There's so much that goes into a wedding before the couples stands at the altar. Time to talk to logistics - the fun part of planning a wedding that everyone looks forward to. But really, I love the logistics. It’s like a crazy puzzle that you have to put together. One of the most important task you have before your wedding is finalizing your timeline. This is basically your guiding document for the entire day. It should contain the who/what/when/where of your special day. If you have a kickass timeline, you should be able to hand it off to your MOH, a family member, or day of coordinator and not be disturbed your whole wedding day!

There are four guiding rules for building your own wedding timeline.

Include vendor arrival and end times // This may seem obvious, but not everyone does it. Include anytime someone is supposed to drop off items or start their services. This way whoever is managing your timeline can keep track of vendors. If you want to be an overachiever, attach all contracts to your wedding timeline.

Ask your wedding vendors how much time to budget // Ask your hair and makeup artist how long it will take. Ask your officiant how long they think the ceremony will be. Ask your photog how much time to budget for family pictures. Ask your caterer how long it will take to set up and clean up the meal. Please. Ask the questions. If you ask, you won’t have any surprises. Which leads me to….

Budget more time than you think is needed // Think your wedding hair and makeup will take an hour? Think again. Only need ten minutes for speeches? Dear God, think again. What’s the worst that can happen if you finish something early? Drink an extra mimosa? Shucks.

Schedule some couple alone time // Take thirty minutes in the middle of your reception to take some golden hour pictures with you and your new spouse. Seriously, you won’t regret it.

We assist our full and month of coordination couples with building their timeline, but we always want to give some pointers to our day of couples too! Do you have any questions on how to build your wedding timeline? Any additional advice? Maybe a timeline horror story? We would love to hear it!

xoxo
Alicia

​Our love for wine, pups, and planning a great party brought us together. Now we're on this amazing adventure together and wouldn't' change a thing. 

Cheers,
​C+L 

 The women of  Champagne + Linen are so excited and proud  to share with you our Snow White inspired styled shoot.  We wanted to have a styled shoot that told a classic love story and something that was a little more dark and off beat. We became interested in the current fairy tale trend and decided to retell the classic story of Snow White. C+L knew that the design and styling possibilities with Snow White would be endless and could not wait to put our twist on the timeless tale. We wanted to emphasize light and dark. The pureness of Snow, and the wickedness of the Evil Queen.

This shoot gave us the opportunity to work with old friends and new friends. During our planning we met the wonderful Don & Julia Photography out of Spokane, WA who agreed to photograph our shoot. We cannot find words to express how thrilled we are with Don & Julia’s work, and cannot wait to collaborate with them again in the future.

C+L wanted to demonstrate the possibilities of having a more nontraditional wedding. There are so many imaginative brides out there who are marching to a different beat -- which we think is fantastic. We had so much fun planning and styling this shoot. We hope you love and enjoy the photos as much as we do. As always, a huge thank you to everyone who made this shoot possible including: all the amazing vendors listed below, friends, and family. Cheers to all the creative and lovely people who inspire and motivate us to do better.

And they lived happily ever after,
Alicia, Ariel & Mariah

Coordination + Styling || Champagne + Linen
Venue || Stone Tower Estates
Photographer || Don + Julia Photography
Bridal Skirts || Welcome to Royalty 
Suite || Men's Warehouse
Sword || Zombie Tools
Rentals || Vintage 44 
Rentals || Oh So Chic
Sweet Treats || Poppy
Calligraphy || Zoë Phelan
Florist || Flower Bed 
Hair + Makeup || Montana Wedding Hair with Shear Art Salon
Drinks || The Montana Distillery
Rings || Young in the Mountains
Shoes || Bean An Ti
​Styling cloth + ribbon || A Ribbon's Nest
Evil Queen Model || Megan Robson
Snow White Model || Alicia Houghtaling
Prince Charming Model || Kyle Houghtaling

​|| Fairest of them all ||

Summer -- Check! 
Snow White styled shoot will be posted soon, stay tuned…

Hey Fall baby, we are coming for you!
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We are super thrilled about having three weddings booked for this summer! *Cue flying doves and wedding bells* Our couples are incredibly inspiring. We  cannot wait for their big days. We hope to find some Fall and Winter brides to end 2017 with a bang. ​
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1. Mariah’s 25th birthday #hi25 
2. Brunch
3. Club Blu [Currently Planning]
4. Dog Birthday Party/Humane Society Adoption Event [Currently Planning]
5. Vendor Appreciation Party [Currently Planning]
6. Alicia and Ariel’s Birthday Parties [Currently Planning]

We don't half ass anything. #overachievers 
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We are a little over halfway there! Which is comforting considering we are halfway through the year! 527 baby!
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We don’t want to brag, but real talk, WE ARE KILLING IT! We have already done some amazing things, have some amazing things planned for the rest of the year, and have met some amazing people. The women of C+L want to thank you for your love and support!

Lastly, in other news we want to do a video Q&A within the next few weeks! If you have any questions for the women of C+L please email us at champagneandlinen@gmail.com or drop us a line on Facebook or Instagram. WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!! Please please please! It can be anything! Ask us wedding and event related questions!  Ask us makeup questions [and by that we mean ask Ariel makeup questions….]! Ask us what our favorite pizza toppings are! We want to build personal relationships with our followers and supporters. What better way to do that than sitting down with a box of wine and having a good ol fashion Q&A??
 
While you think of questions we will continue to plan, hustle, and play with our puppies at the doggo park!
 
Cheers to our six month anniversary and cheers to the next six months!
 
Alicia, Ariel and Mariah
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The one consistent obsession I’ve always had with products is mascara.  What’s the perfect brush, how wet should the formula be, waterproof or not?!  The choices are literally endless, the packaging is all so damn cute, and it’s the one necessity that I always use.  So it has to be perfect, right?!  Well, I’ve discovered that unfortunately it’s not as easy as that.  I have tried I don’t know how many mascaras in my lifetime.  Mary Kay, Maybelline, L’Oreal, Tarte...on and on and on…...I have pretty long lashes to begin with, and it’s tough for me to find a balance between volume and length, without have too much or too less of both.  More often than not when I try a new one, I find that it doesn’t give my lashes the curl or length that I’m looking for, resulting in lashes that fall flat and a bad attitude on my end.​
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Soooooo is there anything you DO like?
Why yes, as a matter of fact there is!  I’ve been pretty obsessed with Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara lately.  My BFF and MOH had an emergency stash of this in waterpoof that I ended up using for my wedding (because I’m a dumbass and didn’t think of waterproof mascara), and it was amazing.  This bad boy gives me the volume and length that I’m looking for, and it’s not super clumpy so I don’t end up looking like I have spider lashes.  It’s not flakey or cakey, it goes on smoothly and comes off just as easily.  The only caveat with this product is that Maybelline tests on animals. Sad face.  I’m on a serious kick right now about finding brands that don’t test on animals that still deliver an excellent product, and Maybelline is clearly one of the huge brands that tests on our fluffy friends, so take that for what it is.  I’m working on phasing all the evil companies out of my makeup routine, but it’s a slow process.

What else?
My holy grail mascara is by far Mary Kay’s Lash Love Mascara in black.  I’ve been using this stuff since the dawn of time, and it’s freakin amazing for my long lashes.  This mascara distributes the perfect amount of product over my lashes, and it stays all day, and doesn’t make my lashes feel crunchy or gross.  I slay the day with this mascara, but I don’t use it all the time, cause, well, it’s expensive ($15 is better than some other prestige brands, but still….).  As I told you guys, I’m a cheap bitch.  I may have a love affair with makeup, but I also am a baller on a budget and have to be careful cause I could legit spend $500,000 in Ulta in one trip if I had unlimited resources.  I can sometimes get this at cost through a supplier friend, so when that comes around I stock up.  Piggybacking on the earlier discussion regarding animal testing, MK does still test on animals, but in limited doses and has been working for many years to eliminate it in their products.  Here’s an article on it if you’re interested.  

Mascara Rules
Rules?! There are rules to using mascara???  Yasssss, gurl, yassss there are RULES!  And here they are….

1. Throw. That. Shit.  Out.  3 months, people, 3 MONTHS is your limit for how long you can keep this in your makeup box.  I literally have eye shadows and blushes that have been with me for years, but EYE GERMS ARE DISGUSTING and can lead to infection and other weird bacterial things.  Do you want mutated eyes?!  No.  No, you do not.  I never have an issue with this because I go through a fair amount of product with each application, so I only have about a month and half with each tube.  
2. DO NOT SHARE YOUR EYE GERMS WITH OTHER PEOPLE.  Again, eye germs. Buy your own mascara, people.  $6 is a cheap price to pay for beauty. Need I say anything else?
3. We do not use products that have weirdly shaped brushes, like this one, this one, or this one.  These literally do nothing differently for your eyes, they are simply a marketing technique and waste of your money.  Plus, there is a very good chance you will poke your eye out with those weird spiky balls that look like medieval torture devices. Stick with standard, classic wands please.
4. For the love of God, we do not pay over $22 for a tube of mascara.  If you are paying $30 for a tube that better be pure 24k gold in that damned tube.  I don’t buy into the designer brands of makeup in general, such as Marc Jacobs, Chanel, or Giorgio Armani.  I just straight up don’t.  I do believe in higher end brands such as Tarte, Urban Decay and Laura Gellar because they use better ingredients that are better for your skin, but I don’t do $100 foundation, honey, cause it’s straight up not worth it. At that point you’re paying for the brand, not the product.
5. Unless you have freakishly watery eyes, are doing water sports, live in 1,000 degree temp weather, or are getting married, we do not use waterproof mascara.  Why? Because its first and foremost really freakin difficult to get off at the end of the day, it dries out your lashes, and can lead to long term dry, breakable lashes and stunted growth.  Just use standard formula.  Some are more oily than others and can transfer to your skin, so pick a decent formula for your skin type so that you don’t have to deal with mascara transfer.

There is soooooo much to talk about with mascara, and this certainly won’t be the last blog on it.  What’s your favorite mascara, your special occasion one, or you HG one?  Drop us a line, comment, or suggestion!

Ciao, Bella!
Ariel