Easy breezy?

We're a little bit less than ten months away from our wedding, and people have started asking the Big Question: "Are you totally stressed out yet?"

Until this week, my honest answer has been, not even a little bit! I've been really lucky so far - our venue was available on the date I wanted, the vendors I've booked have been incredibly lovely to work with, our financiers (read: Mumsy and Daddy) have been astonishingly generous and hands-off, our families have been entirely drama-free and my groom has answered all of my wedding related inquiries with "whatever you want is fine with me, babe." Until this week, I was all, so what is this wedding stress that people speak of? Man, I've even drawn up a schedule of errands, projects and dress fittings for the next ten months just to avoid the possibility of finding myself knee-deep in DIY and losing my mind the week of the wedding! I've got this thing down!

Until this week, that is. I had two things to take care of this week: hotel room blocks and a makeup artist. Pssh, simple! Monday morning, I contacted the three local hotels we'd selected to set up room blocks, figuring the whole thing would be done by the end of the day. Uh, not so much. The first hotel - our fancy-pants, high-end hotel where I was planning on spending the night before the wedding with my bridesmaids, then my wedding night with Mr. M - was BOOKED. Fully booked! Ten months in advance! No room at the inn! There would be no sneaking out with the girls for French pastries at the great little bakery nearby on my wedding morning, no last-minute-jitters-calming cocktails at my favorite bar in the neighborhood... what a bummer! Well, at least the other two hotels would come through.... right?

No dice. I can't get an answer from the second hotel for love or money, and the third hotel apparently doesn't do room blocks. Oy. Time for Plans B, C and D.

My search for a makeup artist didn't fare much better - did you guys know that most makeup artists have minimums for Saturday bookings? And extra fees for turning up at the butt-crack of dawn in my hotel in God-knows-which-borough-at-this-point? Yikes. I must have sent thirty inquiries this week, only to get the Dikembe Mutombo finger wag from most of them.

 

Only the bride needs makeup? I don't think so!

                 (.gif from wakejake on gifsoup.com)

But finally I found someone who has a beautiful portfolio, great reviews and was willing to work with just me... yay! So I immediately and eagerly booked a trial with her for next month, and unless it's really truly atrocious (and from what I've seen of her work, there's no way it will be) I am totally booking her on the spot. And then giving her a hug and a really big tip.

So while this is definitely nothing like the kind of OMG-level wedding stress that everyone talks about... this week was my first little taste of it. And if this is as bad as it gets... well, then I'm pretty lucky. (Fingers crossed!)

All Weddings, All the Time

Mr. M strolled into the living room today and found me sitting at the computer with five browser windows open at the same time - my wedding planning spreadsheet, the boards at Weddingbee, a wedding blog, my Pinterest page and the embossing tools selection at Paper Source. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't also printing out the contract to sign and send to our florist, writing out a check to the trolley company and downloading the Brides magazine app to our iPad... all while watching Say Yes to the Dress.

 

He was nice about it, of course, letting me get away with just a bit of gentle teasing... but I really couldn't help but wonder whether my Type-A tendency towards over-planning was getting the best of me.  I've really got a one track mind these days! I found myself at Grand Central last week, browsing the magazine selection at a huge newsstand before a long train ride and looking for a new bridal magazine to keep me entertained. Much to my horror, I realized that I had already read them all.

Every. Single. One. 

From Bridal Guide to Martha Stewart Weddings to the Knot, and even dipping into the slightly more obscure Manhattan Bride and Destination Weddings, I had completely exhausted the available supply of wedding magazines. Um. Oh, man. I'm embarrassed for myself. 

We're about ten months out from our wedding day now, and I think it's time for me to take a little tiny bit of a step backwards, stop dropping wads of cash on stacks of glossy ads and start reading the New York Times... at least more often than I read Ruffled. Otherwise, I think I'm in danger of becoming The Girl Who Only Talks About Her Wedding. And noooobody wants to be that girl! 

So for now, I'm gonna call it a night, get into bed and read an actual book. One that has no lace, no fine china ads and absolutely no etiquette tips. Oh, Lyndon B. Johnson biography... you are exactly what I need right now!

I'm sensing a theme...

While it was fairly easy to pick wedding colors - I settled on navy and fuschia after a brief flirtation with blush and gold - it was considerably harder to decide on a theme. I know you don't really need one and plenty of people have beautiful weddings completely devoid of an articulable theme, but I'm a lady who needs some direction. Otherwise, I'll just be adrift in a sea of Pinterest pins, mixing rustic favors with classically romantic escort cards and whimsical table numbers. Oh, the horror that would be!

When Bridesmaid J and I went to my first consultation with a potential florist, she asked about our colors and our theme.

 "We're going to do navy and fuschia for the colors, and the theme is... uh... is, uhhh...." Quick, lady! You can't let the florist think you don't have a theme! She's a wedding professional... don't let her think you're some sort of bridal slacker! Come up with something! "Um... gardens? Cause it's in a botanical garden?" Yes! Quick thinking, girl. Crisis averted.

"Gardens! That's a great idea," said the florist, ever gracious. She whipped out a catalog of centerpiece stands and, before I knew it, came up with some brilliant ideas for an English garden themed celebration. My panicked last minute gotta-have-a-theme theme? Not so bad after all!

Armed with a new sense of direction, I started thinking about the details. Although we're still ten months out from the wedding, I want to get a head start on some of our DIY projects so that I don't wind up spending next spring freaking out, up to my elbows in felt and glue and misery. Escort cards seemed like a good place to start. I loved the idea of paper flower escort cards - and frankly, I've been dying for an excuse to get one of those little paper flower kits from Paper Source - so I picked up the Mini Magnolia kit. I wanted to see whether assembling 180 of those suckers was going to be a fun, crafty thing to do... or a paper-based system of torture that would drive me slowly over the edge. 

Turns out it's the former... at least so far. The flowers come together pretty fast and are really, really cute! But now the problem I'm running into is how to turn these cute flowers into functioning escort cards. At first, I thought I could just print the names and table numbers on the leaves:

Nice, but not so functional. The flower petals obscure the names and the table numbers. No dice!

My second try fared a bit better, but still not really perfect:

It's a little bit easier to read the pertinent information, but the bloom really covers up a little too much. I think part of the problem could be solved by gluing down the flower a bit closer to the edge of the paper... but honestly, I feel like there must be a more attractive solution out there. Any ideas?

Shutterbug!

With our DJ plans solidified, next up on the decks was our search for a great photographer. Finding a great photographer was really important to me; besides being a little bit vain, I'm also a total photography enthusiast. While I'm no great artiste myself, I've definitely learned enough about good (and bad) photography through my years of mucking about with cameras that I knew exactly what I wanted - someone with a photojournalist style who could also deliver great portraits, someone who was great with composition and color, was excited about using different film formats and above all, someone who could make simply beautiful pictures.

I dove headfirst into researching local photographers. Living in New York, we're lucky enough to be surrounded by talented people. I briefly considered asking a friend of mine, who is a professional wedding photographer, to shoot our wedding, but decided that I'd rather have her attend as a guest and not a vendor. So onwards and upwards, through a ton of websites and portfolios and recommendations. Many of the photographers whose work I loved were well out of our price range, and a lot of the folks who were more affordable just didn't have work that really moved me. I was worried that we would have to choose between splurging and settling - until I came across Daniel Krieger.

Daniel's portfolio is incredible, and while his prices aren't exactly bargain basement, he could easily get away with charging twice what he does. He is an immensely talented photographer with a really amazing range. Seriously, how many photographers are as good at capturing intimate moments....

 

... as they are at capturing spontaneous ones? 

Daniel's pictures are so perfectly composed, they don't scream "wedding picture!" so much as "gorgeous piece of art that I would totally hang on my wall and love to death."

And his talent for taking truly gorgeous portraits of people? Incredible. You know how sometimes people are just really talented at getting what's really beautiful about a person into a picture? Daniel's totally got that down. 

 

His work makes stunning use of the interplay between light and dark....

 

... and he even has a Hasselblad! Oh man, I love me some medium format. (And look at the way that he turns what could be a regular old posed photograph into something really beautiful and cool.) 

I am so cuckoo-bananas excited to be working with Daniel Krieger as our wedding photographer. Our engagement shoot is coming up in a couple of months, and I totally can't wait. In the meantime, I'm feeding my inner photo junkie by checking his blog at danielkrieger.com quite frequently - and you should too, as these pictures are really just the tip of the awesomeness iceberg. 

All photographs are copyright Daniel Krieger, posted via danielkrieger.com.

Hey, Mister DJ!

After we got our venue settled, it was time to move on to selecting the vendors: a DJ, a photographer and a florist. One of my uncles is a professional DJ, and he did the music for my brother's wedding. He was fantastic! Everyone was on the dance floor all night, the announcements were cool and not super cheesy and he patiently accepted all of my requests for more Notorious B.I.G. - what more could you ask for?! But I was worried that if he spent his time working at our wedding, he wouldn't really get to enjoy it - though he definitely seemed to enjoy my brother's - so I started looking around for other options.

In all of my wedding review searches, one name kept popping up: DJ Gaza. Folks said that not only was he lovely to work with and reasonably priced, he was also seriously amazing at his job. They said, even guests who don't usually dance were grooving on the dance floor all night! So I emailed DJ Gaza and set up an appointment for the next week.

The day of our meeting, Bridesmaid N texted me and said, "Don't sign a contract with a DJ until you meet my friend Gary! He's the best!" That's funny, I thought - DJ Gaza's name is Gary! I wonder if it's the same guy?

Turns out it was! Gary and N know each other through a mutual friend, and between N's recommendation, DJ Gaza's sample playlists and my conversations with Gary, who really couldn't be more lovely, we booked him on the spot. Now I totally can't wait for to hear him spin at our wedding - we just know that he will make the party amazing.

One big vendor down, and two to go!

Saying Yes to the Dress

My original approach to wedding dress shopping was pretty much the same as my approach to dessert buffets: I WANT TO TRY ALL THE THINGS! I made appointments at five - oh yes, five - bridal salons over the course of two weekends. It was the Mrs. M-to-be Wedding Dress Tryin' Jamboree 2012 - and everyone was invited! (Well, not Mr. M, of course.)

My mom came down to Brooklyn on Friday morning to begin the satin and taffeta-draped marathon. We met up with one of my bridesmaids, J, and started out at the White Gown in Brooklyn, a hip and sophisticated little bridal boutique in the Dumbo neighborhood. My experience there was lovely beyond words. As a solidly plus-sized bride, I was really nervous that I'd be relegated to either holding pretty dresses up to myself in the mirror or shimmying into a parade of dumpy, boring plus size dresses. I shouldn't have been so pessimistic - the White Gown had zillions of gorgeous sample dresses in my size! (Or at least very close to my size.) I was able to try on at least seven or eight dresses in the style that I wanted, and at least three of them were very serious contenders. My consultant Erin was amazing - intuitive and friendly and welcoming - and the salon itself was really comfortable and pretty. My only tiny, tiny complaint was the size of their robes - guys, if you carry a sample size 22, invest in some XL robes for the size 22 ladies! But other than that, the experience couldn't have been better.

The Enzoani Fabi - is this dreamy or what?

I fell in luuuurve with the Enzoani Fabi dress -  especially after Erin showed me how much more flattering it was with a sparkly sash at the waist - but I still had four more appointments to get to, so I left the salon with Erin's card, pretty positive that Fabi would be my gown!

Our next stop was Kleinfeld's. I wasn't optimistic when we walked in - at four o'clock on a Friday afternoon, the place was a madhouse. We stood around waiting for a seat in the lobby to open up - and waiting for my other bridesmaid, N, to join us - and finally snagged a sofa just moments before my consultant, Antonella, appeared. I recognized Antonella from the show, Say Yes to the Dress, and was totally excited to see her! She was working with a newer consultant that day, showing her the ropes, and it was really cool to see the interaction between the more seasoned Kleinfeld's veteran and the super enthusiastic and sweet newbie.

We went into a dressing room and went over budget and style. I had printed out some dresses from the website but, like a doofus, totally forgot to bring them. I tried to describe the things I liked - dropped waists, full skirts, lots of drama - but also told them that I was totally open to suggestions. After a couple of minutes, everyone left - the consultants to the stock room, my entourage to a couch - and I slipped into my (perfectly sized) silver robe to wait.

The first few dresses were beautiful, but not really an improvement over the Fabi. I tried on the pretty Sophia Moncelli ballgown from the opening credits to SYTTD: Big Bliss and a Bliss by Monique Lhullier dress that was covered in organza roses. Both were lovely, but.... they just didn't quite top the Enzoani from the White Gown.

And then they brought it in - THE DRESS. It didn't look like much on the hanger, but I figured they knew better than me and I might as well try it on. You never know, right?

I stood on the pedestal as Antonella tugged the corset lacing tighter and tighter. And what was that in the mirror...? I had a waist! And boobs! A flat stomach and curvy hips! I looked taller... and elegant... and, oh my God.... beautiful!

As soon as I stepped out to show the crew, I knew we had a winner on our hands. The ladies, who had mostly been giving lukewarm nods and forced smiles to the giant, froofy ballgowns I loved, all lit up and started nodding. And when I turned around to show them the dramatic train? It was a chorus of "Yes! YES!"

We walked out to the pedestal in front of the full length mirror. I stepped up on the pedestal and dropped my armfuls of skirt. The silky fabric cascaded to the floor as my mom straightened out the beautiful train behind me. Another consultant came up and slipped a stunning beaded cathedral veil in my hair. Oh man. I melted.

I quizzed the folks I was with - do you love it? Do you think this is it? Do you really really love it? They all said yes. And so, after a few emotional moments in the fitting room alone with my mom, with tears of happiness in my eyes, I said yes, too.

And the celebrating started! "Are you saying yes to the dress?!" Antonella asked, laughing. "I am saying yes to the dress!" I replied. And we all laughed and took pictures and I took one last long glance in the mirror before I took it off, picturing myself walking down the aisle on our wedding day, Mr. M standing at the altar. I could really, really see it. And oh man, I really can't wait.

Om Nom Nom... the Tasting Party!

As soon as we signed the contract and put down the deposit for the Botanic Garden, we got an email from the Palm House's wedding coordinator inviting us to a tasting party! The Palm House has an in-house caterer, Charles Sally Charles, and instead of individual tastings for couples getting married there, they have a big party a few times a year. Even though it was a little bit early - since our wedding won't be for another year - both Mr. M and I never say no to a party. So we went, and brought Mr. M's mother along with us to enjoy the festivities!

The caterers had set up a full bar outside of the Palm House on the patio near the fountains, so Mr. M's mom and I picked up a few glasses of celebratory champagne - yum! Mr. M opted for a cocktail instead, and was very pleased - those bartenders know their stuff. We sipped our drinks and admired the scenery for a bit, then headed inside to begin the feast.

The caterers had arranged the room with food stations lining the walls - a Tuscan table with antipasti and yummy little vegetable tarts, a pasta station with some salads and different kinds of pasta, an artisanal cheese table, a crudite display and - be still my beating heart! - a fully stocked raw bar with different kinds of raw oysters and clams, huge jumbo shrimp, cracked crab legs and delectable chilled lobster tails. Heaven! We claimed a cocktail table near the kitchen and made sure to snag each one of the passed appetizers as they came by - a miniature Reuben sandwich, a chilled butternut squash soup in a shotglass, a teeny tiny crabcake. Yum to everything! Later in the evening, the waiters brought out miniature samples of a few entree selections. We tried the duck, which was really good, but missed out on the other entree.

The only slight disappointment of the evening was the cake selection - the catering package includes a cake, and Mr. M and I agreed that we would go with the venue's bakers rather than spend the extra money to hire one of our own. Though there were seven or eight flavor combinations available, we were only allowed to try three each - and the ones we tried were not as amazingly delicious as all of the other food we'd had that evening. The vanilla flavors were on the dry side, and the chocolate ones - while still pretty good - were underwhelming. Oh well... no one really eats cake at a wedding anyway, right?

We left a little bit tipsy and totally full of oysters and lobster, confident that we'd made the right choice in booking the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It's going to be a really beautiful - and really delicious - day!