I am a craft attempting, comfort food to healthy recipe cooking, sometimes exercising, adventure loving museum curator with a passion for politics, history, my husband, and our cat Mr. Moose.
When people say wedding, I almost always think of this song from My Best Friend's Wedding:
To me, wedding planning so far has been lots of wishing, praying, hoping, and planning. Luckily I've got an incredible team in my corner. They're incredibly supportive, and I can bounce ideas off of them all the time. Eventually, I'll do posts on each of them, so you can see how lucky I've been to have this network that is there to help me out, listen to my ideas, and call me out when I'm being an idiot.
That said, Mr. Burg, MaidoH A, and MatronoH K often get sent pictures or blogs of things that I've found that are awesome. I try to limit myself to things I'll actually be able to use, but every now and then fancy things that are nowhere near our budget catch my eye. We're exceptionally lucky and are receiving financial support from my parents and from Mr. C's, but I don't want to blow their money.
But, as is bound to happen, every so often something sparkly or fun or just downright amazing catches my eye and makes me wish I didn't have student loan bills or you know, basic living expenses so I could spend all of my money on these things. In addition to the finances, some things just seem logistically difficult. Especially when you consider we're in NY and the wedding is in Iowa. Makes things tough sometimes, but that doesn't mean a girl can't dream. Here's a few prime examples:
Take for instance this lovely, elegant statement necklace from BHLDN. It is pearl and blush, which are my two accent colors and would look AWESOME with my dress. The only problem. $480. I can't really justify spending $20 less than my wedding gown on the necklace to wear with it. It sure is pretty though.
Ah, the flower arch. With big, beautiful, puffy, soft, gorgeous flowers that are probably peonies and we're getting married in August. Now, I haven't totally given up on the idea of a floral arch, and Mr. C actually suggested the idea, but I have a hunch this would take a big chunk out of our budget.
This is from the same wedding as the arch from above. Can you tell that I love this wedding? Visually it just has a lot of the softness and elegance that I love, plus that blue color is exactly what I'm aiming for. And I adore the look of this lace overlay on the tablecloth, but yeah, custom designed table linens are WAY out of the budget.
Bakery Beauty Dress via Modcloth (no longer available)
Oh boy. There are some really freaking adorable little white dresses out there. And how adorable are they for things like bridal showers, bachelorette parties, and rehearsal dinners? I wish I could afford one dress for each wedding related event. After all, how many times in your life are you a bride? But I really don't think I can justify spending the money on a new dress for each event. Perhaps this will be a little splurge where I find one dress that will work for multiple events? Or maybe I'll just keep scoping out Kohls, Target, and Marshalls and see if anything jumps out at me. MaidoH A is awesome at scoring deals, so maybe I can ask her to keep her eyes peeled for a good deal.
Oh boy. I want this. Like, I'd forgotten about it until just now and going back into my Pinterest boards and I found it again. This one isn't so much the financial difficulty (although that many books isn't cheap) as the logistics. In the original iteration, this is actually one of two of these little displays, set into a larger wall. I'm not sure how you could do it to make it free-standing. And if we could do it, I'd want to try to find a way to move it down from the ceremony down to the reception.
This is the one I may actually see if I can find a way to make it happen. I haven't yet met a unity ceremony idea that I'm completely enamored with, other than copying my parents idea of giving each other trees. But then tonight, I stumbled across this. I adore glass. One of the neatest museums I've been to (and I've been to a LOT of museums) is the Corning Museum of Glass. What made the trip really phenomenal was getting to do a couple of the workshops while we were there. I also dropped quite a bit of cash in their gift shop, getting ornaments for my whole family. So, when I saw this, I was intrigued. Rather than a simple sand blending ceremony, you purchase various sand colors from the artist. After you've blended them during your ceremony, they form them into these beautiful sculptures or bowls that you can keep forever. You can also purchase ornaments or glass hearts with "your" glass after you've bought the sculpture or bowl. They start at $379 for the sculpture, but man how amazing would it be to have that in your home forever? This may be one of my big wedding splurges.
Apologies for the delay in blogging. Although I won't get into it too much here, my work situation has been exceptionally difficult lately, and has made it hard to focus on things like planning the wedding, coming up with creative recipes, or sprucing up the apartment.
Luckily, we're at a point at least with the wedding where we don't have any immediate to-do's on our list. I'm trying to take the week before Christmas to go back to Iowa, both to see my family and also to do things like meet with florists, go dress shopping with my girls, and actually sit down with my Matron o' H and Bridesmaid S to talk about things. Mr. C will join me at the end of the week to visit the venue, try some macaroons (instead of cake?), and also hopefully do our engagement photos.
The big exciting news right now is that my parents will be visiting for almost a week at the very beginning of November. I haven't seen them since April, which is way, way, way too long. I'm really excited. And, actually, while we'll spend most of the time just enjoying each others company, there are some wedding tasks as well.
First, I get to (finally) show my mom my dress. I actually thought I would call the salon where I bought it to see if they'd mind us coming in to try it on there. Since she wasn't with me when I bought it, maybe that's a way we can still get that experience.
Secondly, we're also looking for my mom's dress! I was browsing around on Pinterest awhile back and saw this beauty:
It is out of the box for my mom, but I think its still very pretty and looks comfortable. Plus the navy I think will go well with the dusty blue for the girls. I sent it to her, and she's ordering it. She'll have it sent to my apartment out here, so she can try it on while she's visiting.
And finally, this will be the first time my parents meet Mr. C's parents. We're really looking forward to that. I love his parents, and am so grateful for the support they've provided me already, and am so happy to be acquiring them as my own family. I'm really excited for them to meet each other, especially because we see a lot of similarities between my mom and Mr. C's dad. Should be fun to see them together in person!
But, that would be a wedding all about me. And I don't want that! The whole point of this is Mr. C and I joining together, so the wedding needs to reflect that. The wedding that Mr. C and I are having is taking place here:
What that means, then, is that I'm having to figure out how to transition the ideas that I had for the first picture into the reality for the second picture. And I'll be honest with you, I haven't figured it out. I've let it stress me out for WEEKS now.
Finally, last night, I realized that it was probably time to call in the professionals. This morning, I called the florist my family has used since forever. We didn't talk flowers, or centerpieces, or bouquets, but they are sending me some information.
Even more reassuring for me was the fact that they did a wedding for a couple who lived in Oregon, and who the florist never actually saw in person. We'll be going back home in December, and so we won't have to be that drastic, but knowing that they are comfortable with long distance correspondence is reassuring.
I'll have to talk with them about more specific flowers and centerpieces and all that before we book with them, of course, but I think I'd forgotten that there are people that do this for a living and was just sort of expecting myself to have to have all of the answers figured out. Thank goodness that's not the case!
"And through this process, I realized that this is what marriage is. It’s making a home, where you are, no matter what the circumstances. It’s being home, whenever you’re with your partner. It’s not waiting for the one-days, and the might-bes, and mourning the could-have-beens. It’s being home. Now." - Meg of APW fame
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.
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?
Ah, Pinterest. The source of so many projects that never leave the comfort of my excessively organized boards. Seriously guys, I have 126 boards to date, and I know that number will grow. Now, before you panic, let's look at cooking. I don't just have one "recipe" board. First, I've separated cooking and baking, because really they are two different things. Then, I've broken cooking down into categories.
Only some of my too many Pinterest boards
Here's a quick screen capture to give you an idea. Crazy, right? To be honest, I've been on leave from work for a month, so I've had some time on my hands. If I'm more honest, it was like this before I took the time off.
Anyway, back to the point. As much as I might pin WAY to many things, Pinterest is a great source of inspiration. I'm a visual thinker, so it really helps me to be able to see projects, instead of just making "to-do" lists that mostly get ignored. What I've done instead is create "to-do" boards focused around specific projects I want to complete. During my time off we've managed to crank out a couple, and I'll get to those, but today I wanted to show you my new necklace holder.
If you aren't familiar with the blog IHeart Organizing, I highly recommend you check it out. I've found some really interesting tips and tricks there! Although I actually have purchased the radiator grate, I decided my first priority was not my earrings by my necklaces. You see, all of my necklaces are currently hanging on an over-the-door rack that hangs on our closet door. Which would be fine if C didn't have to wake up an hour earlier than me. He tries to be sweet and shut the door so the closet light doesn't wake me up, but 3/4 of the time the noise of the necklaces bouncing on the door does.
So, back to the Pinterest board. Were there any good inspiration shots for necklace storage that was similar to the design above that I liked so much? Turns out, there were.
Not only was the last one very close to what I was looking for, but it also came with instructions! The only real adaptation I made was to modify the colors and to add some knobs along the bottom. My bathroom has sort of a transferware theme to it, and so I've been trying to find some great blue and white accessories to add in.
Turns out I'm a bad blogger and didn't take photos throughout the process, but it was pretty easy.
1. Purchased supplies: frame (goodwill), white paint and sponge brushes (Michael's), blue and white knobs (Hobby Lobby), and white hooks (Kmart)
2. Painted frame white. It ended up with sort of a vintage-y look, which wasn't intentional but I think it worked pretty well.
3. Used C's drill to make holes for the knobs and hooks
4. Attached knobs and hooks
5. Realized the drill bit I used for the hooks was too big, so dug out some gorilla glue to make sure they stuck
6. Hung the whole thing on the bathroom wall, and added my necklaces.
Sorry for the poor quality, but here is the end result!
The whole corner, plus the shelves for my knickknacks. Note the goodwill candlestick bracelet/watch holders!
Voila! Not perfect, but for one of my first real "DIY" crafts, not too shabby! I have an oval frame that I'm planning to hang with ribbons across for clips and sunglasses, and I am also planning on converting my oatmeal container into a holder for my headbands, rather than using the towel rack.
So far in the wedding planning process, I've been finding myself reading a lot. Those of you who know me aren't shocked by this. I was the girl who got detention in 6th grade for reading in my reading class. Yup. So naturally, I'd turn to a variety of books and blogs to help me navigate this process. What I've found is that, although it is nice knowing the seventeen ways to fold napkins to make your reception tables look nice, I am searching for what happens that next day.
One of my favorite blogs so far is called A Practical Wedding. I'd got a few of the posts that had popped onto my Pinterest feed, and was intrigued enough that I'm slowly working my way through her archives, from old to new. My favorite part, beyond the just utterly brilliant snark, the unwavering support for equality in marriage, and the sheer levelheadedness of it is the emphasis not so much on the one day as the living your life with another person from that day forward.
In the recent stretch that I've read, there have been a number of posts about defining "wife". What exactly does that mean? How defines it, and how? Sure, we've got the religious and legal definitions. But even those are sticky, as currently only 13 out of our 50 states have bothered to get their heads out of their bums and woken up to equal rights. And, I'm not really down with that whole subservience thing that I often feel gets pushed in the religious quadrent, at least the Catholic part I grew up in.
The other component of this, as Meg over at APW points out, is the often quick transfer of titles from wife to mother. And this is where it sometimes get sticky. Over at her blog, it became an unintended Mom duke fest between Stay at Homes who are happy with their choice and Go To Works who are also happy with their choice. You also had those groups on the sidelines watching it go down; the I Don't Want Kids Evers, the I Don't Want Kids Right Nows, the Maybe Maybe Nots, and the Been Trying But Cannots.
Right now, today at least, I don't necessarily have the answers. I'm going to keep reading the APW posts, because she seems to be in a similar mindset to myself. I'm also reading through the Iowa marriage law, and what legally at least it means. I also have a good friend, soon to be known as Pastor A, and I'll maybe see if I can chat with her about it some.
Mr. C and I during our first Valentine's Day together
To me, right now, being Mr. C's wife means that I will be on his team, no matter what. Everything I do from this point on isn't just about me, it is about our team. And that I can trust him to be on my team too. I know there's more to it than that, but for today at least that seems to be enough.
