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Warm Up: Winter Wedding Shawls, Shrugs and Sweaters

December 29, 2010 by Lizzie

Don’t sacrifice style for warmth for your winter wedding.

I can’t say it enough, I love winter weddings. Aside from the charm and elegance winter naturally carries with it, one of my favorite aspects of winter weddings is the ability to change the style of your dress and keep warm at the same time.

For the charming, crafting, DIY, eclectic brides of the world, you can pretty much pick any style of shrug, sweater, shawl you like. Here are a few handpicked from around the web.

bohemian winter wedding lace shrug

crocheted winter wedding shrug etsy

The luxurious, glamorous and extravagantly chic bride has to be a bit more picky. Feathers, faux fur, lace, finely crocheted and sheer wraps, shrugs and shawls are the way to go. A little something like this, perhaps?

Luxurious glamorous wedding shrug - winter wedding wear

I love how this sweater understates the elegance of a wedding. Kiera Knightley pulls of this look with style and subtlety, and so can you. Choose either a button-down cardigan or a ribbon-wrap cardigan as shown and you’ll be warm and looking too-cool-for-school in no time.

kiera knightly cardigan wedding winter

Photo One: Etsy seller SweetKnitting Photo Two: Wedding Paper Divas Photo Three: Adrienne Gunde Photography; Photo Four Paris Wedding Photo Five: Etsy seller Silvia66 Photo Six: Elizabeth Anne Designs Photo Seven: Veil Tales

Lizzie Smithson is a public relations student and wedding blogger planning a $10,000 (or under) wedding with her graphic-designer fiancé.

Filed Under: Unique Wedding Finds, Wedding Trends |

IW Hot Shot!: Kissin’ in a Vintage Kitchen

July 5, 2009 by Christina

Fun. Unique. Unpretentious. And don’t you love the vintage kitchen? This week’s IW Hot Shot is an engagement photo taken by Forever by Kylene.

Filed Under: IW Hot Shot, Wedding Photography |

Weddings are Recession Proof, But Wedding Budgets are Not

January 20, 2009 by Christina

Weddings might be recession proof, as the headline that appeared yesterday in my hometown newspaper The Windsor Star reads, but wedding budgets are not. The economy is having an impact how much couples spend on their weddings and the majority of brides are not spending $30,000.

I am bombarded almost daily with information about couples who are scaling back their weddings because of the recession. Many of them have suffered job losses, or job instability. Others have had to scale back plans because their parents RRSPs or 401ks have recently tanked. Even couples who have not been directly impacted by the recession are spending less on their weddings and using their money to put a down payment on a home.

The $30,000 wedding figure that gets reported repeatedly in the media, is not an accurate reflection of what most couples are spending – even when times are good. As I pointed out in an earlier blog post The $28,704 Myth: The ‘Average’ Cost Of A Wedding is Not What You Think It Is, the cost of the average wedding is a figure that does not accurately reflect the masses.

The recession is having an impact on weddings. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think couples are thinking long and hard about how much they want to spend. Many couples are realizing they can create a gorgeous and meaningful event for a lot less than the ‘so-called’ average, if they simply scale back their guest list to the people who really matter to them. As Elizabeth says: “A small wedding gives you the chance to maximize quality over quantity.”

Filed Under: Budget Brides, Wedding Planning |

Why IntimateWeddings.com? How My Small, At-Home Wedding Started it All

November 22, 2008 by Christina

The fam, Christmas 2009.

I didn’t want an up-do for my wedding. I’ve never worn an up-do in my life. It didn’t suit me – but no bride wears her hair down on her wedding day – or so it seemed.

I flipped through luxurious bridal magazines thicker than telephone directories looking for pictures of brides with their hair free of bobby pins. I came up empty.

“You want your hair to look special on your wedding day, don’t you?” said the hairstylist during a trial-run appointment. I caved. “Sure. Give me an up-do.” An hour and a half later the woman staring back in the mirror was no longer me. She wasn’t the kind of girl who wore plaid flannel pajamas. She didn’t have hangnails or enjoy frothy Guinness and warm slabs of steak. That girl wore satin. She ordered salad for lunch. She chewed slowly. She got manicures.

I dismantled the up-do as soon as I got into my car. That evening was one of clarity: I was going to be myself no matter how much pressure I felt. Thankfully, that pressure didn’t come from family or friends. All along, they encouraged me to be true to myself. They knew that I was the type of gal that marched to her own beat. Why would I suddenly change all that on my wedding day?

I had been to enough weddings to know what I didn’t want at our wedding, which included: A)A mile-long receiving line B) Drunk people doing ‘The Macarena’ c) $400 cake smashed into my face D)People singing silly rhyming songs to get us to kiss.

I bought a book to help me plan our wedding, but the more I read, the more I realized just how much my version of the ideal wedding differed from the norm. I didn’t want five bridesmaids; one maid of honor suited me just fine. I didn’t want a garter toss. I didn’t want a DJ playing the Electric Slide. Sure, I wanted music, but my music would be live. And most of all, I didn’t want a big, fat guest list. I didn’t want to celebrate my wedding day with a group of strangers. Instead, I wanted everyone there to have touched our lives in a special way.

I shake my head when I think of all the things I fretted over while we were planning our wedding. Can we really have a wedding with no bridesmaids or groomsmen? Will people think it’s weird that we don’t have a receiving line? Will our guests still have fun if there is no dancing?

My worries were unfounded. Our little wedding turned out to be one of the best days of my life.

Several months after our wedding, I wrote Intimate Weddings: Planning a Small Wedding that Fits Your Budget and Style. Why? Aside from wanting to help brides with all the nitty gritty of planning a small wedding, I wanted other brides to feel confident in their decision to have an intimate wedding – even if their ideas bucked convention. I wanted couples to feel a sense of validation, and, of course, I wanted them to hear about all the wonderful things a small wedding can offer them.

IntimateWeddings.com takes it a giant step further – providing brides with a slew of planning articles, as well as a place to find the ideal venue for their small wedding. The Intimate Details Blog is chock full of fresh ideas for planning a small wedding, as well as couple profiles and a slew of creative ideas on how to cut costs without sacrificing quality.

I don’t have a single regret about taking the aisle less traveled. For me, it made all the difference.

I hope this website inspires you to do the same.

Christina Friedrichsen, IntimateWeddings.com