Breck Hofstetter and the amazing staff at Sesame Letter Press worked with us tirelessly to make an exquisite invitation suite. We’re calling it rustic elegant. Liz from Tucci Cursive completed the look with her incredible calligraphy and cute Zazzle stamps brought the whole thing together. I’ll include some close-ups of the invitations later, I just don’t want to spoil the excitement for our family and friends who will be seeing them in the coming days. (Mostly the excitement is mine and Sam’s, I’m sure, but still, I don’t want to spoil it)

Organized brides. That is us. Mostly Sam, but marriage will make us a team.

So we put aside a couple of hours this afternoon and spread everything out over the kitchen table. When Sam, in her panic and excitement, took five full minutes to stuff one envelope, I realized that we would need wine.

Booze really brings a table together

Once I was back at the table we stamped the response envelopes and the invitation envelopes, organized all of the included pieces and went through our guest list. It was time-consuming work but the result was a few large piles of beautiful wedding invitations.

All done!

We walked to the post office where we filled the mailbox, then went inside to buy stamps for our international guests, and voila! We were finished. Invitations in the mail by Friday afternoon.

Not my best look, but yay, I’m mailing letters!

Now I’m looking forward to the next step, chasing everyone down for those response cards …

2 Brides 2 Be!

June 1st was a scorcher in NYC, so we hopped on a party bus with twenty of our girlfriends and rode out to Long Island to Macari Vineyards in Mattituck where the weather was sunny and breezy and the perfect day for a bridal shower. We drank their delicious wines, posed on their tractors and in their vineyards and basically had a blast. The centerpieces, by Mattituck Florist and Garden Shop, were sunflowers and limes, Sam’s favorite, and the patio looked great.

Lunch was a delicious assortment of salads, sandwiches, wraps and cheeses from Bonnie Jean’s and dessert was cake from Setauket’s very own Rolling Pin Bakery and pies from Briermere Farm. I am sad to report that I didn’t even taste any of my beloved Briermere pies, so I will be making a special trip out east for more.

I should have eaten so much more!

Gotta cut the cake!

We couldn’t have asked for a better, more wine-filled day with our loved ones. There was a rousing game of bridal bingo, a race to open the incredible gifts, and an inappropriate shouting of the word “lesbians” while I held up our 5-month-old niece.

Hand blown toasting flutes from the MoH

The shower favor was adorably packaged and delicious Long Island jam. All in all this was a very real success.

It was wonderful to celebrate our shower together, even if we are terrible at staying side-by-side for very long. We will work on that for the wedding! And we will be taking many more ridiculous photos like this one:

Sweet hats.

The bus ride back to Manhattan, now that got rowdy.

The elegance ends here.

Liz from Tuccicursive is working on our envelopes right at this very moment. The invitation suites are in boxes by our kitchen table … the invitations are going in the mail SO SOON.
Oh My!
But seriously, look how spectacular her work is. Had I done these myself, well, they’d certainly be very special.

Honestly, we  completely forgot we would need a calligrapher until the invitations were finished, and even though Liz was our first choice calligrapher she still came through for us. Oh, weddings.

Our first stop was BCBGMaxAzria on 5th Avenue and 40th street. I could go broke in that store in about 20 minutes, I always love their dresses so much. First I made her try on this cool gray skirt, which we liked, but soon forgot about as she tried on more and more amazing dresses.

Fringy.

Later she tried on the Runway Rakel Silk Dress that we both agreed was amazing. When we sent pictures to both Mom and Sam, they didn’t quite agree with us. We understood their argument, that this dress was a little “too much” for a bridesmaid dress. It was also a little too much for our budget, and it certainly wasn’t neutral. We headed to lunch and tried to forget about this bombshell of a gown.

Ohhhh Giiiiirl

Love the back!

We took a little lunch break at Bryant Park Grill, and considering the perfect weather, it was a great lunch spot. The food was delicious, we sipped some nice cold sauv blanc and quite enjoyed the people watching. I gave Katy a card letting her know that surprise! I was going to purchase her dress as a special gift for all the hard work she has done as my MoH thus far. We finished our meal and set off for Bloomingdale’s.

Tipsy after one drink. Both of us.

Ideally, we were looking for a gray dress, but we thought black could be a good option too. We pulled a bunch of dresses and when we got into the fitting room we agreed she should only try on the ones we really loved. It wasn’t long before we’d narrowed it down to two dresses. The gray dress was beautifully draped, but a little too casual. We talked it out. With hair and make-up, and the right shoes and jewelry, we could dress it up.

So slinky. Everyone loves a slinky.

Katy loved the black metallic lace floral peplum by DKNY. The metallic sheen lent itself to our color scheme, and she looked amazing in it. We agreed that paired with some silver wedges, this was definitely the dress!

You’ll have to check out the wedding photos to see her in it …

We ended the day as two very happy ladies.

The lovely Meg and a pail of baby’s breath

The farm itself was adorable. Full of blooming flowers, gorgeous succulents and Meg’s collection of vases, candlesticks, and other wedding tchotchkes, we enjoyed wandering around the place.

pretty pretty pretty!

So what are we doing three months out, besides getting stressed? We are starting to finalize our timeline, nailing down our flower and design choices and going over the menus again and again just to make ourselves hungry. Now it’s time to work on the place cards, wedding programs, and other paper goods. Meg showed us a few special items for our wedding and we left there feeling not only excited, but we were reminded that we are in very good hands!

Just a pretty table of succulents.

Fun, right?

So I’ve got the dress. I’m keeping that a secret for now but I had my eye on it for many, many months when I finally caved and bought it. I’ve got some fun, super-high wedge heels to pair with it from BC Footwear. I wanted nude shoes with a splash of color and I certainly found them. Now all I need is the perfect necklace, which I’m working on.

My sister is flying down that Friday morning for a special lunch and shopping date so we can finally find her a gorgeous dress for the wedding. I know what I have in mind but we’ll certainly take plenty of photos the day of. Now all I need is to be patient until June 1st!

After a million questions and a few freak-out emails (Should I really be doing this four months before my wedding? Will I ruin them? Are you sure I won’t ruin them?) I couldn’t contain my excitement any longer and we went for it. The results are amazing. I am now incredibly vain and obsessed with my hair. However, I am about to leave for a spin class and this will be my first work-out with the hair. I don’t know how Jill does it. I cannot get all of this hair into a proper ponytail. Oh well, looking insane is a small price to pay for the best thing that has ever happened to me. (Second only to Sam … )

See the transformation below.

Before. I’m simply giddy with excitement. My hair is long-ish but thin and damaged. This is no way to live.

Back of my hair before. Gross.

Now dyed and trimmed … check out those dark brows.

So this is love.

I mean. I can’t.

Jill and her awesome hair. The lady who made this all possible.

This post would not be complete without a selfie.

I have to stop writing now and go stare at myself in the mirror. Bye.

No spanx required! This thing is like armor.

I have a few friends who are currently engaged and my most annoying refrain is “Let’s go try on dresses!” (I don’t mean we should all try on dresses, I mean they should but I should get to come) It’s surprising and exciting and a little stressful and the event itself demands hours of recovery over cocktails, so obviously I am a fan. It’s always good to have a plan but so important to go out of your comfort zone, too. If for no other reason than it’s ridiculous fun.

This is a different look that was pulled out for me at Bergdorf’s. It certainly felt unique and special, and made my figure look like someone else’s. My straight line body was practically hourglass (Maybe not but I’m letting my imagination go here) and though it was a touch modern and racy for my mom’s taste, it was surprisingly comfortable for how sexy it felt. My boobs! My hips! The detail on the bodice demanded a close-up. Of my boobs. I’ve decided to incorporate bridal wear into my every day life.

My Baby B’s have never looked better.

I remember reading in a bridal magazine an article titled something like, “Wear it Again,” that tried to convince women that it would be totally normal to throw a party in your apartment and invite your girlfriends to wear their wedding gowns as you sit around drinking wine. Let me tell you what I look like when my friends come over to drink wine … dirty hair. no make up. leggings. old stretched out ribbed tank top and flip flops. If they’re bringing their boyfriends I’ll put on a bra. I get it now, wanting to look like the best version of myself every single day in an expensive and beautiful gown. I’m still never hosting a party like that, but if someone else invited me to that sort of shindig I would absolutely wear this dress and I would drink only clear liquids, possibly be so bold as to sip white wine.

I’m coming over!!

Originally, our cake was going to be a secret. Then Sam and her social media obsession got in the way of that when she tagged us on Facebook at our cake-tasting. Suddenly hordes of guests knew what we were up to. Hordes. The secret was out. So I’ll share.
I live for baked goods. I love cake. Until I tasted one, I thought of wedding cake as a flavor, like carrot cake or funfetti. I thought of it as wedding cake: Delicate, luscious, a true indulgence. Then, as a teenager working at a country club, I ate every wedding cake that passed through the kitchen’s double-doors and I discovered, with great anguish, that most wedding cakes weren’t all that tasty. Worse, many were blah. Did I eat them anyway? Of course I did.
Sam and I want our wedding cake to be delicious. I also insisted that we get a cake from Momofuku Milk Bar, simply because their cakes look amazing. We got engaged and I pictured one of their tiered creations. Having eaten my share of Milk Bar treats, I was confident that their cakes also tasted great.
On Friday we went out to Williamsburg, had a light lunch at The Meatball Shop (What kind of brides eat meatballs before their cake tasting? Shameful) then headed to Milk Bar where we met Martine. She presented us with a tray of twelve flavors of cake. I grabbed my fork and wondered how I could avoid embarrassing myself as I attempted to leave no crumb unconsumed. We didn’t even take any photos of us eating the cake bites because we were so busy scarfing. Some couples, Martine told us, choose one flavor for the whole cake. I knew we would never manage that, so our result: A four-tiered cake with a different flavor for each tier. That will be our little secret … though I think we’ve told a few friends already. So here I am, full of meatballs and cake, with our souvenir Momofuku Milk Bar cake book. I can’t stop staring at it.

I’m already trying to pick the pieces of my mind up off the floor when I sign onto StyleMePretty and find this, another lesbian wedding on a mainstream wedding blog. While it’s happened before, it’s not often, and when I saw it I peed my chinos a little. I’m lying. I don’t even own chinos … but Sam does. And I was jealous (of the stylish ladies, not the chinos).

Turns out Sam and I are just bandwagon girls planning an average wedding … No I’m totally lying again. Our wedding is going to kick ass. Or it will be a disaster. We’ll see.