bon voyage, mon joli fleurs

Today I'm preparing to send supplies to my AMAZING cousin who will be doing all our flowers for this wedding. She is incredibly crafty, and did the flowers for her own wedding and the weddings of her two sisters. She's also coming a week before the ceremony to help gut pumpkins and make cookies...but mostly to hang out with my mom, who is like her best friend. They're super cute together, just you wait.
So in a little while she'll be getting a big ol' box full of ribbon we bought with after season clearanceSome inspiration sheets I whipped up in photoshopExtra leaves, baby's breath, and feathers (just in case her area stores are missing some of the ingredients) and the rough draft of the bouquet that my mom, sis and I whipped up when I went home for Super Wedding Weekend, which is starting to look a little haggard after a few months of hanging out and being batted around by the cat:
I'm a little sad to see them go. I'm shocked to realize that I'm going to miss them.

"WAIT, did she just say she was sending flowers through the mail?
And that they had been around for months? But that would mean...they would have to be...she wouldn't use....FAKE FLOWERS?"
Okay, let's just get something out in the open.
Are you sitting down? Probably, since this is the internet and you are probably on a computer.
Okay: I am using fake flowers for my wedding.
(ooooh, gasp, gag, I know right?)
I am a big ol' faker, and I have no problem with this. I did not think it would be an issue but I guess this is a huge wedding faux pas. I have learned that this is "unacceptible" because it seems to be the only part of my wedding people are willing to argue with me about. There are some things, like our wedding date and our choice of menu, which people consider "non-traditional," but they usually just say something like "Ohh...that's interesting." They have never come out and told me I shouldn't do something.

But apparently something about fake flowers make even the most polite people feel the need to tell me that I will ruin my entire life if I don't drop some serious dime on fresh blooms. Well, most people don't go that far, but perhaps many of you may have made an involuntary scrunchy face at the very idea when you read it, and people have told me that they think it's a "huge mistake." Really? Having artificial flowers will somehow make my wedding less magical? How does that work?
The fact of the matter is, I don't care about flowers. Not really. I want pretty flowers to be a part of my wedding, sure, and I want a bouquet that will compliment my bodacious dress, but this is a wedding on a budget. If I spent the amount of money on flowers that is expected, I would have to leave folks off the guest list. Their presence is more important to me than something that will wilt and die by the end of the night. Also, as we have established, Greg and I are both awkward people and I would crush a living flower with my elbow, foot or butt looooong before reaching the ceremony location. I think I would regret that. I don't think I am able to regret renunculas, dahlias, and feathers in perfect wedding colors that will take most of the abuse that I will be giving out, and for less than I spend at target in a given week.And see how pretty? So pretty. And that's just me and my fam playing around in a craft store. Imagine what the magical hand of experience will be able to do.
So what do you think? Are you a little disgusted by plastic flowers? Are real flowers worth the price? Or do you agree that every once and a while it's okay to fake it?

the name debate

Finally, some Hallowedding news! I know, you missed us. We haven't been updating because there has been little/no advancement in wedding planning. Well, a lot of talk and debate but no action. Until about this week, when suddenly, BAM! big decisions were made.

One, we found a VENUE! I know, it’s seven months before the wedding. The Knot has assumed I’ve had this done for months. But as we have said, we were sticklers for having amazing food be an option, and a lot of places just were not cutting it. Also we are terrible, awful procrastinators. So there will be an extended post very soon about that.

But now, let's talk about names.

I've thought about this last name business for a long time people, because let's just be honest here--I've been planning to marry Greg for like five years. Before we were officially dating even. I wasn’t writing “Mrs. Harries” in my underpants or anything, but I kind of assumed I would adopt his last name. I even had a moment of incredible sadness when I realized that I had to give up the name I had always planned for my daughter--Izzy--because then I would have a child named Izzy Harries...which sort of sounds like the question "Is he hairy?" and given my genetic disposition for peach fuzz I just didn't want that for my potential children.

But then, I think last year sometime, or even the year before, people started referring to Greg and I as The Jacksies (a hybrid of our last names). I grew incredibly fond of it. I'm a fan of hybridization in all areas of life and it seemed to really go with our marriage philosophy. As much as we love our families and our heritage, we want our last name to sort of showcase our relationship as a joining of our lives up until this point into something comepletely new. Also, Greg is sick of being called "Harris." And I am sick of that damn Outkast song.

Fuck those guys.
So for a while, our plan was to be The Jacksies.
Then we actually got engaged. And when you get engaged, those cutesie little plans for what you're going to do start to gain actual significance. Greg thought about it, and he decided "Jacksies" was a little too cutesy sounding. He suggested "Harkson." I thought Harkson sounded like a WASP name, and told him so. Then he was searching Urban Dictionary one day at work and discovered that a "Jacksie" was a cockney term for "ass."
That just wouldn't do. Damn cockneys!
So we talked and talked and talked. We debated. We fought. We polled our friends and families. We brainstormed completely new names--my personal favorites were alucarD (spelled exactly that way), Vector, or Velociraptor. (Even now, as we’ve found a solution, I'm still pretty fond of Velociraptor.)
But tonight, at rehearsal, on a whim, I labeled my waterbottle as "jaxies"...and Greg. Went. Crazy. He's all for it. The 'X' fixes the cutesy problem and I still get my totally cute name. And being a homonym for cockney ass is not quite as bad as being cockney ass. Our friend Sean suggested "Jaxeez" to up our scrabble potential but we kindly turned him down.

So what do you think? It's a little pretentious but meh, so are we.

So as of this moment, assuming we still think it’s acceptable after sleeping on it for a night (or a month), Shannon Jackson will marry Greg Harries and they will become Greg and Shannon Jaxies.



We’re such nerds. We’re gonna be sooooo happy.

ruffles!

No, not that Ruffles...although Ruffles will hopefully be involved in the wedding somehow. I'm talking wedding dress ruffles. And pleats. Ruffles and pleats, and how much I am in love with them.

Here is an observation I've made during my extensive online searching of dress styles: I love dresses that are structurally pretty. I look more to a dress' silhouette than to its beading and bows. I think this is because I make and design costumes. I know what goes into making clothes, and so I'm looking for something that is beautiful because of how it is made instead of how it is decorated.
One pretty structural thing that I love is ruffles and pleats.

>Now this dress is structural fantasmo. Pleated bodice AND pleated bottom. See how the decoration (except for that trim) is sewn into, not sewn onto the dress? That's what I mean by structural detailing. I love how the dress is smooth in the middle between the two crinkle areas. Actually, the more I look at this dress the more I am falling for it. I'm sure that middle section would make me look like a brick. And I'm sure it's beyond expensive. And the only retailer near me is Lincoln. But nevertheless. Te amo, pleated Jim Hjelm dress.

Here's another Hjelm with a slightly more demure pleat. It also has the separated bodice which I'm loving pretty hard at the moment, in dresses like this one and in the Eden Informal dress that I posted about before.

(Update on that dress: The boutiques I emailed all said they don't carry that dress. But I love it! Don't they understand a little thing called destiny? If I don't find a decent "in person" dress in the next few months I am embracing the modern age and ordering that one OFF THE INTERNET--horror. Gasp.)




And here is some vintage pleating, kicking it old school, keeping it real, etc:



That, friends, is rounded pleating and it is beautiful. This 1950's original sold for $99 (oh, oh it hurts) and had a, um, a 33" bust. That would not work for me. Also, I haven't had a 25" waist since I was born. But still, vintageous has all sorts of wedding-esque options that fill me with longing for simpler times and smaller measurements.










Oh, and in case you hate ruffles and pleats and this post was painful to you, here is something else I found in the "ruffles wedding dress" search:
Mr. Fiance calls it "whimsical." Ha. You totally want me to get it, don't you? Well, it IS only $278. Which is totally in my price range.