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.

Wedding timeline

Our wedding photographer (eee!) has been doing a series of posts on her own blog about her top 10 tips for better wedding photography. She's up to #5 right now, and I'd definitely recommend heading over and taking a look at the first four and following up with the remaining five when she's gotten to them--they're pretty meaty and will be quite useful, I think. Anyway, just wanted to repost the links from tip #5 on planning out the timing of the wedding:

• A Smart Planner highlights the key things you must have on your timeline
• A wedding bee bride has a super detailed timeline which is really helpful

[edit] another real timeline from Cupcake Wedding.

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.

We booked a photographer!

Awhile back, I decided that I wanted to work with a photographer who sponsored A Practical Wedding. A lot of people advised me to consider reducing the budget for a photographer and look around for a student to do the job, but I wasn't confident in my ability to find someone who would be experienced and reliable enough for big events like weddings. It's doable, I'm sure, but I figured it would take a lot of effort (since no one popped out from our small network of friends and family to volunteer, basically) and even then I knew I would still worry about it. I decided photography is a high priority because it's the only tangible thing we'll have after all the work going into throwing the one-day event (I don't count the marriage itself as tangible :)).

A sponsor of A Practical Wedding would definitely be a pro and also pretty much pre-screened not to be a WIC-style pressure giver. And, I sort of just wanted to give back a bit to a resource that I've gotten so much from. The minimum requirements were a decent number of hours of coverage and getting the negatives, with the option to order prints and other extra down the line. An engagement session and the rest would be a plus but not absolutely necessary.

We met with Keira Lemonis first, way back in February, but for whatever reason I didn't really feel like we clicked and that there was something else I was looking for that didn't align with her style. She checked in the other day because another couple contacted her about one of the potential dates we'd given to her and was actually nice enough to respond with a thanks after I told her we'd decided to book someone else (I hate this part of researching different vendors, I feel like somehow I can't get out of disappointing some of the really nice and supportive people I've talked to because we can only hire one in that category). +1 for classiness.

Then, we got a quote from LeahAndMark.com from the amazing, amazing special they're running (until the end of April!) for APW readers: 20% off all packages and no travel fee for weddings east of the Mississippi. Based on my email correspondence with Mark, his Twitter feed, and the new email newsletter of photography tips they recently started, he seems really awesome and just like my kind of person (chill and funny-geeky, more or less). I love, love their photos:

They really love photography, they are Photographers and have an eye for lighting and composition that speaks to me. I'm also a total sucker for that vintage-y style of image color processing.

Then, a couple weeks ago (the day before Easter, actually), Dan and I drove to CT to meet with Kelly Prizel, who had Amy's highest stamp of approval of the list of potential photographers I'd emailed her. Of course, I Twitter/Facebook/blog-stalked her beforehand. Some of my favorite tweets:

I will not eat all the cheese at this client meeting. I will not eat all the cheese.

You know what makes clients happy? Bunnies. Yup, they love meeting and petting my rabbits after discussing wedding packages.

She did not, in fact, eat all the cheese at our meeting, I helped quite a bit on that front. And her bunnies are indeed adorable, though the massive fur they were shedding when I petted them at the end of our meeting made Dan really wary.

In person, Kelly is really sweet and energetic and I believe her when she says that she just loves weddings and feeds off the energy of the day--I suspect some photographers who aren't truly into it saying these sorts of lines just to get the business, and should it really matter to me whether the photographer is just doing this to pay the bills or loves it for its own sake too? Probably not, but I don't mind letting it factor into my decisions anyway.

Her wife Natalie was also at the meeting and if we didn't already have Mama G as our Captain of the Day (official title TBD), I would seriously consider hiring her as our day-of coordinator because she's totally on top of all the details.

The thing that really swayed it in the end was the engagement session that's included in Kelly's Package I and that she's local. While LeahAndMark.com were my personal leading choice based on style of photography, I think the fact that both Dan and I are introverts and have never been particularly comfortable in front of a camera means that we do need someone we can have the opportunity to get to know more before the high stress of the day.

So, hooray, we have a photographer! We signed the contract a few days after meeting Kelly and Natalie and sent over the deposit last week (biggest wedding check thus far) and I am excited about it, but I do occasionally get slight tinges of anxiety over not hiring LeahAndMark.com, especially as I see their rates go up. I think they particularly excel at family and children portraits, though, so maybe one day :) It's something that I should just move on from because it's not a good use of energy, so I'm working on that. Looking at Kelly's portfolio all over again helps, for sure:

(Meridian Hill Park engagement session)

(Georgetown engagement session w/ Vespa)

(Ying and Pat at Montpelier Mansion)
(love this wedding)

(Howard and Jessica at Howard County Conservatory)

I think it's a really good sign that when I went to look for my favorite examples of Kelly's work, I could picture the photos in my mind. I'll get over the faint self-doubt about whether we made the right decision soon, I always have that, but hey! Ticking down "the big three": venue, check, photographer, check, caterer, almost check (we've decided but haven't officially signed a contract yet). We're planning on doing the engagement session in the afternoon on 9/11 this year, because it's the one weekend in September that Kelly's not booked, it should still be warm enough for me to wear a dress, and there will still be green things alive in the park in Hoboken along the Hudson.

Next up should probably be figuring out who will marry us, since a Catholic priest is basically out of the question (won't do it outside of a church, I think I'd be uncomfortable with people possibly thinking I'm posing/being disrespectful), and then settling down to the overall vision of the visual aesthetic to pull it together and deciding on which projects I actually want to do. Oh, and sketching out a bit more whether we want other things around the wedding weekend, like a welcome picnic or a Sunday brunch or the Chinese family dinner post-reception, etc. I think at that point I should print out Meg's words and paste it somewhere really visible:

From here on out, I will not worry about things unless they are meaningful, fun, or really useful.

Circle of love

I quite like this circular setup of chairs for the ceremony:

(Dave Robbins Photography, via SMP)

I think it would help decrease the 'this is a show for your teary entertainment' feeling and ramp up the sense of 'we want to be surrounded and supported by our loved ones' instead. I've written previously about my hesitation for the whole big reveal and walking down an aisle thing, but it's a little hard to picture the logistics of ending up at the center without an aisle. I can't quite tell how they did it here--did they have to walk all the way around in a spiral? That would go in the parade territory that we want to be avoiding here.

Ooo, maybe two semi-circles of chairs with an aisle going through the entire thing, and each of us walking towards the center and meeting in the middle?