The 'Not a Wedding' wedding planner chronicles

I've shared about my creative process starting point before: The Inspiration Board. That one above was created for a Wine Club party at Columbia Winery, when my friend Tracy was the club director. She's tapped me to help her pull another party together...

Tracy calls them 'Mood Boards', and we planned a get-together last week to make one, to act as a guiding resource as Tracy plans her nuptual celebration (which her man refers to as 'the Party'...yup). SO she shipped him off to faraway Florida and I went down to her place to spend an evening drinking fine wine, tearing magazines to shreds, and searching thru the house for any and everything that could be used as decor for the wedding. Um, Party. A party held at a charming little French chateau-style winery, in the summer, just screams for a South of France feel to it. And so that is what she is planning: Bistro tables outdoors, a homey un-decorated look, a very "welcome to our celebration - it could be a birthday, an anniversary, or just Sunday dinner, but it happens to be a wedding" style. Linen pants on the men, floaty dresses on the women, sandals and straw chapeax on all. Beautiful music and food and candlelight and flowers from the garden. And a slight touch of the seashore - Sur Mer - in the colors and small touches. Really, a Renoir painting come to life - which is SO appropos for my lovely friend the artist and former art teacher.

Here's what we ended up with:

Over fifty pages torn from Victoria, Country Living, Country Home, La Vie Claire, Simple Living and a few others I can't remember. (No, there was NOT that much wine! We did, however, stay up until 3 AM. And it gets remarkably harder to do so the older you get......) They actually look neat here, but for awhile they were tossed all over the couches and floor and ottoman. The next day, they all got pasted onto posterboard in a very artistic arrangement.

Some Tiffany-blue tags that were unearthed in a tin shoved waaaaaay back on a shelf, and incredible antique velvet leaves that Tracy found on one of our 'creative day' jaunts to thrift shops & art supply stores. We get each other into LOTS of trouble there....and those leaves will likely end up in the bride's 'not-a-bouquet-bouquet'.

To prove how non-traditional they are, here is a copy of the email-ONLY invitation graphic. This theme will recur throughout the decor. It's already on the champagne bottles!

We began our evening at the fabric store - where she had discovered this awesome fabric for the tabletops. It didn't photograph well, but there is a khaki-color thread and a light grayed aqua thread, woven like linen and with a very subtle sheen in them. This fabric catches the light but not in a sparkly way. (May I say I REALLY REALLY love my friend. I braved snowy roads and white-out conditions to get to that fabric store a few miles from her house, steeling myself for a horrific fortyfive mile drive in a freak snowstorm to get to her. What I didn't know was that said blizzard was centered on my house, so fifteen minutes later I was on dry roads. Gotta' love Seattle....)

Above those tabletops, there will be umbrellas. These khaki ones are so pretty! The winery's stucco walls are this color, so it will look very 'old world'.

Flowers (blue & white hydrangeas, lavender, possibly blue & white stock) will be in an unmatched assortment of blue glass jars. Some big clear vases will hold blue seaglass and tall white pillar candles on each table.

I just found the faded aqua enamel pot yesterday at Goodwill...it's French Le Creuset, and quite old. Filled with some shells and an assortment of photos of the happy couple & family, it will sit on a table with the guest book & a large white enamel bucket filled with huge blue hydrangeas.

And isn't that photo FUN? It's from Anne Taintors' book, "I can't be good ALL the time" by Chronicle Books. Not exactly the South of France, but very beachy! Speaking of which, as we sat by the fire warming our tootsies in the midst of the last-gasp-of-winter snowfall(that had by then made it's way away from my house and toward hers), le fiance' called Tracy to report that he was poolside with a tropical drink in his paws, enjoying the warm weather in Florida. You can just imagine the looks we exchanged....