And so last week, I started. We still don't have a venue, a photographer, a DJ, a bridal party, a caterer, centerpieces, favors, decor, invitations, a suit for Nathan, or wedding rings. What do we have? I'm glad you asked. So far, I have a dress and a fiancee. Since those are the two most important things when it comes to a wedding, I feel like I'm not completely hopeless.
I also have a Pinterest account, and this past week I have been pinning like a mad-lady. My hands are pretty much tied until we get the venue settled (photographer, DJ, bridal party, caterer, etc, will all depend upon where the wedding will be) so in the meantime I am gathering ideas and inspiration like it's my part time internship. And so, in lieu of an actual wedding update, here are some current favorite pins.
Right now, I am leaning towards red as a the primary color for the wedding. I wanted to choose a color that had an autumnal feel (to honor the November-ness of the wedding) and red seems a good choice. Plus, if I choose orange or brown my potential bridesmaids would go on strike. (I have a shameful history with the color brown, dating back to monochromatic outfits in undergrad. It was a sad time for my wardrobe.) The dresses above are the opposite of shameful, and I really like the patterned look. It's whimsical and a little unexpected.
I'm not exactly sure what is going on with this centerpiece, but I like it. I want to incorporate touches of the natural world into our decor, not because rustic is trendy, but because for us, it's real. We work in the yard, we camp all the time, we care about the environment, we are getting chickens and bees and built a worm hotel. I demand a nature-off with other faux-rustic brides and grooms. Whoever wins gets the bird cake.
Pinerest is full of ideas for food-related favors, and I could not be more pleased. I especially like the idea of jam, because I could make it myself this summer and it would be adorable and delicious. (This is probably a terrible idea as far as my sanity goes, but let me dream for a moment.)
The cake is the other thing we've got figured out. One of my best ladies from undergrad, Ella, has become a very accomplished cake decorator these last few years. You can visit her blog to see some of her creations. She did Scott and Mel's cake two years ago and it was gorgeous. Oh, and we're totally doing cupcakes. I don't care if it's trendy. Cupcakes are the best.
Flowers. Because wedding
I've been seeing all of your pins and it's quite exciting...especially, seeing all that gorgeous RED! :)
ReplyDeleteI really like red! It's a new thing.
DeleteI always look at people crazy when they say they need more than 10 months to plan a wedding (or more than a year). You don't need that much time. You'll be fine for sure.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I'm worried about is the venue. Our budget is small and places book so early!
DeleteI like colorful weddings, but I think it's hard to get much use out of a bridesmaid's dress unless you say pick a dress of your choosing in this color. I wore a red dress as a wedding attendant once. It was a David's Bridal tea length in some color like apple, and I never wore it again because it really did scream bridal attendant. I gave it to Goodwill during one of my many moves in grad school.
ReplyDeleteThanks for crushing my dreams, Raquelita! Just kidding. You're probably right about never wearing the dress again. Ah, well. It was a nice thought!
DeleteNot meant to be dream-crushing, and I have never pitched a hissy fit about a bridesmaid dress. (I'm not that kind of friend.) But a lot of bridesmaid dresses have really limited ability to transition outside of that one event and weddings can be really expensive for attendants. It cost me about $1000 (or 3/4 of my monthly MA grad student stipend) to be in the wedding I mentioned above.
DeleteI would be so stoked to receive jam as a wedding favour! All your ideas look lovely :)
ReplyDeleteThere's something I was curious on though, as I've been reading your blog for years now and have always noted you as a fellow feminist. I was what the decision-making process has been like for you and Nathan with your choices - I ask because the language in this post seems to hint that a lot of these choices are your own and that you're the one carrying out most of the planning. ('I better start planning for real', 'I'm leaning towards red'.) Was this just a choice made on whoever had the most time to devote to planning? A feminist blogger I follow, Rachel Hills, recently got married and she actually wrote a blog series on her problems with this issue, so it's all gotten me thinking! Sorry if this was a rude question - I couldn't decide whether it would be appropriate to ask you this or not but I figure a key part of feminism is discussion and mindfulness!
http://rachelhills.tumblr.com/post/11609072760/feminist-wedding-planning-weddings-as-womens-worl
http://offbeatbride.com/2010/03/partnership-imbalances
Sian - thanks for these questions! I hope you know you can always ask me anything and I won't consider it rude, especially when it comes from a curious and thoughtful place.
DeleteWhile the language here makes it seem like I'm doing all the planning, that's not quite true. Mostly because we haven't really done much actual planning. I have probably done most of the daydreaming up to this point, but that's because I love Pinterest and reading blogs. :) I was, however, doing the bulk of the venue searching because I was the one with time to go to Long Island. However, I didn't feel right doing that part of the planning without him, which is one of the reasons we're leaning towards having the wedding in NC - so he can be more involved in the wedding planning from beginning to end.
We have discussed splitting up some of the duties already - he is going to research certain aspects of the wedding, and I will take on others, and then we'll agree on everything (hopefully) together. I definitely plan to blog about all of this soon (especially about planning a wedding as a feminist) but I'm waiting until we make some actual decisions.
I hope that answers your questions for now. I really do appreciate your comment and I'm looking forward to checking out those links. I've also been reading the book A Practical Wedding, which has tons of good information for the forward-thinking bride. ;)
And I just subscribed to Rachel's blog. Those wedding posts are pure gold!!!
DeleteI started to address some of these questions in my post today: http://christinehennessey.blogspot.com/2012/02/where-to-wed-ny-vs-nc.html
DeleteThanks for reminding me to think about weddings as more than just a chance to dress pretty and eat cupcakes. :)
Pretty, pretty!
ReplyDelete