Summer in Williamsburg

You may remember my Colonial-style Christmas decorations from last year. Colonial-style Christmas decorations are wonderful...at Christmas, of course. But as the months warm, the blood starts rushing to my green thumb (or something like that...). In any case, I start thinking about my garden. Yesterday, The Gardens of Colonial Williamsburg arrived in my mailbox (from paperbackswap.com, which I WILL shamelessly plug in probably nearly every blog post about books, since the only "new" books I get are from that source...you can still click in the link on the right to join yourself!). I know it's definitely too late this year to start a new garden plan, but it is so delicious to look through the illustrations and photos in the book and dream of changes I might make to my gardens next year! I know I'll never have a strictly traditional colonial garden...the climate difference between mild and humid Virginia will exclude plenty of plants from my high desert garden, but I know there will be principles and ideas I can include. That's the fun of it anyway, isn't it? To take elements from things you love and change them to suit your style or situation?

All Dressed in White: The Irresistable Rise of the American Wedding

I had a lot of fun with this book. It is an historical look at the birth of American wedding customs and how they have evolved over the course of America's history. Carol McD. Wallace draws some very insightful and deep correlations between a culture's views of meaning and goals and how that effects wedding customs. She shows how that which is done in the most intimate and personal of events (a wedding) is a reflection of what is believed and lived in the the culture at large.

Speaking as someone who grew up outside American culture, this book helped me to understand why Americans do what they do in weddings, and why American weddings look the way they do today. Ms. Wallace's perspective was informative for me personally, as well as very affirming for many of the things I have felt but not understood or been able to articulate about the "American White Wedding." Overall, I couldn't put it down!

I wouldn't recommend All Dressed in White to very young ladies as it does discuss some mature topics, although it does handle them in a tactful, delicate way. For anyone interested in planning or participating in a meaningful wedding, or the history of wedding customs, it is a must-read.