Becoming the Wilkinsons: June 2010

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Revised for the 90s

My friend Katie is a professional at finding things at thrift stores, used book stores, garage sales, estate sales, etc. For example, Katie found this awesome NRA shirt for Brandon and he loves it - wears it all the time. Another golden find of Katie's is a gift she gave me -- half serious, half jokingly -- that I have come to love. It is "The Working Woman's Wedding Planner" by Susan Tatsui-D'arcy, a revised for the 90s self-improvement book. It really should be considered a classic.

The Wedding Bible, as I affectionately refer to it, opens with a wonderful Introduction: "Congratulations, Bride-to-be! You are probably feeling excited and nervous as well as the whole gamut of tumultuous emotions that brides have felt for centuries. However, unlike most of the women who have stepped up to the altar before you, you don't have weeks of uninterrupted time to plan your wedding leisurely." Obviously, she and I have never met.

I can't say that I use it as much as one would think I would, as a working woman and all, but occasionally I enjoy opening it up for a laugh. In the budgeting section I am told to "use your phone book's yellow pages and call several businesses under each budget item". Thank you Google. Thank you Knot.com. You have taken away that step of the wedding planning process and put everyone's websites in an accessible location and, thank you, for putting the ones I want on the top of the Google search results page. Thank you for saving me the embarrassment of calling establishments and not knowing what to ask them and then spending entirely too long on the phone with them talking about my fears and concerns. And I want to thank the aforementioned establishments for having all of the information spelled out on their websites so that even clueless little girls like me might be able to plan a wedding without the anxiety of calling places.

There are a few gems from the Working Woman's Wedding Planner that I would like to share with everyone. Please note, these quotes do not age the book. However, there are plenty of those types of quotes throughout the over 250 pages of helpful hints and planning tips.

You want retailers to know they're talking to a woman who knows the market and can't be fooled or tricked into buying more than she needs or paying more than is necessary.

Really? It's my wedding not my birthday party. I only plan to have one of these, so really, I don't know that I believe there is such a thing as "more than she needs".

The bachelor party can be hosted at a friend's house or at a popular bar. Everyone traditionally toasts the bride. Some go as far as breaking the glass so that it never be used for a less worthy cause.

If said breaking of the glass happens at a "popular bar" that party will probably move on fairly quickly. I don't think the "popular bar" will take too kindly to a bunch of rowdy Philly boys breaking their glassware. Just a thought. Yes, I think it would be the Philly boys who would break something -- so what?

The groom's cake is cut and placed into tiny boxes and given to the guests to take home. You can also seal the groom's cake in a tin with brandy, freeze it and eat it for your anniversary.

"You just came to our wedding, got us a wonderful gift, so please, I insist you take a piece of Brandon's half melted ice cream cake home with you... What's that? You want the bread maker back? Fine, don't take the cake, but please let me keep the bread makerrrr"

After your big day, you may want to have a breakfast or brunch with a few people. It's a nice way to thank those special people for helping with the wedding or thanking guests for traveling a long distance to help celebrate your marriage... If you know you'll be up very late and if you think you'll be drinking more than you should, plan this brunch for early afternoon.

It's like she knows me -- she really knows me! Thank you Susan Tatsui-D'arcy for this wonderful piece of literature; now can you please make an updated version for the 21st century?

Monday, June 14, 2010

It's Official... We're adults

This weekend was a very wedding filled weekend. Friday night I had my first, of what I can only assume will be many, friend weddings. And not like a college friend or professional friend or real world adult friend, but childhood friend... as in someone I grew up with, someone I went through the awkward stages of life with and have known for almost ten years. Derrick and Kristen got hitched :) Then on Sunday -- Danielle got her wedding dress :) Talk about a wonderful weekend full of love.

Derrick and I have known each other for, well forever. Wednesday night was the rehearsal dinner and then Friday night was his beautiful wedding. They got married at St. Rafael's in Rockville and I would be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about moving my ceremony location to there. I mean, if there are rules about bare shoulders at St. John's then I am going to have to pick a different venue anyways. Which reminds me -- I really do have to call and check about that. Not the point, the point is the church was beautiful and Kristen was stunning.

Congrats Mr. and Mrs. William Derrick Brown :)

The reception was unlike one that I have ever been to, but the bride was right: it was very Derrick and Kristen. The centerpieces, designed by Kristen and made by Derrick, were tall martini glasses with LED lights in them. It was a mostly cocktail reception, which was delightful. There is nothing I enjoy more than open bar at weddings :) They did not have the traditional mother-son dance, father-daughter dance, or even first dance as husband and wife -- but believe me, there was dancing. They used their iPOD instead of having a DJ -- which is smart for anyone who can trust their significant other with music freedom, aka anyone but me. This is an idea that Brandon and I considered for a very short period of time, but given Brandon's affinity for putting on horrible music after several drinks, we reconsidered. The food at the reception was to die for (I still cannot get over those little crab cakes and chicken puff pastries) and the cake was delicious. All and all, I think the Browns pulled off a wonderful wedding reception... AND Kristen was able to have fun and seemed to be very care free -- no Bridezilla moments. Brandon should start praying that he should be so lucky.

the delicious cake :)

Saturday morning I made the hike up to Madison, New Jersey to see my college roommates, aka the loves of my life, Danielle and Dee. Next Memorial Day weekend, Danielle becomes Mrs. Dixon and so this past weekend we went into Manhattan to Kleinfeld to go wedding dress shopping. Something I think I love doing... in fact, I want to go try on dresses again. Yes, I know I have my dress, but there is something so wonderful about the experience, both as the bride and as the friend of the bride. So either more of my friends need to get engaged and go dress shopping, or I am dragging Hadley back to the stores.

If you don't know, Kleinfeld is where they shoot the TLC show "Say Yes to the Dress" and that is exactly what Danielle did this weekend! She had already gone dress shopping once before and found a dress she loved by a designer she loves, Maggie Sottero, unfortunately, Danielle is not a body builder and the dress was too heavy. Hence the reason we went to Kleinfeld. It ended up being the most wonderful experience. We got into the city early so we had bloody Mary's while we waited for her appointment, we had her appointment, we had a little brunch and then we went home for champagne. Lovely day.

Kleinfeld was crazy. It was a mad house. If you're wondering, yes, Randy is much skinnier in person and twice as flaming. There was a girl in there trying on a cupcake dress (literally, she looked like a cupcake) and she genuinely thought she looked good -- her family obviously does not love her because they too, told her she looked good. Another girl in there was trying on dresses and obviously I observed this and shared my opinion. Don't worry -- I didn't share it with her, but I shared it with Danielle's mom, who agreed with me. The girl went with a dress that did not flatter her, again do these people have friends? Yet another girl bought a $24,000 wedding dress -- yes, you are absolutely correct. That is 60 times more than I paid for my dress. It was a wonderful experience for people watching and for feeling very good about my dress and my budget and staying on budget. That's not the point though, the point is that Danielle found her dress :)

Danielle tried on 5 dresses (some good, one bad) and dress number 5 was the winner. She would come out in a dress and she would "like" the dress, but when she came out in the last one, anyone in the western hemisphere could tell that this was the one. Danielle cried, her mom cried, I teared up. She looked absolutely stunning. I cannot wait for her wedding to see the dress again! I mentioned before that she loved the designer Maggie Sottero and was disappointed when the dress was too heavy. Why did I share that little tid bit with you? Because fate stepped in and without knowing it, Danielle picked a Maggie Sottero dress. Talk about a wonderful world.