Posts Tagged ‘DIT’

Jun 2008

So, I've been thinking about "DIY Weddings," and I think that "Do It Yourself" can be a bit of a misnomer. The idea of a bride sitting at home doing everything on her wedding by herself makes me a little sad. Weddings can be one of the greatest excuses in our lives to get our communities together. Its a great time to get our kick *ss friends and our crafty family members together and helping out.

The traditional wedding idea perpetually floated by the bridal media is that your wedding is a great day, because it's the day that you get to be a bridal dictator of your own bridal island. Ick! Who wants that? So lets collectively just skip the bridal dictatorship idea, and move on to something a little more healthy. How about instead of Do It Yourself weddings, we have Do It Together weddings? And since weddings are all about weird acronyms, we can call it DIT.
Continue reading You Are Not A Bridal Island

Posted in: DIY & DIT, Manifestos, Meg's Thoughts, Weddings | 12 Comments »

Aug 2008

Rose & John’s Do-It Together Wedding

This wedding has such a amazing spirit, it shines right through the screen. It was shot by A Beutiful Day Photography, out of Seattle, and took place in the bride's families 100 year old camp in Mendocino California. This wedding speaks to my hippie-kid upbringing in a way that just warms my little soul. For lots of people small church weddings remind them of childhood... but for me, it's weddings with hay-bales.

Continue reading Rose & John’s Do-It Together Wedding

Posted in: Sponsored Posts | 6 Comments »

Aug 2008

DIY Flowers – The Dry Run

One of the cool things about our year and a half engagement is that we have lots of time to test things out. This week brought one of the wedding chores I have most been looking forward to - the DIY flower test. We went to the San Francisco Flower Mart to see what was in season in August, and then tried to figure out what the heck we were doing making bouquets. First DIY lesson - when you are having friends and family helping out, it's key to be flexible. Our friend Beck, mistress of the flowers, couldn't make it. So at the last minute, my mom and I tried to figure out what the heck we were doing on our own. This video helped. Other then that we relied on trusting our eye and some carefully selected inspiration pictures. I'm pretty pleased with the results. (And don't worry, I won't bore you with long tales of gocco next. Generally I'm too lazy for intricate DIY projects, and I ask people to help.)

Continue reading DIY Flowers – The Dry Run

Posted in: DIY & DIT, How To, Life, Meg's Thoughts, Planning, Weddings | 36 Comments »

Oct 2008

Emmy & Kirk’s Creative Laid Back Wedding

Every so often I get a wedding that I get so excited about that it makes my little toes wiggle with excitement when I post it. This reader wedding is without a doubt one of those. So, without further ado, I bring you Emmy & Kirk's wedding at Larkspur Farm, Mount Vernon, WA. Hold on to your hats, this is a big post! What made your wedding creative? We tried to highlight things that we already love. For us some of those things are letterpress printing, fresh flowers, typewriters, having fun outdoors, photography and music: I took a stab at letterpress printing by enrolling in a great class at the School of Visual Concepts and came out with some lovely invitations. I love fresh flowers and try to keep a bouquet in the apartment, year round.

Continue reading Emmy & Kirk’s Creative Laid Back Wedding

Posted in: Wedding Graduates | 10 Comments »

Oct 2008

Wedding Graduate: East Side Bride

I’m not sure I have enough kind words to say about the fabulous East Side Bride. She’s infinitely hipper than I will ever be, and you could read her blog just for it’s style tips. But what keeps me coming back is how funny, wry, and honest she is (her f* this series will make your day). She makes me feel more relaxed about wedding planning. So without further ado, the girl herself:

I got married on August 9, but I still haven’t managed to post many details (or photos) on my own blog. Part of me doesn’t want to share my wedding with the world. I think I’m afraid if I shake it too hard the glitter will fall off.

How then to write a “wedding graduate” post for A Practical Wedding? What can I share that might help the rest of you? My thoughts came out in the form of a list. (It’s possible this is a side effect of compulsive wedding planning.)

1. Don’t go overboard with the wedding blogs. I know, right? They will give you a complex.

2. Delegate. Early. Our wedding was essentially made by our friends and family: the baker/shirtmaker, the stylist/photographer, the chef, the musicians, the sculptor, the potter, the painter, the gardener, the director, the expert shopper, the mad organizers. Honestly, I’m a better delegator than a DIY’er. I have good ideas, and then I look around to see who can help me make them happen. And a very happy byproduct of wedding planning was that we found ourselves talking to far-away friends more often. By the time the wedding rolled around it felt like a big party we were all throwing together.

3. Know when to let go. Two days before the wedding, your to-do list will seem insurmountable. It is. Take a fat sharpie, cross out three big projects, and get some sleep. Seriously.

4. The vows are more important than any of the crafty sh*t. We wrote our vows together, and we labored to make them simple and personal. In fact, I drove my almost-husband bonkers obsessing over them. But the vows are what people talked about. And because we memorized them and practiced saying them to aloud each other, they are imbedded in my brain. I love that.

Posted in: Wedding Graduates | 8 Comments »

May 2009

Invitation Weekend (And A Sneak Peek)

If you had asked me at the beginning of wedding planning if invitations would top my list as something I cared about, I would have told you no. I also would have been wrong. For us, simplifying our wedding has meant eliminating huge numbers of projects that we didn't care much about (favors, ceremony decorations, welcome baskets, etc. etc. etc.) Instead we've taken on a few projects that we care very much about, and put our whole heart into them. Surprisingly, invitations have been one of these projects.

This weekend was a weekend of invitation construction. Originally my sister was going to letterpress our invitations (book arts is one of her many hobbies) but she got a bit caught up in making the dress so I had to line up some affordable letter press, stat. As part of our goal to put our wedding money to work supporting artists and businesses that we want to see thrive (particularly in this deadly economy) I had the brainstorm to hire Jordan of Oh Happy Day to letterpress our invitations. That way the money stayed in the blogging community, and our invitations would still have the same handmade feel. So, on Saturday we stopped by Jordan's studio to pick up extra paper. She was teaching a letterpress class, so I got to see the letterpress in action, which made me tremendously happy. Then David and were off to Arch - San Francisco's art and architecture supply store, which I can only describe as Paper Source's much cooler older sister. Arch let us use their paper-cutter for free, so after purchasing a bit more paper, David and I got down to work. We cut and cut and cut and cut... and then looked around at all the scraps of paper, and started figuring out what we could use them for. Then we cut some more - paper scraps for place cards, paper scraps for table numbers. No wasting!

At home that night I started printing some of our inserts on our trusty Epson. I'd figured that our home printed inserts would be the least hands-on part of our invitations, but alas. Our printer did not take kindly to the thick 100% cotton paper I was feeding it, so I spent part of the evening hand feeding sheets of paper in, one at a time.

Continue reading Invitation Weekend (And A Sneak Peek)

Posted in: Life, Meg's Thoughts, Planning, Weddings | 21 Comments »