I’ve got the bug!!!

Well folks...it has started…I’ve got the “Band-Search Bug”! Chris and I decided fairly last minute yesterday to head out to a wedding showcase that the band Full House (*cough* Michelle Tanner *cough*) was giving. We looked at their schedule online and saw that this was the only wedding showcase they were doing for quite some time, and pretty much decided it was now or never. We had a 40 minute drive out to their location, but it went really quickly and really was not all that far away.

We both had very different ideas of what the night would be like. I envisioned a dance hall with about 10-15 engaged couples sitting around in chairs with the band playing on a small stage. I envisioned the band getting us out on the dance floor and pretty much creating a feeling of “This is what your wedding will be like.” I mistakenly told Chris before we left that he better have his dancing shoes on because we were going dancing!

Chris was envisioning a small bar with tables for two and a waitress bringing us drinks. Some people may dance…others may not, and he…most certainly…would not be dancing.

We took bets on the way there…though not actually for anything, which turned out to be for the best because BOTH were very wrong. This took place at the Eko Music Recording Studio in Deer Park. The band was set up on the sound stage, with 10 chairs in front of them to watch. We walked into the actual recording studio section with all these high tech mixing devices, and walked around to the sound stage with the Band. Chris and I were 2 of 9 people in attendance. There was one other couple, a girl about our age with her parents (who looked sooooo bored the entire time, I wanted to punch her) and two women in the first row who I think were there on behalf of one of their daughters? We couldn’t tell.  Chris and I sat in the back on a couch, and proceeded to be entertained by a live cover band for the next 45 minutes!!! For free!!!!…and they brought donuts!!

I mean..how cool is that? Especially given the fact that our plans last night consisted of eating oreos on the couch while finishing up the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Don’t get me wrong…I was excited for our big night. Buuut this? This was pretty cool. They did shortened versions of all the classics, The Beatles, The Four Seasons "You're Just too Good to be True", Tina Turner's "Proud Mary", Etta James "At Last", "Don't Stop Believing" etc. etc. etc. I LOVED the three horns they had (saxophone, trumpet and trombone) they sounded really great and added a lot to the sound as a whole. It was all I could do not to get up and dance.

I had a fabulous time and of course…now I want to go see every band in the tri-state area so I can just be entertained live for free every week. I have two more showcases that I plan on attending in the next two weeks that we already know are scheduled. Before, I was dreading this and the time it would take...but now I’m excited!

We talked to the band manager and lead singer, Joe, afterward. He was nice and so chill…he totally has a laid back rocker/guitar-player feel. He was the main singer of the band, very talented and very charismatic. The band has been together for almost 30 years, so they have a long standing reputation. Chris and I both agreed we would be very happy if they played at our wedding…but of course, want to go see some others before deciding on anything. The good thing is...our date is being tentatively held with them since we already went to see them. Joe will now call us before booking anyone else on that date to let us know that if we don’t decide soon we could lose them, which I think is very professional and courteous!

On another note, I got the following email from a member of the band Code Bleu on Tuesday night. This was sent to me after I told them that Monday night showcases were difficult for me to get to because I teach piano on Mondays, and asking if they could please send me a DVD:

Hi Laura,

My band Code Bleu is performing again on March 8th. I hope you can attend. May 20th just booked, but the 21st of May is still open. Perhaps you can make arrangements to make it down that evening. A few of my guys teach as well. I know you'd have to juggle students, I'm all too familiar with that, but I believe you will be glad that you did. The band is extremely tight, very appealing and is one of the "first call" bands in the Tri-State area.

 Unfortunately, we don't mail out DVD's because it's a poor representation of our abilities what we offer. All of our clients say that although the DVD is good, it doesn't come close to seeing the band live.

Again, I know juggling students is a pain in the neck, but truthfully, shopping bands by DVD is one of the biggest mistakes a bride can make while planning her wedding.

Please know that I am only trying to be helpful!!!!

 let me know if you'd like to attend.

 I look forward to meeting you.

Regards,

Sean

I can't tell whether to be frustrated/insulted/or very grateful. Obviously, Sean is giving me some great advice and trust me...I took it to heart. Honestly, the fact that they are already booked Friday, March 20, 2011 is both terrifying and exciting at the same time. The fact that he is the ONLY person that has said to me "you know what? No..YOU come see us. We're not going to make this easy for you" makes me want to know if they really are worth it?. He's playing "hard-to-get" and why I don't technically appreciate the "game" of all this...it's working, and I am indeed interested in seeing this band perform. I merely was trying to break down my options based on DVD's not pick entirely based on them, but whatever. So I may switch around my Monday March 8th teaching schedule so I can schlep out to Milleridge (which is actually a venue I was interested in seeing) to see Code Bleu perform. Oy...The things I do for love I mean, bands.

Full House: Check

Happy 7 Month Engage-Aversary

I am a Horrible Horrible person!!! There is NO excuse for not updating for about a whole month!!! But I'm going to give you some excuses anyway and you can take them or leave them.

1. I am suffering from SAD (Seasonal Affect Disorder). I decided last week that I'm just going to say "I have SAD" as an excuse for everything over the next month..and I think that's a pretty good idea. "I didn't take care of that business report? Oh I'm sorry...it's just I have really bad SAD." (who am I kidding? I don't do business reports!)  "I ate an entire tub of Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey? No fear!! I'm just suffering from SAD!" It's like a free pass. Anyway,  I said to Chris last week "It's not that I'm depressed, I just have no will or drive to do anything with, or for, my life right now" *cricket cricket*  ..."Um....that's depression"  Haha ok so maaaybe he's right, but honestly folks, this doesn't transcend anything other than what we are ALL feeling right now, and that's the "winter blues." All I've wanted to do is go home, curl up with a glass of hot cocoa and do nothing. Now you may be thinking "Come on Laura...when's the last time you updated your blog from home?? We all know you do it while you're at work" And to you I say "touche" But work has been surprisingly busy over the past month and I've actually had to hunker down and well...work. So that's the #1 reason I have not updated lately...low Vitamin D and actually having to work. And that's ok..because in just one glorious month from now...Spring will be here and everything is always better when Spring comes around!

2. My ankle hurt. That's all..my ankle was just bothering me...very stressful.

3. I was dragging my feet (maybe that's why my ankle hurt!) getting started on the band hunt because I just didn't know where to begin or what to look for. However, I have learned a lot over the past two weeks and hope to kind of kick our asses into gear on picking a band within the next month. So, since today is another anniversary for us (7 months engaged to be exact) I figured I need to get back up to speed. Not to mention some people have complained about my lack of updating...I know you've allll been in super suspense.

So. Bands.

Had I known how much time you need to devote to look into bands..I would have started this process...ohhhh..last month. Every website I go to about bands says something about how the best way to pick a band is to go see them live. Really? I have to make time to go see 5-10 bands perform LIVE? That's a lot of time. I know, I know..I don't have to be a crazy sociopath and go see that many and the fact that I feel that way is nobody's fault but my own. Deep down...I like this researching, and investigating, so I'm really only complaining for affect here.

I have narrowed down my search to 9 bands that I am interested in pursuing and learning more about. Haha it's kind of like choosing a mate.  I have requested a DVD/CD or just general information from each one of them and also asked for their showcase schedule to see if I can go to any upcoming showcases.
So far, I like the following bands. Please feel free to comment on what you like, don't like, have heard about, have not heard about, etc. to help me narrow this down!:

Peat Moss and the Fertilizers -They were voted the #1 Long Island Cover band for 2 years in a row. I LOVE this band. I really do...their videos are fantastic, they have a great website with a full calendar in which they are consistently booked for weddings throughout the rest of 2010. They have adorable choreography, they are all young ADORABLE men, they can literally sing anything, and I have read nothing but fantastic reviews online. My one...ONLY ONE qualm is that they have no female singers. At first..I was really close to just writing them off because they were all boys and I really wanted some female singers and especially a good heavy brass section, but the more videos I watched, the more I just didn't care. Plus..I hear that they come with a DJ to play during their breaks. Soooo I could just request that the DJ play mostly female singers so we'll still get that. Also, they don't just perform anything that's typically sung by men...their extensive song list includes Britney Spears, some good old Lady Gaga and the like, so they literally do it all. This would not be a "traditional" wedding band, it would be a little different...and I like that.

In the end, I may end up deciding to go the more "traditional" route with my wedding band. i.e. a few male AND female lead singers, keyboard, drums and brass. I just love a good brass section. I always had a vision of having a really great saxophone player at my wedding, and most of these other "traditional" bands have a saxophone player. Damn you Peat Moss. You have me all twisted and confused..I feel like if they had just one female singer with them OR a saxophone player they'd be a shoe-in.

Code Bleu- Code Bleu is making me angry. And I should just write them off at this point except it's just that I've heard soooo many good thing about them online. They seem to be quite a popular wedding band in our area and if that's true..then I want to hear them! But they make me mad because they have zero videos on their vague and mysterious website. I've emailed them two or three times now asking for a DVD and they just keep asking me if I can come to their showcase tonight, Wednesday or next Monday. No, no and NO! can you please just send me a DVD?? I get that they want their client to book them based on the real deal, not some canned video, but please can you give me something, anything??!

Full House- Besides the obvious fact that I LOVE this band's name,(how can you NOT think of little Michelle Tanner when you see the name of this band?) I also have heard some great things about them as well. Again..most of my knowledge comes form liweddings.com, which I'm not ashamed to admit is my trusty resource. It seems that as a whole, Code Bleu is generally a bit more popular than Full House, but that they are still just as good as the rest of them when you really get down to it. I noticed most of their videos had a male singer and no female singers...but I searched around a little and found some females, who were very talented.

Soul Revival- I heard they are good. They were mentioned often on message boards.


The Stingers- They apparently are very well known around New York, and apparently performed at Katherine Heigl's wedding!! That being said I think they may not work for two reasons. 1) price and 2) They've been around for a looong time and looking at their song list..I think they specialize in mostly oldies and motown, which I love..but I need some Beyonce and Lady Gaga in my life!!! Haha.

Franklin Wayne Orchestra-they have three bands, one of which is called "Heart and Soul". Their DVD is already being shipped and I should get it tomorrow. I've heard a lot of good things about them as well.

Live Wire-- Just read they were good. Their website annoys me though. It, too, is vague with no video and leaves me very unfulfilled.

East Coast- They are the House Band for The Inn at New Hyde Park, which was one of our top 3 choices to have our wedding, and a really nice venue. If this is their house band, then I certainly trust them to be good, so that was enough for me to be interested. 

Vali Entertainment- Their band leader/Manager already called me today to speak with me about my wedding. While I was impressed with his good business skills, email works JUST fine for me, especially when I'm at work. They already seem a little bit pricier than the other bands and he wants to meet with me directly in Manhattan on a work week. Which is both not fun for me, and annoying for Chris..sooo we'll see what we decide with them. I really like their website though.

So I should have a full mailbox in the next three days!!

I swear I'm back on the "BANDwagon" now!

I enjoy Wedding Tickers

Video Save-The-Dates

Chris and I celebrated our 6 month ENGAGE-aversary this past Saturday. Which means we have 16 months until the wedding. AHHHHHHHHH so much to do, so little time!! Ok.....just kidding, there is plenty of time. Chris and I celebrated with a romantic trip to Century 21 department store, followed by a trip to see the ever-classic romantic comedy "Avatar 3D", followed by a wonderful dinner at an expensive, romantic restaurant, at home consisting of Ellios Pizza (what a trip down memory lane that was) and closed out our night at a local bar....with friends. Haha so it wasn't that romantic of a day but really, it was just fine...even Perfect! :)

This isn't relevant to today's post at all, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I know you've all been wondering what my dress looks like. this time it's for real folks. This is it....

It's a CAKE!!!

This way...if I get hungry during the ceremony or reception...I can just eat my dress!!! Plus, I can save money by purchasing both a dress and wedding cake in one! I know..I know...I'm a genius.

Moving on, now for the real meat and potatoes. It's really funny that I've had a post about video save-the-dates in the works for over a week now and today on Good Morning America they showed a viral video of a couple from Australia's movie trailer save-the-date. This video has taken off like crazy. I actually saw a post about this video yesterday, but the video had been removed from Youtube and I couldn't view it. I was able to find and finally watch the whole thing on the Huffington Post today. Sorry, you'll have to scroll through the article and hit play on the video post:

Jeff and Erin's Epic Wedding Save-the-date

Video save-the-dates seem to be the growing trend in weddings these days. Most of them are just slideshows of pictures to a love song...boring. Please, I do not want to watch a 10 minute slideshow of pictures throughout your relationship. I love me some slideshows...but only if I made it or I'm in it.  Also, some of these videos are just too long in general, which you'll see in the last video I've posted. There actually are not a ton of save-the-date videos out on the web that I could find. I mean there are a lot, but in the grand scheme of things, there are really only a handful of these video save-the-dates. However, I have a feeling by this time next year..it will basically be the norm. 

Really folks, if you're going to do this...they HAVE to be good. Please just keep them short, sweet and to the point. Here are some examples (sorry there are a LOT here) that I think are so cute and clever!


This one is so clever!! A+



This one was made for two actors. They took clips from actual things they filmed for either television or film and clipped it together to make this. Also, the pictures at the end of them getting married, were for a Nikon commercial they filmed together. So they got to use photos from that shoot for their save the date! It's not as good as the trailer in the Huffinton Post, but it's good: B+


I think this one is adoralbe! It's simple...kind of like a slideshow, but a video slideshow so it's more interesting. I also really like this song. A-
 

This one is interesting. Good idea, and some cool videography, but just executed all wrong and it's also waaaay too long, to the point where it just gets awkward. A Save-The-Date should NOT be long...I'd say no longer than 3 minutes, tops. This one is 6!! Don't watch it all..I beg of you! You can scroll through it to get the general idea. C



So that's my (not-so) Professional thoughts on Video Save-The-Dates. Now I have to go work on a script for mine! (Chris is going to looooove this) ;)

"One Perfect Day"

I just spent the better part of my afternoon fixing every single image and web-site link on this blog so that a new window or tab opens when you click on it, instead of over the blog page you are reading. That's been annoying you all right?! (Well, all two of you. Hi Mom and Dad!) Anyway, I know it's been annoying me and I'm happy to report that the issue is resolved!! So when I tell you to click here, you can view TheKnot.com in a whole different window while at the same time still continue to read my blog!!

Sorry, I'm just very excited by this revelation.

I don't have a whole lot to talk about right now. For whatever reason. I can NOT get motivated to look into bands and/or DJ's for our reception. But I KNOW that's my next step in the wedding planning process.

I will say that I'm getting very excited for my dear friend Mandy's wedding coming up this May. Plans are well on their way for her big day as well as her Bachelorette party!! I can't talk about it here...but trust me, her sister has planned a night that's going to be epic! Or, Legen......wait for it......Dary! (for all you "How I Met Your Mother" fans out there)


Last week I finished reading "One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Weddiing" by Rebecca Mead.

I thought this book was pretty interesting. One wedding coordinator had been hired to plan a "Divorce Ceremony", complete with a ceremonial burning of the marriage contract in front of their friends, followed by a party. I guess this was quite the amicable divorce..but still! Mead talks about Las Vegas (of course), Gatlinburg Tennessee weddings (apparently a HUGE wedding town), Elopers, Destination Brides, and My favorite: Walt Disney World Weddings! (which was the most interesting chapter for me.) Chris and I LOVE us some Disney World and I seriously would be ok if we honeymooned there, BUT some of the "add-on's" for a Disney Wedding are kind of hilarious. For $1000 dollars you can have your ring bearer dress as a horseman from Cinderella and carry your rings on the pillow that Cinderella's glass slipper was presented on. I mean, come on...can you get any better than that??? (I also just signed up online to have a Disney World Wedding brochure mailed to my house....details to follow!!)

I read Jodi Kantor's 5/13/07 NY Times review of this book, and she didn't like it! She wrote: "In other words, Mead has reduced the American wedding to its cheesiest and most venal elements, and then written a book about how cheesy and venal American weddings are."

Yes...Jodi Kantor has a point. Mead does take a rather cynical perspective when talking about weddings. She was focusing on those crazy Bridezillas! Weddings are not all bad and they are not all overly elaborate. I think Mead was trying to explain how easy it is for weddings to be turned into these crazy affairs because of how many things are thrusted upon a bride from the moment she gets engaged, how everyone is trying to "reinvent" the wheel and how many resources we have available to us in this day and age. I could write more..this wasn't very insightful, but I have to catch my train.

I Found THE Dress!!

Cross one more thing off the good old "to do" list, I have found my dress!!!!

I went home for the day yesterday to go back to Sandra's Bridal in Nazareth, PA. They were having a Casablanca Trunk show. I like the Casablanca dresses I've seen so I wanted to try on some new styles but I mostly wanted to re-try on this Casablanca dress that I had tried on after Christmas.

I loved the cap sleeve and mostly loved the back of the dress, especially the lace extending beyond the satin on the train.

When I put this dress back on yesterday...I hated it. It fit all wrong, it wasn't flattering, and the bow underneath the bust just hung there and looked terrible. I kept saying to myself "Like this dress Laura...like it...this is why you came here today" But I just didn't, and neither did my family. It wasn't how I remembered it at all. I tried not to get discouraged and just kept trying on other dresses that I had picked out. There was one strapless Casablanca dress that we all really liked...but I still was just very concerned about the whole strapless dress. I love strapless dresses, but I'm really not comfortable in strapless, and I just can't see myself in strapless for my wedding day. Then, the woman that was helping me out, Debi, brought me a dress she happened to see in the back that she thought I would like. It was a Pronovias Dress, and I loooved it. I tried it on and we all really really liked it. It's a mermaid style dress, which I honestly hadn't thought I would go for, (and I'll have to really adhere to my wedding diet) but it gives me quite an hourglass figure, and had everything that I was looking for in a dress. It's called "off-white" which I think would probably be considered the same champagne color that is often offered for wedding dresses.  Even though the store was offering a discount on Casablanca dresses for the weekend, she still gave us a 20% discount on this Pronovias dress, coming to what I think of as a very reasonable price for a dress that I LOVE!

It was very exciting to FINALLY settle on a dress and it's amazing how deciding on my dress now sets off so much other planning. i.e. Now I can focus on bridesmaid dresses. What flowers will match the color and material of my dress?  I was in a really good mood after making the decision and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon/evening with my sister, Melissa. We went to Five Guys Burgers for dinner (Way to kick-start that wedding diet, huh?) and then went shopping at Target. It was really great to spend time with Melissa and I honestly can't remember the last time we just hung out like that. It was such a good day and 100% worth going home, even if it was for just a day. I left Melissa's house at around 7:30 and got back home by 9:30!


So...I didn't want to show anyone my dress before the wedding because I want everyone to be surprised, but I love it so much, I decided that's silly and I really should show it to everyone and get some feedback. Here I am modeling it:

I know I know...it's gorgeous right?? I just fell in love with the sleeves.


Haha and you thought I was going to show it to you.

Reception Hall: Check

Church for ceremony: Check

Wedding Dress: Check

P.S. My dad was doing a search of my dress on google and came across this website from China that creates a knock-off dress of any designer/style you like for $278. My dad was right when he said the best sentence was this:

"All the items will be produced after you place the order. And we will improve dress,which will be more simply and easier than the original ones."

 They'll change the dress for you to be more simpler and easier?? Why? What will it look like then? Look,  I'm all about finding a good bargain for your wedding dress. But..this is just Shady McShade Shade:

Dress Times

Happy 2010!

Happy 2010, I shall call this "The year of Weddings!"

 (not mine..just everyone elses!)

I'm very much looking forward to the following weddings this year:

The Strassman/Leef's

The Longo/DiChino's

The D'Angiolini/Chalmers

The Todosow/Rodzianko's

Any more I should be aware of??

I hope everyone had a looovely Holiday and New Year's!

As of last night we have booked the church for our wedding! Chris and I met last night with Father Cunningham at St. Gregory the Great in Bellerose. Father Cunningham was a real nice, old man who made us both feel very welcome. Seeing as how I booked this appointment 3 weeks ago and right before Christmas, I prooobably should have called to reconfirm our appointment, but I didn't want to bother him and figured he must make appointments like this all the time. Well...he was a little confused when we arrived, he had forgotten to write the appt. down in his book, eek..whoopsie! But he was there in the office anyway and was available so he didn't mind meeting with us. We sat down to talk with him and went through all the neccessary paperwork and questioning. Name, age, birthdate, parents names, place of birth. We'd chit-chat a little, make small talk and then he led into the hard-core questioning:
"Do you plan on raising your kids catholic?" -sure "Do we have any mental or health issues?" - no "Have we ever been married before?" -no "Am I pregnant?"- no (I thought this was funny because they obviously want to make sure that we're not jumping into marriage before I have the baby. That would mean I'd have to be pregnant for the next 17 months) "Did I ever have children in the past?"- no "Are we both  above 18?" -yes "what's your age difference?" - 8 months "Are both our parents fine with this?"- as far as we know "Do we plan to remain faithful throughout the marriage?" -uh duh.... and so on and so forth.

I felt he was more "inquisitive" about my religious upbringing (or lack thereof) than judgmental about it, which was very refreshing. At one point, he asked me if I wanted to become catholic. I smiled, opened my mouth to speak and before I could say anything he jumped in and said "You're not ready. You need to do it on your own terms when you're ready and that's fine." Phew..I didn't even have to explain myself? This was going great!

I'd say the only thing he kept pressing was that Chris should go back to church more on Sundays. Which really, was harmless. Then, Father Cunningham told us about the In-Home Pre-cana Classes
Here is the wikipedia definition of Pre-Cana:

Pre-Cana is a course or consultation Catholic couples must undergo before they can be married in a Catholic church. The name is derived from John 2:1-12, the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee, where Jesus performed the miracle of turning water into wine.
Approaches to Pre-Cana vary among Catholic dioceses and parishes. Often six weekly sessions will be led by a priest or deacon with support from a married Catholic couple. Common topics include: compatibility of the couple, basic principles of Catholic marriage and family life (namely theological meaning of marriage), conflict resolution within marriage, rules the couple are expected to follow.

Honestly, I'm super pyched about Pre-Cana. Heck...I think that I personally should decide on who is allowed to marry and procreate in this world anyway (as in..actually be responsible for handing out licenses to those who pass my test and reject licenses to those who don't) Sooo I'm all for making an engaged couple go through a five week session before deciding to marry and perhaps one day procreate. If it can cause one less divorce in this divorce-happy world...then great! There is always room for improvement in anyone's relationship or marriage, so bring it on!
Let me explain...I realize we all have different religious or non-religious rituals/traditions/beliefs/ backgrounds/etc. But, I think it will be very interesting getting together with other couples who are planning to get married and just talk about "relationships". Those basic topics listed above are extremely interesting to me, with or without the religious aspects thrown in there: "Compatibility of the couple" "Basic principles of marriage and family life" "Conflict resolution within marriage" I loooove talking and learning about this stuff and as long as I take the religious components with a grain of salt (because that's what I need to do personally), I think that it will be an extremely interesting 5 weeks. If the classes end up being way more religious than I think and I'm the only "non" catholic and they all hate me and smite me....well, then I'll be humming a different tune. It's a little weird because we don't have to take Pre-Cana classes until Fall/Winter 2010 so that's a loooong way off before we even really do anything with the pastor and the classes. But you can bet I'll prob. have a TON of entries when they start up!


To end, I got this facebook message from my 9th grade english teacher two weeks ago:

"Hello Laura - My mom is keeping me posted via mailings of the latest happenings in the Lehigh Valley (I'm currently in NH). I just read your engagement announcement and wanted to send a Congratulations! I wish you both the best!"

What a pleasant surprise to hear from someone from so long ago. And who knew people actually read those engagement announcements?! Her mom must have seen that I graduated from Parkland around the time she was teaching there and sent it to New Hampshire. I love little reconnections like that, they make me happy.

That's all for now...I have lots to update on tomorrow regarding my dress dilemna and may also discuss my thoughts on being 25...what??!!