Hey APW,
Five and a half years ago (the mind boggles) I started this blog as a little blogspot site. I’d do things like troll the internet for pictures of centerpieces that seemed both do-able and affordable, and then post pictures. So it felt like a huge deal that we spent the first three days of this week doing a photo-shoot of non-floral centerpieces to bring you guys. Instead of collecting pictures, we were MAKING pictures. Better yet, I was doing it with three women who started reading the site right when I started it. We obviously had a blast.
On Tuesday, at lunch, I was reminiscing about how I met each of the ladies. Maddie (now APW Managing Editor), didn’t have any friends getting married, so she decided she would just be friends with me. She’d send me emails that said things like, “I know you just took the leap to ask for help, so you’re probably not looking for anybody new just yet, but if you ever just get tired of looking at angry e-mails, I’d totally be your lady. In other news, I just realized you went to NYU too.” Then one day she sent me her wedding, and she led with, “But that’s the thing that I love about APW. Just when I feel like maybe I don’t belong in the wedding blog community because my wedding didn’t include enough details and pretty things (not a type A), you go and post about lazy, yet blogworthy weddings.” (Side note: Maddie is so type A she makes me look downright lazy, so who knows what the hell she was talking about.) Michelle Edgemont, who flew in from Brooklyn just to play with us, is now a wedding designer and florist. But back in the day, she sent me an email about her wedding where she told me that her pastor faced AWAY from the congregation, and she was still mildly annoyed. And then there is Allison Andres, our now-DIY-photographer, who I met for the first time at the first APW book club, and I remember being gushingly nice to me.
So it was pretty amazing to get all of those women together in a studio, and learn a bunch of new things. (How to take photos on a backdrop! Prop styling! More!) And in case you’re wondering what behind the scenes at an APW photo-shoot looks like, it’s more or less like this:
With a week like that, the four of us have climbed into our pajamas, and might not get out of them till Monday. Except, I get to take the baby to his first ever Halloween party (last year I was having contractions), so I guess I’ll get out of bed after all.
In the meantime, it’s your open thread, hop on it!
xo,
Meg
P.S. I’m looking for blogs to help me sort out my fashion. Like, what’s a good way to think about shopping? How should I store my clothes so I see them easily? Real world questions like that. When you haven’t seen your winter clothes in two years, and you threw a bunch of them that you always hated out, these are the questions you’re left with. Suggestions?? (I love street style blogs, but I think we can all agree most of us don’t dress like fashion editors on the day to day.) Help a girl out!
Highlights of APW This Week
We talked about how to talk about sex (baby).
That time when I spent a whole afternoon shopping for hip flower girl dresses.
Aly’s thoughts on DOMA and her marriage legalization gave me chills. Aly’s writing always gives me chills. She’s my favorite. (You’re my other favorite, don’t worry.)
At the end of our shoot this week we had a happy little feminist playlist dance party.
Who hasn’t woken up from a dream and looked at their partner and been like… damn. I love you, but just one minute ago…
Being religiously conservative and feminist.
Pretty pictures of Maddie alert! Also, the best wedding dress shop in the Bay Area.
Link Roundup
A super smart story by The New York Times about, of all things, the selfie.
My favorite article of the week is this The New York Times piece about the new female authenticity. But I don’t just like it for what it says about being pretty. “Women are allowed to do big things, but must do them fully leaned-in, hands raised, having it all. What remains impregnable to them are those refuges that shelter so many men: ordinariness and muddling through.” You guys? I’m can’t even wrap my head around how much intensive mothering I’m supposed to do, when I also have a (very) full time job. I’m really happy with my mothering. And then I realize I can’t even sign up for a baby music class in December, because they are SEMESTER LONG CLASSES ONLY. What?
And speaking of the domestic arts, where I could clearly currently use some help: the case for the revival of the most retro class in school: home economics. (While my cooking is sadly rusty right now, I learned how to sew as soon as I could reach the machine, and I’m glad.)
Of course Maddie submitted this unironically. Of course Lucy knew it was a spoof. Of course the baby will be listening to it at bedtime from now on.
Can the Ms. Veteran America pageant just replace…. every other pageant ever?
Oh god, the Men’s Rights Movement. For the past decade I keep trying to pretend it doesn’t exist, or isn’t horrifying. And then I remember that the awesome men I know who are working to loosen gender expectations and make the world a better place for men… often call themselves feminists.
“You’re too pretty to be gay” is never a compliment. And in that same vein, an (ironically) beautiful article asks, will women ever have the freedom to be ugly?
Photos from the shoot by Allison Andres and Maddie
