Theme time!

Alright! I've been discovering that one of the best ways to deal with sadness (while simultaneously working on coping, of course) is by distracting yourself with doing something you love. So, I've decided to blog about my wedding :)

I feel the need to share something with you. Something that gets me excited, and a little happy in the pants.

We're going to have a carnival-esque themed wedding!!!

I absolutely *adore* going to fairs and carnivals. There is something about walking around on a nice, breezy summer night, listening to music, eating foods you didn't even know came fried, licking cotton candy off of your fingers, dancing under both the strings of lights and the stars- it's romantic to me. It's romantic, and it feels timeless and youthful and just plain, old fun- which is what we're going for. My relationship with Mikey has always been about how much fun we have when we're together. We've celebrated "monthiversaries" (more on those later) at carnivals, the Renaissance fair, town fairs, the Wisconsin state fair, etc. It's an atmosphere that really fits our 'couple personality' and the idea that our reception will be able to have that kind of energy excites me to no end!

When we first got engaged, I mentioned the idea of a carnival themed wedding to Mikey, and he kind of shot it down. He wasn't cruel about it, but at that point, he was only marginally familiar with different kinds of weddings, and his main idea of a wedding is what he saw in movies, and on the cover of wedding magazines my mom bought me. Since I'm all about compromise, I shelved the idea of a carnival wedding and went to look for a more conventional theme we would both be happy with.

As I've mentioned before, our wedding has morphed a lot over the past year and a half. We've always wanted an outdoor wedding (or at the very least, a wedding with an outdoor option) and we decided very early on that our number one main color would be cobalt blue. Over the last two months, we've been talking a lot about more details of the wedding, and I tentatively brought up the idea of a carnival wedding again. This time, Mikey was much more accepting in terms of the idea, and with a few parameters set (no clowns, no carnival music, etc-- all those things I wouldn't have done anyway) he happily agreed.

So Mikey's agreed, but he's not one hundred percent sure exactly what I'm envisioning. I was explaining it to him, the other day, and I got the, "But babe- isn't that kind of what we were planning before?"

In a way...yes? We always wanted the lights, the music, the contagious atmosphere- but we've changed the menu, and some of the deserts, and our tentative designs for the invites will have to be scrapped completely. I plan on adding a popcorn machine and cotton candy machine, and a lot of other fun little details-- but enough typing, I'll share a few pictures (not mine-- YET) of projects I hope to tackle to make my wedding a tastefully fun romp through carnival-wedding fun land. Enjoy!



I love the way these invites look- cobalt blue is our main color, but we're also going to have different shades of blue as accents. I'm not the biggest red/pink fan, but these next two invites do it so well- I love them!

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I am *definitely* having these at my wedding- I love these (what would you call them?) wood-cut-out-stick-your-faces-through things. They amuse me to no end, and Mikey and I have pictures in a few. They're so vintage carnival, and I can't wait to paint my own! (That's right, you heard me! I love a fun, artistic challenge!)

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I think having a kissing booth at the wedding could be a lot of fun- I know we have a few groomsman who would just love to hop behind the (hopefully!) well constructed counter and dole out kisses for a twenty-five cent piece! Plus, just like the cardboard cut outs, it looks so vintage- and I adore vintage.

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Any other carnival elements you think I should incorporate into our wedding? :)