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It's been too long.
First, the good news. Dylan and I had our engagement photos taken a few weeks ago by East Avenue Studios, and they turned out absolutely beautifully! I highly recommend them to anyone in need of photographers. The photos were all taken at Whetstone Park of Roses. Dylan proposed under that tree- it was where we spent most of our time together in Spring, 2007 :).
Now the excuses. I've run into a few problems over the past two months- the first was that my macbook retired. A little wine-damage rusted the mother board and it would've cost nearly as much to replace the computer as it would've to fix. Thankfully the hard drive was intact so we were able to buy an external casing for it. Then Dylan's computer died two weeks later. My sister saved the day a few weeks after that, by sending her old iMac, which has been wonderful.
In the meantime, three wedding projects got nixed:
1. I decided the table runners would be a little too busy (and a little too much work) with the stoneware and china I was finding, and decided to return the fabric to Joann's.
2. We found a caterer, who includes glassware, silverware, china, and linens with dinner. So I stopped looking for vintage china and stoneware, and now have about 100 plates I'll be trying to sell at an upcoming yard sale. I'll keep you posted about when/what that will be.
3. The paperwhites stopped blooming. I was doing a third test batch a few weeks ago, and none of them grew buds! I was worried June might be too late to try to force them, and now we've got 75 bulbs to plant in the yard (when we move to a place with a yard)!
So, in addition to flowers for bouquets and corsages, we need them for centerpieces! That Guys Family Farm is about halfway between Columbus and Cincinnati, and responsibly grows beautiful flowers. The plan is to pick up a few hundred stems a day or two before the wedding. Hopefully, they'll look something like this based on what was available last June:
The last thing I'll write about is ceremony music. Three of our best friends are going to play for the ceremony, so now it's just a matter of finalizing the songs we'd like to have them play. Right now we know the bridesmaid's processional will be an instrumental interpretation of Romulus by Sufjan Stevens, and I'll walk down the aisle to one of my favorites, Waves, by i woke up i did the same thing (Glenn). Still trying to decide preludes, postludes, and recessional. Please, please, please offer suggestions!
Well, I think it's starting to feel a little more like spring this week. It's actually beginning to get light outside before 7, it might be 58 tomorrow, and I can't stop thinking about my wedding-flower garden...
I think I'm going to start seeds indoors in the next week or two, take a few trips to Cincinnati to till our old vegetable garden, fertilize, and plan, and then... to plant! I'm really so, so excited by the thought of growing most of my flowers. I know I'll be making frequent trips back home over the next 3 month anyways, so I'll be able to see the flowers growing and help weed and water. We'll see. I met with my florist (and best friend) on Skype the other day. She's in France right now, and recommended 5 start finding pictures of bouquets I love instead of focusing on flowers that bloom in early June. That makes a lot of sense.
The photos below are from a site, www.stylemepretty.com, that has some amaaaaazing photos and ideas. Really, there are too many.
Since I've been little, I've always taken an all or none approach to self-improvement. Usually I'll make a list and try to fix everything at once and end up changing nothing. I still haven't learned! I just made too many resolutions this year. So far- the kitchen has stayed cleaner, I've been cooking more, and Dylan and I have been working out at least 3 times a week. But this blog has been seriously neglected and there are so many things I would love to be documenting right now! I'm still doing a lot of wedding planning. There are only 115 days until I get married and so many things to do!
One of the big, BIG things I've decided to try and do myself are the flowers. I've had little gardens, and patio plants, but I've never grown flowers. It might be too big of a thing to try and do myself, but there's not a lot of cost involved, and so much potential. I don't think I've mentioned this yet- but I bought 100 paperwhite bulbs a month or two ago. I was reading about live centerpieces, and thought it would be really cool to grow my own or buy plants or something. Paperwhites seemed to be the easiest and prettiest to try, so I went ahead and ordered them for about $60. I decided to plant two early to see how long it would take for them to bloom, if jars and pebbles would work, how they smelled, etc. Well, my first one just bloomed! Only one of the two bulbs I initially tried grew roots. One just got moldy- I'm not sure if it was the bulb or the amount of water... but I started a third bulb two days ago and it's doing just fine! I'm keeping the rest of the bulbs in my bathroom closet- which isn't insulated (so pretty chilly) and it's completely dark.Here are a few pictures:
Below is the two-day old baby. I pulled the little guy out of the dark two days ago and stuck him in the jar on top of about 2 inches of pebbles. I added just enough water to touch the bottom of the bulb, and set him in front of a bright window.
Here's a full-grown one. I planted him about 4 1/2 weeks ago. You can see all the roots!
Below is the full-grown one next to the baby and a close-up of the flowers. It was a little wobbly, so I pushed two wooden skewers on either side of the bulb and tied the whole thing with a little ribbon. There were three sets of buds (my flower anatomy is bad- i'm not sure what they really are called...) and the first two bloomed about 4 days ago. The third just bloomed yesterday! The one flower is reallllly fragrant. I don't mind the smell at all, but the one bulb can be smelled in both rooms downstairs.
I'm pretty excited about these. I hope the flowers last at least a week or two- it'll be so much less stressful knowing I can have a larger window to start the bulbs and have blooms in time for the wedding!
More soon on the other flowers I'm hoping to grow for bouquets!
