Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Literary Inspiration

Given my love of books are you really going to be surprised when I saw they're influencing the wedding? Now I'm seen book inspired weddings themselves and even books inspired invitations, but I'm going for a something a little subtler.

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I actually choosing my colors based on my favorite books. Not what you saw coming right? But just follow along and it will all make sense!
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney was one of my favorite books a child. In the story, while Miss Rumphius is still a small child she is told by I believe her grandfather, that he wants her to make the world a more beautiful place. She goes on adventures throughout her life and travels the world, all the time wondering how she will accomplish the goal given to her. She gets sick and while recovering someone sends her a vase of lupins. Somehow the lupin seeds get blown out the window, and the following spring she finds lupins growing outside.

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Those blooms inspire her, and she goes out sprinkling seeds everywhere, to the point where people know her as The Lupin Lady. Since then I've always loved lupins, and I'd love to have some at the wedding.
My favorite book series is easily the Betsy-Tacy series by Maude Hart Lovelace. The last book in the series tells of Betsy's first few years of marriage to her high school sweetheart Joe, and of course the wedding itself. Betsy's wedding is planned in a mere 24 hours, it wasn't an elopement, but more that they were ready right then. As they're busy planning their wedding this conversation occurs:
"Find out what flowers she wants for her bouquet."
"Anything, and forget-me-nots," said Betsy.
"I'm never going to forget you, honey"
"I just want to be sure."
"Forget-me-nots," said Paige, "may be hard to find at this season,"
"If Betsy wants them, I'll find them," Joe replied.
So in honor of Betsy I want to have forget-me-nots as well (that name doesn't hurt things either).

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Except unfortunately lupins and forget-me-nots are commonly used as wedding flowers. Lupins are a bit bulky for a bouquet (but might work in a centerpiece?) and forget-me-nots are a little to fragile. In fact the majority of images I found when searching "forget-me-nots" & "weddings" weren't actually flowers at all.

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But if I can't use actually flowers, I can still use their colors! As for the boy, his choice would be to use LSU colors, which are purple and gold. Luckily lupins are purple, and coincidentally there's a bit of yellow in the center of a forget-me-not. Which makes our colors officially purple & blue with a hint of yellow. I'm still in search of actual inspiration photos to see how this might look when carried out, but obviously I'm a fan.

How did you come up with the colors for your wedding? And do you have a favorite book you'd like to be able to take wedding inspiration from?

5 comments:

  1. Our colors were brown, ivory and green. I choose those after giving my bridesmaids a choice-either brown dresses or blue dresses. They looked at both and decided brown. Also we got married outside near a bar so it went with the whole rustic theme.

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  2. Aww I think that is a great idea. I never thought of taking inspiration from my favorite books for wedding colors!

    If I ever get married my colors will be yellow and navy. I love that combination of colors and most of my wardrobe revolves around yellow and navy!

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  3. I think that's a good way to figure out your colors!

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  4. Love it! A great way to pick out colors. Can't wait to see you!

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  5. I missed this post, but I LOVE it! How did I not realize that Miss Rumphius is your favorite? Or did I know? It is my favorite too, I love and adore it, and totally want the lupins in my wedding too!

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