Pre-Planning Planning

So I'm back from my trip (which turned out to be painfully longer than expected or planned -- an ordeal I'll be commenting on in another post at another time), and having a blast with my finace's family. The wedding we attended was a nice Southern family affair in Birmingham, AL, a town I've never visited prior to this trip. Now I mentioned before that I'm engaged, but I've been holding off doing a lot of the planning since 1) we can't set a date yet, and 2) I'm finishing up grad school this May and would be sentencing myself to unprecedented and unnecessary amounts of stress. I'm a planner, very detail oriented and am in the process of becoming a reformed control-freak, so I would literally kill myself designing this thing AND finishing school. However, that being said, it was imposible not to enter "wedding world" while actually attending a wedding. So, I've managed to gather a few images that I can see being a preliminary inspiration for this shindig I'm going to be planning. Since I'm a pretty traditional person in how I approach the world, I found myself looking at alot of primarily vintage prints and fashions. this Givenchy dress I found in an old Harpers Bazaar magazine ad. I absolutely love the full skirt and clean lines. Bridesmaid dress inspiration perhaps?

I've always had a thing about being connected with where you're from and the place you call "home." My fiance & I are very "state" oriented, with him being a VERY proud Alabama boy, while I was born & raised in the fabulous state of Virginia. When thinking of flowers, I thought using our state flowers as the flowers for our wedding would only be appropriate: Dogwood for VA (top) and Camellia (bottom) for 'bama. It all kind of depends on if its even possible, which I have yet to figure out. The truth: Roses bore me.
My family & I have been vacationing in Corolla on the OuterBanks of NC since before I was born. For as long as I've been alive, the Whalehead Club (pictured above) has always been a personally significant building and was THE building that actually inspired me to go into Historic Preservation & architecture. I actually worked for the architecture firm that did the restoration of the structure. Even though they don't allow receptions in the house (would you want 100 drunk people spilling red wine all over your newly-restored-for-multiple-millions cork floors & mahogany walls? I think not), I couldnt imagine not having this gorgeous Art Nouveau masterpiece play some part in the wedding. Guess that means I'm getting married on the Outer Banks.. yay destination wedding!

No matter what flowers or dresses or whatever else we eventually choose, the goal is this: Simple, classic & casual. I am not a fan of the stuffy, uber-traditional weddings where the bride wears gobs of lace & sequins, the guys wear ugly & boring rented tuxes and the bridesmaids want to burn their dresses as soon as they step outside of the reception hall (27 Dresses anyone?). So while I'm not going to be regularly blogging about the joys involved with planning this event until after I graduate in May, I'll be occasionally posting random things here and there as they come across my path... just like everything else.