Guest Survival Kits

Most brides know that it is wise to carry a wedding-day emergency kit with things like bobby pins and scissors.  However, I was surprised last fall to see one of my friends extend the same courtesy to her wedding guests!  She thoughtfully provided baskets in the restroom as a sort of a guest survival kit--now that's Midwestern hospitality!  The basket had a sign similar to this:

That's a little too cute for me, but something like this might work:

I noticed a lot of people using the stuff in the baskets, too!  I love this idea, so after Christmas, Lance and I picked up these baskets to use.

There are a ton of things that you can choose to fill them with, too:

Advil
Air fresheners
Antacids
Ballet slippers
Band-aids
Bobby pins
Chapstick
Clear finger nail polish (for hose runs)
Feminine hygiene products
Floss
Gum
Hair ties
Hairspray
Hem tape (double sided fashion tape)
Lotion
Makeup remover
Mints
Mouthwash
Nail clippers
Playing cards
Safety pins
Scissors
Sewing kits
Spot remover
Spray deodorant
Sunscreen
Super glue
Tissues
Tweezers
Wet wipes

I may leave out the more personal items (mouthwash, tweezers, etc.), but there are still a lot of items that might be helpful.  Anything else that you can think of?  Anything winter-specific?

Dresses!

I'm planning on going dress shopping the first weekend in February, so I've decided it's time to figure out what I'm going to tell the consultant that I do and do not like.  I know I want a classic, formal gown with a train to fit the church.  I'm not worried about sleeves or covering up, since we will be inside most of the time.  I'm open to (finished, pretty) lace or not-lace fabrics, but I can't stand tulle and Lance has mentioned that he doesn't like "shiny" fabrics (the satins that make you look like a candy wrapper when a camera flash goes off).  Lance also said "nothing 80s" and to find something I can dance in.  I don't like ruffles, rosettes, pickups, giant bows, or crumb catchers.  I really like all-over beading and sequins (rather than chunky bling or symmetrical filigree designs).  Keyhole or portrait backs are big this year, and I think those are neat, but I also like V-cuts and sweetheart or strapless necklines.  I like dropped-waist and A-line cuts, but I don't like the giant ballgowns.  I'm hoping I find something awesome, but if worse comes to worse, simple gowns with beaded belts are also pretty (although somewhat generic).

Beaded dress

Beaded lace

Lace with a crystal belt

Kenneth Pool 2014 beaded gown

I love the dramatic back of this gown (by Demetrios, 1444)

Fit-and-flare gown with beaded neckline

Sottero and Midgley

Sottero and Midgley

Mori Lee 2014

Allure 2014

This is one of my all-time favorite dresses.  It doesn't look so different in a still photo, but it has great movement and sparkle in real life.  No idea who the designer is, though:

Chancy's wedding gown, Four Weddings

Close up of the beaded lace

Finally, I have to decide where to make an appointment to shop.  All of the different boutiques carry different designers, so you almost have to know whose lines you might like before you go in.

Clarice's Bridal in St. Louis carries Maggie Sottero, Allure Bridals, Jasmine, Casablanca, and David Tutera, which I know I like (and are the more affordable lines).  Town and Country Bridal Boutique carries Amsale, Romona Kevesa, and Monique Lhuillier (more along the lines of the designers on Say Yes to the Dress).  Simply Elegant Bridal in St. Louis carries Allure, Enzoani, Alvina Valenta, and Lazaro, which are well-known, but less my style.  Ultimate Bride in St. Louis carries Jim Hjelm, Paloma Blanca, Pronovias, Stella York, and others.  Finally, Demetrios has a stand-alone store in St. Louis.  I love their stuff, but I will have to check to see if they have any dresses in my budget.

Is there anything else you think I should try on?  If you've bought your wedding dress already, how did you go about it? 

We have a florist!

We have a florist!  I was really dreading hiring a florist, because floral designer contracts are insanely complicated, and in the end the florist will end up using whatever she thinks looks best, anyway.  And, you're supposed to hire your florist one year in advance so that you can see what flowers are available around the time of your wedding, but I don't even have my dress yet!  As I've mentioned before, flowers are not one of our top priorities.  I want my and my bridesmaids' bouquets to look nice, and we have a few small ideas involving flowers, but if all else fails I would be equally happy with straight roses.  Luckily, my aunt's sister-in-law is a florist, and I've seen her work at my cousins' weddings, so I get to skip the whole floral quote nightmare (otherwise, I've read that grocers like Whole Foods will order flowers, so I would have probably chosen that option or an online distributor).

For my bouquet, I would like classic white with a lot of different flowers.  I think it would be fun to incorporate different flowers that mean something to me: roses for my late Grandma, carnations for my mom, sweetpeas because that's what Lance calls me sometimes.  I like orchids and calla lilies for texture, freesias because they smell pretty, stephanotis because it's "the wedding flower," and baby's breath because it is snowy looking.  Lance likes hydrangeas, so I'm open to those as well.  I hate peonies, though; they are the brussels sprouts of flowers--round and peely and yuck.  I know it might be too much to incorporate all of those flowers, but I think a few different types of flowers creates interest.

I do like some other types of flowers, like these blue ones that would contrast nicely with a white dress, but I feel like they are riskier.

Those spikey blue ones are cool.

Beautiful, but too much drama for me.

I like the dusty miller at the bottom of this one, but the flowers are a bit too Christmas-y.

For bridesmaids' bouquets, I like either the white (if the dresses are gray or black) or light blue (if the dresses are blue).  I really like the look of lighter flowers on a more saturated dress.

But, if all else fails, there are always roses.  :)

(Not exactly our color scheme, but light blush roses look good against white and blue dresses.)

Finally, we are thinking of using rose pomanders to decorate my and Lance's chairs,

and maybe a floral wreath for the front of our car.

I think that's pretty much it for flowers.  We aren't decorating the church at all, because that would be a waste of time in such a pretty space.  We decided not to do boutineers for the bridal party, because technically you are supposed to choose between a pocket square and a bout (though no one does), and Lance has accidentally smashed almost every bout I've ever given him.  He also mentioned that at most weddings, when the box of bouts is delivered to the guys, they all wander around confused until they find a woman to pin them on.  So, with the exception of the grandfathers (our dads will be in tuxes too), we won't be needing those!

Reception Decor

We had a site visit at our reception hall over break, and I'm really glad we did!  It helped clarify that what we already have planned for reception decor is enough--I like to keep things simple, anyway.  For instance, originally I thought there were 2 doors into the hall, and I was planning on standing birch trees on either side of them to make them more interesting.

Maybe with floating candles in them.

Or maybe birch pole arches with mistletoe or kissing balls on them for people to kiss as they walk through.

Yes, this is a chuppah, but use your imagination!

However, on our second visit, we noticed that there are 4 doors into the hall.  That would be at least 8 trees, which is almost $1K in trees.  That seems like a bit much.  But, we did see that the doors open into the hallway and would be a great place to hang wreaths, so we're planning on that now.  Lance's cousin's child's school sells them as a fundraiser each year, so that's a great way for us to get what we need and give back at the same time.  Lance's mom even found some awesome battery-powered lights that we can stick on them to make them glow a bit.

I also remembered the dance floor stage as a really, really giant hole in the wall that I was planning on covering up with a fabric backdrop (which is a little prom-ish, but we're talking about a BIG hole).  After looking at it again, though, it seemed all right.  It has uplighting in it, and if we stick the DJ on the stage, we don't have as much room to make up.  I thought about sticking candles along the edge of the stage for about 30 seconds, because if you look that direction from the tables, there will be a weird candle-less dead spot.  However, we will have kids at the wedding, and for some reason people really don't watch their kids at weddings (once I saw kids using a candle-heavy head table as a base for tag, and I was just waiting for the candles to fall over and catch the lace on fire). I don't want to do anything that could set fire to a child or the building, so that's out.  Maybe I'll stick a birch tree with floating candles on either side of the DJ.  Or maybe we could rent some white couches to stick in there to make a very loud lounge/club area (I'm not that cool, but maybe our friends are?).

I was also planning on sticking candle luminaries outside of the hall, but looking at it again, there really isn't a place to put them!  I think we will end up throwing some extra lights on the bushes out there, but mostly the grounds are already decorated for Christmas in December.

Other than that, we are planning on 2 bunches of 3 Christmas trees with white lights on either side of the hall.  One bunch will be a backdrop for the cake (and a place for people to take pictures once it's cut).  The other bunch will be for guests to put gifts under.

Next to the gift trees, we will have a mailbox for cards [very Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening ;)].  I've asked my younger cousin, a carpenter, to make the stand for me, and I'm going to paint the actual mailbox with our names or a phrase like "Cards for the happy couple."  maybe we'll wind some garland around it, and maybe I can find one of those awesome feather cardinal ornaments to stick on it.

This is an escort card display, but I like it as a card box.

We're planning on putting family photos in black and white frames on the fireplace mantle in the foyer, and we need to find something cute to stick in this weird little shelf in the hallway, but then we're done!

We found some awesome stuff at the after Christmas sales, too!  Sparkly cotton "snow" tree skirts for our trees and the mailbox, thousands of white lights for the trees, a handful of white balsam candles for an evergreen smell, jingle bell wreath hangers, some pine cones for the mantle, and some ribbon.

This is two layers of fluff with two strands of lights in between.  It looks a little sloppy here because I didn't take the time to make sure the top layer covered the bottom layer before I took the picture.

The red ribbon is for stringing jingle bells for the kids.  I just liked the blue and silver; I don't know what I'm using it for yet.

That's all for now!