Wedding Update, will be crossposted in three days.
Sorry to spam you all with this, I just want it saved within LJ.
Title: I'm the Clam Bake bride! T minus 100 d!!
100 days out!!! Holy cow! I was so excited to make this landmark post that I started three days ago in a word document. But that was mainly because I knew it would get very VERY long. I've got so much done!!!
Our wedding website can be found here.
A bit of background, my husband and I were "married" in January in Florida. I use that term loosely here because there was no ceremony, there were no vows. It was just for legality purposes and I really did not want to associate anything special with that day. So technically I am a Mrs in the eyes of the law. But since I do subscribe to a particular religion, I want to consider my true marriage to be the day that I make vows before God. So we are not married yet ;-)
Eric and I...
I am a Connecticut bride planning her wedding from Florida. This has been all sorts of crazy with the long distance. Thankfully I have a wonderful Mom who loves to take her weekends and school vacations to meet with the vendors. I really think it's all a guise to go down to the shore more often than normal but I'm not gonna spoil her fun.
I also have a wedding planner that I hired who has been worth her weight in gold. Her name is Diane Parsons and she is the co-owner/founder of Nifi's Wedding Planning and Consulting.
My photography is being done by Parsons Photography (owned by Diane's husband). Website Here She also did my engagement photos and since they're just starting the business I've been getting little extras for free because she's testing them out to see if they're viable. Sooooo cool.
The ceremony and reception are being held at the Branford House which I fell in love with even before I started planning the wedding.
The lawn that the ceremony will held on.
Terrace where the cocktail hour will be held (and my Dad)
Beautiful view that the guests will have during the ceremony of Long Island Sound
Main room
Our meal is being catered by Mystic Market/Coastal Gourmet Catering and is inspired by a New England Clambake. I'm a New Englander, born and bred and LOVE my lobster. Every single important event in my life has been celebrated with some sort of lobster dish and my wedding will not be any different ;-)
Eric Perrin has come up with a very delicious sounding meal, I cannot wait!!!!!
As guests arrive there will be lemonade with gingersnaps (a tribute to my swedish grandmother) and another cookie (I can't remember the name, it's an Italian treat that Eric's grandmother used to make and thus a tribute to her, I really should remember it, it's awful of me not to...) for guests to munch on as they take their seat.
After the ceremony hors d'oeuvres include cheese, fruit and crackers as the stationary items. Butlered ones include: lobster and roasted shallot tartlet, bon fire chicken with gorgonzola cream, mini clam fritters with lemon caper aioli, and artichoke and spinach in herb phyllo. Yum!
Dinner is set up as stations since the rooms are weird and it would be awkward to have a served dinner because the guests would be split up. This should encourage socializing.
Stations:
Soup and Salad - New England Clam Chowder and oyster crackers, bread and butter, a nice salad with greens, spinach, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, red onino, walnuts, gorgonzola and dried cranberries
Carving - tenderloin of beef with horseradish cream, roasted corn and edamame salad, red potato salad with mustard vinaigrette
Seafood - shrimp and scallops with mango salsa over rice
Coffee and tea
Wedding Cake (currently listed as vanilla genoise with strawberry mouse, fresh strawberries and buttercream) I have not done a tasting for this yet so we shall see if this stays as it's proposed. I don't know what I want it to look like either. I've been browsing thecakeblog for ideas but nothing has really struck a chord.
Alcohol will be beer, wine and a "signature drink" which will be a raspberry champagne type deal. I wanted something fruity and fresh since it's the summer and the late afternoon.
Favors will be bracelets from the American Cancer Society. We donated to ACS and to the Multiple Sclerosis Society because Eric's father has MS and breast cancer runs in my family. There will be this sign beside the basket of favors to inform the guests about our choices. DIY.
I really wanted a sea theme without getting really typical so I pulled in the colors of the beach and water as our "colors" and worked with the florist on bringing in some beach grass for decoration and making my bouquet a bit more wild and natural. It's hard to explain and has been difficult to get across, especially to my mother who has been making a lot of the things. It's easier to just say what I don't like and pick out what I do. Bah. Anyway, I should mention that my mother has been ABSOLUTELY amazing about the whole thing and if something was DIY it was her thing, I've done nothing except concept design. She sends me pictures and asks for approval. It's like I have two wedding planners. One to organize everyone the other to do the work. Can I say I really really really love my mom?
The bathrooms on site are a bit bland (I won't bore you with pictures) so Mom made some baskets with items for the guests to use in case of emergency.
She even decorated them. I think it's wonderful.
Those are the little placards that will be next to the basket saying that the items are courtesy of the bride and groom. She stole found the sayings on another bride's website and thought it was the coolest thing (I even have the voicemail and emails to prove it) DIY
Centerpieces!
Okay, so my vision was of sea glass illuminated from below with several strands of orchids suspended in water. That's the design concept.
Well, we my mom found marbles in my colors at the Christmas Tree Shop (I think) and I okayed the purchase. We got them super cheap. We also bought our own glass vases at about 12-15$ a pop at the home store associated with TJ Maxx. Kind of like Home Goods.
The florist made this mockup.
Instead of the clear marbles you see, they will be either blue or green and instead of the white orchids, the orchids will be blue. This was more so that they'd pop against the white table linen.
The blue
and green marbles
We're getting submersible white LED lights to illuminate the marbles and instead of filling the vase all the way up with water, it will only cover the marbles. Our lovely florist explained that keeping flowers in the water makes them look weird after time. I trust her judgement explicitly.
We'll probably also scatter some shells around the base of the vase. I've collected plenty from Florida beaches plus we found a bunch on sale at Home Goods and a decent number on Ebay.
A selection of my Ebay finds.
My dress!!!! Purchased from Brides To Be in Glastonbury, CT I cannot reccomend this shop enough. They aren't a chain but do bring in designer gowns off the rack from NYC for way cheaper. The woman who owns the store is so amazingly nice and personally helped me find a dress. It was such a better experience than DB.
^ v these photos are hanging in my cubicle at work as inspiration
I purchased my wedding jewelry before I ever got engaged.
It's a souvenir from my trip to Australia in 2005. Pearls from Broome, WA. Thus, my dress needed to match IT. Hehehe
I'm not sure how I want my hair. It's crazy thick and curly and frizzy (as you can see in the pictures here) so I'd definitely want it up. I hate wearing it down, my neck gets all sweaty and I feel too hot. So I'm thinking something like this
which I JUST saw here on the community. I really like it!
No pictures of my veil, it's being made for me as a gift. One of my bridesmaids mothers makes veils and fans as a side business and offered to make me one. It's such a lovely gift.
BM dresses.
We've chosen the green one on the right, modeled by BM Melissa. Cheryl, MOH, is in the brown. These were purchased from DB and are currently discontinued. However, we did manage to get them at about half off because they were being discontinued. Score!
The ceremony aisle way will be decorated with these
They'll have sprigs of the twirly willow and beach grass. They will then be moved inside and serve double duty as decoration of some of the alcoves in the house. Plus, I've been told that you can take the willow and just replant it and it'll grow so it's like having an everlasting reminder of your wedding. I thought that was nifty.
Rehearsal
The rehearsal is being held at Wickham Park in Manchester CT the day before. It's being catered by a placed that does Texas BBQ. I plan on picnic games. *nods* And my photographer/wedding planner will be there and she said she'd take pictures of the rehearsal which is an extra. If I end up not getting them it's no big deal since the contract doesn't specify that as part of our arrangement.
DJ
Currently in negotiations with a CT DJ who says that I'm super bubbly on the phone. He sounded amused... ;D He has worked with Diane in the past and thinks she's amazing (which is cool to hear) especially as he's not a fan of wedding planners in general.
I'm not sure what kind of music we'll be having.
My brother will be playing his trumpet for the ceremony (he's amazing! Shameless promotion... if you want a professional quality trumpeter but at a really good price, let me know. He's in college and NOT a professional, but you wouldn't know it to listen to him play) The organist from my parent's church will also be playing and he's a professional jazz pianist... Woo!
So far as music goes I haven't really given it much thought. Which is probably bad. But Eric and I do know that we want to exit to Also Sprach Zarathustra and potentially cut cake to the Portal Ending song (we're geeks...) However there's some other triumphant music that we're considering including some music from the Ice Age 2 soundtrack (Mammoth's Return, if you're familiar)
Our dance song is currently "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas, featured on Meet the Robinsons.
No mother/son father/daughter songs have been decided. I tasked my dad with finding one.
Our Save the Dates have already gone out. Here's the Vistaprint preview.
Our invitations are ordered and we just sent back the corrected proofs
these are them We are also including a card in those invitations with our website address so that people can get maps, directions, suggestions of places to stay, fly into, go for fun etc. In reality this wedding is like a destination wedding because so many people have to travel.
Honeymoon
My mother's coworker gifted us our honeymoon in the form of her timeshare cottage in Cape Cod. I'm so thrilled. We'll just rent a car and spend some time on the beach and strolling around town, do some biking etc.
Rings
Have been purchased. Husband's is a tungsten carbide, very pretty, he loves it. Mine is white gold with channel set princess cut diamonds which matches my engagement ring.
Phew! That's a lot! 8 pages in word....
So all that's left:
-make contact with the DJ again and set up a contract and payment
-finish paying off all my vendors (speaking of which, I have a photography payment that needs to go in the mail)
-get alterations for my dress
-cake testing?!
-finalize details
-mail invitations
-hair and makeup trial + find someone for day of
-tell the groomsmen what they're wearing
-find shoes and undergarments
There's not much left!
Title: I'm the Clam Bake bride! T minus 100 d!!
100 days out!!! Holy cow! I was so excited to make this landmark post that I started three days ago in a word document. But that was mainly because I knew it would get very VERY long. I've got so much done!!!
Our wedding website can be found here.
A bit of background, my husband and I were "married" in January in Florida. I use that term loosely here because there was no ceremony, there were no vows. It was just for legality purposes and I really did not want to associate anything special with that day. So technically I am a Mrs in the eyes of the law. But since I do subscribe to a particular religion, I want to consider my true marriage to be the day that I make vows before God. So we are not married yet ;-)
Eric and I...
I am a Connecticut bride planning her wedding from Florida. This has been all sorts of crazy with the long distance. Thankfully I have a wonderful Mom who loves to take her weekends and school vacations to meet with the vendors. I really think it's all a guise to go down to the shore more often than normal but I'm not gonna spoil her fun.
I also have a wedding planner that I hired who has been worth her weight in gold. Her name is Diane Parsons and she is the co-owner/founder of Nifi's Wedding Planning and Consulting.
My photography is being done by Parsons Photography (owned by Diane's husband). Website Here She also did my engagement photos and since they're just starting the business I've been getting little extras for free because she's testing them out to see if they're viable. Sooooo cool.
The ceremony and reception are being held at the Branford House which I fell in love with even before I started planning the wedding.
The lawn that the ceremony will held on.
Terrace where the cocktail hour will be held (and my Dad)
Beautiful view that the guests will have during the ceremony of Long Island Sound
Main room
Our meal is being catered by Mystic Market/Coastal Gourmet Catering and is inspired by a New England Clambake. I'm a New Englander, born and bred and LOVE my lobster. Every single important event in my life has been celebrated with some sort of lobster dish and my wedding will not be any different ;-)
Eric Perrin has come up with a very delicious sounding meal, I cannot wait!!!!!
As guests arrive there will be lemonade with gingersnaps (a tribute to my swedish grandmother) and another cookie (I can't remember the name, it's an Italian treat that Eric's grandmother used to make and thus a tribute to her, I really should remember it, it's awful of me not to...) for guests to munch on as they take their seat.
After the ceremony hors d'oeuvres include cheese, fruit and crackers as the stationary items. Butlered ones include: lobster and roasted shallot tartlet, bon fire chicken with gorgonzola cream, mini clam fritters with lemon caper aioli, and artichoke and spinach in herb phyllo. Yum!
Dinner is set up as stations since the rooms are weird and it would be awkward to have a served dinner because the guests would be split up. This should encourage socializing.
Stations:
Soup and Salad - New England Clam Chowder and oyster crackers, bread and butter, a nice salad with greens, spinach, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, red onino, walnuts, gorgonzola and dried cranberries
Carving - tenderloin of beef with horseradish cream, roasted corn and edamame salad, red potato salad with mustard vinaigrette
Seafood - shrimp and scallops with mango salsa over rice
Coffee and tea
Wedding Cake (currently listed as vanilla genoise with strawberry mouse, fresh strawberries and buttercream) I have not done a tasting for this yet so we shall see if this stays as it's proposed. I don't know what I want it to look like either. I've been browsing thecakeblog for ideas but nothing has really struck a chord.
Alcohol will be beer, wine and a "signature drink" which will be a raspberry champagne type deal. I wanted something fruity and fresh since it's the summer and the late afternoon.
Favors will be bracelets from the American Cancer Society. We donated to ACS and to the Multiple Sclerosis Society because Eric's father has MS and breast cancer runs in my family. There will be this sign beside the basket of favors to inform the guests about our choices. DIY.
I really wanted a sea theme without getting really typical so I pulled in the colors of the beach and water as our "colors" and worked with the florist on bringing in some beach grass for decoration and making my bouquet a bit more wild and natural. It's hard to explain and has been difficult to get across, especially to my mother who has been making a lot of the things. It's easier to just say what I don't like and pick out what I do. Bah. Anyway, I should mention that my mother has been ABSOLUTELY amazing about the whole thing and if something was DIY it was her thing, I've done nothing except concept design. She sends me pictures and asks for approval. It's like I have two wedding planners. One to organize everyone the other to do the work. Can I say I really really really love my mom?
The bathrooms on site are a bit bland (I won't bore you with pictures) so Mom made some baskets with items for the guests to use in case of emergency.
She even decorated them. I think it's wonderful.
Those are the little placards that will be next to the basket saying that the items are courtesy of the bride and groom. She stole found the sayings on another bride's website and thought it was the coolest thing (I even have the voicemail and emails to prove it) DIY
Centerpieces!
Okay, so my vision was of sea glass illuminated from below with several strands of orchids suspended in water. That's the design concept.
Well, we my mom found marbles in my colors at the Christmas Tree Shop (I think) and I okayed the purchase. We got them super cheap. We also bought our own glass vases at about 12-15$ a pop at the home store associated with TJ Maxx. Kind of like Home Goods.
The florist made this mockup.
Instead of the clear marbles you see, they will be either blue or green and instead of the white orchids, the orchids will be blue. This was more so that they'd pop against the white table linen.
The blue
and green marbles
We're getting submersible white LED lights to illuminate the marbles and instead of filling the vase all the way up with water, it will only cover the marbles. Our lovely florist explained that keeping flowers in the water makes them look weird after time. I trust her judgement explicitly.
We'll probably also scatter some shells around the base of the vase. I've collected plenty from Florida beaches plus we found a bunch on sale at Home Goods and a decent number on Ebay.
A selection of my Ebay finds.
My dress!!!! Purchased from Brides To Be in Glastonbury, CT I cannot reccomend this shop enough. They aren't a chain but do bring in designer gowns off the rack from NYC for way cheaper. The woman who owns the store is so amazingly nice and personally helped me find a dress. It was such a better experience than DB.
^ v these photos are hanging in my cubicle at work as inspiration
I purchased my wedding jewelry before I ever got engaged.
It's a souvenir from my trip to Australia in 2005. Pearls from Broome, WA. Thus, my dress needed to match IT. Hehehe
I'm not sure how I want my hair. It's crazy thick and curly and frizzy (as you can see in the pictures here) so I'd definitely want it up. I hate wearing it down, my neck gets all sweaty and I feel too hot. So I'm thinking something like this
which I JUST saw here on the community. I really like it!
No pictures of my veil, it's being made for me as a gift. One of my bridesmaids mothers makes veils and fans as a side business and offered to make me one. It's such a lovely gift.
BM dresses.
We've chosen the green one on the right, modeled by BM Melissa. Cheryl, MOH, is in the brown. These were purchased from DB and are currently discontinued. However, we did manage to get them at about half off because they were being discontinued. Score!
The ceremony aisle way will be decorated with these
They'll have sprigs of the twirly willow and beach grass. They will then be moved inside and serve double duty as decoration of some of the alcoves in the house. Plus, I've been told that you can take the willow and just replant it and it'll grow so it's like having an everlasting reminder of your wedding. I thought that was nifty.
Rehearsal
The rehearsal is being held at Wickham Park in Manchester CT the day before. It's being catered by a placed that does Texas BBQ. I plan on picnic games. *nods* And my photographer/wedding planner will be there and she said she'd take pictures of the rehearsal which is an extra. If I end up not getting them it's no big deal since the contract doesn't specify that as part of our arrangement.
DJ
Currently in negotiations with a CT DJ who says that I'm super bubbly on the phone. He sounded amused... ;D He has worked with Diane in the past and thinks she's amazing (which is cool to hear) especially as he's not a fan of wedding planners in general.
I'm not sure what kind of music we'll be having.
My brother will be playing his trumpet for the ceremony (he's amazing! Shameless promotion... if you want a professional quality trumpeter but at a really good price, let me know. He's in college and NOT a professional, but you wouldn't know it to listen to him play) The organist from my parent's church will also be playing and he's a professional jazz pianist... Woo!
So far as music goes I haven't really given it much thought. Which is probably bad. But Eric and I do know that we want to exit to Also Sprach Zarathustra and potentially cut cake to the Portal Ending song (we're geeks...) However there's some other triumphant music that we're considering including some music from the Ice Age 2 soundtrack (Mammoth's Return, if you're familiar)
Our dance song is currently "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas, featured on Meet the Robinsons.
No mother/son father/daughter songs have been decided. I tasked my dad with finding one.
Our Save the Dates have already gone out. Here's the Vistaprint preview.
Our invitations are ordered and we just sent back the corrected proofs
these are them We are also including a card in those invitations with our website address so that people can get maps, directions, suggestions of places to stay, fly into, go for fun etc. In reality this wedding is like a destination wedding because so many people have to travel.
Honeymoon
My mother's coworker gifted us our honeymoon in the form of her timeshare cottage in Cape Cod. I'm so thrilled. We'll just rent a car and spend some time on the beach and strolling around town, do some biking etc.
Rings
Have been purchased. Husband's is a tungsten carbide, very pretty, he loves it. Mine is white gold with channel set princess cut diamonds which matches my engagement ring.
Phew! That's a lot! 8 pages in word....
So all that's left:
-make contact with the DJ again and set up a contract and payment
-finish paying off all my vendors (speaking of which, I have a photography payment that needs to go in the mail)
-get alterations for my dress
-cake testing?!
-finalize details
-mail invitations
-hair and makeup trial + find someone for day of
-tell the groomsmen what they're wearing
-find shoes and undergarments
There's not much left!