Weddingbee Blog

Naked should be reserved for the wedding night… sorry Mom… and Grammie. Moving on.

Although we knew early on what our centerpiece inspiration was, we really had no clue what we were going to do about linens. Or even if we were going to spring for linen rentals. Our venue offered white linens, albeit they weren’t floor length… but they were our favorite wedding word: free.

(source)

Enter Mama Frog.

As luck would have it, Mama Frog and Stepdad Frog were due to attend a work conference in Phoenix just a couple of weeks ago. It was perfect timing to check out linens! And lucky for Frogger, these wedding errands occurred over the weekend that he happened to be out of town for his bachelor party. It worked out great for us both – since he didn’t have a preference on linens, he was able to skip that errand and I had a welcomed distraction over the weekend while he was off gallivanting. He’s such a gallivanter. Yes, that’s a word.

I still wasn’t really sold on the idea of paying for linens when we had some that were perfectly fine being offered for free. They wouldn’t be my first choice but they were fine. Well, that’s what I thought until I began looking through photos of tablescapes, take a look at these lovelies:

(source, source, source, source, source)

After discussing our color scheme and showing a photo of our centerpiece inspiration, our very helpful salesperson pulled a few fabrics and began dressing a table.

Centerpiece reminder

It was at this point I knew there was no going back. I had been sucked into the luxury linen world and well, it felt good. After visions of Shantung, Lamour, Bengaline, Twist, Pintuck… there was no way I could go along with short white linens on the tables, not after seeing the lovlies that were laid out before me. It was as if I’d been inducted into this new club with words that were entirely too difficult for me to pronounce and fabrics that I didn’t feel old enough to touch without my mom present.

We tried a variety of different fabrics, with overlays and without, with chair wraps and without, with colored napkins or plain white. It was so much more fun that I could have imagined. Yes, I’m a big nerd. A big, linen-obsessed nerd.

We are keeping our options with the “Silver Dahlia” overlay for some of the occasion tables like the guestbook table, etc.

Ultimately we decided that the “Purple Smoke Bengaline” was the best fit for our centerpieces. Topped with a crisp, white napkin and our gorgeous (rental-that-I-couldn’t-pass-up) chivari chairs – the look is almost complete!

Did you see how I said almost? Yeah… I’ve now become obsessed with the idea of silver charger plates. The saga never ends. Both of the rental companies in town don’t carry them so I’m desperately hunting for a deal with under two months to go.

Anyone have any brilliant ideas for that one? I’m all ears!

P.S. - Happy Birthday MOM!!