You need to know about this NOW!

You might say I had some pretty severe internal conflict when it came to defining our wedding "colors" or "palette". I didn't want anything too defined! You can't hold me back from pairing green and red and purple! and brown! .... and cream! You could say I'd have benefited from some good idea refining.

Everyone and their momzilla needs to go here right now:

Hey! Not so bad, eh?

Maybe I'm not the most "with-it" fiancéed when it comes to the wedding color palette (because the ring on the fingy must mean I have an honorary arts degree - what? you don't?). Even if you're much more color-confident than myself, I recommend a gander at this crazy flickr widget thing!

I picked colors for my automatic palette generator from inspirational photos like these -

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Did your wedding colors come together naturally? ...easily? What's been your secret weapon for channeling color inspiration into a concrete palette? (have you slipped by without a color palette? lucky! ;) )

Crossword love!

A little while ago Emily at oncewed posted the cutest crowd-entertainer for a wedding, a huge love-themed wordsearch!

The lovely bride and groom, as seen by Carl Zoch

This seems like such a wonderful way to include your guests in some ice-breaker activities. It reminded me of a scene from Dan in Real Life where the family is gathered together at their summer home. The new girlfriend (or fiancée? ;) ) is getting to know the family throughout the week, and lucky her - they love family activities! In the scene I'm referring to, someone brings home two copies of the newspaper, specifically for the crossword game! They fraction into guys vs girls, and it grows into the most adorably supportive family competition I've ever seen! I'd love to include a crossword competition into the wedding day, or maybe the day before - it's such a wonderful way to get to know new people. Plus it's a great way to share with our families a hobby (or vice? ;) ) Mr. Cubbie and I share daily!

Games can be a great way to create a joyous family atmosphere at a wedding! How are you planning to get new (and old! :) ) family member acquainted at your wedding?

Adorable Distractions!

Mr. Rye Bread and I have been engaged for over 8 months, now! It's hard to believe time has flown by so fast! In that time, we have finished grad school, opened a joint bank account (how lucky is it that WAMU didn't tank completely??), moved to Chile, started new jobs, got a cute puppy, got a cute kitty, started taking spanish lessons together, and absentee-voted! (DEFINITELY made sure to do that one!) Anything missing there? Yipes! Planning a wedding! :)

Before we get started, I have to include some

gratuitous furr-baby photos. Plus two makes us a family, now! Meet Beauregard! He's adorable. He's also known as Beau-bunny, Beau-tard, Mr. Beau-jangles... You get the idea. Pretty cute, eh? Yes, I have adorned his collar with floral goods! ;) Apparently, "teething" means "loves to eat hydrangea plants". I planted 6 hydrangea plants in our garden - slowly but surely, he dug all of them out! I planted more, and put up

a little barrier. When I got home, he had dug up 3, and one was in his mouth! So the little jer

k got to be a pretty little girl-pup for th

e rest of the day. Guilt is so much cuter on a puppy face. He's getting doggy training from a (probably the only) dog trainer now, though! Beau's a good obedient dog, he just has to grow out of the puppy bratty phase.

Then there's our kitty Georgina! (Very regal names, eh?) We bought Beau (who we're told is a golden retriever) from Coquimbo, and then a month later, our friend Matt found a baby kitten in a box near his house! Most cats and dogs in Chile live on the street - there are literally packs of domesticated/wild dogs roaming the streets!

Needless to say, these kiddos won the lottery when they were hand-selected by us! ;) Gina's very sweet, and loves to sit on everyone's lap!

She's definitely a lap-cat. Mr. Rye Bread thinks she should dance. And also thinks she's very, very tasty. What good are kitties if you can't squeeze them?

As you can see, we've had some pretty serious wedding planning distractions. We do have some things taken care of, though! We have a date! And a location! I'll leave the location results for a complete post - but the date is Sept 21, 2009! And... that's a Monday. We'll be getting to that in a bit, too. Having the wedding in September means we have 8 months left to plan. Moreover, I'm only going back to the states once before September - and that will be in Hawaii, in March, for work. Mr. Rye doesn't have any trips back to the states before the wedding at all. Let me clarify something from the get-go: planning a wedding is hard.. planning a DIY wedding is harder... planning a DIY wedding from South America is.. mind boggling. There's no paper store here! The only flowers they have (to practice making arrangements) are carnations, roses, sunflowers, and daisies. What's the name of my blog? Definitely not http://carnationsrosessunflowersanddaisies.blogspot.com. I tried growing hydrangea, but we both know how that turned out, now. There's more, but I haven't quite discovered it all quite yet.

Mr. Rye and I have decided to pace ourselves with the wedding planning - how much can you really tackle all at once, anyways? Thursday night is designated wedding planning night. We sit down, discuss one specific topic only, and move on! Thus far, we've had WPN (wedding planning night!) twice - I think it's working well! The first topic of discussion: write down a list of questions for the wedding coordinator/events coordinator at our location. They take care of food and lodging at the same place, so our list was quite long. It ranged from "can we have candles outside?" to "how many tables are there, and what are their dimensions?" (remember, we won't see the place again for 8 months!) to "do you guys have Parcheesi?!?!?"

The next night's agenda: How many days to take off work! Very exciting, I know, but when you need a full day each way to travel, you have 21 days in the year off (some of which you want to use to travel around South America during the year! Conference in Rio, yee-ya!), and you have to take into account time in Portland before the wedding for last-minute planning and after the wedding for the honeymoon, this conversation becomes really important.

How are you and your FI pacing yourselves in the marital-athon? Were there some things you wish you had planned sooner/later?

one more, for good measure

it's like photog-soup.

aww.. it's funny cuz it's true...

There's something about weddings that's seriously screwed up. So many expectations, it's impossible to tackle the rationality! Take, for example, guest lists. Obviously, unless you're in the top 0.1% of the US pay bracket, you're going to need to trim the fat somewhere. And what the heck is up with people you hardly know - but are related to via some 3rd cousin half removed - feeling entitled to an invite? And then getting pissy when they don't? It's as if weddings are a blank check for people to drink the crazy juice.

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Don't get me wrong, I love my family. And I love my friends. I'm deeply saddened I don't get the opportunity to see them more often. That said, I want for our wedding to be personal. You know what I mean? IE, we know the people we see there, we can actually hang out with them, and it doesn't turn into a "fawn over the Mr. & Miss Bear Cub"-fest. Thanks, but I'd rather not have 200 eyes on me. I can hardly handle 30 when I teach!

The problem is, I have a huge fam. And Mr. Bear Cub has a huge base of friends. This is a good thing, but it's also very bittersweet. I want my wedding cake, and I want to eat it, too!
How is it possible to help everyone to feel included in the wedding, without ballooning the guestlist?? (I think the answer will win the Nobel Peace prize.)

Not your typical wedding location...

Weddings are like summer camp. A bunch of people get together, sing songs, go through rituals (or "ceremonies" ;) ), bond, and try to enrich their lives together. Except most "outdoor" weddings are strictly that - just outside of the door. That wedding on the lawn of your swanky hotel? Totally outdoors. It's got, like, fresh air or whatever that's called.
No dice. Just because a wedding is "outside" doesn't mean it's outdoors. And to each her own, of course, but what I want is for the gorgeous outdoors to be my temple.

Wow, huh? WOW. I had always pictured myself getting married on a cliff overlooking the ocean. I can't imagine anything more breathtaking, more majestic, more emblematic (precipice of life, anyone?).
Ry was a camp counselor every summer during college. He's always imagined getting married at a camp on a lake.

This is Coeur d'Alene (Idaho). Not bad, not bad... just not quite right. We knew we wanted to get married somewhere in the northwest US, so we narrowed it down to 3 major locations: Oregon Coast, Orcas Island, and Vancouver Island. How's that for cutting the list? ;) Let me tell you, there are a LOT of options for getting married in these three places. Tofino on Vancouver Island is bee-you-tee-fool. But perpetually rainy. And as much as we both love rain (really!), I'd kind of like to wear my FAB wedding dress outside. And not have to worry about mud. Then we heard about Strathcona Park Lodge! This chickie had her wedding there, and the reception's in a barn! How fun is that?? So SPL is a major contender!
Exhibit "breathtaking":
Fug-ly.
We want for everyone to be able to stay together in cabins (like camping!) but with a little bit of luxe (glamping!) and a lot of home-feel (cooking!). Needless to say, even though SPL is NOT my idyllic dream coastal location, we heart Orcas Island. FH was a camp counselor at Camp Orkila, and raves about the place. There're a few places that meet our (unique) qualifications here, but not many. BTW one of our qualifications is "no rip-offs". We'll come back to Orcas Island later.
And then there's OREGON!!! I heart Camp Westwind! OMG fug!
BASICALLY perfect. See that beauty? That's Cascade Head. swoon. Camp Westwind is the 500 acres that comprise Cascade Head. LOVE IT! Remember that first idyllic picture?

Not so shabby, eh? AND Westwind has cabins and reception hall and outdoors and it's WONDERFUL.
So next month, after FH and I leave New Mexico (YAY!), we're going on a "location scouting" trip in the NW! On the list are:
Vancouver Island - Strathcona Park Lodge
Orcas Island - Beach Haven, Camp Orkila, Buck Bay Farm (lavender farm!!!), and Doe Bay (though I'm afraid this place might be out of our price range. Crazy, as it's a hippy farm!!)
Oregon Coast - Camp Westwind

Soo excited!! I'll be updating about the scouting trip as the details are ironed out.
Anyone know of a better place to do a rustic, family&friends-oriented, wilderness wedding in the Northwest?

Inspiration Blitzkrieg!!!

Alright!! colors! inspiration! glitter! consumerism!

As much as I hate to admit it (what am I talking about? I love this sh¡t!), colors and inspiration can be a good thing! After leaving a friend's wedding in early July, Mr. Cubbie & I started to talk a bit about what we wanted our wedding to look like and feel like. I like flowers as much as the next person, but I've never been so wild about any particular type. I mostly like them to just be there, and feel natural. What's more natural than wildflowers?? So we birthed the idea of lavender and poppies to inspire the wedding ambiance! Who could say no to lavender? And c'mon - poppies? IE, california poppies, golden poppies, red poppies, orange poppies... So pretty! So fragile! So inspirational! The only prob with this is that I don't want everything to feel so (excuse the pun) pop-y. Colors that pop everywhere is just a bit overload. And not so natural, either (I think). So maybe the Muting of the Poppies will be necessary. I think it'll be possible. Especially with lav undertones. This getting a bit boring yet? Don't fret, I've got wedding porn!

(All of the following pics come from snippetandink)

Here we have the lovely "wheat field inspiration board." Look! Lavender! And it doesn't look cheesy!!! We were thinking seriously about having the reception in a barn at a camping lodge, so this is right up our alley.


















And then there's the rustic red! Can't you just imagine some lovely poppies picking up these rustic hues? I'm thinking the way to go will be muting hues, and adding the most beautiful color: wood.








This list goes on from there:
Beautiful, beautiful lavender, with natural green (hundy-percent necessary for our outdoor wedding!). Anyone know who makes that dress on the bottom left? The snippet & ink cite wasn't the best.

Did I mention we both looove pears? loooooooooove. Plus look at all this rustic wonderness! What's that? These pears have the same shade as muted poppies, you say? How convenient! ;)


And this lovely...
This one's a bit too blue, but mason jars are the new black!


If you're getting the idea that I naturally like muted, antiqued images, you'd be getting the right idea. Anyone with advice for making that work with lavender and poppies will be SHOWERED WITH COOKIES.

This one's gorge also, but probably not going to make the final color-cut:Maybe just a tad. Like river rocks = gray. And orangeish poppies = coral. Coral's hot.

So what do you guys think? How can lavender, poppies, wood, and (naturally occurring) green shades be incorporated into a color palate that looks rustic and antique? Can it be done??