I am a lavender freak. In fact, I am tossing around the idea of devoting a good portion of my backyard into a very LARGE lavender patch. I’ve got more than 20 plants growing as we speak, but that’s just the beginning.

The scent of lavender instantly calms me and takes me to a lovely place where I am centred and life is good.

I fell in love with lavender as a child when my mom used to buy English Lavender soap. In my early twenties I made lavender soap of my own using lavender essential oil and lavender buds; it was one of my hottest craft show sellers.

I recently discovered that lavender can be used for culinary purposes – although I’ve yet to experiment. One of the things I’d love to try is lavender lemonade. Wouldn’t that be a sweet treat for a summer wedding shower?

If you love lavender and you’re having a summer wedding, why not incorporate this versatile herb into your wedding? How? Here are ten ways:

1. Lavender Boutonnieres. These don’t look difficult to make.

Photo: Snippet and Ink via A Sunshine Wedding.

2. Lavender Bouquets. Gorgeous!

Photo: Kristy Huston

3. Lavender lemonade. Get the recipe here.

Photo: All Things Lavender

4. Lavender Sachets. Smell amazing and easy to make. Learn how to make DIY lavender sachets.

Photo: Bells and Bouquets

Photo: Getting Stitched on the Farm

Photo: Intimate Weddings

5. Lavender Send off: Your guests can shower you with lavender buds. Use a cone or sachet.

Photo: Something Old, Something New

Photo: iDIY

6. Lavender Cupcakes. Lovely.

Photo: The Cupcake Gallery Blog

Photo Two: OnceWed

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Have you ever seen a bespectacled bride in a bridal magazine? In fact, they’re pretty darn difficult to find in the blogosphere too. Grooms on the other hand? They’re all over the place. (My husband was one of them.)

Some brides wouldn’t think of wearing  glasses on their wedding day, instead opting for contacts.

But there are brides who wear glasses on their wedding day! For many of these brides, glasses are part of their identity. Some describe feeling ‘naked’ without them. Many of these brides purchase a special pair of glasses just for their wedding day.

I’ve rounded up some photos of brides wearing glasses.

Will you be one of them?

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If you’re having a summer wedding there is a chance you might have rain on your wedding day. As you probably know, rain on your wedding day is said to be lucky. It can also make for some fantastic photos. Want to know if it will rain on your wedding day? Check out the wedding weather predictor on The Weather Channel.

Here are a few rainy weddings that caught my fancy:

Hannah, 21 & Mathew, 21

Valencia, CA

Wedding Date: May 21, 2010

Number of Guests: 30

Wedding Cost: $6,000

Wedding Ceremony Location: Bride’s parents’ backyard on their deck

Wedding Reception Location: Bride’s parents’ backyard on a lower level court

Why did you have an intimate wedding?

We originally thought of having an intimate wedding to keep costs down, but the more I thought about it the more I loved the idea of only having those nearest and dearest to us there. Every single person at our wedding was really special to us, and we knew we were important to them too.

The vintage brooch bouquet is one of the latest trends in non-floral bouquets. A vintage brooch bouquet is a collection of ecletic vintage brooches assembled to take the form of a bouquet.

Not only are these brooch bouquets stunning, they make a fantastic keepsake from your wedding.

Kristin, who had an intimate wedding in Austin, Texas had a brooch bouquet at her wedding.

“I wanted a 50’s themed wedding and the brooch bouquet was perfect,” she says.

Kristin and her husband scoured second hand stores and antique stores in Michigan and Arizona for the brooches. Most cost between $2-$12 each. In total she spent $250 on brooches.

Amanda Heer at Fantasy Floral Design created the brooch bouquet (she added some of her brooches to the bouquet.) Total cost for the vintage brooch bouquet was $600.

What did she do with her bouquet after the wedding?

“I have it in a vase on my table,” she says.

Photos from Kristin and Patrick’s wedding photographed by Paige Newton Photography.