Ashley and Greg's Wedding Part 1

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

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

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

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

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

personalized cocktail napkins

Beautiful centerpieces on cocktail tables

Sean, Chris and Jeff

pretty chandelier

Jeff loved these mini pulled-pork sliders

With the Hubby!

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

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

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

Table number with placecards

Mr. and Mrs. signs on their chairs

Centerpieces

Card-box and wish tags

Next up: We party as the Reception begins!

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

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

http://www.eastwindlongisland.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next Up: The Reception!!

James and Maria's Wedding Part 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

James had these on the bottom of his shoe

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

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

 

 

Next up: Time for Cocktail Hour and the Reception!

Danielle and Rob's Wedding

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


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

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

The Wagner College crew at the ceremony

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

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

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

They also had beautiful, full centerpieces

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Then the bouquet toss:

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

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

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

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