It's a Boy!

Apologies for my short absence, I tried to warn you I was entering a month long wedding marathon. But- I come baring AMAZING news. It's a BOY!

My long wait to discover if I was going to be the lucky Auntie of a niece or nephew is over! Its confirmed and I'm so excited. Our families bundle of joy will be about 5 months at the time of my wedding and he simple must suited up!

I found these amazing baby tuxedo's online:




This one is the babies version of the tuxedo T-shirt.




Adorable!

Lessons on being a Chill Bride

How gorgeous is this shot?? We captured this shot about a mile and a half past our friend's wedding venue in Windham, NY. Tucked away into this beautiful little Catskills town, the wedding was "country" but elegant and warm. There were so many fun and person details, I failed to capture ( blame it on a poor camera and even poor-er judgment with my cocktails :). But, like I said, each wedding is an opportunity for me to get some fresh inspiration. SO what did I learn at this wedding? TONS! Here's a list of the mishaps the bride had to deal with:

1. Pouring rain- after spending months clearing out a section of woods on their property and constructing a beautiful alter our of tree branches and flowers the rain forced us under a huge tent for the ceremony and reception. Additionally, the rain made the pig roast and bar be que a little less dramatic. Finally, and possibly most tragic, all of the lawn games they had hand painted were not really usable.

2. Unseasonably cold weather- bridesmaids in halter top dresses, strapless for the bride, and guest without appropriate coverage.

3. No power- power went out during the ceremony, so no mics or music. They did regain power for the reception, but lost it right in the middle of their first dance!

If even one of these things happened to me, I would be in shambles. Or at least I think I would. The funny thing is - from looking at the bride you would think it was all part of the plan. She looked calm and chill all night. The bride and groom seemed to throughly enjoy their wedding and did not get caught up in the small stuff. I have to say- it was the most inspirational thing I could have seen. Congrats to the wonderful couple.

Meeting J

Today I had my Jcrew appointment at the "i do" desk. My main goal was to get an up close and personal look at the fabrics, quality, and cuts of some the dresses I have been looking at online. Overall, I have to say it was a very successful visit. I still feel confidant that I will chose Jcrew for my girl's dresses, but will make some slight adjustment to my plans :

1. I will not choose Light Chartreuse.

It is WAY more green that you would imagine. Think highlighter. Luckily, I will not even have the option to select this hue, it is discontinued. Thank goodness I did not go through with my plan of buying all the dresses on sale for my girls.

2. I will add this pretty lady to the three choices:

I originally thought it would look out of place with my other structured choices, but in person it was much less "flowy" . Plus it is super duper flattering.



3. This girl is one hot shorty:

I mean it. I'm 5'2" and this dress fell above my knee. Don't even ask what it looked like on my 5'10" maid of honor. This is part of the reason I am adding Serena to this mix.


4. Cotton Cady , pronouced ca-dee, is the perfect light weight material for the summer.


All in all a lovely visit.

September is the New May

Remember that scene in Wedding Crashers when Vince Vaughn announces that its wedding season. I pretty sure they were talking about May. Well, that scene just happened in my apartment except we were talking about September. We have four weddings in September, which basically works out to be one each weekend. Talk about wedding fatigue. Now, don' get me wrong - we love our friends and family and couldn't be happier that they are including us in their celebrations. It's just that I would never expect September to be so chock full of loving unions. The nice thing is all of my weddings have a very different feel ( and guest list so I can recycle my dress- woot woot). One of the things I love about going to weddings while planning my own is the inspirations!! Its like a blog come to life. I also study all the little details like the transportation from ceremony to reception or the order of the toasts to get ideas. Here's the four different weddings I'll be attending

1. A outdoor wedding in the Catskill Mountains- we were instructed to wear comfortable shoes, so I can only imagine what they have in store for us.

2. A City Hall Wedding followed by a dinner reception and Sunday brunch- very NYC and very dear to my heart as it is my Brother and Future Sister in Law's wedding

3. Urban and Cool wedding at Studio 450 in NYC- the bride and groom have a great sense of style so I can't wait to see how it all pans out.

4. Engagement Party in the Hamptons- Okay so this is not a wedding, but it is a wedding like function. Plus it is for my MOH and her wonderful girlfriend.

I promise to return with loads of inspiration ideas. But now I'm off to the Catskills!

Two Birds

Have you ever heard of Two Birds ? Its a bridesmaid dress company that makes one size fits all dresses in a variety of colors that can be worn in 15 different ways. A good friend as chosen them for her maids and had nothing but great things to say about them. Their yellow is called "butter yellow"- a little light for me. Here's the basic dress:




Here's some of the different ways to wear them:



Although I am hoping to be a JCrew Bride , I am keeping my options open. I have my JCrew bridal appointment next Monday . I have this overwhelming fear that I will hate all of the JCrew dresses and have to start from scratch. If this is the case, I would definitely consider two birds. Did you have a back up plan? What do you make of the one size fits all ?

Our Bridge Part II

I thought it would be a good time to continue the story of our wedding theme . I already shared Part I of the story of our bridge. I left off by saying, the bridge would soon be the site of a great celebration. Let me set the scene.

Early in 2008, the Mr. and I took the big step of co-habitation. We moved from our separate apartments in Hoboken to our lovely abode in Brooklyn. It was a big move for us both. For the Mr., it meant a job change and for me it was a return to my childhood neighborhood. Luckily, after a long and arduous process of combining furniture and belongings we settled in to our beautiful apartment. Many of my friends had warned me that moving in together would be the death knell for our relationship, but living together was surprisingly complication free. To be fair, it wasn't a decision we took lightly. We waited until the time was right and had many conversations about our needs and wants from our new life together. So needless to say, I was beginning to suspect big things were comming.

Flash forward to May 2008, the 125th Anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge. The city was holding a public celebration at the foot of the bridge complete with Brooklyn's own Grucci Brother's fireworks display, red velvet cake, and a light show! We decided to go , after all we had become bridge connoisseurs. It as a beautiful spring night and we arrived earlier enough to get a perfect viewing spot right on the water. Just as dusk fell the fireworks started and I held my breath....

and managed to capture this video:

Notice anything???

I didn't think so. If watch close you will watch my fiane MISS the perfect proposal moment!! The Bridge. The spring night. The fireworks. No ring. No proposal.

Man, did I feel foolish.

See my fake smile. It is screaming disappointment and shame.

Did you feel sure you knew the big moment?

Kids Included??

This weekend my amazing future in-laws through us a lovely engagement party! It was perfect weather and our families mixed and mingled in the backyard. My future grandmother baked this beautiful cake from scratch complete with blueberries and yellow roses ( our wedding palette!). Oh and did I mention it was marble inside. yeah. de.li.ci.ous.

Part of the fun was chasing around our many young cousins. Large families usually mean lots of kids and ours in no exception. It made us start to re-think our no child policy. We love our cousins dearly, but due to our budget and the shear number of young children we were not going to include children in our wedding party or at our reception. Even if that means I can't see adorable little girls yellow dresses.

But this weekend as we were surrounded by lots of our little ones, I started to have second thoughts. What's a good cut off age? Why could we do to make children feel included? Can we include some with out including others?

Otherwised Engaged

Please excuse my absense for the next few days as my future in -laws are thowing us a lovely engagement party/bbq. There will be lots of bar-be-que, Italian food, and of course family. I promise to share all the pictures and stories. Have a great Labor Day!!

Cutest Wedding Favors Ever

Last week I was searching for fun ways to incorporate vintage ribbon and I stumbled upon the cutest wedding favors EVER on Martha Stewart Weddings. I'm pretty sure I can DIY with plan white boxes and yellow paper. I was thing the boxes could read:

Mr.'s Name loves

My Name 4-ever

or

true love
conquers all
or

love hope
faith charity

Actually, I think these all sound pretty cheesy! I will defidently have to put some more thought into this! Any suggestions?

Our Bridge

Earlier in the month I revealed our weddings "theme". I thought I would begin to explain why the bridge holds such sentimental value to me and the Mr. I grew up in the shadow of the bridge and spend many nights on my rooftop gazing its golden lights and their reflection in the East River. Early on in our relationship we spent a Sunday in the Prospect Park. We decided the cap off the evening by a walk on the promenade and ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory when the Mr. asked

"Wanna walk over the Bridge?"

In all of my years in Brooklyn, I had never walked over the bridge. I was thrilled by the idea.
It was the Mr.'s spontaneity and willingness to take on little adventures like these that made me fall deeply in love with him. From that day on we were both enamored by the Great Bridge. We would make a point to walk over the bridge anytime we were in Brooklyn. On our first anniversary the Mr. suprised me with this beautiful illustration that now hangs in our living room.

Nothing tugs at the heartstrings like sexy artist who make things personally for you! Our love for the bridge grew as our relationship developed and soon the bridge would become the scene for one big celebration!