Just under three months to go

Long time, no blog. Kenny and I are buying our first house, which has turned into a three month long process. Remind me never to buy a house again, please.

With all the house drama, not too much has been happening with wedding plans, but I realized on Friday that we were three months away and really we don't have any time to dilly-dally.

Flowers have been on my to-do list for a long time but part of me couldn't even get excited about them. They're expensive and they die within a week, but eventually I came to terms with the fact that I needed to sort it out sooner than later. I made an appointment with a florist at Whole Foods, which is a high-end grocery store chain that specializes in organic food. Their flowers are beautiful and being a grocery store, the prices are more reasonable than an independent florist.

I sat down with the florist yesterday and we talked for a good hour about everything. Here's my bouquet inspiration:

The bridesmaids will have similar bouquets but not as flashy. The groomsmen will have lavender rose boutonnieres, and Kenny will have a white rose boutonniere. Parents and grandparents will have white rose corsages/boutonnieres. I think everything will come together really nicely!

She's also pricing out some very simple centrepieces for me, based off of these photos:


I like the flowers submerged in water with the floating candle and river rocks, and then I like the mirror on the table with the tiny candles around the edge, so I will combine the two ideas. Having the mirror on the table essentially doubles the amount of light that the candles throw off, and I think the effect will be magical when the sun goes down at our reception.

Finally! A ceremony venue resolution.

Ok, so I'll admit I had a quick thought of "why didn't we just elope?" when I learned that our original ceremony venue wasn't going to work. I feel like my mum spent all of last week on the phone talking to people about possible other locations to get married and blocking out hotel rooms. Today, Jenny, Samera and I went down to Mystic to scout out some hotels and also to look at the Inn at Lower Farm, a quaint B&B that does weddings, too.

Mary at Lower Farm was so gracious to allow us to stop by and see the property, and also peek in on one of the guest rooms. The grounds are gorgeous and the house is so amazing inside (especially the kitchen! All three of us were drooling over the kitchen and adjoining full-size hearth in the dining room!). I could imagine myself walking across the field where the ceremony would be held to meet Kenny. I instantly felt better!

So the ceremony will be there, and I can't wait to see what the Farm looks like when all the flowers are in bloom.

We also looked at a few hotels, and have finalized which hotels to block out for our guests. If you're a guest, check out the Wedding Information page for more on which hotels we've blocked rooms at, including rates and distances to the ceremony/reception venues.

In addition to the ceremony venue and hotels, we also checked out a florist! It was a busy day! I have to set an appointment and go back and hammer out all the details with the owner of Mystic Florist because it is apparently a two hour ordeal and we didn't have time for that today! I am excited to decide which flowers we'll use in the bouquets.

Other than that, Kenny and the boys went to the tux place this past week and sorted out their tux arrangements. They are going to look so handsome. I had to work but thankfully Jenny and Samera went with them to keep them on track and make sure they didn't come out wearing hot pink vests and wing-tipped shoes. I'm assured that they haven't arranged anything too frightening for their wedding finery.

fun, non-floral centerpieces to fit our budget and colour scheme

We estimate that we will have about twelve tables at our wedding. Floral centerpieces for all twelve tables would be between $700 and $1500 depending on what flowers we wanted. I know I'm going to have to figure out where I can start trimming the budget (oh darn) so I have been looking at non-floral centerpieces online. I've found that I actually like the centerpieces with no flowers better than those with flowers!

I love this fabulous fish centerpiece that I saw featured here. It has a bit of height, it's something nice to look at in the center of the table that will last (hopefully) longer than cut flowers will after the wedding is over, and each centerpiece could be raffled to a guest at the table so that the winner could take home a nice beta fish for a pet.

Photo Credit

Another fun and fresh idea is using citrus fruits. If we have green as our colour, I would love to use lemons since the yellow will go well with it. I keep hearing that my wedding decor should go along with the month we are getting married in. I think this is true to a certain extent but I am not going to write off a really great idea just because it doesn't "feel" like September. A centerpiece like this would add height colour and fun to the tables, and generally in RI it's still so nice and warm even in September that I'm sure it would go well.

Photo Credit

I also love curling vines like these curly willow clippings. These have orchid blooms attached to them and they almost look like dogwood. Beautiful!

Photo Credit

Depending on the kind of venue we end up booking, I also really love lanterns, but that may be too rustic for some of the places we are considering.

I am thinking about using the colours above as our colour scheme but can't decide if I might replace the yellow with a cream colour. I would love a sage green for bridesmaid's dresses and then purple and yellow (or cream) flowers in the bouquets. Deep purple table cloths (or a more traditional off-white) would tie everything together.

I think I might like this palette better.