Brilliant boutonnieres

"What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel
that they are joined for life. "
George Eliot

I drug Adam to the one store he hates the most (Michaels) last week to pick up some wedding supplies. He despises the craft surplus store but, he was a good sport and came with me. I needed his assistance helping select items for the guy’s boutonnieres. These are typically some sort of floral decoration. I decided against using flowers and making them personalized instead. To be honest, I’m not really a flower kind of girl. I don’t really know much about flowers and while they are beautiful for the few hours or days you have them they die and have to be tossed out. I wanted the guys to have something they could keep… not that any of them are that sentimental. So I started searching for some ideas. I finally found some inspiration and started planning out what I wanted to do. Each of the guys will have their very own personalized boutonniere based on their personality. Adam helped me pick out the perfect theme for each guy. I started working on them this week, but I still have a few hours of work to do on them. I’m hoping to finish the project soon and them store them for the next few months.

-Penny

Let there be cocktails

"I've always believed that paradise will have
my favorite beer on tap."
Rudyard Wheatley

I spoke with our day of coordinator this week and finalized our wedding day schedule. We didn’t nail down all the specifics, but we know that our wedding will start at 5:30 p.m. The cocktail hour will take place from 6 until 7 p.m. and the reception kicks off at 7 p.m. and ends at midnight. We’re going to come up with all the specifics at our meeting in July. Getting the timeline set up made me start thinking about the cocktail hour. I’m really excited that we’ll be able to offer this for our guests. For those of you that don’t know what a cocktail hour entails… it’s typically held for an hour between the ceremony and reception. Building this in allows the bride, groom and wedding party to get pictures taken while guests enjoy beverages and mingle with friends and family. Drinks and hors d’ oeuvres are served. The cocktail hour can be held an hour before the ceremony as a welcoming event for guests. I liked it between the ceremony and reception for the functionality of it. We’re planning to serve some alcoholic drinks including a signature cocktail (more on that later) and some non-alcoholic choices. We haven’t decided on the food selections yet. We also don’t know if we’ll have mini food stations or butler passed appetizers. I’m hoping we’ll figure that out in July as well. We’re hoping to have a couple meat options and some cheese and vegetarian samplings. I’ve heard that mixing up the colors and textures is a good idea. So is providing different textures, some hot, some cold, some crispy and some creamy. I have lots of ideas of things to include, but I guess I’ll just have to wait until this summer to nail them down.

-Penny

Traditions

"Marriage joins two hands to make one heart."

There is one wedding day tradition that almost every bride partakes in ... the something old - something new - something borrowed - something blue and a silver sixpence in your shoe. Something old signifies the life you had with friends and family before the marriage. Something new stands for your future life with your significant other. Something borrowed is an item borrowed from a happy married woman to ensure the current bride's happiness. Something blue represents the bride's purity and faithfulness. The silver sixpence in your shoe is to ensure wealth to the couple in their married life. I've been exploring ideas for this tradition.

The something old options I've been considering are: printing an old family recipe and sharing with guests as a simple favor and/or having this dish be part of the reception dinner. I also thought about having a piece of my mother's dress sewn into the inside of my gown or using lace from her veil on my bouquet.

Something borrowed ideas include: My grandmother's lacy tissue or a piece of jewelry.

The blue ideas are: Having the bridesmaids autograph the bottom of my shoe with a blue marker or having a monogrammed blue ribbon (with our initials and wedding date) attached to the inside of my dress tag. Or, wearing a pretty blue ring on my right hand.

Anyone have any other great ideas? What did you do?

-Penny

Up or down?

"Life is a journey, and I'm so glad we're traveling together."

I’ve been trying to decide on my hairstyle for the wedding so that I can purchase hair accessories. I’ve been looking through magazines and searching the internet for possible options. The initial decision was to wear it up or down. I haven’t completely made up my mind on that yet, but I’m leaning toward wearing it up… only because my hair doesn’t hold curls very well if I wear it down. Plus, I’m not a fan of the face covering veil. It makes me feel like I’m a beekeeper. I think I’ll select an up do with a combed veil going in at the bottom of the curls. I do know on thing for sure… I’m going to wear a veil during the ceremony and a hair piece for the reception. I’m really looking forward to the massive hair and makeup appointments the day of the wedding. I think it’s a great bonding experience for all the ladies. I’m also hoping to keep it from being stressful (I’ve been in weddings where it was pure madness) I have the stylist and artist arriving 30 minutes before everyone else to get their stations set up. I’m also hoping to draft up a hair and makeup schedule for the bridal party to keep everyone on track. I think we’ll probably have brunch served as well.

-Penny

Our first look

"To the beginning of a beautiful forever."

Before we say I do Adam and I will share our first look. What's that you might ask? Well, typically the first time a groom sees his bride on the day of the wedding is when she walks down the aisle. We are opting for something a little different… something that a superstitious bride wouldn't be up for. We are going to document our first look on film. Instead of seeing each other for the first time at the ceremony we're going to see each other in a private intimate setting. During the morning of the wedding everyone will be busy getting ready. Adam and I are planning to be ready first so we can meet in a secluded location a couple hours before the wedding party joins us. We'll arrive at different times and won't see each other until the perfect moment. Adam will be in a place where he's hidden and I'll walk up from behind him. The photographer will capture our faces when we look at each other for the first time. Instead of being in a packed room we'll get to share a private moment. At the ceremony it's almost impossible to get both of our reactions in the same shot. Doing this pre-arranged first look is the perfect solution. I love this idea! While everyone else is putting their finishing touches on their look we'll be out shooting pictures with our photographer. Doing this will also allow us to shoot the majority of our portraits and wedding party photos before the ceremony. Typically the post-ceremony pictures are rushed or the guests are waiting for a long time for the bride and groom to finish taking photos. We won't have to be in a rush and we'll get to enjoy getting our picture taken.

-Penny