Milestone!

Whooohooooo! We've got a venue!!!

And with that, I'm going to leave you at the edge of your seat (for now).

Look what came in the mail today!

What's in the box?

It's our address embosser! We had ordered this a couple of weeks ago and completely forgotten about it. Just look at what it can do:

I immediately tried it on the sample envelopes I had ordered from Paper and More. I had to stop myself before I embossed all of them. I need to save them for a test run through my printer. I don't think my printer would appreciate nubby paper. 

Two Dress Bride

For a traditional Chinese wedding, the bride has multiple costume changes. There's the tea ceremony dress (kwa), the church ceremony dress, the traditional Chinese long dress (cheongsam or qipao), multiple cocktail dresses during the reception, and of course the send-off outfit. Back in the olden days, wealthy brides would change up to 30 times! Modern brides change 2-4 times; usually it's the white dress and the cheongsam (for the tea ceremony or part of the reception). If you ask me, more outfits equal more money. 

Until recently, I'd never been able to make up my mind about whether I'd be a one or two dress bride. I would always ask myself: Why would I want to take off the white dress? How much money is the Chinese one going to cost me? Do I really need two? The answer is yes, I want both. But here's the catch, I don't like the kwa or the cheongsam. The kwa is heavily embroidered and beaded. I imagine it to be pretty heavy and would get hot wearing it, especially if we're having an outdoor wedding in August. The cheongsam is meant to hug your curves (for those that have curves). I've never been one for super fitted clothes. I would also have a terrible time trying to walk in it. While the dress has either one or two slits up the skirt to aid in movement, I'd probably still fall flat on my face.

Left: Kwa. Right: Qi Pao or Cheongsam.

So what's a girl to do? Any guesses? Come closer and I'll tell you. A little bit closer...closer...OK that's close enough. I'm going to have mine altered to the way I like things. I know, I know, custom made usually means $$$. My friend's mom is a seamstress/dressmaker (she made his sisters wedding gown which was assessed at 20K!) and is excited about the idea. I'm hoping she'll give me the friends and family discount. I've been struggling with the design. I'm no fashion designer, but none of the ideas in my head were working. Then I saw three pictures yesterday and instantly I knew exactly what I wanted.

Left: Sarah K Chen. Top Right: Laura Ivanova. Bottom Right: Michele M Waite.

Get outta town

We've been telling people that 2/3 of our guest list will be from out of state, but I just realized that it's more like 3/4 of our guests don't live in MA!!

Aside from proper wedding etiquette, I really want to make sure that everyone is taken care of. I don't know about you, but after traveling all day, I'm tired, hungry, thirsty, and cranky. Enter Out-of-Town bags. OOT care packages usually greet guests when they reach the hotel and are filled with water, snacks, a welcome note, maps, and tourist information.

My original idea was to use gable boxes. This is pretty much standard wedding fare:

(Source)

I recently bought 3400 yards of baker's twine (that's a whole other story), so I'm trying to figure out how to use it up. I'm a baker, I now own baker's twine, Ah HA I got it! I'll use bakery boxes (think cake box) as our OOTs!

(Source)

How cute is that? 

Venues - The Rejects

When we first got engaged (6+ months ago!), I had posted about Platinum wedding venues. Keeping the look of Belle Mer and Oheka Castle in mind, but within our budget, Paula came up with a fairly extensive list of possible venues for us. First up, the rejects:

The Connors Center
+The building exterior is pretty
+There is greenery
-There doesn't seem to be that much to the grounds
-We dislike the building interior

(Source - compilation by me)

Moraine Farm
Their website is terrible, cick HERE for better pictures
+The sunken garden and fountain is a pretty spot; although somewhat overgrown in some pictures
+Terrace overlooking the water
+There seems to be a lot of green space
-Dislike the look of the buildings; a little rustic for our tastes
-Not a fan of the "gazebo" like structure (I think it's what they call the Tea House)

(Source - compilation by me)

Rennaissance Golf Club
+The view of the front 9 is a bit prettier than the Granite Links course
-The website is terrible, there are no pictures of the inside of the venue or the veranda!
-Located out in Haverhill

(Source)

Lyman Estate
-Neither one of us likes this venue. There's nothing much to the grounds from the pictures (big green lawn, then big white mansion). Perhaps it's just bad pictures?

(Source - compilation by me)

Glen Magna
+Pretty grounds to be pretty (walkways, fountains and gardens)
-Interior isn't attractive.
-Looks more like a farm house with nice gardens. The grounds strike me as more whimsical.

(Source - compilation by me)

Tupper Manor
Jake and I loved this place. We thought it was IT. The grounds are gorgeous. The fountain is fabulous. There's an Inn on the same property. Here, comes the BUT...there's no room on the grounds for a tented reception. BOOO!

(Source)

Stayed tuned for Part 2, the contenders...

Related posts:
Platinum Wedding Venues

I ♥ Font

Yes, that's right, I've fallen for a font. This isn't just any font, it's THE font that we will be using for all of our stationary. I use the word we, because Jake is very excited to help me put together all of our paper products. What paper products you ask? Well there's the save the dates (referred to as STDs in wedding speak- HAHA), invitations, escort cards, menus, thank you cards, table numbers, etc. I plan to design and create all of it. I've actually been working on the design aspect mentally for the last 3 months!

May I introduce, Kon Tiki Enchanted from Veer:

Bear with me as I know nothing about typography, but I will try and describe why this is totally "us." This font is not too "froofy" or "scripty" like some other fonts I've seen on wedding invitations; it has just enough "loopage" to be a touch on the formal side. The characters are wide (see the capital letters) and spaced out reflecting our laid-back side, more so Jake than myself. It's clean, simple, and not fussy. It feels like a modern take on an old classic with a dash of quirk.  But, most important of all, it's just FUN!

There is one con for using this font: it costs money, $49.00 to be exact. I searched high and low for something similar and free, but nothing struck a cord with us. The closest I could find was Honey Script from dafont. The character spacing is just too tight for our liking. Since this will be costing us money, I'm going to be using it on everything, even Christmas cards!

(Honey Script)

Besides liking the font for itself, Jake also likes the name of the font. Story time! Kon-tiki is the name of a raft used by a Norwegian scientist named Thor Heyerdahl and his crew to sail across the Pacific Ocean (Peru to Polynesia). Kon-tiki was constructed out of balsa, pine, bamboo, and hemp. Heyerdahl hypothesized that Polynesians originated from South America. He set out by building and sailing a raft likely built in the 15th century by locals. His hypothesis was proved to be plausible. 

  

It's like our name in lights!

Team Wedding!

Weddings are a personal matter. Attire, rings, ceremony music, type of ceremony, etc., these are all very personal decisions to be made by the bride and groom. We hired a wedding planner. Everyone has an opinion about wedding planners. Whether it be good or bad, everyone has an opinion. This was our choice, we want help, professional help. Some loved planning their wedding and would give anything to do it again, that's not us. We're not wedding planning people, it's just not how we roll. I'm going to be honest, I was very hesitant to tell people in general or even mention it here. But this is our blog, it is a scrapbook of our wedding journey and I want to capture every step we take along the way.

So after 5+ months of being engaged (holy crap that's almost half a year!) , we've finally taken our first major step. I present to you Team Wedding:

Jake, Me, and Paula!

Our planner is Paula of Marrero Events. If you could combine my personality and Jake's, you'd get Paula. She is an absolute riot, has a no-nonsense approach when the situation calls, and the best part, she's frugal. We'll be counting on her to keep us on track (because you know how spacey Jake can get and how obsessive compulsive I can be) and to teach us how enjoy the entire planning process. I didn’t tell Paula immediately after we’d decided. She and I had gone through a few rounds of questioning already. I was dying to tell her, but I wanted to keep her on her toes and have her answer one last round of questions. Hey, suspense is good for the soul.