Marisa and Dan’s Wedding Blog

…that is, if you consider renting out an Italian restaurant in western Nassau County, packing in 75 of our closest family members and friends, and stuffing our faces with food and booze for 4+ hours a “regular old Sunday afternoon”!

That’s right, this past Sunday Dan’s parents threw an engagement party for us at Fianona, a wonderful little Italian spot in New Hyde Park. My mother and I used the party as an opportunity to test out some wedding hairdos and makeup at Paul Anthony Salon in Manhasset, which was recommended to her by a co-worker. We LOVED what they did for both of us, and will definitely be using them on my wedding day. I barely recognized myself!

The party itself was fantastic. Dan’s parents pulled out all the stops for us, presenting Dan and me with an arsenal of meaningful gifts (including the bonnet Dan wore home from the hospital shortly after his birth, Dan’s grandfather’s pocketwatch and bracelet, and a personalized fleece jacket reading “The Future Mrs. Fedele” for me!) and plowing us all with enough wine, beer and liquor to keep everyone smiling all afternoon long. Members of our families also got to meet each other for the first time, and I was finally introduced to some of Dan’s father’s relatives, all of whom were very sweet and gracious.

A cute shot of us:

And one of me with my bridesmaids (unfortunately minus the Oregon-based Christina, who couldn’t make the cross-country trip):

There are more great shots in the Photos section, although I must warn you that there’s a strong bias toward select members of my family and my bridesmaid party. If you attended the fiesta and have any of your own photos to add, please email them to us ASAP.

The moral of the story? Sunday’s party reminded Dan and me of how lucky we are to have families and friends who are so supportive and who care about us so deeply. We had a great time and it made us even more excited for November 14! Oh, and the truckload of presents we received didn’t hurt either. It took us nearly two hours to open everything after the party, and we’re still in awe of how much we got. Suffice to say our house-to-be is going to be filled with beautiful new things. (Thank-you notes are coming soon, I promise!)

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks at work for both of us, not to mention that Dan is 12 hours away from officially owning a new car and we’re gearing up for an engagement party being thrown for us by Dan’s parents on Sunday, so we’ve been remiss in updating the blog as of late. Apologies.

The latest news is that our wedding will now have music. Whoo hoo! We’ve hired Dancejock Productions, the “recommended” DJ and entertainment company of the Royalton Mansion (not to fear, we took the recommendation with a grain of salt and did plenty of independent online research before electing to meet with them — the reviews were almost unanimously positive). Hate the name, love the company. We were very impressed by the women we met, whose name is failing me at the moment. She put my whole family at ease and didn’t try to sell us anything we clearly didn’t need.

Enjoying some family time at the Dancejock office.

So here’s the musical lowdown. It’s been my dream for many years to have a string quartet play at my ceremony (rather than the traditional organist), and Dancejock is going to do that for us since they employ a network of local musicians. During the cocktail hour, guests will enjoy a jazz trio complete with keyboard, saxophone and stand-up string bass. The reception will feature a standard DJ with an MC, not to mention a smorgasboard of multimedia treats that I’ll keep under wraps for now. Suffice to say, all the parents will be crying.

Now, time to steal a few hours of sleep before picking up Dan’s beautiful new Honda Accord coupe (which I’ll let him ramble more about in a future post) and getting a pre-party manicure/pedicure with my mother. Good night!

Just a little off topic, but monday was the first blizzard we’ve had in a while and I felt it was necessary to introduce our cats to their first 12+ inches of snowfall.

Dash was very excited about the snowfall. Violet on the other hand preferred to stay inside and peek out from behind the couch.

Edit: Just added a few more pics from the blizzard in our photo gallery. Check it out!

As I sit in our living room on this wintery Monday afternoon, NOT at work due to the foot of snow blanketing the roads, I figure it’s a good time to post a quick update about the bridesmaids dresses.

I met three out of four of my bridesmaids (Kirsten, Maggie, and Kristen) at David’s Bridal in Westbury yesterday, where everyone tried on dresses as my mother, Dan and Kristen’s mother, Maggie’s mother and sister, and I looked on. I’d already narrowed it down to two styles I liked the most, as well as two colors. Well, one particular dress and color (“wine”) looked fabulous on everyone, so it was an easy choice. Without further ado, may I present the dress my bridesmaids will don on November 14…

What you can’t see in this image are the beautiful beadwork across the chest area and the matching shawl that comes with the dress. We also picked out a pretty red-and-burgundy necklace that complements the dress perfectly.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go enjoy the rest of my snow day.