February (and most of August ‘22 through April ‘23 if I’m completely honest) was dominated by Wedding Prep. We’re DIY people, so we had decided not to go the wedding planner route. However, after a bit of research and self-reflection, we realized that for the wedding we wanted—with as many of our friends and family present as we could reasonably afford—we were not going to be able to DIY everything. Then it turned into a game of outsourcing what we knew we were not good at, and scheduling for ourselves the things we knew we were! And so, obviously, dear reader, I was going to do the paper and design type stuff—decor, save-the-dates, invitations, and so on—myself.*
Sticking to approximate themes of adventure and nature, I drew and painted designs for the paper materials (the final versions shown here!) Simultaneously, I scrounged the pieces that would become decor—upcycling kombucha bottles and jelly jars, collecting attractive sticks and antlers and tree chunks, and prowling around thrift stores for candle holders and frames and other knick knacks. I had not previously fantasized much about what my wedding would be like, so it was an evolving process where I played with various combinations of objects until I liked what I was looking at. Not unlike my 2D art process! See the images for a lot of barely-comprehensible vision scribbles from my sketchbook.
Meanwhile, the rest of life continued. Prescribed fire season got rolling, Gali continued to be an irresistible subject for phone photography, and Brad and I went on a little adventure to Southwest VA to celebrate Valentine’s Day (and learned how not to use a wood-burning stove at a smoky AirBnB stay—nothing was damaged but our pride).
*I did receive lots of help, with decor in particular, especially the day of—but I’m getting ahead of myself.