Wedding Flowers: Dahlia Love

Rather than hiring a florist, I went to a local flower farm.  I never really considered using a florist because I thought it would really stretch my budget, and I also thought that making my own flowers would be a ton of fun.  Guess what?  It was so much fun!  For a long time, I thought I was going to buy my flowers from one of the many websites offering wholesale flowers.  But then, I realized that the flowers I liked on the website were Dahlias - and - they were shipping from California!  What?  Well, since I lived in California, I figured, why not save myself some shipping costs and go get my dahlias straight from the source.  After some thorough google searching, I stumbled upon Aztec Dahlia Farm located in Petaluma.  Goldmine.  This place was dahlia nirvana - hundreds of Dahlias, just waiting to be a part of your wedding.

Aztec Dahlias

About a month prior to the wedding, I went out to check out the farm.  I didn't really have a plan in mind, just a central color theme.  I walked up and down the rows in their enormous flower garden and wrote down the name of the flowers that I liked, and crossed my fingers hoping that they would all look great together.

On the Thursday morning before our wedding, I picked them up from the farm and loaded them into the Outback.  My car was packed!  It was about a 3 and a half hour drive to Lake Tahoe from Petaluma and I was terrified that the flowers would wilt by the time I arrived.  As soon as I arrived in the cabin, I put them in the coolest room that I could find in the cabin:  the downstairs laundry room.  We seperated the flowers into more buckets to give them some space, and fed each of the buckets a aspirin tablet to ward off disease.  

My car is packed to the brim!

On Friday morning, we invited some close family friends over to help us make the table arrangements.  We were a group of about 5 women, including my two sisters-in-law, and a few of my mom's friends.  We started on the table arrangements about 10 am and were finished by lunchtime.  It was a blast!  We used a variety a pinks and purples, some deep reds and some oranges.  For those dahlia lovers out there, here's the names: Boogie Nites, Hollyhill Purely Purple, Sea Encantadorita, Dandie Alexa, Alloway Candy, Sea Cascabel, Jean Emerson, Marry Me, Mary's Jomanda, Thomas Edison, and Ms. Kennedy.

Before: just a bunch of empty vases

We put them in milk glass vases and added some sprigs of pine since my mom said they need some green, and since we were in the Sierras after all. 

After:  so gorgeous! No wilting here!

We made our own bouquets too.  The bridesmaid bouquets consisted of about 5 stems of Thomas Edison bound with flower tape and wrapped in a white satin ribbon.  Super easy.  My bouquet was a combination of the Mary Me, Jean Emerson, and possibly another flower (I can't remember now).  We made these on Saturday morning while we were getting our hair and makeup done.  It probably took an hour max.

Bridesmaids making their bouquets.

Seeing my bouquet for the first time!  So gorgeous!

Now, for what you really want to know.  How much did I spend?  A whopping $550.  That included enough flowers for my bridal bouquet, bridesmaid bouquets, table arrangements for 12 tables, flowers for the cake table, and flowers for the ceremony arch.

Changing My Name - Step by Step

Today I got my new drivers license in the mail.  It was so awesome to see my face next to my new last name!  What was even better, was DH's excitement about the fact that we now "officially" share a last name.

The name change process turned out to be much easier than I had expected.  As soon as I got home from our honeymoon, I got started.  I might have lingered, but my HR department needed my new social security card to process my name change within 60 days.  Fortunately, the whole process took me only about three weeks.  Here's what I did:

1.  Certified Copy of Marriage License
First, I had to get a certified copy of our marriage license.  Ordinarily, you can get an official copy by personally appearing in the Recorder's Office where you applied for the marriage license.  However, we got our marriage license in Placer County because it was much cheaper than getting it in San Francisco ($56 versus $97), we didn't need an appointment in Placer County, and the Office was just off I-80 on the way to Lake Tahoe.  So, instead of driving two hours back out to Auburn, we opted to send in a notarized request for a copy of the license.  Getting the notary was pretty easy.  I just stopped in at a UPS Store at lunch, had them notarize my signature (about $10), and then mailed in the request and a check for $14/copy requested.  Although I requested three copies, I really only needed one.  I received my certified marriage license in the mail about a week and a half later.

2.  Social Security Card
Now, I was ready to change my name with Social Security Administration.  I showed up at the San Francisco Social Security building at about 10:00 A.M. on a Friday.  I didn't realize that you could make an appointment, but apparently you can.  I checked in and was given a number and an approximate wait time of: 45 minutes!!  But, after only 10 minutes of waiting, my number was called.  I presented my application, my marriage license, and my drivers license.  Five minutes later, I was on my way!  It really was just that easy.  They told me to wait about three days before I went to the DMV.  Click here for more information about changing your name with the SSA.  I strongly recommend filling out the application before going to Social Security.

3.  DMV
I made an appointment with the San Francisco DMV for the following Wednesday morning.  Please, oh please, do not try to go to the DMV without an appointment.  I showed up at almost my exact appointment time and was ushered to the front of a line of about 25 people.  I was in and out of the DMV in about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, those 25 people behind me in line, probably didn't move an inch.  I presented my marriage license, filled out the application (which is not available to fill out before hand - boo!), they checked my info with Social Security, I got a new picture, and I was out the door!  Phew!   They told me it would take 4 to 6 weeks for my license to arrive.  It took six days.

4.  Bank Accounts, Frequent Flyer Numbers, email accounts, etc.
Changing my email with my friends was actually pretty easy.  I just sent out a mass email to everyone and told them to please use my new email using my married name.  The annoying part was transferring emails for all the other emails that I get on a daily basis: Banana Republic emails, Travelzoo emails, Groupon, etc.  I actually decided that I would just unsubscribe from all of them.  Prior to the email change, it wouldn't be uncommon for me to wake up to about 40 marketing emails.  Now that I've been an unsubscribing fool, I'm getting around 3 emails each morning.  There's not a single email that I miss.  Sure, maybe I miss a great sale on housewares from Macys, but do I really need to be tempted to spend money right now?  No.  No, I don't.  I'm still working through the bank accounts, reward programs, investment accounts, etc.  But, at least I've got the important stuff done.

The one where we got married....

It's about time I tell you about our wedding! We got married on September 24, 2011.  All you really need to know was that it was easily the most amazing day of my life. Sure, it was pretty stressful for about the month leading up to the wedding, but it turned out even more perfectly than I could ever have imagined.

Stay tuned for more!  I'll try to break down the wedding into more details in the posts to follow.

Halloween

Happy Halloween! All of my Facebook friends are busy posting pictures of their little babies in adorable little toddler costumes. They are such little cuties! If we start now, DH and I can have a little munchkin just in time to dress it up for Halloween next year! haha. just kidding.

Sadly, we never get any trick-or-treaters tonight since we live in an apartment complex in the city. I don't believe there are any children that live in our building. In years past, I've always liked to go for a run about the time that the kids go trick-or-treating. I like to run down Lake Street because it is teeming with families and cute kids. Lots of families open their garage doors and host parties in their driveways. So much fun! And since I'm just "out for a jog" I get to peek at the cute costumes without looking like a creepy old lady.

To celebrate Halloween tonight, DH and I treated ourselves to Frito Pies. It's always been a tradition in my family to eat chili on Halloween night. Last night, we made a big pot of chili using my mom's recipe. Just as delicious as I remembered it, even though it turned out a little thicker than I had expected. Tonight, we heated up the leftovers, spooned some over a bowl of Fritos, and sprinkle it with cheese! Tami Taylor would be so proud. We California-ized this Texas treat by adding some avocado chunks.

Look out Mom, I think we have a new tradition!

For desert, we had some pumpkin chocolate chip bars that I made using this recipe from Two Peas And Their Pod. I made it using big ol' chocolate chips from Sees Candies. While I was making it, DH said: "eeew gross! pumpkin and chocolate?!" Well, I showed him. After they were done baking, DH ate an entire row of pumpkin bars. He even took a plate with him to work to share with his co-workers.

Simple One Flower Bridesmaid Bouquets

I love these simple bridesmaid bouquets. Since we are making the bouquets ourselves, it's nice to know that one-flower, simple bouquets actually look pretty great! Phew! Obviously, mine won't look like this because my colors are purple and pink. But, here is some inspiration anyways:

I adore these BRIGHT BRIGHT flowers

I'm so blown away by the florals in these photos that I think they deserve a post all their own. I love the bright colors. I think a floral arrangement of pinks, oranges, yellows, and purple would really speak to who Mr. and I are as a couple. We are so much more that wild fun couple than a refined, romantic couple - or whatever it is that all white flowers says about someone. Another reason that I love these flowers is that they are less girly than than the pink and purple theme I have playing with. Throwing in the orange and yellow really bring some masculinity to the reception - in a really fun way.

My biggest concern is that doing this kind of flower arrangement looks really hard to pull off. Keep in mind that I plan on doing on the florals myself (with help from friends, of course). I'm worried that what I would put together would look cheesy. Okay, without further adeiu, here are florals as showcased on Grey Likes Weddings.





Here's some centerpieces from another wedding, but using the same BRIGHT theme:



The bridesmaids bouquets stuck with one color, pink:

purple and pink bridesmaid bouquets

If I have each bridesmaid wear a different color of pink or purple dress, I could then have matching pink and purple bouquets! I suppose I could do this even if they all wear purple dresses.

I think this is either a peony or a garden rose. I could make bouquets of just this flower.


Love this:


This look like carnations. Not my favorite, but they could look neat in this theme.


Blush peonies and hot pink roses:

Wildflower Centerpieces, etc.

Groups of similar flowers in vases, like lavender and snap dragons:




Simple bill balls:

Veil

I sooo love this look:





It's called a fingertip cage veil or circle veil



Here's another one that's a little more bohemian:

Photography by Becky Holladay

Mountain Wedding

Oh wow, this blows my mind. I want my wedding photos to look like this:

http://www.autumnburke.com/wp02/timber-ridge-keystone-wedding/

Bling

I always thought I would be the bride who rocked the single strand of pearls at my wedding. I am after all marrying a Southern boy, and come from a very traditional family myself. You know, something like this:



I don't mind pearls, but I think the standard pearl strand isn't quite me.

Here's some more classic bridal looks with pearls. I like the look of big pearl earrings:

credit: www.clarkwalkerstudio.com

With a classic pearl station (tin cup) necklace:


My dress has a crystal belt. I was worried about wearing pearls with a crystal belt, but the combo doesn't look half bad here:


Some sparkly dangling earrings like these would also go with my crystal belt:


For awhile I thought I wanted a serious, bold, colorful statement necklace. I saw Blair Waldorf rocking some serious statement necklaces on Gossip Girl, I decided that I too should rock a fabulous statement necklace for my wedding. Blair is wearing the Swarovski Noble Necklace which sells for $340. This is gorgeous necklace and I really, really love it. I'm just not sure it's right for my wedding.

Grand Departure

We're leaning heavily toward doing a grand exit. The DJ will stop playing at 10:00 pm. Then, we'll want the guests to move to the front of the Lodge so that we can escape into a waiting car for our 30 minute drive to the "Just Married" hotel room. I'm quite torn about whether to change into a "going away outfit" at that point. Probably, I'll will want to stay in the wedding dress, because I LOVE my wedding dress, and it will also be easier.

After arriving at our hotel room, future hubby and I plan to go meet our friends for the after party. They should be arriving by shuttle about 11 pm and we hope to all meet them at a bar that is close to our hotel. We'll plan to party till the sun comes up. :)

Rehearsal Dinner Dress

We are having our wedding photographer take some pre-wedding pictures of us in Squaw Valley in the afternoon before our wedding. Then, we will head over to the Plumpjack for our cocktail hour and rehearsal dinner. I want to wear something bright, colorful and fun. I like these dresses:


















Cynthia Steffe "Alexi" Ruffle Belted Dress, kate spade new york 'hilary' dress, Shoshanna Sweetheart Strapless Bengaline Dress, Velvet by Graham & Spencer "Nola" Gauzy Whisper One-Shoulder Draped Dress

Hair

A classic look: loving the side part and pulled back:

credit: http://www.clarkwalkerstudio.com/blog/old-blog/adirondacks-wedding-the-whiteface-lodge

Another more classic and polished look, half-up:


Or, just long, loose, and bohemian.





Or a little combination of both (Pippa Middleton at the Royal Wedding):

credit: http://www.bellasugar.com/Pippa-Middleton-Royal-Wedding-Hair-16119635

Flowers - bouquets

This is my dream bouquet.

credit: Leo Patrone Photography at stylemepretty.com

or maybe, this is my dream bouquet:



I'm liking the one type of flower per bouquet. I love anemones.





a simple rose bridal bouquet:



with simple rose bridesmaid bouquets: