BM Dress Wraps and Color Update

So, I was thinking of having the bridal party wear this dress with a sash.

MK tried the dress on for me. The dress came to just below her knees. I'd like the dresses to hit just above or at the center of the knee.

When we were at David's, the consultant suggested adding a wrap to one of the dresses I tried. While I didn't want the wrap, I think it'd actually look really nice with the bridesmaid dresses. Also, it'd give the girls a little bit of coverage for their arms.
Since I've finally settled on Brown, Gold and Orange, I think the gold on the sash will be a nice touch.

Speaking of colors, I think most of the decor will be orange and gold. The orange will just come in small splashes here and there - boutonnieres, the boquets (I'm thinking mums, might try to make 'em myself), mesh bags for the candy, some of the gourds/pumpkins in the centerpieces, ribbons on the centerpieces, some of the detail on the cake, some of the leaf placecards. I think that will still be enough orange to add color to the event without overwhelming everyone with such a strong color.

Leafy Ideas

I found this fantastic centerpiece on the blog I mentioned in my last post, Toast and Tables. Though I don't plan on using this for my centerpieces, I think with some modifications, it'd be a simple, beautiful, and inexpensive way to decorate my cake table. I've heard suggestions about using the MoH/BM boquets for the cake table, but I think I'd prefer something different. I could buy short vases, or even votive holders, and cut branches of changing leaves short and place them in the containers. I might even use a few tall containers like these and place them on the place card table.

Speaking of place card tables, I also found this fantastic leafy idea for them! Once again, I found this image on the Toast and Tables blog. I also read something on Martha Stewart's website about how to preserve/press changing leaves. I don't think I'd use the leaves on the table, as I'd prefer a richly autumn colored or printed tablecloth, but I really like the card idea. I was also thinking about trying a variation of this...

I could press changing leaves, then buy a gold marker/pen and write the guests names and table number directly onto the leaf. I'm not sure how well it'll work, but come autumn, you can bet I'll be trying it.

I'm more excited for this autumn than I ever have been before. I'm glad that I'll have this year's autumn to try some of the DIY ideas I've found/thought of, and know whether or not they'll work. I know I'll need to keep season-dependent materials to a minimum, as I'll actually have limited time to gather these supplies during my actual wedding season, but I'm still psyched!

PS
Please forgive all the white space around the images. I'm not exactly tech savvy, so cutting out the parts of the images that I didn't want to include left me with all that blank...

Two Great Finds!

I found two fantastic wedding blogs, Toast and Tables and Ten Thousand Only, today!

Toast and Tables has amazing photos and ideas for every color, season, and theme imagineable (and sometimes unimagineable!) I love it!!!

Ten Thousand Only is a great blog for inspiriation for the girl on a budget, like me! Remarkably, this blogger has the same budget in mind as I do!

Leaf Boquets at DIY Bride

I was perusing through some of the posts on the DIY Bride blog, and came across this fantastic idea.

The author also provided a link that will allow the crafter to use real leaves...but I'm not sure I want to mess around with the wax.

I'm not really into the silk flower look, but I know that I'll need to use some 'fake' foliage to get the look I want at our ceremony and on our tables. I'm beginning to think that I could incorporate this idea into a boquet of real autumn flowers. Of course, as the time approaches, I will speak to my florist about it.

Cakes

So I find that I'm not very interested in the wedding cake...or food for that matter. Food has really always been J's thing. He asked for free reign over the menu and I said ok!

However, I would like a cake that kind of matches our theme/colors.



I saw a few cakes with chocolate icing (it may have been brown fondant...) that were kind of nice, but I'm not loving anything. I also don't really like cake toppers at all! I find most of them tacky or too froofy. I've decided that there will be no cake topper...it'll be flowers instead.

I'd really love to use foliage as cake decor, but uhh, I don't see anyone wanting to eat a cake that had dead leaves picked from the ground all over it. LOL. Maybe I could buy some fake foliage to use.

I did really like this idea when I was browsing...

I think I'd prefer a chocolate color with an orange ribbon of icing. I'm not sure what those flowers are, but I do kind of like the colors. What really makes it for me are the branches. Regardless of what kind of cake we do, I now know that it must have branches!

Color and Theme Choices

I'm having a difficult time deciding whether I want my colors or a theme to guide my decisions about the ceremony and reception.

Also, I had my colors set. I was soooo sure what I wanted, but now I've been thinking about changing it a bit.

Originally, I had decided on brown, orange, and gold. Now, I'm thinking about brown, moss, and silver. I think I'm most likely going to stick with my first set of colors, as the gold and orange remind me more of autumn than the silver and moss. Silver and moss remind me more of spring.

I don't want it to end up looking like a Halloween party, so I thought the gold would offset the brown/orange combo nicely. I could also incorporate creams and ivories into that pallette with ease. I found this picture at createmyevent.com and it's a pretty good visual of the shades I'm considering:

It's a nice chocolate brown with muted oranges...nothing bright and shocking...very late autumn, especially when you add gold to the scheme.

The theme I am considering is autumn harvest. However, when I think of that, I end up thinking indian corn and pumpkins...more like a country theme.

This is what I want to avoid if I go with a harvest theme:

I think I might just incorporate harvest elements into the color scheme. I like some of the harvest elements, as shown in this picture:

I like the small pumpkins and gourds. I would probably also add some apples and/or pears to the theme. No indian corn. No hay. No gingham patterns. No jack-o-lantern sized pumpkins.

I know exactly what I want to do for my centerpieces. I'd like to use natural colored bushel baskets and fill them with gourds, leaves, apples and pears. Then, I'd tie brown and gold or brown and orange ribbon around the center of the basket.

Ribbon: I like the brown ribbon because I think it would tie in nicely with the type of invitation I might use.

I'd like to use a textured ribbon for the orange and gold to create a little more visual interest.

I'm not really sure about this shade of orange. Next to the brown and the natural colored basket, it might work ok, but I'll probably go with something a little more muted.