Sh*t Brides Say

I know I am late to the party but I just had to share!

How's that for a Bride Brain?

Enjoy!

Micah

Visiting the Venue

Last weekend, I traveled down to my home-state, not only for a visit with the venue and a meeting with our site coordinator, but I met with my FMIL and FSIL for breakfast and to check out the hotels and B&Bs our guests would be staying at. Guys, what a fun day it turned out to be!

Firstly, early I met with Kate our site coordinator. We did a walk through of the venue with Patrick's mother. Whenever I walk through the Towers, I am again floored with the elegance and beauty of them.

Here's what my view will be like before walking down the aisle!
(plus our decorations and flowers, chairs, guests, Patrick, and the wedding party)

See the GORG lights? So romantic!

The location of the marriage ceremony!
Before a balcony and the Atlantic Ocean!

This is what it will be like for Patrick and I during the ceremony!
(plus our decorations, guests, etc, etc)

This is where the Cocktail Hour (weather permitting) will be!
Complete with bubbling fountain and rose bushes in bloom.

 Now, I don't want to overwhelm the Towers with so many decorations and flowers. I mean, it kind of stands on it's own. So, I am creating minimal DIY decorations some of which I have revealed, some are yet to be posted.

We also walked around the "Bridal Suite" which is just downstairs. I'm sure that's where me and the 'maids will be putting on our final touches/I'll officially be putting my dress on!

My head is swimming with the thoughts of fun bridal portraits and pics of the girls in this room!!!

Next, we checked out hotels. Man oh man, are the hotels lovely! I didn't take any pictures (naughty blogger!) of those, but they are beautiful! The one I hope most OOT guests will stay in is the Village Inn. Some family are already booked in there. It's about a five minute walk to the Towers. That's right. WALK. Parking issue (there's only roadside parking) SOLVED...kinda.

Anyway, that day somehow resolved into us stumbling into a Cupcake bake-off competition of sorts called...

Omigod. This is happening, like, the one day I've come
down in awhile for wedding stuff?!?!?!

Our cupcake baker was there, and she WON! She was in the top six cupcake bakeries in RI, not only that but she was at the top of the LIST! Woot! So, not only did we have a lovely day strolling our venue, but we got to sample and even take home some cupcakes from our cupcake vendor! What's that you say? Wait a minute, did I still not tell you who our beloved Vendor of the Cupcakes are? Well, that's for tomorrow's post!

See you then!!!

Best,

Micah

Premarital Counseling!

As you know, we'll be married by an Episcopalian minister and therefore will have an Episcopalian wedding ceremony. In order to be married in the Christian church, you must complete four sessions of premarital counseling (which sounds very serious and a little intimidating). But our pastor, Rev. Steve, is such a wonderful man and he made it very easy so it became a fun experience going to our sessions.

The purpose of these sessions is not only for the pastor to determine if our marriage is a good idea, but for him to get to know us. He'll be present at one if not the greatest moment of our shared lives and it's important for him to find out how we came together from our separate backgrounds.

First, Patrick talked about his upbringing: his parents, his pathway through music, past relationships, and finally meeting me. I did the same. We talked about our financial goals and dreams, as well as other practical things you may not necessarily think about when caught up in the romantic dream that is wedding planning! We each got to talk about where we expect to live, how many kids we'd like, practical stuff. I am very grateful for this because there were many things (all great to talk about, of course) that I neglected to think about but that are equally important as the wedding itself. It was all about our life together before and what it will be like after the wedding. Fascinating really.

For our last session, last week we started hammering out our Ceremony: what readings, which songs, and what the actual marriage will look like. This gave a whole new reality to our day and excitement and nerves came right along with it! We still need to set it all, but after that session, we basically had our ceremony written out!

I'll save the order of the ceremony for my recaps, so you'll have to wait until after the wedding; BUT! there will be Shakespeare, a reading from Scripture and Pablo Neruda poetry! We wanted it to be *us* as well as something sacred. I think with Rev. Steve's help, we are able to achieve that.

We officially are "ready" for the marriage ceremony! Gotta research that license!

What about you guys? What's your prep for the acutal marriage?

Best,

Micah

"You're Never Too Old..."

Just reading one of my blogger friend's posts about a 100 year old bride. Annnnnd crying at my desk at work, again. All this wedding and love stuff has me more emotional than a Lifetime movie. Just thought I'd share this with you all --- true love is attainable at any age. Enjoy, and try not to get a little tearful!

Beautiful. Romantic. Touching. What a wonderful, sentimental Friday wedding tidbit.

Thanks, "Saying I do!" for sharing!

-Micah

106 Days!

Hello everyone! I am going to apologize again for being a delinquint blogger. I've been quite busy with a new theatre company putting up our first show! (Where have you heard that before? ;-) ).

Unlike before when I would become a delinquint blogger, Patrick and I have actually kicked our wedding butts in gear and accomplished a lot! Realizing that there's only 106 days left, we kind of had to! (Also, now whenever I talk about the wedding date with someone, they'll invariable say "Oh. That's coming up." I'm like "I KNOW! No PRESSURE!!!!")

Here's some of the projects/tasks we've gotten done of late:

• Booked a DJ
• Booked a Florist
• Found a string quartet for the ceremony
• Almost completed our premarital counciling sessions with our officiant!
• Decided which tuxes Patrick and the boys will wear
• I completed one of two pomanders for the flower girls (later post)
• Ordered proofs of our invites (being shipped now!!!)
• Booked honeymoon accomodations (another post)!
• Begun work on our table numbers (I know early, but I am obsessed!)
• Had my first dress fitting and scheduled another (with a hair trial before it! EEE!)
• Found a dress for one flower girl (need to find one more, and a junior bridesmaid dress)
• 5 out of 7 bridesmaids ordered their dresses!
• Decided on our cupcake baker and flavors (definitely another post)

And that's not even it! Of course there are a TON of things that I feel behind on (ordering the tuxes, working on the invites, preparing passports and booking flights for the honeymoon) but I need to breathe and enjoy this time! Too many times lately, have I run in with stress bouts from wedding planning. We have a little over three months left (eep!), and we are doing pretty well. I will endeavor to enjoy the rest of our time as an engaged couple!

But...I still am a huge Bride Brain right now!

I'll be better about posting soon --- the play's the thing (that keeps me from posting!).

Micah

Randy from TLC's "Say Yes to the Dress" is Coming to Boston!

Yep, that's right! Randy's coming to Beantown! And I thought I'd let you all know! 

Image via Style and Strut

Randy from TLC's hit show "Say Yes to the Dress" will be coming to Boston. He'll be in town for his "Randy to the Rescue" Bridal event on April 1, 2012! He'll be at Sheraton Boston Hotel at 39 Dalton Street, Boston, MA 02199 from 11am to 7pm with designer gowns and you may even be able to get personal assistance in wedding dress shopping from him! Gah! 

Ladies, if you haven't got a dress and want to have some fun on a Sunday, I say go for it! Go here for more information! Go forth, and find thine wedding dress! :)

-Micah

Storymix Wedding Video Contest

Hey Friends!

Have you booked your videographer yet? If not, I want to let all you vloggers know about a contest to win a free Storymix video package with custom video editing! Storymix Media is working to enable brides and grooms to capture their most precious memories for an affordable price. Being a budgeted bride myself, we actually had decided to opt out of videography to save the money, but I am definitely entering this contest.

Here's how it works: The contest is to determine three eager Bride Vloggers (video-bloggers) that will post each month on their planning process to the Storymix blog. Those three brides will win the custom package videography for their wedding!

To enter, you must upload a video to the Storymix Facebook page and discuss why you'd like to be a Storymix "Vlogger (video-blogger) Bride" and mention @Storymix in your post.. Each video you upload automatically enters you into the contest, and each Facebook comment and vote you can get on your video is an additional entry. The more comments and votes you get, the higher your chances of winning --- so tell your friends! Have your groom comment!

The Storymix Vlogger Bride contest runs from today (March 19th) to the 25th so get your vlog posts up there! There is a grand prize for the best video and randomly drawn second and third prizes. This contest was brought to me by my friend and fellow blogger Laura, check out her blog here!

Happy vlogging!

Micah

So, Summer Weddings, Eh?

Yeah, we're getting married in the summer. And it's July so it will most likely be pretty hot. And although we've got the benefit of a delicious beachy breeze coming in through the windows (hopefully if it's not raining and storming), we will not have air conditioning. I know. Scandalous.

Last year on the day that will be our wedding day this year, the temperature according to Wunderground.com, was lowest 74 degrees and highest 86 degrees. Not bad, but if it's sunny --- it could be intense, especially for a girl in a long white dress. Well, our solution includes hoping for that oceanic breeze and providing fans. Not fans like these, ohhhh no...

Image via Yourdictionary.com

...But elegant, fans like they used in the good old days! After seeing gorgeous inspirational pictures online, and constantly walking by the intricate fans in the Wedding section in Michael's, I finally decided to go for it and grab them! We didn't get enough for every single guest, because not everyone will want to use them, still --- we thought it would be lovely to offer them. My FMIL tied a royal blue ribbon (matching the one on our Cardbox) to each one and we placed them in a basket and ta-dah! 

All done up and basket-ed and ready to go!

What do you think? How's that for a lovely semi-DIY solution to no air conditioning? We also have a sweet treat for guests (but that's a secret until another post!) to keep them cool. Summer brides, if you have no air conditioning in your venue, how do you plan on keeping it cool for your guests? 

Best,

Micah

With this Wreath...

Even though we are having a semi-Episcopalian ceremony and our officiant is an Episcopalian priest, as you know we are not getting married in a church. Which means, no altar. Our venue is set up kind of like a dog bone if you are looking at a cross section of it from above. There are two tower turrets connected by a long bridge way with windows. One turret has a stair case up to the main event room, while the other (closest to the ocean I might add) has a small balcony with large french doors leading out to it. That my friends, is the spot we are getting hitched.

My dilema was: how do we make that spot visibly special? With no altar, no chuppah and definitely no archway, what's to do? I looked at a bunch of inspirational pictures, but nothing really wow-ed me until I saw this:

Image via Style Me Pretty

Even though that quote is not from Shakespeare, it was a Shakespeare-themed rehearsal dinner. And the books are hanging from an archway! As you know, I am a Shakespeare-nerd, and we are already incorporating Shakespeare table numbers, and a sung sonnet (you'll hear more of both very soon) as well as other small Shakespearean-flourishes into the wedding. While I'd like to replicate that gorgeous picture, I am not sure I can (I may attempt to). But in the meantime, I have created something smaller, and something that I think really fits with our wedding style that is slowly but surely, coming together.

Behold! The Wedding Wreath!

It was such a quick project, and I think it came out really nice. So, I went to Christmas Tree Shops and found a wreath covered with GIANT pink roses and tons of greens (Sorry, no before picture -- bad blogger!). I had wanted the woven branch look, and for $3.99, I didn't mind hacking off the faux blooms. 

Check out the floral carnage!

Next, I took this pretty lace ribbon I bought months ago, and had been dying to use, and wrapped it around the wreath. I secured the ribbon with small dots of hot glue as I went. And made sure that the ends of the ribbons met cleanly on what would be the wall-facing side.

Here's my favorite part: I cut out small bits of pages from my extra copy (yes, I have extra copies) of Romeo and Juliet. Specifically, the famous balcony scene. And then stamped the last line of our sonnet with my blue alphabet stamps. I played with different arrangements, but this just seemed right.

I thought I was done, but there was something still missing. I remembered I had three white peacock feathers left from when I made my hair flower, and used them as extra flourishes on the wreath. Here's how it turned out!

I'm thinking of hanging it about the doorways out to the balcony, or on the doors themselves or maybe I can use fishing line to hang it above us. All in all, I think I found a beautiful solution to my decor issue!

Want to find out what else I'm thinking for the ceremony? Stay tuned!

Best,

Micah

How do you handle wedding stress?

We all get stressed, concerned, and anxious at times, especially with the pressure of planning a wedding. Today, in Lazy Sunday Land, I was reading an article on the Huffpost Weddings and thought it had some beautiful things to think about when brides or grooms feel overwhelmed about their weddings. Here's what Shannon Kellogg has to say about her ways of dealing with wedding-planning stress:

"1. Outward appearances are not a 1:1 correlation with happiness. You don't need to be a psychologist to know that people who appear outwardly "perfect" are probably not. It's just not possible to be perfect. And it would be rather boring if you were. While reality shows and magazines might feature fabulous weddings, a perfect wedding does not necessarily a happy marriage make.

2. I am so lucky to be marrying my fiancé. Whenever I would become stressed or overwhelmed with wedding planning, I would think about my single days before I met my future husband. I remembered how much I had hoped that someday I would find the person whom I was meant to be with. And here it was -- I had it! Thinking about how lucky I was to be with this man made the current stressors feel trivial. I'd go through it all again, so long as I have him at the end.

3. I just want my wedding to be loving and fun. I reminded myself about the actual goal of the wedding: to celebrate being head-over-heels in love, to join our families, and to have a great party together. Period.

4. My wedding is not tied to my self-esteem. My feelings of self-worth don't come from having the wedding of the century. My feelings of confidence come from within. The things that define me -- my love for my family, my passion for work, my quirky personality -- none of those are impacted by how my centerpiece looks or which photographer I choose. My wedding is a part of my life, but it is not all of me.

5. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Once I took the pressure off of myself to have a wedding that represents everything that we are as a couple, I was free to have fun. I realized that I wanted to enjoy planning the wedding while it lasted. I then had such a good time picking out a dress that I loved. I had fun talking to people about the wedding plans. I fell in love with the venue. I picked songs and flowers that I liked. And best of all, I felt the joy of being engaged."

-Shannon Kellogg, psychologist.

Here's the rest of the article! Lovely gem of advice for a musing bride on a Sunday afternoon.

Best,

Micah