50 shades of (the wrong) pink

At the very beginning of our engagement, I casually mentioned to Vader that our wedding colors should be a combination of our favorite colors, pink and blue. He shared that he thought they might look strange together, and I was adamant that "they worked in my head." Thank God we went in a different direction, because then I would have to match TWO colors to all of our wedding decor!

We went with the classic black and white basics, and though there are some variations everything we have found so far matches both shades without problem. Our pink, on the other hand, is proving much more difficult. Petunia, more specifically, was the Alfred Angelo bridesmaid dress color accent I chose blindly from a few shades on a swatch card. It was a bright, middle pink, that in my mind matched most pinks I saw on fabric shelves and in ribbon aisles at craft stores. 

I was wrong.

In the world of weddings and crafts, it appears that pink traditionally exists in one of three shades:

light/baby pink ------------- fuchsia ---------------- hot pink --

There are a few variations, usually one in the middle of fuchsia and hot pink called something like watermelon, and when you add a touch of orange to it the name changes to papaya or guava or some other tropical fruit. It would appear that Petunia falls on the "coral" side of hot pink, fitting exactly nowhere in the spectrum. 

 

I first realized that Petunia was difficult to match as I searched through a stack of pink samples for matting to our invitations. I found a close match, Azalea, and ordered that. Unfortunately, Azalea and Petunia were both losers in the napkin running, as our venue only offers baby pink for pink options. Alas, white will do. I was most surprised, however, that neither shade could be found in all of Macy's and Lord and Taylor's tie departments. We are still waiting to check out samples for (hopefully) rented ties at Jos A. Bank who promises to match Alfred Angelo colors, but had to laugh when the salesman there suggested we check into custom-made ties from Vineyard Vines. Not about to spend hundreds on douche-y whale ties, we will keep hunting. 

For all those who are curious, yes, this has turned me into *that* bride. You know, the one carrying color swatches around in her purse. 

we love the Beatles?

In an attempt to find a recessional song for the ceremony that captured the "somewhat unique while still a classic and not boring" attitude I am hoping to set for our wedding, I stumbled across a list online of songs people have used in the past. One of those songs was "When I'm 64" by the Beatles and I like the upbeat tune and cute lyrics. Recessional song chosen: check. 

I ran the idea by Vader, who suggested that we match our processional to our recessional and choose another Beatles tune. This totally solved my dilemma of what to walk down the aisle to, and we settled on an acoustic guitar version of "In My Life." It's another song that I love and was once the theme song of some loved (yet forgotten) television show I used to watch with my family. However, when I looked up the length it became clear that eight girls sauntering, an eight-year-old steering her toddler brother up an aisle, and me in a pair of heels were not going to fit within one song. To be honest, I wasn't too broken up about the need for my own tune. I'm only slightly embarrassed to admit (publicly) that I want my own musically obvious entrance. 

Cue the need for another Beatles song. Having watched Love Actually a quadrillion times with my friends in college, it was hardly a stretch to connect "All You Need is Love" to a wedding. Since the bridesmaids (and Groomsman Peanut Butter) assure me the moment won't be too hoaky, Dad and I will be walking in to the trumpet-ful intro from an instrumental version of the song. I don't expect live instruments to pop up in the crowd, but I do plan on outdoing Keira Knightley and her weird, weird dress. (If you're confused, rent the movie RIGHT NOW.)

And, Bridesmaid Madonna, I think we'll keep our Beatles theme to a trio. You may shriek "Honey Pie" as loudly as you like the week leading up to the wedding :)

Shopping for guys: no less annoyingly easy with weddings

While I enjoy shopping, I find the fact that women's clothes have no consistent sizing or styling across brands or clothing types quite aggravating. When Vader hops online to order clothes, enters two numbers, and receives guaranteed-to-fit-properly stuff it makes me hate him, just a little bit, for how easy it is for him to shop.

I'm sure you're asking yourself what this has to do with weddings. Here it is:

I have been bothering Vader for weeks to pick out what his groomsfolk are wearing, and a few days ago he finally agreed. We had some dinner downtown and headed over to Men's Wearhouse, as I had some deals from buying my dress at David's Bridal. I expected that we would look at several suit options, some tux options, Vader would try different looks on and we would at best leave with an understanding of what everybody in the wedding party would be wearing come July.

Instead, we walked in and wandered in front of the "wedding rentals" display for about thirty seconds before a helpful employee asked if she could help. In five questions or less we learned that renting a tux would always be cheaper than buying a suit, that Vera Wang tuxes are the only black tuxes that look like 3-piece suits (and not super tool-y), and that in about half an hour we could get everything set up for the wedding. So we did!

We went through a list of questions that seemed important (what color vest, do they need shoes, ivory or white shirts), then progressed to things I had never thought of (what color studs & cuffs, what color pocket square). It was a quick process, we learned their pinks are terrible so we will find properly-colored pink ties elsewhere, and the rental group is now being set up. Here's what the guys will look like, plus vests and minus the bow ties (but with pink straight ties instead):

They probably won't look quite that intense in wedding pictures, but we hope they will look almost as dapper. And with no endless trying on of styles, worrying over price points, or waiting to be overtaken with tears we were done and we left and its done, aside from each guy being fitted. As it turns out, Say Yes to the Tux would be the world's quickest and most boring reality show ever!

Do we?

With the help of Pinterest, the interwebs, and more wedding magazines than I would care to admit to owning, I have had a lot of fun over the past few months picking out wedding details I want to replicate or gathering inspiration for reception decor. Because the reception is longer, more open to creativity, and in many ways easier, we have (until today!) neglected to do a lot of planning of the ceremony itself.

Because we opted to have a secular ceremony officiated by a friend, the order, wording, and content of the ceremony is completely up to us. The freedom to choose anything is mostly overwhelming, though a bit cool as well. I have spent the better part of today gathering snippets of ceremonies past from online and a book I bought a few months ago called "The Wedding Ceremony Planner." Along with a healthy dose of bothering Vader on seemingly inconsequential details, it's coming along nicely! We will have a reading by our sisters, a prayer, and a song from three bridesmaids and a groomsman. We will do some traditional stuff, like a welcome, vows, and rings, though in our own unique style. I am incredibly excited that we settled on a format for our vows, so I can put my I'm-gonna-write-a-stupid-poem fears to rest. But-I'm left with one question.

WHERE THE HELL DO WE SAY I DO?

We are not doing traditional vows, but are open to considering a somewhat traditional ring exchange. Only, in all my searching, I can't figure out where people usually say I do! Nor can I remember the words in weddings we have recently attended. Can anybody help me out? Can it be featured during the ring part of the ceremony?