Bridesmaids

I am so excited about the group of girls I am privileged to have as my Bridesmaids.

Jenny is my Maid of Honour. We have been close friends since my freshman year at URI and she has always been there when I needed her. We took the EMT class together and sang Mandy Moore's Candy more times than I can count while driving back and forth to Lincoln RI three days a week. We enjoyed many late night get togethers and Kenny and her boyfriend John are also good friends. They are the quintessential double date couple and the four of us always have an awesome time together.

Sarah is my best friend from high school and while we haven't remained as close during college, I still value her friendship more than anything. I love her sense of humour and whenever we chat on the phone it's like we never even lost a day. She lives in Boston and is a huge Red Sox fan and I am so happy she's going to be able to be a part of our wedding.

Samera is another close girlfriend from college whom I met Freshman year through URI EMS. She is so much fun to be around and always amazes me with her perseverance and passion. She is super organized, which will come in handy when I am going crazy during the final week!

Kaitlyn is another really good friend from URI who is now all the way in Colorado going to med school. Our whole group of friends is SO proud of her for following her dreams, even if she had to go all the way to CO do to so. We miss her dearly and I am SO happy she can be a Bridesmaid!

Kristen is one of Kenny's sisters. She currently lives in the DC area and Kenny and I went to visit her last summer. She is one year older than me and we have a lot in common. I really wanted to include her in the wedding party and I am thrilled that she can do it.

I sent each girl a card with one of these paper fold-out people chains. Each little "person" represents one of the bridesmaids. From L to R we have Kaitlyn (she loves surfing), Samera (she loves soccer), Jenny (she is always wearing adorable dresses and is a RN), Sarah (she is showing her team spirit by wearing a little Red Sox hat), and Kristen (she is an athletic trainer at GWU).

I couldn't ask for a better group of girls. We are going to have the best time and make some fantastic memories.

Ceremony Venue...check!

Wow, we are on a roll. This week not only did we secure our reception venue, but we also found the perfect spot for the ceremony!! We decided on the Old Lighthouse Museum in Stonington, CT. I came across it by chance on the internet and immediately loved it, so yesterday Kenny and I drove down there to check it out, and then today I sent out the deposit!! I can't believe it. I feel so accomplished!

Here are some shots I got of the Lighthouse building and grounds:

The Lighthouse!

This is the view from the back yard.

We will set up the ceremony right on the waterfront overlooking the Little Narragansett Bay. Let's hope for good weather because the only downside to this location is that there is no rain plan!

The Lighthouse is about 15 minutes from the Mystic Yachting Center (where we are holding the reception) so here is our tentative time line:

4:00 pm: Ceremony
4:30: Ceremony ends, wedding party leaves to take photos
5:15: Cocktail hour begins at the Mystic Yachting Center
5:30: Wedding party returns, visits with guests
6:00ish: Reception begins (paaaar-ty!)
10:30: Last dance

On top of that, we have more or less decided on a caterer. Cloud Nine Catering in Old Saybrook, CT can do everything we need, and under the budget!! Woohoo!

Kenny has taken on the task of finding a DJ and coordinating the cake.

decision time!

On Sunday we went to Mystic again to visit the Mystic Aquarium after I had fallen in love with it through photos I had seen on a brochure and their wedding website.

It was a very nice place and luckily we were able to see it all decked out for a wedding that was happening that evening, but in the end we decided not to go with it. I highly recommend anyone in the area check it out if you are looking for a venue, though. Kathy Lloyd, the Mystic Aquarium Director of Sales, was so helpful and positive, and I really enjoyed meeting her. I appreciated the time she took to show us around even though she was trying to put the finishing touches on the space for a wedding at the very same time.

Here are some photos of the Aquarium:



The ceremony is held right in front of the Beluga tank!



The aisle.



One of the resident Beluga whales.



Ceremony area.

Looking down from the second floor balcony to the reception area:



(this is an awful photo; there are much better ones on their website, liked above)

So, after careful deliberation, we have booked the Mystic Yachting Center for September the 18th, 2010!!!!!! We are both thrilled.


I spent most of my evening yesterday contacting bands, caterers, and hotels. I also need to find a photographer and florist. We want to do the ceremony on a local beach so I have to figure that out. I think Kenny's job will be the cake. He is notoriously colour blind but thankfully that does not affect his tastebuds so he should be fine picking out a cake flavour, and then I will help out with the cake colours!

So now that we get to move on to planning the real details of the wedding, how much do you lot want to know about this? I'm afraid if I sit here happily rapping away at the keyboard, there will be no surprises for our guests when they come to the actual event.

more venue searches!

It's been a while since I have updated this but that's because it's been a while since we have accomplished anything wedding-related. This summer was very busy between both of us working and then we moved on August 1 to our very own adorable apartment. Now that we are nearing September, we realized it's time to get cracking on this stuff because realistically we are nearing the one year countdown. This means we are no longer ahead of the game!!

Today we went to see another venue, this time in Mystic CT. Mystic is a charming sea-side town just over the Rhode Island border. It's famous for being the location of the real life Mystic Pizza from the movie by the same name (in fact, we drove past that pizza place today!).

The venue in question was the Mystic River Yachting Center and I have got to say, it was one of the best for the price that we have seen so far. I really liked the layout of the place, and it is right on the water at the Mystic Shipyard.

Pros:
-on the water
-very well-priced ($2500 to rent the entire space for the entire day)
-price includes tables and chairs, and there is no extra charge for the ceremony to be there
-beautiful views
-lots of space
-I really liked the event manager who showed us around, and so did Kenny

Cons:
-no bridal or grooms suites to get ready
-would have to hire outside caterer
-not really a great set-up for the ceremony, so we'd most likely have to get married off-site then come to the MYC for the reception
-second floor is not handicapped accessible

I snapped a few photos:

The building from the outside

The entrance hallway. I love the staircase!

They had a wedding the night before so it hadn't quite been fully cleaned up from that, but I used my imagination!





The outdoor deck/porch area. It was very overcast today.

The event manager gave us a packet full of info about other vendors in the area, mostly to help us choose a caterer. We looked through it and found a brochure about getting married at the Mystic Aquarium. I was like, WHAT!? coolest idea EVER! so now I want to go talk to the Aquarium people about weddings there. It's the same price to rent the aquarium as it is to rent the Yachting Center, AND you can get married right in front of the Beluga tank! How incredible would that be??



(from their website)

So that is where we stand at the moment! In typical Kate fashion I created more pieces of the puzzle instead of solving it with the pieces we already had but I am really excited about finding out more about the Aquarium, and if that doesn't work out, I really liked the Yachting Center and I can definitely see us getting married there.

playing dress-up

Again this is only semi-related to our wedding, but it is certainly relevant to weddings in general!

My mum emailed me a few weeks ago to ask if Kenny and I would be interested in being "models" for a wedding photography seminar to be held in Natick, MA. I asked (aka begged and pleaded) Kenny to do it with me and he agreed, even if a bit reluctantly.

This past weekend on Sunday we headed out to Massachusetts to stay overnight with my parents. The seminar was on Monday but my mum wanted to get some shots of us all dressed up, so we went out for a test run on Sunday. We stopped at a few locations and at one point we had parked the car on the side of a rather main road in Groton and people were honking their horns at us and yelling out "Good Luck!" It was so funny, and the best part was that it was a Sunday so for all they knew we had actually gotten married that day!

My mum got some really nice shots even though the weather wasn't all that cooperative and it was fun to traipse around in all our finery.

Speaking of the finery, the dress belongs to my friend's cousin, who generously donated the use of it for the day. The veil is also hers. Kenny's suit was bought at Men's Warehouse a couple of years ago.

On Monday we had to be at the seminar at 1:30. The photographer running the seminar was teaching the people attending it how to pose a couple, and there were all sorts of lessons built in like masculine vs. feminine posing, how to make any couple seem size proportionate in photos even if they're not in real life, and how to set up lighting properly.

We posed for about three hours and it went really well.

I had my camera with me and I handed it to one of the participants so that he could get some shots of us. The camera was kind of handed around the room and a variety of photographers took photos with it. I didn't get any of their names but thank you to everyone who got a shot of us!

Being posed by the instructor.

Kenny looking like a GQ cover model and me looking like a contorted Barbie.

One of the best shots.

A wider angle to show you how the room was set up.

Not much has changed on the planning front. We have been trying to get in touch with the Chester House in Westerly, RI, but the wedding person has been away. She was supposed to be back this week, so I am hoping we can get an appointment to see it either this week or next. It would be really nice to book a venue so I can move along with my planning!

on a semi-related note...

On Monday Kenny and I will participate in a wedding photography workshop in Natick, MA. We got the opportunity because my mum is going to the workshop and heard that they needed models. She immediately emailed me and I contacted the instructor and he said he'd be delighted to have Kenny and I participate! I am really excited; Kenny is very tolerant haha. I doubt this is what he really wants to do on a day off, but we are being compensated and it will be a great experience for both of us (at least that's what I keep telling him).

The workshop is for professional photographers to go to to learn lighting and posing techniques specifically geared towards wedding photography. Kenny and I will be the "bride and groom" and pose for all the photographers. I am excited because I get to dress up like a bride for the day and I might also meet a photographer whom I want to hire for my wedding, since I have not found one yet. Again I know I am jumping the gun a bit here because we haven't booked a venue (still working on that) but it doesn't hurt to do some research.

I mentioned I have to dress up like a bride for the day. Well clearly I am not going to wear my wedding dress a) because it's still off being cleaned and b) Kenny cannot see the dress! so a friend hooked me up with her cousin's wedding dress that she got married in two years ago and what do you know! it fits perfectly!!

(Please don't pay any attention to our room or me...I had just worked a 12 hour shift)

Not bad, huh?! Kenny will wear a suit that he already has that he looks so handsome in. I'll be interested to see how these photos come out.

I was feeling a bit crafty the other night (always a dangerous thing) and I decided to make my own birdcage veil. I want to wear a more traditional veil on my wedding day but I thought that the birdcage veils looked easy to make and they are pretty. They sell for about $80-100 but I thought I could make one for around $20. I went to Michael's and got all the supplies I needed for just under $20 and got to work. It took a few hours but for my first try I don't think it's bad!

So it started as a plain comb, loose beads and feathers, and bulk netting. I attached the netting first and then sewed all of the beads, pearls, and feathers onto the comb. Then I secured the feathers with a few dabs of crazy glue because they would have fallen out easily had I not.

It's difficult taking a photo of yourself in a mirror but you get the idea. It covers to the top of my lips and then goes across my face covering both eyes. Pretty snazzy!

fun, non-floral centerpieces to fit our budget and colour scheme

We estimate that we will have about twelve tables at our wedding. Floral centerpieces for all twelve tables would be between $700 and $1500 depending on what flowers we wanted. I know I'm going to have to figure out where I can start trimming the budget (oh darn) so I have been looking at non-floral centerpieces online. I've found that I actually like the centerpieces with no flowers better than those with flowers!

I love this fabulous fish centerpiece that I saw featured here. It has a bit of height, it's something nice to look at in the center of the table that will last (hopefully) longer than cut flowers will after the wedding is over, and each centerpiece could be raffled to a guest at the table so that the winner could take home a nice beta fish for a pet.

Photo Credit

Another fun and fresh idea is using citrus fruits. If we have green as our colour, I would love to use lemons since the yellow will go well with it. I keep hearing that my wedding decor should go along with the month we are getting married in. I think this is true to a certain extent but I am not going to write off a really great idea just because it doesn't "feel" like September. A centerpiece like this would add height colour and fun to the tables, and generally in RI it's still so nice and warm even in September that I'm sure it would go well.

Photo Credit

I also love curling vines like these curly willow clippings. These have orchid blooms attached to them and they almost look like dogwood. Beautiful!

Photo Credit

Depending on the kind of venue we end up booking, I also really love lanterns, but that may be too rustic for some of the places we are considering.

I am thinking about using the colours above as our colour scheme but can't decide if I might replace the yellow with a cream colour. I would love a sage green for bridesmaid's dresses and then purple and yellow (or cream) flowers in the bouquets. Deep purple table cloths (or a more traditional off-white) would tie everything together.

I think I might like this palette better.