Wedding Post: A Beautiful Bridal Shower and an Unlikely Shower Gift

Last weekend, my family and friends hosted a bridal shower for me at Fruitlands Museum. It was a warm, sunny day and we had the pleasure of enjoying each other's company and the wonderful view.

The "planning committee" orchestrated every detail with thought and care, right down to the local mini-cupcakes from Honeybee Bakery in Princeton and DIY honey pots as favors.

By far the funniest gift that someone bought (off the registry!) was a rain barrel! I've wanted one of these forever and since I plan to have a little garden this year (blog post to follow!) I felt it was necessary.

Yup. Just me and my rain barrel.

Question of the Day: What sort of funny/weird/unique bridal gifts have you seen at showers?

Rodents Have to Eat, Too

Just thought I'd show you some photos I took from my kitchen window recently. We filled the bird feeders and mistakenly put the containers on the wrong hooks. Well, this little guy found he could reach the delicious one with ease.

Question of the Day: What would your captions be for these three photos?

Wedding Post: Engagement Photo Shoot

A few weekends ago Tim and I met up with Shane of Shane's Wedding Photography for our engagement shoot. We were excited to have the opportunity to work with the photographer and get comfortable with his style before the big day.

Can I just say (and I can vouch for Tim, too) that Shane is a cool guy. First off, his photography is beautiful. He maintains the utmost professionalism while still being fun, casual and keeping it low stress. I was impressed that in another life, he was a professional skateboarder and his father was a stuntman. What a background!

We started our little session down in York on Wiggly Bridge, the smallest pedestrian suspension bridge  in the world. It is really quite adorable and in a way brings in a wisp of memory of my days in San Francisco.

Shane's Wedding Photography

It may be the world's smallest suspension bridge, but it was above the water and the wind was blowing and so my hair was a-flying. I managed through it but decided on an up-do at our next stop.

We headed to Stageneck Inn for some quintessential Maine ocean shots. We started getting silly here. The light was perfect for photos that day and we couldn't have been happier.

Shane's Wedding Photography

Shane's Wedding Photography

Shane's Wedding Photography

 The day wouldn't have been complete without some on-site shots at Clay Hill Farm.

Shane's Wedding Photography

Shane's Wedding Photography

Shane's Wedding Photography

We are extremely grateful for Shane and the fantastic work he did, and we're thrilled to be working with him for our wedding! Thanks Shane!

Disclaimer: I was not paid or even asked to review this service, but did receive the engagement session complimentary as part of the Green Wedding Giveaway Grand Prize.

Wedding Post: Tux Fitting at Event Central in Portsmouth

(This is a guest post by Tim)

It’s prom season.  If you are a 16 year-old girl, there may not be a more exciting time in your life.  I however, am not, and really couldn’t care less about hot pink and highlighter yellow dresses with straps and lace. I am a 30 year-old guy who just wanted to get fitted for my tux with my groomsmen and then go golfing.  I was rather concerned when I clicked on one of their two links when looking up the phone number to make our appointment at Madeleine’s Event Central. The first website was www.madprom.com.  Clicking on the link, I was somewhat worried at first glance that my DeLorean had gone up to 88 miles an hour without my knowing and that I had mysteriously gone back in time and now needed a prom date before finally realizing and remembering that my name is Tim and not Marty (that was a Back to the Future joke for all of you under the age of 25). 

Eventually remembering how old I was, and that I needed a tux because I’m getting married on July 8^th, and not going to the Prom, I clicked on the other link http://www.madeleineseventcentral.com. This was much more my style (and age) and what I had expected. After calling my groomsmen and Madeleine’s, our appointment was made for last Saturday, April 21^st.   This just happens to be the busiest Prom dress buying weekend of the entire year and I will say that there was some lingering fear of being overrun by hundreds or thousands of overexcited teenage females, desperate to buy the last Tropicana orange colored dress in stock.  Luckily, Jay of Madeleine’s Tuxedo in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, quickly alleviated all of my fears and made our experience as quick and painless as possible.  Even with all the pre-prom excitement going on around us.  

In all seriousness, Jay was extremely professional and helpful and answered any questions we had; whether it was about the type of tuxedo we should choose, euro tie or bow tie, or about the black and white shoes that I picked out (which are the sweetest tux shoes ever, just so you know), Jay was more than happy to help and put us on the right path so I didn’t make us look like a bunch of meatheads (thankfully, for Jessica’s sake as the camouflage tux was tempting). Madeleine’s also practices green dry cleaning and tries to schedule group drop offs and pick-ups whenever they can, which makes them even cooler if that was even possible.  

All in all, we had an excellent experience at Madeleine’s and would highly recommend them  for wedding tuxes (or any 16 or 17 year-old girl looking to get a prom dress!)

Question of the Day: Are you a wedding suit or wedding tux person? 

Wedding Post: Cake Tasting at Hippie Chick Bakery

Mind you, before we entered the Green Wedding Giveaway contest, Tim and I had not been engaged for very long, so we hadn’t had the chance to do anything wedding-related including cake tasting, engagement photos, dress shopping or, for that matter, wedding shoe shopping.

Cake tasting was definitely on our must-do list, and we were thrilled when we found out that we’d be working with Amy from Hippie Chick Bakery. Amy’s values of a business owner aligned with what we were hoping for as customers. Everything is prepared from scratch and her ingredients are local and organic when possible. In addition, Amy says, “We try to accomplish this through charitable giving and being a green business – using green energy when possible and using carbon offsets when we can’t, composting waste, sourcing local ingredients, to recycling, and much more!” She is also well-known for her egg-free, vegan and gluten-free masterpieces. As a Registered Dietitian who knows first-hand from client experiences, this is a wonderful and special service to offer those with special dietary needs.

One of the most valuable things that Tim and I are grateful for in this journey is that much of the legwork has been done for us: that is, finding vendors who have the same set of values that we do when it comes to having a green wedding. This was the part of wedding planning that I was looking forward to the least, but now we don’t have to!

Onto the cake tasting. I’ll admit it; I’d take ice cream over cake any day. But, the cakes and frosting fillings that we tried jetsetted cake to the top of my “Favorite Dessert List” very quickly.

After much deliberation, we finally decided on the following cake flavors to try:

• vanilla
• marble
• fudgy chocolate
• red velvet
• lemon poppyseed

And the fillings:

• vanilla
• milk chocolate
• chocolate mint
• raspberry
• mocha

We gobbled up each sugary morsel, hemming and hawing about which was our favorite. In the end, we decided on two flavors on alternating layers of the cake.

Question of the Day: Any guesses as to which two flavors we chose? Of the options listed above, which would YOU have chosen?

Springtime, St. Louis and Salad

Last week I traveled to St. Louis for work. Much of the days were spent indoors but we did have the pleasure of dining at Salt (delicious ricotta gnocchi!), yoga under the arch and a a fun walk around town to see the sports stadiums... and a public display of love!

When I returned home, I was greeted by these beautiful tulips!

Spring is definitely in bloom around here. Our local farmers market began this week, too. I was able to snag a dozen cut tulips, a half dozen duck eggs and some spicy cress for salad.

And you can't escape without a recipe. This week I made Bob's Red Mill wheat berries into a delicious spring salad adapted from Wheat Berries and White Bean Salad. Wheat berries take some time to cook. I used a 3:1 ratio of wheat berries to water and cooked for 1 hour before adding them to the recipe.

Wheat berries and Chick Pea Spring Salad

4 cups cooked wheat berries
2, 15-oz cans low-sodium chick peas
1 cup chopped sugar snap peas
1/3 cup chopped cilantro

For the vinaigrette:
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp honey mustard
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix the vinaigrette by combining all of the ingredients and whisking well. Add the salad ingredients together and pour vinaigrette in. Mix well. Let chill overnight for best flavor.

Over the next couple weeks, I plan to do some wedding update posts. We have been very busy meeting with vendors and planning our upcoming wedding! Can't wait to share! Here's a sneak peak...

Shane's Wedding Photography

Question of the Day: What has been occupying your time lately?