A Lovely Band, Celtic Style

Chris has found a lovely wedding band, just for him. It's made by a Celtic ring company stationed in Portarlington, Ireland--right smack in the green heart of Dublin.

The ring is a traditional Celtic knot, but what we both love so much about it is its thinness and solidity, its simple and understated interlace around the band. The symbolism of the interlace is also fitting, being representative of the never ending intersection of the physical and spiritual, of the permanence and the continuum of life, love, and faith.

The picture shown here is of a gold ring, but we are planning on Platinum for the durability, the look, and cleanness. You can see a few more views of the ring in Platinum by clicking here.

We're excited to order this from Dublin, but first we need Chris' ring size!

Themed Weddings: Creative or a Bust?

I have been toying for the last month or so with incorporating a theme into our wedding--and by theme I was thinking something personal, something that captures both Chris and me, our interests, our loves, a bond that connects us. Themes have become quite popular these days--those that go beyond color and season and into a theme that says something about the couple involved.

I have seen many a themed wedding online, and many of them are downright ghastly, including the infamous Al Capone themed wedding, the Great Gatsby wedding, and even Star Trek influenced weddings complete with Klingon costumes. And I'm serious about that last one. It actually happened.

As for Chris and I, we love wine, Virginia, nature, fall, books, and film. These define so much of our relationship, as well as how we spend our time enjoying one another. With the wedding in Oatlands, we've got Virginia covered. With the ceremony in beautiful, natural, and organic gardens in October we've definitely got fall and nature covered. However, books and film are wide open, and up for discussion.

Film is tricky, but books--ah...books--we might really have something there. Initial ideas for how to incorporate this theme:

• Use a 1930s royal vintage typewriter (which I already have) and sheets of typing paper for the guest book, where guests can type away their sound advice and well wishes! Chris and I can save this later and frame it, if we like.
  
• Use vintage typewriter keys (numbers 1-6) attached to bookmarks printed with the names of guests to guide them to their respective tables at the reception dinner.
• Design table center cards, featuring a black and white illustration of a scene from a famous love story, or maybe just frames of apt quotations, and of course the number of the tables themselves.
  
• Give away novels as favors that correspond to the novels illustrated and quoted at each respective dinner table. Consider wrapping novels in typed Courier font paper.
• A literary reading during the ceremony, or perhaps just at the reception dinner itself, by one of my dear lady friends, if they are brave and willing.
• Our October 3 wedding date is the birthday of famous writers, including Gore Vidal and Thomas Wolfe, but that's not very exciting, but rather just something cool to note. Noted.
  

This is probably as far as I'd take any theme--besides, of course, extending it to invitations and stationary--and this literary theme is clever enough to be a lot of fun, I think, and, of course, to promote Chris' and my love of literature.

However, there are a few hesitations I have in going with this theme:

(1) Is this appropriate for a wedding? I think it would be unique. And educational! But is it appropriate? Worth it?

(2) The vintage typewriter accessories and typewriter itself are black, and I want to make sure our color scheme would work with this. I am in love with blue and black and white (so beautiful and funnily enough the same decor as my house), and this would work beautifully with this theme, but I am concerned about the fact that the Carriage House at Oatlands has a green baseboard around the perimeter of the room (though the rest of it is wooden and rustic, minus a few strips of carpet in the table area, which mom and I have a plan for covering, as well as the trim around four posts which lovely fabric will handle). Would this clash? I will post pictures of the Carriage House soon for further consideration. If so, open to other colors--except green. We won't do green.

(3) Is a literary theme distracting from the historic beauty of Oatlands itself? Would we do better to go with a more natural, rustic flair? To incorporate, instead, brown leaves from the fall, or more rustic accessories?

Alice continues her quest through the maze that is her reception decor. First step: find way to cover carpet, possibly trim in Carriage House. Second step: finalize color scheme, based on results of step one. Third step: see if literary theme can work with this. Fourth step: move in on stationary and matching invitation scheme. Fifth step: Finalize wedding website with all elements thusly incorporated.