dance. dance. dance.

i can't get over these photos taken of me and m at a friend's wedding. can you tell how much we like to dance? truth be told, one of the things that most attracted me to him was his ability to bust a move on the dancefloor (one of our first dates ever was a salsa lesson - so fun!).

and though we often have very different music taste (me: indie and sometimes girly; him: rap, country, and beach music), we'll dance to just about anything. and we do so (obviously) with quite a bit of abandon. m grew up shagging (a Carolina dance set to beach music), and his parents actually fell in love while on the dancefloor (i know, cute). it's in his blood, and i'm so thankful. dancing always makes life a bit more fun, wouldn't you say?

when we sat down to plan our wedding, m and i discussed what mattered most to us. and both of us agreed that dancing was one of the top priorities. come june, my dancin' shoes are on!

if any of you are planning a wedding, i'd love to hear what you decided would be your priority! flowers? food? do tell.

finally BHLDN

when natalie sent me a cryptic message displaying a simple url, i had no idea what to expect. but when i clicked on it and the webpage appeared, mimicking a pretty letterpress invitation and fading into gorgeous close-ups of lace and cloth buttons, i knew.

the time has come.

anthro is officially launching their bridal line.

i know; pick me up off the floor.

february 14 (how appropriate) will mark the big day. the wedding line, called BHLDN (pronounced Beholden), will launch online followed by a boutique opening in August of this year. their motto, Be You, Be Loved, is so very Anthro, wouldn't you say? romantic and breathless. i can't wait to see what they've come up with. the website preview is already swoon-worthy. lots of texture, lace, fringey poms, glitz, and glam.

AND it's just in time for my wedding. perhaps i'll be able to pick out a few bridesmaid dresses and accessories for the big day. i'll have to steer my eyes away from the wedding dresses. if only.

BHLDN will be featured in the April issue of The Knot, and, small Cville claim to fame, Easton Events will be coordinating the photo shoot along with Rock, Paper, Scissors, who will be designing the paper products. these two companies are incredibly creative (check them out!), so i'm sure the trio will produce an amazing shoot. and yeah, Charlottesville! i love this town.

you can sign up for their email newsletter here: http://bhldn.com/ and if you have any more insider details, please pass them my way!

oh my word. yes.

ok. ok. i promise this is the last time i will blog about emersonmade... at least for this week. but come on - that bra top, the high skirt, the ballerina messy bun. yes please. tell me it's springtime already.

poms and stamps

last weekend, i invited some girls over for brunch, mimosas, and crafting! now that the wedding is just five months away (!), it seemed high time to put some action into all those diy plans i'd made. the craft party was a wonderful success, and i couldn't have asked to share it with more lovely friends!

i spent the friday before the party preparing. my sister (and fabulous MOH) and i headed out to get all the essentials: ingredients for brunch, champagne, orange juice, fabric, a movie, and chocolate (ok, the chocolate and the movie were for us).

we set out all the crafting supplies:
1. tissue paper (i had bought the paper in bulk from this paper mart)
2. pipe cleaners, scissors, tape, pencils
3. cards (in one of our wedding colors! a total score from the Michael's sale bins)
4. thank you stamp (i splurged! thank you, ampersandity!) and ink pads
5. fabric (in various prints and textures, all in our wedding colors, from JoAnn's)

and then we turned on some music and went to work in the kitchen. we made this delicious egg strata (though we used 8 eggs, tore all the bread into bite size chunks and sauteed all the veggies beforehand). we made it the night before, so the next day all i had to do was pop it in the oven (along with some cinnamon rolls!). and finally collapsed on the couch to watch this movie (which was actually pretty good!). i LOVE time with my sister. we had a blast.


(that picture wasn't taken while we were making egg strata... though we have been known to strut around the kitchen in the dead of winter in our bathing suits. i love our matching freckles!)

the crafting party turned out beautifully! i had made poms earlier in the year for a party (pre-engagement), so i did a quick tutorial on pom-making since we'll be using a lot of them at the wedding. all the girls quickly became pom-making pros and set to work. my good friend natalie, known for her wordsmith skills, added stamping to her skill set and stamped ALL of my thank you notes. and maureen began to craft our fabric wedding banner.

the egg strata was a big hit, the mimosas were delicious, and the conversation was sweet. i'm so excited to see all of the diy decor coming together. i've had this vision growing in my mind since september, and it's going to be all the more beautiful knowing so many friends contributed to the finished product! i feel very loved.














thank you so much to all my beautiful friends who helped! i'm so sorry i didn't get photos of all of you but your presence was much appreciated. i wish i could post all of the finished products, but some things will have to be left until the wedding.

some wednesday photo inspired thoughts

these photos have been sitting in my inspiration pile for ages. as i was looking through some of my favorites, i noticed a trend. i love the messy bun.


i've spotted this quote several times over the last week (really - it was someone's bumper sticker, it was on a poster in a coffee shop bathroom, it was used as a sign off in an email, and now i found it on pinterest!), so i thought i should pay attention. it's very true, isn't it?


my coffee. his coffee. ready for this to be real and for our home to be with each other. less than 5 months, bloggies!

sarah seven

if i could wear multiple wedding dresses, i would have bought my second dress from sarah seven. i discovered sarah seven the summer before m proposed. she wasn't all that well known then but in the past year, her designs have blown up on the blogosphere. this weekend when i saw a huge, gorgeous ad for her dresses in Unveiled (perhaps my favorite wedding mag), i was reminded how much i love her style. the dresses are flirty and not the least bit fussy. AND the best part is that 5% of the sale goes to the International Justice Mission, which works to free those enslaved by human trafficking, and to Compassion, which feeds needy children. how awesome to have a bit of your wedding benefit others!

bone-deep honesty

natalie posted about this article in the curator on friday, and i thought it was too good to not repost.

do any of you journal? i remember getting my first diary as a birthday present when i was seven. it was one of the first presents i received that made me feel very grown up. it was a precious moments (remember those?) diary with a cartoon little girl on the cover. i cherished that little book. i remember feeling so important, like i must have significant things to say if someone had thought to give me an actual book in which to write them down. looking back on what i wrote is pretty comical, but i'm thankful for it nonetheless. it instilled in me a great love of writing and a practice of processing my thoughts externally - something i've learned that i need in order to understand what i am actually doing in my life and what i think of what i am doing. that may sound pretty egocentric, but i think the practice of understanding and evaluating my life actually allows for me to be more focused on others.

i love lindsay's quest to write in her journal fearlessly, to allow herself to be the imperfect version of herself on paper and to enjoy the freedom of writing. in her article, lindsay quotes luci shaw, and i think her remark is right on.

"Though we are often moving too fast to notice it, there is in each of us a profound need to be still, to be alone, to reflect, to meditate, to contemplate, to wait, to reach a kind of bone-deep honesty with our own souls.”

bone-deep honesty. i'm letting that one sit with me a while.