I’ve been thinking a lot lately about tradition.  At every turn in the wedding planning process, I find a friend or relative completely aghast at my choice not to wear a veil, not to throw a bouquet, not to have a first dance, not to have a cake-cutting.  To me, certain traditions are very important:  the ceremony itself, the ceremony music, having a wedding in the first place.  Beyond that, however, I want people to have fun, and I’ve designed my wedding to be unstructured, unstuffy, and anything but a rote continuation of tradition for tradition’s sake.  And as far as I’m aware, my wedding will still be legal and valid no matter what I am, or am not, wearing on my head.  However, many people seem to have very strong feelings to the contrary.

I’m hoping this blog post will turn into more of an informal poll:   What makes a wedding fun?  Are you disappointed to find out that a certain bride and groom have elected to omit certain “traditional” elements?  What are the must-have, can’t-live-without wedding elements?  Please discuss in the comments below.

The hubby and I are celebrating our very first anniversary today. It’s been an AMAZING year spent with my best friend. I am so crazy in love with him! I brag on him to everyone, and yes, I do believe he’s the best husband ever!

My true wedding confession?  I forgot the seating chart and E had to recreate it from memory.  :)

Reader Linh writes in to say:

My dress is an ivory strapless dress with a gold sash, and the bridesmaids dresses are floor length charcoal gray. I have been trying to do up inspiration boards for the 3 color combinations but I don’t get a sense of cohesion. I’d like to incorporate burgundy (but am afraid it may be too dark for our venue). Then I thought maybe gray & pink, but fiancé not a fan of a “Pink” wedding. Is it possible to do gray/silver with various shades of pink (blush to fuschia/magenta to burgundy), and some accents of gold, or is that too clashy???

Well Linh, YES!  It is.  Here’s how I see it:

Clockwise from top left: Marie Labbancz, Saks, Andrea Yung via the Bride’s Cafe, Sarah Kaye, Desire to Inspire, Michele Waite, Peonies and Polaroids, Artfool

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Although the title of this post makes me feel a little like I’m writing a middle school essay, I was intrigued by the recent thread on the many ways a wedding can be “green.” Though green is not a prominent color in my wedding palate, my wedding seems to be “green” on at least five levels:

1. We are getting married in roughly our own beloved neighborhood.

2. We are getting married in Central Park, surrounded by the only real pocket of nature on the island of Manhattan.

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We’re so excited this week to welcome our second guest blogger!

I’m your guest blogger this week — call me “Davash.” A soon-to-be lawyer living in New York City, I am planning an August 3, 2008 wedding that will take place in Central Park…a full three days after I sit for the New York Bar Exam. I am looking forward to sharing some of my planning process with you, and I also hope to get some great feedback and advice from all of you through the Comments.

Give her a warm welcome, ya’ll!

E.

Miu Miu ballet flats via Barneys

What do you think?

I thought you might enjoy a little snippet of my planning status, since weekends basically consist of me and my DIY projects!

Anne and I went through my to-do list yesterday and realized that there are 44 DIY projects in total, and here is the status:

• 3 are 100% complete
• 7 have partial completion percentages

That leaves a whopping 34 TO GO (plus the 7 partials)!  And guess how many weeks I have left minus vacations and holidays, etc?  35.  After the slight freak-out (OK maybe not so slight, it’s a good thing I work well under pressure), we assigned priorities, responsibilities, and timings to each project.  We also determined that I can’t keep adding to the list, but then we broke that rule immediately, so who knows if it will be enforced.  :)

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Kelly is marrying in August of this year and has chosen a color theme of black white and green. She’s going for a laid back vibe.

Image Credits: Pronovias, Ceci New York, Anthropologie, WeddingBee, Perfect Bound, Ludwig Photography.

E posted a lot of great ideas for using black, white and green here and here.

A.

How lovely does this inn look for a wedding or honeymoon?

Henderson Park Inn
Destin, Florida.

It’s a crazy day in the real world everyone!

I’ve been doing some searching for out of town basket photos, because it’s definitely a project I’m going to undertake.  These are such a great idea and so easy and inexpensive to DIY.  Anne did her own gorgeous baskets for around $2.50 each and they were a hit!

Here are my favorite little baskets that I have found - I love the coordination of the green ribbon with the contents and the simple but elegant presentation.

Image via Mimi and Karl

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