How not to shop for wedding supplies

Courtesy of Man Stroke Woman:

Places

Here's our list of places to explore over the next few weeks as we try and choose a location...

• Valley Grove Church: a cute country church next to an even cuter country church near Northfield, MN
• Mill City Museum: whoa, you can get married in ruins in the middle of Minneapolis?!
• Minnesota Landscape Arboretum: ah, no need add decorations...
• Camrose Hill Flower Farm: again, no need to add decorations, and Stillwater has so many fun places to explore
• Wabasha Street Caves: oh boy, caves
• Theatre de la Jeune Lune: I've never been here, but Chris assures me it would be a most amazing place to have a city wedding
• Lake Harriet Bandshell: An outdoor wedding with a bit of protection in case of rain...
• James J. Hill Library: Mmm, historic, and surrounded by books...
• Minnesota Zoo: Ah, well, we have to have at least one option that involves animals!

I'm sure there will be more options and we rule some out and find others. Any suggestions?

Color palette

Yay to A Practical Wedding for reading my mind on colors:

Whenever someone asks us what our wedding colors are, it always reminds me of that scene from Steel Magnolia's where Julia Roberts says her colors are "Blush and Bashful," And her mother says very flatly in a southern drawl, "Her colors are pink and pink. It looks like the sanctuary was hosed down with pepto bismol"

Right.

So when David suggested getting rid of "wedding colors" I was on board. David pointed out that the whole 'wedding colors' thing feels like sort of a scam. Why do we have to pick two or three wedding colors? So we can buy matchy matchy bridesmaids dresses? So we can buy ribbon and flowers and chair covers that all match? Somehow that just feels like a excuse to sell us things.

A color palette is sensible, since it gives you a visual theme and prevents people from clashing. But colors? I don't know. I'm not that focused a bride, I don't think. I don't really want to control that many elements of the day.

And we are seeing more and more images from weddings where the couple didn't make everything match perfectly, and I think they look just lovely. So we are thinking of just going with jewel tones, and not narrowing it down much beyond that.

Hooray! So I'm not crazy for not wanting to limit us to a few colors. Now the question is... what should our palette be?

Colors

How come people just choose two or three colors for weddings? I like lots! The prairie sure seems to do colors right...

Searching

As we now start searching through a flood of things for our big party, it is interesting to think of what the task of looking really does. So Via Boing Boing is Swedish ethnologist Erik Ottoson of Uppsala University whose work focuses on people shopping and searching for things.

The people in the study are not just looking for certain things – they are also seeking to come to terms with what they are actually looking for. Ideals of what is beautiful, useful and reasonable materialise in conjunction with the experience of what is available and what is absent or out of reach. It is suggested that this mode of looking for goods is not only about purchase deliberations, but more importantly is a specific way of interacting with the world and making places meaningful. It can be viewed as a way of creating and moderating anticipation, and thereby cultivating affect. Searching for things thus becomes an experiential horizon

That's Dandy

So Megan gets a dress, and I get a suit. But what kind of suit? For a while I have been thinking of something a bit different than a normal tux, just as Megan has been thinking of something a little bit different than a normal white dress. (She can talk about that)

What exactly? I don't know but the Indians sure know how to dress up a guy! And the image on the left was painted in 1809 of Count Victor Kochubey around the time of the "Dandy" (also known as a "Dude" - who knew). Or this one of Francois Jean Baptist Isabey in a riding coat.

There just seemed to be a time when men wrote clothing that varied more than then a black suit with tie. Perhaps I am just old fashioned circa 1800.