I love this color palette

Style Me Pretty posted a Vintage, Shabby Chic Wedding shoot yesterday and like so many others I'm in love with it.

The main reason, for me, is the color palette which I am now obsessed with. The use of bright pink peonies (which as you know I love!) and the yellow, blue & pink tissue pompoms...swoon! And then there is the gorgeous pie (which AGAIN, I love) display, among other wonderful details. I definitely suggest checking out the 5 posts on Style Me Pretty of this shoot if you haven't already.

{via Style Me Pretty}

I suppose if I went with this color palette I would be have a late spring/early summer wedding, rather then the fall wedding I've been picturing recently. Fine with me. Now I have to try and envision a way to incorporate the tree (quote) inspiration, without it looking out of place.

Comfortably Chic

On Once Wed today they are featuring "The Free Wedding" that a group of vendors planned and had a contest for a real couple to have it. So far the first post is gorgeous.


In this post they had these pictures of the bridesmaid dresses and I have to say that I really like them.

{via Once Wed}

I love the casual, comfortable look of them and the fact that regardless of that they don't look frumpy. Currently I'm torn about dresses for my bridesmaids. My 3 friends & sister that would fill these roles are all completely different body types; tall and petite, curvy and athletic. So you can't really pick ONE style and squeeze them all into it. At least one of them won't be comfortable. And being a bridesmaid four times already, myself, I think feeling comfortable is very important!

Also, as I mentioned, I have been a bridesmaid four times already and although I have been very lucky and have not had to wear anything hideous or expensive I still realize the huge expense it is for a bridesmaid to stand up for your friend and I don't want mine to have to spend a fortune, especially on a dress they would NEVER wear again. I have planned to actually cover the cost myself because I figured if I was the one picking the dress I should be the one paying for it. I thought I could even get them made (something like the dresses above).

But now I'm thinking that the comfortable factor is even more important then the expense factor and that I should just let each girl buy their own dress but pick something they WANT to wear in the future and are comfortable in. Just provide them a color 'guideline' to stick to and let them make the decision. I'm just not sure anymore.

I suppose when the time comes I'll give them my ideas and see what they think works best.

The BEST entrance

When I saw this You Tube video today on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books (not a site I was expecting to see a real wedding video on) I cried happy tears!

This just made me smile the entire time and tear up. I'm not usually the type to cry when I see happy things but I have tears running down my cheeks. I hope when I get married it could be as happy as that! (Bridesmaids get ready to break out the dance moves.)

I should have thought of this sooner...

I had forgotten about these creative cake stands that I had see over at Once Wed awhile ago until I saw them again today in a blog posted by Miss Poodle via Weddingbee.

And since I just posted the quote that I plan to base my entire wedding on, how perfect would it be to incorporate trees where I can?

They seem easy and basic to create, not to mention affordable (pretty darn close to free)!

{via Once Wed}

Quotable

I love this quote and plan to design my entire wedding around it, specifically the last sentence:

"Love is a temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two." - Louis de Bernieres (from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin)

Financial Advisor = Marriage Counselor

Yesterday the BF and I went to see his financial advisor, mainly because when I asked him questions about how he was investing he didn't have a clue and secondly because I hoped the advisor would be able to convince him that he shouldn't keep all of his savings in a chequing account but rather invest some of it, which happened.

Who would have thought that we would get pulled into a conversation about why we weren't married yet, though. He basically told my BF that if we have lived together for almost a year and have been together almost 2, we were pretty much married already. To sum up the conversation, and I quote, "Shit or get off the pot."

The interesting part was that because he was talking about our finances and wasn't just our mothers asking when there was going to be a wedding, the BF was actually listening to him. Who knows maybe this means I don't have to wait 5 years for him to get a round to asking now.

Love him...really...

I know I am with "the one" because even when he throws a hiss fit, for lack of a better word, when he can't find the right size tupperware containers for our sandwiches that he's making for tomorrow's lunch, I am not really annoyed. Surprised not annoyed, since he's not prone to hiss fits - I can count only one other time since I moved in with him a year ago and that was when one of the cats climbed into the ceiling some how and wouldn't come out when he wanted him to, again a weird time to get upset but what ever.

I also know that I'm his "the one".

So if that's the case why does he need to say ridiculous things like being his wife isn't in my control, as though this is something that will only happen when he says so. Ugh. I wish I wasn't so hung up on the romantic idea of him getting down on one knee and doing the 'surprise' engagement thing or we would be having a really long talk.

Boys are stupid, even when they are smart 30 year old Engineers. Always and forever.

Geeks Unit - Save the Date

{Swelser's Shop via Etsy}

If either of us actually read comic books I think that this would be a pretty cool/geeky Save the Date option. Maybe I need to do a retro Romance Novel cover version....

Peonie Bouquets

I love peonies.

Favorite flower hands down.

Sadly they are very seasonal so not convenient to depend on pick a neighbors bush before the ceremony and not very cost effective to buy through the florist BUT dependable Martha Stewart has provided us with step by step instructions to make them from crepe paper.

{via Martha Stewart}

I think they actually look quite gorgeous. And a plus...who ever catches the bouquet can keep it for ever and ever...just like I did when I caught my aunt's at the age of 12 and have watched my little sister and 3 other cousins marry before me...hence the reason that last weekend when the bride tossed the bouquet I didn't bother to try and catch it...well that was a tangent that I didn't plan to take.

Only a vest

The longer I look around the wedding blog world the more I really want my own wedding to feel simple and casual (of I'm still all about the details but just not the glitz and glamour that takes over so many weddings). And with this desire for the casual feel, along with the goal of doing it all on a conservative budget, I really like the idea of dressing the groom and his men in dress pants, white collared long sleeve shirt & vests rather then go the suit route. The pants & shirts can come from their closets and the vests can be made the same time that the dresses are.



I especially like this look, with the addition of a hat.

{via Stephanie Williams Photography}

Granted I suppose this would be one aspect of wedding planning that the One Day A Groom should have an input in but lets just pretend that in a prefect world I get to make all the decisions and I say "Vests for all the boys!"

Maybe a little Veil...

Okay I know I JUST posted saying NO VEIL and that I didn't even want to try a bird cage style but then I saw this couple on Once Wed and thought...maybe....

Making the dream dress

Awhile ago I found a pattern on Etsy that resembles that dress I fell in love with via Martha Stewart Weddings, a mentioned in my January post, but at a tea length skirt.

On this pattern I like the Option A's skirt and Option C's top (sleeve length) but I still prefer the collar on the dress featured in Martha Stewart Weddings.

Without a Veil

I have no desire to grow my hair long or add extensions so that I can pull my hair back, nor will I be wearing contacts instead of my glasses because that is not me.

Despite the fact that a bride might look absolutely beautiful when they do the previously mentioned things, I personally have a problem altering my image to portray something that doesn't reflect the me that you see any other time of the year, regardless of how beautiful or traditional it will be.

And so, I'm opting out of having a veil. It's just not for me, especially since I'm planning on wearing a tea length dress. I suppose I could pull off the bird cage veil but I'm thinking something more along the lines of a hair fastener, like this gorgeous Peony from Meadowbelle Market via Etsy.

Fabulous Photo Booth Props

I vote YES for a photo booth at a wedding, especially fun DIY setups. I think they are fun and you can get a lot of interesting pictures of your friends and family.

And when I saw this photo booth all I could think was "I want". How perfect would it be to incorporate photos of family/ancestors wedding photos in black and white framed on the wall? Yes definitely a "NEED".

{via Kiss the Groom}

And then there are fake mustaches...love....

{via Green Wedding Shoes}

Could I?

I bought new boots last week to wear at my cousin's wedding this weekend. They were a lot more comfortable to wear for dancing then the heals that I wore for the ceremony which have me thinking that maybe I should consider these for reception wedding shoes for my future day...

*Also I just tried out http://www.picnik.com to edit this photo and I think I could become addicted. The best part is that I can use it at any computer and don't have to install the program

Pie for everyone

I love pie.

As far as I'm concerned cake has nothing on pie, and had decided quite some time ago that when the day comes for my own wedding I'm serving pie for desert. I have envisioned a table with a range of different pies set up for people to pick from and then I saw Williams-Sonoma's Pocket Pie Molds via Hip Hostess this weekend.

I am very comfortable stating that this is a 'NEED' category purchase, of course my desire for instant gratification was stamped out when I determined that Williams-Sonoma will not ship outside of the United States from their online store. But on the up side there are FOUR stores in Toronto, which I will be visiting at the end of August and I've already informed my boyfriend of our shopping excursion. I'm sure he's just thrilled.

I'm already day dreaming about the different types of pies I'm going to make with these, and not just as a wedding dessert.