Florist meeting!

The chuppah is going to be four bamboo poles (held by friends) with a white cloth on the top. JewishMIL is making it! At the corners there are going to be a couple of these pink & yellow daisies plus some greenery:





The rest of the flowers are going to be these white daises (and also some smaller, also white daisies):


The daisies will be mixed in with the felt and button flowers from Princess Lasertron (click flower for link to etsy shop):



Except the flowers will be in this color palette:



so... YAY!

I think I am going to have the bouquets be a mix of a couple of white gerbera daisies with the button flowers, mine having more button flowers than the bridesmaids'. I don't know if anyone else is having button flowers, it depends on what they want - I know my mom wants a button flower corsage but I don't know if anyone else wants, so I will have to ask :)

The centerpieces as they are right now (subject to review, I think) are going to be two white gerbera daisies and one button flower in one of three clear vase designs (ellipse, rectangle and square).

Also I want to have little tea lights on the tables with the centerpieces, I think that is pretty easy to coordinate.

Overall I think everything will be simple and fresh, I don't want to compete too much with the mansion.

More Centerpiece Prettiness

More ideas...

I really like gerbera daisies (they're in two of these pictures I think - the bottom two). I think they are very simple but bright and happy and have enough stage presence to stand alone in a vase. I also like the idea of white flowers with colorful vases.

I was talking to my Maid of Honor, CankeyB, and she sent me some information from her sister about decorations and flowers. Apparently Costco sells flowers in bulk for pretty cheap! This is exciting, especially if I want to only use one or two different kinds of flowers. I can buy lots of interesting, colorful vases and use the same flowers in each and keep my costs down (this way we can justify splurging on the food a little, maybe?). I will also dress it up with some candles and what have you. Hooray, that's exciting. I think I've pretty much set my mind on finding vases at the thrift store and putting together the centerpieces myself.

And now, for the picture of the centerpiece that not only would I never use, I would be very upset to go to a wedding to find this:

Look, I know fish are bad pets. I hate fish. They're messy and require a lot of work to take care of (the cleaning and the filters and the blah blah carnivorous snails blah blah). I have had them as pets and I think they are the dumbest pets ever and are really more like living art than pets - I have no patience for pets that just sit and do their thing and don't really interact with me. However, messy living art they may be, I don't see how they are disposable like flowers for a wedding!

We Have a Venue!

Woo!  We have now put down a deposit on this place (the same one that I was talking about before) for March 29!

These pictures are from when my mom went to visit last week.  Very pretty.  Yay!

There was a little bit of drama involving the times - they seemed to say to my mom that the 7 hours we were buying didn't include set-up or clean-up, but then the contract was pretty clear that not only did you have to subtract that time, but that you should only really count on 4 1/2 hours of event time!  That's really not enough for the ceremony AND the reception.  However, since it's a Sunday and we're the only event happening that day, we were able to buy some more hours to make it a more reasonable amount of time.

Also, the kosher caterer that's been recommended to us by many different people on separate occasions is on their list of preferred caterers.  That's great because they know the rules of this place and I'd say we could probably trust them not to do something crazy that would cost us our security deposit.  That's probably the next thing we have to get: the contract with the caterer.  

We have to do it soonish only because we are also going to need them all weekend, not just for Sunday afternoon.  We are planning Shabbat meals for the out of town guests in the hotel who are shomer shabbat and therefore have to come Friday and can't go out to dinner or anything.  So any caterer we get would (preferably) do Friday night dinner, Saturday lunch, Saturday dinner and Sunday dinner.  That's a lot of catering.  However, my thoughts are (at least right now, just preliminary thinking) is that if we are able to block off rooms in a hotel in downtown DC, the Saturday dinner could be relatively small so that the guests would then go out on the town Saturday night... although the kashrut issue might prevent that from actually being possible.  Well, who knows, that's another discussion.

Anyway, phew, another major milestone in the wedding planning process complete!

Great Ideas

Here are some ideas I got (or things that I knew about before but saw in action) at the wedding this weekend to note for future reference.

1. The bridesmaids didn't have the same dresses, not even the same dresses in different colors.  When I was looking at websites that do bridesmaids dresses, one of the places I liked the most was a place that made custom dresses.  They would all be similar in fabric and length but would have different tops to flatter my bridal party as best as possible.  I have seen sites where they talk about letting the bridesmaids choose their own dresses in a pre-determined palette.  I really wasn't sure how that would look because it would just be a hodgepodge of styles and colors.  However, even though all the bridesmaids wore different dresses, they were all green and knee-length - they also all wore white wraps in the chapel.  I think this looked just as nice as making them all wear the same dress, plus they all chose dresses that they liked and would wear again.  I think I could do this for my bridesmaids, but I would have to have a few stipulations like length, sexiness, boldness of pattern, and palette.  I would like them to be wearing relatively modest (ie: not boobalicious, but strapless is OK), knee-length dresses with either a subtle or no pattern in the color palette of the wedding.  I wouldn't want a really bold hibiscus print, halter-top dress on one of my bridesmaids, I think that would be just a little too distracting.  The unifying thing would be the length and maybe I would have them wear wraps during the ceremony like at the wedding this weekend.


2. The centerpieces were simple, but pretty (and probably not very expensive!).  They didn't use any flowers anywhere in the decoration, except for using the bridesmaids' bouquets on the buffet table.  You really don't need a magnificent centerpiece to set the mood of the table.  Actually, one funny thing about having the limes was that some people took them from the centerpiece and cut them up to put in their drinks!  I thought this was perfect.  The only problem is now they have about 5lb of limes to get rid of.  I think I would still like to use flowers, maybe, but local, in-season ones (these are probably the cheapest).  Also, the vases they used only cost about $3/each, or so the groom told me.  So centerpieces can certainly be very inexpensive but still look very nice. 


3. I really do like the long, skinny tables more than the big round ones.  I know it's probably not possible to have that at the venue JewishGuy and I like, but it really made a difference (I thought).  We were able to talk to people on the other side of the table, on all sides, etc.  We had a pretty big conversation going at one point.  This wouldn't have been possible at a giant round 8-12 seater, because you can really only talk to the people directly next to you - the people across the table are too far away and the people sitting two people down are also too far away!  Especially at a sit-down dinner (that we are hoping for), where people will be sitting in one place for a while as their food is served, I would really prefer that they be able to talk to more than just the people to their right and left.  It's not the end of the world if this doesn't happen, it's just my preference.  Also, despite what JewishGuy says, it wasn't that hard to get up and dance with the rectangle tables the way that these were set up.


4. It's really a party, not a gallery!  You know what, I really thought the reception was beautiful in the little art gallery, but what made it fun wasn't the decoration or the place, but the people and the dancing.  So although I have a strong, strong, strong preference not to use a hotel ballroom (as anything in there will really feel like just a dressed up USY convention or bar mitzvah), I think anywhere we go will be fun.  For the music, they just used an ipod and made a few playlists, hooked it up to speakers and we had a blast.  One of their friends was the emcee and he did a good job.  I feel like if it's not possible to get a live band, an ipod playlist is way better than a DJ.


5. You don't have to give out party favors.  We were talking about this after the party.  There weren't any favors this weekend - unless you count the limes - and nobody was like, man I wish I had some kind of thing to take home and throw away from this wedding!  In fact, I thought it was very nice - I never really know what to do with those things.  We just kept the program from the ceremony :)  We will already be spending a lot of money on making the party fun and the food delicious, not to mention the Shabbat we are planning for the out-of-towners, what's the point in giving everyone a little thing that they'll throw out as soon as they get home?  (Or maybe they will keep it in a drawer and throw it out later)  I think this is a good mindset because I really can't think of anything to give out that won't be silly.  Although I have seen some people give out bubbles at weddings, like little bubble bottles, and we were supposed to blow bubbles on them as they walked away or something.  So the bubbles were kind of like the favors.  I think that's the only kind of favor I would want to give out.


6. After parties are the shiz!  We are definitely, definitely planning an after party!  It was really great because we got to continue the party, eat some more food and hang out in jeans.  I think this will be perfect because I know there will be people who will be tired at 10pm, but I also know there will be people who will want to keep on partying.  This will make it hard for us to wake up in the morning for the breakfast for the out-of-towners, but whatever!

That's all I can think of for now! (haha)

Centerpiece Inspiration: Submerged

More centerpiece inspiration, but this time the flowers are mostly or partially submerged in water.  Very pretty and looks great with candles!

I think doing this eliminates the problem of buying the vase.  I'm not sure if I like it more than the individual, unique vases with a small flower arrangement, but if we do something like this, we can borrow the vases from the florist.  Although I don't know if that is cheaper than buying lots of little vases, it might save us the problem of having a bunch of vases to take home after.

Centerpiece/Decoration Inspiration

Now this might be too expensive for centerpieces, although they would make wonderful gifts (and I would probably love to take them home, maybe I would go around stealing them before people could take them from me).

Dinosaur Designs makes really awesome jewelry, housewares, etc, from resin - not just resin, but that's the stuff I like - and I think it's beautiful.  I just love how each vase in this picture has a different shape and quality to the material.  And with vases like these, you really don't need anything more than these little flowers they've put in them to dress them up!  

Of course, each little vase costs at least $50, SO.... that's probably not going to happen realistically.  But they are certainly beautiful.

Their glasswork is also pretty amazing.

Wow, who knew I had such expensive taste...

I'd like to get a similar effect from vases from the thrift store or from clearance vase sales or something like that.

(I wish we could somehow put things like this on our registry!)

Funny Idea: Mojitos & Limes

We were talking about having special rooms during the party.  JewishGuy wants to have a Scotch bar, possibly in another room other than the main room with the food and dancing.  Well, if we have a Scotch bar, maybe we should make another signature drink.

I said, how funny would it be if our signature drink was mojitos, and in order to get a mojito you had to take a lime from a centerpiece to the bar!

Hilarious.  I am on a roll!

Venues

One of the things that I'd really like is if we got married in a place with a lot of character, and if it has to be inside it would be in a place with lots of windows.

So here is one of my favorite places so far:

And this would be where the ceremony would have to be held if it were inside (I think):

And this would be where the party would be held:

How pretty is that?

I am not in love with this place because I haven't seen it in person so I don't know if it would realistically work for what we need to do for the ceremony and reception (I think we need 5 rooms, two large, two medium and one small I think).

It is a very nice place... something really pretty with lots of windows, relatively neutral decor that can go with many types of themes and colors and options for outside ceremonies.  Personally, I would love it if the whole thing were outdoors, in which case it wouldn't much matter the venue itself, rather the scenery.  If we were on the patio of a really nice house or small venue, that would be very nice, especially for an evening wedding (plenty of opportunities for fun lighting).  However, JewishGuy has stated his preference is to not depend on outside ceremonies and receptions because the weather is finicky.  Most people get around this by having tents but I don't know how I feel about a tent versus simply being in a pretty room.  I'd probably rather be in a pretty room with windows than a tent.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for, to be honest!  It keeps changing every day.  I know what I don't want, which is to be in a room with no windows at the bottom floor of a hotel - no matter how well it's decorated according to my theme, the back of my head will always ring with, "this looks like a dressed up USY convention." (USY is a Jewish youth group that I was involved in not only as a teenager but also as an advisor)

However, I would be all right with a very nice outside courtyard or patio at a hotel, but then come the issues with weather and all of that.  I just really like the idea of having something simple, without being too dressy or flamboyant.  I like the picture of the room but I don't much like the tables being all sparkly and meh.

I wish I had a clear picture of what I wanted to do so I could share it with JewishGuy and he could tell me what in that picture he likes and what we can actually pull off!

Pretty Centerpieces: Green Pt1

I am not really into ridiculously elaborate (or expensive) decorations. When I had a garden party at my apartment that had a back yard - ah, to have a back yard again - my only decorations were Christmas lights strung around the perimeter and I think it looked very nice and cozy. It was also practical because we actually had no other lights back there.

So as I tour theknot.com for reception ideas, I think it shouldn't be surprising that the things I like are the smallest, easiest, simplest things that I think would look very pretty. Here are a couple of green-centric center pieces.



I like the idea of using grass. First of all, using grass, it's possible that the florist reuses the centerpieces, which means we wouldn't be buying all of these expensive, fresh-cut flowers that we'd use once and then store in the apartment for a while and then eventually have to throw out. (I'm not saying I don't want fresh-cut flowers, I do! But maybe not all over the place)

I also like grass because it is incredibly spring-y! But it might be hard to pull off, I may need a professional to help with that.



This is just a really cute idea. I think I could one-up this photo if I just had each table with a different kind of funky vase and small flowers. And the nice thing is that afterwards, I can keep the nice little vases and actually reuse them!



This is a similar idea as the one above, except that along with little pretty flowers she also used rosemary! Well, in this picture it looks like sage, but in the description on theknot they talked about how they used different herbs in the centerpieces. I think that is a great idea! If you're going to have a small, simple centerpiece, why not have it be fragrant in a way that may not set off allergies? (Also, um, THEN I GET TO KEEP THE SPICES AND USE THEM!) I'm not suggesting using a ton of herbs, just as part of the little bouquet.



And if you're going to go into using edible centerpieces, why not go all the way and put out some fruit? I think this looks very nice and romantic. However, I think one problem might be that people will not take any apples home and we will be stuck with apples.

These are just the green ideas. I will also have yellow and brown ideas, as well as ideas on incorporating pink somehow.