Halloween's Past

As you know by now the fall is one of our favorite seasons. There's so many great parts to the season that we enjoy. Unfortunately this year we haven't had much spare time to enjoy some of our favorite fall activities. There won't be any new costume's or parties this year, in fact I haven't even bought any candy yet for the trick-or-treaters tomorrow! I'm hoping that things will quiet down and we'll have more time in the future. For now I was thinking back to our past Halloween's together. We've had some great Halloween parties & costumes along the way (although you will notice a trend with Stewie). Anyway here's a look back at our Halloween's Past (2005 - 2008)

Engagement Pictures

Today we took our engagement pictures with John & Lovina Arcara (John Arcara Photography) - the pictures are nothing less than amazing! I know I might be a bit jaded because they are our pictures but they are awesome. When I had asked John about taking our e-pics at an apple orchard he was totally open to it. We started the session out at John & Lovina's house. Lovina was pouring with excitement over all these great local places she had in mind to take pictures.

We started the journey out literally taking pictures in the middle of the road with beautiful trees all around us. It was a little dangerous at times but all in the name of a good picture. In fact one woman even stopped to voice her opinion about our picture location - ironically she was wearing devil ears LITERALLY - I wonder if that was her Halloween costume or true to life?

We also made stops along the way at some random locations, a country road looking driveway with picket fences. Mike and I took pictures sitting o the ground. We moved onto other places like a nearby apple orchard where John had a blue hundred year old chair in the trunk of his car he had brought along. He dragged it out to the middle of the orchard for us to sit on in the middle of the trees - so unique! We even got to play around in some leaves and throw some at one another.

We had a blast with John & Lovina. They are such a dynamic & energetic pair with a lot of creativity and passion for what they do. I can't wait to see the rest of our epics and of course the wedding pictures!

Pumpkins a Blaze

Westchester County, NY is the home of the American Legend - The Headless Horseman which takes place in Sleepy Hollow. So of course they've got all the great Halloween Legends & Events to go along with it's history. "The Great Jack O’ Lantern Blaze is a Halloween spectacle integrating thousands of hand-carved pumpkins — everything from your standard Jack O’ Lantern to extremely elaborate abstract designs — lit up throughout the landscape of Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., in various arrangements — thematic, conceptual, and otherwise. This event pays tribute and homage to Halloween, and the home of the American heritage of Halloween: Sleepy Hollow Country."

I've wanted to go for a few years now. We actually had tickets last year but were unfortunately rained out. Although two of our friends were supposed to join us when we purchased tickets this year they couldn't make it, so Mike being a good sport went along for the ride with just me.

There were over 4,000 different carved pumpkins. It was amazing. The pumpkins were carved in all shapes & themes. Ranging from a pumpkin patch of black cats, mice, , bats, flowers and more in all shapes and sizes. As we wound through the different sections there were all different themes. They had pumpkins together in a block carved out like the human body, there was a giant pirate ship, aliens, Celtic themed pumpkins, butterflies, and just too many different things to name and remember them all! There was even a pumpkin patch of sunflowers which was really neat.

I have to say I really enjoyed the Blaze and was quite impressed by the amount of pumpkins and the talent that went into carving so many pumpkins!

Marriage Prep

Some refer to it as "pre-cana" others refer to it as "marriage preparation class" the intent of the program is "is aimed at assisting engaged couples to fully understand the Church's beautiful vision of marriage and to equip them with the information and tools necessary to deal with the day to day joys and struggles of married life." We recently completed our Marriage Preparation class at St. Mary's in Pompton Lakes.

The day was filled with different couples and topics all featured around discussing difficult issues with your spouse. Aside from introductions and some nice readings they opened the day with a fun version of the "newlywed game" with 4 featured couples, I have to say the host was actually quite funny and entertaining. After that we broke up into small groups. I was amazed when we walked in just to see how many couples were actually in attendance.

Our small group was made up of about 6 other couples. We spent the majority of our day with this small group. The topics centered around introducing important life topics into your life with your spouse. There were discussions on family life, barriers to commitment/conflict resolution, finance and spirituality. It was actually a really fun day interacting with other couples in a similar to position to what Mike and I are going through. Be it planning a wedding, or questions around living together and dealing with conflict. I was also surprised by the fact that it was ok to discuss living with your partner in an open manner. I had been expecting a priest or not be able to discuss that topic.

The last task of the day given to us was to write each a love letter and discuss our hopes and dreams for our future together. The church will mail us the letters the week before the wedding. I thought that was such a perfect way to end the day - I know I can't wait to read my letter from Mike before our wedding!

Work, School, Wedding

Life has been pretty busy lately. I'm a bit behind on updating my blog, between work, school, commuting, planning a wedding and attending many of our friends weddings and events there hasn't been much time to keep up with it. I am happy though that the semester has been flying by and will soon be over, but that also means that time is just flying by too! I'm taking two classes on two nights a week this semester, one of which I travel to Jersey City for (not a fan of the traffic, it's a lovely ride). But at least after this semester I'll be down to just 5 more classes, so I'm getting there! I am planning to take the semester off of the wedding but if all goes as planned, I'll be graduating the following semester in May 2011 - and I can't wait!

Gotta Have Bling

Every girl's got to have a little bit of sparkle or bling for her wedding day. My mom and I were recently shopping at Macy's and while we were in the jewelry department we both saw this necklace stand out at us and thought it would be perfect for my wedding dress. Since the dress is very simple and doesn't have too much going on, I thought it would be nice to add some extra sparkle and attention with a necklace. This necklace had the perfect neckline to go with my dress, so we picked it up. Can't wait to see how it looks with my dress!

Fantastic Feast

For our "negative one anniversary" (as Mike likes to call it), I just call it our future wedding anniversary we decided to celebrate by going to dinner at The Manor. We choose to do the al la carte dinning, they also offer a buffet option as well. I must say it was probably our fanciest dinner that Mike and I have been to, Mike had to buy and wear a jacket - a requirement for dining there and I dressed up for the occasion as well. Everything thing about our evening and our meal was absolutely wonderful and perfect!

When we arrived we were taken to a table near the window throughout the evening we were serenaded by a wonderful pianist playing right in the middle of the room. The room itself was beautiful, all the classic, traditional style that The Manor has to offer. We were greeted by extremely polite and professional wait staff. Of course you know the way to my heart is with bread. Now this was not your standard dinner roll selection. The waiter came over with an entire platter of bread selections to choose from. The options ranged from olive bread, to garlic rolls, to garlic toast, to cheese "sticks" to baguettes, to even more. And trust me I sampled several of them and they were all delicious. My personal favorite was the onion roll, which had the same pieces of onion inside - and this was only the bread selection!

After we placed our order (I'll get into that next) we were brought out one of the many chef's complimentary meals. They brought out a small rectangular plate that had what looked like a small espresso cup on the left and the right side of the plate held an egg. In the espresso cup was a squash soup, which was so sweet, I've never tasted anything like it before. On the right in the egg was some type of mushroom truffle which was also delicious.

For my meal I ordered from a special fixed course chef's menu so my next course to arrive was a "provencal vegetable and goat cheese parfait" with aged balsamic vinegar. The presentation itself was beautiful, the parfait was in a perfect circle with the goat cheese on top and the vegetables below it. It was delicious! At the same time Mike's first course arrived as well. He had ordered the "lobster bisque" soup which he said was the best he'd ever had. His dish arrived with just the pieces (big pieces) of lobster on the bottom, then as part of the presentation they come and pour the bisque part of the soup in right in front of you.

Following this my next course arrived - my FAVORITE of the evening! It was "wild mushroom ravioli" in a cognac sauce. Words cannot describe how delicious they were. It was was a touch of cream sauce the wild mushrooms in the homemade pasta - FANTASTIC!!!!

After this it was on to our main entrees. For me it was "olive-oil poached salmon" served with wilted baby spinach, hen of the woods mushrooms, lemon grass emulsion. The salmon was absolutely delicious, it seemed to melt in your mouth and was cooked to absolute perfection. So much flavor, it was savory and delicious, certainly one of the best pieces of salmon I've ever had. For Mike, who's clearly a steak man, he had the classic "filet mignon" with truffled mashed potatoes, haricot verts, baby carrots. Although I did not get to taste the filet I can tell you that there was none left, I did taste the mashed potatoes which were delicious.

And just when we didn't think we could eat anymore we were brought along another chef's complementary course. The time it was some type of cheese sorbet (in the shape of an egg) but underneath it was TOASTED COCONUT, a favorite of mine, and a few pieces of pineapple. Also quite delicious.

On to dessert next. I convinced my wonderful fiancee to take one for the team and eat my chocolate mouse that came with my entree so that I could order the "strawberry mille-feuille" vanilla cake, strawberries, vanilla cookie, frozen yogurt souffle, champagne sabayon. What more can I say, it lived up to all my expectations that's for sure. Along with this we were served coffee and a box of the chef's complementary chocolates of which we couldn't even eat we were so stuffed by this point.

All I can say is that it was one of the most delicious meals we have ever been to and I cannot wait for our wedding there and of course to go back on all of our future anniversary's so that I can have even more of the delicious food!

Beautiful Blooms

I don't know what I was thinking at the time I scheduled the appointment but I decided that I wanted to take on another task and start the process of looking for and interviewing florists. I started off slowly with just one florist in mind to start. Actually Mike's hairdresser had recommended her, so that was my first place to start.

I met with Joann from Blooming Brides. She was absolutely wonderful. Not knowing what to expect from a florist for wedding flowers, or if my budget would even cover it, she made the process so easy. She was very honest with her ideas about things in her opinion that worked and didn't work. She had a lot of experience and it was evident that she knew her flowers and knew The Manor quite well.

Joann totally understood my ideas related to the fall and has so many great ideas on how to incorporate them into the flowers. She talked about adding gourds, and mini apples and pumpkins into the table centerpieces, something I had not seen at a wedding before. She also had ideas for card table with cylinders of wheat from a local farm.

As for the bouquets, I loved her ideas of monochromatic shades of orange. She definitely understood my vision for the flowers and events. One of the flowers that she wants to use in the bouquets are the circus roses (pictured on the left) as well as mango calla lillies (the guys will have these also). I was very happy with my meeting with Joann, I think she had a lot of great ideas which would really work well for our wedding!

One Year To Go!

We've officially hit the one year to go mark! The past five months have just flown by so quickly. It feels like just yesterday that Mike popped the big question and we were jet setting off on our trip to Europe to go see London & Paris - on what was I think our best trip yet! I'll still never forget that night and the picture in my mind. And now here we are with less than a year to go until we become Husband and Wife. We can now say the next October 23rd to come around will be our wedding day & anniversary from this one forward - so exciting!

Prenuptual Investigation

No we're not getting a prenup.... apparently that is what the form is called that you fill our with your priest. We traveled over the bridge and through the woods to grandmothers house we go -- no that's not right but we traveled over the bridge and through the traffic to get ourselves to Long Island yesterday morning Although Mike swore no more trips to Long Island (can't say I blame him) we needed to go meet with our Priest that will be marrying us and fill out our 'catholic marriage paperwork.'

With me I brought original copies of baptism, communion & confirmation certificates. Our Priest told us he has never seen such pristine copies and all the documents at one time brought by couples before! After he documented all of our religious dates we got to the question part. There were questions such as have you ever been treated for drugs/alcohol, have you ever been married before, do you enter into this marriage freely, which Mike proceeded to answer - well if you count her twisting my arm, and then were a few questions similar to vows, to which I told Mike that's it, he's stuck with me forever :-) Or maybe I'm stuck with him. And then we signed the document and our paperwork was completed. After we complete our pre-cana at the end of the month we'll go back and plan out the mass, readings, etc. So we are moving right along!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins!

The fall has always been our FAVORITE season. From the weather (although we seem to be lacking in the fall weather dept) to the trees changing colors (hmm haven't had much of that either so far this year) to apple picking (even apple picking isn't looking so hot in terms of fitting into our schedule this year) - but at least there's always a quick trip for pumpkin picking!

Now I probably would have walked all over the field to pick the perfect pumpkin but Mike likes to get right to the point sometimes . I was happy just getting some funny pictures as you can see below. We had a fun time & got some classic Rachel & Mike type shots. Mike let me pick out 2 pumpkins, one BIG one and one small one. I carried the small one! 29lbs later we were on our way with our beautiful pumpkins.

Super Sonic

For years (or so it feels like) we have always seen commericals for 'Sonic' but there was never a sonic to be seen or heard of - until recently that is! A few months ago we noticed that a brand new Sonic has appeared on Route 46 near our house. But every time we drive by, wether early or late they are always packed. Cars are always spilling out onto Route 46 and at times there has even been a cop directing traffic. So when we had to go to Men's Warehouse, located right next door, we decided to walk on over and check it out - since driving in didn't seem like an option.

I was amazed by how many cars were waiting there to pull into a parking spot and be served their fast food by a server on rollerblades. I attempted to be a waitress at Applebees (that lasted for about a month - I was a horrible waitress) and that was on two feet. I cannot imagine skating around on rollerblades while delivering food and drinks in a busy parking lot. Needless to say I would not be very coordinated at doing so.

We ordered our Chicken Strip Dinner & Drink (for a mere $3.99) and some cheddar poppers on the order board (there's no inside to the restaurant) and sat outside and waited at a table for our food to be delivered to us by a server on rollerblades. All & all it was good food for the money considering it was still fast food. They had a little bit of a different variety than your traditional McDonalds or Burger King. But man did those shakes look good - but I don't think my wedding dress will fit if I had those all the time!

A Go What?

A Gobo. A Gobo ("GOes Before Optics") is a thin circular plate with holes cut in it to create patterns of projected light. Ie: Monograms and any other designs on a wedding dance floor for example (like the one in the picture to the right). One of the services that we can throw into our DJ package for a small fee is getting our own custom gobo.

Going back to incorporating the design that Mike's dad custom made for us - we could potentially use the two leaves with our initials and linked together in the heard as our custom gobo. Which I think would be really cool. Totally not something we need to do but it would be a cool custom extra feature to include!

Wedding Vendors

I have to say the most difficult part about planning a wedding so far has been finding the right vendors. The process has been quite time consuming if you don't know where to start looking. From looking at lists of vendors on the knots, to recommendations on the knot boards, compiling lists and then clicking through websites. For narrowing down the photographer vendor search I must have clicked on at least 150 photographer websites and then had a running lit in word with ratings scale and comments.

Then after you've made your list of who you want to meet with its on to the next hurdle of contacting them for more information, reviewing that and then scheduling appointments to meet with them. And finding time to meet with all these different vendors is no easy feat with my busy schedule. School two nights a week isn't helping any either. Of course from the meeting you can tell who you like and who you don't. After that it's down to decision time.

A few things have sparked writing this post.

1. A vendor that made me feel guilty about my decision
2. Vendors that stalk you!

I'm not going to get into my whole long story about the first item, I attempted to but I was all over the place.... Maybe some other time....

I'm also not a big fan of being 'stalked' by vendors. We've had two particular DJ companies that have left us MULTIPLE phone messages and emails. The one even got my name wrong and called me Renee. I appreciate that vendors are in sales and are trying to follow up on sales leads but please don't called me 8x and keep sending me personal emails, especially if I've responded that I got the info and I'll look it over. One or two follows up is enough, not 7 or 8!

Anyway, that's enough of my vendor search ranting. So I will say finding the right vendor is not easy but hopefully we've found the best for us so far and we've made educated decisions on our choices!

Bride to Bee Rita

The bee-utiful Bride to Bee Rita looked radiant at her Bridal Shower on Saturday, September 26th. The atmosphere was filled with sunshine, yellow daisy's and adorable bee decorations. As someone who dressed up as a bumblebee for Halloween and have screennames with lilbeegirl as it I certainly appreciated the design work! There was even a 'baby bumblebee in attendance.' A family member dressed up her one month old son in an adorable little bee costume - so precious. The food was delicious and the conversations great. Rita had a wonderful day and lots of fun. Before you know it, her wedding will be here - we're certainly looking forward to seeing her fiancee Paul in his kilt for the festivities!! Here's a picture of the bride-to-bee in her beeee-utiful homemade hat!