I’m going to come clean on a major wedding privilege I have…
Have you ever heard people talk about “Anthropologie weddings?” I think it is when you aspire to the “estate sale minus the dust and musky odors” aesthetic of an Anthropologie store in creating the look of your wedding. It is probably a very expensive undertaking and likely results in a lot of worrying about trends: Bird motif is too played out! What about turtles? Snails? Yes: mustard Yellow Snails on lilac and smoke gingham. (I’m not so far off).
I would never have thought of Anthropologie stores as a source of wedding inspiration, at least not for my wedding, even after the blogs got to me. I’m just not that crafty! Or that chic.
But… here’s my big secret: Collin’s twin sister Carrie worked at Anthropologie as an art designer. She set up those coffee filter clouds and those antique bathtubs full of rice and mismatched china and so on and so forth for at least a year before moving on to her current apprenticeship with a woodworker. If I really wanted an Anthro wedding, I would have an insider on my team.
And Collin’s mom is an artist too. So last night after the three of us enjoyed a little wine we started talking about my kooky no-flowers scheme, and bouquet alternatives. Viki and Carrie got BIG IDEAS about making bouquets out of wire and scrap metal and wire mesh. I’ve seen wire bouquets on Etsy and they’re always a few hundred bucks, just like regular bouquets. But my ARTIST in-laws are all, “Oh, we’ve got a scrap guy. We can do something really fun and unique and oh my gosh I’m so excited!”
And the thing is, I am excited too! Metal bouquets! LOVE! But I also have this sinking feeling that this is way above my pay grade, and how much can I convert DIY into DIFMIL (“Do it for me, in-laws”) without asking too much of them?
Plus, once I go down the path of caring about details, is there no turning back? Will I be goccoing invites? (I don’t even know what goccoing is, except for that you have to find the machine to do it on eBay.) Will I embroider the chargers for our place settings? Will I cobble my own wedding shoes? Where does it end?
(Deep breath.) Hopefully it ends exactly where I stop actually caring, which will coincide neatly with what I have the time and money to care about, as well as with the skill sets possessed by me and my family and friends. That’s the dream.