How to get the word out about a ceremony musician?

My fiance (a high school band director) is a trumpet player and a pianist. I don't know if I'm just not looking in the right places, but I'm not seeing a whole lot of musicians available for ceremonies in our area. That got me thinking...

I asked him if he'd be interested in playing at weddings and he said yes! He plays at his own church now, but aside from family and close friends, he hasn't played for anyone else.

Where do/did you look to find musicians for your ceremony? Any tips on how I can get the word out about him?

Fashion & Color Trends Summer 2010

Every year my mom sends me this and I think it's neat to see which colors are predicted to be the trends for that season. It starts out talking the color trends for Summer 2010:

"Wide-ranging agreement at the latest biannual color meeting organized by Eurovet: stylists and industrialists agreed that the market demands color. Stars of the season: the greens. Guests of honor: nuances of red and soft and refined pinks, mauves and neutrals in full evolution. And essential are bright – almost neon – accents targeted at beachwear which is ever-more influenced by the street and clubbing. Last but not least, white (color 26!) and indigo blue remain very much in focus. "



{ image via fashion trendsetter }

And on the topic of fashion:

"The background and shapes: the Capri spirit of the Fifties, haute couture precision, the desire of a perfect, radiant elegance... Motifs and prints are rich, lines emphasize the contour and strike the right balance, details and finishings are perfect. Nothing is left to chance, nothing is vague: everything is well conceived, neat, pretty, ravishing, harmonious, graceful.

"The most demanding design direction with its apparently contradictory, subtle mixtures of authenticity and the new modernity. The desire for durable luxury with genuine lingerie fabrics but now in the revolutionary lightweight fibers. Collections combine perfect performance, generous volumes, details which project natural eccentricity, hand made and artisan effects, as if aged by time..."

Not like I understand what that says, but there ya have it. I'm a fan of these colors for our wedding:







These colors more or less match the inspiration board I made on Style Me Pretty's Style Circle:



Add in some cooler greens and aquas and call it our color palate!

If you haven't tried their inspiration board maker yet, you're missin' out! Fun times. I only wish that you could upload pictures of your own or even have access to all the photos from their blog. It's something that they're working on so it should be available soon!

Flower Garlands

I'm still on a hunt to find something to hang across the beams in our venue. I saw these lovely garlands and thought they were beautiful!



{ photo by our labor of love via once wed }

Unfortunately, at $64 for 3 yards, they are absolutely not in our budget. So, off I went to try and find some sort of template to make these fabric flowers. I knew I had seen something like this, and then remembered that of course Martha has one!

Then of course, I still like the pom and ribbon idea:





{ photos by Aaron Delesie via Style Me Pretty and Style Me Pretty }

So, what do you think? If we're looking to do tables and flowers along these lines:



{ photo by Steve Steinhardt }



{ photo by Lisa Lefkowitz via Style Me Pretty }

For our venue, what do you think we should hang from the beams?



1) Fabric Dahlia Garlands
2) Multi-Color Tissue and Ribbon Poms

{ photo from our venue }

I Tried It!

Yup, I tried that DIY painted glass jars thing that has been popping up around the blogs (I originally saw it on BridalBuzz), and it didn't turn out as I had expected. I'm not giving up though!

I used a Gold Peak iced tea bottle, the same glass stuff that they described on BridalBuzz, but did not use a fan brush. The paint stuff goes on like nail polish...ya know how if nail polish dries just slightly and if the brush doesn't have enough polish on it but you swipe it on the nail anyway? How it kinda pulls at it and makes it all bumpy and clumpy? Yeah, that's what I dealt with.

I had a hard time mixing it too. I think the brush I used just soaked up too much paint because the amounts described in the tutorial were DEFINITELY not enough to do my bottle (which I think is probably smaller than a ball jar?). Instead of tupperware, I flipped the bottle upside-down and placed it on a bottle of rioja :) It was the perfect size to hold it!

Just after I painted it, but before baking it:



Here's the final result with some water and birthday sunflowers:



{ photos by me, sunflowers courtesy of Mr. :) }

So, it turned out pretty streaky. Either way, it's still a whole lot nicer than a plain bottle. I plan on trying it again with a fan brush next time. I'll keep ya posted! If you've tried this and have had better luck, let me know!!!

So we're like, really getting married

Do you still have those moments at all? I mean, with all the planning and such, sometimes it doesn't feel real yet.

We just had our first meeting with our pastor and he walked us through exactly what the ceremony will look like. Everything between who will sit where, who comes in when, different ceremony options, music, and where we face each other. Wow. I just get SO excited every time I realize that this whole thing is real! :) But, the biggest lesson I learned today?



{ image via polyvore }

I am absolutely going to need waterproof mascara. I was tearing up just being there by ourselves!! Oy.

Anyway, I'm very excited to start this process with our pastor. Two things that I got (idea-wise) from our meeting today:

-Receiving line (sorta): I didn't really want a traditional receiving line, so I liked this option. After we initially leave the sanctuary with our bridal party, Mr. and I think we will head back and greet each row instead of having the ushers allow each row out. After people leave, they can hang out in the meeting area and then we can still do a send-off out the main doors of the church. Which leads me to...

-Our church send-off: We can't do rice, birdseed, or anything that leaves stuff on the ground (no big loss on our part, didn't want that anyway), so I was thinking of going with my love of ribbons and possibly making those ribbon wands I keep seeing everywhere.



{ photo via amy squires }



{ photo via Wilton }



{ photo via Your Best Wedding }

What do you think about the wands? You all know my love of ribbons...I'd love the color it would add!

So yeah, do you still have those moments? When does it/did it hit you the most that you're going to be standing at the altar with your love?

what's the deal with send-offs?

Really though, what's the story?

Birdseed, flower petals, confetti to send off from the church. Got it.



{ image from Seasons of Life }

But what about the getaway from the reception? Sparklers, bubbles, etc...



{ image from Seasons of Life }

Are you supposed to do two send-offs?

I like the idea of doing a ribbon wand send off from the church, but I also like the idea of a sparkler send-off from the reception.



{ photo by Birdsong Photography via polka dot bride }

Is it normal to do two send-offs? What's the deal? I feel like making people line up and cheer for us more than once would be a lot...

What did you/are you going to do?

Wedding Dreams

I had my second wedding dream last night. Pretty much the same as the first one I had, it was as though the wedding would happen right now, like today, with all the work I had already done, which...isn't very much. Needless to say, there was a lot of confusion, lots of errors, lots of things that needed to be completed (me hunching over a laptop in my wedding dress trying to print programs).
The cool thing was, it actually reminded me of projects that I want to add to our to-do-way-ahead-of-time list!
In the end though, lots of our friends were there and although it was stressful, everyone still had a great time.