Work Outfit: Bright Accessories for Summer (with a Manolo Blahnik BB Pump Review)

Jacket: Arden B. (old) | Skirt: Banana Republic (old, but similar style here in my favorite Sloan Fit) | Blouse: Ann Taylor Factory (recent, and with a lovely flutter sleeve detail) | Sunglasses: Karen Walker | Bag: kate spade new york | Shoes: Manolo Blahnik BB Pumps (available via Saks or Nordstrom) | Lips: NARS 'Yu'

I'd been regretting missing my opportunity to take home a pair of Manolo BB Pumps when they were last on sale after Christmas (although I did end up grabbing the Carolyne Sling-Backs, which I love and have been wearing a ton). When they were back on sale at Saks recently, I decided on a suede pair in a fun aqua color for summer. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make them work for the office, but as long as I keep the rest of my palette fairly neutral, I think a bold, summery color fit right into my seasonal work wardrobe.



The Manolo BB's, named after screen siren Brigitte Bardot, are an incredibly flattering shoe, and I found them to be surprisingly comfortable, especially for shoes that are narrower (my feet are not narrow!). Most of the higher-end department stores sell them in a wide variety of colors, heel heights, and materials. You can also design your own BB Pumps at Neiman Marcus. So far, I've stuck to purchasing most of my higher-end shoes on sale, but it's hard to tune out the siren call of the customizable BB's!

Note: I normally wear a 35-35.5 in this shoe brand. I was told to size down despite my wide feet, and the 35 ended up being the better size for me as this style seems to run a little long in the footbed.



Although I generally try to stay away from accessories that are too "matchy," I loved how this turquoise bag and shoes looked together. With gray and beige in my suiting separates, and my subtly-printed blouse with its hints of turquoise, coal, and lavender, I thought the shoes and bag took the look up a notch.

One word of caution: when opting for bright accessories at the office, make sure the design of those accessories is clean and simple, like I did here with a sleek pump and classic structured satchel bag.

I'm very excited it's a short week this week! Hope you all had a lovely weekend and that my fellow Americans have fun plans coming up for the Fourth!

x, Tam

Topshop Petites: Summery Crop Top + Lemon Print

Top: Topshop | Skort: Topshop (I'm wearing the petite version--regular version here) | Sunglasses: Karen Walker | Shoes: Ann Taylor | Bag: Reed Krakoff | Necklaces: Brian Gavin, Theresa Mink | Bracelets: Ann Taylor, J.Crew | Watch: Michael Kors | Lips: NARS 'Red Square'

All the lemon prints I've been seeing everywhere have reminded me of happy times with my family on vacation on the Amalfi Coast in Italy. We stayed at a lovely place above Sorrento, and we saw lemons and lemon products all over. When I spotted this lemon-printed skort at Topshop, I decided I'd take the plunge and order it since the print evoked such great summer memories.

This was my first order from Topshop, and I was pretty happy with it. When I visited a physical store in Chicago (we have yet to get one in Denver), I didn't purchase anything as they didn't have much of a petites selection, and the pieces seemed a little pricey for the quality. I'm glad I ended up giving it another try as I loved both the skort and paisley cut-out crop top I'm wearing here. I ordered both of these pieces in a 0 petite, and both fit me well, although I probably would have also been fine sizing up in the top. I found the fit to be similar to ASOS' Petite 0 or 1 or H&M's size 2, so a little smaller than the standard American 00P.

I was happy with the quality on both of these pieces, but I still feel like I have to really love a piece before I'm ready to pay full price at Topshop. I had fallen for and ordered this embellished top from the regular-sized collection, but the proportions just weren't right for my frame, so it's headed back.

Hope you're enjoying the official start of summer!

Summer Brights // Fruit Salad

Dress: Anthropologie (no longer available, more cute orange dresses at Anthro here; last worn here) | Sweater: J.Crew Factory (on sale!) | Sunglasses: Valentino | Shoes: Loeffler Randall | Bag: Givenchy 'Small Antigona' | Necklace: Theresa Mink | Bracelets: Ann Taylor | Earrings: kate spade new york (similar here) | Lips: NARS 'Red Square'

Back to regular style posts today after the wedding blitz last week! Thanks so much again for your kind and supportive messages you left for us. They mean so much to Sean and me!

I am ready to dive into summer right now, with my parents' lake house being nearly 100% done (after some setbacks with the terrible flooding that happened north and northwest of Denver last fall). I'm wearing a lot of bright colors lately, and I'm trying to stock up on all these cute fruit prints seem to be everywhere right now, like the lightweight orange-printed J.Crew sweater and the kate spade pineapple earrings I'm wearing here.

Hope you're having a great week!

Our Parisian Wedding -- Part III: Eiffel Tower & Luxembourg Gardens

Today is my last post about our wedding in Paris (read Part I and Part II if you missed them).

After our morning coffee and wandering near the Seine, we headed over to the Eiffel Tower to snap some photos there. We had originally planned to go over to the Trocadero on the Right Bank and take some photos from there, but the Paris Marathon was going that way, so we approached the tower from the other side and walked down the Champ de Mars with our lovely American-in-Paris photographer, Juliane.


We felt so lucky to have bright blue skies and a clear view of the Tour Eiffel, although the wind did pick up a little, so I put on a little furry jacket over my dress.





At this point in the day, we had been up and on our feet for a few hours, and although my wedding shoes were comfortable, I was ready for a break and a snack. In the photo below, I'm pretty sure Sean is laughing because I told him I needed a snack and that we should find a crepe stand ASAP.



We did end up stopping for a crepe right under the Eiffel Tower, and then our driver picked us up and we stopped at one more place, Luxembourg Gardens, for a few more pictures. We spent a few minutes admiring--and stealing a kiss or two near--the Medici Fountain.



I wanted to make sure Juliane got a photo of the wrapping on my bouquet. I had tried my best to describe to the florist in French how I wanted to wrap the bouquet and what my colors were, but when I picked up my bouquet, the florist I had talked to was gone, and they didn't seem to have a ribbon in the right color for my dress, which was definitely champagne and not white. Sean came to the rescue and wrapped the bouquet the morning of the wedding with the excess fabric that had been trimmed from my dress when I had it hemmed (I had brought it along to try and match colors with the flowers, but of course had forgotten to bring the swatch with me to the florist!). The improvised wrapping matched my dress perfectly and lasted all day.



We spent our last bit of time with Juliane relaxing in the sunshine on the iconic green Senat chairs that are all over Paris' parks.

Photo Credit: Juliane Berry
On Tam: Dress: Sue Wong (carried at BHLDN) | Shoes: Jimmy Choo | Earrings: J. Crew (similar here)
On Sean: Suit: Calvin Klein (similar) | Shirt: Brooks Brothers | Tie: Yves St. Laurent | Shoes: Ecco
Flowers: L'île aux fleurs, 20 Rue Monge, 75005

The rest of our wedding day consisted of a late brunch at Angelina on the Rue de Rivoli, where they have the most delicious hot chocolate and pain perdu in Paris, and then celebrating with some champagne at our apartment while conferencing our families in on Facetime. It was truly the sweetest and loveliest day, and we were so happy with how it all turned out.

Thank you so much for your sweet comments and well-wishes on the last few posts. I read every one of them out loud to Sean, and we both very much appreciate the kind words. Thanks for following along!

x, Tam

P.S. If you're interested in reading my past travel posts about Paris, they can be found here: one | two | three | four

Our Parisian Wedding -- Part II: Louvre, Seine, and a Café

I'm back today to share more photos from our wedding in Paris (Part I is here if you missed it).

After our ceremony on the Pont des Arts, we spent some time walking around near the Louvre, taking in the gorgeous architecture and morning light without a tourist in sight. It felt like we were on a movie set and the city was there just for us. Our photographer, Juliane, knew exactly where all the prettiest spots were and got some lovely shots of us and our beautiful surroundings.

Photo Credit: Juliane Berry
On Tam: Dress: Sue Wong (carried at BHLDN) | Shoes: Jimmy Choo | Earrings: J. Crew (similar here)
On Sean: Suit: Calvin Klein (similar) | Shirt: Brooks Brothers | Tie: Yves St. Laurent | Shoes: Ecco
Flowers: L'île aux fleurs, 20 Rue Monge, 75005

Our Parisian Wedding -- Part I: le Pont des Arts

It has been nearly two months since our wonderful wedding in Paris, and I am finally ready to share some of the photos we recently received from our fantastic photographer, Juliane Berry. She was a dream to work with and took such beautiful photos that perfectly captured our day.

We had decided to do our ceremony in the morning as we noticed the Paris streets were nice and quiet in the early morning hours, and that would give us a lot of freedom and privacy to have our ceremony and take photos wherever we liked. Our only snafu was that the Paris Marathon (think 50,000 runners--eek!) was happening that day, much to our surprise, but between Juliane and our driver Didier, we didn't even see a single runner while we drove around Paris, and there was almost no traffic.

Didier picked us up in his 1953 Citroen in front of our apartment (more on our gorgeous apartment here if you're interested) at about 7:10 am, as sunrise was at 7:20. I had initially wanted "getting ready" photos, but I'm glad we jettisoned those and went right to our ceremony spot, the Pont des Arts across the Seine.



I did do a little bit of getting ready while waiting on the bridge, just to make sure my lipstick looked right. I decided to do my own hair and makeup as I wasn't sure if I could find someone to do it the way I wanted without meeting them well in advance. I love makeup and I know what looks best on me, so I preferred to mess with it myself. It turned out looking very "me," which Sean and I both agreed was the way to go.

Luau

Dress: Anthropologie | Sunglasses: Karen Walker | Shoes: Ann Taylor | Bag: kate spade new york (similar here and here) | Necklaces: Brian Gavin, Theresa Mink | Bracelets: David Yurman | Watch: Michele

Quick post today to share a fun, tropical look I wore to a luau while I was in Hawaii. I received this cute polka-dot dress (another Anthro petites win!) not long before my trip, and I knew it had to come with me. It read a couple review that indicated it ran small, so I went up a size, which ended up fitting just right. I am bummed I didn't get a good photo of the back--it has a great criss-cross detail and cut-outs that make it interesting, but it can still be worn with either a regular or a strapless bra. I am considering picking one up in another color after realizing how flattering, travel-friendly and comfortable this one is.

I hope you had a fabulous weekend and are enjoying the beginning of summer!

P.S. Just wanted to add one thing--I've added a feature onto the blog where you can simply hover over any photo to pin it to Pinterest (I've been meaning to do this for ages!). Hope that makes pinning a little simpler for you!