Rehearsal Dinner + Surprise for the Groom!

The night before the wedding, we had a wonderful rehearsal dinner at The Capital Grille in Chestnut Hill. Food and service were both excellent. Our party had a private room (the wine room), and while a little tight for nearly 30 guests, it created a cozy space to catch up with family. DH and I are incredibly grateful to his parents for hosting the event - it was a great night!

I wore my previously decided upon outfit, and DH let me play dress up with him for the night :) I had him in black Calvin Klein pants, a CK black & white checked gingham shirt and orange tie - didn't he look adorable? I love this outfit - I'm going to have to find an excuse for him to wear it again!

For a surprise, I got DH a "groom's cake." This is something traditionally done in the south, but has made a big debut in the north recently. Plus, any excuse to have more cake is just fine by us. I worked with Konditor Meister in Braintree, who also did our beautiful wedding cake. DH is a part of an outdoor organization, and they recently purchased a tipi (even drove up to his sister's house in NY to cut down all the poles - which they spent months sanding and preparing).

I knew instantly that I wanted a camping/tipi theme for the cake - but many of the images I found online (after googling "camping cake") just weren't what I was looking for. Most were just disasters composed of plastic trees, green airbrushing, and far too much buttercream. But then I found an adorable cake that looked like paper cutouts! However instead of a tent, I wanted a tipi, in honor of his new venture. I sent the photo to KM, and they worked their magic!

How cute is this cake?! My mother picked it up, and she had to wait at the bakery because KM loved it so much, they were photographing it for their catalog!

I chose carrot cake as the flavor - DH had loved it at our tasting, but we thought it might be too heavy for the wedding cake. It was perfect for the groom's cake though - so delicious!

I know DH was really surprised and I'm so glad I could do something for him. I know it often seems like the wedding is more about the bride - but he put just as much work into our special day (if not more, there were power tools involved...) as I did, and I really wanted to give him his own special moment.

A Blessing From the Universe?

After our wedding ceremony, a few people came up to me asking, "Did you know a dragonfly landed on your dress and sat for awhile when you read your vows?" How amazing is that!? I kept hoping someone, somewhere, got a picture of it.

Am I ever lucky? DH's sister did! (I know it's hard to see in this tiny photo, but it's the dark spot on my dress) And she also wrote this wonderful quote to accompany the photo:

The dragonfly has been a symbol of happiness, new beginnings and change for many centuries. In Japan, the dragonfly symbolizes a new light and joy. Some animal symbolism has the dragonfly representing good luck, prosperity, swiftness, purity, harmony and strength. Some Native Americans believe dragonflies are the souls of the dead. There are also many cultures that believe that the meaning of a dragonfly is happiness, courage and subconscious thoughts. It is also believed that if you see two dragonflies paired together that they represent love and maturity.

Incredible, right? Although we had some mini-disasters the day of the wedding, the ceremony was just such a magical experience and I feel so grateful to have had that moment. I'm now thinking of getting a small dragonfly tattoo (someplace hidden!) in memory of the day.

Project You Missed: Out of Town Bags

So here is another great project that I'm really proud of - our Out of Town (OOT) bags. These bags were handed out to guests as they checked into the hotel, and were chock full o'goodies!

CONTENTS:

• Bag & Tag - I used an orange kraft bag, purchased at Michael's. I stamped our damask monogram in the corner in black ink. I designed a "thank you" tag in InDesign, which had a message from DH and I on the back welcoming everyone to Boston and wishing them a Happy Halloween! I rounded the corners of the tag with my corner punch, and tied the tag onto the bag with some left over double-faced black satin ribbon.
• Traveling Music CD - this was the priciest item in the bag, since we had to purchase a whole spindle of CDs, and the playlist from iTunes so we could gift the music legally. I made holders for the CDs out of kraft cardstock and a design I found online. I punched a half circle at the top to make it easier to remove the CD, and glued the sides closed. I made a matching label for the CD (all labels were purchased at onlinelabels.com, in kraft). All the songs were about traveling, or going home, or just travel-related, and included a lot of my favorite artists. Here is the playlist:

1. Boston, Augustana
2. Full Moon, The Black Ghosts
3. I'm Walking This Road Because..., Fascinoma
4. Ride, Cary Brothers
5. Maps, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
6. Passenger Seat, Death Cab for Cutie
7. Winding Road, Bonnie Somerville
8. Flightless Bird, American Mouth, Iron & Wine
9. Somewhere Only We Know, Keane
10. Standing Still, Jewel
11. Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol
12. Home, Michael Bublé

• "Dirty" Water - we took the labels off Poland Springs bottles, and put on a label I designed that said "Love that DIRTY WATER Boston you're my home" - couldn't resist!
• Erica's Homemade Trail Mix - I make a mean trail mix ;) I made my favorite for the OOT bags; mixed nuts, dark chocolate chips, and dried cranberries. I put the mix in damask-skull print cello bags (found at Michael's) and affixed a craft label on front.
• Mike's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies - believe it or not, they are from Costco! For some reason they have the yummiest cookies - soft with big chunks of chocolate in every bite. I put two of the cookies in a skull & crossbones cell bag (also found at Michael's) and tied it with a small kraft tag.
• 2 Candy Bars (not pictured) - we also included a couple of our favorite candy bars in the bags.

These bags were a lot of work - a lot more work than originally anticipated! Had I not been planning for these months in advance, I would have skipped them altogether. Definitely a time (and money) consuming project - but I really wanted a special treat at the hotel for all of our guests who traveled so far for our big day. Thankfully a day or so before the wedding my mother came over and helped us assemble them, while DH manned the heat gun - the inked stamp on the front took forever to dry!

Project You Missed: Memorial Candles

Hey everyone! So, as I mentioned before, I wanted to post about a couple of projects that I did the week of the wedding and didn't have time to blog about. The first project is our memorial candles.

Materials: 10" tall cylinder vases (purchased at Michael's), frosted vellum paper (Staples), glue roller (Wal-mart... the only thing I've purchased there in the past 5 years, and it's the best quality for the lowest price, ha!).

Directions:

1. Layout text in either a word or design program (I used InDesign). I kept my text around 3.5 inches wide, and centered it in the middle of the page. Make sure your page is set to landscape (horizontal) - otherwise it won't fit around the vase.
2. Print the design on the vellum, then wrap it around the vase.
3. Make a mark on the paper if there is any overlap, then trim one edge (I trimmed about .25 of an inch off one side of mine).
4. Run a line of glue on one side of the paper. Position it on the vase, but don't press down. I positioned my vellum about .25 of an inch from the bottom, leaving about 1.5 of an inch clear on the top - you can center the paper on the vase as well - I just thought it looked more interesting this way. When you have the paper correctly aligned and straight, press the line of glue down to secure.
5. With the other end of the paper loose, run another line of glue on the opposite edge. I found that rolling the paper/vase on my lap worked best at keeping things straight. Don't press the other edge of glue down yet though - you may need to fiddle with the end a bit, to get it to line up with the other edge, keeping the paper as tight as possible against the vase while you make adjustments. Then press the glue down in place.
6. Place an LED votive in the vase and you're done!

For each of the candles, the phrase at the top was the same:

"This light shines in loving memory of a life and love remembered"

Then I put the name of the deceased relative(s), and I added a different quote for each at the bottom. Here are the quotes I used:

• "Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy" (Eskimo proverb, for my great-grandmother)
• "The heart hat its own memory, like the mind. And in it are enshrined the precious keepsakes, into which is wrought the giver's loving thought." (H.W. Longfellow, for my grandfather)
• "Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight." (Rossiter W. Raymond, for DH's grandparents)
• "To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die." (Thomas Campbell, for DH's grandfather)

We placed the candles on the fireplace mantel with all of the other family photos we had. Here is a shot of the candles, lit up, from our professional photographer (Lisa Rigby).

Newlywed Chop

After a wedding, many new wives opt for a "newlywed chop" - hacking off the hair we so patiently grew for our wedding day. I couldn't wait to get mine cut! I actually wanted to delay the honeymoon a day to get it chopped, but had to wait until we got back.

A few years ago, I said off the cuff that I wouldn't cut my hair until we got married. Jokes ensued about changing my name to Rapunzel. But I actually stuck with it - mostly because I had no idea what sort of style I wanted. I tried adorable blunt bangs for our engagement photos (and I was tired of the comparisons drawn between me and Bella on the Twilight poster... I had this hair first!), and loved my bangs - but had to grow them out for the actual wedding. It turns out, I grew it too long. My stylist had to hide and tuck hair every which way, but my wedding day hair turned out amazing. Back in January, about a week after we got engaged, I tore a photo out of one of my magazines and held onto it, knowing the day would come when I could get rid of the long locks.

Not that long hair isn't beautiful - mine was gorgeous, when I did it. Therein lies the catch. I never wanted to do it. Long hair is a PITA - it takes lots of work. And it gets caught in EVERYTHING! I can't tell you the number of times I woke up in the middle of the night because it was caught under my arm or DH had rolled over onto it. My hair also grows very fast - by cutting it off now, it would be long again for the summer.

So - I present to you - my newlywed chop! Easy and stylish!

BEFORE

AFTER

My stylist cut about 10 inches total off, 9 of which will be donated to Locks for Love, an organization that makes wigs for children with cancer. You're supposed to donate 10 inches minimum, but I wanted a longer bob. They can still sell the hair to help offset manufacturing costs - so I like to think I'm still helping :)

I'm back! Now let's rewind!

Hey everyone! Yes, we are back from our incredible honeymoon in St. John. I'm just SO glad we went (almost) immediately following the wedding. The day was wonderful, but a TON of work - and we needed both a break and reward for that 10 months of hard labor!

Back to the trip - I HIGHLY recommend visiting if you haven't been! The island is a secret garden - mostly preserve land, there is no building permitted on the majority of 19 square miles of tropical jungle. DH ("dear husband") and I took every road on the map - and some off! We rented a jeep for the week and spent a lot of time exploring. The photo above was taken at the top of Peace Hill, one of the ruined Sugar Mills on the island. I think I was, hands down, the palest person in all of St. John!

We loved driving on the left, on roads that were more like roller coasters. Mostly we relaxed, made no plans, chased around lizards and sat on white beaches with azure water. It was heavenly. Ok, it wasn't perfect, I was miserable the first couple of days when I realized I don't care for either sun or heat - but your body gets used to it :) The bugs also loved me, so I wore "au de OFF" every day, along with SPF 50!

Amazingly, almost everyone we met was from New England! Apparently St. John is known as "Boston South." DH and I definitely started getting ideas of pulling up stakes and moving ourselves! But, it was back to reality!

So, for the next week or so, I'd like to wrap my blog up by rewinding a bit - going over some projects that I completed the week of the wedding and didn't have time to post, breaking down the wedding to show you all the projects in action, posting some more photos of wedding events, etc. I'm still here - not sure if I still have an audience out there - but if you're still on board, stay tuned!

Preview Photos!

My truly amazing wedding photographer, Lisa Rigby, is some sort of record-setting photo-processing genius. She's also insanely talented.

She's already got preview photos of our wedding up on her blog: click here!

We're in awe over them - but we're also in the middle of packing, since our flight leaves in a mere 8 hours! So that's all for now!

Wicked Bride: Wed

Hello everyone! So sorry for the lack of posts this week, it was a bit crazy. I completed a bunch of projects I wasn't able to share because of time - but will make sure they get up here eventually!

We're home now and relaxing - the calm before the next storm! We've got to get our house in order, and get packed - hopping on a plane EARLY Tuesday morning!

I don't have too much in the way of pictures yet (the one posted here is by my brother, via iPhone...) - there are a ton circulating on Facebook, but I haven't gotten a chance to look through everything yet. When we are back, after November 11, I should have some preview shots from the photographer to share with everyone. I'll also be able to share a lot of little details that I couldn't before, since they were surprises!

The wedding was a blast - I hope everyone enjoyed it! We seemed to have one wind-related disaster after another - but as my new husband says - it could have been a lot worse!

I wanted to share some AMAZING photos that our uplighting designer took: click here! I had no idea that among his many talents, Paul is also a photographer! He captured some great moments - and was really integral in helping us decide on what we wanted our day to be. I can't recommend them highly enough - went above and beyond anything we could imagine. Uplighting is what turns your decor from special to spectacular!

See you all in a few weeks!