{ short north wedding walk }

you may remember a previous post about my friend rachel's engagement . well... tonight she embarked on the exciting planning journey! the short north wedding walk. after my firm insistence to live out my wedding planner career through rach, i noodled my way into this evening's wedding extravaganza festivities. and... it.was.fabulous.

definitely the perfect weather for a walk around the neighborhood.

i feverishly snapped photos of every moment i could {without rach giving me the "omg you are so embarrassing" look... similar to the look in the first photo you see above} and tried to capture all the pretties in every corner. {and believe me... there were a lot of pretties}

by the time i caught up with rachel + michelle, we were in route to a wedding planner followed by a lovely eclectic home boutique: collier west. owner, suzi west was delightful to chat with + had fabulous tips for any registry. what i found particularly interesting... {as i took mental notes for rach... of course...}

:: choose one or two "big box retailers" {target, bed bath + beyond, macy's, etc.} and at least one very unique boutique to give shoppers a wide variety to choose from while expressing their gift-giving style.

:: don't be afraid to choose some big ticket items. this, i thought, was a particularly good tip. as suzi mentioned... guests often pool their funds in order to buy a nice item from the registry. giving them some options to choose from is definitely ok. so don't be afraid of price tags. if you get them, you get them. if you don't, you dont!

suzi's pup/shop staple, chachka, was more than happy to pose for a few shots, too.

there's so many more of tonight's highlights to come :: stay tuned!

also... if you're a fan of collier west, too... check out their delightful design blog here .
or follow them + all of their great tips on twitter @collierwest .

xo