Well-Wishes

When I started trying to figure out where to get a guestbook from, I knew I wanted something a little different from your typical book with lined pages for guests to sign. While I can see the appeal of the beautifully-covered books that will be a wedding memento to cherish, the book-style just wasn't for us. I wanted to have something that we could display in our home, instead of leaving it on the bookshelf. And I really wanted our guests to have a place to write well-wishes and advice, instead of just signing their names.

I came upon this idea: a Wish Tree! It's a Dutch tradition that we will be hijacking and making our own. Ours will be much smaller than this one, but I found some beautiful purple crystals at Michael's and an awesome vase from a thrift store. Combined with some sparkly branches that I can buy at the wholesale flower shops in Chelsea and some cardstock cards that my Stepmom is making with her die-cutter and we'll have a beautiful pseudo-guestbook for less than $25!

Are you going the traditional guest book route or are you putting a spin on it?

Here Comes The Bride blog photo credit

Boutonniere Love

Aftering seeing some amazing inspiration on Etsy, I decided that it would be fun and cost-effective to make the guys' boutonnieres myself. I spent a few weeks collecting the supplies from various places:

Purple Ribbon - Ebay - $8 including shipping
Guinea Feathers - Etsy Seller Mojaziemia - $5 including shipping
Miniature Camellias - Ebay - $12 including shipping
Black Beaded Rose - Trim Store in NYC, W 38th street - $2
Pin Backings - Findings Store in NYC - $4
TOTAL - 6 Boutonnieres for $31



I'm pretty proud of the way they turned out! I love that they incorporate our polka dot theme and that they were lovingly handmade by me. I was concerned that my mister would feel slighted that they were silk flowers, but he confessed that he was way more excited about boutonnieres made by me than ones made by some florist!

Would you ever consider incorporating silkies into your day??

(Photo credit by moi)

76 Trombones Led the Big Parade

You've already read about our Loft Location Drama. And how I had worked hard to find a ceremony site that was within walking distance of our original reception site at the Soho Loft because I didn't want to have to deal with trying to transport guests between neighborhoods in NYC. So we booked the Kraine Theatre for the ceremony. Then we had to move our reception to a different location and were so thrilled to have it at the Midtown Loft! One problem: how to make sure everyone gets between the ceremony and reception without getting lost or having to spend any money?

We could have hired some black cars for the transport, but that seemed kind've boring. I wanted the wedding to be very "New York," in addition to dramatic, so I thought it would be fun to have everyone take the subway. We have a lot of out-of-towners, though, and I was fraid that they would get lost or be annoyed that they had to figure out the subway for themselves. Solution: WEDDING PARADE!

I was researching online and apparently it's a pretty common tradition for brides and grooms in New Orleans to parade with their guests between the ceremony site and the reception site, like so:

Flickr Credit

I think a wedding parade through the streets of New York will be so much fun and such a memorable part of our day! Our photographer will be coming with us and we hope he'll capture some amazing pictures throughout the parade and the subway ride!

So I'm proud of us for turning what was a wedding snafu into an exciting part of our day!

How have you turned a wedding planning disappointment into a wedding day positive?

Here Comes the Actress...

So after writing all about our reception location drama, you might be wondering where our oh-so-special ceremony site is and why we didn't just opt to have both the ceremony and the reception at our gorgeous loft. Well, there's a very good rationale behind that: we're pretty much in love with the idea of our ceremony site, which just so happens to be a THEATER! I mean, does it get more perfect for us than that?

A lot of people have given me strange looks when I tell them that we're getting married in a theater, but everyone who knows us immediately nods and says, "how perfect for you guys!" We have a couple of reasons behind our decision to A. Not have the ceremony in a church and B. Not have it at the loft.

• For one, both Dan and I were Theatre Majors in college, which is how we met. We've both grown up onstage and I know that I feel most comfortable and right in the world when I'm on a stage performing. So where better to have such a momentous occasion in our lives take place?


• We also picked a theater because neither of us are religious and luckily for us, all of our parents are totally cool with us wanting to make our wedding about us and our marriage, as opposed to about ours or anyone else's religious beliefs. More power to those of you who want a religious ceremony, it's just not us. Theaters originally started out as places of spirituality in Ancient Greece and we feel similarly about their importance today, so it's perfect!


• Also, how many places can you think of where there are already seats that don't need to be rented, set up, or taken down? There's even an aisle down the middle already!

There was only one trouble: I had a terrible time finding a small theater that would allow us to rent the space for just one night! Most theaters want to rent the place out by the week, which makes sense if you're staging a production and need the rehearsal and tech time, but out budget just didn't allow for that luxury. Even the theaters that did allow one night rentals didn't want to rent to us on a Saturday night because that would make it really difficult for them to rent the rest of the weekend out, which I understand. So we finally made the tough call to have the wedding on a Sunday night, thereby being able to work around the theater's Sunday matinee. We chose Columbus Day weekend, since my Dad and Stepmom got married on the Sunday night of that weekend last year and it didn't seem to bother their guests any. Let's just hope we have the same luck!

I searched long and hard for a theater that was the right size and within walking distance of The Soho Loft, our original reception location before all the drama went down with that. I finally found exactly what we were looking for in The Kraine Theatre, pictured above. It's a converted brownstone in the East Village that seats 99 and was willing to let us have Sunday night for just a couple of hundred dollars!

Things were going perfectly. Until our reception location fell through. But don't worry, there's a happy ending ahead!

What wedding scares have you had?

(Photo Credit)

Loft Location Love/Hate

The venue decision has been one of the most difficult tasks I've encountered in wedding planning by far. Our problem was that there were too many options in New York City and too many places we loved that were so far out of our budget that I got a little sick to my stomach when I got the quotes.

So what's a 2009 bride who needs help finding something affordable and perfect to do but put out an ad on Craig's List? :) I know, I know, it sounds SO tacky, but I've had great luck posting requests for wedding stuff in the events section.

We started out with The Soho Loft in the heart of Soho as our beautiful reception venue. It was a little small and I was slightly worried about that, but it was really nice and very affordable. I scoured the internet to find a ceremony site that was within walking distance of the loft and FINALLY found one that we loved. We booked it immediately and paid the small fee in full, just days before we were to sign a contract with the loft. Only to have the Soho Loft manager mysteriously stop returning my phone calls or emails for almost a month, at which point we decided that for some reason, they no longer wanted our business. I'm still not sure what changed.

Then we went to the back-up option from my Craig's List search, the Howard Baden Loft, which was also in Soho:

Loft Photo Credit

It's a nice space; much larger and only slightly more expensive than the Soho Loft. We were about to go for it and put the deposit down, when we went to a couple of tastings with caterers (also found on Craig's List!) who serve Caribbean food and were a lot more affordable than what we were being quoted by the fancier caterers, whose very refined New York food I'm pretty sure most of our family members would have been unsure about eating.

With a trimmed catering budget, we were able to pull off booking a loft that we had seen almost nine months prior and LOVED from the moment we walked in, but written off because of the huge price tag. This amazing loft is called The Midtown Loft & Terrace and we are SO thrilled to be having our reception there!

Loft 2 Photo Credit

We love the beautifully polished floors, the amazing skyline views, and the RED CARPET! That's right, folks, they will be rolling out an actual red carpet for our guests to walk on when they arrive. How perfect is that for our theme? The loft is one of the things we've planned that we're most excited about.

What are you most excited about?

To Be, or Not To Be...Favors?

Originally, when thinking about the details of our wedding that I wasn't going to stress myself out over, favors leaped to the forefront of my mind.

Yes, I admit it. I was planning on not giving my guests anything to take home with them.

Why? Well, I've been to more than one wedding where all the time/effort/money spent on making or ordering favors ends up being a colossal waste because, let's face it, most of your standard wedding favors are pretty run of the mill and end up getting left at the reception or thrown out. My argument was that the favors aren't going to be the stuff of memories and that's what any great wedding is about for guests: the memories.

Well, in true Bride-like fashion, over the two-year-period of our engagement, I totally changed my mind.

This happened when I was struck by a moment of brilliance and thought: make the favors something that fits in with the theme and will help create awesome memories. My answer to that was: masquerade masks!

Just a sampling of our 90 completed masks

You see, in the drama department of our university (where we met, of course!), it was a yearly tradition to have a Masquerade Ball, where everyone busted out their old prom or homecoming dresses, since we were of course too poor to buy new dresses, and usually hand-crafted masquerade masks to complement their attire. This was always one of my favorite events of the year! And since about a third of our guests are Hofstra alums, they'll totally get it. For everyone else, it will be a beautiful new experience! 

Me, Fairy Bridesmaid, and Blonde Bridesmaid at our Junior year Masquerade Ball

(Photo by Mister Star)

We're planning on having "Masquerade" from Phantom of the Opera play and having everyone dance with us and their masks. I think it's going to be a truly magical moment.

From Phantom of the Opera (Photo Credit)

So, for a bride who didn't originally want to do favors, I've ended up spending my spare time over six months hand-crafting 90 masks, none of which are exactly the same. The benefits, as I see them, are many:

1. They're totally unique favors, which is important, since homogeny is one of my biggest favor pet-peeves
2. They'll help create a really magical and unique moment that is very US!
3. We're planning to set them out at place settings, which will make them do double-duty as table decor
4. Umm, they're beautiful!

I'll post a basic how-to and our favor budget at a later date, for those who are interested.

We have two boxes full of masks lovingly packed with tissue paper!

How have you changed your mind about incorporating something you originally planned on leaving out? Also, what are your creative ideas for making your favors do double-duty as more than just something that gets taken home at the end of the night??

Hello From Miss Star!

Hello Hive!

I am so thrilled to have the opportunity to share my wedding with you! I feel the pressure of being a part of such a wonderful group of crafty, beautiful, creative, supportive, and talented group of women, but I sincerely hope to bring some new ideas and thoughts to the hive from the perspective of an actress-bride who's on the young-ish side and trying to plan a budget NYC wedding with the love of her life!

I thought that the character name Miss Star was particularly appropriate, given the running drama/theatre motif our wedding has going on, and even more so because my very sweet Fiance always calls me "his movie star"!

I thought I'd share an E-pic with you, so you can get to know us:

We're only a few months out, so I already have a ton of stuff to share with you all! I've been reading along with Bees like Miss Cowboy Boot and Miss Apple Cider (who are both my month-twins!) for so long, that I feel like I have some catching up to do.

I'm so grateful to have the chance to have my fellow Bees along for this crazy ride :)