The vintage era and style is characterized and brought to life quiet well though the use of feathers. Light-weight, nonchalant, dainty, feminine, chic and coquette, feathers are capable of making a wedding flower bouquet look even more attractive, elegant, fanciful and mesmerizing. I stumbled upon this bouquet and I think it would be absolutely perfect for my wedding in Paris.

I love this bouquet

I think really demonstrates the modern reinterpretation of the “vintage” wedding — lush, glamorous, detailed and textured, classic yet modern.  It’s obvious that the bride who carried this bouquet really lavished a lot of thought on the little details.  As an individual piece, it’s a little work of art.  For my own wedding, I would love to have a round, hand-tied bouquet, a really full, lush arrangement of roses in various shades of pink creating both depth and contrast — and ringed by white or ivory wisps from an ostrich wing feather.  I really like the idea of mixing delicate shades of vintage pink -- not too bubble gum or Barbie pink -- rather something soft and elegant. The only addition I would make is to add a few lavender sprigs, a must have for my wedding day.

Here are a couple of pictures of other vintage style bouquets I love:

As a lover of great perfumes I wanted to find a special fragrance to wear the day of my wedding. For me, perfume has always had a big effect on how I feel. Eric loves perfume and amazingly seems to notice every time I wear something new. I want to find something I can wear that will take us back to our special day. Much like an old song can take you back to that special time and place.

Finding a new fragrance that exudes love and romance was a journey I couldn't wait to embark upon. While in Paris last fall I began the search. This post is dedicated to the top 5 fragrances for the bride on her wedding day. I will only be revealing numbers 5 to 2 in this post. I want the fragrance I have chosen to remain a secret until after our wedding day. I will post the winner upon our return from the honeymoon.

Chloe, Love

Number 2: Chloe Love

This was a very tough choice. This fragrance could just have easily been THE perfume for my day. This fragrance can turn every woman into a goddess and transform every sinful thought in a virtue. A contemporary interpretation of Paris. Chloe Love is shy and dewy, sensual by its subdued innocence. Perfect for the bride planning a chic wedding with a vintage twist. This one is really hard to resist. (I'll will have a bottle with me during the honeymoon).

DKNY Be Delicious Fresh Blossom

Number 3: DKNY Be Delicious Fresh Blossom

A romantic fragrance that marries freshness, vibrancy, and femininity. A blend of sparkling grapefruit, cassis, and sunkissed apricot meets a blooming floral heart of sheer muguet and petally rose wrapped in luminous jasmine. Perfect for a bride planning a sweet, small and romantic wedding.

Vera Wang Princess

Number 4: Vera Wang Princess

A sexy fragrance that includes a mixture of water lily, apple, mandarin meringue, and golden apricot skin, dark chocolate, amber, musk, and vanilla. Radiant, romantic with a hint of whimsy. Perfect for a bride planning an informal, outdoor wedding!

Stella McCartney Stella

Number 5: Stella McCartney STELLA

A sensual, intense and feminine fragrance. Top notes of rose essence has been fused with peony flower and mandarin essence, while the heart note is based on rose absolute. The base notes of woody ambers inject sexiness to the mix. Perfect for the bride planning and elegant and sophisticated wedding where no detail is forgotten. This fragrance exudes confidence and intrigue.



One of the goals I have prior to leaving for our wedding is to become comfortable with simple questions and phrases in French. To help me get there, Santa delivered a copy of Rosetta Stone for Christmas. I am really excited to get started. I previewed the product several years ago and was not very impressed. However, the version available now is incredible. It even includes the ability to speak online with native French speakers which will help both train the ear and improve upon pronunciations. It's sort of like virtual immersion.

While in France do as the Frenchmen. Once Eric and I had determined that Paris would be the site for our wedding I began to research the traditions of a typical wedding in France. Many of the traditions in the US today are adaptations of what the French have been doing for centuries. Below is a listing of traditions not commonly seen in the US. Each of them will be a part of our french-style wedding in April.

Ritual Bath: This bath symbolizes the purification of the bride, ridding her of all evil as well as memories of any previous boyfriends

Coco Chanel Bath at The Ritz Paris

White Ribbons: On the day of the wedding the entrance to the church is blocked with white ribbons. The bride cuts the ribbon and she with her groom and guests enter the church. The ribbons are symbolic obstacles the couple will overcome together.
Order of Entry: Following one or more musicians the bride makes her way to the door of the church where she awaits her groom. They take hands and enter the chruch together signifying the beginning of their lives together.
Bridal Path: Laurel Leaves are placed down the path outside the church for the couple to walk over after the wedding

Coup de Mariage

Toasting: The couple toasts one another with a two-handled cup. This particular cup is then passed down from one generation to another. Known as coup de mariage, this tradition is one of the oldest traditions still in practice today.

Anyone who plans to go to Paris, and wants to know more about the city other than the Champs Elysees and the Eiffel Tower, might do well to read Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast.

It's a marvelous book that gives a glimpse of what Paris was like in the 1920's. It was the time of the Lost Generation when writers, painters, musicians and composers went to Paris to work and make names for themselves. Hemingway's first novel, The Sun Also Rises, was about Paris.

Paris saw a lot of Hemingway immediately after World War II. He often came for the fall steeplechase meets at Auteuil, the emerald race track in the heart of Bois de Boulogne that he so enjoyed.

In Auteil, he would convene with his friends in the Little Bar of the Ritz every race day at noon and while the bartender made Bloody Marys, they would study the race forms and make their selections.

Hemingway enjoyed his lunches at the Course Restaurant, which is still functioning. He wrote about the meals between races: Belon Oysters, omelette with ham and fine herbs, cooked endives, Pont l'Eveque cheese and cold Sancerre wine.

If you go up to Montmartre Hill to Place de Tertre, you will find Hemingway's first Paris haunt. At one corner of the square, where Rue Norvins starts, was the Au Cliron des Chausseurs, where he often ate when he had money. He was then working for the Kansas City Star, and getting between US$11 and $21 for each article he wrote.

If you want to see the neighbourhood where Hemlngway first lived, go to Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, where he rented a room over a sawmill. Every day his rejected manuscripts would come back through the slot in the door of the bare room.

Hemingway's writings give us a truly nostalgic account of life in Paris. In all of his works, life centres around cafe life, drinking and dining. If there were bull fights and big game hunting in Paris, those would have been included, and Hemingway's Paris would have been complete.

Source:  Harold Stephens

To Read More about Hemingway and Paris click here

Divided into a right and left bank by the River Seine, Paris is a regal city that exudes savoir faire. It is a city brimming with bridges, sidewalk cafés, and endless promenades that never fail to reveal some hidden treasure. The famous Parisian flair for the beautiful and dramatic is on display throughout, from the broadest café-lined boulevard to the narrowest cobbled side street. Entire days can be spent in the pursuit of whatever new marvel may lie just around the corner.

Everything about the City of Light-its grand monuments, its cathedrals, its haute couture, art, and cuisine-acts as a kind of elixir to the soul. It is truly the capital of the romantic world, and nothing else compares. Go to Paris with nothing but a few bucks (euros) in your wallet and you'll still feel like the richest couple in the world.

Winter, spring, summer or, fall, Paris is an ideal place to stroll. Rich with history combined with modern convenience the city never disappoints.  Vintage, royal and tre chic even the most mundane in Paris still greets you with opulence.  It is in the sidewalk cafés, restaurants, and bars that true eloquence of involvement is found in Paris. Even a simple picnic of fromage et baguette (with accompanying vin rouge, naturally) at the Place des Vosges rivals the most sumptuous dining at any five-star New York restaurant. It is in such elemental pleasures that you'll truly discover your version of Paris and have a lifetime's trove of memories from which to dip.

The custom of bouquets has its origin in ancient times. Women carried aromatic bunches of garlic, herbs and spices to ward off evil spirits.

In ancient Greece and Rome, the bride and groom wore a garland around their necks, symbolizing new life, hope and fertility. Traditional Celtic bouquets included ivy, thistle and heather. The garland was not made of flowers but of strong-smelling herbs and spices. The strong-smells were thought to have mystical powers and meant to keep away evil spirits.

When Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, the herbs and spices had been replaced by fresh flowers, especially marigolds. Edible flowers were still included in the bouquet. The bride would carry her arrangement as she walked down the aisle. The dill from the bride's bouquet (also known as the herb of lust), was consumed by the bride, the groom, and their wedding guests during the reception, as the herb was meant to increase sexual desire.

In Victorian times, flowers became the secret messengers of lovers; each flower having its own meaning. It is believed that 'the flower language' began in Turkey during the seventeenth century. Lovers began using floral exchanges to convey messages. Thus bridal flowers were chosen with regard to their traditional significance.

Below are just a few of my most favorite bouquets.  Keep following because I'll be adding a post devoted strictly to "The Language of Flowers".

After about a week of contemplation, Eric and I have officially chosen the "Chapelle Expiatoire" as the venue for our wedding.  We will be working this week to secure a date in late April for our ceremony.  The  Chapel was commissioned by King Louis XVIII to be built as a symbol of atonement  or as a peace offering to his deceased brother King Louis XVI and his Queen Marie Antoinette.

The Chapelle Expiatoire complex is built on three levels. There is an entry hall that leads to an enclosed courtyard.  The courtyard is of simple design, planted with roses dating back to the mid-1700's.  The actual chapel is reached by climbing a set of twelve stairs and passing through a facade supported by simple Doric columns.  Inside the Chapel there is a center dome flanked by smaller domes on either side.   The larger, center dome itself is supported by four columns. They represent The Trinity, The Law of Moses, The Blessed Sacrament, and the Paschal Lamb.   The interior carvings and bas-reliefs were the work of Gerard who also worked on the Arc de Triomphe.  The altar is centered along the back wall. Two marble statues complete the decoration of the interior.  I have created a photo gallery of the pictures I captured during my recent visit to Paris.  I am so excited that we have finally made this important decision.  Check out our pictures here.

My next trip to Paris will be in April 2011 for our wedding. I can't wait to share the experience and make lasting memories with Eric. We have had an extraordinary time in this city. It is majestic, romantic and very chic!

Arc de Triomphe: The world's largest triumphal arch commissioned by Napoleon in 1806
Since 1920, the tomb of France's Unknown Soldier has been sheltered underneath the arch.  Its eternal flame commemorates the dead of the two world wars, and is rekindled every evening at 6:30.

Eiffel Tower at Night: Taken while aboard a dinner cruise down the Seine, the Eiffel Tower is the most famous landmark in the world.
Originally built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World's Fair), today it announces to all that see it, "This is Paris."

Laduree: Birthplace of the delectable French Macaron
The story of the Ladurée macaroon starts with Pierre Desfontaines, second cousin of Louis Ernest Ladurée, who at the beginning of the 20th century first thought of taking two macaron shells and joining them with a delicious ganache filling.  These small, round cakes, crisp on the outside, smooth and soft in the middle, are made every morning in Ladurée’s “laboratory”.  The pastry chefs measure out very precisely the required amounts of almonds, eggs and sugar, before adding one final ingredient, a pinch of unique “know-how”, essential to the making of such a delicacy. Once cooked and filled, the macarons are put to one side for 2 days before going on sale, the time it takes to achieve a perfect balance between texture and flavour.

The Eiffel Tower and The Seine at dusk.

Beautiful fountains at Place de la Concorde, the largest public square in Paris.

Antique car display at Place Vendome just outside the Ritz, Paris.

Statues at the gates entering the Jardin des Tuileries (the oldest Park in Paris)
It was created by Marie de Medici in 1564 and was opened as a public garden (park) in 1667.