission, of course!)  to see what I can work with.  Sometimes a client can overlook what’s right under their nose. 

After I’ve evaluated the available art work and accessories, then I turn to creating possible themes.  Sometimes, by just looking at what the client has, I can figure out their interests.  It could be travel, which can be narrowed down to specific countries of the world; it could be animals, nature, sports, and so forth.  The third step is determining the mood they prefer – do they want formal, casual, rustic or sophisticated? After those three steps, then I really get down to work and plan out the walls. 

If a client has portrait photographs of friends and family, I start with those and create a story around them.  Above is a version of a photo wall in a formal and elegant mood.  To invoke an elegant style, I kept the photographs to black and white mode with simple frames and interspersed it with the sparkle of distressed mirrors to add dimensionality (Dubois mirrors from Crate and Barrel). The strong photos (limiting it to close-up portraits) and the beautiful mirrors create a strong statement to any room.

A more casual and relaxed approach is to create an asymmetrical wall with different shapes and sizes that are hung in a non-linear way. This technique is great for those odd shaped art work or accessories. Since many people usually have souvenirs lying around their homes from their vacations, travel can be a starting point for dressing up a wall. Above is an example of a travel theme – that of Spain. I started with a travel poster of Madrid and expanded from there. Spain is known for their beautiful tiles, a result of their Moorish history, and these tiles have such intricate designs that they can be hung like artwork instead of just using them for flooring. The final touch is the Marietta mirrors from Joss & Main with a shape reminiscent of Moorish tile work. The muted earth tone colors ties all the art and accessories together.

Stay tuned next time for further examples on how to dress up your walls!

Interested in learning more about accessorizing? Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design. At Sheffield, you'll learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories.

NJ Wedding Photographer's Best Proposal Ever Contest

Photograph by Je Revele Fine Art Photography

Wedding time is in the air. I just received a clever promotional email from Je Revele Fine Art Photography in New Jersey, and to help promote their Facebook page and increase their "Likes," they're running a fun contest: What's the Best Marriage Proposal Ever? The Je Revele folks remind us that more engagements happen in the period between Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day, and they're running this contest to help us take advantage of all the proposals from family and friends that we have fresh in mind. Here's what the contest is all about, and note that to see the full rules, you need to click on the photographer's Facebook link and "Like" them. (Hey, it's good to show a little "Like love" for such a fun contest!)

Photograph by Je Revele Fine Art PhotographyFIRST. Submit the story of your proposal or a friend's story with a photo (any photo) to info@jerevele.com. Don't forget, to qualify, they need (1) your story, and (2) any photo of the couple emailed to info@jerevele.com. They could be married 50 years, 10 years, or newly engaged. No restrictions there.

SECOND. Je Revele will narrow submissions down to a few nominees.

 

THIRD. Now, they'd like you to vote on your favorite proposal. Ask your family and friends, to vote too. The more, the merrier.  For the couple with the most votes (LIKES), the winning client shall receive a $500 studio credit at Je Revele.

 

Click here for contest details. 
To submit your story, email info@jerevele.com 

Voting will end on Midnight, February 28, 2013.

 

Sheffield School began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Jewelry Inspiration: The Latest Things for Rings

The Carrotbox is a site dedicated to all those wonderful rings made of glass, lucite, resin, plastic, jade, wood, bakelite, metal, and even stone. Alice Matsumoto from Vancouver, BC, Canada has a ring shop and has kindly given us permission to inspire our jewelry lovers at Sheffield with her discoveries. In this post, Alice gives us a round-up of some of the more recent imaginative ways designers are making rings.

First up is IndustRing, "a collection of rings inspired of an industrial production process" created "by cutting brass rectangular profiles in different angles and reconnecting the pieces in various ways." By Israel's Dana Bachar-Schneorson.

Ash wood bow rings by Iceland's Hring Eftir Hring.

Minimalist metal from Croatia's Mirta (Andrea Simic).

"Marrying the Ocean" by the UK's Sadie Chesterman-Bailey, who imagined jewels discovered in the ruins of the Titanic.

Finally, a geometric array from New York's Erica Cho.

Bonus

If you like a little color with your geometry, check out British jeweller Hattie Rickards, who uses gems and enamel to brighten her designs. Shown here is her "Octo" flip ring.

Even more jewelry:

• Limor Reiss (Australia) - geometric cutouts
• Fort Standard (New York) - rope & brass
• Pyür (France) - golden straws

 

Sheffield School began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

From Inspiration to Reality - Wedding and Event Styling

Recently, I wrote a blog post on the new trend in weddings and events, the Styling aspect. Above is a great video on transforming your inspiration into a reality.

The Barn at Walnut Hill is a post and beam barn with attached farm house, built in 1887 and restored in 2009 to serve as a wonderful wedding location nestled in Maine.

Film by Meg Simone Wedding Films - megsimone.com

Style Me Pretty's "From Inspiration to Reality Challenge." (This board is all about that picture perfect, Farm-inspired wedding that is full of super-chic details.) 
Meagan Gilpatrick of Maine Seasons Event Planning - maineseasonsevents.com 
Sara Fitzgerald O’Brien of Griffin-vites Stationery - griffin-vites.com 
Photography by Brea McDonald Photography - breamcdonald.com 
Flowers by Dawn Kelly of Soiree Floral - soireefloral.com 
Barn located at: 655 Walnut Hill Road - North Yarmouth, Maine, 04097

Sheffield School began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.