Things Accomplished

After his earlier moment of ... er ... clarity, the Groom feels it best to lay out some of the list items he has actually done.

Tuxes for the Groom, Groomsmen, and Ushers have been ordered. "The Tux Shop", with handy locations at Tacoma Mall and downtown Seattle, wants the various folks involved to get their measurements done before December 1. The tux includes shirt, cravat (or tie for the Ushers), and shoes - but not spats.

The Groom's tux is gratis, the Groomsmen will have to pony up $122 each, and the Ushers' ensemble will set them (or in the case of Victoria, me) back $119.

Seejay is 100% behind having the rehearsal dinner at Gateway to India. He promised the moon, the sun, and the stars, though not necessarily in that order.

We spoke with Fr. Bryan about the liturgy, and he gave some really useful pointers. A call is in to Bob McKamey at the parish to schedule a meeting about the music.

And Fr. Bryan's head was measured for the Biretta, which will be ordered in August.

Looks like the Groom has crossed everything off his 6+ month list. On to the next list...

Edited to add: The Bride and Groom will be meeting with Mr McKamey on Tuesday, August 14th at 7:00PM at St. Patrick Church.

SIX MONTHS!

Aaaaaah!

*waves hands in the air and runs about in circles*


Aaaaaah!

You are officially going to love me

My costuming community has chimed in with resources! Grab your surfboard!


Fingerwaving directions for hair: http://www.vividinfinity.com/fingerwave/fingerwaving.pdf
More hair: http://www.revampvintage.com/20shair.html

Makeup: http://www.revampvintage.com/20smakeup.html

Millinery: http://vintagesewing.info/1920s/28-mhd/mhd-toc-long.html

Period-specific bows: http://vintagesewing.info/1920s/28-mhd/mhd-13.html#use

Fashion: http://www.costumes.org/history/100pages/1920links.htm
(In fact, just have fun here: http://www.costumes.org/history/100pages/costhistpage.htm)

Dresses: http://dressmakingresearch.com/1928.htm
http://dressmakingresearch.com/1928_cd.htm
http://www.pastpatterns.com/1920.html

Also, I have a couple "authenticity experts" on hand, just in case we need 'em. :)

Valentino and Bob

Best Woman took the Bride around and calmed fears on a Saturday jaunt to get the ball rolling on the woman side of the wedding party. Some of our exploits included going to Hancock Fabrics, Going to Half Price Books, Going to Joann's, Going for Shots (wheat shots at JambaJuice).

There were no books on 20's costuming at Half Price books. FM wasn't surprised but was slightly distracted by the corkscrew bar piercing through the ear cartilage of the Half Price books clerk. She pulled herself together long enough to remembered Hollywood as her Decon inspiration. Again, we had less than sterling luck until I picked up Dark Lover: the Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino. after they picked themselves up off the floor from the title laughability factor they ended up finding the perfect photo. In the photo is Valentino and a wedding part, the bride, Mae Murray, looks stunning in her below the knee dress. The hem is lined in fur. It's a simple dress with a top cape and perfect for post-wedding use. So there will be dual purpose.

Hats, Hair, and Make-up will be Hollywood inspired for the wedding. Flapper hair that's been fingerwaved into place will be researched.

Hair named Bob

So it has been decided that Hollywood will lead the way:

The Silent Movies
Lillian & Dorothy Gish
Clara Bow
Louise Brooks
Agnes Ayres
Mary Pickford

Other Wedding Redux

I just came back from my neph's wedding. Their church was a converted warehouse, so they had to work with the cafeteria-style lighting (they had the wedding and reception in the same place, and people sat at the tables to watch the wedding). How they handled it, though, was by using lighting to make the room smaller and more intimate.

They used strings of white christmas lights, wrapped around poles (they used footage of tulle around the poles/ lights to soften the lights). Lots of candles, a few nice lamps and lucky for them, there was some track-lighting for the altar.

So this is what I'm adding to the idea bucket (for the inexpensive section):

10' PVC pipes (spray painted creme) capped with nice period finials(http://www.architecturalantiques.com/finials.jpg) or something similar (they would be seen several feet above, so they don't have to be spangly. Heck, we could tuck in fern fronds or whatnot. Tuck these poles into bronze-painted vases filled with papercrete or rocks to stabilize. Place these "movable poles" to where you would like to cut the room.

You can decorate the poles, top them with plants, string lights draped with cloth or beads between a two, etc. Afterward, use them for trellises in your garden or what-not. There's many uses for a pole. I'm talking 6-8 at the most.

Basically, using these poles and keeping the tables inside the circle would create a false perimiter for the room. You wouldn't have to make walls, just arrange furniture so that it looks like it would be in a room.

Also, if the ceiling is that low, grid-stuff, I have before bought a bolt of colored cloth (patterned or not) on sale (especially neat since winter is "after-season" for wedding-style and sheer cloth) and hung panels down to knee-level at intervals, put lights behind them, shining at the cloth. We could hang shop-lights vertically behind them, if lamps won't be bright enough to create ambient light and bring out the pattern on the cloth.

Using the marti-gras style beads, I've hung tassels or finials, etc. from the cross-points of the grids at random hights and location. Seriously, if done right with the right lighting, it does look classy. We could also hang some lighted ornaments tastefully from the ceiling, so it will add light but won't look like high-school prom (again, ecch).

Anyway, I've just realized that I automatically assumed that you folks were looking to recreate the "livingroom reception" in your decor. If not, let me know. We could also do a speakeasy thing, and save your calla lillies for the ceremony.

This is, of course, if you decide to have the reception hosted in the room below the church, instead of hosting it in a place where it will be decorated for you.

What were you guys thinking?

Lists, Lists, Lists

The assembly of the master mailing list proceeds apace. There is an unreasonable hope that "save the date" postcards will be out this week, with a "heads-up" e-mail to those reasonably close to the action.

The hard part seems to be gathering addresses. Drat!