Salt Water Taffy (delicious!)

I always forget how much I love salt water taffy. There is such a big difference between the good stuff and the mediocre stuff. The good stuff is fan-freak-n-tastic...and this coming from a chocolate girl through and through.

It'd be cool to tie together pieces of saltwater taffy. Make chords for people. I'm not really sure what you'd do with these but I like the idea nonetheless. Actually if you had a children's table (we're not I'm pretty sure) it'd be neat to make a table garland with them. Maybe ring around the outside edge of the table or encircle the plates.

Invitations (by Miss Apple Cider of WeddingBee)

The design on these invites is really lovely. They are the work of Miss Apple Cider from the WeddingBees. Near the end of the pictures there is a shot of the invites in the vellum envelope. So cool! I love the transparent effect.

When finding the link for Miss Apple Cider, I realized that I bookmark a lot of work. More to come here I'm sure!

The Water is Fine

Some days I just want to squeal with excitement. I often feel this way about the project I'm working on but there is just something so ridiculously fun about planning a wedding. It gives us permission to just spend way too much time thinking about pretty flowers and solutions to pretty problems. It allows us to think about love and meaning and things we should probably be thinking about anyway but it gives us a vehicle to think about such things. There are days we are overwhelmed and days we are surfing atop the joy wave. Today is a joy wave.

Save the Dates: We Have a Winner

This week my goal is to clean my studio. But really you can work only so much on such a project. So around 9 my sights turned crafty. What started as a relatively clean table transformed into a fine layer of eggplant colored ink under a pile of paper, tissue and stamp parts. But I think we're really close to having an official save the date. It's way too complicated. All of my good intentions kind of went out the window. So if we weigh them and they aren't too expensive, I will go forward as is. Come Oct 1, I may have to reassess the design for the remaining count.

Community

This weekend was a wedding weekend. Hours upon hours of driving for hours upon hours of celebrating. Time well spent on all accounts.

I grew up with a sour taste for weddings. Some aspects I still acknowledge. I think it's too much pressure on people. I think it has been tapped by advertising and now focuses on many of the wrong aspects. It promotes debt. But growing up the real problem I had with weddings (a realization I can only have now in hindsight) is that I didn't love any of the people whose weddings I attended. Not real love. Not vested love. I went because my parents went. Or because I was expected to go. It wasn't until I started attending weddings where I had an emotional connection to the events at the front of the isle did weddings change for me. It's made all the difference.

This last weekend Z and I went to our friend Clare and Gavin's weddings. We felt especially honored to be invited because it was a small guest list and we aren't part of their inner circle. But we've always sort of adored this couple. We've always known we'd be good friends if we lived in the same city. (They must feel this too.) Seeing the two of them stand up there and in their perfect way explain how a ring comes to be, I just wanted to cry in happiness. Hearing the officiant talk about marriage and community I wanted to yell out loud my commitment to their marriage. That even though our friendships were still young, I wanted to let them know that they could count on either Z or I however they needed as they start their lives and a family together.

At weddings, communities are born. It's where we commit ourselves to the family we choose. We will be what they need when they are prepared to ask for help and for when they are not. Community. I've felt that at just a handful of weddings now. (Hello!) Where you can feel your heart weaving with the other hearts in the room and all through love for these people saying their vows. It truly is incredible. Dancing (there was dancing) and cupcakes (there were awesome cupcakes) are all the delicious frosting. I walked away so happy for the couple and ecstatic for August when Z and I get to bring our community together. Can't. Wait.

Elegant DIY Wedding (by Allie and Josh via SMP)

I love so many things about this wedding. First, it's an Oregon wedding! Yippee! Also Allie's dress is one of those few dresses that makes me begin to feel a teeny tiny dress itch.

But check out this lighting: Elegant. We could do this for the dance floor of my parents living room. They have suuper high ceilings and oh so much potential.

Allie has a fantastic blog cutely named Putting the R in Mrs.

I will be spending some time in her archives.

To see the blog on Style Me Pretty
Part I
Part II

Hello Pretty

This is an image of pure potential. Or maybe these are the mother flags before they turn into baby flags. OK ew.

Not ew: I got all the flag fabric I think I'll need for $16 dollars at SCRAP in Portland.

I can't wait to get started cutting cutting cutting.

In other good news, Z and I both agreed that the save the dates looked really cramped. It'll cost us more in postage but we are probably going to go up to square cards. I bought some and tested one out and it looks soooo much better. Yay!

Oh. Right.

Apparently more of Z's relatives are saying they plan on coming out. I started to feel a panic. He said 150. I should plan for 150...what if it's more. Then I realized something obvious and profound and it has made me extremely happy. The more the merrier. We will get giant pizzas from all over town. We will have an ice cream buffet. We will buy cases of vodka. We will have dancing and marshmallow roasting. And it will be joyous.

Crape Paper Flower potential (via RitzyBee blog)

This is the type of bouquet I want to try and recreate (just to try) out of crate paper. Crepe paper? It's like I've learned the wrong lyrics to a song and have been singing them so for decades.

This RitzyBee post has some really great wedding details.

Dress Finding Mission

Weddings are all about being the center of attention whether you like it or not. Recently I was talking with a friend about my extreme discomfort at these particular types of attention. Also, I don't really like shopping with people. Or I'm very very selective of who I shop with and what I shop for...and especially how much I spend. This is an equation that makes dress shopping (even my $150 dress) kind of the most not fun thing ever.

Well, a bit of brainstorming over drinks and dessert, Andrea (hello there !) and I devised a plan: scavenger hunt. Not really, but b/c I know my wedding party wants to be a part of the dress search (I can feel my anxiety rising) we came up with the idea of all of us going into a large department store and then going off on our own for like 45 minutes. We'd meet back at a particular dressing room with white/cream/champagne colored dresses but also their ideas for bridesmaids dresses. That way we are all trying things on at the same time and I can get their opinions on both at once.

Genius! And actually sounds like a lot of fun.

Little flags (by Somethings Hiding in Here)

I love these little flags from Somethings Hiding in Here.

I've been toying with the idea of people waving flags during the bride's walk down the isle. Originally I just thought this would look cool. Now it seems a little, I don't know, self indulgent. (Oh-yeah,-I'm-awesome.-Wave-a-flag. Gah!)I'm not sure we're going to have music. Maybe instead of flags we'll hand everyone a kazoo.

I still think the flags would look pretty. Maybe an idea to save for a music video :)

Felt Feathers (by Staphanie Congdon Barnes)

Oh fall! Here in Oregon September is still more summer like than autumn like but you can see the shift in light. Oh delight!

Also delight? Feathers. Fabric and felty feathers. These happy pieces are from Stephanie Congdon Barnes. They won't be a part of our wedding but they must be bookmarked and remembered for *something.*

Check out the Love Note using one of these on PrettyPrettyPaper. See the other cool things Stephanie has going on at her blog and her super cute shop.

(via Fffound, PrettyPrettyPaper)