First comes love

The future vs the future future

Now that we've set the date and put down a deposit on the venue, Craig and I need to start looking at the budget in earnest.  Although some generous offers have been hinted (and straight out offered and gratefully accepted) we are planning to fund the wedding ourselves.  We've already started putting away a good bit every month and when I asked Craig to do some Excel work and project how much we could save by August it seemed like a doable budget (no matter what averages wedding magazines report).

We've also been setting aside money for a house.  We don't know where we're going to be buying or even when, but a little nest egg is slowly building up.  Craig projected that for me for the next year as well.

And then he showed me the combined total.

Oh!  I will heartily admit that the idea of using all of it, yup all of it, for the wedding crossed my mind.  Letterpress invitations!  Full makeovers for the entire bridal party!  Custom made hanbok for my mom!

I let myself fantasize for a good 30 seconds before I had to firmly reign myself in.  FIRMLY.

Seriously, do I want a pair of Louboutins for the wedding or do I want a massive walk-in closet for all my shoes? This is a no brainer for me!

I feel very responsible and grown up planning and budgeting for our wedding over a year away.  But I know the true sign of being responsible and grown up is to remember that the wedding is about beyond that one day, that first day, the beginning of our future future.

So I'm off to Paris this weekend (something of a reunion for me and one of my bridesmaids... we'll always have Paris...) and I'll be on the lookout to score some vintage steals and inspiration.  À bientôt!

Video debut and an announcement!

Date announcement from Miyon Im on Vimeo.

Right after recording this Craig put the kettle on "because that's what British people do when they're nervous".

Idea Board 2: Inspiration from an unexpected source

So over the weekend Craig and I went to a hardware store to pick up some gardening tools and while we were there I snapped up some paint chip samples so that I could use them to start playing with color ideas for the wedding.  I thought it would be more fun than browsing through the infinite color chart in Photoshop.  So I grabbed whatever colors struck my fancy, took them home, cut them, and laid them out to wait for inspiration to strike:

And then I just stared. No idea where to start.  Then I started thinking I wish I picked up some turquoise.  And purple.  And black.  I half heartedly took out colors I didn't like and succeeded in removing about 2 paint chips. woohoo!

With the attention span of a hamster, I turned my attentions elsewhere.  I decided to take up a new knitting project and so proceeded to pull out all my knitting books and magazines.  As I was sifting through them, I found myself swooning over a few project photos.  After all, the pretty pictures are half the fun of collecting knitting books.

And then I got to thinking... I must be drawn to these particular pictures for some reason? Whatever it is, the color, the mood, the atmosphere, the styling... something about them catches my attention and gets my heart beating.  So I took a picture of my favorite ones and made a simple collage to see if I can find any common threads:

I think you can immediately see what I saw.  Apparently I love a little bit vintage, romantic but in a fun way, unexpected details, and rich saturated colors (though I won't say no to pink).

It's so cool that my hobby surprises me like this.

(images from: Thrown Together by Kim Hargreaves, Romantic Handknits by Annie Modesitt, Rowan Magazine 44, Rowan Vintage Style)

Reconsidering white shoes

Typical "wedding shoes" have yet to grab me. I don't really dig the semi-pointy, kitten heel, slingbacks rampant in the bridal shops.  Additionally I'm hesitant to go with white shoes because man, when am I ever gonna wear white shoes??  Blue is an obvious alternative, but even red, orange, yellow, green... anything but white.

But then I stumbled on these and purrrrr...

Stuart Weitzman Marimbows.   I just love the gathered fabric embellishment, so sweet! I think you could even dye it black after the wedding to get more mileage out of it.

Purr...

Second dress hunting

Yesterday my maid of honor and I ventured out to London, intending on going to 3 bridal venues.

The first one we went to was partially successful.  Although their collection was pretty small it had the most private dressing area, which I appreciated.  At the end I noted 3 different dresses and amazingly enough, they were all Enzoani dresses!  To refresh your memory, one of my faves from my first wedding dress trip was also an Enzoani, though from their Blue collection.  So even though I haven't found THE dress yet, I feel like I'm much closer to it!

My faves in order of fave:

1. Dorothea - I felt sooo glamorous in it.  It was very refined and chic. The chiffon wrapping was very elegant and detailed and there was just enough bling to sparkle.
2. Dior - I loved that was a fitted, mermaid gown (showing off my curves) but softened by a tulle overlay.  I wasn't completely sold on the lace pattern itself or the crystal beading but the idea of the dress was very cool.
3. Daisy - This was the "blingiest" I tried on and what I liked about it was that the dropped waist wasn't done by gathered fabric but really subtle.  The beading also slowly disappears into the tulle skirt and you can still see peeps of it when you walk around. Very romantic.

I only found dresses at the first store.  The second store was actually shut down when we got to it.  We peeked through the window and there was a pile of mail on the floor.  Some searches through the yellow pages and a few calls proved unsuccessful in tracking them down. I don't know if they were a victim of the current economy or what!

In a way it was a mixed blessing because then we were early to the third place, which was actually a bridal dress sale. It wasn't exactly a sample sale but more like a one day outlet for older season dresses.  Basically though, it was really disappointing.  First of all we waited like an hour in line.  Finally when we got in, the dresses were uhh... shall we say really not my style.  And they didn't seem to have been treated very well, some with visible stains.  And even with all that the prices were not at all cheap (I saw some bizarre creations that still cost about as much as the Enzoanis) so we booted out of there in about 10 minutes.  If I ever go to one of those again I'll be sure to go as early as possible because it might be that all the good stuff was already cleared out.

Even with the somewhat disappointing end, I thought it was a pretty successful day. Now, I just need to locate all the Enzoani distributors in the surrounding area!

The wedding, it is real.

Now that we are getting closer to booking The Venue and setting The Date (more on that next week!) my thoughts towards weddings have taken an interesting turn.

At first, I've had fun shamelessly flipping through magazines, dog-earring pretty much anything that caught my fancy or browsing the internet for hours, bookmarking things left and right.  Because the wedding was still such an abstract concept to me, I had no problem feeding that fantasy and reveling in all that wedding planning had to offer.  I could get married in a castle AND a beach AND a garden AND a barn with 2 3 dress changes and a gagillion dollar budget to boot.

But now we gotta start making decisions.  Woo-hee… is that a whole different story!  Because in that case, it seems to be insane to have "selected" 5 different color schemes, 7 different escort card displays, 12 different centerpieces, 16 different bouquets, 20 different favors, etc.  Oh and did I mention that most of them were DIY? Hahahaha… *wipes tear*

Anyway, I think I have to sit down with Craig and really talk about what kind of party we're trying to throw. 

As much as I gush and sigh over "soft romantic dreamy pink rose explosions", I know that's not really our style and what's the point of us trying to be someone we're not, particularly on that day of all days?

Even if we could afford like every single thing that caught my fancy (yes, including all 20 favors) it would just end up being a complete mess and we would just get lost in all that junk. Sometimes more is too much.

Some of my "favorites" just do not make any form of sense when based in reality. For example, I adore the look of pomanders hanging off the pews to decorate the aisle.  But we're not getting married in a church and the venue's chairs don't really suit anything hanging off of them and geez do I really want to think about renting chairs when the venue already provides perfectly good chairs just so I can hang some spherical flower arrangements??? No I don't. Let it go.

At any rate, I'm really glad I started this blog.  I can vicariously enjoy these things without feeling like I'm missing out on something when I start making concrete decisions about my own wedding.

(check out this gorgeous pink rose pomander!)

Bridal style: Cool City

My recent trip to New York got me so inspired to think about style.  So many people dressed with personality imprinted on their very being and a fearless approach to being a bit different. So here is my homage to that attitude, nuptial style.

A funky dress with daring details like this dress by Kirribilla is the first step towards city chic.  I think it's funny that the dress description actually suggests wearing it to weddings as a guest. That's ok, the city is powered by irony. This short veil from Etsy seller brendasbridalveils harks upon the city's flirtation with vintage.  Who wants to drag dead flowers all over the city, so why not a cute wrist corsage like this one from Etsy seller LittleSparrowNest instead?  After the quick ceremony at city hall, you'll be ready to hit the town with all your beauty essentials with this Betsy Johnson clutch, with ruffles that echo the detailing on the dress.  Finally, ooze style all the way to the toes in these croc patterned slingbacks and wouldn't you know, you even have your something blue covered.

I'd keep the hair sleek but push eye make up to the limit to pop out from under that veil.  Contrast with either glossy or coral lips (red could be too vampy). Have the groom dapper up in a slim fitting Hugo Boss suit (maybe even a hat if he can pull it off) and we've got a wedding even Carrie couldn't knock.

Paper origami baskets

Origami basket from here, via here

Wouldn't these be really cute for holding candy favors at a reception table?  Jellybeans! Or Mentos! Mmmm I love Mentos.

I also wonder in lieu of a guestbook, if it would be possible to make a really big one with large paper to collect wishcards from guests?

Or maybe a big one for a flower girl to hold her petals?  I'm thinking patterned paper with a giant bow at the top of the handle... kinda makes me wish I had a flower girl for my wedding!

How else could they be used for a crafty wedding?

First dress hunting results

Just got back from a trip to Boston and New York, thus the relative inactivity here this past week.  One of the highlights from the trip was that I went wedding dress shopping with one of my bridesmaids, Kris!  She has a pretty good write up about her view here, and I thought I'd expand on that and share my personal take home messages:

• I liked wedding dress shops with natural lighting.  It's such an obvious thing, but you really don't want to be contemplating the difference between ivory and diamond white under harsh fluorescent lights if possible.
• Discount/sample wedding shops are an absolute bargain but also an absolute hit and miss.  I totally missed but it was a good experience to have.  If there was such a thing near me, I would consider going every weekend to  check out new stock.  You also have to be prepared for less than perfect dresses so make sure the shop offers free repair jobs.
• Service goes such a long way! My best experience was with a place I didn't find anything but the lady was very sweet and helpful.  In contrast, the place where I found a possible dress, I would think twice about using.
• David's bridal definitely fills a niche but I didn't enjoy the shopping experience at all.  It was really impersonal and I didn't like having so many strangers seeing me try on dresses and make comments.  No one said anything bad!  (although one lady said I looked like a geisha, hmmm) But really, it was unnecessary noise and distraction.
• A higher end designer store does result in fabulous, personal, princess-type service.  Of course, it also comes with a princess type prices.  That said, my two favourite dresses came from here and another brand that cost half as much.

And what were my favourite dresses?

Craig, avert your eyes!!

My faves were Cosimma from Melissa Sweet and Accra from Blue by Enzoani (go here, click Collections -> 08 -> Top row, third one)

I don't think those pictures do them justice as I didn't even bookmark them when I was pre-investigating for the trip. 

Cosimma had beautiful and clever ruching and draping. The flower details were just perfect and the kind of unique detailing I'd love for my dress.

The Accra dress had a bit of everything, ruched bust, Swarovski detailing, and tulle over asymetrical lace (creating a particularly stunning effect).  I've actually found a Scottish supplier and am trying to fit in a fitting for when we're up up there next week!

Dress hunting is by no means over.  As different as those dresses are, I really really liked them both.  Really! I have an all day dress day this Saturday with my maid of honor. We're ending the day at a desiger dress sale so who knows what's in store for us!