While I live and breathe...

It's been more then a month since I last posted! I know a scandal!

...ok who am I kidding...

But, reality in the form of my student teaching had to take precedence for awhile, and we weren't really doing any wedding planning anyways... so I didn't have much to talk about. However, as things are winding down with school, I am looking at wedding stuff again, and moving back into planning mode!

The Grange is officially booked, so that's a bit of a relief. We're still waffling on caterers, mostly because we don't have the money to put down for one right now anyways. I'm still half hoping that one of my bridesmaid's aunts will be able to do it. We talked to her ages ago, but she wasn't willing to commit so far in advance.

I bought a second piece of fabric to make a second mock up of a totally different design, something more vintage. This is Simplicity 3823, which is the style I want, but I'm thinking there might be a better pattern then this. Or maybe I should just make my own. I really really really don't like sewing with modern patterns. This seems like it woudl be pretty easy, the skirt is a huge trapezoid, the top is basically triangles attached to a rectangle. Gather, wrap, sew, right?


Anyways, finally I've been reading wedding blogs again and have a few things to share!

This vintage Prauge wedding makes me terribly jealous that everything in my neck of the woods, except, well the woods, is so darned NEW. Classic, classy and terribly romantic.

And this totally adorable dress is quite inspiring. This is what I was going for with my first dress design, only I want straps, and no sweetheart neckline. Perhaps it's my construction that's not working. Or perhaps I should, ya know, finish the dress and then make up my mind.

Another type of paper flower to consider, though Zanne, my soon to be Mother in Law, and Becky, my soon to be Sister in Law, both loved the spiral rose design I stole from the lovely Adela over at Tenthousandonly.


And last but not least, THIS could totally be my wedding in another lifetime.

Progress

Things have been quiet around here as I've been very focused on my student teaching. But we have been making progress. Here are some highlights.

*Dress- I am nearly finished with my initial mock up, though I am rethinking the design. I might do a different dress, this one feels... underwhelming.

*Location- We are officially going to have it at the Long Tom Grange, we are just waiting for me to get my new box of checks from the bank (I ran out) so that I can send in my deposit for it.

*Catering- We have met with two caterers, Cornucopia and Carte Blanche Catering. Right now we like pretty much everything about them both, we just need to decide which is going to be more affordable. The only thing is we don't have the money for the deposit on that right now, though we may be able to borrow it from my parents.

*Photography- Booked and deposit paid! Yay Michael Brinkerhoff!

... and that's what we have for sure... more later?

Waltzing Matilda...

Things have been quiet around here, I know. I haven't been doing much in the way of wedding stuff. We have a decent idea of what we want, and it's too soon to tell for most everything else. Everything is 'in progress', but not much progress is being made. We're still 15 months out from the wedding after all.

One thing has been bothering me though. Luke and I both love dancing, and have a decent amount of training. It's important to us to have dancing at our wedding. Not a long list of formal dances where he and I dance with everyone of the opposite gender from our families, ("...and now for the Mother of the bride's cousin and the groom...")

Our location (which we will book once we get a few questions answered) has an indoor space (the grange hall) and an outdoor space, which is basically field and forest. No manicured anything, not a lawn... not full of potholes, but not particularly flat either. (See this entry for a refresher on our location.

We initially wanted the whole thing (ceremony and reception) to be outside (barring weather complications) and so it didn't really matter to us that the grange was a bit...agricultural... All anyone but my 'staff' was going to see was the outside, which is a lovely shade of yellow anyways... But now that I am thinking more specifically about dancing, I'm thinking that in the grange hall might be the only place to do it! It's terribly obnoxious to dance on something that doesn't at least resemble a dance floor, and Luke and I want to show off!


The grange hall last November

Theoretically we could rent a dance floor, but they are expensive. The one quote we've seen on dance floors was nearly $300 fro 12'x12', which with a guest list of 300+ wouldn't really cut it if everyone wanted to dance. On the other hand, maybe everyone WON'T want to dance.

I just went to a wedding that had their reception at the Elks Club. It was lovely and all, and fit the couple wonderfully, but the pictures of old members staring down from the walls during the reception and the animal heads really killed it for me. Now I'm sure that the grange isn't as bad as that, but still I don't want to sacrifice the mood of my wedding, just because I'm snobby about dancing surfaces.

So it seems I have three options:
*Suck it up and rent a dance floor, even if it might be on the small side.
*Have dancing indoors, risking splitting the reception and adding a podunk feel to the party
*Have the dancing outdoors in the grass and just screw the whole dance floor thing, no one is going to care how well we dance anyways.

What do you guys think?

More non-floral bouquets

I'm still pretty sold on the parasol idea, but at Offbeat Bride did a big post on alternative bouquets that I just had to share. Some of the ideas I don't much care for (not really into the button thing, a little too... Raggedy Anne?) but a bunch are totally cute. I love the lantern idea for an evening wedding!

These origami map bouquets are sweet! (you might have to have an Offbeat Bride Tribe account to see them)

Squee!

From livejournal

I adore these invitations.

Right up my 'lily fair' alley!

Luke came up with a wonderful idea! He likes the idea of parasols for the bridesmaids (and probably one for me too)!

Considering July/August in Oregon can be quite hot, and we don't want to spend a fortune on flowers, I like the idea! What do you guys think?
Perhaps something like one of these?

$7.50 each from http://www.lunabazaar.com
$7.95 each from http://www.lunabazaar.com
$21.50 each from http://www.lunabazaar.com
$22 from http://www.lunabazaar.com
$8.95 each from http://www.lunabazaar.com

For the bride with more of a budget, perhaps you'd prefer these lovely Victorian inspired parasols from The Ladies Emporium. My favorite is the Battenberg Lace Parasol, in Ivory.

And then of course there is always ebay, which has a variety of parasol options, though of questionable quality sometimes...

Admittedly I didn't spend much time look in etsy for parasols, but I didn't find any that were in my price range...Most of what I found were also things that had parasols printed on them, or jewelry of parasols, not actual parasols...

So, parasol, good idea? Lame? As a replacement for flowers for my bridesmaids, or in addition to them?

From Here Comes the Guide

From McHenry County Blog
From Joyce&Edward
From TwoBrides

Feedback?

Floral Alternatives

Duct Tape Flowers

Paper Roses!

I really want to find a way to use the paper roses as our center pieces, they are super simple, unique and quite pretty if I do say so myself.