Wedding Dress Lesson: Who Needs An Inspiration Notebook?

Sometimes all our clippings, idea boards and swatches can seem like our most important possessions. But in fact, the heart and soul of your wedding is not among your bookmarks, pins, or inspiration notebooks.  My wedding dress was made by a creative, talented woman who basically took the ideas right out of my head. She asked me to pull some photos from magazines, and boy did I! I had a thick reference file all set to go. But at the airport, waiting for my plane to fly home to Chicago to meet her, I realized my treasured idea binder was on my vanity.

My airport wedding dress inspiration photos, and my first fabric swatch.
My airport wedding dress inspiration photos, and my first fabric swatch.

I had to start over. I hit the airport newsstand and picked up whatever random bridal mag they had, and started sorting through ideas on the plane. I found myself drawn to a dresses i never would have pulled out a week before- covered with ruffles? touch of color? I went with it it and told Julia my designer who ran with it. I got a tailored top with gorgeous ruffled skirt covered in hydrangea blossoms.  I don’t know what my dress would have looked like if I had brought the “right” pictures. All I know is that even without my precious design notebook, I knew myself and I trusted the person I hired. And I can’t imagine having worn anything else.

The beautiful final product
The beautiful final product

A Back-Up Plan For Your Wedding Day. Rain? Snow? Heat? Be Covered.

This weekend’s heat wave /extreme weather caused difficulty for many California brides, grooms and planners.  Choosing wedding locations in California like Palm Springs, perfect for destination weddings, often make people think they don’t need to worry about weather.  Here’s the bottom line:

If any part of your wedding will be outdoors, always have a back-up location.

I’ll repeat.

If any part of your wedding will be outdoors, always have a back-up location.

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Get the flowers (and your guests) out of the weather)!

Wherever your outdoor venue is, make sure that you or your planner make arrangements for a space nearby to be available in case of bad weather.  That could mean a tent, the church basement, or a banquet room inside, but make sure you have somewhere to go, and people designated to direct guests.

Chances are, you won’t need your back-up location.  But looking back at  the last year’s tornadoes, hurricanes and heat waves, you’ll surely breathe easier.

Live well, and love well,

-Dinah

Wedding Movie Wednesday Suspended – Supreme Court News

OK – yes, it’s Wedding Movie Wednesday, but what with the momentous events of this morning, I just can’t idly prattle on about wedding movies.  Today at the Supreme Court, we turned a corner as a country. All details aside, the bottom line is that love is love, and that a same sex couple getting married should cause no more uproar than any other two people (no comment from this Palm Springs florist on uproar caused by crazy families, everybody’s got those).

So,having overcome obstacles both dramatic and comical, we have a victory for love. I said no movie talk, but in the end, isn’t two couples embracing on the steps of the Supreme Court the Hollywood ending we all hoped for?

Be well, and love well. Finally EQUALLY well.

-Dinah

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