Weddingbee

Hiring a trolley for your wedding day transport has become pretty ubiquitous in Chicago. All the knotties are talking about trolley rates, tipping your driver and whether or not to buy the “wedding decor” package which includes some tulle and a “Just Married” sign.

photo from flickr

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There is a GORGEOUS bar in Chicago that I have been itching to get back to- the Violet Hour. The whole time I was there I could not stop thinking about the amazing wedding reception that I could throw there. Talk about design inspiration! When I saw photos on Apartment Therapy- Chicago I could hardly contain myself. One day, I will have a room that looks just like this:

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Santa brought me a tool kit for some of my little craft supplies. Santa noticed that I kept losing my xacto knife while making Christmas cards and got a little worried about me. I couldn’t fit everything in there, but I was able to pack away all the little embossing powders, stamps and pens that I ALWAYS lose.

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Mr. Peacock’s job has had him traveling all over the place in the past year. It has been tough on us as it means lots of time apart and trying to maintain our relationship via phone calls and emails. Whenever we start feeling down about it, we remember all the American Airlines and Marriott points that he is racking up and we feel a little better. He was smart to become loyal to an airline and hotel early on rather than having points all over the place. Mr. Peacock realized a few months ago that Marriott has a few all-inclusive resorts, which means that we can use his points for the hotel, the food and the mai tais. Yes, we will be going on a virtually free honeymoon.

Winter has hit Chicago hard, so what better time to start fantasizing about tropical locations? Due to our school schedules, we will be taking our honeymoon one year from now- a few months after the wedding. Here are our favorite options:

Aruba

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Choosing a florist was a major challenge for me. I worked for one of the over-the-top event designers in Chicago as a weekend assistant and I saw some amazing floral art. They were doing the submerged cymbidium orchid thing before I ever saw it in a wedding mag. They also created a chuppah out of dangling lilies that made my jaw drop- and then they chopped off its “legs” for the second wedding in that same room and created a gorgeous cover for the band’s stage. Their work was a little mod for me, however, and I went looking for someone with a more natural, organic feel.

I love flowers and I still had grand visions of what I could do with my church and my reception venue. But, as most of us eventually realize, fresh flowers are crazy expensive. I needed to find someone that had a few creative ideas for a way to make my venue feel alive and colorful without bursting my budget. I met with so many talented florists in Chicago. I was so impressed with their ideas and their dedication to creating gorgeous floral displays. After going back and forth a million times, I finally settled on Petal Play Designs.

Petal Play Design

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Mrs. Onion’s post last week reminded me of a conversation that I had with Mr. Peacock and his sisters at Christmas. I think the conversation started with me talking about how I didn’t know how to make my manicures last longer than a few days. After recommending that I add a coat of clear polish each day after the manicure, one of Mr. Peacock’s sisters advised that Mr. Peacock get a manicure before the wedding. She mentioned that there were several close-ups of their hands (with their new rings) in her wedding album and that you would notice jagged cuticles.

Mr. Peacock just recoiled at the thought of a manicure. Another of Mr. Peacock’s sisters mentioned that her husband would NEVER let a stranger near his cuticles. They both had some vague dislike of manicurists touching their hands, particularly in a salon. I mentioned that there are several men-only salons in Chicago, but that didn’t make them feel any better.

Our photographer is a photojournalist, so I doubt we will have any of these in our album-

from the Harrah’s in Reno website

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I received an email last month from For Your Party announcing a few new additions to their site. The site has received a pretty major overhaul since I ordered from them last summer and it is definitely for the better. Everything is very interactive and creative. I think they have really changed up the old personalized matchbooks and their new products are pretty gorgeous.

Click on “Get the Look” to see the results of their partnerships with Hello!Lucky and Cid Pear. Here are my favorites-
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I’m not sure how I hadn’t heard of Orange Beautiful until this past weekend, but it was fun getting caught up. Emily’s blog is full of inspiration and her design is full of detail. Of course, I also love that she is from Chicago.

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I arrived on Friday, but Monday was my wedding day on the town! My first stop was at Tinsel Trading in midtown. There were a million, billion sources of inspiration in there. It reminded me of Anthropologie in that I wanted to just move in.

I also wandered over to the Store Across the Street, which is owned by Tinsel Trading and is… across the street. The walls were covered with spools of ribbon. There was a selection of Martha’s craft line, which I have really been enjoying. I think Michaels has a better selection, but I am guessing that there aren’t any Michaels in Manhattan. They had the newest copy of Martha Stewart Weddings on the cutting table, but I forced myself to leave it alone since my copy was waiting at home for me.

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So, back to my dream wedding. I found these gorgeous invitations on {frolic} from Atelier Isabey awhile back and they would be perfect! I looked at the design and thought, “oh, I could use these for my imaginary English wedding!” and then I read the invite and realized that that was exactly what these were designed for.

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