A Big Thanks to the Moms!

I want to send a big thanks out to the moms (both of them) who have helped us so immensely with the acquisition of our venue. We have finally made a decision and it could not have been made without their trips to sites and frequent phone calls. So, next time you see either of these two wonderful women, make sure you give them a big hug and thank them for their work in this area. Yeah!

Bridal Bouquet: More Proof of My Floral Illiteracy

Somewhere, I have a couple of aunts who were florists. At least one is turning over in her grave right now, shaking her head that I am actually writing this post. From all I've done to search for flowers, this is the best I can do so far with what I want for my bridal bouquet. I don't want a bouquet; I want a trailing bouquet (I think it's called a spray, but I'm not certain. I want roses and greenery. I ran across the term "snow white roses" today, but I don't have a picture, nor do I know if they are real or silk. Oh well, as with the previous flower posts, here goes the best of what I like and don't like. I hope my florist doesn't shoot me :)


I like the greenery in this bouquet. I think that it intersperses well with the flowers and helps add to the flow that I want in a bouquet.


I like the flowers in this one, but I'm not sure if they are winter flowers. And there's nowhere near enough greenery in the bouquet.

This is my favorite of the ones I've seen. I like the addition of the greenery (but I think that's green ribbon). Which makes me wonder if I can add some platinum ribbon to mine and make it still look okay. I'm pretty sure crimson would be out in a look like this one.

I also like how the larger flowers are not just in the top of the bouquet, but shift into the trail as well. So what I'm thinking, right now without talking to anybody about them, is that I want a bouquet like this of white flowers (we'll come up with actual flowers later), and a good bit of greenery. Perhaps some mistletoe (if it looks right) and maybe some holly berries (but I'm not really sure of the color or even if I have the right idea of blending flowers in my head. Don't know. I have to talk to the experts and they won't be here for a month. Besides, I have papers to write! Ah. Back to the real world.

Bridesmaids Bouquets

So, my bridesmaids are wearing platinum in the wedding. My other color is crimson and I want to blend it into the ceremony as well. I'm thinking that I want to do something crimson for the bridesmaids bouquets. I like the color of these (to the left), but I don't want their bouquets to look like a round ball of flowers on a stick. I had this bouquet at the last wedding I was part of. It was terrible. I want to do something in this color, with some greenery, but not much else. Sadly, I am flower illiterate. So....I guess I need a bit more help and time here.

A Flower Girl's Head Shoud Not be Consumed!

When I first started looking at flowers, I was considering floral wreaths for the flower girls. I could just picture the darlings with dainty little wreaths in their hair. I've decided, however, to go with something more along the lines of tiaras (and I'm sure the girls will appreciate it). They are princesses, after all. But let me give you a chuckle or two as to the final decision that made me realize I did not want flowers in the head of my flower girls.


I want to say, sure, these were good ideas in concept (and these are not the worst that I've seen), but a flower girl's head is only so big. Tiaras. Definitely tiaras. Oh, and how terrible am I for looking at millions of flower girls and continuing to think how much more adorable mine are!

Ceremony Flowers

I blame the mothers for this obsession...(and I mean that in the nicest possible way). They've both mentioned that I need to start thinking about flowers and the ceremony. So, I've given it some thought and I want to start with some ideas I have for the actual ceremony (no bouquets here; that's another post). So far, these are the ceremony ideas that we both agree are nice and for different reasons. So, let's look--one at a time.


We like the wood look in this picture and the not-overdone floral arrangements. The candles must go. We're getting married in the afternoon, so no candles. We'll lose the look.









Alright, so you can barely see it, but what we like about this one is the two pillars at the front of the altar. I don't know about the curtains, but we can all talk. This one has a bit of simple elegance without being overdone. I'm still not liking the giant flowerpots on the edge of the rows.



I need to look at the ceremony locations a bit more before I decide, but I'm we're going with something simple, but classy and elegant for the altar. Light on the flowers, light on the decor. We'll brainstorm some more over the holidays. Feel free to bring ideas you have...we're both open for many, many suggestions.

A Booted Decision Made

So a week ago, I got a call from my Maid of Honor telling me she had just bought boots that she thought would be perfect for the wedding. Now, what is hilarious is that I know that I could easily have told her they weren't what I was looking for and she would have kept them anyway and bought others for the wedding. But, I pulled them up online, and they are perfect. The pictures and links below are to the official Durango boots. However, I'm not a name brand girl, so if you find cheaper ones that look like these, great! I've heard that you can get similar boots at Wal-Mart for like $30. The groom swears by Durango, and these pictures are large enough to see what we want. Me, I'm buying either brown or black boots from Durango and then getting some inexpensive ones for the wedding. Somehow, I just don't see me wearing white boots very often. Remember, boots are the foot attire for the wedding party. They are not, however, required of other guests. Okay, here they are:




My boots (well, the expensive version of them anyway.)









The Bridesmaid's boots

















The Groom and Groomsmens' Boots. The groom says he's not requiring steel toes. Like me, a similar boot is fine as long as it looks like these :)

A Favor Idea

I'm quasi procrastinating paper ideas, but in my defense, I found this in my paper research.

The National Arbor Day foundation has a "gift tree" designed specifically to give as a wedding favor. They come in these nice biodegradable containers (and can be planted, refrigerated until planting time, or grown indoors until planting time). This is the picture they have on the website. As you can see, you can have these customized for your wedding and the labels (since you can't see all of them) look like this:


The saying on the label, from what I can tell, is customizable. I know that they have up to three lines of customization, so I'm assuming the verses in these are the customized labels.

So, I'm already loving the idea, but I love it for several reasons

1. I can order Longleaf Pines. Not only do longleaf pines grow well in most Southern states, they were extremely durable in Katrina. In fact, most of the pines still standing after Katrina were longleaf. Not wanting to dredge up the past, but for those of us who survived Katrina and faced the massive cleanup afterwards, these trees are a sign of durability and survival. Mississippi is still recovering from Katrina, and I think these would be a good way to help out.


2. I hate wedding favors that are totally useless. But, at the same time, I don't like edible favors all that much or favors that you don't want to use. So, I think a tree would be great. You can plant it in your yard and watch it grow while also remembering our wedding. (Yeah, I just don't want anybody to forget our wedding.)


3. They're not extremely expensive. At first I was a bit concerned about this. The trees are $3 each. I was worried that at $3 each for a minimum of 50 people, I was looking at shelling out $150 just for favors. And the purpose of planning your own wedding is to save money. But then I had another thought. I don't have to buy an individual tree for each person, but for each couple, family, etc. This would significantly cut down on the price and still be a great gift.

Besides, even if we decide not to do these as favors for the reception, I think I would at least like to do them as gifts to those extremely close to us (those that warrant a cabin). It would be a great addition to the room gift baskets.

I ran the idea by my darling fiance and got a "We'll see" out of him. That's a lot better than a complete "no." He pointed out that we have one small problem with this idea. Most of our guests don't own their own land, which means that they have nowhere to plant them.

I still think the trees are a great idea. Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to overcome the land problem. Perhaps we could donate the trees to the park in honor of our guests. We still have to find out if the park will accept them and have a place to put the trees, but it's the best idea thus far. That way, we could send trees home with the parents and those who have land and donate for those who do not. Perhaps we should require guests buy land to plant these trees on before the wedding (okay, so that's a joke).

By the way, we're trying to find out anonymously what people think of this idea. Please take a second and answer the poll to the right. PLEASE!

I have to get back to work now, but if anybody has ideas for this, please let us know!