SIX WEEKS AND COUNTING

A small wedding - just immediate family - 40 or so people - casual - low-budget -  my back yard.  "No problem, I'll do the food." 

Flowers in mason jars - sunflowers and daisies - nothing fancy.  "Sure, I can take care of that too."  

Table decorations- small favors for guests - chairs, tables, music.  "How much trouble can it be if we keep it small and casual?  Sure, I'll take care of those things."  

Rings for the bride and groom - that's what I do for a living.  Sure, I'd be honored to make them.

What was I thinking?
I was determined that this journey toward creating a unique and meaningful,  but very affordable wedding, would NOT stress me out.  I would have fun with the planning, play with the myriad of details, enjoy my daughter and her input, and  be organized enough that stress would not be an issue.  I confess that as we approach the six week mark until the Easter weekend wedding, I am tap-dancing right at the edge of stress.

Determined to stick to our low budget and confident that we could pull off a DIY/Pinterest inspired/no rules apply wedding that would be unique, meaningful, and fun, we began the planning and haven't slowed down since.  No caterers or servers -friends and family will pitch in to help.  No florists - doing that one ourselves.  No professional photographer - cell phone cameras and friends taking lots of candid shots will record this event. No DJ or professional musicians - just a brother of the bride with IPod and speakers. Sister of the bride designed and mailed the invitations.

I have yet to look at the first wedding magazine or planning time-line.  I refuse to follow the rules that have set the current standards for weddings (which are absolutely ridiculous), so it seems best I don't even know what those rules are.      

Every day I approach my to-do list and try to mark off multiple items so that I will have a sense I am in charge of the process.  I have wrapped wire around mason jars to hang flowers from shepherd crooks in the back yard.  I have collected dozens of odd glass bottles and jars for centerpieces.  I have baked and barbequed and frozen multiple batches of wedding menu recipes.  I have made the rings. I have planted urns to put beside the doors and spruced up the back yard (or at least as much as you can spruce in the dead of winter.)  I have touched up the paint, spruced up the bathrooms, and hung pictures I intended to hang last year.  And in spite of my efforts to shorten the to-do list, every day sees several new additions.  That part is a little humbling - keeps me from feeling smug. 

I'll keep you posted as we approach the big day, but I remain convinced that it will be possible to create an incredibly special wedding on a very small budget with lots of creativity, help from friends and family, and a refusal to let the cultural norms drive our process.  Here's hoping it all comes together for Eric and Lauren's big day. 

Eric and Lauren

    

New Beginnings

For a while now, I've been finding my way to the blogs of lots of creative people and find that my own creativity has been incredibly stimulated by what I see and read on their sites - so I decided that I am going to try this blogging thing out for myself.  I have the privilege of spending many of my days in my Soul Whispers Arts studio creating, teaching, and playing with art and want to capture some of my own thoughts, questions, and challenges about the creative process.  

I have been convinced for years that art and spirituality have a strong link within us and that as we explore our creative side, we become more and more in touch with the spiritual part of who we are.  I'd like this blog to be a place where I can "pay attention" to those connections in a more tangible way. 

The beautiful curves of the garden at Versailles

Inspiration for my jewelry and other art comes from all kinds of places - architecture, nature, gardens, fibers, photographs, and faces.  Hopefully this will be a place to post images that reflect some of the inspirations that strike me and will perhaps stir something within some of you.  

Finally, I find that I am constantly meeting creative people who inspire me to try something new or who teach me a new way to think about something or who simply live their lives in such meaningful ways that I want to be more like them.  I'd like this to be a place where I can shine a spotlight on some of those folks and explore more of what it is that they have that I want to find for myself.

I'm excited about beginning something new.  I'm already finding that there is lots I have to learn even in the process of beginning to blog - like just choosing a template and answering technical questions that I don't understand about settings, and URLs and links and such.  Hopefully, I'll understand the lingo more as I go along.  Until next time....  Deb

Soul Whispers Arts