Smells Like School Spirit

Andy and I hosted my college friends for dinner on Saturday. I reused the table runner that I made in 2010, pairing it with gold, black, and white napkins and some pennant place cards that I whipped up – in true Tina fashion – an hour before everyone arrived.

I’ve had the sewing bug, so I bought more Purdue-themed fabric to make napkins, but chose sleep over crafting.

White flowers would have looked great, but I couldn’t pass up these brilliant yellow tulips. It was such a gray, slushy day when I bought them, so they stopped me dead in my tracks…spring was taunting me! I told my friends to pretend that they were "Old Gold" tulips, not University of Iowa tulips.

I also put some bud vases in beer cozies and used them as accents throughout the house.

I am ashamed to say that I actually thought of this myself and ordered the cozies online. That’s right. You get pure ass and class with me.

We have another dinner party with friends this weekend. I cannot wait! Andy is making braised short ribs for the first time. I'm so happy that I married someone who can get it together enough to cook.

Flower Friday Update

I was told that we CAN afford the trees for the ceremony! :) I think that everyone was pleasantly surprised by the floral proposal.

Flower Friday

As soon as we booked ANL as our venue, I developed a vision for our ceremony. It included us exchanging vows flanked by two fall trees or pretty japanese maples in front of a softly lit room. This image from fete ny is perfect!

I just assumed that getting two trees to the second floor of an elevator-less building would be a no-go, but ANL is actually able to create something for us. (We'll see if we can actually afford it!) Now if I could only find some benches...


P.S. My mental image is what inspired our program covers.

P.S.S. This tree would do too -- but only if it was in Lincoln Park! :)

Image: Style Me Pretty

Flower Friday

So, yesterday was my meeting with the florist -- and I have no idea what I am getting. Seriously. Here's how it went:

• Tina: So, I really don't know what I want.
• Andy the Florist: That's cool.
• Tina: Oh, I hate orange and yellow lillies.
• Tina: I like lots of texture.
• Tina: Oh! Look at this pile of pictures I've randomly collected.
• Tina: Did I already tell you that I hate orange and yellow lillies?
• Tina: Oh! Look at this picture. It's my favorite.
• Tina: I have these cheap orange vases or candle holders if you want to use them. Or not. Whatever. They were so cheap.
• Tina: My mom loves Halloween. Maybe you can put a little pumpkin in her corsage.
• Tina: Can I get a wreathe for the front door?
• Tina: Oh! And my mom loves marigolds.
• Tina: Can I get some colored lanterns hung in the garden?
• Tina: I meant to bring a rosary to hide  in your bushes to bring good weather.
• Tina: Did I mention that I love dahlias?
• Andy: You mentioned them, yes.
• Tina: Oh! My mom also likes those orchids that start with an "V."
• Tina: Oh! I forgot to show you this picture. It's my favorite too. I like how they're all cohesive, but different. And I LOVE these little yellow flowers.
• Tina: Oh! The groom is 6'5", so he needs a hearty bout. Do they make big and tall bouts?
• Andy the Florist: (not laughing)
• Tina: Oh yeah, and the one bridesmaid is 4'10", so her bouquet can't be huge.
• Tina: The flower girl's five. Yeah, the entire wedding party is really pushing the acceptable age limit of a bridal party for a first marriage.

(Silence)

Seriously, the entire meeting was one long Tina Stream of Consciousness. Every other ANL bride that I've spoken too said their meeting was 15 minutes long. Mine was an hour. And I don't know what I'm getting. But I hope that they're as cool as these:

Images: Rock 'n Roll Bride

My Blogorrhea Has Dehydrated My Creativity

I am too lazy to come up with a clever blog post, but I am going to blog anyway to annoy my sister when she does her monthly "Catch Up on Tina's Blog." (Ha, Ha, Bay-e!)

This is a completely selfish post in that I am only posting this colorful photo of the storefront attached to our wedding venue so that I can steal peeks at it when I'm away from my home computer. Isn't it adorable? We're so lucky!

Image: Personal Collection

When we were sitting around the campfire last week, Andy was telling his family how we found and selected A New Leaf. I think that someone's suffering from a case of the Revisionist History! :)

Flower Friday #6

This isn't the right color scheme, but I am drawn to this one. Maybe it's the texture? I wonder if I could toss some dahlias in there ans add some leaves at the base?

Image: The Knot

Flower Saturday

I really want my Flower Girl Cousin to carry a pommadore (I can't find the correct spelling of that anywhere), but I have been thinking that it would be cool for her to carry a couple of little ones in bright hues, similar to this one shows on {lucky me} this week:

Image: {lucky me}

Flower Friday #5

So, this was the flower image that I have been carrying around to show vendors for the last six months. My mother said that the green stuff looked "wilted" and kind of ruined it for me. And then I found the flowers featured in Flower Friday 1, 3, and 4 and stopped liking this as much. As I write this post, I realize that these look NOTHING like me!

Image: Chicago Style Weddings

Flower Friday #4

I apologize for reposting images that you saw on another blog on Monday, but my scanner's busted and I need to get to bed...

Check out these flowers from Bride's Cafe. Movement? Check! Bold Color? Check! Balls/Dots? Check! I am officially re-thinking my no-roses clause. These flowers might seriously be it (or close to it).

Image: Jeff Greenough via Bride's Cafe.

Flower Friday #3

I absolutely adore these images of the floral arrangements from the wedding of Mimi of enjoy: {the blog} fame. Look at the different colored wrappers on the bridesmaid bouquets. Mimi is a girl after my own heart!

If we were having a larger bridal party, I would politely ask her if I could "borrow" this idea. Imagine all of our colors popping out from the sienna-colored dresses. I'm in love with the notion.

Mimi carried the color variations through to the tables. Look how whimisical and elegant her arrangements are:

Images: enjoy: {the blog}

Check out more images from Mimi's swoon-worthy wedding on her blog.

Flower Friday #2

I really like these images from the last issue of the Knot Chicago magazine. The arrangements are so bright and unique. I love all of the different things going on in them -- the movement, the round dahlias, the bold colors, and the real leaves. And LOVE the suggested bouts.

Sorry for the crooked scans. I think that I mentioned before that my printer's UNDER the end table. It's tough to get to.

Images: Knot Chicago Magazine.

Flower Fridays

I have to start thinking about flowers. I can't talk to A New Leaf until August, so I'm left to my own devices until then. According this knottie bio, I basically have to give ANL an idea and let them run with it, which is cool, but I feel like I need to get my thoughts in order. So far, I know that I want:

• Movement, i.e., not a tight ball.


• Real leaves.


• No orange or yellow lilies.


• No roses, except for maybe a yellow rose or two somewhere for sentimental reasons.


• Possibly lots of ribbons.


• No orchids suspended in tall glass vases with a candle on top. (It seems like every ANL wedding has that.)
  

Since my blog has become my "virtual binder," which is actually so much easier to manage than the actual binder that I started in September, I'm going to start tossing my flower images up here on Fridays.

I love the bouquet below, but I don't think that I'm strong enough to carry it. It's huge! I'd have a heart attack half way down my wannabe-aisle. Ha, Ha. I think that I have to go with something a little smaller than this since my dress is so structured, but I love the bold colors, twigs, leaves, and explosive look.

Images: The Knot