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I Carry Your Heart

4 Apr

My gown has been steamed. Gifts have been wrapped. DJ’s and cakes and limos have been confirmed. Place cards have been printed. Nails have been polished. Checks have been written.

There’s really not much more to do before Saturday. I keep waiting for some disaster to occur, or for someone to point out some major wedding component that I completely forgot. Call me crazy, but at this moment, less than 48 hours out…. I am quite calm.

Tomorrow Mama Dish and I will head to the florist and give our seal of bridal approval, and barring any loose ends that need to be tied up, we will head to the church for the rehearsal!

It all seems very surreal. Everyone told me how quickly the big day would arrive, but I guess at certain points it seemed like it would never happen. Making several life changes at once was stressful, just like everyone said it would be, (quitting my job, moving, cohabitating for the first time) but that’s the way life is sometimes. For better or worse… everything happens at once.

While I cannot wait until Saturday, I am trying to take everyone’s advice and enjoy the anticipation. I feel so grateful for everyone around us. I feel so fortunate to be entering into this union with total confidence. And of course, I feel so blessed that so many of our loved ones will be there to help us celebrate.

I will share with you one last thing before I go off and get hitched to the man of my dreams. (No seriously, he is.) In my last entry, I believe I mentioned the gorgeous quilt Mama Dish made us for our wedding. On the back, she wrote us a message. I think E.E. Cummings can sum up my feelings right now far better than I can:

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I carry it in my heart.

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Life on the Beach!

15 Mar

I’m BACK!  And no, I haven’t been at the beach.  Just before I left WNEP, one of my co-workers said to me about my looming unemployment, “Don’t worry, you won’t be on the beach long.”  So I guess that’s where I am now… “on the beach.”

It’s been two weeks since my gut-wrenching good-bye at WNEP, and I feel an overwhelming sense of relief.  (The crew put together the loveliest good-bye for me.  You can check it out here.)  While I miss the newsroom, it does feel sublime to be here.  I am in Philly, I am HOME.  I don’t have to remember whether I left a certain shirt at his place or mine.  No more middle of the night trips down the Turnpike.  I have one set of house keys on my key ring.

Last week, Mr. Dish said to me, “Your bridal shower felt like the wedding to  me.  You had your shower, and now you’re here!  All the time!”  Indeed, as soon as I packed up my car and left Scranton in the rear-view mirror, I was whisked into a whirlwind of pink streamers, champagne cocktails, stand-mixers, and hugs.  It really did feel like a grand entrance into co-habitation.  Allow me to give you a few highlights of the best shower and bachelorette weekend ever!  (By the way, all photos were taken by the marvelous Michelle Hein.)

The shower was at Mama (and Papa) Dish’s house, and the place was completely transformed using our wedding colors – yellow and blue.

The Dishmaids!

The Dishmaids!

The ladies did an amazing job organizing a delightful brunch, complete with french toast, quiche, and a mimosa bar!

Cheers!

Cheers!

I got so many amazing gifts… one of my favorites was the wedding quilt Mama Dish has been working on for months! (blue and yellow, of course)

quilt

 

And a shower wouldn’t be complete without a big ol’ bow hat constructed by a few frenzied girlfriends…

Workkkkkk it!

Workkkkkk it!

After the shower, it was bachelorette time!  The Dishmaids and I had spent the night before the shower relaxing and binge eating at the Doubletree in Center City, so we returned with more girlfriends in tow to primp for our night out.  Our first stop – Marrakesh, a Moroccan restaurant tucked in an alley near South Street.  It is truly a hidden gem.  The place has been there for 30+ years, and you would never know it was there unless you were looking for it.

MarrakeshNine of us shared the seven (?) course meal, eaten completely with our hands!  No plates, no utensils… just towels and our fingers!  It’s a good thing we’re all friends!  The food was to die for!  Chicken, lamb, roasted veggies, cous cous, baklava and more.  I even got a free belly dancing lesson!  From there we hit the town and danced the night away.

It was the perfect “welcome home” celebration with so many of the wonderful women in my life.  Two weeks later, I’m still unpacking, still organizing, still job hunting… and STILL waiting on a few RSVP’s!  (You know who you are, procrastinators.  Deadline’s tomorrow!)

With three weeks to go until the wedding, I’m confident I’ll get everything done… and confident I’ll be a bundle of nerves until the big day!  On tap for this weekend… a bridal beauty extravaganza with Mama Dish and MOH – hair trial, makeup trial, and final dress fitting!

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2013 So Far…

28 Jan

Thus far, this winter is proving to be a doozy. (I think that’s a meteorological term: doozy.)

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I’m pretty tired of dealing with temperatures like these:

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And taking my car to the carwash when it looks like this:

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And dressing like this when I have to do liveshots at 11:00 p.m.:

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But my running buddies at the gym inspired me to buy a new pair of these:

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And I’ve been using them a lot so I don’t feel so bad when I eat things like this:

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That’s homemade rum raisin rice pudding, by the way! Made by yours truly!

Mr. Dish and I are checking things off our wedding list, and it’s been fun getting more RSVP’s in the mail everyday! We’ve also made time to take a quick trip to the beach, even though it was freezing.

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All in all, 2013 is off to a good start! T-minus 68 days until I say goodbye to singledom forever… but who’s counting?

Invitations are OUT!

15 Jan

This morning I dumped a big box of wedding invitations in the mail.

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Unlike the feeling of panic when I put our Save the Dates in the mail, I felt a sense of accomplishment today. One more step forward!

This past weekend was an addressing extravaganza! After weeks of working on my penmanship, I dove in and tried to be as neat as possible. Mr. Dish was on envelope licking and fastening duty. (He unfortunately has not seen the Seinfeld episode, so he didn’t quite get the beauty of being saddled with the task.)

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I won’t post the actual invites because I don’t want to spoil the surprise for recipients! I will say that they were designed by Stephanie Pryor Designs, and I am one happy customer! Her creativity and professionalism are second to none. They turned out better than I imagined!

Next up… programs, music lists, and seating charts!

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Something Old

4 Dec

Something old,
Something new,
Something borrowed,
Something blue

According to this age-old tradition, if a bride carries these four “somethings” on her wedding day, she will have a happy marriage.  While I’m not superstitious, I am nothing if not traditional.  Plus, I already had three of these “happy marriage” requirements without even trying:

Something new: My wedding gown, of course!
Something borrowed: Mama Dish’s pearls
Something blue: My shoes (these would also meet the requirements for “Something fabulous.”)

I was still in need of something old.  I brought this dilemma to Mama Dish’s attention on Thanksgiving.  Being the creative genius she is, she went straight up into the attic and retrieved her wedding gown, circa 1981.

Beading on the bodice of the dress

Beading on the bodice of the dress

The dress was not professionally preserved, so it’s a bit yellowed.  Overall, however, it’s in pretty good shape.  It has fantastic long sleeves.   Mama Dish gets that wistful look on her face when she talks about how beautiful she felt on her wedding day.

Anyway, the part of the dress she was after was the lace at the hem:

photo (34)The idea: to wrap this piece of lace around the stem of my bouquet.  Perfecto!  A piece of wedding history right in my hands the whole time.

Did you have the four “somethings” on your wedding day?  How did you incorporate old family items into your ensemble?

 

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Let them eat CAKE!

14 Nov

Last weekend, Mr. Dish and I got to do one of the most fun parts of the wedding planning process to date: cake tasting!

Our wedding cake comes included with our venue.  But we do get to choose between two local bakeries… and that means we got two tastings!  It was a tough decision, let me tell you!

Don’t worry, I shared with Mr. Dish!

We tasted four varieties of pound cake at Bakery #1: plain, chocolate chip, marble, and raspberry swirl.  All with buttercream icing.  All delectable.

We met with the owner who also bakes and decorates the wedding cakes.  We looked at lots of books filled with designs.  She also gave us several other kinds of cakes to take home to try.  We left Bakery #1 feeling great and really blown away at the personal attention we were given.

Then it was on to Bakery #2.

Edible works of art!

This quaint bake shop was bustling with activity when we arrived.  But the owner whisked us upstairs to a private “wedding room” where we once again looked at lots of designs and tasted four cakes:

It’s a good thing I skipped breakfast.

Here we tasted plain pound, marble pound, raspberry swirl pound, and red velvet.  Again… delicious!  I was also awed by the gorgeous cakes we saw at this bakery, all so different and all so beautiful.  Almost too pretty to eat!

After we had our fill of sugar (and a post-tasting drink at a local pub) we were faced with a tough choice.  But we ended the day with a cake design we loved and we knew just the bakery to do it.  But alas, you’ll have to wait to find out which sinful selection we made… I have to save a few surprises for the big day!

 

 

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A Little Taste…

5 Nov

This weekend Mr. Dish and I attended the tasting event at our reception venue!  I was excited by this, because it’s one of those events I always hear couples talk about and it seems like one of the more “fun” wedding prep tasks.  It’s no secret I love food, so I was excited to dive in.  We tasted the two items that a) sounded delicious and b) would be crowd-pleasing.  So we tasted chicken bruschetta…

Those are potatoes, by the way, not mushrooms.

… and filet mignon au champignon.

This is totally what I’m having for dinner!

We were very pleased with both dishes.  It’s a good thing, since we were limited to taste only two dishes, and the tastings are held semi-annually.  So if we were to choose another dish to serve, we’d be choosing blind.  We were tasting our food along with a number of other couples in the ballroom where we’ll have our reception.  I’ve heard other venues run their operations this way as well.  It’s definitely not the tasting experience I had in my head from movies I’ve seen, but it was fun nonetheless.  And like I said, I was very happy we liked our first picks.

Because we could bring up to four people to the tasting, we brought our Mama’s along for a little mom date!  It was very nice to have their input and company, and this gave Mama Dish a chance to see the venue for herself.  I must say, I got a little giddy when I walked into the ballroom again!  We also went out for coffee after, which was lovely.  Mom dates are fun!

The very next day, Mr. Dish and I were right back in that same ballroom for our “six month meeting.”  (Even though we’re actually five months out now.)  We spent about 90 minutes with the manager going over details.  Linens!  Sashes!  Cocktails!  Speeches!  Favors!  Dances!  My head was spinning on the drive home.  But it was a very productive meeting, and helped me formulate a list of things I still need to do and the order in which to tackle them.  We also got the dreaded “seating chart!”  (I’ve heard it’s the pits, and that there may be tears.)

Next on my “wedding to do” list: cake tasting!

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The “Ultimate Bridal Body”?

1 Nov

Yesterday I got an email from theknot.com with this in the subject line:

“Only a Few More Months to Get the Ultimate Bridal Body!”

Upon opening said email, this is the picture that appeared:

Image via theknot.com

So, is this email implying that I DON’T have the “ultimate bridal body?”

This email really struck a nerve.  I seem to have a love/hate relationship with the folks at The Knot. On one hand, it is a great bridal resource and I find myself visiting the website if I have an etiquette question or just for some inspiration.  On the other hand, every time I get an email from The Knot I get stressed out.  (Maybe I just need to somehow opt of these emails.  Must investigate that.)

For instance: Inside this particular email the headline reads, “Want to look ridiculously good on your wedding day?”

OK I don’t think I’ve ever been to a wedding where the bride DOESN’T look ridiculously good.  Have you EVER been to wedding and thought to yourself when the bride appears…. “Eh.  She looks OK…” ???  (If the answer is yes, you have no soul.)

Second, look at the above picture.  The only way I’d ever look like that is if I ate carrots and only carrots until April.  Sure, she’s gorgeous.  But I’m not going to starve myself or work out obsessively to drop down to a size 2… only to gain it all back during the honeymoon.

Third, I’ve always viewed fitness as a lifestyle.  I love exercising, but I’m not going to let it dominate my life until April 6.  I don’t have the time to do that even if I wanted to!  I love the way being fit makes me feel, and if I had to walk down that aisle tomorrow, I’d be ready and raring to go.  I’m thankful that I feel that way.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll probably try to “be good” in the weeks leading up to the wedding in an effort to look and feel my very best.  You only get one chance to wear that dress, after all!  But I fully intend on enjoying the holidays.  This wedding will not keep me away from pumpkin pie and Christmas cookies.  (It certainly won’t affect Mr. Dish’s eating habits!)

There was a time in my life when I might have crash dieted and worked out for hours everyday to look stick thin in my dress.  But I’m at an age and in a mindset where I know better.  When I am walking down the aisle, I’m not going to be thinking about what size I am or if my arms are toned enough.

So bridal industry… please stop telling us brides to lose weight.  If a bride decides to do so, it is her personal choice.  And if she doesn’t, she will still look “ridiculously good” … and ridiculously in love on her wedding day.

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Thanksgiving Balls

24 Oct

If you ever find yourself on Second Street in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia (Nolibs, as the cool kids call it) you must stop by The Blind Pig.  And you MUST order the Thanksgiving Balls.

 

Turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing deep fried and served with cranberry sauce and gravy.  Oh. My. Gosh.

 

It was like Thanksgiving dinner in appetizer form.  Delightful.  The short-rib gravy fries weren’t bad, either.

 

Mr. Dish and I really enjoyed the vibe of this pub last weekend, and our visit lasted several hours.  It might have been the food, it might have been the friendly staff… or it might have been because we had some pretty important stuff to talk about.

See, we went in search of junk food after our day-long Pre-Cana session.  (A marriage preparation course couples are required to take before getting married in the Catholic Church.)  Most folks roll their eyes at the mention of Pre-Cana, and tell some sort of horror story if they had to take it themselves.  So with those expectations going in… it really wasn’t that bad.  In fact, Mr. Dish and I agreed that while it was a long day, there was some really useful stuff in there.  We enjoyed hearing the stories from the married couples who led the class and hearing some of the things they struggled with when they got married.

It also got our wheels turning about some important issues (money, family, religion, communication) that we’ve *kind of* talked about but never really tackled head on.  Turns out, this was the spark that got our real life conversations going over some drinks and greasy food.

We left The Blind Pig with our stomachs… and souls… satisfied.

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Pretty Maids All in a Row

19 Sep

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about wedding planning, it seems.  Mostly because there hasn’t been anything all that exciting about which to blog!  We’ve added more items to our registry after a pretty lame first attempt, we made reservations for our tasting at the reception venue, and registered for Pre-Cana class.

A few weeks ago, however, I did have a wonderful time shopping with my bridesmaids (and Mama Dish) for their dresses for the big day!

Three of the four gorgeous Dishmaids! (The fourth lives in Chicago. She is excused.)

I hope my ‘maids had as good of a time dress shopping as I did.  Having been a ‘maid several times myself, I basically had two goals when it was my turn to try on bridesmaid dresses:

1.  To make the bride happy.

2. To not end up in something obnoxious/unflattering/embarrassing.

I was extremely lucky and ended up in a tasteful dress each and every time.  So I hope the dress we settled on is something my gals like.  We decided upon a dress pretty quickly.  It certainly helped that all of my girls have lovely figures and looked great in EVERYTHING!  Well… maybe not everything…

MOH trying to convince us that she could pull this one off.  A+ for effort!

As you can surmise from the first picture above, the dresses will be a rich blue.  The exact dress we decided upon is NOT pictured above in either shot.  (I’m saving some surprises!)

I got to try on my dress, too!  It arrived a few weeks ago, so I got to put on the actual gown!  I must admit, it was still a little surreal.  It hasn’t hit me yet that eventually… I will take the dress out of the store… and then get married in it.

After we all tried on dresses, we went out to lunch.  It was a lovely day with no crying and no drama.

At least not while I was around, anyway.  Lord only knows what went down when they kicked me out of the room for that little “shower planning session!”

Thanks, girls, for a wonderful afternoon.  Can’t wait to get together again soon!

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