47 days!

It's getting so close!  After spending months twiddling my thumbs and wondering what wedding planning I could be doing, I have so many things to do that I'm not sure what to do first!  Luckily I have deadlines for meetings and payments, so that helps keep me organized.  


A few days ago my mom and I met with the florist to finalize the details of my order and also the "day of" schedule--when and where to drop everything off.  Linda brought a sample bouquet and two boutonnieres with her so I could have a look and add/drop any flowers.


I had originally told Linda that I wanted a lot of orange, with fuschia and purple and some lime green mini hydrangeas.  The bouquet that Linda brought was very much a fall bouquet--lots of orange, but also red and green.  I liked it, but I was going for more of a wildflower look.  Luckily my mom made some suggestions that I think will help achieve that look.

Another thing we did was hold the bouquet up to the plum colored napkins that we bought to put under each centerpiece.  Since the flowers will be the same, it was nice to see the contrast between the flowers and napkin.  The dark napkin really makes the flowers pop.  


All in all, for my bouquet plus three BM bouquets, nine bouts, four coursages, 10 small arrangements for the pews in the chapel, and 10 centerpieces, I am playing about $1000.  I think that's a pretty good deal.  My mom kindly decided to pay for two large arrangements for our stark white chapel, and that set her back $150.  I thought that was kind of a lot, but she said that was what she was expecting to pay.


I am nervous about the florist, though.  I recommended her to a friend who got married a few months ago, and the bouquets and boutonnieres looked a little under the weather.  It was a hot, July day following a massive rain and that isn't really an excuse for slightly browning and sad looking flowers, but I think the florist may think it is.  So I am concerned that I will not get the most stunningly perfect flowers that I can imagine, but I guess I care more that I'm not paying an arm and a leg for them.  I just need to keep that in perspective.

I'm torn.

When it comes to the wedding decor, I thought I had it all set right at the beginning.  I had thought for a while that it would be cool to do the floral centerpieces in a terra cotta pots painted with black chalkboard paint.  Then I could write the table numbers on the pots!  Sort of like this:

(source: Martha Stewart)

The florist was so in with this idea.  I was stoked.  And I was planning on using these lanterns from IKEA on half of the tables, so I thought these really worked together.

Then, to complete the look, I could create chalkboard canvases a la The Roddy Bride for the drink menu and the seating chart.  

Perfect!


But.  After getting my fantastic dress, I thought it might be best to go a more formal route.  Well, formal isn't really the right word.  I guess I mean not so casual.  So my mom bought a bunch of glass taper candle holders, only to discover that we cannot have open flames at the reception.  Damn me for not being thorough!  Soooo we're now planning to use some of those candleholders on the altar at the chapel since there is very little risk of those candles being knocked over and starting a fire.  


And then my mom got some glass hurricanes to put on half of the tables instead of the lanterns.  I do like this idea because I love candlelight and I think that the lanterns would prevent a lot of light from getting out.  Would it clash too much to do the glass hurricanes with chalkboard pots and the other chalkboard accessories?  

Guest book alternative

I just found this while browsing on Etsy and I love it! 

Lovli Day created this family tree to use instead of a guest book!  It's so personal and unique.  I love the thumbprints!  It would also look nice if you used fall colors for the "leaves."

More color questions

(source: The Bride's Guide)

  

So, these are the colors that I want in my wedding.  Aren't those flowers in the middle gorgeous?  And I love that pink tie.  The pattern is different, and I love how it incorporates different shades of the same color.

Navy dresses, and flowers in these colors, plus maybe lime green hydrangeas.  So in order to avoid the Halloween look, what color ties should the guys wear?  Orange is out (sadly).  If they were black or charcoal suits, maybe a navy blue tie?  That would certainly make this decision a whole lot easier.  Plum?  Lime green?  I'm still on the fence about the green, though.  The board above just looks so great the with the colors as is.

 

Is orange too much?

source: Brides.com

This picture is the inspiration for my flowers and accent colors.  I have always had a thing for orange, and I love the contrast with the dark purple and bright pink.  I also saw a bouquet at a flower shop that had lime green hydrangeas and I thought that might add that in for an extra pop of color.  Not that it really needs it....

But now I'm in a quandary.  What is my accent color?  I am planning on putting floral centerpieces on half of the tables and a non-floral centerpiece on the other half.  I want to add color to the non-floral centerpieces, but I'm not sure which color to use!  And also, the guys will need to wear colored ties.  And the invitations.  And lots more!

I don't want to do bright pink.  I love it, but I have a few friends using that color next year, so I want something different.  I am leaning towards orange, but I do not want the wedding to have a fall, or worse--Halloween--theme.  I love the look of fall decorations, but I don't want my wedding to have a seasonal theme.  For some reason I'm just not into that.  Not sure why.  I think it's really cute whenever I see pictures. 

Enough rambling and back to my first thought: is orange too much?