To [learn to] dance, or not [learn to] dance

For a long time Jay and I had debated on whether it was worth it to invest in ballroom dance lessons. Then we remembered how boring it was to watch couples at other weddings we'd been to rock back and forth aimlessly during their first dances (no offense to those who are not big dancers :-)). 

Our first stab at getting lessons ended poorly. We found an instructor on Craigslist who met us at a renowned studio in D.C. He had acted completely professional on the phone, but was confronted by the owner when we got to the studio, who just happened to be there (thank god!) about a couple he had stolen money from by accepting cash payments and never showing up for lessons. He was immediately out. The experience actually prompted me to write a story on how to avoid wedding scams on FoxBusiness.com. The ballroom offered to teach us, at the price of about $125 a lesson. Ouch. 

Jay was on the mission to find a dance studio nearby that didn't necessarily specialize in choreographing wedding dances, but that was professional and creative. He reached out to Samantha at New Chicago Dance Studio in Greenbelt, MD. She was super sweet, was most interested in having fun, and the cost for five lessons was going to be the cost of one at the other Ballroom.

We had our second "official" lesson last night (the first was a tryout period) and we are almost finished with our choreographed dance (complete with lifts and spins and dips). It goes to a hybrid original Edith Piaf/Louis Armstrong version our band will play of our first song, La Vie en Rose. The song has lots of whimsical notes in it, but is VERY slow. So there is plenty of time to perfect our moves!

I, like many brides I assume, was pretty surprised at how into it my fiance was. He was always ready to practice and really wanted to do a great job!  Since we had some extra time, our instructor warmed us up with some jitterbug steps (for our swing/jazz band at the beginning of the reception), and encouraged us to invite some friends and our parents next time to practice with us.

Can't wait until next week's lesson!

A twist on the bridesmaid bouquet and boutonnieres

I am not going to deny the power, beauty and necessity of flowers at a wedding. They are gorgeous on the tables and a bride should have a bouquet that both demonstrates the feel of the event and her personality. To each her own.

But when it comes to bridesmaids, I knew they would be holding their bouquets for a very short time and then would be ditching them as soon as they hit cocktail hour, and especially the dance floor! It seemed like such a waste.

So I came up with a better idea. Instead of having them hold floral bouquets, they would carry these silk, handmade clutches with rosettes (in the exact peach I wanted, and rosettes matching the feel of the Amsale chiffon dresses we picked out) that I purchased from Yensew on Etsy.com. They would double as a gift for them, would be functional on the wedding day, and to top it off, they each have personalized messages stitched on the inside (No picture of this, I've got to leave SOMETHING to the imagination for my girls). Yensew was so easy to work with and she did a fabulous job!

I also bought the clutches in a different style and in plum for the mothers, and a black one for myself!

The peach is tricky to match, and we decided to ditch boutonnieres (they always get messed up when you're hugging and dancing) in lieu of pocket squares. So Yensew made pocket squares for the groomsmen from the same fabric as the clutches!

I'm so excited for my bridesmaids to see this new twist on their accessories!

Getting ahead on the head table

When designing the tablescape for the wedding, Jay and I knew that we did not want a sweetheart table. There was something about it that made us feel isolated from our guests. After all, the reason we invited them was to be WITH them, right?

So we decided to go with an eight-foot long banquet table that would also seat our MOH, Best Man, and their spouses. I decided to have fun with the idea and began thinking up ways that we could make the head table stand out. It would be the only banquet table at the reception.

I found some cool, rusty items to put flowers in, along with white, Ironstone-like vases that all of the other tables would have, these old wooden chairs I painted white (and reupholstered the seats, adding pillows to those without pads), and made these adorable Mr. and Mrs. signs. I tore sheets from an old book, drew with permanent marker the words, and placed them in white picture frames attached to white ribbon.

The table, like the rest of them, will have a white linen with a handmade table ruffled burlap table runner made by Jay's aunt.

Bridesmaid Beauties: Dresses are In!

Let's be real. Most brides expect to encounter drama with their bridesmaids when it comes to their dresses.  Whether it's the expense, the style, the fabric, there's always something. Not with me! I either have the best bridesmaids known to man, or I did something really right.

I really wanted my six girls to love the dress that they would wear. I also wanted it to portray the whimsical and springy theme of the wedding by outfitting them in a dress they'd want to twirl across the plantation in. So about six months ago, my MOH and another bridesmaid tried on the Amsale chiffon collection at Bella Bridesmaid in Baltimore and they. were. fabulous. At knee-length and in various styles that featured feminine details like rosettes and ruffles (Amsale carries dozens of styles in the same fabric, which is perfect for someone like me), I could give my girls the freedom to pick the one that was most flattering on them. My only stipulation: it has to be grass green (my wedding colors are grass and peach). The blush pink Amsale is pretty, but I was afraid it would wash out some of my girls.

The girls went to their closest Bella Bridesmaid stores and, lo and behold,  I actually received messages afterward that they LOVED the dresses they picked! The dresses were a little pricier than I would have liked at about $225 (after the trunk show discount), but no one seemed to mind since they got their say on the pick.

I picked the bridesmaid dresses before I even picked my own, and they just came in! It was the first time I had seen all of the styles together in the grass color. They are gorgeous! We'll be distributing them at the bridal shower on March 5.

These are some of the Amsale chiffon, and I stole a picture from www.vtvows.com of a bride whose bridesmaids wore the same Amsale chiffon dress, but it grass. I am actually going to wear my MOH's bridesmaid dress to another wedding I'll be attending over the summer because I love them so much!

A wedding with BIG personality needs a BIG band

OK, so our band is not actually an actual 18-piece big band, but it has BIG sound.

We just booked our entertainment a week ago and you have NO idea how relieved we feel! As many brides probably do, we went back and forth on what kind of entertainment we'd have at the wedding. Would we hire live music or a DJ? If a band, would we hire 22 or 5 pieces? We valued the atmosphere that classically trained musicians would provide but wanted to dance to today's most popular songs in their original, DJ-spun versions. After much deliberation, we decided to have the best of both worlds!

We picked Gretchen Richie's Jazz Cabaret, whose piano player is doing our ceremony, to perform jazz, classical and swing music during cocktail hour and dinner (about three hours). What I love about this is that they will play live versions of our first dance song (La Vie en Rose by Louis Armstrong), daddy-daughter dance (My Girl by the Temptations) and mother-son dance (What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong). How much better can it get?! Then we will do a smooth transition to our deejay, which will take over for the remainder of the time and spin all of the hits we love to dance to.

We really had our heart set on a true big band to fit in with our vintage theme, but after many discussions with big bands, which either did not want to play over Easter weekend or were out of our budget (not to mention the fact that their breaking down mid-reception from a 500-square-foot stage would be a logistical nightmare), we decided our talented jazz cabaret would do the trick. The vocalist and pianist will also be playing at our rehearsal dinner.

With five pieces, including a saxophone and drums to create that swingy sound, the band will be centrally placed as guests move through Sotterley's Colonial Revival gardens, the manor house's back portico, and the outdoor terrace overlooking the Patuxent River.

The Weathered Wedding Dessert and Dinner Menu

I'm a big fan of the restore, reuse and recycle mantra. Recently I rifled through all of the old materials that were left in the shed of our 1900 Victorian and came across a bunch of original, antique windows. They were in all different shapes and sizes. I could donate them to the salvage yard, or I could do something useful with them. I decided to turn them into chalkboards! The first thing I did was make a drink menu for our kitchen. Sometimes you can find really cool windows that already have chipping paint in a fun color. Others you might need to shabby up yourself.  First, you prime the glass with spray primer. Then you use a couple of coats chalkboard spray paint on the panes. Then paint the frame a dark brown or black, and once that dries, you dry brush whatever color you like best, so that the dark color shows through.

Then it hit me. As an alternative to printing individual wedding menus for the tables and saving some trees, I have elected to use a chalkboard (made by moi!) like these to display the dinner and dessert menus at the wedding on easels. I opted to test my idea with other brides, and it worked! I sold several on Etsy.com (but my shop is on hiatus right now while I am in ultra wedding planning mode -- 75 days to go!). If you're having a smaller wedding, they can be great for seating charts too.

Turns out that planning a wedding can bring out the creative side in you!

Something old and something borrowed

Part of what constitutes shabby chic is the blending of different patterns and sentiments that seem to go together, despite their contrasts, in a romantic and feminine way. Believe it or not, I have gathered enough mismatched floral china dinner plates for all of my nearly 200 guests! (By the way, it was cheaper to handpick these beautiful plates from thrift stores for .50 to $2 per piece than to rent them!)

While all guests would each get a taste of vintage charm at dinner, I wanted to add more sentimental items to the head table's place settings. While rifling through boxes of my grandmother's family heirlooms, we came across some really cool things we'll integrate into the wedding decor. I was so excited to find the items and it made my day!

For starters, Jay and I will use sterling silver napkin ring holders at our table settings that were my great, great grandparents' (given to them on their wedding day) over one hundred years ago. They are engraved with their names, Oscar and Mamie. We'll also use the china plates of my grandmother and great grandmother at the head table. We'll place my maternal great grandmother's favorite hymn books on our ceremony altar (an antique fireplace mantel!) in the Sotterley garden.

Check out our finds!

The scoop on dessert

These photos are a few BIG hints of what's to come after dinner...(by the way, the guy on the top is my father after his proud purchase at the antiques center). My fiance and I LOVE ice cream, so we wanted to have our favorite treat while fitting it to our theme.

Our vintage, whimsical wedding would not be complete without this ice cream pushcart, sign, and cute green and white striped umbrella that our servers will use to scoop ice cream into these adorable vintage cups I found on Etsy.com. Guests will then make their way to the toppings bar for a complete sundae! My maid of honor suggested the idea of an ice cream bar, and a quick Google search found that Circus Ice Cream in Waldorf, MD had a pushcart available for rent for just $50 per day with the purchase of ice cream! To top it off, the staff has been so nice and accommodating.

It's one of my favorite details of the wedding (and one of the first things I booked).

Setting the tone with a vintage venue

Before I got too deep into the DIY details of my shabby chic affair, you must know about the basis for our theme! As you know, the venue you choose for your big day is a major factor in setting the tone and theme of your wedding. It's the first huge decision you make. For me, after just a little deliberation, it was a no-brainer! I had always dreamed of getting married on an old estate near the water.

The wedding will be held at Sotterley Plantation in Hollywood, MD, about one and a half hours south of Washington, D.C. Situated on a broad terrace overlooking the picturesque Patuxent River, Sotterley Plantation was built in 1703 and is older than Mount Vernon and Monticello. The plantation has been at turns, a frontier farm, a thriving tobacco plantation, a colonial port, and a busy steamboat landing. An 18th century manor house, warehouse, smokehouse, 19th century slave cabin and more than 20 other outbuildings express the plantation's 300-year evolution.

Luckily, when I signed the contract back in July, there still had one date open in the spring (whew!!) The cocktail hour and reception will be held in the venue's colonial revival gardens and the ceremony will be held on the terrace down from the manor house overlooking the water. When the plantation is in full bloom, it really is a sight to see. There are a few challenges to booking a venue like this. For one, you must piece the day together yourself. You need a tent, you need a caterer. You need chairs, you need a coordinator. But if you can pull it off, it's totally worth it. Every aspect is customizable. And it's gorgeous.

I attended summer camp and school field trips at Sotterley as a child, so the venue has special significance. What's more is that I am supporting a not-for-profit whose mission is to preserve the historic charm of the property, so how can you not love that?!

The things a girl will do for a dress

Yesterday was one of those tiring, but exciting days.

Jay and I flew in from Tampa, where the parents of my fiance, Jay, threw us an amazing wedding shower for our Florida friends and family (pictures and details coming soon). Our flight was delayed by a couple of hours and once we got to the Baltimore airport, where my mom picked us up, there was no time to dawdle. We dropped Jay at his car and off we went to New Haven, Connecticut for my dress fitting! That’s right. This girl traveled 400 miles each way for a wedding dress.

When I heard people talk about finding "the" dress, I thought is was bologna. Until I found IT.  By accident.

I first fell in love with THE dress at a boutique in Georgetown while trying on bridesmaid dresses for my friend's wedding, just four months before my wedding . I decided it would be mine right then and there, and the designer, Modern Trousseau, said it would make my time crunch work! MT is one of the few designers left that makes dresses to their brides’ exact measurements, in the USA. Many others ship the production to China and make them to a standard size that you must alter when it comes in. So when the designer’s team offered to make my dress from scratch and do my alterations personally in their headquarters in Connecticut, I jumped at the chance to meet Callie Tein, the designer herself, and have her team build my dress to fit like a glove (I must admit I was also curious to see where the “magic” happens. So often you get the impression that the fashion designers live in ivory towers somewhere!)

We arrived at our hotel and settled in for the night as freezing rain and snow threatened to thwart our plan. But we made it! Callie was so fun and laidback. You could tell she loves what she does. She dedicated so much time and attention to us and reinforced my choice for the big day.  My mom and I had a great time bonding for the night. On the way home, we stopped for lunch at Pepe’s, a world-famous pizzeria near Yale University, where the pizza was so amazing we each ate almost an entire pie! 

I have to thank my mom for everything she has done, and for being a part of the process. We’ll be back in March for my second and last fitting, but this time, I’ll be staying away from Pepe’s!

Photo:
Me with Modern Trousseau's owner/designer, Callie Tein