Handmade Weddings// Giveaway

I stumbled upon this book at Hobby Lobby a few months ago and liked the cover of it. I do tend to judge actual books by their cover, and this book cover really appealed to me for good reason. The book has DIY wedding ideas, but the reason I like it so much (seeing as I'm married and not planning a wedding) is that it divides up the different decor into 6 styles. The writers of the book are the owners of Hello!Lucky (an awesome print shop) and wrote the book so that people could more easily pull together their "creative potential" to design their wedding (or home in my case). The book is divided into six style categories: retro homespun, girly romantic, happy graphic, organic minimal, modern classic, and found.  For each style the writers provide inspiration to give you ideas that fit into that overall aesthetic, resources such as free downloads for fonts and other printables, and online stores where awesome craft supplies can be bought to make the projects they give in the chapter. I love this. As you go through the book you definitely see which styles you resonate more with and I think I'm definitely a mixture of two of them. The reason this isn't just for weddings is because it helps you define your overall style, aesthetic, feel that you like. I know when I first got married I didn't know where to start in decorating my house. I would see other people's homes that looked and felt put together and think I just needed to do exactly what they did. It has taken me awhile to figure out what actually is most appealing to me and how to make it a reality on a budget and living within reason. And another aspect to all this is being married and wanting to be sensitive to what husband likes (or thinks looks crazy on a wall or feels too girly!). So this part is a little funny, but I actually went out to coffee with husband and we sat down and looked through this book together (he is so good to me... he listened to me talk about it knowing it was a good step for our marriage:) But really it helped him understand why I always like to paint furniture blue, and why I make a mess at midnight making stuff for the walls that may or may not look great (that was a lot of 'm's- late night alliteration!). Anyway, this all may seem like very non-essential stuff (figuring out your style) and certainly it's a sign of a pretty rich culture in a world where people don't care about decor but about if they can feed their children the next day. That is all true. But it is helpful in determining how you want to arrange your home and make it a place that you love being in. I am such a space person- when trying to decide where I am going to edit pictures I have to arrange everything to make it a more inviting place.  I find that my home can be a place I love being when it's arranged in a way that appeals to me and strangely that helps me be a better wife and mom. I know that sounds crazy and it is in no way an excuse to be a selfish mom (I can't love these children unless I have the perfect furniture or art on my wall!!!- that would be NOT good) but I do find that decorating my home in line with the style I like can make it a more refreshing place to be. We've all been in places where we felt lighter or better because of the atmosphere, so it's a neat project for me to try and create that kind of atmosphere for us in our home. Back to original thought about the book. This book has AWESOME ideas for unique wedding details and is so fun to look at. It has great resources and if you are a crafty person (getting married or not!) you would love this. I've never done a giveaway on my blog but I love it when other people do so I thought I'd give it a try. Just leave a comment on this post with one of your favorite quotes (I'm a quote junkie) and I'll randomly pick someone to win this fun book! I'll draw a name and post the winner a week from today, so leave me a great quote anytime before then!!!