And pretty maids all in a row...

Thank you Martha... 

I mentioned before that I was planning on letting my bridesmaids choose their own dresses. This seems to be a new trend lately, but I can't think of why it hasn't been done before!  In my case I have four bridesmaids. All four of them have very different body types; two tall, two short, two skinny twigs, two of average build, one has chest, the other three, well... You get the idea. Very different bodies need very different dresses to look fabulous!

Taste also has to be considered. Even though we're all great friends and have a lot in common, our ideas of fashion are not all necessarily the same. Again, I want something that they love and would feel comfortable wearing for the night.

That brings up the concept of bridesmaids having to buy a dress that they will never w
ear again. It just doesn't seem fair! So, by letting them pick what they want, hopefully they will like it enough to reuse it!

So far , I've been out with two of my lovely ladies to pick out their dresses. First up was the lovely Jenny! We went to Classic Bridal in Buffalo (I wouldn't recommend them now) and Jenny tried on a wide variety of dresses. The poor girl probably tried on as many dresses as I tried on wedding dresses! But at last, there was a definite winner! It was super flattering on Jenny, comfortable and flowy and came in the right color!


The dress is made by B2 is chiffon and will be a color called "celadon". Jenny hasn't ordered it yet, but I can't wait to see her in it again!

Next up was bridesmaid Holly. Like all the rest of my lovely bridal brigade, her schedule is nutty, plus the fact that she lives on the other side of the state. This meant that our dress shopping spree was completed in the last 45 minutes before the shop (New York Bride) closed.  Like with Jenny, Holly tried on a number of dresses, including the one Jenny ended up with and it did not look good on her at all.  Still, Holly was successful and ended up ordering this dress from a bridal shop closer to her that night.

The dress is by Eden Bridals and is satin with a little chiffon poking out the bottom. Holly wasn't so hot about the flower at the bust line, but luckily its a pin so it can be taken off. We matched up a swatch of the color fabric that Jenny will be wearing and found out that Holly's dress color is called "green tea".

So far I think the two dresses will look really nice together, will fit in well with the style of the wedding and most importantly, look great and feel comfortable on the girls!

That leaves Corey and Jamie. We have plans to go shopping for their dresses in February. Check one more thing off the list!

Groom's cake? That's the big white one...

What the man wants.

Even though it's not up there on our to-do list for now, Mike and I have been discussing cake. For me, the cake wasn't a big deal. There had been talk of Bridesmaid Jenny making it, so I was thinking of something somewhat simple so it wouldn't be too difficult for her. I was thinking something like this. (We already have some logs- but need to get them cut!)

Via Once Wed

I liked the rough edges of the buttercream and the idea of multiple cakes. Mike, however had different ideas. He wanted a wedding cake. As in multiple stacked layers, with a smooth white surface. Because, he said, when else in your life do you get to have a cake like that? Fair enough.

So far, this has been one of a few things that Mike has been very specific about, and I wasn't that attached to the other idea, so we'll go with the big white cake. I do like that one pictured at the top. I had no feelings of loss... until I saw this on the Wish Special Events website:
Drool.... So, I have decided. At this wedding, the "grooms cake" will be the big white one and the bride's cake will be chocolate and berries. Yum. So Bridesmaid Jenny, even if you can't take on the big white stacked one, do you think you could make this deliciousness for me?

Will you marry....... us?

Now that we have the location and photographer down, I'm working on checking other things off my list. Next up, officiant.



Neither Mike or I a very "churchy" people, so we neither have a priest that we know nor really want one. Our wedding will be meaningful and symbolic, but secular.

That leaves a professional wedding officiant or a justice of the peace.

A wedding officiant could be nice because we'd have some time to get to know them ahead of time and because they have had experience with designing meaningful, secular ceremony. Biggest downfall? Its not the cheapest option.

A justice of the peace is a much cheaper option, but that means a much simpler, less flexible ceremony. (I think? I admit, I haven't contacted any of them yet.) But, it still might not be the best option.

The last possibility is to have a friend or family member get an online certificate to be a wedding officiant. After several times reading the law about who is able to officiate, calling local officials and checking my wedding blog resources, its still unclear to me whether or not this is legal. I asked my mom to check around with the friendly neighborhood family lawyers and see what they say. In the mean time, the person who I originally had in mind is unable to do this for us, so its back to the drawing board on this idea too.

So, if anyone has had any experience with J.O.Ps in Livingston County, or is familiar with any of the professionals in the Rochester area, I'd more than welcome some recommendations!

Exactly 11 months to go...

So far we have the location, photographer and... as of last week, the dress!! I purchased a store sample off E-bay of the exact Maggie Sottero dress I wanted, in my size, for less than half the price I would have paid if I had bought it new! Fabulous!

It arrived in the mail last Wednesday and I was thrilled. I ran right upstairs after camp to check it out. Mike was confused by the deceptively small box, but there it was in perfect shape! It will need a few alterations, but then it will be perfect!

Onions aren't just for salsa...

Finally, things are getting checked off the list!

Once we had a date and a location to work with, I was able to narrow the long list of photographers I had in a spreadsheet to just a few. From there, Mike and I checked out prices and websites and came to a decision- Onion Studios from Buffalo.


I met Dylan and his assistant at a Bridal show at the Pearl Street Brewery in Buffalo in February. I was impressed right away. His set up was clean, relaxed and informative. He was friendly, but didn't immediately jump down my throat like some of the other booths at the show. There were photos displayed around the table and a series of them scrolling on a computer monitor. The pictures were mostly in the photo journalistic style that I liked, but there was something different about them. I really liked the architectural elements and angles that he used. Standing there, watching the photos scroll across the screen, I saw a photo of my art teacher from high school. I mentioned it to Dylan. He said, "Oh yes, that's so-and-so. He got married to so-and-so at such-and-such a place so many years ago" I was impressed. That he would remember someone's wedding and their names gave me the impression that he really cared. Coupled with some obvious talent with the camera and a good amount of experience, that was the kind of person I was looking for to help capture my day.

Not to mention that his prices were very reasonable and he was very nice about negotiating. Saving money always helps :) Now, I definitely have some friends with great camera skills too. But I don't think that its fair to ask them to step outside of the enjoyment of the day to be the photographer. Still, we'll probably get a flickr page or something going to collect everyone else's photos too.. The more taken, the more likely we'll have ones we like!

So, photography... check. Next up: the dress, the officiant, the food (which may or may not include some salsa)

Our wedding has a home

I'm happy to say that Mike and I have finally made a decision on where we will have our special day, Sweet Briar in Geneseo, NY! Both of us are really happy with the place and know it will be a beautiful backdrop for an intimate celebration with our closest family and friends! And it all happened because I missed a train....

Long story short, I miss read the time on my ticket by 20 minutes, missed the train and came up with the great idea of having Mike meet my mom, sister and I in Geneseo (about half way between where my two homes are) to check it out! I showed them around the place, because Will, the owner, was busy with a rehersal dinner, and they loved it as much as Bridesmaid Jamie and I did in May. So we grabbed Will and signed a contract, for exactly one year from the day! :)

Its so nice to have that decision done with, and with the place I kept coming back to every time I sat down to think about our wedding.

My last few post were only a small percentage of the locations that we looked for. Since I've graduated and summer camp hasn't started yet, I had time to do some serious searching. Bridesmaids Jenny, Jamie and Holly all got in on the act. It got pretty stressful there for a while. There may have even been a few tears. I wanted to make sure that we could find the best place for our money, which isn't a whole lot. So I searched and searched Buffalo, the finger lakes, Rochester and Syracuse. I wrote tons of e-mails. I made spreadsheets. But every place, I compared to Sweet Briar. As the days ticked away, I got more and more nervous we'd not find a better place and miss out on one that I knew I liked. As my mom says, everything happens for a reason. If I hadn't missed the train, Mike would have never seen the place, fallen in love with it too and agreed to make it our place. I'm happy its done and we have a beautiful location!

So, if there are any ladies out there that need some ideas in the Western/Central NY area. Let me know, because I know what its like to be stressing over that....

Potential Wedding Location: The Sweet Briar Inn

Because Mike is very consumed with the completion of his thesis, I'm really working hard to narrow down the list so we can have a place picked out by the end of June. (You wouldn't believe how fast places are being snapped up!) Since I was back out in the WNY area, I decided to spend some time checking out our selections out that way.

Bridesmaid Jamie and I took a trip last Friday out to The Sweet Briar Inn, which is just a hop, skip and a jump away from our alma mater, SUNY Geneseo and neither of us had a clue of its existence! One of my mom's co-worker's daughters is getting married there this summer and tipped me off. I'm so glad she did, because this is definately the place I'm most in love with so far! I have to say, I was a little reluctant posting this because I didn't want to give away my little secret. Like all the good places I've found so far, the number of days that they have available for next year is quite limited!

Like the Hillside Inn, this used to be a private estate. Its has the long driveway and in the middle of no where. This place steps it up a bit more though. The inside is all gleaming hardwood floors and earth tones and hundred year old murals on the walls! The place is also a spa. What more could you ask for the day before your wedding!?

The site has lots of wandering space, a nice white tent already on site, and a two beautiful sites to have the actually ceremony!

The first area is a little bluff overlooking the Genesee Valley. I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but the stones on the ground are the foundation of a little old chapel that used to be on the grounds. How cute! To get to the bluff, the wedding party walks about 400m down a windy path of cedar trees. What an entrance! Plus, we wouldn't need too much in way of decor because of the natural beauty of the landscape!

Here's Jamie standing in as the bride, because as usual, she was dressed way cuter than me!

The second location is in the yard with the actual ceremony on the steps on the side patio of the house. Again it has a lot of natural/structural beauty and wouldn't need much decoration. See those pretty greens, that's Wisteria, which when in bloom, looks like a dripping purple grapevine and smells amazing!

Other amazing things about this place include the fact that you can get it for the whole weekend to yourself! I can see myself now, the day before the wedding, getting spa treatments and hanging out by the endless pool with my soon to be husband and my best friends. Sigh...

In other words, I need to get my butt in gear, check out some of the lingering possibilities on the list and get a deposit in somewhere, quick!

Potential Wedding Location: The Hillside Inn

Mike and I are slowly narrowing down our list of potential wedding locations. I'm not sure if its actually going to be possible, but I set a goal of having our location picked out by the end of June. Places are starting to be booked and filled for next year already and I'd really hate to miss out on a place we love because we were procrastinating. So, last weekend I decided to take advantage of some already planned trekking (btw.. this word is spelled stupidly, seriously... why do you need two ks!?) and stopped in Wyoming, NY to check out the Hillside Inn. Thanks to Pamela for the great suggestion!

The Hillside Inn is a cute Inn in the middle of nowhere, which is one of our criteria! It sits up on a hill and is surrounded by yard. The house itself is cute and the wedding party could stay there. The lady who walked me around was very nice. She explained that most weddings took place on the front lawn (pictured above). Then there's a little herb garden to the right of the house where cocktail hour takes place. As for the reception, we could either do a tent outdoors, or there is a little "party house" that can be used too. It is basically a big sided gazebo with a fireplace inside. Its a pretty blank slate in there so we could set it up the way we need.
As far as looks go, this place is staying on the list. The prices for food and such seem pretty decent too. Hillside Inn has offically become a green icon on my Google maps. Next week I'm going to be out in the Buffalo area for my graduation (!!) and I hope to check out one of the places that is, on paper, towards the top of the list: Becker Farms in Gasport, NY.

Wedding Location Update

Here's a picture of our possible wedding locations map that unfortunately keeps getting more points instead of fewer!


Last update about the wedding location search we were just shy of twenty places, well spread out over the state. Since then, we've checked out a few more places and weeded some out. Thats good.... but we've also added some more to the list. This brings us to a total of 25 possible places! Ugh! I'd really like if we had this figured out by the end of the summer.

Ps. If you know of any good places that we're not considering yet, please let me know! What would one more place to consider really hurt...

Here's the current list:
BUFFALO-ISH
Knox Farm State Park: East Aurora, NY- OFF THE LIST, would need way too much rented to have the event there.
Kloc's Blossom Grove: West Seneca, NY
Avanti Mansion: Buffalo, NY
Bever Hallow: Java, NY- OFF THE LIST, a bit too pricey

ROCHESTER-ISH
Hurd Orchards: Holley, NY
Glendoveers: Rochester, NY
Bristol Harbor: Canadaguia, NY- OFF THE LIST, a bit too pricey
Granger Homestead and Carriage Museum: Canadaguia, NY
Crystal Barn: Pittsford, NY
Springdale Farm Bed and Breakfast: Victor, NY
Casa Larga: Fairport, NY
Hillside Inn, Wyoming, NY

SYRACUSE-ISH
The Lodge at Welch Allyn: Skaneateles Falls, NY (We checked this place out today and liked the budiling. We want to see what the grounds look like when there is some foliage living)
Skyline Lodge: Fabius, NY ( We checked this out one day last month, its in a county park and is pretty. We'll need to see what it looks like once things are growing again)
Arrowhead Lodge: Bridgeport, NY
Camp Brockway: Pompeii, NY (Demoted to a Maybe, because the area is nice, but the building needs some serious repairs)
The Wellington House: Fayetteville, NY- OFF THE LIST, we didn't really like the view of the McDonalds Drivethru.
Green Lakes State Park: Fayetteville, NY- OFF THE LIST, not private enough
Logan Ridge Estate: Hector, NY-
John Joseph Inn and Elizabeth Resturant: Groton, NY
Taughannock Farms Inn: Trumansburg, NY- OFF THE LIST, too small and not pretty enough
Six Mile Creek Vinevards: Ithica, NY
Lorenzo State Historic Site: Cazenovia, NY-Really pretty area and nice view. We'll have to check out later about using the buildings.
The Brewster Inn: Cazenovia NY- OFF THE LIST, not private enough
The Genny Lee: Lodi, NY- OFF THE LIST, required having more people than we're likely to have.
Ezperanza Mansion: Bluffpoint, NY
Chateau LaFayette Reneau: Hector, NY

Beautiful Bridal Brigade!

Its official! All of my lovely ladies have said yes! I will be having four wonderful women standing next to me on such an important day of my life! I feel really lucky that I have a group of girls that all know each other well, as well as Mike and I as a couple very well. They all get along great too, so I know we'll have a blast! I've decided not to have a Maid of Honor because of each of these women have been very important to me at different stages of my life. Here's a quick run down of the Bridal Brigade!

Holly- a slightly older cousin who has known and loved me since before I was born. Its pretty easy to tell from the picture that we're related. We're known for being the "giggly girls" in the family. She's also planning a wedding for the same year as me and I'm her maid of honor! She's a graphic designer so I'm hoping she'll bring her design talent to the team!

Jenny- my best friend since late elementary school. She and I actually both started out liking Mike and I'm the lucky one that ended up with him! She's been there to support me for a long time and somehow hasn't run away yet! No matter how long its been since we have last talked, we always pick up just the same as we did in high school between periods. She has a lot of talents, one of which is lots of experience in a bakery. We may get brave and try to make a cake for the wedding together!
Corey- we were randomly assigned roommates freshman year of college and ended up living together for all four years! Corey was the one who supported me through the few months where Mike and I decided we should try not being together and saw how crazy that made me. She also was a big source of fashion advice, so I'm hoping she help make sure I look good in those pictures I will some day show my children! Corey's the one who lives the farthest away and is deep in the trenches of medical school, so I'm happy that she said yes to help me out!
Jamie- another beloved college roommate! I was actually friends with Jamie's now ex-boyfriend before I was friends with her. When we needed another person for our apartment Junior year, we thought Jamie would be a "safe" choice. If we only knew what we were in for! Jamie's another one with an eye for fashion and style and has such a sweet heart! I can't believe that I have known Jamie the shortest amount of time out of all four ladies- it feels like we're old high school friends! So that's my beautiful crew. I know we'll have lots of fun and they won't complain too much when I recruit them for all the crafty projects I'm planning! Most importantly, I know I can trust all four of these women with anything and I know that they all can get me through anything. They all have proven this time and time again. Not to mention the fact that each one of them can have me rolling on the floor in laughter in no time! So, Thanks girls! You make me so happy!

Searching, Searching

The wedding planning has officially begun! Mike and I have started looking into all the necessary things, photographers, dresses, locations, people to be involved... there's so much to think about! Location is at the forefront right now because that will help determine the types of decorations and dress, and will help us pick the vendors that we might need. We're looking everywhere in WNY and CNY since we have connections to both. We'd like to have our outdoor wedding and reception in the same place. We're looking for a location that is private, has a great outdoor space and a great indoor space, either for dinner or just incase the weather takes a turn for the worse. We also want something not too huge and that has some character. Neither are the type to appreciate a hotel ballroom.
So here's the list of places we're considering (including those that have been dropped). If you have any ideas, please feel free to contribute!

BUFFALO-ISH
Knox Farm State Park: East Aurora, NY
Kloc's Blossom Grove: West Seneca, NY
Avanti Mansion: Buffalo, NY
Bever Hallow: Java, NY- OFF THE LIST, a bit too pricey

ROCHESTER-ISH
Hurd Orchards: Holley, NY
Glendoveers: Rochester, NY
Bristol Harbor: Canadaguia, NY- OFF THE LIST, a bit too pricey
Granger Homestead and Carriage Museum: Canadaguia, NY
Crystal Barn: Pittsford, NY
Springdale Farm Bed and Breakfast: Victor, NY
Casa Larga: Fairport, NY

SYRACUSE-ISH
The Lodge at Welch Allyn: Skaneateles Falls, NY (We checked this place out today and liked the budiling. We want to see what the grounds look like when there is some foliage living)
Skyline Lodge: Fabius, NY ( We checked this out one day last month, its in a county park and is pretty. We'll need to see what it looks like once things are growing again)
Arrowhead Lodge: Bridgeport, NY
Camp Brockway: Pompeii, NY (We tried to check this place out, but the driveway was closed for the winter)
The Wellington House: Fayetteville, NY- OFF THE LIST, we didn't really like the view of the McDonalds Drivethru.
Green Lakes State Park: Fayetteville, NY
Logan Ridge Estate: Hector, NY
John Joseph Inn and Elizabeth Resturant: Groton, NY
Taughannock Farms Inn: Trumansburg, NY- OFF THE LIST, too small and not pretty enough
Six Mile Creek Vinevards: Ithica, NY
Lorenzo State Historic Site: Cazenovia, NY
The Brewster Inn: Cazenovia NY
The Genny Lee: Lodi, NY- OFF THE LIST, required having more people than we're likely to have.

Thats 19 locations, not counting the 5 that have already been dropped off the list, in case you weren't keeping track. I'm not opposed to adding some more to check out, so if you know of any place, please let me know!

*Image Via Rodney Smith