terrariums

terrariums are fun! and a serious creative challenge which I embrace. here is my first one. i'm really liking the idea of including shells and sea fossils to the little worlds...

i'm back

i know i left for a while. i was in the black hole period of planning. but now i'm jobless and have all sorts of time to think about my wedding details. perhaps this is a good place to mind dump. here is what is in my mind. [if I could draw a pie chart of how much time each thing is taking i would, but instead i'll just list them according to how much space they are taking in my brain. or what has popped up recently. we'll see..]

1. invitations: they must be done. soon. and printed. soon. and sent. yesterday. i wish i had a million dollars to get them calligraphied.
2. hotel blocks: shit. i should've started this silly process sooner
3. photographer: to pay or not to pay. that is the question. i want my girls in photos with me. i want great engagement photos. what to wear for engagement photos.
4. reception details: terrariums. glass. table runners. typewriter. guest games. photo booth. alcohol. candles. music. favors. flowers. traditions. dessert.
5. ceremony details: officiant. readings. vows. order. lighting. seating. stella. walking down the 'aisle'. post-ceremony alone time. gift for chris. music.
6. the dress: hair piece. veil. ring to cover tattoo. dermablend to cover other tattoo. earrings. post-ceremony look. petticoat. re-pressing the pleats. my arms better be 10 lbs. lighter. where to get my spray tan.
7. the guests: how will we make their stay lovely? saturday brunch. what will they do if we dont have all the 'usual' wedding stuff at the reception?
8. the timeline. so many things must fall into place. i dont want to be the one to make sure they do.
9. registry. how does anyone do this? can we just have some cash? can someone at least tell me what knives to register for?
10. the marriage. the sick thing is that i have completely disconnected from this element... you know, the thing this is all for? i know why i love him but i forget that a relationship needs nourishment and care. like a garden and i love gardening...


but goddamn! those effing details! arggggg!

ohyes. i forgot:

rings
parent gifts [although i've already handled the moms and sister]
thank you cards
programs
other decor [framed pics?]
hotel room for us
transportation
what to wear before what to really wear
shoes
some sort of coat thing [fake fur shrug?]
mini-honeymoon


perhaps more. i'll come back if i have to :)

where is the love?

i had to take a break. the blogs were making me crazy. i was REALLY turning into 'that girl' and lets face it folks--we're planning a PARTY. a really awesome party, but a party nonetheless. at this point i really am more interested in the ceremony and the things i would like to do to have special and memorable moments with my new husband. i want to remember that stuff the most. i have been much better about reading and detaching and still finding little rituals that others have done which feed my own creativity of what I'd like to do before and after my ceremony.

and i'm feeling much more peaceful in general about the whole thing. people get married all the time. and i really want to enjoy engagement. its such a lovely time and it is a unique time which we will only get once.

so, this week we will choose one caterer, let another one down, start to design our invitations and book blocks of rooms at hotels. the plans take care of themselves really.

:)

with limits come freedom...

i cannot even tell you how nice it is to have an actual direction of a 'look' for the wedding. [never let me utter the word 'theme'] it is just the clarity i need to move forward. it is heartwarming to know that what everyone said was right--"just stick to what you want, remember its YOUR wedding." Well, that last part isn't really true, but the more i just kept gathering visuals and things i like the more it seemed that the collection of patterns, bold graphics, deep colors and plantlife all led to what i already knew: i love art deco! an art movement which bled into the next art movement, art nouveau, which i love as well! [maybe more] and if i keep those elements in mind as i imagine the scene, it really helps to eliminate clutter. like, i have a desktop folder FULL of adorable paper and cloth dangly room decor pics which in the end has no place at my wedding.

anyhow, lots of talking to offer my first inspiration board. is it too all over the place? do you get it?



[oy. now to figure out where i got all this stuff. this was mostly pre-me-knowing-i-would-need-to-know-credits. def the flowers are from saipua pink pic from flickr]

if i find the others in my inter-travels i will update

but for now, lets just go ahead and buy one of all of these from etsy store, romancing the bling

rehearsal dinner

a.k.a. THANKSGIVING

currently considering how to have a lovely evening the night before the wedding. and to do it on the cheap. pot luck? where?

wait. pot luck is a great idea. now the where....




[i am a flickr whore]

yesssss

This is what I'm talkin about



[stolen from flickr]

and this as well:



[also stolen from flickr]

These are the starts of my impending inspiration board. its all about art deco and art nouveau. strong graphics, great color palettes, and angular structure developing into drippy, liquid imagery. love it.

StheD's

Of course I had to go DIY with the STD's [how is it acceptable to have that be the accepted acronym?]

Anyhow, we used this pic from a trip to Mexico:



And put the text on like it was painted on the ground:





Then when you flip it over it's got more details and the infrared version [which is more of a midnight blue]



then it will be in a vellum envelope with these little return address dots and big yellow or grey dots for the mailing addresses. Which i will write by hand. yikes. i better practice my penmanship....perhaps we will figure out what a "mail merge" is and print them. hmmmmm



[this pic was of the first 'draft' of a completed std]

also we got these stamps

there. first whole big production thing done. we even got our own domain name! [yooouuu're sooo vain...]

:)

[update--in the end, addressees here handwritten by myself and super-friend, sarah. little return address dots were printed in a sweet little, tiny, print font and placed on the back of the envelopes. the cards were also enlarged to fill the envelope]

ps... now i have 175 vellum envelopes left. i guess we know one element of the official invites..

juanita kwan

i have to include this little 'thing' that is happening in the thick of my beau and i preparing to spend the rest of our lives together. a little puppy [or really, a mature little chihuahua/chinese crested mix, i think] has entered our lives via the alley behind where I work. she was roaming free, obviously in the wrong place, but definitely belonging to someone. anyhow, long story short, we are now fostering her and i am madly in love. i have done all the things i should do to find her owner, and will do more after the weekend. but for now, it is better to love and lose than to never have loved at all. sigh.

new favorite site

Once Wed

that is all.

what's really going on

i'm in information overload right now. i cry at every blog. i want every pretty thing i see. i fear that there is no way for me to be whatever perfect size i need to be before altering my dress. i want the perfect shrug. i want the perfect photos. i'm turning into bridezilla, but only towards myself.

i have now ventured into the world of 'i should do this for a living' which i bet every [almost every] bride-to-be wanders into at some point. i mean, as long as i am working a full time job AND planning a wedding which is at the very least a part time job--maybe i should just quit the one job and be the wedding planner. but not really.

we could get into all the other things i would rather be doing than my actual job, but planning my wedding is only one of them.

right now my photo project is the only daily and consistent thing that i am doing which pushes me to consider artistic inspiration daily for the wedding. otherwise, i peruse the wedding blogs, which intermittently make me weepy because of all the love i see in the photos, or overwhelmed because my wedding will NEVER BE THIS PERFECT. my family is too crazy, my budget it too low, i dont have a team of friends who can be my little on-site coordinators and i cant afford a wedding planner. I'm a crafty girl, i prefer to do things myself [some might refer to this as 'control issues'] but the thought of that reception unfolding in a way that i dont have to pay attention to seems impossible.

and catering. hooollleeee shit. catering. i cant wait to figure out how that will play out. i am NOT paying $8k for effing food! but i fear that if i dont spend the $$, i wont have the smooth reception. like, the experienced, expensive caterers take care of everything and make it worth all the dough. but i am ready to order pizza and Chipotle at this point.

yikes. this is a frustrated post. here's what i really wanted to show:



from style me pretty

look at that fur shrug. ADORABLE. and mostly, look at that little pic at the bottom left. i love this couple. they are embracing their winter wedding. something i hope to be able to do [wait, my wedding is in winter??]

ok. all for now. must torture myself with more pics of bliss! :)

262. no, 303.

To re-cap:

girl and boy fall in love.
boy asks girl to marry him.
girl wants sweet country wedding and city reception
family wants something else
girl tries and tries to figure out alternatives
family continues to drive girl batty
money starts to win
reality starts to bite...

girl decides to let the dream go.
have the whole thing in chicago.
only if she gets this space.


we even had a [non refundable] deposit down on the first place. yikes. i'm crazy. but this space is worth it. totally.

new wedding. new vision. i'm relieved.

SO my photo project [which is a version of a 365 project] I started 262 days before my previous wedding date, is now called 303. new date: november 26th 2010. thats right. a friday wedding. the friday after thanksgiving. teehee. cant i do anything easy?

now. on to the new vision...



[photo courtesy of ??? I promise to get better at this]

gah!

You're killing me

http://fleursnyc.wordpress.com/

and you:



and you:



and you:




and you:



and lots more of you, but i digress..

I am also in love with the idea of getting married on a farm. in kentucky. totally putting my eggs in one very fragile basket right now. it would be just as i really want and probably 1/4 the cost. and so fun. i would love bbq and graeter's ice cream for dessert. and the obligatory 'riding the tractor' pic.

I also am in love with a wedding planner, but might not need to have if the wedding moves to kentucky. i can sort of afford her, but would love to not spend california money. feel me?

and then i can do stuff like this:



photos grabbed, copied, coveted and dreamed about found in Fleurs, Saipua, and one other that i cant remember but is proabably one of the links i have on the side there...[sorry, that was sloppy of me]

One more: from citylady countrygirl

have you ever seen anything so utterly perfect in your entire life? its like they opened up my skull, looked inside of my brain and made a picture of my wish. how do i make this happen?

i am a princess

and i deserve the wedding i want.
i deserve the wedding i want
i deserve the wedding i want

i deserve the wedding i want:




look at that beautiful table [board swiped from snippet and ink]

and this [also swiped from snippet and ink :


lose the mass amount of chairs and focus on the square with the banjo player in it. you see this image. THIS is the dinner i want. loose. easy. peaceful. smiling. delightful. in sonoma. where no one lives.

i am a princess [i suppose]

things are shaking out

So we looked at three spaces for the reception, and have decided on Prairie Production. Here it is all naked and waiting to be set up:




So far it seems the couple that run it are lovely and it should be a fun space to dress up. here's more pics from their site which shows how others have planned it out, but I think my 'team' and I will do something much different.

We also looked at the space A New Leaf has in Lincoln Park:



This place is gorgeous, but has a couple levels, which didn't feel was right for our reception, but I would love to figure out another way to use the space. When we were there they were setting up for a Bat Mitzvah party.



This was the space upstairs [people have used it as a chapel]:



Too bad it wasn't the right fit. I took zillions of pics and their space is adjacent to one of their flower shops. I like to go in their shop just to take pictures.





They have a candle area downstairs that is such great eyecandy:










We also stopped in at West Loop Studio which was nice, but small, and way overpriced for 'nice but small.' He had some great pieces of furniture in there, though! And a little room he uses as a sort of photo booth where he takes pics [he's a photog] of guests with props and hats, etc..We are going to steal this idea and just set up our own area somewhere in the space [somehow we will figure this out]

After a day of perusing spaces, I let go of the space I really wanted [it was too expensive but I didnt care--I WANTED IT], we decided on Prairie. It was reasonable for the season [3500K] the space was big and grand, and the catering and liquor options were completely open. done. now. to convince the family that the Saturday after TGiving is ok....

Then we can have fun, right?

so this is what it is like...

It is one month and two weeks since my beloved proposed to me.

I had one lovely night and brief moments of the morning to enjoy that news with only him. Then we started to tell people.

First piece of advice: savor every minute of being engaged and no one knowing. it's glorious

Two weeks later we had a trip to Mexico planned with my folks and by then my fiance and I had dreamt up a beautiful ceremony idea: in Sonoma, in a rental estate home with our immediate family and friends surrounding us. I could see all their smilng faces, the beautiful landscape, sunshine glistening on everyone's hair, and Chris and I joining forces for life.

And then the ickiness began. Mom didn't understand why my great-aunt Rhoda wouldn't be invited[to the ceremony]. Why did you pick California? "You know, people arent going to want to give you gifts if you dont invite them to the ceremony..." GROSS! She also "always pictured [me] getting married on a beach" What?? I don't ever go to the beach. With this alabaster skin, are you kidding? Whose wedding exactly are you speaking of?

Long story short, it is now 1 month and 2 weeks since we got engaged. Yesterday I had my first crying breakdown and 2nd realization that this may not be as much fun as I had hoped.

But here's what WAS fun. buying 25,000 bridal magazines. Oh, and books. Oh, and reading every blog ever and saving countless images and sites to folders and bookmarks on my computer.

All of that seems like so long ago because NOW I have to 'work with' my parents to find this perfect estate home in addition to a local spot in my city for the reception. I have imagined myself into a really challenging, detail-oriented wedding plan and I want to go back to it all being thinking about pretty stuff. Paper poms, flowers, kitten heel shoes, make up and accessories. how I'll dress up the little girl. How I'll dress up my future husband. The fun stuff.

I can only imagine that the girls that have fun with all this either have amazing parents who actually let them do whatever they want [with the money that they give] or they are just going to do it themselves on a showstring budget but with no one to have to answer to. I wonder if it is worth it to give up on the Sonoma dream and just have the wedding everyone else has just to save frustration.

This is where I am at right now. I would rather post pretty pictures and have a darling and charming first post, but this is what inspired me. Pretty pictures to follow, I'm sure [fingers crossed]