Help me Choose My Invitations (Please!)

I just received some drafts for our custom invitations in my inbox from Janie of We Heart Paper, and I nearly fell out of my chair with excitement and shock. I sent her all of my inspiration pieces from the web, like this one, this set, a mish mash of lovely fonts, a fun save the date, and one more; and as you can see I'm head over heels for this fun use of fonts and typesetting trend. Janie told me I should reel her in if she's gone overboard, but the more intense the design gets, the more in love I fall. 

Please help me choose! I present my top 3 choices from simplest to boldest:

One: Scrolls and Vines

Two: Pretty Banner

Three: Typeset Hearts

This is the first draft of each of them- so if you've Where's Waldo-ed the typo, no worries we'll fix it :) But the real issue at hand is, which one do we choose? Marc loves them all too!

So what's your vote, One (Scrolls and Vines), Two (Pretty Banner) or Three (Typeset Hearts)? Or do you think we all need reeling in? 

The Princess Effect

We are not inviting children to our wedding because I have about thirty little second cousins on my side of the family and we simply can't accommodate for that many kids. This is killing me because, before they'd doubled in numbers, I had always imagined I would simply enlist them all into the wedding party and let them run down the aisle and be adorable and no feelings would be hurt.

{from The Brides' Cafe}

I feel that offering them this important (and fun and adorable) role in my wedding day is my duty as the youngest of my generation. As the baby-of-the-family straggler, I was given the ability to go to the majority of my 14 older cousin's weddings. And the most important wedding event I've attended was when I was six years old and I was the flower girl.

This is where my theory of The Princess Effect comes into play. As the youngest in a very large extended family, I was given many a role model among family members to look up to. Whether we were close or whether I heard stories from afar when they'd disappear to college one by one, in each I found a friend to talk to, a babysitter to braid hair with, or a strong will that would intimidate me at the time. The Princess Effect is what I call the magnetic pull of little girls to their favorite older female family members, their preschool and kindergarten teachers, and their babysitters- their role models outside of their mothers. And when I see a little girl smiling at and trailing her big sister or aunt or babysitter, I remember that feeling and I think of little girls in Disney World meeting their favorite princess in person and audibly gasping in awe and wonder. Like I did when I saw my preschool teacher out of context sitting next to us at church, or when I saw my cousin in her wedding dress in June, 1990.

When I was a flower girl, I soaked up the opportunity to be in the spotlight and show off my maturity and ability to take on this great duty. The absolute best part of being a flower girl was taking special pictures with my cousin-bride, and getting to pretend I was picking up her train. I remember thinking it was just like we were in a fairytale. I definitely fancied myself the most important member of the wedding party.

My mother used to babysit this cousin, and when she was a teen my cousin babysat me. My cousin now has a daughter who I used to babysit, and my cousin's sisters have daughters, and my 14 other cousins on my mother's side have adorable children. Because I was so fortunate to have so many role models growing up, I wanted to have the fun "princess" moment on my wedding day in which I asked them all to be a part of it- especially the girls as part of a women inspiring women pattern. But I have to realize that as the family grows in leaps and bounds and generations, the ties have to loosen to accommodate it.

All that said, we will have one little girl at the wedding: a will-be 10 year old first cousin on Marc's side. We're hoping our first cousin rule holds water and doesn't upset anyone, because she's the only kid on his side just as I was as the straggler youngest.

Are any of you struggling with your rules on kids at the wedding? What did you decide?

Blank Slate: {Ambiance}

I've shared my research on the basics of how to make a blank tent feel like your own, so now it's time to move on to how we're going to soften-up the room and make it our own. You can do this with some ceiling treatments, of course- but in our case, the Thimble fam has all but threatened to strap me into my makeup chair if I try to DIY my own draping or paper lanterns.

Fortunately, our florists had an amazing solution that focuses on the tent walls- which is less labor-intensive and won't bust the budget to commission them to make it happen:

{sources: top, bottom right, mid, left} 

We're talkin' branches and votives along the tent walls. And when Suesan Klein of Murphy and Klein Florals suggested it at our first open house at our venue, I knew I could make this tent work, and I knew who I wanted to hire to do our florals.

Joyce Murphy, or [Suesan's] Aunt Joyce, grew up on a flower farm and has carried on the family business in Ottsville, PA in a 150 year-old restored barn. She is going to use branches from the forest around their property to tie on the supports around the tent and hang LED lighted votives to create a soft glow. Any flowers they don't grow on their property, they find locally. And if they can't, or if it's an exotic flower, they pull their traditional florist resources and fly them in. It's been really fun to watch them branch out (hehe) and market themselves through social media on facebook and their new blog since we booked them a year ago.

Ok, enough gushing. I just love using a family business to carry out a family tree theme and keep things local.

On the tables, we'll have brown linens, mixed china, canning jars, pumpkins, and burlap and gingham runners. But I'll save the eye candy inspiration and DIY reality posts for later.

Are using creative lighting or florals to soften a stark space?

Four Months to Go!

Four is my NY MoH's lucky number. So here's hoping I can borrow it and things run smoothly and productively this month!

Where do we stand in the plans? I need to choose invitations very soon, and I've got some emails out to vendors about detail choices- table shapes, linens, inspiration. We don't have a ceremony planned yet, but I'll try to have faith that all parties involved can get on the same page. Pun intended. But all the big things remain planned, deposited, and in tact. I think we're right on track.

Where do we stand... otherwise? We still don't know where we'll live in 3 weeks! We're waiting to hear about jobs for Marc.. and then I hope that I can find something [that I love] wherever we end up. I try to focus on the positive side of the coin that I'll surely have time on my hands for wedding projects during my impending period of unemployment.

Here's to life adventures and a busy four months ahead!

strike a pose: Engagement Session Inspiration

In preparation for our engagement session, I've been gathering some inspiration from my photographer' blog and from e-shoots I've adored on the web. Ready for some gorgeous photography overload? I sure am!

Amazing light and intimate moments:

{Lorraine Daley Photography}

Lying in the grass in the sunshine:

{terrbear401 and Amandac971 in the Weddingbee Gallery}

{terrbear401's gallery, Style me Pretty, Green Wedding Shoes}

Fun details and frolicking:

{Lorraine Daley Photography and KandJ2010 in the Weddingbee Gallery}

And I DIE for these casual shots of the couples really being themselves in front of the lens: 

{featured on Green Wedding Shoes}

{Green Wedding Shoes}

{Lorraine Daley Photography}

All these magic sunshine shots are dependent on timing and weather. But I think we're going to be heavy on the couple moments and natural environment and easy on the props... although they are veeerry tempting.

Did you have a specific plan in mind for your engagement pictures?