Saying "I Do"

Saying "Goodbye" to Saying "I do"

2012-11-01T05:00:00.000-04:00

After three years and two months of Saying "I do", planning a wedding, attending, then recapping thirteen weddings, connecting with a huge network of brides and meeting people I never dreamed of meeting, the Saying "I do" chapter is over. I've ridden the newlywed bride train as far as it will go, and it's time to get off. I've been struggling with closing this up for some time, and even started blogging at elsewhere for awhile, but I just wasn't catching my stride there, trying to make it something I wasn't, and not being true to myself.

I really enjoy blogging, I love having a place to capture and record all the great moments of my life and having them here to look back on. I've always been that way: my mom and dad have 20 scrapbooks I made just of High School to prove it. Maybe it was a way for me to cling to my past...I think it was just a way to preserve it. Luckily, blogging is faster and cheaper than scrapbooking, and so, I am not done with blogging, just blogging elsewhere.

Any wedding related posts will still be posted here (we have 3 more weddings coming up in the near future), but this will not be where I blog regularly. I was not modest about linking here on facebook or really anywhere I could, and for the future I'd like to keep a little bit more of a low profile, which is why I'm not linking to my new blog here. I'm not going completely off the grid, if you were a regular follower, you'll be able to find me, and most of you already have! (edit: Here is my new blog: http://littlemomentsbigmoments.blogspot.com/)

Thank you to the followers, the commentors, the friends, and the one time visitors (holla to this post which keeps a steady stream of visitors every single day!)

If you are just coming here for the first time, sorry you missed me! You can read about my wedding here.

I am also still regularly blogging for Russo's on the Bay!

Bye for now!

Giveaway Winner!

2012-10-31T12:01:00.005-04:00

Congratulations to Heather at High Heels & Flip Flops, who won the 12 oz. bag of granola from Laurie's Granola Creations.

Heather send me an email with your mail information and we'll get that bag out to you as soon as possible!

Thank you to all who entered!

Happy A-Day Zoey!

2012-10-30T05:00:00.000-04:00

Only one more day to enter the Laurie's Granola Creations Giveaway to win a free 12 oz. bag of all natural, organic granola! Anyone can enter!

I can't believe it but a year ago today, we brought home our little puppy, Zoey, from Sarah at Badass Brooklyn Animal Rescue, after I saw Zoey (then Rita Hayworth) on petfinder.com.

She was 8 pounds, and followed me everywhere. She came down with a pretty severe case of pneumonia soon after we got her and after a month of medicines, weekly nebulization treatments, and lots of vet bills, Zoey was better and adapting to her new home.

Happy A-Day (Adoption Day) to you Zoey! May the next year be filled with just as much treats, bones, cuddling, and walks as the last year has been for us! I created the below movie using the imovie app on my ipad. It was my first ever attempt to learn imovie, so I did this on my commute home one day last week for fun, but I thought it came out great! It's safe to say I am officially hooked on imovie.

Our Wedding Album

2012-10-29T05:00:00.001-04:00

Don't forget to enter the Laurie's Granola Creations Giveaway to win a free 12 oz. bag of all natural, organic granola! Anyone can enter!

It only took 16 months, but we finally got our wedding album and parent's album!! Chris and I have a very large album to call our very own. The editor at our photographers said it's the largest album she's ever made. Given the fact that our photographer lost some of our photos (yea, it really did happen), we pretty much were able to get this album however we wanted it, without any extra cost. Given how upset I was with them, they really did a fantastic job with the album even though it's 15 pounds...quite literally.

Recognize our cover? (Hint: Look at my blog header).

Our parents have a 6X6 clone of our album. It's the perfect size to take to visit with friends and family and they are very happy with it.

(Still has the protective plastic cover on the front)

I get such a great feeling as I look through these pages.

It feels very "final" to finally have the album in our hands. It makes me emotional to look through these pages and look back on our day. It makes me emotional to think that these are the same pages our children will turn as they look through "their parent's" wedding album as young children, teenagers, and young adults...planning their own weddings some day.

This feels very final. A perfect completion to the ride that was planning and having our wedding.

Friday Final Post on Ashley and Greg's Wedding

2012-10-26T05:00:00.001-04:00

Don't forget to enter the Laurie's Granola Creations Giveaway to win a free 12 oz. bag of all natural, organic granola! Anyone can enter!

I spent the week recapping Ashley and Greg's Wedding Part 1 here and Part 2 here, and now I'm going to close out the week with a full recap of their wedding that I put together using animoto. After all, what wedding is complete without one?!

Enjoy and have a great weekend!!

As always you can read my favorite Friday Wedding stories of the week on Storymix Media's blog.

Laurie's Granola Creations GIVEAWAY

2012-10-25T05:00:00.001-04:00

Today I'm going to introduce to you the amazing-ness that is Laurie's Granola Creations. Laurie is the mother of a friend of mine and she has created her own all-natural and organic granola that has become wildly popular!

What makes this granola different than most is that it is made with coconut nectar, coconut oil, and coconut palm sugar. It is a healthier version than other granola because it has a low glycemic index, plus all the countless other health benefits of these coconut products. Laurie's Granola Creations comes in 3 different flavors:

Organic Turkish Apricot
Organic Date
Original

Now for the fun stuff: I've tried this granola and it really is amazing. It's perfectly sweet and adds the perfect touch to my yogurt or cereal without all the added "crap" of store-bought granola!

Laurie's Granola Creations is giving away a 12 oz. bag of "Happens to be Healthy Granola" to one lucky reader of Saying "I do".

Happens to be Healthy granola is a delicious mixture of oats, seeds, coconut and other natural and organic ingredients that contain vitamins and nutrients to promote optimum health to support a strong immune system and boost energy. There are many creative ways to use this granola that tastes great and HAPPENS TO BE HEALTHY too! It is crunchy and stands up to• Milk• Fruit• Yogurt • Ice-cream without getting soggy

TO ENTER:

1. Leave a comment below telling me what your favorite thing is to eat with granola (yogurt, cereal, smoothies, plain!) That's all you have to do!
For additional entries:

2. Like "Laurie's Granola Creations" on Facebook and leave me a comment that you have done so.

4. Like me on twitter and leave me a comment saying that you have done so.

5. Tweet the following: "I just entered @LWoodsNY giveaway to win a free bag of granola from Laurie's Granola Creations. Enter here! http://ow.ly/eLeY3" and leave me a comment saying you did.

Anyone can enter! Contest ends at midnight EST on Monday, October 29th, 2012 and the winner will be announced on Wednesday, October 31st, 2012, good luck!

Ashley and Greg's Wedding Part II

2012-10-24T05:00:00.000-04:00

After the ceremony and cocktail hour for Ashley and Greg, we walked into the reception room at the New Haven Lawn Club, which was beautifully decorated and just plain beautiful!

The bride and groom were announced and they shared their first dance to "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri.

We then heard from the Maid of Honor and Best Man

When the speeches were over, we were treated to a special performance by the bride herself! Ashley is a natural performer and Chris and I saw her sing and act many times while we were at Wagner College together. She sang an adorable song called "Sorta Love Song" by Paul Loessel and Scott Burkell. Paul Loessel was the person who helped facilitate Greg's proposal to Ashley on the stage of the Broadway Musical, Wicked.

See Ashley perform her whole song here!

While this was going on we were served salads followed by a lemon sorbetto intermezzo!!

Then we were served our meal. I ordered the Thyme Maple Glazed Chicken with Crispy Sweet Potato, Blue Cheese, and Herbs, Saute of Applewood Lardon and Garlic Spinach, with Smokey Green Onion Deep Red Sauce. Can we say amazing?? Chris got the steak which I forgot to take a picture of.

After a bit of dancing, it was time for the cake cutting. I loved this simple and elegant cake with the peach satin ribbon, flower icing, and simple Monogram "A" for their cake topper. As you know, I've been to a lot of weddings, and I usually don't like to proclaim anyone as having "the best" of something. But...I'm gonna break my rule this time and announce that this was the BEST wedding cake I've ever tasted. Hands down, no contest, the BEST. If I hadn't had my wedding yet, I would order my cake from here...even if I had to pay extra to ship it from Connecticut. Ashley ordered it from Fusion Bakery in Middletown, Connecticut, and it was strawberry with Italian butter cream. YUM!

But they didn't stop there. No...Ashley and Greg had a cupcake table!! Flavors included: Limoncello, chocolate, red velvet, vanilla and carrot cake.

And just when I thought it couldn't get any better than that....this happened:

A shot glass of milk with the softest, warmest, most amazing chocolate chip cookie ever.
I died and went to sweet-tooth heaven.

While all the sweet-tooth satisfying madness was happening, Greg and his mom danced to "How Sweet It Is" by James Taylor.

And Ashley and her father danced to "My Girl" by the Temptations.

Then Ashley did the Bouquet Toss:

The garter toss...a fun and tastefully done tradition:

I'm not sure what the odds are of this happening...but the Best Man caught the bouquet (standing off to the side) and his WIFE caught the garter (also standing off to the side!) It certainly made for some funny memories for them.

And once all of that was done, what was left to do? We dance and take pictures of course!!

As we left, there was a basket of pink ribbon cookies with a small note that a donation was made to Susan G. Komen For The Cure to help fight breast cancer.

Congratulations to Greg and Ashley! We are so happy and excited for you both!

As I mentioned yesterday, Greg is the co-founder and CTO of UnTappd, the social networking app for beer drinkers and lovers. For more information, and to download the app, visit the website here.

Ashley and Greg's Wedding Part 1

2012-10-23T05:00:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the powers that be at blogger, my blogger issue is fixed and I'm back to recap the 8th and final wedding that Chris and I attended this year!

On September 28th, Chris and I headed up to Connecticut for Ashley and Greg's wedding. We allotted lots of extra time to check into the hotel and head over to the ceremony, but unfortunately, really bad traffic and terrible weather threw a wrench into our plans. We sat in traffic for hours and had to go right to the church. I felt horrible - I HATE showing up late to weddings, but here we were pulling into the church parking lot 20 minutes late! We contemplated even going in, but it turned out we only missed the first 5 minutes of it since the weather had held everyone up! We saw a majority of the ceremony and I'm so glad we still were able to make it there.

I loved these music paper programs with the beautiful black satin ribbon

Ashley looked stunning and her hip hugging dress showed off her fabulous figure!

After the ceremony, we had just enough time to head to New Haven, check into our hotel, change, and rush over to the beautiful New Haven Lawn Club for the cocktail hour and reception.

personalized cocktail napkins

Beautiful centerpieces on cocktail tables

Sean, Chris and Jeff

pretty chandelier

Jeff loved these mini pulled-pork sliders

With the Hubby!

My drink of choice for the entire night was their signature cocktail the "Victoria's Secret": Coconut Rum, Chambord, Pineapple juice and Cranberry juice.

Greg is the co-founder and CTO of UnTappd, the social networking app for beer drinkers and lovers (download here!) So of course, Greg hand-picked the several beers they had on hand at the wedding. Guests who used the Untappd app even got a special badge for checking in that day in honor of the newlyweds!

We then entered the reception and saw all the great personalized details Ashley and Greg had put together for their big day:

Table number with placecards

Mr. and Mrs. signs on their chairs

Centerpieces

Card-box and wish tags

Next up: We party as the Reception begins!

Our weekend in New Jersey

2012-10-22T05:00:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we had a wonderful time visiting our friends, Christina and Kenny, in New Jersey for another weekend of Fall-filled festivities! I always love the weekends we visit with them, and this one didn't disappoint as it was complete with corn mazes, apple cider, Poltergeist, and one of the most amazing home-cooked meals I've had in a long time.

They made us pork wellington with risotto. I am still dreaming about how good this dinner was! Christina also made pumpkin chocolate chip, butterscotch cookies. I forget exactly what all was in them, but they were amazing!

What did you do this weekend?

Friday Find: Lib Dub Proposal

2012-10-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

Ok, it took me awhile to watch this viral video. I thought "aw..another lip dub proposal..cute..been there, done that." But then I finally sat down and forced myself to watch the whole thing since the "interwebs" seemed to be going crazy over it. 4 minutes later, I was reaching for a tissue, crying at my desk...if I had a dollar...

So here's the deal: The beginning part is cute, fun, quirky, entertaining. If you get tired of it, skip ahead to 2:50 and watch from there. It's really sweet and I don't know how he got that many friends and family involved in this! I think Huffington Post (UK) said it best:

"You see why we're practically lost for words now? How the hell did he do it? As much as we adore our friends and family, there is absolutely no way we'd ever be able to organize them all into doing something like this. Half of them would be late, sick or go to the wrong car park. It would almost definitely rain. And our chances of persuading everyone we know to learn the words to a One Direction track are practically zilch."

It's going to give you a restricted playback notice...just click on "watch on youtube" to watch it there!

Enjoy and happy Friday!

Remember, you can always check my Friday Wedding finds over at Storymix Media where I share the most outrageous wedding stories of the week, and my wedding series with Russo's on the Bay every Tues./Thurs. and Saturday!

Pennsylvania Weekend

2012-10-16T13:20:00.001-04:00

I'm having some major Blogger problems right now hence the lack of posting. Google is looking into the issue and hopefully I'll be back up and running in no time. In the meantime, here's a quick post recapping our lovely weekend in Pennsylvania with our friends, Chris and Corinne, while visiting my family and going on an 18 mile bike ride!

Friday Find: Wedding Fails

2012-10-12T05:00:00.000-04:00

With wedding season 2012 winding down, here is a compliation of the top wedding fails of the year. Some of these I already featured on the blog, and many are new.

Here's to a year of great weddings and to many more weddings fails to come in 2013!

Mal and Eric's (Surprise) Engagement Party

2012-10-10T05:00:00.000-04:00

Remember my friends Mal and Eric, who just got engaged? Well on Saturday, September 29, they had a surprise engagement party of epic proportions! My friend, Lauren, did an amazing job putting together this beautiful party. Complete with gold balloons with pictures of the couple tied to the strings, personalized Mal and Eric coasters, candle-lighting everywhere, pumpkins spray painted with their initials in gold, PLUS amazing food, it was a stellar party from start to finish.

Lauren and her mom were anxiously awaiting Mal and Eric's arrival!!

They finally arrived, and were VERY Surprised as they walked into the house!

And of course, we oogle the ring!

The cake was awesome and made by a friend of a friend who owns a bakery. It was out of this world and pretty too!

Mandy and I enjoy our glasses of vino

Lauren set out this "Honeymoon Fund" jar to collect funds for the honeymoon. It was very cute...though I don't think that cash pile grew very much during the party :)

Mal and Eric opened their presents

Lauren had ordered pretzel rods decorated as brides and grooms. How cute is this??

Top: Lauren and Mal, and below: together with their moms:

Mal and Eric with Mal's family:

Love these girls!

Here is a full slideshow with all my pictures and video of the toasts from the evening:

Happy Colombus Day!

2012-10-08T05:00:00.000-04:00

I'm off of work today catching up on boatloads of stuff and relaxing after our day at the Giants Game yesterday. I hope you all had a great weekend, and I'll be back tomorrow with a recap of Mal and Eric's Engagement Party from a few weeks ago!

Friday Find: Groomsmen Dance

2012-10-05T05:00:00.000-04:00

So at first I thought..."Ok. Another groom and his groomsmen performing an awkward dance for the bride...great." But this one...this one was different. The beginning is bit rough when he tries to sing along with the microphone. But THEN...THEN!!! around 1:00 in, it just gets awesome.

These guys are actually really GOOD! Their choreography is spot on and together, these guys can MOVE. This is a revelation. PS. Guy in the sunglasses to the left behind the groom? Um. Yes please.

James and Maria's Wedding Part 3: The Reception

2012-10-04T05:00:00.000-04:00

Catch up here on James and Maria's Ceremony,

as well as their Cocktail Hour and Personalized Elements.

Now, it's finally time for the reception, which was a blast and a half for 4 hours straight! The bridal party members were introduced, followed by the newly married couple as they walked onto the dance floor and shared their first dance to Jason Mraz, "I Won't Give Up."

After that, we sat down to listen to Joanna and Chris give their speeches to the couple. Despite some pre-speech nerves, they both delivered touching and heartfelt speeches, and did a great job.

As we were eating dinner, their friend Jon serenaded the guests to Tom Petty's "American Girl." I was super impressed!!

Here's a snippet of his performance

After dinner, the dance floor got moving and groovin' for awhile:

Then it was time for the happy couple to cut the cake:

James really likes cake, but I think he likes his wife even better!

The cake was delicious!! They had white cake with chocolate pudding and cannoli cream filling! If you ask me, you can't go wrong with those two flavors individually and especially put together.

Maria danced to "My Wish" by Rascal Flatts with her father.

James danced to "Because You Loved Me" by Celine Dion with his mother.

And then there was a special surprise dance later in the evening that James had arranged with the DJ. He called his sister to the dance floor to dance to "I'll Be There" by Faith Hill. She was so surprised and cried throughout the entire dance...which made me, and practically every other female around me, cry during the entire thing as well. It was very sweet, and you could really tell how close these two siblings are.

After the tears were wiped away and makeup refreshed, we danced some more!

With my in-laws!

Near the end of the night, Maria and James tried their hand at playing the drums, and some serious rocking and dancing ensued!

Then, out of nowhere, James's dad (who used to play in a band) came out and totally rocked the house with his drumming!

Check it out here

Jame's sister, Vanessa, came up and took a crack at the drums as well!

At the end of the night, these cuties were playing "Mr. and Mrs." at the sweetheart table. It was so. precious!! Perhaps we have a future Mr. and Mrs. on our hands...

Congratulations to James and Maria!! All I can say is, my legs were sore for two days after their wedding because I danced so much. We saw them last weekend all tan and refreshed after they returned from their honeymoon in Antigua. (Jealouuusss) We couldn't be happier for you both, and look forward to a lifetime of memories to come!

James and Maria's Wedding Part 2: Cocktail Hour and Personalized Details

2012-10-03T05:00:00.000-04:00

In case you missed James and Maria's ceremony, catch up here. These two put blood sweat and tears into their wedding, and it really showed from start to finish.

http://www.eastwindlongisland.com

After I checked into my amazing room at the EastWind Inn & Spa, I quickly changed and headed over to the cocktail hour with my in-laws, and 4 of our friends. We arrived for cocktail hour and had a plethora of food options before us. Somehow, I was running around the whole cocktail hour, I don't even know what I was doing, but I hardly got any pictures of the great food!! Total blogging fail :(

I did get one picture of this great spread. I had beet salad (one of my favoritest things ever), cheeses, seafood salad, the freshest blackberries and raspberries I've ever seen, pasta, and I hear there were mini sliders (but I got distracted and forgot to try them):

The couple had picked three signature drinks and each one had a cuter name than the last:

Honeymoon Helper
Malibu Rum, Midori Sour, Vodka, Pineapple Juice, Sprite, Sugared Rim

Altered State
Captain Morgan Rum, Orange Juice, Lemon Juice, Ginger Ale

The Eternitini
Pomegranate Liqueur, Vodka, Pink Grapefruit Juice, Lemon Wedge, Sugared Rim

Kerry and I opted for the Eternitini for starters. It was shortly after we got our drinks that we discovered we were wearing the exact same bracelet (a gift from her when I was bridesmaid in her wedding), the exact same shoes, and almost wore the exact same dress. We didn't plan a single aspect of that...so, we're obviously twins now!

I got to know this pretty lady, Danielle, at Maria's bachelorette party. I think I'll always remember looking over at the stage where the band was playing at Jenk's Bar and seeing her up there front and center dancing next to the lead singer!

We then entered for the reception. I'll recap the full reception tomorrow because I have a TON of pictures, but first, I want to highlight some of their special elements. We grabbed our placecards from the table in the main entrance to the building.

Above the mantle in the main lobby was a sign with their last name and wedding date. I'm contemplating purchasing a sign like this for myself now...with our last name of course ;)

Each place at the table had a menu card, where we had a choice of Grilled New York Sirloin, Chicken Papu, Fillet of Salmon, Petite Veal Chops Milanese, Portabella Napoleon or Pasta Primavera Grill. After our caesar salad and penne alla vodka, we were served our main entree. Chris ordered the sirloin and I ordered the chicken papu and both were really great!

The centerpieces were simple but elegant and fit in perfectly with the ambiance of the room. The table numbers were written over various song lyrics to love songs.

At each seat were also little favor boxes. These were filled with two of the most amazing chocolate truffles I think I've ever tasted. I'm not going to lie....at the end of the night, some of the people at our table had forgotten to take their favor boxes. I swooped up as many as I could grab and probably left with about 6 of these boxes stuffed in my purse. I'm so that girl. But I'm glad I did because we had truffles to enjoy for the rest of the week!

James and Maria's sweetheart table with MR. and MRS. signs

Maria and her Maid of Honor, Joanna, made the card-box a few days before the wedding! There's their personalized name sign again!

The cake had a beautiful white cascading flower, and was positioned near their sweetheart table until it was time to cut the cake.

The room had a long, large dance floor which fit everyone perfectly and comfortably. Their DJ also had a live drummer play along with the songs! I have heard of this option with DJ's before, but never saw it in actual practice. It really added to the excitement and energy of the room. More on that tomorrow!

Next Up: The Reception!!

James and Maria's Wedding Part 1

2012-10-02T05:00:00.000-04:00

I am FINALLY getting to James and Maria's wedding from September 8th! The day after James and Maria's Rehearsal/Rehearsal Dinner, we found ourselves back at the church for their wedding day! Their was one of those amazing moments in time that I will never forget. Seeing Chris standing up there with James made my heart swell at how much we care about these two, and I'm so excited for all that is to come for them in their future.

It was a humid day...but gorgeous, and despite tornado warnings in Queens (WHAT?!) they were able to beat the rain and the wind for everything! It all worked out for the best, and the rain didn't start until we were all tucked away at the reception.

Everything about the ceremony was beautiful. When we walked in we were given programs, a tissue pack for our "tears of joy," and a small thing of bubbles for their exit later on.

The ceremony started and we waited in anticipation for Maria as her bridesmaids and James's groomsmen walked down the aisle, as well as their Junior Bridesmaid, ring bearer and flower girl.

Then we finally got our first look at Maria, and she looked gorgeous! Her gown fit perfectly and showed off her amazing hourglass figure.

The ceremony was beautiful and Tommy and I took those gifts to the altar during mass like no other! (However, I don't like how I look in the pictures so you don't get to see them.)

The bridal party and their significant others then took a party bus out to to the reception!

James had these on the bottom of his shoe

Maria's shoes said "I do" on the bottom, I love these!!

We headed over in the party bus to the beautiful Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Great River for the Bridal Party to get some pictures before the reception.

Next up: Time for Cocktail Hour and the Reception!

Celebrating 8 Years Together

2012-10-01T05:00:00.000-04:00

Even though we had to start back over at one last year, Chris and I are celebrating 8 years together today, and I think that is something worth celebrating.

This is one of the first pictures I have of us together. This was closing night of a show I musically directed at a community theater in Brooklyn our sophomore year of college. The cast and crew rented a limo for the night after the performance and we drove all around Manhattan until very early in the morning. I can't believe this was 8 years ago already, and I can't believe how young we look!!

I think this was after a glass or two of arbor mist...yes. Arbor Mist.

I think this is actually the first picture taken of us. This is how cellphone pictures used to look!

I posted this last year and still love it today.

The Art Of A Good Marriage

Wilferd Arlan Peterson

Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens.

A good marriage must be created.

In marriage the little things are the big things.

It is never being too old to hold hands.

It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day.

It is never going to sleep angry.

It is at no time taking the other for granted;

the courtship should not end

with the honeymoon, it should continue through the years.

It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.

It is standing together facing the world.

It is forming a circle of love that gathers the whole family.

It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice,

but in the spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation

and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.

It is not looking for perfection in each other.

It is cultivating flexibility, patience,

understanding and a sense of humour.

It is having the capacity to forgive.

It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow old.

It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.

It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal,

dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.

It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.

<3 here's to many more wonderful years

Friday Find: Glove and Boots

2012-09-28T05:00:00.000-04:00

Chris and I are off to our last wedding of 2012 today! You may remember Greg's amazing proposal to Ashley on the stage of the Broadway Musical, Wicked, and their big day has finally arrived! They are also using Storymix Media for their wedding, so I will be taking a slew of video and photos today!

I'll give a full report next week, but for now...enjoy this amazingly creative proposal from Glove and Boots from gloveandboots.com. Happy Weekend!

James and Maria's Rehearsal Dinner

2012-09-25T05:00:00.000-04:00

On Friday September 7, Chris and I rushed off after work to James and Maria's rehearsal at the beautiful St. Barnabas church in Bellmore, New York.

When we arrived, the first order of business was to sign the marriage license.

MOH, Joanna, and BM, Chris, sign the marriage license

And then the rehearsal began. Maria walked down the aisle with a cute little flower to hold as her bouquet.

The rehearsal dinner was right down the street at Paddy's Loft, where we all gathered for great drinks, food and fun!

Maria and her cousins

James and the Groomsmen

Maria and her bridesmaids, Jr. Bridesmaid and Flower girl

With James's Family

The happy couple, about to be newlyweds!

Next up: The wedding!

Bloomer's Party at BlogHer '12

2012-09-24T05:00:00.001-04:00

Remember when I went to BlogHer '12 in New York City? Well, while I was there I was asked to film video for the Baby B(L)oomer's Party hosted by BOOMbox Network using the Storymix Media app on both the iphone and ipad. The event was held at the amazing OffSite event space in NYC and it was a fabulous night.

One of my favorite things I discovered at this party was Stacked Wine. These cute little individual plastic wine glasses stack easily and are perfect for picnics, and parties! I definitely snagged a stack of both red and white before leaving!

Now, check out what Ariane at Storymix Media put together with the footage I caught at the party!! I think it came out great and I just know that everyone who was in attendance loves the video she put together!

Friday Find: "Falling" in Love!

2012-09-21T05:00:00.000-04:00

Today's Friday Find teaches us why it's important not to have wedding pictures taken on the limb of a tree! Thank goodness this couple wasn't sitting any higher up!

Edited note: Unfortunately that video didn't get posted and the link is lost! ARRRG these interwebs!

So...in it's place, I'm going to post a truly disturbing video. Sorry...it's that kind of day.
I talked to many people about this article the day I read it: Fake Death Marriage Proposal: Alexey Bykov Faked His Own Death To Propose. I was very upset reading the article...and even more upset watching the video.

This man needs some serious help....
Anyway...have a great weekend!

Mom's Birthday Celebration

2012-09-20T05:00:00.000-04:00

I realized last year that in my lifetime, I had never really planned anything for my mom's birthday before. But looking back on all the amazing parties she's thrown for me during the years, including the planning and help surrounding my wedding last year, my sister and I felt it was due time to pay her back and do something for her. Not to mention, my mom needed a pick-me up after a difficult year of changing schools where she worked, and taking care of my grandma in her finals days. (This is not to diminish my dad's contributions and stress he's been under too! He deserves a huge thank you just as much as my mom.)

So with my mom's impending birthday, a few weeks ago my dad, sister, and I sent her this:

After a really tough year
a new one's begun
And we want to make sure
you have lots of fun

Your birthday is near
and we want to you know
you shouldn't plan a thing
we'll run the show

So kick back and relax
we've taken care of it all
Reserve September 15th
we hope you'll have a ball!

And so, that was all my mom knew. She was told to be ready by 2:00 and we'd take care of it from there. We had a "light" (is it light if you overeat?) lunch of bread, grapes, cheese, and shrimp cocktail at my sister's place and then began our day by heading out to Pinnacle Ridge Winery for some wine tasting!

We bought three bottles of wine here! I made sure to bring plenty of (personalized) water bottles along so we wouldn't get too loopy or dehydrated at the wineries:

With her actual birthdate instead of the 15th

After that, we headed over to Clover Hill Winery for some more tasting! We liked this place much better. It was prettier, larger, and had a better selection of wine.

The Family :)

We knew that two wineries would be enough wine tasting for my mom...she's a lightweight. We had a little time to kill before our dinner reservation, so we headed over to Grim's Greenhouse Farm Market which was right across the street. I just love places like this in the Fall!

We had dinner reservations at The Grille at the Bear Creek Mountain Resort and Conference Center. My mom was super surprised when her good friends started to arrive with gifts in hand! Below, Beth (in blue), is showing off her "Bear Creek Mountain" t-shirt, compliments of the restaurant. What I didn't catch on camera was the waitress spilling an entire tray of drinks at our table, and onto Beth (who was wearing a white blouse no less) when we arrived. It was a bit of a scene, but the waitress and restaurant handled it really well and will reimburse Beth for any cleaning or replacement of her white blouse.

After our amazing dinner...

My sister, Melissa, enjoying her burger

My mom made an impromptu speech thanking everyone for being there and surprising her

And then the gift opening began...

The restaurant manager and hostess even brought these flowers to my mom because she mentioned she liked them when we arrived! The restaurant was a fantastic place, I couldn't have been happier with the service and the food, even despite the little drink mishap!

To close out the night, we headed back to my sister's house for cake and ice cream!

Mom showing off her new apron

My husband is very helpful :)
Carrying all her gifts to the car!

We ordered a Chocolate with Peanut Butter Cream cake from Emmaus Bakery, and it was delicious. I had always heard that this bakery was amazing, and now I can say that I agree!

All in all it was a successful day, and everything went mostly how we hoped it would go! Most importantly, my mom had an awesome time, and that's all we could have hoped for.

Happy Birthday to a loving and deserving Mom, we love you very much!

Flowers from her friends, Christine and Jim's, garden

Danielle and Rob's Wedding

2012-09-19T05:00:00.000-04:00

Though the Hibachi/Sake Bomb crew stayed out quite a bit later than we did that night. We had a wedding to go to the next day, so Chris and I called it an early night (as in...midnight) and got up the next day to head to New Jersey for Danielle and Rob's wedding at the beautiful Perona Farms in New Jersey. The venue was gorgeous, and we were super wowed as we drove up and walked into the space.

The ceremony was in an outside garden off the building. Danielle looked beautiful and so happy as she walked down the aisle.

Danielle and Rob wrote their own vows, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't cry through most of it...there were very few dry eyes in the house...er, garden.

The Wagner College crew at the ceremony

After the ceremony we walked back over to the building for Cocktail Hour. On the walk over, the strap on my dress broke as I went to hug a college friend! Thank goodness for Danielle's bathroom basket filled with everything anyone could possibly need at a wedding, sometimes those really come in handy! Thanks to a safety pin, I was back in action in no time and outside for some "Champs", paninis, and a whole table of fresh prepared food from local farms!

After Cocktail Hour we were ushered into the main ballroom, which was beautifully set-up for dinner and also had a band warming up for the start of the reception.

Danielle got her bridesmaids wine glasses hand-painted with an image of their bridesmaid dress: a very cute, personalized touch! The favors were playing cards with pictures of places they've traveled together since they started dating. I had no idea what world travelers these two were! It seems they've been everywhere, and seeing their own pictures they've taken around the world was really neat! The top card in the pack said the following: "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams"

They also had beautiful, full centerpieces

Top left: Dinner menu, Top right: Sweetheart table
Bottom left: Card box, Bottom right: Memorial candle

The Bride and Groom were announced and they shared their first dance!

Next up, the parent dances. Danielle's dad was very dapper and these two had quite the moves on the dance floor!

Rob danced to "I Hope you Dance" with his mother:

After a bit of dancing, it was time for the cake cutting:

This little man stole the show with a rousing rendition of "We Will Rock You"

Then the bouquet toss:

Danielle and Rob also had a photo booth, which was a ton of fun (and explains Chris's garb below). We got two film strips: one to keep, and one to put into their guest book!

This was, of course, my favorite part of the day. A full dessert table with different chocolate dipping sauces at the end.

Then we finished out the afternoon dancing and having a blast catching up with friends!

Congratulations to Danielle and Rob, and thanks so much for inviting us to share this special day with you both! We weren't able to sneak Rob away for a picture, but at least we got one with the bride!