Original Thoughts: Part Two

In Part One of this, um, two part series, I thought I had come up with an original idea in my own head, and it turned out that it wasn't so original after all.

In this part, though, well...I am basically shamelessly stealing other bride's ideas. OK, it's not exactly like that. I do have a little shame.

Actually, I don't have quite as much shame as this dog.

So, you wanna know what I am pirating and totally passing off as my own original idea (except to you, dear reader)? Here we go!

Save the Dates! Here are Mrs. Stripes's STDs, which I mostly shamelessly Bogarted.

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I mean, for real y'all. A cartoon? Of the happy couple in a photobooth strip?? With their pets????

I die. (I nicked that expression from wedding blogger land too. It's all like, "I die because that is so freaking cute and I need it right now, even if is as trendy as hair fascinators and Uggs.")

So yeah, hopefully we will have our own version of that lovely STD, and thanks to Mrs. Stripes for the idea!

Also, I pinched this guest book idea from multiple brides and blogs:

Mrs. Lamb's Fingerprint Guest Book

Mrs. Cheeseburger's Tree Guest Book

Mrs. Poodle's!

And this one!

Shoes I yoinked from the amazingly stylish Mrs. Scissors!

Photo by SamoanCuban Photography

They are Louboutins. They are flats, great for my lanky 5'10" frame. They are made out of cork, and they spell L-O-V-E! Who could resist? Not this chickadee! I bought my own, although breaking into Mrs. Scissor's house and actually stealing-stealing hers might have been more cost effective. But, of course, illegal. And bad bride behavior!

I'm sure there are other things I have ganked as well - bunting, paper garlands made from books, chalkboard signs, a s'mores bar...all of these things have been done before at many other weddings. I worried (excessively, as per usual) that I was unoriginal and lame! But then I realized three important things.

1. NO ONE, except us bridal blogging freaks, knows about these ideas! The other day, someone told me about a "really original and unique" guest book idea. The idea was to make a photo book of the bride and groom, and have the guests sign around the photos. To me, with the bridal region of my brain over developed and in hyperdrive, I was pretty sure that this concept, while very sweet and perfectly functional, has been around for awhile. However, the guests at this wedding were RAVING about what a clever and unique idea it was! Awesome! Why do we put all this pressure on ourselves (or, unintentionally, on each other?) to be the most unique, beautiful, and awesome bride, party planner, and hostess EVER? It's too much.

2. Inspiration runs in a circle. It goes round and round. Rap stars these days are dressing like people dressed in the 1980s, rockin' stone washed denim and bright colors. And stonewashed denim is never a good idea, fellows.

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So yeah, the whole wedding world is blowin' up with milk glass and candy buffets right now, but in 2020 it's gonna be all like, I don't know, leg warmers and helicopters. It's just a shift in time and fashion and, um, air, and we're just floating along for the ride.

3. I'm marrying the man I love, and that's pretty unique and individual for US. The details are fun and boy do I love thinking and dreaming and planning our wedding, but, none of those things really matter next to our vows and our lives together. I think it is sometimes tough to remember that starting a marriage is the point of all of this, especially for me, a girl who LOVES to plan and host parties. But I am going to keep reminding myself of that whenever I begin to get bogged down in details and/or lose focus.

Are you as much of a thief as I am? Do you get bogged down in the pressure to be unique and individual? Are you impressed with how many different synonyms I used for the verb "steal"?

[*An alternative title to this post might have been Slang Synonyms for Stealing! And here is a clip from my all time favorite episode of Sex and The City that very effectively demonstrates the meaning of the term "Bogart." Scroll to the 6:30 mark, but really the whole video is hi-freaking-larious.]

Original Thoughts: Part One

I'm not sure I have any original thoughts!

When I first got engaged (almost a year ago now!), I immediately jumped to dress shopping. As I was trying on dresses, I knew for. a. FACT. that I definitely, absolutely, and totally wanted to wear a flower in my hair. How romantic! How pretty! How creative and unique!

Then, I began reading wedding blogs and learned that every bride in 2009, 2010, and 2011 has worn or plans to wear a flower in their hair. EVERY bride, you ask? Really?

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I realize this is only pictures of 3 brides, but a Google search for "bridal fascinators" (because, of course, a fascinator is a hair flower or other type of hair adornment) yields 67,500 results. A search for "hair flower" on weddingbee.com yields at least ten pages of results, likely even more. (I also learned that while every bride in the entire world, probably including this one, is wearing a hair fascinator, these brides are also going the extra mile and making them themselves. I might have to be "original" here and just buy the damn thing, just for uniqueness's sake!)

Suffice it to say, while I thought wearing a flower in my hair would be unique and awesome and special and romantical, turns out that bridal hair flowers, I mean, fascinators are as ubiquitous as Uggs and rain boots in a sorority house.

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(Side note: Are weather-specific boots a trend everywhere with sorority girls, or just in the South? Has the trend become more generalized to include most college girls? Maybe my little sis can weigh in on this timely and important topic!)

OK, so what? I mean, Uggs are fine and rain boots are fine. Cute and functional. So what if they are super trendy and everyone's doing it?

It's just a little disappointing that something that I thought was so ME turns out to also be sooooooooo everyone else too.

Unfortunately, this is only Part One of how creative I am not. Stay tuned for the next post, where I go on to tell you all the other ideas I have apparently stolen from brides who have gone before me!

Have you ever thought you were being creative and unique, only to discover that your "original thought" was totally commonplace in wedding land? Were you bummed out by this revelation, or did you decide that you were the original trend setter, and everyone else was just following your lead (which is, secretly, what I think every time this happens to me)?

And, are you wearing a hair flower? :-)

Themes and ADD

I'm not really into wedding themes. Maybe because I can't pick one. I am a Gemini, afterall!

Vintage? Carnival? Nature-y? Colorful and flowerful? Modern? Classic? Yes, please! I love them all!

So once we decided on the season, I started thinking about what we (ok I, let's be real here), wanted our wedding to look like. My stream of consciousness went a little something like this...


"...I love fall. All the pretty trees. Trees are good. Kind of unoriginal though. Let's see... Leaves. Lots of colors, green, yellow, orange. Jack o lanterns. Pumpkins. Pumpkin spice latte. Coffee shops.
College. I wish I was in college again. Midterms suck though. I could rock some corduroy skirts with tights and boots in a coffee shop. Let's go shopping. Budget. Bills. Ick. Stressed. Need coffee.
Boots! Why don't boots ever fit right? Hockey puck, rattle snake, monkey monkey underpants...."

I think I am just a little bit ADD, like Lorelai in this clip from the best show ever, aka Gilmore Girls.

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Ahem. Time to FOCUS.

Recently BM Pumpkin and I went to check out the site to see how it looks this time of year, since this time next year I'll be gettin' hitched there! I noted that the pond looks a bit, um, murky, so maybe we could get married in front of a tree instead....the tree in the top center of the below montage.

Then, it just all clicked...well, after BM Pumpkin suggested it! We could also do a tree guest book!
Do I sense a theme coming on? You tell me!

From top left, clockwise: montage of beribboned trees, my ceremony tree photo, tree guestbook, Mrs. Sand Dollar's guestbench, ceremony set up, tree inspiration

Plus, we have this amazing tree picture from our engagement shoot! 

SamoanCuban Photography, currently based in Seattle!

Maybe we can have our "sitting in a tree" pic blown up on a canvas and hung up? Or put beside our guestbook tree? Maybe include a tree carved with a heart and our initials on our invite? It's not super original...but does it have to be? And is this a THEME, per se, or just part of our decor style? I'm thinking more the latter, but you tell me!

I Heart Trees

It's true. I heart trees a LOT. I was not always smitten with the perennial woody plant though.
I grew up near the coast in Wilmington, North Carolina. We had lots of pine trees.
They were tall and not very pretty, and they dropped a lot of pine needles which we would have to rake into piles and stuff into big black garbage bags.

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Apparently, some pine trees are pretty. Ours, not so much.

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And this is what pine trees drop on your head. Pine needles. Even the name is painful.

Occasionally while growing up, I would see an old oak tree (you know, in the older, rich part of town - or in a graveyard, spooky!). Or a dogwood tree. Those are pretty cool, too. BUT, it was not until I went to college that I really began my love affair with trees!

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Oh beautiful trees, how do I love thee! Let me count the ways....

Seriously, I marveled at these trees that not only 1) had actual leaves, but 2) also lovingly rained those crisp leaves down upon me, after 3) they had been so creative as to change those green leaves into an array of amazing fall colors! How thoughtful, I thought!

I walked through enormous piles of leaves between classes. (I'm sure the grounds keepers loved me.) I wrote poems about leaves and trees in my head. And my love affair with Fall was officially ON.

We were a happy couple, Fall and I, for about twelve years, off and on (that tends to happen with seasons, and the sporadic-ness of our relationship is no indication of the undying love and devotion we felt for one another). But then, something happened that threatened our future....

I got engaged. And, as a bride to be, I was faced with my first tough decision:

When and Where would I choose to marry My One True Love (Oh, sorry. I'm referring to Mr. Magic here, not Fall.)

We could get married in my hometown of Wilmington, I thought. In that case, it would have to be a Spring wedding with azaleas, oak trees, and Spanish moss, like this!g wit

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Albeit gorgeous, a Spring wedding in Wilmington did not make a whole lot of sense for us. For all intents and purposes, I have lived in Chapel Hill for twelve years. Mr. Magic, even longer - he moved here when he was eight years old. His mother is here, his brothers too, and most of our friends live here.

PLUS...Fall lives here!

I am so excited to get married to the man I love in the season I love. And I really hope that when the big day rolls around, Fall is fully underway with all it's colors out, so we can get some pics like this!

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How did you decide when you would get married? What's your favorite, or least favorite, season?

My least fave season is Winter. It's cold, it makes my skin dry, and it signifies the end of Fall. Sad.

Competing Musical Tastes

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I think Mr. Magic might think I have no taste in music. Or maybe just bad taste. Either way, we don't like the same things. I am into country, and mainstream pop music (I know, God forbid, right?!?), and whatever cool alternative or rock music trickles my way. To give you an example, I recently went to 3 concerts in one week (that's not normal for me though).

Concert #1: Easton Corbin at the NC State Fair

Concert #2: STP at the Raleigh Ampitheatre (Mr. Magic is in love with Scott Weiland and I went to support him in his relationship with a rock star who sometimes wears eye liner)

Concert #3: Darius Rucker (You may remember him as Hootie from Hootie and the Blowfish, if you are as old as me) at the NC State Fair

Mr. Magic did not attend either of the country music concerts with me. As you can see, he is into, um, other music. Music that is somehow deemed cooler, especially in our group of friends. He thinks country music is too simple, in that the lyrics are actually what they are trying to say. Also, I think he's just kind of a Yankee at heart. I mean, he was born in Northern Virginia. Technically below the Mason-Dixon line, but too close to Washington D.C. for him to actually get any good Southern-ness in him.

I mean, he didn't even know what fat back was, for Pete's sake!

Anyway. I digress. We do have VERY different musical tastes, which makes it sort of interesting to decide what we are going to play during the different parts of our ceremony and reception. The other day, I asked him if he thought it would be fun to play some less-traditional music while people are taking their seats, or during the cocktail hour. I named this song, and he agreed to it - although it could have been one of those, "I am just saying "Sure, babe" now because I am not really listening to you, but later I will pretend we never had this conversation and ban this song and all similar tunes."

Anyway, here's the song he agreed to!

Bahahahaha. Wouldn't this just make you want to sing along and dance and laugh if you heard it at a wedding? I mean, if you are like 25 and older. If you are younger, you might be confused. Consult this article to learn more about this talented boy band known as New Kids on the Block from the 80s and 90s.

Do you and your SO have differing tastes on something that is making it challenge to collaborate on wedding plans?

Apparently, Arranging Flowers IS a Talent!

And not a talent that I have, either. Sidenote: when I was younger, I convinced myself that I was a super awesome skier and that skiing was My Talent. When I finally went skiing at the age of 20, I realized that this was not true. I am not a secret talented skier, nor am I a secret talented flower arranging fool.

Let's start at the beginning.

I'm kind of lazy. So even though I knew that a Farmer's Market existed in town, and in the next town, and in the capital nearby, um, I never quite made it over there. Until there was a ring on my finger!

Cause everyone knows...

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Well, for this Southern bride it does, anyway.

Since the one year countdown has officially begun (362 days left!), I figured it'd be a good time to check out some flowers and see what NC has to offer this time of year. We're planning on having my bouquet professionally done, and the girls' flowers too. But the centerpieces are totally do it myself, with the lovely milk glass I have been collecting all this time - yay for long engagements!

Mr. Magic, having missed me for a week while I was off baby sitting, even offered to go to the State Farmer's Market with me! Course by the time we made it out of the house, only one of the farmer's markets was still open. Whatevs.

First, we found some awesome pumpkins! And they are cheaper than any other pumpkins I have seen so far.

Yay for pumpkins! I mean, I'm not gonna have like a million jack o lanterns chillin' or anything. I'm just thinking something like this:

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Or this:

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Then, we stumbled upon some flowers. Ch-ch-check it out!

These are pretty and colorful, no?

I bought these for 12 bucks!

Like my enormous sunglasses? I know, they are kinda ridiculous.

OK, so here's where things got all challenging. I thought to myself "Sweet! Ima go home and divvy these up into some milk glass vases. So easy! Dunzo!"

Um, hmmm. NOT so easy. Turns out, there is a reason people pay to have professionals do this. Who knew? Certainly not me. My apologies to everyone in the flower industry.

They aren't bad, but they look a little...rough. I think part of the problem is the extra leafy greenery. Maybe the stems are too long. Maybe it's too colorful. Maybe someone can just volunteer to do this part for me?

Did you ever tackle a seemingly easy wedding task, just to find that it was much more difficult than you anticipated?