Attendants' accessories

Dan's in the middle of trying to find a tie that he and I both like. I tried to talk him into a gold tie made out of matching gold fabric that I'm using as the waist ties on my dress, but he wasn't into the idea at all. He may end up wearing a gold pocket square...we'll see. He's also not much into the idea of boutonnieres, so we may just skip that entirely as well, unless his groomsmen decide they want something. Nevertheless, here are some ideas that I collected:

A Pomp & Plumage boutonniere, via Creature Comforts

Emersonmade boutonnieres, via Little Dwell, who put together a little tutorial for a boutenniere inspired by these

And not so much for the guys, but a fabric flower tutorial from Colette Patterns.

Flower project roundup

Coffee filter flower tutorial at design*sponge.

Fabric flowers roundup at Giver's log, via not martha.

Crepe paper bouquet tutorial, via Creature Comforts.

Bonus! Little roses from straw wrappers (I hope no one actually does this on a massive scale, that would be a bit sick, but cool party trick to learn, perhaps), via not martha.

Ok not projects but other flower ideas: centerpieces of flowers in water, from the Blooms By the Box blog.

I'm still all over that apothecary chic look but I like the simplicity of these.

Apparently this is just a flower wallpaper but it'd be pretty as strands of real flowers against a wall, wouldn't it? From A Cup of Jo.

Cupcake centerpieces! From This Little Journey. I don't think we're doing the cupcake thing in full but these are so cute.

Ok this is just to remind myself--we have these single serving Martinelli's apple juice jars at work and I could potentially collect them and use Goo Gone to get rid of the labels and clean them up to use as bud vases.

More flora, both natural and crafted

So, it seems like laboratory glassware should definitely be an item on the 'to thrift' list. Maybe I'll be so lucky as to stumble upon a science class cleaning out their unused glassware sets? In college I was always astounded by the lab fee they demanded each semester for chemistry labs...and then sophomore year I broke a mercury thermometer and various flasks on different occasions. So, ok, fair enough.

(photo by ethanollie via the haystack needle)

We're not having set tables and I think I may leave the food station decorations mostly up to the caterer, but I love citrus and this garland looks doable for sure. I really like the idea of fruit decorations.

(by oh happy day, via the haystack needle)

These sewn organdy flowers look so soft.

(instructions at Sew Mama Sew, via The Cupcake Goddess)

And finally, some more paper flowers, or to be more specific, giant paper poppies.

(instructions here, via Creature Comforts)

Non-floral centerpieces in clear glass containers

From design*sponge, an idea for some non-floral centerpieces:

Felt dahlia flower brooch/corsage

From not martha, guest posting at Holidash ([edit] additional notes here):

There's even a little pocket in the back to hold a picture or message. The steps are all photographed and the instructions seem clear.

Wildflower laboratory, part II

It seems that outside of my dream florist, I'm luckily leaning towards pretty simple flower arrangements. My current plan is to scout out a wholesale florist in the Princeton area when I'm there for a week at the beginning of August to volunteer on an organic farm WWOOF for a week with my friend Amy. Then, perhaps try to collect containers between now and The Date from thrift stores and recycling bins (not sure where I will store these in the new, smaller apartment). If Mama G is in town some months before we'll maybe do a trial run and then I'll need to assign the flower duties to someone(s) to do the day before or day-of .

From design*sponge, a part II to a series I posted about previously:

(tall container + tall and dramatic stem, short container + shorter stems)

(can't get any easier than this, right? votive holders as petri dishes)

(these containers from Ikea)

Their tips this time around:

• When shopping for containers look outside the vase section- you can find some great candleholders, glasses, jars, pitchers, and trays to double as vases.
• Limit your search to a single material- clear glass works best for a “lab look”.
• Groupings of odd numbers usually work best, but evens are ok if you are using multiples of the same size piece (ex. four votive floaters together on a cocktail table).
• Limit your flower types to five or six and use them in different combinations. You can float single lilac and ranunculus blossoms, use a single stem of each in test tube vases, create tight posies of each by themselves, and also make tiny arrangements using them together. That gives you seven different options using only two types of flowers!
• Don’t forget about plants. Layered gravel, dirt, and moss with a succulent or small wildflower plant on top can be a fun and unexpected addition to your grouping (and you can make them a bit further ahead of time too).
• Don’t be afraid to set loose blossoms that hold well out of water or succulents right on the table.

Eat Drink Chic's surprise wedding

Amy of Eat Drink Chic left blogland for a bit to throw an engagement party...which turned out to be a surprise wedding instead!!

You should clickthrough to check out the full set of images, I quite enjoy the styling:

I chose 'simple', 'rustic', 'recycled', 'vintage' and 'casual' as the key themes of our wedding 'picnic'. Wanting to capture a fresh, spring feel I set bright warm reds, oranges, pinks and yellows ablaze against a rustic landscape of wooden furniture, vintage crates, wine barrels, an odd assortment of collected jars and and bottles and bamboo plates and cutlery. Guests were advised a dress code of 'smart casual' to maintain the relaxed and understated tone of the event.

My favorite bits are probably the flower and food displays:

(for real both pretty and casual and not indie-unattainable)

She had me at 'lollipop bouquet'

I'm glad I stay subscribed to The Storque, even if I skip over many of the posts because I want to resist the urge to acquire stuff. Mostly I enjoy their News in the Craft + Style Blogosphere roundup, but today, they had this awesome, awesome 'Candy and Cowboys' wedding:

(freaking lollipop bouquet!)

Wise words to keep in mind for reducing waste:

Whenever I found something to buy or make for the wedding, I asked myself, “Where will this end up after the reception?” Sticking to that thought process with every decision saved SO much money. It gave me a benchmark NOT to buy into extras like a dance floor decal or go overboard with decorations. We gave a second life to nearly all of the elements of our day, down to the retro tissue paper balls that decorated a second reception back in Indiana and entertained gobs of toddlers.

(bunting)

In case you're not wrapped in the crafty/wedding blog world, bunting = the strands of triangles of fabric in the top of this photo. I almost certainly will have some, even though it's a slight 'indie' wedding blog cliche, because I've got so many scraps of fun fabric prints around and it'll be a quick project with my spring-loaded pinking shears and sewing machine. I might make some as decoration for the new apartment and then take them down for the wedding and put them back up afterwards, haha.

(vintage-inspired handkerchiefs to reserve seats for family)

(bow ring--I think I want something more minimalistic but I admire this choice anyway)

(custom illustration from franceslovesyou, I would love this as a first anniversary gift for paper)

And my favorite part by far...wait for it...

(A RING BEAR)

(get it???)

Although I do call Dan my bear as an inside joke and also because I like to make fun of him (one of my more appreciated ways of showing love, I'm sure) and as my friend Diana once said, 'but Dan is so not bear-like'--exactly--I think in this case my joy is really largely due to the pun. Punny indeed.

Unpretentious flower arrangements

A break from the paper goods!

(Eat Drink Chic's trial run for her engagement party, can't wait to see the final product)

(teapot flower arrangement how-to from design*sponge)

The next two are also from design*sponge:

(coffee canister with lily grass loop)

(cocktail shaker with craspedia)

(how clever, right? I always get frustrated with getting the stems to stay where I want them to already)

Sarah of Blossom and Branch's basic principles for flowers:

• Clean all leaves, stems or thorns that will sit below the water-line in whatever container you use.
• Use sharp tools and clean, cool water.
• Give flowers a fresh, angled cut and change the water every other day.
• Try adding a dash of lemon-lime soda (like 7up or Sprite) to the water – the sugar perks up the blooms!
• Try adding a few (just a few) drops of bleach to the water – it will keep the stem-rotting bacteria at bay.
• For tough or woody stems, use warm water and try snapping the stem with your hands instead of cutting. The splintered stems increase surface area for the water to travel up to the bloom.
• When in doubt, cut the stems short, so that the heads of the flower rise just above the neck of the vase. This pavé style is very European and chic.

Fabric Poms

How lovely are these fabric poms, with their soft texture? (via not martha)

Besides being hung up, I could also see them sort of just scattered about (artfully, of course) on tables, for people to play with if they want to.

Red-orange-yellow color scheme

I want to wear a red dress and do you know, it's actually rather difficult to come up with a color scheme around red beyond red and white? I tried looking around at the various objects in the Chinese supermarket when we were there this past weekend to get food for Chinese New Year but the thing is, modern Chinese culture seems to have an affinity for rather garish looking colors thrown all together.

However! We were watching the Olympics and the Chinese team has some rather nice looking warmup suits. After much Googling, I found out that their team apparel is made by Anta. My level of Chinese is barely sufficient to navigate the website, but I did manage to find a promotional poster of the Olympians here and then used my mad Photoshop skillz to pull out the colors above. Thoughts? Maybe the proportion of orange and red should be switched, so that the loud red is just used sparingly.

Dan's first reaction was that it looked really Asian and would therefore come off as yet another, ah yes, this event was entirely planned and executed by the bride kind of look. So we tried compromising by throwing in some blue, since Dan is a bit Swedish (and a bit of various other western European ethnicities), which is yellow and blue. I didn't like the look of the darker blue and so I lightened it, but Dan thought that looked silly. The only color scheme he has any preference for is American red/white/blue, but my reluctance to American patriotism aside, I'm not a fan.

Some relevant floral arrangements I've found:

a fall wedding (in Middletown NJ, actually) from SMP

red poppies (smp)

Maybe for flowers we'll just get red and yellow poppies or tulips, in line with the advice on just choosing one flower if you're doing your own flowers.

Hypoallergenic Flowers

Via Molly: paper flowers! Paper Source has a ton of kits but they aren't very user friendly. Molly sent me the following 2-D alternative:

(By David Stark)

This brilliant idea spawned a search with the following results:

(very doable paper flower tutorial from dozi)

(tissue paper flowers and the Martha Stewart pom poms)

(not martha's MS pom pom as centerpiece, lit from inside with little LED lights)

(more tissue paper flowers from not martha)

Apparently the Martha Stewart pom poms can be mostly assembled and stored flat and just fluffed up when needed, so this is almost a definite project that will be happening. [edit] Another tutorial on these same MS pom poms from Nothing But Bonfires.

I also found these excellent alternative bouquets:

(vintage button and felt bouquet from Princess Lasertron)

(she sells kits in her etsy shop)

(another button bouquet from Lil Fish Studios)