Outstanding Ombre

Ya'll, I have an obsession... I've had it for awhile, but it's hard to talk about, so I haven't brought it up till now, but I've seen a lot of blog posts about it lately, and I fall more and more in love... And I can't hold back anymore...

I am ombre obsessed:

(Oh, Martha's going to pop up a lot)

(It's 'cause she's awesome!)

(source... not Martha)

Cap Classique featured ombre today, clothes, paper, flowers, and cakes:

And they included a bunch of links for tutorials which is awesome and all, and included Martha who's a master.

Even though it's a French term, I am in love with it. I worry that it gives a French feel to the whole affair, but then I think... only if you go overboard... Sooo, what classifies as overboard??

(I don't know, it's hard to make ombre look bad in my opinion. Plus it was a carnival themed wedding)

(I swear to you, if that purple was more burgundy, I would wear this dress and order this cake!)

Where am I going with this?? Well, one of my possible wedding gowns was advertised as blush and I got it in ivory, but you have no idea how close I was to asking if I could order it with blush underskirts. I didn't know if they could do it and I was working with a fixed budget at the time. The point is, I'm thinking of asking if they can do it now... and how much that would cost me. I wish they could just dye the underskirts in a back room... or let me do it... Yeah, no, I refuse to potentially completely F-up a $1,200 article of clothing, especially if I plan on wearing it on the most important day of my life.

While I was not sold on the whole dress being blush, I like the idea of the ivory dress with blush underskirts and burgundy shoes... Ombre!

Until I make that decision, I thought up something harmless and inexpensive for the meantime; remember my fabric backdrop? Ombre anyone??? I found a tutorial here and of course Martha's scarves follow a different method but with the same result (Martha explains it better of course). I thought up the brilliant idea of using tea! No, I'm not the only one with this idea, of course, I'm just messin'. But seriously, I haven't found a single ombre tea stained project... Not sure if I can take the principles of tea staining and apply them to ombre, but here's hoping. I figure I'll dye my fabric and then rip it, and start arranging it. Here's my plan for the layout... first, here's a picture of the alter in the pavilion at Riverdale:

(I don't want to seem like I've given up on my dream of having a nice outdoor wedding at the Sycamore site, but I just don't want to get set on an outdoor wedding for late November... and then not have a solid plan B... We picked Riverdale because of every place we looked, their plan B site is almost better than their plan A!)

The entrance to the pavilion looks the same as the alter, so here's my plan (please excuse my chicken scratch):

Pretend the roof has been taken off, you're looking at it almost bird's eye, the dotted lines represent the rest of the sides of the pavilion, which is a big oval... See it? The backdrop will hang from the support beams at the alter, and an inverse design will hang at the entrance. On either side of the backdrops will hang little chandeliers made up of the yarn orbs, which will each contain a [battery-operated] tealight. Can you see it?? I hope you can, because I see it in my head and it's awesome, unique, and cohesive, and really beautiful!

This brings up a point I made in my last post; I love this idea so much I may make mini-versions for the cake table or the gift table or somewhere, and of course, I am definitely going to do a mini-version for the backs of the bride and groom chairs. I'm super excited about this relatively easy and super inexpensive DIY (linen or other fabric costs maybe $5 a yard and tea bags are abundant at my house). This weekend, the man and I are going to the Harrington Fair in DE, but the next free weekend I get (or next week, when the man is away on business... Funny side story, he always teases me about having my other boyfriends over when he's away on business, and I tell him 'Honey, the only way I cheat on you is by shamelessly DIYing the whole time you're away') I think I will buckle down and finally do this, because it's one of the projects I'm most excited about!

I'll keep you posted about the underskirt ombre-ing! Also, I finished my first hair accessory last night but forgot to take a picture of it. I found a $5 bill on the floor this morning; score!! And last night, the man grilled up some chicken breasts and I made garlic-roasted beets and roasted potatoes with thyme and crispy bacon and I'm still on a high over how amazing that meal was! 'S a good day...

How is everyone else doing???