Marisa and Dan’s Wedding Blog

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday. We certainly did, although it was so packed full of family and friends that we didn’t get much of the “little stuff” done…like laundry or grocery shopping. Oops. Who needs clean clothes, anyway?

On the wedding front, we’re meeting with our soon-to-be photographer and videographer (a very talented guy I know from work — more info once we’ve officially booked him) on Friday, and mother and I made an appointment to look at wedding dresses at the Macy’s in Manhasset on Saturday. I also just emailed the Fedeles’ longtime family priest to find out what our options are in terms of the ceremony (since Dan’s Catholic and I’m Lutheran).

I spent some time today looking at bridesmaids’ dresses online. Here’s the one I like most so far, and what a fantastic color for a November wedding. It’s from David’s Bridal:

More to come in a few days. For now, I plan to enjoy a little time off from work and to ring in my wedding year! Happy New Year!

It’s official: we’re getting married!

Well, I guess it was already pretty official once the ring was on my finger, but now it’s REALLY happening. This afternoon we chose the Royalton Mansion at Roslyn Country Club (in Roslyn Heights, NY) for our reception and booked November 14, 2009 as “The Date.”

I’d heard a few very positive reviews of the place, but Dan and I liked the Harbor Club so much when we saw it on Saturday that we were pretty certain we wanted to hold our reception there. In fact, we assumed that we’d see the Royalton this afternoon, decide it didn’t measure up, and then head directly back to the Harbor Club to book it.

Much to our surprise, we were BLOWN AWAY from the moment we entered the Royalton. It’s an historic mansion, but not a pretentious one by any means — rather, it’s very elegant. When we first entered we found ourselves in a beautiful lobby with a grand piano, spiral staircases, and tables that we’re told will hold flower arrangements and photos of ourselves and our families. Down a hallway to our right was the cocktail hour room, which is my personal favorite spot — complete with fireplace, mahogany bar, floor-to-ceiling windows, and leather couches. Through a set of double doors is the ballroom, where the majority of our reception will take place. The tables weren’t set up today so my first impression was that it was overly cavernous, but the manager later showed us photos of what it will look like fully set up. Can we say GORGEOUS?! The ballroom features chandeliers, three fireplaces, and more of those wonderful floor-to-ceiling windows.

It only got better when we were led upstairs. On our wedding day we’ll have full access to the entire house, including a bridal suite, groom suite, parents’ room, and cigar smoking room. Dan and I even get to sleep over in the bridal suite, which features a king-size bed and yet another (remote-controlled!) fireplace, and they’ll serve us a continental breakfast the next morning. And the best part is that we can arrive at the mansion whenever we want that day, so my bridesmaids and I can get there early and have our hair and makeup done in the bridal suite while Dan and his groomsmen do manly things like watch TV and play poker (yes, there’s actually a poker table!).

We’re particularly excited about the food. The menu, from hors d’oeuvres to dinner to dessert, is fully customizable, and the manager encouraged us to bring our own ideas to the table when we meet to plan the spread. My ever-so-generous parents are even springing for a vital extra: a sushi bar complete with two chefs who make the sushi right there. Anyone who knows us is aware of our obsession with sushi, so no wedding of ours would be complete without it!

So…hurray! This is not the path I expected our wedding planning to take, but I’m thrilled with our choice, and I’m confident that our guests will love the place as much as we do.

Now I just need to find a church, block off rooms at a hotel, pick out dresses, track down a hairstylist and makeup artist, get save-the-dates and invitations printed, figure out a honeymoon…okay, I’ll stop now before I start hyperventilating.

Edit: I just added pictures taken at the Royalton today to the Photos section.

This post will be just a quick update and an advertisement for a restaurant I like more than anything, but Sunday night I had dinner with my would-be groomsmen and told them who would be the Best Man. If anyone looked at the About page and noticed I had three Best Men, look again because it’s been updated.

We went out to dinner mostly because I had to tell them that Alan is my official Best Man, but also because it’s been a while since we all just sorta hung out for any reason. We went to the Black Forest Brewhaus, a German microbrewery in Farmingdale. In addition to brewing incredible beer (I suggest the smoked porter if you can get it in season), they also have German-style cuisine, all for under $20 too.

So regardless of wedding plans, I think we’ll be making it a semi-monthly thing to just grab dinner and hang out, since it becomes increasingly difficult to get everyone together for anything these days. Even still, for anyone that’s never been, I highly suggest the Black Forest Brewhaus if you’re ever in Farmingdale and are looking for a place to eat (that doesn’t sell burgers for over $25).

I suppose it makes perfect sense that the most popular “engagement” holiday is Christmas day, followed closely by New Year’s Eve. I guess that makes me smart for proposing just weeks prior to Christmas, right?

Sadly that also means that if we actually want a 2009 wedding, we have until Christmas to book a place. Luckily we have two places in mind that we really like so far, both of which come with very good recommendations from several sources.  But still I suppose I should start from the beginning.

I knew I would propose during the holiday season because both Marisa and I love the holidays, so what better way to celebrate than by giving her a ring? Maybe 6-8 months ago, a mutual “double-agent” friend of ours gave me a ring design that she had discussed with Marisa, and I figured December was a great time to prepare for it. Over the course of several “I have to work really late” excuses (which I can never use again), I picked out a diamond and a band, and the next (and harder) part was just finding a time and a place to do it.

Now my mom has a yearly Christmas tradition in which she throws a tree trimming party, and everyone has to bring an ornament set to a theme she makes up. This year’s theme was “In these difficult economic times, what is the one thing you would never give up?”. Immediately I thought of obvious things, such as wine, our cats, my Xbox, etc. — but when Marisa IMd me and asked if we could get a cheesy ornament this year (namely, a heart representing “each other”), I knew that was the perfect time.

So fast forward to the actual party. We decorated the tree and now had to present our ornaments. When ours came up, I said, “I would never give Marisa up for anything, obviously. Because we really have the perfect life. We have two cats, a great apartment, and so many memories…but there is one thing missing.”

And so the rest is history. Or at least the pics in our photo gallery can help tell the rest of the story. As I’m sure most of you can imagine, proposing in front of 30 people creates a bit of an uproar.

Anyway, Christmas rapidly approaches and so does our time to solidify a time and place for our wedding if we are planning to have it by November of next year. We have pics of the first place we looked at (the Harbor Club — thanks for providing the camera, Karin!), and Tuesday we see the Royalton Mansion at Roslyn Country Club. The bar has been set pretty high already! We should have more news about the when and where by Tuesday.

More news as it comes, and it’s coming pretty quickly. In the meantime, have a Merry Christmas, everyone!

Welcome, everyone, to Marisa and Dan’s Wedding Blog! As of today we’ve been engaged for five days, and our intention is to keep you “in the loop” about our wedding planning process during the coming weeks and months. Being firstborns, neither we nor our immediate families have any experience with this kind of thing, so it should be an interesting ride to say the least!

I won’t take up too much space introducing myself here since you can find my biography and that of my fiance in the “About” section of this blog. Suffice to say here that I’m 26 and Dan is 27, we’ve been dating for two-and-a-half years and living together since September 2007, and we have two adorable kittens (soon to be cats — their first birthday is in January!) who rapidly wormed their way into our hearts.

Tomorrow we have an 11 a.m. appointment to see the  Harbor Club, a waterfront catering hall in Huntington, New York. Believe it or not, I had my Sweet Sixteen there more than 10 years ago and I remember the place being fantastic. I have high hopes that we’ll have a similar reaction tomorrow, but you never know — tastes can change over the course of a decade! What’s particularly encouraging about the Harbor Club is that it still has a few Saturday night openings in October and November 2009, which is ideally when I’d love to get married.

I (and/or Dan) will be sure to post about our experience tomorrow. In the meantime, I’ll sit here and continue to admire my gorgeous engagement ring. Thanks, baby!

The Harbor Club (Huntington, NY)