navy, orange

here was my original inspiration for an "orange" wedding, via a martha stewart weddings color issue. what truly excites me is that those diy poofy hanging flowers have my spherical ball shape that i'm obssessed with (more on that later). however, after looking at the orange flowers available, gerbera daisies (my favorite flower variety!) and tiger lillies just don't cut it for me. can't they just carry an armful of satiny orange fabric? orange and blue are wonderful complimentary colors!

so the best color on these fair beauties turned out to be navy. i never got a photo of vanessa's fave at frocks - a sweetheart neckline type navy dress at frocks, and i didn't get a frontal photo of this middle dress which jenn liked, also at frocks.

bridesmaid dresses, the hunt begins

i have absolutely no interest in these dresses but i love these photos. i think we tried on everything in the store. in the end i much prefer cocktail dresses to bland bridesmaid dresses.

the spiderman 2 wedding dress

i remember watching spiderman 2 years ago and falling in love with mary jane wedding dress. suprisingly, there's only a handful of thumbnail size photos on the internet, so i managed to grab these photos off our newest blockbuster rental.

i don't necessarily like the poofiness:


but i do love the fact that it looks like it's made of jersey-knit (ie t-shirt) material...and perhaps when it comes down to it, the sweetheart neckline, and the billowy off the shoulder sleeves....

bridesmaid dresses

#1 Melissa Sweet (MS101) $250 at the Bridal Garden in Kirkland, WA - also available at Blush in West Van
so here is the favorite so far:


Halter style Silk Crinkle dress with below the knee skirt and waist sash. Available in Olive, Coco, Sangria, Shadow, Jet, Linen, Atlantis, Orchid, and Green Tea.

and in no particular order:
#2 Thread's "Kiki" dress at Frocks in Kitsilano


#3 Jenny Yoo's "Harlo" dress also at Frocks


#4 A Belsoie dress at Blush in West Van


#5 Another unnamed Belsoie dress at Blush

blue olive photography

here are reilly and miranda, the husband and wife photojournalistic force behind blue olive. $2900+, digital only, vancouver

here are three awesome shots that i think the weather played a big part in creating.


i can see they know the rule of thirds..............


and here is what i could find of their indoor skills....

i had my first wedding dress shopping experience yesterday at david's bridal in lynnwood, wa. dresses were unbelievably affordable at $299-$499 for the ones i liked, and i quickly realized that i am anti-beads and anti-lace, at least for what they offered. i may not be able to say the same for a $5000 designer gown. some very typical monochromatic, strapless bridesmaid dresses made for a nice photo, rather than nice dresses in and of themselves. i have yet to blog about what i think about BM dresses but i'll save that for later.


pushing my way through the racks yesterday also re-enforced my notion that gowns look hideous on the hanger and i need to do my homework and a) research the stores in my area b) see what lines they carry c) visit those designers websites so i can make sure i d) try on my favorite dresses that i may not have noticed all limp on the rack. after reading a few things at the knot, i'm excited that a few girls said the best store they went to was the bridal garden in kirkland - which means it's right where i live and don't have to venture downtown! i do bridal looks very promising in the wallingford area of seattle (again, yay! not downtown), and i adore everything in the maggie sottero line they carry.

the third noteable seattle-area bridal store seems to be marcellas la boutique downtown which carries lazaro and vera wang. june 1st they're having a trunk show where you can meet project runway's austin scarlett.

i love the vintage, old world feel his pieces have (i would love to be a stepford wife in that top left photo - and to explain the bottom left photo - it was a USPS uniform concept - i love would love to deliver mail as little blue riding hood), but i'm not as enthused about his line of bridal gowns with kenneth pool.

the idea of disposable cameras at every table was swiftly abandoned at the advice of several people and at the realization that 90% of the people will have digital cameras and i'd rather them email me their 2 best photos than have to foot the bill for developing 495 crappy photos that are all very much alike. so then i read about taking portraits of couples/families which were then framed and given out at the end of the night as the "party favors." if i made it black tie (and even if it wasn't), it would be a wonderful opportunity to take portraits, which most people don't have and deserve to have. and it sure beats pricey candies, and the fact that anything unedible is probably cheesy and serves little to no function outside the wedding. i didn't even begin to look into this as i thought it would be muy costoso.

so along came the idea of a polaroid guestbook.

i could position one or two beloved photo savvy friends at the entrance to grab shots of all the guests. and i could even save $60.95 by buying a nice sketchbook and inserting photo corners.

then jenn found something brilliant last night on theknot. some couple had rented a photobooth for their wedding. that way each guest got a keepsake, and with the unlimited photos, it doubled as a guestbook addition.

redmond, wa - $1400 for 4 hours, and $100 per hour after, ontario $1800, texas, from denver to des moines, calgary, alberta, quebec, winnipeg, and......finally! after much searching, i found vancouver, and another one here! here's the one from texas:
the canadian ones look a little 1970's to me and at two thousand some odd dollars, i'm just that much closer to a canon EOS 5D or a nikon d2xs. letterpress invitations...or a photo booth. now, spending $1 a shot on polaroid film sounds like money better spent. or even the little sticky polaroids......and then again, at $2000, maybe i should reconsider that professional portrait idea.....

as a side note, i could do the portraits-on-a-budget with a decent camera, a plug 'n play printer, and some photo paper for an affordable price provided that would be right up the alley of an on-the-guestlist shutterbug

i have the most awesome person at work whose everyday writing looks like this! so just like jenn has re-enforced my diy ethic to my wedding simply because she's actually going to make her own cake, so too he's inspired to me to address my own wedding invitations (some people pay the bucks to hire a professional calligrapher!). so it looks like a trip to michaels to buy some pens and get some practice.

vancouver photographers reine and jana

reine and jana weddings. these vancouver based photographers definitely in the running. the first compilation of photos are like they're right out of a magazine. AND the links section of their website will hopefully help me out with other vancouver-specific particulars. ie hycroft manor (to be blogged about later), which put a serious dent in my let's-keep-the-wedding-outside-the-big-city notion.

searching for the perfect photographer

via miss bell pepper at weddingbee. after a google search yielded nothing of interest for photographers in vancouver, i found a potential dream photographer, nicole polk. she's in pennsylvania, but she does travel. i love the high contrast, i am in awe of her ability to take awesomely lit photos in dark rooms, and is that something bordering on a fisheye lens?! love it.

it's a tiffany!

i got engaged! and it's a tiffany, no less!



so it begins. plannning a wedding back in vancouver all the way from washington state. i'm just slightly daunted. and the fact that almost everyone i know is back there and long distance, i don't have many human outlets to gush with or hammer out details with, and i'd like to spare the fiance.

what do guests remember the most about a wedding? not anything particular about the food, like exactly what they ate, but just whether they lament that the food was bad, or that they can honestly say the food was good. i could care less about spending hoards of money on food. i've always been the type that appreciates tangible gifts that i can hold on to rather than chocolates that get eaten and flowers that i have to dispose of in one week's time. so food that disappears within a few hour's time is not high on my priority list. that being said the two most important things for me are the invitations and photography. i'm tempted to carry around a d-slr on my wedding day, but it's so bulky it'll be like packing heat.