Flowing into spring

The old adage about time and flight seems apt for me lately. The month of January seemed to melt away and February is also already half over. Time is indeed flying, right into spring and right up until the time that MM leaves for overseas duty in April. Then it will probably crawl. I'll just have to make sure that wedding planning doesn't crawl. So time to get into it!

He and I are trying to get a lot done before he leaves. Not all of it is wedding stuff of course: even in a rental, there is always little fix up housework waiting to be done. But some of it is indeed wedding stuff. Some examples: how many people on his side of the family does he want to allow to show up to our day? Does he feel that a traditional tiered wedding cake is an integral part of the wedding ceremony, or can we skip it in favour of other kinds of dessert (e.g. sundae bar)? Does he have the right style personality to pull off a pale purple shirt?

For me at the moment, the latter is my preoccupation. Put simply, I'm wondering about colour. Originally, when the date was in October, then November, colour was easy for me. I love deep saturated rich shades, colour that has a strong punch and mood to it. So it was going to be all about eggplant purple, burnt orange and chocolate brown, with strong warm metallics (copper, bronze and hits of mellowed gold). Now that the wedding date is in May, though, I'm been trying to find a less autumnal palette that still speaks to me and of me. That means it can't be pastel or sweet or airy and it can't include the colour pink in any form. It still has to be part of spring though.

Then I found this wedding bouquet at TheKnot.com:



And bam! I was inspired.

Many wedding magazines and paint strips later, I've decided. I'm sticking with my all time favourite colour, purple, in two intensities: lilac and eggplant. I'm thinking of layering with chocolate brown and dulled silver, and then punching it up here and there with both bright and light green (think celadon and tiny bits of lime). The idea would be that light green and silvered brown is the colour of nature herself at that time of year, and purple is the colour of one of my favourite flowers, lilacs.



I can see this flowing out into lilacs and tulips and violets (or crocuses , if possible... as homage to my Manitoba roots), mixed up eccentrically with orchids, simply because I love them. We're hoping to be outdoors for the day so it will be a bonus if the venue (wherever it ends up being) happens to have lilac bushes on site. It isn't much of a stretch to hope for, given how abundantly they tend to grow in Ontario. And the smell is divine!


I can see this palette lending itself to all kinds of interpretations. For example, for invitations, I can see dark brown paper with lilac and silver writing. The girls' dresses would be eggplant with lilac sashes, and the guys suits would be either dark brown or charcoal grey with silvered lilac shirts and green/purple ties. Accessories around the venue would be clear glass and silver (making them easy to find and hopefully purchase on sale!).

Ok now I'm excited again!