Photo of the Day

I think this is just the most beautiful setting for a ceremony I have ever seen! By Boutwell Studio.

I'm heartily sick of...

Now you know that I stalk a LOT of photography blogs. A frikkin ton of them, actually. I've stopped using the blogroll on this page, actually, and just use dear old Google Reader - this poor list just wasn't cutting it anymore. I have over 300 blogs in my stalking, er, reading list, so I get through a lot every day. And there is this one thing, this one phrase, that keeps jumping out at me and making me...I don't know...feel all uncomfortable and icky inside. And that is the phrase "magazine-worthy", as applied to someone's wedding.

Image Source
What does that even mean? It's worthy of being in a magazine? Obviously, but... WHY? What makes one wedding more worthy than another? Is it the cost? The details? The venue? And who decides that, anyway? What they're basically saying is that most weddings are not ones that people would ever want to look at again, and only a select few are worthy. Wow, thanks for that. I'm so glad to know that my wedding, the celebration of my love and commitment to my husband, the day that it took hundreds of hours and more organisational skills than I knew I possessed to plan and create, is just...well, not quite good enough. I might as well just throw in the towel and elope.

The thing is I don't even WANT my wedding featured in a magazine. I mean, sure, if some prestigious wedding magazine editor called me up and begged me for permission to feature my nuptuals (and paid me for it) it's pretty unlikely I'd say no. But it's not exactly something I aspire to. That said, it still bloody hurts if your beautiful, special day is labelled as "average", which, let's face it, is what NOT calling it "magazine-worthy" amounts to.

So could we stop all this madness of labelling some weddings as "better" than others? There is no "better"! There's just "yours", "mine" and "theirs". Oh sure, tons of money and an idyllic location and the best photographer and floral designers help, but I've seen the most beautiful budget weddings featured on blogs like A Practical Wedding and 2000 Dollar Budget Wedding, and they couldn't be more special, awesome and unique. But are they "magazine-worthy"?

Right there I was about to say "Why do they have to be?" but that's not my point at all! This isn't about rebelling against tradition, and having a (gasp) NON-Magazine-Worthy wedding, so that people will point and say, "Wow, look how avant-garde she is! Her wedding's not magazine-worthy in the least!" NO. It's about the fact that there shouldn't even BE such a phrase. No one's wedding should be judged like that, ranked alongside all the others. Seriously, people? Bigger Picture here. If you loved it and your guests loved it, that makes it worthy of anything in my book. So there.

Rant Over.

Photo of the Day

Ah, veil shots and flare...I'm so predictable. This one is by Denise Bovee.

Eight things I learnt about my dress

I have my dress alteration appointment on the 4th of October, so a few days ago my mother brought my dress over from her house, where it has been safely residing away from prying Mr Ruby Slippers eyes and evil kitty-claws. I tried it on while she was here, ostensibly so she could help me choose a necklace, but mostly I just wanted to play with it! Then we packed it away in the spare-room cupboard. Tonight Mr RS went out roleplaying, and I couldn't resist sneaking it out and trying it on again (why this should feel sneaky, since it's MINE, I don't know, but it did).

What I learnt tonight about my dress:

1) I can totally get it on and off by myself! Go me!
2) I think, with careful holding, that I can go to the bathroom in it without needing embarrassed assistants.
3) Boy, do I need to suck my tummy in. Can I do that for eight-plus hours?
4) I have a teensy bit more armpit cleavage than I thought I did.
5) No matter how high I hoist my arms and jump up and down and stretch, my boobies do not pop out. This is excellent news, because it means I can go braless, which I wanted to do since all my strapless bras are uncomfortable as frick.
6) This dress is HOT. And by that I mean I was sweating after two minutes, not that I looked like a supermodel in it. Well, I might, but it's not for me to say :-)
7) If I was wearing heels I wouldn't need alterations done. As it is, I'm wearing ballet flats and paying for my dress to be made shorter, and hoping like heck that they don't balls up the embroidery round the bottom.
8) I can't decide if I would prefer the skirt to be less full than it is, or not, but since the netting that makes it poofy is sewn in, I don't really have a choice without destroying the dress to find out.
9) However full the skirt is, I still LOVE IT. Love, love, love it. There are times when I wish I were wearing a more 1940's screen goddess bias-cut gown and a birdcage veil, but this dress is too sweet and pretty to carry that look off. (Possibly why I'm doing the old Hollywood glamour thing for my e-shoot). Anyway, I absolutely love it and can't wait to wear it in THIRTY-FOUR days!

Oh man, you want to see pictures? I honestly can't decide if I want to post them now or wait for the photos of The Day! Part of me wants to make sure it, and I, look our best. On the other hand, if I was on Weddingbee I'd pretty much have to post it, not to mention that all the October Brides on Brides.com have already seen it! So....here goes:



If only someone had thought to fix the train in this pic...however, I like the photo because you can see the back of the dress in the mirror, and I like the way it falls in front at the angle I'm standing. See what I mean about the style? It's soft and pretty and somewhat Jane Austen-esque with the split-front overlay and train (which you can't see). And I love it, but it's so not old Hollywood! Ah well, we can't have it all.

Photographer Friday

Today's photographer is Greg Bumatay of Bumatay Studio. I love his work! And I especially love that he can do any type of image - bright colour, soft or luminous sepia, crisp black & white or soft, romantic black & white, you name it - and make it gorgeous.

Photo of the Day

Ah, a combination of two of my favourites - a "bride in the window" shot AND a gorgeous veil! This one's by Missy Photography.

And the Oscar goes to...

It's a wonderful night for Oscar...Oscar, Oscar, who will win?

Well, the answer is: At the Ruby Slippers Wedding, EVERYONE.

Back in January or February when we first decided to do a bit of a film theme, one of the first ideas that we had (actually I think this might have been Best-Friend-Ruby-Slippers' idea, to be honest) was to use an Oscar statuette somehow. I love the Oscars. I think they're totally fixed, and half the winners are undeserving, but there's just something fabulous about them. I love that they're so glitzy and full of stars...ok, I don't even know why I love 'em, I just do. And, as a side note, I can totally remember Oscar stats and facts. Ask me what film won Best Picture in any year, ever, and I can tell you. It's my party trick.

So at first we toyed with the idea of an Oscar-themed invitation, but it semed a little bit too "theme-party"-ish, so we scrapped that, and went with the Golden Tickets, which, you know, aren't themed at all. :-) But I did picture them being designed by Mr Ruby Slippers - after all, he did paint this backdrop for a musical show we did a few years ago:


Ahem. We now return to the scheduled Oscar blog post, after that shameless bit of boasting about Mr Slippers' artistic talents.

So at this point Best Friend-RS had the brilliant idea of Oscar chocolate favours. One little statuette for everybody! I loved it. So I bought three Oscar moulds from the local chocolate shop, and set to work.

What I discovered on this chocolatey journey was this: No matter how many hollow Easter Eggs you've made in your life, the intricate pattern of an Oscar mould is not conducive to being made hollow. That's right, folks - I bought eighteen little bulldog clips and wasted over thirty chocolates before I figured that one out. Well, not wasted; I remelted them. The ones I didn't eat in frustration, that is.

So then I decided to make two solid sides and "glue" them together with melted chocolate - and this, I must say, went swimmingly. Over the month it took to make seventy of them. Boy, am I glad I don't have a big family. But the biggest problem was still ahead: how to paint them gold? I wanted this:

But all I could find was gold dusting powder, and a vaguely unhelpful shop assistant who said I should just rub it on with my fingers. Um...I think not. Enter a nice old lady who eavesdropped on my conversation with a colleague last week. She apparently makes cake decorations for a living, and she recommended that I mix the powder with a drop or two of brandy, and paint it on that way. Maybe this technique is common knowledge, but it wasn't to me. Mr RS had a wee bottle of brandy, so I tried her advice out yesterday, and by golly, it worked! Those little bald boys gilded up like no man's business. Here they are in their naked chocolateyness:


And here's the very first one I tried:

Isn't he SWEET? Here are a bunch more. My camera died right after this, but I was on such a roll that I painted all eighty-something last night. (We only need 70, but I'm a great believer in spares in case of accidents).


Skreee! I'm sooo excited about how cute they turned out, you have no idea! Each one is going to be in his own cellophane bag, with our signature black satin ribbon around the top, with a note that doubles as a placecard attached to the ribbon, reading:

"And the Oscar goes to.....NAME"

These will be sitting on the tables in each person's designated spot, so once they've found out which table they're at, these will help them find their seats and be favours. Oh, the cleverness of me. And BFF-RS, she admitted grudgingly.

Photo of the Day

Loving the movement in this shot by Anne Ruthmann.

Let them eat...

CAKE. We have fiiiinally ordered ours.

It was beginning to drive me to distraction; all the other "big" things were organised so many moons ago: The venue was booked at the beginning of January, the dress was ordered at the beginning of March, the photographer locked in by mid-April, the DJ done in January as well, even the honeymoon was booked and paid for weeks ago. But the darn cake...it kept eluding me. Probably because 95% of the quotes I got were, um, INSANE.

I refuse to pay R2700.00 (the highest quote we got) for a cake. Heck, I refuse to pay half that! It's a CAKE, people. With two tiers. It doesn't have to cost over a thousand frikkin Rand.

Maybe it's just the cake we chose that's expensive. But we really like the look of it! Way back at the beginning of the year, when I spent all my time on wedding blogs looking for inspiration (hmmmm, wait, I still do that) I saved about fifty cake pics that I liked, showed them to Mr Ruby Slippers, and had him choose the one he liked best. Luckily, it turned out to be one of the ones I liked best, too!

Yummy Yummerson. Except, apparently, for the price. I think I've been to or emailed every cakeshop in the city. (Ok, well, nine or ten of them, all right? That was enough!) Apparently chocolate dripping is incredibly expensive, or something. Or it could just be that it's for a WEDDING, which automatically drives up the price by 400%.

Anyway, to cut a long story short (I feel a bit rambling and distracted tonight) my clever mother found a bakery that charged a smidgeon less than our other quotes, and she said the guy there seemed very helpful and efficient, so I told her to go ahead and order the damn thing. I don't care about it anymore, I just want a CAKE and I don't even care what it looks like. Unless, you know, it looks like this, or something:

Courtesy of Cakewrecks.

*Shudder* Funny, but not to the bride...

However, the best part of our cake is the cake topper! We bought this waaaay back in January. I thought I was being so clever and original, until I saw a few other cakes around with the same thing....still, I doubt our guests will have seen this before:


How Frikkin CUTE are they? I just can't get over it! They look so gosh darn perturbed! Awww.

They're our one nod to the fact that we're getting married on Halloween. We don't really celebrate Halloween here in SA, but Corpse Bride figurines are too adorable to pass up. And I know it's from The Nightmare before Christmas, but I keep walking around going "This is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween..." every time I see this adorable pair.

Here are some other cakes that used Corpse Brides as toppers:



Question: Why is it that I don't like this cake, but it looks almost identical to the one I ordered? Spiderwebs aside, of course. Um. I really hope ours doesn't look like this, but I can't figure out what's wrong with it!

And the Groom with the Not-Corpse Bride:
We have decided to serve the cake in the garden directly after the ceremony. That way, the guests get a snack before they have to wait ages for dinner, they can mingle and chat while we go have photos taken, and they actually get to EAT the cake, which they most likely wouldn't if it was served as part of the dessert buffet.

Oh, and it makes for pretty photos. Did I mention I like photos? :-)

Photo of the Day

I love this veil shot by Jessica Messer - I hate it when veils look all harsh and grainy in close-up, so this picture is just heaven for me!

Photographer Friday

The lovely, talented Hollye Schumacher was sweet enough to give me some blog love earlier this week. Look how gorgeous her photos are! I must say, I love me some bright, natural light and flare, and she delivers!











Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...........

Flowers

Ok, this blogging thing would seriously be easier if I had a camera that works. Our one has gone nuts - you put batteries in, take five photos, and then they're dead. Needless to say, we don't keep buying batteries every five photos...so right now there are none. So I can't show you my favours...which aren't complete anyway, though they really should be! So maybe it's just as well.

I realised that I never really posted about the flowers I finally chose for the bouqets and centrepieces. To be honest, they're ever-so-slightly up in the air until the Day Of, because I told the florist just to get what's available in the right colour for the centrepieces, in order of preference: Lilies, tulips, peonies......and waaaay last, roses. Reason is, my friend Henni (her brother) is paying for my flowers, and I don't want to overload him and make him pay for more expensive lilues, say, when peonies will do just fine. Or whatever. As long as the look and feel is there, I don't mind! This is the look I finally chose:

Except that I felt it was just a little too much going on for one table, not to mention a few too many vases and flowers expense-wise, so I trimmed it down to this bit:
Except you need to ignore the green mums in the left corner. What I decided for the second vase, which in this pic has what looks like twisty twigs in it, is to fill it with a couple of white flowers submerged in the water. That way I satiate my desire for submerged blooms (oh, how I love them!) without going overboard like THIS pic would entail:

It's nuts. But gorgeous nuts!

I think one vase of red flowers and another with some submerged flowers inside and a floating candle on top is plenty, right? There will be candles scattered around them and I'm getting a round mirror-base to reflect some pretty, romantic glow into the room, so I think that's plenty per table. And in the end, it doesn't matter if it's lilies or tulips or whatever.

My bouquet, however, is another story. I know dang well what I want, and it WILL be that. The end. Except I can't find the perfect picture! But it will be these lilies:


But in a style more like THIS bouquet (only without the greenery):

So I think it'll be pretty...interesting (and let's just hope not disappointing) to see what she comes up with there. I know that the deep red ones aren't as big as the purple ones, so they might not work in that style...I'll just have to trust her florist judgement! The black satin ribbon I'm using for everything will be around the stems with little diamante pins. Mmm.

The two bridesmaids' bouquets will be like these:
With the same black ribbon. Nothing startling or difficult there, hopefully.

And, finally, the men's buttonholes will be white lilies for the groomsmen and Dads, like this:

And Mr Slippers' will be a red lily to match my bouquet, something like this without the extraneous white flower:

I've met with Jenny (the florist) twice, and she SEEMS to be on top of things. I just hope it all looks as pretty in real life as it does in my head!