IN HER SHOES: BROOKLYN BRIDE

This coming January I’ll be married 4 years! Ah it is going by so quickly yet it feels like I just had my wedding the other day. Perhaps because this lazy, no longer a newly-wed still has her wedding dress hanging in the closet. Oh I don’t have the heart to bring it to the cleaners and have it sealed in a box  so that when I eventually have a daughter she can look it at when planning her wedding and go, “ Mom, seriously? I’m not wearing that!” I rather have it hang in my closet and occasionally try it on… (Ok, yes Jon has come home and found in my dress…I wanted to get my money’s worth.)  Or perhaps I just need to get my you know what in gear and just drop it off at the cleaners.

While I loved everything about my wedding I always think about what I would have differently. Especially with all these amazing wedding blogs full of all that eye candy. I would change everything! Wouldn’t it be great to have a big wedding bash every year? My wallet so couldn’t handle it, but a girl can dream.

It was in my dreaming of a what-if wedding that I found the work of  Vané Broussard from Brooklyn Bride.

You must  just go on there and let yourself get lost in her world for awhile. You can see photos of real couples weddings, engagement shoots, the perfect wedding bands, photographers galore, stunning invitations and even purchase a stylish ring pillow handmade by Vané and available at Bklyn Pillow.

Now with all that you must think that Brooklyn Bride is her full-time job, right? No, she is also an Interior Designer by day. Of course after falling in love with her blog I emailed her right away and asked her to be part of the In her shoes series.

She said I DO (ok she really just said yes) so sit back, relax and enjoy a view into her life.

__________________________________________________

7:35a Alarms don't wake me up anymore, so I have to depend on my darling husband Chad to drag we out of bed to start the day.  Hop into the shower to wake up, quickly dry off so I can start checking emails.  Of course there's no time for breakfast once I realize its almost 8:30a and I still haven't dried my hair!

9:30a By now I've escaped the crowded 2/3 subway and made my way into the office.  We work at my bosses loft in Tribeca with a beautiful view of the Hudson right outside the window!  I catch up on some emails and make my way through the oatmeal from Jamba Juice that I picked up on my way in for breakfast.  Breakfast of champions!

9:45a Today we're heading up to the D&D Building (aka Design and Decoration mecca) to pick out some colors for a custom rug we're designing, but in the meantime, I've got some drafting to do.  Most offices use AUTOCAD for drafting, but since we're on a Mac based system, we use Vectorworks, which is in some ways, a bit easier.  Have to call my upholsterer about a headboard and email the client with the new price...yikes, its expensive! 

11a We're off to the D&D!  While I love the D&D, it can be pretty intimidating...its a lot of upper east side looking designers dressed in Chanel...not that there's anything wrong with Chanel!  With 17 floors of showrooms to check out, it can get pretty exhausting as well...you always need to come with a game plan so you don't burn out.  Thank goodness some of the showrooms have chocolate to keep your sugar up! 

11:43a We head over to the Martin Patrick Evan showroom to check out our poms and pick colors...ahhh, so many colors!  We ended up picking what we needed pretty quickly since we brought our fabric samples to go by...looks like the design should be pretty cool and we'll stay within budget.

 

12:20 Ghislaine (my boss) and I head to recharge with lunch at the Astra cafe up on the 14th floor.  There are gorgeous views of Manhattan from there!  My cobb salad is deelish.  We work out a couple of schemes for a room we're having some issues with, then head back to the showrooms.

1:00p All of a sudden, we're really itching to check out some trims, so we head to Kravet to see what they have.  Not as many modern ones as we'd like (why does no one make hip trim??) so we move on to Donald Sutherland (great colors in their windows) and F. Schumacher.  We'd got a few key places we always check out since we know they have bright fun colors that we always infuse to designs.

2:20p Exhausted, we head back to office...there's tons of traffic but the sun has finally come out after days of rain and gloom! 

3:00p I start catching up on emails and starting a frantic search for knobs.  How could we forget the knobs?  Ug, I hate when that happens.  I send over some options to the client...hopefully she'll like them enough that we can just order them right away.  The millworker wants to be able to install them ASAP. 

3:45p Get a call from our other cabinet maker, he needs the dimensions of a garbage can we're using in a pullout for the custom kitchen.  Of course I can't find the dimensions on the info sheet I have in the project binder, so do a quick online search. 

4:58p Waiting for stock call from Anthropologie on knobs...they really do have a great selection of glamorous looking knobs and pulls!  Client says we need to find something sleeker...trying to check Simons Hardware, Mockett, Sugatsune....ug there's NOTHING!

6p Finally, I head home...exhausted of course!  Going to the D&D is really draining...they don't teach you that in grad school.  Waiting for the subway to get home is annoying...why can't they just come on command?  Thank goodness I've spent the day in my comfy Tory Burch Reva flats :)  They're a lifesaver.

6:35p I collapse on the couch to catch up on personal emails and blogs with the news (read: Access Hollywood) on in the background - I can't even THINK about cooking dinner!  Thank goodness Chad feeds me :)

7p Gotta take a break to frost the mother's day cookies for the lovely ladies we're seeing on Sunday.  The rest of the night is spent doing that, checking more blogs and emails (they never stop, its like a second full time job!), make sure my posts are all ready to go for the next day, and crash at 11pm. Tomorrow's another day. sigh.

_________________________________________________

What fun! Though I have to agree with Vané  that the D&D is a little intimidating. A big thank you to Vané  for participating and giving us a glimpse into your world along with a peek at the shoes you wore to conquer your day!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. Don’t forget to enter the give-away! You have until Sunday, June 28th at midnight EST to comment!