For the love of chocolate

If I had attended this wedding with this amazing looking chocolate bar I’m pretty sure I would’ve thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

I don’t think this will be redone at our wedding but I can only hope to someday be in a room with so much delicious chocolate up for grabs. That’s the stuff dreams are made of.

Dandelion love

Well over a year and a half into this engagement, wedding planning has morphed into something entirely different.  In the beginning it was all about inspiration and ideas.  And I filled my head with a lot of those.  But now it is becoming much more real, and I have moved past that in many ways.  In part it is due to necessity.  There is no more time to sit and daydream.  Decisions are being made and I'm behind on the to-do list.  It's like when you write giant research paper and you have to spend hours on the front end finding quality research, reading it, collecting data, etc.  And then finally it's time to write and you just have to hunker down and focus on your paper.
Also, my brain is full.  Most of the images that fill my google reader start to look the same.  Fabric bunting?  Seen that before.  Bride in Manolo Blahniks?  Next!  But every once in awhile I come across something I absolutely adore.

If I had a flower girl, I would send her down the aisle with dandelions, just like this.  I mean, seriously, how perfect would that be?  How charming would it be for her to reach the front and blow all of the seeds to the wind?  So much more natural than rose petals or a fancy floral arrangement.  Love.

We wove a web in childhood, a web of sunny air.
[Charlotte Bronte]

Photo from ::here::

Ice cream sundae bar

I love ice cream.  I was thinking of doing an ice cream sundae bar at the wedding but, for the moment at least, have decided to go with something a little less complicated.  Anyway, Eat Drink Chic has created the most opulent sundae bar I've ever seen, along with lots of pictures.  It's a great idea source to get your imagination rolling.

MmmMmmmMMmm....

More non-matching bridesmaids

More non-matching bridesmaid examples, all in green...

::from here & here::

Love it

I don't think I need any words to explain why I love this.

But allow me to add, so that you may understand why I am SO taken with this right now, that I was in love with the wildflowers in Minnesota this summer.  During my visit back, that's one of the things that stood out the most.  Which was kinda weird, because here on this tropical island we have flowers in bloom everywhere and all the time.  Many days I'm overwhelmed with the scent of flowers in the air.  But I was still struck by the beautiful wildflowers growing all over in Minnesota.  I don't much care for fancy arrangements of roses and other fancy flowers but you can give me a hand-picked collection of wildflowers any day.

Loveliness from ::here::

Canning lemonade

How come I've never seen lemonade served in mason jars with the lid on before?

Perfect!

Photo from ::here::

Choices, choices!

You'd think that with all these weeks of being home, I'd have something to show for it on the wedding front.  Alas, nada.  For the past year, I've floated along in a sea of excess time.  Things were too far out to really plan and I had all the time in the world.  I perused blogs and websites for hours discovering every wedding-related idea on earth and gathering inspiration.  On one hand this did help me to develop themes and ideas of what I want.  But not really.

Here in Minnesota, I've found myself awash in choices.  For everything, really.  Limitless brands of salad dressing.  An entire aisle devoted to facewash.  This plethora of options has not been present in my life over the past two years.  On my little island I'm lucky to find facewash at all!

And so it is with wedding planning as well.  It's decision time and I'm reluctant to pull the trigger.  The dress.  The invitations.  The centerpieces.  I have less than two weeks until I'm back on-island so I don't have much more time to dwell.

Next on the list is meeting with our reception venue.  Unlike many places, they don't have set menu options.  This is kind of nice, since they would probably be open to any ideas I have.  In reality, though, it's just more stressful!  I don't know which way to go with the food.  Do I fill out the menu with memory-eliciting comfort food?  Go for laid-back picinic fare?  Add some fun with hotdogs?  Or should I just try to have a nice, elegant menu?  Beats me.  At this point, I just want someone to tell me what to do!

:: links ::

mac & cheese : hot dog : burger : boxed meal : pasta salad : lemonade

Sweet home Minnesota

I know I've been MIA lately, but I promise I have a lot of good excuses!

But let's just get to the point.  I am currently blogging from the other side of the globe.  That's right, I'm home in Minnesota!  We flew back last weekend to see family and, of course, get some wedding planning in.  I'm going to be dress shopping, meeting with the ballroom folks, cake testing (just because), and any other miscellaneous bits of planning I can squeeze in, since the next time I'll be here will be <2 months before the wedding!

I'll try to post as progress is made but my internet connection is less-than-desirable, so we shall see.

For now, I'm signing-off to celebrate the 4th with my family!  I hope it warms up!  I'll leave you with my first inspiration board for tabletops at the reception.

:: links ::

thread tealight directions here : wax votive luminaries directions here : buttons from here

Non-matching bridesmaids

Before I was engaged I loved this idea.  In fact, for the past six years since planning my sister's wedding I knew I wanted my bridesmaids to wear something different.  Not different colors entirely, and not different models of the same color dress, but unique styles in the same color spectrum.

I love this.  I would like for my bridesmaids to wear something in yellow - hopefully not in that traditional bridesmaid satin fabric.  I'm thinking cotton, chiffon, or something more along those lines.  Casual, summery, cute and fun.

A few more examples...

Sources: photo 1, photo 2, photo 3, photo 4, photo 5, photo 6

A wish for our wedding

Photo from ::here::

Photo from ::here::

I love these pictures!  I truly hope that our guests have so much fun at our wedding!

The first purchase

My first official purchase for our wedding was a vintage, free-standing, old-school chalkboard.

I scored it for $30 off of Craigslist.  Luckily, my awesome sister and helpful parents were willing to make it happen, seeing as I'm seven thousand odd miles away and unable to pick up, haul, or store said chalkboard.  I'm so excited to use it!  And, being the nerdy teacher that I am (I actually own my own overhead projector...but that's another story), I am excited to use it post-wedding in my classroom, as well!

As for how I plan to use it in our wedding, check out my inspiration:

I definitely want a photo guestbook!  I'm not a big fan of traditional guestbooks or the big "have the guests sign their names on a photo mat" trend.  I think fun pictures make it a whole lot more enjoyable to look at and a better memento.  We still have to figure out exactly how we'll work out the photo portion, but we have a few ideas and Mike is willing to pitch in on that since it involves technology.  :)

Real wedding chalkboard inspiration from ::here::

Another serving of yellow inspiration

I now present to you the last two of my top six Snippet & Ink yellow inspiration boards.  In case you've been living under a rock and ignoring all of my links, I recommend you go there to see lots more pretty things and a huge variety of inspiration boards.  Really.  They're not all yellow.

I hope you all like this board because I love it!  A perfect picnic.  I would totally do tulips if only they bloomed in August and I really want to buy the eco-friendly wooden cutlery on top, except that I don't need to provide utensils...still looking for an excuse on that one.

And this board is undeniably fun.  I love paper lanterns.

Inspiration boards from ::here::

More inspiration boards

Both of these boards incorporate outdoor elements.  I love the thought of our ceremony being in the yard.

Inspiration boards from ::here::

Snippet & Ink inspiration

I am ashamed to admit that I didn't use Google Reader until spring break this year.  But, oh, did I make up for lost time.  I fell into a black hole of link-clicking and o.d.'ed a little on inspiration.  Luckily, I emerged at the other end with a solid-yet-not-all-inclusive list of wedding blog inspiration.  One of the best sites is Snippet & Ink.  On this delicious blog, Kathryn (the blogger) has posted oodles of inspiration boards.  Of course, I have just about every yellow inspiration board saved in my wedding folder, but I'm going to show a little self-restraint and only share my six favorite yellow boards with you.

Up first, a couple featuring daisies, the flower we'll probably be using.

Inspiration boards from ::here::