Will You Be My...

I'm one of those ridiculous people where everything means something and tells a story.

When I got married, I knew I wanted 3 things: for teacups to be involved, to get married in New Orleans, and for our friend, Wil to officiate.

We both agreed to have an Alice in Wonderland themed affair. It was the first thing we bonded over as couple so many years ago and the one thing we always go back to. As much as I wanted to fight it, I knew that if I had a wedding and it wasn't Alice in Wonderland-inspired, it wouldn't be MY wedding.

So I decided on my bridemaids, the girls I absolutely could not get married without, and began a hunt for some teacups. I wanted each maid to have a teacup that reminded me of her. I had chosen 5 girls and I was ITCHING to ask them, especially considering that we had settled on a destination wedding. We wanted to give them PLENTY of time to plan. I invited each girl to a Galentine's Day tea party.

After looking for weeks, we were approaching the day I decided to ask them. I had only gathered about 3 teacups and I had looked EVERYWHERE.

On my lunch break one day, the week of the party I was throwing for the girls, I decided to make one last stop. A Salvation Army Boutique in Santa Monica. There they were. A whole family of teacups. 12 sets, 24 pieces total. That means a set for each of the bridesmaids, and all of the mothers. I could even give a set to each of my grandmothers! I even was able to find a demitasse teacup for my flower girl in the exact same print!

The teacups were on sale, 50% off! And the flowers were the same colors that I wanted my bridemaids to wear (except orange. I did not ask anyone to wear orange) I knew right then that it was meant to be. So I prepared for the tea party where I would ask them.

Once we had settled on marrying in New Orleans, we knew we had to have a second line. It's traditional in second lines to wave white hankies as you trail behind the bride and groom. But I didn't want just any white hankies. I wanted hankies that already held memories. Good and bad, happy or sad, I wanted all of the emotions dancing with us down Royale St. After all, this new life we were committing to was sure to be full of a whole range of emotion. So I tracked down about 100 vintage hankies (all clean, worry not).

I hand-thrifted five special hankies and stitched the word "bridesmaid" on each one in the color I wanted her to wear.

I made a special one for Erika, my maid of honor, in Mardi Gras colors.

And I made another special one for our little flower girl, this one with her name on it.

I placed the hankie in the teacup (with some actual factual Mardi Gras beads) and waited for the ladies to come over.

I even baked a cake!

The ladies came over and I asked and they said yes, and we had a wonderful afternoon drinking Kir Royale and talking about New Orleans and weddings and what to wear. It was a special day, with special girls whom I adore.