Dressing Our Moms

My mom and Mr. C's mom are a study in opposites. Dr. Mom, mine, is a veterinarian who owns her own practice, doesn't take crap from anybody, and is more comfortable in an Iowa State sweatshirt and blue jeans than anything else. Her illustrative example is that when she was 7 months pregnant with me, she was testing for the next belt up in Tai Kwon Do. They wouldn't let her do flying sidekicks because of the pregnancy, and she was pissed. That, in one story, is my mom.

At a friends' wedding a few years ago. Silly faces, but typical wedding wear.

Mamma C, on the other hand, is a fashion conscious kindergarten teacher. I love her dearly, but she is so different from my own mom. Whereas my mother is taller than my 5' 7" by a solid inch and a half, Mamma C fits under my chin. As a result, she lives in high heels. Her illustrative example is that when we moved Sister C into her new apartment, carrying furniture and boxes, Mamma C was right there with us in leopard print stilettos.

Mr. C's family at a wedding last fall. Not pictures, Mamma C's stiletto shoes

So, when it came to choosing dresses for each lady, it was not an easy task. Mamma C needed something keeping with her usual style, while my mom is a one-dress-a-year type of girl, and anything too over the top would make everyone who knows her go "who the heck is that?" So, we set out looking for dresses that would make them both feel happy, comfortable, and like themselves.

For Mamma C, we were looking at sparkles. When both of our families were here with us, we went to the shop where I had bought my gown. Both mom's went through the racks. My mom didn't hit on anything that was perfect, but Mamma C picked out a few options. Finally, we settled on this stunner:

Style 114900 for Montage by Mon Cherie 

This was actually one of the more subdued dressed that Mamma C tried on. We were trying to find something that was still perfect for her, without being too unbalanced from the type of (read: simpler) dresses my mom was looking at. We went ahead and ordered this, with the caveat that we'll shorten it to a pencil skirt. It is going to look awesome. I haven't yet gotten to see Mamma C in it, but here's a photo of the dress:

Sneak peak of Sister C's dress!

My mom actually ended up finding her dress without me. We'd gone back and forth for awhile, and in fact when she and my dad came out to visit, she brought a couple of options with her. Unfortunately none of those worked, so the search continued. Now, Brother E broke up with his girlfriend last month, but she had been very close with my family. So much so that my mom took her along when looking for dresses. And boy, did they find a beauty.

Dress 72259 by C20 for Watters

Seriously, this is the perfect dress for my mom. Comfortable to move in, a good length, glamorous without being flashy. I was super excited that we had the chance to go try it on when I was home last month, so I could see it in person. It is so pretty! Then, of course, the next question has to be about jewelry and shoes. Because Mamma C's dress is so sparkly, I wanted my mom to have a fun necklace to balance it out. And boy, we managed it.

Bling!

See???? So pretty and sparkly. And matching earrings. And we found her some shoes that she'll be comfortable (and taller than me, always and still) in.

So that's the story of what our mom's our wearing. We still need to finalize the details for Mamma C, but next time they're in town we'll get to go try on her dress and see what she wants to pair with it. I can't wait!

Petals & Posies

During our trip back to Iowa, we had the chance to meet with our florist. My family has been using Carmen's for everything for years and years, to the point where I'm pretty sure if my dad forgets to order for my mom's anniversary, they call him and remind him.

The best part of working with them is that they already know me. Our particular florist, Debbie, is someone I've known for years. Her daughter and I graduated high school together, and were involved in church youth group a long time ago. It is one of those nice, comfortable, easy relationships with someone you've known forever.

Debbie and I chatted via email for a few weeks prior to our visit. I'd pinned some ideas of flowers that I'd liked and sent her a list, and she let me know what their supplier would be able to provide during our wedding. Unfortunately, the downside of an August wedding is that a couple of my favorites, peonies and tulips, are going to be too hard to get. But, Debbie is going to bring some awesome flowers. Here are some of the photos I sent her for inspiration:

via Style Me Pretty

via Wedding Obesssion - Could basically duplicate the one on the left and I'd be happy

via Brides

We walked through a whole list of who will get what. My bouquet will be mostly blush colored with some ivory, and the girls will have mostly ivory with some blush, and both will have the brunia berries and lambs ear or dusty miller. Our mom's are getting wrist corsages, as is my brother's girlfriend, who will hopefully also be our ceremony musician.

She also had some fantastic ideas for our centerpieces. Awhile back, I saw this picture and fell in love:

via Buzzfeed

Seriously, how adorable is that? My parents have been assigned the task of gathering books. I had planned on buying gold plate stands to prop the books up, but when I showed Debbie this, she had a better idea. A few days after we got back home from our trip, she sent me this:

I love how she incorporated the book into the arrangement. These were just the flowers she had available, not necessarily what she'll be using for real. We talked with her about adding more flower, less greenery. We're also going to hopefully do half of the tables like this, half with a large manzanita branch as the focal point. When I go back in April, I'll meet with her again and see what we can do. 

Hair & Makeup Trial

Welp, I'm officially a bad blogger. My apologies for the long delay in posting. I'll blame it on a combination of bad weather, food poisoning, a nasty cold, and general wedding fatigue. I'll address the last one in another post (probably?) but for now, I'll keep plowing through our busy Christmas planning extravaganza.

I wasn't really sure what to expect going into my hair trial, to be honest. I have very, very, very fine and thin blonde hair, and many times in the past attempted updos have left me looking quite bald. I really wanted to avoid that. I spent quite a bit of time looking around Pinterest trying to find photos that I thought would work with my hair. I wanted an updo with some volume, and with details on the side so when my veil, which is nearly opaque, is on, you can still see that my hair is done up.

Here are the ideas I brought in:

via Wedding Window

via The Knot

We tried a couple of variations, and this is what we ended up with:

Side View

From the back

Front View

At the time, I really liked it. The side wisps drove me nuts, within the hour I'd tucked them behind my ears. But now, with some distance, I'm not sure how I feel. I like the way it looks from the front, but I really don't like the side view. I'm not sure how to fix that, but when I go back in April I'm going to try again.

The other thing is that, by the time we'd gotten the braid and the poof, she had almost no hair left to make the bun at the bottom. As such, Lady A and I are going to start looking around for extensions. I've never worn them before, but I think it make be the solution we're looking for. My plan is to try to find a set of real hair clip-ins. I'll let you know how that goes!

As for the makeup, that I was less thrilled with. It didn't look bad, at all, but I made the mistake of telling her I don't wear a lot of makeup normally, so I think she was afraid to use very much on me. As a result, it actually is much softer than what I wear when I'm dressing up to go out. Unfortunately, I didn't get a great photo, but here you go:

30 minutes post trial

Obviously, there needs to be a more permanent lipstick solution. The other thing is that we're having a formal evening wedding, and I don't know that this is enough "umph" to match that. I'm also seriously considering seeing if they do lashes. As you can see, I get crinkly eyes when I smile, and I think I'd like to have some more definition.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Recipes?

Delicious Desserts - Macarons

If you read my previous post, you'll have seen that I was not 100% on the cake train. Although, if there were an actual train of cake, I could probably get on-board with that. Anyway, when we were still deciding whether or not to do cake, we decided to bring in another dessert option.

To preface this, I had the opportunity during college to live in Paris not once, but twice, during two different May Terms. The last time I was there, in 2009, I lived right off of La Place de la Madeleine. Big, beautiful Neo-Classical church, on a site line down La Rue Royale towards La Place de la Concorde. I know all of that might mean nothing to you, but the salient point here is that in the Place Madeleine is a pretty little shop called Ladurée, of macaron fame. It isn't their biggest shop, but that didn't make it any less tempting. I did manage to avoid eating macarons every single day, but definitely managed to make a few visits every week.

Left to Right: Raspberry, Coffee, Pumpkin Spice, Pistachio (2), Lavender White Chocolate

What all of that means for the wedding, really, is that I wanted macarons. And, luckily for me, there's a wonderful little French cafe in Des Moines called La Mie. My mom goes there quite a bit, uses it for informal meetings for work, and she raves about their macarons.

So, on Monday, BM S, Brother E, his girlfriend A, Mr. C and I met at La Mie to taste some macarons. As BM S is expecting a little bee in July, she abstained from any of the creme filled (aka raw egg) macarons, but she did get to help me taste my favorite, raspberry. We decided we're going to order 300 macarons (for 150 guests), in each flavor except the Lavendar White Chocolate. It didn't do a lot for me. The coffee didn't either, but Mr. C loves coffee so I figured I'd give him that one.

Mmm.....macarons

Now, two questions remain. First, we have to pick up the macarons the day before the wedding as the cafe is closed on Sundays, and find enough refrigerator storage to keep them all cold. This may mean spreading them out between bridesmaids, their parents, and some local family friends with the hope that they all get to the venue in time. I'm also going to try talking to our caterers to see if they have storage space for them in a big fridge somewhere.

The other question is, how do we want to display them? I'll come back to that, I promise. For now, I'm going to leave you hanging :)

It's not heaven...

It is our new cutting board!

Mr. C's mom is awesome, and gave it to me in an awesome cutting board in the shape of my beloved home state. Mr C. and I both decided that we'd prefer to keep it looking pretty, so he hung it up over our sink in a place of honor.

Awesome, right?

This is both a chance to show off my awesome gift, and also a lead-in to what Id id over my Christmas vacation. We started off in CT at Mr. C's family family for "Fakemas" and too much junk food, then headed back to my homeland from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day. It was awesome, and we also got SO much wedding planning done! Over the next few days, I'll break down the various appointments/tastings/trials that we had to catch you up, but for now, here's an overview:

Thursday
- Dinner at Rehearsal Dinner Option #1

Friday
- Cake Tasting
- Wedding Catering Tasting
- Venue Visit

Saturday
- Linen Rental Visit
- Bridesmaid Dresses Ordered

Sunday
- Engagement Photos
- Mom's Dress Ordered

Monday
- Hair and Makeup Trial
- Macaron Tasting
- Florist Meeting

Tuesday
- Lunch at Rehearsal Dinner Option #2

In addition to all of that, I also got my likely wedding shoes (yay!), got most of the work done on the wedding website, and have a design for our Save the Date magnets that is now awaiting a final proof of an engagement photo before heading off to the printers.

Drumroll please..................

We've selected our venue!!!!

Ceremony space via Our Forever Promise Weddings

Reception space via Catering DSM

We will be getting married at the Temple for the Performing Arts! I am very, very excited. It is right in Downtown Des Moines, and will give our out of town guests a great feel for all that the city (and the state!) has to offer. It is a gorgeous, gorgeous space, PLUS I have a personal connection there. Growing up, I sang in the Des Moines Children's Choir, which eventually became the Iowa Youth Chorale. We rehearsed in one of the smaller rooms in the Temple, and had concerts in the same space where we'll have our reception! One of the first conversations Mr. C and I had was about our love of singing. Had he grown up in the DSM area, he probably would have been in that choir with me.

From a practicality standpoint, the venue is awesome. As I said it is right in the downtown area, which means that it will be very easy for guests to get around. Most of the local hotels offer a shuttle service to and from the airport, and it is a very walkable downtown, so we can probably get away without having people rent a lot of cars. Plus, there are wonderful restaurants, shops, parks and museums right around the area. And, there will be plenty of places for us to go for some great photos the day of the wedding!

Can you tell I'm excited?

Waffling, or It Is All About Two Families Coming Together

A few posts ago, I weighed the pros and cons of the various locations we were considering for our location. As you may recall, Mr. C is from Connecticut, I'm from Iowa, and we live in New York. We did a lot of thinking and decided that, logistically, we were really leaning towards having the wedding in New York. We even went and looked at a really great venue that we were very very happy with. Both of us walked away imagining our wedding day there. Here's a photo of the site. Lovely, right?

via Matt Ramos Photography

The night after our venue visit, I called my parents and let them know that we'd found a place that we really liked. I'll preface this by telling you that my parents are awesome. They are exceptionally supportive, have always been there for me eve during some really tough times, and are some of the most practical minded people you'll ever meet. That's why it was such a shock that they were so upset when I told them we were looking to get married in New York. Mr. C and I had both assumed that once we laid out the practicalities of it, they'd understand and be right there with us. 

Now, they both said that no matter what, they'd be wherever we were with bells on. But, I could tell they were really unhappy. It took about a week for us to connect again, and to be honest I was over everything wedding. I cried more times than I can count, had my awesome maid of honor bring me some chocolate milk, and was generally just miserable. Finally, I got my parents sat down over Google Chat, and we were able to talk everything out. Their big suggestion was to do two separate days, one in Iowa, one in New York. Two days, two groups, hopefully with some people able to travel but really one of my family and one of his. 

Mr. C and I sat down and had a big heart-to-heart about this. I was pretty distraught, trying to figure out how we were going to work two parties into our budget, and how we would be able to make everyone happy. And then, Mr. C, in his brilliance, said the exactly right thing. "Isn't this whole process about our two families coming together, to celebrate our new family? And if we have one day with your family, and one with mine, that is kind of contrary to the point." 

So, we completely scrapped the idea of two weddings. I called my parents, and told them we were going to get married in Iowa. Mr. C's family, bless them, are totally okay with it. We'll try to do a special dinner with his grandparents and anyone else who can't make it, and try to set up some sort of live video feed for the ceremony so they can watch. We actually went over to see his parents and sister this weekend, and they really reassured me. I can't tell you how lucky I am to have this awesome family that I get to be a part of. They are really supportive, and now we can start moving forward with the actual planning of this thing!

The Question of Where, or Pick a State, Any State

We just wrapped up a very fun but very exhausting weekend at Mr. C's reunion. It was great getting to spend time with some of his friends, especially the couple who live down in New Orleans that I hadn't met yet. But, as I said, it was exhausting, and I felt like I spent most of the weekend telling people that we haven't planned anything for the wedding yet.

On the way down, we had a big talk about the beginning logistics for the wedding. This gets complicated very, very quickly. You see, I am from Iowa, Mr. C hails from Connecticut, and we now live in upstate New York. So, where do we get married?

Iowa:
Pro: Traditional for a couple to be married in the bride's hometown
Pro: Most of my family and many friends still live in Iowa.
Con: We would have to travel back to Iowa many times for planning, flights for which cost about $1,000 for the pair of us round trip, plus any days off of work.
Con: Mr. C's grandparents actually live in Upstate
NY, and a trip that far would be very difficult
Con: All of Mr. C's familiy and friends would have to travel

New York:
Pro: Where we live already, so less stress for planning
Pro: Easier trip for his grandparents
Con: No real emotional attachment for either of us here. We live here, but we don't necessarily feel like this is "our" place.
Con: Higher cost of living (aka cost of wedding) here than in Iowa
Con: Very small number of our friends live around here, so everyone would have to travel. I don't think some of my good friends would be able to travel this far.

Connecticut:
Pro: Where Mr. C's family still lives
Pro: Not too far from where we are now, so it costs a tank of gas rather than a pair of plane tickets to visit for planning
Con: Not many friends or anybody other than Mr. C's immediate family in the area. All of my family and friends, and most of Mr. C's would have to travel.
Con: Higher cost of living than both Iowa or NY

We sort of agreed that if we're getting married out east, it may as well be here over Connecticut. So, really we're deciding between Iowa and NY. At this point, it is looking like New York may take the cake, for purely financial reasons. Flying back to Iowa for planning is EXPENSIVE, and that's money we could be using for the wedding itself rather than purely traveling. Plus, if I DIY anything, it'd be hard to transport there for the wedding itself.

Still, we have time and other people to consider before this decision is final. We are hoping my parents will be able to visit soon, so they can actually meet Mr. C's family. In addition to everyone knowing everyone, that'd be a good chance to talk about logistics and expectations. It doesn't look like that will happen for awhile, but hopefully before too much longer!

A Really Long Week (and a Half)

Apologies for starting up and then not posting, but the last week and a half has been one of the most exhausting I've ever gone through.

It started out with a really amazing trip back to Iowa to see my family and friends. We had a really fantastic time, especially surprising my little brother. Granted I say little, and he's got about six inches on me, but still! Anyway, we got to see him in his play, which was wonderful, and spend some time on the Iowa State campus. We especially enjoyed visiting Reiman Gardens. I hadn't been there since they had their big expansion and added the butterflies, so it was really enjoyable.

One of the butterflies really liked my sleeve!

Honestly I could have spent hours sitting in the butterfly wing. It was really magical. Mr. C and I were also in venue scouting mode, and it seemed like it might be a really fun option for us. Definitely still on the list, although we'll have to go back later in the year and check out the road noise.

The trip to Iowa was great, but it was a ton of running around. I'm now seven weeks out from my surgery, and definitely not at full speed yet. Better than I was, yes, but spending those days back home really wore me out.

Added to that, on Tuesday I returned to work for the first time. It was really exciting to head back, and I am glad to finally have things to do. I really enjoy my job, which helps. Granted, there are always those little frustrating things, but overall it is a really great environment and I am doing some great work. Of course, my first day back I didn't just put in a normal day. We had a special donor event that night, which meant I put in a 12+ hour day. Needless to say, there were several early bedtimes this week.

The only real bad thing about returning to work is that Mr. C and I are back on a schedule of only having Sundays off together (My typical week is Tuesday-Sunday). We made the most of it today, went down to the Mohawk-Hudson Bike Trail and went for a nice walk. The weather was beyond beautiful, but of course I left my phone in the car so no pictures!

More updates soon, I promise! Ms. A and I are planning a craft night for Wednesday, so hopefully I'll let you in on some of our projects. I'm also going to start back to running tomorrow. Seeing as I've been on the couch for the last nearly two months, and have very little stamina, I'll be trying the couch to 5k program. I'll let you know how it works!

- J