vespa love

who says you can't have crazy-love shots at any time? our friends j & r have been married almost four years now. & damn--hotpants! the extra sweet part? the vespa is no prop--june rides that hot red thang to work everyday (she's a professor!).

{via growingtreephotography}

blackout, lemons

things that have gone wrong since our arrival back: one dead mouse, one lost wedding ring, one black out, one sh#$%y internet connection (hence the lack of italy pictures). right now it feels a little like london is handing us some serious lemons. the tiny upsides: the pesky mouse is finally caught (of course he decides to go in the trap while we are away so that we couldn't release him); we spent most of last night in the romantic glow of the streetlamps because we were candle-less (of course!) & had only small book lights to navigate by. but the wedding ring? well, i'm more than devastated & just trying to hang in. we've searched high & low (interrupted by lack of light) & still haven't found it. i dreamt all last night of Z finding it & slipping it on my sleeping hands. the grief of its possible-real loss woke me up this morning. the ring (above, though in gold) was made by andrea corson & is a slim beautiful thing. during the wedding ceremony, as per jewish tradition, the nearly thousand-year-old custom is to place the ring on the right index finger instead of the ring finger. this tradition stems from the ancient belief that the index finger was directly connected by a special artery to the heart—so joining the bride & groom’s hearts & the blood of the two families. i know that losing the ring isn't symbolic of something larger, but it's hard not to feel like we've broken something.

{image via laurenlemon}

wedding graduate post, part two

my long-winded half of the graduate posting is now up! eight months in & the crazy feeling of being married still hasn't worn off.

graduate post, part one

the groom half of our wedding graduate post is currently up over here. go check it out! because seriously, not enough grooms are sharing their experiences. & well, Z has a pretty funny take on the whole wedding industrial complex.

{images via andrea casey}

book screens

old hardcover books turned into bright folding screens? genius. i love how the designer used pages from the original books as the backing (& those extra, extra pages can be used in a hundred different projects). not that i'm advocating trashing literature, but some used book sales sell by the bag on the last day & this would be a great project. since many of these sales throw out the books that don't get bought, i'd much rather re-purpose. these screens would make for a fantastic photobooth backdrop with practical post-wedding use* and/or a killer headboard. i'd especially love to see one constructed from just one color palette of covers--subtle differences arranged in a progression, like paint-chip cards.

*i have to admit, anything that was used on our wedding day we decided either had to be re-usable afterward, & by re-usable i mean purposeful, or it had to be already owned. luckily we're pretty whimsical people, so things like $5 delineascopes counted as useful.

{via studiosam}

unexpected wedding dresses: blue dahlias

can someone please scoop up this number? another beautiful non-white option, with more than enough whimsy--the flowers, the detail, the crisp green ribbon!

{dress via timelessvixenvintage}

linked together

this chain-linked ring from elizabeth street is the perfect mix of hardcore & delicate. it would make a great everyday, unexpected wedding, or simple engagement ring. because not everyone wants to rock a rock.

{via castor & pollux}

sparkling love

many many people have written inquiring about where Z & i found our sparkling-love cake topper. so i thought i'd share a link for the curious ones. for the record, we didn't really do a wedding cake--Z's sister & my sister baked my childhood favorite, orange crush cake, for Z & i to cut, & then we served whoopie pies out of vintage apple crates as our actual dessert. they were such a huge hit that people were sneaking them into their hangbags & suitcoat pockets for later!
(sad to say, the cost of the sparklers seems to have gone up since last year. yow.)

wedding dress alternatives, vintage modern

this blue dress with its cowl, secret gold & cream back, & tulle underlayers would make a fantastic & unexpected wedding dress. i love lorick for its kickback to fifties style with a modern twist (& a little more breathing room). because really, a wedding should be a fabulous party, not a formal inconvenience. & who doesn't need an excuse to browse the lorick site?!

{via stylecaster & lorick}

vintage film reels

while putting together some words for a wedding-graduate post, Z & i've been thinking about small details which made having a completely diy day work. here's one of them. since our wedding was silent-film/1920s themed (as a result of ithaca's history & the venue's significance) we tried to add in bits of old-timey decor where we could. there were thrifted cameras, a delineascope, a few film projectors, player-piano reels, vintage suitcases & apple crates (most of which we owned or our friends lent us). but one of the most useful pieces at the wedding were a set of old metal film reels we scored on ebay. we used these as a way to display different wines in giant ice buckets--the slots ensured various kinds were rotating in & out as new bottles were added & kept the wine from tipping over once opened. i would highly recommend, even for a non-film themed wedding. and, post-party they make a great wine-rack. in the end, a few small details like these kept our bartender-less bar running smoothly.

(on a funny public park wedding note: when a random teenager snuck in & grabbed a few bottles of wine, Z's brother ran after him in a fit of heroic-ness. though the wine wasn't recovered there were no more scavengers. plus it was hilarious. be forewarned. there will be crashers).

wedding succulents!

just before our wedding i changed my mind about not carrying a bouquet (though not about throwing said bouquet at anyone). my sister & her husband (known as N2) suggested a new flower shop might be willing to make one from succulents. meaning...the bouquet would be recyclable! after the wedding, they helped me carefully unwire all the chicks & hens so we could plant them--& they are currently multiplying like bunnies in N2's yard! when we move back to the states, we'll transplant them to our new place and for years to come there will be small reminders from our wedding growing greenly around us.

(pssst, some great how-to succulent advice over here)

100layer cake!

today, our wedding is being featured over here. check it out!

libertine

lou lou & oscar's shrunken bunting + embroidery = awesome. i dig the stark colors & the striped ribbon. if you're the crafter type, this would be a rocking way to spruce up a flat without banging holes into the walls, or as chair-markers for the marrying couple at a wedding. but for the record--embroidery is NOT for the fainthearted! as my wedding gift/surprise to Z, i attempted to hand-embroider a few lines of a matthea harvey poem about strange marriages onto a round pocket-square. and damn. the hand part lasted about eight grueling hours before i realized that i was too wobbly a stitcher for something involving more than one line. i did end up getting it done (!) due to my friend J's staggering skills & her super modern sewing-machine. shizam. if you haven't already, go check out some of the other kicking goods at baker's dozen.

unexpected dresses

as many of you know, i opted out of the white wedding dress. for me, it wasn't even something i really considered. no woman in my family has worn a white dress (my grandmother wore a pantsuit, my mother a green & orange flowered dress, my sister a brown satin 1940s cocktail-style dress) and being part of that tradition of women truly mattered to me. (though my family would have totally supported me had i chose to go against this & i support wearing whatever color you are excited to get married in!). but finding that non-white dress came with a lot more struggle than i anticipated--there aren't specified stores filled with wracks of lush, bridal-worthy, non-white dresses (especially in a small town). and what to do when you realize that even though you were emphatic about a short-style dress, you try on a long tattered dress at a vintage store to see, and realize that you might actually want something more 30s glamour?! where to go?! so, i'm thinking of having a little on-going series here about some unexpected dresses.

for this first post, i thought i'd shop at one of my favorite etsy vintage stores, 13bees:

this little number--with its subtle & iced blues, its patterned chrysanthemums--would make a kick-ass/beautifully flirty wedding dress.


and oh. oh. oh. this dress is 20s perfection. i think someone could rock this one out with a sort of bright silk under-layer (maybe even white!). definitely something i would have died to find while i was dress-hunting.

what do you think?! good series or no? and to those of you rockstars who stopped by via veilsandvows, a big welcome!

we are on brooklyn bride!

not our wedding, but a little post about our photographer was up yesterday and we're in it. (someone who knows us saw it and might post our tiny vintage shindig on their fancy blog.) so, hopefully we'll have all the rest of the photos soon. (and yes, you can tell by my eyes--i'm secretly a vampire).

today is eating waffles. packing. reading letters. figuring out the polaroid attachment for our diana camera. putting together our general trip-plans (any suggestions would be quite welcome!). and getting psyched. it's sunny! it's london! and soon it will be paris!

{via brklynbride}

first merried christmas

a little over a year ago, on the 19th of december, the fancy campus to campus bus Z & i were slated to take from NYC back to ithaca was delayed. so we took our sweaty and gross selves (we had been wandering around all day with our luggage) into the nearby algonquin hotel for some cocktails & cheesecake. we were seated, to my delight, right in front of the famous round table. i was thrilled to finally be in the algonquin--sitting so near to where the literati of the 1920s once drank and coined famous phrases.


amidst our murderously expensive cocktails (i had the dorothy parker), Z & i started joking about engagements. then there was a sudden & small black box being opened. there was a ring & stillness. there were electric shock-waves which made me miss everything Z said. and, just when i thought the moment couldn't be more ridiculous & us, Z reached forward and pulled an egg from my ear. yes, ladies & gentleman, an egg. (important note: pulling an egg from an ear is a famous magic trick--one which i had previously & strangely exploited in a description of the qualities of my future perfect mate. as in, i said, i will marry the first man that can pull an egg from my ear. i wanted to find someone who was both smart & whimsical. the whimsy, of course, would be proven by his skills as a magician. all this would have been forgotten, had my friend J not reminded me of it at our MFA final reading, just two days before i met Z for the first time).

so Z asked me to marry him. and he proved his seriousness with an egg (it was wooden, a real egg would have been hard to come by). and because he is actually a skilled magician, he only had to practice this trick, not learn it (i mean seriously, how did i find this man?!). & i said yes, of course! the ring he gifted me was designed by iosselliani (found at honey in the rough) and is an orange garnet, flipped upside down and protected by an intricate gold dome casing. it is totally punk rock. and there isn't a girl in the world with this same ring.



so there we were, engaged in new york! our bus was delayed another whole day (meant to be?!) and the city coated itself in quiet-whites. we called our parents. we stole a fork to mark the moment (my mom stole a soup spoon on her first date with my dad). we booked a room in a sweet hotel. and then we spent the night on air (& eating the best hamburgers of our lives).

amidst the rushing around and traveling this december, we didn't get to spend much time anniversary-ing. it's hard to believe this was already our first married christmas/hanukkah together. so i just wanted to take a minute to say, what a year! here's to a whole new year and new surprises! may all of us have more whimsy in our lives! (for the record, Z surprised me again at the wedding by pulling an egg from my ear after we had our first kiss. it was perfect. and we were a bit less grimy & winterized in those photos!).

up the creek without a

we got a tiny preview of the professional photos. & soon we should have the whole set (at which point there will be a bit of happy recapping, but for now it's too hard to capture still shots off the slideshow). this was taken pre-ceremony, and i was actually a bit worried that Z was going to tip us into the water. in the end i figured what the heck, the story would be totally worth it.

on a sad note, i am super under the weather--it seems 8 cities in under a month is a bit much on the body. so i'm going to hang out in bed and sleep off this sickness. see you tomorrow!