The planning is the most fun.

Apparently, unlike some girls, I had no idea what my wedding would one day look like. Literally, no idea. I have always felt like I wanted for it to be outside, but without any real ties to a particular area (state/ city) or place, I never had a site in mind. Until one fateful evening. J and I took two of our really good friends to an outdoor concert at The Hermitage. We packed up our picnic basket full of treats (dinner), and headed to see the Town Mountain Band. Which, by the way, was really good.

The second we walked on the grounds, I knew. We knew. I'd figure out how to make it work with my budget. Regardless. Our wedding (and reception) had to be there. And the ideas started forming. The magnolia tree practically begged me to put low-hanging lights on it. And basically, everything about the site wanted to have an ethereal, magical feel.

So I went with it. The ideas/ mood board:

I enlised a dear friend of mine to start throwing out ideas. Any idea was accepted. And pinned. After a few weeks of brain-dumps, a clear direction emerged. Mostly because the both of us get distracted by shiny things. See below:

J and I are also drawn to slightly whimsical things. And I want this wedding to be about US. This wasn't just my wedding. It was our wedding. So he had say in quite a few things. Like what his groomsmen and him would wear. (Shopping with J for his wedding suit was hilarious, btw.... "BABE. I LOOK AMAZING IN THIS SUIT.")

Anyway. 

Color palette: Gold glitter.
Flower: Baby's breath.
Food: Traditions Catering. (AMAZING)
Lighting: Blue Steel Lighting. (Pricey, but soooo worth it.)
Site: The Hermitage. (Also pricey, but soooo worth it.)

So there you go. The ideas. They'll come to fruition in the next post.

My fingers hurt. But they're pretty.

One of my most favorite crafting projects seems to be making fabric flowers. I made them for Meghan to cheer her up, I made (a ton of) them for a friend's wedding as table decor, and I knew I would be bringing them in to my wedding somehow. (friend's wedding setup below...)

I started playing around with a bunch of types of fabric: laces, silks, and even a good bit of muslin just for the sake of fun (and to see how the fabrics responded to being made in to flowers). I took inspiration from these bouquets, but I wasn't quite bowled over with the idea of an all-brooch bouquet. But I still wanted a good bit of bling represented. So off I went on some thrifting adventures to purchase brooches, with a $5ish limit!The inspirations:

I used fabrics from a good friend's wedding dress remnants (little did she know), lace inserts from my mom's wedding bouquet, and some plain ol' good and simple fabrics I found at Jo-Anns. (I later added some pearl sprig-things for a bit more texture.)

After each flower was crafted (sewed), I glued on a circle of felt (with two holes cut) to the back, inserted the wire stem, and glue-gunned the heck out of them. Some of them got brooches, some of them were just fine without. I made enough of these flowers to start forming my bunch, saw what was missing, and filled in the rest.

From past weddings, I knew that heavy bouquets are THE WORST. Especially for the maid/ matron of honor. So I wanted it to be fairly small. Hand-size, if you will. So, um, yeah. Here she is.

The best year ever in the history of ever.

Yes. I'm very late on any kind of blog post wedding-related. It feels like life has (kind of) started to settle down a bit. We live in a tiny two-bedroom apartment with three dogs crammed with two houses worth of furniture. Soooo needless to say, things are rarely organized and always cramped. That shouldn't last for too long, though. ANYWAY. Wedding. Right.

I knew quite some time ago that most of my wedding-related paraphernalia would be crafted, and I also knew that J and I planned on getting hitched sometime in August. So when we started talking... really talking... about getting marriaged, I started crafting. Yes, wedding planning started before we actually got engaged. Don't hate. Pinterest came in extremely handy throughout this process, but I had to be stealth about my pins. I couldn't exactly create a "wedding" board, seeing as how I wasn't exactly engaged yet. So I made a "party" board. Naturally. I'm so sneaky. (Not really at all, though.) After the engagement, the official board was created, though. (See here.)

Knowing that I wanted this wedding to be about J and I's future lives together, and our guests' involvement throughout our lives, I wanted them to feel welcome and special. Oftentimes, guests attend weddings without much interaction with the bride and groom... I wanted our friends and families to know how appreciative we are of them, and I wanted them to feel like we understood how big of a deal it can be to travel and come to a wedding. Ergo, I decided to sew their gift bags... aka, reusable shopping bags for them to have for years.

I found the free pattern here, and got to sewing. I believe I ended up sewing around 15 of these bags, and was able to do it in a couple weeks by cutting out all the pieces and going at it assembly-line-style. And knowing the importance of delegation, I asked Mom to fill them with treats for our guests.

Next on the crafting list? My bouquet. Stay tuned.