take it easy: 3 day weekend

{via flickr}

just had a very dear friend in town to visit for the weekend & have been very slow moving today.

needless to say it was a good time : )

more wedding posts to come tomorrow!

get your gilt on: discounted wedding goods online

{via gilt groupe}

if you're not already a gilt groupe member, you need to stop what you're doing & sign up now. seriously, you won't regret it.

aside from offering designer goods at super discounted prices every single day, it appears they'll be having a wedding-dedicated sale for all future brides and wedding aficionados october 20th - october 24th.

based on what they offer for the regular day-to-day, i can only imagine the wonderful things they'll round up for your wedding day. you definitely won't want to miss this.

sign up & mark your calendars.

p.s. it's free to sign up, so you have no excuse

spotlight on nicole + john: real wedding

it's time we take this blog for a trip across the pond to a little-known place called england. nicole & john were generous enough to share these gorgeous photos of their beautiful garden wedding. the ceremony took place in a brilliantly ornate church and the reception followed in john's family's backyard. this is definitely not any old backyard. take a look for yourself, it's absolutely stunning. wait until you see how the bride captured both her english and mexican culture into her day. english roses + mariachi band = priceless. i also happen to love every other detail of their day. enjoy!

shame she's so unattractive, eh?

from the bride:

in england, weddings are much longer than the states. ours started at 2pm, which is actually late. first you start with the service, followed by drinks and nibbles in the garden, then a sit down dinner complete with speeches by the father of the bride, groom & best man, dancing & party, and finish with an evening snack around 10pm (we had fajitas).

absolutely loving her made to measure dress by johanna hehir

how fantastic is the detailing on her strap?!

my favourite part of the day was when my dad played the organ on my way out of the church. it's a very complicated piece of music, which not many people can play. when my mum first heard him play it years ago, she told him he had to play that at his daughter's wedding : )

he also played the grand piano in john's parent's living room after the wedding wound down. there were about 30 people left at 2am and he played classical love story pieces. he's an amazing pianist.

single stem rose just like her mom carried on her wedding day

mr & mrs

the bride & her father share a moment

the groom & the ladies

it was raining for 4 weeks before our wedding, but we had great weather for our wedding. sunshine & warm. we were very lucky.

joining for cocktails in the garden

mariachi band?! yes please

love this shot of the bride & groom with all their guests

our flowers were antique english roses, which were a present from a friend who sells flowers. a friend arranged all of the flowers and spent ages creating the arch, which was a surprise for me & john. all of the remaining flowers were from john's mum's garden.

love this place card

and a groom's to match

our cake was my favorite food item of the day. it was chocolate & delicious. we decided to cut the cake before dinner started & served it as dessert instead of later in the evening. we had been to too many weddings where they served the cake late & no one ate it.

the bride's favorite bite of the day

the father of the bride speech

our friend created a beautiful arch that joined the two sections of tents. we had the dinner reception on one side of the arch that was filled with traditional english flowers and the bar and dance floor were on the other side of the arch which was filled with exotic, crazy red flowers. it was a great way to incorporate my english and mexican heritages.

arch created by friend

introducing the married couple

please note the hats hanging in the background, love

party time usa, or uk, rather

nice moves

i love this shot

the bride & groom look on as the bride's father plays a little ditty

the bride's father plays for remaining guests in the living room

the send off

my advice to future brides would be to not plan too much. have a general idea of what you don't like, and what you like will come easily. surprises are a good thing. for example, my cake was supposed to be white chocolate, but the chef had a motorbike accident and forgot and made dark chocolate covered with white chocolate icing instead. it was better than the white one i'd originally tasted!

thank you so much to nicole & john for sharing these amazing photographs with us. for someone who wasn't the girl who dreamt of her wedding day since she was little, nicole sure did manage to pull off one of the best i've seen. i want to throw my own english garden wedding now! probably not going to happen, but a girl can dream...

follow a thousand mason jars!

hello friends,

please spread the word to your friends, and your friend's friends, to follow a thousand mason jars by simply clicking the "follow" button just to the right of this message.

this way you won't run the risk of missing one of our radically awesome posts.

much love,

atmj

apples galore: incorporating apples into your wedding decor

{via martha stewart & inspired by this}

{highland orchards apple cider doughnuts via philly mag}

{via babble}

{via country living}

{via martha stewart}

{via kiss the groom}

i can't help it. i'm a fall fanatic. everything about it makes me happy.

the cooler weather, hearty meals, heck, even fantasy football.

but on the top of my to-do list, once we actually get a free weekend, is to hit up an apple orchard. apples are so darn cute, especially good for you and once you add a generous amount of sugar and butter, you get some of the best desserts around.

i love how clean & fresh apples look as wedding decor. there's such a large array of vibrant colors to choose from to infuse color into your wedding day. arrange a few golden delicious next to a couple pink lady apples, throw in a few candles and voila!

and if you haven't purchased an apple lately, they're quite cheap, especially in bulk. so if you're looking for some affordable wedding decor, hit up your local apple farm and start picking! (plus, you're almost always guaranteed some kind of hay ride and/or homemade apple cider). check AND check.

you say tomato, i say tomahto: edible boutonniere

{boutonniere created by windham gardens}

i am in LOVE with the boutonnieres the groomsmen wore at the wedding i attended this past weekend. they had tomatoes in them. TOMATOES!

that's all : )

hope you all had a great weekend and are ready to attack this week with gusto!

happy friday! time to get baking

"there is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in october."

nathaniel hawthorne

{via dishin & dishes}

{via bakerella}

{via gourmet}

it's october!

time for me to whip out all those registry gifts & start baking! if the above photos aren't enough inspiration, then i highly recommend perusing the gourmet website yourself. some other favorites include epicurious, real simple & bakerella.

we'll be celebrating the nuptials of very dear friends this weekend, but maybe i'll motivate to get my bake on when we're all "slow" on sunday. nothing cures an evening full of too many cocktails like a homemade pumpkin pie.

happy baking!