This would make an adorable wedding dress

One of the weddings that was most influential to me in planning my backyard wedding was that of Sarai of Sweet Sassafras. She now makes the most beautiful patterns, and one of her recent would make a darling wedding dress. In fact, I suspect that she knows it considering the styling.

Anniversary and research

P and I celebrated our first anniversary last week while camping in the Southwest.

It was a fun week, particularly since I'd been working in Texas for over a month so we hadn't seen each other since early August!

In other news, I got an email today from a grad student looking for engaged couples to participate in a research study. I'm not totally sure what the study is about, but I thought I'd help her out an pass along the message. If anyone contacts her and it ends up being something totally crazy, let me know and I'll pull this.

"Engaged volunteers needed!

I am looking for volunteers for a study of attitudes towards marriage and parenthood among engaged couples. The study consists of a 25-30 minute online survey. To qualify for the study, you must be 20-35 years old, live in the U.S., and plan to marry or have a commitment ceremony within the next 365 days. You and your romantic partner must not have children, and this must be the first marriage for both of you.

You can:

-Help a doctoral candidate;

-Increase the pool of scientific knowledge;

-Support research on marriage and families; and

-Spend some time thinking about your relationship!

I am working with Dr. Charlotte J. Patterson, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia. This study has been approved by the University of Virginia Institutional Review Board #2009025800.

If you and/or your romantic partner are interested in participating or want further information, please email me at surveycouples@gmail.com. I will send you a link that you can use to access the study.

Thanks!

Cristina Reitz-Krueger

Doctoral Student

University of Virginia

(434) 243-8558

survey.couples@gmail.com"

Reader Question: Wedding Day Timeline

Reader Question: I was wondering if you could post a timeline of the days leading up to the wedding. I am especially in search of one for the wedding day.

I'll have to work on a lead-up to the wedding timeline (I have one, but I want to fiddle with it a bit so it more accurately depicts what actually happened).  So, for now, here is our wedding day timeline (including stuff other people were doing and stuff we (P and me) were doing).  I've given the timeline that we thought we'd go by and made a note if that thing actually ended up happening at a later time.

An Illustrated Wedding Day Timeline

8:00 am - Breakfast at the B&B  (Wedding party plus P & me)
9:30 am Meet at house to continue set up  -Menfolk, plus my parents and some assorted family
9:30 am Women at B&B for hair, getting ready, finishing up flowers w/photographer (we had our hair person come to us, which was just as cheap as us going there because she didn't have to pay for her stall rental).

11:00 am Prep salads & apps - Mom and assorted friends and family at the house
12:00 pm Men get ready for pictures at the house - Groomsmen plus P

1:o0 pm Meet for pictures at the B&B (Wedding party plus us)  

3:30 pm Back to house for family pictures - Us, wedding party, family
4:15 pm Set up apps & drinks in backyard and water in front - Designated friend helpers
4:30 pm People arrive, greet people - Everyone

5:00 pm Ceremony starts - We based this on when we thought it would start cooling down.

6:00 pm Drinks, apps, and fun

6:45 pm Buffet starts (Actually ended up starting around 7:15 pm)

7:30 pm Cut pie (Dinner actually ended up taking longer than we thought so this actually happened around 8:30)

7:30 pm Dancing music (Actually ended up starting a bit after 8:30--immediately after cake/pie).

We wrapped up just around midnight, though most folks were gone by then and it was mostly the people were were spending the night there after about eleven or so.

Reader Question: How many toilets is enough?

A version of a question I'm commonly asked by readers:

Question:
I am planning on having my wedding ceremony and reception in my parent's backyard.  I was wondering if you have any advice on bathrooms.  We are planning on having about 150 guests and my parents only have 1 restroom. Rather than having all the guests go all over the house looking for a bathroom, we were wondering if you had any suggestions or if 1 bathroom would suffice.

My answer:

We had this debate as well. My parent's bathroom is sort of tempermental so we ended up renting a toilet.  It actually wasn't gross at all (it was the rental company's special "wedding toilet") and one was plenty for the 100 guests we had.  I was just at another wedding that had around 120 guests and their 1 toilet was a lot busier than ours seemed, but the line was never too long (maybe 2 people at most). I'd say you could probably get by with one if you trust your plumbing!

Wildflower Weddings

I don't normally pimp particular companies on this blog, but I'm looking into covering my front yard with self-seeding wildflowers and came across American Meadows, a company that sells regional wildflower seed (including organic and native seed mixes).  

On their website they have a whole section dedicated to including wildflowers in your wedding--throwing wildflower seeds instead of bird seed, rice, confetti or giving them as favors.  Wildflowers are really easy to grow, so basically, throwing some seeds on the ground in the fall or spring (prime wedding season) could be enough to grow a meadow of wildflowers.

While I don't really condone wedding-specific marketing and we didn't include throwing things or favors in our wedding, I actually think that in our situation throwing wildflower seeds in my parents orchard could have been really nice and would have been a nice reminder of the wedding orchard for years to come.  

Have any of you used wildflower seeds in your wedding in this way?