"Border" wallets

Jasmine clutch

Cody

Tora

Juno

Mariposa (saddle and black)

Sasha (wood top) and Jenny (black with amber highlights)

Jenny (Pearl and rustic brown)

Heather (Bently burgundy and florenza)

Sue

Sasha

Mica (cranberry and saddle)

Nikola (chocolate, floral embossing)

THIS MONTH'S VIVA LA WEDDING Q&A

Q - We have a four year old son and can't imagine not having him at our wedding. There are also a lot of young children in our family and we would love for them to be present on our wedding day as well. Can you give us a few tips on having a child friendly wedding that will help make it more enjoyable for the kids (and their parents too)?

A - Take a child out of his or her normal surroundings, dress them in uncomfortable formal clothes, break their routine, place them in an adult setting - it won’t be long before they are tired and bored. They also have a short attention span and may need a little help if you want them to make it through the day. How can you keep them entertained and having fun? Here are a few tips so that not only will they enjoy themselves at your wedding, but their parents will be able to enjoy themselves too.

Offer a kids meal - While you may be excited for your guests to try the oven roasted AAA rib eye served with exotic mustards and creamed horseradish that melted in your mouth at your food tasting let's face it, the kids at your wedding probably aren't going to be all that excited to eat it. Offer them something that will please their palates like pizza, chicken fingers or mini hot dogs and make sure to ask your venue/caterer if they can be served first. Especially at an evening reception seeing as it will probably be well past their normally scheduled eating time when you sit down for dinner.

Arrange for childcare - Having someone on hand to watch over the kids, making sure they're not getting into the wedding cake before it's officially cut or dipping their little fingers into the candy bar and overdosing on sugar before the night has even begun, can be a real life saver. If your wedding is taking place at a hotel/resort they may already offer this service on-site.

Hire a professional magician, balloon artist or children's entertainer. Not only will this keep them entertained but it adds a fun aspect to the day that's especially for them, and can sometimes be fun for the adults too.

Create special areas with activities for the kids - Set up a children's table using butcher block paper as the tablecloth with crayons for colouring. A children's wedding activity book is a great way to keep them busy and they can take it home afterwards as a memento of your day. The book can include colouring pages, crosswords, and word searches depending on their age.

Goodie bags for each child are a nice touch. Fill the bags with bead sets, bubbles, colouring kits, pipe cleaners, disposible cameras, juice boxes and a few little snacks.

If your venue allows for it, set up a dvd in a separate room along with puzzles, board games and crafts to keep them entertained.

Great find!! - These stuffed paper dolls from Anthropologie are super cute! Included are five water-based markers kids can use to create their own unique dolls. The cool thing about them is that when they get home and days later decide the doll needs a new look, simply throw it in the wash and start all over again.

VIVA'S BOOK CLUB - FÊTE THE WEDDING EXPERIENCE

FÊTE is a dynamic New York City event planning and design production firm led by Jung Lee and her husband Josh Brooks. Their website is filled to the brim with inspiration and eye candy of the most opulent and over-the-top events (you could really get lost oohing and ahhing for hours).

Jung Lee and her team design weddings that seem bigger than life, but are thoughtfully produced down to the smallest detail.

In her book FÊTE THE WEDDING EXPERIENCE, Jung Lee uses 9 very different weddings as examples of how you too can plan a truly unforgettable wedding. Follow her advice and your wedding will have the energy, soul, and authenticity that makes a wedding truly fantastic.

A KINDERGARTEN WEDDING

As told and photographed by 6 of Four

Every year the Kindergarten class at Berry College’s Elementary School (in Mount Berry Georgia) puts on a Kindergarten Wedding. They study a letter a week. For M they study marriage and have a wedding. It’s the highlight of the year and it’s exciting to have your name drawn as the bride and groom.

They learn about loving one another and take vows to be friends forever. It’s simply adorable. It includes a first dance, cake, and bouquet/garter toss. It’s just like a real wedding... only miniature. Each child brings in a picture of their parents at their wedding. They learn about commitment and the love their parents share. Each child has a role. Whether it’s a reading, a song, bridesmaid, minister, or ring bearer. Everyone is involved.

This wedding feels like it’s in fast forward speed. From getting ready to the end of the reception, it all happens in about two and a half hours so we were running around as fast as we could to capture the day.

For more pictures of this adorable kindergarten wedding check out 6 of Four's blog

WILL YOU MARRY ME? SAY CHEESE! (#2)

Here's #2 - (as told by photographer Laurel McConnell)

Lets set the scene: Nick is an illustrator for a hot gaming company. Danni has a huge following on her design blog, Oh Hello Friend (it’s yummy, check it out!). They met at art school 4 years ago. His plan: surprise Danni with a flight from their sunny and “everyday-is-70-degree” Orange County home to the rainy “every-day-is-a-crap-shoot” Seattle getaway.

The other day, some pictures of a very special nature arrived in my inbox: I was to magically get these to appear on the back of my camera (you’ll see, just wait for it!).

Now, cue the actress, Seattle’s own Darrah Parker (wild applause emanates from the audience). At 1pm today, Darrah and I boarded a ferry to Bainbridge Island, and found ourselves snapping pictures of each other on the windy deck while crossing Puget Sound. Okay, Fib #1…. I was REALLY snapping pics of Danni and Nick, acting all cute-like in the background. Nick not only woke up his sleepy girlfriend from her short snooze on the relaxing ferry, but dragged her out to the violently blustery (um, understatement of the year) deck to watch the silly girls shooting pictures and take in the sea air. He gets an A+ for his mad setup skills- he kept pulling her into ideal spots for us to snag some shots no matter what her agenda was!

Nearly an hour later, we found ourselves in the gorgeous Bloedel Reserve, a historic, well kept, private park on the island. Waiting, waiting, waiting. I kept saying to Darrah, “What if he changed his mind and he’s not coming? What if they got lost in the 150 acres? What if we are at the WRONG “Waterfall Lookout By The Historic House?” Sure enough, here they come, meandering down the path. Seriously, Danni, could you walk any slower? Didn’t you know there were three people screaming silently in their minds with excitement with what was about to happen? Of course not. She was sightseeing and leading their self-guided tour, map in hand, having a grand ol’ time, mostly oblivious to Nick’s scheming.

Enter Darrah, stage left. Laurel wanders off to check her cell phone and “look busy with something else,” while actually getting into position. Mini-fib #2.

“Oh my gosh! Hey! Weren’t you the guys on the ferry?” chimes Darrah. Luckily, Danni totally remembered us as being the silly tourist girls on the deck getting blown over by the wind, and being all smiles, greeted us like old friends as Nick gave “The Look” to mean it’s “Go Time.”

“I saw you guys, and I took some really cute pictures of you. Wanna see?” Fib #3. Danni and Nick agree in unison. Nick reaches into his pocket. Here it comes. Darrah flips through some of the cute (stalker-like!) images we snuck of them on the ferry. Then she gets to the REAL images.

She turns around, and Nick is on his knee, holding the sweetest ring I ever saw, barely able to hold those four words in his mouth before they gushed out in the most beautiful sentence a girl ever wants to hear.

For more pictures of this surprise proposal check out Laurel McConnell

WILL YOU MARRY ME? SAY CHEESE! (#1)

We hire a photographer to take pictures of our wedding day, sometimes to take pre wedding pictures shortly after we're engaged. If we're a little more daring we secretly have boudoir pictures taken as a special surprise for our husband-to-be, and even trash the dresh when it's all said and done. But what about the proposal? The proposal is what started it all, so why let this moment slip by when you can capture it too on film and have it forever?

This is a trend growing in popularity that Viva la wedding can't get enough of which is why the next few posts will be dedicated to just that. Stories of surprise proposals with pictures taken by the photographers who were hired to shoot them.

Here's #1 - (as told by photographer Cheyenne Schultz)

Since Amy and Andrew, I've decided that shooting actual engagements is totally my favorite thing ever to shoot. I've been dying to post these. So, here's how it went down.

Back in August, web/graphic designer and aspiring photographer Andrew contacted me to let me know he was in the beginning stages of planning his proposal to his then girlfriend - Amy - and wanted to book a session to have it photographed. Over the course of the next couple months, we schemed up a great plan for this to happen.

Amy and Andrew are from Raleigh, so the first thing was getting them to Charlotte. Andrew worked it out to be in for a weekend to visit friends, which would be followed by an opportunity for Andrew to come shadow me photographing an engagement session on Monday morning (at least, that's what he told Amy). Once Monday morning rolled around, I picked up the phone to call Andrew and unfold the plan......Andrew relayed the message to Amy - the engaged couple for the session had cancelled on me because of the weather (lies......all LIES!!! :), but if they wanted, I could go ahead and just photograph the two of them, as Andrew would still be able to learn a lot being in front of the camera. Amy took the bait and the pair headed to meet me.

I started out the shoot like I would any shoot...but talked out loud at what/how I was shooting and why - just to keep Amy on the trail that this was a learning experience for Andrew. I had told Andrew beforehand what I was going to say that would be the cue for him to drop to his knee...... "One thing I'll do sometimes to encourage interaction is to have the couple face the opposite ways from each other and when I say "go", I'll have them turn around and run toward each other into a hug. So, let's go ahead and do that. Amy, go ahead and face that way, and Andrew, you face the other way."

Amy turned around, Andrew dropped to his knee, and my heart about stopped I was so dang excited! "Okay, GO! Turn around!" And this is what she saw. BEST. MOMENT. EVER.

For more pictures of this surprise proposal check out love the schultzes