Sunday I spent most of the day exploring Portsmouth with Arthur and his parents. It was his Mom's birthday, so we took them to the brunch at the Wentworth that is held in the Grand Ballroom. It was so fun to go back to the Wentworth and show the Andersen's around. Service was impeccable - everyone we talked to was so helpful and nice. I would highly recommend the brunch at the Wentworth - by far the best I've ever had. I loved seeing the Wentworth again and just sitting and soaking in all the details of the room where we will hold our reception. We also got to meet Gina, our new contact at the Wentworth. I originally had talked with Gina, but then we were working with Jenni, but she left the Wentworth, so now we have Gina again, which is even better because she was Jenni's boss.
After the Wentworth we visited tons of restaurants - probably almost every restaurant in Portsmouth that has a private room for our ~35 person rehearsal dinner! After Portsmouth we checked out a few places in Kittery & York. We also stopped by the hotel where we have reserved a block of room to show them the rooms there. After all our visits the four of us sat down and talked about our top choices. One of them definitely stood out as a favorite for everyone, so we are going to look into this place further and hopefully secure it as our rehearsal dinner venue! All in all, a very productive day, and fun to finally be able to show the Andersens some of the places we've been talking about and visiting over the last few months.
Monday, August 9, 2010
The Dress
I found my dress!!!
It was the second one I tried on. I had a feeling when I put it on that I wouldn't see anything else quite like it, and I was right. Dress shopping was so fun and easy! It was just me, my mom, and our stylist (sales lady? not sure her official title) Mackenzie, so I felt completed focused on the dresses. I described to her what I thought I intuitively would want, but asked her to try on a dress in every silhouette. She was amazing at figuring out exactly what I wanted, what worked on my shape & height, what would look best in our venue, everything. She found my perfect dress. I ended up with exactly the silhouette I thought I would want, but the fabric and details were not what I thought I would be drawn to, but better than anything I had imagined. The dress is from a newer designer out of Hong Kong. He's got a big presence in Japan and the UK, but is just starting to break into the US, so that's kind of fun.
Being me, I couldn't buy the dress on the spot. Mackenzie took down all the information and told us to call back if we decided to go through with it. My mom and I talked about it all afternoon, and called back at the end of the day. Because I didn't buy the dress right away they hadn't taken measurements, so we get to go back next week to take measurements and of course try the dress on again!! I can't wait to see it then!
It was the second one I tried on. I had a feeling when I put it on that I wouldn't see anything else quite like it, and I was right. Dress shopping was so fun and easy! It was just me, my mom, and our stylist (sales lady? not sure her official title) Mackenzie, so I felt completed focused on the dresses. I described to her what I thought I intuitively would want, but asked her to try on a dress in every silhouette. She was amazing at figuring out exactly what I wanted, what worked on my shape & height, what would look best in our venue, everything. She found my perfect dress. I ended up with exactly the silhouette I thought I would want, but the fabric and details were not what I thought I would be drawn to, but better than anything I had imagined. The dress is from a newer designer out of Hong Kong. He's got a big presence in Japan and the UK, but is just starting to break into the US, so that's kind of fun.
Being me, I couldn't buy the dress on the spot. Mackenzie took down all the information and told us to call back if we decided to go through with it. My mom and I talked about it all afternoon, and called back at the end of the day. Because I didn't buy the dress right away they hadn't taken measurements, so we get to go back next week to take measurements and of course try the dress on again!! I can't wait to see it then!
Friday, August 6, 2010
Invitations
Now that Phase one and 2/3 of Phase two of planning are complete, I am starting to be able to focus on some of the fun smaller details. I have really been looking forward to designing the invitations because I absolutely adore stationary. I love Papyrus cards because you can tell a lot of thought went into the details of the card, and sometimes on my lunch breaks I'll wander through Crane & Company to look at all the pretty designs. I'm also a big fan of personalized anything and love getting things monogrammed. So designing my own wedding invites = super fun.
I am very blessed to come from a remarkably talented family. One of these talented members is my cousin Hannah, a recent graphic design graduate. She has a great eye and I knew I wanted to have her design our invites right away. You can check our her blog here. She also has an Etsy site too! I'm pretty certain I remember telling Arthur on own cruise that I wanted to have Hannah design our invites both because of her great style and because I think it makes it so much more special to include family whenever possible in our wedding planning & celebration.
Hannah and I have been brainstorming ideas this week and it has been a blast. Hannah saw my vision right away and has had lots of great ideas already. I think this may turn out to be one of my favorite parts of planning!
I am very blessed to come from a remarkably talented family. One of these talented members is my cousin Hannah, a recent graphic design graduate. She has a great eye and I knew I wanted to have her design our invites right away. You can check our her blog here. She also has an Etsy site too! I'm pretty certain I remember telling Arthur on own cruise that I wanted to have Hannah design our invites both because of her great style and because I think it makes it so much more special to include family whenever possible in our wedding planning & celebration.
Hannah and I have been brainstorming ideas this week and it has been a blast. Hannah saw my vision right away and has had lots of great ideas already. I think this may turn out to be one of my favorite parts of planning!
Name Change
I think its pretty obvious from the title of this blog that I intend to take Arthur's name when I get married. What I can't decide on is whether or not to keep my maiden name or my middle name.
Luckily both my maiden name and middle name start with the same letter, so I supposed it doesn't matter that much, as it's usually only the middle initial that is ever used. But still, I think it is an important decision. I like my middle name because it is also my Mom's middle name. But I also like my maiden name because it's my family name. I'm not opposed to hyphenated names, but in my case I think it would be too long. I'm pretty sure Arthur wouldn't be fan either.
Anyone care to share their thoughts?
Luckily both my maiden name and middle name start with the same letter, so I supposed it doesn't matter that much, as it's usually only the middle initial that is ever used. But still, I think it is an important decision. I like my middle name because it is also my Mom's middle name. But I also like my maiden name because it's my family name. I'm not opposed to hyphenated names, but in my case I think it would be too long. I'm pretty sure Arthur wouldn't be fan either.
Anyone care to share their thoughts?
Big Wedding Weekend
So tomorrow is the big day - first round of dress shopping!! I'm so excited. It hasn't been a very good work week, so having this to look forward to has been really nice. Finding my dress hasn't been very high on my priority list, but now that it's time I think it's going to be so fun. For this first appointment it is just going to be me and my Mom, which I think will be really special. I am so blessed to have a wonderful relationship with her - I only wish we got to spend more time in person together. Having her in Manchester rather than Maine has made it much easier though. I have a good idea in my head of the kind of dress I think I will pick, but I think it's going to be super fun trying on all kinds of styles (with my blue wedding shoes that arrived this week!) And who knows, I might surprise myself and pick something totally different.
After dress shopping, both my Mom and I are heading to a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law, Ashley. 2011 is a big year for the Andersen family - both sons are getting married! As I love all things wedding I think it will be a fun afternoon, and also really great to meet Ashley's family and friends.
Sunday the wedding planning continues in Portsmouth. Arthur, his parents, and I will spend the afternoon in Portsmouth scouting out rehearsal dinner locations. It will also be the first time we get to show them the Wentworth. Should be a really nice day.
After dress shopping, both my Mom and I are heading to a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law, Ashley. 2011 is a big year for the Andersen family - both sons are getting married! As I love all things wedding I think it will be a fun afternoon, and also really great to meet Ashley's family and friends.
Sunday the wedding planning continues in Portsmouth. Arthur, his parents, and I will spend the afternoon in Portsmouth scouting out rehearsal dinner locations. It will also be the first time we get to show them the Wentworth. Should be a really nice day.
Photographer!
We have a photographer! Well two. We met with Chris from DMPJ last night and he was great! I'm so excited to have that checked off my list.
I fell in love with DMPJ as soon as I saw their portfolio. As I've mentioned before, the photographs are a very important element of our wedding and we both are drawn to the photojournalism style. Formal portraits are nice because you can get all the important people into one shot, but to me the pictures captured in between are so beautiful and really let the pictures tell the story of your day. Unfortunately the term "photojournalist" is thrown around really loosely these days, so it took awhile to find a studio that truly was dedicated to that style. Both Chris, our lead photographer, and Glen, the head of the studio, have newspaper experience, and have covered a variety of events. Glen also directs the photojournalism department of the New England School of Photography. I am very happy with our choice.
If you want to check them out here's their website.
Can't wait for our engagement session!
I fell in love with DMPJ as soon as I saw their portfolio. As I've mentioned before, the photographs are a very important element of our wedding and we both are drawn to the photojournalism style. Formal portraits are nice because you can get all the important people into one shot, but to me the pictures captured in between are so beautiful and really let the pictures tell the story of your day. Unfortunately the term "photojournalist" is thrown around really loosely these days, so it took awhile to find a studio that truly was dedicated to that style. Both Chris, our lead photographer, and Glen, the head of the studio, have newspaper experience, and have covered a variety of events. Glen also directs the photojournalism department of the New England School of Photography. I am very happy with our choice.
If you want to check them out here's their website.
Can't wait for our engagement session!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)