Follow Me on Pinterest follow us in feedly like us on facebook

Email Subscription

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner




Floral Inspiration

So as I mentioned in my last post, I’m going to start looking for a florist!!  I don’t know the first thing about finding one, but asking around for recommendations from my married friends seems like a good place to start, and my friend Mary was kind enough to refer me to hers.  No decisions have been made yet, but I really loved Mary’s flowers in her recent October wedding.  So we’ll see!

I decided to put together a floral inspiration board to help direct whoever my florist ends up being.  I really want to create a loose, slightly wild and natural, yet vintage feeling to fit into the bohemian look of the wedding.  Also, I read that dahlias will be in season for our wedding, and will be much less expensive than my favorite flower – the peony.  So since they are a big pouffy flower that can create a similar look at a much lower cost, I’m very interested in incorporating them into the floral arrangements.  I also love ranunculus, but I heard they can be pricey too.  Hmmm…perhaps I’ll use small chrysanthemums?  I think they are more affordable too.

I have to admit, I’m slightly nervous about the bouquets and boutonnieres.  Its one aspect of the wedding where I can’t do it myself and I’ll have to relinquish some control.  And at my low budget, I’m really scared my florist will sneak in something tasteless like baby’s breath or carnations.  But at least if I find someone who’s work I’ve liked at past weddings, that should be less of a fear.  Anyway, you can take a look at my inspiration board below.

01 favorite flowers

Unfortunately, I can't remember the sources of these images. Hopefully I don't get in trouble for posting this!!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year everyone!!  Its now 2010, the year of our wedding.  New years day was also our two year anniversary.  Its definitely an exciting mile stone.

I haven’t written any updates lately because I guess we’ve been on an unofficial break from wedding planning for the holidays.  We had a great time focusing on our families while taking time off school and work.  But there are a bunch of things we can get started on now that the holidays are over.  I’m hoping to start on the wedding dress next weekend while Joe travels out of town for another friend’s bachelor party.  Also, our caterer should be available now that her holiday events are over, to arrange a tasting for our revised wedding menu.  I think I’ll also be ready to start researching florists soon.  Maybe even look into finding a bakery for the wedding cake…People keep telling us that we are so ahead on our planning, but I keep feeling like there are a million other things to do.  Anyway, I will continue to keep you all updated on all the progress.  Lots more to come in 2010!

The Bridesmaid Dresses are Basically Done

With Joe completely overwhelmed with Finals for PT school, I’ve had lots of free time to work on my projects.  I definitely miss him these days, but I decided to make the most of it.  So since I had the majority of this past weekend all to myself, I went ahead and finished the up the bridesmaid dresses.

The last one i had left to do was my sister’s dress with the ruffles.  I forgot to document the removal of the notch/ruched detail, but I started out by removing the entire front section of the bodice and attaching a new, unruched rectangle of fabric.

Here you can see the new panel of fabric sewn into the bodice. That strip of fabric above it will later become the ruffle.

Here you can see the new panel of fabric sewn into the bodice. That strip of fabric above it will later become the ruffle.

Here you can see that I left the top seam open so that I can sew the first ruffle in.

Here you can see that I left the top seam open so that I can sew the first ruffle in.

Here you see me pinning the second ruffle into place

Here you see me pinning the second ruffle into place

I think this was actually the easiest dress to embellish.  It was the most straight forward and probably took the least time which is why I saved it for last…to prevent myself from running out of steam.  I do still have to take it in at the waste a little, but I’m pretty tired of working on these dresses, so I think I’m going to get that done at work.

And here's the completed dress.

And here is Nicole's completed dress.

Oh, but thats not all I did.  After staring at May’s dress for a few days, it was really bugging me that something about it felt off balance. The big abstract bow on top with the full pleated skirt really looked kind of frumpy and like too much was going on.  Plus the other dresses looked much more cohesive than this one.  So after a lot of thought and sketches, I decided to simplify her skirt by removing most of the pleats and taking it in so that it looks more like a pencil skirt, but probably not quite as tight as a pencil skirt – is there a name for that type of silhouette??  I think this was a perfect solution because it allows the bow to be the focal point rather than having they eye distracted by too much busyness.  In my opinion, it definitely looks more sophisticated now.

May's streamlined skirt. Please excuse the horrible quality of this picture.

May's streamlined skirt. Please excuse the horrible quality of this picture.

I also have a new toy that made all these alterations much more professional.  My serge machine!!!  I love this thing, I finally took the time to learn how to use it after it sat in its box in my hallway for several months.  Threading it its super complicated, but once threaded, its really easy to use.

Serge