A Wedding Planning Update: Decoration

We are in the throes of wedding decor planning - my favorite part!

However, that means I am not here visiting with you.

I miss you.

After getting all the initial foundational stuff out of the way (finding a venue, finding a marriage commissioner, finding a photographer, finding a dress!), we are moving on to the more decorative aspects for our June wedding.  Everything hinges on everything else, so let's begin with the venue!

~ Our Venue ~

Our venue is a historic city garden with a charming small cafe.  We will be married in the garden and then have our reception inside the cafe after some photos.  The venue isn't as posh as I first wanted (I envisioned chandeliers...), but it's so pretty, relaxed, and removed-from-the-world that it captured our hearts.  The interior space has great light, with windows on three sides, making for good interior photos in case of rain.  And the food at the cafe is insanely good and so well-received - all local and carefully curated...very hand-made gourmet.  And of course, the gardens are gorgeous.

  It was also perfect for a small wedding - ours is the only wedding that day, unlike ALL the other venues we considered.  Yes, small weddings are very hard to find a venue for, as you end up competing with the wedding for 250 in the room next door.  And with this venue, everything is contained at one site - ceremony, photos, reception.

~ Tablescapes ~ 

We are still sorting out the floor plan and tables, which has a big effect on tablescapes.  But we needed to start sourcing china and silverware.  I didn't want to rent china and dreamed of using vintage white or white and gold bone china.  But no one rents that here.  And buying enough for 24 was tougher than I thought, without the benefit of great estate sales and antique stores here in town.  

So we ended up renting china, but I found a pattern I really like and I think you will too.

To mix with the rental bits, we've chosen some lovely vintage and vintage-inspired items to create a "warm garden elegance" feel, as my event stylist, A. J. from Pink & Honey, calls it.  Although our tablescape plan is just beginning, it's getting prettier by the minute.

Neither Snow Calligraphy

~ Flowers ~ 

Weddings mean flowers and I cannot wait for this part!  We are meeting a floral designer soon to start talking about flowers for our tablescapes.  I am envisioning large, slightly wild, and flowing arrangements of English roses and peonies, dahlias and ranunculus, mixed with trailing foliage and textural elements like blackberries, hypericum, and feathery species like astilbe.  

Magnolia Rouge Magazine Photo: Rylee Hitchner

I'm even more excited about our bouquets and boutonnieres.  I think this is one of the prettiest bouquets I've seen in a while.  Our flowers will be mainly whites, pinks and peaches, but I love a note of darker pink, navy, or golden yellow mixed in for contrast.

Belathee Photography, via Style Me Pretty

~ Invitations ~

Invitations are also underway.  We've found an amazing artist/calligrapher to hand design our invitations and hand-letter all our envelopes.  We are just about to start the design process and I couldn't be more excited.  Her style (free and fun) is different from mine (more formal and serious), so I'm excited to jump outside my comfort zone and do something fresh and pretty for our invitations.  

Neither Snow

In the meantime, I am still looking for wedding shoes and accessories and David needs to find his suit and tie fairly soon!  We also need to source a wedding cake and plan our ceremony!  And in April, we'll get started on menu planning with our venue once they open for the season.  Then we will do final paper goods, like our printed menus and wedding programs.  And begin alterations on my dress.  So much to do, so little time!

I will try to share more soon.  And later I will share the names of all our vendors and suppliers.  But if I am absent, you will know why!