If we don't elope... [ Wedding Plans ]

I'm gonna take the chance to step away from all this boring art speak, and slip into something much more fun, WEDDING plans! ... I haven't talked much about wedding planning, since it seems so far away.  (We are waiting until Mark is finished with his commitment at his current farm, and planning for May 2014) But like everyone reminds me, I'm sure it will come much quicker that I expect.

We've been playing around with the idea of eloping... it just seems silly to spend so much money, especially at this point in our lives where we could use it for much greater things (like a house!).  Our families have been incredibly supportive... "just do whatever makes us happy."  Oh, if it was only that simple!  So if we don't elope... we hope to be married on the farm where we rented a little loft in the barn and lived together for eighteen months following graduation, and where Mark proposed.  It's an eighteenth century plantation, on the banks of the Potomac River.  Absolute perfection.  We only moved a few months ago, and it already feels like a dream.  This place will always have my heart, and I would love for our families and friends to join us there to celebrate our love.  Many (most) of them have never been there, since it's three hours from our hometown.

 

Pinterest has been both a curse and a blessing for planning.  It's certainly inspiring.  But I have this (probably unrealistic) desire for my wedding to be unconventional, non-cliche, unexpected -- unique, and the perfect representation of us.  But then again, I suppose that's probably every bride's hopes... I was talking with my friend (and bridesmaid!) Kathleen about this, and she said "you do realize, this exact conversation has been said a million times, in every different language..." Ha, thank you, Kathleen, for the perspective... maybe I should let go a little.  It's all been done before.  And thanks to pinterest, all of "my" ideas are now pasted all over the internet, and so overdone.  So I'm going to just do what I we like, and hope somewhere along the line, I can put my own little twist on it.

Here's my current inspiration board... that will likely changed twelve more times before the actual day.

visit my pinterest WEDDING board for sources.

So whatcha think? 

Colors -- grayed jade (thank you Pantone!), ivory, and gold.  I hope to save some money by doing our own flowers (I may be crazy to attempt this?), and keeping things simple, minimal, but quality.  We're trying to keep our guest list to the bare minimum to keep it intimate (and less expensive), and are looking at about 125 at the moment.  Not too bad, I think.

I would love to hear any advice!  Did you elope? Did you love it, do you regret it? 

I've put all these wedding thoughts on the back burner while we've debated on what to do... but I have to admit that making this inspiration board and seeing pictures of the farm in spring (and perhaps the 3 cups of coffee I just drank ;) has me really excited!

Happy Wednesday, friends!