happy monday everyone! i hope you all had a great weekend. just checking in over here after my amazing road trip last week. i gotta tell ya – solo road trips are seriously good for the soul, know what i mean? although not gonna lie, i probably listened to the entire drake album about 40 times on repeat until i finally resorted to pandora to keep me movin along the way :) but seriously – what’s better than you, the open road, and some really good tunes (or no radio at all). it’s my favorite time to think, reflect, and make bigger and better plans. or no plans at all. it is just so good for the head and heart.

anywho..here’s what i was up to:

• a lovely little coffee date with lara, ari and my new pal grace who was howling along to videos i showed her of rhody. it was too cute – love that little girl (and her mama too!) thanks lara for the hospitality and the best cup of coffee i’ve had in a while :)
• lunch with cyn! such a treat – i love dreaming big with this girl (and laughing hysterically along the way)
• site visits in charleston, including my personal fave, boone hall plantation. excited to work with them next year!
• coffee meeting with tara – it was nice to see her outside the dance floor at engage! and chat about the industry, the south, and life in general. she is seriously such an amazing, down to earth person – thanks tara for a much-appreciated meeting :)
• jam trade-off with the sweetest little lady i ever did meet – i ran in to her somewhere between charleston and savannah at this little general store in the middle of nowhere. it seriously fueled my soul and made me so happy – i traded a jar of my strawberry jam (what, you don’t travel with your homemade jam?) for a jar of her peach preserves. amazing.
• antique store “browsing” aka i came home with another mason jar, much to pat’s chagrin. but i needed it, know what i mean? my favorite part was chatting with the store owner for about 20 minutes about mason jars and showing him pics of my collection, including my prized purple and amber masons! so funny.
• site visit heaven at serenbe just outside atlanta – absolutely in love with that place.
• meeting up with pat who had been in atlanta for a few days for work, making future plans and enjoying a weekend exploring with him, meeting up with friends who just moved to the area, and soaking up all we could.

all in all it was a pretty productive trip, i’d say. and on that, now i’m back to work prepping for a+m’s wedding this weekend – see you back here later this week :)

// pictures taken with instagram //

image by kellan studios

yep – i’ve got an exciting week ahead of me, with meetings and site visits lined up here in the south. from chapel hill, to charleston, to savannah and beyond, i’ll be rocking my little rental car on a recon mission for some lovely little 2014 weddings! and though i’m excited for all my visits, i’d say boone hall plantation (pictured above) is one of the venues i’m most excited to be working with in 2014! must-visit recommendations are happily accepted! oh, and any road trip tunes i should download? let me know :) (this is a good one!)

see you back here next week (and in the meantime you can keep up with my travels on instagram where i’ll be hashing it out with #lldsouthernroadtrip – who knows, you might even see some familiar faces!) :)

spring has officially arrived here in california and we are loving the warmer weather and longer days. hope you all enjoy your holiday weekend, no matter what you may have on the agenda :)

// images by audree jean photography, floral design by lovely little details, rentals from one true love vintage rentals //

pulled chicken recipe

we’ve been on a healthy kick and have been looking for food that tastes good and feels like it shouldn’t be good for you. this pulled chicken recipe (adapted from a friend’s recipe) has been a lifesaver on those nights when you want some comfort food without tons of carbs or sugars. the best part is you can throw it in the crock pot the night before or the morning-of, and not have to do anything to it except stir a few times – super easy and yummy.

pulled chicken recipe

ingredients:
6-8 boneless skinless chicken thighs (or breasts if you want to eliminate some of the fat)
1 large jalapeno, seeds removed and finely chopped
8 cloves garlic, minced (plus 1-2 smashed and just put in the crock pot)
1 tbsp sea salt
1 1/2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp lime juice
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar (secret ingredient)
1 avocado (optional)

directions:
throw everything but the chicken in a crock pot and give it a stir. once mixed, add the chicken and coat with the mixture. set it on medium (4-6 hours) or to your desired cook time (depending on how long you will be away and need it to cook) and leave it, giving a few stirs here and there. after about 4 hours the chicken will start to pull apart and you can use a fork or spoon to pull it. take it off the heat once the chicken starts to pull so you don’t dry out the meat. you can either serve right away or put in the fridge for a meal that will last a few nights.

garnish with a few pieces of chopped avocado or coleslaw – yum.

enjoy!

 remember mark + sarah‘s maine wedding from 2 years ago? these two were initially published in a local maine news publication, but i’m also excited to see that they were just published in the latest issue of well wed magazine! excited to see some of my work (along with stacey hedman‘s gorgeous film photography) in print! congrats again mark + sarah – i absolutely loved working with you two :)

happy monday everyone! how was your weekend? we’ve had a few jam-packed weeks over here at LLD, with tasting meetings, site visits, hiring 3 new team members, and meeting some of my clients for the first time after working together for months (yay!). but amid all the “busy”, there’s no room for complaints over here – i’m loving it! so on that note, i present you with this week’s happy list :)

1. this song. press play. you know how music has this amazing ability to transform you to a certain place or time and bring about a wave of nostalgia? well this song was playing as i was working on erika‘s wedding bouquet a few months back and whenever it pops on pandora, i immediately feel a sense of calm and happiness.

2. getting to finally unite with my favorite clutch designer around (and her husband of course) and laughing so hard our stomachs hurt. and still laughing 4 days later. so great.

3. daylight savings – this gets another mention on the happy list but i mean come on – grilling outside at 7pm and still having daylight? the best.

4. lazy sundays with pat and rhody – sleeping in (until a little pup gives my hand a lick, then sits and stares at me until i know it’s time to get up), going for a hike on one of the many trails we’ve recently discovered just down the street from our house, coming back and heading to the grocery store for some fresh littleneck clams to pop on the grill, and not feeling guilty for taking time to sit in the sun and catch up on my magazine reading while sipping on a blue moon with fresh orange slices from our tree. can’t get much better than that.

5. speaking of our citrus trees, i finally picked a bunch of lemons yesterday and made fresh lemonade for the first time ever. ohmygosh – sooo yummy. that alone pretty much made my weekend!

hope you all had a great weekend too – any new additions to your happy list?

happy tuesday everyone! i’m so excited to see jessica + matt’s wedding up on style me pretty this morning! jessica is the creative + gorgeous gal behind the blog birdie to be, and you can tell she has a knack for wedding design because she had every plan and idea down to a T when it came to her big day. jess + matt, you two are the sweetest – congratulations again and thank you for choosing to work with LLD – it was an honor :)

head on over to style me pretty to leave the happy couple some love, will ya? :)

// image by vero suh, styling + floral design by lovely little details, design + stationery by the bride //

happy thursday everyone! how are we at thursday already? and halfway through march? ahh!

today i wanted to share a quick recipe with you that my sister-in-law introduced to us this past thanksgiving. now if you know me, you know that i’m a salt girl and appetizers are my weakness, especially the non-healthy kind. but out of all the apps at thanksgiving, this one was devoured the fastest – it’s so unexpected but so good! and the combination of sweet, salt and savory is just so yummy.

grapes tossed with rosemary, sea salt and olive oil

ingredients:
seedless green grapes, rinsed and chilled
a few splashes of olive oil (don’t need much, you can always add more)
chopped fresh rosemary
granular salt (my go-to is mortons coarse kosher salt or flaky sea salt) – the more grainy the better so it doesn’t overpower the flavor

directions:
mix grapes, rosemary and olive oil in a large bowl, toss to coat and move to your preferred serving dish. add a sprinkle of sea salt (to taste) and serve.

thanks jeannie for this amazing recipe – it’s now on our regular repeat list. hope you all enjoy!

// image credits: jacin fitzgerald, lovely little details //

happy tuesday everyone! i hope you all had a great weekend. it was a doozy for the LLD team – from a 140-person rehearsal dinner to an almost-300 person wedding – and it is times like these that make me so grateful over and over for my assistants because without them there’s no way we could ever pull off all the lovely little details. thank you girls, again!! love you.

biggest lesson learned this weekend? i always have more than enough eucalyptus. will someone please remind me of that next time i head to the flower mart? i’m always worried i won’t have enough and then i end up with tons to go around. i guess it’s better than not enough, right?

so on to this week’s happy list. here ya go!

1. blue masons are coming back!!! pre-order yours here or call your local true value hardware store (like page hardware – 203-453-5268) and ask for item number 166126 – they’re coming back for a limited time to mark the 100th anniversary and once they sell out, they’ll be gone for another 100 years. not sure how pretty jam would look through a blue jar but you can bet i pre-ordered a few cases.

2. going to my favorite coffee shop in SF to order grounds for home brewing and having the barista ask what i’ll be brewing with (french press, italian stovetop espresso maker) so he could grind the beans at the perfect size for each cooking method. so awesome. thanks sight glass!

3. spotting grape hyacinths tucked back in one of my garden beds. such a pretty surprise!

4. daylight savings – mind you i was cursing daylight savings this past weekend when it took one of my precious prep hours away, but now that the wedding weekend is over i’m loving how light it still is later in the day. it makes me feel like spring and summer are really on their way. which leads me to #5…

5. nighttime grilling with my hub – he’s on a mean healthy kick right now and i’m trying to follow suit – grilling our dinner makes it so much easier to eat healthy and actually enjoy it :)

have a great week everyone!

// image source – lovelydetails instagram //

the LLD team will be busy bees with the first wedding weekend of the year, starting with a+s’ rehearsal dinner tomorrow and their wedding on sunday, and we couldn’t be more excited. and even though spring doesn’t officially arrive until march 20, it sure feels like the season is already here with all the lovely blooms being prepped for the festivities! as i mentioned in bold / underline / red text in my last timeline + layout email to this weekend’s team of vendors, don’t forget to change your clocks this weekend! :)

have a great one!

{photo source}