Five Months to Go!!

April was a busy, busy month for us, but so much is pinned down. We're at the five month mark, which seems so soon and yet so far away! We've done so much, but there's still so much to do.

In the past few weeks we've mapped out a good portion of things, including a color scheme, flowers, and finalizing our booking with all vendors, which is a huge relief. Our invitations are off to the printers as we speak, and lots of fun decor projects are in the works.

Here's what we've done for April, and here's where we're going for May. Hold your breath, because we're holding ours!

April Accomplishments

• Finalized our table count, linens, flatware, and plateware for the Carriage House dining room: 9 tables + 1 cake table.
• Booked our florist, Judy Gerow, for 2 bouquets, 13 pin-ons, and flowers orders for 9 mason quart jars, 4 pint jars, lavender sprigs, napkins, and other.
  
• Have a color scheme: ivory, white, expresso, purple, lilac.
• Selected a shape for a bridal and matron of honor bouquet, as well as the type of flowers to be included.
  
• Found an amazing boutonnierre design, as well as the type of flowers to be included.
  
• Finalized our invitation wording, which is now off to the press.
• Sent half our payment to our honeymoon destination.
• Finalized decor in dining room of Carriage House: 3 votive candles in lace per table, table card printed by Bella Figura, mason jar of flowers, express napkin wrapped with twine and sprig of limonium and aster.
• Created "wedding" sign!
  
• Began drafting schedule, logistics plan document for ATrendy Weddings.

Next Steps for May:

• Finalize flower order, send in half payment.
• Send fabric swatches of color palette to moms, grandmoms, and Jen.
  
• Finalize vendor schedule, detailed plan for arrival and assembly.
  
• Finalize table count for bars, guest table, etc.
• Order/text different lights for dance hall in Carriage House.
• Have a testing day at the Carriage House for the dance hall--furniture arrangement, decor testing.
  
• Begin looking at suit options for Chris and gang.
• Begin creating wine/champagne/beer list for reception--dad is leading this effort.
• Pick out fabric for boutonnierre leaves; work with mom to sew them.
• Purchase 30 more glass votices + lace; begin making these.
• Finalize concept for lavender sprig escort cards: type of paper, writing, presentation, placement in dance hall.
• Figure out whether there needs to be place cards at the tables for guests, and whether Ally has the energy to write letters to each guest!!
  
• Begin planning outdoor area for sign placement, number of signs, and luminaries.
• Continue researching rehearsal dinner invitations--postcards or stationary.
• Send invitations to calligrapher; select calligraphy, purchase stamps.
• Find pair of shoes for wedding dress.
• Begin dance lessons in group setting.
• Send engagement picture and announcement into the Washington Post.
• Call bridal boutique, inquire about June delivery of wedding dress, when to begin fittings.
  

6 Months to Go!

So, are we married yet? My goodness. And still six months more to go! And two WHOLE seasons left to experience. Time is a good thing, though, as we have a lot more to do.

March was a productive month. Chris and I accomplished quite a bit, from rings to music to cake to honeymoon to the registry. It's been busy, but we're proud at all we've done. Take a look:

• Rings. Chris' wedding band successfully made the trip from Ireland. It really is an amazingly cool ring, and very Chris.

• Registry. We registered at Sur La Table and Crate and Barrel.

• Cake design. We fell in love and selected our cake design.

• Stationary. We also fell in love with and ordered our wedding invitations, reply cards, envelopes, etc.

• Website. We drafted our wedding website--photos + all content (but the Chris & Ally page). We are still tinkering on the design, but we're getting there. If you have any suggestions, let us know! The purpose of the site is to provide all the information that guests might want to know, and that it's too expensive to print on our invitations.

• Favors. We booked Mom's Apple Pie Bakery to make our 4-inch pies as our favors!

• Favor boxes + materials. We explored a few options for how to box the pies: paper, wrapping, ribbon, labels. Still in progress.

• Musicians. We found another band (since our last one bailed on us!), and signed the contract. They've played the Kennedy Center and elsewhere in DC. The samples online aren't really reflective of what we're going for, since we're only opting for a violin, a mandolin, and a guitarist--more on the Irish side, less on the Celtic. Our singer hails from Ireland, though, which is awesome. More to come on the band!

• Reception decor (branches). We reserved ten lighted tree branches as decorations at the reception! We're currently exploring LED options + inverters to avoid having wires on the floor.

• Jen's dress. We found a dress that Jen loves, though I returned both on account of her big news! We'll hold off on buying a dress until her due date gets closer, so we can determine what size she'd be most comfortable in.

• Honeymoon. We booked our honeymoon vacation! Four days in a Shenandoah cabin!

• Wedding Night B&B. We booked our bed and breakfast in Leesburg (10 minutes from Oatlands) for the wedding night, next day, and Sunday night (two nights so we can catch our breath!)

Next Steps for April

• Bouquets: Book florist for bridal bouquet and/or Jen.
  
• Boutinneires: Explore flowers for men--do we make boutinneires or purchase them?
• Fresh cut flowers: Decide on local grocery store or florist for fresh cut reception flowers.
• Lighting logistics: Resolve lighting for tree branch decor--LED? Use lights on existing branches? Get an inverter? Buy strings of LED lights?
• Votives: Create eyelet votives for testing at Oatlands.
• Escort cards, table numbers: Continue brainstorming about how to make escort cards (stationary to include personal letters to guests) and how to display them--old door, clothesline, little pumpkins?
  
• Decorating: Continue to explore rustic wreath options, lanterns, garlands, and benches for Carriage House.
• Decor testing at Oatlands: Test out linen, flatware, etc. samples from We Party at Oatlands + any decor on hand + flowers, now that Oatlands is open to the public.
• Attire for the guys!: Begin looking at suit options for Chris, groomsmen, dad. Chris is going with a three-piece suit in black. More details to follow.
• Hairstyles, hair stylist: Book a stylist in Leesburg; consider hairstyles.
• Shoes: Find a pair!
  

Pie Boxes--Who Knew There Were So Many?

So, right: if we're going to have little 4-inch pies as favors (courtesy of Mom's Apple Pie Bakery in Leesburg), we'll need pie boxes. About 80 of them--roughly 4 x 4 x 2.

I've ordered a few samples so we can play with them, and try decorating them. I think it's probably best we don't wrap them, but rather tie them with twine, string, or ribbon, maybe even fun fabric or lace--something warm, rustic, and cozy. Samples are on their way!!

Autumnal Recipes

We're off to the RSVP open house tasting on Thursday November 6th to sample a few dishes and wedding cakes.

RSVP recently sent us a lovely proposal, autumnal-themed, and while we're excited, we're thinking about additional fall-ish possibilities for the appetizer portion of the evening during the 6:00 cocktail hour.

A few we've found on the Recipe Girl website:

• Apple Cheese Spread, served on pointed toast triangles
  
• Cranberry Brie Bites
• Maple-Beer Smoked Sausages
• Butternut Squash Spread, served on cheese croutons
• Cranberry Crab Filo Bites

Any other ideas for autumn-y finger food? Send our way!!!

Lovely Lanterns

I am in love with lanterns. All kinds: tall, short, wide, thin. Love them, and I think they will do splendidly in the Carriage House reception space. There are four rusty hooks from which we can hang a lantern, the white carriage rail in the dance hall space, and even sit them on the reception tables themselves. With the help of Somer's keen internet-savvy eye, we've found quite a bit of these lanterns. Here are the ones I'm most in love with. Which do you like the most? Which do you think will go best in our little Carriage House? I'd love your thoughts.