Our Wedding: Flowers!

Let me begin by saying I truly could not be more in love with how the florals at our wedding turned out.  Yes,  am "that girl" who thinks that neutrals are the most beautiful colors in the world, and wanted to show off my love for them in a fun and beautiful way. I definitely think we succeeded!! To lots of people, neutral flowers may sound boring or blah, but personally I think they turned out to be beyond gorgeous. All of our florals were through our wedding planner at A Charleston Bride where they do all the florals in house.

My Bouquet

A Charleston Bride, Photo by Virgil Bunao

The flowers of my bouquet were the first example of our florals I saw all day and I fell in love instantly!  To make my bouquet extra special and personal, we had lace from my mother's wedding dress and my mother's rosary wrapped around the stems. 

 Bridesmaids Bouquets

A Charleston Bride, Photo by Virgil Bunao 

For the overall decor, we layered different textures, sizes, heights, and shapes to create a vibrant space. 

A Charleston Bride, Photo by Virgil Bunao 

 A Charleston Bride, Photo by Virgil Bunao 

 A Charleston Bride, Photo by Virgil Bunao 

 A Charleston Bride, Photo by Virgil Bunao 

 A Charleston Bride, Photo by Virgil Bunao 

 A Charleston Bride, Photo by Virgil Bunao 

 A Charleston Bride, Photo by Virgil Bunao 

A Charleston Bride, Photo by Virgil Bunao 

I hope you enjoyed this post! Have a wonderful Thursday!

xo,

Grace

Ceremony Venue: Holy Spirit Catholic Church

Reception Venue: The River Course

Florals: A Charleston Bride

Coordination: A Charleston Bride

Photography: Virgil Bunao 

Our Wedding: Paper!

Today's post marks the first in a series about Our Wedding!! For those of you who don't know, I got married in January of this year on Kiawah Island SC. It was the best day of our lives and I'm really excited to finally share some of the little details of it with you. Throughout the entire planning process, we worked so closely with our incredible wedding planner Haley at A Charleston Bride, so I have to give tons of credit for the wonderful design work and execution to her and the ladies there for every single detail!!

Invitation

Studio R Design, Calligraphy: Elizabeth Porcher Jones, Photo: Instagram

Wedding printed materials were one of the design elements we were most excited about.  My mom has always told me that the invitation sets the tone for a wedding, and I couldn't agree more. After all,  it is usually the first insight your guests get into the style/formality/mood of the event.

Invitation

Studio R Design, Photo by: Virgil Bunao, Calligraphy: Elizabeth Porcher Jones

We used Studio R Design for all of our paper materials, and I couldn't have loved them more!! (Other than the Save the Dates which we ordered through Minted). The ladies there designed our custom logo and used it on many of our printed materials as well.

It was important to me to have a formal invitation to reflect our formal wedding, so we opted for extra thick paper, the traditional separate reception card apart from the invitation, and response card, all in gold and ivory. The envelope liner we used was a robins egg blue.

Invitation

Studio R Design, Photo By: Virgil Bunao, Calligraphy: Elizabeth Porcher Jones

Wedding Ceremony Program 

Studio R Design, Photo By: Virgil Bunao, Calligraphy: Elizabeth Porcher Jones

Cocktail Napkins

Studio R Design, Photo By: Virgil Bunao, Calligraphy: Elizabeth Porcher Jones

Welcome Bags

Studio R Design, Photo By: Virgil Bunao, Calligraphy: Elizabeth Porcher Jones

In our welcome bags, we included a custom golf ball, cheese zingers, two cookies, and custom logo water bottle with jute tote bag. I loved how they turned out!!

I hope you enjoyed this first post about our wedding! Stay tuned for more to come and let me know if you have any questions about vendors we used, the process of picking things out, or anything you'd like to see or hear about :)

xo, 

Grace

Event Design: A Charleston Bride, Photography: Virgil Bunao, Printed Materials: Studio R Design

All About Glasses: Eyeglass Discounter!

This Spring/Summer season is all about accessories, my personal favorite being glasses. I've always loved sunglasses, and then (thanks to too many all-nighters reading off backlit screens in college), in my late teens I began having to wear eyeglasses. Thankfully, these days glasses are super cool and even if I didn't need to wear them, I think I would want to anyway!

When I was introduced to Eyeglass Discounter I was so impressed by the variety of discount glasses they offer! The selection includes high quality prescription glasses and sunglasses, featuring incredible designers like Prada and  Persol-- to of my most favorites, at unbelievable prices.

They also have very affordable options, and the Hipster Frames category has loads of them to choose from. The Pacific Coast Eyewear Tortoise Eyeglasses  and  U.S. Eyewear Scholar Series Boston Green Glasses (shown below) are my top picks from that category-- when I saw the prices I did a double take … it doesn't get better than that!

Here are some fun Spring/Summer outfits featuriring some pretty fabulous glasses!

Pacific Coast Eyewear Tortoise Eyeglasses , Dress, Earrings, Sandals 

 U.S. Eyewear Scholar Series Boston Green Glasses, Shoes, Dress, Clutch 

Heart Shaped Sunglasses with Mirror Coated Lenses , Dress, Earrings, Sandals  

I've been obsessed with Heart Shaped Sunglasses since the 90's when Britney Spears wore them and made them crazy popular. I still love them and lucky for me, they're back in style!!!

            Boston Green Glasses, Pacific Coast Eyewear Tortoise Eyeglasses, Heart Shaped Sunglasses 

I hope you all have wonderful weekends!!!

xo,

Grace

Eyeglass Discounter

Full Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. However, as in all sponsored posts, all opinions expressed are 100% honest and my own. 

Brutus Update!

You may remember a few months ago that my husband and I got a sweet puppy bulldog, Brutus. He is now four months old (what?!) and got his last puppy shot yesterday.  While my family was visiting for Easter, my dad snapped some shots of him I thought I'd share with you so you can see how much he is growing!

LIKES

• Taking long naps
• Snoring
• Chewing on bones
• Playing with other dogs
• Climbing up and down the back of the sofa like a cat
• Climbing up and down people
• Being held
• Chewing on cardboard
• Eating…. anything
• ALL people
• The Vet
• Riding in the car
• Baths

DISLIKES

• Aluminum foil…he is TERRIFIED
• Clapping. He puts his tail between his legs and runs away
• Being left alone, although he is learning to love his crate
• Getting his ears cleaned

My sister visited us for over a week last month and brought his sister, Rosie, with her! They had a great time playing and being reunited.

AND don't forget to check out my exclusive storefront for the Global Premiere of Standfor Below!

Style Art and Grace Standfor Storefront

xo,

Grace

Standfor- Talk Your Walk Exclusive PRESALE!

Hello wonderful readers! Today I have some very exciting news about a collaboration that Style Art and Grace is bringing you with the BRAND NEW shoe brand, Standfor.

I could not love the idea behind the brand more-- "every step you take has a meaning." This is the perfect way to combine art, social awareness, and fashion into one beautiful example and basically sums up what I am all about.

Each collection focuses on brining awareness to a particular global issue. The first line is "Smokeless" and it happens to be an issue very close to my heart as I have lost multiple family members to lung cancer.

Lace ups and sneakers are only becoming more and more popular for spring/summer and this is perfect opportunity to shop this amazing new brand before these shoes become available to the general public! If you're anything like me, the thought of being one of the FIRST people in the WORLD to experience this super unique, incredible new brand is incredibly exciting. 

So check out my storefront, available through April 19, and I hope you find something you love while supporting a great cause :)

Style Art and Grace Standfor Storefront

xo, 

Grace

This world premiere is brought to you
by STYLE ART AND GRACE in association with Standfor.
Our two parties have joined forces in order
to bring you this exclusive presale campaign
for the blog’s readers. 

Full Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. However, as in all sponsored posts, all opinions expressed are 100% honest and my own. 

The Oscars: Best Dressed!

My most favorite TV night of the year is The Oscars. I love movies, I love glamour, and I love guessing what some of my favorite stars are going to wear. I was actually very surprised at how many amazing dresses there were this year!! It was so hard for me to narrow down my favorite looks to a top five list, but somehow I managed to do it!

Number 5: Gwyneth Paltrow in Ralph & Russo Couture

Number 4: Reese Witherspoon in Tom Ford

Number 3: Sienna Miller in Oscar de la Renta ( the PERFECT Oscar de la Renta moment to honor his life this year by the way… this gown is so perfectly representative of him).

Number 2: Julianne Moore in Custom Chanel. Stunning.

Number 1: Rosamund Pike in Givenchy… unexpected, classic, beautiful, and a million times better than her Golden Globes look.  Perfect hair and makeup too!!

What were some of your favorites?

xo,

Grace

Lent!

Since Ash Wednesday two days ago I've been really trying to figure out something meaningful for me to do this year for Lent. Every year I do give something up (usually food related), but this year I felt like I needed to do something that would really and truly challenge me and apply to this quote that is my lenten guide this year--

So I gave myself some time to think about it, read this article which gave me a lot of inspiration, and decided on doing a two part 40 day preparation for Easter this year-- the first focused on preparing myself on the interior, and the second on helping others. I struggled about whether or not to blog about this but have decided to mostly to give myself motivation to stick to it! If you all know about it, you can help me stay on track!!

Part 1 (Interior): I am "giving up" being uselessly negative or critical about people, circumstances, or things in my life. I notice myself too often complaining about things, which really means doing nothing about them except sitting around and talking about them. Being negative or complaining fruitlessly just ends up making me feel bad. If there is actually a serious issue that is upsetting to me, I will do something proactive about it -- sitting around lamenting about things that are trivial does no good.

Part 2 (Exterior): I saw people doing this last year, and I think it is perfect for this season… the 40 bags in 40 days Challenge! So everyday from February 18- April 5 (Easter) I have to fill a bag with things to give away to charity (I'm going to give to my favorite, Goodwill). It doesn't always have to be a big bag or anything like that, it can be a sandwich bag! But the act of giving something that we don't need anymore to someone who will appreciate it, every single day, I think will be a great reminder about how we should be living our lives.

I really credit my Mom and Dad for, as long as  I can remember, encouraging me to give old toys, books, clothes etc to charity multiple times a year-- as it became something I love doing-- that is definitely something that Ben and I want to instill one day in our future children!

*I know that not everyone practices a religion or Christianity but, regardless, I hope this can be of interest to you! It is always fun to challenge yourself and give to others! 

Have a great weekend!!

xo, 

Grace

New York Fashion Week!!

Last week I had the amazing opportunity to travel to NYC for NYFW for the first time ever!! I am really thankful to my husband for encouraging me to go when I initially didn't think it would be possible with our schedules and new pup!

As you know, I am huge fan of Elaine Turner, and I was able to attend a party at her Madison Ave store ( so gorgeous by the way), meet some really incredible bloggers who truly have it together, and see some stunning accessories-- while sneaking a peak at the soon-to-come apparel line!

Here I am with the amazing Jenna of Lilly And Grant (check out her post featuring much more beautiful photos here), and Jessica of The Steele Maiden, and of course Elaine in between us all.

It was such an fun experience not only to meet a designer that I so admire, but also to see first hand the energy and excitement that the world of blogging can bring. Meeting people in person that you have enjoyed following and getting to know online is a very surreal experience.

Embarrassingly, and typical of me, those are the only two photos I took during my short New York Fashion week experience, but it was so much fun and I am seriously grateful for the invite and the opportunity!!

Check out this preview of Elaine's Apparel Line:

On a side note, I wanted to share a few pics of what "working from home" has looked like for me recently… our new little pup has become (what he believes to be)  my assistant in every little thing I do. He has a big personality for sure and loves to "help" me work on my laptop.

While I know I will really miss this in a few months when he is much bigger, it definitely makes getting things done a process! I wouldn't have it any other way, though!

xo, 

Grace

New Puppy!

As I mentioned last post, my husband and I just got a new puppy!! His name is Brutus and he is a 9 week old English Bulldog. Picking him up and bringing him home was a huge process as he was in North Carolina and we live in Florida, so we ended up driving 8 hours after picking him up… he did great though!!

Here are some pics:

There were two puppies in the litter, and my sister ended up buying Brutus's sister! Her name is Rosie and she is a sweet little princess!

So far, Brutus sleeps a lot, likes to play with toys, and is definetly teething. He loves to snuggle, and enjoyed going for walks for a grand total of two days when he decided he hated walking. Anytime we try to put a leash on him now he just sits down and whimpers! Hopefully it is just a phase. 

We love him so much!! If you want to see more pics you can follow the pups on insta: @brutus_and_rosie or me if you're not already: @gracie_mcd

Have a great President's Day and I'll be back Wednesday!!

xo,

Grace

Valentines, Galentines!

Hello!! It has been ridiculously long since my last post, and since then I have gotten married! This winter has been such a whirlwind but I can't wait to share all the details of our amazing wedding with you. Things have been so crazy recently, but in a really good way, a really great way actually! I was talking to one of my best friends on the phone yesterday about what was going on in our lives, stress about jobs, "real world" fears, and we suddenly, at the same moment, had the realization that it was all stuff we should be excited about, not stressed about! We are only in our early 20's for so long and life is too short to be negative.

That being said, one of my most favorite holidays is coming up-- Valentine's Day! I am so thankful for my sweet husband, family friends and Valentine's day is such a happy day to take time and show love!

Case in point, I am coordinating my Valentine's socks with my Valentines donut this morning. 

For those of you who know me personally or have been reading my blog for awhile, you already know that I have an obsession with hearts, so when Valentine's "stuff" starts hitting stores I have to physically restrain myself from stocking up on every single heart sweater, mug, purse, sock, earring etc. out there.

So let me do your galantine's shopping for you this year with a VERY edited down list of some of my favorite treats!!

1. Heart Sunglasses 2. I Heart You Pillow 3. Fossil Coin Purse 4.Striped Key Chain 5.Heart Measuring Cups 6. Ceramic Nesting Bowls 7. Travel Mug 8. Metallic Heart Magnet Board 9. Heart Travel Duffle

Have a great weekend!!

xo,

Grace

PS: we are getting a PUPPY this weekend !! I look forward to introducing you to him soon :)