Invitations

We're almost done with invitations. Supplies have been purchased, components have been assembled, envelopes have been stuffed. About 3/4 of them are done, addressed, and ready to go--I'm waiting on sending them because of that last 1/4, which consists of David's friends who I've been asking him to call and get addresses from since before Christmas.

I got it all done over the course of the weekend, with the helpful helping help of the wife of one of the lads. Said lad and another friend came out to Cleveland for the weekend for an all-weekend gaming session with David and his brother, and the Mrs. and I bonded over paper cuts and the gross taste of envelope glue.

I took a couple of pictures of the process, for posterity's sake. The last 1/4 I will probably do in the next day or two, and I will probably enlist the aid of my local bridesmaid, Miss O'Molly. And then I will mail them, and once the people who read this blog have received them, I will put up pictures of the assembling process.

I actually hand-delivered a few of them yesterday, to professors and school friends and the like. It was very satisfying.

Boutonnieres

I still have no idea what I want for my own flowers, but I've found some inspiration for boutonnieres.

My first idea was to do something with hydrangea, to echo the bridesmaid bouquets:

credit: A Floral Affair flowers

I don't know exactly what is going on with the stem there--I don't think I'm a super huge fan, but I do like the look of the hydrangea, mostly. The problem is, hydrangea by itself is just too plain.

That's a problem easily solved, though, with the addition of a little lamb's ear or dusty miller--which also echoes the bouquets.

credit: Martha Stewart, lamb's ear and orchid boutonniere

I like that lamb's ear a lot, but not a huge fan of orchids. There's going to be stephanotis in the bridesmaid bouquets, though...

source: The Bride's Guide to Chic

How pretty is that? I still don't like that weird metallic stem thing, but the stephanotis is so pretty, and the dusty miller and eucalyptus both look gorgeous. I love eucalyptus.

So I'm thinking perhaps for the groomsmen we can do a martha-like look with the leaf of lamb's ear or dusty miller and then maybe a spray of hydrangea, and for Dave we can do the same thing, but with stephanotis. I'd love to work some eucalyptus in there somehow, too; it's got that same silvery-green look to it, and it smells divine.

Groomsfellows

One of the more difficult aspects of wedding planning, for me, has been figuring out clothes for our wedding party. This was made worse by changing our venue and wedding date, which necessitated a slight change in my overall vision for the wedding theme and style itself.

We're getting married in a beautiful 1930's-era chapel at the college where we met. We're both major bibliophiles and really into all things vintage and literary, so a "vintage academia/ivy-league" theme in greens and browns seemed like a good choice for us.

There were a few more things to factor in. Dave doesn't like asking people to spend a lot of money on clothes, and I don't like for things to be too matchy-matchy. So, it took some time to come up with an idea for The Lads that I felt like was reflective of us and the style we want, while still being somewhat dressy.

I learn, through the wonders of google, that a term has been coined to explain my general idea here--it's called aesthetic traditionalism. I like it.

Here is the general idea for The Lads at this point:




I suppose we could also sum it up by saying that if Bertie Wooster would wear it (and it isn't a white dinner jacket or plus fours--I do want the colors to go, and we aren't golfing at the wedding), I wouldn't object to The Lads showing up in it.