Honeymooners

This time next year, we will be on our honeymoon. That's kind of more exciting than the wedding itself, am I right? :-P So in honor of this other countdown, I thought I'd do a post about what we plan to do.

Photo hijacked off of Kim's own Hawaiian honeymoon album. 

I can't remember when but I think we had mutually agreed, even before becoming engaged, that we wanted to honeymoon in Hawaii. A small part of me wanted to go to Europe. Italy, mostly, but there are other parts I want to see, Germany and Croatia being at the top of the list. (Where my mom's mom and mom's step-dad are from, respectively.) But because there is family there, I rather save a European trip for when the entire family can go together. So, Hawaii won in the "where do we go on our honeymoon" category.  I mean, just look at that picture above!

The wedding is on a Saturday, so we will give ourselves Sunday to rest, recover, do whatever needs to be done, then Monday we'll fly out.

One of the things I read early on in this Hawaii research is, for first timers of the islands, travel advisors don't recommend taking a cruise. I get what they mean - but I felt a cruise would be the most convenient way to see more than just two islands. The cost of flights from island to island, car rental, hotels would be far higher than the convenience of your room, meals and transportation being taken care of by the cruise for one price!

We decided to go with Norwegian Cruise Line's Pride of America. They depart from Honolulu every Saturday. Since it leaves on October 25th, the day of the wedding, we have to wait until the following Saturday, November 1st. So what to do the first week? Explore Oahu by foot of course!

A lot of people had asked us if we were going to honeymoon in Disney World, which we answered with a big fat NO, lol. Disney World is our go-to vacation spot. We wanted the honeymoon to be different! However, since we are passing California to get to and from Hawaii, Jonathan really really liked the idea of stopping in Disneyland for a night. Initially I was trying to make it work so that we could do it on the way back from Hawaii. But, that would make the trip longer than two weeks, and we're trying to be realistic, what with work and everything. The other option would be to not do the cruise at all, but we really like that idea too. I kind of don't like the idea of starting the honeymoon in Disney but it would be really fun to walk around with the bride & groom Mickey and Minnie ears knowing we really did just get married! Maybe if we splurged for one night in the Disneyland Hotel and make it more honeymoon-y, it would help make it feel different than a regular Disney visit. If so, that means one day in California (Monday, the 27th), then the next afternoon fly out to Hawaii and land in Oahu. Spend the week there, at a hotel on Waikiki Beach, then that Saturday, we'd leave Honolulu and head to the other islands via cruise ship. We'd be back in Oahu the following Saturday, November 8th....aka my birthday! Not a bad way to turn 29!

Whatever we end up doing, I'm sure it will be memorable. Jonathan is pretty much leaving me in charge of planning! Can't decide if that's a great thing, or a dangerous thing, lol. In Kauai, there's a shore excursion called Kauai - The Director's Cut. It's a tour that takes you to spots where famous scenes were shot, and you can actually get off the vehicle used during the tour and walk around. The actual description is much more appealing than my own, lol, but that sounds right up our alley. Other things I want to do are the Road to Hana in Maui, which is about the journey, not the destination itself. I've heard mixed reviews about the tour so maybe we'll do that one on our own, if Jonathan is up for that kind of drive! Zip lining, kayaking, snorkeling....sooo many options over there.

My dad said when we're ready to book the cruise, to let him know and he'd call for us. My parents cruise every year (in fact, they're away on one as I type!) and they were bumped up to a suite for free. My dad was thinking he could get us the same deal. Uh, let me think about that one...

One Year To Go!

One more year to go?!

Just kidding. Kind of.

In all reality, I wish it were today. Yesterday morning we both woke up and it really felt different. Like the countdown had officially begun. I know it will fly by and it makes me kind of sad. In the sense that there is all this excitement over the preparation and anticipation and it will be over before we know it. Yesterday flew by and I know that's what the day-of is going to be like. Another reminder not to take the process so seriously. In fact, I got great advice the other day about focusing more about preparing for marriage not preparing for your wedding. Makes sense!

Jonathan wrote a really sweet status yesterday that I just couldn't compete with. 

And this gem of a bit strip (created by my mom) is too funny not to share!

Last night, I met Jonathan after work and we ate at the Ollie's in Hell's Kitchen. We'll find any excuse to dine out so of course we went to eat and celebrate the date, lol. Not that sit down Chinese food is fancy but we wanted low-key. Which is not to knock the place. I love Ollie's! Then we went to this really cool arcade bar called Two Bit's Retro Arcade in the Lower East Side where you can drink and play all the video games that will take you down memory lane. Let's just say a lot of my quarters went to Mortal Kombat! It was a small crowd, just Chris M, Jonathan, myself, Kim and Vinnie.  But it was an appropriate night: we ate, we drank and we were merry. Sums up what this time next year will be like!

When we got back to the house, we saw this cake on the kitchen table. His parents are too cute!

In fun wedding news, we booked the photo booth for the reception. We decided to go with Ovation. Anthony and Gina had used them in 2011 (their anniversary is coming. Two years already?!) and Kim and Vinnie had used them last December. Jonathan and I agreed we liked it and went down to their office in Carle Place to do some face to face talking and make a deposit. They had a sample photo booth there, but we went with one of their other ones. After the meeting, I mentioned to my mom that we got it and she couldn't believe the price, lol. I thought it was reasonable but photo booths are something new to our parents' generation I suppose. Still though, it's worth it in my opinion. I feel it adds a little something, plus the photo strip makes for a great favor to take home. 

Next up: dropping off limo deposit and reserving a block of hotel rooms for guests!

Anthony and Bryn's Wedding - October 18, 2013

It took me a full weekend to recover from Anthony and Bryn's wedding....nothing says 'you're getting older' like a 48 hour hangover. But that only goes to show what a great time the wedding was! (Not that you need to drink to enjoy yourself but you know what I mean.)


Both ceremony and reception took place at the Sand Castle in Franklin Square. As I've mentioned before, it was high on my list of favorite places when we were doing our own search! It didn't disappoint. I like how they chose their wedding date - it is also their dating anniversary. So that day marked 7 years of being together! Pretty neat. We thought about doing that too, in the beginning of the planning that is, but our dating anniversary is February 27 and I feared a snowstorm or some other wintery mess.

Arriving there, we were pushing it time wise. We missed the hospitality hour that started an hour before the 6pm ceremony. We got there at 6:10 and it started maybe two or three minutes after that!! Talk about lucky. I was especially panicking in the car on the way over because Bryn had asked us to record the ceremony. (They didn't hire a videographer.) I would have felt horrible if we missed her walk down the aisle. Luckily, that was not the case at all and we were able to capture the whole thing for them.

Weather was a little chilly but bearable. I foolishly didn't bring a jacket that night but was comfortable enough without it. The ceremony was short but sweet with plenty of tears.

I love this last picture even though it was unintentional. I just got a new camera (the Mark II!) and it came with a 50mm. I don't have any other lenses at the moment and you can only do so much with the 50 in terms of action shots. But I like this picture anyway. It looks dreamy, which I'm sure is what their state of mind was as they walked down the aisle as newlyweds!

After that, we immediately went inside for the cocktail hour. 

Food wise, between cocktail hour and dinner, everything was delicious. My only regret was somehow losing my appetite come dinner. After three bites, I had them wrap it up to take home....and we left it hanging on the back of my chair! :'(

The bartender gave this drink to an older couple who looked so confused and laughed at the literal shot in their drink. 

After an hour, it was into the main ballroom for the reception. I admit, I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked. But that's because I was really enjoying myself so I guess that's not a bad reason.

Very cool seating chart!

I love this idea instead of a scrapbook! We may have to borrow that one :)

Haha love Anthony's face here...I think the DJ had just asked them how they were feeling tonight.

The first dance started off slow and sweet...

Then the music stopped and everyone turned to the DJ thinking he messed up or something. But in a heartbeat, the music was back and in a more upbeat tempo. Bryn and Anthony busted out with some fun moves!

Everyone's facial expressions were priceless!

In short, most entertaining first dance ever!

I love this candid capture of the groom.

...and this candid capture of the emcee's expression.

 Getting low for Shout...

...and back up again.

Us :)

Check this out. The groomsmens' very own Wrestling Buddies.

And then the cake cutting...

Father/daughter dance. Her father's expression is so sweet.

 Mother/son dance...

And the favors! They brewed their own beer. Pretty awesome, right?

Love love love photobooths! You better believe we will be having one as well.

On my way out, one of the workers at the Sand Castle was saying goodnight and perhaps I didn't hear him? Or maybe he was telling us to grab the beer. Whatever he was saying, I must have missed it because I look back and noticed he was throwing a couple of signs at me. ASL signs that is. I laughed and said I didn't sign fluently. I told him I was hard of hearing not deaf and then we must have just stood there for like five minutes throwing random signs at each other and chatting. That was a pretty amusing moment but he was really nice. 

All in all, a very memorable night. Congrats, Anthony and Bryn! 

Picture perfect

On Saturday, we met with one of Jonathan's groomsmen, Sal, to take engagement photos. We hadn't planned on taking any kind of photos like that, which is why we turned down our wedding photographer awhile back for e-pics. But we saw Sal's growing interest in photography and I'm all for supporting that! So we changed our minds and went with it. It was a fun afternoon from start to finish.

Saturday's weather ended up being great! Originally rain was in the forecast but luckily that was not the  case. I had been stumped about where to go for a good week. I thought maybe Central Park. But then I didn't want to make anyone drive into Manhattan and deal with traffic, especially on everyone's day off. Kim had suggested Flushing Meadow Park. Perfect! (Thanks again, girl.) Sal had written us an e-mail the day before with location suggestions and Flushing Meadow Park was on the list as well. Sold.

Seriously...look at this picture. Picture perfect day. Check out that rainbow!

Sal brought along an assistant, one of his sister's boyfriends, a super sweet guy named Tony who helped greatly with lighting. A very sunny day = lots of annoying shadows for portraits at times but he had an umbrella for the fill light. Super impressed with Sal's knowledge. Here's a link to the website if you're local and interested! http://www.graffeophoto.com/

Once we get the pictures, I am excited to pick the one for the save the date. I saw a few sneak peeks after we were done for the day and I know we will have a lot of good ones to pick from. We had props for some of the shots and I was happy it photographed well! I liked that we shot with someone we knew because we were both able to be comfortable in front of the camera. Well for me anyway. Jonathan's rarely ever camera shy. Here is a glimpse of the props we used :)

 Next Friday we hit the one year mark (whoa...) so there are a few things to check off the to-do list before we hit that milestone. Namely: the limo company, photobooth and someone to do hair the day of. I am sure Jonathan will be glad to get those over with so I can stop talking about them, lol!

Another thing we got to do recently was grab dinner with Jonathan's cousin, Ashley. The three of us hadn't been out together in over a year, I think, and it was good to catch up. (Also, you can't go wrong with California Pizza Kitchen.) We did have a small ulterior motive though....we asked her to be in the wedding party! She was happy to accept the bridesmaid title. Yay!! It was very fitting too because, for those who don't know the story, the night Jonathan and I met, the reason why he made it out that night was because his cousin had cancelled on him. One guess which cousin that is! :-P I love this picture of us after dinner!

Another thing worth mentioning is, I had recently found out our banquet manager at Chateau Briand had left and gone to Fox Hollow, another venue within the Scotto Brothers, the company that owns the two reception halls. I was disappointed because I liked Dawn and felt comfortable with her. Fortunately, there are other great people there we can deal with. Any change during this process definitely throws you for a loop though but it really doesn't affect the planning process and she did say we could still e-mail her if we had any questions. Jonathan and I had gone to Chateau Briand last week to drop off the second deposit. Even though it was a weekday when we had gone, there was an event that night so we couldn't roam around freely for some visual refreshment. They did however let us go up to the main ballroom and peek in for a few minutes.

It was weird looking around knowing we would be there this month next year! Jonathan got me worried after looking around the room and asking me if I thought it would be too small with 200 people there. It's not a small room at all but I understood what he meant in that moment. His worry just made me worry but then I shook it off. It's hard to really visualize what an empty room is going to look like once it's all done up for a wedding with the tables and centerpieces, DJ booth, etc. Years from now no one is really going to remember certain details we spend time obsessing about. So I might as well save ourselves the grief and not obsess at all. I'm sure it will be a great time no matter where we had decided to have it!

Michele & Joseph's Wedding - October 5, 2013

This past Saturday, we attended the wedding of a family friend of Jonathan's. His family has known Michele's for many years. In fact, I think Jonathan was an usher in her brother's wedding many years ago. We attended both the ceremony and reception. Ceremony took place at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And the reception was at Woodbury Country Club.

It's a different experience attending a wedding when you're deep in the middle of planning yours! I used to go to them and think this and that looked pretty....now it's more like "That's pretty...where can I get that? Could I use that?" lol. Even Jonathan admitted it was a different experience for him too. And that's saying a lot considering we've been to a lot of weddings in our time together. 

During the ceremony, I almost wished I had picked a smaller church like Our Lady of Mt. Carmel just because in size ours will swallow the amount of people who actually come. Then I realized that was silly because I know St. Sebastian's was the right choice. With Woodbury Country Club, I was extra curious since it was the one of two venues that were on our list but we didn't make it out to see. It was the perfect venue for them. For starters, I think there was almost 350 people there! I may be off but there really were a whole lot of people.

Cocktail hour was outdoors but there was an indoor tent set up with more food and a really cool 'photobooth' station. More like a red carpet set up with a photographer who was taking pictures and an assistant who was doing the printing. I thought that was so cool and right up Jonathan's alley since his nickname is 'Showtime' but we will probably stick to the regular kind of photobooth.

One of the things I remember is loving the DJ. I think they had four guys and an emcee who did a great job. Not only that but music selection was spot on. 

Picture time...

Michele's mom walked her down since her father passed away. It was a very touching moment. I love how they are holding hands. ::sniffle::

I love the wreath of flowers on the flower girls hair!! It's interesting how navy tends to photograph like black but that is the color I had planned to use and it doesn't really bother me. 

Loved the flower arrangements on the pews! 

Love this picture of the moms! The joy on their faces is unmistakable.

Beautiful tribute to her dad.

Haha love the groom's expression.

The groom's cake!