City Living

Last Sunday night Mike and I journeyed into Manhattan to meet up with my parents and my brother and his girlfriend. We were meeting up to celebrate my Mom's birthday and she absolutely loves when we can all get together (she and I both also happen to enjoy going into the city together). My parents went to go see Wicked first (which is my and my Mom's favorite show, but I'll forgive her for going to see it without me).

We met at my little brother's new apartment. I'm so proud of him. This kid is living the life! He's been living in Manhattan for just over a year now and just moved to this great building with some friends of his. Their apartment is really nice, in this brand new building right on the Hudson River. It was fun visiting him at his place. After we got the full tour we headed off to a delicious dinner at PJ Clarke's in Lincoln Square. Where I had an incredible Reuben sandwich and even Mom's fish and chips were fantastic. Of course we were in great company for the night and I think my Mom really enjoyed her birthday with all her favorite people.

No Sweet Sounds

Yes I know another idea for the wedding that costs more money, which is why Mike probably turned down my idea right away. I was reading a recent review of a wedding at The Manor and the bride was describing how they had a harpist playing during the cocktail hour and I just thought it sounded so elegant! Mike did not express the same enthusiasm that I did for this idea. So much for that one....

Pictures of The Manor

I love looking at pictures of The Manor. I absolutely cannot wait to get married here. I think back to when we were looking at wedding venues and when we first started looking I don't think I ever would have pictured us having our reception here, but I remember the first time we went there as soon as we pulled up I just got this feeling, I can't describe it but I remember thinking we when we left, 'this is the place we're getting married.' Anyway here's some recent pictures I have seen on some photographers blogs. Can't wait to get my own pictures here!

  

 

I'm in Love

No not with Mike (well him too).... with a puppy! When we were in the city last night I saw the most adorable four legged friend, a shih poo puppy and boy am I in love!! As many people know I would LOVE to get a dog but it wouldn't be fair to the dog right now. I know I'm just too busy to be able to take care of a dog. With work and school and commuting so far everywhere it would hard to be able to get home in time to commit to a dog but I am looking forward to when I can.

I've been looking up dog breeds off and on for a while now (mostly when I'm bored and procrastinating doing my homework and not looking up wedding stuff) and this is definitely the dog breed for me. I want one that is a like a sandy/white color or a black and white color or just the sandy color. Ok I'll take any of them! (Well maybe not all black). They are all so cute!!!

• Origin: The Shihpoo is a hybrid mix of a Shih-tzu and either a Toy or Miniature Poodle.
• Size: Height: 8 to 14 inches; Weight: 8-15 pounds
• Coat: The Shihpoo's coat is wavy, normally curlier than the Shih-tzu but not as curly as the Poodle. The coat is little-to-no shedding.
• Character: The Shihpoo is very loving and playful and they get along with other pets.
• Temperament: Shihpoos are a little louder than the Shih-tzu. They are more active and athletic. They seem to take the best from both breeds. They are not considered 'yappers'. 
• Training: Due to their intelligence, this breed is fairly easy to train. 
• Activity: Shihpoos do not require a lot of exercise. They get sufficent exercise just by playing with their owners. They enjoy walks and/or backyard play.

I hope when I graduate we can get one and it will fit into our lifestyle. I thought maybe I would wait till we moved to our next house and we had a backyard but I think I might reconsider that once I graduate from school. I think  it would grow on Mike too. I know he's not big on the idea, but I did get him to somewhat agree that "sure" we can get a dog in the future, probably because he knows I won't stop asking for one until we do. Maybe Mike will get me one for my graduation present, haha!

Bridesmaids Dresses

Ahead of schedule the girls dresses came in. Since almost all of our girls live out of state we went to go pick up the dresses so I could deliver the dresses to them. I was so excited to see them in person. I already knew the chocolate brown color we'd be getting but it was great to be able to see the sash color with it as well and it was def the perfect fall shade I was going for. The sash isn't too long in the back either it's a great length and won't get in the girls way. When I had originally ordered the dresses I had some concern, did I pick the right one, or should we have gone for the more expensive dress with more going-on-on-top, but after seeing the final product all my doubts are gone and I think these will be perfect for them. They're very simple but will def get the job done, and I think the girls are pretty happy with them as well. Now I can't wait to see them all together wearing the dresses which will be on our wedding day in less than 3 months!!!

Guest Book Update

For whatever reason I don't feel like making the 'traditional' guest sign in book with our engagement pictures in like a shutterfly album. I'd like to do something 'different.' I've seen some unique ideas and so far the idea I think I like the best is a "wish vase." In the example I found it says "instead of signing a guest book, friends and family are invited to write their good wishes for the couple on cards drawn from woven-pandan boxes. The notes were then placed in a large seashell-filled vase tied with a vintage silver ribbon." I thought instead of having the seashell filled vase I could so something fall related and then after the wedding I could take the cards and put them into a scrapbook or just a keepsake box. At one point I was even thinking instead of a vase I could use a funkin (fake pumpkin) and the cards could just be dropped into that, but it might not be intuitive, unless I carved something on it that said like "wish pumpkin," a vase sounds easier to do! 


I thought the wish cards themselves would be pretty easy to design (I'm sure Mike's dad could help me again) and I can print out business card sized cards on vistaprint for really cheap. I'd love to mount them on brown paper after but that may be overly ambitious. Here's some samples of cards I saw I thought I could replicate. 

 

To Garter or Not to Garter

Tossing the wedding garter is one of the oldest surviving wedding traditions today. "The garter tradition originated back to the 14th century. In parts of Europe the guests of the bride and groom believed having a piece of the bride’s clothing was thought to bring good luck. They would actually destroy the brides dress by ripping off pieces of fabric. Obviously, this tradition did not sit well with the bride, so she began throwing various items to the guests – the garter being one of them. It became customary for the bride to toss the garter to the men. But this also caused a great problem for the bride….sometimes the men would get drunk, become impatient and try to remove the garter ahead of time. Therefore, the custom derived at having the groom remove and toss the garter to the men. With this change, the bride began to toss the bridal boutique to the unwed girls who were eligible for marriage."


I'm a little torn on this one because we were not planning to do the garter toss or the bouquet toss at the wedding. After being invited to (I think) 12 weddings over the past 2 years or so it's safe to say that most of our close friends are married now and doesn't leave many single friends left to catch either pieces. One article suggests that "one way of "saving the tradition," but sensitizing it, is to have all the female guests, not just the unmarried ones, participate in the bouquet toss," which isn't a terrible idea. 


Regardless if we do the garter toss or not I was still contemplating purchasing a garter more for sentimental reasons though. I don't know if this is stupid, but I was thinking if I should ever have a daughter that on her wedding day I would want to give her something old, I know obviously she would not wear my dress or anything like that and I don't have any fancy jewelry (yet) but I thought it might be sentimental if I had a garter from our wedding that I could pass down, it would be something I wore on my wedding day. Of course I don't know how one would even age, or if I would even be lucky enough to have a daughter one day but still something that popped into my head as I thought more about our wedding. 

I Do Shoes!

Ok so again totally not something I need but for $5 how could I not? I saw these and thought they would be so cute to have for the wedding. Just a fun small detail. They are blue rhinestone shoe applique that you can stick on the bottom of your shoes. I do already have my blue picked out (my underwear that say something blue) but I thought these would be really cute and a fun accessory. I think I'm going to order them.

 

Groomsmen Gifts

Since I feel pretty confident that the guys are in our bridal party are not exactly sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for my next blog post and I'm pretty sure that none of them are reading this I shall share the first part of their gift since I really liked it! Could be partly because I suggested it to Mike :-)

We purchased five sets of NY Yankees  pinstripe cufflinks and one pair of NJ Devils from Cufflinks.Com. My brother is the odd ball out in the group that doesn't like the Yankees so we got him the devils ones instead. And we ordered a pair for Mike too! They came in the mail this week and we were both really impressed, they also came in these cute little boxes too. I think/hope that all of the guys will like them as much as we did in picking them out for them. I'm excited for when Mike gives them out. Now we just have to figure out what else we are getting them.

Summer 2010 Update

I feel like it's been a while since I've had a chance to sit down and work on my blog. For the past 8 weeks my life has been consumed by work and summer school, leaving little time for other fun activities (including wedding stuff and the gym). But I'm happy to say that I survived another class and the 8 weeks flew by. I spent the past month and half taking statistics class twice a week at night. But it wasn't too painful and now I'm done and don't have to go back to school until January. I am definitely looking forward to enjoying some time off.

We've only done a few small things for the wedding lately. One of them being meeting with our Priest, Father Andrzej, we had a really nice time visiting with him. While we went over some details for the ceremony, and chatted with him for a bit he also showed us all of the technology he had, including his iPhone and iPad, it was pretty funny how into it he was. Now we have to pick out all the prayers and readings we want done during the ceremony.

I can't believe we have less than 3 months to go till the wedding. Crazy to think that it's only 90 days away and will be here before we know it now. Everyone keeps asking what we have left to do, while Mike keeps saying "oh nothing" I know we still have some things to sort out (besides now forking over all the cash to our vendors). Most of the items are small things that we can't do until this point or later anyway, but here's what I think we have left to do:

1. Sign up and take Dance lessons 
2. Figure out remaining stationary items (escort cards, ceremony programs, table numbers, favor labels etc)
3. Make out of town guest bags for guests staying at the hotel 
4. Purchase wedding favors (I think we're doing jars of apple butter) 
5. Purchase remaining gifts for bridal party 
6. Pick out the guys tuxes 
7. Make/purchase guest book for reception 

And then the standard meetings with the vendors to finalize everything. send out invitations and create seating chart and other things like that. Unless I'm forgetting something I really can't think of anything else we need to do and I'm sure we'll get everything done so I'm not too worried about it. 

Summer Reading

I'm already trying to compile my list of books that I want to read on my honeymoon. I love a good book. I always have, and I feel pretty confident in saying I always will. I do the majority of my reading in the summer time. There is nothing better than sitting by the pool with a good book. I can remember riding my bike all the time to the Franklin Square library as a kid during the summer time to check out the latest Babysitters Club book or maybe even Sweet Valley High on occasion. This weekend while on the Cape I did manage to squeeze in an entire book, a very quick read, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, a memoir of her childhood. It was the type of story where you couldn't believe the struggle that she went through growing up. I can't decide what I want to read next. I would like to pick up a copy of "Eat, Pray, Love" to read. And I already have a copy of "Sarah's Key" and "The Help" which I think I'll give one of them a shot next. There's just too many good books and not enough time to get through them all. I hope I get some other good books on my list to read!

Chillin on the Cape

Mike and I took a mini vacation and extended weekend trip to Cape Cod this weekend. Our good friends Anna and Dennis were kind enough to invite us up and crash at their Cape rental house for a couple of days. It was the perfect weekend trip away from all the day to day stress of work and the millions of things it feels like we always have going on (well mostly work)....

We left ridiculously early on Thursday morning so we could make the most of our few days up there. When we arrived we immediately walked the two blocks over to the beach. It was a beautiful day soaking up the sun with a slight breeze blowing. When we'd soaked up enough rays we headed off to a real authentic New England lunch at "Original Seafood Restaurant" what is sure to be a local favorite. I had some of the best fish and chips (second probably only to the meals we had in London). It was absolutely delicious, of course could have been all the grease, but boy was it worth it. After that it was onto mini golf, we're I'm proud to say I beat Mike! A first (and maybe only) for me.

We hit up some other Cape Cod sights and more food. We checked out Hyannis and a few other cute Cape towns and even attempted to go to a baseball game, until it rained a bit on us. We had so much fun on our little weekend getaway, I'm so happy that Anna and Dennis invited us up to share it with them!