I guess the labour day rule doesn't apply?

I have never been one to wear white shoes past labour day. Not because I'm a stickler, but because I just never wear white shoes (except maybe runners. The wedding is the exception to this rule. If you scroll way back to the beginning of this blog you'll read about my Bridezilla-ness about red shoes, trying to have them all to myself and then the overwhelming sense of need to wear white shoes with my (essentially) white dress.
So today I found them, and they were even on sale!

It's a spring thing

No wonder April, May and June are the busiest wedding months! I think romance is greater than the sum of each season, though some months do say "love" more than others. There is just something about the sights and sounds of spring that really get the blood flowing. In spring, things are budding and blooming, awakening and coming alive. The Earth spills forth new energies and colours and seems to inspire everyone, human and beast alike, to go forth and multiply. Interesting though, that spring doesn't seem like a "sexy" season, not like summer (perhaps it's all the skin?). No, spring has retained it's pastel sweetness. If Rob and I had chosen a spring wedding, it might have looked something like any of these details ...







all images from marthastewart.com/weddings

Let's talk about colour ...

Pre engagment, pre wedding-frenzy I thought the idea of "wedding colours" was lame and way too matchy-matchy. I also feared slipping over the precipice of insanity into ridiculous land and becoming obsessed with the exact shade of said wedding colours. For the longest time the whole concept made me think of that scene in Steel Magnolias (saddest movie ever. don't see it. okay, see it if you haven't ever because it's fantastic, but be warned: it's the saddest movie ever) where Julia Roberts' character is asked what her "colours" are for her upcoming wedding and she replies "blush and bashful". Then her mother (played by Sally Field) pipes up and says so sweetly in her Southern drawl: "Her colours are pink, and pink."

When you first say you are having a wedding, one of the most common and most excited questions is/will be "What are the colours?" I have learned that colours are by far the easiest way to create some cohesion (dare I say theme?) and sense to all of your aesthetic decisions. This palette helps with flowers, dresses, decor, paper goods, for some couples, even the food! It also gives you a starting point. Colours can be your aesthetic compass. Choosing them is the problem.

Rob and I both love the fall and Thanksgiving so we will be married over the (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend this year. Initially "autumn" was a great starting point for colours/the feel of the event. One snag: I'm not a fan of fall colours. Brown? Not so much. Orange and yellow? Not my style. Red? Now we're getting somewhere ...

We didn't stay pure and true to the season, but we also knew that pastels would be out of place, so would any bright tropical combinations, and that it would still be a bit early for a cold wintery palette of greys, whites and blues. Having a shared love of bygone eras, old films and secret desires for an opulent, casual, dancing-at-the-supper-club and evening-out-at-the opera type lifestyle, we decided on a vintage-glam deco-esque affair outfitted in white and black with red and a dose of pewter and silver to keep things sparkly. Not only do the deeper colours suit the will-be weather (quite possibly rain, it is Vancouver after all) they suggest an era, a look and a feel simply by being placed together. All this being said, I am not a fan of themes, but a simple, tied together look? Absolutely.