bridemaid dresses

I've expended far more energy on the hunt for bridesmaids dresses than I have on my dress. My dress was easy - I bought the first one I tried on. No messing around and to date, no regrets. These were harder because I knew I wanted something a little bit different, while ensuring that each of the girls are comfortable and feel beautiful (it goes without saying they'll look beautiful as they're all stunners). I also wanted to find something that worked well with my dress, which is a grecian-inspired silk Lisa Ho number.

So lo and behold I was quite ecstatic when my bridesmaid K and I stumbled on this little number at Satch and I came home with three of them. MMS messages and reassuring and excited phone conversations flew back and forth between me and the other girls before I made the purchase and now i'm happy to say that all the girls have tried on their dresses and are very happy (or they're doing a good job of hiding it!). Despite their wearability, i'm not deluding myself into thinking that all the girls love them and will wear them again, but I'll sure be borrowing one!

marriage, feminism & stuff

I'm a massive fan of Meg and the insightful, intelligent discussion over there, so when I noticed that this book was listed as a must-read I promptly added it to my shopping cart. In case you can't quite make out the title, it's called The meaning of wife: A provocative look at women and marriage in the twenty-first century.

The author examines how the role of wife has been shaped over the decades, interweaving pop culture references to provide commentary on women and wifedom. She also examines the growth of the wedding industrial complex which has turned 'bride' and 'wedding' into consumer icons (I think this is particularly true in America).

I found it an enjoyable and interesting read, I've also heard that A Conscious Bride is supposed to be good, though it seems to be a bit more focused on the wedding rather than the marriage - anyone read it?

Yep, that's what I woke up to this morning. I think Marcus worked out early on that food was the way to my heart, and boy have I lucked in with him! They weren't quite the Jack Johnson variety but they were goooood.

We didn't go to the snow this weekend, partly because we've got to get a few wedding things done. Today it's the homework our celebrant gave us ages ago, where we write down how we met, what we love about each other, etc. etc.

More important to us than where we went on our first date or who proposed is our journey and what we've acheived together over the past seven years, so I think i'll pursue this angle rather than follow the template our celebrant set out for us (as helpful as she is!).

Seeing how other couples have made their ceremony uniquely theirs is inspiring. I hope I feel like this after our ceremony.

(image via woolgathering & miscellany)

on board

So i've been pondering the idea of starting my own blog for ages but it was the practicality of the thing, prompted by this post at Veiled Vows that finally got me on the bandwagon (it's almost like an email address, everyone seems to have one these days?!).

It's almost embarrassing how much time i've spent reading wedding blogs and engaging in wedding-related discussions on the interwebs over the past two years (and I haven't even been engaged for one yet). I go from being totally focused on the intricacies of stationery design to the emotion-laden topic of name-changing; I need somewhere to store my thoughts and inspiration, and now with just over five months to go, a place to find some clarity on the grey areas of indecision I often find myself in.

Here's to a practical, mindful approach to planning a (hopefully fun and beautiful!) wedding!

(image via woolgathering & miscellany)