Paper Poppies

I really wanted red poppies or red anemones at the wedding, but I'm told that 1) they will die a thousand times over in the sweltering San Diego County heat, and 2) they won't be in season in July. *small cry*

[Poppies Paper Flower Kit from Paper Source]

Perhaps I can make them? Paper flowers are really easy to make (albeit time consuming!) and perhaps, to go along with the paper wreaths I am planning to make, these would look nice as napkin rings or to decorate our favors (if we have favors.)

That would mean making 150-200 red poppies in the next year. That's a whole lot of poppies to make, and I know that my heart would sink if I saw a guest tossing one in the trash on the way out!

Is anyone else planning to make a lot of paper flowers/decorations too? Any advice for someone with a year to plan? If you're coming to my wedding, do you promise not to toss the flower in the trash in front of me?

I'm Twittering

I resisted Twitter, but now I've joined the fun. We all knew it was only a matter of time.
You can follow me on Twitter now: http://twitter.com/pinkargyle

Tweet!

Photos Lost

How do you back-up your personal photos?

The Alternative Bride's post about her laptop (I hope they can recover those pictures, Dawn!! Keeping my fingers crossed!) reminded me of my own old broken laptop, still sitting in our closet, its hard drive containing important pictures from 2003-2005. I'm much better about archiving my photos on Flickr and in neat folders on my computer (and will hopefully dump everything onto our external hard drive) these days. But I've lived in 6 places in 6 years, and haven't been the best about organizing my own files throughout all of those moves.

So what prompted me to remember my laptop?

I started making our "About Us" page for the website. I wanted to include a variety of photos through the 7 years that we've been together. It was a trip down memory lane as I pulled photos out to scan for the website. Pre-2006? Finding photos started getting difficult.

Pictures from our 1 year anniversary date in San Francisco? Birthday parties? Photos from our graduation from college??!

*pulls out hair*

I can't find them, and it is driving me bananas.

Playing with My Camera: Quail Botanical Gardens

I spent a couple hours today at the beautiful Quail Botanical Gardens playing around with my camera. Since I want to learn the manual settings before my sister's big day, there was a lot of trial and error, especially with all of the glaring sunlight. Thankfully I came out with some non-blurry pictures.

These were some of my favorites!

[I loved the chalky white color of this plant]

[This is the oddest plant I saw in there--it's called a sapphire tower, and it was GORGEOUS!]

[This yellow flower was huge!]

For any San Diego brides without a venue, the garden also does weddings in this cute gazebo! You'll feel like you're surrounded by a tropical rain forest.


Hope everyone had a good weekend. Next time I play with my camera I might be ready for things that actually move!

A Dress for the Engagement Party

During fourth of July weekend, we are having an engagement party. It's nothing fancy, more of a big family get-together. There were no formal invitations, and we're basically just going to show up and eat with our immediate families. But it will be the first time our families meet, and I will be seeing 30 or so relatives of the boy.

So I thought I'd spruce myself up a bit. Y'know, something that says, hi, I'm going to be related to you soon, you can rest assured that I can dress myself properly and modestly.

I went to BCBG, J. Crew, H&M, and Anthropologie.
I didn't find anything at J. Crew (it looked like they were switching seasons) and nothing at H&M. My best stop was at Anthro.

I worked at Anthropologie last summer as a second job to make some extra spending money, but it turned out I basically worked for clothes! It kills me a little buying things there post employee discount, but what's a girl to do?

Here we go...

Dresses at Anthropologie:

1.

[I love yellow, but don't have anything in this color. I also really liked the detail--sorry, that eyes sore is the camera chord]

2.
[Red is a lucky color and will most likely please our more traditional relatives.]

3.
[This dress is by Corey Lynn Calter, a designer I love! The dress I wore for our engagement session was by her.]

4.
[50's inspired polka dot number! It's fun, but I can see my new relatives doing a double-take when they meet me. This is a sales rack item.]

5.
[This is a fun bohemian dress! Not sure if the halter is the most appropriate, I might have to wear a cardigan. This is on the sales rack.]

Dress at BCBG:

6.

[This fit well, and it had pockets--score!]

Which one(s) should I buy for the party?

Fortune Cookie Advice

This was in my fortune cookie the other night at Sipz, and we all know fortune cookies don't lie. I think this gives me enough of an excuse to go buy my dress for my sister's wedding this weekend!

Do you have any memorable words of wisdom from a fortune cookie?

Trudy's Annual Sample Sale

For those of you in the SF Bay Area, Trudy's in Campbell, CA is having a sample sale!
I had a great time at Trudy's, and despite not finding my dress there, my consultant was incredibly patient and really took the time to listen to what I was looking for.

Trudy's is not paying me to say this, I promise. (Actually no one I feature on this blog pays me to say any kind words, so you can be guaranteed that this is really what I think!)

If you're in the area, go visit! They have an incredible selection to begin with so I can imagine there being many gowns at sample prices.