Two Weeks

This time in two weeks I'll have a husband. I'll have a ring on my finger and an anniversary date. We've been so busy planning the wedding that I haven't really thought about marriage. Or rather, what it means to be married. I'm no longer scared of the holy matrimony (not like I was 7 years ago good God) but I have this emotional image of what married looks like, feels like, something I've had since I was a child growing up look at all of these marriages and it's strange to think that I'll be stepping into that in just two weeks.

It's not actually very scary. It's not scary at all.

Summer Bridesmaids' Dresses (via Wedding Chicks)

Suuuper cute bridesmaid dresses. This is from the romantic Australian wedding of Audrey and Ben. Check out their table designs. I'm always excited by things that aren't ONLY flowers. They clearly thought about light as a design element...something I really did not. *cough*

Photography: Nathan Wu
Via: Wedding Chicks

Boutonniere (via Once Wed)

Boutonnieres can be anything. Awesome. This is Ryan of Ryan and Chelsey.

check out the really neat altar they designed as well.  l love weddings!

Photography: Austin Gros
Via: Once Wed

Wire Lamp (via Poppytalk)

We are figuring out lights this weekend. Who wants to make 20 of these bad boys from photographer Ashley Ann? OK, so that's not happening but I'm still playing with the idea of going out and finding a bunch of lamp shades. The likelihood of this happening is also small, but maybe some day for a random party in the summer!

Blog trail: Poppytalk, ReadyMade, AshleyAnn (<--- link to her DIY page!)

Yellow Shoes (via Snippet and Ink)

I love these shoes! They're from Target, which automatically means my hugely wide feet are no match for their dainty adorability. (<---Google says that doesn't exist.) But yeah, I can be a teeny tiny envious of Devin's feet as she married Stephen. I do not however envy the work that must have gone into her 300 person wedding. Looks like it came off without a hitch!

Photography: Meghan Mcsweeney
Via: Snippet and Ink

Seating Chart (via Green Wedding Shoes)

We are hopefully* having our seating chart in our program but I think sometimes the prettiest designs come from how people navigate people to their dinners. This is a great concept from Lisa and Drew's wedding. Clearly a couple that loves adventure.

Photography: Kate Harrison
Via: Green Wedding Shoes 
*Hopefully b/c I still haven't finished the program sooo, yeah.

Popcorn boxes (via Brooklyn Bride)

My sister did some really cute decorations for my bridal shower. These popcorn boxes from Lemon Tree Paperie would be great for exactly this type of thing.

Designed by Sara Hicks Malone but sold at Lemon Tree.

(Via Brooklyn Bride)

Flowers (via Style Me Pretty)

I love the look of abundant flowers. Some day I hope I can have friends over for dinner and do a table display that just feels overflowing.

This is the photography work of Lisa Lefkowitz at a Pride and Prejudice wedding shoot.

Via: Style Me Pretty

Super Creative Wedding (via Green Wedding Shoes)

There is so much to love about Golriz's and Devon's wedding but check out those streamers. Cloth? Paper? Awesome.

Also, don't miss their cupcake display. I love the hanging flowers!

Also (also) their wedding video is really lovely. I never watch wedding videos online but theirs is fantastic. Really nice work by the people at Full Frame Cinema.

Photography: Ryan Lash
Via: Green Wedding Shoes

Doodle Invite (via 100 Layer Cake)

Some day Zach is going to get something like this for an anniversary or a birthday. For some reason it struck me as totally strange that some day we will actually have another thing to celebrate like an anniversary. A holiday I never knew existed but suddenly will.

This doodle invite is for Parusha and Peter's wedding in South Africa. It was created by Rudi de Wet.

(Via 100 Layer Cake)

Owl Boxes! (via Ruffled)

Chinese takeout boxes are a great great way to hold favors of any sort. Plus, when you tape on cute pictures of owls and robots you basically cannot lose.

You can read how much Ali and Rory's wedding was a family affair with the bride's sister doing flowers and the brides mother taking on bouquets and crafty things. I don't know who did the favors but what a family!

Photography: Goodnickels Photography
Via: Ruffled Blog

Side Bun (via Wedding Chicks)

I have to figure out hair! I'm seriously OK with a low ponytail but I keep thinking I should at least *try* and do something different. This may or may not happen. But this woman's hair is sure pretty!

This is actually from an ad over at Wedding Chicks for Tessa Kim who specializes in birdcage veils and other hair adornment. She has some really neat headbands too.

Via: Wedding Chicks

Down to Business

We are down to basically 2.5 weeks. That is a strange strange thing to write. It'll be even stranger when it is the week before. The day before. The morning of. And married. Wow. I have never been so excited for a vacation in my life. I owe my work my soul when I get back. 'Cause you know, focus just miraculously appears AFTER you're married.

Ha!

This week is designated for getting all the necessaries finished. Boutonnieres. Schedules. Altar. Maybe a bridal bouquet. Next week is for playing. The week after is for who knows what.

Door to my heart?* (via Wedding Chicks)

I love randomly placed doors. I would love to have one at ours (it's not happening :) but hopefully at some future wedding I can talk a bride into a freestanding door.

This is from Ashley and Ben's wedding. Their invites are totally great too!

Photography: Nicole Ladonne Photography
 (Via Wedding Chicks)
(*Wedding puns at other weddings delight me to no end. For some reason though in terms of our wedding, they make me want to crawl into a corner a die. Why is that?!)

Hell yeah!

We. Have. Cake.

That is all.

Finishing

I am terrible at finishing things. Zach and I joke about the 80% rule. My family is awesome at starting. Pretty good with middles, but that last 20%. Ha!

With the table decorations it's not just the 80% rule but also the problem of knowing when any project is really complete. One of the things I've done a poor job during this wedding prep is finishing a project completely so that I can move on both physically but much more importantly mentally. Yes there is a need artistically to sort of ruminate on things but rumination needs to be followed by decisive action. Decisive action with a finish. Not a decisive action with a partial finish but I just have this one more tiny thing I need to figure out. That causes momentary feelings of accomplishment followed by anxiety until the task is actually finished.

Here. We. Go.

Holy something. We have passed the one month mark. Final stretch. Last dash. All of that. I have given up on weight and we have men's pants. All is right with the world.

The only thing left is finding a day of coordinator (meeting with a woman on Monday) and a cake or a cupcake or something cake-like (tasting cupcakes on Saturday.) I have been working on something weddingy almost every night and this weekend will be a final flower push. So yeah, kind of ridiculous. Kind of awesome. Kind of can't wait.

Side Hair with Flower (via Once Wed)

I am suuuch not a hair girl. My idea of a complex hair day is drying. A REALLY complex hair day? Drying AND straightening. The idea of somehow needing to do something special on our wedding day is, well, tedious. But you know, that doesn't take away how beautiful Alicia's hair is here at her and Ian's wedding.

Photography: Tec Petaja (I'm not linking b/c it says there is malware on their site and I'm not totally sure what that means.

(Via Once Wed)

Drink Table (Via Green Wedding Shoes)

What a cute cute cute drink table. Yes there are pancakes too but *squeal.* Really nice design. From a design standpoint you have the two vertices on each side to frame the scene. Then you have the shortest stuff on the edge and you work in to the tallest with the flowers kind of on an edge so that it's not totally symmetrical. I like that it uses one vase of flowers only but instead uses other elements (including the drinks themselves) as part of what makes it colorful and visually interesting. (Photography by Sarah Yates, Design by Green Wedding Shoes and My Bride Story)

Milk Glass (via Once Wed)

Hello milk glass! Alan and Ani's wedding photographed by Ian Villaceran.

(Via Once Wed)

Flowers (via Snippet and Ink)

So pretty. This table at Michele and Dave's wedding is so lovely. Theirs is put together a bit better than ours will be but it's the same general feel. OK, maybe not at all but I love it!

Photography: Amanda Bevington

Book Stacking (Via Style Me Pretty)

At the end of June I saw about a week worth of weddings that had flavors of ours, and it made me excited. B/c if it worked for them (and it really did) then the slightly varied approach we're taking may not be so bad. How much insecurity can you pack in a planning process? Brides everywhere say it with me! "A whole bunch!"

This flower stacking on books comes from Alice and Sandro's wedding. Yay!

Photography and design: BrancoPrata Events. (Blog!)

Paper Flowers Galore (by Jes and Caleb)

Need I say more? Yeah.

Oh right but I will. Normally I write where the wedding came from like via Ruffled (as this one did) but this was one of those weddings that was put on by actual people. Not a team of professionals for a single magazine shoot or by another team of professionals for a wedding of the year 300 person beauty gig.* People. With hands. And a whole lotta style.

It's just nice to see.

Photography: For you Love Me Photography

*And um, I love the ones that are put on for magazine shoots and $50,000 too.Yeah!

Spray Paint Variables

When you spray paint glass, you have to worry about a tiny rippling that happens. I don't know why. Maybe it's temperature based. Maybe it's that the paint on top pulls the paint on bottom and that lower paint can't grab onto anything b/c it's on a nonporous surface. I don't know. But I do know that if I spray a thin layer, I don't think it'll happen. So I only messed up 5 of my pieces. I have to go back and try and clean them off with paint thinner or something but at least I have hope still of making the glass shiny.

And when I finally do do all the non-table glass, at least I'll know what to expect. Hopefully.