finding the woods
okay so step one in our wedding planning adventure: decide on a venue and date.
neither victor or myself wanted a religious setting. My baby boomer hippie parents raised my sisters in the church of "be nice to people and try not to judge" and Victor had a reform Jewish upbringing.
we both love nature and wanted to show our guests the majestic beauty of the great state of California. since we wanted the wedding to be in the greater Bay Area we knew that would either be the forest or the beach.
nothing against beaches, but I'm really more of a forest girl. we can probably attribute this to growing up on a dirt road in Michigan and yard that backed up to the woods. (This acute self awareness is definitely the result of bachelors degree in psychology.)
so we looked at about a dozen redwood forest venues in the Bay Area. there was the Mather grove at uc botanical gardern,
the the piedmont community center, and old mill park in mill valley.
but ultimately the right place for us was up in the north bay.
I first saw deer park villa on one of those wedding websites, but it wasn't until I saw my coworker Katie's wedding pictures on Facebook that it really caught my eye.
so we went up and visited and knew pretty much instantly this was it.
in addition to having an awesome redwood grove this place was really chill and normal, which we found was surprisingly important to us. They don't have any stupid ("no scattering petals or leaves of any kind") or strict ("everyone must be out by 10pm and we stop serving alcohol at 9pm") policies. also they are down with food trucks.
so when they had a date available in the spring of 2017 we decided to book it.
so venue and date set, next up save the dates!
love,
aunt maggie
so you want to know the best part about planning a wedding? everyone wants to help!
early on in our engagement my nieces indicated a strong desire to contribute to the wedding. my mom came up with an idea: have them make pot holders as favors for the guests.
it's wedding wednessday!
we've covered the dresses i made for nora, etta, maya, and neela. so now the time has come to talk about their accessories.
when victor and I got engaged I said i wanted our wedding to have three things:
- all my nieces as flower girls
- said nieces in love aunt maggie dresses
- food trucks at the reception
any youngest child will tell you there is often pressure to do things exactly as their siblings have done them.
as previously mentioned i wanted lush overgrown living arrangements (i.e. plants in dirt) for our centerpieces. obviously i decided to grow them myself.
it's wedding wednesday!
since my table signs were so cute i figured they needed a way to be displayed on the tables that was just as adorable.
aside from flower girl dresses and food trucks there is one more thing about our wedding I've had planned for years: the table names.
here is one thing I learned about wedding planning: once you decide on a venue and guest count the amount of money you are going to spend is pretty much set. but while you can't save money you can get more for your money.
now that we've covered maya, neela, and etta's flower girl dresses it's time to make something for nora. i knew whatever I made had to be very special as nora was so very helpful in picking out my dress.
I knew one of the flower girl dresses would need to be my favorite oliver + s pattern: the library dress, and who better to make it for than my rough and tumble namesake etta?
my youngest niece is miss neela banana peela. Now this child is so perfect anything would look great on her.
thus far in our invitation adventure we have:
- embossed the names
- addressed the envelopes
- lined the envelopes
- ordered, then reworked, the actual invites
- made the response cards
- tied it all together with a ribbon and tag
and I have to say all the pieces were looking pretty good.
so far in our wedding invitation saga we have:
- embossed the names on the envelopes
- addressed the envelopes with a copper pen
- lined the envelopes with a fern print
- ordered, then remade, the invites
- made the response cards and embossed the return envelopes
but wait, there's more!
so our invitations have thus far been embossed, addressed, lined, ordered (then reworked). next up was the RSVP cards.
now that the envelopes for our invitations were embossed, addressed, and lined it is time to talk about what we put in them, starting with the actual invitation!
so now that my invites had the names embossed and addressed it was time to turn my attention inside the envelope.
when we last left off with the wedding invitations i had lovingly embossed the names of all our guests on the invitations.
this past weekend my sisters and i went to austin for my "bachelorette" party.
in addition to bridesmaid dress shopping, day drinking, and succulent photographing we made a trip to craft, where for $10/hour you can use all their supplies and tools for whatever creative adventures your heart desires.
some girls have their weddings envisioned long before they are engaged, and the planning process is really just an exercise in execution. i am not one of those girls.
a few weeks ago i came across this giant piece of bark in the woods behind our friend's house.
so in a shockingly turn of events the internet has picked up on the fact that i am a 25-34 year old female who is getting married. this means everyday i get a flood of messages, emails, and ads.
