Wedding Day!

Friends, countrymen, I have been very remiss at updating this blog because as the big wedding day approached, I was unable to keep up with writing as I was busy glue gunning, painting, and creating all sorts of bloggable situations. No worries, my friends, I did document it all. But I haven't yet had a chance to write entries about it.

In the meantime, I got MAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRIED!

Here's a sneak peek at some of the unofficial wedding day pics that show some of the end results of a lot of my DIY work (with the help of my mom and bridesmaids) from these last few months. Updates on how and what soon, I promise.

We opted for long, supper-style tables rather than the traditional round wedding tables. This was better for the communal, casual vibe we were going for. I wanted people eating at our wedding to feel like they were at a rustic California feast of friends and family, like if the first Thanksgiving was on the West Coast. Our food was served family style, so plates were passed and everyone got to taste a bit of everything.

These pics were courtesy my friend Margot, who straightened her very curly hair for the wedding, so I almost didn't recognize her when I saw her. This was the view from our ceremony, which was held in an old, repurposed greenhouse, with vintage windows hanging from the wooden beams.

I can't take credit for our bouquets, as they were created by the very talented Jolene De Hoog Harris from The Dutch Flower. But I did talk extensively with her about what I wanted: something unique and gardeny, modern and more along the wildflower vibe than something upscale (no hydrangeas, lilies, or orchids). I wanted succulents, ranunculus, and billy buttons, and the rest was up to her. She added in seeded eucalyptus, garden roses, blue eryngium, red hypericum berries, tulips, and a host of other beautiful flowers and plants that made our flowers awesome.

And there are my blue shoes, ordered from Gilt from weeks ago! I had a moment of doubt a few days before the wedding...were they too casual? Too blue? I hurried to Nordstrom's and bought a pair of gold Michael Kors shoes that were very disco. But in the end, comfort won out, and I'm so very glad I wore the blue shoes for that pop of color!

For much more detail and great photos, check out my friend Lynn's wonderful food blog, The Actor's Diet. She did a food-focused, 3-part entry on our wedding: Part I, Part II, and Part III. Since the night was mostly a blur for me, I love the attention she paid to detail and the moments that I didn't get to enjoy since I was busy rushing around and toasting...it helps me re-live the day as if I were a guest at my own wedding.

Maison Midi

One of my favorite places to shop for housewares and gifts is Maison Midi, which is on La Brea and 1st, adjacent to American Rag (a great clothing store full of brands I can't afford...case in point, I once saw Drew Barrymore there blindly plucking up clothes and then going to the register with an armload of new outfits, without mind to the cost).

Maison Midi has beautiful modern, bright, cheery linens, housewares, and all manners of things from France (like cheese knives and French bistro chairs), handblown glasses, art books, kitchenware, and John Derrian-esque decoupage paperweights and ashtrays.  I wanted to register here for our wedding, but apparently their wares change so quickly with the season that it would be hard to pull off. It's a great place to grab latte at the cafe and pick up a gift.

Glass Rainbow

Oh how I wish I could afford you.

If you feel like spending a good $70 on your pepper mill...

Down With Love-style lemonade!

"Miss, stop taking photos!"

Stormy Weather

And by stormy, I mean Dark 'n' Stormy! I first discovered this delectable drink a few years back when I was a travel host for a network called Voyage TV.

Ok, ignore my horrible host-y banter; see the dapper, pink-suited Bermudian gentleman seated to the left of me? That's Charles, our unofficial ambassador to Bermuda. He invited us into his gorgeous, well-curated home and treated us to some local eats and drinks on his patio while watching the Bermudian sunset. Not only did this amazing guy inspire me to own pimpin' house slippers (which he called his "house creepers,") he also introduced me to the local specialty drink, Dark 'n' Stormies. It's pretty simple: ginger beer, Bermudian rum, and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

For our housewarming party months ago, we decided to make Dark 'n' Stormies our specialty cocktail since they were pretty easy to mix. My mixologist friend told me it's simple: put some ice in a glass, pour in some ginger beer (not brew, since it's not as strong), then top it off with rum and a splash of lime, and you get that cool gradient effect. What I didn't realize is apparently it's all in the ratio, as my first guinea pig friend whom I made a drink for can attest. Too much rum makes for immediate lampshade on head inebriation. Apparently 1:1 ratio isn't quite right.

So now with this end of summer weather and a lazy, holiday weekend, my betrothed and I decided to escape the heat by revisiting ol' Dark and Stormy land and hanging out in our garden with a few books.  I used cool spherical ice courtesy of our awesome friend Sara, who gifted us cool Japanese ice ball makers.

Thank you registry for these Orrefors old fashioned glasses!

The ratio is more like 3:1, depending on the brand of ginger beer and how much spice you like. Looks like a storm's moving in...

Yum!

DIY Blackboard

I've been toying with the idea of making my own blackboard signs in keeping with the DIY, rustic feel for our upcoming wedding (less than a month, eek!).

I decided to do a little test run with some chalkboard paint, which I picked up at my favorite hardware store, Anawalt.

First, I picked up some cheapie little framed art at the Goodwill down the Street. This was only $7.

help me, i'm cheezy!

Ideally, I would've removed the frame and just painted the glass. But the back of the piece was totally sealed up, so I had to keep in in tact and tape the gold frame with painters tape to protect it from the black chalkboard paint.

How fun! I felt like my own personal Banksy. Minus the million dollar price tag.

Sssssst!

Sssssssssst! Spray painting is great fun. Vigilant watchers beware.

Who wants to be a skunk?

All done! Leave it for 24 hours to dry...

And voila. We have a chalkboard for our front entryway, where my betrothed and I can leave important messages for each other, like the one above. For our wedding, I may take this down and use it to display our specialty drinks menu (Which is still TBD. Cucumber green mule? Blood orange-artichoke fizz? Thai basil vodka & tonic? Strawberry fix?)

Something Blue

As all the little details of the wedding come together--planting teacup succulents, sourcing vintage dishes, finding bud vases--it's nice to relish in the small successes that just come easy.

I was ready to embark on a quest to find the perfect shoes, but then I realized nobody will even see what I'm wearing on my feet underneath my floor-length dress. Which means, I'mma wear some comfy dancing shoes.

I found these ballet flats on Gilt for under $40. They feel like I"m wearing slippers. When "Dancing Queen" comes on, I'll be the first one on the dance floor.

A $1 Treasure Hunt

Let's bring the party back to the words "Tea Party," shall we? I've always loved the look of vintage teacups repurposed as planters, so in an effort to keep costs down for wedding decor, I've embarked on a quest for teacups to use in lieu of vases for our bar and guestbook table centerpieces. Wedding flower arrangements can cost around $75-100 each, so you can imagine how that really starts to add up for 18 tables. Throw in the bar, the guestbook table, and cocktail tables to dress and you're running into the tens of thousands for flowers that'll die in a day.

And that's why I heart succulents -- they're hardy, adorable, they thrive on neglect, and people can take them home as favors. Check out the magic you can do:

Sold! A trip to the Melrose Trading Post, the outdoor antiques market that pops up every Sunday on Fairfax and Melrose Avenue, yielded a few cool picks for potential succulent containers. Melrose Trading Post is usually pretty hit or miss, more often than not landing on the "miss" side. But if you get there early enough, you can find some good treasures. With my innate Chinese bargaining skills, I got these for roughly $1 each. All were made either in England, the U.S., or Japan.

Made in England

These blue and white cups are by Pennsbury Pottery, which I didn't know about when I bought them--I just thought the etched blue designs were very cute and Americana-y. Turns out it's a Pennsylvania (Amish)-based company that produced lots of art pottery from 1950 until 1970, when the factory burned down. On eBay, some of their single mugs go for as much as $20 each.

These pretty Japanese teacups with gold designs were bargained down from $3 to $1.50 each for a set of five. The seller was a very nice Japanese lady who seemed happy to part with her wares. Maybe they're haunted.

Can anyone read the Japanese brand?

Emma and Pilsen are both amazed by my finds

After exhausting the Melrose Trading Post, I decided to check in an unlikely place: The Jewish Women's Council Thrift Shop, set right in the heart of Little Ethiopia down the street on Fairfax. A little digging and I found these gorgeous British espresso cups, and a few vintage books to use as stacked centerpiece elevation. These were also $1 each.

That's a Howe grade school reader up top, dated 1917 and stamped with students' names from the era. On Etsy, these are going for about $10 a piece. The second book down is totes appropriate for me: The Village Bride of Beverly Hills (it's not vintage, but it's very wedding-esque, right?)

A sneak peek into the Howe Reader:

Bob and Ella gonna meet Obama!

 I also picked up a 1918 copy of The Magnificent Ambersons, the Pulitzer-winning novel by Booth Tarkington, which was later adapted into a movie in 1942 by Orson Welles (and, I feel, probably influential in some way or the other on Wes Anderson's similarly titled The Royal Tenenbaums). A quick online search shows that 1st edition copies of this are going from $100-$450. Not sure which edition I got, but it's dated the year of publication and I got it for $1!

 Lastly, James Boswell's London Journal. A little snoreworthy, but pretty.

 As I was paying, I spotted these silver Indian goblets behind the counter.

They reminded me of this picture I'd pinned on Polyvore a few weeks ago:

So I snatched up those suckas for $1 each. They can make cute decorative touches for our dessert table as well. (Did I mention we're having a dessert table?!)

Here's my attempt #1. I just used succulent cuttings from my garden, but I think if I get smaller, cuter, stubbier ones they'll work juuuuust fine. 

"Laugh it up, fuzzball."

My betrothed* wants to use this wedding cake topper, and I'm all for it.

*Betrothed sounds better than fiance, doesn't it?

Han Solo & Princess Leia get hitched

I love supporting independent artisans on Etsy, so we pulled the trigger on this purchase. May the force be with us!