Giant Pile 'O Vintage Fashion Links

Mostly thanks to KSTorkko.

• Various Drawings
• Silhouette catalog
• A video on depression era fashion
  
• '20s-30s dance attire
• Decades of Style Patterns
• Development of 1930s style (taken from the '30s Fashion Sourcebooks)

Also Pyramid catering has a "20s buffet menu" that looks tasty and reasonably priced. Who knew?

Since we're being political: FUR!!!

There are some circles in which you cannot wear fur any more, or so I hear. Strangely enough, leather is totally fine in these circles. (Maybe we can get into the class and gender reasons behind the War on Fur another time.) That said, I've never understood (1) why leather is okay when fur is not and (2) why vintage fur is just as verboten as new fur. The premise behind protesting new fur makes sense; the more new fur you buy, the more is manufactured, and the more adorable fuzzy animals are tortured / maimed / what-have-you as a result.

Vintage fur, on the other hand, is already dead. It's been dead for a while. No new adorable animals are being killed to manufacture fifty-year-old clothing. So why isn't it okay to wear Grandma's fox stole? Shouldn't we make the most of it, get the most use out of it that we can?

All of this may just be my way of saying, I may wear a vintage fur stole at the reception. I found it at the Capital Hill Value Village, I bought it, it's mine and you can't have it. The end.

Have You Hugged Your Unionized Hotel Worker Today?

Working at a hotel is not the most pleasant of jobs. There's an entire chapter of Nickeled and Dimed: on (Not) Getting By in America that details the daily grind of the folks who flip your mattresses, wash your sheets, clean your sinks, and cook your breakfast when you travel. It's a low-wage, high-turnover industry. UNITE-HERE is devoted to making life for these workers just a little bit better. We're going to try to block rooms first with the union hotels in Seattle. Current options:

• Zero-transfer trip to St. Mark's
• Downtown Hilton (2 blocks to 49)
• Westin (3 blocks to 49)
  
• One-transfer trip to St. Mark's
• Doubletree Artic Club Hotel (Bus Tunnel->49)
  
• Best Western Loyal Inn (SLU Streetcar->49)
  
• Best Western Executive Inn (8->49)
• Eighth Avenue Inn (8->49)
  
• No useful transit trip
• Edgewater (15->49)
  

Today's Blag topic: flowers.

Flowers is one area that is easy-peasy to DIY. For my mother's wedding, e.g., we went into Elliot Bay, picked up a book on flower arranging, read the bit on boutonnieres/corsages, put it back down, and headed to Northwest Florists Supply to get cracking. (Unfortunately, you can't just toddle in with any borrowed business license now; you have to register, and only two people are allowed in the warehouse at a time.)

Anyway, here's my plan for centerpieces: FLOWERS FLOATING IN A BOWL. (I know! Are you okay? Maybe you should sit down.) This is, of course, a reference to my darling beloved Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway:

Sally went out, picked hollyhocks, dahlias—all sorts of flowers that had never been seen together—cut their heads off, and made them swim on the top of water in bowls. The effect was extraordinary… Indeed she did shock people.

(Sally Seton is a floral modernist, or maybe just a modern florist.)

No need for the candles, I think; and instead of smooth bowls, I'd rather use my mother's cut glass Feather bowls, but we'll have to wait to see whether she allows it. Here colors become an issue; I'm thinking of blue (in case you couldn't tell from posts below) for the primary color, and there aren't many blue flowers. You've got your hydrangea, your delphinium, your iris, and your prickly thistle. All of these are very pretty, but they're certainly not my favorite flowers. And, of course, Bob only knows if they'll float in a bowl of water. Back to the drawing board.

Invites and Such

Some nice art deco invites, thanks to KSTorko.

Colormania

The internet is a bit to fabulous sometimes. Adobe has a nifty palette picking website. You can even upload photos and pick colors from within them. Here's an example based on this image.

There's also Multicolr, for searching flickr images for specific hues. Problems: (a) it doesn't have very good options for greens. (b) real-world photos just don't have the saturation of the standard web pallette.

Here's the latest in ladies' accessories!

Things I'm loving at the moment:

Very sweet and '30s-ish shoes from Harajuku Lovers;

curly feather fascinator from GingerandTonic on Etsy;

and this late '30s day/evening gown pattern from Vogue Patterns. (To be done, obviously, in a gorgeous slate-blue crepe-backed silk.)

Possible in-theme table ideas

Decorations:
Floating flowers in bowls (e.g. this, but without the chintzy bowl and candles. Dahlias, mums and gerberas would probably work pretty well for this.)
Cakes
Artfully stacked favors

Table names:
Dances of the era (Charleston, Lindy Hop, etc.)
Famous persons of the era (Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Cardozo, Clark Gable, Dizzy Dean, Ella Fitzgerald, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Greta Garbo, Hedy Lamarr, Irving Berlin, Joe Lewis, Katherine Hepburn, Louis Armstrong, Marlene Dietrich, etc.)

Notes 20091009

• A short, quasi-period ladies' hair style.
• And another one.
• This one is less period.
• As is this one.
• This could be made to work ... ?
• Cakes-as-centerpieces can look nice, saves money on centerpiece flowers/vases/whatever, but may or may not save money on cake costs.
  
• Brown's Catering and Chef Bert are all-inclusive (their rate includes staff costs and rentals) but our venue has rentals so that's halfway moot.
  

Notes 20091006

• Decent-looking dance step images 
• More dance step images
  
• Uplighting photos. In a lot of these the light source is a little to close to the wall IMO.
  
• Totally awesome frog prince groom's cake (note: the "groom's cake" is basically an invention of the bridal-industrial complex. And we're not having a frog-prince themed wedding. But this cake rules).
  

The Favour of Your Reply Is Requested ...

If you've received an invitation, you can RSVP either by dropping the RSVP postcard in the mail, or by filling out our online RSVP! Thanks!

Shhhh! We're Registered.

We've set up one online-only registry and one online+in-store registry:

• (online only)
• (online or in-store)

Our out-of-town guests would greatly appreciate it if in-town guests started their gift shopping on Amazon.com.

We've also set up a charity registry through the I Do Foundation and would be honored by your charitable donation in lieu of gifts:

Hello!

Welcome to the BeaudrOwen blog! This is where Nick and I will be posting the details of our impending nuptials as they get finalized. For now, here are a few helpful links:

Our Amazon Registry

Nick's other blog

A video of a cat diving into a box


If you're planning your own wedding, here are a few sites we've found informative:

Offbeat Bride

DIY Bride

Etsy Weddings

Cake Wrecks

More to come!

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