Change of Address

Hey everybody!
Hate to pull the ole switcheroo on you, but I've moved this blog over to WordPress. So update your feed reader and or bookmarks!

The new address is http://andswedding.wordpress.com.

See you there, and thanks for reading!

The Booq... The Bouq... The Flowers

I'm not what you'd call a huge flower girl. Sure, I love when Dustin sends me the occasional bouquet, but I don't plant flowers in the spring, and I don't even have a favorite bud.

Combine this with the price of floral arrangements and the long-distance drive and communication, and you've got yourself a bride that doesn't want a floral bouquet. I need something to hold, because I'll be nervous, and I pick at my cuticles when I'm nervous. I'm not too big on the parasol trend (looks great, just not for my Thanksgiving in the mountains wedding), and if I carried a lantern my arm would get tired and I'd catch my dress on fire. I like the way flowers look, but not so much on the silk flowers.

So I'm opting for something that will cater both to my penchant for vintage goodies and desire for something that at least looks like a traditional floral bouquet: a vintage brooch bouquet.

Feast your eyes on these babies:


I *love* these. They've got the color of a floral bouquet, but I don't have to 1)rely on importing flowers coated with chemicals and a huge carbon footprint, 2) paying for organic, locally grown flowers, 3) working long-distance with a florist, and 4) kick starting anybody's seasonal allergies.

I can customize a bouquet like this pretty easily, and brooches shouldn't be too hard to find. And I love that I'm perhaps saving some things from a landfill, too.

Now I just need to figure out how to put this thing together.

All images from Fantasy Floral Designs

341 Days and Counting

Now that the semester is over (All As, woot woot!), I've got the time to update everyone on the wedding plans.

We'll still be getting married on November 22, 2010 (that's the Monday before Thanksgiving), but we've relocated to Asheville, NC. Planning a Florida wedding just wasn't coming together, and once we started looking at everything Asheville had to offer, things just felt right...kinda like us.

We'll be married by a river at Hidden River events, and we've got our cabin for the week reserved. Hidden River is GORGEOUS. And we're loving Jeanne, the owner. I'm not going to reveal prices here (unless I decide to do a major budget breakdown later), but Hidden River was WAAAAY under budget for us. Like, when we were give the price quote, we thought for sure there was supposed to be a few extra zero's tacked on to the end.

And apparently it's bad luck to reveal your honeymoon suite? I didn't know this. So I won't link to it, but I will tell you we've rented a cabin that's way too big for us. It's got 3 bedrooms, and sleeps 9, so clearly, there's going to be too much extra space for us. But we don't care. Because the cabin we've rented is the only one sitting on 260 acres, so we are COMPLETELY secluded. There's a 1/2 mile path along a mountain stream that leads to a waterfall, and mountain views all around. It's going to be GORGEOUS, even if we do miss the full splendor of the autumn leaves. Now, the cabin itself: Humongo fully stocked kitchen (which is important to us, as we'll be hosting Thanksgiving Dinner for our families on Thursday), really awesome vessel sinks (this is less important, but the girl in me is totally overjoyed), a 4-person tub, and in the Master Bath? A 2-person jacuzzi tub AND A STEAM SHOWER. Yes. I'm convinced I need a steam shower in my life.

Both our venue and honeymoon cabin are reserved, with down payments pending. The next thing we're working on is 1) finding a restaurant for our post-ceremony dinner, cake and toasts; 2) finding a photographer (I think I found one! I just need to contact her); and 3) Finding a wedding dress.

Really, after we get those next three things lined up (and those are fairly big things to line up), there won't be too many big things left to do. I'm excited by this.