Our Inspiration!

Well, it's more like a collage than inspiration board, but here's something for you to look at. I'll list the links for most of them (in no particular order) down below the picture with a bit about them.



The dress is a photo of my Jim Hjelm inspired lace wedding dress. There will be an orange sash instead of the champagne color there.

I think that all the plants and things speak for themselves. They are decorations, inspiration for the color palette, and just fun things. We like the idea of using wheat, gourds, cattails, pine cones, and leaves throughout the place rather than having matchy-matchy things purchased from a florist.

The boutonniere is by the French Mouse on Etsy, and we loooove it.

That room with the Christmas tree lights in the rafters and the white round lanterns is actually the Lodge where we are having our reception at Camp Kiwanee. We will be married on the deck overlooking the lake, and then move inside for the food and dancing.

These rings are made out of recycled gold, by a company called GreenKarat. Extra bonus, Shaun's mother is donating some of her gold jewelery to use as store credit.

The plates are a particular type of disposable dinnerware by VerTerra that's made of just fallen leaves and water. So they're non-toxic, biodegradable, compostable. Plus, they just plain old look awesome :3

Let's see, what else is in there that needs explaining... I think the last thing is the invitation you can see on the bottom. These invitations by the InviteSite are also biodegradable, and embedded with Cosmo seeds. Shaun's head over heals for plant-able wedding invitations. Personally, I would like to design our own invitations (it would be less expensive AND guaranteed to suite us perfectly), but that would probably nix out the whole invitations -> flowers and/or herbs (planting the seeds of love!).

Lastly, the bouquet (Martha Stewart) is made mostly of herbs, and a lot of these things I can get right in my own yard. The Lambsear is a favorite plant of my mother; the rosemary, sage, and thyme are lovely kitchen spices that I already have (I'd also like to have a sprig or two of bay, if I can keep a tree alive. I heard those things are tough!); there are tons of little flowers like grape hyacinths and violets that sprout up in our back yard if I felt inclined, though I'm more likely to hit up the local farmers market for more yellow-orange-red hues than purple. I have to say I was already thinking of having an herbal bouquet, or probably just a poesy, but this is a nice picture that helps to illustrate how lush and fertile they are.

Food for thought

With the change in our venue, there was an instantaneous and very important change to the bulk of our wedding plans - namely that we would have a catered meal for the larger number of guests rather than a small potluck/picnic. I have to say, the ride was really a roller coaster in the hunt for a caterer. First off, I couldn't find very many nearby that had even a hint of green anywhere in their character - or if they did, it seemed to be some gimmick that they charged an arm and a leg for. Costs were also quite prohibitive, and quickly narrowed our selection down to about three or so.

From there, it was really, really simple. The first one never responded to our inquiry. The second was haughty, distant, and extremely rude. The third felt like kindred spirit. I am very happy to say that Smoke & Pickles will be bringing you the lunch on our wedding day! (Edit: I didn't realize this until later, but these guys are so good they've been featured in at least half a dozen publications. Including Martha Stewart, the Boston Globe, and Design Sponge). I had an amazing morning meeting with Dan - just talking about good food and homegrown meals, DIY projects, and generally relaxing with a gorgeous view of the Westport River with scattered storms. He took me to a lovely little diner for a delicious lunch (can't say I've ever had Kale and Barley soup before, but it made quite an impression!). We already have the menu down, and the best part is that at least half the dishes are from my own recipes. You can't get more of a cozy family dinner feel than you can with the same food you'd mow down in your own kitchen!

Next, included in the phenomenal price that he's offered us, I get to chat with an event planner that's included in the contract. Sadly, we will probably be doing this long-distance with my move to TX in just three weeks, but I certainly hope she can connect us with some good farms to find fruit, veggies, and flowers for the decorations I have in mind. I'm doodling out a bit of an 'inspiration board' that I've seen all around the Broke-Ass Bride blog, expect to see that in a mini post later on.

This will possibly be my only post before the big move, since my sister's wedding is in less than two weeks. Any exception will just be the pictures I've already mentioned. So excited, this whole shindig is finally becoming real, rather than just a wonderful daydream!

Sharpen your blades, it's time to trim the guest list

((Before I begin, what do you think of the new background for the blog? Is it a keeper, or back to the original colors?))


The guest list was by far the most stressful aspect of wedding planning for me. I am in -love- with the charm of a small, intimate wedding with just family and a few close friends. However, both Shaun and I come from ginormous families, so that's really not possible. And with the cap of 100 people that Borderlands has, we really had to be ruthless (like, limiting-guests-to-only-a-particular-generation ruthless). But it's a gorgeous park, and with that huge ivy-covered mansion, we were in love! Even more so after Shaun finally made it up to Mass to see the place up-close (even if it was drizzling that day). The best method we've found is to try to tackle it in three sittings: the first, our absolutely must-haves; the second, our would-be-nice with a dash of obligatory I-invited-one-so-I-should-invite-them-all; and third, the people we thought it would be nice to have around, but not absolutely necessary.

However - we've had an epiphany. All that rustic, natural charm of a state park? Yes, we want it. No, we don't want to sacrifice having the folks that are dear to us. While wandering through the Park, we came up with the idea of having our reception at a campgrounds, since it would be so hard to have it there as we originally planned (no electricity, no real flat ground, and no place to go in case of rain). So, a brief internet search showed few options. I magically recalled a particular cabin-filled campsite that I visited often with Girl Scouts when I was young (yes, I know I'm dating myself here), and asked my mother about it. Oh Magical Google showed me Camp Kiwanee of Hanson, only 15 minutes from my house (rather than the 40 of Borderlands). They have a gorgeous Lodge that can accommodate 150-200 people - far more than we'll ever have on the list. You can also rent entire sets of their Cabins for a reduced rate. Weekend-long camping extravaganza, anyone? I'm thinking Oh Yes. And still far more eco-forward than your tradition church-then-rental-hall.

Two downsides, but they are quite minor in comparison to all the questions that are answered by this place: 1) it's more expensive than having the ceremony at Borderlands would be, and 2) with inviting all the folks that we would like to, we are obviously going to have to cater (which translates to 'more expensive'). But keeping the meal to brunch/lunch should help tame the budget as well.

Ohhh, Shaun and I are so excited, next post I'll come armed with photographs of the place! Though this does make the naming of this blog a tad odd - there's a gorgeous arbor in the rock garden at Borderlands, and we hoped to get some photos of us underneath it. Betcha didn't know that one, did you?

To have and to - - lack?

So, last post I pointed out that there won't be any electricity at our wedding to preserve food (we won't even be touching the issue of music just yet!). Both comments and in-person feedback expressed concern on the hot-foods-hot and cold-foods-cold dilemma, as well as having enough food for everyone to munch on.

Our wedding will be taking place in the afternoon - thus if there will be any meal involved it would be lunch. However, Shaun and I were hoping to host something more like an 'afternoon tea': finger sandwiches, some cookies and snakes, maybe some salads and desserts, but there won't be dinner platters of grilled chicken breast or anything. Folks would also have the option of simply making some food instead of handing over a wedding gift, but they wouldn't be obligated to by any means. But, still, just a thought as we haven't even finished the guest list yet. If there are too many guests, having a potluck just simply won't be feasible at all. Local and organic caterers would be preferred - so far we like Fifty Percent Crunchy and Terra Luna.

But continuing on with the fancy that it IS, there are some really easy ways to keep food and drink at the appropriate temperature. There are, quite simply, ice chests! To keep things warm, line an ice chest with a towel or newspapers. Load it up with dishes fresh out of the oven, at their hottest, and fill in any empty spaces with more towels. Be sure to cover the top before you seal it up, as well. This can keep hot foods piping for at least an hour, easily more if the lid isn't opened and it's kept in the shade. For the cold, prechill the cooler with ice (load it up ahead of time until the cooler is frosty), then replace most of the ice with sealed foodstuffs. The remaining ice can then be used for beverages.

OR, if we wanted to really keep up with the 'learn something new about keeping it green,' theme, we could use Zeer pots! These contraptions are used in poorer, remote areas of Africa (it's made a huge difference in Darfur already). You take a smaller clay or terracotta pot and put it inside a larger pot. Fill the space in between them with wet sand, and cover the top with a wet cloth. When the water evaporates, it pulls the heat out with it, making the inside cold. It's a natural, cheap, easy-to-make refrigerator! It's most efficient if set up ahead of time to 'charge' (for the clay to absorb water). You only need to add about a quart of water once or twice a day, and it can easily make a 45 degree F difference. Here is a comprehensive overview of the contraption, while Michael Bloch at GreenLivingTips.com chronicles his experience with one very well.

I think it would be fun to use those, but I'm a little worried about how unwieldy they would be to transport! Supposedly light, though. Well, this post is getting quite large, I'll leave it here with the promise that next time will be a new subject - invitations!

The Debut

So, I'll start off by saying that I don't know very much about blogging. In fact, I've only started reading a few blogs within the past year (and you can count the number on just the fingers of your left hand). However, one of them in particular has gotten be very inspired - it's the only one that is also on blogspot here, Earth Friendly Weddings! I'm not sure how I should go about introducing my topics, or even what they will be, but I'm going to try to post at least biweekly about planning our wedding.

We want it to be as fun, low-cost and low-impact as possible. We are rather 'green' folks, and don't feel like driving ourselves into debt for what's supposed to be the start of our lives together (which is in itself a little silly, since we've been together almost 5 years now, and have lived together for almost all of that!). We want our celebration to be an outdoors affair, and to be rather 'afternoon tea in the backyard.' This post by 2000 Dollar Wedding is what got me seriously thinking about my fiance's suggestion about asking our family and friends to contribute to the day in the form of a potluck. At first, I thought it was a bit cheesy, but the longer I considered it the more it made sense to me. We want it to be an intimate day, and to be cost-effective while environmentally conscious. Since it will be early afternoon, it's just going to be akin to a small luncheon. If we give folks the option of making dishes or drinks for the day instead of purchasing us a gift on a registry, I would hope it would make folks more excited about it.

I'll end my first post by asking what anyone thinks about this idea. We are going to be having our wedding at Borderlands State Park, so there will be no electricity, and no alcoholic beverages allowed.