Jess and Chris Are Getting Hitched

Updated Info

jess — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:19:34 +0000

We’ve updated our FAQ section and added a Maps page for our guests. Please check them out for the latest information.

Only one more month!

Summer Approaches

jess — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:42:25 +0000

Welcome to all of our guests and visitors…the traffic sure picked up after we sent out save-the-dates last week!

We’re off to Sarasota, Florida this weekend to attend my cousin’s wedding.It will be nice to introduce Chris to my extended family and show him where my Dad grew up. My cousin Tim and his soon-to-be wife Rana have had their share of wedding stress–dealing with a sudden death in the family, rescheduling, and who knows what else. We’re happy that they were able to stay strong and pull it off, and it’s sure to be a lovely time. After all that they’ve gone through, I feel bad for getting so bogged down by frivolous details. Here’s hoping the Florida sunshine (or thunderstorms, since that’s what the weather channel is predicting for the weekend) and nuptials pump us up and get us motivated to head into the last 5 months before our wedding!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, and I hope to have more updates and inspiration next week!

~Jess

Hello, again…

jess — Wed, 06 May 2009 02:32:19 +0000

It’s been ages since the last update! Since I expect an increase in traffic over the next couple of months as we tell our guests about the site, I figured it would be a good idea to get the whole story on what’s been goin’ on.

In short: not much. At least, that’s the way it seems when I try to look at The Checklist. I feel as though we should be running around in a mad panic at this point, less than 6 months before the big day. And that’s why I stopped looking at The Checklist a while ago. I just can’t handle the long list of things that the wedding industry says the couple should be doing, all with a smile on their joyous faces. So instead of talking about all the things we still have to do, why don’t we take a look at the things that have been accomplished since we last spoke?

Save the Dates

They’re printed! Almost all of the envelopes are addressed, and they should be hittin’ the mail circuit shortly. This is pretty big; it makes all the planning official and gets the ball rolling. Guests are going to start checking out the blog (hello, guests!) and asking about registries and booking hotel rooms. No turning back now!

THE Dress

After sitting in a box in my hallway for a few weeks, I finally packed it into my car and headed to my maid of honor’s place to try it on. Jen (the MOH), Liz (a friend from the internets), and I ordered pizza and cracked open a bottle of wine for the big event. I felt a little bad that the whole thing went down without any family members present, but I think I’m over it. There are many, many parts of this wedding process that have and will continue to occur outside the bounds of tradition.

I have a couple of pictures (no spoilers, I promise) thanks to the wonderful Liz, who was photographer that night.

Overly excited about the pretty hanger

Note the bottle of wine in the background

The Songs

I’ve always wanted to walk down the aisle to an acoustic guitar, and it looks like my wish will come true in October! Our dear friend Richard, who will soon be part of the family himself, graciously agreed to play Iron and Wine’s “Naked as We Came” (sans lyrics) for me. He’s a great musician and the song is so pretty I can hardly sit still thinking about it. The rest of the ceremony music is TBD, but at least MY part is taken care of, and that’s all that matters, right?

Chris and I have also been narrowing down choices for our first dance. Tom Waits’s “Picture in a Frame” is the strongest contender right now. If you haven’t already, go forth and listen to it right now, then let us know what you think!

…

Hopefully this weekend we’ll finalize our registry and at least get started on some other necessities, like finding a DJ. Until then…

Jess

Registries: The Best Part of the Wedding?

jess — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:24:42 +0000

Chris and I got started with our registry last weekend with a trip to Williams-Sonoma. I haven’t linked to it in our Registry section yet because I don’t want my dad to have a heart attack when he sees how much a 2-quart stainless steel saucepan costs. Williams-Sonoma won’t be the only retailer on our registry list; so I won’t add links until we get the other ones all put together as well. We decided to go with one high-end retailer for the important cookware items, and then the other registry (registries?) will be more budget-friendly.

I have no doubt that Target is going to be the front-runner for our other registry. I am so excited to get started because there is so much amazing stuff there! A ton of wonderful designers, like Todd Oldham, DwellStudio, and even Alexander McQueen have lined up to contribute their talents in order to bring affordable treasures to the masses. This is my heaven.

Now, imagine me exploding into mini fireworks of joy when I found out that Orla Kiely is designing a line of housewares for Target. OH.MY.GOD. This needs to hurry up and happen because I am going to be ready with my product scanner gun as soon as the goods hit the shelves.

Photo via Apartment Therapy

~Jess

Planning Our Ceremony

jess — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:19:49 +0000

Last Sunday, we met with our officiant–or, as she prefers to be called, our celebrant–for the first time. We’re very lucky that Chris’s aunt, an ordained minister, agreed to perform the ceremony for us. We knew she’d have tons of questions to ask us, but I think we both went into the meeting with no real concept of what exactly goes into ceremony preparation. I only speak for myself when I say that I thought the celebrant would just say some words and we’d exchange our rings and then we’d kiss and be married. Silly me; nothing is ever that simple.

First of all, I have attended plenty of weddings (and actually participated as a bridesmaid in many of them), but I didn’t realize how little attention I actually paid to ANY of the ceremonies. Bad wedding guest, I know! I had no idea about the order of ceremony procedures or the little logistical concerns like providing a podium for the minister or making sure we know where the ring-bearer and his pillow are going to be by the time we actually need the rings.

And then the words! There are so many to choose from, between the readings, the questions of intent (the “I do” part), the vows, and the blessings. My head is spinning. I felt very unprepared, and a little behind, when after our 3-hour meeting we still had so much to work on. But we have decided on a few things:

We want our ceremony to be lighthearted and warm
We want to address our parents during the ceremony
We want to perform a handfasting (don’t worry, we’re not going all Pagan…just a simple and elegant hand-tying and blessing)
There will be at least one prayer, which will be Christian, because that’s how I was raised

Our homework is to do some research on vows, blessings, and readings (with the help of our celebrant, of course) that fit into the mood we envision for our ceremony. I feel very good about the direction we’re headed in. Chris and I certainly have our work cut out for us!

The other aspects of planning are moving along. We are going to have Megan Resch do the photography for our wedding. Definitely check out her website, because her pictures are fabulous and exactly the look that I want for our big day! And I’ve become enamored with a dress sold by a boutique in Manhattan. I was thinking J.Crew (and I still am), but I’ve simply GOT to go check this other option out. It’s budget-friendly, simple, and beautiful…it’s also in New York. Road trip, anyone?

Wedding Accessories

jess — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:38:21 +0000

Chris and I are going high-tech and coordinating our wedding plans using a combination of Google Documents and Remember the Milk (a super awesome online task organizer). I like the organizing part; it’s the doing part that is hard to complete. So while we grapple with that, I often find myself wandering the interwebs in search of wedding-related eye candy.

Shoes are so important, for instance. I figure if I’m going to be covered head to toe in ivory, I have to inject some color into the wardrobe somehow…on my feet! I want to wear some heels that are funky and fabulous, like these autumn-inspired babies from Chinese Laundry:

Etsy is probably my favorite place to browse all things cute, handmade, and affordable. Like this adorable floral hairpiece by SmittenXOXO…

…or this wood and iron sconce by Bacon Square Farm:

I think these wooden tags would be perfect for place cards or table numbers at the reception!

Finally, this vintage suitcase is begging to be included as part of an exotic honeymoon trip. Maybe I’ll add it to the registry?

~ Jess

Places, places! (And books.)

jess — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:59:06 +0000

We’ve got a reception venue!! I feel like such a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Now that we’ve got places to go, I can relax a bit and concentrate on the fun part of the wedding.

The plan is to have our wedding at Grace Memorial Chapel and the reception at Blue Water Manor on October 3, 2009. Wow. It seems so…real. It’s happening!

Aside from my mountain of bridal magazines, I’ve also been reading a couple of wedding planning books. The first one is called The Conscious Bride, by Sheryl Paul. Parts of it are pretty cheesy (the engagement ring symbolizing the bride as a pure dewdrop…blegh!) but the purpose is quite nice. It’s all about acknowledging the “icky” feelings that brides can experience while trying to plan their impossibly perfect day–fear, anxiety, loneliness. The larger message is to stay true to oneself and being okay with the fact that weddings are just damn emotional. The other book is Eco-Chic Weddings, by Emily Elizabeth Anderson. I got it because I wanted some ideas about keeping our wedding earthy and minimizing waste.

That’s about it for the wedding news right now. I think I may have found my dress (already, I know), but I can’t talk about it too much here for obvious reasons. I will say that it’s under $300 and that I decided to skip the boutique-hopping routine and go for simple, simple, simple!

So far, so good. Let’s hope we can keep it this way…

~Jess

The Ball is Starting to Roll

jess — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:06:07 +0000

Still nothing set in stone, which makes me anxious because there is a lot to do in 9 months, but it looks like the chapel is a go. Now we need to redouble our efforts to find a reception venue!

I don’t like this part. Both Chris and I hate talking to people on the phone. We argue all the time about who’s going to call the pizza place, our landlord, the auto shop, etc. We hate “administrative” things. Good thing we decided to plan a wedding out of town, so pretty much everything has to be coordinated over the phone, huh?

I want to skip to the part where I am walking into the church wearing my dress (why are “simple” dresses so damn expensive, anyway?) and our first kiss as a married couple and our first glass of champagne after all the guests have left. Oh yeah, and the bachelorette party, too. I’m already hearing rumors of (parents, you might want to stop reading) a burlesque show. Nice!

This weekend I decided not to think about stupid administrative stuff and went to Michael’s to get some paper goods for the cards I will send to my bridesmaids. I also got a head start on designing our Save the Date cards. Here’s draft one, designed to look like a web form, because we’re both web geeks. I’ve decided I need to add a comments text box to add all the info about this here blog and the little statement about expecting a formal invite in the future. I’ve got a couple of other ideas floating in my head, including one depicting some XML code if we decide we want to be SUPER geeky. What do you think?

Cheers

jess — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:54:52 +0000

I just made my very first Cosmo EVAR and it tastes glorious. I’ve ordered them before, even ordered Chris to make them for me, but I’ve never done the mixing and the shaking and pouring. Tonight, Chris showed me how to juice the limes and pour the liquor. Probably because he was getting sick of me whining about needing a stiff drink while he was elbow-deep in dishwater.

All of this is to say that it’s New Year’s Eve, and I’m raising my martini glass to the end of 2008 while looking forward to 2009, the year that Barack Obama will take office and Chris and I will get married. We haven’t got a single venue booked yet, are already experiencing the delighful awkwardness of budget discussions between two families, and I may have already shed a tear or two. And we’re just getting started. If that doesn’t call for something laced heavily with vodka, I don’t know what does.

But you know what? I have hope that it’s all going to be okay. Our wedding is going to be a damn good party, and I’m going to learn how to make something other than ramen or Jack & Coke. So, cheers to that!

~Jess

Booking Reception Venues

jess — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:44:20 +0000

Chris and I are planning to get married at Lake George, in the Adirondack Mountains. It’s perfect for both of us. I’ve always wanted to get married in the mountains, somewhere with a beautiful view and clean air. It just so happens that Chris and his family have a house right on the lake and have spent many summers at Sabbath Day Point.

We know we want to get married at Grace Memorial Chapel, a small and beautiful historic church (nondenominational) just around the corner from Chris’s family’s home. There isn’t much information about the church online, but I do have pictures in my Flickr stream.

We’re researching several locations for the reception, including The Sagamore and The Algonquin restaurant. Hopefully we’ll find that right balance of elegance and rustic charm. I rather like the lake cabin look and feel. The sooner we book a place, the better, but the frustrating part is that many places in the Adirondacks are closed for the winter season.

I hope the owners check their email regularly and can get back to us soon…I keep hitting the refresh button on my inbox, hoping for a reply, but all I’ve gotten so far is spam with the subject line “My manhood is like a python.” Sorry, not quite what we’re looking for.