Brainstorming

Would it be a bad idea to have the wedding "dinner" beforehand, and then have the ceremony when the sun had gone down?

Or is there a general flow to a wedding such as arrive, ceremony, dinner, music and dancing?

I was just brainstorming and thinking:

1) A group of us all went lazy river floating during the day

2) Come back, have dinner with close friends and family (or everybody could be invited)

3) Once the sun went down and it was good and dark, have everyone walk down to the ceremony area that would be all lit with candles and the fabric backdrop

4) Then walk back up to the main area of festivities where bands would play and we could boogie down till whenever

Or we could have a whole weekend planned. Arrive on Thursday for rehearsal dinner and settle it. Friday go tubing. Saturday lounge around downtown and get ready with bridesmaids. Could suggest a day trip to super cute Green, TX for rest of family? Wedding Saturday. Sunday could be filled with Bloody Marys and lounging in the sun.

Or we could arrange it on the weekend of an Austin festival that could be the focus of Friday, wedding Saturday, and floating on Sunday.

Haha, just some ideas. Some brainstorming.

Invite from Beast Pieces

Eunice & Daniel

I love how cheeky they are. More images.

They worked with textile artist, Joel Dewberry, to design a set of playing cards for guests. Adorable.

Blankets for guests when temperatures dipped down for the outdoor wedding.

Confusion Over The Details

I had an idea of how I wanted my wedding to be:
*Throw back from glam/rockabilly times
*A short fun dress that was easy to dance in
*Vintage mismatched dresses for bridesmaids

Now after having gone to try on dresses and finding this guy:

We could maybe rock it up a little with this totally awesome fabric flower belt.

And after doing lots of research on all these wonderful wedding blogs, I just feel totally confused. I wonder how other people whittle down the details to pick out something they really like and don't regret using way down the line?

It seems like all the things that I like are just sooo expensive. How do brides bridge the style/budget line? Oh it just seems so confusing!

And then I see this! And how gorgeous is this? And I think 'yeah, now that's what I'm talking about. That's why I wanted to go short, plus it's cheaper!"

Brandon Witzel

Or this guy and I think 'yeah, that's what I wanted! A rockin wedding party that's pretty but a little edgy. I did want a short dress before I walked into that bridal boutique, the woman put ideas in my head...'

Via Green Wedding Shoes

Shredded Fabric Backdrop

How cool is this?!
I like to sew and this just seems totally up my alley. We could have silks and muslims of varying neutral shades hanging down as the backdrop for the ceremony. I love all the candles as well, makes the whole thing just so romantic.
Plus, it could double as the backdrop for a photobooth!
Via Once Wed.

Dining Room Tables

While this cake set-up is too over-the-top girlie for me, it did give me an idea. I love the floating candels above the table. I wonder if we could rig one of these up over our future dining room table using a long metal rod or pipe and mason jars. We could also have some real light fixtures attached so that we wouldn't always have to light the candles when we ate dinner.
Via Ruffled

I really love long dinning room tables!

Via The Selby

Place Cards

It's expensive and we'll probably not do a sit-down dinner, however if there's any way we could pull it off inexpensively I would like to try.  For sit-down dinners it seems like most people assign seating and it always ends up being slightly awkward. 

In networking 101 when introducing two people, it seems customary to say something along the lines of, "This is Mr. Smith, he is an excellent poet....and this is Mr. James, he is a large animal veterinarian."  You know, just to give people a jumping off point for conversation.  I think it might be fun to write in small print below the name on the place card of a sit-down dinner, a little fact about some other person who is sitting at the table as well...open up dialogue table wide.  Or do you think that's too cheesy?

Wedding Box

From Cori & Zack's upstate NY wedding...
Listen to this one: “We put a bottle of wine, two glasses, and a set of love letters (written in secret and unshared) into a wooden crate and then sealed it with nails (each nail was hammered by a family member to show their commitment to supporting our marriage and then finally by us). The crate is meant as an act of reassurance, a romantic gesture–if ever our relationship is in peril, we are to open the crate, drink the wine, and read the letters before we make any decisions about our future.”

We absolutely must do this!
Via 100 Layer Cake

All The Single Ladies

When I first saw this a couple days ago I thought it was pure brilliance, and tons of fun. Then when I youtubed it, it looks to be a current wedding trend because there are tons of videos.

I was talking to K last night and we decided that we should absolutely do a choreographed dance with the bridesmaids. We'll have to figure out what song to do it to and maybe enlist a fellow dance friend to help us choreograph. Haha, this is all hilarious that K would consent to dancing in front of people because the girl hates to dance. Period. But that's love for ya.

Fortune Cookies

When C and I first began dating I would send him random pick-up lines via text message. It's quite amazing the verity of pick-up lines there are floating around--they even have Harry Potter, Christen, and Jewish lines! Haha, oh dear.

I think it would be great to make fortune cookies to put at dinner place settings with different pick-up lines hidden in them!

Some of my personal favorites are...

*Right now we’re just two RNA, but maybe we could transcribe together and become DNA.
*Now I know why Solomon had 700 wives... Because he never met you.
*What's a maiden like you doing in a dungeon like this?

Far and away my absolute favorite is:
*Why don't you go ahead and slid your matza balls over near my gefilte fish?

More Pick-up Lines
Fortune Cookie recipe

The Center

I broke down and told C that I wanted to get married last night. It took me a minute to get it out but then he said he had already thought about it; that he was planning on asking after our year-long trip, assuming we still liked each other after spending that much time together, sleeping in the back of a car. If we wanted to get married here in town, why didn't we do it at the architectural center? This is awesome because I thought it would be a great place too!

There's a whole complex that involves a main house, a meeting space with a long table, an airhanger, fire pits, and lots of space. It's run by architect and teacher Pliny Fisk, and all the buildings are made out of recycled building materials. Buildings incorporate brick from a townhouse, wood from an old barn, metal from a car, etc. It would be perfect...
Center For Maximum Potential Building Systems

The Red House

I grew up on the east coast, C grew up on the west, and we met in the middle. So where to have the wedding? The concenus right now is to have it where we currently live since most of our friends are here and it's a good meeting point for both families.

Which is why I was excited to find this vacation cottage to rent for our families when they come to town. A remodeled 1926 bungalow called The Red House it's not terribly expensive and it's right near downtown!

Party Favors

I saw this in the Winter issue of Martha Stewart Weddings and had an idea. I think it would be wonderful to make our own liquor or infuse some vodka with a few different flavors as wedding party favors. We could bottle them up in little mason jars and have hand written labels. If we did the infused vodka maybe some of the flavors could be Basil, Lavender, and of course Ginger because it's my absolute favorite.

The lady at the liquor store last night said I should look for a vodka to infuse that is either 4-5 times distilled.

Perfect Wedding Color Palette

Floating Lanterns

This is beautiful! I can just imagine people all writing a short message to the floating lanterns and sending them all up after the dinner is completed and before the dancing begins.

C & I tried to make one of our own floating lanterns over SXSW. It involved butcher paper and a tea candle. Hahaha...it didn't exactly work...didn't work at all. But it would be beautiful to do this in a grand Texan field--I'm a big fan of the grand Texan fields.
Chinese Wish Lanterns