leaving on a jet plane...

source: yvette's flickr

he smells like whiskey, musky soap and hay...

on my last day off eddie and i made our way to cb i hate perfume to select our wedding gift to each other. unfortunately the ever elusive nose behind the brand was unavailable at the time to create custom scents for us. instead we sniffed through his collection of accords to concoct our own layered, personalized "wedding day scent". ed was a real good sport, considering this man never wears anything other than whatever kind of deodorant smells good at the drugstore.

we smiled and played "guess this scent" as we made our way through his scent library. favorites were baby's butt, wet stone, cloudburst, "you know this.." which is actually a spot on bottled version of play dough. we finally decided on selecting elements from our wedding, so that every time we wear our scents we will be transported back to this wonderful day.

i chose porcelain and red velvet cake.

he chose whiskey and musky soap, aka "hot man smell".

and we are sharing hay.

blush and bashful...

source: ellen von unwerth

i hope my wedding day prep is as adorable as this...

...for everyone

source chelsea cook via credo action

"i love love. i do. i love love. i love it for you. i love it for me. i love it for everyone. i think everyone should be in love." my motto.


and i support gay marriage. i hope one day everyone will too.

like a mermaid of the soil...

source: concrete and honey

the archipelago of kisses...

We live in a modern society. Husbands and wives don't
grow on trees, like in the old days. So where
does one find love? When you're sixteen it's easy,
like being unleashed with a credit card
in a department store of kisses. There's the first kiss.
The sloppy kiss. The peck.
The sympathy kiss. The backseat smooch. The we
shouldn't be doing this kiss. The but your lips
taste so good kiss. The bury me in an avalanche of tingles kiss.
The I wish you'd quit smoking kiss.
The I accept your apology, but you make me really mad
sometimes kiss. The I know
your tongue like the back of my hand kiss. As you get
older, kisses become scarce. You'll be driving
home and see a damaged kiss on the side of the road,
with its purple thumb out. If you
were younger, you'd pull over, slide open the mouth's
red door just to see how it fits. Oh where
does one find love? If you rub two glances, you get a smile.
Rub two smiles, you get a warm feeling.
Rub two warm feelings and presto-you have a kiss.
Now what? Don't invite the kiss over
and answer the door in your underwear. It'll get suspicious
and stare at your toes. Don't water the kiss with whiskey.
It'll turn bright pink and explode into a thousand luscious splinters,
but in the morning it'll be ashamed and sneak out of
your body without saying good-bye,
and you'll remember that kiss forever by all the little cuts it left
on the inside of your mouth. You must
nurture the kiss. Turn out the lights. Notice how it
illuminates the room. Hold it to your chest
and wonder if the sand inside hourglasses comes from a
special beach. Place it on the tongue's pillow,
then look up the first recorded kiss in an encyclopedia: beneath
a Babylonian olive tree in 1200 B.C.
But one kiss levitates above all the others. The
intersection of function and desire. The I do kiss.
The I'll love you through a brick wall kiss.
Even when I'm dead, I'll swim through the Earth,
like a mermaid of the soil, just to be next to your bones.

Jeffrey McDaniel

i get goosebumps every time i read this poem. thank you jeffrey mcdaniel for writing one of the most beautiful things i have ever read.

made with love...

this week i am crossing off my to-do list with the help of my nearest and dearest, chelsea cook and amy merrick. crafting extravanganzas have ensued, coupled with netflix watch instantly movie marathons.

amy has been tirelessly cutting out fabric squares for my wedding guest quilt book. my obsession with quilts officially began in 2006, upon seeing the gees bend quilt exhibit at the high museum in atlanta with my fibers class in 2006. i think i cried throughout the whole exibit. the colors. the fabrics. the stories. the modern art without realizing it was modern art. it was perfect. not an ounce of pretension. just function and love.

kind of like a marriage.

addicted to discovery...

how cute are these headbands? i love me some festive headgear! if anyone needs a darling little head topper for the weddin', go and look at my dear friend, miss kelly's sparkly treats here... c'mon y'all, you need these in your life!!

warning...

i am dangerously close to asking some of my cute gal pals to be little "cigarette girls" before the wedding starts. instead of cigarettes, i would have them hand out party favors. the girly equivalent of ushers i suppose. how cute is this? any takers? i have an abundance of saucy gal pals who would make awfully cute cigarette girls. if only savannah wyatt was attending...

may showers may bring you flowers?

i thought all the rain was supposed to leave once april ended? isn't that how the rhyme goes? well, who knows what to expect come may 30th. i think everyone might need to start searching for a sweet ole parasol.

sources:

bella umbrella

pearl river

luna bazaar

dream a little dream of me...

do you think it's too late to recruit zooey to sing at the reception?



i want to slow dance to this song with my man. and rest my head on his shoulder.

silver wedding bells...

registering is a funny, funny thing. personally, i always thought it was kind of impolite and presumptuous. tacky, even. i caved, like most folks, and pre-selected items for my sweet guests to choose from.



selecting silver. hands down, the most fun and informative trip i have had during all of the wedding planning. if you are an atlanta native-i highly recommend visiting beverly bremer and seeing trent. he is sweet, southern, and knows anything and everything about silver settings. there is just something so dear about trying to find the berry spoons and bread knives that your grandparents once had. *love*

baby love...

photos from vintage wedding flickr

sigh. i can't stop looking at all these kewpie bride and groom cake toppers. so sweet with their paper and fabric outfits! what can i say? i'm a sucker for childhood sweethearts...

loads of sources- here and here and here and here.

lord how you can shuffle...

man they knew how to have fun in the 1920s...

license to marry...

"we're getting married"...





i kept singing this to eddie as we applied for our marriage license. i made sure to take many a photo on my i-phone. even though no cameras were allowed in the courthouse. the sweet ladies at the courthouse turned a blind eye... especially when i proudly cheered that this was 12 years in the making, to the woman handing us our paper work.

ed, however, was not nearly as amused! not even when i asked him what his thoughts were on me being a branch-stelling.

"what, and you would have a hyphenated last name? no. absolutely not." ed, in response to me.

okey dokey. katherine virgina branch stelling it is. i am going to have two middle names. i just don't think i should have to give up any of my names. after all, i'm a collector...

here comes the bride(zilla)...

hilarious. adorable. precious. utterly comical to think i wouldn't turn into a bridezilla before the big day! ha! i had been so good up until the final month. now even the tiniest thing gone wrong seems to send my world into a tailspin.

at least i have some good-natured brides to look up to...and try and channel their inner loveliness. i have also just recently fallen under the spell of vintage glam blog. a wonderfully inspirational blog for gals who were born in the wrong decade. you know who you are.




my sweet mother, at the age of 19 when she married my father. they were 8th grade westminster school sweethearts too.



my grandmother on her wedding day. she is approaching 102 and continues to amaze me.



a sweet flapper bride, courtesy of amy merrick. she knows me so well!

three more weeks to go...and many miles before i sleep!

what kind of garden do you come from?

"do you suppose she's a wildflower"...alice in wonderland

i really do love me some simple backyard, side-of-the-road, humble kind of buds! especially a sweet, ole' daisy. my all-time favorite since i was a little girl, taking my 5 year-old portrait in my mother's garden.



source: my 25th birthday party last weekend. courtesy of momma branch



source: a wild field at serenbe.



spoils from amy merrick's bottle beach excursion bestowed at my bridal shower



welcome home ginny flowers


k.i.s.s

keep it simple, silly, a wonderful rule when it comes to flowers. i love what this gal did at her wedding...via once wed...