Most of the stuff I have to mention happened this weekend, but I'll start with something we did the weekend before - ring shopping!
We went back to Jared, where we got my engagement ring, to look at wedding bands. We ended up finding exactly what we wanted, so we went ahead and got them! They are very simple bands - plain, solid white gold - and pretty thin (since I have small fingers, lol, and also because the thicker one looked weird with my engagement ring, since it also has a thin band). Marcus also decided he liked a thinner band as opposed to a thicker one, so our rings are just one size (thickness) apart! But several finger sizes apart ;-)
So, on to this weekend. We flew down to Florida late Thursday night, and pretty much went to bed as soon as we got in, since it was almost 1 am. Friday we slept in a little, then got up and headed over to Marcus's dad's printing shop to try to finalize our invitations! After much discussion, we decided to change a few things - the color of the ink and backing paper (because the paper we had chosen wasn't the greatest quality, although it matched our color perfectly), and the type of paper the actual invitation will be on. We also fixed a few wording things and figured out the design for the RSVP cards and hotel information cards. I called my mom to let her know, and she started getting all up in arms over the envelopes, and how we needed to have outer and inner envelopes instead of just the one envelope. I said that I didn't think we needed two envelopes, it seems like such a waste, since people just throw out the envelopes anyway. I reminded my mom (as she told me to when we began the wedding planning process) that this is MY wedding, and so what I want should matter. She got all huffy and proclaimed that while it is my wedding, she is paying for it, and she "is the one inviting all the people", so she would like the invitations to be "appropriate". My response to that was, "I assure you, the invitations will be APPROPRIATE, whether we have one envelope or two!" We got off the phone, and Marcus's dad said that for the size envelope we are using, it's very hard to get inner envelopes, so he thought we just needed the one. Later, though, he and my mom emailed back and forth and he agreed to look for the inner envelopes :-P
We went to lunch with Marcus's dad and Rochelle, then headed back to his mom's house, where we hung out for a while, then got ready and headed out to the temple for Friday night services, followed by dinner. We came back and went to sleep.
Saturday morning, we got up early and headed back to the temple for the morning service (it was Marcus's stepbrother's Bar Mitzvah, the real reason for our trip down there). There was a nice luncheon afterwards, and then we headed back to Marcus's mom's house again for a few hours. During those few hours, I responded to about 12 emails from my mom (who I was about ready to kill at this point) about cocktail napkins and other things that I care equally little about. We did get some stuff done - picked out our cake topper, and semi-finalized our guest list spreadsheet (we changed all the names to how they will look on the envelopes - but if we do end up having an inner envelope, we will have to add another column for the names as they will appear on THAT envelope), as well as looking at designs for cocktail napkins, kippot and bathroom towels.
Saturday night, we headed back to the temple again for the Bar Mitzvah party. It went late into the night, and was a lot of fun, though we were exhausted by the end!
Sunday morning, we got up and headed back to the temple yet AGAIN for our Engagement Party #3! It was a brunch party, and it was really nice, with lots of yummy food. My parents and sister were originally going to come down for this weekend too, but they ended up not coming, as my dad has been having some health issues and was told he is not supposed to fly. So it turned out that my great-aunt (who lives about 30 minutes away from Marcus's family in Florida) was the only member of my family in attendance, and the rest was Marcus's family. I was a little worried that they (my great-aunt and her husband) wouldn't enjoy it, since they didn't really know anybody, but we introduced them around, and my sister told me last night that my great-aunt had called my mom to let her know that they had a great time! We also got a bunch more gifts, and luckily, Marcus's aunt Rebeca, who lives in Atlanta and had driven down (she's staying for the rest of the week), offered to drive them back up to Atlanta for us and store them at her house.
We flew back to Atlanta last night and got home around 10:30 pm. It was a crazy whirlwind of a weekend, but at least we got some stuff done! I was hoping to come out of this weekend with the invitations completely finalized, which didn't happen. However, Marcus's dad told us that while he can't start printing them until we have EVERYTHING finalized (including the spreadsheets), once he starts printing, they will only take about a week to be ready, and a few more days to get to us through the mail. Since we're aiming to send them out in mid-to-late January, we actually still have plenty of time to finalize them. And since they are also pre-printing our envelopes, we can start mailing them out as soon as we get them, without having to worry about addressing them first.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Food, glorious food!
This weekend, we traveled up to Maryland for Thanksgiving and got a bunch of wedding stuff done! On Friday morning, I went to do my trial hair styling. We tried a few different things, and we decided to go with a very simple, but pretty, style. My hair will be blown dry straight, and will be part up and part down (just a top layer up, and the rest down). I LOVE my hair straight, so I'm excited!
Later, on Friday afternoon, we went to the Bolger Center to do our final menu tasting. You may remember I wrote earlier about how they screwed up our first tasting, and we didn't get to taste everything we wanted to, so we had to schedule this second tasting. Since then, my mom got fed up with our contact person's lack of communication, and switched to a new contact person, Debbie. We met Debbie for the first time when we arrived at this tasting. She's a bit dryer and more abrupt than our old contact person, but she seems much more together, and according to my mom, she's a much better communicator. We tasted a few more delicious dishes, and made our final menu choices! We will be offering three entrees: filet mignon, sea bass (which is absolutely amazing), and butternut squash ravioli (vegetarian entree, which in MY opinion was even BETTER than the sea bass! I was initially going to get the fish entree, but now I think I am going to get the ravioli! I don't even like squash, and I loved it, so that should tell you something about how good it is!). There's also a yummy field greens salad, and our appetizers will be coconut chicken, crab cakes (hey, it's in Maryland, this is a requirement! lol), lamb skewers, and a really delicious brie & cranberry pocket thingy. Everything is really tasty, and I am very excited about that!
At Thanksgiving dinner with my family on Thursday, we also firmed up plans with my aunt for my bridal shower, which will be in Maryland the Sunday of Presidents Day weekend in February. We were originally going to do it on Saturday, but my cousin has a poms competition that day, so instead, everyone will come into town for the weekend, we'll all go to her competition on Saturday, and the shower on Sunday! It's going to be a traditional "all-girls" shower, so that should be interesting.
I also got my veil this morning! When we got back last night, there was a package slip in our mailbox, so I went to the leasing office and picked up TWO packages - one was a bunch of books my mom got me for my birthday/Hanukkah, and the other was my veil! It's exactly what I expected, very simple and pretty, and a perfect length! I haven't tried it on with my dress yet, but that's what fittings are for, right? As I mentioned in my last post (I think...), I ordered my veil from Etsy, and I couldn't be happier with that choice. The same veil in a store cost about $250, and I got it for under $50! I highly recommend Etsy, and especially "simplebeautyveils", the seller I bought the veil from.
That's about all for now. Next big step is invitations - I will be working on that this week, and hopefully we'll have our final order in in the next couple of weeks! We're sending out the invitations in January, so I'm starting to get excited about that.
Later, on Friday afternoon, we went to the Bolger Center to do our final menu tasting. You may remember I wrote earlier about how they screwed up our first tasting, and we didn't get to taste everything we wanted to, so we had to schedule this second tasting. Since then, my mom got fed up with our contact person's lack of communication, and switched to a new contact person, Debbie. We met Debbie for the first time when we arrived at this tasting. She's a bit dryer and more abrupt than our old contact person, but she seems much more together, and according to my mom, she's a much better communicator. We tasted a few more delicious dishes, and made our final menu choices! We will be offering three entrees: filet mignon, sea bass (which is absolutely amazing), and butternut squash ravioli (vegetarian entree, which in MY opinion was even BETTER than the sea bass! I was initially going to get the fish entree, but now I think I am going to get the ravioli! I don't even like squash, and I loved it, so that should tell you something about how good it is!). There's also a yummy field greens salad, and our appetizers will be coconut chicken, crab cakes (hey, it's in Maryland, this is a requirement! lol), lamb skewers, and a really delicious brie & cranberry pocket thingy. Everything is really tasty, and I am very excited about that!
At Thanksgiving dinner with my family on Thursday, we also firmed up plans with my aunt for my bridal shower, which will be in Maryland the Sunday of Presidents Day weekend in February. We were originally going to do it on Saturday, but my cousin has a poms competition that day, so instead, everyone will come into town for the weekend, we'll all go to her competition on Saturday, and the shower on Sunday! It's going to be a traditional "all-girls" shower, so that should be interesting.
I also got my veil this morning! When we got back last night, there was a package slip in our mailbox, so I went to the leasing office and picked up TWO packages - one was a bunch of books my mom got me for my birthday/Hanukkah, and the other was my veil! It's exactly what I expected, very simple and pretty, and a perfect length! I haven't tried it on with my dress yet, but that's what fittings are for, right? As I mentioned in my last post (I think...), I ordered my veil from Etsy, and I couldn't be happier with that choice. The same veil in a store cost about $250, and I got it for under $50! I highly recommend Etsy, and especially "simplebeautyveils", the seller I bought the veil from.
That's about all for now. Next big step is invitations - I will be working on that this week, and hopefully we'll have our final order in in the next couple of weeks! We're sending out the invitations in January, so I'm starting to get excited about that.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Engagement Party #2, and a few more checks
My parents came into town this weekend for our Atlanta engagement party, which I'll get into in a few minutes. Naturally, since they were here, we got a few more wedding planning things done, too.
My parents arrived on Friday night. We picked them up at the airport, then they went to their hotel and we all went to bed. Saturday morning, we got up bright and early and headed out around 10 am. First we went to Men's Wearhouse, where we figured out tuxes for the groomsmen and Marcus got fitted for his tux. The groomsmen are going to have blue (matching the bridesmaids' dress color) vests and ties, and Marcus will have a white vest and black tie.
Next we headed out to shop for veils. I had already found one that I really liked online (on Etsy, which is an amazing website - if you've never seen it, check it out!), but my mom insisted that I needed to go try on a few veils in person first so that I knew what I wanted. The first place we went was Bridals by Lori, which had been recommended by several people on the Atlanta boards on The Knot. Apparently this store is featured on Say Yes to the Dress, so it was fairly busy, but we were able to get good service. The store was ridiculously huge (THREE floors!), but we found our way to the veils department, and started looking around ourselves. Eventually, a salesperson noticed us and sent one of the managers over to help us. I tried on a couple of veils, and my mom quickly realized that I already knew what I wanted. The veil I liked at this store would have cost about $250, and the one I found on Etsy costs about $40...so my mom agreed that getting it online was the way to go!
We stopped for a nice lunch, then decided that we didn't really need to go to the second bridal shop we had planned on, since we had already pretty much figured out the veil thing. So instead, we went back to our apartment, where we spent several hours working on some smaller wedding items, including programs, reception music checklist for the DJ, a photo list for the photographer, and the guest list for my bridal shower. Then Marcus and I got changed, and we headed to the hotel so my parents could change for the party.
The engagement party was at Marcus's aunt and uncle's house, and it was for Marcus's GA family - the Atlanta and Savannah contingents. I had met most of them before, but not all, so it was fun to meet some more of his Savannah family! And my parents were meeting most of them for the first time, so that was fun too. His family and my family are so similar, it's a little scary! They're both loud, fun, and CRAZY! Our wedding reception is going to be insane (in a good way!)! Anyway, we ate lots of yummy food, talked a lot, and opened more gifts - including our food processor, which I am SO excited about! It was a great party, Marcus's aunts (the planning committee) did a great job! So, two engagement parties down, one to go (which will be in Florida in December, for Marcus's FL family).
On Sunday, we went to an early brunch with my parents, Marcus's aunt, and one of our friends. Then we came back to the apartment and hung out watching a couple of Marcus's home videos before taking my parents to the airport for their flight home. It was a good visit, both productive and fun/relaxing (for once).
Another thing I've been working on lately - my bridal shower! My crazy Aunt Jenny finally emailed me to start planning it. Right now we're looking at Presidents Day weekend, and this will be a traditional "girls only" shower. I emailed her a preliminary guest list complete with addresses, so we'll see how the planning goes. I'm a little scared, honestly, my aunts are nuts, so I'm kind of expecting anything and everything at this shower, haha. It should be fun, though, so I'm excited.
Next on the wedding planning docket: Thanksgiving weekend! We will be traveling up to Maryland for Thanksgiving, and have several big things on the agenda, including our (hopefully) final menu tasting, which should allow us to finalize and order our invitations! Stay tuned!
My parents arrived on Friday night. We picked them up at the airport, then they went to their hotel and we all went to bed. Saturday morning, we got up bright and early and headed out around 10 am. First we went to Men's Wearhouse, where we figured out tuxes for the groomsmen and Marcus got fitted for his tux. The groomsmen are going to have blue (matching the bridesmaids' dress color) vests and ties, and Marcus will have a white vest and black tie.
Next we headed out to shop for veils. I had already found one that I really liked online (on Etsy, which is an amazing website - if you've never seen it, check it out!), but my mom insisted that I needed to go try on a few veils in person first so that I knew what I wanted. The first place we went was Bridals by Lori, which had been recommended by several people on the Atlanta boards on The Knot. Apparently this store is featured on Say Yes to the Dress, so it was fairly busy, but we were able to get good service. The store was ridiculously huge (THREE floors!), but we found our way to the veils department, and started looking around ourselves. Eventually, a salesperson noticed us and sent one of the managers over to help us. I tried on a couple of veils, and my mom quickly realized that I already knew what I wanted. The veil I liked at this store would have cost about $250, and the one I found on Etsy costs about $40...so my mom agreed that getting it online was the way to go!
We stopped for a nice lunch, then decided that we didn't really need to go to the second bridal shop we had planned on, since we had already pretty much figured out the veil thing. So instead, we went back to our apartment, where we spent several hours working on some smaller wedding items, including programs, reception music checklist for the DJ, a photo list for the photographer, and the guest list for my bridal shower. Then Marcus and I got changed, and we headed to the hotel so my parents could change for the party.
The engagement party was at Marcus's aunt and uncle's house, and it was for Marcus's GA family - the Atlanta and Savannah contingents. I had met most of them before, but not all, so it was fun to meet some more of his Savannah family! And my parents were meeting most of them for the first time, so that was fun too. His family and my family are so similar, it's a little scary! They're both loud, fun, and CRAZY! Our wedding reception is going to be insane (in a good way!)! Anyway, we ate lots of yummy food, talked a lot, and opened more gifts - including our food processor, which I am SO excited about! It was a great party, Marcus's aunts (the planning committee) did a great job! So, two engagement parties down, one to go (which will be in Florida in December, for Marcus's FL family).
On Sunday, we went to an early brunch with my parents, Marcus's aunt, and one of our friends. Then we came back to the apartment and hung out watching a couple of Marcus's home videos before taking my parents to the airport for their flight home. It was a good visit, both productive and fun/relaxing (for once).
Another thing I've been working on lately - my bridal shower! My crazy Aunt Jenny finally emailed me to start planning it. Right now we're looking at Presidents Day weekend, and this will be a traditional "girls only" shower. I emailed her a preliminary guest list complete with addresses, so we'll see how the planning goes. I'm a little scared, honestly, my aunts are nuts, so I'm kind of expecting anything and everything at this shower, haha. It should be fun, though, so I'm excited.
Next on the wedding planning docket: Thanksgiving weekend! We will be traveling up to Maryland for Thanksgiving, and have several big things on the agenda, including our (hopefully) final menu tasting, which should allow us to finalize and order our invitations! Stay tuned!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Ketubah! (and other things)
We have another big check - Marcus and I have picked out and ordered our ketubah! For those who don't know, a ketubah is the Jewish marriage contract, and it's also a work of art. Each one is individually hand-made by the artist. Our ketubah is called "Serenity in Nature: Two Trees" and the artist is Risa Aqua. You can get an idea of what it will look like here.
In other news, I have started working on my bridesmaids' gifts. You may remember that I ordered the actual gifts a while back, but now I am working on the other part (which I can't go into detail about, because it's still a surprise!).
We have two more engagement parties coming up! One on November 13 at Marcus's aunt and uncle's house here in Atlanta, and one on December 19 in Florida (purposely planned for the day after Marcus's stepbrother Jon's Bar Mitzvah, so that his out of town family will already be there). After some debate, we decided to call them all engagement parties rather than showers so that people who are not necessarily invited to the wedding can come celebrate with us at the parties without then feeling snubbed when they don't get an invitation to the actual wedding.
We have also finalized the Rabbi's travel plans, and booked his tickets. And we've been ironing out the little details of a whole bunch of stuff, including RSVP card design for our invitations, ceremony music, stamps for our invitations, and my parents' travel plans for the upcoming engagement party in November.
Another big thing that happened since I last posted is that my mom decided to switch to a different coordinator person for our venue. The person we had been working with kept screwing things up (like the food options we had at our tasting), and wasn't very good at responding quickly to communication, so my mom decided enough was enough and finally switched. She says that the new person seems much more communicative and organized, but we'll really find out when we go to our second tasting over Thanksgiving.
We're still kind of in a lull as far as planning that needs to be done right now. It will be picking up again in earnest starting around Thanksgiving! But for now, we're enjoying the break!
In other news, I have started working on my bridesmaids' gifts. You may remember that I ordered the actual gifts a while back, but now I am working on the other part (which I can't go into detail about, because it's still a surprise!).
We have two more engagement parties coming up! One on November 13 at Marcus's aunt and uncle's house here in Atlanta, and one on December 19 in Florida (purposely planned for the day after Marcus's stepbrother Jon's Bar Mitzvah, so that his out of town family will already be there). After some debate, we decided to call them all engagement parties rather than showers so that people who are not necessarily invited to the wedding can come celebrate with us at the parties without then feeling snubbed when they don't get an invitation to the actual wedding.
We have also finalized the Rabbi's travel plans, and booked his tickets. And we've been ironing out the little details of a whole bunch of stuff, including RSVP card design for our invitations, ceremony music, stamps for our invitations, and my parents' travel plans for the upcoming engagement party in November.
Another big thing that happened since I last posted is that my mom decided to switch to a different coordinator person for our venue. The person we had been working with kept screwing things up (like the food options we had at our tasting), and wasn't very good at responding quickly to communication, so my mom decided enough was enough and finally switched. She says that the new person seems much more communicative and organized, but we'll really find out when we go to our second tasting over Thanksgiving.
We're still kind of in a lull as far as planning that needs to be done right now. It will be picking up again in earnest starting around Thanksgiving! But for now, we're enjoying the break!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Food (and other things)
It's been a while since I've posted anything. Wedding planning has slowed down considerably, but it's starting to pick up again. A few items of note have happened since my last post.
Three weekends ago, we went to Florida for Marcus's grandfather's birthday. While we were there, we met with the rabbi and firmed up plans for the ceremony, as well as his meal and travel plans. He also directed us to a great website for finding a ketubah, which we have looked through and narrowed down a list of ones we like.
This weekend, we went to Maryland to do our menu tasting! We were very excited, and the food itself did not disappoint! However, our coordinator person had went off the wrong email (an earlier list rather than the final one), so we didn't get to taste all of the things we had selected, but we did get to taste some that we hadn't selected. Everything was good, but we will be going back again when we're up there for Thanksgiving to taste the remaining items we had wanted to taste. It seems like nothing we do for this wedding can go right the first time! *Sigh*.
We also had a little pow-wow with Frieda (one of the Schwartzes, who I've mentioned before) to talk about music for the ceremony. After much discussion, we have decided to enlist her help in finding musicians to play at our ceremony. She used to play in a klezmer band, so she knows a lot of appropriate people in the local music world. We also narrowed down a list of songs that we want played before and during the ceremony, and further discussed the actual procession and the order in which people will walk down the aisle.
Also, we finally got our engagement photos back! They are on the photographer's website - we are in the process of finding out if the photographer will let us have the jpegs (for facebook posting/easier sharing), but for now, if you haven't seen the pictures and you want to, let me or Marcus know, and we can send you a link and login info for the website! The pictures came out GREAT!
We have also pretty much finalized the wording and colors for our invitations. Now we just have to wait until we finalize our menu so we can add the meal options to the response cards. That will all be happening very quickly, as we won't know our menu until after Thanksgiving, and we hope to order our invitations by the first week of December (and plan to send them out in late January)! Such is life...everything comes in bunches!
Three weekends ago, we went to Florida for Marcus's grandfather's birthday. While we were there, we met with the rabbi and firmed up plans for the ceremony, as well as his meal and travel plans. He also directed us to a great website for finding a ketubah, which we have looked through and narrowed down a list of ones we like.
This weekend, we went to Maryland to do our menu tasting! We were very excited, and the food itself did not disappoint! However, our coordinator person had went off the wrong email (an earlier list rather than the final one), so we didn't get to taste all of the things we had selected, but we did get to taste some that we hadn't selected. Everything was good, but we will be going back again when we're up there for Thanksgiving to taste the remaining items we had wanted to taste. It seems like nothing we do for this wedding can go right the first time! *Sigh*.
We also had a little pow-wow with Frieda (one of the Schwartzes, who I've mentioned before) to talk about music for the ceremony. After much discussion, we have decided to enlist her help in finding musicians to play at our ceremony. She used to play in a klezmer band, so she knows a lot of appropriate people in the local music world. We also narrowed down a list of songs that we want played before and during the ceremony, and further discussed the actual procession and the order in which people will walk down the aisle.
Also, we finally got our engagement photos back! They are on the photographer's website - we are in the process of finding out if the photographer will let us have the jpegs (for facebook posting/easier sharing), but for now, if you haven't seen the pictures and you want to, let me or Marcus know, and we can send you a link and login info for the website! The pictures came out GREAT!
We have also pretty much finalized the wording and colors for our invitations. Now we just have to wait until we finalize our menu so we can add the meal options to the response cards. That will all be happening very quickly, as we won't know our menu until after Thanksgiving, and we hope to order our invitations by the first week of December (and plan to send them out in late January)! Such is life...everything comes in bunches!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Another Jam-Packed Weekend
After a brief hiatus from wedding planning, we jumped right back into the thick of it this weekend! Thanks to Labor Day, we were able to make a long weekend trip up to Maryland, which of course was packed with wedding planning activities.
We flew up Friday evening and got to my parents' house around 9:30 pm, which was really nice, because we usually take a much later flight and don't get there until more like midnight! We settled in and watched a movie with my parents, then went to bed at a decent hour.
Saturday was our busiest day. We got up around 9 am, and headed out to our first cake-tasting appointment at 10. I don't like cake, so I was pretty much expecting Marcus to take the lead on this one, but I actually ended up tasting most of the flavors too. We walked around the room for a while, looking at some cake displays, while the lady prepared our tasting samples. This place's specialty is their raspberry cake (which was really good, by the way!), but we also tasted a variety of other flavors, including pina colada, key lime, almond, and chocolate chocolate chip. We quickly discovered that we liked the fruity flavors best. We also tried several fillings (pineapple, strawberry, and raspberry), but decided that since we liked the fruity cakes, a filling would make it TOO fruity and too sweet.
We got finished there earlier than we expected, so we called the next place we were going to ask if we could come earlier. We were originally supposed to go there at 12, but ended up getting there around 11:15 instead. The second place was very different from the first. At the first place, the lady kind of left us to our own devices and didn't really offer much guidance (although she was quick and knowledgable to answer any questions we asked). At the second place, however, Ann greeted us right away, sat us down at a table, and went through a book of pictures of cake designs with us in addition to giving us a guided tour of the cake displays in the room. She then brought out a plate that had a full slice of each of about 10 different flavors of their cakes! We both LOVED their specialty, which is a mandarin orange cake. Since we are pretty sure we've decided to go with this place, I feel comfortable writing what we've decided about our cake so far. It will be a four-tier cake (because of the number of guests we are anticipating). The top tier, which won't be served at the wedding (it's for us to save and eat on our first anniversary), will be the mandarin orange cake. The second tier will also be mandarin orange, the third tier will be chocolate, and the bottom tier will be mandarin orange again. So basically, our guests will get a choice between mandarin orange and chocolate cake. The entire cake will have a standard buttercream frosting, mostly white with some blue in the designs. We decided to do an alternating design. The top tier will be single dots, second tier will be a design called "trailing hearts", third tier will be single dots again, and the bottom tier will be a scroll design called the "harmony scroll". We haven't figure out the exact details yet (like which aspects of the designs will be in blue), but we have time to figure that out. Ann then gave us all the cake samples we hadn't finished to take home!
After that, we decided to go into downtown Silver Spring for lunch. It was a beautiful day outside (a nice break from the crazy heat we've had all summer!), so we parked and walked around a little bit before deciding to go to the Copper Canyon Grill for lunch. The food was delicious, but the portions were HUGE! I got a salad, and by the time I was done, I was so full I almost couldn't breathe! We walked around a little bit more, then headed back to the car to go to our next appointment.
Our next appointment was with our florist. My parents had met with them several times already, but this was the first time Marcus and I met them. They had arranged several sample centerpieces for us to look at, but we ended up completely changing all of it. The samples were mostly purple with a little bit of blue (which was not at all what I wanted), and they also had another sample that was all white flowers. On our way in, we happened to see them loading a van for delivery, and we noticed these beautiful orchids that were a deep purply-blue. I had the idea of trying some of those in the white sample to see what it would look like, and it was so beautiful that we ended up going with that! We also changed up the bouquets - mine will have white roses, white calla lilies, and a few scattered blue delphiniums. The bridesmaids' will have white roses and the purply-blue orchids! I have to mention the guy who runs the florist shop. He was the highlight of the weekend! Neither Marcus, nor my mom, nor I have any clue about flowers, but this guy was super helpful and hysterical! His name is Sharon (he's Israeli), and he was cracking jokes the entire time we were there! I will definitely be giving him a great review on The Knot after the wedding (although he won't actually be there, but we are primarily dealing with him in the planning). We left feeling very satisfied with all we had accomplished!
On the way back, we stopped to visit my grandparents. We visited my dad's parents first, and then my mom's. My grandma (mom's mom) had asked me to bring a piece of cake for her, so we ended up giving her the entire box of leftover cake from our second tasting! Bernie showed us his pictures and video from my cousin's wedding a couple of weeks ago (I wasn't invited, but my parents went), which was really nice.
When we got back to my parents' house, we collapsed on the couch for about 10 minutes before my mom declared she was hungry and wanted to go to dinner. I was still stuffed from lunch and all the cake, but since I was the only one, we went to dinner anyway. We went to Tara Asia (owned by the same people as Tara Thai), and I got pad thai, but only ate about half of it. We finally went back to my parents' house for the night after that, spent a little while sitting out on the deck working on our invitation wording, and then showered and went to bed.
Sunday was our quiet day, which was SO nice! We slept in (I got up around 11:30, Marcus didn't get up until closer to 12:30), then went to get crepes with my friend Laura C. We got back around 3, then hung out around the house and helped my mom get ready until the Schwartzes (family friends) came over for a BBQ around 5:30. We had a great time with them, as always, and they left around 10:30. We got ready for bed and then played a couple of games before going to sleep.
Monday (yesterday), Marcus and I got up at the buttcrack of dawn (I was up at 6:15, Marcus at 7) to go to our engagement photo shoot. We met up with the photographer at 8 at Washingtonian. I wasn't sure what to expect, since I usually hate posing for pictures, but Steve (the photographer) was awesome and made it a lot of fun! We walked around the lake, posing for pictures in various places, and finished up with a few shots on the bridge. We should get the link to the online proofs in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned! I can't wait to see how the pictures turned out!
After that, we went back to my parents' house and spent a couple of hours trying to figure out ceremony music. We listened to some clips on youtube, and Frieda (one of the Schwartzes, lol) offered to burn us a copy of a cd she had of Jewish wedding music. We didn't really make any decisions yet, we're supposed to work on that this week (although when, I don't know, this week is pure insanity!), but we did take Frieda up on her offer. We stopped at their house to pick up the cd on our way to the airport.
We got back to our apartment around 5:30 pm, unpacked, decided we didn't want to go out again, so ordered takeout for dinner, and tried to get settled. I dug out the program from Joel and Shosh's wedding to see what ceremony music they used, and we found some more youtube clips. Then we showered and went to bed early - we were exhausted!
Next weekend we're going to Florida for Marcus's grandfather's birthday, and we're also meeting with the rabbi while we're there. Hopefully we'll get the invitation wording finalized, too! And we'll be back in Maryland in a few weeks to do our menu tasting, which I'm really looking forward to! It's a crazy time, but I'm actually having a lot of fun with it so far.
We flew up Friday evening and got to my parents' house around 9:30 pm, which was really nice, because we usually take a much later flight and don't get there until more like midnight! We settled in and watched a movie with my parents, then went to bed at a decent hour.
Saturday was our busiest day. We got up around 9 am, and headed out to our first cake-tasting appointment at 10. I don't like cake, so I was pretty much expecting Marcus to take the lead on this one, but I actually ended up tasting most of the flavors too. We walked around the room for a while, looking at some cake displays, while the lady prepared our tasting samples. This place's specialty is their raspberry cake (which was really good, by the way!), but we also tasted a variety of other flavors, including pina colada, key lime, almond, and chocolate chocolate chip. We quickly discovered that we liked the fruity flavors best. We also tried several fillings (pineapple, strawberry, and raspberry), but decided that since we liked the fruity cakes, a filling would make it TOO fruity and too sweet.
We got finished there earlier than we expected, so we called the next place we were going to ask if we could come earlier. We were originally supposed to go there at 12, but ended up getting there around 11:15 instead. The second place was very different from the first. At the first place, the lady kind of left us to our own devices and didn't really offer much guidance (although she was quick and knowledgable to answer any questions we asked). At the second place, however, Ann greeted us right away, sat us down at a table, and went through a book of pictures of cake designs with us in addition to giving us a guided tour of the cake displays in the room. She then brought out a plate that had a full slice of each of about 10 different flavors of their cakes! We both LOVED their specialty, which is a mandarin orange cake. Since we are pretty sure we've decided to go with this place, I feel comfortable writing what we've decided about our cake so far. It will be a four-tier cake (because of the number of guests we are anticipating). The top tier, which won't be served at the wedding (it's for us to save and eat on our first anniversary), will be the mandarin orange cake. The second tier will also be mandarin orange, the third tier will be chocolate, and the bottom tier will be mandarin orange again. So basically, our guests will get a choice between mandarin orange and chocolate cake. The entire cake will have a standard buttercream frosting, mostly white with some blue in the designs. We decided to do an alternating design. The top tier will be single dots, second tier will be a design called "trailing hearts", third tier will be single dots again, and the bottom tier will be a scroll design called the "harmony scroll". We haven't figure out the exact details yet (like which aspects of the designs will be in blue), but we have time to figure that out. Ann then gave us all the cake samples we hadn't finished to take home!
After that, we decided to go into downtown Silver Spring for lunch. It was a beautiful day outside (a nice break from the crazy heat we've had all summer!), so we parked and walked around a little bit before deciding to go to the Copper Canyon Grill for lunch. The food was delicious, but the portions were HUGE! I got a salad, and by the time I was done, I was so full I almost couldn't breathe! We walked around a little bit more, then headed back to the car to go to our next appointment.
Our next appointment was with our florist. My parents had met with them several times already, but this was the first time Marcus and I met them. They had arranged several sample centerpieces for us to look at, but we ended up completely changing all of it. The samples were mostly purple with a little bit of blue (which was not at all what I wanted), and they also had another sample that was all white flowers. On our way in, we happened to see them loading a van for delivery, and we noticed these beautiful orchids that were a deep purply-blue. I had the idea of trying some of those in the white sample to see what it would look like, and it was so beautiful that we ended up going with that! We also changed up the bouquets - mine will have white roses, white calla lilies, and a few scattered blue delphiniums. The bridesmaids' will have white roses and the purply-blue orchids! I have to mention the guy who runs the florist shop. He was the highlight of the weekend! Neither Marcus, nor my mom, nor I have any clue about flowers, but this guy was super helpful and hysterical! His name is Sharon (he's Israeli), and he was cracking jokes the entire time we were there! I will definitely be giving him a great review on The Knot after the wedding (although he won't actually be there, but we are primarily dealing with him in the planning). We left feeling very satisfied with all we had accomplished!
On the way back, we stopped to visit my grandparents. We visited my dad's parents first, and then my mom's. My grandma (mom's mom) had asked me to bring a piece of cake for her, so we ended up giving her the entire box of leftover cake from our second tasting! Bernie showed us his pictures and video from my cousin's wedding a couple of weeks ago (I wasn't invited, but my parents went), which was really nice.
When we got back to my parents' house, we collapsed on the couch for about 10 minutes before my mom declared she was hungry and wanted to go to dinner. I was still stuffed from lunch and all the cake, but since I was the only one, we went to dinner anyway. We went to Tara Asia (owned by the same people as Tara Thai), and I got pad thai, but only ate about half of it. We finally went back to my parents' house for the night after that, spent a little while sitting out on the deck working on our invitation wording, and then showered and went to bed.
Sunday was our quiet day, which was SO nice! We slept in (I got up around 11:30, Marcus didn't get up until closer to 12:30), then went to get crepes with my friend Laura C. We got back around 3, then hung out around the house and helped my mom get ready until the Schwartzes (family friends) came over for a BBQ around 5:30. We had a great time with them, as always, and they left around 10:30. We got ready for bed and then played a couple of games before going to sleep.
Monday (yesterday), Marcus and I got up at the buttcrack of dawn (I was up at 6:15, Marcus at 7) to go to our engagement photo shoot. We met up with the photographer at 8 at Washingtonian. I wasn't sure what to expect, since I usually hate posing for pictures, but Steve (the photographer) was awesome and made it a lot of fun! We walked around the lake, posing for pictures in various places, and finished up with a few shots on the bridge. We should get the link to the online proofs in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned! I can't wait to see how the pictures turned out!
After that, we went back to my parents' house and spent a couple of hours trying to figure out ceremony music. We listened to some clips on youtube, and Frieda (one of the Schwartzes, lol) offered to burn us a copy of a cd she had of Jewish wedding music. We didn't really make any decisions yet, we're supposed to work on that this week (although when, I don't know, this week is pure insanity!), but we did take Frieda up on her offer. We stopped at their house to pick up the cd on our way to the airport.
We got back to our apartment around 5:30 pm, unpacked, decided we didn't want to go out again, so ordered takeout for dinner, and tried to get settled. I dug out the program from Joel and Shosh's wedding to see what ceremony music they used, and we found some more youtube clips. Then we showered and went to bed early - we were exhausted!
Next weekend we're going to Florida for Marcus's grandfather's birthday, and we're also meeting with the rabbi while we're there. Hopefully we'll get the invitation wording finalized, too! And we'll be back in Maryland in a few weeks to do our menu tasting, which I'm really looking forward to! It's a crazy time, but I'm actually having a lot of fun with it so far.
Friday, July 16, 2010
A few small checks, and one BIG one!
Marcus and I managed to get a few more things checked off our wedding planning to-do list without even going to Maryland! First, a few small things:
1. After doing some research online, we have decided what we want to do for our favors! I don't know why we didn't think of it before, because it's SO us. We are going to do playing card decks that have our wedding info on the box (and I think also on the backs of the cards)! This is what we're looking at: http://www.customwedding.com/cards.htm
2. The same day we got that done, I also spent some time researching online for gifts for my bridesmaids. I knew what I wanted to get them, based on their personalities, but surprisingly, it took me a while to find something close to what I was looking for. I eventually found something that worked, so I went ahead and ordered them. They were delivered to me on Wednesday, so that's another check off the list! And no, I'm not posting a link to what they are in case my bridesmaids read this ;-) Now I just have to figure out what to get for my maid of honor (my sister), because I wanted to get her something different/special.
3. Well, I guess this isn't THAT small, but I'm listing it with the small things because we've only made the plans to do something, we haven't actually done it yet. Now that our contract is finally signed with the photographer, we've been emailing back and forth with them to try to set up a time for our engagement photo session. It worked out really well, we are actually going to be able to do it while we're in Maryland Labor Day weekend! We have to get up early on Monday September 6 (photo session starts at 8:00 am, yikes!), but we're going to do it at Washingtonian (which, for those of you who don't know, is this really cute little center with stores and restaurants, a movie theater, etc., and it has a lake with a walking path around it and a walking bridge connecting one side of the center to the other.), which I'm super excited about, because it's a place that Marcus and I have gone together many times, and we both really like it, so it's a significant place for us. Yay!
In addition to all of those small checks, we also have one BIG check: we have officially booked our honeymoon! We will be going to Sandals Halcyon Beach, an all-inclusive resort in St. Lucia, for 7 days! The only bad part is that our flight leaves at 6:00 am the morning after the wedding, but it was the only available flight that wasn't ridiculously more expensive. And we probably weren't going to get a whole lot of sleep that night anyway, right? So we're really excited about our honeymoon, now that it's an actuality instead of just some thing in the future that has yet to be planned. Much thanks to Marcus's mom for helping us plan it and for footing the bill! We are so lucky to have such supportive parents through this whole process!
So it's been a productive week. I also went to Kohls yesterday and got an outfit to wear for the engagement photo shoot. It's pretty simple, and very me (according to Marcus, lol), and I'm excited for the pictures! I hate posing for pictures, but I love looking at them later, so in this case it's a necessary evil. Stay tuned for more updates!
1. After doing some research online, we have decided what we want to do for our favors! I don't know why we didn't think of it before, because it's SO us. We are going to do playing card decks that have our wedding info on the box (and I think also on the backs of the cards)! This is what we're looking at: http://www.customwedding.com/cards.htm
2. The same day we got that done, I also spent some time researching online for gifts for my bridesmaids. I knew what I wanted to get them, based on their personalities, but surprisingly, it took me a while to find something close to what I was looking for. I eventually found something that worked, so I went ahead and ordered them. They were delivered to me on Wednesday, so that's another check off the list! And no, I'm not posting a link to what they are in case my bridesmaids read this ;-) Now I just have to figure out what to get for my maid of honor (my sister), because I wanted to get her something different/special.
3. Well, I guess this isn't THAT small, but I'm listing it with the small things because we've only made the plans to do something, we haven't actually done it yet. Now that our contract is finally signed with the photographer, we've been emailing back and forth with them to try to set up a time for our engagement photo session. It worked out really well, we are actually going to be able to do it while we're in Maryland Labor Day weekend! We have to get up early on Monday September 6 (photo session starts at 8:00 am, yikes!), but we're going to do it at Washingtonian (which, for those of you who don't know, is this really cute little center with stores and restaurants, a movie theater, etc., and it has a lake with a walking path around it and a walking bridge connecting one side of the center to the other.), which I'm super excited about, because it's a place that Marcus and I have gone together many times, and we both really like it, so it's a significant place for us. Yay!
In addition to all of those small checks, we also have one BIG check: we have officially booked our honeymoon! We will be going to Sandals Halcyon Beach, an all-inclusive resort in St. Lucia, for 7 days! The only bad part is that our flight leaves at 6:00 am the morning after the wedding, but it was the only available flight that wasn't ridiculously more expensive. And we probably weren't going to get a whole lot of sleep that night anyway, right? So we're really excited about our honeymoon, now that it's an actuality instead of just some thing in the future that has yet to be planned. Much thanks to Marcus's mom for helping us plan it and for footing the bill! We are so lucky to have such supportive parents through this whole process!
So it's been a productive week. I also went to Kohls yesterday and got an outfit to wear for the engagement photo shoot. It's pretty simple, and very me (according to Marcus, lol), and I'm excited for the pictures! I hate posing for pictures, but I love looking at them later, so in this case it's a necessary evil. Stay tuned for more updates!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Photographers Galore
This weekend, we traveled up to Maryland again. It was originally supposed to be just a fun, relaxing trip for the holiday weekend, but of course we ended up having to meet with a million (ok, only four, but it felt like a million!) photographers along the way.
We drove up halfway Thursday night, got into the hotel around 11:30 (we made really good time!), slept for a few hours and got on the road Friday morning around 7:45. We left earlier than usual because we were meeting my parents at the first photographer's house in Reston (on the way up, but about the same length trip time-wise as just going straight to my parents' house, since it's farther west). We had NO traffic the whole way until we got onto the Beltway (of course), so we still managed to get there on time, at 1:00 pm. The first photographer was ok...she was nice, and my mom really liked her, but I thought she was kind of disorganized and all over the place.
After meeting with her for about an hour, we drove the rest of the way to my parents' house, had about 45 minutes to unload the car...
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, we also brought a whole bunch of our engagement presents up with us to store at my parents' house for now. YAY for no more giant pile of boxes in our living room!
So anyway, we had about 45 minutes to unload the car before we headed out to meet with the second photographer of the trip. We got to her house right on time at 4:00 pm. I liked her better than the first one, but my mom had the opposite opinion (of course).
After that, we went to a nice dinner at Bonefish (yum!), then headed back to my parents' house, where the third photographer (which was actually two people, a husband and wife team) arrived just as we did! We were running a little late and they were a little early for the 7:00 meeting we had planned, but it worked out just fine. They were much younger than the other two photographers we had met with, and my mom was concerned about their relative lack of experience (they had only been doing wedding photography for 6 years as opposed to the 15-20 years of experience the other two had). They were nice, and I liked them, but we decided we weren't really thrilled with any of the ones we met with that day.
Saturday was our "down" day. We got up and went to the crepes place to have lunch with my friend Laura, and then didn't really do much the rest of the afternoon. That evening, we went over to the Bolger Center (our venue) to see it set up for an event. It was cool to see, and we definitely got a better idea of the size and space the room will have for our wedding.
On Sunday, we got up at 10 to go have brunch with my grandma and Bernie (mom's mom and her "husband" - they never actually got married, but they've been together for about 15 years), and then to visit my other grandparents (dad's parents). We came home at 3:30 to meet with the fourth photographer. Thankfully, we LOVED him, and my mom has already looked over his contract and approved, so we have our photographer! His name is Steve Canning, his albums are beautiful, and he's a lot of fun and easy to connect with.
After he left, the Schwartzes (family friends) came over for our annual 4th of July dinner, games, and going to my mom's office to see the fireworks. It was a great time, as always, and we were very sad to leave yesterday (Monday) morning.
Next on the list: CAKES! My mom has sent us links to the websites of several cake designers, so we need to look through them and figure out what we want. We'll be going up to Maryland again in late August or early September, and we will hopefully be doing cake tastings and maybe even our engagement photo shoot! Should be another crazy busy, but fun weekend.
We drove up halfway Thursday night, got into the hotel around 11:30 (we made really good time!), slept for a few hours and got on the road Friday morning around 7:45. We left earlier than usual because we were meeting my parents at the first photographer's house in Reston (on the way up, but about the same length trip time-wise as just going straight to my parents' house, since it's farther west). We had NO traffic the whole way until we got onto the Beltway (of course), so we still managed to get there on time, at 1:00 pm. The first photographer was ok...she was nice, and my mom really liked her, but I thought she was kind of disorganized and all over the place.
After meeting with her for about an hour, we drove the rest of the way to my parents' house, had about 45 minutes to unload the car...
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, we also brought a whole bunch of our engagement presents up with us to store at my parents' house for now. YAY for no more giant pile of boxes in our living room!
So anyway, we had about 45 minutes to unload the car before we headed out to meet with the second photographer of the trip. We got to her house right on time at 4:00 pm. I liked her better than the first one, but my mom had the opposite opinion (of course).
After that, we went to a nice dinner at Bonefish (yum!), then headed back to my parents' house, where the third photographer (which was actually two people, a husband and wife team) arrived just as we did! We were running a little late and they were a little early for the 7:00 meeting we had planned, but it worked out just fine. They were much younger than the other two photographers we had met with, and my mom was concerned about their relative lack of experience (they had only been doing wedding photography for 6 years as opposed to the 15-20 years of experience the other two had). They were nice, and I liked them, but we decided we weren't really thrilled with any of the ones we met with that day.
Saturday was our "down" day. We got up and went to the crepes place to have lunch with my friend Laura, and then didn't really do much the rest of the afternoon. That evening, we went over to the Bolger Center (our venue) to see it set up for an event. It was cool to see, and we definitely got a better idea of the size and space the room will have for our wedding.
On Sunday, we got up at 10 to go have brunch with my grandma and Bernie (mom's mom and her "husband" - they never actually got married, but they've been together for about 15 years), and then to visit my other grandparents (dad's parents). We came home at 3:30 to meet with the fourth photographer. Thankfully, we LOVED him, and my mom has already looked over his contract and approved, so we have our photographer! His name is Steve Canning, his albums are beautiful, and he's a lot of fun and easy to connect with.
After he left, the Schwartzes (family friends) came over for our annual 4th of July dinner, games, and going to my mom's office to see the fireworks. It was a great time, as always, and we were very sad to leave yesterday (Monday) morning.
Next on the list: CAKES! My mom has sent us links to the websites of several cake designers, so we need to look through them and figure out what we want. We'll be going up to Maryland again in late August or early September, and we will hopefully be doing cake tastings and maybe even our engagement photo shoot! Should be another crazy busy, but fun weekend.
Friday, June 18, 2010
A Crazy Weekend, and Another Letdown
This past weekend, we traveled up to Maryland for our engagement party. My parents have been planning this thing for months! We flew up Friday night and pretty much went straight to bed. Saturday, we got up around 10 and ate a nice brunch (bagels and lox, YUM!). Then we helped my parents get the house set up for the party. At 2 pm, we met with one of the DJs that we were considering. He was kind of awkward at first, but I grew to like him more as the meeting went on. He left around 3, and we went upstairs and showered and got ready for the party, which started at 4.
The party was AWESOME! We ended up having about 75 people, and my parents' house was filled to the brim! They had tables set up in the living room, dining room, basement, and out on the back porch. My mom had prepared all the food herself, but she hired people to come in and man the grill, bartend, and actually cook the food (throw it in the oven, and serve it). It was delicious, of course. It was really cool that both of Marcus's parents, his grandfather (who is 95 years old), and all of his siblings and step-siblings were able to come up for the party! They got to meet a good chunk of my extended family, which went really well, and was very interesting to watch. I said beforehand that I thought the party was a good litmus test for the wedding in that way - just throw everyone in a room and see how they react to each other. Like I said, it went really well, so I consider it a success!
The one bad thing about the party, for me, was that while it was really nice to see everyone, I didn't feel like I really got to SEE anyone. Every time I tried to start having a conversation with someone, my mom would call me over to say hello to someone who had just arrived, or say goodbye to someone who was leaving. I literally ran back and forth between the door and wherever I was hanging out at the time the whole party.
The party was supposed to end at 9, but of course, we convinced a few people to hang around, and they got me and Marcus to open our presents! We got a lot of great stuff, and it was nice to have that extra time where we actually got to interact with some of our party guests. Everyone filtered out by around 10:30, and we were exhausted, so we went to bed.
Sunday morning, we got up early to go meet Marcus's dad & co. for breakfast. It was actually a very nice breakfast, and they said that they really enjoyed the party, and meeting my family! After breakfast, we went back to my parents' house, and at 11, we met with another potential DJ. He was much more outgoing and confident than the first one, but I had some concerns about his bragging and some of the comments he made, which were sort of culturally insensitive (not intentionally so, but still) and came off the wrong way. When he left, we still didn't have a decision about a DJ. Then at 12, we met with a photographer. We LOVED her (like my mom thought we would), so that was one check mark off the list. After she left, we talked for a little while about the DJs, and my mom said we could think on it and let her know in a couple of days. We flew back home Sunday evening.
We eventually decided to go with the second DJ, Chris Laich. We think that he will do a good job, and as for the personality stuff, at least I won't be the one dealing with him for the most part, and my mom really likes him, so she won't mind. One more check off the list!
Then, this morning, my mom called me. She said that things didn't work out with the photographer, apparently the contract she made up was not acceptable and she wasn't willing to negotiate. So now we have to find another photographer, and find some potential ones to meet with when we go back up to Maryland for 4th of July. A trip can never be just a trip anymore! Oh well.
The party was AWESOME! We ended up having about 75 people, and my parents' house was filled to the brim! They had tables set up in the living room, dining room, basement, and out on the back porch. My mom had prepared all the food herself, but she hired people to come in and man the grill, bartend, and actually cook the food (throw it in the oven, and serve it). It was delicious, of course. It was really cool that both of Marcus's parents, his grandfather (who is 95 years old), and all of his siblings and step-siblings were able to come up for the party! They got to meet a good chunk of my extended family, which went really well, and was very interesting to watch. I said beforehand that I thought the party was a good litmus test for the wedding in that way - just throw everyone in a room and see how they react to each other. Like I said, it went really well, so I consider it a success!
The one bad thing about the party, for me, was that while it was really nice to see everyone, I didn't feel like I really got to SEE anyone. Every time I tried to start having a conversation with someone, my mom would call me over to say hello to someone who had just arrived, or say goodbye to someone who was leaving. I literally ran back and forth between the door and wherever I was hanging out at the time the whole party.
The party was supposed to end at 9, but of course, we convinced a few people to hang around, and they got me and Marcus to open our presents! We got a lot of great stuff, and it was nice to have that extra time where we actually got to interact with some of our party guests. Everyone filtered out by around 10:30, and we were exhausted, so we went to bed.
Sunday morning, we got up early to go meet Marcus's dad & co. for breakfast. It was actually a very nice breakfast, and they said that they really enjoyed the party, and meeting my family! After breakfast, we went back to my parents' house, and at 11, we met with another potential DJ. He was much more outgoing and confident than the first one, but I had some concerns about his bragging and some of the comments he made, which were sort of culturally insensitive (not intentionally so, but still) and came off the wrong way. When he left, we still didn't have a decision about a DJ. Then at 12, we met with a photographer. We LOVED her (like my mom thought we would), so that was one check mark off the list. After she left, we talked for a little while about the DJs, and my mom said we could think on it and let her know in a couple of days. We flew back home Sunday evening.
We eventually decided to go with the second DJ, Chris Laich. We think that he will do a good job, and as for the personality stuff, at least I won't be the one dealing with him for the most part, and my mom really likes him, so she won't mind. One more check off the list!
Then, this morning, my mom called me. She said that things didn't work out with the photographer, apparently the contract she made up was not acceptable and she wasn't willing to negotiate. So now we have to find another photographer, and find some potential ones to meet with when we go back up to Maryland for 4th of July. A trip can never be just a trip anymore! Oh well.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
That's My Final Answer
I haven't been doing much wedding-related stuff lately, mostly on account of general life craziness. We have had a steady stream of gifts arriving at our door, and now have a growing pile of boxes in the middle of our living room, because there is no storage space in our apartment! We're going up to Maryland for July 4th weekend, so we're hoping to take at least some if not all of this stuff up then to store at my parents' house temporarily.
Today I did my first wedding errand in a few weeks: I went to David's Bridal with Pearl (one of my awesome bridesmaids). My mom had gone to David's Bridal in Maryland with Cara (another bridesmaid) and her mom a couple of weeks ago, and called me telling me that I needed to go to David's Bridal and look at the color I had chosen for the bridesmaids' dresses, because it looked COMPLETELY different in person than it did on the website. Also, a couple of my bridesmaids had asked if I could get color swatches for them so they could search for dresses elsewhere, since DB is kind of expensive. So Pearl and I went, and had great success! First of all, the color looked EXACTLY the same in person as it did on the website, so I don't know what my mom was talking about. So Horizon blue is now my FINAL decision for bridesmaids dress color! I also picked up a couple of swatches (at $1 each, and they are big enough to cut into several pieces, so I only had to buy two of them), so that is taken care of.
This weekend we are going up to Maryland for our engagement party, and I will have lots of updates when we get back! In addition to the party itself (which will be ridiculous, my parents are really going all out for this!), we are also meeting with several potential photographers and DJs, so hopefully we will make a decision by the end of the weekend! My mom also called me today to let me know that they are signing the contract for the florist today, and she has also pretty much decided on a day-of coordinator to hire. The pieces are starting to fall into place!
Today I did my first wedding errand in a few weeks: I went to David's Bridal with Pearl (one of my awesome bridesmaids). My mom had gone to David's Bridal in Maryland with Cara (another bridesmaid) and her mom a couple of weeks ago, and called me telling me that I needed to go to David's Bridal and look at the color I had chosen for the bridesmaids' dresses, because it looked COMPLETELY different in person than it did on the website. Also, a couple of my bridesmaids had asked if I could get color swatches for them so they could search for dresses elsewhere, since DB is kind of expensive. So Pearl and I went, and had great success! First of all, the color looked EXACTLY the same in person as it did on the website, so I don't know what my mom was talking about. So Horizon blue is now my FINAL decision for bridesmaids dress color! I also picked up a couple of swatches (at $1 each, and they are big enough to cut into several pieces, so I only had to buy two of them), so that is taken care of.
This weekend we are going up to Maryland for our engagement party, and I will have lots of updates when we get back! In addition to the party itself (which will be ridiculous, my parents are really going all out for this!), we are also meeting with several potential photographers and DJs, so hopefully we will make a decision by the end of the weekend! My mom also called me today to let me know that they are signing the contract for the florist today, and she has also pretty much decided on a day-of coordinator to hire. The pieces are starting to fall into place!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
The Groomie Party
Mimicking my lovely fiancée's post I will take this opportunity to introduce my cool Groomie PartyTM!
Best Man
My choice for Best Man was made infinitely easier once Tara's sister agreed to be the Maid of Honor. Since she chose "a family member" I didn't have to choose between my friends, either! Elliot is the second oldest son in the Brodzki Clan. He is studying computer science and game design at WPI in Massachusetts. He expects to graduate in May 2011. His hobbies include computer and console gaming and he also enjoys building robots in his spare time. Elliot is 3.5 years younger than me and we shared a room for many years. We are foils of one another...and we like it that way.
Groomsmen
I have four groomsmen. They rock. 'Nuff said.
Mike and I met freshman year at Emory when we lived in McTyeire Hall and during our Junior year we lived together as suite-mates. Mike is/was a huge Lost fan. He earned a BA in Education Studies at Emory in 2008 and loves spending time with his fiancée Heather. He doesn't like lettuce.
Cliff is awesome (as are all of my Groomsmen). We all met through Alpha Phi Omega a co-ed, national service Fraternity during our years at Emory. He earned a BA in 2008 in History and Russian and East European Studies. He is (at time of writing) a 2L (second year law student) at the University of Georgia School of Law. He enjoys spending time with his girlfriend, cooking new things with basil, and being in nature. He also likes to eat matzah.
Eric was the first person from Emory that I met. We actually met in an online "admissions" chat for another university several months before meeting at Emory. We lived on the same freshman hall and forged a strong friendship. Eric earned a BA in Economics and Film Studies from Emory in 2008. He is a 2L at Hofstra University hoping to practice entertainment law upon his graduation. Eric enjoys going to the movies, eating at great restaurants and traveling.
I, too, had spent some time early in our relationship thinking about who might serve a role in the Groomie PartyTM when we get married. I had not asked anybody hypothetically in advance, however.
Best Man
My choice for Best Man was made infinitely easier once Tara's sister agreed to be the Maid of Honor. Since she chose "a family member" I didn't have to choose between my friends, either! Elliot is the second oldest son in the Brodzki Clan. He is studying computer science and game design at WPI in Massachusetts. He expects to graduate in May 2011. His hobbies include computer and console gaming and he also enjoys building robots in his spare time. Elliot is 3.5 years younger than me and we shared a room for many years. We are foils of one another...and we like it that way.
Groomsmen
I have four groomsmen. They rock. 'Nuff said.
Mike and I met freshman year at Emory when we lived in McTyeire Hall and during our Junior year we lived together as suite-mates. Mike is/was a huge Lost fan. He earned a BA in Education Studies at Emory in 2008 and loves spending time with his fiancée Heather. He doesn't like lettuce.
Cliff is awesome (as are all of my Groomsmen). We all met through Alpha Phi Omega a co-ed, national service Fraternity during our years at Emory. He earned a BA in 2008 in History and Russian and East European Studies. He is (at time of writing) a 2L (second year law student) at the University of Georgia School of Law. He enjoys spending time with his girlfriend, cooking new things with basil, and being in nature. He also likes to eat matzah.
Eric was the first person from Emory that I met. We actually met in an online "admissions" chat for another university several months before meeting at Emory. We lived on the same freshman hall and forged a strong friendship. Eric earned a BA in Economics and Film Studies from Emory in 2008. He is a 2L at Hofstra University hoping to practice entertainment law upon his graduation. Eric enjoys going to the movies, eating at great restaurants and traveling.
Logan is my youngest sibling. He enjoys playing video games and is an avid reader. Logan tells the best jokes and he aspires to be an astrophysicist with NASA at Cape Canaveral. He will be a high school freshman in the fall.
I'm very happy these people all said yes to being in the Groomie PartyTM. I hope that they will enjoy the months that lay ahead and help ensure that our wedding day is both special and fun for everyone involved!
Thanks Groomie PartyTM.
And now...back to your regularly scheduled postings :-).
Meet the Bridal Party!
I want to take this opportunity to introduce my lovely bridal party! I'll let Marcus do a separate post about the groomsmen if he wants.
Choosing my bridal party was probably the easiest part of this whole planning process for me. I've had a working list for years! In fact, I had even asked my sister (hypothetically, of course) several months before we got engaged if she would want to be my maid of honor. The answer was a very enthusiastic YES, so that's where I'll start.
Maid of Honor
As I only have one sister, this was an obvious choice. What better way to honor the one person who has shared the entire "growing up" experience with me? And of course, by having my sister do it, there is the added benefit of no chance for any hurt feelings among my friends. My sister, Amy, is 23 years old (3 years younger than me), graduated from college last year, and lives in NYC with her boyfriend Andrew. She is an aspiring Broadway star (she's wanted to be on Broadway since she knew what it was), and a very talented singer. When she's not auditioning for shows, she currently works two part-time jobs, one with an internet startup company, and one at a feminist-friendly adult store (where she sometimes teaches seminars, too!). We may fight sometimes, but I love my sister very much, and I'm so glad that she has agreed to be my maid of honor!
Bridesmaids
I have four amazing bridesmaids, and I couldn't ask for a better group!
Michelle has been my best friend since we met in 7th grade P.E. class. In high school, we were pretty much inseparable, and although we now live in different states, we still maintain our close friendship. Michelle loves animals! She has two adorable kitties, Abby and Baci, and a horse named Cheyenne (she does endurance riding). She also loves roller coasters, Euro games, and reality tv shows.
Pearl is my best friend from college. We were suitemates our senior year, and forged a deep and lasting friendship. She has been there for me through some really hard times, when no one else was. I only hope that I have been as good a friend to her as she has to me! Pearl has an adorable puppy named Yoshi, who loves to play! She also has a cute car (a jeep with monster headlights!) named Princess, which was one of my favorite hangouts in college.
Cara is my BFF since preschool! We've never been able to see each other often, but every time we do, we pick up right where we left off, and never miss a beat. Cara is an amazing person, and I am so lucky to call her my friend. She has a hearing dog named Maya who is sweet and cuddly and SO smart! Cara is also a deep thinker and an amazing writer.
Ilana is Marcus's only sister. She just turned 16 and is enjoying being able to drive! As the only girl in a family with three brothers and three stepbrothers, she is constantly telling me how excited she is to finally be getting a sister! Ilana loves music, and also has stage ambitions (much like my sister!). She participates in her high school's musicals and chorus, and she also plays soccer.
When we got engaged, the FIRST thing I wanted to do was ask these amazing girls if they would do me the honor of being a part of our special day. I love them to death, and it is really important to me that they know that! I couldn't wait to give them this special honor to show them how much they mean to me, and how they will always share center stage in my life. I'm so happy that all of them agreed to do this, and I hope that I will never act bridezilla-ish towards any of them! Sharing this time and my wedding day with them is what makes the whole experience worthwhile and possible.
Choosing my bridal party was probably the easiest part of this whole planning process for me. I've had a working list for years! In fact, I had even asked my sister (hypothetically, of course) several months before we got engaged if she would want to be my maid of honor. The answer was a very enthusiastic YES, so that's where I'll start.
Maid of Honor
As I only have one sister, this was an obvious choice. What better way to honor the one person who has shared the entire "growing up" experience with me? And of course, by having my sister do it, there is the added benefit of no chance for any hurt feelings among my friends. My sister, Amy, is 23 years old (3 years younger than me), graduated from college last year, and lives in NYC with her boyfriend Andrew. She is an aspiring Broadway star (she's wanted to be on Broadway since she knew what it was), and a very talented singer. When she's not auditioning for shows, she currently works two part-time jobs, one with an internet startup company, and one at a feminist-friendly adult store (where she sometimes teaches seminars, too!). We may fight sometimes, but I love my sister very much, and I'm so glad that she has agreed to be my maid of honor!
Bridesmaids
I have four amazing bridesmaids, and I couldn't ask for a better group!
Michelle has been my best friend since we met in 7th grade P.E. class. In high school, we were pretty much inseparable, and although we now live in different states, we still maintain our close friendship. Michelle loves animals! She has two adorable kitties, Abby and Baci, and a horse named Cheyenne (she does endurance riding). She also loves roller coasters, Euro games, and reality tv shows.
Pearl is my best friend from college. We were suitemates our senior year, and forged a deep and lasting friendship. She has been there for me through some really hard times, when no one else was. I only hope that I have been as good a friend to her as she has to me! Pearl has an adorable puppy named Yoshi, who loves to play! She also has a cute car (a jeep with monster headlights!) named Princess, which was one of my favorite hangouts in college.
Cara is my BFF since preschool! We've never been able to see each other often, but every time we do, we pick up right where we left off, and never miss a beat. Cara is an amazing person, and I am so lucky to call her my friend. She has a hearing dog named Maya who is sweet and cuddly and SO smart! Cara is also a deep thinker and an amazing writer.
Ilana is Marcus's only sister. She just turned 16 and is enjoying being able to drive! As the only girl in a family with three brothers and three stepbrothers, she is constantly telling me how excited she is to finally be getting a sister! Ilana loves music, and also has stage ambitions (much like my sister!). She participates in her high school's musicals and chorus, and she also plays soccer.
When we got engaged, the FIRST thing I wanted to do was ask these amazing girls if they would do me the honor of being a part of our special day. I love them to death, and it is really important to me that they know that! I couldn't wait to give them this special honor to show them how much they mean to me, and how they will always share center stage in my life. I'm so happy that all of them agreed to do this, and I hope that I will never act bridezilla-ish towards any of them! Sharing this time and my wedding day with them is what makes the whole experience worthwhile and possible.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Save-the-Dates and Shoes!
A couple of weeks ago, we completed the most exciting task (for me, anyway) on our checklist so far: we mailed out our save-the-dates! As I may have mentioned in an earlier post, Marcus's dad and his wife own a printing company, so they are doing all of our paper items (save-the-dates, invitations, programs, thank you notes, etc.) for free. We are VERY thankful to them for doing this for us!
I get to wear sneakers at my wedding! I am SO EXCITED that my mom is not fighting me on this!!!
Anyway, after much back and forth emailing with Rochelle (Marcus's dad's wife), we finalized the design for our save-the-dates! We got magnets, because a) they are useful, b) they are right there on people's refrigerators, so they're less likely to be misplaced or forgotten, and c) magnets are fun! This is what our save-the-dates look like (I've blocked out our last names since this is the internet and I don't know who will see this):
Isn't it pretty?!?
My other big accomplishment last week was getting my shoes! Here there is a story that must be explained before I show you a picture of the shoes. When Joel and Shosh got married, Shosh told me all about how she was able to get away with wearing platform sneakers, and how it was amazing, because they were comfortable, and nobody could see them under her dress. I vowed right then that I was also going to wear sneakers to my wedding! So I asked Shosh where she got her shoes. She sent me a link to the EXACT shoes that she had! I noticed that they didn't have them in my size (I usually wear a 6.5 or 7, they had 6.5 but not 7). I searched a few other websites, and eventually found a size 7 on Amazon. But then I was reading the reviews people had posted about the shoes, and several of them mentioned that these shoes run small, so they recommended getting a half size bigger than usual. I asked Shosh if that was the case for her, and she didn't remember, but she thought that sounded about right. So I wasn't sure whether to get the size 7 or a 7.5. I asked my mom what she thought I should do, and she told me to buy both sizes so I could figure out which one fit me better, and we could return the other pair. I did a little more research, found a site that had both sizes in stock, and ordered the shoes!
They arrived on Friday, in all their sneaker-y splendor:
I get to wear sneakers at my wedding! I am SO EXCITED that my mom is not fighting me on this!!!
This weekend, I need to go to David's Bridal to look at the color I chose for the bridesmaids' dresses. My mom went dress shopping with Cara (one of my bridesmaids) and her mom last week, and apparently the color looks really different in person than it does on the website. So now I need to go make sure I really want that color, and if not, figure out which color I DO want. The saga never ends!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Finding "The Dress"
I am not a "girly girl". I own exactly two dresses, and I usually wear jeans or jean shorts and a t-shirt or sweatshirt. And my t-shirts are all large (even though I am not a very large person). I absolutely refuse to wear skirts (hate them) or any low-cut tops (feel extremely uncomfortable in them and am constantly trying to pull them up, even when they're not supposed to go up any farther). My mom loves to tell the story that, for my Bat Mitzvah, she dragged me to literally EVERY store in the DC metro area (yes, we went all the way down to Tysons Corner, haha) looking for a dress I would wear and found...nothing. Finally, my aunt Lyz, who lives in NY, called my mom and said she found a dress that she thought I would like, and she would mail it down to us, and if I didn't like it, we could just mail it back. Well, that was the dress I ended up wearing! It was a dark red, crushed velvet, long sleeve, mid-calf-length dress (my Bat Mitzvah was in late December), very plain, and a "regular" (by which I mean like a t-shirt) neckline. I loved it!
So I knew that I should start wedding dress shopping early, because who knows how long it would take me to find something I actually liked! I started by browsing online, looking at known designers' websites (Alfred Angelo, David's Bridal, etc.). Pretty much everything I saw was either strapless (which I absolutely refuse to do, I would feel like it was falling down the whole time!) or very low-cut. I knew there HAD to be dresses out there that were made for people like me, who don't wear stuff like that, so I kept looking. I ended up browsing on The Knot, where I found one dress that looked promising. I clicked on the link to the designer's website, and discovered that it was a whole line of what they called "modest" dresses! They had a link on the website where you could find stores in your area that carry the line, so I did that. However, when I started going to the websites for the stores, I discovered that almost all of them had either closed or the website didn't exist! The only one that was still open was a place called The Yellow Rose. I looked through their website and liked what I saw, so I emailed Julia, the owner, to set up an appointment to go try on dresses.
I posted a facebook status asking who wanted to go dress shopping with me, and got a lot of responses initially. My sister even wanted to fly down from NY to go! (I talked her out of it though.) But gradually as the day got closer, people dropped out, and it ended up being just me and Shosh who went.
I wasn't sure what to expect. We went on a Saturday afternoon, and I was worried that it would be really busy, having read horror stories on The Knot from people who'd gone to David's Bridal and the like on weekends. But as it turned out, we were the only people there! It was just me, Shosh, and the owner (it's a VERY small shop). I tried on a total of 9 dresses, although only 8 of them made it out of the dressing room (one made me look pregnant, and I said NO WAY!). The fact that this store had 9 dresses (and I'm sure they had more than that even) that I was even willing to try on made me feel like I had made a good choice in looking there! Anyway, the last dress I tried on, I liked immediately. I thought it was a little too "poofy" in the skirt, but Shosh said they can take out some of the crinkly stuff that makes it poofy (I forget the name of it, haha). I ended up wearing the dress for about 20 minutes! I even walked over by the door so we could see what it looked like in natural light (since our wedding ceremony will be outside, weather permitting, I wanted to make sure I wasn't totally washed out, since it's a white dress).
I ended up texting a picture of me in the dress to my sister and my mom (well, actually to my dad so he could show it to my mom, my mom doesn't even know how to check her voicemail on her cell phone, let alone text!) and asked my mom what she thought, since she was paying for the dress. She said (typical buzzkill that she is) that she thought I should sleep on it before making a decision, and didn't I want to shop around more? I said HELL NO! I HATE shopping, especially the kind where I have to try stuff on, so if I found something on the first trip, WHY would I want to subject myself to MORE? She still wasn't convinced. Julia, the shop owner, said that she would give me the dress for $599, even though the list price was $668. My mom asked how long that offer was good :-P Julia said through Monday, so I told my mom I would sleep on it and we told Julia we would decide by Monday.
Of course, after I slept on it, I still wanted the dress! So my mom called Julia and paid for the dress over the phone, and I went and picked it up that Wednesday after work. It's now hanging in my closet until it comes time to go get it fitted! Julia also gave me the business card of a seamstress she works with often, who apparently used to work for David's Bridal, so she knows her way around wedding dresses.
My sister was PISSED that she didn't get to be there for the moment when I knew it was "The Dress". She made me promise that I would give her her own private dress-modeling session at some point, so I agreed to that. She did say that it looked good on me in the pictures, though!
The dress is a scoop neckline ball gown with silver and white beading on the neckline and waistline of the bodice and at the bottom of the train. It has "petal" sleeves, which are basically like cap sleeves. This is me in the dress:
Isn't it pretty??? :-)
The Venue Hunt - Part Two, or, My Mother is Still Insane
So we got back from our weekend trip all excited to have chosen our venue. We got back late Sunday night, and got up and went to work on Monday (March 15). Around 10 am, while I'm at work filing billing documents for one of the secretaries, my mom calls me. She says that she's thought more about the venue thing, and that she really thinks that now that we've gone to look at places together, she has a better understanding of what we're looking for in a venue. She thinks most of the places we looked at weren't really the kind of places we should have been looking at, so she wants us to go look at a few more places before we make a decision. At that point, I completely lost it. I'm a very routine-dependent person, and I had just spent the previous 22 hours or so getting comfortable in the mindset that we had made our decision and that our wedding would be on April 3 instead of April 10. Now she was telling me that she wanted to re-open that discussion (at least one of the new places she wanted us to look at was only available April 10, not April 3), and on as little sleep as I had gotten that weekend, I just couldn't deal with it. I called Marcus crying, and he suggested that we tell my mom that she should talk to him about wedding stuff for a while, because clearly I needed a break from her. So that's what we did.
Fast forward to the end of March. We went down to Florida for Marcus's cousin's wedding, then immediately from there up to Maryland for Passover. My mom had made us appointments while we were there to go look at 2 more potential venues, and then to re-visit the one we thought we had decided on the last time. While we were very impressed with the ceremony location at one of the new venues, we ultimately decided that it wasn't worth the price difference (it was significantly more expensive) and the inconvenience (it was actually in DC proper, which would have caused some issues with getting people to and from the location, rehearsal dinner, etc.), and stuck with our original choice. So our wedding date and venue were FINALLY set in stone!
At that point, Marcus emailed the rabbi at his family's synagogue. His family is very involved with their synagogue (his mom was actually the President of the synagogue at one point!), and my family doesn't even belong to their synagogue anymore now that my sister and I are both gone, so we had asked Marcus's rabbi if we could fly him up to Maryland to officiate at our wedding. He had agreed, as long as he was available on the date we chose. Luckily, he was indeed free on April 3, 2011, so our rabbi was officially booked!
When we got back home, we emailed Marcus's dad and Rochelle (Marcus's dad's wife). They own a printing company, and had offered to do all of our save-the-dates, invitations, thank you notes, etc. for free! While we were in Florida that weekend, we had visited their printing shop and looked at paper for the invitations and started designing our save-the-dates. Now that we had officially set our venue and date, we emailed back and forth with them for a few weeks putting the finishing touches on the save-the-dates.
Also during this time, we were getting our guest list together. We had my parents make a list of my family and their friends, his parents make a list of his family and their friends, and Marcus and I made a list of our friends. At my mom's suggestion, we started with a LONG list of everyone we would invite if we had no limit, and pruned it down from there. We both have large extended families, so my mom set a goal of getting the final attendance (not the guest list, but the number of people who actually come to the wedding) at no more than 200 people. My sister (who is my maid of honor) had the brilliant idea to use a Guest List spreadsheet template in Google Documents to keep our guest list, their addresses, numbers, RSVPs, gifts, etc. in one place where we could all access and edit it!
By the end of April, we had finalized our preliminary guest list and gotten our save-the-dates! We decided not to send them out until after May 14, because several of our friends were graduating from various programs and moving, so their new addresses wouldn't be valid until after that date. We had also already started getting engagement gifts! Now we have a growing pile of huge boxes (with gifts still in them) in the middle of our living room, because there is no storage space in our apartment, so we have nowhere else to put them! We've been very good about writing thank you notes as the gifts come in, which I'm hoping will keep us from having to write a whole bunch of them at once later on.
I'll try to post again later today to talk about my adventures in finding my dress, sending out our save-the-dates, and a few other details. Then we should be all caught up!
Fast forward to the end of March. We went down to Florida for Marcus's cousin's wedding, then immediately from there up to Maryland for Passover. My mom had made us appointments while we were there to go look at 2 more potential venues, and then to re-visit the one we thought we had decided on the last time. While we were very impressed with the ceremony location at one of the new venues, we ultimately decided that it wasn't worth the price difference (it was significantly more expensive) and the inconvenience (it was actually in DC proper, which would have caused some issues with getting people to and from the location, rehearsal dinner, etc.), and stuck with our original choice. So our wedding date and venue were FINALLY set in stone!
At that point, Marcus emailed the rabbi at his family's synagogue. His family is very involved with their synagogue (his mom was actually the President of the synagogue at one point!), and my family doesn't even belong to their synagogue anymore now that my sister and I are both gone, so we had asked Marcus's rabbi if we could fly him up to Maryland to officiate at our wedding. He had agreed, as long as he was available on the date we chose. Luckily, he was indeed free on April 3, 2011, so our rabbi was officially booked!
When we got back home, we emailed Marcus's dad and Rochelle (Marcus's dad's wife). They own a printing company, and had offered to do all of our save-the-dates, invitations, thank you notes, etc. for free! While we were in Florida that weekend, we had visited their printing shop and looked at paper for the invitations and started designing our save-the-dates. Now that we had officially set our venue and date, we emailed back and forth with them for a few weeks putting the finishing touches on the save-the-dates.
Also during this time, we were getting our guest list together. We had my parents make a list of my family and their friends, his parents make a list of his family and their friends, and Marcus and I made a list of our friends. At my mom's suggestion, we started with a LONG list of everyone we would invite if we had no limit, and pruned it down from there. We both have large extended families, so my mom set a goal of getting the final attendance (not the guest list, but the number of people who actually come to the wedding) at no more than 200 people. My sister (who is my maid of honor) had the brilliant idea to use a Guest List spreadsheet template in Google Documents to keep our guest list, their addresses, numbers, RSVPs, gifts, etc. in one place where we could all access and edit it!
By the end of April, we had finalized our preliminary guest list and gotten our save-the-dates! We decided not to send them out until after May 14, because several of our friends were graduating from various programs and moving, so their new addresses wouldn't be valid until after that date. We had also already started getting engagement gifts! Now we have a growing pile of huge boxes (with gifts still in them) in the middle of our living room, because there is no storage space in our apartment, so we have nowhere else to put them! We've been very good about writing thank you notes as the gifts come in, which I'm hoping will keep us from having to write a whole bunch of them at once later on.
I'll try to post again later today to talk about my adventures in finding my dress, sending out our save-the-dates, and a few other details. Then we should be all caught up!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
The Venue Hunt - Part One, or, My Mother is Insane
We decided to have our wedding in Maryland because my grandpa broke his hip last fall and he and my grandma both aren't really able to travel anymore. Once we had made that decision, my mom was in full planning mode (as usual)! She invited me and Marcus, as well as Marcus's mom and her wife, up for the weekend of March 12-14 to go look at potential venues and try to make a decision. We all did some research online and came up with a list of venues to go look at. Then, my mom sent us The Schedule:
As you can tell, the date we originally wanted was April 10, 2011. Unfortunately, the venue we ultimately ended up choosing wasn't available that date, so we had to push it back. It turned out for the best though, because apparently April 3 is better for most of our wedding party than April 10! Also, there were addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, last names, and flight numbers that I've removed to make The Schedule blog-appropriate!Tentative Agenda for Weekend of March 12-14, 2010
Thursday, March 11 2010
8:29 PM – Pick up Nancy and Lettie at BWI.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Visit restaurants for Rehearsal Dinner:
Café Mileto, Germantown, MD
Venue is available Saturday, April 9, 2011. This is Tara’s first choice. We eat dinner there often, and I had Eliot’s 50th birthday dinner there and catered his 45th birthday part from there. Manager is available to meet with us any time on March 12, 2010. Call before we go.
Tragara Ristorante, Bethesda, MD
Venue is available Saturday, April 9, 2011. This restaurant is the fanciest and most expensive of the three. They have a separate party room. Manager is available to meet with us any time. I’m supposed to call a few days in advance to set up a time on Friday, March 12, 2010.
That’s Amore, Rockville, MD
They’re “soft holding” the venue for us for Saturday, April 9, 2011. They have a separate party room. I’ve been to a Bat Mitzvah and a retirement party there, and they do a very nice job. I spoke with Max. We’re supposed to go there between 2-6 PM on Friday, March 12, 2010 and ask for Max. If he’s not there, either Jenny or
Celeste can help us.
10:40 PM – Pick up Tara and Marcus at BWI.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
10:00 AM – Ceresville Mansion, Frederick, MD
Venue is not available the afternoon of Sunday, April 10, 2011. It is available that evening, and it is available the afternoon of Sunday, April 3, 2011. They can do an outdoor ceremony and indoor sit down dinner for 200 guests. We will be attending an Open House, which runs from 10-2. I spoke with Allison. They will not do even a soft hold of the date without a deposit. Someone at work told me that they’ve been to a wedding there and that you can hear the cars passing on the road during an outdoor ceremony.
11:30 AM – 1:00 PM – Antrim 1844, Taneytown, MD
Venue is available the weekend of April 9-10, 2011. It is an estate with 42 guest rooms spread out in different buildings on the estate. They have many locations on the estate for an outdoor ceremony and can do a sit down dinner in a single room, both for 200 guests. (There are additional hotels available in nearby Gettysburg, PA and Frederick, MD.) Rehearsal dinner could be held there, as well. Another option would be to just have the wedding there and use hotels and have the rehearsal dinner closer to home. This venue is about an hour from our house. I spoke with Mike. They have a soft hold on the date for us.
We’ll have to grab a quick lunch en route.
2:00 PM – JW Marriott, Gaithersburg, MD
Venue is available Sunday afternoon, April 10, 2011, but they cannot accommodate an outdoor ceremony with 200 guests. They can do indoor ceremony and outdoor cocktail hour for 200 guests. In addition to the wedding date, they are currently holding hotel rooms for us: Friday night–5, Saturday night-25, Sunday night-25. I spoke with Barbara. They have a soft hold on the date for us.
5:00 PM – Inn at Brookeville Farms, Brookeville, MD
Venue is available Sunday afternoon, April 10, 2011. They can accommodate an outdoor ceremony and indoor sit down dinner for 200 guests. They have a soft hold on the date for us.
Dinner, relax, debrief.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
10:00 AM – Bolger Center, Potomac, MD
Venue is not available Sunday, April 10, 2011. It is available Sunday, April 3, 2011. They can accommodate an outdoor ceremony and indoor sit down dinner for 200 guests. They have hotel rooms available on site.
3:41 PM – Nancy and Lettie fly out of BWI.
7:29 PM – Tara and Marcus fly out of Dulles.
When I showed The Schedule to people at work, they finally believed me that my mom was crazy! We all had a good laugh over the "dinner, relax, debrief" part, and I have one friend who still jokingly reminds me all the time to "relax and debrief"!
That weekend was just as crazy as it sounds! It was pouring down rain all day Saturday, and Lettie (Marcus's mom's wife) had fallen and sprained her wrist and ankle on Friday, so going to look at 4 venues was quite the challenge. We made it through, but we didn't really like any of the venues we had seen. When we went to the Bolger Center on Sunday, we fell in love with it! Marcus and I talked about it, and we wanted to sign a contract with the Bolger Center right away, but my mom wanted us to sleep on it first. When we left Sunday evening, I thought that we had definitely decided on the Bolger Center, and I was so excited to move on to the next stage of planning!
Our Engagement
We got engaged on February 13, 2010. Here's how it happened!
My parents came down to visit for the long weekend (Presidents Day). Marcus and I had gone ring shopping together back in January, so I knew he had the ring and that he was going to propose sometime soon. I actually thought he was going to do it the following weekend, because he was planning our monthly date night for our "monthiversary" then. Anyway, my parents came into town on Friday, February 12. I was still at work when they got in, but it was snowing, so Marcus was home because his office had closed for the day. They had brought down a new (FREE!) tv for us, so Marcus and my dad were lugging it up from the car to our apartment. For some reason, Marcus chose that moment to tell my parents that he was planning to propose to me that weekend and ask for their blessing (so to speak), and my dad almost dropped the huge tv! Luckily he recovered in time...crisis averted!
I got home from work, and we headed out to visit our friends Joel and Shosh so that my parents (especially my mom) could meet their son Eli, who was 5 months old at the time. We stayed there for a while and then went to P.F. Chang's for dinner. After dinner, we talked about going back to our apartment to play games, but we were all pretty tired, so we decided not to. Much to Marcus's chagrin, as he had apparently been planning to propose that night, but his plan was thwarted, so he had to wait one more day!
Saturday we had another fun day, and that night we ended up at Everybody's for dinner. Again we talked about going back to our apartment to play games, and I tried to get out of it because I was tired, but they talked me into it this time. We decided to play Cranium and chose teams: me and Marcus on one team, my parents on the other. After playing a few rounds, it was Marcus's turn. He picked a "charades" card, flashed me the "I love you" sign, then got down on his knee and pulled the ring out of his pocket! At first I wasn't sure if he was really proposing or if he was actually acting out what was on the card, so the first words out of my mouth were, "are you serious?" He assured me that he was, in fact, serious, and I quickly said "yes" and he put the ring on my finger and we hugged for about 2 minutes. Then I got hugs from my parents, and we broke out the camera.
After a few pictures, it was time to start the slew of phone calls! I tried to call my sister while Marcus tried to call his parents, but neither of us got through to any of them! We left messages for them to call us back, and then moved on to calling our grandparents. I called my one grandma first, but had to leave a message there too. Then I called my other grandparents and FINALLY got through to someone! Thus it was that the first people to find out we were engaged (aside from my parents, obviously) were my grandma and Marcus's grandfather. After we had talked to the grandparents, we decided that since it was so late at night, we would save the rest of the phone calls for the next day. My sister called me back later that night and I got to tell her the news (she FREAKED OUT and squealed in my ear!) and ask her officially to be my maid of honor. She was SO excited!
The next day, my parents came to pick us up to go to brunch with Marcus's aunt at the restaurant where Marcus and I were first officially introduced. On the way there and back, my mom made me call ALL of my aunts to tell them the news. I asked her why I had to call them all and she couldn't just tell them, and she said it was because when she got engaged, her mother made her call her aunts and uncles. I said, "oh, so I guess that's not one of the ways you swore you'd never be like your mother, huh?", and she made a face at me and told me just to call them. So by the middle of the day on Sunday (which happened to be Valentine's Day), pretty much everyone knew, and we were able to post it on facebook and officially announce our newly engaged status to the world!
That afternoon, my mom dragged us to every store in Atlanta to start on creating our registries! Yes, we started two registries before we had been engaged for 24 hours. Yes, my mom is crazy. We only put a few things on our registries that day, but I was so overwhelmed by that point that I was running on auto-pilot. I reached my shopping breaking point (which is usually about 2 hours, less if it's in the mall, which this was) in barely over an hour, and luckily we were able to convince my mom that we needed to be done for the day before I had a total breakdown! We went out for a nice dinner, over which we discussed the beginning stages of planning the wedding, and then went back to my parents' hotel for a bit before saying our goodbyes (they left early the next morning) and heading home to go to sleep.
It was a crazy, whirlwind weekend, which was definitely a sign of what lay ahead for us in this planning process. With my mom at the helm (since we are planning from a distance and she is actually there), we knew it would be a fast and stressful, but hopefully fun ride!
My parents came down to visit for the long weekend (Presidents Day). Marcus and I had gone ring shopping together back in January, so I knew he had the ring and that he was going to propose sometime soon. I actually thought he was going to do it the following weekend, because he was planning our monthly date night for our "monthiversary" then. Anyway, my parents came into town on Friday, February 12. I was still at work when they got in, but it was snowing, so Marcus was home because his office had closed for the day. They had brought down a new (FREE!) tv for us, so Marcus and my dad were lugging it up from the car to our apartment. For some reason, Marcus chose that moment to tell my parents that he was planning to propose to me that weekend and ask for their blessing (so to speak), and my dad almost dropped the huge tv! Luckily he recovered in time...crisis averted!
I got home from work, and we headed out to visit our friends Joel and Shosh so that my parents (especially my mom) could meet their son Eli, who was 5 months old at the time. We stayed there for a while and then went to P.F. Chang's for dinner. After dinner, we talked about going back to our apartment to play games, but we were all pretty tired, so we decided not to. Much to Marcus's chagrin, as he had apparently been planning to propose that night, but his plan was thwarted, so he had to wait one more day!
Saturday we had another fun day, and that night we ended up at Everybody's for dinner. Again we talked about going back to our apartment to play games, and I tried to get out of it because I was tired, but they talked me into it this time. We decided to play Cranium and chose teams: me and Marcus on one team, my parents on the other. After playing a few rounds, it was Marcus's turn. He picked a "charades" card, flashed me the "I love you" sign, then got down on his knee and pulled the ring out of his pocket! At first I wasn't sure if he was really proposing or if he was actually acting out what was on the card, so the first words out of my mouth were, "are you serious?" He assured me that he was, in fact, serious, and I quickly said "yes" and he put the ring on my finger and we hugged for about 2 minutes. Then I got hugs from my parents, and we broke out the camera.
After a few pictures, it was time to start the slew of phone calls! I tried to call my sister while Marcus tried to call his parents, but neither of us got through to any of them! We left messages for them to call us back, and then moved on to calling our grandparents. I called my one grandma first, but had to leave a message there too. Then I called my other grandparents and FINALLY got through to someone! Thus it was that the first people to find out we were engaged (aside from my parents, obviously) were my grandma and Marcus's grandfather. After we had talked to the grandparents, we decided that since it was so late at night, we would save the rest of the phone calls for the next day. My sister called me back later that night and I got to tell her the news (she FREAKED OUT and squealed in my ear!) and ask her officially to be my maid of honor. She was SO excited!
The next day, my parents came to pick us up to go to brunch with Marcus's aunt at the restaurant where Marcus and I were first officially introduced. On the way there and back, my mom made me call ALL of my aunts to tell them the news. I asked her why I had to call them all and she couldn't just tell them, and she said it was because when she got engaged, her mother made her call her aunts and uncles. I said, "oh, so I guess that's not one of the ways you swore you'd never be like your mother, huh?", and she made a face at me and told me just to call them. So by the middle of the day on Sunday (which happened to be Valentine's Day), pretty much everyone knew, and we were able to post it on facebook and officially announce our newly engaged status to the world!
That afternoon, my mom dragged us to every store in Atlanta to start on creating our registries! Yes, we started two registries before we had been engaged for 24 hours. Yes, my mom is crazy. We only put a few things on our registries that day, but I was so overwhelmed by that point that I was running on auto-pilot. I reached my shopping breaking point (which is usually about 2 hours, less if it's in the mall, which this was) in barely over an hour, and luckily we were able to convince my mom that we needed to be done for the day before I had a total breakdown! We went out for a nice dinner, over which we discussed the beginning stages of planning the wedding, and then went back to my parents' hotel for a bit before saying our goodbyes (they left early the next morning) and heading home to go to sleep.
It was a crazy, whirlwind weekend, which was definitely a sign of what lay ahead for us in this planning process. With my mom at the helm (since we are planning from a distance and she is actually there), we knew it would be a fast and stressful, but hopefully fun ride!
What We've Done So Far
These are the planning items we have completed so far! I'll try to post recap entries about each of them if I can.
- Booked a venue (we are having our ceremony and reception at the same place, and catering is also included)
- Bought my dress!
- Ordered my shoes
- Set the wedding party
- Chose color scheme, and chose dress color for bridesmaids
- Booked our videographer
- Narrowed down choices for our photographer, DJ, florist, ceremony musicians, and day-of-coordinator
- Booked our officiant
- Designed, ordered, and sent out our save-the-dates!
- Created our registries
Also, my parents have planned an engagement party for us, so we will be heading up to MD for that in a couple of weeks!
Introductions
Before I launch into the planning process, here is a brief introduction to who we are!
I'm Tara. I'm 26 years old, originally from Maryland (DC area). My fiance is Marcus. He's 25 years old, originally from South Florida (near Ft. Lauderdale). We currently live in an awesome 1-bedroom apartment in Atlanta, GA. We got engaged on February 13, 2010, and will be getting married on April 3, 2011 in Potomac, MD. Our joint nickname, Tarcus, was coined by our good friends Joel and Shosh, aka Joshanah.
I work at a law firm as a records clerk. It's boring most of the time, but it pays the rent (barely). Marcus works in fundraising and development for a non-profit organization. He loves his job! When we're not at work, we enjoy hanging out with friends, watching Atlanta Braves baseball and Maryland Terrapins men's college basketball, watching a wide range of tv shows and movies, and playing games (board games, card games, you name it, we love it!). We both love dogs and hope to have at least one of our own someday.
So now that you know a little bit about us, time to get caught up on the wedding planning! Stay tuned!
I'm Tara. I'm 26 years old, originally from Maryland (DC area). My fiance is Marcus. He's 25 years old, originally from South Florida (near Ft. Lauderdale). We currently live in an awesome 1-bedroom apartment in Atlanta, GA. We got engaged on February 13, 2010, and will be getting married on April 3, 2011 in Potomac, MD. Our joint nickname, Tarcus, was coined by our good friends Joel and Shosh, aka Joshanah.
I work at a law firm as a records clerk. It's boring most of the time, but it pays the rent (barely). Marcus works in fundraising and development for a non-profit organization. He loves his job! When we're not at work, we enjoy hanging out with friends, watching Atlanta Braves baseball and Maryland Terrapins men's college basketball, watching a wide range of tv shows and movies, and playing games (board games, card games, you name it, we love it!). We both love dogs and hope to have at least one of our own someday.
So now that you know a little bit about us, time to get caught up on the wedding planning! Stay tuned!
My First Post!
I guess I'm starting this a little late in the game, since we've already done a fair amount of planning, but I wanted to have a place where I could share my excitement and accomplishments (and also, inevitably, frustrations and disappointments) along the way. Stay tuned for more posts today that will hopefully bring us up to date on the planning process so far!
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