Destination Wedding Inspiration: Bridesmaid Clutches and Other Goodies

It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted any sort of update about my own wedding plans. In fact, I think the last full update that I posted was back when we were planning to have our wedding in Chicago on July 31. So, if not for the venue snafu, we would be gearing up for our wedding this coming weekend (by the way, have you ever looked up the origins of the word snafu? I just did, and I was quite surprised—but that word perfectly describes what happened to our original plans).

So, with that behind us, Jeff and I will be heading to the Riviera Maya the second week in November to celebrate our wedding with a small group of close relatives and friends. And after reading about all of Rachel’s destination wedding inspirations, I thought it would be fun to show a few little inspirations of my own.

First off, anyone who has ever planned a destination wedding knows that there are a lot of things that are completely out of your control—a good part of the detail planning happens after you arrive. This has left me striving to find any sort of detail that I can set in place now. Here are a few of those details:

Bridesmaids clutches: Since destination weddings are somewhat “nontraditional” anyway, I figure that anything goes. So rather than get the bridesmaids flowers that they won’t even be able to take home to enjoy for a few days, I decided to go with these clutches from Vera Bradley. They also make a nice package to deliver some of the other little details.

Seaside Dreaming…Turquoise Flower Earrings: I found these earring on PrettyParis’ Etsy shop. Whenever I’ve been a bridesmaid, I’ve always failed to bring along pretty jewelry, so I thought I’d make it easy on the girls and include a little something that they can choose to wear.

Simple Bracelets: I’ve been making these simple little bracelets for myself and the bridesmaids. It’s a subtle way to tie in our colors (and since we’re not doing much with the beach theme, I figured this would be a small nod to the destination side of the wedding).

Vows and Notes: We found these Field Notes notebooks at J. Crew, and we thought these would be a fun place to keep our vows. They’re made by Coudal Partners, a Chicago company, so we get to bring a little piece of our city with us. Since there are three, we’ll likely put the last one out at the reception for our guests to write us notes or bits of advice that we can keep and look back on.

DIY Envelopes: We’re going to design our own invitations, programs, menus, etc. and order them from 4by6.com. We’re waiting to nail down a few details before we order them (we’re going to host a few additional mixers/cocktail parties for guests during the week we’ve there), but in the meantime, I’ve started putting together these DIY envelopes using patterned matte paper from Paper Source.

Besides that, we’ve got our navy bridesmaids dresses, Jeff’s outfit, groomsmen outfits and a few other plans through the resort. And I went for a dress fitting last week with Susan, my brilliant designer friend (and bridesmaid).

We’re looking forward to taking our time and enjoying a relaxing last few months of planning.