Inspiration #50: The Circus+ Venetian Style

I apologize for being MIA for a few days. Last Friday, Guitar Fred and I traveled to St. Petersburg, FL, to visit his family and friends, and today is the first day I've been able to get online!

Today, we headed about 50 miles south of St. Pete to Sarasota, home of the Ringling Bros. Museum of Art at the University of South Florida. John Ringling was not only the founder of the most famous big-top in America, but also an avid art collector. It was a real treat walking the grounds (lot of Spanish moss and banyan trees) and visiting the exhibits on-campus, including two galleries dedicated to circus life, John and Mable Ringling's Venetian mansion (Ca d'Zan), and a Italianate art gallery and courtyard with exhibits spanning Medieval times to the 19th century. 

The Ringling Museum is a lovely place to have a wedding and also a good source of inspiration for the carnival look and feel (font, colors, decor, spirit). Here are my fave pics of the day, including the miniature circus and the Ringling's posh digs:

Inspiration #49: Florida Wedding Style

Guitar Fred and I are flying out to St. Petersburg, Florida on Friday to visit his family for a week. Here's some wedding eye candy to get me in the Florida mood:

{Things to Do Map by Mark and Susan Getting Married}

{Kelly Oshiro Events Orange Inspiration Board}

{Brook and Joe's Sirata Beach Resort Wedding - Stephen Dohring}

{David and Kelly's Wedding at the Historic Don Cesar - Stephen Dohring}

{Fort Myers Country Club Wedding by Jennifer Angeloro}

Our Musically Romantic Wedding...a sneak peek

{Photo of She & Him as featured on listentoliliana.com}

I just got Round 2 of our save-the-date designs from Lollipop Events & Design (LED) and I'm floating on cloud nine because they are looking so darn luscious! (I won custom Save the Date design through their online contest in August). It took a couple phone consults to narrow down the look and feel (from mid-modern century to bluegrass/art noveau).

We used a snippet of a She & Him song as an intro to our event details (above is a photo from our inspiration board). Lollipop took the initiative to label the front of our Save the Dates "A Musically Romantic Wedding." Since my fiance is a classical/Spanish guitarist, the STD is going to mimic a guitar, complete with a diecut for the guitar sound hole and f-holes.

Because of the back and forth, I was happy that LED provided 4 design options for the front cover and 2 for the inside flap. Design elements I requested as must-haves included the use of the Rosewood font, orange and peacock blue colors, and an art noveau floral motif. I suggested birds as a nice-to-have. LED went a step further and included musical notes/bars as a design option. Very cute. I can't wait to share the final and printed design!

{Photo of JL Stiles}

Onward to actual music. Our wedding reception venue is STRICT on amplified music since it's situated in a residential neighborhood in the sleepy, seaside town of Sausalito. Therefore, we can only have acoustic music. Nonetheless, we're not discouraged from having a bluegrass slant to our festivities. We've just confirmed our friends, J.L. Stiles (solo guitar) and Quinn DeVeaux (with the Blue Beat Review), are going to be performing. My checklist of to-dos is shrinking fast.

Inspiration #1: Bluegrass Wedding

My fiance is a good ol' Southern boy with a romantic, laidback style. I've been into dogwood blossoms ever since I witnessed an ethereal Korean dogwood tree in the great Victoria Gardens of Victoria, B.C. Snippet & Ink featured the following inspiration board, and I was hooked on this look. To pull this off on a budget, I will skip the full invite and instead create a postcard invitation myself using clipart from Dover Publishing CD roms and have PSPrint.com produce digital print postcards (color both sides).