We love all of our designers, but Merrymint Designs has been amazing. They signed up on Nearlyweds about a week ago and already have several AWESOME designs AND already posted a link on their homepage. The wonderful ladies of Merrymint Designs are a dream to work with!

These are the geniuses behind Merrymint Designs, identical twin sisters, Cheryl and Sherie LaPrade.

When asked to give a brief statement about their store including what makes them different, this was their response:

“We really enjoy making light-hearted, fun, and beautiful designs that the modern bride would enjoy and hold very tightly to the belief that our brides should not have to pay a fortune for a beautiful design =)  We both have a quirky sense of humor and we believe in always putting our brides (& grooms!) first and will bend over backwards, if necessary, to help them out!”

So not only are they smart, savvy business women with a nack for customer service they also have an eye for beautiful design! Here are some of examples:

Wed-site:

Matching Invitations:

Wed-site:

Matching Invitations:

They have more designs on Nearlyweds that are just as beautiful and even more wedding invitations on their site that will knock your socks off. I personally hope their next wed-site will be made to match this little beauty:

We hope you all will show Merrymint Designs some love!

{Rachael}

Hey SMP readers – we picked our winner to our contest randomly (by using a fancy random number generator in excel – I love excel); and a big Congratulations Maribel E for winning. This video is for everyone though, not just Maribel. Thanks for entering everyone!

Maribel – we will contact you and make sure you get some massively awesome huge cupcake pans, amongst other great baking things.

Candy buffets or bars: they are at tons of weddings now-a-days. How do you do it? Is there a budget friendly way? Why do it, should it be your favor? Read on as I hopefully answer your questions!

Candy buffets are typically used as the wedding favor. They can be placed anywhere from right next to the cake, in an entry/exit area, near a buffet or near a coffee bar. They are one of the most versatile decorations/favors you can have at your wedding. I highly suggest them, and think they really make guests happy.

There are several ways to make your candy buffet happen. If you have a wedding planner you can probably rent the jars from them. I would highly recommend that. Most wedding planners come by these things at previous weddings. A bride will buy a bunch of stuff they don’t need after the wedding and instead of taking them home the bride will tell the wedding planner to take whatever they want and throw away the rest. Renting them from your wedding planner is the most budget friendly way to make the candy bar happen. After doing a quick Google search for apothecary jars I found these on Sears.com for $49.99 if you choose to buy your own. You can also find all sorts of smaller cheaper jars on Amazon.

Next comes the candy. That’s where things can get expensive depending on what you want. I’ve seen jars full of Starbursts and easily attainable candy from a grocery store, but I’ve also seen special ordered one color candy to match wedding colors. Here’s some great candy that looks amazing. I got all of these from www.candyfavorites.com.

Sixlets: HUGE hit at the last wedding I worked at.

Rock Candy: Looks amazing and tastes wonderful!

Jelly Bellys in any color or flavor you want. This is pear, AKA my favorite flavor, but my mom hates it.

Really you can do anything you want. Let’s say you only want blue and brown M&M’s you can either order them, or have a separating party with bridesmaids (wearing gloves) where all you do is separate the colors.

In total for a candy buffet you will need:

1. Jars
2. Scoops/spoons
3. Something to put them in like a plastic bag or Chinese food takeout box
4. A place to keep the extra candy to refill throughout the night

Another option is to go to get a candy buffet vendor to do everything for you. This is great for the bride who’s not necessarily on a tight budget. They can cost about as much as the cake if you go this rout. I just found one that is a local to Seattle company called My Candy Buffet and their prices are $4-$5 per serving.

Now that the logistics of how to find the goods is over, here’s some ideas on how to decorate.

Once Wed:

Style Me Pretty:

Elizabeth Anne Designs:

What do you think of candy buffets? Are you planning to have one? Hopefully this post helps!

{Rachael}

My dog is my best friend. He is an amazingly-large black lab named Boomer. He is the sweetest dog in the history of dogs and I can’t live without him. I wanted him at my wedding more than most of my guests, but my mom said no. We didn’t know the best way to get him down the aisle, what to do with him after the ceremony, what to do if he barked during the vows and lots of other possible snafus. I want you to be able to have your best friend(s) at your wedding so here are some tips for bringing the four-legged friends to the happiest day of your life.

Shedding
Boomer is humungous, literally 120 pounds, that’s a lot of black hair that could have ended up all over my white dress. We take Boomer to PETCO to get baths before special occasions. It costs about $50 for a bath and the special de-shedding package. I don’t understand how they get rid of so much extra hair, but it really works. They use special shampoo, special brushing techniques and blowdry their hair longer. I definitely reccomend that if you have a dog who sheds and are getting married in a hot month.

What to Do With Your DBFF After the Ceremony
There are several possibilities here.
1. Most weddings will have a few guests who’ll just come to the ceremony. One of these guests might be able to drive your K9 home or to the daycare they’ll be staying at during the honeymoon.
2. If your beloved is staying at a daycare while you’re gone, or if they frequent a doggie daycare and you have a good relationship with the caregviers you can pay them to come out to the wedding to take your dog back to the daycare or to their house until you get back.
3. If you live close to your ceremony location, ask a friend to drive your dog to your house during a cocktail hour, pictures or right before dinner. If you do this however, you must give this friend a gift. You can definitely re-gift something you got before the wedding, but this is a must and it has to happen before the wedding.
4. You can have your dog stay the whole time. I don’t suggest this because no matter how much you love your dog, it will cause you extra stress on your big day. You need to check with your reception site before choosing this option, they might have a rule against animals in their location.

What if He/She Barks?
He/she probably will bark. That’s what happens when you have a dog in your wedding. During the ceremony, have Fido sit with a good friend, or wedding planner, who can walk away if necessary. The occasional bark is expected, but have a plan for if he/she is being restless or sees a squirrel and runs off. Don’t ask a family member to watch them because they deserve to stay during the whole ceremony and not worry about the pup.

What Should He/She Wear
There’s always the typical tuxedo collar, great for boy dogs., but they don’t really work if your groom isn’t wearing a tuxedo. Here’s some great ideas:

From Style Me Pretty:

Also from Style Me Pretty, pearls aren’t just for the bride:

Here’s one last option from Style Me Pretty:

Not this, but I had to throw in a picture of Boomer. This is him in his Halloween costume, it’s a dog XL shark. He loved it, but it didn’t really fit.

Hopefully this helps get Fido on the guest list of your big day.

{Rachael}

Congrats Roxanne! You won our giveaway. I will be in touch shortly to give you the details. For everyone who didn’t win, head over to Style Me Pretty to participate in our giveaway there.

Thanks everyone!

{Rachael}

It’s finally here, only a few years after Facebook. Hey, we have less designers than the big guys. We now have notifications on all our designs. If Uncle Ralph leaves a comment on your guestbook or asks a question on your blog, you’ll get an email notification. This is a really great feature and we’re glad to offer it to all of our amazing couples.

This new feature is defaulted to occur, but if you want to turn it off go to your control panel and under Options click to turn off the checkmark next to “Email me when comments are added to my site.”

We hope you’ll love the new feature and that it will help you stay connected to family and friends.

We are so excited to announce an amazing giveaway we’re doing right now.

All you have to do to be eligible is: 1. Be a new person to Nearlyweds, sorry no current Nearlyweds couples allowed. 2. Post a comment below with your wedding date (it’s ok if you don’t have one yet, you can just say TBD).

Ready to hear what you could win? It’s pretty great stuff!

1. A free one year wed-site on Nearlyweds, you choose from any of our designs

2. A free custom domain name

3. Two free custom color swatches from our color chooser (Up to 12 palettes)

We will randomly draw a winner on June 16th so you have two weeks to enter this sweet giveaway. You can enter more than once by leaving a comment on our Facebook page as well. One comment per person here and on Facebook will be allowed for the duration of the contest.

Thanks all! We’re really excited to see how our first giveaway will go!

{Rachael}