Hello, again.

It's been four months since our wedding. It feels more like a year. You would think post-wedding, I'd have all this free time. Especially since I am not blogging as heavily as before (read: once a month if you're still following). Yet, I find myself busy. Yes, work and the usual obligations are there. But this busy is more of a in-my-head-busy, planning-busy. I love planning and thinking up projects for the hazy future.

Last month, I stumbled across a "planning enabler": Pinterest. If you're one of the few uninitiated, you owe it to yourself to take a look. This inspiration pinboard community was made for the visually-oriented planner. The best feature is seeing what my friends and fellow bees pin in real time. I could easily spend my evenings in a pinning and planning daydream. If you're curious, visit me and see what I've been up to.

In the name of productivity, I created a board just for my 101 Things list. Incentive to accomplish... and plan. Ooops. So far, I've knocked out two classic books (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre), ventured away on two weekend trips, dined at new restaurants (Chifa & Meritage in Philly; Rivers at the Watergate in DC), sipped seasonal pumpkin brews (reviews soon on my wine blog), and have every intention of starting some DIY projects this weekend. Maybe a little mercury glass or an early start on the holiday cards.

Whatever it is, I need to close my laptop and be productive before the weekend slips away from me. Are you up to anything particularly interesting this weekend?

Tying the knot

In preparation for our phone meeting with the officiant this Thursday, Mr. P and I are gathering ideas for our ceremony. We approach tasks very differently. Whereas I like to start with the maximum number of possibilities and narrow down from there (lest I miss something awesome), he begins with a much narrower focus and expands outward as necessary...

This explains why I currently have 7 tabs of ceremony inspiration blog posts open in my Safari browser, a wedding workbook (from just-marrieds K&M), and a desktop folder simply titled "ceremony." I'm fully capable of driving myself nuts.

Here's summary of things we'd like to incorporate into our ceremony:

1. Write our own vows.

(Laughing hysterically, still...)
source

Snow Day!

No surprise work is closed today.



It may not look like much, but giant snowflakes have been zipping down for the past few hours. It's supposed to intensify this afternoon so I'm happy to not drive in it even though I could really test out my new tires. Wonder of wonders, a city truck plowed and salted our street. That never happens!

I love waking up to the sound of snow shovels. Without even opening my eyes, I know there's a good chance it'll be a day off. Which is good, because we've got a lot of Wedding Things looming. The not so good part is the next post in my DIY wine bottle series is sitting on my work computer. So that'll have to wait another day or two. Sorry kids!

Party Architecture

As perennial party hosts, we've thrown enough parties to have the basics down. But what about the intangibles that elevate a good party to an awesome party? You know it if you've ever attended a party where something was missing... but you couldn't put your finger on it.

I'd read about "party architecture" on Apartment Therapy a few years back, but now that we're planning a wedding (really just a BIG party), I'm seeing it with new eyes. The four aspects of party architecture are density, structure, lighting and flow.

1. Density - crucial for dinner and dancing. While you don't want to cram your guests around a table for dinner, a packed dance floor is less of an issue. Especially if you have issues about dancing. *raises hand* A crowd can hide a multitude of dancing sins. Unless you're the one in the big white dress. Crap.

Our venue's living room. Our dance floor and DJ booth.

Goldilocks of wedding gowns

Whose been wearing my wedding gown? Uhm, no one, that's who! *

One of the inherent problems with choosing an uncommon wedding dress is you don't have the benefit of seeing it on other brides. Everyone has different taste but seeing how other women accessorize it is oh so helpful. I'm talking about the veil, shoes, hairstyle, jewelry, makeup and more. I'm visual (and a planner) so naturally I googled all the possible name combos to find photos of this elusive gown. Here's what I found:

I Heart Paper Art

Collages by Helen Musselwhite
Probably the easiest to attempt out of everything on this page, but I'm not fooling myself. It's still hard. And time consuming.

Shoe kismet

Aside from keeping my feet happy and having some style, I don't have too many requirements of my shoes. Why would my wedding shoes be any different? I am not one to suffer for fashion. My high arches turn even sneakers into torture after awhile. While I love my stilettos, they are not comfortable for all-day wear, especially when showing house after house or trekking across lawns. My favorite shoes are kitten heels and flats. They're my go-to styles for sophisticated comfort that lasts all day. (I sound like an orthopedic shoe ad...)

Penguins!

Before I even found my dress, I knew I'd wear flats. For so many reasons.

Let the DIY begin!

Once the Evites for our annual NYE party were sent out, it meant our first DIY project was fast approaching.

The Photobooth.

source
Early on, I decided our wedding would have one. D&T's wedding last December was a blast, partly because of their very busy, very funny photobooth that hosted all sorts of mischief during the reception.

Yep, that's us. Being goofy.

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)

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.

Paper bag breathin'

Oh, I have plenty of time. The wedding's about 9 months away.

Umm, I'm not sure where my brain wandered off to because 234 days / 30 days is NOT 9 months. It is in fact 7.8 months! Commence paper bag breathing. Further proof I am not good at math.

I know what's next: lists, checklists and brainstorming bubbles!

Color duel

I’m a green girl. Celadon, moss, jade, kelly, verdis gris... The largest section of my closet and jewelry collection is devoted to this color. The emerald is my favorite gemstone and diamond cut. British racing green on an old Jag – be still my heart.


swatches via 100 Layer Cake
But it wasn’t always my favorite! The chromatic shift started in my mid-20’s. My old standby, blue, became less appealing as I gravitated toward new green. It’s fresh, full of energy yet calming and a chameleon with tremendous range. (In fact, the human eye is capable of differentiating more shades of green than any other color. Green wavelengths between 507-555 nanometers coincide with the most sensitive visual perception of the eye. Maybe I should've warned you I was about to go geeky on you.)

(source)
It’s a natural (hah!) choice for utilizing in our wedding. I was all about green for bridesmaid dresses… until we found our venue and set a date. Our summer garden wedding is already filled with so much green that a grass green-clad ‘maid would disappear into the foliage. After discussing with level-headed BM R, we scrapped green as a leading lady.

But what to replace it with?

Garden of Lust

Does this ever happen to you? You see a store that you're dying to check out, but never get around to it? Well, I finally did it. While we were pre-registering, I begged to peek into the trendy nursery around the corner: Terrain @ Styer's. Styer's was/is a legendary local gardener's resource for years and was recently purchased by Urban Outfitters so the grounds, shop and cafe have a very liberal sprinkling of Anthropologie style. Which just happens to be the look we're going for on our June day.

(allium, fiddlehead fern and mikado)
Lots of design inspiration! Giant blooms of allium, moss and fern terrariums, orchids galore and mounds of succulents. Can I live here, please? Serious garden lust.

Pre-registering: the overachiever's approach to registering

Not yet ready to register? Why pre-register, of course! At least if you're an overachiever... and it's 14 months before your wedding.

After booking our photographer and finding our venue, I was on a streak. It felt good. And I wanted it to continue. Luckily, my suggestion to visit a few stores to preview their inventory met with success. Off we went to Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn to scope out flatware and plates! Mr. P was wonderful and had opinions on each item's usefulness or pro/cons - no sarcasm here. This is a helpful when you're staring down a wall of forks or toasters with a myriad of options. It's like the toothpaste aisle all over again.

Too many options!

Just shoot me

Before Mr. P ever popped the question, I knew a photographer would be one of our Big Three vendors. A love of photography runs deep in my family. Growing up, Dad documented every birthday, family trip, and milestone with camera and/or videocam in hand. There are thousands of photos of us archived at my parents' house. (Which I cannot wait to dig through for projects!) Dad's dad, Pépère, had a serious manual photography hobby. When he passed, Dad inherited his equipment, which included an old Nikon FM that I adopted.

Man, I miss this camera
My first "grown-up" purchase after high school was a Sony Cybershot that went everywhere followed 4 years later by a Canon EOS 300D (still in use). I've definitely followed in Dad and Pépère's footsteps so choosing a wedding photographer was a task I did not take lightly.

High-fives and Hugs

After striking out at so many venues, we started to question if we'd ever find a place to get married. Location is the all-important decision that determines so much: date, attire, food, colors... on and on. If we caved on location, would our wedding still reflect us? And what else would we have to settle for?

Bridesmaid R and I discussed the pros/cons of the many venues. Nothing was clicking. We were running out of viable options. She had seen photos of a friend's wedding at this gorgeous venue, but couldn't remember the name of it. I'd forgotten about it in a week's time, but she followed through (beseechingly emailed the bride) and recommended I check it out. Okay, many well intentioned friends and associates have recommended venues/vendors and none of them panned out. Things were about to turn around!

The mysterious venue was revealed to be...

Bellevue

Yet another venue visit. Today we me the event coordinator at Bellevue for a tour of the mansion. This venue is much closer to what we're looking for: beautiful grounds, outdoor space for a ceremony and dinner plus a gorgeous interior.

Main foyer

Snotorious B.I.G.

There was an abundance of snow this winter. Need a refresher?

Hagley

The 2010 snowstorms really snarled our plans for venue hunting. In my mind, we lost two months of boots on the ground time. And I had this nagging feeling that our elusive venue was being previewed at thisveryminute by a bride and groom who were prepared to write out a check immediately to reserve it. It was probably a really bad case of cabin fever. (Next year, I ought to get away somewhere warm so this doesn't happen again.)

Since we'd only checked out three true venues and two not-so-realistic options, we decided to choose three of our favorites for round two visits in early March. Hagley (yes, another DuPont property) was first up. It was another case of "If I'd known this was here, I would have stopped by sooner". Our first impression of the 235 acres was that it is a shame they don't permit outdoor weddings. Not even ceremonies. No, not even if you bribe them with lots of money. Which we don't have.