NYC Bridal Meet and Greet Tonight!

Tonight I'm attending a bridal meet & greet thrown by our wonderful wedding planner, Lindsay Landman. Here are the details!

You're invited to celebrate your engagement and kick-off your planning with cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and cake. Bring your blogging buddies and the newsgroup newbies and talk wedding “shop” face-to-face. Meet wedding pros and enjoy great giveaways. Leave your wedding stress at the door and enjoy your engagement!

Wednesday, February 18th6 PM – 8PMBLVD199 Bowery at RivingtonTickets: $15 individual/$20 pairClick here to purchase tickets

Inspiration Wednesday - Wistful Romance

by Alternative Dawn on Polyvore.com

I'll never tire of looking at or creating inspiration boards so I've decided to use Wednesdays as Inspiration day to spark the imaginations and get you through the rest of the week. Hope you enjoy!

Mood: romantic, girlish, yearning desire
Color Palette: blushing rose, eggshell and champagne

To Veil or Not to Veil....

I have the dress but I have absolutely no idea about the veil. Do I even want to wear one? I don't really consider myself a veil girl but would I be missing out if I didn't wear one? Birdcage, cathedral, fingertip, elbow. And nevermind all the detailing - lace trims, crystals and pearls. It's all so confusing! But the images above are so breathtaking that I think I'm leaning the way of the veil.

Images: Christian Oth Studio, Pronovias Manuel Mota - Brides.com, Sara Gabriel

Illustrious Illustrators

I have a passion for fashion illustration so from time to time I will feature some of my favorite artists.

I am absolutely in love with Eduard Erlikh's work! He’s a Russian-born New Yorker and his work has appeared in countless fashion magazines including Vogue, Elle and Wallpaper.

I'm really getting inspired to jump back into illustrating.

Images: Eduard Erlikh

Feast for the Eyes

I never tire of looking at Elizabeth Messina's photography. I am so excited that she has just launched an amazing new blog Kiss the Groom. Check it out for yourself. Her work is truly breathtaking!

Images: Elizabeth Messina

Happy Honeymooners!

We're so excited because today we booked our honeymoon! We were having a hard time deciding where to go so we're really relieved that we came up with a plan that we're both excited about. Originally we were considering going to Spain to visit Barcelona and Ibiza and/or Majorca but that would have required taking at least 2 weeks off from work and I wasn't sure that I could swing that. Then we considered the Caribbean or Cabo but those weren't really an option because it will be hurricane season. Needless to say we were both getting pretty frustrated. Luckily this morning Jen came up with the brilliant idea of taking a more local honeymoon right after the wedding and then taking another honeymoon around Thanksgiving when we will have more travel options and will have to take less time off of work. Leave it to us to have 2 honeymoons!

So we decided to go to Fairmont le Chateau Montebello for a few days of rest, relaxation and at a lot of spa time! This is a perfect choice for us because we LOVE Canada and we LOVE Fairmont hotels. And after that we will drive to Montreal, one of our favorite cities, for a few days of fun!


Part II of the honeymoon has yet to be planned so stay tuned!

Images: www.fairmont.com/montebello

Love Is In The Air

Sending a little love your way this Valentine's Day!

Images: marthastewart.com, Karen Moredechai

We Made the Right Decision!

We found out that our wedding planner, Lindsay Landman, has appeared on one of our favorite bride tv shows "Who's Wedding Is It Anyway" (We are addicted to bridal tv, btw...i'll speak about that more at another time...). We never had the opportunity to see that episode so last night we decided to sit back, download a copy and watch it. It was great to see her in action and to see how calm, cool, collected and in control she was. It made us really happy that we hired her!

Check out her site to download the episode.

Happy Freedom to Marry Day!

Today is Freedom to Marry Day! Please help support marriage equality nationwide. People across the country are pledging to take part in 7 Conversations in 7 Days in honor of the 12th annual Freedom to Marry Week, February 8-14, 2009. Join in the pledge today! Click here to learn more about Freedom to Marry.

Also, I wanted to extend my thanks to Mackenzie over at Something Old, Something New for helping to raise awareness by showing her support for marriage equality. Please stop by and check out her beautiful blog.

Sweet Favors

I've been debating what to give our guests as favors. Originally I was thinking cookies. We're known to our friends and family as being the "Christmas Cookie Experts" because we make and decorate sugar cookies every year. It's even become tradition to have a cookie decorating party with friends during the holidays and to make and decorate cookies with our niece and nephews every Christmas Eve. So it seemed only natural for cookies to be the choice favor since it's something that represents us.

Then I started thinking of the logistics of it all. I would want the cookies to be our recipe and to include the recipe on a card or label or hang tag. But it seems like a huge task to take on so close to the wedding. My planner Lindsay suggested packing up dry ingredients in a canister and attaching directions to add the wet ingredients. While this is a good suggestion, I'm still not sold on the idea.

So then I started thinking do we just have a favor bar? Offering a variety of different sweet treats - cookies & candy? I'd love to hear what you think.

Images: brides.com, marthastewart.com

So far so good...

Since we've been planning the wedding since last August, we've been able to make a decent amount of progress. I'm actually at a little bit of a lull! Here's where we stand so far:

We have:

Selected venue and caterer



le Parker Meridien New York, NY
http://www.parkermeridien.com/index1.php

Selected DJ for reception

John at Aria Melody
http://www.ariamelody.com/

Selected florist
Studio Artiflora
http://studioartiflora.com/

Selected photographer
Daniel Krieger
http://www.danielkrieger.com/

Selected cake designer (with venue)

Food Attitde
http://www.weddingcakeonline.com/wedding-cake-gallery.php

Selected and mailed save the dates

Selected monogram



Lucky Designs
http://www.eluckydesigns.com/

Selected wedding planner
Lindsay Landman
http://www.lindsaylandmanevents.com/
I went to one of her events, The Wedding Workshop, in December and knew she'd be perfect!

Purchased wedding dresses!!

Selected wedding attendants

We still have to:

Select an officiant.
This is kinda urgent so we need to get on it!

Book hotel blocks

Engagement photos

Select attendant attire

Select ceremony and cocktail hour musicians.
We're torn between live music or DJ.

Hair & makeup trials

Invitations

Wedding rings

Rentals

Cake tasting & design

Menu tasting

Favors

Order attendant gifts

Secure transportation

Order menus, programs, etc

Marriage license
This will be done at an earlier date somewhere in CT.

Finalize after-party plans

And many other details I'm sure I'm forgetting. Thank goodness for Lindsay, our wedding planner!

Inspiration Board

As I mentioned in my first post, I am constantly analyzing trends and putting together trend boards for my job. I jumped at the thought of putting together an inspiration boards as soon as we got engaged.

We are getting married in NYC and our theme is glamorous, playfully elegant urban chic and the colors are burgundy and aquamarine with warm gold and champagne accents. This is what I came up with.