today's obsession: dahlias

Through the past few months of wedding planning, or at least being on the hunt for wedding inspiration, I've found that I tend to develop mild (or moderate, and at times severe) obsessions with certain ideas.

I'll latch onto a concept for decor, or favors, or food. I'll become consumed with an awesome new DIY or centerpiece idea, or the next big project to occupy my time during our long engagement.  Some ideas have stuck and others will fade over time, I'm sure.

I thought sharing my current obsession on the blog could be a fun series.. and a nice test to see which obsessions have staying power.  Now, onto my current obsession:

Dahlias

Amazing, right? 

I love how they can be so architectural, textured, and quirky... but in the same breath so soft and feminine!

So ethereal.. and still fun!

It all started with this picture, taken during the early days of the my and the Man's courtship while I was in Oh, Canada!  I spotted these one rainy Saturday morning at the local farmer's market.  

I didn't realize it then, but I was in love.  In love with the Man...

 and with these lovely, fluffy, full, vibrant blooms. 

When it comes to wedding flowers, I didn't have any strong feelings immediately.. other than dahlias.  I had to have them.  It was more than a want, it was an emotional need.  I remember jokingly thinking to myself the first time I saw these flowers how awesome they would be for a wedding (apparently my sub-conscious was already planning our nerdy nuptials 5 years in advance!)

After a Pinteresting search, I found quite a few inspiring shots.

(to see image source, please visit my wedding pinterest board)

With budget being a big concern, and these lovely ladies running about $5-7 a stem-- I may have to keep my obsession somewhat at bay.  

Love the coral and peach tones of this one! So feminine!

However, I still plan on a bit of a splurge to have just a few in my bouquet.. hopefully. 

My favorite so far... love the combo of colors and textures!

What are you obsessing over today?  Any other flower-lusters out there?

no offense to my Canadian friends...

Canadian Amazon sucks.

Maybe I should apologize to those of you residing in Canada... you will never have the joy of searching for just about anything and finding it in three (or less) clicks on the wonder that is amazon.com.  At least you have Tim Horton's.. and bueno bars...

ahh bueno bars.. chocolate and hazelnutty goodness
image from wiki:buenobars

oh... buenos... how I miss you!

Back to the beginning.. and to how the Man and I discovered the sad, sad state of amazon.ca.. It all began with the Man's favorite ring finalist.  Did you guess it?

Well, it was out of stock in his size on Amazon.  It had been out of stock since we first found it a few weeks ago.  We vowed to check periodically (and for me to online stalk and amazon-alert the mess out of it) until it was back in stock [Edit: it's in stock now, but order when you can!].  The Man really liked that ring!

One night, on a whim-- we decided to check on the out-of-stock-ness.  Sadly, still out. The determined pair of nerds we are wanted to just "click around" and see if we could find it elsewhere.  We tried searching by the brand, the listed seller, the amazon code, common keywords, anything we could think to try and find this ring from a reputable vendor.  No luck.  We had to think outside the box, or States.. it was time to go global.

With a few tabs open, we took to the net-- we had a ring size converter, a currency converter and Google translate at the ready.  Off to amazon.uk we went..

...they had it!  But they couldn't ship it to the US.  We have friends in England.  We could ship it to them, and have them bring it over when they come to stay a while... too difficult and too much to ask. Then we tried the French amazon.com.. even with my slim knowledge of French, I could tell we had the same "no shipping to the US" issue.  

En stock!

"Well, I know Canada ships to the US.. at least, they shipped all that amazing Canadian candy to the apartment (see comment regarding buenos above... yes, I did ship a case.. and yes, I did ration them out over the course of a year, don't judge me!)" but the amazon.ca site was severely lacking.  As in, only books and cds and movies?  Amazon?  What's wrong with Canada?  Don't they deserve an awesome amazon.com too?

After trying a few sites, and losing energy on the whim-ness of it all.. the Man chimes in:

"Did you ever check Newegg?" 

www.newegg.com - home for happy nerds everywhere

Now, newegg is an awesomely nerd-tastic site full of computer parts and pieces, electronic goodies, and all those things that make the Man so happy.  I strongly doubted they carried rings, but I figured why not?

And there it was.  In stock and cheaper than Amazon!  Within a few short minutes, the Man's ring was ordered and on its way. It doesn't hurt that the Man's band is from one of his favorite stores and the place he bought most of the components for the other love of his life, his gaming computer. 

Did you have an interesting ring journey?  Am I completely wrong in my hasty judgement of amazon.ca? Have you ever tried a bueno (not that I'm sharing!)?

also from wiki:buenobars

Note: this post was not sponsored by amazon, newegg, or bueno.. but if my tiny blog registers on their radar we would love to be compensated via gift card, discounts on orders, or a case or two o'buenos. :)

a band fit for the Man

Let's talk wedding bands..

not the Adam Sandler Wedding Singer type of bands..

the I-love-you-forever-and-want-everyone-to-see-this-symbol-of-my-eternal-commitment type bands..

the back-off-you-hussy-he's-taken type bands..

(just kidding about that last one... but really.. back off hussy.. he is taken.) :)

I digress...

When I was talking to the amazing Santana at Jewlery by Design, who as we know takes amazing notes, I told her that when and if I did ever get an engagement ring, I wanted to be able to wear it with a simple band. Thankfully, later when the Man worked with the team at JBD to design my ring, they kept this in mind.

Although my halo is a low setting (so as not to stick up and catch on everylittlething) it is made in a way where a thin, simple band will fit perfectly next to it without having to add any type of curve or curley-do to work around the halo.  So with that in mind.. my wedding band was pretty simple to decide on. I just have to wait until Jewelry by Design has their annual sale at Christmas time so I can save even more on the final price of my band.  We're all about saving where we can!

So, with my wedding band pretty much decided-- it was time to do some browsing for the Man.  We clicked around online quite a bit.. and he had a *few* favorites to choose from.

various sources, most found through google searches for tungsten or titanium men's wedding bands
the last three were found on etsy

For a while he gravitated towards the black tungsten band with steel cables, but after seeing some closer images online (and not finding any in stores around our area) he decided to go for something more simple. The options with the braiding and knots had to do with the second part of the wedding-band-plan for the Man (more to come about that.)

Instead of cables, or knot-work, or bold colors-- the Man decided to stick with what he loved... black.
Our next step was to try and find some black rings in local stores.  There were hardly any to be found.  One struck at chord at Kay's Jewelers, but from the Man's perspective the price (around $300) was NOT right.

Two rings from Kay Jeweler's - average price $300ish

Neither were perfect-- he wanted to keep looking. 

And look he did.  On an average weekend. I usually crash around 11:00-12:00am after a long night of blog-stalking and Pinterest-ing.  However, the Man stays up all hours-- saving the galaxy, building new worlds and the like.  One morning, after what I assumed to be an all-night gaming session, the Man tells me he wants to show me some rings he found on amazon. Apparently there is some extra time for ring-hunting between killing reapers and saving the world..

ahem.. galaxy.  Sorry. ;)

Now we had some finalists:

all found via amazon.com search for men's black wedding ring

They were a mix of titanium, ceramic and tungsten.  The Man is gravitating towards tungsten because of the richness of black color compared to the grey-ish tones of "black" titanium rings.  We don't expect him to wear his ring often (not safe for his job) and we both prefer to go for a more affordable solution for his ring as compared to mine which I will wear all the time and will not likely lose or damage like he will with his.

Of the five "finalists", all but one were in stock, in his size, and at the Man's idea price point. Any guesses on which was his favorite?