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Happy Blogiversary to Us! + mega giveaway!
This time last year, we were gearing up for the first ever SW Premiere Party and planning the launch of the SW Blog. My, how far we've come! We couldn't be more excited about the direction Southern Weddings is heading and want to say a big THANK YOU for being a part of it with us! To celebrate our blogiversary, we collaborated with some amazing companies and created a package of seven prizes that one lucky reader will have the opportunity to win. Thank you to PosePrints, Paloma's Nest, Julianne Smith, Janie's Cakes, Give a Digital Frame.com, Guestbook Store, and Grits Bits for contributing to our anniversary celebration!
1. Paper products should reflect your style as a couple and give guests a glimpse into your event, and PosePrints provides the perfect way to personalize your correspondence. Their website allows you to create a sophisticated one- or two-person caricature to appear on high-quality paper products. Everything is customizable, from background, facial features and accessories to skin color, hair style, and clothing. All drawings are one-of-a-kind and can be applied to Save-the-Dates, Shower invitations, Thank-you notes and more. Stationary should be uniquely you – and look like you too!
2. I’m always looking for ways to spice up traditional wedding components, and these gorgeous ring bearer bowls from Paloma’s Nest are such a fresh, modern take on the classic ring bearer pillow. Each ceramic bowl is hand-crafted and stamped with a meaningful message, and threaded through two small holes near the rim of the bowl is a silky cord that can be used to hold your rings! And unlike ring bearer pillows, these elegant bowls can be kept and used for years. They would be perfect for holding keepsake jewelry long after the vows are exchanged.
3. Julianne Smith designed her line of chic wedding garters after searching high and low for a simple and fun wedding garter that matched the personality of her friend. Julianne's garters are individually hand crafted and her garters are so unique that modern brides will want to embrace the garter tradition, even if they don't do the toss. Julianne uses flirty polka dots, delicate bows and other simple designs to dress her garters up and make them special, without going over the top. Whether you decide to flaunt it, toss it or keep it as your little secret, Julianne Smith's wedding garters will let you be the modern, stylish bride that you are.
4. We had the pleasure of sampling the Italian Jane from the talented bakers at Janie’s Cakes and were blown away! They use the freshest ingredients (Janie even raises her own chickens!) and have been baking and shipping Janie’s amazing pound cakes for over 20 years. These cakes would make a great addition to a desert bar or serve as a tasty alternative to the traditional tiered wedding cake.
5. The Wedding Digital Frame Gift Pack from Give a Digital Frame.com allows you to create a digital slideshow of your gorgeous wedding images, and can also be a great personal wedding gift! It’s a simple process to upload your images and Give a Digital Frame.com will send you a 7” digital frame along with a 1GB memory card containing your images. Pictures are one of the most lasting impressions of your day, so it’s important to have a lovely way to display them!
6. A great alternative to a book of autographs likely to be stored away, these non-traditional guestbooks from Guestbook Store personalize your event and capture guests' memories and heartfelt wishes for your special day! Each guest at your event will receive their own guestbook page to decorate with special messages, and at the end of the night, you can create your own guestbook by placing the completed pages into one of Guestbook Store’s lovely albums. It’s simple and personal way to create a cherished keepsake!
7. Grits Bits are a fun way to add a touch of southern hospitality to guest favor bags, or would be perfect for a treat table at a cocktail reception. These crispy Bits are bite-sized and baked with grits in four flavors: cheddar, jalapeno, Vidalia onion cheese and sweet cream butter. Their tag line is: “Southerners and Yankees can finally agree on something – Grits Bits are Great!”, and these Southerners can’t help but agree!
Win: One lucky winner will receive SEVEN amazing products: A set of 50 personalized cards from PosePrints, a ring bearer bowl with the message "To Have and To Hold" from Paloma's Nest, a "something blue" garter from Julianne Smith, a pound cake from Janie's Cakes, a digital frame from Give a Digital Frame.com, a guestbook from Guestbook Store, and a variety 4-pack from Grits Bits.
To Enter: Leave a comment on this post telling us your favorite SW feature from the past year and how it inspired you! We love to connect with our readers, and it's always interesting to hear what you've enjoyed the most. It could be a wedding, contest, or a post from one of our guest bloggers, and please include the link to the post in your comment.
Contest ends Wednesday, April 8th at midnight. Thanks for celebrating our anniversary with us!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at 08:30AM
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Reader Comments (100)
The real wedding of Amy and Joe totally inspired me! I loved their ideas, and the labels on their favor bags were my inspiration for ours! I am a bride, but I also just started a wedding planning business, so your site is always a place I visit first for inspiration to help other brides! Keep doing what you're doing!!
My favorite feature is the Real Weddings. Sometimes all you need is to see how other people pulled off similiar ideas to your own to see that it is a realistic vision and can be done!
WOW - such amazing giveaway items! My fav SW feature was actually from last year - the Vintage Cowboy Bride series - http://www.swsmag.net/blog/2008/9/11/inspirations-vintage-cowboy-bride-part-ii.html. The colors and overall feel of the wedding was fantastic. I have it bookmarked for future wedding plans!
I love the real weddings. I get so many ideas from them. I can't wait to start planning my own wedding towards the end of this year.
Honestly, I just loooved the magazine and all the amazing features provided in the mag and on the site. The inspiration boards (Inspiring Details From Around the World) are amazing and really have provided inspiration for my own wedding. Thanks so much for offering such beauty and inspiration to brides everywhere, not just in the south!
I can't pick one. I've been coming to your site since i found it because i love your real weddings theyre just amazing!
I love the real weddings features, unlike some other blogs, yours give some background as tot he couple and what they thought of their wedding and planning!
SW has provided so much inspiration for me, it's hard to pin down just one favorite post! I'm a huge fan of the real weddings you've featured including:
Becca & Jim, (http://www.swsmag.net/blog/2009/2/19/details-becca-jim-part-i.html),
Charissa & Jaryd(http://www.swsmag.net/blog/2008/9/24/details-charissa-jarryd.html),
Kirstie & Josiah (http://www.swsmag.net/blog/2008/9/23/details-kirstie-josiah-part-i.html),
and Janie & Tony (http://www.swsmag.net/blog/2008/8/8/southern-wedding-of-the-week-janie-tony-part-i.html).
Thanks for having this must-read blog!
My favorite part of the blog are the real Southern weddings- I get so excited to see them every week. I actually only found this blog about a month ago (despite having been engaged for nearly 9 months), and my fiance teased me mercilessly when I spent two or three straight days going through all the previous posts. My favorite wedding has been Kari Beth and Josh- I love the colors (mine are also pink and green), but I also love the peaceful beauty Kari Beth has- how happy and fun her guests seem to be. I hope I (and all of my friends and family) look like that on my day!
I am one of those readers who is not yet married but loves all things weddings and picturing my big day in the future. Every single post provides me ideas and inspiration which is why I print out a number of the posts and keep them in an notebook for reference when I do start the planning process! Thank you for the daily inspiration!
I check my RSS feeds several times a day and love the SW real weddings. I've added so many ideas to my list! Thanks for all the beautiful tips.
It's hard to pick a favorite, when everything that you all do is fabulous! I have to say that I love to look at Real Weddings, its great to get inspiration from other brides. I love all the questions you ask the bride and groom, it helps us fellow brides see their vision a little more. It's a great way to see how other brides made it happen. I love the blogs you do just on flowers as well, they are always gorgeous.
Thanks girls for such a wonderful blog for all us fans to read!!
The Ghia Graham color palatte of lavender, pewter, and rose added a whole other color to my wedding colors. I just like southern weddings- I knew from the second it came out it would be my favorite and the blog gives me my "fix" everyday. I'm Southern only by region and not my heart, but you guys make me think I can pull off cowboy boots under my dress, and I just may do it.
to another great year!
hands down, it was the first of becca and jim's pictures, http://www.swsmag.net/blog/2009/2/19/details-becca-jim-part-i.html.
the silver and glass balls in their ceremony decor totally changed my wedding vision, and i was lucky enough to find glass ball tealight holders similar to their glass balls for my reception space! we'll have those, and small silver christmas ornaments throughout the trees in our reception....ahd the monochromatic look is gorgeous, we'll have something similar with white, and green pops!
southern weddings is one of my top go-to spots for inspiration!
Your Real Weddings feature has inspired me in countless ways – I have over dozens of starred favorites on my Reader.
I would have to say that Brittany + Jerrod played a HUGE part in my wedding theme. The same could be said for Kelly + Robert, Kate + Keith, Amy + Tim… the list goes on!
Plus, I love how you interview the couple… and their intimate responses! Gush!
I love love LOVE the "Details" posts. It gives me so much inspiration and ideas for what sort of details to add to our wedding.
I have to say that I love all of the posts on the blog so it has been really hard to pick a favorite. The one that I am choosing is Abby and Kevin (Part I and II) from the southern wedding of the week. Several months back I was having a bit of a planning crisis and questioning my choices. I poured over wedding photos from many blogs, but when I stumbled upon Abby and Kebin's hot pink and lime green affair it completely reaffirmed that I was heading the right direction. Not only was it my favorite post, but also my fiance's, since it completekly reassured me that I was going to love our wedding and stopped my wedding planning panic!
The post that's inspired me the most over the last year was, without a hint of doubt, the real wedding of Sarah and Derek.
http://www.swsmag.net/blog/2009/3/9/real-wedding-sarah-derek-part-i.html
I'm a long distance bride, planning my wedding in Austin, TX from my tiny apartment in Lexington, KY. My fiance and I met while I was an undergraduate at UT in Austin, and most of the milestones from our relationship took place there - which is why it seemed like a natural fit for the wedding. Planning this event from such a distance has proven itself to be both emotional and challenging. I was having trouble nailing down a venue, and at one time there were over 45 on our list of potential sites! No matter what I did, I couldn't seem to find a place that provided the feel I wanted the day to have. Then, one day, I had just finished an emotional "freak out" sort of conversation with my Maid of Honor and best friend about our venue problem. I logged onto to check my list of favorite wedding blogs, Southern Weddings being at the top of the list, and I found Sarah and Derek's wedding at the Barr Mansion in Austin.
Finding that post seemed like a gift from God! The wedding captured the feeling and emotions I wanted my day to have, and I knew instantly that the Barr Mansion was where I needed to book. (I was in tears by the end of the two posts about the wedding, the venue seemed so perfect!)
Two weeks later, I hopped on a plane to Austin and booked the Barr Mansion for our date June 5, 2010!
I couldn't have done it though without you all! Happy birthday/anniversary! The blog really has made my planning process much easier, and I can't thank you enough.
I found y'all through our labor of love and I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my first print issue! So far on the blog feed I have been really enjoying your color palette posts as well as the real weddings. Lots of inspiration to be found!
Happy Anniversary to the whole SW crew! You continue to raise the bar (and raise it very high) for wedding resources and it shows in everything from your genuine enthusiasm for each post to your chic design boards. Keep it up!
Happy Blogiversary, ladies! xoxo
I LOVE your REAL wedding features...maybe even a little too much! But I absolutely ADORED your "Wanwisa Wednesday: Wood you be mine?" posting (http://www.swsmag.net/blog/2009/2/4/wanwisa-wednesday-wood-you-be-mine.html) !!! It absolutely inspired me to be a little more creative and make save the dates on wooden swatch cards. I packaged it all up in a cute "Amor" gocco stamped muslin bag and the response from our guests have been unbelievable! You can check them out here on my blog: http://angeleek.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/wood-you-please-save-the-date/
Thanks for the inspiration and Happy Anniversary Southern Weddings!
I am a new reader to this blog, well it's been about 2 months now that I've been following it and I have to say it has been a real pleasure exploring the blog and what it offers. I absolutely love looking at your real wedding pictures, they are so inspirational and the style featured is so unique and fun to look at. I love the site and look forward to my continued reading....
I love the real weddings. I was kindof anxious and a little uncertain of my decision to have a immediate family 20 person wedding instead of a big blow out like all of my friends. After seeing the wonderful, intimate small "real weddings" here I have not only found some fabulous ideas ie. invitation box filled with goodies but I've also become more comfortable and excited about our decision to have a VIP wedding!
Color, Color and more Color,
I think Southern Brides have the ability to take their lively personalities and high spirits and incoporate that into their weddings. Not that all white is boring, but ok, IT IS! When nature gives us color we need to use it. Weddings are a celebration and there should be nothing understated about them. Riotous color is an eclamation of overwhelming joy, which is what a wedding should be.
I love the last posting from Karen Tran on "Vibrant Colors" and applaud you all for bringing summer to us at all times of the year!
http://www.swsmag.net/blog/2009/3/19/karen-tran-vibrant-colors.html
Cheers!