On Wedding Magazines

Here's how I've discovered I feel about wedding magazines: once you've looked through one, you've looked through all of them. Literally.

The day after Justin and I got engaged I insisted we make the rite-of-passage pilgrimage to Borders to stock up on wedding mags (they're going out of business so everything was 40% off, I bought like five). For years now I'd been wanting to buy these magazines, but knew that if I did, I would be what one calls a "loser". I couldn't WAIT to dive into these things. The next day I picked up a few more from the grocery store, and a couple free ones from bridal salons. I amassed an entire stack of these things, and I was THRILLED.

I tore through the first two or three. And then by the fourth, I started to notice a pattern. Each magazine literally contains the SAME recycled content. The same ads for bridal salons, caterers, swanky venues and fussy floral arrangements. None of them cater to the "quaint, country, rustic" bride, aka me. Everything is all about crystal chandeliers, huge floral arrangements sitting in those ugly three foot tall vases and little plates of weird food shaped in pretty designs that would feed maybe a couple of three year olds at most.

The ONLY magazine that I found informative and actually relevant to my wedding vision was Real Simple: Weddings. Everything else, Baltimore Bride, Brides Maryland, Brides DC, Engaged!, Bride and Groom Washingtonian...even the Knot MD...all the same magazine! I guess the only other one that was useful was What's Up Annapolis Wedding magazine because it was local. All of the other "local" magazines were too Baltimore & D.C. for me, and, as I'm centered around Annapolis, that stuff isn't really useful.

So now as I've found that magazines aren't really useful for sparking my inspiration, I'm sticking with wedding blogs. My favorite ever is Love & Lavender ....so much pretty goodness! I think I've gone through and saved over a hundred images so far.

As far as planning is going right now, my mom and I recently went to an Annapolis antique mall and picked up several miscellaneous mason jars and oddball bottles and vases for my centerpieces. I plan on putting wildflowers in them and placing them on little stacks of antique books. Gahh I can't wait to keep fleshing this whole thing out!