Among all the magazines and blogs I’ve read, all the non-traditional brides who have inspired me, I haven’t seen many brides who cast aside the old, new, borrowed and blue tradition. It’s fun, it’s personal, and there are thousands of ways of making it uniquely you.

Something old, for continuity… Vintage glassware and cake stands, anyone? I’m sure everyone is tired of my adventures in antiquing, but you have to admit that they make a great something old, no?

Something new, for optimism for the future… Most everything is new! The dress, the shoes, the clutch, the hair flower — and that’s just the attire.

Something borrowed, for happiness… One of my cake stands is borrowed from my sweet Granny.

Something blue, for purity, love and fidelity… Rebecca gave me this beautiful token the day she moved to Spokane. I still can’t take it out of my drawer without crying. I’m asking Kim to tie it into my bouquet.

And a sixpence in your shoe, for good fortune and prosperity… Rebecca to the rescue again, with an Irish coin for my shoe! Speaking of shoes, I need someone to remind me to do the Turkish shoe signing on the day of the wedding. I’m going to be all blissed out on the festivities and need one of my many voices of reason to tell me that, yes, this is something I said I wanted.

Among all the glass bottles and cake plates, I’ve picked up a few other antiques along the way — a plate here and there, a creamer and sugar, a couple of Fire King sapphire bowls, some little vintage metal trays. But my best find, by far, was this serving set.

Do you see that tag? $4.50. I doubt I could have even found a jewel-cut plastic-handled cake server at Michael’s for that. The server has a serrated edge, so I don’t even need a separate knife. That’s what I call efficient. And you can’t see it in this photo, but the tongs on the right have a scissor-like handle. Not sure if I could actually serve anything with it, but it’s beautiful nonetheless.

I have to take a moment to brag about Josh. Because I’m such a lucky girl.

First he decided to go antiquing for more bottles for the wedding — not because I asked, but all on his own, because he’s just a thoughtful, helpful guy. Then he not only found seriously awesome bottles (some of these put my efforts to shame), but he photographed them for me so I wouldn’t have to wait to see them.

Yeah, that script rocks. And so does the photo. So now you know that Josh is not only a better antique-finder than me, he is also a better photographer.

Do you know how hard it is to find the ones with embossed glass? Yes, really hard. And the grand finale…

A Salem bottle! It doesn’t get any more amazing than that.

And there are even more on his Flickr — these are just the highlights.

Sidebar for those who aren’t Ambrosia Parsley fans: Among many other things, Bossa Nova is the title of a Shivaree song. “I’m the luckiest girl / Gonna tell you I love you…”

Actually, it’s part more-than-three, because I’ve been to Pacific Coast Antiques in Brookings a couple of times for a bottle here and a bottle there. But this was installment three of the Quest for Bottles and Cake Stands.

Since I was driving down to Brookings for Thanksgiving, I thought I might as well stop in and check out the world-famous antiquing in Lincoln City. Well, if you are looking to make a single purchase — and spend a pretty penny for it — then Lincoln City is the place to go. At my first stop, I found quite a few beautiful milk bottles in perfect condition, and many of them were quite special, but most were $60+. Several were $75, and I didn’t see a single one below $30. I’m buying so many of these, I can’t justify even one bottle at $30. On to the next shop, which was a complete bust. One nice cake stand, but at $70, I couldn’t bring myself to buy it.

Last, I went to Granny’s Attic and found a few more reasonably-priced bottles. I was a little discouraged and antiqued-out at that point, so I skipped the rest of the stores and hoped for better luck in Brookings.

That photo has nothing to do with anything wedding-related… I took it from the beach in Brookings one evening this week. This is why the Oregon Coast is my happy place.

I found a couple of nice cake plates in Brookings, including one that was a steal at $9. Surely it isn’t an antique, but you can’t beat $9 for any glass cake stand, regardless of age. But still no milk bottles, no vintage wine carafes, no other nondescript bottles that I just had to have.

Yesterday, we went down to Crescent City to explore the antique shops there — and I was shocked to discover that there are tons of them! Nine in all, including one I went to a few months ago. And lo and behold, bottles!

First, the non-wedding items: The book is a first edition of a book I loved as a child, published in the 1800s. The little trivet is just for fun… We know I have a trivet obsession, and this one was only $2.

The little sugar bowl was just such a great find I couldn’t pass it up… I will probably see if the caterer will use it for sugar for coffee at the reception. The pink depression glass cake plate and the clear cake plate at the very back are the ones I found in Brookings. The little blue saucer at the front was all by himself so I had to have him. Not sure yet what role he’ll play at the wedding.

A couple of the bottles are from Granny’s Attic in Lincoln City, and the rest are from shops in Crescent City. The large bottle on the far right was a real splurge — I must’ve had a momentary seizure when I decided to spend $20 on a single bottle, but it’s in perfect condition and is very special.

And my HUGE splurge was the little light blue cake plate at the left. You can’t see him very well in this photo, but he’s so so so pretty — the perfect blue, in flawless condition, and blue milk glass, which is very hard to find.

No matter how many magazines and websites I thumbed through, I couldn’t envision traditional floral centerpieces at our wedding. Even with the myriad of modern, unique floral arrangements I saw on blogs and pages of MSW, it wasn’t coming together in my head. I found, and noted, a gorgeous idea from a non-bridal magazine advertisement:

I still have this on file, for what I’m not quite sure… Reception decorations? The head table? Probably neither but we’ll see. Once I had the realization that I could buck the round table trend and do long rectangulars instead, I was decidedly disenchanted with large floral arrangements.

Before we decided on our space, I thought we might hang round paper lanterns or tissue paper decorations from the ceiling, in which case I considered skipping reception flowers altogether and using tons of candles instead. But then we booked the ballroom at Zenith, and the vaulted ceilings and enormous chandeliers precluded anything like that.

Then this beauty appeared on the Bride’s Cafe:

Perfect! Single-flower arrangements in glass containers. Why didn’t I think of that? A while later, another wedding with brilliantly chic florals also surfaced:

That sealed the deal. Since I’m using some flowers with vintage undertones — peonies, lily of the valley, garden roses — it seemed only right to accompany them with vintage glassware. I’ve always had a weakness for vintage containers anyway, so maybe it was just an opportunity to comb the antique stores for their best pieces. In July, mom, Granny and I went antiquing in Brookings and got off to a great start. I think we picked up 17 bottles in total, plus a gorgeous glass cake stand for the cupcake table.

Then in August, our pastor’s wife recommended a little antique shop that’s nestled in the north end of Crescent City. We never, ever would’ve found that place if not for her, and even with her directions, we almost missed it. The shop is in the downstairs of the owner’s house, and she’s usually closed on Sundays, but she happened to be out front and let us come in and poke around. It was definitely providence, because she had tons of glass bottles, and at amazing prices at that — and on top of it, she gave me a discount for buying so many pieces. I don’t remember how many we picked up, but I’d say it was close to 20. It seems that the managers in the antique shops can’t see my modern vintage vision, but I can definitely see the crisp ivory linens and the blue dupioni silk table runners and the glass bottles of many sizes.

I didn’t buy any colored glass the first time, but those big brown bottles were too cool to pass up. They’ll end up on the seating card table or something. And the tiny blue bottle — adorable! Later that day, we revisited the Brookings shops and found a few more, plus the most perfect light blue creamer that will be lovely with a single peony overflowing out of the top.

Unfortunately, my excitement about the glassware is partially overshadowed by the vision of all those beautiful containers sitting empty at the wedding. I’ve now had contact with six florists. Of the six, only a couple have responded to more than my very first email or phone call; two in particular seemed so excited at first, asking me to send photos and details, but then never replied. I can’t quite figure out if I’m coming across as overly enthusiastic or detail-oriented, or if I’ve had a run of bad luck. I’ve been so fortunate with most of my other vendors that the florist woes are baffling. I keep trying to keep this in perspective, keep trying to remember that plenty of people plan their entire wedding in less than seven months, but I’m a planner at heart.

I have fantasies of doing the flowers myself, but being artistic does not equal being a floral decorator. Maybe I’ll more seriously consider doing the reception flowers myself and have the highly-recommended little Salem florist do the bouquets. But in the mean time, I’m in full florist pursuit. Recommendations welcome!