OK, the big announcement today is that we have decided to combine our main site (down for renovation) with the SW Blog! Inspired by the growing number of people who want fresh content right away, we couldn’t resist jumping on this hybrid concept. The new SW BlogSite will give you everything you want in one fabulous seamless site. Our launch date is tentatively set for October 1st, so you have about a month to get in on the action. Want some SW love for your business? Our media kit will be revamped to reflect our new BlogSite design (plus dozens of new exciting features including our “It List” of top Southern wedding pros) early next week. To get on the send-out list, shoot us a quick email [advertise at swsmag dot com] and I will add you.
The SW Blog is nearing 80,000 views per month, 20,000 unique viewers, 1000 daily subscribers and so many fresh voices every day. We are thrilled to fill the need for a modern, exciting, inspiring source for Southern brides and Southern brides-at-heart. But, far beyond the growing stats (which just lets us know you are listening), we are honored to get to know you and hear your thoughts. I love getting emails from brides asking me where a dress is from, what flower was used in a wedding we have featured and how she can get in touch with the amazing pros we showcase. I get a thrill out of hearing a bride’s big day ideas and her love of all-things-southern. I love listening to your love stories. Thank you to all of our readers and daily supporters!
There are a few surprises in store… {one just happened today}.
Stay tuned. We like surprises.
I would use those adorable mini favor pails to plant succulents in them and use them to sit escort cards atop them for the guests to find their seats. The succulents could be replanted at home, or kept in their teeny pail as a great addition to a workplace.
i love the paper fans, i would use fuschia for my bridesmaids. we’re taking a trolley from my mother’s home in NJ to our reception in Philadelphia & we might need something to help keep us cool!
My favorite are the matchbooks. I would offer them to my guests to light their sparklers with as we leave the ceremony site!
I’d love to use the rice paper lanterns in a mix of red and white over the dining table for our annual Christmas party with friends. This years theme is "Christmas Morning" and we will be having a huge buffet breakfast as well as opening gifts with one another. I think the lanterns would aid in the sensory overload feeling I like to give my guests when they come for one of my parties!
These favors are beautiful. I’d especially find the parasols useful given the beach location of my wedding. And the candle covers will be a great touch to the reception.
I’m actually doing my ideal favors.I saw how to make a pinwheel a long time ago and wanted to sit down and make some. When we decided to have our wedding at the beach, I thought they would make perfect favors with the breeze. So I went on a mad search for the right paper, and ended up finding two different types that I liked. I’m still finishing them up right now but they’re turing out so great!
We simply LOVE the little boxes with the brown ribbon. They are SO cute! :) Since we’re wedding photographers, and already married, if we won we would have another little contest (maybe with a story) on our blog to determine which of our lovely brides would win the prize!!! :-D How fun would that be??
My favorite favor is definitely the 9" white paper hand fan. It would look perfect sitting on each place setting, tied with a red ribbon and set atop our ceremony programs.
My favorite items are the bright parasols. We’re having an all-child bridal party (8 nieces and nephews!) and I’ve always envisioned the little girls carrying parasols like these instead of flowers. So cute!
I love the parasols! I would use them for vintage looking photo-ops.
I love the linen texture box-my brain would have to get creative to thing of something lovely to put inside.
I love the mini favor pail! We are getting married in Maine and I would fill them with fresh native blueberries – always delicious!!
I love the red damask votive holders. I’d put them all around our reception area to add that romantic look. They are perfect with our colors. I’d also love the personalized napkins for our cocktail reception.
I love the aloha lanterns. We’re getting hitched in hawaii and these would be perfect!
I love the parasols and would use them for my guests for my beach wedding. I also love the votive holders-beautiful !
I would love to hand out the colored rice paper parasols in turquoise. My wedding is outdoors and in Arizona. The sun is brutal out here, and these would be lovely at the entrance. Guests could grab one and shade themselves beautifully during the ceremony. The turquoise is the perfect complement to the chocolate brown that I am using for the decor. I bet these would photograph fabulously.
I like the ability to personalize napkins! I would choose brown napkins with apple green wording for the lingerie shower I’m hosting for my best friend. I’m a first time Maid of Honor~
My favorite are the cocktail napkins. I would love to get some in black with our Monogram in white!
I like the "Colored Folded Personalized Informal / Thank You Notes (with matching envelope)" I would handwrite individual thank you notes for each person as a favor. I think that a little note that shows how much you appreciate sharing your wedding day with that person or to thank them for whatever small or big thing they have done in your life would be the ultimate favor. Chocolates are gone in seconds but handwritten notes can last much longer. Becuase things are so hectic and you get to spend very little time with your guests, I think it is important to let them know that their presence is appreciated.
Butterfly In Flight Personalized Plantable Notecard Favors are just perfect for a garden bridal shower! Using the DIY craft of tissue paper flowers combined with the beautiful floral paper lanterns and these cute note cards it’s a the complete party ready to go! Love it, love it!
I would love to do the monogrammed cocktail napkins for our pre-ceremony cocktails. Everyone will be arriving together, and will be greeted with the choice of an alcoholic or non-alcoholic cocktail, and the napkins would go perfectly!
I love the Silver Two Piece Favor Boxes. They would be great for my bourbon balls an pralines so I could have everyone take a little bit of Kentucky and Louisiana home with them. I grew up as a Louisiana girl and now I live in Lexington Kentucky.
I love the Moroccan lanterns on the site. I’m having an evening outdoor wedding and think it would be gorgeous to have them hanging throughout the ceremony and reception areas- it would add such warmth and light!
I love the cute little barrel matchbox–they’d be perfect attached to our send-off sparklers.
I love the khaki colored modern damask votive holders! I think the damask print is chic and classy with an antique look. I would use these holders along with my centerpeices which would contain white hydrangeas and roses. I think each votive would give off the perfect little glow!
I just L-O-V-E the "Mint to Be" Jay and Danielle!!!I am starting my collection for my "out of town bags" and half of my guest’s are out of the Country! My fiance’ is Canadian and all his family lives there but was raised in California where the other half of his family is coming from… so I am going to be making about 150 "out of town" bags to leave at all the bed and breakfasts I reserved for them!! I just love this cute little favor, it is not as corny as the mint’s that they sell on the knot and those type of sites! I think these mints would just be the PERFECT touch to the edible part of my "out of town bag" I also love the Monogram Napkins, I would add a "garden-art" emblem to them and pass them out with during our "signature drink" hour while our guest browse the BEAUTIFUL Museum and lush Garden at my reception venue, they would be a SPECIAL detail and touch!!!!I love the thought of parasols as well, I would do it a little different and add a personalized letterpress tag to each one and say "May you always be sheltered by love" My style is a little different, and everyone uses Parasols, BUT if I were to incorporated them I would add that to make it different!!I am looking for some coasters, I want them to say EAT, DRINK, and BE MARRIED!!!!I want to add a couple of those in for our "signature drink hour" onto the high-top tables around the venue!! I also love the Matchboxes, I am going to monogram them with the saying "You LIGHT up my life" and tie them with a ribbon to all of my sparklers for my exit!! Okay, I went on long enough!! :) LOOOVE Ideal Favors!!! :)
We are using small nests in the bathroom with blue egg-shaped soaps, so I do love the nests. But, I’m a sucker for personalized napkins! The napkins in the bottom corner with the birds are just too cute! I would definitely get something along those lines.
I love the tiny birds nests. I’m having an early fall wedding and my invitations feature birds in migration. One nest could carry our wedding bands for the ceremony. The remainder of the nests would be placed in my "tree" centerpieces. On each table, a bird consisting of vintage fabrics (ann wood) would have a note in his beak reading "a little birdie told me that a donation has been made in your name for alzeimers research. It would be perfect as our song was in an old Fred Astaire movie– I’m putting all my eggs in one basket, I’m betting everything I’ve got on you!
I completely love the glass pillar holders. I would love to scatter them on the tables in an outdoor lounge area! I also love the monogram candles- they’d be great gifts to our wedding party with their individual initials!
My favorite from the site is the Silver Julep Cups. We are trying to envoke an Old Hollywood feel into out events (our Reception is at an old theater) and the Silver Julep Cups are so classic in their shape and material that i think when filled with roses and surrounded by loose chandelier crystals the vintage glamour comes out and is unmistakable.
Some of the tags are so cute. I think my favorite is the Large Square Personalized Gift Tag. I’d love to attach them to the small envelopes of seeds from our garden that we’re giving out. We’ll have seeds from Benary’s Giant Zinnias, Red Salvia, Borage, Evening Sun sunflowers, parsley and three different kinds of basil in our seed packets. Gardening is a very important part of our life and we’re trying to incorporate it into different parts of our wedding. We’ll be serving hot pepper jelly made from peppers in our garden and I’m drying flowers that we’ll use as decorations and growing heirloom pumpkins to use as decorations.
My favorite is definitely the little mints. I would set them in a basket on a table with a selection of coffee and tea for our guests as an after-dinner treat.
I love the round glass votive holders. They make a cute vase or a great way to showcase a candle. Add a few shells or sand to the bottom & it’s beachy, add some stones and it’s natural feeling, add some glass stones and it will suit any color scheme.
As a photographer, I’d love to see the black eyed susan lanterns filled with different colored lights to add accent lighting to a room.
I would use the blue damask votives for an upscale beach wedding. I see all-white linens, silver-plated vases for the all-white blooms and the blue votives would bring the sea to the table. You could even use them to line an aisle or pathway from the beach to the reception site for an evening southern reception!
I love the parasols. When it’s hot and sunny here in Texas we might need some shades to help redirect the burning sun from our faces!
I would like the L.O.V.E. coaster set… it’s something practical and unique. We also thought it would be easier to travel with, considering most of our guests are from out of town. We thought they would be a nice touch to our event.
i love the embrodiered bag, I would scoop peppermint tea leaves inside for my guests! They smell good and make great tea!
I like the mini favor pails – they’d be awesome filled with small candies and scattered around the hall.
My favorite favor is the beautiful hand fans. We are getting white silk hand fans to be given out to the ladies before our ceremony which is outside in Charleston – very appropriate in keeping with our southern theme. We are tying our personalized tags to the fans with "tahetian blue" colored ribbons. I can’t wait!!!
I love the parasols! I would tie a tag with our monogram to each and other side put the note that mentions the donations to the American Cancer Society in their name.
I love the votives! I would use them in my wedding as decor or as a favor. Everyone can take them home and reuse them.
I love the white Ibiza lanterns. They remind me of bird cages, so I would use them as centerpieces with those little mushroom bark birds perched on top. It would be a great way to carry through one of our design elements, which is our initials encircled with some flowers and two little birds.
I love the white and tan candle holders. They would look so pretty on the tables!
Once i have found the perfect tree to have the ceremony under, i would hang your rice paper lanterns in varying sizes from the branches. The simple shape of the rice paper lanterns not only mimics the circle (an archetype for timelessness, as seen in a wedding ring) but also adds a dash of whimsey…like polka-dots for nature!
I’m loving the creativity in these comments! Keep it up ladies!! Its these kinds of ideas that make a photographers job so awesome!!!
I heart the coasters! I would use them to serve our signature drink the "Annapol-tini" at our September wedding in Annapolis, MD. My brother-in-law came up with the "Annapol-tini" which is basically a cosmo made with Tuaca (an Italian liquor) instead of vodka. Apparently there is more Tuaca sold in Annapolis than in the US combined, who knew!
Okay – I absolutely adore the bird nests. I would fill them with almonds, but also have some roll out sugar cookies made and frosted that were birds. Then I would get some clear bags and put one nest with almonds next to one bird cookie. I would use raffia to tie the top closed and I think it would be perfect. Great for Fall also since birds will be migrating…..
I love the bird cocktail napkins. Our invitations have birds on them and we are wanting to carry that theme through out our wedding day. I would use them during our cocktail hour. We want to have a something old..to something blue signature drink list and these napkins would be perfect to carry our bird theme into the beginning of the party.