Our Wedding: The Details

So, this post is only six months late.

I just realized over the weekend that I never shared any details about our wedding with you guys, with the exception of a few (plus some photos!). We worked with some pretty cool vendors and had some unique touches to our big day that I think are worth sharing - whether you're planning a wedding of your own, are helping someone else plan their's, or you're just simply into this wedding stuff.

So, without further ado, here are some of the things that made our wedding day extra special.

The dress.

Designed by Maggie Sottero - and purchased at Modern Bride in Bedford, N.H. - this dress was like wearing satin bed sheets. It was incredibly comfortable and easy to wear (without having to worry about fixing it 100 times during the wedding). My older sister actually wore a similar dress - by the same designer - to her wedding!

The flowers.

My mom and I met with a bunch of florists - who honestly could not help a bride-to-be who knew nothing about flowers - until we found Lisa from Blooming Vineyards. Lisa totally understood that I didn't know anything about flowers, but that I wanted specific colors, textures, and designs for my bouquets (and boutineers). In our first - and only - meeting, Lisa had nailed it. She actually listened to what I wanted, and put together some beautiful arrangements. We got so many compliments on the flowers alone!

Centerpieces.

I'm not a big flower girl (can you tell?), so I didn't want our centerpieces to be provided by the florist. I also wanted to keep certain aspects of the wedding economical, so Z and I decided to get crafty with our centerpieces. We picked up vases and ruby stones (they looked almost like flat marbles) from Michael's (they almost always have a 40% off coupon on their site), and my mom and I found LED lighted branches from Bed Beth & Beyond. Buying in bulk from Michael's also saves you a few bucks - just simply ask an associate how you can place an order. They were super helpful, and great to work with!

I loved the simplicity and almost organicness (that's a word now) of our centerpieces. The subtle yet apparent lights from the branches also added an elegant touch to the room. These centerpieces were also just short enough so that people could see each other (and have conversations) from across the table with ease.

Favors.

The chef at Mountain View Grand (where we got married) makes his own hot sauces, and Z and I - being the spice fiends that we are - knew we wanted to give them as favors to our guests. The chef makes two flavors, so we gave each guest one of each. We also had Mountain View create labels for the hot sauces, with one of our engagement photos on one side and our wedding date on the other. As a bonus, the chef purposely didn't make the hot sauces for our wedding until two weeks beforehand, so they would be incredibly fresh and flavorful.

The guest "book."

We had an accidental bike theme for our wedding, and I found this idea for our guest "book" on Pinterest. We provided simple instructions, two stamp pads (of our wedding colors, ruby and purple), stamps, and pens, so people could sign in or around their "balloons." It ended up being a whimsical, fun, and interactive guest book!

Card holder.

Speaking of our bike theme...my mom found this little bike at HomeGoods. It made the perfect card holder on our gift table!

Beer pairings.

Z really handled this part, but we couldn't have our wedding without craft beer. We took it one step further by pairing each of our entrees (which were all vegetarian) with a craft beer chosen by Z. Basically, Mountain View could get us any beer we wanted, as long as that beer was available in New Hampshire. Thankfully, most of our favorite brews were available - including Sofie by Goose Island, Victory Helios, and Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale, to name a few. 

The cake.

So, this cake topper isn't just a couple on a bike...it's us on a bike! The designer, Silhouette Weddings, had me send her a photo of Z's and my face profiles. Then, she designed the cake topper so the two people on the bike looked exactly like us. It's amazing how many of our guests noticed this!

One other note about our cake: Most of my married friends said not to spend a lot of money on the cake. Yeah, people see it, but really, it's not a focal point of the wedding - and if you're going to save money somewhere, the cake is a good place to do that. Honestly, I bought some ruby-colored ribbon online, and that was our "decoration." With the cool cake topper, we really didn't need much else.

And there you have it. All of the more fun details of our summer wedding. Finally! ;)

*All photos courtesy of Eric McCallister Photography.

Just Married

Hello, friends! We are back from our wedding and honeymoon, and I must say, everything was absolutely perfect. The weather was gorgeous every single day, we ate and drank like royalty, and, on our big day, we were surrounded by our closest family and friends. Does it get any better than that?

I have a couple of honeymoon and wedding recaps planned for you all, but as I wrap my head around all of the information I want to share, I figured I'd at least show you guys a few photos. Our amazing photographer, Eric McCallister, sent us a few photos, and here are some of my favorites so far. (Side note: our wedding venue was Mountain View Grand Resort in Whitefield, N.H. More to come on that, too!). I hope you enjoy, and more fun posts will come this week!

Wedding Time Has Come

Well friends, the time has come. Z and I leave tonight for our wedding, then we're jetting off for two weeks on our honeymoon (we're going to San Francisco and Napa).

I'll be sure to recap all of the details from our wedding and trip after we return (I'll probably be posting photos during the festivities on Instagram, too). Until then, I hope you all enjoy these last few weeks of summer to the fullest!

See you soon.

My Bachelorette Party

Well, I survived my bachelorette party (barely). It was this past Friday night to Saturday afternoon, and it was a total surprise. My bridesmaids planned an entire evening and day in Portsmouth, N.H., complete with a booze cruise Friday night (followed by more drinks at Gas Light), breakfast at The Friendly Toast the next morning, then a brewery tour (and more drinks) at Redhook Brewery. Some friends even came as far as Long Island. To say I felt special would be an understatement.

Here are some of the non-embarrassing photos from the occasion:

My awesome cake.

This photo does not do the double rainbow we saw on the cruise justice.

Life Lately

I don't think I've given you all a work, wedding, or life update in a while - so, here's what's been going on in my life lately:

#1: Our wedding: This little life event is less than two months away. We've picked our menu, sent out our invitations (which we used a Groupon for), and have finally started planning our honeymoon (more on that below). We still haven't purchased wedding rings or done anything remotely important (half kidding), but planning is coming along.

The design on our invitations.

#2: Our honeymoon: One day after the wedding, we're heading to San Francisco, then Napa Valley. We'll be gone for about two weeks, and I. Can't. Wait. We have our flights booked, and we know we want to visit a lot of breweries and wineries while we're out there...as well as see the Full House house. Does that exist in real life? Because if it does, I want to see it. The only thing we don't have yet is lodging, but...that will happen soon, I'm sure.

Source: http://fullhouse.wikia.com/

#3: Work: Since I told you that I quit my job to pursue a freelance career, a lot has changed - in really, really great ways. I still do freelance copywriting for my old company, but the rest of my gigs are food-related. In all honesty, I work for about seven companies right now, and I've also started working for myself as a private caterer and cook. My most consistent food writing gigs are with Scout Cambridge and Scout Somerville, LocalinSeason.com, and I just started writing for Boston Globe North's Dining Out column. Work has been keeping me really busy, which is an awesome thing. Bonus: I haven't gained 100 pounds since eating and cooking full-time, either. Success!

#4: The homestead: Remember when our house looked like this? Thank god those days are over - although they have really paid off. We love this house. Although there is always something that needs to get done, our next big projects are building a back porch (right now we have a little landing with steps) and getting our basement redone. Right now, our basement floor is made of dirt...and when it rains, that dirt becomes mud. Good times! So, we're going to get French drains put in to help with the flooding, and get a cement floor put in to replace the dirt. When will this be done? Hopefully by 2014...if not sooner. Woo!

Trees we recently had planted in our backyard.

Well, that's pretty much all that's been going on with me lately. I feel like with the wedding, our birthdays (Z's is 7/4, mine's 7/10), work, and just regular summer activities, this is going to be one busy - and awesome - summer. 

What's been going on with you?

Wedding Tasting Weekend

On Saturday, Z and I headed to Mountain View Grand Resort for our wedding tasting. I was almost just as excited for this day as I am for our wedding day.

Since we did a private tasting (read: all vegetarian), we could only try two entrees as well as several different kinds of cakes. The entrees we tried were the Baked Mushroom Strudel with Balsamic Reduction and Goat Cheese, as well as the Stuffed Eggplant Towers with Ricotta, Parmesan, and Spinach Filling with a Vodka Cream Sauce.

The cakes we sampled were a chocolate cake with orange buttercream; carrot cake with cream cheese icing; and two vanilla cakes, one with vanilla buttercream and one with a cream and fruit filling.

Since a lot of our wedding guests read this blog, I can't disclose which dishes we liked best, but I can tell you the tasting has helped us come to several decisions about our menu!

The best part of the tasting: it was held in Mountain View's stunning wine cellar.

We stayed at Mountain View that evening, but we did leave the premises for a few beers before dinner at Italian Oasis Restaurant & Brewery in Littleton (about 10 minutes away from the resort). Italian Oasis brews their own beer, and each brew we tried was pretty tasty. My favorite was the Cleveland Brown, paired with the casual bar's complimentary salty popcorn.

On Sunday, we checked out of the hotel, had breakfast, and made our way to The Basin for some later winter hiking. It ended up being a gorgeous day to hike, despite parts of the trail being too icy to walk on.

As you can see from the photo above, we washed our hike down with a "Sunday Funday" lunch at Woodstock Inn Station and Brewery. We haven't been to this restaurant in over a year, and they have expanded significantly since our last visit.

We started our meal with an order of Pretzel Logic ($6.95), which were cheese-stuffed soft pretzels served with house maple mustard and a creamy garlic sauce.

Although the "cheese" inside the pretzels was neon orange in color and obviously highly processed, the combination - mixed with beer, especially - somehow worked.

For my entree, I went with the Sweet Potato Ravioli appetizer ($8.99).

The five plump raviolis were swimming in a wonderfully sweet and spicy red pepper cream sauce. My only wish was that I had something to sop up the rest of the sauce with (there was almost too much sauce coating the raviolis).

For beers, I enjoyed a Maple Porter (pictured in the collage above) and a Pig's Ear Brown Ale. The Maple Porter only had a hint of maple flavor, which I liked, and I always enjoy Woodstock's Pig's Ear Brown Ale.

We had a fabulous weekend away in the White Mountains, and it was great crossing a few things off our wedding to-do list!

How was your weekend?

Our Engagement Photos

Happy Monday! Hope everybody had a great weekend. I spent mine in Connecticut with some college girlfriends of mine. Z is currently at Lake Tahoe for his bachelor party (a five-day ski trip).

Speaking of bachelor party...I realized it's been a while since I've provided you guys with a wedding update. Remember those engagement photos I mentioned last time? Well, here are some of our favorite shots from that photo shoot:

Our good friend Joey took all of our engagement photos (it was his wedding present to us). We took them all at deCordova Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Mass.

Although Joey also offered to photograph our wedding for us, we decided to hire Eric McCallister Photography for the big day. We want Joey to enjoy himself at our wedding, and Eric McCallister came highly recommended from another photographer in New Hampshire. Eric even sent us a bottle of wine as a "thank you" for hiring him. I like him already.

Next up on the wedding to-do list: order flowers, finish our registries, and go to our tasting!

A Weekend in the Mountains

First things first: Thank you all so, so much for your kind words on my post yesterday. I am overwhelmed with the support and encouragement I received from all of you. I truly am one lucky lady! Thank you.

After my last day of work on Friday, Z and I headed up to Whitefield, N.H. We were showing our parents Mountain View Grand Resort (where we're getting married), but we stayed at The Lion and the Rose Bed & Breakfast. It's a little more affordable, and we've also already stayed at Mountain View before. (A full review of this B&B is coming soon!).

Our weekend was filled with beautiful views, delicious food, and some quality bonding between both families.

Life-size gingerbread house (completely edible) at Mountain View.

Inside The Lion and the Rose B&B.

View from the top of Mount Martha.

Where is your favorite place to travel to for a weekend away? Mine would definitely be anywhere in the White Mountains, or Portland, Maine.