Willowdale - Drinks and Some Food (of course)

Nick and I knew, only a few short months into dating, that neither of us wanted a full sit down dinner at our wedding.  Instead, we wanted people to be up and moving around dancing and drinking the night away.  People were not going to starve - rather, we wanted a few stations and a bunch of passed hors d'oeuvres.

Sliders!

Knowing we would be having a full open bar I wanted to make sure people had plenty of yummy food that would set a good base for all the drinks to come.  During our cocktail hour we had 4 passed dishes ranging from twice baked potatoes to pecan crusted chicken tenders with a maple dipping sauce.  During the actual reception we had two passed dishes: a scallop wrapped in bacon and a lobster roll (I mean, we were in Massachusetts!)  In addition to the passed dishes we had a station of 4 different types of sliders, which should come as no surprise considering the slight obsession I have with burgers!  The sliders included straight hamburgers and cheeseburgers, as well as tuna and pulled pork sliders.   Finally, an hour after cake, the servers brought grilled cheese around as a nice little (almost) midnight snack!  All of the food was beyond delicious and I can say that from first-hand knowledge because I actually ate!  Willowdale was fantastic about bringing food directly to Nick and I throughout the evening.

Cootie Catcher Wedding Programs

There are a number of wedding details that you don't really think about at the start but slowly realize you need to have.  One of those is wedding programs.  I suppose you could not have them, but they give the guests a chance to learn who the attendants are, who the officiant is, what the songs or readings are and other fun detail.  However, these last minute details can get expensive (as we learned, all wedding paper products are!)  Once again, most of the photos are from our amazing photographer, Holly Redmond.

Cootie Cather Programs

We initially thought about more traditional programs, but during some of my many nights of wedding internet searching,  I stumbled upon these really fun cootie catcher programs - as in the same cootie catchers you would play with in elementary school.  Kat's Kraft's was just too much fun to pass up.  I estimated the price of these and realized that it would be significantly cheaper to do these than other types of programs.  When I initially contacted Kat, I gave her an outline of our program information, chose some colors and paper, and sent her the proof of our invitation for color and font styles.  In a few hours she came back with a price estimate and we were set.

Let Them Eat Cake! Wedding Cake that is ;)

When you book a wedding at Willowdale, a cake from Konditor Meister comes included.  Most people would be psyched by this, and their cakes look beautiful, but Nick and I are (sadly) not huge fans of their cake.  Having grown up on the North Shore, I am a BIG fan of Cakes for Occasions, a local cake shop in Danvers center.  Nick had never tasted Cakes for Occasions, but I promised him it was delicious and that their butter cream was one of the best!  So, when the tasting day came, I was almost nervous that I over-sold the cake, but after selecting about 10 pieces for us to try I knew I should not have been worried.  Each piece was just as delicious as I remembered.

Wedding Cake!

One of the things I would suggest registering for is a cake serving set - that is unless you already have one.  I got one at my bridal shower and was sure to bring it to use at the wedding.  It seemed fitting to use it for the first time at our own wedding.

Flowers for a wedding

Bride's Bouquet

With weddings, flowers are a major concern for some people.  For me, I obviously wanted flowers (nice ones at that) but I did not want to break the bank on them - I spent extra on the dress!  Having helped a few friends plan their wedding, I knew an important factor that went a long way was using a florist who is familiar with the venue.  So when I got the list from Willowdale, I started looking at the various websites to get a better feel for the florists while keeping in mind overall pricing.  My first appointment was with Fiddlehead in Salem, MA, followed by one other.  I brought my mom to both appointments because she is so much better at flowers than I am - and I needed another opinion!  Again, the photos are mostly from Holly Redmond.

Part of my flower dilemma was that I did not know what I really wanted.  I was going with eggplant purple as an accent color along with some moss green and chocolate brown, but that was about it.  To further complicate things, it was New Year's Eve - what flowers are "in season" then?!?  After going through a number of ideas and starting to figure out what what I did and did not want (more of the latter than the former), the appointments ended and my mom and I went on our merry ways and awaited the estimate.

The Dress and Accessories!

For me, one of the things I was most looking forward to with the wedding planning was dress shopping.  I love dresses - in general they are my go-to clothing choice.  So getting to choose a big fancy dress for my wedding seemed like so much fun.  However, it actually was more of a high pressure process than anything else!  It's a big decision to make, and an expensive one at that!  Note that all pictures are from my fantastic photographer, Holly Redmond.

The Dress!

After only two appointments at Priscilla of Boston and L'elite with a very small entourage (my mom and one friend) we made the big decision.  The extra push came a lot easier because Priscilla was having a 20% off sale that ended two days later, and I did not want to miss that.  Even more of a sign was the dress I bought was one that I had seen in Priscilla when I was in the store when another friend was trying on dresses over a year earlier!  I knew the straps would prevent me from hauling up the dress the entire night and a bit of comfort was going to be key.

Top Close Up

This was not a outdoor summer dress.  With its crystal and pearl beading on top and the heavy skirt on the bottom it was going to be perfect for a New Year's Eve wedding.  I knew the top of the dress was going to glitter perfectly in all the candle light at Willowdale, which allows open flame.

Shoes!

When it came to all the accessories I was not totally sure what I wanted.  To start, I knew for shoes I wanted something a bit over-the-top and fun.  I am a huge shoe fan, so I used my wedding as an excuse to buy some that were totally crazy.  When I found some purple glitter heels in Palm Beach I knew they were the ones.  Purple was the accent color for the wedding so it did fit in somewhere.  That, and unless I was pulling up my dress you could not even see my shoes.

Shoes and Veil

For headpieces I was at a loss - I knew I did not want a long veil (it just would not work indoors, and I could see myself getting hung up on corners), but I did not know what I wanted.  After loads of internet searching (Etsy if perfect for this!), I decided I would go with a small birdcage veil for the ceremony, and then get a bit crazy for the actual reception.  After trolling Etsy for what seemed like weeks, not wanting to press the submit button, I stumbled upon Michele Woodford from ifanhour who seemed to have the perfect veil for me - in ivory with small crystal accents (I needed to balance the sparkle!).  I will say, it took all four of my bridesmaids to put this veil on properly, but the end result worked out so well.  They wanted to make sure there was just a little coverage for my face to provide a hint of mystery.

Wedding Invitations - Wading Through the Masses

After Nick and I had finally sent out our Save the Dates, it was time to start cracking down on the actual wedding invitations.  We did not have a whole suite of invitations planned for our wedding.

The plan was to be a bit more fun with the Save the Dates and then keep it classy for the invitations.  While we wanted to evoke some of the magic forest feeling of Willowdale, it was tough!  For cost reasons we had no intention of doing letterpress invitations - digital printing was fine by us.  However, we still wanted the invitation to look expensive, even if it wasn't letterpress expensive.

We paged through numerous magazines and websites to try to get ideas, and popped into more than a few stores.  In trying to evoke the spirit of winter/New Year's Eve it is easy to get kitschy quickly, and finding the right balance was hard.  At first we thought we had found a couple options that would work, but after sleeping on it they just were not the right look.  Then when we had found a few a few options we liked the look of, we ordered samples and realized the quality was not cutting it.

Save the Dates - A Guest's First Taste of the Wedding

Once Nick and I had the venue and the date settled we had to start planning everything else.  While we were on the hunt for a photographer, band, florist and loads of other things, we were also trying to figure out what to do for the Save the Dates, which are traditionally sent out about 6 months before the date of the wedding.  Seeing as our wedding was a busy holiday weekend, we knew had to stick to that timeline.

Original Cards

Picking out Save the Dates was a lot of pressure in my opinion - its the first taste of the wedding you give your guests.  That, and the first major decision you make that guests see!  My friends have had some good save the dates: magnets, vintage postcards, riddles and the like.  Not wanting to copy them we tried to go a different route.  Then we felt like we were walking into into a kitschy trap.

So after coming up with a few ideas, Nick and I decided to take a trip down Charles Street to Rugg Road to see what, if any, ideas they had to offer.  While looking around we happened upon some really fun Boston themed notecards.  When we asked the store clerks if they made these note-cards into postcards, they said the best thing to do would be to contact the company - they were local and great to work with.

Wedding Planning - Where to start?!?

When Nick and I got engaged it was so exciting and so much fun!  After a few weeks (maybe even days) people are done congratulating you and start asking about the wedding particulars.  It can all be a little overwhelming to say the least - I mean, I was just happy to be engaged at that point.  So after about 2 weeks of engaged bliss Nick and I decided to work on a date so that we could give people some answers.  For better or worse, I actually did not have much of a clue as to what I wanted for my own wedding.  There were certain things I knew I did not want (such as sit down dinner), and I had already vicariously planned a couple of weddings when I was helping close friends with theirs, but when it came to my own I was at a bit of a loss.

Willowdale Estate

We figured we could be pretty flexible, and a wedding date (and most everything else) was going to be venue dependent, and a part of us (me) really thought about doing a destination wedding.  However, when push came to shove, the thought of planning a wedding long distance did not sit well.  Further complicating issues was that neither of us wanted to have our reception at a hotel: Nick plans a lot of events for work at hotels, and he didn't want the wedding to feel like another conference.  In Boston, finding a location that is not a hotel, that holds enough people and is a reasonable price is somewhat difficult.  So, as a first step, we decided to do the "tour de North Shore" (where both Nick and I are from) to see if we could find something we liked that was within the budget and work from there.

Officially a Mrs.!

Its been quite some time since I have posted because I have been busy - you know, getting married and enjoying a lovely honeymoon in the Maldives and Dubai.  Needless to say, I have tons of posts on all sorts of wedding fun as well as the honeymoon.  Both flew by and I am so not ready to head back to work today.

Here are a few teaser photos.  More to come....

Almost ready to walk down the aisle

First photo as an officially married couple!

The view from our hotel villa in the Maldives (it was amazing!)

Neighboring Palapa

And one of many sunset photos...

Sunset

I can not wait to give full recaps on everything, but somehow I need to get back to life in the real world - right now that is VERY tough!

Wedding and Honeymoon Time!

Well, its hard to believe that the time has officially come, but yes, it is almost New Year's Eve, which also means it's time for me to become a wife!  Yes, Nick and I are getting married this weekend!

Engagement Photos!

Needless to say today is a bit busy, wrapping up months of planning and doing and final prep for the wedding!  Honestly, the past 10 months have flown by.

Boston Common by Moonlight

This weekend we are ready to enjoy spending time with our families and best friends and dance the night away.  Lucky for us, we will have plenty of time to rest up in the Maldives and Dubai (sorry to those who have to head back to work!).

Needless to say, I will be taking a bit of a blogging break - maybe, depending on how good the pictures are, I will post a few shots of our ocean views.  Upon my return, I will have plenty of wedding photos, but also share with you some of the things I learned along the wedding planning way.  That and some of the terrific vendors I worked with.  The engagement photos above are courtesy of Holly Redmond - I can't wait to see what she does at the wedding!

I wish everyone a fun and safe New Year!!  Next time I write I will be a Mrs. - CRAZY!

Sonsie - a Back Bay Go-To

Two weekends ago my brother and his girlfriend came to town - her first time in Boston.  Needless to say we were under some pressure to show her a good time and what an amazing city Boston is!  After a delicious late dinner at Tico, we woke up the next morning ready to explore.  First up: a Duck Tour starting and returning at the Pru.  When the tour wrapped up, we were ready for some food!

Being in the Back Bay, there are so many good places to go.  We decided on Sonsie for a number of reasons - first and foremost, great food, but also this is the restaurant where Nick and I are having our rehearsal dinner.  Nick still hadn't seen the space so we figured better late than never!  Lucky for us, the four of us walked right in and were seated in the cafe area up front.

After getting a lovely tour of the downstairs private wine room, we were ready to eat.  My brother was so ready that he ordered some calamari before we even had time to really look at the drink menu!

Calamari

The calamari is flash fried with zucchini strings, lemon aioli and fried parsley.  It was the perfect, tasty, crunchy food to satisfy us!

BIG NEWS!!!

So, I cannot hold it in any longer. We tried to tell as many people as possible before they would find out through social media channels, but honestly, we've waited long enough!!

On Saturday night last weekend, Nick and I got engaged!!!!  It was a total surprise for me, and I loved every moment of it.  We were hanging out at home for the night and I was trying to finish up some cupcakes for a St. Patrick's Day party the next day. 

I am completely obsessed with my ring so I must share it with everyone!

The Ring!