Ranting

In a moment of self-loathing about all the things that need to get done for the wedding, I made the very bad mistake of opening my to-do list on theknot yesterday. Not only does it include about 100 things that I am behind on (groom's attire, floral arrangements, officiant, etc) but this month they would like me to "Start taking better care of yourself (eat right, exercise) so you look and feel great on your wedding day." I mean, yes, it's a good idea to eat right and exercise. But I kind of resent them telling me to do that for my wedding day. Like I have the rest of my life to turn in to a pig, but for my wedding, I should look skinny and pretty. So that's rant number one.

Rant number two is that I'm really sick of people acting like I'm being a control freak about the wedding. Yes, I am normally a planner. I like to plan things. And I'm not that good a group projects. But in this case, a wedding is a huge event. And I'm doing everything 100% by myself. Not because I want to, but because every time I try to delegate something to someone else (primarily my parents who actually live where the wedding is being held), they ignore my question for months until they finally get sick of me asking. But then their response is surrounded by this whole "She's always been like this...so controlling. I think this might be her inner bridezilla coming out." I think they think it's funny. But I'm a little bit over my parents calling me the b-word that might as well be the other b-word.

There is something so wrong with women getting forced into this role. Everyone expects the wedding to be big and fun, nobody wants to help with the planning stages. So essentially they expect you to show up after months of planning in secret so as not to disturb anyone or look like a bridezilla, and look like the skinny, hot, princess bride for a day. It's not right.

Bubbles!

Snippet & Ink had a picture of a bubble station at the wedding she's featuring today. Add bubbles to the list of random, little-kid, birthday party things I'd love to have at my wedding. Sometimes I think I'm overcompensating for the years of small/no birthday parties I had as a kid (not because of my parent's--I just didn't want them at the time).



(I'm thinking something with more variety in bubble wands than this though).

There will probably be around 10 kids at our wedding, but I think some of the adults would have fun with it to.

Would you play with a bubble station at an outdoor, backyard, end of summer wedding?

A Joyous Day!

When I was younger and thinking about getting married way off in the future, I said I'd never do it, unless our state or country came around and allowed ANYONE to get married. None of this marriage equals a man and a woman nonsense. This is particularly personal to me, as my best friend since childhood is in a long-term, very loving, same-sex relationship. And as the most functional, sweet couple I know, they sure as hell should have the right to get married if I do!

And so, it is with absolutely joy that I write that starting today, in the state of California (where we all live), if they wanted to, they could! In fact, their county, along with a few others, will be among the first to start issuing them today (the rest will start tomorrow).

Hanging out

frolic

Our wedding theme is, unofficially, things that we can hang from the trees.

We are making fabric pennants from the leftover napkin fabric like these from Lena Corwin's wedding:

Ribbon mobiles like the one at the top from Frolic and more ribbons in trees (particularly behind the ceremony spot in the orchard, like here):

Oh Happy Day

The infamous Martha Stewart poms will likely make an appearance.

As will her fancy flowers, though the instructions for making them included with the kit, completely destroyed me (and several fancy flowers).

Floral Inspiration

We are attempting to limit our wedding flowers to things we can either a) grow at my parent's house (the wedding site) or b) buy from an organic grower within a hundred miles of their house.

We don't want our flowers covered with pesticides (since he runs an anti-pesticide non-profit it would be a bit hypocritical). It's a huge barrier to most mainstream flowers, since they tend to be covered in chemical goodness. Columbia produces more than 60% of the flowers sold in the United States, and of the slew of chemicals they use, the World Health Organization calls 36% of them highly or extremely toxic. Scary, especially considering that most of the people working in the industry in Columbia are women of reproductive age (those sorts of chemicals tend to be worse if you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant). (See article here).

So, that limits our flowers to those that thrive in hot summers with minimal water. As much as I love them, I will not be having peonies or sweetpeas or any of those out-of-season pretty spring flowers at my late summer wedding.

This loose bouquet of snapdragons is pretty and possible.

Found via IndieBride

This is similar to what we plan to do with our centerpieces, with mixed flowers, in old mason jars and small bud vases. These flowers might be too springy, but daises will be in bloom in our area in the late summer.

And if we end up getting busy and overwhelmed by trying to scout out different organic growers, we may just end up pickup out a party pack from California Organic Flowers, a major distributor of organic flowers in the United States that happens to be a quick drive from our wedding site!

Dahlia Party Pack

Too carrie for a 7 year old?

jcrew.com

I am very tempted to ask my flower girl to wear this giant flower headband with her dress. But is the giant flower a little too Sex and the City, Carrie, for a seven year old?