Good to Have Options

Last Tuesday my beautiful bridesmaid Stephanie graciously accompanied me to go take an initial scouting trip to look at some bridesmaids dresses. I know it's early but as a giddy and excited bride (as most girls are) who could wait? And my time with Stephanie is few and far between so I wanted to make sure I could include her as well!

We headed over to Bridals by Roma, in Clifton, NJ. We braved torrential rain to get there, thankfully by the time we arrived at our destination the rain had stopped. We had fun sorting through all the bridesmaids gowns, some more hideous than others but we did manage to find a few gems in the mix.

Stephanie tried on a few different gowns we found, of course they were all WAY too big on her, but she toughed it out and we were able to get a feel for them. We saw the dress I originally saw online. Although according to this store they can't do my sash I want to add but I'm not going to settle for that!

Our other choice that we were interested in is the dress by Mackenzie Michaels Dress. It's a beautiful dress, reasonably priced and most importantly it comes with the sash I've been dying to find in a dress, and it even comes in a larger variety of colors over the original one. So this is def staying on the option table for now.

Practice Makes Perfect

Armed with her beautiful ribbon & bow bouquet made with love for her by none other than Hope Bagely, the Future Mrs. Giammarino was beaming from head to toe. With less than a week to go she would soon marry her long-time high school love, Johnny. The entire bridal party gathered at the church for the rehearsal because as they say - "Practice Makes Perfect." And this was one thing we all wanted to get right for the special day!

Following the quick practice walk down the aisle we headed over to Bridget's future In-Law's house for some good-old-fashioned traditional Italian cooking made by the groom's mother herself. Absolutely delicious is the only way to put it. The bride and groom showered their best friends with beautiful gifts. For the girls it was comfy slippers, a beautiful Swaroski crystal necklace, an engraved compact with our names on it, and a big bag to carry all of our stuff to the wedding in. All the girls are ready and can't wait for the big day to come!

Fit for a Princess

The one good thing to come out of the meeting with our least favorite photographer was that they told us about the possibility to go take pictures at nearby Lambert Castle after our ceremony. The castle would make for a completely different background from the grounds of The Manor. It is architecturally interesting with the stone and would provide a great backdrop for some fun pictures. For more pictures of the castle and surrounding groups click here.

Poofy Sleeves & Ruffles

Well not quite poofy sleeves or ruffles but I found a dress that I like for the bridesmaids, I just hope they like. I know not everyone loves strapless dresses as much as I do so I have been looking at pictures of dresses with mostly v-necks. While I was at the mall tonight I stopped by the Macy's Bridal Salon (since I knew they carried the designer I had seen a dress I liked in) And amazingly enough - they had it. It looked really nice in person. The only thing missing is I would love for the sash to be long in the back instead of just wrapping around so the saleswoman is going to inquire about it for me - hopefully it's feasible - If it is I might be sold on the first dress I saw (so long as the girls love it too).

Wedding Checklist

This should be an easy one to start for now and I'll keep adding to it. Here's what we've got for the wedding so far and when we booked/ordered them:

1. Reception Hall: The Manor - 6/06/09
2. Priest: Father Andrzej - 6/16/09
3. Church: Our Lady of Sorrows - 6/17/09
4. Photographer: John Arcara - 7/22/09

Cruisin' To Hawai'i

I've been day dreaming a lot lately about a possible Hawaiian Honeymoon. We've talked to a several people recently that have highly recommended going to Hawaii for our honeymoon. In fact few have recommended the idea of taking a cruise to each of the islands which sounds fantastic! I've been looking into it and have come across the following cruise on NCL. It would leave from Honolulu on October 30th which would give us time to get to Hawaii and spend a few days relaxing and then follow it up with a 7 day cruise around the islands. It sounds like the best of both worlds to me! I've already sent away for (and received) a travel brochure on Hawaii and started looking into different excursions like a real luau or this one. I hope it'll fit in the budget, but for now I'll keep day dreaming :-)

A Date to Be Saved

Last night we got our first glimpse at our very own custom designed Save the Date and it was PERFECT. Mike's Dad (a grahpic designer) took our ideas and sketched it out and made us a beautiful Save the Date. Which will later be carried over into other elements of the wedding, eveything from the label for our favors (apple butter - I hope!) to on the top of our ceremony programs, bar menu and other little touches. I love it so much and the best part is it was custom designed for us!

A Leading Contender

Today Mike and I met with a very promising contender for our wedding photographer. We met with John Arcara after Mike's softball game down in Red Bank, NJ. We really enjoyed his dynamic and energetic personality and the beautiful style of his pictures. But alas John is the most expensive photographer I've seen so far and also the furthest away from our house. But I could tell after the meeting that both Mike and I were really interested in him and strongly considering his work.

We really liked that he was able to capture the pictures in a modern and different way, it's not your same old boring wedding pictures, and you could tell how excited he was about his work and how proud he was to show it off to us. His sample wedding albums were absolutely beautiful, the way he was able to pull colors out from the pictures on the page and complement it in the page borders and picture arrangements.

John was also really open to my idea of taking our engagement pictures at a nearby apple orchard and in front of some old barns around there which would be a lot of fun!

I think that John is my favorite photographer so far - just have to see if it fits in our budget. Here's some more of his work that drew me in - you can check out John's Blog here

To Video Or Not

In determining our wedding budget and more specifically our photography budget, Mike and I have questioned if we should have a wedding videographer or not. With finding a leading contender for our favorite photographer (who's at the high end of our budget) we have to make a contention elsewhere and it looks like the videographer will be on the top of our cutting block. After all if we get the best pictures, won't that be enough to remember the day? Obviously if we don't get the video and we later come to regret it there will be no going back to get it. How many times will we really watch the video anyway? These are some of the questions we struggle with in deciding whether to have one or not, but as of right now it doesn't look like we will.

Buff Bride

So the buff bride gene has not quite hit me yet. Although it continues to haunt me in the back of my mind, I have yet to act upon it. I poorly attempted to try to start changing my eating habits, but that went over for all of 3 days. I keep telling myself that I am going to go join the local gym. However I have yet to 'make the time' to even go down there and check it out and find out how much it is to even join. I've looked up the class schedule and gym a bunch of times but I can't seem to get myself down there. I am great at making excuses for why I can't seem to get myself over there, we are always so busy, but the truth be told I just don't feel motivated to spend what little free time I have over at the gym, and also once I go back to school, I keep thinking that I will slack off and waste my money on a membership that I won't use because 'I'm too busy doing homework,' although perhaps the gym would make a good excuse for then procrastinating my homework. It's not that I feel that I have a lot of weight to lose for the wedding but every bride wants to look her best on her wedding day and remember those pictures forever.... I just wish the gene would kick into place for me sooner than later.... But I keep making excuses, well "I still have well over a year to go"..... Maybe one day I'll get over there!

The Joys of Home Ownership

Recently some of our friends have joined the ranks of proud homeowners. Hearing all about their their new found ownership has made me think back to when we first purchased our home together - hard to believe that over a year has gone by already! We purchased our very first home last April (2008), it was such an exciting time for us, and boy did we work hard. Every weekend was a new project, a new wall or ceiling to paint, and my favorite another trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond - the cashier literally knew me from going in so much - which Mike was not pleased about. I didn't know how we were ever going to get it all done. Below is a picture of me and Mike first 'meal' together in our new house, a hot pocket and bottle of Sam Adams Summer ale sitting on our dining room floor next to five gallons of paint - which we used every drop of.

Slowly but surely we eventually finished painting every room, every ceiling, and almost every closet in the house. As well as put our own personal touches on the house, from Mike spray painting the dining room light, to striping the varnish on the fireplace and painting it white and installing granite around it - the house was really ours and show cased all our hard work and personal style. Now over a year later, I wouldn't consider changing anything - or moving for that matter - I'm looking forward to going through all that hard work again - but it was so worth it.

What is a Bridal Expo

A few weeks ago my best friend Andrea and I attended our very first Bridal Expo. It was an interesting experience and a room full of lots of brides and estrogen. For those not familiar with what a bridal expo is, picture a reception room lined with tons of 'featured' wedding vendors lining the walls. Typically (from what I understand) they are free to attend (as they should be) - a bride will attend to meet with different wedding vendors to learn more about their services.

There were all different types of vendors from limo's outside BLARING techno music, to florists, to invitations, and a few other vendors. They are held at various reception halls, this one happened to be at a hall that Mike and I had looked at for our wedding - and thankfully we did not book there - Andrea and I were less than thrilled with the quality of the food put out for the cocktail hour.

Throughout the evening we walked around, listened to a bad DJ, ate some less than stellar food and got 'harassed' by two Mary Kay consultants who were not familiar with the words 'I'm not interested.' All and all it was interesting experience, one that I probably won't repeat - the best part of the night was seeing Andrea and the free champagne which we hit up!

Picture Perfect

The next most important item to secure on our wedding checklist is picking a photographer. Since after the day is over the only thing we'll have to remember it are our memories and hopefully some really good pictures! I have to say picking a photographer has been more time consuming and challenging than picking a reception hall. Although we did visit over a half dozen reception halls, it was easier to comb through pictures and menus online than something so personal as picking out a photographer.

I was overwhelmed in the beginning and didn't even know where to begin. So I started my search for a photographer by exporting the list of over 130 vendors listed on The North Jersey Knot list. I literally went through and (quickly in some cases) visited each and every website, which was quite time consuming. Some I knew right away I wasn't interested in, some got a maybe or possible mark and others were a must see.

The other thing about The Knot list was the pricing. Pricing went from $1,000 - $2,000; $2,000 - $3,000; and then jumped to a range of $3,000 - $5,000 and then over $5,000 (which I wouldn't even consider this category) - of course I've since learned these are just the starting prices. As to be expected, ALL of the photographers I liked were of course in the $3,000 - $5,000 range.

Then came the hard part, picking photographers that I was interested in meeting with and getting more information from. I was able to narrow the list down to 5 photographers (so far) that I wanted to meet with. They are as follows:

1. Figtree Productions
2. Sarah Postma
3. Daniel J. Photography
4. John Arcara
5. John Agnello

There were a few others that also caught my eye, but a girl has to start somewhere and I couldn't set up interviews with every photographer I liked. So far I've met with 4 out of the 5 on my list (the other to follow later this week) some Mike came with me and others I went alone. All of the photographers I met with were all extremely talented and all brought different talents to the table.

There were a few things that we were looking for from a photographer. We knew we wanted someone with a modern flair, something photojournalistic, but we also want to make sure we do get the traditional posed pictures. We love all the sharp colors that stand out in a picture and even some of the pictures on a tilted angle. I also didn't realize how a photo album can be so similar and serve the same purpose and how many different styles (and costs there are to pick from).

It has been fun so far meeting with all the photographers and learning more about their styles and how it will mix with our personalities and what we want from the day and how we want our pictures to look but my biggest lesson so far has been that photographers are not cheap - that's for sure!!!

The Great China Debate

With starting our registry also brought up the item of to register for china, or not. This is the great debate. While china is beautiful and we absolutely love to entertain I am not 100% sold on registering for china. However Mike felt otherwise, and I can certainly see his point. In our registry shopping we did come across a pattern that we both liked and agreed upon that seemed to suit our style. We were looking for something classic, clean, and modern with minimal design. The Waterford Ballet Ribbon pattern certainly caught our eye. I'm just not sure when we'd use it - or where we'd store it. But it would be something nice to have, so we'll see. TBD if it makes the registry cut or not.

Creating a Registry

I have to say our initial experience of going to register was a bit overwhelming and we didn't quite know where to start. Since I get tons of emails about different bridal events and activities in the area I found out about a "registry event" at Macy*s. I originally didn't think we would be able to go since it was on a Thursday and we play softball after work on Thursdays. However since we had practically an entire month worth of rain in June this year our game was rained out and Mike surprisingly agreed to go along.

We got our first try and playing with the registry gun! Mike was in charge of all the scanning. It probably took us a good twenty minutes or so before we could even decide on an item to scan, we weren't sure what to scan. We knew we weren't looking to create our entire registry but rather a few small items. We eventually settled on a few kitchen electronics like a sandwich griller, waffle maker -- that mike wanted, and my crock pot -- my current crock pot is older than I am and is in a classic orange and brown decor.

After a little more than an hour I could tell Mike was done with starting our registry and better to quit now while I was still ahead. While we didn't get much on there it was a start and now we can say we have a registry..... Oh and I went back a week or so later with my future Mother-in-Law and we made some good additions to the list!

Wedding Website

One of my favorite announcements so far on our wedding has been creating our very own wedding website. At first my fiance was opposed to the idea and he didn't understand what we needed one for, but I think after seeing what I worked up he was happy with the outcome and understood my new found tool.

I searched around for a while, trying to compare the different servers out there that offered wedding websites and after a while I stumbled upon mywedding.com and I was very happy with the options they featured. I was able to find a great fall template which fit perfect with our wedding them.

So I am very happy to show off our wedding website. It's got lots of great info on our wedding from the beautiful proposal, to details on the reception hall, galleries of pictures and lots of other fun info!

Reception Hall Hunting

The first priority in any wedding planning is always picking out the reception hall. This lays the ground work for the entire festivity from date, location, theme, everything. We knew we wanted to get a head start on this right away and wasted no time. We had a short list of places that we wanted to look at right off the bat.

Our first stop on our reception hall list was over to The Venetian, in Garfield NJ. We absolutely loved everything about The Venetian, it was a gorgeous facility and we know from personal past experience the food is absolutely incredible, I was in love with the mashed potato bar! Although it was a great option we also had to be conscious of our budget so the search continued.

Our journey to find the perfect reception hall took us to several other locations, including The Tides, The Valley Regency, The Madison Hotel and several others. Some we liked more than others but we knew we hadn't found that right place for us yet.

On a whim on the way home from our friends, Carmen & Dawn's wedding, we decided to take a drive over to The Manor. From the moment we pulled up, I just knew this was the place for us. When we were walking around the grounds, I got this feeling and I knew it was it. We didn't have an appointment but that didn't stop us we were still able to look around and get a feel for the place and the feeling was good. Although it wasn't anything like what I had originally expected to pick for our wedding reception. The Manor is very traditional in it's style but the rooms are classic and beautiful and the grounds are amazing!

Our Wedding So Far

We've been very busy in starting our wedding planning over the past two months. We've accomplished a lot of the major items. Here's a brief summary of what we've done so far (I'll go into more details on each of them later) we've got our reception hall, church & priest (those were the top three priorities on our agenda) in addition we've already started looking at and interviewing photographers, I've started a wedding website, we've got our best friends lined up for the bridal party and we've begun a wedding registry! And of course there are the countless hours spent looking up all the endless wedding details.

Wedding Blog Introduction

Welcome to my blog. I recently had the idea that I wanted to document the experience of planning our wedding as a way to record all of the different steps, ideas, and plans that take place in this momentous journey. Since it is a once in a life time experience I wanted to be able to look back and remember everything, and also to help stay organized and even provide a way to update our family and friends with what we have planned so far. I must admit I'm brand new to blogging and I don't know much about blogs at all but this seemed like it would be a good avenue to documenting our wedding planning experience. So here goes!