bye bye

obviously, for those of you who still check back. I haven't posted in a really long time. I'm super busy with my research and honestly don't really feel the need to relive the wedding on the blog. It was amazing. The pictures are amazing. I would recommend all of my vendors. but not to leave you completely without some love - a few pics from the wedding.

My beautiful dress by Marisa purchased at Jacqueline's Bridal

The boys in their ties (Nautica from Macy's) and socks (Banana Republic)

My fabulous bouquet by Arenas (note the green strawberries and the succulents - love it!)

The tables - arrangements in my antique bottles by Arenas

*All images by the wonderful Tammy Swales (whom I just love)

so for now, good bye.

maybe one day I will have another blog or continue writing here.

antique jars

I got a little concerned last week when it suddenly occurred to me how many glass bottles we would need to adequately cover the tables at our wedding - even with borrowing mason jars from the owner. Then I had a little freak out when I remembered how much I payed at the local antique stores for the bottles that i already had... this was going to be quite expensive. Well, after get frustrated with Craig's List - i really don't have the patience to sift through all the posts. I decided to try eBay for the first time. One week later I am now the proud owner of 26 antique medicine/perfume bottles of varying sizes and I have my eye out on a lot of 32 antique soda bottles that the starting bid is 1 dollar. If I can get that lot of soda bottles i will have yet another item checked off my to-do list and for significantly less money than buying the bottles at local antique stores. And I should (hopefully) be able to resell the ones I don't want to keep after the wedding.

My first eBay experience was surprisingly good, and I think I learned some bidding strategies from an auction I lost early last week.

succulent love

Recently I've totally jumped onto the succulent band-wagon.  A few months ago I couldn't tell you what a succulent was (apparently the are "water retaining plants adapted to arid climate or soil conditions" - wikipedia) now I'm all about having them at my (non-dessert) wedding...  I'm sure I won't, but still, maybe I'll buy some for the apartment.

I love how they look great on their own

Or mixed into arrangements with traditional flowers

Maybe I'll just have a few mixed into my bouquet...

*First 3 images from 100 Layer Cake; I've forgotten where the other 3 are from.

weekend with mommy

my mom came to visit this weekend and we got a bunch of wedding stuff done.  

1st - we finally bought my official wedding dress.  yay!  so happy to have that done with.

2nd - we did a tasting of the appetizers and one of the entrees for the wedding.  all the food was superb.  we also went over some of the logistics and figured out how many tables we would need so that I would know when I talk with florists.

3rd - we confronted at the people at Peggy's Bridal about how they over charged me for the first dress I bought.  they were very stand-off-ish and completely unwilling to compromise.  so i now have the first dress in my closet and it makes me angry whenever I see it - i'll have to find a new place to put it until I can list it online and hope to get some of my money back.

4th - we looked through lots of pictures of flowers and table settings and discussed the floral arrangements for quite a while.  my mom isn't feeling the antique bottles, but Beau and I love them, and so we are doing it.  also, the owner of the venue said we could definitely use her mason jars and any other glass-ware she has.  after i pick a florist i'll definitely go over there and rummage through it all.  

and she kept me company at the lab for 4 hours on Saturday and 2.5 hours on Sunday - what a great mom!

Practice?

I love arranging flowers.  I find it very soothing and meditative; its very be in the moment yoga-ish for me.  And then for 5-10 days I have a small bit of loveliness in my home (this is especially important during the long Rochester winters).  I love doing it so much that I'm seriously considering putting together my own arrangements for the wedding.  The reasons I might not:

• I have no idea how I would get the flowers to the venue - I really don't want to have to deal with it
• I'm not convinced I could make a bouquet, maybe with multiple practice sessions
  
• I'm a med student, therefore I have some OCD tendencies, thus there is a 50/50 chance of me freaking out and becoming some crazy bridezilla while attempting to arranging the flowers

Yesterday as I was doing my shopping, I passed through the flower area and they had two of the three flowers I want at the wedding in the right color, plus some filler that went well, so I clearly had to get some to do a trial run of the flowers in the antique bottles.

Flowers purchased:

• 1 bunch (3 stems) white hydrangea ($14.99)
  
• 1 bunch (10 stems) white lisianthus ($9.99)
  
• 1 bunch (4 stems) dark purple "filler #2" (might be aster) ($2.99)
  
• Total cost $27.97 - made 2 large and 2 small arrangements
• I think I will need around 12 large and 12 small arrangements for all the tables - estimated cost: $170
• I compared the Wegman's prices to American Floral Distributors (a wholesaler) and Wegman's beat them in each case.  For the lisianthus, AFD charged $7 MORE for a 10 stem bunch!  If I DIY the flowers I think I might order them from Wegman's

(At the wedding I also want to include ranunculus in white or light purple.)

Results:

(I'm still loving this rectangular prescription bottle)

What I learned:

• Even the wide mouth bottles are a little too narrow - I would have liked the option of fitting in more stems, so that I could vary the fullness of the arrangements more; mason jars might be a good option for tall bottles with a wider mouth
• The narrow mouth bottles are very narrow - only 2 or 3 stems fit in, but it works in groupings with the larger arrangements
• I generally like the look - simple, elegant, a little rustic (like our venue)
• I need to get more bottles, especially some shorter bottles with both wide and narrow mouths to allow for more height variation among the arrangements 

*photos by me

Antique glass!

I saw these antique bottles and had to get them for the wedding.  I'm going to use them for flowers and to hold table numbers.  I especially love the square one because it has the name "PV Pierce MD" along the side.  As a future MD, I'm happy that I no longer have to prepare and bottle and sell my own prescriptions!

(Photos by me)

Attempting to resist...

Peonies posted about these recycled glasses today and now I'm a little obsessed with getting a bunch of them for flowers or tea lights as part of the centerpieces.  Is it too soon to buy stuff for centerpieces when I have no wedding date or location yet?  Someone please give me confirmation thats its totally OK to spend about $100 for 4 sets!  Plus, they are totally reusable as amazing cups - right? 

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