Rainy Day Floral Practice

The rain started last night at around eight, and it hasn't stopped since.  It's so beautiful and soothing.  And since my husband is the most amazing man ever and knows that I have an obsession with flowers and brought me home some after his long day of work, I just had to spend the morning arranging them.  It took me a while to figure out how to get my tulips to look perfectly straight against the hydrangeas instead of being squished against the side.  But finally, I was able to find a happy place. 

Ben proceeded to take the most amazing pictures of my various arrangements, and I am in such shock at how beautiful they look.  Can I have really created these center pieces? I guess I did.  I guess I'm good at something after all.

Finally Jumped on the Twitter-Wagon

Since Twitter first started to become popular, I have tried to resist getting sucked into another form of social media.  I've been through the best of them, the sub-profile for AOL instant messanger (wow that seems so old), the Xanga, the Myspace, and finally, I got sucked into Facebook.  But until now, I have diligently stuck to my guns and ignored Twitter.  Or I had.  Since my recent decision to go for it and become a professional planner, I realized that I need all the help I can get.

So I caved.  I have to say that, at first, it was more complicated than I thought it would be, and I really started to feel like those people I've joked about for so long- completely out of touch with technology.  But now that I've gotten the hang of retweeting and hashtags, etc., I'm really starting to like it. I've been following Brides Magazine, The Knot Magazine, Style Me Pretty (a wedding blog).  Basically everytime I find a florist or baker or photographer or anything wedding related (let's be honest, I'm obsessed), I follow it. 

Today Style Me Pretty tweeted about a beautiful wedding they'd posted on their blog, and I fell in love.  The white linens, the white napkins, the bride's dress and her bouquet were all gorgeous, simple an elegant.  So I thought I'd share it with all of you. 

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1hSu9J/www.stylemepretty.com/2012/04/18/new-zealand-wedding-at-parkhill-estate-by-meredith-lord-photography/

And that's not the only one.  Because of Twitter, I'm surrounded by wedding inspiration all day long.  I just can't get enough.

Wedding Planning... with Skype!

Over the past few months, I have been working on a dear friend's wedding.  She is super sweet and amazing, but she is also super busy.  She's a nurse and spends her days/nights working with adorable little babies.  She's also down in Fort Worth, TX, and well, I'm here... in Maryland.

So... we decided that it would be best if we set up a skype-date to better plan her wedding and have a face to face discussion about what both of us has accomplished up until this point.  It took a while to get coordinated, but finally we were able to both be at our computers at the same time!

It was absolutely amazing! I am so glad we finally did that because now I feel such a relief finally getting everything set out on the table rather than both of us assuming the other was getting emails/facebook mesages.  Thank God for modern technology! Now I feel like I really can plan any event from Maryland for as long as I have to!

Wedding Etiquette Tips

Hello all!

It is such a lovely spring Saturday in Maryland! The sun is shining, the flowers are in full bloom, and naturally, I'm sitting inside of my apartment. What can I say? The pollen up here drives my skin crazy!

But enough about that!

Today I want to talk about vendor etiquette, no not the etiquette your vendors should use! Quite the opposite actually! Let's talk about how a bride and groom (or really anyone planning any sort of event should act).

Scenario: You are a bride emailing venues, photographers, DJs, florists, cake artists etc. You get emails back from them all, maybe even interview them, but when it comes down to it, you only choose one. What happens to the other ones?

Now you may think, "I didn't email that _____ that I wanted to use him/her for my wedding, so she/he should understand I'm going in a different direction! Right?"

Wrong.

It is very important that when you decide on a vendor, you have the courtesy to call or email the others and let them down easily. They might be holding your date for you and losing business! Sure they don't work for you, but think about how many other brides they could be working for!!

You may think it is a waste of your time, that you're too busy to email all those vendors! But it only takes a short email. It can even ben one you've composed once and changed the name and profession in! Just remember that these amazing vendors are all very busy too! One wedding is stressful! Think about how many they are involved in at one time!

It's easy, it's nice, it's respectful! Please love the people who work for you! They are amazing, hardworking vendors who deserve to be treated right.

Now, that wasn't too painful, was it?

Lovely Yellow

This year, yellow is one of my absolute favorite wedding colors. When I'm on pinterest, which is very often, I find myself swooning over all the gorgeous pale yellow that I see. I'm obsessed! And as we get more into the swing of wedding season, this obsession of mine will only get worse. There's just something so cute, light and friendly about the color of the sun, something that screens life and love. Yellow is perfect for outdoor and indoor weddings. I can see it with grey, white, purple, pink, navy blue and teal! I can see it coloring mason jars as the beautiful petals of daffodils and orchids, splashed with the soft and beautiful fullness of ranunculus and daisies.

The more I look at and talk about the color, the more I am tempted to plan yellow weddings, engagement parties and shower! I'm tempted to make lemon bars and cakes and tarts! I'm so in love, I might just go on a pinning spree tonight and pull all of my favorite yellow weddings. I could decorate my entire living room in yellow today and be completely happy!

Don't get me wrong, I am in love with pretty much any color that can be used in a wedding, which is pretty much every color, but I guess I'm on a yellow kick right now!

As a side note, don't forget to check out my page on facebook! It shouldn't be too long before the website is up, and I can't wait to post a link!

Floral Arrangements

This past weekend, my amazing husband bought me a bouquet of gorgeous flowers, but there was something off about them. The florist had added filler... oh so much filler. The poor flowers had been squished under eucalyptus, something that looked like cabbage, and long stems of tiny red leaves that I didn't recognize. So I tore the bouquet apart and piece by piece arranged the flowers into three mason jars in the living room. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself. Then today, he bought me some yellow tulips which I immediately separated into another mason jar and a champagne bottle.

Messing with my flowers got me to thinking about just how important florals/florists are to a wedding. They set the mood for the gorgeous event, whether it's to be formal or fun, casual, country, funky. Flowers are probably the most important part. Even if the decision is to not include flowers at all.

Springtime Inspiration

This past week, every weather man and woman in the District of Columbia has incredulously reported *almost* record high temperatures for the month of March and the end of a very mild winter. The weather has been gorgeous, and for a Texas girl, a comfortingly normal temperature for the beginning of March. And because of this crazy Maryland weather, every news man and woman in the District has been discussing the peek bloom date of the cherry blossom trees which is coming early this year.

So after many weeks spent holed up in our apartment, too lazy to make the hour long trek into DC, Ben and I decided to drive to the city and spend the 40 grueling minutes to find a parking spot in the over-crowded Mall. We've been here almost a year (well for Ben it's been over a year), and we still had not seen the Jefferson Memorial or experience the cherry blossom trees in full bloom. Of course, it was totally worth it to almost have a heart attack in that awful traffic yesterday because the flowers were gorgeous.

Our Saturday was filled with cheerful people, clear skies, fragrant flowers and the long awaited warmth of the sun on our faces. It gave me inspiration. Spring is amazing. Everything is new and fresh and hopeful. It's the perfect season for weddings and the perfect season for new life. I am getting fidgety with the excitement of getting to plan a spring wedding surrounded in fresh blooms, bright skies and young love.