Southern Weddings

Paul Lowe’s aptly-named blog, {Sweet Paul}, takes readers on a magical journey through delicious images, delightful food musings, and recipes to die for! The 42 year old food and prop stylist/crafter has written 18 cookbooks; the latest, {SLURP}.  Paul’s work can be seen in Country Living, Real Simple, In Style, People, Essence etc.  Originally from Oslo, Norway he now lives in New York with partner Otis and dog Tanner.  SWS gets the skinny from the oh-so-very-sweet Paul.

You must be dreaming of beautiful settings/images/creations every day.  What are you swirling around in your head right now that you would just love to bring to life?  My head is at all times full of ideas about what I can create next. What I do is that I create an “idea wall”, where I put up all the ideas I’m working on at the moment. The wall changes from week to week, all depends what Im into that week. Right now Im working on ideas for a new craft book about old fabrics. {photo by Paul Lowe}

What inspires you?  Anything can inspire me. A book, a movie, food packaging, a picture etc. I have all these little notebooks that I write down ideas in. I always have one at hand, including on my night stand. But the place I get the most inspiration is in the bathtub. Im driving my partner Otis crazy with my hour long baths.

DIY tricks for the bride: Don’t buy the ready made favor boxes and those horrible chiffon bags. Get all your friends together for an evening of favors and wine. Buy some cheep boxes and cover them with beautiful paper. A good tips is to buy a roll of a beautiful wallpaper. You will have a fun evening!

What project are you most proud of?  I’m most proud of my doilie story for Country Living. I bought a box of old doilies on ebay and turned them in to craft projects.  I love to take something that most people would not look at and turn it into something cool. I also think your readers would love this, its kinda wedding’ish.

Most challenging project? Every project is challenging, all in different ways. But trying to make some foods look great can sometimes be quite hard. Esp ice cream; you have to work super fast. And its really bad for your hands to make like 200 ice cream scoops a day.

Favorite Blogs, Magazines, Sources:  I love {Design Sponge}, {Housemartin} and {The Bedlams of Beefy}.  I loved Blueprint, very sad they closed it down, but I buy Australian Vouge Home, Elle Decoration, Gourmet and Country Living.

What’s next for you?  Next for me is more books. I’m working on some ideas for some cool craft books at the moment. 

Isn’t Paul’s work delightful?!  How about the ice tea in Mason jars, coconut cookies, or leaf-wrapped raspberry drinks for your southern soiree?  Lovely!  Thank you, Paul, for sharing these details with our readers.  We can’t wait to see what’s next on {Sweet Paul}.

Here is a great collection of simple bridesmaid’s bouquets from John + Stacy’s wedding yesterday (photographed by the incredible {Marie Labbancz})… all the same color, different textures, different flowers.  It’s modern and perfect.  Which is your favorite?  Congratulations John + Stacy!

In honor of {Elizabeth Anne Design}‘s Southern Week, we wanted to share with you a little inside info on the creators of this fabulous site and a few of their favorite inspirations…

Southern Roots & Background on Ami (blogging as Elizabeth) and Rebekah (blogging as Anne) of Elizabeth Anne Designs

“We both spent our childhood in South Carolina and have known each other for longer than we care to admit! After being introduced at the age of 13, we became fast friends, a friendship that amazingly enough has blossomed and continued through to today, even while living many miles away,” explains Ami.

Ami (Elizabeth) lives in Chicago, but is a Southern girl at heart, a huge Atlanta Braves fan, and is in the midst of planning a tenth-anniversary vow renewal celebration in Atlanta. Rebekah (Anne) left the South at the tender age of 14 for Idaho but couldn’t stay away! She relocated to Alabama, where she fell and love and married a Southern boy, Birmingham born and raised. In 2006, the creative urge had taken hold for both Ami and Rebekah and it was decided that a partnership should be formed, focusing on inspirations and creations for weddings and events. {Elizabeth Anne Designs} was born recently thereafter!

Favorites from Southern Week

Rebekah: My favorites so far have been the menus. Not only have they made me crave Southern comfort food, but they’ve introduced my love of cooking and food to the blog.

Fabulous Finds

Rebekah: The photographers! I had no idea there were so many great photographers. Every day I find a new favorite, but I really have a secret crush on {Millie Holloman}. She (along with the rest of her company) capture events perfectly. An event designer that I recently found through Millie’s blog is Jennifer from {Salt Harbor Designs}. Her work is so beautiful and well thought out. We’ll be posting a profile on her this week.

Ami: First of all, I agree with Rebekah that the photography community is absolutely incredible. We’ve come across too many during our blogging days to list here, but let me just say that it’s not difficult any longer to find someone with true talent to photograph your wedding at all price levels. Secondly, we love being a part of the community of independent business owners, wedding professionals, and bloggers that we interact with on a daily basis. Each and every one of them are incredibly talented and it’s a privilege to be let into their worlds through their postings.

Inspirations

Rebekah: Blogs blogs and more blogs. I’ll note a picture and keep coming back to it again and again. What pops out first to me in an image might not be what I end up using it for. To truly find your style and taste, it takes time to soak it in. A (very) small selection of my favorite sites are {Frolic!}, {Design for Mankind}, {Sweet Paul} and {The Inspired Room}. I think it is also very important to surround yourself with inspiring objects. If you love a picture of a bouquet of peonies, go to your favorite shop and pick up a bunch. Style them at home. Just because you aren’t using peonies in a wedding (or the wedding planning has ended) doesn’t mean you can’t add these things to your daily life! Life is too short not to be surrounded by beauty.

Ami: For me, inspiration can come from anything. Usually it’s a salient idea or a color combination I see while moving through life. But other times, it’s a pop of an idea from something on another blog or in a photo that I expound on to build an inspiration board or a blog post. For invitation designs and other DIY projects I tend to be more of a “buy materials and play with them” kind of girl. I have to have everything in front of me and then I can tweak. We both love bringing in items into weddings that are unexpected and unique and believe that inspiration can come from anywhere!

Thank you, Ami and Rebekah for the inside scoop and fantastic details & sources!  Brides, add this site to your daily reads–such an inspiration!  Here are a couple of our favorite southern inspiration boards from the EAD archives… Enjoy!  ~Lara

(OK, there are my favorite macaroons again!)  This color scheme is perfection.  “Peachy Grey” conjures up images of long summer days eating peach ice cream and the antique feel of a southern antebellum home.  Lovely! {Details + Sources}

This board is a sweet as cherry pie.  I would love to be invited to a wedding with these delightful and feminine touches.  Beautiful! {Details + Sources}