oooohhh... pretty

Man, what I wouldn't do to have beautiful dark wood tables like the one below available to me. I could happily eat supper every night on a table done up like this! Image by Carrie Mccluskey Photography found at Style Me Pretty.

other people's weddings: Carrie & Ian

So, I found this wedding featured over at Daria's Day, photographer Daria Bishop's blog. Now it's not entirely my style, but there are two details that were too great not to share. First, check out the napkins on the table shot. I don't know why, but I love the way they're draped over the edge like that... Maybe I should be renting napkins???And secondly, check out the hem on the bride's dress. THAT is a great way to KNOW that it was a day to remember! lol! Rock on, lady, rock on!

Had a great date y'day, not with my boyfriend

So, on the spur of the moment, I got my buddy Megan to dump our kids with our respective husbands (not hard since they're best friends, and her hubby's A's best man) and we took off to try to find table linens. SO funny! We were only, maybe five minutes behind Megan (we stopped to grab beer for her hubby as a consolation prize) but by the time we got to their house she was standing OUTSIDE on her front step, with the truck running, waiting for me! HAHA! Wow, nice to know I'm not the only one who needed to get out! And off we went into the wild blue yonder of wedding rentals...

Folks, I've learned through all of this, that wedding supply places are my personal hell. Hey, if I wanted white polyester table cloths, a plastic trellis, fake ivy, an arse-load of tulle, white lights, a smoke machine, and a porcelain cupid? I would have been in the right place! As it stands though, not so much! Unfortunately, we apparently live in bodunk, and if you want table linens, there are NO choices, so you either put up with the creepy cupids or you eat off of plastic plates! Don't believe me? Think I'm exaggerating? Here's a little taste. Keep in mind that this is all PLASTIC and is one of the "exclusive" set ups. Take this sucka and make it a GAZILLION times worse! They had CAMO RIBBON folks! CAMOUFLAGE! For a WEDDING! GAAAHHH! Kill me. Make the polyester-induced pain end!So the first place, though huge, and reasonably nicely set out, was a total bust. No one so much as said hello when we walked in the door, and I couldn't really find anything that was "right". The best option I could find came out to $40/table, so that's where I set my benchmark. Still, it's my wedding and I didn't really want to settle for "meh". So, another HUGE store, that didn't do rentals and didn't know of anywhere that did (because they don't own a phonebook?) and then my lovely friend took things into her own, well manicured hands and took us ALL the way across town to the "scary" part to a rundown stripmall with a bridal shop squeezed into it. Tacky, horrible and hilarious, it was a good thing I had my bitchy comic relief with me to make it fun, because, otherwise, I would have run out of there like a bat out of hell. BUT! Not only did they have deep eggplant satin table cloths, they were only $12/table! YAY! AND the wineglasses were almost half price too! Now I know lil sis will kill me for going there (she wasn't impressed with a previous experience) but for 65% off, I'll deal with some annoyance!

So it looks like we'll be having deep purple satin tables with a centrepiece of a lantern, a round clear vase with a dozen pink roses, and some tealights, plus a frame with the wedding trivia. Sounding pretty promising. I'm a little concerned about the length of the table cloths. I wanted floor length to cover the ugly legs of the tables, but was convinced to go a foot shorter so that chair legs and people legs won't be constantly snagging on the ends. I have tto admit, that makes sense, I just hope it doesn't look like butt!

So a little reminder of how pretty purple satin table cloths can look (also, I'm SO happy that I didn't have to settle for the flat, texture-less polyester!)

Brown, and purple, and grey, and tan... and I'm feeling bruised.

So, I can't seem to settle on a table cloth colour for the life of me. This might seem foolish, I know, but it's potentially the biggest colour choice I'll have to make. And unfortunately each choice I've got in mind sets me up for an almost completely different look AND feeling. Dark purple? Ooohhh, rich and deep and would be a great way to add dimension to our wedding... Light grey? A little more fashion forward than the classic ivory, with more depth, but not the same oomph as the purple... Maybe chocolate brown? But I'm worried that under the bright July sun it'll look more faded than rich, and will really emphasize the "polyester" in the poly-cotton cloths I'll probably be stuck with. And I keep holding out hope that maybe I'll come across even cotton table cloths somewhere in the internets, but so far, no such luck. At least not for anywhere near the price of rentals. Honestly, I can't even buy the fabric for as cheap as I can rent them. But... pics like this make me want to keep holding out. Honestly, how pretty is this grey linen? Soooo pretty and textured! Maybe I should give it another go... image from Hostess with the Mostess.

Purple tables cloths: the new unicorns?

It is SURPRISINGLY hard to find inspiration pics that have purple table cloths (or eggplant, or lavender, or whatever) which is kind of what I've had my heart set on, so I'm always thrilled to find them, even if they're not exactly what I'm thinking. Image from Brooklyn Bride.