Thursday, October 28, 2010

Marry Me

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Chris and I went out with Kerry and Mike on Friday night and Kerry told me that I just HAD to make sure that I listened to the new Train song entitled "Marry Me".

Woa folks...woa. This song is just beautiful.
Though we have "picked" a song, I have always said that I could be easily swayed should another song come out before our wedding that was a definite contender..and this could be it. Though...I think Kerry is thinking the same thing so I would need to check with her first!! ;) Either way, you can bet this will be used for future slide shows, and wedding related uses in one way or another!




"Marry Me"
Train

Forever can never be long enough for me
Feel like I've had long enough with you
Forget the world now we won't let them see
But there's one thing left to do

Now that the weight has lifted
Love has surely shifted my way
Marry Me
Today and every day
Marry Me
If I ever get the nerve to say
Hello in this cafe
Say you will
Mm-hmm
Say you will
Mm-hmm

Together can never be close enough for me
Feel like I am close enough to you
You wear white and I'll wear out the words I love
And you're beautiful
Now that the wait is over
And love and has finally shown her my way
Marry me
Today and every day
Marry me
If I ever get the nerve to say hello in this cafe
Say you will
Mm-hmm
Say you will
Mm-hmm

Promise me
You'll always be
Happy by my side
I promise to
Sing to you
When all the music dies

And marry me
Today and everyday
Marry me
If I ever get the nerve to say hello in this cafe
Say you will
Mm-hmm
Say you will
Marry me
Mm-hmm

What was/is your first dance song?

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Christina and Adrian Wedding Part 2- The Reception

After cocktail hour, we were led into the main dining room for the reception. Christina had placed pictures of her and Adrian growing up, as well as pictures of their parents all around the venue. This table was leading into the main dining room:

Keeping with the Season, the centerpiece where we picked up our place cards had apples hanging from it!
Our table centerpieces were so pretty! She alternated between low and high centerpieces on each of the tables.
Their beautiful sweetheart table with birdcage for envelopes:
Sweetheart table with Bridesmaid Bouquets. Courtesy K. Bufano
Their First Dance was so cute. They danced to Dean Martin "Ain't That a Kick in the Head"! It was actually an upbeat, old-fashioned song and I think it's pretty apparent that these two go dancing a lot! I can tell you one thing...my first dance will NOT be this graceful!!
Then there was some crazzzy dancing!

There was also lots of Russian singing. At one point, a large group of men walked onto the dance floor carrying a serving tray filled with two (very full) glasses of vodka. They approached Christina and Adrian who both proceeded to drink the entire thing, and put their glasses down upside down on the serving platter to show that they drank it all. Then, they went to each set of parents, plus grandparents!! Christina's 93 year old grandmother downed an entire glass of vodka...that's a trooper!

These two were the craziest dances! Watch THESE!!:



There were speeches, the father/daughter dance, the mother/son dance and of course, the cake cutting!
Courtesy K. Bufano
Courtesy K. Bufano
Courtesy K. Bufano
Of course, we made sure to have our fun too!!

Courtesy K. Bufano
Courtesy K. Bufano
Courtesy K. Bufano

It was all over way too fast, but it was well worth waking up for work the next day feeling like I had been run over by a truck!! A very belated "Congratulations" to Christina and Adrian, best of luck and love to you both as you begin to start your life in SAN DIEGO over the next few months!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Christina and Adrian Wedding- Ceremony and Cocktail Hour


Courtesy K. Bufano
I am very upset it took me this long to post about Christina and Adrian's wedding. I had sooo many pictures and videos that I had to sort through first. Plus, I was so happy that my friend Kristin over at Dining Detour was with me at this wedding, because not only is she just as fanatical about taking pictures and capturing these events as I am, she has a pretty amazing camera as well. I never realized how much of a difference having a great camera can make, so therefore, about 90% of these pictures will be courtesy of K. Bufano! Thanks so much Kristin! I am going to recap this wedding in two separate entries, so here is part 1, and part 2 will posted tomorrow. 
Kristin, Kate and Me! Reunited and it feels so good....

This was a very traditional Russian Wedding, which I was so excited for and found incredibly interesting and equally awesome. The church was adorable, tucked back on a little road in Sea Cliff, Long Island. The inside was small, with no seats, an altar, and smelled like incense, (I love that smell).
Courtesy K. Bufano
Courtesy K. Bufano
Right before the ceremony, all the guests filed in and gathered on either side of the church, creating the aisle for both the bride and groom. I really teared up as soon as I saw Christina walk into the church. She was just so pretty, and so utterly excited....seeing her look at Adrian for the first time was really awesome.
 Courtesy K. Bufano
Courtesy K. Bufano
Courtesy K. Bufano
The ceremony involved "The Crowning" (below), drinking wine from a shared cup, Scripture Reading, "Procession around the wedding table", "Blessing", walking around the table three times, (which was harder than you'd think! Her maid of honor had to hold up her train, two groomsmen had to hold the crowns over them, they had to keep their hands under the priests stole, and the area to walk in was not that big) drinking wine from a cup, holding candles (some wax dripped on her dress!) lots of chanting, and 4-part harmony singing.
After the ceremony, the newlyweds lined up along the altar with their families while we all congratulated them and gave them our best. As we exited, we were handed little cups of rose petals to throw at them as they made their way out of the church.

But before they could leave, they had to pay the price to pass....a Kiss!!
Courtesy K. Bufano




After they took some pictures at the church, they were whisked away in their get-away car!

We had about 2 hours before the reception started. Luckily, Glen Cove Mansion had an awesome pub upstairs that was more like a lounge with couches and televisions which happened to have a bar. The guys were able to watch the football game and bond, and we all got drinks, some food, and also walked around the grounds a little bit and took some pictures!

 

At Cocktail hour, and through a lot of the reception, they had an awesome band playing traditional songs. I have NO ideaaa what these instruments are called, but it was definitely something I've never seen before!


There was an outside patio, and we were served amazing mimosas as we entered. Christina and Adrian joined in on the cocktail hour, and we got some great shots of them.
 
K. Bufano and Christina. Courtesy K. Bufano
TOMORROW: The Reception!
Courtesy K. Bufano

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Wedding Recap Teaser Slieshow

I realllllly wanted to have my recap of Christina and Adrian's wedding ready for today...but work is really giving me a swift kick in the you-know-what this week and I sadly, do not have anything for the recap. I think the problem is, I have sooo much I want to say and talk about that it's overwhelming me and I'm just putting it off.

I do however, have a slideshow from the event! You can see how gorgeous and happy the bride looks, as well as some videos of those crazy russian dances from the reception!! I really like this slideshow a lot, so this is a little teaser, and the recap will hopefully be up on Friday!!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Bridesmaid Dress Fitting

What a weekend guys. Seriously, I had the most amazing, crazy, fun weekend and I am absolutely exhausted. I don't think I've ever done so much running around in my life!

I will post about Christina and Adrian's wedding as soon as possible, but let me tell you, their wedding was just incredible! I have never been to a wedding like this before. It was full of lots of vodka drinking, Russian dancing and instruments I've never seen, chanting, traditional songs..etc., etc. Of course, Christina was ASBOLUTELY STUNNING, she was glowing the entire day. I cannot WAIT to post about this wedding.

But before I get to that, I have to share my amazing day Saturday with my bridesmaids, minus Cassie :(. I got into Pennsylvania late Friday night after having way too much fun at Kate's Happy Hour that night. Saturday morning, Smith and Sister Melissa met up at my parent's house so we could carpool together. The other three girls were meeting us at the Dress Fitting.
Smith, Me, Melissa!
From there, we headed out to Bridals by Sandra for our 11:30 appointment. The car ride was great. I was really looking forward to some quality catch-up time with Smith and Melissa, and that's exactly what it was. Molly was there when we arrived, and Mandy and Mal joined us a little later after hitting some major traffic coming from New Jersey. At the dress shop, the girls tried on a sample of the dress so we could see how beautiful they looked in it, and then got measured. Once that was all taken care of, I was finally able to show them my wedding gown!! They didn't think that I would want to show them because I'm keeping it a secret, but I'm not keeping it a secret from them! I was so excited to show them my dress, and to see it again for myself. As the great, and wonderfully trained bridesmaids they are, they all loved it, and "oh'd" and "ah'd" exactly as I had hoped they would, and just enough for me to get giddy and excited about my dress all over again.
That's my dress in the Garment bag to the right!!

Free kiffles and pecan tassies! Can my Bridal Salon get any better??
After the fitting, my mom made a reservation for us at this adorable restaurant in downtown Nazareth called Bistro on Main.
The town was having their Halloween Day parade that day, so we had to park a few blocks away and walk, but it was a beautiful Fall day.

The parade went on the whole time we were in eating our lunch, which was highly entertaining! The food there was good, it was a cute, little restaurant which just had the six of us and this adorable older couple eating there. The woman (who took the picture below) came up to talk to us because she overheard us talking about weddings. It turned out, she and her husband had just gotten married 8 days ago, and they were in town from Florida visiting his daughter! They were a really cute couple and she was so excited to talk to us about weddings and asked me a ton of questions. When they left she told us we made her day, and she wishes me the best of luck. She totally made my day, too!
The restaurant was pretty slow...it took them a loooong time to make our food: which consisted of salads and paninis..I guess they were waiting for the lettuce to grow?? But, I really can't complain because it allowed us to have an extra long chance to hang out. Who knows when we'll all be able to get together again? It may not be until the Bachelorette party, or even the wedding, though I sincerely hope that's not the case. This forced us to just stop, for once, for about 3 hours and just do nothing but catch-up, and honestly it was awesome. I had a whole list of wedding related things I wanted to go over with them, and realized I didn't even get a chance to go over half of my things because we kept going off on so many other tangents and stories! I'll have to email the rest of my bullet points to them this week (I bet they're really excited haha). My only wish for the day is that Cassie was able to join us.

My mom was treating us to lunch, which was such an awesome treat and so generous of her to do! We only have one thing to say to her:
Thanks for an amazing Saturday afternoon Ladies, I love you all, and I'm getting so pumped!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Christina and Adrian's Wedding


The 5th and final wedding of 2010 has arrived! Sunday is Christina and Adrian's wedding at Glen Cove Mansion on Long Island (so close to me!) Considering Christina works in Special Events at the Metropolitan Opera, this event is going to be top-notch and I cannot wait to see what Glen Cove Mansion is like; I've heard amazing things! I went to Christina's facebook page to choose a photo for this, and I seriously could not pick just one to highlight. Her engagement photos were so amazing and unique because it's not often one gets a chance to get professional photos taken at the Metropolitan Opera unless it's for their own marketing use, or you know...Sarah Jessica Parker and Chris Noth al la this promotional picture shot for Sex and the City 2:
http://sophistikitty.blogspot.com/2008/05/fabulous-pictures-of-carrie-mr-big-by.html
The Metropolitan Opera was a beautiful backdrop for these two as they share a love of opera, and as I said, it's where Christina works. I really wanted to share some of their gorgeous photos with you.








 
And my absolute FAVORITE!

From what I hear, this wedding is going to be pretty wild and crazy. Congratulations Christina and Adrian, I can't wait to celebrate with you on Sunday!