Things are starting to take shape now too as I start to acquire things. Mom will be bringing a lot of items from Winnipeg too on her next visits in June and July. Until then, I guess a box for a typewriter and empty spaces will do!
Tuesday, May 07, 2013
Escort Table Sketch & Update
For those of you wondering what in God's name I'm talking about, here's my initial sketch of the escort card table when the idea struck me:
Decor Dilemma
Originally, Ryan and I were hoping to incorporate some sort of "theme" for the wedding. Nothing too drastic (no steam punk or or Elvis for us), but at least some idea to link all of our decor around. We toyed around with tons of ideas and finally came up with a few we liked.
We started with taking cues from the location. The setting of Stewart Creek is quite rustic and natural. Both the interior and exterior of the building looks crafted to sit perfectly in the mountains. True, starting off with thoughts of a rustic styled wedding doesn't really seem to far-fetched. However, it wasn't really enough to just stop there. The scenery and location are beautiful on it's own, but this is a wedding after all. We need more than that.
After flipping through countless magazines and scouring the internet for ideas, I started to assemble thoughts on how to add to our basic "theme". We settled on calling it: Rustic Romance. Kind of sounds run-of-the-mill, but we'll make it our own. Pinterest, although very irritating and/or addicting at times, can be a great resource for picking colours, themes and basically anything wedding related. I started boards for different aspects of the wedding: cake, decor, gifts, dresses, and so on; and pinned pretty much anything that fit within my vision of "romantic" or "rustic".
My definition of our theme will likely vary from others. For me, it's all about combining opposites. I really like the way wrought iron looks with soft white peonies, roses and hydrangeas. Or the way streamlined glass looks with a natural looking bouquet of flowers up top. Basically, it's the best of both worlds. I like the chaos of boatloads natural looking flowers and things not being so uptight, but adding soft elements like lace, and airy light colours.
My Mom loved all of the ideas that I gathered and added to them. We soon after realized; Ryan and I were missing from the wedding. There wasn't anything distinctly us about any of our ideas so far. It became all too obvious about how much our ideas wren't reflecting our personalities or relationship. I continued to mull this fact over for a few days, and decided to make a few changes which lead us to our now final theme.
We stuck with our "rustic romance", but decided to add our favourite couples in from various films, literature, video games, comics etc. This way, we now can mix in some of us into this otherwise, generic theme. I decided to use this idea as our escort table cards, decor and centerpieces. Items will correspond to a couple we like and represent their story/ relationship and will be on both the Escort table and the matching centerpiece.
I'm think that adding this personal touch is making mundane items or endless inquring phone calls less tedious. Just this past weekend, we visited a used book store looking for some vintage style books to put on the table. I spent probably more time and money than I should have, but I was thrilled to get three books that fit perfectly. We also sourced out the perfect mask for our "Phantom of the Opera" couple. I can't tell you how exciting it is to finally be purchasing things for the wedding.
Lastly, we're finalizing our centerpieces. I know I want them really tall (32in or higher) with a large, rustic floral arrangement at the top. I really wanted wrought iron candelabras, however those seem to be impossible to find in the quantity and height we want. I could probably get them hand made, though the cost for them alone would be astronomical. Glass seems to be the cheapest option while still maintaining the look we're searching for. My hope for the next coming months, would be to have most of the decor sorted out and move on to the next items on my list.
If you like this look, check out my Pinterest for more ideas!
 |
| Beautiful Rustic Barn Wedding |
After flipping through countless magazines and scouring the internet for ideas, I started to assemble thoughts on how to add to our basic "theme". We settled on calling it: Rustic Romance. Kind of sounds run-of-the-mill, but we'll make it our own. Pinterest, although very irritating and/or addicting at times, can be a great resource for picking colours, themes and basically anything wedding related. I started boards for different aspects of the wedding: cake, decor, gifts, dresses, and so on; and pinned pretty much anything that fit within my vision of "romantic" or "rustic".
 |
| Rustic Bouquet |
My definition of our theme will likely vary from others. For me, it's all about combining opposites. I really like the way wrought iron looks with soft white peonies, roses and hydrangeas. Or the way streamlined glass looks with a natural looking bouquet of flowers up top. Basically, it's the best of both worlds. I like the chaos of boatloads natural looking flowers and things not being so uptight, but adding soft elements like lace, and airy light colours.
My Mom loved all of the ideas that I gathered and added to them. We soon after realized; Ryan and I were missing from the wedding. There wasn't anything distinctly us about any of our ideas so far. It became all too obvious about how much our ideas wren't reflecting our personalities or relationship. I continued to mull this fact over for a few days, and decided to make a few changes which lead us to our now final theme.
 |
| Tall, Statement Centerpieces |
We stuck with our "rustic romance", but decided to add our favourite couples in from various films, literature, video games, comics etc. This way, we now can mix in some of us into this otherwise, generic theme. I decided to use this idea as our escort table cards, decor and centerpieces. Items will correspond to a couple we like and represent their story/ relationship and will be on both the Escort table and the matching centerpiece.
I'm think that adding this personal touch is making mundane items or endless inquring phone calls less tedious. Just this past weekend, we visited a used book store looking for some vintage style books to put on the table. I spent probably more time and money than I should have, but I was thrilled to get three books that fit perfectly. We also sourced out the perfect mask for our "Phantom of the Opera" couple. I can't tell you how exciting it is to finally be purchasing things for the wedding.
Lastly, we're finalizing our centerpieces. I know I want them really tall (32in or higher) with a large, rustic floral arrangement at the top. I really wanted wrought iron candelabras, however those seem to be impossible to find in the quantity and height we want. I could probably get them hand made, though the cost for them alone would be astronomical. Glass seems to be the cheapest option while still maintaining the look we're searching for. My hope for the next coming months, would be to have most of the decor sorted out and move on to the next items on my list.
If you like this look, check out my Pinterest for more ideas!
Stationary Success!
I'm glad we're finally getting things rolling. It's felt like an eternity of "well, that could be an option". It's a strange feeling; having the world as your oyster. It kind of feels like when my Dad told me I could choose any restaurant for my graduation dinner, and I mean any where. If you're given too many options, it becomes extremely difficult to even start thinking about what you want. Wedding planning seems to just that.
My parents said they'll try their hardest to give me whatever I want (yes, I know I'm lucky, thankyouverymuch). I'm not really like that though. I don't want to have some 300+ guest wedding with extravagant everything, and the whopping $100,000 price tag. I know my parents appreciate that. I am glad to know that I have a decent budget to work with and it's flexible depending on the situation. That takes a bit of the overarching, wedding planning stress off my shoulders.
I figure I should probably get to the point of this post, yes? SO, this past Saturday we went to our stationary consultation. We picked the Social Page off of 10th Ave and 8th Street downtown. When you enter the store, it kind of seems like one of those greeting card stores with nick-nacks for any occasion. They kind of are, however, they do have a huge elevated stationary section with tons of selection. We both had a good idea of what we were looking for, and took some time to flip through their books and samples. Surprisingly, decisions came quickly.
We basically chose a template that we liked the majority of (font, size layout, design, etc) and then described our edits. They wrote down all of our preferences and we selected the paper and quantities to order. The consultant jotted down our information and calculated a quote for both save the dates and invitations. She also gave us a guesstimate as to how much our menus, place setting cards and thank you cards would run us. The quote for each was very reasonable, but we want to mull it over for a day or two.
During our appointment, we settled on a small 4" x 6" card in ivory linen paper for the save the date. It has a rustic/ vintage feel with the lettering. We chose a brown recycled paper envelope to go with the rustic theme, and liked navy, brown and green inking. We plan on ordering them within the week. We're already at less than 11 months now and takes about a month to have the order ready.
The invitations we liked were actually quite different than I had been originally planning. We liked a 3-folded invitation with a vintage decal on the front. The paper will open like a brochure with the information on the flaps inside. I have recently created our wedding website so we don't need to put a ton of information on it. We decided on two inserts though, one for the map and one for the RSVP. This all may change by the time we actually order them, but that was our initial thought. They'll be printed on the same paper and have the same styling as the save the dates. I'm not typically "matchy-matchy" but I think it looks nicer this way.
The Social Page also had some great ideas to word the RSVP cards so I thought I'd share them:
My parents said they'll try their hardest to give me whatever I want (yes, I know I'm lucky, thankyouverymuch). I'm not really like that though. I don't want to have some 300+ guest wedding with extravagant everything, and the whopping $100,000 price tag. I know my parents appreciate that. I am glad to know that I have a decent budget to work with and it's flexible depending on the situation. That takes a bit of the overarching, wedding planning stress off my shoulders.
I figure I should probably get to the point of this post, yes? SO, this past Saturday we went to our stationary consultation. We picked the Social Page off of 10th Ave and 8th Street downtown. When you enter the store, it kind of seems like one of those greeting card stores with nick-nacks for any occasion. They kind of are, however, they do have a huge elevated stationary section with tons of selection. We both had a good idea of what we were looking for, and took some time to flip through their books and samples. Surprisingly, decisions came quickly.
We basically chose a template that we liked the majority of (font, size layout, design, etc) and then described our edits. They wrote down all of our preferences and we selected the paper and quantities to order. The consultant jotted down our information and calculated a quote for both save the dates and invitations. She also gave us a guesstimate as to how much our menus, place setting cards and thank you cards would run us. The quote for each was very reasonable, but we want to mull it over for a day or two.
During our appointment, we settled on a small 4" x 6" card in ivory linen paper for the save the date. It has a rustic/ vintage feel with the lettering. We chose a brown recycled paper envelope to go with the rustic theme, and liked navy, brown and green inking. We plan on ordering them within the week. We're already at less than 11 months now and takes about a month to have the order ready.
 |
| Example of the Vintage Style |
The Social Page also had some great ideas to word the RSVP cards so I thought I'd share them:
Cant wait / Sorry to miss it
Deal me in / Sitting out
Looking forward to the big day / Regretfully cannot attend
Cant wait to celebrate / Sad to miss all the fun
Delighted to attend / Sorry. cant make it
Cant wait to party / Bummer! cant make it
Sunscreen is packed / Raising a toast from afar
Good news, we’ll be there / Bad news, Cant make it
Cant wait to be there / Party on with out us
I will be sure to post a picture of them when we get the template back for approval. With each decision made and tasks checked off my list, the more real and exciting all this planning is getting. Now, to take this success and run with it. Decisiveness, here I come!
The Naked Venue
Ryan and I went again to SC (yes, finally abbreviating since I'm sick of typing that whole thing out). We had made the appointment to see the reception space actually set-up for a wedding. Frankly, it was one of the most disappointing things I've ever seen.
I'm starting to feel like Pinterest has now given me completely unrealistic ideas of how a wedding should look. You see all these impressive (and no doubt expensive) photographs of decor, and that's no doubt what you'd want. I guess it's not in everyone's budget; luckily some of it is in ours. I think that's why I was so disappointed when we saw this "wedding" set up a few weeks ago. I don't even know if I would've called it a wedding.
To give you some idea of how they managed to ruin a nice space, I will explain. This couple was obviously on a modest budget. That, I can understand. I am still shocked by the price tags of some things needed for weddings. I digress.
The area had tables set up in a strange layout. There were odd shaped gaps between the round tables and in some places, no space at all between. We found out through our SC contact, that the bride and groom had specifically asked for no tables to be on the dance floor. Taking away that extra space made it awkward to fit all 70 of their guests. However, the thing that surprised me the most, was the total and complete lack of decor. They had a few D.I.Y. paper flower pompoms (I think maybe 3 or 4) hanging from beams in the ceiling, but when the ceiling is easily 25 ft high, having 12 inch pompoms doesn't really do a whole lot. To add to all that, the tables were bare with only the standard white linen and boring place settings. I felt like I was entering their regular dining hall on a Tuesday night. No flowers, no colour, no nothing.
There was a plus side to even seeing all (or none, really) of this though. I wanted to see if the red and brown leaf carpet would disappear with all the tables on it; and it did. Thank goodness. And, not to sass another bride's vision for her wedding, but there's no way that I'm letting my wedding venue look that... naked.
Overall, it was a good trip. We managed to get an idea of what the venue will look like with tables set up. I guess that's a start. We will be re-visiting with my Mom (finally) so she can see the space in June. I'll feel better when I know that she has actually stepped foot into the venue. Pictures really don't do the place justice.
I'm starting to feel like Pinterest has now given me completely unrealistic ideas of how a wedding should look. You see all these impressive (and no doubt expensive) photographs of decor, and that's no doubt what you'd want. I guess it's not in everyone's budget; luckily some of it is in ours. I think that's why I was so disappointed when we saw this "wedding" set up a few weeks ago. I don't even know if I would've called it a wedding.
To give you some idea of how they managed to ruin a nice space, I will explain. This couple was obviously on a modest budget. That, I can understand. I am still shocked by the price tags of some things needed for weddings. I digress.
The area had tables set up in a strange layout. There were odd shaped gaps between the round tables and in some places, no space at all between. We found out through our SC contact, that the bride and groom had specifically asked for no tables to be on the dance floor. Taking away that extra space made it awkward to fit all 70 of their guests. However, the thing that surprised me the most, was the total and complete lack of decor. They had a few D.I.Y. paper flower pompoms (I think maybe 3 or 4) hanging from beams in the ceiling, but when the ceiling is easily 25 ft high, having 12 inch pompoms doesn't really do a whole lot. To add to all that, the tables were bare with only the standard white linen and boring place settings. I felt like I was entering their regular dining hall on a Tuesday night. No flowers, no colour, no nothing.
There was a plus side to even seeing all (or none, really) of this though. I wanted to see if the red and brown leaf carpet would disappear with all the tables on it; and it did. Thank goodness. And, not to sass another bride's vision for her wedding, but there's no way that I'm letting my wedding venue look that... naked.
 |
| Looking straight down from the dance floor! |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)