Wedding Wednesday: Put on your dancing shoes!

Today is the last post in our Wedding Wednesday series! A huge thank you for stopping by and your kind comments. If you're one of the three people left on this planet that isn't completely saturated in our wedding, fret not! Our new website will feature a wedding page. Hurray! There will be new content and more pictures. :-)

Without further ado, our last Wedding Wednesday! After we got hitched, wined and dined, it was time to get down with our baaaaad selves. Okay, not really. The music was all big band standards, rat pack, and vintage jazz. So we... boogied?

Our first dance was to Joshua Radin's "Today". We've loved this song for a long time and the lyrics mention traveling on the train, which is how we commuted between each other's apartments for years.

 

I wanted to combine the traditional father/daughter & mother/son dance (thus taking a bit of the "they're all staring at me dance" pressure off). We danced to Louis Armstrong singing "What a Wonderful World."

 

 

Then everyone boogied:

 

 

One final huge thank you to Zlatko Batistich for the beautiful photos!

 

Wedding Wednesday: Dessert

Yum. Yummy McYumminess. Droooool....

Now that I've gotten that out of my system...

 

 

 

 

See? Yum.

 

Since today's post is a little late, I'll be back in a few hours with a bonus post.

See you on the flip side!

Wedding Wednesday: The Food

Fair warning: you might want to have a napkin at-the-ready for this one or at least some sort of drool-catching-system. There's some downright purdy grub below!

When we began planning the wedding, one of our biggest priorities for the reception was the food. We're not really the dancing-up-a-storm type, so the idea of a restaurant-style meal was very enticing. So, we found a really ideal situation at the Union League Café. They were so wonderful to us- the event coordinator, Amy Healy (who immediately made us feel at ease) was on maternity leave for part of the time and their General Manager/Director of Operations Jean-Michel Gammariello took amazing care of us. There wasn't a single thing we would have changed or imagined could have gone any better. It was an absolute dream. Here is the menu they offered:

There were passed hors d'oeuvres:
Provencal Style "Cuisine" of braised and grilled vegetables with assorted sauces, aioli, vinaigrette, cream cheese and herb
Assortment of farmed, artisanal and organic cheeses and fresh seasonal fruits, served with a selection of toasted sourdough bread and baguette
And a raw bar with East and West Coast oysters, shrimp, clams, and crab claw.

The guests were given a menu once seated (seen here) and chose between:

Appetizer:
Terrine of Duck Foie Gras and Rabbit ConfitMache salad, truffle vinaigrette

Diver Sea Scallops with tomato concassee, pistou of Swiss chard



Sorbet course:
White Peach Sorbet, Fresh Lime Juice



Entrée:
Roasted Maine Lobster with fricassee of celeriac, roasted chanterelle mushroom and chestnut, lobster emulsion
Roasted Rack of Colorado Lamb Organic with ricotta and arugula tortellini, pequillo peppers, caramelized onions and tomato confit
Roast Duck Breast Glazed with baby turnips, fava bean puree, natural duck jus and savory

Say it with me now: "nom!"


Ah, and we mustn't neglect the wine:

Champagne Toast: Cremant de Limoux Domaine Collin N.V.

White Wine: Vignoble d'E Domaine Ostertag 2009
Red Wine: Bourgogne Domaine Gaunoux 2008

Amazing, right!? If you're ever in the New Haven area, we absolutely recommend that you go. And give them our best :-)

Next week: Desserts!!

Wedding Wednesday: DIY Details

Today's W.W. is all about those little handmade details that made our wedding "ours." I joke that I used the wedding as sponsored crafting but at the end of the day, but it ended up being a real team effort! (which is occasionally always a challenge for my personality)

[numbered descriptions below]

 

1. Probably the least "crafty" of the projects. I bought $0.50 plastic frames at Michaels, spray painted them white, and then printed out vaguely-calligraphy-looking numbers on nice paper. Ain't no thang.
2. As one of the favors, we wanted to spread the crafty love. I found a wonderful bike pattern on Etsy (Create2Destroy) and printed out copies on card stock. Fred made this mockup so people could see what the flat piece had the potential to become! The rolls of card stock were held tight by small white tags, stamped with a bicycle in copper-colored ink.
3. This ribbon isn't even a craft, but more of an expedition. I must have spent hours scouring the internet looking for the perfect yellow ribbon after seeing something similar on the cover of Martha Stewart Weddings (which you can see here) and they wouldn't/couldn't tell me where they got it. Grrrr. I finally discovered a ribbon shop on 38th Street called Hyman Hendler & Sons that happened to have gotten a visit from Miss Stewart herself. Huzzah! So down to 38th Street I went and bought one yard (to the tune of $20.50 a yard. Ouch!) But honestly, my $20 of ribbon was so great. I still have it and its going to be part of something very special that's in the works. (muah-ha-ha)
4. A week before the wedding my mother-in-law's sister (errr... My aunt-in-law?) flew here from Italy. She brought with her the other wedding favor: bombonierre (chocolate or candy coated almonds). I got these little bags and contrasting twine off of Etsy (studio8supplies) and printed out the labels on my computer with Avery circle sticker label paper. Then, the two most patient ladies in the world (my aunt- and mother-in-law) assembled them. I have it on good authority that it took hours. Thank you ladies so much!!!
5. A few weeks after we got engaged, I took a calligraphy course on the Upper East Side (with the all-star Harriet Rose) with the idea of doing some sort of calligraphy for the wedding myself. This ended up being the placecards, which was definitely a labor of love. I think I may have ended up throwing away twice as many placecards because of mistakes but my patient teacher had warned me of this and so it wasn't too traumatic. Honestly, it was a lot of fun to do!
6. This is the front of the menu. I have always loved these vows and wanted them to be featured somewhere so that's where they ended up. Here is the full text: "I take you to be no other than yourself. Loving what I know of you, trusting what I do not yet know, with respect for your integrity, and faith in your love for me, through all our years, and in all that life may bring us."
7. (The yellow bombonierre)
8. I, for some reason, decided to make my own memory board. (One day I'll pass on the full instructions, once I remember how I did it!) Guests were asked to fill out the small cards (with graphics from The Graphics Fairy) with marriage advice and then put them on the memory board.

10 points to anyone who has made it through the whole post! Whew! That was a long one. Next week: food. Nom nom.

 

**Enjoying the pictures? We are! They are all thanks to photographer extraordinaire Zlatko Batistich**

 

Wedding Wednesday

House update: our sofas arrived!! Ft and I went cray-cray last night in our living room and it is actually starting to look like something! Woot! (picture me doing a happy dance) I've been spending the morning screaming bloody murder any time one of the cats tries to jump on a sofa. In theory, this should deter them from the habit. (Fingers crossed, people). Now on to Wedding Wednesday!!

Our pictures today are, oddly enough, from the trip from the ceremony to the reception. I'm surprised as anyone, but the photographer (Zlatko Batistich) got some amazing pics.

The bouquet, post surgery. Eagle-eyed readers might notice that the bouquet had a bunch of sticking-out pieces in it in the earlier pictures. My sister found some scissors and did the ol' snip snip number- and boy, am I glad she did! Soooooo much better- and more like what I had envisioned/asked for.

One of my all-time favorite pictures from the almost 1000. Fred with his best man.

Limos make me giggle. Something about prom and bad Vegas movies...

Okay, my "trip to the reception" plan has hit a snag. Apparently, there were only 4 pictures that got transferred to my iPad.

So, to fill out the usual 5-picture format, here's a blast from the past:

 

That my mom and dad!!! Aren't they adorable?! I love everything about this picture, from my mom's supremely fabulous dress and speaking of fabulous, check out those ruffles on my dad's tux! Classy.

 

Wedding Wednesday - Ash Wednesday edition

It's Wedding Wednesday! Back by popular demand (aka. my mother) this is a comment-less version as we've just returned home from services. The pictures today are from the ceremony:

 

 

 

**All photographs by the amazing, wonderful, stupendous and highly recommended Zlatko Batistich**

 

Wedding Wednesday

I can't believe it's already been another week! Time is flying by.

In unpacking news, our bedroom now resembles an actual bedroom (as opposed to a storage room) and we're so close to being done, I can almost taste it. Our brand new sofas shipped yesterday so I am hoping they will arrive soon!

An on to ''Wedding Wednesday''! The 5 pictures today will be from the photo shoot before the ceremony. As I said last week, we chose to take our pictures ahead of time. An unforeseen result of this was a really fun time of celebrating with our nearest and dearest.

Our wedding party!

This picture runs a close second for being our favorite.

I like this picture, but I think it kind of looks like I'm annoyed....

The church isn't air conditioned so we provided these fans. (Which the rain made unnecessary)

Although Fred and I went to the same school, we were not there at the same time.

However, we did have the same teacher and we were so honored he agreed to play our wedding!!

 

**all photographs courtesy of the amazing Zlatko Batistich**

 

New Series: Wedding Wednesdays!

Hi gang! Things have been a little quiet around here while we've been getting unpacked and a little-thing-called-Christmas happened. So while the merry spirit of working overtime took over our suburban haven, we've been secretly planning some awesomeness to do around the house. We are SO close to fully unpacked and once we are, we're gonna open a bit ol' can of whoopa$$ paint on this house! Who's excited!? Just us? That's okay.

But while the plans start coming to fruition I thought I'd populate our blog land with some gratuitous wedding photos. There have been some great photos on Facebook for a while now but our photographer extraordinaire Zlatko Batistich graced us with a whole lotta amazing pictures. So every Wednesday, we'll share some of our favorites! Today's photos are all pre-ceremony.

1. ''First Look'': a lot of couples these days are opting to see each other before the ceremony, thus allowing a beautiful, private moment and also to better facilitate the schedule of the day. This was the right choice for us and it was one of my favorite moments.

2. This is my favorite photo of my then-hubby-to-be. Isn't he handsome?

I mean, who doesn't want to have someone look at you like that!? Swoon.

3. The hem of my dress against the oh-so-classy hotel carpet.

4. Yes, I wore flats and yes, they were gold and sparkly :-)

5. My dad helping me cross the street in the rain. What a champ.

(Notice, if you will, the Masters umbrella- he's classy like that.)

That's all for today! Again, all pictures are to the credit of Zlatko Batistich (find him here), whom we HIGHLY recommend to anyone. He was so easy to work with and made taking pictures very easy (and we are very camera shy!)

 

Get 'im to the church on time!

Yesterday, we had the very great honor of going our friends' wedding: Elise and Woo-sug. Fred went to Yale with Woo-sug and stood as one of his groomsmen. Naturally (or unnaturally, depending on how you look at it) all of the groomsmen are organists. He had asked all of them to provide music for the ceremony. It was so fun watching a bunch of organists/directors-of-music prepare a piece of music- there were a lot of "how many organists does it take..." jokes flying around.

When we arrived, Woo-sug and the groomsmen were feverishly working with ribbon and flowers trying to get the decorations for the pews. It was really a sight seeing them MacGyver-ing them with tape and staples. [insert "how many organists" joke here]

Didn't they do a great job?!

We were so glad to be able to attend- and we even managed to get a picture of us! (thanks to Fred's insistence and our friend Andrea who patiently took about a million pictures until we got a good one):

 

And finally, a picture of the gorgeous bride & groom:

 

Congratulations you two!!!

 

The Teardos- first wedding picture!

Photo credit: the amazing Zlatko Batistich