Post-Mortem

The wedding went BEAUTIFULLY! Check out Facebook for some choice early shots... I'll try and get a Flickr or Shutterfly account in the near future.

Though the ice cream didn't happen, we did have a lovely dinner last night with Chris's family and had a great time. It was wonderful to meet Melissa and her precocious kids and spend some time together!

We're so thankful to everyone who made the trip out and spent the day with us. We hope everyone had as much fun as we did.

Quick Post-Rehearsal Ice Cream?

Anyone family members who will be in town interested in getting ice cream with us after the Rehearsal Dinner?

I'm thinking specifically of Chris's fam, particularly those of you I haven't met! Since the Rehearsal is at my grandparent's apartment, we can only invite those people actually involved in the minutiae of the ceremony. But I'd love to meet everyone and swap quick greetings before the wedding!

We were thinking of finding a place in downtown Manhattan (maybe Little Italy?) for gelato at 8:30ish. It would probably be quick-- 30 mins or an hour-- so I could get beauty sleep.

Who's in?

Update

So, I feel like I haven't been in touch as much as I've meant to be. Apologies to anyone!

A few quick updates:

We figured out sheet cake. It's coming from a local-ish bakery instead of Costco. We think a friend is going to be able to pick it, and our fancy mini cake, up.

Chris is gonna borrow mom's car to get beer and wine.

We've nearly finished writing the ceremony and going through our iPod playlist (which is easy, thanks to the "Born Bad" comp and some other rockabilly comps that Emily gave us).

All I'm really nervous about now is:
- weather
- hair
- finding enough time for photos
- being heard-- and not being embarrassed-- during the ceremony

These are all relative intangibles, so I need to relaaaax.

Food!

We have been really, really great at sticking to our budget, so it looks like you all will probably get fed a decent amount of snacks! You might still want to grab yourself a sandwich or a snack between the ceremony and the reception, but I think there will be adequate nibbles for everyone. The food is also super delicious-- we tasted it last night.

All we're still stressing about a little bit is how to get the beer, wine, and cake to the wedding.

Any volunteers...? We love you...

Hair!

Forgive my egotism, but I got my first wedding hair trial on Friday. What do you think? Also, it looked great for about two hours and then it started to kind of wilt. She said she'd do it more intensely on the morning of the wedding, but any advice from my lady friends who do their hair? I figured I'd buy a can of Aquanet...

Accommodations, Part II

My friend Karen offered a terrific suggestion for those of you on a serious budget. She said:

At the Vanderbuilt YMCA, you can get a "room to yourself with linens (and fridge I think) in midtown - call and check the story is right - can't go wrong at $50/night"
http://www.ymcanyc.org/index.php?id=1140

Accommodations

Chris's cousin Melissa figured out that there's a new Sheraton hotel in Brooklyn that's reasonably affordable.

In addition, people should definitely consider staying in Manhattan, since the wedding is so close to the Brooklyn/Manhattan border. There are more hotels there, so it might be easier to get a decent deal. I can't attest to the quality of these, since I've never stayed in a hotel in NYC, but people may want to consider them!

Location Information

The Dumbo Arts Center is located here, near the F to York Street and the A/C to High Street.

Anyone who wishes to take the LIRR would probably be better off traveling to Penn Station; the event is only about one stop into Brooklyn from Manhattan.

The street parking situation is not so good, but you could consider paid parking nearby here.

Please let me know if you'd like more customized advice about directions!!

So, I still suck at blogging...

But I'm trying to get better!

The wedding's in a few weeks (I refuse to count the days; it's too stressful). A few of you have asked if there's anything you can do to help, so here are some ideas! Love you all, whether you can lend a hand or not! ;)

1. Figure out what background music to play while everyone but me walks down the aisle (we have a special song for that)

2. Figure out what appropriate iPod dock volume to play it at and who will man the iPod dock.

3. Figure out who will help set up the aisle and chairs.

4. Figure out who, with a car, can pick up our booze (and this might need to be at two places-- a beer distributor and Trader Joe's)
* We're not sure exactly where/how to store the booze and get it to the wedding. We could keep it at our apartment and then Chris and his brothers can take it in a cab to the wedding, though anyone with any other suggestions is welcome to share them!
* We were considering getting a keg, 'cause we're classy like that, but we're not sure how we'd keep it cold 'til Sunday afternoon
* We also want to get a case of Martinelli's because we'll have a lot of non-drinkers in attendance who we'd like to share a toast with us. Any clue where to get this?

5. Figure out who will pick up cake, plates, forks at Costco
* anyone with a membership want to take this on? Otherwise, we'll get a membership and someone with a car can go for us...

(PS: This is Liz, not Chris! He was accidentally logged on. Not that it matters...)

In other news...

Ok. So, I suck at blogging.

Here are some updates.

1. The wedding reception will be a cocktail party style affair. It will probably run from about 2:30-5:30. There should be awesome live music for an hour in the middle of things and an hour for corny toasts and cake.

2. The wedding ceremony is still a little less planned. People should gather at noon and the walking should start at 12:15-30ish. We know that most people will be standing, though we'll have ten chairs for anyone who needs to sit. We need to figure out who will make us a chuppah. We need to confirm an officiant. We need to figure out how we'll play our song while I walk down the aisle. (Get batteries for my iPod dock...?)

3.I know that my friend Stef, an awesome photographer, will take the posed pictures. We hope that everyone else will take a lot of fun candid shots throughout the wedding and reception and email us good ones. We'll put the ones we like on a web site and people can order prints, if they want...

4- Our awesome friends Chris and Emma are making our invitations. They will, hopefully, be ready for mailing in about 10 days (2 weeks max).

5. We need to figure out cake and booze and coffee. Anyone with ideas may weigh in!

Food!

Okay. So, we've decided to go with a cocktail-party style reception, catered by a Brooklyn-based caterer called Cobblestone Foods. They cost a teensy bit more than we'd hoped, but they're great. They've worked at the Dumbo Arts Center before, they're really professional, and they'll take care of everything. We'll have about three hors d'ouevres, soft drinks/juice/etc., beer, wine, and maybe a signature cocktail. (We have to price out the booze!)

We still have to figure out our dessert situation. One idea I had was to get a very small, very pretty cake for "ceremonial purposes" and then a large sheet cake for everyone. Another good idea is the, evidently Midwestern, tradition of a cookie table. Any guest that wanted to could bring a couple dozen cookies and contribute to our dessert.

Anyone else have any good ideas? Now we're down to the fun stuff!

Planning Paralysis

Whether it was because I started back at work and school, or because we're just natural procrastinators, Chris and I completely just stopped wedding planning. We'd muse fantastically about our plans, and neither of us is unexcited about our upcoming nuptials, but neither of us was taking the initiative to do any of the important stuff. And then the new year hit. And then an email from Caryn, happily noting we had five months left to plan. Crap.

So, we're meeting with a caterer on Tuesday who, for $3,000, would supply a buffet, tables, chairs, set-up, and service. This would eat up a huge chunk of our budget, but it would save a ton of trouble. We might do this.

We also have a very, very daunting checklist ahead, but we'll manage. Expect invites in April...