Just wanted everyone to know that we’re still alive! I suppose we should blog about our respective bachelor/bachelorette parties (which were fabulous) — but with the wedding being only eight days away, it’s hard to concentrate for long enough to sit down and write more than a few words at a time!
Everyone, get ready to PARTY! This is going to be one wedding you won’t forget (unless you drink too much, which is perfectly fine with us, too!).
One month from today, I will open my eyes to the morning light and know that my life is hours away from changing forever.
One month from today, I will watch in awe as I am transformed, painstakingly and expertly, into a princess — and as temporary as the transformation will prove, I will relish every second of it.
One month from today, I will let go of one name and take on another — not as a sign of submission or as a way to deny my past, but as the first step toward creating our very own family.
One month from today, nearly 200 people who have touched our lives in some way will converge on a little church in northern Nassau County to witness the union of two people who wish never to be apart.
One month from today, I will float — not walk – down that aisle.
One month from today, I will marry the best thing that ever happened to me.
A few days ago, two very exciting pre-wedding events occurred within a few hours of each other.
First, Dan and I got our marriage license! And no, for those of you who may be wondering, this does not mean we’re officially married. A marriage license isn’t valid until an officiant (pastor, judge, etc.) and two witnesses sign it. Then the officiant has to mail it back to the licensing office to be officially filed in…well, wherever they officially file marriage licenses. So Dan and I will continue to live in sin for the next 39 days. (Thanks to my stepmother, Karin, for checking her iPhone’s countdown clock earlier this evening.)
Anyway, the process was very simple. We headed over to the Town Clerk’s office in Smithtown, presented a few documents, swore that we’re not blood relatives, and signed the license. Dan’s mom cried, of course, and then we celebrated over eggs and coffee at our favorite diner.
Later that afternoon, after digesting said eggs, we made the trek to the Royalton for our much-anticipated food tasting. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint! First, we were given two “duets” (salad plus appetizer) to decide between. We went with the sure crowd-pleaser, an antipasto dish, although the goat cheese and walnut salad dish was amazing as well. After washing it down with some surprisingly good Cabernet (one of the wines they’ll be serving on our wedding night), we were presented with full-size plates of three out of the four entrees we had chosen at an earlier meeting: ribeye steak with “smashed” potatoes, mahi mahi with lobster risotto, and duck l’orange. All three were to die for, and we won’t be needing any last-minute adjustments to the menu!
(And for those of you vegetarians, there will be a yummy spinach fettucini available, too!)
OUR RSVP DEADLINE IS THIS SATURDAY!
That is all. 
Sorry it’s taken me a week to put up all the wonderful photos from my bridal shower, which took place last Saturday. The week that followed was crazy, exhausting and unhealthy (I came down with a bad cold a couple of days after the shower, which Dan caught later in the week). But now it’s the weekend again and I’ve finally had to chance to upload the pictures, which were courtesy of my photographically gifted stepmother, Karin. Check them out in our Photos section.
The shower itself was fantastic. While I can’t say it came as a complete surprise, I was nonetheless overwhelmed by the beautiful location (La Piazza in Merrick), the delicious food, the stunning decorations and favors, the diverse group of more than 60 women from all different time periods and aspects of my life who showed up to help me celebrate, and the MOUNDS of generous gifts I received. In fact, for several days after the shower, it was nearly impossible to walk through our living room due to the sheer number of boxes and bags. Luckily, we’ve finally found a home for just about everything — from the state-of-the-art coffeemaker that also grinds coffee beans, to the adorable “honeymoon kits” created by my bridesmaids, to the beer dispenser (yes, you read that correctly), to the bird feeders made out of Fedele family heirloom teacups (yes, you also read that correctly). A million thanks to every single person who helped out with and/or came to my shower and made me feel incredibly loved.
In other news, as Dan mentioned earlier, the guys had their tuxedo fitting this afternoon at Men’s Wearhouse and all well smoothly. It’s amazing to me that Dan can walk in, choose a tux style and vest color, be measured, and be done in 20 minutes. I’d barely tried on one wedding dress in 20 minutes, mostly because it took longer than that just to pull the stupid thing over my body!
Just a quick update — wanted to thank everyone for all of your generous bridal shower gifts! Rest assured that not one gift will go unused, and just to kick off that statement, I made Marisa breakfast in bed!
Breakfast in bed!
I made an omelet with 3 eggs, chili powder, fresh garlic (pressed with our new garlic press), and mozzarella cheese. Shown here: Coffee made with our new coffee maker, the omelet on our new “everyday china” (which, I might add, does wonders for food presentation), all on top of our new bamboo serving tray. I’ve been brushing up on my cooking for some time now, so I’ll try to start adding pics of my creations to the blog. I can’t wait to start using that pressure cooker — not having one has been holding me back from making some awesome chili.
Our living room looks like a disaster, but not as bad as it did last night. We’ve been finding a place for every single gift and so far we’re making some great headway. Here’s a pic of our living room as we left it last night (and I can assure you, this is significantly better than it was when we first unloaded):
Not pictured: The Krups Beertender which helped with the cleanup a lot more than you’d think.
Marisa will update with the pics from yesterday’s bridal shower as soon as we can organize the pics a bit more. Until then, thanks again everyone!
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.
Just a quick update to say that OUR WEDDING INVITATIONS HAVE ARRIVED! They look amazing and I couldn’t be happier with how they came out. They’re very “us,” and if you’re invited to the wedding you’ll see what I mean when they go out next month…
I can now highly recommend Wedding Paper Divas if you’re looking for any wedding-related paper goods. In fact, we’re going to order our programs from them, too.
Next up: appointment with the florist next weekend to see what amazing centerpieces he was able to whip up. Hint: there will be wine bottles and candles involved.
Once again, it’s been awhile since we’ve posted, and that’s because we didn’t have much new and exciting to say during the month of June. But now July is here, and with only four months left until our Big Day, wedding planning is kicking back into high gear and you’ll be hearing from us more often.
The exciting news of the day is that our wedding invitations have now been ordered. While trolling the Internet for all things wedding-related, I stumbled upon Wedding Paper Divas, a paper goods site with a HUGE selection of wedding invitations. I knew I wanted our invites to incorporate a wine/vineyard theme since, well, we’re winos, and Wedding Paper Divas did not disappoint. I’m going to maintain an element of surprise here by NOT posting the gorgeous invitation proof currently residing on my computer’s desktop for everyone to see, but suffice to say that it’s simple, elegant, and accurately conveys who we are and what kind of vibe we want to infuse our wedding with. The invitations haven’t arrived yet so I can’t attest to their quality, but I did have the company mail me a sample several weeks ago and I loved it. And their site is incredibly detail-oriented while remaining easy to navigate. Two thumbs up.
In related news, today I traveled with my mother and stepmother to the distant land of Wading River, New York to visit With All My Heart, a well-regarded wedding store located within the East Wind Inn (a very popular wedding venue, for all of you non-native Long Islanders). Our mission: determining whether we wanted this store to engrave the addresses on our invitation envelopes. Karen, one of the managers, very quickly convinced us that this was just the place for us. Not only are they going to do the address engraving once Wedding Paper Divas delivers our invitations, they’re also going to create custom place cards and table number signs that look very similar to the invitations (to keep the wine theme, er, flowing), and they’re going to create something cute and quirky related to our favors (intentional vagueness here). I highly recommend With All My Heart to fulfill your wedding printing needs (and they’ve got plenty in the way of decorations and accessories, too).
Dash looks on as we order invitations on my laptop.
