Petals & Posies

During our trip back to Iowa, we had the chance to meet with our florist. My family has been using Carmen's for everything for years and years, to the point where I'm pretty sure if my dad forgets to order for my mom's anniversary, they call him and remind him.

The best part of working with them is that they already know me. Our particular florist, Debbie, is someone I've known for years. Her daughter and I graduated high school together, and were involved in church youth group a long time ago. It is one of those nice, comfortable, easy relationships with someone you've known forever.

Debbie and I chatted via email for a few weeks prior to our visit. I'd pinned some ideas of flowers that I'd liked and sent her a list, and she let me know what their supplier would be able to provide during our wedding. Unfortunately, the downside of an August wedding is that a couple of my favorites, peonies and tulips, are going to be too hard to get. But, Debbie is going to bring some awesome flowers. Here are some of the photos I sent her for inspiration:

via Style Me Pretty

via Wedding Obesssion - Could basically duplicate the one on the left and I'd be happy

via Brides

We walked through a whole list of who will get what. My bouquet will be mostly blush colored with some ivory, and the girls will have mostly ivory with some blush, and both will have the brunia berries and lambs ear or dusty miller. Our mom's are getting wrist corsages, as is my brother's girlfriend, who will hopefully also be our ceremony musician.

She also had some fantastic ideas for our centerpieces. Awhile back, I saw this picture and fell in love:

via Buzzfeed

Seriously, how adorable is that? My parents have been assigned the task of gathering books. I had planned on buying gold plate stands to prop the books up, but when I showed Debbie this, she had a better idea. A few days after we got back home from our trip, she sent me this:

I love how she incorporated the book into the arrangement. These were just the flowers she had available, not necessarily what she'll be using for real. We talked with her about adding more flower, less greenery. We're also going to hopefully do half of the tables like this, half with a large manzanita branch as the focal point. When I go back in April, I'll meet with her again and see what we can do. 

Once Upon a Time...

Although nothing is official yet in terms of bridesmaids dresses, the style is still up for grabs. But, I've been spending quite a bit of time looking at swatches compared to the styles I tried on with MaidoH A and FSIL C, and I have a pretty decent direction we're moving in. I still want to try dresses with my other three lovely ladies, but that will have to wait until I get back to Iowa (and possibly down to Oklahoma, or get BM E up to Iowa at the same time).

Anyway, after seeing it pop on Facebook a number of times, I logged on to Weddington Way. If you are thinking you've got a color family you like, but want to see the options (with the understanding that digital is different, of course) then Weddington Way is a great resource. They allow you to browse dresses not just by blue, but by different categories of blue, then all the way down to specific colors by designers. Or, you can choose features of a style you like (i.e. short, one shoulder, and satin) and see what colors are available.

The other thing that was AMAZING, was getting one free swatch of ANY of the colors. And, because I was able to narrow down between colors I'd liked and the styles the girls had tried on, I was able to pinpoint Alfred Angelo's Once Upon a Time.

Here's the number one contender right now:

via Weddington Way

Adorable, right? I got the swatch in the mail, and it is (to me at least) a barely tiny bit greener blue/grey than the one you see above, which at least on my computer has purplish undertones. I was admiring the swatch, noting how pretty it was and how much I liked it, when it hit me.

I'd seen this color before.

Mr. Moose was not impressed

The swatch is a slightly more blue of pretty much our entire living room's decor. The paint on our walls, which was based off of the blue in the painting Mr. C's mom got for me after grad school graduation, the blanket and pillows I've had since college, you name it, I probably have it in that color. At least I'm consistent?

A Lovely Sunday Dress Shopping Excursion: Danielle's

On Sunday, I had an amazing but exhausting day with my MaidoH, aka and my FSIL. We went to three different bridal shops in the area (the only ones open on Sundays) and tried on both bridesmaids and bridal gowns.

At our first shop, we looked at bridesmaids dresses. When I called earlier in the week, they told me they didn't take appointments, and when we got there they let us look through samples to see which designers have the color I'm looking for, and then just pull whatever we wanted to try on. It was pretty chaotic, but actually I think worked pretty well. We're aiming for something a little more formal to keep up with the venue, and hopefully in a dusty blue color, ala this inspiration board:

via Chic Vintage Brides

Looking through swatches, we decided to focus on gowns from the designers Alfred Angelo and Jasmine. The other consideration is that I, like many, have a wide variety of heights and busts for my girls, and want to find something that everyone is going to feel comfortable and beautiful in. This meant we were looking for things that had at least one strap, and a thick enough strap to hide a bra. Sorry, spaghetti!

Here's what we came up with"

Liked the Alfred Angelo in red on FSIL C, although in retrospect the flower seems a bit big. MaidoH A looked adorable in this light blue Alfred Angelo, but we decided that anything chiffon seemed a bit informal compared to the venue. 

We all universally hated the yellow color on this one, but thought this style from Jasmine's B2 line was cute 

MaidoH A rocked this gown, although turns out that it is actually by Jordan and doesn't come in our color

Now I had MaidoH A try this one on not for the style but for the color, which is Alfred Angelo's Once Upon a Time and the closest we'll get from them to my blue. The dress FSIL C is wearing doesn't show very well here as it is way too big on her, but was another Alfred Angelo and probably the dress we liked the best from the first shop! 

Wedding Craft One Conclusion, or Please, Please, Please

Check out Part One of this post!

Sorry to leave you hanging with that last post, but I wanted to make sure all of my girls had received their
necklaces before I gave too much away. Actually, I totally blabbed with my mad and matron of honors and asked them before they got them, but patience has never been my virtue.

So, the big reveal!

We'll have to see how many knots actually get tied, but I thought it was cute. I won't make them actually wear the necklaces day of if they don't want or if they find something better, but my dear future sister-in-law put it on right away :) Made me pretty darn happy!

Here's a look at the supplies:

The papers I designed myself on InDesign at work over my lunch breaks. Nothing too exciting, but they get the job done. I printed them on some leftover thick paper we had sitting around the apartment, cut them apart using my fun little paper cutter, punched the holes, slipped the ends of the necklaces in, and then put them in the boxes. 

I had planned on purchasing boxes online, and had actually placed an order when my coworker asked if I had any need for some old cardboard jewelry boxes she was getting rid of in our gift shop. Heck yes I did! She gave me a stack, and saved me a few bucks. Honestly, the biggest expense was shipping them to my ladies across the country!

I'm so glad I did these. They came together really well, only took about an hour when it was all said and done! 

Wedding Craft Number One, Or Hopefully No Green Necks

So, as I've mentioned before, Pinterest is a wonderful and terrible thing. There are so many IDEAS, which also means there are so MANY ideas. It can be a little dangerous. But, pretty early on, I found one that I knew I wanted to do.

I have a number of remarkably special women in my life, but for me knowing which of those women to ask to stand with us was pretty easy. There are other great women not in the bridal party that I am really hoping to include in other ways, because gosh I'm lucky and know a lot of amazing women.

But, I wanted something special to ask my bridal party. On pinterest, there were lots of suggestions, but this was my favorite:

Via Cafe and Cream

I debated for quite some time about the type of jewelry to get for the girls. Finally, I decided on a necklace. Most of my girls don't wear extra rings or bracelets, so it was a pretty easy choice. I also wanted something in a knot or bow shape. Initially, I looked on Etsy, and did actually find a necklace I liked until I did the math and realized that, for five girls, I'd be looking at over $75. 

In the grand scheme that isn't terrible, but I wanted to see if I could find a less expensive option that I still liked. After much web browsing, I found an adorable necklace from Forever 21. I don't think the girls will mind me telling you that the final tally was $1.80 a pop, and I really don't think they look cheap at all. The true test is if they turn anybody's necks' green.