first bunch of invites out

There are a few more to send, but some people have already received theirs! This is probably bad etiquette, but don't get me started about all the crazy etiquette...

Can you tell how happy I am to get these in the mail? Verging on the maniacal, some might say. No invite photos until they're all received, though...

some of my favorite bouquets...

Well... there have to be hiccups in wedding planning, and one of these unavoidable things hit us. Our lovely invitation designer/florist trainee is now gainfully employed and now unable to do the wedding flowers.

I could feel the crazy coming on when I got her sweet and sad email, but then I realised that it's just flowers for one party and it's not something to get bent out of shape over. So, a few phone calls later we've got a new florist - Poppies, on Queen west west. I've been in there a bazillion times and particularly admired their potted arrangements, so it's a happy ending. It's turning into a very Queen W W wedding - but I'm glad we've got Wanda's Pie in the Sky to throw some Kensington Market into the mix.
So while our first florist and I had crazy mind-meld with regards to flowers, now I pull together some inspiration images to bring to our meeting next Monday.

Hence, these lovelies from Brooklyn's Saipua. Their arrangements just SLAY ME.

grace kelly

Martha B. over at Nibs did a post today on Grace Kelly's wedding dress.  All I can say is oooooh. The dress reminds me very much of this Vogue pattern:

I've loved this pattern for ages and thought about having it made for our wedding, but then I realized that I don't have Grace Kelly's waistline and that it requires about a million yards of fabric and that good lace is rather expensive and chose another pattern that's perfect (and secret).  But there you go - if you want to look like Grace Kelly and you have a good seamstress - voila!

One more picture via Nibs, though, just to provoke another oooooooh:

Blommorna

This lovely arrangement from Skona hem makes me think of firecrackers. Those Roman Candle-esque blooms look rather like alliums, which I'd forgotten I like over the winter.

We're headed to Stockholm a couple of days after our wedding so really, checking Skona hem is like research, right?

Crazy-making lists

Meg wrote an absolutely fantastic post on A Practical Wedding today about how the various checklists out there can drive you mad with prompts to "bond in a creative way with your wedding party" or "go for cake testings" as in multiple tastes of multiple cakes from multiple bakeries. Once again, she has cut the cr@p and figured out how to do what needs to be done in a sensible and meaningful way: use a local bakery, simple chocolate and chocolate cake, done and done.

We're going to do something similar. We'll be getting a cake or two, some pies, some cookies, and some squares from Wanda's Pie in the Sky.  I was absolutely shocked at the price of cakes. I had thought that since we weren't planning on having a giant tiered wedding cake but rather a selection of normal cakes etc. for people to choose from. Compared with the venue and the rest of the catering it's small, but still!  But Wanda's is reasonable, nummy, we've actually BEEN there before, our friends like them, and we only have to order like a week ahead of time.

Take that, crazy-making list!!!

GLOVES!

I just bought these beauties on Etsy from Cassie's Attic. I did a search for "crocheted wedding gloves" in the vintage section and ba-boom! Done!

My fingers are longer than the average 1940s woman, though, so hopefully they'll work out....

My soon-to-be-sister-in-law wore lovely crocheted gloves to her Tokyo wedding and I remembered how sweet they are. They get at the pretty, vintage, bride-ey look without being hot (temperature-wise) or OTT.

Registries

So Pip and I did a couple of registries... one at William Ashleys for dishes, cutlery, teapots, etc. and one at the Bay for sheets and pots and pans and things.

I kinda thought it would be fun to do this... like shopping with other peoples' money, but it was kinda icky and un-fun. Icky because we're basically telling people to buy us stuff, and un-fun because it's hard to get excited about towels (cream or white?) and pots and pans, especially when the salespeople were completely NUTS.

I kept thinking "I wish I could just register at IKEA" since they have cuter and more useful stuff and it's so very reasonable.  But they don't do registries.  For instance, I'd love to get a white slipcover for our currently red corduroy couch.  But whateves... it's not about that, right?