My Fashion Passion

Although I mostly live in skinny jeans, ballet flats and t-shirts these days (with a hefty dose of spandex and hoodies at the start of my day), my dearest love of fashion comes in the vintage form. I adore the shapes, colors, textures and styles of the garments from the past century. The 20th century had an incredible array of styles. The evolution of fashion from corsets to miniskirts was remarkable. The 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s 60s, 70s, 80s – who am I kidding? I love them all.

I guess I’ve always wanted to live during another era. My ever-practical Vaishnava husband reminds me that I DID live in another era, many in fact, I just don’t remember them. But that isn’t enough for me and so I lovingly collect remnants from long ago. I adore antiques in all forms, but the wearable and useable are my favorites.

China, Cutlery, Cards and Chanting.

I’ve got weddings on the brain today! (And apparently alliteration too!)

Last night I watched Monsoon Wedding.  I can’t believe I had not seen it before.  It’s very poignant and so colorful.  I love India.

This morning I led a yoga class for a beautiful friend, her bridesmaids and her mother.  She is getting married this evening here in C-ville.  Can’t think of a more gorgeous day/place for a June wedding.  Starting off your big day with a yoga sesh is such a good idea.  I’m definitely going to have my mat handy when I wake up (solo!) in Scottsville in October before our morning ceremony.

All week I’ve been a busy little bee planning our wedding too.  Our big day is still almost four months away, but once I get on a roll it’s impossible to stop me!  I’m pretty much done with all our wedding planning.  At this point I’m just wrapping up a few loose ends (hair, day-of assistance…both of which recently fell through…oh well!).  I’m  getting more obsessed with the style details too!

One really fun project I’ve been busy with is collecting antique mismatched porcelain and silver for our reception.  I’m almost done.  We are having a small wedding, thank goodness, because it’s been a lot of work.  Luckily Virginia is a prime spot to do this.  I’ve been scouring all the antique malls and country stores in the surrounding three counties and I’ve come up with some serious treasure!  Take a peek at some of this week’s booty:

Since we are not doing a traditional registry, we will use the plates etc., from our wedding for our daily use.  We plan on keeping 15 or so place settings and then I will probably sell the rest on Ruffled’s “Recycle Your Wedding” or another site like it.  Apparently this concept is pretty popular now, but a lot of brides don’t have the luxury that I have to spend the time searching up and down for the right porcelain and silverware, so they end up buying mismatched sets online.

I’m so glad I have the freedom to do this kind of scavenging and that I live where I do.  It’s so much fun.  I’ve been finding some gorgeous old Limoges plates for $5 and less.  Score!  I’m going to miss my treasure hunting when all is said and done.

To really amp up the elegance I’m borrowing loads of beautiful silver from my parents –  serving dishes, bowls, utensils, water pitchers, vases and more.  When I gather all these pieces together I can barely stand it – it’s so darn pretty.

 

Another little wedding project that I’ve been finalizing this week is our “guest book”.  Instead of a traditional guest book I’ve gathered thirty or so blank antique postcards.  Some were from my grandmother’s house, some I found in India and others in Virginia antique malls.  In Delhi I found this old sweets tin with Rama and Sita on it too.  I’m thinking about arranging the postcards on a small table with a few pens so our guests can each write us a little note to put in the tin and then we plan on opening the box on our first anniversary as a sweet reminder of our wedding.  Yesterday I lay all the cards out to start visualizing the display:

Wedding planning has been a joy for me because it’s really such a creative process, other than the contracts and phone calls of course.

FY has been extremely supportive of my planning obsessions, other than the occasional giggles at my expense when he can’t help himself.  He gives his input when I ask for it but mostly he just lets me do my thing.  Really, all he cares about right now is when we get to do our cake tasting!

Ok, enough about weddings for now.

We are momentarily heading up to the mountains of West Virginia for a weekend gettaway with some friends from DC.  We are going to New Vrindavan for the 24 Hour Kirtan!  Basically, we will be in the middle of nowhere, getting super blissed out, basking in the bhav and chilling with a bunch of bhaktas.  Oh, and eating awesome prasadam! After that we will spend a night relaxing at my mother’s cabin on Cheat Mountain.  I’m planning on some sauna time, a long walk in the woods and a little porch yoga before returning back to the real world Monday evening.

Signing off now and closing down my computer since I will be away from the web and cell service for the next few days!  Ah, the sweet sound of radio silence….

Blessings to you.

Have a peaceful and joyful weekend,

Love Frances