inspirations

You can tell I’m in the wedding home stretch, the last few posts have featured other peoples photos! I feel bad about that, but I have so much work to do, no time for adventures & photos!! I’m just trying to gather all my final prep for the wedding, and gathering last minute inspiration around the web.

Sometimes, though, I get so bogged down visually – this morning I fell down a rabbit hole looking at this tumblr – SO MANY PARTIES. So many of the same, same, same thing. So pretty, but – !!! Really? It’s like one giant never ending wedding. Which actually would be amazing, but I digress.

My original inspiration for the wedding came from the Tasha Tudor book “A Time to Keep.” I have to keep checking back in with it before I get swept up in a tide of mason jars and calico bunting. I need to stop thinking so much about detail and work on the wedding the way I work on ALL my art – in a state of meditation, not thinking too much but trusting instinct and reaching for the threads that call to me.

tudor-augI was BEYOND obsessed with this book as a little girl – I wanted birch plates and meringue mushrooms and cakes floated down the river with candles.

tudor-aug2tudor-aug3

I want to watch Hook because I keep thinking about the Lost Boys.

lostboyspeterpan-remix-technoWild babies! The idea of stumbling on a lost tribe in the woods!

Not really traditional wedding inspiration, but I think it’s so, so much better for me to get inspiration from random sources – looking at weddings nonstop makes it difficult to discern what truly resonates and reflects us as a couple, vs. “ooh! shiny! pretty! want!” which is basically what my brain melts down to after about 5 posts of weddings.

& I’ve been returning back to some of my own work for inspiration – this nest was big enough for 2 people and suspended in the corner of a gallery –

nest
nest3

How about everyone else out there? Do you have an inspiration process? Do you prefer abstract or literal inspiration?

18 Comments

  1. That book looks beautiful! What a neat inspiration for a wedding. I am in the process of JuST starting to plan our wedding (baby came before marriage haha) and I have always pictured a woodland type wedding with my bridesmaids like fairies in gauzy pastels. But we will see! I look forward to watching the progression of your wedding!

  2. I’m one of those girls who’s been planning her wedding since…maybe birth? So I don’t remember what my first inspirations were.

    I have these thoughts, though, that have dominated my inspiration board:
    1) Catholic traditional wedding mass. The whole works. I haven’t always been proud of my faith, and I struggle at times, but ritual and symbol is very important to me. (Also, I like that if you go traditional mass, you don’t have to find a venue or chairs or any of a lot of non-important details that drive people nuts. We can concentrate on the readings and music, and bigger details instead.

    2) An old song I remember from Burl Ives’ many Disney appearances: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t66iSkxq7AY Also, lavender is my mom’s favorite fragrance, so it’s comforting more than usual.

    3)”And my “something blue” was a group of 13 very special women who wore blue to “stand up with me in spirit.“” (http://apracticalwedding.com/2009/09/wedding-graduate-i-do-chronicles/)
    I had a similar idea before I every started looking at wedding sites/blogs. If blue is supposed to be lucky for the bride (because of the loyalty, or “true blue”, or whatever reason it goes with the old, new, borrowed, and penny), then I want as much as possible. I certainly won’t demand that everyone wear blue, but I’d like as much of our families as possible all decked out.

    4)Family Reunions. Remember the old fashioned summer reunions with great-grandparents and potato salad? Barbeque and small cousins running loose? I want to recreate that at our reception.

  3. Have you watched “Legend” lately ? I love some of the images … Especially the ring scene … Oh dear … I love how the “air” is always filled with floating details : leaves, blossom petals, glitters, snow …
    One of the best woods in the history of cinema, methinks.

    Ok, and now I *need* this little book !
    Nutshells are a permanent obsession of mine. And miniature, portable trinkets. Eeep !

    Abstract inspiration is the best … Books titles, myths, paintings, legends …

    Your Wedding will be legendary ! People will write books about it. And little girls will dream about having a wedding just like yours. (I know … I’m pretty corny, today …)
    x x x
    -m-

    1. Ok, so I’ve never seen Legend – S. just freaked out and I guess we’ll watch it tonight. Haha! Yay twinkling forests!

      You would love the Time to Keep book, I think — different parties/celebrations for times of the year – like tiny, sparrow delivered valentines, and bobbing for halloween apples…

    2. & you are all MAKING ME NERVOUS with all this pressure for a pretty wedding! It’s not going to be any different from all the other pretty weddings – people are all going above and beyond these days! No balloons, though, (can’t stand how un-ecological they are) & no pink!

  4. I love non-wedding inspiration. I think it yields the most creative and original ideas. In general I think inspiration from the same medium ends up yielding a derivative product (ie. fashion that looks to past fashion as influence is never as good as fashion that looks to outside influences).

    I think your inspirations are really cool. I never knew about Tasha Tudor until I lived in Massachusetts. She’s a really interesting woman and her books are magic.

  5. Ohmygosh, I was SO obsessed with “A Time to Keep” and Tasha Tudor!!! I wanted to be her: illustrate children’s books with sweet, gentle, old-fashioned watercolors and wear old fashioned dresses and weave and dye wool. I own practically every book she’s ever written and ever book written about her, LOL.

    Never thought about the connection to wedding inspiration, but I love it.

    1. Me too! My Nana gave me every book for holidays, so I have quite a collection now. Plus, she lived in Vermont!

      Your wedding LOOKED like a Tasha wedding!!! Flower crown!!

  6. Masquerade, by Kit Williams. (http://www.amazon.com/Masquerade-Complete-Book-Answer-Explained/dp/0894803697) Do you know it? It’s a riddle, with hidden pictures. The author painted all the paintings and made a rabbit out of gold and jewels and buried it somewhere in Great Britain, and the first person to figure out (from the clues in the text and pictures) where it was hidden got to keep it. It’s so beautiful, and whimsical, and wonderful.

    Some images:
    http://tiny.cc/t62i5

    http://tiny.cc/ei5ty

    http://tiny.cc/bthem

  7. you can get ecological balloons, they degrade at the same rate as oak leaves, randomly. we got them for Iris’s birthday last winter. you want some?

    i like this non-trad wedding inspiration, it’s more in-keeping with you somehow. Kit Williams books are totally amazing, i remember being transfixed by all the tiny details and woodland feasts. i have them now to share with Iris when she gets a bit older.

    i’m sorry you’re feeling grumpy today. this is the home stretch! have faith! and also i think you have to stop saying no dress and just get on with the dress, head down, nimble fingers a-stitching. you CAN do it! you can! you can!

    unless, you have a plan b in your head or wardrobe?

  8. Oh Tasha Tudor! God she was cool. Pumpkin Moonshine! I like the idea of returning to your original inspiration..it’s way to easy to fall down a tumblr-wormhole. Best to stick with the good stuff. VT weather update: very pretty today, I think the leaves will be turning nicely for you :)

    LEGEND yes.

    1. Weather from the source! The 10 day from now is showers, showers, showers so I’m starting to worry! NO rain, universe, please, please.

      You should totally crash the wedding 😀

  9. Oh, I loved that book as a child, too! We had a lot of Tasha Tudor books because we had corgis (which she loved). You’re so smart to look for wedding inspiration from random things that you love.

  10. You know what they say about weather in Vermont…hehe! Don’t tempt me! You *and* Angeliska? In Vermont? In October? Almost too magic. I’m sure it’s going to be beautiful.

  11. I am so excited to see how it all turns out visually. Because there is no doubt that it will all turn out wonderfully no matter what. I have been digging your blog for awhile and thought that I really should say hi.

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