Today is a monumental day. It is the day I turn 30 and the day I write my first blog post on Hand-Painted Weddings. For the last 4 years I have been brainstorming about this idea. An idea that started two and a half years ago when I married the love of my life. We were engaged for 16 long months. When he first proposed I was scared to death; not because of anything personal about him, but that I’d have to plan a wedding, and I was sure that everything wedding related was going to be an outrageous rip-off. I remember walking through the city after the proposal and meandering into a Barnes and Noble where I ended up in the weddings magazine section. The only magazine I could manage to lay hands on was Real Simple’s Wedding guide. I’m pretty sure it was the “Real Simple” bit that made it possible. I walked to the check-out, hands shaking, to purchase the magazine. I started wedding planning the only way I knew how, on the website, The Knot. The Knot had many interesting features, but it also had a lot of “shoulds.” Thank goodness I somehow came upon a wedding blog, which brought me to another wedding blog, and to another, etc. It was at that point, that my panic started to dwindle. There were other brides out there that were doing unique, creative (and beautiful) things with their weddings. I’ve got to admit, I was on inspiration-overload in no time. My wedding theme concepts and colors changed weekly, but I still loved the inspiration.
I was one of the first of my friends to get married. One of the things that I noticed was that although there are some brides out there doing unique weddings, most brides still have a lot of pressure and expectations thrown at them to have a traditional wedding. Ok, ok, traditional weddings may be perfect for you. There is something nice to having a traditional that withstands the test of time, but I would argue that every wedding should resemble the bride and groom in some way, large or small. Marriage is a really big deal, and a couple’s journey to get to the alter is no doubt unique. My question is, if a wedding is a celebration of a couple’s promise to have and to hold ’til death due us part, why wouldn’t it be about the bride and groom?
So that is the mission I am on…to help brides and grooms see that there is beautiful and personal way to plan your wedding. A wedding that has these unique items sprinkled throughout. Much of the work I do is with paper. In other words, I design wedding invitations, menus, programs, table number cards, etc. This blog is going to feature more than these pieces. It is also going to include my paintings of the tiny details that make life wonderful, but I will get into that on the next post.
For my first blog post, I am featuring a painting I have started, but have not finished. I have picked this painting because it is a beginning, just as this blog and turning 30 is a beginning for me. A beautiful start of a new era.