Tasting Time

Tonight we had our wedding reception menu tasting. What a fabulous tradition!


After having a cocktail at the bar we were sat at a romantic table prepared with a printout of the selections we'd made, a pen, and a full pitcher of water.


Over the course of the 2-hour tasting, we were able to try 5 appetizers, 2 salads, 4 entrees, 4 sides and 2 desserts.


The evening was spent contemplating who would eat what, who would want to dance after eating, and who would shy away from trendy food choices such as ceviche cups and pecan crusted salmon.


We're lucky that the reception venue is a restaurant and anything we'd want to taste again is on the menu. This allowed us to be creative in the tasting choices. Everyone knows what a ceasar salad tastes like.

We need to finalize our entrees for invitation purposes, but the final menu isn't due until a month out.

So full just thinking about it.

It's Official... time to Save the Date!

While our invitations will have a formal air, we wanted to do something fun to announce our wedding, share our wedding website and ask our guests to Save-the-Date.

My very creative fiance had an idea brewing last year when he had us pose with our favorite mascot "Mr. Met" of the New York Mets baseball team.

The photo became the front of our Save the Date postcard that we created using our new favorite website weddingpaperdivas.com

Then to top it off, we thought that a custom stamp would tie in our theme of Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Bridge. We used zazzle.com to create a USPS postcard stamp with one of our photos of the bridge. They were a nice touch.

Wedding Website

This is wedding 2.0 and utilizing the internet can keep you and your guests organized. It also helps to provide an online home for the answers to those Frequently Asked Questions to reduce the number of questions in your inbox.

WEDDING WEBSITE OPTIONS:
There are a lot of wedding website options out there, most of them are free with an "upgrade" option that can cost you a small fortune.

We found a great website provider ProjectWedding.com which offers a free service and a unique URL.


CONTENT:
Key information to include: Who, What, Where, Travel information, contact info, and a map.

To add a personal touch, we included photos of ourselves, a dedicated page to our bridal party with photos and short introductions, and a list of our favorite places in NYC.

We worked hard to make sure that our website was filled with as much content as possible when the save-the-dates go out next week.


Hopefully this will be a useful tool to all our guests.

THE DRESS!

I have found my dress!


To keep the full vision for the big day,



I've posted a few of the details that made me say "YES" to the dress!

Pre-Wedding Events

We've been busy trying to coordinate schedules for the customary pre-wedding events: Engagement parties, Bridal Showers, Bachelorette & Bachelor parties.

The one I've been most anxiously awaiting is the Bachelorette party. A chance to travel with all my friends to celebrate my sendoff to singleness.

I've been to a few of these in my day and there are things that I want and things that I could leave behind. All said and done, the most important part to me is the location. I would like to go somewhere warm, yet accessible from all parts of the US.

A few ideas I had were Miami Beach and Austin.

Any other suggestions? Great bachelorette party stories?

The Wedding Singer

We've all seen the YouTube videos, popular movies and maybe you've been luck to attend weddings with terrible wedding singers, bands or DJ's.

Because we are a group of dancers and music connoisseurs, the reception music is a priority for us.

We like the idea of a vinyl DJ who can play our favorite tunes, keep the crowd moving, and serve as the emcee of the evening.

We've also started our song list and would love some suggestions...

Registering

My wedding felt official this week as I started registering for gifts.

Asking for things has always been hard for me and figuring out what to register for has been a big challenge.

I would like to keep things simple for guests and have selected the following sites:

Honeyfund.com
This great website that allows you to "register" for honeymoon items. Everything from airfare to room nights in a pied-a-terre to dinner out and museum fees.


Macy's
For kitchen needs, flatware and everyday ware


Crate & Barrel
For glassware, specialty gifts and accents


The registry is small, I would love some advice:
- What was your FAVORITE wedding gift?
- Was there anything you wished you'd register for but didn't?

Handsome Men

We've been exploring our options for the men-folk.

Suits versus Tuxedos

Suits
We recently attended a wedding where all the men wore matching gray suits. They looked so great in-person and in photos. We looked through a few of the mens sections at Macy's and the Men's Warehouse looking for bulk deals and Father's Day specials. The average price is still a little high for our party, but the benefit is that the guys then have a new suit to keep for future events.



Tuxedos
I love the way a tuxedo looks good on everyone! With all the groomsmen located across the country, working with a nationwide retailer like the Men's Warehouse would be efficient and cost-effective.

We have some time on this decision. Next step is to check out some tuxedo rental places to see what looks best on my groom first and foremost!

Say Cheese!

Our current focus is on photography, videography and capturing the moments we want to remember.

This is one area where this DIY bride is torn. As an events person, I understand the importance of having a talented photographer group people together, anticipate memorable moments, and take quality frames in all lighting scenarios. This is an element that cannot be rushed.

This week we are meeting with a few potential photographers that fit into our budget and I want to be prepared with the right questions.

Concerns I have:
- I don't want to feel like my wedding day is one long photoshoot
- I'd like our pictures to look natural, no crazy poses
- Capturing the details of the day, group family photos and candid shots are important to us
- Is a 2nd photographer necessary when everyone brings their own digital cameras?
- What should we hire the videographer for? the whole day?
- Photography packages really start to add up, what is really necessary?
- Should we do an engagement photoshoot?

For all the brides out there, I would love some feedback.

Design Strategy

We've been spending the past week or so looking at several websites that offer inspiration and help for invitations, save the dates and other wedding collateral.


There are so many wonderful and cost effective options for printing some fabulous wedding invitations.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Paper Chez



Ceci New York



Double Happiness


We have a lot to figure out before we get to the actual design of our invitations:
- How formal do we want our invitations to be?
- Do we want the heavier, more expensive letter-press invite?
- How many inserts do we need, especially if we have a website with a lot of the extra information for our guests?
- What is our "color" going to be?
- What is the ultimate "theme" of the wedding?

We have the next 2-3 months to figure this out. I love looking at invitation designs, but deciding what's right for us and our wedding is another story.