Cake Tasting

Wow folks, we had such a productive wedding weekend! We had our cake tasting, picked out my wedding band and narrowed down some ring options for Chris, planned our HONEYMOON, and started on some of our D-I-Y projects including our table numbers which should be done this week!!

Firstly, I'll start with our cake tasting!! We made this appointment last minute when our weekend opened up. Our venue provides the cake for us, and it's included in our package. All we had to do was set up a tasting at Jeanie's Bakery, and then let our venue know what flavors we want.

This place was adorable with a great display of cakes and desserts:

Waiting for caaaake

After we picked out which cake fillings we wanted to try, we waited for them to get the sample plate together.

 

We had both vanilla and chocolcate cake pieces with (from top right and going counter-clockwise): chocolate Moose filling, Buttercream frosting (this will be our top), chocolate pudding filling, cannoli cream filling, cookies and cream filling, and french cream filling.

2 minutes later:

Clearly, one side of the plate was favored over the other...

We liked the vanilla cake with either the cannoli cream filling, or the French Cream Filling. Both were amazing and we're a little torn. We have the option to have different fillings for the different layers, but they look so similar, it might be hard to tell them apart once it's cut. We don't have to let our venue know for another month or two, so we have time to think about it. I also think that cannoli's are served as part of our dessert anyway that night, so we might end up going with the French Cream filling for more variety. It was a quick tasting, but it was great fun for our Saturday afternoon!

I was a HAPPY CAMPER! No really, I was in such a bad mood beforehand and once we left my mood completely turned around:

As far as the look is concerned: We will have a selection of about 15-20 cake designs to chose from, since our venue is providing the cake. I haven't looked at the pictures yet, so I have no idea what the options are. If they happen to be awful, we can upgrade our cake to a different design. But honestly, I'm not going to be picky about how our cake looks, and I'm sure one of those options will be more than fine.

Still...remember those dot candies on paper when you were little? How adorable is this cake? I may not get this for my wedding...buutttt my birthday is only 11 months away!!

Source

Did you meet on Facebook? Invite Mark Zuckerberg to your wedding!

Results from Wednesday's Wedding Poll:

What Season would/did/are you get married in?

Winter: 2

Spring: 9

Summer: 9

Fall: 8

This is fantastic! A couple from Tel Aviv who met on facebook are inviting Mark Zuckerburg to their March 17th wedding! They posted the video below to youtube this week, and so far has well over 20,000 views! Read the full article here:

Pre-Cana Session 3

Tuesday night was the 3rd session of our Pre-Cana Classes. The focus of this week's lesson was God.  I think I've mentioned this before, but I am not Catholic and I was not raised in a religious household. Though I am getting married in a Catholic church, they have been fine and understanding with the fact that I'm not Catholic. They also never pressured me to convert to Catholicism. I do think it's important to learn at least the basis of a religion growing up and then taking that to form your own opinions one way or the other, so Chris and I do plan to raise our children Catholic. I on the other hand, am still trying to figure out my overall feelings on God and religion as a whole, which is why I have decided not to convert. Needless to say, I was a little nervous about this week's class because of the religious subject matter.

Starting off our session, we were each given a piece of paper and some crayons. We were asked to draw a picture of a tree, representing God. Then we had to draw another tree in relation to the "God tree" which represented our future spouse. Then, we had to draw ourselves in connection to the two trees. I get it now, but it was explained in an even more confusing way and we had to have her explain it probably about 10 times before any of us started. Even then I still didn't get it right because I only drew one tree, but luckily I wasn't the only one who did that!

Here is my picture:

I drew a big tree, with me peeking out from behind a hole in the tree. Then I drew Chris sitting and leaning next to the tree. I explained that this was me peering out, and inquisitive about God and religion. Chris was on the outside hanging out next to God (the tree) because he has already stepped outside and knows more about religion than I do. Corny I know, but I had to draw something and we were given like 5 minutes!

This was Chris's picture.

I was sooooo proud of his, I thought it was adorable. He explained that here the big tree is God, the little tree is me, and he's on the hammock in between the two and I quote: "Just chillin' out and connecting the two." And that is essentially what Chris is doing. Chris isn't that religious of a person either. He was raised Catholic, and went through all the catholic formalities of baptism, communion, and confirmation, but that's pretty much where it ends. However, this isn't to say that he doesn't embrace and appreciate the religion he was raised with. There was a point in our relationship when Chris did express that he would like me to consider converting, and I did consider it for awhile. But when I came back telling him that my decision was not to convert, he understood and was happy that I at least thought about it. I just do not feel right converting if I'm not going to put my whole self into it. I would feel like it's something I "should" do as opposed to something I want to do. Maybe one day I'll change my mind...but right now, I'm not ready.

After drawing time, all the girls went into another room and the guys stayed behind. We each got a pencil and a notepad and had about 5 minutes to write a love letter to our significant other. Of course the girls were in there pencils flying, writing novels, tearing through pencils and writing multiple pages. We could hear the guys start talking and carrying on in the other room after about a minute. These letters were not to share with the class at all. We went back, tucked them away, and can read them whenever we want to: tonight, tomorrow, our wedding day, or even 5 years from now. We still haven't exchanged ours. All I know is that he wrote mine in purple crayon...of course. We're either going to exchange letters this weekend or save them until Valentine's Day.

That really was all we did this week. It was much shorter than usual. They gave us a packet about "God and your relationship" with some questions. While most of the questions are difficult for me to answer, they get me thinking, which I realize is the whole point of the questions in the first place. We ended the night with this prayer:

The prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Are you a religious person? Is your fiance/husband/significant other?

Don't forget to take this week's poll: What season did/are/would you get married in?

Wednesday's Wedding Poll

As you know, Chris and I are getting married in the Spring. This season worked out best for us based on the time we got engaged, which was the summer of 2009. We knew we wanted a longer engagement but really, not longer than two years. That meant either a Fall 2010 wedding which was a little too soon, or a Spring 2011 wedding. Sometimes, throughout my planning, I wondered if we should have gone with Fall. Like when I discovered my love for anemones and kale, but found out they were seasonal in the Fall. Or, as we were attending some of the amazing Fall weddings we went to this year. I feel like with the typical Fall icons (apples, pumpkins, apple cider, leaves, burnt orange) you can really get creative playing up the season.

But in the end, we chose Spring, and I can't be anything but happy with this time of year. I'm excited for gorgeous bright flowers, birds chirping outside, beautiful green grass, and our guests totally ready and refreshed for a party after hibernating all winter. You really can't go wrong with any time of year, each season offers its  own pros and cons. I read this on another blog yesterday: "What should I do if it rains? Smile...and hope there's a rainbow!"

What season did/will you get married in? What made you choose this time of year?
Or, What season do you want to get married in if you're not engaged (that one's for you Kate!)






"...All you have to do is call" -James Taylor

Results posted Friday!

Monograms!

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my super-lovely Maid of Honor and sister, Melissa! WAHOO!! 30 never looked so good!! Just kidding..she's 22. Ah, to be young...

Last week, I came upon a blog and was very inspired by her D-I-Y details, specifically her monogram, which she highlights here. I soon decided to get to work on creating my own! I started out trying to do this in Powerpoint, but after finding this "how-to" website, I was able to do it much more easily in Word. After a few hours of playing around, and downloading a free "Chopin Script" font, I finally came up with these results!:

Here it is with color:
Darker Green-

Lighter Green-

The website above helped me with its step-by-step guide, but was slightly confusing. Here's my guide, using Word 2007.

1. Open Microsoft Word
2. Choose Insert - Textbox
3. Type and format the letter the way you like. I downloaded the font "Chopin Script" from 1001fonts.com.
4.  Do that again two more times for the other wording, or letters, you prefer to use.
5. While holding down the CTRL key, click on all three textboxes to highlight them.
6. Go to Format - Text Box Style - Shape Fill - No Fill
7. Go to Format - Text Box Style - Shape Outlines -  No Outline
8. Select all letters again, while holding down the SHIFT key. Still holding SHIFT, right click anywhere on the letters.  Select "Grouping" then "Group". Now, the image is all locked together.
9. Highlight the image, and hit COPY.
10. Paste it into PAINT, where you can crop it down to the size you want. "Save As" a JPG and there is your image!

This took me several attempts to get right, and was a bit confusing. However, once I got it down, it was really simple! Now, I need your help with one thing:

I want to add this to some things for the wedding (i.e. program, or menu card or something), does anyone have any ideas how to get rid of the white background here so that I can insert JUST the text into a document? Would I need photoshop to do that?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Multicolor Search Lab

My wedding colors are black, cream and clover, but when it came time to pick flowers, I knew I wanted some more color incorporated into the arrangements. I was mostly leaning toward shades of purple, but wasn't positive if that was still the look I was going for. Molly sent me this awesome website two weeks ago that really helped me envision what mix of colors look great together. It's called the multicolor search lab, and it finds pictures on flicker with a combination of the colors you chose. Now, I am definitely leaning toward adding yellows to my color scheme!

Isn't this a pretty floral arrangement? It has ALL my colors! I think it's so vibrant and spring-like, which is great. I'm definitely saving this picture to my weddzilla account!

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It reminds me of the johnny jump-ups that used to grow all over my lawn every summer growing up in Pennsylvania..

Johnny Jump-ups: Source

Be sure to check out the multicolor search lab!

What are your wedding colors?

4 Months!

The results of Wednesday's wedding poll:

What did/is your groom wear/wearing for your wedding? Check all that apply

Tie: 16

Bowtie: 4

Vest: 16

Cummerbund: 0

None of the above: 1

In general, this seemed to generate quite a bit of different responses, and it seems everyone kind of does their own thing when it comes to tuxedos.

In other news: Today, we are 4 months away from the wedding! Holy cow!!

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As I said the other day, Wednesday night I was invited to be part of a focus group for brides-to-be and newlyweds about a new website to help with Long Island wedding planning. When I first arrived at Westbury Manor, I saw many couples there and was really upset because maybe I was supposed to bring Chris and didn't realize it (the invitation did not indicate to at all). It turned out that they were couples who are having their weddings at Westbury Manor and the owners wanted to get their opinions as well. I talked to a nice couple, and a girl who got married a year and a half ago for most of the night. They had passed horsdouvres, open bar, full buffet dinner, and a dessert bar with chocolate fondue. It was pretty snazzy! They had us fill out a bunch of surveys and answer questions while the organizers walked around table to table to get our general impressions about our wedding planning process, and the type of online resources we use. To be honest, the whole things wasn't exactly what I had pictured. Many people were dressed in jeans, it was a large group and so it wasn't as intimate as I had hoped. I got a darn good free meal out of it, and feel that I voiced my general opinions and ideas in the paperwork.

My friend Ashley sent me this super 8 video a long time ago. There are a lot of amazing Super 8 wedding videos at Kevin Von Qualen's vimeo account. Check them out! Here's one of my favorites, I love this video style!

Aspen, Colorado - Super 8 Film from Kevin Von Qualen on Vimeo.

Pre-Cana session 2

I'm a little late today on the post! Tuesday night was session 2 of our 5 week Pre-Cana classes. Everyone is very shy and quiet in this group, and Chris and I are no exception, but it makes the evening a bit awkward. The wife did most of the talking, and her husband would interject little stories or words of wisdom here and there. She took us through a packet on this week's theme of "Communication." As I learned from my mother when I was a teenager (probably even earlier than that), and as I learned again this week: Communication is the most important factor in a marriage.

We talked about fighting; about not keeping your feelings pent up inside you to let things fester; about explaining your feelings with your partner; and about the difference between a "clean fighter" and a "dirty fighter". 

• You're a "clean fighter" if you keep to the issue at hand, are objective, keep it impersonal, listen, are honest, don't exaggerate and rely on facts. 
• You're a "dirty fighter" if you don't listen, don't pay attention, spend your time thinking about what you want to say, interrupt, get defensive, attack, drag in other issues, exaggerate, and try to win rather than compromise. 

I'll admit, Chris and I are a little bit of both...it depends on the fight. And both of us could probably benefit from reminding ourselves to be clean fighters. Then, two couples volunteered to partake in a mock fight, to show how to settle an argument...which was funny, but highly unrealistic...at least it broke the ice a little bit.

Then we talked about the 10 rules for a happy marriage.

Source

10 Rules for a Happy Marriage
1. Never both be angry at the same time.
2. Never yell at each other unless the house is on fire.
3. If one of you has to win and argument, let it be your mate.
4. If you have to criticize, do it lovingly.
5. Never bring up mistakes of the past.
6. Neglect the whole world rather than each other.
7. Never go to sleep with an argument unsettled.
8. At least once each day, say a kind or complimentary thing to your life's partner.
9. When you have done something wrong, be ready to admit it, and ask for forgiveness.
10. It takes two to make a quarrel, and the one in the wrong is the one who does the most talking.

This is NOT to be confused with these 5 rules for a happy marriage:

Source

1. It's important to have a woman who cooks and cleans
2. It's important to have a woman who can make you laugh.
3. It's important to have a woman who you can trust and doesn't lie to you.
4. It's important to have a woman who is good in bed.
5. It's very important that these four women never meet one another. Otherwise you're screwed!

Haha, that was NOT taught in the pre-cana class, I just found that online. Anyway, we were there for about an hour and the couple told us many stories, both good and bad, about their marriage together and how they've worked through many hurdles.

When we left Chris said “I feel like everything they tell us is just common sense.” Honestly, I agreed with him. But isn't that sort of the point? First of all, everyone can benefit from some reminding and brushing up of even common sense facts. It brings facts that you take for granted for knowing back into perspective. Second of all, we're lucky that this is common sense for us. It means that we get it. We know what we're jumping into and we're ready for it. People get married all the time who don't think this is common sense, and then learn it the hard way. So I'd say it's a good sign that this class is reaffirming what we already knew to be common sense.

Don't forget to vote in Wednesday's Wedding Poll!!

Wednesday's Wedding Poll: Tuxedos

Tonight I was invited to dinner and drinks at Westbury Manor to be part of a small focus group of brides-to-be and Long Island newlyweds!! The dinner is being hosted by a group of people hoping to launch a new website to help brides plan their wedding. I'm so excited to share my opinions and advice, and I'll certainly report back about the event!

In light of the fact that we picked the guys' tuxedos on Monday, and were faced with so many different options, today's poll has to do with tuxedos:



I JUST learned through creating this poll that it's actually cummerbund?? I alllways thought it was cumberbund. Turns out, many people spell it that way, but the actual correct way is cummerbund. Who knew?!

Tuxedos

Last night Chris and I went to pick out the tuxedos for the groom, groomsmen, and our fathers. We will be renting tuxedos from Di Re' Formal Wear in Franklin Square, Long Island.

I really liked this place and the owner, Mitchell, was extremely helpful! I don't know enough to be "picky" with this process: The tuxedos seemed nice enough, it was a nice, clean place, and it was very easy to set up rentals with them.

The groomsmen will wear: ivory, flat-collar shirts; black, three button jackets; black vests; and clover ties which will match the girls' dresses.

Chris will wear the same but with an ivory tie and either an ivory or black vest. He liked it better with the black vest shown here, but he can decide more firmly on that as we get closer.

Groomsmen green tie is still behind, but that will obviously not be there.

Now we have to get the groomsmen measured, and they'll be all set to pick up their tuxedos the day before the wedding! One more thing to check off the list!

Card-Box: Check!

Hello! I have this lovely Monday off, and plan on getting so.much.done. wedding-wise! Chris and I had a fantastic weekend at my parent's house in Pennsylvania: time with family, celebrating sister's birthday, brunch with Grandma, and an amazing time at dinner with Molly and Mark on Saturday night!!

There is a lot of wedding stuff going on, and I have lots to let you know about in the coming weeks! First off, I want to show you our card box! Chris and I received a beautiful picture frame for our engagement party last April, that came in this amazing green and black box.

The box matched our color scheme perfectly and I loved it. I really wanted to try and find a way to incorporate it into our wedding.

So, I had my handy-dandy father cut a slit through the top, big enough to fit an envelope. He measured it perfectly, and cut a hole with a blade.

And viola!! We have a card box!

My adorable 15 year old mini-poodle wanted to pose with the box for the blog. Isn't he such a ham?? I love him!!

Best thing about it? The total cost= Free!!!

Sooo...does this count as D-I-Y? (I'd say it would be a bit of a stretch...)

Are you having a card-box?

For the Groom: Ghostbuster Wedding Cake

And now, the results of Wednesday's Wedding Survey:

How old were you when you first met your fiance/husband?

15 or under: 7

16-20: 12

21-25: 13

26-30: 3

30 or older: 0

So 21-25 is the most common age but only by 1 person. All in all, 16-25 is the most common...buuutt then again, that's pretty much the demographic of my readers, so this poll may be a bit skewed. Thank you so much to all who participated, and be sure to check back next Wednesday for our next poll!

I'm getting to the point where we will have to pick our wedding cake soon, both flavor and how it looks. I'm very excited for our cake tasting and I'm hoping we can schedule it soon! Anyway, during my cake search, I found this Ghostbuster wedding cake below.  Like the Transformers Ice Sculpture, if I show this to Chris, he's going to fall in love with this cake. Haha, I personally wouldn't choose this for our wedding, I think this would make a good groom's cake, if we were doing that, but we're not.

Source

What do you think, would you do a cake like this for your wedding? Are you doing a Groom's cake?

Pre-Cana Session 1

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On Tuesday night we had our first Pre-Cana class with 4 other couples who are getting married at our church this year. We me at a couple's home from the parish, who live just a few blocks away from us. This husband and wife team have been married over 50 years, have 6 children and 13 grandchildren!! They certainly know the meaning of marriage and have a lot of advice to give us as we enter our married lives.

It was...well...awkward. However, that's not to say that I didn't get a lot out of our first session. The Deacon from the church was conducting the meeting, and he's also been married for about 35 years. To start, he had us go around and introduce ourselves as a couple. After that, we went into another room to watch a 20 minute video about pre-cana. My absolute favorite line from the movie was when the Priest said:

"On your wedding day you should be able say 'I'll love you when you look as good and beautiful as you look today, and I'll still love you when you look like the back-end of a truck.'"

Haha, I want to scoop that quote up, pet it, and keep in my pocket for the rest of my life. I love it.

The video showcased a newly engaged couple, a newly married couple, a couple married with 6 children, and a couple that's been married for 51 years...who were adorable. I actually got emotional because one of the women in our group, who looked to be a few years older than me, cried through the entire thing. But it was just so cute! I could tell she was trying so hard to hold it back and not let anyone know she was crying. She's getting married in March, so I think the reality of the class, the video, her marriage, was just becoming real and emotional for her. She really tugged at my heartstrings a lot.

Yes, the video talked about pre-marital relations. Yes, the video talked about natural family planning, God, and heaven. But at no point were we asked personal, attacking questions on these subjects. At no point were our personal morals questioned. And at no point, was I questioned for not being Catholic. We were there to talk about marriage, and about building strong, lasting relationships. They were there to tell us what spending the rest of our lives together really means, and that's really all I could have asked for.

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Before we left, we were asked to close our eyes. The Deacon said the word "love" then asked us to open our eyes, and say the first word that came to mind. Well, the two that immediate came to mind for me were friendship and trust. Of course, the first two people said those words as well, so I had to come up with something else. You know when you're put on the spot and your brain freezes, and you feel like a complete idiot and nothing comes to mind? Yea..that happened to me. I just wanted the spotlight off of me so I said "Fun." The first things that comes to my mind when I hear the word "love" is FUN? Very deep Laura, very profound...excuse me while I go skip through a field of wildflowers. Ugh, I was a bit embarrassed.

However, the point of this exercise was that "love" can be described in a TON of different ways. But what is the difference between love as a feeling vs. love as a decision? Relationships start out with the feeling of love. But when you start to realize that your significant other is human...and flawed, we all need to make the decision to love this person despite and because of these flaws. And at some point, they make the same decision about you. It's also import to make this decision for the right reasons, and that you accept appropriate flaws in your significant other. I believe many people decide to stay in relationships out of convenience, or because they'll be embarrassed if the relationship doesn't work out. These are obviously the wrong reasons to stay together. Our homework this week, is to recognize a problem, fight, or issue with our partner; work it out; and make the decision to love.

They closed the night with this thought: 

50 years from now, you'll look back on your wedding pictures and say "Wow, I had no idea what life had in store for me."

How exciting and scary is that?!

Wednesday Wedding Survey: How old were you when you met?

This isn't us...

Chris and I met when we were 19 years old. I distinctly remember on my 19th birthday thinking "Wow, my parents met when they were 19, there's NO WAY I'm going to meet my future husband this year". Lo and behold, 5 months later I met Chris, and 5 months after that we were dating! It just goes to show that you never know what's waiting for you around the corner. And so I ask you the same:



Feel free to elaborate in the comments section, and remember to check back here Friday for the results. Also, check out my newest examiner.com article about The Somerly: Long Island's newest wedding venue!
The Somerley: Long Island’s Newest Wedding Venue - Long Island Weddings | Examiner.com

Staying Organized

Before I get to today's post I want to share Mingle Monday with you! If you're looking for new blogs to follow, you should definitely check out Mingle Monday at Life of Meg's blog. Each week, tons of bloggers head over to her site, to Mingle and meet each other by submitting their blogs and visiting others. I've been doing it for a few months now, and have met some great people through it. You can enter your blog up until Wednesday night. Be sure to check it out!





Staying Organized
I've said it before and I've said it again, with all the amazing wedding websites and blogs out there, sometimes I am on major information overload. With all the blogs I read and news articles on weddings that I get each day, how can I keep track of all this information?!?!

Google is my best friend. Within gmail I access blogger, google reader, google docs, google calendar (which Chris and I "share" so neither of us can ever say "but you didn't tell me about this!") Basically, I think everyone should use gmail, and all the amazing features you can access through it. One great feature gmail offers is labels. These work just like folders, which took me a while to grasp. In order to keep my inbox manageable, I move most of my mail to its corresponding label (or folder) once I don't need it anymore, but don't want to delete it. Any and ALL correspondence with any wedding vendor, my family, Chris, my sister, or friends, regarding anything wedding related gets saved into one of these folders. 

Google Reader overwhelms me, but it is helpful with staying organized and keeping up with the hundreds of blogs I follow. I star items and also have my blogs organized into various folders I've created:

Google Docs. I was using this a lot in the beginning of our wedding planning process. Especially when our guest list needed to be sent around to both our parents. Being able to share these documents with each other was very helpful. I should have utilized this feature more, but I have a feeling as we're going to be using it more over the next few months.

Weddzilla Bookmark:
How many times have you saved an image you really loved from a website or blog, and then not remembered which website you got it from? After awhile, I had hundreds of wedding pictures saved to a lone "wedding" folder in My Pictures folder with no organization, no nothing an taking up room on my computer. Then, I discovered the relatively new website called Weddzilla.com. Weddzilla allows you to bookmark an image from almost anywhere directly to your account online. First, you'll need to create an account with Weddzilla. Then, add the Weddzilla bookmark to your computer:

Then, when you are on a website that has a picture you like, click on this weddmark:

Weddzilla then strips all content other than images from the page, allowing you to click on the image you want.

Click on the Image you want, and save it to your collection.

Note: you must be signed into Weddzilla in order for the Weddmark to work. And just like that, your picture is now filed online, in your account, in the appropriate category. Also worth noting, you can include the link to the website you found it on. No more wondering where you found your images so you can properly site them online!

Best of all, I can access these inspirational pictures on any computer, not just the computer I save them to! So when I go home, and want to show my mom some pictures of things I've saved, I can just sign into my account and all my pictures are right there! I really encourage all brides to sign up for the weddmark as soon as they get engaged!

How do you stay organized? Do you have any organizational secrets?

Wedding Flash Mob

Happy Monday!
I had a crazy weekend of finally celebrating my birthday dinner with Chris, 2 friend's birthday parties, a meeting with an invitation lady, booking about half of our honeymoon (details to come soon), and constant wedding, wedding, wedding, brainstorming. Unfortunately, booking hotels took longer than I thought, so I don't have a great post ready for today.

Luckily, google alerts helped me come across this little gem. At first, this appears to be a regular flash mob in a mall. But by around 2:40, you quickly realize this is actually a wedding....taking place in the middle of the prudential center!!! I really love what the officiant says in this ceremony. It is very well worded and poignant. Be sure to at least watch the last half of this video!

More/Fitness Half Marathon

First, the results from Wednesday's Wedding Poll:

Do you sleep with your engagement/wedding ring on?

Yes: 15

No: 16

Sometimes: 1

32 of you responded to my poll and interestingly enough, it came out pretty much exactly 50/50!! (up until 9:50 last night it was 50/50.) Plus one person who said "sometimes": Sorry, you're the odd man out. Thanks so much for answering my first poll and be sure to answer next week's question!

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I trained for two half marathons last year, and it was awesome. I felt focused, fitter than ever, and learned a lot about running and my personal fitness capabilities. That being said, I have decided not to sign up this year for the More/Fitness Half Marathon which will take place on Sunday, April 3rd. I hope to run it again next year, and I plan on doing the Diva Half Marathon again this October. I made this decision because I really want to keep up with the weight training I've been doing for the wedding. I still run and I still plan to run a lot this Spring, as soon as it gets warm again. I just don't want to be tied down to a schedule, or feel guilty if I miss a few training runs: I have enough on my plate right now.

However, I strongly encourage others to sign up for it! If you've been considering trying a half-marathon, this is the one for you. This is a fabulous, encouraging, inspirational, empowering experience,  and I would recommend the More/Fitness Half Marathon in Central Park to anyone, especially brides out there looking to get really fit before their wedding!


Registration opens this Monday, January 10th!! This race fills up fast, so act quickly! If you're on the fence about it, you can do it! Believe me, I never in a million years thought that I would one day run a half-marathon! 

If anyone is interested in the 12 week training schedule that I've used to prepare myself for all my races, I used the training schedules found on Hal Higdon's website. He has different schedules for beginner, intermediate and advanced and they are very reasonable.

FYI: 12 weeks to the race starts this Sunday! So get running!!

Mama's Song- Carrie Underwood

Don't forget to answer the Wednesday Wedding Poll "Do you sleep with your engagement/wedding ring on?" and check back here for results tomorrow!

My mom sent this music video to me and my sister last week. I think I cried from the first word through the entire thing, and continuing on for about 5 minutes after it was done, (I was in a particularly emotional mood that day). This song has been out since September, so maybe I'm the last one in the world to hear it, but it's just so beautiful! There's a 14 second commercial..then it starts!

Carrie Underwood: Mama's Song Lyrics

Mama, you taught me to do the right things

So now you have to let your baby fly

You've given me everything that I will need

To make it through this crazy thing called life

And I know you watched me grow up

And only want what's best for me

And I think I found the answer to your prayers

And he is good, so good

He treats your little girl like a real man should

He is good, so good

He makes promises he keeps

No he's never gonna leave

So don't you worry about me

Don't you worry about me

Mama there's no way you'll ever lose me

Giving me away is not goodbye

As you watch me walk down to my future

I hope tears of joy are in your eyes

'Cause he is good, so good

And he treats your little girl like a real man should

He is good, so good

He makes promises he keeps

No he's never gonna leave

So don't you worry about me

Don't you worry about me

And when I watch my baby grow up

I'll only want what's best for her

And I hope she'll find the answer to my prayers

And that she'll say

He is good, so good

And he treats your little girl like a real man should

He is good, so good

He makes promises he keeps

No he's never gonna leave

So don't you worry about me

Don't you worry about me

Mama don't you worry about me

Don't you worry about me

Introducing Wedding Wednesday Surveys!

Hello and welcome to Wednesday Wedding Surveys! Each Wednesday from now until the wedding, I will ask you all a wedding related question and the results will be posted on Fridays. All answers are completely anonymous. Answering is as easy as clicking your mouse!

Today's question is: "Do you sleep with your engagement/wedding ring on?"
I don't sleep with my ring on, I don't shower with my ring on, and I don't go to the gym with my ring on. I actually keep it in the original box it came in when I take it off at home, and also when I pack it in my gym bag. I know I take a risk by packing it in my gym bag, but I really don't like to wear it when I work out (fingers swell, hurts when lifting weights, etc.) and I have a strict regiment that works for me and my ring.

So what about you? Feel free to elaborate in the comments section below.



Check back for the results on Friday!

Emici Bridal Hair Clip

I have had TWO nightmares about my wedding in the past two nights. The second dream I had was two nights ago. It wasn't too bad, but I dreamed that our weddings rings had already been picked out by other people and I was very upset because I had hoped to pick out my own wedding ring. I know..."diva" right?

The first one was over the weekend and it was a bona-fide nightmare. In it, everything that could possibly go wrong with the wedding, did. I had failed to pick out a white dress and opted for a pink and purple swirl prom dress instead, only to regret my decision right before the ceremony saying "All the other girls wear white." My hair and makeup lady wouldn't start working on me until 2:45, and my wedding started at 3. The band didn't have enough space in our venue (which was the basement of my parent's house) to put down a dance floor and the drummer was outright rude to me about it. I forgot to wear my veil, and my bridesmaids didn't want to be with me until the actual ceremony started. It was pretty awful and needless to say, I was a bit distraught once I woke up that morning. It was one of those nightmares where I had to remind myself that none of it had actually happened. Aren't those the worse?

So imagine my surprise and happiness when I went online Sunday morning and discovered that I won my first blog giveaway!! It was just what I needed to turn my mood around! I won a gorgeous hair clip to wear on my wedding day over at A Recessionista Ties the Knot!

Source: NYC Recessionista

Isn't this pretty? She originally won it from another blog, and it's handmade from the Emici Bridal Etsy shop. Here it is in action with a feather:

Source

 Thanks to the NYC Recessionista for hosting this give-away! I can't wait to incorporate this into my wedding hairstyle!

Workout Updates: Obviously, I didn't really stick to my weight-watcher points over the NYE Weekend. Did anyone? Please let me know if you kept at it throughout the holidays because I'll want to know your secrets! I was fairly good leading up to the day though and luckily, I managed to get through the Holiday Season without gaining any weight (and yet..my clothes dooo feel tighter).  It was really nice out on Saturday so I actually got in a 4.5 mile run followed by a 30 minute walk that day, and it felt great!! I NEVER run outside in the cold, so this was a great triumph for me. Yesterday I ran 5 miles on the treadmill at the gym. This morning I did an hour of Total Body Conditioning with my trainer, and it was killer! So I'm keeping on track with the work-outs and getting back into the swing of keeping track of my points! Wedding Dress fitting is Feb. 12th!!!

Flowers Booked

Ladies and Gentlemen we have booked a florist! Wahoo! One more thing off the checklist!

I talked to 4 different places for flowers: Pedestals, Celadon and Celery, Flowers by Burton and Flower Barn. All four of these places would do a fabulous job on flowers for our wedding. Pedestals came highly recommended by many friends and through word of mouth. Celadon and Celery operates out of the Flower District in Manhattan and Bess, the owner, came up with an awesome flower proposal with cherry blossom centerpieces, which was an idea I loved. Flower Barn and Flowers by Burton both had positive reviews on various websites and message boards I read. We had a great meeting with John, at Flowers by Burton, who was a very nice man who listened to every concern, idea, thought I had. The truth is...how do you know? It's all fine and good to sit down and discuss flower arrangements and see some pictures, but until you actually see the mock-ups of your particular pieces a month before the wedding...how do you really know what to choose?  In the end, we went with the best price and to be honest...Flowers by Burton beat them all by a long shot.

They have been in the business for 30+ years, and have some very positive reviews written about them on liweddings.com. All I can do now is wait until I see my mock-ups in early May, but I am confident that they will work with me to create the best possible arrangements for us and make any changes I ask of them at that time. I was still uncertain about many flowers and what I wanted when we met with John, but he assured me that we can finalize particular flowers as we get closer to the date.

One of our groomsmen suggested that we use these as our centerpieces. Chris Lovesss Transformers (I know..he's 2 years old right?) I'm a little concerned that Chris might call the florist and venue behind my back and request to have these instead.

Optimus Prime- Transformers