Wine Weekend with a Touch of Wedding Planning

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Justin and I decided to take a weekend and get out of Newport News. The Virginia Wine Expo was this weekend in Richmond, and because we love both wine and Richmond it was pretty obvious what our weekend away was going to be.

So I booked a hotel room at the Marriott (also the hotel our guests will be staying at) and bought our expo tickets. We made arrangements with Justin's parents to keep Maddie for the night -- she loves her Grandma & Grandpa. Oh and since we were going to be in Richmond, I scheduled a meeting with the owner of Julep's to discuss having our rehearsal dinner there and we stayed for dinner.

I apologize now for no pictures. My hands were more than full at the expo -- 1 glass for tasting and helping carry around the 8 bottles we purchased I definitely could have used 1 more hand.

Lets start with the Marriott. I'm really glad we had the opportunity to spend the night at the same hotel we have a block of rooms at for our wedding guests. Justin and I were both pleased with the hotel, its location to our wedding venue ( its within walking distance, but they also shuttle ) and the rooms. There's a Starbucks and a sports bar/restaurant off of the lobby, we had breakfast there and it was very good. Our room was really spacious and clean, as well as the bathroom. There's nothing worse than a bad hotel room bathroom. There is no doubt in my mind that our guests will enjoy their stay at the Marriott.

Saturday night we had our meeting & dinner at Julep's. We want to give our friends and family the true Richmond experience during our wedding weekend and Julep's will definitely add to it. The building has a lot of history and the restaurant serves southern cuisine. The owner was extremely nice and even sent 2 appetizers to our table on the house. We were both very happy with our meeting and dinner, AND we decided that we wanted to have our rehearsal dinner at Julep's. We'll discuss that more in another post.

The Wine Expo was a lot of fun. We attended 2 events: the Sparkling & Sweets event on Saturday night and the Walk Around Tasting Sunday afternoon. The Sparkling & Sweets was ok -- the setup wasnt conducive to keeping people moving because people just clustered in front of wine tables, but the sweets were delicious. We had a great time at the Walk Around Tasting, obvious of the 8 bottles of wine we came home with. :)

Another success in our wedding planning and we had a great weekend!

Wedding Entertainment

As much as I would love to have this kid at our wedding for entertainment...



(Now you know this kid would have everyone ready to party)

We're hiring a DJ for our wedding reception. There was never any discussion or debate as to whether we were going to have a band or dj. And I'm really glad that's how it happened. Justin and I dont like the same music, and a dj would be able to find the happy medium for our music types and keep our guests from dreading our song choices.

When Justin was younger, he was in the boy scouts. And it just so happens that one of the leaders DJed on the "side" and come to find out... he still does. When we first brought up the topic, Justin said he wanted to hire him for our wedding and I couldnt argue. I have no connections in the music world so this made it easier for me -- one less thing to search and research. FMIL sent out a few emails and was able to get contact info for the guy. So we will be contacting him soon to see if he will be our DJ.

Did you have any "special" wedding entertainment? Did you hire a DJ or a band?

Mooning with My Honey -- Our Villa

Here, here and here I shared our search for our Honeymoon destination. And we picked St. Lucia!

Now we know where we are going, but where are we going to stay once we get there?!?!

We discussed what we wanted:

* not all-inclusive -- we want the freedom to do what we want

* reasonably priced

* located near things to do

Armed with our list, I did a quick google search of "st lucia resorts." We werent looking to stay at a resort, but I figured it would point me in the direction. Most of the resorts that came up were all inclusive and located near the ports for the cruise ships. Not ideal.

Ok... let's rethink our search. I went over to TripAdvisor. Found their Top Rated Hotels in St Lucia and started reading about them. The first few werent really "striking" me. Then I clicked the link for #6 Stonefield Estate Villa Resort. I was in heaven. This was what I was looking for. The resort is made up of 18 villas, located near the Pitons and since we will be traveling in the off season, is very reasonably priced. It's also very secluded. Dont believe me... just look.

See those little white things? Yeah, those are the villas.

All of the villas have a plunge pool, a hammock, a kitchen or kitchenette, and most have a/c. We booked one with a/c. There are no tvs in the villas, but with views like this, who needs a tv.

After reading tons of reviews, we were 100% sure Stonefield is where we wanted to spend our Honeymoon. We are so excited. Is it September yet?!?!

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How is/was your honeymoon search?

Mooning with my Honey -- The Island

Right now, we're experiencing the coldest winter in a long time -- it has snowed 3 times. Since we started our planning during the winter, its no surprise we're heading to the Caribbean for our honeymoon.

After we decided against Aruba and Hawaii (see last post), we tossed around Mexico and other islands in the Caribbean. Like I mentioned before I was doing my daily Weddingbee stalking and came across this post by Miss Snow. Umm... hello. She took the words out of my mouth; except the one act play was in my head. I like to do all the researching before I present to the mister, so that I am prepared with answers to any of the questions he will counter with. It's just how I am. Side note: I think I should go to law school. I would make a damn good lawyer.

So Thank You Miss Snow for your island name dropping ways. We are heading to St. Lucia!!!

I have to admit, I might have heard of St. Lucia and I've seen it mentioned on blogs, but I really knew nothing about this fabulous island. Seriously, where have you been all my life?!?! On a quick search one night I came across these photos:

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BEAUTIFUL!!! And there are so many things to see and do: rainforests with waterfalls, drive in volcano with sulfur springs, deep sea fishing, snorkeling, dolphin & whale watching, etc. etc. etc.

True the travel to get there is kinda outrageous... but unlike Miss Snow I found a trip there all in the same day with one 40 minute layover in Atlanta. Our trip back with require a night's stay in Atlanta, but thats ok with both of us. One travel tip: Search through airline websites. My inital searches were done through Kayak but I found better flights and prices through Delta's website.

I showed you where we are headed, next I will show you where we will be staying.

Mooning with my Honey -- The Search

So we left off in Part 1 with making our list of criteria for our honeymoon. Time to start the search.

Aruba was at the top of our list; it was warm and tropical and somewhere neither of us had been to. Oh and highly recommended by a friend.

Easy enough, or so I thought. After doing some research, I was quickly finding that there was nothing to do other than lounge on the beach. As much as I love to relax on the beach, I also want to do some sightseeing. There were lots of golf courses, but we dont golf and the "nightlife" that other couples had mentioned isnt us either. Dang!

So I presented my findings to Justin and followed it with "what do you think about Hawaii?" He wasnt against Hawaii, but for the amount of $$ we would be spending to get there and stay there, we could go somewhere else and have the same amount of fun.

And he was right. After some research on Hawaii, the $$$ signs were racking up. But there were so many islands and things to do on each island. There were volcanoes and rainforests and water activities and luaus. I was bummed, but completely understood where he was coming from.

So back to the drawing board. I had read other brides blogs and they talked about how stressful it was to plan their honeymoon. What? How can that be stressful? Honeymoons are fun and something every engaged couple looks forward to. Every trip we've taken together, I've always planned it out. When we went to Chicago, I found our tickets, picked out things for us to do, and did an extensive search of the area so we knew what we were getting into. And we also used our good friends Brian & Betsy as tour guides since we were staying with them. (Thanks again and we will see you in May!) Our family trips to Southern Shores; I always picked out the houses we rented and planned our activities. So what was different about planning our honeymoon?

Let me tell you, I now understand where they are coming from. Especially after having our first 2 ideas fall through. So I put the honeymoon search on the backburner and focused on other things. During one of my daily Weddingbee stalkings, I decided to read what honeymoons the bees had taken or were planning to take. I was inspired to do some more searching and researching... and our honeymoon spot was actually recommended by a reader who posted on a bee's post.

So where are we going?!?! You have to wait just a little longer.

Mooning with my Honey

Just a little play on words... because Honeymoon was a little too boring for me.

We've finally chosen where we will be honeymooning for 7days/6nights, but I'm not spilling the details yet -- I like to leave you hanging. I'm going to start by sharing our "search" for our honeymoon destination, but I will give one hint about where we are going: its a tropical paradise. And I'm not joking!

Our first discussion about possible honeymoon locations was probably similar to other couples and we came up with a list of criteria that we wanted in our honeymoon:

* somewhere we had never been before
* warm & tropical
* reasonably priced
* excursions/sightseeing available
* water activities
* not a cruise

Excursions/sightseeing is really important to me. I enjoy lounging at the beach, but I also need other things to do and if we are going somewhere new, I want to explore and see it.

Water activities is important to Justin. He constantly reminds me that he wants to either scuba or snorkel. I'm not scuba certified, and honestly it freaks me out. When I was in Cayman, I did the snuba excursion and it took me forever to get used to breathing under water. So snorkel is the happy compromise.

I would be fine with a cruise, but Justin doesnt like the idea of one, so that was a definite no.

So armed with our "list" I was sure it would be very easy to find our perfect honeymoon spot. Right?!?! Stay tuned to find out how our search went...

Here Comes the Bride...

Not all dressed in white. What?!?! Thats right. I'm following the trend like other brides -- wearing shoes in their favorite color or a color that matches their wedding colors. For me, thats purple. I love purple. And I've always known that purple would be one of my wedding colors -- the primary color at that. It's hard to find everything in the same shade so I have decided to use several shades of purple that compliment each shade. Oh and I'm throwing in green for an accent color.

But for my shoes, I want them to be my favorite shade -- Plum. I thought finding purple shoes would be easy. There are plenty of purple shoes out there, dont get me wrong. But the perfect purple shoe to go under my wedding dress is another story.

I searched tons of shoe websites; zappos, endless, nina shoes and anytime a wedding was posted on a blog I quickly scrolled to the shoe pictures. I saw a super cute pair on one blog and even found the designer, but those shoes are apparently discontinued. I actually found two pair that I was deciding between:

Shoe1 Shoe2

Then this morning I had an Ah-Ha moment as Oprah calls them. Target! They always have cute shoes and at the right prices. I quickly searched their purple shoe selection and damn if the perfect purple wedding shoe wasnt right there staring me in the face. At first I thought I wanted peep toes with ankle straps. But when I saw these beauties, I was sold:

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I read some reviews -- cuz thats what I do -- placed them in my shopping cart and finished my purchase. They should be here in 3-5 business days! Yay!

Did you find/Have you found your perfect wedding shoes?

Bridezilla

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"You dont seem like a Bridezilla." Those are the exact words one of my co-workers said to me yesterday afternoon. I smiled and said "No I'm not." And its true... I'm not a Bridezilla. Sure I may b*tch and moan to Justin or Melissa, but I never lose my cool. I pretty much just roll with it. If one vendor cant/wont do something that we want, I move on to the next and if they truely want my business, they will work with me so that both parties get what they want.


So how can you avoid becoming a "Bridezilla"?!?!



* start planning early & book your vendors as early as possible -- we've found that booking them early and spacing it out over the course of time helps keep the stress down. and financially we feel better because we are spending money over time and not just in one lump sum. which can be very stressful to even think about.

* research all of your vendors before booking them -- we've booked all of our big vendors for the wedding, but before we did I spent a lot of time reading about each one and read any reviews that had been posted. and any company that offers references or suggests that you read reviews on them gets an A+ in my book. They are proud of their business and want you to know it.



* be prepared for your vendor meetings -- if you arent prepared for your meeting, it can be a waste of time for you and the vendor and/or the vendor could completely run the meeting and your ideas/wants/needs arent met. then it becomes the vendors wedding and not yours



* stay positive -- yes, having to give up that dream location/caterer/vendor is a downer, but if you linger on the negatives, your wedding planning will suffer. our original venue didnt work out for several reasons, but we ended up finding the perfect venue for us. you have to believe that everything happens for a reason.



* keep an open mind -- not every idea/dream/plan you have is going to work out exactly the way you want it to. but if you keep an open mind, a better one might come to you that will work out.



* treat people the way you want to be treated -- something my Nanny always said, but its so true. If you are polite with your vendors, they will treat you well. And I mean very well.



We've been fortunate enough to pretty much get what we want for the wedding of our "dreams." Yes, we've had to give up some of those wants or move on to another vendor, but we are staying positive and making the best out of everything. We just want to have a great wedding with our family and friends, and thats really all that matters.

Have you had any bridezilla "moments"? How are you keeping from being a bridezilla?

Our "Mini Wedding"

Not really, but as I am planning our rehearsal dinner, that's what it is beginning to feel like. It's just as stressful, if not more than it was to find our ceremony & reception location. Actually, now that I think about it, finding The Valentine was much easier. I thought what we were wanting for our rehearsal dinner would be simple and definitely easy to get planned quickly. We just want a restaurant that we both love, with good food selections and where our friends will enjoy. Oh and price per person should be a decent, reasonable price. We are planning on inviting 30 of our closest family and friends to our rehearsal dinner -- turns out thats almost half of our guest list for the wedding. So it kinda is like a mini wedding.




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Our initial thought of the restaurant we wanted to have the rehearsal dinner at was one of our favorite restaurants in Richmond -- Comfort. As the name suggests, their menu features many southern classics, aka comfort food. They have the best fried green tomatoes, mac & cheese, fried catfish... actually everything on their menu is delicious! Oh and their take on banana pudding is to. die. for! If you are ever in Richmond, it is a must. Ok, enough drooling. Sadly Comfort wasnt going to work out. They dont have a room for private events and in order for us to have our dinner, we would have to rent out the restaurant. Which wouldnt be a problem, but they want your event to justify closing the restaurant. Basically, if they make 5k on a Friday night, they want your party to match that. 5k for 30 people... do the math and it comes out to over $100 per person. I love our family and friends, but not that much. Sorry!

Top picture: view of the Jefferson in its grandness

Bottom picture: the Rotunda Lobby with the grand staircase

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So after a brief mourning period, we moved on to another great restaurant in Richmond -- Lemaire located in the Jefferson Hotel. The Jefferson is an iconic hotel in Richmond and a lot of people have their weddings and/or receptions there, but thats for the fancy schmancy people. The original Lemaire was a high-end restaurant that people went to when they were celebrating special occasions. Justin and I went twice -- once to celebrate one of Justin's promotions and the other time was when we treated ourselves to a "fancy" night out; we went to Lemaire and then saw Bugs Bunny on Broadway at the Landmark Theater (another iconic landmark in Richmond). At the beginning of 2009, Lemaire "closed" for a renovation and reopened as a hipper, more wallet friendly restaurant. They also focus on using ingrediants found locally which is something we really like. We havent been back to see how the renovations turned out, but we enjoyed their food so much we are open to considering it as the location. So I sent an inquiry and have been emailing back and forth with their coordinator working out the minor details.

Top: Outside view of Juleps

Bottom: Inside view on their awesome stairs showing the top & bottom levels

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The other strong contender is Julep's located in Shockoe Slip. My sorority had their 25th Anniversary celebration, which I helped plan, at Julep's and everyone loved the restaurant and the food. They have an upstairs dining area that is perfect size for our party of 30 and Amy, the owner, is really great to work with. Plus, there is a little bit of haunted history, and I'm all for a good ghost story.

We are setting up meetings with both Lemaire and Julep's, but I already have my favorite picked out. But to be fair, I want Justin to see both of them before we make our decision.

Is your rehearsal dinner turning into a "Mini" Wedding?

Bake Me a Wedding Cake?!?!

In our house, I'm the baker. Justin makes the meals and I make the yummy desserts to follow. This Christmas was like a baker's dream. I got the original Betty Crocker Cooky book, baking supplies, cookie cutters, etc. So to say I was looking forward to our first meeting with our cake baker might be an understatement.



Sue, our cake baker, is one of my coworker's moms -- she does baking out of her home. I was first introduced to Sue's baked goodies when she brought in a cake to work. It was so cute and tasted really good. She is Richmond's equivalent of the Cake Boss. I was impressed and quickly inquired about Sue's cake abilities and tucked her name in the back of my mind for such an occasion as our wedding. I told you I had already started collecting names and info before we were engaged.



Since we were going to be in town for the meeting with our caterer, we set up a last minute appointment with Sue. Our initial consultation was very very basic. We talked about what I had been envisioning (see prior post) and if it was possible for her to do the things I wanted. She said yes that she could do the quilting and she would even hand make the flowers for our cake. We talked about sizes and prices and the nitty gritty details. We didnt get to sample anything because our meeting was planned like 2 days before. I wasnt upset, plus I need time to think about those kinds of things. There are so many flavors and flavor combinations, how will we ever choose which ones we want. Yes, I said ones -- plural. Each tier of our cake will be a different flavor. A girl has to have more than one option, except in her future hubs of course. Plus the cake tasting and flavors will be more posts for you to read.

How did you find your cake baker? Have you had your inital meeting to discuss your ideas?

Cake Inspiration

I just realized that I hadnt posted about our meeting with the cake baker. Silly me. But before I do that I want to start off with what I am envisioning for our cake. My Cake Inspiration!



I watch a lot of Cake Boss, and I mean A LOT. I love the unique techniques that he uses on his cakes and of course I wanted to incorporate one of them into our wedding cake. Buddy calls it quilting and I think it looks so interesting and different. I want that wow factor that will have people remembering our wedding cake after its all over. Need a visual of quilting?!?!





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As far as my cake inspiration, I knew I wanted something simple, but not plain. I like square shaped cakes and white is a must for the cake color. I want to use flowers as the pop of color -- purples and greens. Enough descriptions, lets take a little eye stroll at some cakes that are inspiring our wedding cake:


I love the purple color of these flowers and the cascading effect is really nice

The top and bottom ones have the pop of color I'm looking for -- just replace the orange with purple



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What are your cake "inspirations"?

Money, Money, Money... Money

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I came across this article on yahoo and wish that it was something my parents had done with me. The funny thing is it's been a topic on my mind lately; I even already have thought out what I am going to do when we start having kids. With each deposit we (and when I say we, I mean Justin) write and send in for something relating to the wedding, I feel a little bad. I am truly blessed to have Justin in my life, in more ways than one. But he is most definitely the one "bringing home the bacon." My salary, if you can call it that, nowhere near compares to his. And as we continue to plan things for our wedding and honeymoon, I wish I could contribute more than what I am/can.

Growing up, we werent poor or rich. We lived in nice houses and had everything we wanted or asked for. My parents & grandparents made sure we were taken care of. The older I got, I took on the usual pre-teen and teenage "jobs." I babysat for family friends & neighbors, I helped my dad at his second/night job and did odds and ends around the house for a few extra dollars. But I was never taught the "value" of a dollar. I wanted this and I wanted that... I wanted to be spoiled. My dad tried to instill in me the rule of thumb: if you want something, you need to work for it. When I turned 16, I got my first real job, but I blew through my paychecks and didnt even think about putting anything into savings. My mom was the one who took me to open up a savings account and I started putting money into it. Then I had a little "accident" and needed pretty much everything I had saved to cover it. And my savings account sat empty and closed because it had no money in it. I never opened another one until last year. Something I definitely wish I hadnt put off.

Anyways... to make a super long story short, I think about all the money I could have saved up and I just want to kick myself for not being smarter with my money. Luckily, Justin and past experiences have taught me a lot about saving and spending. I've become pretty stingy with my money, but sometimes it still burns a hole in my pocket. There are many programs online now that help you keep track of what you are spending your money on each month and what you can do to change that. And almost every week, there's a segment on the Today Show discussing ways to increase your savings. The #1 way is to pay yourself first, after you have figured out your monthly expenses because the worst thing to do is pay yourself, but not be able to afford your bills.

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So the moral of this story... if you dont already have one, open a savings account and pay yourself a portion each month. Even if its a small amount -- thats $$ you didnt have saved before.

Stamping

In my wedding state of mind, I'm falling in love with stamps. I think its for a mixture of reasons: they are simple, fast, easy to apply and add that little detail to an otherwise plain item. I've also seen other brides-to-be using stamps to accomplish certain looks without dishing out the extra cash.

In my search for some stamps that I might be able to use, I came across 2 on Joann Fabrics website. I purchased them and now I'm just waiting for them to arrive in the mail.

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This one I am so in love with. I saw a tree design on an invitation online and when I saw this one, ideas started racing through my head. Plus we are getting married in a garden at the end of September. How perfect, right?!?!

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This one I could use for the favors, if we go with what I'm currently thinking about doing. But thats a secret right now.

I got each stamp for around $4, one was on sale and I found a coupon code online that made the 2nd stamp the same price. Shipping was $5 and with tax the total ended up being about $15. Not bad and they are designs that can be used for things other than the wedding too. Money well spent, I think.

Bridal Sunday = Wedding Overload Part 2

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In part 1 we left off with Melissa and I leaving the Expo and we were headed to Davids Bridal. I made the appointment knowing I would be in Richmond for the Expo and its about time I at least started shopping for a dress. Lucky me, DB extended their $99 sale to the Monday after my appointment and I had the $50 coupon from the Expo. Double Bonus! I ended up saving $100 on the dress. Yay!

We got to DB a little before my 4:30 appointment. We "checked in," got some info about the dresses and how the store was set up and then we started searching while we waited for my consultant to become available. I had a few dresses in mind from my many searches online, but because of the huge sale going on, the racks were a mess. We started picking through the dresses and pulling some out. I was being very open to trying on any and every dress. I tend to go with a particular style, but who knows I might look better in something different. Which turned out to be true!

To be completely honest, it was very overwhelming and I watch way too much "Say Yes to the Dress." I was expecting the "Kleinfeld" experience. I wanted to tell my consultant what I was interested in, what my $$ range was and what kind of wedding we were having. What really happened -- Melissa and I were thrown into the sale racks and I swear after a few minutes the dresses looked the same as the last one.

Finally we met Ryan, my consultant, and I was put into my dressing room. I took about 6 dresses in for the first round. They all struck out -- didnt fit, didnt look good on me, too poofy, etc. Then Ryan took over and brought me another 6 dresses. We were getting closer. I started picking out certain things that I liked or didnt like. It was close to time for them to close for the night, but Ryan said there was one more dress he had in mind. Instead, he brought back 2. The first one I really liked and almost went with, but I wanted to try on all of my options, so I headed back into the dressing room and tried on the last one. I loved it. It fit well, hugged all the right places giving me that perfect shape and the price was right. For most girls, its the first dress they try on, but for me... it was the. very. last. one.

It's strapless, a style I always avoided, but surprisingly it looked really good on. Ryan said my body was made for strapless, and I guess he was right. Or he could have been blowing smoke up my skirt. I used to work in sales, I know all the things sales people say. ;) I made sure the dress was comfortable enough to be in for a while and I could sit in it -- 2 of the most important things to remember when trying on a dress.

I'm not going to post pictures yet of me in the dress, but here are some teasers...

I know it doesnt look "good" on the hanger, but it is so pretty on and I cant wait to wear it.

After dress shopping, we headed home. It was already after 6 and I had an hour drive ahead of me. When I got home, I ate dinner and went to bed. Who knew Bridal Sunday would be that exhausting?!?! I guess thats why it became Wedding Overload by the end of the day.