enJOY it

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4601667&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

wedding plan : in review from elise blaha on Vimeo.

It's been forever! Here's a short video wrapping up my wedding planning session one. (I filmed this out on the balcony. And it's raining. So it's a little quiet.)

And now back to my regularly scheduled normal life.

PS : vimeo totally beats youtube.

But it is the one my mom wore to marry my dad 28 years ago.

I have mentioned before that I will be doing my own flowers. I think flowers are already beautiful. And I think imperfect roses are just right for the low-key elegance I would like to achieve at this wedding. Everybody keeps saying, "Elise – the last thing you are going to want to worry about is flowers." But seriously? I like to make stuff. I would worry if I wasn't doing it. I would worry if I was paying $1000+ for a florist to be in charge. So this plan is working for me.

I went to Crate & Barrel (twice) today. And the second time bought this drinking glass to try it out as a vase. I then stopped at Costco and bought 24 orange roses for $15.99. I chopped them down so the stems were about 5 inches long and clustered 15 into the vase. The green leaves on the edges are chopped from the bushes in the backyard. The poppies are fake and I'll pick a bunch more up at Michael's.

I love them. I think the vases give some the whole thing some charm and the ORANGE. Oh man, I love the orange.

PS + Have you seen this wedding? It is making the rounds in the blog-verse, and I love it. The casual elegance? The lovely, non-posed photos? That is exactly the atmosphere I want to create. Just perfect.

Yesterday was a quick but long day. I was up for 22 hours from the early flight from Maryland to the run around downtown Sacramento to visiting Kristen to staying up to talk to the parents. I feel a bit like a sleepy turtle right now, but yesterday I was on an adrenaline rush. And we got some things figured. Not signed and sealed, but figured.

First things first. I am wearing a wedding dress. Eeek! We had no plans to look at dresses yesterday, but in our downtown wanderings we decided to stop in at a fancy dress shop. I tried on 6 or 7 dresses. Starting with ones that had a deep v-neck – which has been my style of choice for a long time. Then, I tried on some strapless dresses. I was impressed, they fit well and looked good. But every dress had something I would want to change. I don't want a train. Or beads. Or lace. Or sashes. Or fabric that is unnecessary and is just there.

I don't have much to say about the dress shop except that they had good lighting + great service. They had beautiful dresses, just not anything that screamed "Elise!" And I am a big believer that the right dress can and will talk to you.

My ordered J. Crew dress was at my parents house waiting for me to try on. It is one of the NON-puffy ones on their website and it arrived in a pretty small box. You would think it was a t-shirt. After all the pomp and circumstance at the dress place, my mom was sure this would just be a failed experiment. But I put it on, and fell in love.

I looked like a grown-up. A grown-up bride. And more importantly, I looked like me wearing a wedding dress. Not a wedding dress with Elise inside. It fit well (if you are ordering – I would recommend going one size smaller than your bust, waist and hip measurements say you should order.). I am going to trade it in for a petite because I undoubtedly would trip over myself in the extra inches of fabric, but otherwise, it was just lovely. I was thrilled. And never mind the extra bonus that it was 25 – 7% of the cost of the dresses at the bridal shop. (Side note, the dress I am wearing in the photo is NOT the j.crew dress.)

We are still going to look at one more shop this Friday, mostly because trying on fluffy dresses is fun, but another dress would have to really do something fabulous (like get up and dance by itself) to impress me at this point.

Second thing. We sneaked into the church and it is just perfect. My parents were like, "Is this a long enough aisle?" Some girls dream about the puffy dress, I dream about the long aisle.

Third thing. We visited a hotel that got vetoed. I don't want a cookie cutter wedding. A reception at this place would be pretty but also look nearly identical to the other 10,000 weddings in the US that Saturday.

Fourth thing. We quickly walked around a restaurant that I will be visiting more in depth with Paul and crew this Saturday. It has an outside patio that seats 250. It was like a magic garden and I adore it. I think that is the place.

Fifth thing. Wow, did you make it? Happy Thursday.