Me likey: online shopping

Ann Taylor dresses I’m digging as engagement party/ garden party/ rehearsal dinner frocks:

Cynthia Rowley “Dirty Dishes”

Bags from Mabel’s shop:

Texas v. RI

When I have pangs of sadness about not marrying in Texas, I now have a reference photo:

Am I crazy, or does it look like sweat is literally dripping from their faces?  Looks like it was a hot one for Jenna and Henry!  So when I the occasional mixed feelings about having an Ocean State wedding I just need to remember that no matter how hot it will be here in June 2009, it will be much, much hotter in the heart of Texas.

Friday is Art Day on Ocean State Bride

Since the lilacs are in full force here in RI I thought I would post my “Self Portrait with Lilacs” that I did today.  This was the most fragrant painting experience I’ve had yet.

Look what we’ve got!

I woke up this morning still feeling irritated by a Seasonique commercial I saw last night. It starts off with two identical 20 something ladies, one says “Hey Logical!” and Logical says, “Hey Emotional!” and Emotional says “Look what we’ve got:” and Logical says, “It looks like birth control?” (I put the ? there because they are both doing the up-talk that the girls on the Hills have perfected). Emotional goes on to explain what Seasonique does, and then Logical says, “You know how I feel about ‘different.’” Then the obligatory doc in a white lab coat pops up and tries to assuage Logical’s concerns. The whole commercial is so condescending and it’s irritating because you don’t need to pay $25/month to skip the placebo week.

This brings me to the SNL ad Annuale. If you haven’t seen this clip yet, watch it now!

Now that my rant is completed, here are some beautiful peony bouquet and centerpiece ideas:

(photos and instructions from Bridgewater Gardens)

How To Make Wedding Bouquets Using Peonies

1) Cut the peony stems and any other flower you are using to about 10 inches.

2) Place a peony stem in one hand, add a stem of greens if desired, then add another peony and alternate between the two until the bouquet reaches the proper size.

3) Wrap the stems in decorative ribbon.

4) Store the peony bouquets with the stems in water until the time of the wedding. You may put them in water in a small vase and then refrigerate.

We recommend making all of the fresh wedding flower bouquets the day before the wedding and refrigerating them until the time of the wedding. Be sure to remove all fruits and vegetables from your frig as they give off a gas that damages the flowers. If it is not possible to refrigerate all of the floral arrangements then keep your house cool. If it is summer time turn up your air conditioning.

Breakin’ dishes!

Spoke to the coordinator of the reception site yesterday and he made me feel much more comfortable about the wedding planning process, partly because he kept saying in various permutations “we want to help you have the day you’ve dreamed about…” Finding out that they will make the wedding cake there also helped to allay some anxieties, I think because the more ‘extras’ there are the more it seems like $2000 here, $2000 there. So we scheduled a tentative and ominous date in June (Friday the 13th) for me to go down to Narragansett to check out the scene and see some photos. An event will be going on that night so I will be able to see what things look like in the prep period.

(from Hull Grenier Studios)

Since I feel much calmer about the wedding planning, I thought that today I would muse on something more nesting-related: dishwashers. In June A. and I are moving to a gorgeous neighborhood of old, gingerbread-y houses near Jamaica Pond, and everything seems great except that there is no dishwasher. When we lived together before there wasn’t a dishwasher, and I would say that about once a week one of us would spend a half hour doing the week’s dishes. Maybe this sounds energy efficient, but this article on slate indicates that hand-washing dishes rarely is more water or energy efficient than using a dishwasher. Apparently, in a German study they found that the average handwasher uses “27.2 gallons of water, which requires 2.5 kWh of electricity to heat” while an efficient machine washer uses “3.96 and 5.81 gallons of water, and between 1 and 2 kWh of electricity.” Interestingly, in the study “the most careless hand-washers were Spanish and Portuguese, while the most economical were German.” Well, I am not German, and the washer with the most positive consumer reports on Amazon, the Edgestar model, uses a maximum of 3 gallons of water, according to the specs on CompactAppliance.com. It is a smaller dishwasher, and can only hold a 4-person ’service,’ but sounds like a good idea to me! One common consumer issue is that the tube that connects the washer to the kitchen faucet sometimes falls apart after a few months, but Edgestar sends an extra for free (it has a year long parts warranty). Let’s take a look:

Anyone have any experience with this type of thing? Any words of wisdom?

Par for the course:

Of course, before anything else is planned my sister-MOH has come up with a bachelorette party theme: bar golf or ‘pub golf.’ She recently received an invitation to beer golf, a similar complex drinking game, and then I posted about croquet, and we realized that it would be a great fusion of the heavy drinking involved in bachelorette parties and the fundamental element of my sartorial inclinations: argyle. Then, as it turns out, I discovered that Boston has a famous (infamous?) event called the Boston Bar Golf Invitational where people go from bar to bar in the Fanueil Hall area and keep scorecards on their T-shirts. I looked at a few websites, and there is a range of ‘rules’ for pub golf, but generally you consider the number of bars that you’re going to the ‘holes’ (so you could play a 9-hole game), and, like in golf, you choose your clubs, which are in this case beverages, and different bars are assigned different things for ‘par,’ so, for example, at The Hot Club (to use a RI example) the par would be two beers and a mixed drink, and you must finish them in the time allotted.

The best part? Proper golf attire is required!

Peonies, daisies, hydrangeas, oh dear.

I’m beginning to think that I don’t want to have super slick floral arrangements, and instead just aim for simple bouquets tied with light blue grosgrain ribbon.  I like the idea of getting the flowers from one of a number of local farms in southern RI (many can be found here on Farm Fresh RI).  Yes, I know, how faux-ho, bobo, or yuppie (whatever is your preferred phrase for people who half buy in to the ‘green’ movement) of me, but after eight years of living in Rhode Island I know that lots of flowers grow here, especially between May and August.  Did I mention that the hot-pink dogwoods are blooming and that I have a bowl of lilacs sitting on my counter?  One thing, though, that I’m not totally clear on, is how people purchase wedding flowers wholesale, or whether I would need to do that, versus just pick up a bunch (or have the MOH pick some up) at the farmer’s market the day of the nuptials.  Plenty of time for research of this nature (no pun intended!), though.

Speaking of the MOH, a friend of hers sent me this link, which shows ladies in all of their bridesmaid dresses.  How appropriate now that 27 Dresses is now out on video, dvd and “Blue Ray” (whatever that is!)  If you did not fork over $9 to see this fine film in theatres, now is your chance!  It was filmed in jolly Providence (although the movie is set in NYC) and there are tons of great shots of the Ocean State!  And, btw, who doesn’t love James Marsden?  I loved him in the WB’s short-lived Jack and Jill and I love him now!

Swooning in little Rhody

The lilacs are finally out, the circus is in town and another Ocean State bride has emerged (thank God because I was beginning to think it was just the ladies on “Chatty Brides”)! Her website is here, and she has a fab Ocean State proposal story! I have a few guesses about the beach where the proposal took place, but since she says that it was near some rocks Elephant Rock in Little Compton is my top guess.

Engagemental brought the new Whim by Cynthia Rowley line at Target to my attention, and today I headed over to find some great kitchen/party items and picture frames. There are even yard games like bocce ball and badminton for sale, and, my favorite game of all: croquet. My sister still will never let me live down perhaps my dorkiest teenage moment, when, for my 16th birthday, I planned a ladies’ croquet party, complete with Hoagy Carmichael tunes and finger sandwiches. I still plan (fantasy) croquet parties, especially when I come across croquet sets like the one in the Whim collection (which was at the store but not online yet apparently). LL Bean also used to sell a croquet set, but it does not appear to be online today either!

Speaking of croquet, wouldn’t it make a photogenic addition to a Victoriana-themed wedding? If you have any doubts check out this Winslow Homer painting:

Below is a real wedding from Brides that took place in California at a place called Meadowood, where “traditional croquet attire” is required!

Another bridal croquet look from wedding photojournalist David Crane.

And below is a photo of the Dunes Club, in Narragansett, RI with some croquet hoops already set up!

(Photo from here.)

A question you should say yes to

Can we talk about my whole notion of how the ideal proposal should take place originates the time I caught the bitter end of an episode of Scrubs (back when it was good and before I started watching it for its surprisingly verisimilitude to real hospital life)? I happened to see a part of the show where Turk proposes to Carla and playing in the background one of my favorite songs, the Old 97s’s “The Question.” Here are the lyrics (keep in mind that in the Scrubs episode that I saw they do go to a park and everything):

She woke from a dream
Her head was on fire
Why was he so nervous?
He took her to the park
She crossed her arms
And lowered her eyelids

Someday, somebody's gonna ask you
A question that you should say yes to
Once in your life
Baby, tonight I've got a question for you

She had no idea
Started to cry
She said in a good way
He took her by the hand
Walked her back home
And they took the long way

chorus repeats

And here is the bitter end of the episode that I caught:

Now, what I didn’t know and didn’t learn until after my impressionable 22 year old mind had already subscribed to this proposal format, is that in this show Carla refuses Turk a bunch of times before finally accepting him! Anyway, when A. kept asking me questions about hypothetical proposal styles, I kept repeating that I didn’t want to discover a ring in an eggroll, have a ton of people observe the whole situation and clap afterwards, or any other cheesy scenario. I told him that I loved the idea of being on a walk, in a park or some other kind of low-key setting. This led to number of (retrospectively) hilarious A. stories since he ended up carrying the engagement ring around in his pocket for 6 months. Two general near proposal moments that occurred repeatedly will now be related:

Near proposal moment sketch #1:

(On a walk in Austin, San Antonio, Montreal, Quebec City, Hartford or Providece, talking politics as usual.)

Goldie: I can’t believe you think such _______ things. (Fill in blank with racist, elitist, or any other adjective I use when losing an argument.)

A (thinking): Guess today’s not the day…

Near proposal moment sketch #2:

A: Why don’t we go for a walk?

Goldie: Are you kidding? There are 2 feet of snow outside/ It’s freezing/ It’s raining!

This reminds me of a proposal story I heard recently where the guy only had one day off that week and he had planned a picnic. He followed though with the plan even though it rained the whole time! I love it: “I’m proposing today over a picnic and I don’t care if we have to sit in the damn rain!”

And just since we’re on proposals, I loved the episode when Elliot gets engaged and plans a re-enactment of the proposal with everyone she knows there. So funny!

Say cheese!

Sorry for the lapse in posting–I’ve been painting up a storm and exploring the art scene in Chicago.  Now I’m back this Ocean State, and the smelly Bradford Pears are finished and the Dogwoods are blooming!  The purple buds are on the lilacs, so it’s only a matter of time before my apartment becomes infused with the scent of lilacs!

Now, I know that the last time I brought up the idea of having a photo booth at the wedding, my sister started a blog called The Knot Interested and people started throwing around the word “Bridezilla.”  So let me just clarify that I don’t intend to spend the money for a photobooth rental, and frankly, it doesn’t go with my seaside Victorian theme that I’m into right now.  Also, I don’t want to have the kind of wedding that feels circus or burlesque-like.  That said, I found the cutest Rhode Island website on Chatty Brides (is it any surprise to anyone that the only really Rhode Island wedding website is called “Chatty Brides” and has a super cheesy layout?!):

Now this website represents the retro-sexy side of Rhode Island that I like!