Inspiration/Mood Board

So on a lot of wedding websites I've seen a lot of "mood" or "inspiration" board. I always wanted to make one but it was never really a priority until now, when we're meeting with florists and maybe picking out linens and stuff. Anyway, here's the mood board I made up... (you can click to enlarge it)...



I incorporated some stuff I'm using for inspiration -- a bouquet that I love, peacock blue/feathers (which are in the bouquet that I love, and may be a small part of the decor for the wedding), a New Yorker cover of a city... and then some stuff that is already part of the wedding, such as the chantilly lace from my dress, a picture of Manor House (where the ceremony & reception will take place), and our Save The Date, which I love (we designed it ourselves and printed it via Vista Print). Oh, and those are not my shoes (THOSE are apparently Manolos from the Sex in the City movie that cost $1100) but I like them, so I added them in -- they give the vibe I want. At the bottom is some more inspiration -- a photo of the Pleides, a star constellation; a painting by Magritte; and a painting Reg and I bought in Paris (it's of Notre Dame at night -- we kept walking home at like 3 in the morning past Notre Dame. Perhaps not the safest, but hey, we're still alive and have all our valuables, so life is good.)

I'm heading home to Cleveland this Friday night. Reg is coming home with me for Friday night, Saturday, and he has to leave on Sunday night. In that day and a half we were hoping to meet with officiants, caterers, photographers, and videographers. Instead we are meeting with 2 officiants, no caterers, no photographers, 1 videographer, and one cake tasting. Mom and I have 2 other caterer appointments in the days that follow... we also have appointments with 2 florists. After considering how many vacation days I'm going to use in 2009 for my honeymoon and stuff (we're thinking Bali at the moment) I realized there won't be a lot of time that I can take off after this, so I extended my stay in Cleveland to last through 12/30. (I had originally wanted to come back on 12/27 -- Reg and I missed each other too much during Thanskgiving!) But that'll hopefully let me at least get started on lighting, linens, florists, and possibly invitations (although that's a low priority since I could get them done from NYC). Gah, and registry.

LOTS and lots of things to do, but I'm enjoying all of it. Oh, and by the way, our "official" website is up and running -- please stop by and sign our guest book if you get a chance!

Ai yi yi!

We've spent the weekend addressing Save The Dates. We have to wait a bit to send them until we get the official wedding website set up -- can't have people getting all confused! -- but we're nearly there.

It's really funny -- as I think everyone who reads this blog knows, we is gonna have a SMALL wedding. Which I still have hesitations about -- but to me it was sort of like, ok, you either have a big wedding and invite everyone you know, OR you invite the core friends and family. Like, CORE core. I still toss and turn at night (and am actually thinking about writing to Miss Manners about it -- like, for people I haven't spoken to all year do I mention I'm engaged in my Christmas card to them? Do I not send a Christmas card? What do I do?) -- but it really hit home when we were addressing the Save The Dates. My pile of invitations is about 1/4 as big as my usual Christmas card pile.

Fact remains that a) we really were just a heartbeat away from eloping, so a small, intimate wedding is a nice compromise, and b) this is a rite -- it isn't a party. (I mean, it is, but it's a celebration the same way a graduation is a celebration.) I remember feeling offended that I wasn't invited to some people's weddings, but it was sort of in comparison -- like, how could X be invited but not me? But if and when the non-invitees ever see pictures of the wedding, they'll GET it. I dunno. I think ultimately we're happy with the wedding we're having.

And I can't wait to send out the Save The Dates -- Reg and I are quite fond of our design.

Also, for the website: I've been trying to do a specialized map of Cleveland with the various attractions and accommodations. Let's see how it looks in Blogger... The red marker on the far left is the airport. The cluster of blue and red markers is the hotel and various cultural institutions in Cleveland. The red marker to the far right is the farm where we'll be married.


View Larger Map

Check, check, and check.

1. Bought the dress. (And, accordingly, freaked out afterwards... but I'm sure it'll be fine. It doesn't arrive until mid-March, so I'll have a long time to settle into the idea of it!)

2. Ordered Save The Dates (known in the wedding society as STDs). (They're going to be magnets -- I wonder if I should buy a stamp (or have one made) for the envelopes to warn the post office and people that magnets are going to be enclosed. Hmmn. (And, in a slightly soothing but consistent way, I freaked out immediately after we purchased those also. But again, it'll be fine. Those don't arrive until the end of November.)

3. We also took advantage of a recent "free photobook" offer from Snapfish and put together a rather nice album of our relationship thus far, from meeting to engagement. We plan to display it at the reception. Reg and I spent a lot of time on it this weekend... we even walked around to take pictures of the bar where we met and the bar where we had our first date. I'm glad we did; it added a lot to the book. That won't arrive until mid-December. (No freaking out on that one.)

4. We're also talking to caterers -- we have a very definite idea of what we want for the wedding for cocktail hours and so forth. And photographers. And we still need to find a videographer and a florist. Lots and lots and LOTS of decisions still to be made. Egads. (And we still have to order official invitations also.) Again: egads.

Ok, just a taste of where the wedding will be:

Case Western - Manor House, originally uploaded by one_insider_2000.

Some decisions, finally!

OK. Announcement: I will be married on Saturday, May 30, 2009.

Be there or be square.

Where: Manor House (the old farm house)

Hotel info: Glidden House, where they're offering us $139 per night for a regular room, $215 per suite. This hotel is a great one (but for the annoying fact that they don't have shuttles to and from the airport) -- but Reg and I love the fact that it's more like a bed and breakfast (with an amazing breakfast buffet the next morning) and it's in walking distance to many of the great things that Cleveland has to offer: the Botanical Gardens, the Cleveland Art Museum, a ton of antique stores, Cleveland's Little Italy, etc.

We're trying to design a Save the Date myself -- I'll probably post it here first, but we'll send those out as soon as we can.

More decisions:
Cake: I think we picked out our cake when we were home in Cleveland, also. Cleveland had a famous bakery, for years, named Hough's ("Huffs") -- it unfortunately dissolved after the owner died (or there was some scandal with the owner's son changing the recipe and all the workers leaving to start their own bakery making Hough's cakes -- not entirely sure). But it was known for a slightly almond taste to the frosting. That is the taste of my YOUTH -- many birthday parties and other celebrations, we celebrated with a Hough's cake. Except for those times that Mom made me a Cookie Monster cake. (Thank you, Mommy!) Anyway, that is all I wanted for my cake -- it'll be very simple, white on white, with three tiers. I said: Lots of frosting. No fondant. Nothing too showy. We showed her some pictures and she sounded like she totally got it.

I'm inching towards a decision on the dress -- it totally caught me by surprise how long the delay is for a dress; really had no idea that most bridal stores only have one dress in stock at any given moment. I always heard that the main reasons weddings take so long for the planning is "because of the dress;" I always understood that to mean that women take forever to pick out their dress. NO, it is because there are people sewing and sewing and sewing in China. They could BIRTH a dress faster than this. Anyway, it's weird -- and I've told Reg this so I'll tell you also -- all of the dresses that I'm liking are very similar in the details: lace, fluid, sheath-like, simple. But the vibe is all over the place -- romantic to historical to Grandma-knit crochets to everything else. It's kind of taken me by surprise; have no idea what kind of bride I want to be.

News spreads of my weirdness: Hilariously, my grandmother is falling off her chair every time she hears the weird stuff I'm doing for my wedding. No priest? No BRIDESMAIDS?

Food: If anyone has any thoughts on food, please let me know -- that is the next thing I need to turn my attention to. I keep thinking that the filet mignon that I've had at galas at the Waldorf Astoria and Cipriani has been unmemorable, which makes me not want to try it for my wedding. I want, like, GOOD FOOD for my guests, but it's in a different place for my parents' and my budgetary priorities.

Is she kidding with this?

Who tries to coordinate outfits with your loved one so you look like a couple? [WSJ]

Updates, updates. We think we've decided on a venue: Manor House at Squirevue Valee Farm. (Alas, I remember it's spelled weird, but not the exact spelling.) I don't want to say a lot about it -- I want the guests to be kind of surprised and enjoy it -- but we think it's very us. The other places that we were considering sort of shook out this way: We love the location of Glidden House, and actually will probably suggest that our guests stay there. A nice room will be like $150 a night or less (I forget the exact amount, details to come) but it's absolutely perfect -- a beautiful bed and breakfast, within walking distance to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, to the Cleveland Art Museum, Little Italy, Millionaire Row, and all sorts of cute antique stores and so forth. Oh, and the management building that Gehry just designed for Case Western. We were SO in love with Glidden as the hotel that we chose Manor House over O'Neill, the mansion we had been considering renting -- Manor House is pretty close to Glidden, whereas O'Neill was like a 35-40 minutes drive. (We're still going to have to have shuttle buses running between venues, but it won't be a 40-minute drive.)

In other news, Mom and I did dress shopping -- we totally did not find the dress, and instead had a sort of exhausting, disappointing experience at the store. Still don't have a caterer picked out... or a photographer... or a florist, or anything else we should have by this point. Eeek!

OK, so some more shots of the ring (taken my brother) (and there's sunlight involved!)

Also just announced my wedding, kinda, on my other little blog. Tee hee!

Wow: Warning, we will probably not be this enterprising.

Places I won't be getting married:

IMG_0631, originally uploaded by katmmad.

My parents have been great in scouting out venues but they seemed surprised to hear I didn't want to get married on the side of the highway.

Still no real venue

We're still deciding between venues, and at this point just sort of killing time until Reg and I can get back to Ohio (I'm hoping it'll be not this weekend but next) to look at them in person. These are the basic points in favor and against each one:

• O'Neill House. Pros: Beautiful old mansion in Akron. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, totally unlike anything else we've seen. We could bring our own liquor, and the woman who runs it would cook anything we wanted. Being located in Akron, people could fly into the frequently cheaper Akron/Canton airport instead of the Cleveland International Airport. Also: we already have the date of May 30 reserved. Cons: The house only has four bedrooms in it, so the majority of the guests would have to stay somewhere that's else, which means we'd have to deal with transportation to/from the wedding, as well as to/from the rehearsal dinner and everything else. Also: in their biggest room they can only do a seated meal for 50 -- we'd have to change it to buffet style if we wanted to fit 80 people in there.
  

• Glidden House. Pros: It's located in the heart of Cleveland, right near Case Western's campus. The B&B has 60 rooms, so most guests could stay there if they wanted to. In terms of other activities that weekend, it's great stuff -- walking distance to the Cleveland Art Museum (which is free, and awesome) and the Botanical Gardens and to Little Italy and Millionaire Row and so forth. It's also nearby a well-rated restaurant. They also have May 30 open, but it costs significantly more to reserve it (like, 10x the price), so we haven't yet. Cons: It doesn't have O'Neil's vibe. But it's better than a lot of the soulless party centers.
  

Aquarius and Libra

So this will be funny to A. and L. and M., also, because they are all Libras as well, but let me just say that I finally got a Libra magnet to go alongside my Aquarius magnet. (Reg's birthday is October 5.) I had first purchased my Aquarius magnet thinking, yep, this is totally me, and thinking how I liked that it portrayed both the positive and negative things about me that I identify with being an Aquarian.

But now, side by side with the Libra magnet, it seems clear to me that someone hates Aquarians.

Seriously:

Everyone should watch this. I wonder if I had a 25-foot train if I would need more bridesmaids? Or perhaps a flower girl or two to do the heavy lifting. Hmmn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X56XLpnS4wA

Eeeeeee.

OK. Just e-mailed with my mum about putting down the (not so high) deposit on the O'Neil house, the place they saw on Sunday that Reg and I both adored. We're still waiting to hear from other places, but I fear the reason they haven't returned our callS in the past two weeks is because they're booked solid for the season already.

O'Neil house had May 30 and June 6 open. I've NEVER wanted to be a June bride, and Reg remembered that we invaded Normandy on June 6.

So... will May 30 be my wedding date? Wow. Kind of overwhelmed at the thought of that.

Inching towards decisions...

OK. I think we're closing in on a venue (at least, that's what it feels like). Mom and Dad looked at one place that was truly, truly gorgeous on Sunday -- took pictures and Reg and I looked over them together, Reg all the while saying, "THAT'S what I'm talking about!" (This after looking at some other horrible soul-less convention centers.)

I think we've decided not to have a church wedding, for a lot of logistical reasons -- 1) The wedding ceremony would be no later than 2 pm (probably more like 11 am), and then dinner wouldn't be until 6... what would we all do? that's a longass day for me and you and Reg and everyone. It'd be one thing if we had a huge bridal party to take pictures and go around to locations... but we just don't. (And if we go with the one venue Mum & Da looked at on Sunday, I'd be shocked if we get pictures taken anywhere but there.) 2) Reg and I are both offended, stylistically, by St. Basil's, which is the parish my parents attend -- ugly, ugly church -- see the picture below (only one i could find on Flickr). 3) we'd have to get permission from the bishop to marry anywhere but St. Basil, and 4) there is still really no suitable alternative place to marry -- all the churches in Ohio kind of stink of the same "built in 1962 and for an audience of 500+" problems. Still waiting to hear from another venue, which would be far superior because people could stay IN the location and the location would be much closer to lots of stuff in Cleveland to do -- art museum, natural history museum, etc.

(Mom keeps being like, How about a Friday wedding? And I'm like, NO -- do you not understand that almost everyone important to me, beyond my immediate family, is coming from NOT CLEVELAND? So annoying.)

At one of the places that my parents looked at this weekend, the lady asked what our "theme" was. Hearts? Seashells? (I realize now we should have said "pink unicorns." Ah well, another day, another comeback.) And Reg and I decided, in about 20 seconds, that if we need a theme we'll go with "starry night" -- dark navy/black tableclothes, silver accents, maybe dark navy flowers on the cake or something. The tables could be named after constellations... We liked that.

In non-wedding-related news: I'm sick, which TOTALLY stinks. (Although I took my first real "sick day" in, like, 15 years yesterday, and had a great day watching tv and eating 3 different kinds of soup for my meals. I got a bit of work done, too, and a lot of blogging.)

OK, seriously -- onwards to work.

Maid of Honor!

Well, I picked my maid of honor... and her name is: Matthew.

Yep, that's right. Decided I really didn't want a lot of wedding attendants -- but we needed someone to stand up with us.* So I called Matthew and asked if he would be my maid of honor. First question: Do I have to wear a DRESS?

(?? Seriously?)

After we established that he could wear a tux, that his official title would be "man of honor" or "bridesman," and that his primary responsibility would be holding my bouquet and Reg's ring, he seemed fine with the idea. Mom and Dad were a bit... alarmed... but they seem to be coming around.

Of course, last night Reg and I had a long talk and if St. Basil's can't marry us within the next seven or eight months, then we may as well just elope and then just have parties in Cleveland and New York. Might save a lot of problems anyway with logistics. And besides, I really really don't want to wait a long time to marry Reg. I love him, obviously ... but the best way to put it may be this: so many things in my life seem up in the air right now, but Reg is the one thing I'm ALWAYS sure of.

* Re: my not wanting a lot of wedding attendants -- the problem isn't that I don't have close friends. The problem is more that I have a LOT of close friends, from different times in my life -- I have my oldest friends, B. and T. in Cleveland -- my closest college friends, A. and M., (now in London and LA, respectively) -- my closest friends from law school -- L. (in DC), M. (in Miami), M. (in Detroit) -- and my closest friends from post-law school life, J. and N. (both in New York). This was kind of why I'm obsessed with having a small wedding -- I'd much rather all you guys come and be at the wedding, plus mine and Reg's family -- and if that's the case then who needs attendants?

Accomplished this week: Nothing.

Well... we've accomplished nothing this week. Things undecided still:

- Whether we're getting married in a church. The problem is that Reg is not baptized; this would not prohibit our marriage in a Catholic church but a) depending on the diocese this may mean we need permission from the bishop to marry and b) may require we have different rites performed at the wedding.
- Whether we're getting married in a church in Ohio. The problem is that the church my parents attend -- St. Basil's -- is a big, ugly, behemouth of a church. HIDEOUS, although it may have been stylish for a heartbeat in 1961 when it was built. It also seats 400 people. I want a small, intimate wedding -- just family and friends -- and the idea of carefully selecting the guest list to include my closest people -- and then going to a church and feeling like NO ONE is there because 80% of the seats are empty -- is not what I want. Maybe I should just give in? I dunno. Apparently St. Michael's, up the road in Independence, has a smaller church, but even then it seats like 200+.
- The date is kind of dependent on the church... the Catholic church requires at least 6 months of preparation (which we'll have to do locally in New York) and meetings with the priest and all sorts of "engaged encounter" and stuff.
- if we got married in Brooklyn or Manhattan -- which may have the smaller kind of chapel I might want -- then I'm not sure which parish would take us because they generally require you or your family to be attending Mass on a regular basis... which I so totally don't do.

So: No idea about anything. The end.

(Also: had to give up my ring today to get it resized -- Reg had taken one of my rings from before the diet, which was super lose on me, and had given that to the jeweler for sizing. So I'm wearing my grandmother's engagement ring today in place of my engagement ring. But I want mine back!!! We've both been looking at my hand all week -- it's very cute.)

OK. I should, like, focus on work for a nanosecond.

Holy shit! Engaged!!