Color Collage: Apricot

I am obsessed with color and color combinations. Here are a couple collections of pictures from various websites in soft apricot, cantaloupe, and pale orange tones.

Little Pretty

I mentioned Erica Baracca before. She is brought on periodically to shoot some of the weddings I help design; here are a couple of my favorite images of/by her. She is a great graphic designer, does adorable and clever letterpress greeting cards, and obviously takes gorgeous photographs. She is soon to have a baby boy, so there is definitely more to come on this Little Pretty...

www.flickr.com/photos/littlepretty

Real Wedding: Danielle and Kris

This unique brunch wedding took place on a gorgeous day this past September in Hyde Park in Chicago. The ceremony was performed at the historic Bond Chapel on the University of Chicago campus. The stunning stained glass combined with the overgrown ivy and the dark wood pews create a warm and intimate setting.

Jesse Deckard of Botanicals, a branch of HM Designs worked with the couple to enhance this already gorgeous setting. Over sized fluffy green and blue bi-colored Dutch hydrangea was the featured flower at this event; used in large arrangements framing the altar, adorning each individual pew, in the bouquets, and later on the guest tables. The flower girls each carried a custom made peacock blue satin pouch (perfectly matching the sash on their dresses) filled with soft green rose petals to toss down the aisle. Additionally they wore fragrant stephanotis blossom crowns.

I love the unique color palette this couple chose. That deep peacock blue color is so unusual, and looked truly gorgeous in the chapel. The design went down to the smallest details, creating a charming ambiance for their special day!



These beautiful wedding shots were taken by Laura Meyer Photography.

Real Wedding: Beth and John

This is a wedding I worked on last summer with the fabulous Jesse Deckard at Botanicals, a branch of HM Designs and the charming Lauren Carter of Lola Event Productions. The bride is an architect so she had wonderful style and a great eye for color and design. The color palette was an unusual but stunning combination of navy and baby blues, rust orange, vibrant citron/chartreuse, and rich burgundy - along with polished wood.

The bride also wanted some 'green' elements to the reception - hence the potted plants on the guest tables. All of those vividly colored coleus plants were donated after the event to be planted.

Every single table had a custom designed manzanita branch 'chandelier' suspended above it, creating a wonderful and dazzling ambiance throughout the Great Hall of Cafe Brauer in Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo.















These wedding pictures were all taken by my friend Erica Baracca. Check out her gorgeous pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/littlepretty

Obama Girls

They are so cute!!! I loved loved loved their ensembles the day of the inauguration. Sasha's pinky-melon colored get-up (satin tie around her waist and all) was so classy and timeless and put together - I wish I could look half that put together on my best day. Apparently their outfits were from Crewcuts (J. Crew's children's line).

Inauguration Day

I am so excited for what is to come in America (and the world). Today feels like a breath of fresh air, and I can't even look at a picture of President Obama without shedding a tear. I am proud to be a Chicagoan as well as an American in this moment. His speech was incredible, reaffirming what a great feeling it is to finally have someone in control who is as eloquent as he (not to mention who is as even tempered, mindful, caring, confidant, grounded, and loving towards his family). I particularly loved when he said:

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear,

unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

1,2,3,4

So I thought my first post would be to tell you about a project I recently worked on. Just after Christmas, I helped make the new Plain White T's music video. It think it turned out really great, and am proud to have been a part of it. Mike Venezia did an amazing job directing, filming, and editing. Below is the video as well as the story behind the video in Tom's words. Watch, enjoy, love...

Plain White T's - 1, 2, 3, 4 - Official Music Video (HQ)


http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=50460866

A couple weeks ago I was out to lunch with my friend Mike at Portillo's. The Christmas buzz was wearing off and we were throwing around ideas of making a fun, youtube style video for 1,2,3,4. After brainstorming for a while we came up with the idea of heading into Chicago armed only with a camera and a guitar. He would film me breaking out the guitar and playing the song at random locations around the city. The focus however, would be on the people who stopped to watch. The song is a simple love song so we wanted to capture various little love stories throughout Chicago, and feature them in the video. We had no idea how it was gonna turn out- Would anyone even stop at all? Would I get mobbed? Would people give permission to be filmed? Was this even a cool idea? We had no clue what was gonna happen, but the next day we ventured out to do it. We made a pact that we would give it our best shot and just roll with it. Whatever happened we would just edit together and put up online. So we went around the city freezing our butts off (it was 18 degrees outside) following through with the plan and meeting some great people. After about seven hours in the cold we called it a day and drove back to the burbs. I was honestly concerned my ears were gonna fall off, that's how cold I was! Needless to say they didn't, and after a week of editing Mike sent me his first cut of the video. I almost cried. I couldn't believe how perfectly it captured the sentiment of the song. I knew we had something here, so we showed it to the guys in the band, our managers, and our label. They all loved it and now this simple idea we thought of over lunch and filmed the next day is getting all this hype before anyone has even seen it! We made this video for you, for the fans, so enjoy it with love, from the Plain White T's.