Amen!

Just go read it, especially if you're a fellow bride. Offbeat Bride writes a wonderful denouncement of the word "tacky"

Brides all over wedding websites worry that their nontraditional wedding will be "tacky." But this term is so meaningless because it's all about context. Just as I know I could never hold a 300 guest soiree in a ballroom downtown with 6 foot tall centerpieces and an all white cake and Canon in D to walk down the aisle...lots of brides do just that. Most of the weddings I play have most of those elements. And you know what? As much as my quartet will occasionally judge (we love silently judging the guests who wear too-short minidresses with spindly little stripper heels), we mostly celebrate what was beautiful: the bride beaming as she walks down the aisle, the groom tearing up during the vows.

I just wish I had given myself a little less grief when I was searching for my wedding dress and getting so upset because I felt like a "bad bride." The wedding industry is sneaky, and very very good at making you feel like you have to do things a certain way. This article is a reminder that nobody is a bad bride. If you want to cosplay at your wedding as elves from the Lord of the Rings, and have your wedding bands engraved with "One ring to rule them all...in holy matrimony," go for it. The people who love you will likely see these ideas as so unmistakably you, and they will love you all the more for expressing yourselves in your wedding planning.

Overwhelmed by Color Part I

I feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz; she steps out of her house into a technicolor world. She must have been overwhelmed by the dazzling variety of hues.

John and I have been trying to pick the theme colors for our wedding.

Several things are going into this decision. First, I don't want a typical wedding color palette. I'm a person who grew up with art in my life; I want a vibrant, quirky collection of colors to represent us.

This means no sage green, ivory and chocolate brown. No pink and gold. No red and white. No black and white (way too formal for us, and not colorful enough!). No mustard and gray (the latest trend).

I want an interesting pop of color that people haven't seen everywhere. Martha Stewart has some nice ideas (aqua and poppy, lavender and red), but I still haven't seen anything that fits me. I'm not big on bright red or pastel lavender.

My issue is not only narrowing down colors, but deciding what to put together. I want an interesting mix of saturation in my hues, something that pops with something more subtle. I'm thinking five colors, but that's mostly due to my love of 100 Layer Cake inspiration boards, which always group five colors together.

I love the unexpected pops of color.

The first board I ever downloaded.
But the dark orange feels too autumn to me.

I love this one, but didn't love the red
and it just didn't work without red.

So, in a crazy attempt to narrow down colors, I cut and pasted swatches from various 100 Layer Cake boards and arranged them for hours. Literally, hours.

Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion...and the final decision!