Yes.

I am real REAL glad there's a fountain at our reception space.

Simplicity

While I think weddings filled with crystal chandeliers, cushy chairs with satin covers and more silverware than you know what to do with are gorgeous... it's just not me. I've always said my wedding would be a "big backyard BBQ", and now that I'm working on the actual logistics of it all and realizing that's not quite as easy as it sounds, I'm tweaking my vision a bit to fit into our reception space and our not-in-the-middle-of-the-summer date. We're still going with the BBQ style food, but catered instead of literally having grills set up with someone manning them all night. With this setup, we'll be doing a buffet instead of a plated served dinner, which means dinner plates will be stacked on the food table and not set at each place prior to dinner. While this doesn't sound like a big deal, I was a bit concerned that the tables would look bare without plates, but some images I've seen floating around lately have completely changed my mind. In fact, I think I almost like the clean, minimal table MORE than one that is totally set.

Love the mason jars on both tables. Love the simple flatware. Love the shape of the glasses that bounce around natural light. Love love love the striped runner in the first image. Love that I now feel completely better about my uncluttered table plans!

Frame it

Dear Fiance,
You can build something like this out of pretty molding from the hardware store, right?

Great. I knew you would say yes.

Thanks honey!

Love,
Me

Drink Up

Oh, paper straws. I will have you at my wedding. Don't you worry.

(Images all from a Google search. I am far too lazy to post all the proper credits, sorry.)

Bouts

I have a big jar full of buttons that my late grandmother collected over the years - when she passed away it was the one thing I wanted to remember her by. As kids, we would go through the buttons regularly, picking out our favorites and pairing up the ones that had a match. I vaguely remember making sock puppets once and being thrilled that we got to use buttons from the jar for the eyes. I wrote about the buttons awhile back on 9-oh-6, and while I actually DID complete the project I described, I never actually posted a picture of the finished piece.

Now I have a wedding to plan, and I happened upon an image the other day that I'm fairly certain would be the perfect way to honor my grandmother who won't be there with us. Button boutonnieres!

I of course followed this find up with a google search and was pleasantly surprised by all the weddings that have incorporated buttons into the guy's attire -

I'm pretty sure I don't have enough of the same buttons to do anything that involves more than one or two on each bout, but the first image with the button acting as the center of a flower is perfect inspiration!

Darn

If I wasn't deathly allergic to chocolate, guests of my wedding would fer SURE be stirring these little delights into hot chocolatey goodness as a late night snack.

Hot chocolate on a stick from here. With homemade marshmallows. Oh yum.

Now I certainly don't plan to not have ANY chocolate at my wedding (I'm not cruel), but I'm not really a fan of cooking/baking with the stuff when I don't even get to enjoy it myself in the end... so I'll probably stick with something like cupcakes (not DIY) instead. And then I'll ripoff that cute little tag idea from the image above to make myself feel better about it all.

After Party

We've been searching for the perfect place to haul our night-owl guests off to after our reception so we can continue the party late into the night. A new trendy hotel in the area with a lounge bar open until 2am is currently the front runner, and I'm already excited about it. While there's a part of me that thinks I'll never want to take my wedding dress off, there's another part of me that loves the idea of a new dress for the after party. Seeing as I didn't even know you're "supposed" to have an after party dress, I don't know if it's typically white, or sparkly, or totally different or what... but I spotted this little number over on Style Me Pretty today and am currently in the "I HAVE to have this" state of mind.

The style is part of the new Spring line from The Dessy Group, and I'm completely hooked.

Clearly, I don't need another wedding dress, but the selection of floor length white bridesmaid styles on Dessy has me curious if anyone has ever gone that route (and likely saved a ton of money) rather than choosing a style from a "typical" bridal line?