In continuation of my earlier post today on Sweet Lovely, I wanted to let you know that thru the end of the year you can save 15% on your order with offer code SLSPECIAL. And, now let's continue with some more amazing floral arrangements created by Sweet Lovely . . . {aren't the gift package bouquets just the cutest?} (more information on the preserved florals can be found after the photos) Here's a little more information on the preserved floral arrangements from Sweet Lovely:
1. The Sweet Lovely preserved flowers are 100% real flowers. They are NOT silk flowers or any other type of artificial flower.
2. With preserved flowers you don't need to have your flowers delivered (or picked up) the day of your event. With preserved flowers, you have the luxury of purchasing your flowers well in advance without having to worry about how long they will last.
3. By using preserved flowers for your event you will be able to keep the memories from your special day for a lifetime.

Much more information on the preserved flowers can be found on the Sweet Lovely FAQ page.

Real Flowers to Keep Forever

I was introduced to Sweet Lovely the other night and was completely beyond words when I saw the floral arrangements on their beautiful web site. Sweet Lovely handcrafts bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres, centerpieces and other special arrangements with real preserved flowers. These flowers are never to wither or die, which eliminates the need for costly preservation or time-intensive drying. Sweet Lovely can also supplement fresh flowers for your event, if desired. (more to read after photos) If you are in the Dallas, TX area, you can meet personally with the talent behind Sweet Lovely for a local consultation to create your dream floral arrangements for your special day. But, if you are planning a destination wedding or just love their designs (as I do), Sweet Lovely has an online store and they ship worldwide. The also provide consultations nationwide for custom orders.

I asked Grace (creative director at Sweet Lovely) to tell me a bit more about the floral preservation and her company. Since she can say it best - here's what she wrote:

"As far as our collection, the designs in our gallery are all custom and created using preserved flowers with the exception of some of the very large/tall arrangements. Our background is traditional fresh floral design so we can also make fresh flower arrangements but we really like the uniqueness and longevity of preserved florals!

All the florals in our e-store ready-made collection are preserved florals and can be shipped anywhere worldwide anytime before an event as they will last and last and last! :) We are in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and do custom consultations/designs for local brides but we've even done proposals for destination brides and had florals mailed to them. The other neat thing that brides really like is that they'll be able to take bridal portraits with the same bouquet/flowers as their wedding day.

As far as how long the flowers will last, we preserved them with intent of them being truly "everlasting". We've tested them for the last 3-4 years and none of the flowers have withered or died and the color has retained its vibrance. We picked the flowers at their prime and essentially immortalize them. We really love flowers and are so excited their beauty can now be preserved!"

Thank you Grace for introducing Sweet Lovely to me and my readers.

Be sure to check back a bit later today for part 2. I'll have some truly amazing floral designs created by Sweet Lovely to share with you, more info on the preserved flowers, and a special discount code.

Last week I received a lovely email from Noreen who runs Clifford Designs in Cork, Ireland. Her shop is a complete wedding supplier that carries handmade invitations and venue decoration - along with chair rentals. I enjoyed browsing thru the handmade invitations on her site and wanted to share some of the beautiful photos with you. Noreen also offers a wedding coordination package (perfect for those planning a destination wedding).

Josie from PreOwned Wedding Dresses wrote to me recently and introduced me to her company. I had to share it with you as I think it's a brilliant idea. At Josie's site, you can purchase your wedding gown or sell your own. Some of the gowns are samples, some brand new with tags still attached, and others have been previously worn.

What I love about PreOwned Wedding Dresses is that unlike Ebay, you don't pay a commission when your gown sells and your listing stays active for 12 full months or until your dress sells (whichever comes first). According to Josie and her seller survey, 18.2% of gowns have sold in 1 month and 57.6% within 6 months.

Josie has listed these 3 benefits of PreOwned Wedding Dresses:
1. We have over 1300 new, sample and used wedding dresses for sale..this is more than any other wedding dress resale site . . . and we feature top designers like Vera Wang, Monique Lhuillier, Melissa Sweet etc.
2. We have an advanced search feature which lets buyers browse using as many or as few criteria as they would like. The criteria includes keyword (anything like chapel train or ivory), designer, size, neckline, silhouette, price, dress height (important if the gown has been hemmed) and location.
3) We have security features that help protect sellers. Specifically, we do not post a sellers email address directly on the site (helping to prevent spambots from harvesting email addresses) and we filter and block scam inquires (which are so common on the internet) from reaching our sellers in the first place.

To see recent testimonials from both buyers and sellers, please click here

Would you consider purchasing your wedding gown online?

The above images feature gowns currently available at PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com:
Top Left: Mori Lee gown for $600, Top Right: Peter Langner gown for $1,500, Bottom Left: Monique Lhuillier gown for $4,300, Bottom Right: Justin Alexander gown for $500

Unique Wedding Find
I'm absolutely loving these crystal bouquets by The Flower Diva in North Carolina. While I've seen crystal bouquets on other sites (ex. Very Best Weddings), I've never seen a boutonniere, corsage or centerpiece crystallized. A nice tradition that can be started with a crystal bouquet is to pass it down to the next generation for their wedding day, or you can keep it yourself as a lasting keepsake.