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!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
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!
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