Wedding Season Again...

I guess that if you really enjoy planning events, finding inspiration for them and seeing how excited your exceptionally creative friends get about planning theirs you will never really move out of wedding season.

Last week one of my bridesmaids got engaged and JP and I could not be more excited. I know that she will put together a unique, hand crafted, every detail thought out, event. Over the past few days, with the exception of when we went to the beach, I have been busy putting together a wedding care package for her. I can't wait to finish it and send it off. Hopefully I will snap some photos to share, I really have to get better about doing that.

I stopped in last night to chat with with woman who produced our invitations at Chelle Paperie, in Hampden, and was thrilled to discover that she had recently gotten engaged and has been feverishly, but totally under control, planning her upcoming wedding. Interestingly, both of these women are from the same area in Pennsylvania, I am excited to see the outcome of each of their visions.











And because I am on the subject of weddings, here are some picks from my wedding in Telluride, Colorado from the end of May. We are about a week away from receiving the professional photographs, but these are some of my favorites from family and friends. The top image was my mothers idea. When we were talking about ways to economically enhance the wooden structure that is at the wedding site, she drew out the idea of a wreath with an F in it, for JP's last name, and swag draping from it and down the columns. It was such a great idea. I found a huge F, and grapevine wreath, at a craft store in Baltimore on a shopping trip with one of my bridesmaids. I simply wrapped the F in some sisal twine, and handed it all over the the florist. It turned out to be one of my favorite things, and now the F adorns the front door of our house. The second image is again, from the ceremony site. Here you can get a better view of the snow capped mountain backdrop. And the third image is JP and myself signing the Colorado wedding license. (It was filled out in the courthouse on a typewriter)

A Good Friend

Yesterday I had a wonderful day, our friend Melissa, my bridesmaid, drove down from Philadelphia for the day to do all things wedding related. I cannot express how excited I was and what I wonderful time I had, it meant so much to me to have someone else as excited as I am and want to get involved in planning and details for the weekend of the wedding. We had a wonderful and story filled lunch at Atwaters in Belvedere Square, and then headed off to Jo Ann's Fabrics and found all kinds of great things for the wedding. I know everyone just took a deep breath in that I found things for the wedding at a craft store, but don't worry, they did not come from the wedding isle, and they are really only ingredients in a larger project. I think that I am most excited about the button press that I purchased. Melissa and I were playing with it last night and it is so much fun, but more to come on that later.



Melissa also brought down the Spring 2008 Philadelphia Home magazine to show me the loft of an Anthropologie friends that was featured. While looking through I found the above flower display and loved it. Happy Spring.

e-bay delivers yet agian...

photo from martha stewart

While I really love flowers and would have them everyday everywhere in my life, they do have a very short shelf life and are not the best investment. So for the wedding I have tried to create great floral statements by insuring that the entire presentation adds to the atmosphere that we are aiming to create. While I do think that this should always be an objective, often times it gets lost. For a few years now I have been collecting old aqua Ball jars and decided that they would be beautiful in collecting running down long tables for dinner. I am planning on using a few different heights and pairing them with some candles as well. Some of the candles will be in jars, somewhat like the picture, but the ones that I am planning on using will be smaller and have a metal latch for their lids. There will also be aspen or birch wrapped candles along the table and in the floral groupings. I can't wait! We got our first batch of e-bayed jars on Friday. I have been using the jars to store collections of items that I being back from trips, shells from China, shells from the Bahamas, rocks from Telluride, and I am so excited to have so many more to store little collections in over the years, and how nice that they will be a beautiful memory from our wedding that the rest of our life will be filling up. Cheesy, but great.

Vintage Florals

As part of my new non corporate life I am getting back to creating and crafting and it just feels so good. I am working into it slowly and trying to find a space in our house where I can create chaos and not have it be front and center, but that does not really exist because everything is really front and center in our house. But JP is putting up with it, as he does oh so well and we are really excited that I am working on things for myself again. I have placed a few of my flowers for sale at Red Tree in Baltimore, where I am working now, and loving every moment of it. I have to start making some fresh ones for the spring. And I am trying to figure out if I want to incorporate them into the wedding, and if so how. I can think of many ways I just do not want them to be to overpowering. I also set up some earrings at the store and within about half and hour a pair sold, we were all really excited. We hope that everyone's holiday's are going well and are full of cheer. JP is doing most of his shopping this weekend, well tomorrow night and then we will be making the rest of our gifts this weekend.

Fantastic Florals

I am looking for really simple, naturally inspired, primarily green and white fl orals. Through one of the other wedding sites that I have been frequenting I found Artfool, and really enjoyed some of their bouquets.

There were also some table set ups that they did that I thought could be really nice for the wedding. Perhaps a bit kitchy, and might need to be brought in a bit, a little more of a sprinkling, a little less of a theme. Because lets face it, I am not a camper and JP is not a miner, so the theme of having lanterns does not completely speak to us as a couple. But still something to think about.


I had been planning on using some vintage table linens to create runners from one person to the other, as done above for our table, or tables. Depending on what out set up ends up being. I think that it adds some intimacy especially if it is one great long table. And the vintage table lines are a touch of ourselves, well myself, that we can add to the event. Because, it really is about us and who we are and celebrating ourselves as a couple. Now I just have to figure out how to work JP into the mix...

Artfool also had some other images form another event that could also be a great inspiration. I see these as being more of a elegant rustic event table setting. Possibly a mix between the two is what will be best for us.

Fun Finds

I found these great handmade silk flowers when I was wondering around the web today. They are from The White Aisle and have a really interesting story to go with them. They are all handmade in Phenom Pehn, Cambodia by young women who were sold into the sex trade by their families when they were young. 100% of the profits from these silk goods go back to the project. This will enable the company to not only pay the women salaries, but set up housing for these young women so they will no longer have to go back to the brothels at night. This is a new program but I think that it really has a strong product and will be able to grow nicely. The silk that is used for the flowers, and other products, is hand loomed Khmer (Cambodian) and local to the area that the woman are working in. Each flower is individually assembled, so no two are alike, much like the ones that I produce. The company is planing on expanding their offerings from roses, to gardenias, lilies and orchids. For $10 a bud I think that it is an elegant way to add a special touch to any occasion, and it has a great cause. I cannot wait to order some and come up with great things to do with them.

Inspirational Moments

I found Michelle Rago, a wedding designer out of NYC when I was out and about searching the web and I loved what she did with one wedding in particular. The other ones were a bit to much for me, but to each their own. Interestingly one of the weddings that is featured on his site is from a country club in St. Louis. But in any case, I wanted to share some images because I thought that they were great. I particularly like the bottom right image, a nice way to add a touch to the isle chairs without adding a large floral cost. Easy enough to make ahead of time and provide yourself for the wedding. Also keeping in mind location and using materials that might be found naturally, it is just another way to tie everything together and that's why I love it!