Prom to Altar

Recap: Ding, ding, ding went the trolley!

2008-11-18T04:29:29Z

Ok, so the trolley as a mode of wedding transportation is a bit trendy right now. I thought the idea was charming, but originally assumed it was out of our budget. And then I priced limos large enough to hold 12 people (the two of us plus our wedding party). The prices were high, and SUV limos that were very much not our style were often the only option.

So we looked into the trolley. It turned out to be very economical-- half of what a limo (or two) would be, and the local trolley company had a great reputation.

What I didn't realize was how fun the trolley would be. The 25-minute ride from the ceremony to the reception was our time to hang out with our wedding party (our best friends) with out anything else to do. My maid of honor/sister stocked the trolley with snacks and beverages, we toasted, and the cars around us (to whom we were easily visible since the trolley had open sides) celebrated with honking and cheering. The ride was a blast.

The next few photos are by our friend and groomsman Rich:

And a few more from the pros, Paul and Brenda of Upstate Photographers:

(on the left there above is Rich, taker of that first bunch of lovely photographs.)

We hired the Albany Trolley via the Albany Aqua Ducks. The price, the service, and the trolley were all great.

America, beautiful

2008-11-06T04:06:19Z

"That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow." -President-elect Barack Obama, November 4, 2008

Love is love

2008-11-03T14:16:51Z

I don't live in California, but I will be watching this ballot issue closely. I am lucky enough to live in a state in which gay marriage is legal. I work with many people who are married to same sex partners, and I assure you, their marriages are not a threat to mine. In fact, their marriages are an inspiration to me-- commitment to love in the face of discrimination and fear is admirable.

I have many dear friends for whom marriage is not legal in the states in which they live. Everyone should have the opportunity to experience the joy that we experienced on our wedding day. Everyone should be able to publicly celebrate their love and commitment with their family and friends if they choose. There's no reason that Patrick and I should benefit from our legal commitment while others, equally in love and committed for life, should be excluded from those benefits. It just doesn't make sense.

I live in a very accepting area of a very accepting state. Around here, it is the norm to see and interact with and know couples of all backgrounds and all varieties. Love is love. No one else's love is a threat to mine, or something to be afraid of. Love is love, people are people.

If you are in California, vote no on prop 8. To borrow from Meg, "Stand up for human rights, for equal rights, and stand up for all that is good and pure and true about marriage."

Love is love.

Image by Darryl Bush, AP Photo

Photo-a-day... trying again

2008-10-31T19:21:04Z

Last winter/spring, I managed to keep up a "photo-a-day" project for 51 days, starting on my 27th birthday (not 51 days consecutively, but close). I really liked this project-- it fell apart when life got hectic, which is really no excuse.

I'm going to resume the project tomorrow, Nov. 1. My trusty little Canon Powershot has been upstaged by our shiny new Nikon D80 and has been nearly forgotten, but it's really so easy to carry around and always have on hand.

This entry also brings up the question of whether or not I'm going to move on over to a non-wedding obsessed blog. I think the answer is yes. I've lately been feeling a desperate need to re-connect with a bit of creativity. I'm thinking about a blog focused on that goal. I still have to think about it, but I'll let you know.

A couple of my favorite photo-a-day captures from the last project:

February 26, 2008

March 23, 2008

April 12, 2008

Musical interlude

2008-10-30T19:46:22Z

It happens very rarely, but I do love it when our first dance song comes on the radio in the middle of the work day. It's a nice four minute mental vacation (yes, the song is long-- we were worried about how long it was and we considered having the DJ fade it out half way through, but decided to leave it as it was. No one complained about it, at least not to us).

The little things, part 3: Centerpieces, favors, more

2008-10-29T16:25:02Z

The last of the little details and the last post about "stuff": our centerpieces, favors, and a few other bits from around the reception.

Our centerpieces were one of my favorite details, and one of the best budget finds. Someone who had used them in her wedding a year earlier was selling them on Craigslist, and we bought 15 of these trees from her for $15 each. We had 17 tables, so I bought two more similar centerpieces off Ebay for under $5 a piece. We sold 12 centerpieces the day after the wedding (we kept one and each set of parents kept one).

(The venue was supposed to put tealights on the mirrors around the trees--
somehow this detail fell through the cracks. Oh well.)

Our wedding was the third wedding these centerpieces were used at, they'll be used at another wedding next fall, and probably more after that. It's the ultimate in reusing!

We had big plans for our table numbers when we started planning-- we were going to use photos of places that were important to us and name the tables after those significant places in our relationship. We were going to make escort cards using photos that matched the table names... yeah, nice idea, didn't happen. This is one of those projects that kept getting pushed back until the very last minute, and we ended up going simple. We used the swirl design from our invitations (I still haven't shared those here, eh?) and put each number in a different gold-toned frame. Not as cutesy as we'd originally planned, but they did the job.

Our "Head Table" was a family table consisting of us, our parents, Pat's grandmother, and our siblings.
Our wedding party sat with their guests and our friends at tables on either side of us.

Our favors were photo coasters. We've been using coasters like these on our own coffee table since we moved in together. The favor tags are Moo cards that we had made from our favorite engagement photos, with our names and wedding date on the back. We found these coasters at Christmas Tree Shops-- cheaper and better quality than the specific "wedding favor" coasters on The Knot Shop and the like.

The photo inside was one of the four "photo booth" photos that we used on our save the date postcards. The overall design was a reference to our save the dates.

My Italian mom wouldn't let me get away with not having jordan almonds (although I can't say I like them). These were entirely her project, and they came out very cute. The back of the tag explained the tradition of the five almonds.

We framed some of our engagement photos and put them around the reception room. Yeah, we used these photos in a few places, but that's the thing with engagement photos-- you end up with a whole bunch of great photos of the two of you and you really only have use for a couple. We figured we may as well display a handful of them while we could, because we certainly aren't going to plaster the walls of our apartment with pictures of us.
We also put out the book we made of our engagement photos. I don't know if anyone noticed it or looked at it, but it was there. The flower arrangement is the same one from the memorial area at the church- we reused both church arrangements at the reception. That card box was the emergency back up when the cage we were going to use didn't work out. Wouldn't be my top pick, but no one seemed to judge us for it.

Alright, so I think that covers most of the "stuff". Next up I'll show you some more photos of the reception and tell you about some of my favorite moments.

On this wet, gray, and cold late October day, it's been nice to relive the wedding a little!

---
Photos in this post by Upstate Photographers and Michele.

Welcome!

2008-10-28T14:49:23Z

Here we are trying to figure out how to cut that infamous cake without causing a confectionery disaster...

If you've found your way here via A Practical Wedding, welcome! The design of this blog is lacking, but you can read more about our wedding (and see the photos) by following these links:

Professional photos of our wedding day, as well as our engagement photos, are here.
Our photographers blogged our wedding here.
Photos from our wonderful guests are here and here.

I've slowly begun to recap our wedding day-- if you're interested in that, you can see those posts by following these links:

Thanks for coming by!

Guest post on A Practical Wedding!

2008-10-28T12:32:15Z

I was so excited to be asked by Meg at A Practical Wedding to write a "Wedding Graduate" guest post. It's up today-- check it out. I think I could have saved myself a few headaches had Meg been on the scene earlier in our wedding planning! Her blog brings us all back down to earth, whether you're overly excited about napkins, stressed about invitations, hung up on menu decisions, worried that your photographer hasn't had their work been featured in Vogue, or just overwhelmed by it all. Meg's blog is a reminder about what's really important: the marriage. And besides being so wise, the girl is sassy and witty. Hers is one of the few wedding blogs that wasn't purged from my Google Reader in my post-wedding detox!

So, click on over there to learn all about our truly disastrous cake and how it impacted our wedding day. Here's a little preview:

The crack is lovely, but the cardboard showing is a bonus...

The little things, part 2: Ceremony and the start of the reception

2008-10-27T13:12:04Z

Alright, here are some more photos of a few more details and budget friendly ideas.

Church
The church is beautiful, so we didn't worry about too many additional decorations. My mom made the pew wreathes, which we hung on every other pew up the center aisle. There were two flower arrangements at the church, and that was it.

We created a memorial area in the baptistery of the church-- each guest passed through here on the way in. We had a candle for each of our grandparents who have passed away, and a flower arrangement. We weren't originally planning on having flowers here, but rather than cancel entirely the two corsages that we had already ordered for our grandmothers, we had the flowers made into a small arrangement of roses and hydrangea.

Reception
As I mentioned during planning, our reception was held at The Edison Club, a private country club in Rexford, NY.

Escort cards
The escort cards were set up by the entrance to the cocktail hour on the terrace. We made the cards ourself- stamped and handwritten (no close ups of these, unfortunately). The trays were a few bucks each from Target (and we'll probably be selling three of these).

In the above photo you can sort of see the mercury glass lanterns that we hung along the path to the terrace.

The wedding photos are of our parents and grandparents. We had made little signs identifying each couple and their wedding date, but they never made it to the reception. Ah well.

The trays were filled with stones that we bought at the pet store-- they were aquarium stones. Much much cheaper than craft stones! The cards were pushed down into the stones so that they didn't blow away.

(Hopefully that table skirt was fixed at some point!)

Other outdoor tidbits

Mercury glass lantern (we found 6 for under $10 each at Marshall's).

This is the only photo we have of the monogram wreath I made for the front door of the club. This was a 5 minute DIY project-- pearl letters I bought at a store in Northampton, a grapevine wreath from Michael's, and some ribbon. We'll hang it in our apartment when we get to that stage of settling in.

RSVP cards

At the bottom of our RSVP cards we suggested that the back of the card could be used to "write a note, draw a picture, or compose a haiku." We got some very creative responses-- some silly, some sweet, some adorable. We just had to share them! They were posted on an old bulletin board that my dad painted gold. We hung the board in the little sitting area outside the reception room, which everyone passed by on their way into the room.

(click on the photo to see these in more detail.)

Next in the "little things" series, some details from inside the reception including our super duper budget friendly and green centerpieces.

(Photos in this post by Upstate Photographers as well as guests Julia, Michele and Morgan.)

The little things, part 1: Things we wore, things we carried

2008-10-24T16:34:42Z

Our wedding day was not all about the little details-- it was about the big picture: our commitment to each other, the presence of our family and friends, the emotions of the day. I've said that before, right?

That said, there were of course plenty of details that we put thought into. Here's a bit about the ones that got photographed and the thought behind them.

My jewelry. The blue pin on the left belonged to my grandmother Helen. I was going to pin it inside my dress, but I chickened out-- I was afraid it would fall out, or get snagged on the dress, or befall some unknown disaster. The amethyst ring belonged to my grandmother Mary. Amethyst was our shared birthstone, and she gave the ring to me on my 16th birthday. I was going to tie it to my bouquet, but I chickened out on that too-- I would be devastated if I somehow lost that ring, so I left it at home.

The bracelet and earrings were made by Etsy seller Handwired- they matched my dress perfectly. (I also had hairpins that matched the earrings and bracelet, which I forgot at home in Massachusetts. Bummer, but no big deal.) My friend Jen wore the earrings on her wedding day a few weeks later. I've put them away in a box with a note listing my name and Jen's, and our wedding dates. Hopefully we'll continue to add names of family and friends to the list of ladies who wore those earrings on their wedding day.

I bought these typewriter key cuff links from Etsy seller The Empty Nest for Patrick last Valentine's Day. He bought a set of links for each of his groomsmen. Apparently they enjoyed them:

My bouquet was wrapped in lace taken from my mom's wedding dress.

The photos tied to the bouquet are wedding photos of my grandmother and Pat's grandmother. When we started planning, we expected to have our grandmothers with us at our wedding. As most of you know, we each lost a grandmother over the summer. Dear sweet Jen had these pendants made for me, and it was so special to have a symbol of their presence that day.

I bought each bridesmaid a pendant with her initial on it from Etsy seller Funky Time Art. The back of each one had a different word and definition: Love, thoughtful, joyful, sweet, friend. Each pendant came with a chain so that they could wear it later as a necklace if they wanted. (The flowers were pinker and more green than I thought they'd be-- I was expecting more ivory and very pale pink. Another example of not being able to control every little thing. Even with the pink and green, the flowers were very pretty-- the big open ivory roses were my favorite.)

(photo above by our friend Kerry.)

Our rings, in the (not all that visible) "I lurve you" bowl by Etsy seller Paloma's Nest (which Patrick bought for me last Valentine's Day). I like how his new and modern ring looks with my antique ring-- far from matching, but still very nice together. (Obviously, I am obsessed with Etsy, and handmade items by Etsy artists played a big role in our day!)

Pat carried the pocket watch that he bought at the Portobello Road market when he came to visit me during my semester in London seven years ago. I have a photo of us examining the pocket watches together on the day he bought it.

I'll show you more photos of some ceremony and reception details in another post!

Happy weekend!

---
Unless otherwise noted, all photos by Paul Grupp and Brenda Tompkins of Upstate Photographers.

Detox

2008-10-23T16:32:12Z

We successfully cleaned out most of the remaining bits of wedding projects from our apartment this weekend.

(More photos of the progress on the apartment can be found here.)

I am purging my Google Reader of all but my few very favorite wedding blogs.

I still have a slew of wedding magazines to unload-- I inherited a pile and then couldn't resist buying more (I'm a magazine junkie)... so there's a lot. Anyone?

I can't wait to rediscover crochet projects, writing projects, finishing books in less than 3 months, and cooking meals that involve more than boiling water. It is a marvelous thing to reclaim our evenings and weekends from the grips of wedding preparation.

Back to the recap... the ceremony

2008-10-21T17:11:43Z

As I've mentioned many times, we had a full Catholic mass celebrating the sacrament of holy matrimony. That sounds heavy and serious, but I think our ceremony was joyous with out taking away the importance of the moment. We've received a lot of comments on how warm and happy the ceremony was, and I feel good about that.

There were some things about our "traditional church wedding" that weren't all that traditional.

Rather than having another family member escort his mom into the church, Patrick and his dad walked her down the aisle and she and his father were seated. (My mom was escorted by my uncle--her oldest brother, who walked her down the aisle on her wedding day.)

Patrick then returned to the back of the church to meet his brother/Best Man and they walked in together, down the center aisle (I was hiding in another room until he was at the front of the church). I really liked this-- it made clear the fact that this was our day-- not just mine. He wasn't standing on the sidelines waiting while I was at the center, he was at the center, too. This way of doing things is more common in other religions, but I was really happy to learn that our parish has started doing things this way, too.

Our bridesmaids and groomsmen walked in together. This isn't all that uncommon, but up until recently it hasn't been done very often in Catholic weddings.

I walked in with my dad-- we stuck with tradition there. I know he's always wanted to walk me down the aisle, and it was a really special moment for us. We both thought we'd be a teary mess, but we were enjoying it all so much-- we were both all smiles. I'm really glad I got to spend those few minutes before going down the aisle (and those moments walking down the aisle, of course) with my Daddy-o.

It turns out both the groom and the best man were the criers! I love this photo.

I'll leave out the commentary on the rest of the ceremony photos-- they tell the story themselves.

We may have been the only ones that heard it, but the priest said, "you may now kiss your husband." I loved him even more for that!

This recap is starting to feel rather self-indulgent, but I know seeing REAL real weddings was helpful to me during planning. So I'll share for the greater good-- I just can't promise that I'll be all that quick with the installments!

As always, photos by Upstate Photographers. You can see more ceremony photos here.

achoo!

2008-10-20T15:36:45Z

This pattern has been going on since high school-- really stressful time full of little sleep followed by down time in which I get slammed with some sickness or other. So of course, following our first weekend home, I'm laid up with a nasty cold-- the full tilt coughing/sneezing/sore throat/congested thing. My dear husband talked me into staying home from work-- I very rarely take a sick day. I think if my co-workers could see (or hear) me now they'd be glad I wasn't holed up with them in our small conference room for the myriad of meetings scheduled today.

One thing worked out well: Mom brought a nice big jar of her chicken noodle soup when they came to visit yesterday-- it's the best comfort food there is.

In other news, we did make a lot of progress on the apartment this weekend. Check out photos here. I do love this apartment-- even more now that the mountains of boxes are gone.

p.s. Happy one month anniversary, dear husband! (As we speak he's on his way to deliver me a movie, juice, and cough drops. He's pretty great.)

*that darling teapot, a gift from my friend Emily, has been my best friend today. I think I'm on cup #4.

Reviewer

2008-10-18T20:46:12Z

We had a bit of a situation involving our wedding cake-- something you'll hear more about this week. Something that would have been a minor hassle a few weeks ago has turned into a big ole pain in the butt. I must say, [WeddingWire](http://www.weddingwire.com), [TheKnot](http://www.theknot.com), and any/all places that accept vendor reviews have made me feel a little better about things. I've left honest reviews of this baker anywhere I can-- hopefully they'll save someone else from this mess. I'm also very happily leaving glowing reviews of our other vendors. The poor service we've received from the cake baker has made the superior service we received from everyone else stand out even more.

At home

2008-10-17T13:35:35Z

This weekend will be the first one since August that we'll spend at home, in our own apartment. We moved into this apartment on August 1, unpacked anything we'd need for the next 6 weeks, and left everything else in boxes. Or in shambles. And then there was an explosion of favors and escort cards in our dining room. Basically, it's an unruly and overwhelming mess around here.

We've been trying to go easy on ourselves-- knowing that the events of the summer, from funerals to wedding planning to the move, knocked us off our game. And that getting married and honeymooning are reasonable excuses for not unpacking our books. But it still makes me crazy to not be settled yet. Hopefully this weekend will bring intensive unpacking, arranging, organizing, cleaning, and nesting. Luckily, we've got some great motivation: my parents are coming for their first visit to our new apartment on Sunday.

This was our dining room a month ago.
We've managed to clear off the table enough to eat at it, but the progress ended there.