Wedding Blog

…ella ella eh eh eh

I just had to! It’s Friday. Nothing should be taken too seriously on Fridays.

After seeing this great photo on Tony Yang’s website, I had an itch to buy an umbrella or parasol. I am an accessories girl… maybe I’m just an accumulator…

image from tony yang photography

So I started researching ebay and other sites for inexpensive umbrella ideas. I also wanted it to be somewhat practical. Although I really liked the lace options, what if it rains? What’s the point then! So I searched for something that was water resistant and possibly re-usable after the wedding. Also it seemed like everyone else in blogland and the internet was giving me signals to get one… there was a daily candy email as well as a post on oh joy! when the universe wants you to do something… it’s pretty adamant!

The other irony is that most of these vendors are based in seattle. When I lived in Seattle, I never saw a local carry an umbrella. They just sort of dealt with the rain and got wet.

* bella umbrellas *
I think I read about Bella in a bridal magazine. They have umbrellas for sale and rental, which is great because what are you going to do with a crazy vintage umbrella after the wedding? The only downside is that they charge a handling fee of $40 for any orders under $100. Most of the rentals are from $10-20, which means you’d have to rent about 5 umbrellas to waive the fee. The great part of the service is that the umbrellas come packaged with a return shipping label so it’s very convenient to send back. I’m just worried that my relatives will make off with the umbrellas thinking they’re favors and I can’t be on umbrella watch on the wedding day. And the other thing is that the only umbrella I absolutely love (the yellow dots!) is only available for rental, not sale.

I love the ruffles on this one. totally girly!

images from bellaumbrella.com

The solid “pagoda” parasols for sale are quite cute as well. I would get one in pink to embrace my girly girl side, but I know that I would never use it again after the wedding so I can’t quite validate the $95 price tag.

image from bellaumbrella.com

* pare umbrellas *
This was the site recently featured on oh joy!. I love every one of them and i would definitely reuse them after the wedding! A little pricey for an umbrella, but they’re sooooo stylin’.

images from pareumbrella.com

*totes*
An old standby. This was some Daily Candy promotion. What first caught my attention was the rihanna section not the wedding section. Talk about co-branding. I got a good chuckle. The wedding umbrella is nothing to write home about, but it’s definitely practical.

image from totes-isotoner.com

*ebay*
This is where initially started looking for parasols. I searched “parasol” and came up with a number of sites that sell beautiful lace parasols. They’d be great for photos because of the shadows they cast and really are quite affordable. I love the reds and pinks, though I’m still hung up on the yellow dot vintage umbrella from bella.

Here are several that I found that are under $30 (+ shipping).

image from ebay

image from ebay

image from ebay

So what do you think– wanna stand under my umbrella or like most seattlelites would say, “Screw the umbrella.” But it’s soooo cute.