So, on the tulips, Sarah says a few things are important...
1. Season. Tulips that didn't have to be flown in from Holland because they are out of season here will be fresher, and therefore less likely to give out mid-reception. Spring is tulip season, as well as a brief period in the fall.
2. Freshness. She says if your florist got them in fresh, it shouldn't be much of an issue - make sure they aren't ordering the flowers for your wedding to arrive a week before, and make sure they stay in water as long as possible (they only start to go limp / open when they start to get dehydated).
3. Have your florist deliver your flowers only a little bit before the wedding - they can keep them in water/refrigeration a lot longer if they are delivering right before. If they delivered them the night before or you picked them up, they'd have a better chance of wilting.
4. If you're worried about the stems getting limp, you can explore wiring/taping of the stems - this will keep them in exactly the shape you want them, held with a wire, which reinforces the head of the flower so that when they do dehydrate and get limp, they'll still stay right where you wanted them. This won't help with the flowers opening, but will help with stem bending.
Thanks for the info re: the undergarment thingie (is it really called a bustier? I don't need to be any bustier! ), mandalinn. I was worried that I'd have trouble finding something low enough, but it sounds like it's common enough. I have to plan a trip up to DC sometime soon, not only to drop in on the flower people, but also because the nearest David's Bridal is all the way up there!
BTW, mandalinn, your dress is beautiful! I love the skirt of it. You look amazing!
I'm not sure who I would get to officiate if we did have someone get certified to do so... My stepmother has brought it up before but having her do it would upset the family political balance and remember, I'm trying to keep things low-stress! Ah well. It's a good idea, though. My aunt is a judge and we were going to have her do it, but turns out she can't even come.
Jill: yeah, I just love the area. Washington is about another 30-40 minutes west of Warrenton, and it only gets prettier the further out west you go! I really love Virginia... Oh, and congrats on getting engaged!! That's awesome
Christine: Your buffet is a neat idea! I've never heard of someone doing it like that, but I can't imagine it would be much more difficult or expensive than working with a caterer.
madalinn - Thanks for the tulip info! Our wedding is in the spring so that should be perfect for tulips. I have a friend that has offered to do the arrangements, so I’m going to see if I can get the florist that’s doing my friends wedding this fall to let me just order stems from them. We’re having a Sunday ceremony, so I imagine we’d pick up the flowers and arrange them on Saturday and we could keep them in water in the refrigerator overnight. Wiring the stems is a really good idea.
Britomart – I love your dress! The setting of that B & B looks lovely too.
We’ll be putting our deposit down for the ceremony site next week. Very exciting!
Britomart - your ring sounds great - any chance you could share a photo of this with us? I'm a jewelry-aholic, so I'd love to see it. Especially because it's an estate piece.
Cindy
My sister also has bead-set diamonds in her antique-style ring. I think she found her band on Ebay, but she had a seriously hard time matching as well.
Alright, Jeff and I have searched through literally thousands of rings online, and we can't find a picture of the one I want! So frsutrating...
We went to 2 Jared locations last night (we originally saw the ring at a Jared in Va Beach over the weekend while visiting my sister), but neither of them had it in stock. They did have it at a nearby Kay, but they wouldn't let me take a picture of it (which I don't understand, since most of their rings are online, and the sales guy even grabbed a flyer because he thought there was a picture of it in there--I KNOW a picture in a flyer would be much better than any picture Icould take in a store, so I don't understand why they wouldn't let me take a picture, but anyway...).
Looking through so many rings online, I started to second guess myself--maybe I want one with more this or less that, etc. But as soon as I saw it again at the store, I knew I wanted it. Now it's just a matter of finding the best price and the best diamond for the setting...
Last edited by jillybean720; 03-20-2007 at 01:06 PM.
Here's a photo of my engagement ring. I have a pretty old digital camera which doesn't allow for good focus close-up... So this is the best I can do!
(Don't know why the image is not inserting itself instead of linking even with img tags around it... Oh well. It works either way.)
Jill, no one would let me take a photo of a ring I liked either. I understood why when we were at the little places, but at the big places like Zales that advertise their rings anyway? I don't understand! Ah well.
oooh, pretty rings. So fun to look at. I am so in the dark about what the boy is going to do. We have gone shopping tons, but when it comes to actually getting the ring, he wants to do it without me. He has also said, "it will be better than any of the ones we have seen," which to me means that he will not buy me any of the ones we have seen together. Is he designing a ring? My other thought is that he may have a family ring up his sleeve. I am going crazy waiting, though...
Mandalinn- You brought up all the eating out that seems to surround weddings. I cannot really offer advice, but I can say that I can relate. I currently commute more than an hour each way about 4 times a week. Micah and I are narrowing down where he will be going to school next year, which means we are traveling to visit schools and communities. I feel like I'm constantly out, either with shopping or parties for his family or whatever. I definitely make excuses for myself. At this point, I am losing very very slowly, and I feel almost like I should just be grateful for anything I am getting, because my effort has been moderate at best as of late.
On the planning front- I am wondering what to do about reception table decorations. We have talked about only using individual cakes as centerpieces.
Here is the problem I am running into. I don't want all the tables to look the same, and I don't want them to look too formal. I want to coordinate without being matchy-matchy, make sense? My initial thought on how to do this was to scour garage sales for various pink tablecloths, then have each table have its own, different tablecloth. We have also talked about doing something similar, but instead looking for interesting glass and ceramic pink pieces. Then each table could have its own little grouping of pieces. Or both?
I like these ideas, but I really don't want it to look too strange and hodgepodge. Any ideas about how to strike a balance of these ideas? Are they all crazy? hehe, any feedback would be great.
I love the idea of using different tablecloths for each table. You could also (we debated doing this) name each table (rather than numbering) and incorporate the name into the centerpieces. So for our wedding, we debated naming each table after a flower (again, sarah = florist = flower/spring theme wedding) and incorporating that flower into the centerpiece for that table. Ultimately it got too complicated. But you could name each table, for example, after a city you've lived in (incorporate maps in the centerpiece), a special person in your lives (decorating with photos makes tables look unique), etc.
Since you're doing individual cakes, could you find a really interesting topper per table? photos, maps, movie tickets, other items you've found at places that are important to you - this would make all of the cakes slightly unique, and reflect the two of you as a couple.
I did not enjoy looking at rings at ALL. I think it was because i had no clue about anything about rings, except for what I didn't like. My fiance knows how picky i can be about stuff, so he proposed to me with earrings (he's so cute). We went to every jewerly store around the Maryland/Virginia area. From Costco to Tiffany's to Zales. After a while all the rings looked the same to me. Thank goodness my aunt knows an owner of a jewerly store in Chevy Chase, MD, or else I'll still be looking.
I don't know how to get a picture on here, but its round cut center, with two smaller stones on either side on a platinum band. i love it.
The only thing i know for sure about wedding dresses, is that i DO NOT want one with big poofy skirts. siiigh....i can go on about what i don't want at my wedding, but i don't know what i DO want.
I think we're going to have our reception at a Chinese restaurant, the menu's are usually set and there are 10 courses. The only think i'm really looking forward to planning is my cake. I want it to be INSANE, those folks at Charm City Cakes can do just about anything.
At times i think i want to elope...sooo much easier.
nickname, you sound EXACTLY like me I don't know anything about rings or diamonds or whatever either. I really lucked out in that I just spotted something one day that jumped out at me and screamed my name, you know? We've been to a bunch of jewelry stores, and I would always walk out thinking they all just kinda looked the same--shiny metal band, big sparkly diamond. That's not what I wanted--I need something more me. In every store we went in, the first thing the salesperson would ask is what kinds of things I liked, and I had a list of the things I did NOT like (solitaires, anything pressure set, anything yellow gold...), but the list of things I DID like was practically non-existant
Same with wedding plans--I don't want to have dancing at my reception, I don't want to have a big church ceremony, I don't want it to be too formal, etc...but what DO I want??
Did you happen to go to Charleston Alexander? Their MD location is in Chevy Chase (or is it Bethesda? I get confused). One thing I was fascinated by was that they had a computer that could analyze a diamond for you, it was pretty cool. They also had all sorts of diamonds, even from Canada. They even said that they'd set a created diamond if we wanted. (and said many of their customers actually ask for that)
Picking out the ring is daunting, I was overwhelmed at first as well.
Since you are in the area, I'd also recommend Clyde's in Chevy Chase for any occassion but we went there for the pre wedding dinner. It was nice. Gotta love green plush seating!
I love the idea of the different tablecloths as well! How many tables do you think you'll have?
One thing I toyed with, with the individual cake thing, was having a different cake plate on each table. But, since I"m doing a fall theme, I wasn't sure that I'd find plates different enough to incorporate into the theme. But, with just pink as a criteria, you could do white ones, clear ones, ... for each table.
Another cake/centerpiece idea for you all is cupcakes. WM has white 13-cupcake cupcake trees, which I was going to put onto a fabric-covered riser on each table. Cupcakes tend to run about $1.50-$2 apiece, so this can be a very cost effective way to go. The stands are about $7 each. I still like the idea, but DF wanted cakes instead, so we'll have cakes.
I'm going to try to insert a photo of my ring. Mine is yellow gold on the sides, and is hand-engraved with a scroll design. I really wanted something that looked antique, and this turned out to be a good compromise for me. The diamond is a round cut, but the prongs on the antique head makes it look like a princess. Still working on trying to find a band to go-with. It's my goal to have to have this resized 1/2 size down by the wedding - I hated buying it this size! The good news is that it was tight when I first got it, and now it's almost loose!
Cindy
I think cupcakes are so adorable. Seriously, you all have such great ideas! I can't wait to see pictures from everyone when the big day arrives!
We officially passed our "pity point" on responses. See, our site holds 100 people...we knew the space would feel sort of empty if we didn't hit at least 50 attendees (wouldn't have been a problem with a smaller space, but we loved the space soooo much...). So we were freaking out that with our 85 invitees, we wouldn't hit that 50 mark - we are at 55! So that was a big moment.
This weekend we have a TON of honeymoon shopping to do. Its a lot of money to drop, even on relatively inexpensive things (we are going to work the Target)...we literally have -no- summer clothes or evening casual clothes in our sizes. Its a 10 day cruise (with coin laundry, sure, but who wants to do laundry on their honeymoon??!?!), which will require soooo much clothing (for each of us: 2 formal dresses for the formal dinners, 8 evening casual outfits, at least 4 sets of gym wear, 10 day wear outfits (jeans, t-shirts, capri pants, tank tops, etc, swimsuit, sunglasses, etc, plus sweaters or sweatshirts if it gets cold). Being that we are starting from nothing, there is a LOT of shopping to do. I bought formal dresses on ebay (for like 10 dollars per, thank goodness, because $100 per dress would be too much for both of us to spend on 2 dresses each), swimsuits on clearance, but there is still soooo much to buy. The credit cards are getting a workout this weekend. Hopefully my size is close to stable now, though, so I can use these clothes through the entire summer.
Can I join the party? I'm getting married July 28. Yesterday I finally got around to ordering my bridesmaid dresses (actually tops and then separate skirts) from www.perfectbridal.com and hopefully they will come in June. One top is white with a burgundy trim and a black skirt, and the other two are solid burgundy tops with black skirts because our colors are burgundy, black, and white. For the white/burgundy top, we're doing a burgundy colored shawl and for the burgundy top, it will be white shawls. This is because all my bridesmaids are self conscious about their arms and so I told them they could wear shawls if they want to. Our bridal shower is April 21. Is it appropriate to send out invitations with information about where we are registered with the bridal shower invites? Because most of the people I don't know and never talk to (his mom's inviting friends) and I want to make sure everyone knows where we're registered at. My dress is being handmade by my dad. It is the wedding dress from the movie The Princess Diaries 2. I found the pattern and now just need to get the material. The skirt is a sparkly burgundy color, the top is white and it will have black lace over that. My shoes are silver with rhinestones. Anyways, any advice is welcome!
), mandalinn. I was worried that I'd have trouble finding something low enough, but it sounds like it's common enough. I have to plan a trip up to DC sometime soon, not only to drop in on the flower people, but also because the nearest David's Bridal is all the way up there!
I don't know anything about rings or diamonds or whatever either. I really lucked out in that I just spotted something one day that jumped out at me and screamed my name, you know? We've been to a bunch of jewelry stores, and I would always walk out thinking they all just kinda looked the same--shiny metal band, big sparkly diamond. That's not what I wanted--I need something more me. In every store we went in, the first thing the salesperson would ask is what kinds of things I liked, and I had a list of the things I did NOT like (solitaires, anything pressure set, anything yellow gold...), but the list of things I DID like was practically non-existant 
