A little shower help....

My mom and I are planning a bridal shower for my brother's fiancee. My own shower had a theme of "Around the Clock", where guests brought gifts that corresponded with something that I would be use at that time of the day.

But we're stuck on what to do as a theme for the shower. Her mother throws fabulous tea parties, so that is out. We're planning on having it on a Saturday afternoon in May.

So- what was the best themed shower that you have been to?

Surveying the Bridesmaids

Yes, I know, long time no post. One of these days I really will get around to finishing my wedding recap...

Anyways, on to more practical wedding planning things! I'm a bridesmaid in my brother's wedding, and his lovely fiancee sent out an email earlier this week about appropriate attire.

An excerpt is as follows:

"I think I have talked to all of you about possibly getting dresses from jcew and it seemed like everyone liked the idea. So, I have created a survey to find out which styles and colors you all prefer. We do not have official wedding colors so things are pretty flexible...all we know is we want things to be colorful and summery! On the survey I choose the 4 colors that I liked the best initially...but feel free to comment on other colors if you like something else (I don't pretend to have good taste). I like the idea of having different styles in the same fabric so you can choose a dress according to what you will feel comfortable in. So here's the link to the survey...You will want to have the jcrew website opened while you are taking the survey so you can see what I'm talking about!"

Absolutely brilliant. The survey (created at SurveyMonkey) asked questions about fabric and color choices. Since J. Crew's short bridesmaid dresses range from $150 to $285, depending upon fabric style, she also asked about the affordability of the dresses.

Has anyone else created an online survey for any part of wedding planning?

dinner and dessert

And then it was time for the guests to enter the ballroom!

We had only two toasts, both scheduled before dinner.

My dad went first...

(I was so happy!)

followed by the best man

A bit of man love.

After grace was said, it was time to dig in.

Vegetarian tastiness...

...and food for the carnivores

The entire ballroom

And then dessert was served. You may recall that instead of having wedding cake, we opted for rose creme brulee.

It was absolutely perfect for us to have a bit of time, enjoying ourselves, and not necessarily be the complete center of attention like the traditional cake cutting

Plus, there is no possibility of the dreaded cake smash



All photos courtesy (and copyright!) of the amazing Ken Blaze.
Recap
The beginning
Getting ready
First Glance
To the Chapel
I Do
Receiving Our Guests
A little time for us
Let the party begin!
Sneak Peak

Sneak peak

Marisa Gindi, the utterly fabulous hotel coordinator, gave us a sneak peak of the ballroom before guests entered.

We were blown away.

At the entrance to the ballroom

Tall centerpiece

Closeup- all of the flowers were carnations

The menu was designed to match our invitations- this was before they were tucked into the napkins

Each table was named for a different Cleveland landmark. Calvin's dad took the photos for each location.

All photos courtesy (and copyright!) of the amazing Ken Blaze.
Recap
The beginning
Getting ready
First Glance
To the Chapel
I Do
Receiving Our Guests
A little time for us
Let the party begin!

Let the party begin!

Thanks for all who commented on my last post- I will indeed continue with the recap :-)

After taking time for our pictures, we headed for the reception in time to catch cocktail hour. (When we arrived, though, I didn't head directly for the food. I first stopped in the bridal suite to change shoes into something that was more comfortable. For those looking for a comfortable option that isn't flip-flops, I highly recommend ballroom dancing shoes.)

The cocktail hour was held in the lobby area of the Renaissance Hotel's Gold Ballroom.

Scoping out the beverages...

As a fairly last minute decision in the planning process, we decided to hire a Rick Iacoboni for cocktail hour. The Renaissance wanted an obscene amount of money to set up the area for piped music (our original plan), so it was actually cheaper to hire Rick.

The ring bearer got some time in with his dad.

I got some time with my grad school friends

And Calvin caught up with a college friends and his wife. His wife is Dutch- hence the wedding present of wooden shoes.

My "adopted grandparents" - close family friends- looked on

Guests had the opportunity to sign our photo guestbook (Tip: Mpix books with linen paper pages have the perfect texture for guests to write in any type of ink.)


The placecards- I didn't even make it over to the table where they were located!

Around this point, the amazing Marisa Gindi (hotel wedding coordinator extraordinaire, and I do mean extraordinaire) let us take a sneak peak at the ballroom...

All photos courtesy (and copyright) of Ken Blaze.
Recap
The beginning
Getting ready
First Glance
To the Chapel
I Do
Receiving Our Guests
A little time for us

The secret life of...

Following Penguin's example, I thought I'd share my own secret. (Not that it is much of a secret, if you've noticed my absence of posts.)

I'm completely, totally, 100% over weddings- planning, recapping, blogging. Don't get me wrong- our wedding turned out great, it was one of the most fun days of my life- but being married is so much better.

Writing picture-filled posts recapping the wedding takes time, and since I started working, time has been a precious commodity. And the recap posts that I have done have generated only a small amount of interest, which doesn't help my minimal motivation to post.

So there you have it- my not-so-secret secret. Please let me know if you are interested in seeing more wedding pics; if there is enough interest, I'll continue the recap.

A little time for us

Early in the wedding planning, we knew that we wanted to take some time in between the ceremony and the reception just for us. I don't generally like being the center of attention, and it was important for both of us to get a bit of a break and have a little time just for us.

First stop was a tea house on Murray Hill that we would visit when we were just friends.

And some chess- since that was how we initially got together. No, that's not a beer- I opted for iced tea.

Shortly after we arrived, my best friend and maid-of-honor appeared. She'd been planning on going to get mocha at our favorite coffee shop, but at the last minute decided that tea was what she really wanted. I hadn't mentioned anything about our plans to hit up Algebra- but there we were, and there she was.


Competition was fierce...

...and ended in a stalemate.

After the game, we ended up with about 45 minutes before the reception, so we headed to a Cleveland landmark- the West Side Market.

Before going into the market, Calvin bustled my dress

Produce

Meat- not just any meat, mind you, but Hungarian meat.

People clapped and cheered when we walked by

View from the balcony...

that was inhabited by a homeless looking President of the Association for Magyar Awareness. He was emphatically NOT Hungarian.

All photos courtesy (and copyright) of Ken Blaze.
Recap
The beginning
Getting ready
First Glance
To the Chapel
I Do
Receiving Our Guests