Illinois native Liv Hart designs the most gorgeous wedding day accessories—sophisticated hair combs, romantic necklaces, each piece perfectly couture. Visit Enchanted Ateliér for all the satin ribbon, Swarovski crystal and fine filigree your heart desires.

Soft but luminous, modern but natural—Chicago jewelry designer and Indiana native Shannon Carney creates necklaces that are turning heads. With features in Vogue and Elle after only three years (!) on the market, she’s quickly becoming the local designer to know. We’re just in love with the little asymmetries and how the colors just glow—perfect for the beach or uptown museum wedding. Find yours at Neapolitan, online from Shannon’s studio, or inquire about custom work for that perfect twist on the new artisan bridal tradition.

What do we love here at C&B? All things classic, timeless, inspired and smart. When it comes to home goods, we just love Williams-Sonoma. Seriously love them. For my own home, it’s my go-to shop for beautiful kitchen, dining and linen necessities. We don’t have to tell you: Williams-Sonoma is simply the perfect place to start building your wedding gift wishlist. KitchenAid, Wüsthof, Emile Henry, and so much more—you just know all the essentials will be there to choose from (and lust after!) for your new nest!

A few of our favorite Williams-Sonoma registry essentials (clockwise, from left to right):

…a first cookbook for the bride and groom—definitely a must for both new and seasoned cooks!

…you can never have too many linens to color your get-togethers—we adore these French farmer’s market patterns!

…your own personalized box & embosser for keeping all those heirloom family recipes organized…

…champagne flutes–for this first celebration and so many more to come!

…a French cast iron Dutch Oven from Le Creuset—the fresh new colors, the delish slow-cooked meals, the fact it will last forever…

…a set of formal Haviland china—a classic wedding registry must and a joy to have for a little modern luxury…

…Herbs de Provence—you’ll always need fine seasoning for those fancy dishes!

…a KitchenAid mixer in one of these adorable new shades—really, need we say more?

All these wonderful kitchen must-haves! The best part of all this: we’re giving away a $150 Williams-Sonoma gift card to one lucky reader! How does the giveaway work?

- Visit Williams-Sonoma to create your registry.
- Leave us a comment here to let us know you created your registry and tell us which items you’re loving.
- Already have a reg? Not to worry! You’re eligible, too. Just add a new product to your registry and let us know which one in your comment.
- Double your chances! For an extra entry, add a public link to your registry in your comment.
- Readers have until midnight CST on Wednesday, September 8th to enter this giveaway.
- The winner will be randomly picked and announced Thursday, September 9th.

More creative Williams-Sonoma registry ideas coming up this week! Sure wish I could enter. I don’t know about you, but, after all this registry talk, I’m craving some time to indulge in some of these great goods…oh, the joy of cooking! Happy wishlist-making for your happily ever after!

“We wanted a vintage feel, so we used a yellow and gray color palette. We took a lot of inspiration from old postcards from the early 1900s. Our theme was celebration and laughter. We didn’t want anything too formal because it just didn’t feel like us. No tuxedos, no formal wedding party, rather, a ‘wedding gang!’ We also surprised our guests by greeting them when they arrived. We didn’t want to be hidden away while our friends were starting the party so we joined them!”

“For dessert, we offered vanilla cupcakes with butter-cream icing from CUPCAKE in Minneapolis. They were SO delicious! Our wooden Bride and Groom cake toppers
were designed by goosegrease on Etsy.”

“We created the table number cards from vintage Minnesota post cards. We hand cut number stamps and I stamped the back of the post cards. We had to show our out of town guests a good time so Adam designed a map of Minneapolis with all of our favorite haunts, which we included in our welcome bags for our hotel guests. I also wanted to add a personal touch to the wedding so I painted a 5′ x 7′ mural to use as a photo backdrop.”

“We recently moved to Minneapolis from Brooklyn, NY so we really wanted to show off our new city to all of our east coast friends. It was important for us to show them what a great city this is, to help them understand why we made the move. Minneapolis really came through! We now have friends asking us to ship packages of Minnesota snacks (like Nut Goodie Bars and granola from French Meadow Bakery) to them in New York! A few have already made plans to come back to visit (in the summer only!).”

“We knew the night was going well when a friend of my dad’s started a conga line in the middle of dinner—not really the kind of dancing we had in mind but it really got the party going! Adam and I didn’t want to do a ‘first dance’ so we asked the DJ to invite everyone to join us on the dance floor. I expected a few close friends and family to accept the invitation but almost everyone joined in—the dance floor couldn’t hold everyone so people were dancing all over the dinning room. It was a beautiful sight!”

When we asked Jennifer about advice, she told us, “There are so many great ideas to be found in magazines and blogs, that it’s easy to see yourself having many different kinds of weddings! But the best advice we can give is don’t do anything because ‘that’s just what you have to do.’ Relax, have fun planning, and don’t listen to anyone but yourselves! It’s your day and it’s probably the biggest party you’ll ever throw so just have fun!”

Just brilliant! Everything about wedding planning should be a blast, right? Congratulations, Jennifer & Adam—here’s to all the happiness ahead! Many thanks, too, to Kate McGough of Perspective Studio for sharing her lovely photographs with us!

“Adam and I were married on a hot summer day—July 3, 2010 in Minneapolis, MN. Both the ceremony and reception were held at the Gale Mansion, a beautiful South Minneapolis mansion built in 1912. We loved that the space was full of history, elegant, right in the heart of the city and even close to our house.”

“We tried to keep the day’s schedule simple. We really wanted to just relax and enjoy the day—something everyone told us would be difficult to do! We showed up at the Gale Mansion for a quick run-through at noon. We got dressed at the Gale for pictures at 2 p.m. and we were ready to greet our guests as they arrived at 4 p.m. The ceremony took about 15 minutes and the crowd was begging for ‘one more song!’ at 11 p.m. when we wrapped up the evening.”

“Luke Geiger of Right on Canvas designed our invitations and RSVP cards. We wanted the look of the invitation to be inspired by vintage Minneapolis post cards, and Luke nailed it!”

“Adam’s suit was from JCrew. His yellow checkered tie was purchased from designer J. Barton Strawn on Etsy. My wedding dress was purchased from Saja—an amazing boutique in NYC. They were so helpful and Yoo Lee’s designs were just want I wanted—simple and elegant. Local hair stylist, Lacey D’Apice, is amazing, and did an incredible job styling my hair! She created a natural and elegant style that worked beautifully with my dress, and most importantly I ‘looked and felt like myself’ on my wedding day.”

“We love the spirit and sound of bluegrass music so we hired The High 48s, a bluegrass band from Minneapolis, to play during our ceremony and cocktail hour. They really set the tone for the whole day: laid-back fun. And the crowd loved them! They even learned a few special requests for us.”

“Our photographer Kate McGough of Perspective Studio was great! She was exactly what we wanted in a photographer—personable and professional. She was able
to grab great shots of all the important moments, yet at the same time, we hardly knew she was there!”

“There were so many wonderful moments that it’s hard to pick just a few to mention! One of the most memorable moments was when Adam and I walked down the aisle together. The High 48s learned an instrumental version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Buckets of Rain’ for us and played it as our wedding gang and Adam and I entered. As we turned the corner and made our way down the pathway, our guests started cheering and clapping—our hopes of laughter and celebration realized!”

“We couldn’t have done it without Allison Geiger of Alilu Studios in Willmar, MN. We are very fortunate to have a wedding designer/florist/planner in the family—especially one we would have wanted to hire anyway! Allison guided us through the whole process; she made sure we were doing what we needed to do when we needed to do it. Allison had us come to her studio and we LOVED everything she had to show us. She really made the whole event feel like us. Allison used vintage bottles as flower vases, vintage juice glasses for votive candles, and old canning jars filled with yellow candies and sparklers. It was the 4th of July weekend after all so we went with sparklers as our ‘favor.’”

More from Jennifer & Adam’s unbelievably sweet wedding coming up tomorrow…the party is pure joy! Doesn’t all this sunny yellow make you just melt? So in love with all this style!

One gorgeous DIY wedding at Minneapolis’ Gale Mansion with flowers, flowers, flowers everywhere—there is just so much to be inspired by! Can’t wait to share tomorrow—one of our favorite fêtes of all time!

Rugged, handsome, sophisticated…not just the groom but the gift! Indianapolis bookmaker Julie Boyles has added these incredible handcrafted leather iPad cases to her line and—the best part—you can make it even more personal by adding his initials. Classic gone modern, what’s not to love?

Here at Clover & Bee, we spend our days scoping out all things wedding in our favorite part of the country: the middle! What makes our job and the Midwest so wonderful? All the hidden gem artisans. Truly. There are so many wonderful people waiting to make your day a complete dream and we strive to make it easier to find them via our Best of Midwest Weddings Guide. (I mean, if we’re actively looking and networking and seeking and we find some of the best vendors are still hard to come by! I know from experience—my own wedding—just how hard it is to find these lovelies on your own on a busy bride-to-be schedule, whoa!)

With our C&B birthday coming up (almost a year old, yes!), we continue to comb the region for the best of the best and we’re always amazed by the new and incredible talent we continue to find. Today’s favorite: Emily of Emmy-Ray. Both a custom jewelry and floral designer, Emily has a wonderful aesthetic. Original color combinations, unexpected and perfect vintage finds (whether milk glass or gemstones), and a complete joy in local beauty. All of our favorite weddings are made of this: inspired artistry. Ladies, this is the woman to talk to about heirloom weddings in Kansas City—seriously, book her while you can!

A new twist on the cupcake trend: we’re loving these handmade sweet treat bath fizzies and their packaging from Kansas City Etsy seller Your Dirty Laundry. So realistic, right? We’re loving these for bridesmaid welcome baskets. They look almost good enough to eat but no guilty calories here—just a reason to relax and enjoy!

Absolutely loving these new twists on state pride from AHeirloom and Love, California. Seriously, how witty is this Michigan cheese board with the Upper Peninsula? And, the pillow—Love, California will custom sew the heart to your city of choice. What a great way to celebrate where you were married, honeymoon, all the cities you loved along the way—so sweet!