{found via the abyss of tumblr. if anyone knows the credit, please let me know!}

{Grace Kelly}

…is a much needed thing right now! I’m doing a bit of traveling this week, then off for a computer-free-zone weekend with my love to celebrate Labor Day before heading off to Maine to help design Mark & Sarah’s wedding next week {which I can’t wait for, by the way}.

But until then, I’m daydreaming about the weekend at hand. Maybe it will look something like this….

{Millie Holloman Photography and Salt Harbor Designs via Style Me Pretty}

…or, this…

{via}

Regardless of what the weekend holds, I’m ready and willing. Bathing suit – check. Beach bag – check. Sunscreen – check. Beachy reads – check. Just bring the sun and a tropical drink and I’m yours.

I hope you all enjoy yourselves and shut down for a few days, too {if you can! I hope you can!}. We will catch up next Tuesday (and I can’t wait to update you on some new weddings I’m working on for Bethany, Erika, and a few other lovelies, along with a few other surprises I have up my sleeves as well!)

Be safe, have fun, and unwind, ok?

xoxo – see you next week!

{(c) LLD}

That’s what I’ll be doing, at least!

No Bloggers {Unveiled} today, but we have very special guests lined up for next Friday – Sofia & Andre of Brancoprata! Until then, here are a few more Keep Calms I made for you. Maybe you think they’re getting old, but I just have too much fun with them. And I would like to Keep Calm and Picnic On, anyways :)

Hope you all have a safe and wonderful holiday weekend! I’ll see you all back here on Tuesday :)

What I should really call this post: “What Happens When I Go Crazy With A White Nail Polish Pen”. Anyways, I thought you might think it was fun, too.

Since it’s summer and all, and I’m planning a little strawberry jam tutorial in the coming weeks, I thought this could be a fun little post today. Who said you can’t do a polka dot pedicure?

What I used:
* Essie nailpolish in “tangerine” {though “clam bake” and “geranium” are also favorites of mine!}
* Sally Hansen white nail polish pen
* Precision pedicure skills

First, give yourself a lovely little pedicure in your color of choice (two coats of color). Next, using the white nail polish pen, draw your polka dots. Finish up with a coat of clear polish and you’re good to go :)

Fun, right? Well, I thought so, anyways! I was thinking this could be a fun little surprise in your peep toe shoes but is also perfect for the 4th of July festivities. Throw on a cute navy anchor top and white shorts and you have yourself a cute little outfit!

Happy Wednesday :)

(c) lovely little details

{one of my favorite shots of the weekend, all pics taken by yours truly}

Hi everyone! How was your weekend? Didn’t it feel like it just flew by?

I had an event in Napa on Thursday and Friday, and by the time I got back to my apartment on Friday night I was wiped! Saturday morning I woke up nice and refreshed, and set off on the town to go do my favorite thing – visit the Ferry Building Farmers Market! There is really nothing better than strolling through the farmers market on a sunny Saturday morning, basket in hand, $20 in my pocket and camera in hand – I love all the sights and sounds and smells; it all just makes me a happy girl!

Of course I had to stock up on more strawberries for the ridiculous amounts of jam I’ve been making – don’t worry, there will be a tutorial soon so you can make your own jam too!

I have such a soft spot in my heart for pretty flowers – every time I go to the market I make a point to bring home something different and fill my blue mason, of course. These lovelies just took my breath away with the soft pink hue of those hydrangeas surrounded by the sweetest smelling sweet peas, and the pretty {and rustic} lavender bunches in the rusted tin cans.

The New Englander in me loved the simple setup for the oysters – just plastic bins filled with ice, come and get it! Who needs a silver platter? :) And I was totally intrigued by the rose petal sugar {but didn’t stop long enough for a taste}.

And these guys provided some amazing background music – the lead singer sounded like John Legend mixed with Ray Lamontagne – I could have sat for hours just listening to them {and gave them a nice little tip after taking their picture}.

So what did you all do this weekend? Isn’t it nice sometimes to shut down the phone and computer, and enjoy life outside of the social media world? I keep reminding myself that I need to do that more often!

Check back later today for a floral spotlight I’ve been waiting to post forever – featuring one of my absolute favorite flowers!

Hi everyone! How was your weekend? I hope it was amazing, and you were able to do something that makes you happy.

life is good

I am taking the day off from the computer to spend some quality family time today as I bask in a post-wedding hangover from my cousin Caitlin’s wedding this past weekend. You’ll definitely see more on this in the coming weeks – everything about it was just perfect, every single detail!  {and I even pulled off my speech without a hitch, which was a huge sigh of relief for me as I’ve never done a wedding speech before!}

{All pictures are from my camera}

{bride and groom pre-rehearsal}

The wedding took place in the south shore of Massachusetts, near the beginning of Cape Cod and the weather couldn’t have been any better. I am SO happy to be back east right now, back in New England, soaking up some sunshine and taking advantage of my favorite things before I head back to California (fresh strawberries from the local orchards, bike rides to the beach, fresh clams (littlenecks) on the grill, Del’s lemonade, and lots more things I can’t even think of as I type this).

My family is very patriotic, and holidays such as Memorial Day and 4th of July are always important to us in more ways than one – but most of all, remembering our heroes who fight for the very freedom we sometimes take for granted is something we take seriously, and you can bet that there will be marches playing in our houses tomorrow as we sit around the BBQ or head off to the local parade, flags in hand.

So, I’ll close it off with a picture of me and my cousins (the bride is in the middle!) from the weekend.

Have a safe and fun Memorial Day, everyone!! See you back here tomorrow :)

Hi guys!

Did you all have a good weekend? I hope so!

I had such a great weekend. I was so so happy to be back east with my family and catch up with my cousins, while we whisked my cousin on her bachelorette party and shower. We took her on a surprise trip to Block Island, then stayed for a night at my parents beach house in Rhode Island, then back to Connecticut yesterday for her shower at my parents house. It was a total whirlwind weekend but so much fun, too. Girls weekends are mandatory. That’s my thought, anyways!

So of course I will share some of the lovely little details from the festivities, but first I need to share with you my birthday gift that my brother gave me (a little late but that’s how it works when you live across the country). P.S. Please forgive the iPhone pics, it’s the best I could do this weekend without my regular camera.

Do you see what it is? Want a closer look inside? Ok, fine…

Yes, you guessed it. It is my blog {pre- Lovely Little Details, back in the day when it was She Said Yes!}, and my brother was able to use a program called SharedBook to pull all of my posts and put it in to a book! I don’t know how he found it but what I do know is I am so excited, because now all of my planning posts are saved in a real hard copy book, as though it is a journal, and it is such an amazing keepsake!

Thank you Todd so much for this awesome gift! The best part was when I opened it, I said “I am totally blogging about this tomorrow” :)

If you want to create a lovely little book like this for yourself, or a friend, all you need is the username and password and SharedBook will do the rest of the work for you!

Oh, and in other news, while on Block Island we rented mopeds and it was a hilarious experience. Here we were in our little cardigans and cute sandals, with these huge Mario Brothers-type helmets on, flying around the island at a speed of 5 miles/hour. And here’s what happened when I tried to videotape the experience while driving :)

Don’t worry, I wasn’t hurt, it sounds worse than it really was :)

Did you know Lovely Little Details has a sister blog now? Go take a look at Darling Little Details and let me know what you think over there :)

Today’s masons came to us from my lovely cousin Caitlin {who, by the way, is getting married in just over a month!!  Cue the excitement!}. Our family is very big into salt – I think I’ve mentioned it before, but yeah, salt is a big deal in our family, so these mason shakers from terrain are absolutely perfect! Oh, and how have I only now just discovered terrain? It could possibly be one of my new favorite stores! And these masons are only $16!

Oh, and on another totally unrelated note, I recently discovered the most amazing thing ever. Ever. If you’re my pal on twitter you may have seen me talking about this yesterday…

A manicure that not only sparkles but doesn’t require me to sit in the chair for 20 minutes and wait for it to dry? Yes please. Enter Sally Hansen Effects… an easy to use strip of nail polish that you literally peel and put on your nails. It takes about 10 minutes total and you’re good to go, and they come in tons of cool designs and textures! I chose the gold glitter polish:

Random fact – as I mentioned, my parents are visiting so they were over when I applied this magical manicure. My dad took one look at it {at age 60} and said “What, do you think you’re Lady Gaga or something?” My response: “Why do you know who Lady Gaga is?” It was hilarious :)

And they also come in lots of other pretty colors and designs:

Are these not amazing? I think my next ones will be the black lace… maybe!

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Happy Friday everyone! I am particularly excited today because my parents are coming to visit from Connecticut, so I’ve cleared my calendar and will be turning off the computer for the next few days {don’t worry, all my posts are pre-scheduled and I’ll even have a few visitors popping by to say hello next week while I’m away}.

In the meantime, though, I whipped up this little lovely for you, it’s set for 8 1/2″ x 11″ {letter sized paper for those not using US measurements!}, and you can download the “keep calm and spring on” version here, and a “keep warm and spring on” version here. I thought it could bring a bit of cheer to your office or kitchen or just your computer screen :)

This afternoon I am meeting with one of my lovely May brides as we finalize some last minute decor decisions for her big day, and then I’ll be picking up my parents from the airport later tonight – so I guess you could say this Friday is extra happy in my book!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and enjoy some sunshine, wherever you are!

xoxo,
jacin

Just stopped by today? Here’s what you missed this week:

~A lovely round-up of lilacs
~Kamie & Danny’s lovely engagement session
~Erin & Maclean’s Canadian engagement shoot {with a skateboard!}
~A laid-back Rhode Island wedding with the cutest little flower girls and ring bearers ever
~The sweetest tear-jerker of a wedding video I ever did see
~A little more info on one of our faves, Summer Watkins of Grey Likes, as today’s Blogger {Unveiled}

Note to self:

There is life outside of blogs, twitter, and facebook.  Yep.  I said it.

Like many others, I feel I have been sucked in to this crazy world of blogging, twitter, and facebook. Granted I feel like twitter* is the newer and easier facebook, but twitter sucks you right in too. I’ve only been on twitter for 3 1/2 months and sometimes I really do need to take a step back and remember what life was like before I joined in. Now this is nothing against twitter or any social media realms, but lately I have been overwhelmed with the many “vote for me”, “check out what I just did”, “I need 600 followers” messages (and I’m sure I’ve been guilty of this as well at some point). Honestly before I joined these outlets, I thought they were about telling people what you had for lunch :). I’ve realized that although this world may seem huge, it really is much smaller than we would think, and as I sit here night after night working on my blog posts, or tweeting, or “liking” something on facebook, my husband sits over on the couch reading his book, watching his Criminal Minds or checking his emails when we could be doing something together, going for a walk, getting out of the house, or even enjoying one of our favorite shows together without my mind thinking (do I have a post for tomorrow?)

My point is – life is too short to be holed up on the computer or with your blackberry/iPhone in hand at all times. I almost want to go back a step and get an old school flip-phone to replace my blackberry! Imagine what it would be like without the red blinking light coming on every 5 minutes? Emails can wait. Clients can and will call you, or better yet, you can call them or meet in person.  Of course this isn’t to say drop everything you’re doing, I know we’re all working a million miles a minute on our daily lives, and our clients are top priority – when it comes to work. But I’m also saying that there are real humans who we can be spending real time with and twitter/facebook will continue on with or without us – and I can guarantee your real social media friends will still be there when you return. But if you make a conscious effort to spend less time tweeting and more time living, I guarantee you will be a happier person. And I’m going to give it a whirl :)

P.S. – If you want a reality check to help you appreciate real life, you have to check out this blog.  Hands down, it is my favorite out of any blogs I have ever read.  When I see a new post in my inbox, I get happy.  That’s how amazing Kelle Hampton is, and her blog is just a reality check of what life is all about.

*side note – I can’t even tell you how amazing it has been to meet all of these amazing people through social media, so I am ever-so-thankful for that.  I have expanded my network to include new friends from all over the world, and contacts for my brides spanning the US and beyond.  I just need to learn a new way to manage it all while staying true to myself :)