How to Bounce Back

Here's my remedy for home buying pains: Go to the beach.

That's all.

Grainy self portrait on the beach. I took this right after our last offer was rejected.

It's going to be a beautiful weekend and there is a lounge chair at the Water's Edge Resort in Westbrook with my name on it. The doctor has ordered a vitamin D IV. So I'm packing up my bathing suit, my book and some SPF 30 and heading down route 95 for some sun therapy.

Last time we had an offer rejected, we got right back on the horse and started looking for new listings. Well we're kind of doing that, but I have to admit that my heart's just not in it yet. I need to take a home buying time out. After the inspection report came in I was reluctant to give up on the house. The next day my worry had turned into a bad feeling. I realized withdrawing our offer was the best thing to do. I'm ok leaving the house behind. (I know, I know. There will be others.) However, I'm still really attached to the town. I'm still really attached the cute street and the pretty field across from it. I got excited when I saw how excited our cousins were when they heard we'd be moving near by. And I got excited when they told me how awesome trick-or-treating was on our block. (Trick-or-treaters don't come to apartments. I missed that living in New York.)

Instead of think about what I'll be missing come October, I'm going to indulge in the summer. I'm going to focus on the right now. After all, it's about the journey, not the destination. (<---Look! An uplifting quote that is not annoying me. All hope is not lost.)

I know this is all par for the course, and a real estate deal gone south is not the worst thing that can happen. But if you've ever been in my shoes I'm sure you understand what a frustrating process this can be. Tell me, how you deal with minor let downs in you life?

House Hunting Tactic: Stalking Houses

Making sad playlists and moping around the house may work for heart-broken high school girls, but not for me. So we didn't get the house we wanted. It was a bummer. But the only way to get over it is to get back on the horse again.

So that's what we did. Keith and I spent a rainy Saturday morning trolling the web for listings. Then we plugged the address into our GPS and hit the road to check out the properties. Since our realtor usually needs 24 hours to set up a showing (and we are impatient) this helps us see the area and scope out the yard. You'd be surprised how misleading some of the pictures posted online are! (But then again, if you've ever tried online dating, maybe you wouldn't be.) Stalking the properties we think we are interested in has actually helped us find areas we love and neighborhoods we don't care that much for. Plus, we usually stop for ice cream on these drives.

Here's why I advocate stalking properties:
Saturday we stalked a house in a neighborhood that we LOVED. According to Google maps it was situated pretty close to a major highway and Keith wanted to see if you could hear the traffic from the house. When we drove up to the house I confirmed that I did love the area and I was instantly charmed by the outside. Then Keith rolled down the windows and said, "Shhhh, listen." The optimist in me heard pretty birds chirping. Keith—the realist—heard nothing but the swoosh of speeding cars. He took a quick peek behind the house and confirmed more bad news—the highway was visible through the trees. Maybe it wouldn't have bothered us. Perhaps the noise is barely audible from inside the house, but Keith says having a major highway in your backyard is bad for resale value. It's hard for me to imagine selling a house that we haven't even bought yet, but I have to agree. If it makes us think twice, what will others think five or ten years from now?

A brick house was good enough for the Three Little Pigs, but not for us.

On Sunday we hit the road again. The sun was out so we packed a cooler and spent the morning at the beach. By 2 pm we were on our way to an open house in another one of our top favorite neighborhoods. The whole place smelled like cat pee and the layout was just too weird. And worst of all there was nothing on my checklist to be found in this house. No dining room, no fireplace, no beautiful front entry. An eat-in kitchen alone ain't gonna cut it. But we had two more listings that we wanted to stalk and they were near a Dairy Queen so I kept an open mind as we motored to the next town. Thankfully, we loved the locations of both houses! One was across from a beautiful park and the other was on a pretty side street in our favorite town. If their interiors are true to what we've seen online, I think we might find a winner.

Wish us luck!

Our First House Hunting Let Down

Let me just start by saying this: It's not as bad as it sounds. It's Friday, the sun is shining and I got a free doughnut at Dunkins this morning in honor of National Doughnut Day. All is good in the free world. That's why I'm only slightly disappointed that the offer we put on a house we really loved was not accepted.

Dream house, I know you're out there! 

Let me paint a picture for you: It was a charming Cape with lots of space, a pretty fire place and a dining room. Check, check, check. The upstairs bathroom featured a major bonus—a jacuzzi. And there was an additional 500 square feet and a wet bar downstairs thanks to a beautifully finished basement. The neighborhood was perfect and the schools all checked out.

But I guess someone else loved it more—nine thousand dollars more than we did.

I'm a little bummed. I was already picturing family movie nights and backyard cook outs. In my head I had already made close friends with all the neighbors. I'd invite our new couple friends over for a glass of chardonnay and entertain them with hilarious stories and everyone would laugh and think, "Man, are we glad they bought this house!"

I know that this is not a bad thing. I know there is another house and another neighborhood and other cool couples to entertain on our back patio. I know that when people say this happened for a reason they are right.

I just hope that the reason appears sooner rather than later. Design Star just started again and I'm dying to start decorating!

If you have ever had an offer turned down, tell me how you got over it. What kept your spirits up? And how did you stay patient during the hunt?

New Kitchen Unveiled

It's the moment you've all been waiting for.

Ok, it's really the moment I have been waiting for.

Our new kitchen is finally finished! Still pending the installation of a few pieces of hardware and a small paint touch up, but I felt like today was as good as any to announce the completion.

While everyone else spent the day at the beach, Keith and I had a Memorial cleaning fest. We had moved all of our pantry items and dishes to huge plastic bins for the cabinet installation so we restocked and reorganized. I learned I have way too many spices and also that we will likely be packing up them all up again, very soon, to move. Sigh. But really, it is such a relief to finally be able to see my living room floor now that it is no longer stacked high with boxes and tools. Who needs the beach when you can have a clean house?

The details: We selected a quartz countertop (LG Viatera in Silver Lake) and Sussex cabinets in coco from Cardell Cabinetry. We also decided on an undermount sink and Brainerd Satin Nickel hardware from Lowes. And I am currently falling in love with our faucet: Another Lowes special, the Peerless 1-Handle Kitchen Faucet.

Usually our counter is piled high with mail and West Elm catalogs, but I think this shiny new one is motivation enough to keep it clear.

How did you spent your Memorial Day weekend? Did you make it to the beach or to a cookout, or did you spend some time working on home renovations?

Kitchen Renovations Are Afoot

Part of this whole buying a new house project is the shaping up of our current home so we can sell or rent it for big bucks. I may be a novice at this but I do know that kitchens and bathrooms sell houses. The current state of our kitchen was not doing us any favors so it was time to tear out the ugly, broken cabinets and install something a bit more updated. We started this two weeks ago. It's been 14 long days of take out, paper plates and restaurants. I do love to eat out, but it is starting to get old. I'm so ready to cooks a real meal in our beautiful new kitchen! Here's a look its current state: 

 

1. On May 2 Keith took out our kitchen sink. I've been living sans sink for almost two full weeks. Since I refuse to wash dishes in my bathtub (gross) I've resorted to plastic plates, cups and utensils. It's not my greenest moment, but at least every day feels like a picnic!

2. Our new cabinets arrived in large cardboard boxes and are piled high in the dining room. Pepper is the only family member who will miss them. If you look close enough you can see she's doing little kitty-cat jazz hands up there.

3. Before we can tear out the old cabinets, we have to empty them. This is the worst.

4. New cabinets go in! And a new counter gets installed right on top. It's finally getting pretty around here.

5. Another view of the new cabinets and counter. Note that there's still no working kitchen sink. I think I deserve an award for "Best Attempt At Roughing It".

Has anyone braved a kitchen renovation like this? What was your experience like? 

Homeownership is a Marathon

“Homeownership is a marathon, not a sprint.”

Those were the words that were boldly printed on a billboard on route 95. I'm not sure what this ad was for, but I am sure that it was meant, 100 percent, for me. While I don't want to put an offer on the very first house we look at, I do want it yesterday. I bought the very first wedding dress that I tried on and I don't shop online because the shipping process annoys me. This period from deciding we are going to buy a house to actually buying a house is killing me.

We've only looked at four houses so far and none of them have been right. There were things I liked in all of them (like the closet within a walk-in closet). But there are also things just not right about each. See below:

No the house isn't slanted, the black and white tile floors are just making you dizzy. 

I know we can paint the walls and put down a new floor. (Sorry to disappoint, I know you totally thought I was going to go for black and white tile in my dining room!!) After that there may even be some money left over for new cabinets and granite counter tops. We could turn this into a pretty rad kitchen—but it's too small. I was really excited to see this property and was able to look past the reckless interior design decisions the previous owner made. (Umm there was even glitter painted onto the dining room ceiling.) But I just could not picture myself living here. I want an eat-in kitchen and I'd like to be able to invite a lot of people over for a party on the occasional New Year's Eve. I didn't see us fitting here.

After each showing that's just not right I feel discouraged. I know I need to slow down. Our perfect home is out there and we'll find it because we are diligent house hunters. But I am feeling really impatient.

Any words of advice?
Please leave your comments below! 

The Pre-House Hunting Checklist

Buying a house is not something I know a lot about. Numbers make me nervous, so talking about mortgages cause little beads of sweat to appear on my palms. And I haven’t lived in Connecticut long. I can hardly find my way out of my own driveway, never mind pick out towns with the best school systems.

It goes without saying that I have absolutely no idea where to start.

I wanted to jump right in to the hunting part of this process. Keith has already spoken with a bank and we have been pre-qualified for a loan. And together we’ve done some research on what towns will be good for us. We considered their proximity to our jobs and school systems. We even took a drive last Sunday to scope out some of these towns for ourselves. One we thought we liked ended up having too much of a small-town feel for me, and we ended up discovering another that wasn’t even on our list before.

Pretty house with a wrap around porch, when will you be mine?

So why can’t we just start setting up showings and looking at houses already? 

1. My pinterest board is not done. So far for home inspiration I’ve got colored glassware from West Elm (which I don’t really need because I have a ton of glasses) and these fringe curtains that are not likely to fit in any house we end up purchasing. How can I possibly look for the house of my dreams if I haven’t created the mood board of my dreams?

2. We really should get pre-approved for a loan before we start poking our heads into houses. We went to see a few places, kind of like a test run, but if we want to make a serious offer we need to be able to back it up. We’ve been pre-qualified for a loan, which is just a nice way for the bank to say that unless we are lying about how much we make we will likely get a loan. Now we need to get pre-approved. The bank will run a credit check and do some other more official stuff and if we pass (which they already told us we would) they write a nice letter saying so.

3. We need a realtor. Sure, there’s Google and Zillow and Craigslist and Facebook and a million other places we can find houses we’d like to buy. But when it comes to the actual purchase of a house a realtor will help us through the sale, making sure we get what we want and we pay a fair price. So where do we find the right realtor for us? While I searched Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing, Keith picked up his cell and called the realtor he’d worked with when he bought his condo. One Realtor, check! 

4. I have to wish my brother a Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday, Phil! Sadly, he is still deployed and I doubt he will have much of a birthday celebration. Maybe a picture on the blog will make up for that?

 Phil celebrating his 21st birthday in style.

It’s a close call. Hopefully this and that copy of Catching Fire I send him will help!

Once the pre-home buying checklist has been complete we can start making appointments to view houses. Of course we still have a lot more options to narrow down, like do we want to do a full renovation or do we want a move in ready house? What are our “deal breakers”? And which town do we REALLY want to live in?

Yikes.

But I’m taking it all one step at a time. Tell me, what were some of the first things you did when you bought a house? What steps am I missing?

House Hunting: Let the Games Begin!

Good things come in pairs. Our first wedding anniversary is right around the corner. And it looks like our first home is, too.

It's not what you think. We have yet to make an offer on a property. Or even see a property that we want to make an offer on. But we have begun the house hunt. We looked at two houses Wednesday after work. Both were in need of a little TLC so it was a little hard for me to picture myself living in the spaces. However, a fixer-upper is exactly what we are looking for. Keith likes to get his hands dirty renovating houses and I like things my way. It's a perfect combination. Keith can have as much fun as he likes covered in saw dust and dry wall and I can get the 2.5 bathrooms and a walk-in closet of my dreams. 

We'd also like a house near the water with a porch we can drink wine on while watching the waves crash onto the shore. 

Is that too much to ask for?

This house hunting thing is still new, so I am very excited.

Ask me in a few months and I may be singing a different tune.

Fingers crossed. I'm a very bad singer.

I am the newest of newbies when it comes to anything real estate related. It's true that my husband has spent a lot of time learning the trade these last few years. And while I've helped out at some of the properties and tuned into more episodes of Flip This House than I can count, there is a lot that goes over my head.

Luckily, Keith gets it. He's met with the bank and we have been pre-qualified for a mortgage. He's figured out how much we can afford. And he's researched nearby towns and school systems to help us determine where we want to look. Oh yea, he's also started contacting a few real estate agents in those particular towns to set up showings. I have such a good husband.

What have I done?

I started a Pin board with inspiration for a wallpapered bathroom.

Alright. I hear ya. Bathroom design is very important, but it's time for me to get my head in the game. I want to learn all about buying a house. I want to know what to look for when we walk through houses. And I want to not be confused when the listing agent says something like, "I can sharpen my pencil for you." 

I prefer to write important contracts in pen. But if sharp pencils mean lower prices, I'll take them.

Like it or not, I'm going to take you all along with me on this journey to home ownership. If you're buying your first home than I hope my posts help. If you've already done so than I expect you to at least laugh along. Just as long as you're laughing with me and not at me!

Home Inspiration: Fun & Inexpensive Finds from IKEA

Clockwise from top left: Vanlig ($3.99 for 6), Tobias chair ($79.99), pink and white color scheme, Lack side table ($7.99),  Skoja ($1.49), floating shelves in kitchen.

Yesterday Keith and I hopped over to IKEA in New Haven for a little inspiration. Keith is hard at work on his next home renovation project and we are thinking about re-doing our own kitchen. So we thought a trip to the Swedish mega-store would give us some good ideas. Now I am no stranger to our local HomeGoods and I had a feeling this trip could be dangerous. I was right. While I did not walk out with any shopping bags (this time), I found a few things IMUSTHAVERIGHTAWAY.

A while back I spotted a set of aqua wine glasses at Anthropologie and ever since then I have been dying for colored glassware. I loved the set I found in a modern little kitchen in IKEA. And for four dollars—BINGO! Since I don't have enough cabinets to just go around buying all the glassware I want, I'd like to add a set of floating shelves to our kitchen wall. Also, a ghost chair has been on my must-have list for some time now. I am dying to add one to my home office. Oh, and that green side table...it's $7.99. They came in white and black, but I think the green one is so fun. 


Now I am itching for a home makeover. I want a new closet and a new kitchen and a new bathroom and a new...you get the idea.

What are you lusting after right now?  

DIY Home Decor: Framed Wallpaper

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m not much of a DIYer. But that doesn’t stop me from busting out the glue sticks every so often and trying to make some crafting magic happen. Sometimes I see things on Pinterest or on other blogs and I get so inspired to add a similar handcrafted touch to my own home. I want to be crafty. I want my scissors to be like a magic wand upon yards of fabric. But I don’t have all the right tools, I don’t have neat handwriting and I’m terrible at drawing straight lines (even with a ruler). Usually half way through a seemingly easy project, I realize it’s going to require skills that I can’t muster. Then I get frustrated, like throw down the scissors and stomp my feet kind of frustrated.

 The inspiration {via}

So was the scene last weekend when I decided to tackle my latest DIY home décor project. I’ve been wanting wallpaper in my home for a long time. I love it. Keith hates it. And when I saw this pretty framed wallpaper on Pinterest I was certain it would be a great way to please us both. I found some extra wallpaper from my parent’s house and my dad gave me four old wood frames that were lying around in the basement. My foolproof plan was to mount the wallpaper on foam board, pop it into the frames and then hang them over our bed. Oh it sounded so painless.

I learned a valuable crafting lesson. Just because a project’s steps are few, does not mean they are easy.

Crafting on the guest bed? Perhaps a more serious workspace would help.

Cutting the foam board to the right size took some work, but I wiped my brow and trudged through it. I breezed through the measuring, cutting and adhering (I used spray adhesive) of the wallpaper. It was getting that foam-mounted wallpaper into the frame that was the hard part. I had to trim and trim and coax and beg that foam board into the frame. It’s not that I measured them wrong—all the foam board fit into the frames pre-wallpaper mounting. Ok. Fine. I probably did something wrong between the set up and step one. So I stomped my feet, pouted and called Keith in to help. It was an ugly scene.

In the end, I turned out two near perfect, framed pieces of wallpaper that I love. We hung them over our bed along with the two empty frames that I intended to wallpaper, too, but I am now just pretending the look was intentional. I love the results of my little room makeover. The lines created by the frames look cohesive with the pattern on our beddings, which I’m so glad about because I was just starting to grow tired of it. And I love that we have some original art (yes, art) in our home now.

Tell me, are you gifted in the craft department? What tips can you offer to an amateur crafter like me? Please share because I'd like to continue this habit but could do without the stress!

Design Idea: Dark Bathrooms

Raise your hand if you’re not tuned into the Whitney Houston station on Pandora right now. That’s what I thought. “The Greatest Love Of All” just came on and has successfully made me feel like a kid again. While nothing topped my childhood love for NKOTB, my parents did have the Whitney album (in record form) and I remember throwing mini dance parties in my living room to “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” Not much has changed besides having upgraded from record to MP3.

{via} photo by Melanie Acevedo

Other than attending all the spontaneous dance parties that erupted throughout the state upon news of Whitney’s death on Saturday night, we had a relatively quiet weekend. Keith’s and his brother are working on a new house and spent some time finalizing floor plans and layouts. I took this as an opportunity to scout design ideas for them (I mean me) on Pinterest. Naturally, I started with my favorite room—the bathroom. I really like airy light spaces, but I’ve recently been to a lot of restaurants that have painted or wallpapered their bathroom walls in dark shades like navy blue or black. I was especially smitten with one restroom that had dark wooden walls like the inside of a log cabin. There are usually no windows in restaurant bathrooms and you usually don’t spend that much time in them (usually) so I wasn’t sure how this look would translate to a home bathroom. This is where Pinterest comes in. When I searched ‘dark bathroom’ I was happy to see that it can in fact be very pleasing to the eyes. Most balanced the dark with windows and bright pops of color, like tangerine towels or a yellow chair. It’s a very masculine look, which I think is not a person’s first instinct when it comes to decorating a bathroom.

Maybe it’s not the best design decision for a home that Keith and his brother hope to sell in a few short months. I don’t think everyone is down with dark bathrooms. But right now, I totally am.

What do you think? Yay or Nay to dark bathrooms? 

Like what you see? Follow me on Pinterest for more! 
And pretty please follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

2012: Marriage Resolutions

I just realized I type half of these blogs before I’ve had any coffee! I’m realizing it today because I’m sitting on the train willing my eyes open and my fingers to move. Maybe it’s the cold or maybe it’s this cold I feel coming on. Likely it has more to do with the fact that I watched The Bachelor last night. It aired Monday night, what took me so long? Well, since you asked, I was determined to make it not be the first prime time show I watched in 2012. Technically, if you want to be technical about it, Keeping Up With Kourtney and Kim or whatever it’s called was the first prime time program I watched in 2012. I didn’t watch the entire episode. For example, I didn’t find out what happened to Mr. Scott’s impulse buy baby grand piano. (Did it go back?) I got caught up wondering where a man buys a double breasted lavender sports coat and what motivates that man to then put it on in the morning. Mid-thought Keith changed the channel and I was too caught up to notice. That doesn’t count as actually watching it, right?

Purple, you are a great color, but I prefer you on bridesmaid dresses not men's outerwear.

Sooo 2012, we’re off to a good start. You’ve taught me interesting things about men’s fashion. Secrets I will likely keep from my husband for fear he may believe in them. Wait, he was sitting right next to me. It may be too late for us. Oh boy, it’s time for that coffee. Let’s move on.

The other night I asked Keith to help me make some resolutions for our marriage. Marriage takes work, but not just from one person. So we put our heads together and here’s what we came up with.

We should not change into sweats as soon as we walk through the door. This was Keith’s idea. Perhaps he is not attracted to my old college sweatpants with holes and bleach stains. Perhaps he does not like the several layers of fleece, blankets and wool that I burrow into every evening. Ok, Keith. I see what you’re getting at and I think you’re right. I talk about respecting each other and what respect do I show you when I dress like a homeless person every night? But I love to be comfortable when I’m at home. No shoes, no bra, no problem. I think Kenny Chesney said that. I can buy fancy lounge clothes. Shopping can easily solve this resolution.

Focus more on our shared interests. Last year Keith and I became very involved in our personal interests. I started this blog and Keith and his brother got into real estate. They are two house-flipping geniuses destined for riches and HGTV fame. But we’ve been pursuing both of these interests in addition to our day jobs and it takes up a lot of time. We spend many nights side-by-side on the couch doing our own thing. I think it’s great that we have our own interests, but we need to remember to take time for those that we share. Drinking wine and dancing (see above) come to mind right away. Also watching baseball, but sometimes when the Sox play the Yankees shared interests are lost. So we’ve resolved to take up dancing lessons again. We took them before our wedding and had so much fun. Going to class every week was less about our first dance and more about the time we spent together. Bonus: You get to be really close for an hour straight, which always made us leave smiling.

Cook together more often. Keith and I cook a lot. Keith cooks some nights while I blog or answer e-mails and I cook other nights while Keith is working late. I like to cook, but it’s more fun to do it together. Our kitchen is small and we usually bump into each other a lot, but I still really like sharing this activity with Keith. And I want to try more challenging dishes in the kitchen! Last night the chilly temps had me screaming some something warm so I tried this easy Beouf Bourguignon recipe I found in the New York Times. I served it over mashed sweet potatoes and it was amazing! It really was easy, too. Bon appetite!

I’m sure there are a lot more Keith and I can resolve to do better. I’m sure we don’t always fight fair and sometimes we can both be a little stubborn. I know we’ll work on all that, but I’m happy to have some fun goals in mind, too.

Tell me, have you made any couple resolutions this year? What do you want to be better at?

Decorating Differences: Wallpaper Compromise Reached

Believe it or not, my husband and I don’t agree on everything. He’s a republican, I’m a democrat. He’s a Yankees fan and (as much as I hate to admit it now) I love the Red Sox. But those are all livable, manageable differences for us. We see eye-to-eye on the politics that matter and I’ve learned to develop a thicker skin while watching baseball. But one difference we’ve been pretty stubborn about is wallpaper. I desperately want to cover our walls with it—paint feels so unoriginal and boring to me—but Keith is holding his ground that wallpaper is for the birds. He’s not interested in hanging it, and even less thrilled about taking it down after. Since I’ve appointed myself head of the home decorating committee at our humble abode, I’m determined to find a way to get my pretty patterned walls.

Enter Tempaper. It’s a temporary self-adhesive wallpaper that can be applied (and easily repositioned) to any wall, so you get the beauty of wallpaper without the pasty mess. Voila!

  

Edie in Spanish Moss, Marrakesh in Ruby and Slate and Bela in Coco and Sand. 

Photos by Tara Striano, courtesy of Tempaper. 

Watch a video demonstration here! 

I showed Tempaper to Keith last night and I didn’t get a solid commitment, but I do think we’re on our way to working things out. He suggested we pattern our walls with these allover wall stencils from Etsy. I'm smitten with this Harlequin Trellis look. Good thing we have more than one room!

I know we’re not the only ones who disagree. Tell me, how do you and your man solve decorating differences?

Design Stars Take On Wedding Planning

Is anyone else watching Design Star on HGTV? I just got sucked into this show and I'm not shocked—it’s pretty much Project Runway minus the clothes, a snarky Michael Kors and Tim Gunn’s go get ‘em attitude. Instead, there’s Pantone color swatches up the wa-zoo, some other snarky judges and a perky host with a less catchy sign off line than Heidi Klum. And I love it. Now that Keith and I are nesting, I’m getting really into what our nest looks like so I’m pretty excited to watch the show and borrow some of their ideas.

Last week, I was watching for about 30 seconds before I said, “There should be a reality show about wedding planners!” And what do I get? One whole Design Star episode dedicate to wedding design! In last night’s episode the seven remaining designers had to plan a wedding in 24 hours. They met with the bride and groom and then, naturally, fought about who had more wedding credentials. Obviously Cathy, the one screaming that her wedding was published in three…three national magazines, was setting herself up for some strong criticism. Go Cathy!

Here’s the thing: I think they were all kind of screwed the moment the bride said she wanted a Victorian look and bright colors, like purple and orange. Call me crazy, but I hate those colors together, and I’m no expert, but I don’t think the Victorians did either. Ok, so far I’m not a great wedding planner because I just dissed the client’s ideas.

Moving on.

I’ve had my wedding published in zero national magazines but I'm confident in my opinion that this wedding was not that great. Sure, there were some really cool elements, like a groom's lounge, but that just proved they were good at designing living rooms, which we already knew they could do well, hence the topic of this episode being a wedding design challenge. All the furniture and fixtures looked a bit too modern, the flowers were nothing special (I’m a strong believer that the flowers make the wedding) and the linens were covered in giant disco-style sequins. Nothing about it was pretty.

I did take away some great wedding planning advice (via former New Jersey Housewife, guest judge and newbie to the HGTV family, Ms. Dina Manzo): You’ve got to make the wedding reception an experience. I think all brides should be asking themselves as they plan, “What experience am I trying to create? And does this add to it?” In order to create an experience, you’ve got to keep your design cohesive. Everything you pick up needs to enhance the mood you’re trying to create.

Adding a wow element was something else they talked about. Kelli said that every wedding needs something that makes your guests say, “Wow, I never would have thought of that!” For this wedding she hung long panels of orange fabric over the dance floor. In an all white room, the design really popped and I think that every guest was drawn to it. I don’t think a wow element has to be huge, or high glam. It just has to be something new.

In the end, the bride and groom loved their reception, so I guess that’s all that matters, right?

Dina Manzo thought the flowers were unbalanced.

This was the "wow moment"

Judges did not like this sign in table. I have to agree.

The men designed this "Mad Men" lounge. Looks cozy, but not very wedding-y.
The judges loved it.

And they loved the skate board wall, but hated the flowers.
Lighting overall got a big thumbs up.

What do you think?

(all images from www.hgtv.com)