Registry guilt, then elation!

Allison at HaselBride did a post on unusual registry items yesterday, so I thought I'd follow with "registering at unusual places, and the fallout." I've talked to many women getting married who dread the process of registering and this, friends, is a mindset utterly foreign to me and my product loving self. I've pretty much had most of ours picked out for the last 5 years, quietly waiting for day we would declare our everlasting love by registering for items we COULD live without but would prefer not, to since we have the choice thank you.



This doesn't mean that I don't find the whole concept of telling people in no uncertain terms what you want, and then expecting these items to show up at your door in the months before and after your wedding, a little bizarre. Especially when you are 1) a kitchen/food junkie and have essentially been receiving big ticket registry-type items for christmas and birthday for the last 5 years so you really don't need anything, and 2) already live with future husband and really don't need wedding guests to "help you start your new home together." I mean I'll take it, but I'm just saying.

So my plan for the registry was to only request things we really wanted/needed, ensuring that our lists didn't seem greedy, inappropriate, or unnecessary. And to register for things that are thoughtful and beautiful so everyone feels like they get to give a good present, no matter how big or small. To me this means no registry at macys or crate and barrel, which turns out to be confusing for many people.

Which brings me to my point. Apparently some people still like to go IN PERSON and pick out presents. And when the only store that is convenient to everyone (Sur la Table) on your registry only has 5 items on it, people start to get a little huffy. My grandma, upon hearing of this travesty from one of her friends, almost insisted that I add more things. And I resisted people, I did. I was trying to be practical, (shout out to Meg at A Practical Wedding, this is the only practical thing I can think of that I've done so far), by only requesting things we really thought we should have.

But then yesterday at lunch, I caved. I hadn't thought of it, but one can actually go into a store and register for items in person! How quaint! I suppose this is how people did it back in the old days now that I think about it. So with this new tidbit of inspiration, I entered Sur la Table. At which point they hand you a gun and you troll the aisles for anything that strikes your fancy. Amazing! I have to admit, it was oddly satisfying. And as with everything wedding, I've learned that you can resist up to a certain point, hold dear your bridal beliefs, and then finally when your energy is low and your impenetrable outer shell shows weakness, you just let the wedding flow take you. And it's totally fine, you come to see.



beautiful things we would like, from Heath.

DIY gocco save-the-date

We are nearing the 3 month mark. I remember reading wedding blogs last year thinking, WHOA those girls only have 3 months to go. That must be a trip. And now here I am, almost there myself. SO now's when the hardcore DIY projects start coming out.

I would classify myself is as pretty determined DIY bride. Most of my projects haven't made their worldly appearance yet, (they are fairly comfortable relaxing in my head or on a list at this point), but I thought I'd start sharing what has gone down so far.

GOCCO! i love gocco. in the course of this project, i learned everything one should NOT attempt when using gocco. Literally had to redesign our save-the-date at least 3 or 4 times during the printing process. I was, shall we say, ambitious about what one can achieve with their plastic screen printing toy. Which means, with each screen, I realized the next wasn't going to work the way I imagined. le sigh.

So here they are... the back inspired by a vintage postcard, the front was, well, whatever I could cobble together during multiple near disasters in printing. There is another shot of the front in the picture from my post on paint chips. And my original post card inspiration came from these (i wrote about them on our office blog before I had my own).

enjoy:



Notice how the white ink is less than ideally legible on recycled chip board. oops.

vintage bags for brides, etc.

These popped up on design*sponge this morning. A must have for modern vintage wedding? Or of course any other occasion that calls for a beautiful little clutchy-thing.



New item to obsess about, which is ALL I need.

from Charlotte Casadejus... and everything is beautiful on her site.

paint chips are your friends

In the struggle to pick a "palette" for our wedding (ugh, who wants to be chained to one group of colors?) I became quite good friends with our neighborhood paint stores. Talk about the most excellent free resource out there. HUNDREDS of shades of hundreds of colors. Home Depot will work in a pinch, but swing by a real paint store and 1) your options expand and 2) the paint chips get bigger.



We are settling in to vintage floral greens, black, off white, and yet to be determined support colors. See my vintage flower frogs (which match my paint chips perfectly)? I have ~70 of those and we're using them for our escort card display. I was beside myself with happiness when I came up with the idea. Never seen it done before! I now know why. I have fought long and hard on ebay for my collection and between you and me, this hasn't turned out to be an inexpensive DIY project. But I am too committed to turn back. And they are so cute. I'll be selling them after the wedding if anyone's interested.

runway bride-wear

So I'm no expert, but it seems to me that if you're in the market for a minimally "bridal" feeling wedding dress, you should skip the bridal lines altogether and spend your money on something straight from the runway. I would venture to guess that your money will go farther and you'll potentially have a dress you may even wear again. That is, I guess, if you're willing to spend a bit on your dress and you are also the type that frequents or plans to frequent in your married future the sorts of events that warrant the wearing of long, fancy dresses.

The Resort 2009 looks have, if nothing else, some beautiful dresses for lusting after. My favorites are the top left... (ooh stripes!) and the bottom right... rehearsal dinner? I'm trying to concoct SOME excuse... Obviously I'm feeling the black and white thing right now.



All from Style.com, from to left to right, top to bottom: Emanuel Ungaro (beautiful collection fyi), Marchesa, Monique Lhuillier, can't remember, Diane von Furstenberg, Diane von Furstenberg.

the great honeymoon dilemma

SERIOUSLY as if planning a wedding wasn't obsessive enough, try choosing where to go on your honeymoon. I mean the wedding is the wedding. It needs to be as near to perfect as possible, obviously, but in the end it's like maybe 8 hours long. Granted, it is truly one of the most important days of your life... but the honeymoon. The honeymoon goes on for days, and if you're lucky perhaps weeks and weeks. yum.



We had a rough time making a decision, I can tell you that. But harder was honestly finding amazing places to visit in the countries we were considering. Generic internet research wasn't working for me and I usually consider myself quite savvy in this department.

Of course you can go to the Four Seasons pretty much anywhere and have an amazing vacation. (I was tempted by their new resort opening in Bora Bora this September). But you can do that when you're old and rich too. We wanted something interesting.

So I realized, let professionals do the research for you. And I don't mean a travel agent. Here are a few great resources I've relied on:

Kiwi Collection
Tablet Hotels
i-escape
New York Times Travel
LA Times Travel
Conde Nast Traveller
Concierge.com

(image from Pousada Maravilha in Fernando de Noronha, Brazil)

style me pretty color palette contest

The SMP color palette contest ended today and guess what? I actually entered! Not because I thought I would win or necessarily WANT to win (though I certainly wouldn't be mad about a $250 gift card to anywhere). But I had the most perfectly romantic image to start with, so I actually had no choice.



(Top image: Flickr user jasfitz, Flowers: Ariella Chezar, Dress: Vogue 1953 via Conde Nast, Post card invite: Bird and Banner, Ranunculus: Saipua, Vintage dress: Dulcinée)

sophisticated romantic

This is part for everyone (because it's a beautiful photo), part for me (because I love emerald green), and lots for Melanie (my future sister-in-law) because she is thinking 1950's monte carlo style for her september 2009 wedding. I LOVE the idea of colored elbow length gloves. so unexpected and fun.



(again from conde nast, 1953 Vogue.)

dress me up groom

One of the things I dislike the most in weddings (as far as the fashion aspect goes at least) is when the groom looks just like his groomsmen. eew. We're trying to figure out what Brock should wear and one thing on my mind is the ever-stylish and pleasantly retro white dinner jacket. I happened upon McDreamy wearing just the outfit I have in mind in a recent issue of Mens Vogue! total score. (please excuse the tattered edges, i've been toting it around in an issue of Martha since tearing it out a month or so ago.)

Totally love the no tie, effortlessly sophisticated vibe. I think we're going for a modern frank sinatra meets james bond meets (of course) brad pitt? It feels palm springs-y no? We are on a dinner jacket mission this weekend.

old hollywood wedding style

We're getting married in a little boutique hotel built in the 30's (by a real mobster!) in downtown Palm Springs. The vibe is a little old hollywood spanish/mediterranean so I definitely want a bit of that reflected in our wedding. My dress and my ring(s) both have that feeling so we're on the right track! (more on those later). Here's a bit of inspiration on what is turning out be vintage friday.



*all but the bottom left are from Conde Nast. Bottom left from Bacara. Thanks FuriKuri for pointing me in the right direction.

for feeling dramatic and bridal

Tim Walker at the London Design Museum, via oh joy. Amazing work. Might need the book. But the pound is killing me.



An alternate interpretation of drama. Feels like a sweet summer firefly wedding.

uncommon invitation inspiration

Next on my long and scary list of things to do for the wedding is design and print our invitations, escort cards, menus, coasters, programs, signs, etc. I am feeling highly ambitious at the moment so it's likely that I won't get to everything I'm planning to, but might as well start strong. SO, pretty much all I've done is obsessively research invitations and the like online. Good at surfing the internet, bad at actually starting the project.

In my research I've been watching a little series on "branding your wedding" over at Elizabeth Anne Designs. Which had me thinking of existing brands that are more than wedding worthy already. Here's a few favorites that would be excellent starting points for 4 very different weddings:

Dustin Edward Arnold

You must must check this out on his site because it's so much more dramatic when your see the entire suite big and dark and glossy. This would easily make a gorgeous invitation style for the ultra sophisticated Kelly Wearstler inspired bride. I'm definitely using a lil' of this for my own designs.

Sant Ambroeus Ristorante (by Mucca Design)

Just the cutest thing pretty much ever. Last time I was in New York I unexpectedly happened upon Sant Ambroeus while shopping up Madison Ave with my friend Allison. I practically accosted the poor hostess in seach of ANYTHING I could take home with me. Luckily I discovered the requisite bowl of matches near the door, of which I only took 5, which I thought showed great restraint.

La Condesa (and anything else by Mucca Design)

Seriously making me want to reconsider Palm Springs in favor of Mexico. Need multiple coaster designs. Need.

Mrs Meyers Clean Day

Love this brand and am a faithful user not only because of it's retro cuteness and yummy smells, but also because of it's enviro-friendly-ness. These pictures don't do the packaging justice really, but I thinking Mrs Meyers would be super inspiration for a bright, retro theme.

bride lust: honeymoon luggage

I'm imagining this to be the most beautifully crafted soft-sided luggage ever created. Now I know it IS J.Crew but the price puts it on the same level as LV. Expectations are are running rampant. Mustn't we arrive impossibly fresh and stylish to our honeymoon destination? After 18 months of planning for the wedding, how can we just cobble together the best part (4 week honeymoon, yes!!!) with any old thing laying around the storage closet???

The J.Crew Lugano Collection. NEED.

real wedding, georgia style

Next week I'm heading south for the wedding of one of my bestest friends, Laura. Laura and her hubby-to-be live in Athens, Georgia and have an amazingly rich life made up of running an organic farm, owning a delicious, pioneering restaurant and hip, local bar, plus Laura is a nurse and Jason is finishing his PhD program at UGA. They have carved out an enviable existence in their little corner of the south. And their wedding is going to be rad! Hopefully I'll be back with some "real wedding" type photos to share, but for now, here's an inspiration board I put together for Laura earlier in the spring.

The wedding is at Tucker Plantation, in the countryside outside of Athens and it will be catered by their restaurant, farm255, which is fed by the farm, fullmoon co-op. Laura is growing most of the flowers for decoration and almost everything used in their celebration is from friends and local vendors. It's like the epitome of a "green" wedding, without really trying. Except that we are all flying across the country to be there of course, but we bought our terra passes like good, environmentally-friendly citizens.

Board credits: most of the images I saved before I had designs on blogging, so I'm not sure where all of them are from... eek! But I would guess, martha stewart and Snippet & Ink are major contributers. The dress is Alix & Kelly, the invite is Pica Press, the beet card is Yee-Haw Industries, the hair piece is Easter Yu.

love*jenna

I am SO excited about our calligrapher, Jenna Hein. She is all the rage right now on wedding blogs so luckily we snapped her up before her popularity is such that she doesn't have time for the weddings of mere mortals like us.

Jenna is actually a good friend of my friend Amanda, who introduced Jenna's beautiful work to me last year. In the abyss of indecision that has defined my wedding planning skills, there have been few things that I have been SURE of from the start. First came our photographer, Michéle M. Waite (who I stalked on the internet for months before we had a date to book her). And then came Jenna's calligraphy. Swoon. I'm not doing it justice here, but she's been featured on Brooklyn Bride, Thoughtful Day, and Design*Sponge (via the guest blog).

Jenna did a whole packet of different versions of our names, our date, and our venue for me to use on our website and for our invitations. The website is up, thank god, and now I'm super inspired to do our invites! Must find time to start those....

mini dress

If I was going to wear a mini-dress for my wedding, (and I was seriously considering it being that our wedding is in Palm Springs), this would have to be it.

I saw this little beauty many moons ago in my early days of wedding blog obsessing, but had forgotten about it until Peonies and Polaroids reminded me with her Marchesa post today.

When I first saw it, it filled me with a panic that can only be described with 3 words: NEED. BAD. NOW. Followed by at least an hour of my most creative internet research tactics, hoping beyond hope that I would discover the last remaining online retailer selling the item in question, who would have it in stock, in my size, on sale. A girl can dream.

happy succulents

I'm planning to use succulents in the centerpieces and because they are so beautiful and so easy to grow I figured I'd try to grow the ones for the wedding myself. I love succulents unconditionally for many reasons, but they are especially great for our wedding because 1) the wedding is Palm Springs and succulents seem desert-y and 2) they are live plants (as opposed to cut flowers) making them less wasteful and green.

I'm still living in the fantasy where my mom and I do all the flowers ourselves. Grow succulent babies, grow!

flowers, take one

For Mother's Day, we hosted brunch for 20 in our large and rather wild backyard. It was delicious and sunny and really fun (I do love a good get together at our house), but more importantly it was my mom's and my first chance to test out flowers for the wedding. Such a good sport, my mom. Saturday morning, we braved the pre-Mother's Day streets of downtown's infamous Flower Market. Wha-wha wee-wha. It is crazy down there! But we did make it back with a car full of test flowers. Now I imagine the whole experience could have been more successful had I actually made use of the hours of research I've done for our wedding flowers and planned a little before just jumping into the ruckus. But alas, not really my style. Here we go:

And as an added bonus I took my mom to Alix & Kelly, the designers of what I think is MY DRESS, whose beautiful studio is just a few blocks from the market in the fashion district.