Thursday Purseday: Hearts for Valentine's

I stumbled across this charm and fell in love.

Chim Sterling Silver Purse Charm Pendant c1960s from MyBooms, $68 

For more lovely #ThursdayPurseday picks, check out these other blogs:

Brancorpa, Demoiselle, Magnolia Rouge,
Peach Bride, A Realistic Wedding, Sparkle & Hay,
Swatchbook Weddings and The Unreal Bride.

DIY: Custom Jewels for Your Girls

When I got engaged I wasn't much of a jewelry person. I tended to wear jewelry that had a sentimental connection. And I certainly had no idea how to buy it. Well that changed when I started planning a wedding and all of our maids asked what necklaces and earrings they should wear. My initial answer? I don't know.

Luckily there's GemKitty. First let me disclose that my sister-in-law Arwa is the Kitty in Chief in there. But even if she wasn't, I'd still say it's a lifesaver for brides who aren't knowledgeable about jewelry and want a quality product.

GemKitty is a Portland, OR-based, online custom jewelry shop. With a few clicks of your mouse you can have necklaces and jewelry that match or complement your wedding colors.

You remember those gorgeous necklaces that my DOH and our maids wore?

Photography Credit: Jessica Palopoli

They were a variation on GemKitty's Limited Edition Twist Necklace. (I liked this design so much that I got one of the necklaces to wear with my going away outfit.)

Photography Credit: Jessica Palopoli

To ensure a perfect fit, Arwa had me send her each maid's measurements. Why is this important? So that the necklaces were the right length for each maid.

After our wedding I went back to GemKitty to get earrings. (With Syzygryd and Burning Man so close to our wedding life got hectic and I postponed this task.) I decided to customize the Emma earrings.

I selected the top gemstone - Onyx to match our necklaces. Next I chose the bottom gemstone - Rose Quartz for two and Amethyst for the other two. And then I chose the precious metal - Silver to match the necklaces. As easy as 1-2-3!

Once you design your jewelry, you get a note from GemKitty that shows your design and tells you what the stones you picked mean. Here are the notes for the earrings I designed.

You can also share your design by email, via Twitter or Facebook. This is great if you want your maids or mom to give you feedback. As soon as you buy your jewelry, the kitties at GemKitty start working. I'd ordered the earrings for holiday presents and they arrived in time for me to deliver them to the girls. I didn't pull any strings - GemKitty had expedited shipping and an order by date to ensure holiday delivery.

I haven't yet gotten to see (and photograph) my maids in their GemKitty earrings so I'll share photos of another bride's maids. Mariana also chose to customize Emma earrings.

Photography Credit: Eric Leung Photography

Photography Credit: Eric Leung Photography

Photography Credit: Eric Leung Photography

Sneak Peek: Necklaces for the Maids

We've talked about the boys' accessories, but we purposefully omitted talking about the girls' accessories. As you know we sought to include handcrafted details whenever possible. For the girls, there was never any question that we'd go with Gemkitty for the girls' jewelry. (The Kitty in Chief at Gemkitty is my future sister-in-law.)

What was up in the air was what the necklaces would look like. You see with Gemkitty you can create your own jewelry. You can start by choosing a style. Then you can pick either style of chain or color of bead. By selecting a color you get to choose stones and size of stones.

When their July newsletter hit my inbox, I knew the style I wanted. This Limited Edition beauty here:

Photo Courtesy of Gemkitty

As you can see it includes two of the colors from our wedding palette - black and rose. The necklace is handcrafted in the U.S. (Portland, OR to be exact) with rose quartz, pink opal, black onyx, and quartz crystal and finished with sterling silver chain. For the girls, Arrs made a couple of customizations - replacing the quartz crystal with rose quartz for each of the maids and with amethyst for our Diva of Honor.

Now I so loved the original Limited Edition necklace I had to get one for myself as well (there are still some available if you love it too). It adds the perfect pop of color to my traditional grey and black attire.