Marisa and Dan’s Wedding Blog

I’m very excited to announce that our invitations are now in the mail! (Or, well, they will be as soon as I finish writing this post and head over to the post office.) Many thanks to my Maid of Honor, Kirsten, who braved her severe cat allergies and spent the better part of this afternoon at our house, helping us assemble invitations and stuff envelopes.

The majority of wedding etiquette websites advise that you send out your invitations 6-8 weeks before your wedding, but I think that’s a wad of B.S.! I’ve observed how long it takes many people to respond to invitations, and I’d rather not still be receiving RSVPs the week before the wedding — especially considering that we’re having our place cards professionally printed rather than writing them out ourselves. That’s why our RSVP date is October 3 — exactly six weeks before the big day. So please, please, if you receive an invitation, respond quickly and save us the trouble of having to stalk you in October!

To make the RSVP process easier, you’ll notice we’ve added an RSVP feature to this blog. If you don’t feel like going through the trouble of licking an envelope and finding a mailbox, just click the “RSVP” header above and type your response into the pretty little boxes. Easy, no?

We’ve also just added a “Wedding” section with all the pertinent details about the big day (including EXTREMELY detailed directions, courtesy of my stepmother), and a “Hotels” section with some recommendations for where to stay if you’re coming in from out of town.

Let the RSVP-ing begin!

Folding direction sheets.

So many invitations, so little time! (Dan helped, too -- he just didn't want to be in a picture.)

Yesterday was a very productive day for us, wedding-wise.

First we met with Paul at Stefan’s Florist, who showed us what he had come up with for our table centerpieces. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT. I’m not going to get too specific or post any photos because I want everyone to be surprised when they arrive at the Royalton, but I will say that Paul perfectly captured the essence of “us.” The centerpieces are elegant without crossing the line to overly ornate (i.e., no three-foot trees that will make it impossible to see the person sitting across from you), contain two things we love (wine and candles), and coordinate very well with the bridesmaid dresses. I’m extremely confident that Paul is going to make our wedding day as beautiful as I ever could have hoped for. (Pardon the dangling participle!)

Then we headed over to Gennaro Jewelers, the place where I had gotten my engagement ring appraised and resized, to investigate wedding rings. We didn’t expect to buy anything on the spot, but we at least wanted to get a feel for how much cash we were going to need to drop. Of course, the best laid plans…

Gennaro is an extremely popular place and is, accordingly, very crowded at all hours of the day, so we waited awhile for help while munching on the ever-present free bakery cookies and iced tea. Eventually it was our turn, and we found exactly what we were looking for pretty quickly. My ring is a platinum band of diamonds closely matching the band of my engagement ring, and Dan’s is a thick titanium band with two very thin stripes of yellow gold at the top and bottom. Of course, we were offered a deal if we purchased the rings that day, and out came the credit card. The damage? Well, suffice to say that Dan’s ring cost 10% of what my ring cost. No joke. But we love what we picked out and can’t wait to be able to wear them on a daily basis!

Our wedding rings.