Art installation inspiration

Four years of art education and a graphic design degree do not play nicely with a day job that utilizes none of those talents. All of that bottled up creative energy has to go somewhere or else I get cranky/sulky. (It's kinda like SAD, but for creative types.) So now that I'm planning a massive art project, I mean wedding!, you can imagine what sort of trouble I'm headed for. Look out wedding project overload!

Because I don't have enough going on, I've decided it is completely sane to design and build an art installation. For the wedding. I hear all the I-can't-draw-a-straight-line people asking, "what the heck is an art installation?" Short answer: it's three-dimenional site-specific art. The best way to describe is with pictures, and what better way to begin than with the motherload of inspiration: Anthropologie.

January windows at Anthropologie (all personal photos unless otherwise noted)

Epic e-pics

We're over the moon with our engagement pictures. They're better than we could have hoped for. The teaser pics just hint at the awesomeness contained in the online album. (Private, sorry. It has last names.) Mr. P and I have not laughed this hard (at ourselves) in a long time.

The Moms were the first to see the album. I called both of them so we could view the albums together. The pitch and decibel of their excited voices may have caused permanent hearing damage! To say they are excited for the wedding is an understatement. The outpouring of love and enthusiasm feels grand. I'm on a natural high.

Levels of awesomeness

Our engagement photos are here! Early!! (Dogs are howling and our wine glasses just shattered - I may need to calm down.) After the shoot, I left wondering what level of awesomeness the photos would be. We had a great location and photographer, but would we screw them up? I was convinced I'd have my eyes closed in a third of them and Mr. P would look painfully uncomfortable. Happy to report that on a scale of 1-10, this one goes to 11!

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As much as I'd like to keep the location of our amazing photo shoot a secret, I feel that it's my bridal obligation to spills the beans so everyone else can visit too! Drumroll, please...

Engagement pictures are in!

My palms are clammy. I'm so excited I can't see straight. And if I weren't at work I'd be running around in circles. What has gotten into me?!

Our engagement photos are in! Heather has posted a teaser on her blog, but I have decided to wait until I’m home to look at them with Mr. P. Bonus excitement: he just got home after being away for a few days!

An hour has never felt so long!

Ghost of St. Pucchi

I was over the $5k+ St. Pucchi gown until I saw the gah-or-geous shots of this wedding featured on Style Me Pretty. (Lucky bride.) It's not that I'm having second thoughts about my gown. Because it's still #1... but I just can't get over how strikingly unique and beautiful this gown is. Come drool with me.

Trend: Rosette

Around the time I purchased my gown, I spotted a strikingly similar Monique Lhuillier ("LOO-lee-yay") gown. Wedding gowns that share similarities are not uncommon. After all, how many times can you reinvent the white dress? But this gown prominently featured rosettes - a detail I hadn't seen anywhere else.


Monique Lhuillier - Addison
Not only does it have rosettes, but they vary in size too. The skirt is covered with them so it's not an isolated detail. The differences are the fabric (what appears to be satin vs crinkle chiffon) and skirt shape (A-line vs fit-to-flare). I chalked this gown up to a coincidence.

Because her gowns are gorgeous and I'm a girl with a ring, I continued browsing.

Pickin' a Posey Provider

If we had to cut back on something, it'd be flowers.


Not that we don't care about flowers. We're getting married in a garden. In the summer. It's already gorgeous. Plus, don't flowers wilt and die?! They're pretty but not permanent. Spending 10-20% of our budget on a non-essential when that money could be earmarked for photography or music? Nuts. Nuts to that, I say. The problem was, I was smitten with blooms styled by some of the area's more expensive florists.

Determined to find a saner option, I polled friends, clients and a few friendly-looking strangers. One of the recommendations really stuck with me. This florist went above and beyond: hand-wiring dogwood blooms to branches when they weren't in season. The bride was so pleased with the service, quality and value... here she was two years later raving about them.

In the nights leading up to our meeting with the florist, I hunkered down with the laptop to pare down the hundreds of inspiration images. First by mood: whimsical, bold, lush, natural and wild. Then, by my favorites. Sorting this way made it easier to spot themes in flowers or colors. Mr. P leaned over several times to check on my progress. His only comment was to limit the number of photos so the florist wouldn't be scared away. (When setting up the appointment, the assistant did instruct me not to bring too many images. )

Here's a sampling of favorites.

Whimsical:

(source: 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5)

Countdown: 7 months

With exactly seven months until the big "I do" to do, my mind is on all the things left undone.

To-do list items that are still nagging me:

1. Book officiant.
2. Design invitation suite.

We've thought up every excuse in the book to delay finding an officiant. The search started in August with 5 "feeler emails" which was then pared down to 3 in early October. Last week we were thisclose. Until the guy emailed a few days before our scheduled meet and greet to cancel. Another couple had booked him. The search (and knot in my stomach) resumed.

It's tough selecting a perfect stranger from a field of other perfect strangers to oversee and perform such an intimate ceremony. We have a closer relationship with our neighborhood bartender than our local clergy; unfortunately, the bartender is not ordained.

Hey man, can I get a White Russian?
And then there's the invitation suite. I would prefer to have started it in September, or even October, but more pressing to-do's popped up - and so it was back-burnered. Honestly, the more time I have to fiddle with the design, the more it'll keep changing. It's better I'm putting it off. Brian has caught on that I should have started already. Darn you, shared GoogleDocs to do list. It should be relatively easy to design and print, considering my background. I'm keeping it simple. Now tell me how naive I am and you'll see me in 4 weeks when I'm curled up in the fetal position.

How's your to-do list looking? Am I budgeting enough time?

Boy Band

So what about Mr. P's ring? After all, he is getting married too.


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Much to my surprise, there are a lot of options out there for men's bands. Gone are the days of a simple domed band in gold or white gold, satin or polished finish. The nuances in options is a little staggering. A friend summed it up well, "Men don't wear jewelry, so it makes sense they're going to be picky about it." Giving them lots of options ensures they get a ring they're happy to wear.

I was surprised by the number of men's bands in the cases at the store. Unlike me, Mr. P wasn't fazed my the magnitude of rings and was able to point out a few he liked. He hadn't done much pre-shopping but had a sense of what he wanted to try on. No diamonds, nothing trendy and nothing expensive.

Un-Registry: China

A half century ago, a forward-thinking family member with great taste picked out a modern white and platinum banded pattern that we inherited. We have been saved from the frustration of hours spent shopping (and inevitably compromising) on a fine china pattern! It's actually very close to what we would have picked out. The tailored bands appeal to my graphic design sensibilities and the bright white color allows the food to speak for itself (something we feel strongly about). The upside is that it's simple enough to dress up with a second pattern or colored plate should we decide to get a little wild and crazy.

(source: 1 & 2)

Our first registry gift

Arrived home in late July to find a small Williams-Sonoma box tucked away on the front porch. At first, I thought it was a gift for Brian; his birthday was the next day. But because it was from one of our registry stores, I started to fret because it's too soon for registry gifts to start arriving... and (oh crap!) we still need to ask his dad if we can redirect gifts to his house.

Brian and I deliberated on who sent it and what it could be while I searched for scissors. We had a good chuckle once I found the packing slip and note. My first-time buyers, A & C, went to closing a week prior and sent a thank you gift sourced from our registry. They are newlyweds so we discussed weddings during the house hunt. She must have super-sleuthed our registry or remembered me mentioning it (although I don't).

Either way, we were thrilled to open it up and find a Vinturi and wine pump with stoppers. Now we were left with a dilemma. It is a thank you gift from our wedding registry. What's the protocol for use? Brian reasoned that since it was technically a thank you gift, etiquette and superstitions would permit us to open now. It was put to use that night on a bottle of Finger Lakes Cab Franc!

Testing out our new wine gadget

Joel the Jeweler

Put on your coat! It's about to get chilly in here from all this ice!

We had a date yesterday - with Joel the Jeweler! Mr. P bought my engagement ring from Joel (a friend of a friend) last year. According to my timetable, it's time to start shopping for wedding bands. I left the ring file at home; I've got it all stored in my bride brain.

Walking hand-in-hand to the store, I was a touch giddy. Which faded into nervous-giddy as soon as we walked over to the first jewelry case. Peering into the cases, all of the rings seemed pretty similar: simple bands with a row of diamonds that either went halfway or all the way around the ring (eternity). None of them were really singing to me.

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Joel asked which I'd like to see. (My brain: "None of them" is not an appropriate answer, Miss P.) Long pause, then unconvinced pointing. We tried a few "plain" delicate bands that matched the band on my e-ring. Nothing. It's too early to settle so I held out for something different, more artsy.

Moving on... Thicker plain bands, pave, channel set, and detailed scrollwork designs also failed to impress.

Registering Review Rewind

Registering over a three-day holiday weekend is a productive use of time... except when everyone else has the day off and is hiding from the 100 degree June heat. You can escape the heat, but not the crowds. We had a whole day with nothing planned and just two store registries to tackle.

source(if you're into consumer behavior, the linked article is interesting)
1. Macy's: Basics with a little luxury
We didn't have an appointment. Correction, we didn't know we needed an appointment. We loitered at the registry desks, waiting for two couples to complete their initiation. The black lacquer walls, soft lighting, muzak and cubby-holed fine china tried really hard to demurely whisper, "You know you want this" but those marketing efforts were lost us on us. We were anxious to get scanning as we'd squirreled away a stack of dinnerware and serving pieces that were probably being restocked as we sat idly. Which reminds me, Macy's needs mock-entertaining spaces, like mini dining rooms, where you can lay out selections to see how they look together. At the very least, they need a table at the registry desks for this.

Ready, set - no, no wait!

It was when we found ourselves standing among 10 different sets of pots and pans at Macy's that we realized we were woefully under-educated. Coated non-stick or stainless steel? Copper core or aluminum? Three-ply or five-ply? All-Clad or Calphalon? Woah... I'm feeling a little dizzy.

Who knew copper could be so sexy?
This is pretty much how our first pre-registering trip started. If we're going to look like idiots, I prefer we look like idiots at Macy's instead of Williams-Sonoma. But that didn't happen. After a long, careful study of the various WS cookware lines, things weren't much clearer.

And the skies clear...

All morning long, it rained and I anxiously watched the clock. Once noon rolled around, we had a decision to make. Would the rain hold off for our Brandywine Creek State Park shoot? Or would we be forced to reschedule if none of the Plan B's panned out?

Just as I was ready to leave the office for the make-up appointment, my phone rang. It was Mr. P. And he had good news. Really good news. I squealed (quietly) and left in an excited flurry with a stupid grin on my face. The rain didn't stop. In fact, it poured on the hour drive to and from the make-up appointment. But it didn't matter - I was so thrilled it was all working out.

(I heart this shot.)
My car practically came to a screeching halt outside the house with 10 minutes to spare. After a quick change of clothes, inhaling some nachos and maybe half a Captain 'n Ginger, we grabbed the props and rain gear and were out the door.