Isn't She Lovely?

So, truth time: I never knew “Wedding Scents” were a thing until I started reading Weddingbee. However, Grandma Waterfall always gave me the following piece of advice, which was passed down to her from her Mother in Law (great-grandma Waterfall), who worked for many years at the fragrance counter of a very posh Old Havana Boutique:

"A woman should always have a signature scent, so that anytime a man smells her perfume, he's instantly reminded of her, and how lovely she smells."

And I mean, it definitely makes sense, considering that the part of the brain that controls the olfactory sense is located in the limbic system, which is closely linked with memory and emotions. So, by repeatedly wearing the same perfume, you create a conditioned response over  time, how delightfully Pavlovian!

For years I searched for my Signature Scent, a scent that would be perfectly bewitching and so very me. I must admit that have the bad habit of always spraying random perfume samples directly on my skin before sniffing the tester strip. This is a terrible thing to do because half the time, I end up hating the perfume after it's too late, and then am forced to smell it for HOURS until it wears off. However, if it wasn`t for this, I never would have found my signature scent!

A few years ago, I was in Macy`s with Mami W when I spotted a display of Sarah Jessica Parker`s new (at the time) fragrance, Lovely. 

Lovely/ Fragrance by Sarah Jessica Parker/ Image via www.dailydealtips.com

Since I love all things SATC and SPJ, I spritzed some on, and I gotta tell ya, at first, I was all: EW! ewwww, old lady perfume, I got it in my mouth!!! 

Image via gifsforum.com

But after a few minutes, the overwhelming top notes dissipated, and all of a sudden, I was all: okayyyyyyy, I see what you did there, nicely done SPJ.

Image via gifsforum.com

Just like that, I had found my Signature Scent, and I've been wearing it for years, though I switch it up occasionally with other perfumes various people have gifted me. I briefly entertained the thought of getting a speshul Wedding Day Scent for my speshul day, and even picked up a few samples from Sephora. When the April-Ludgate-looking salesgirl looked at me like I was crazy (because she hadn't heard of a Wedding Day Scent either), I realized I probably was a little crazy. And while the Cuban in me loves all things free, I ultimately decided that none of these scents warranted spending the money for a full size bottle of random perfume when I had already found one I truly loved. Seriously, perfume ain’t cheap yo’, and it seems like one of those things that advertising execs made up to make crazy brides everywhere spend even more money on their weddings. While we’re on the subject of advertising... could this perfume BE any more bridal? I'm telling you, SJP is some sort of marketing genious!

via youtube.com

“Loveliness is everywhere...A touch, a face, a memory, pink pearls, a song, a sexy shoe, a kiss, candlelight, a white orchid, a girl, a woman, a dream, a scent...You only have to look.”- SarahJessica Parker.

So, that's the story of how I wore my every day perfume on my wedding day, and I'm really glad I did. It brought a touch of very welcome normality to my day. Plus, now I love being gently brought back to the way I felt on my wedding day whenever I spritz this on, and if I could sum up what that was in one word, it would be: Lovely

Craftastic!

Getting hospitalized two months before the wedding put a serious cramp in my style, yo! So, once I felt a bit better, read: well enough to hold up my glue gun, I knew it was time to get 'ma craft on! There were a few projects that, while completely non essential, I knew I really wanted to try and incorporate time (and health) willing, so I tackled those first. None of these projects is large enough to warrant its own post, so I've just compiled them all into one mega craft-plosion. Ready? Let's do this!

1. Ring Pillow:

One of the first pictures I saved into my inspiration folder (before I discovered the wonder that is Pinterest) was this super adorable flower ring pillow by Martha Stewart:

Swoon! Inage via Martha Stewart Weddings

Sure, you can buy equally adorable ones on Etsy, except that I refuse to pay upwards of $50 for what's basically a glorified cushion! No. Just. No. So, I pranced over to my local fabric store to pick out some fabric and give this baby a try. Tip: For small projects like this one, always check out the discount bin. It's basically leftover scraps of fabric, at a fraction of the cost! For $3, I was able to buy three different kinds of fabric! 

 

I started out by hand sewing a simple square pillow out of some beautiful grey silk. I’m not going to replicate the steps because I figure that most of you know how to do this and if you don’t, there are a million tutorials out there that will explain it better than I can. I made it fairly small because my ring bearer is only three years old, so I wanted the pillow to look proportional. I didn’t know what fabric I wanted for the petals, so I bought taffeta (as per Martha’s instructions) and a gorgeous silk chiffon which I thought would be amazing and fluffy. Turns out Martha knows best - not that I’m surprised; the chiffon was too soft and the petals looked super sad and droopy. If you’re planning on making this, stick to taffeta! I drew my petals on the fabric and cut them out with pinking shears because I couldn’t find any scalloped ones. It took a while to get the hang of assembling the flowers, but I finally got the hang of it. I finished off by attaching a small cobalt blue ribbon to tie in our wedding colours and voila!

2. Bride Hanger

I’m a very detail oriented person, so every time I see pictures online of a gorgeous wedding gown hanging on a hideous plastic hanger, it hurts my soul. For this project, I bought a wooden hanger from the Dollar Store, broke off the bar to hang pants, and painted it white. Confession: the blue wire was actually a happy accident; the store was out of silver 12 gauge wire so I bought blue instead, and I find it pops so much more! It only took me three tries to get the letters the way I wanted, I simply found some pictures of hangers I liked and freehanded the letters, using round things like fat highlighters to shape the curves. I crazy glued the wire in the holes where the pants bar was, slapped on a purdy little bow, and called it a day. 

3. Here Comes the Bride Banner

Pinterest is swarming with adorable pictures of little ones carrying signs like this down the aisle, and if you recall, I had an extra flower girl with nothinh to carry. Boom. Problem solved! 

Image via bridalguide.com/ Photo by Artisan Events

I simply used the leftover taffeta from the ring pillow project to cut out a square and sewed it onto the bars I had removed from the hangers above. While doing this, keep in mind the height of the child that the sign is intended for, you don't want to make it too small or too big. Next, I freehanded the letters with a gel pen (careful to avoid bleeding), sewed on a thick ribbon and I was done! All while watching 27 dresses, not a terrible way to spend an afternoon ;)

What totally useless, yet adorable DIY projects is everybody up to?

War of the Roses

When I was a little girl, a friend of the family and his long time girlfriend promised me that when they got married, I would be their flower girl. I was delighted at this, but alas, little girls tend not to stay little for very long, and by the time they finally got around to tying the knot several years had gone by and I was no longer a cute little girl, but an awkward lanky, pre-teen with thick glasses. Don't believe me?

Yikes! Personal Photo

Needless to say, I was passed up for the opportunity, but I vowed that when my own wedding came, I would have the cutest flower girl of all time, and a petal explosion to match. When Mr. W and I started dating, his little sister (let’s call her Lil Waterfall) was just two years old, so when we talked about our future wedding, we just assumed she would be the flower girl. However, by the time we finally got engaged, Lil W was already ten years old, and she would be twelve on our wedding date. Of course, I wasn’t about to let history repeat itself, so we gave her first dibs on the flower girl gig anyways. She very vocally refused, declaring that flower girls were for babies, and that she, in all her training-bra-wearing, Justin-Bieber-loving Pre-Teen Glory, was simply too old for this sh*t.  

Image via anotherwhiskyformisterbukowski.com

We decided to ask Papi Waterfall’s little goddaughter instead, but my parents insisted that we also needed to ask her big sister so she wouldn’t feel left out, and also a family friend’s daughter of the same age, because you can’t have two without three. Fine, we said, there’s no such thing as too many flower girls. More girls = more petals = more fabulous, right? The more the merrier, and all that jazz.

Fast forward a few months and we had just booked our amazing chapel. I was emailing with the coordinator nun, asking her some questions about the church’s rules and regulations, having a good ol’ time, until I asked about petals, you know, as a formality. Her answer?

Image via knowyourmeme.com

NO PETALS. No petals inside or outside the church, no petals on a runner, no real petals or silk petals. No petals of any kind. I tried all my best negociating tricks to get her to agree, until sent me the following email:

"Miss Waterfall, 

You can always find a different church. If you’re not happy with our rules, you still have plenty of time to go elsewhere."   

Ouch! Who knew nuns could be so mean? Anyways, I let it go and decided my time was better spent coming up with a solution instead of trying to get my way. Here I was: three flower girls with nothing to carry. They couldn't throw the petals, so traditional flower girl baskets seemed silly. They couldn't carry pomanders because we had already decided on hanging silk pomanders from the pews. That’s when it hit me: single roses! Since Mr. Waterfall and I had already decided to perform a rose ceremony after our vows, we would already be buying two single roses from our florist. Just like that, we would be killing two birds with one stone. Plus, look how precious!

Image via mayihavethering.com/ Photography: Christina McNeill / Floral Design: Tulipina

The only problem was that we still needed to figure out something for FG #3 to carry. Stay tuned to find out what we came up with ;)

What are your flower girls carrying?