My, my, my ... dahlia!

I'm pretty clueless about flowers.

I've killed all but one plant I've ever owned, and that's only because it actually thrives when I forget to water it (most of the time).

But, in the same way I'm building skills in becoming a master wedding planner, ha ha, I'm also getting to know a reasonable amount about wedding flowers.

After lots of reading wedding blogs, and nearly 30 Pinterest pins later, and I think I've worked out what I'd like – namely, a hand-tied bouquet of dahlias, peonies and roses, in beach, blush and coral shades. Something similar to this, but a bit more blush rather than yellow tones (and maybe a bit less greenery):

For someone who, six months ago, wouldn't have known a ranunculus from a radish, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself!  

Edit: Oops, clearly I don't know as much as I thought, since I was sure there were peonies in the above piccie, but I've since been reliably informed that they are in fact ranunculuses (ranunculi?). So perhaps I don't know a ranunculus from a radish after all! (Though thankfully we're paying someone to know all that for us!)

That said, my new appreciation for all things floral has meant we've had to increase our flower spend a little. I've decided on a bouquet for me, smaller ones in ivory/white for the four bridesmaids and our flowergirl, plus buttonholes for H2B and his groomsmen. 

Our original pencilled-in 'how much are flowers anyway?' budget of £100 has now more than doubled – eek! But we've found a fantastic florist who came highly recommended, and hopefully the flowers will be worth every penny, for the amazing piccies if nothing else.

Say 'cheese'!

Speaking of pics, we confirmed our photographer last week, and I'm just as excited about that. She's a very clever young lady who does photography in her spare time alongside her day job of being a talented photo editor. 

We didn't want the usual traditional, dare I say cheesy photos for our wedding (and certainly nothing like these beauties) – rather mainly reportage-style pictures of those magical moments.

Lucky for us, I knew just the girl for the job. She is an amazing photographer, who's photographed oodles of cool musicians, and the odd actor and supermodel. (Wow, just wow.) I can't wait to see how our pictures turn out.

Random wedding idea #1: table plan

Okay, sensible stuff like guests lists out of the way for a moment...

As I've mentioned before, I'm a bit of a Pinterest nut, but occasionally there's a lovely, inspirational pic that for whatever reason I can't pin onto my boards. So I've decided to post them here, which will let me pin to my heart's content!

First up, an idea for a vintage-y table plan:

This is from a great blog post of a 'vintage wedding tea party' on littlemisswedding, and I've decided that I'd like to do something like this for our wedding.

We're not going OTT with the vintage details (no Victorian tea cups or birdcages stuffed with roses), but something like this would work really well with the interior style of our venue. Now to hit the charity shops to start collecting old picture frames!

Embracing the madness

It's been a little while since my last post, and I had myself a flashback to my teenage diary-keeping days. And I do mean actual days: usually the 1st, 2nd and maybe 5th of January. After that, the procrastination and consequent guilt would kick in, with maybe a half-arsed diary entry in mid-February and then nothing. I could wallpaper my house with all the pristine sheets of unused notebooks I've wasted over the years.

Anyway, I'm pleased (and relieved) to find that the blogging urge has taken hold again, so here I am. And I have to admit that I have a slightly different mindset than I had when I wrote my first couple of posts. The goggle-eyed terror of planning this wedding has actually receded a bit. I still feel the panic from time to time, but it's a bit more manageable somehow. I think I'm actually starting to enjoy this!

I have a sneaky suspicion that this change may have something to do with the fact that we confirmed both the church and the reception venue this week – woo hoo!!! They're booked for 364 days from today, in fact. One whole year away. I can manage to plan and execute this thing by then, surely?

One other thing that is helping in a smaller but infinitely enjoyable way is a recent discovery of mine: pinterest.com. It's a genius way to catalogue all the weddingy things online that I've come across, whether that's from online stores or other blogs. You 'pin' a picture you like from a website, and that gets added to your board (or one of many boards that you can set up). Here's a sneaky peek at mine:

I've started by collating all my wedding 'inspiration' onto one board, but further down the line I might reorganise that into separate boards, eg dresses, table decorations, flowers and so on.

The best part about Pinterest is that it removes one of my panic triggers: that I'll see some perfect dress, colour scheme or bouquet online and forget to bookmark it. And my bookmarks folder is already heaving at the seams, so the genuinely good stuff will probably get lost among the over-priced tat that keeps catching my eye (yes, I'm talking about you, er, well-known wedding website). This way, I've got instant visual reminders (which, if you click on one, takes you straight to the website you got the image from). Plus I can add useful details, such as price, to the caption too. Perfect!

One thing I should add before I hang up my hat as Pinterest's unofficial cheerleader: the site is currently invite-only, though you can request an invite (they took a few days to get back to me with one). Once you're in, you get a bunch of invites to hand out too, and I have some spare if anyone wants one...

Anyway, I do have lots more to ramble on about, but time's getting on (yep, I'm back to my post-midnight wedding sessions) so I think I'll save it for next time. Thanks for reading. :o)