Candace's Wedding

The loveliness that was Candace's wedding, for your viewing pleasure:


Things to note:

• The wedding ceremony and reception were both held at Waters Mill, in Dahlonega, GA, an all-inclusive facility that was built with weddings in mind. The ceremony was outside, and afterward we all headed to the reception building only a few yards away. About 100 guests were in attendance.
• The bridesmaid dresses had pockets!
  
• When it was time for the bride and groom to leave, the staff at Waters Mill handed each guest a sparkler, and we held them up and lined up on the sidewalk as the newly married couple ran underneath an archway of fireworks to their get-away vehicle. What a cute idea in lieu of rice/bubbles for when it's dark out!

All in all, it was a great wedding. Congratulations to Candace and Todd!

More Shoes!

Continuing with our recent theme of footwear, I wanted to share with you all Andrea's revelation. She was having trouble finding a shoe she was comfortable wearing--she wanted a heel, but not something too high; she wanted it to be closed-toe (October wedding, possibility of outdoor photos) but still cute. This morning I got an email with her solution:

Dance shoes!

Of course, we're not talking ballet slippers here (although that could be a fun option). Andrea scoured the internet looking for ballroom-style dance shoes and this is one of the pairs she found:
The advantages are obvious--they're going to be comfortable because they're made for dancing! These are made by Aris Allen as a reproduction of a 1930s dress pump and complement Andrea's dress quite well in my opinion (the dress has a vintage feel to it, with a boat neckline and a triple tiered lace skirt). They are $74.95 and available at dancestore.com, a site which specializes in swing dance shoes. They are "vegan" shoes, but neither Andrea nor I knows what that means!

Some other websites that sell dance shoes are Best Ballroom Shoes and DiscountBallroom.com, but a simple Google search will turn up many other options.

Happy Accidents

Lily, you inspired me. Admittedly, my wedding shoes are not colorful, nor detailed, but I'd had them bookmarked on Zappos.com, and I decided now was the time to buy them, because, well, I didn't want to keep reading patent law cases.
I selected these shoes from Zappos.com because they were everything I had in mind--simple, white, tall, peep-toed--for my wedding shoes. Now, I know it does not sound ideal to be buying shoes from the internet without being able to try them on. But here's the real advantage of shopping on Zappos or any online shoe retailer, which I think outweighs the risk of purchasing something without trying on--they have customer reviews!

The reviews for this shoe--Cora by Calvin Klein--were almost all from women who had bought the same shoes for their weddings. And the comfort ratings by these ladies were all positive, even though the shoes have 4.5" heels.

Alas, when I went to buy them today, they were out of my size!! Oh no!! In a panic (for God knows what reason, I mean, I've got more than nine months to go here), I Googled the designer and style name, and found a site called ShopWiki. ShopWiki lists all the online retailers with that product, including Piperlime, a retailer selling my shoe--in my size!--for $40 less! With tax (shipping was free!), the total came to about $63. What a deal! And what a happy shoe ending!

Wedding Shoes

Hello everyone!

I was doodling around today on the internet, and found this lovely pair of shoes on Zappos. They are called Roma, and made by rsvp. This pair is light blue in color (fulfilling the traditional "something blue" requirement!), but they also come in champagne and black.

Roma by r.s.v.p.

I love the beaded detailing on the heel, and think that they would make elegant wedding shoes for a wide range of wedding styles. They would add a bit of subtle romance to a minimalistic, contemporary wedding, and perfectly complement a country-style wedding. Plus they are not outrageously expensive, and could be worn for dressy summer occasions!

Let me know what you think of them!

Jesse's Wedding

Hi all! Derek and I just got back from Nebraska where we had a great time at the wedding of one of our college friends. Fortunately, a large group of our friends made it out to Omaha as well, so it was also a fun reunion for all of us.

The ceremony was lovely--a Catholic ceremony, but without Communion. The wedding as a whole was very simple. The bride's dress was a straight strapless gown, with a horizontal lace pattern overlay, similar to the one shown at the right. The bridesmaids wore knee-length black dresses and carried bouquets of lilies; the bride's bouquet contained lilies and roses. Aside from the black and white motif, there were little accents of aqua throughout the ceremony and reception--the groom and groomsmen wore aqua ties, for example, and the favors were tied with aqua ribbon. Very simple and classy.

The reception was held at a Holiday Inn in Omaha, which was very convenient for the guests--we all just stayed there for the weekend. However, I can't say I recommend the Holiday Inn, for several mishaps occurred that probably should not have. First, one of our friend's reservations for Friday night was canceled! Apparently they had overbooked. Fortunately, they gave her Saturday night for free, and the rest of us shifted around our sleeping arrangements so she had somewhere to stay Friday night. But the worst part was that in the middle of the reception, the dance floor broke apart! They had to call in some "technicians" who stomped the floor back into place, but then it happened again!

Nonetheless, everyone had a great time. We learned how to do the Lebanese Line Dance and sang along to "Jesse's Girl" and "Stacey's Mom" (the bride and groom were named Jesse and Stacey). Jesse did a great job of making time to talk to us during the reception, which we really appreciated. Something interesting that I thought was a good idea--they put white Christmas lights in layers underneath the tablecloth at the head table, so the head table "sparkled" a little bit.

All in all, it was a great wedding, and I was so glad that Derek and I were able to be there for someone who has always been a great friend.

Florists

We've selected a florist! Derek and I decided that, for our bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages (remember, we're doing our own centerpieces), we are going to go with:

Moran's Flora, in Birmingham, MI. It's really close to my parents' house, so we don't need the flowers to be delivered--someone can just go pick them up.

• The owner, Lee, was very personable and down-to-earth. She was very concerned and understanding about the budget, and that is the main reason we are going with her. She was not judgmental about it at all.
• I realize their website looks like it's just FTD stuff, but I really got very personal service and I don't think FTD has anything to do with my flowers, which are all "original" designs.
  
• Here are the prices we got:

• $125 for a bridal bouquet of dark blue hydrangea (she swears they exist), dark purple lisianthus, dark purple carnations, and yellow spray roses.
• $50 each for 5 bridesmaid bouquets of dark blue hydrangea, dark purple carnations, and dark purple lisanthus (I asked Lee to keep these under $50 each. She said she could do it, but there might be a lot of carnations, which I am fine with).
• $8 each for 10 boutonnieres of dark purple lisanthus.
• $20 each for 7 corsages of dark purple lisanthus and purple roses.

• One thing that was a little annoying: there was no formal, typewritten contract for to sign. Lee wrote down her notes and gave me a copy. I overlooked it because I didn't have to put down a deposit. Lee just said to call her back when we get closer to the date.

Other florists we looked into:

Thrifty Florist

• The wedding consultant, Fran, was very professional and I would have felt very comfortable with her. She spent a lot of time with us, and was careful about details. She looked at my ring and asked about my dress in order to determine our style. She had several suggestions for different flowers. She was very knowledgeable about what would work and what wouldn't. However, she never asked me what our budget was.
• Here are the prices we got from her (forgive me, I don't remember exactly which flowers she was going to use. I thought I was taking good notes, but I guess I didn't).

• $106 for a bridal bouquet that includes hydrangea, aster, lisanthus and yellow freesia.
• $71 each for 5 bridesmaid bouquets of lisianthus and hydrangea.
• $7 each for 9 boutonnieres, and $9 for the groom's boutonierre. They were composed of different flowers, some were yellow freesia, some were lisianthus, some delphinium.
• $20 each for 7 corsages. Again, those were all a little different, some yellow freesia and some lisianthus.

English Gardens

• This is actually a garden center-type store, with a florist inside.
  
• I really liked the guy I talked to here, and he was the least expensive. However, there were two strikes against him: the florist is only in the store Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 (so who's going to be in charge of my wedding?), and he never called me back with a sample bouquet like he said he would. I thought that was really cool--he was going to create a small sample bouquet for me to see what the flowers and colors looked like together, but it's been almost a month (he told me it would take a week) and I still haven't heard.
• The prices here were interesting. The florist didn't really seem to take into account the type of flowers when he gave me prices.

• $60-$125 for a bridal bouquet. We were thinking blue delphinium and purple lisianthus, with yellow pompon daisies (I liked the delphinium, but the other florists thought it was not worth it because you can only use the top of the bunch of flowers, since it is a long stem of flowers and I wanted a round bouquet).
• $40-$60 for the bridesmaids bouquets, purple lisianthus and blue delphinium.
• $7.99-$9.99 for boutonnieres.
• $14.99 for corsages.

We're pretty happy with Lee, although I hate saying no to anyone. I realize you have to do it, though; it's good manners and it's fair.

What a whirlwind of a wedding planning summer! I'm going back to school soon, so I'm glad I got so much done while I had a little free time. Expect the updates on Daisy's wedding to slow down for a little bit, but I'll still try to stay on top of all the trends. Derek and I are also attending three weddings this fall, so I'll have lots of ideas to comment and report on. I hope you all had great summers!

Cute idea

I found this article on the Wall Street Journal, and I thought it was an interesting idea, especially for couples with fond memories of a summer camp from their childhood or teenage years: Sleep-Away Camp Weddings