Finding Flowers

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The New York Botanical Garden had a list of six or seven required florists that we had to choose from. I made a few calls, looked for recommendations, and sent out emails to my two finalists. Once I compared their bids, and what they offered, I chose one. I am happy to say that we will be using Diana Gould, LTD for our flowers. I spent hours admiring the beautiful arrangements on her website and began to figure out what I liked.

Since I am planning long distance, the sales associate asked me to send her pictures of arrangements that I liked so that she could prepare for our in person meeting. Keeping my vision in mind, this is what I sent her (including the photo at the top of the post, which coincidentally was taken at our venue!):

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Can you see where I was going with this? I met with her soon after and she had prepared two centerpieces for me, one short and one tall (we will be alternating the centerpieces).

Please keep in mind that these mock ups were made in the winter for a spring wedding. The actual flowers used will be much more vibrant and colorful when they are in season - these were to make sure we were pretty much on the same page. These are both personal photos.

Without further ado, I present to you my centerpiece mock ups!

short centerpiece

tall centerpiece

So, Hive, what do you think? Like 'em? These are basic idea of what we will have, but it will be more full with flowers and the colors will be much more vibrant (the flash didn't help either). I LOVE the birch pole for the tall centerpieces, and the mossy bottom on both. It gives a great, "less polished" feel. I think these will awesome with our DIY table numbers - more on those to come soon!

Did you have a trial run with your florist? Were they able to fulfill your vision?

Deciding on the Dress, Part 1

(Beware: Wedding gown overload up ahead!)

Very early on in our engagement, like many others before me, I started (compulsively) looking at pictures of dresses online. On a weekly coffee date with a friend, we decided to pop over to the bridal salon across the street. On a whim, I tried on my very first wedding gown. I was not expecting to like it, and to be honest, I didn't love it on the hanger, but when I put it on, we both had chills! I knew the dress wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but it is a wonderful dress! The gown was Maggie Sottero Ireland:

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Now that I had tried on a dress, I knew that this was the style that I wanted. My mom made an appointment for us at Kleinfeld's in Manhattan, and I spent weeks pouring over the vast archives on the their website nearly daily, picking out pictures and printing them out to bring with me. I arrived at Kleinfeld's with the following six pictures, the wrong bra and a bag full of nerves!

(Find these dresses and more at Kleinfeld's website!)

It would seem that I had a pretty clear style that I was looking for, right? Armed with these pictures, my wonderful sales associate brought out what seemed like a hundred dresses, some that matched my pictures, and some that were totally different. In one afternoon, I tried on about eight or ten gowns, and I found my dress. However, we didn't buy it that afternoon.

Did I go with what I thought I would get, or did I surprise us all by going with something totally different? You'll have to stay tuned to find out what dress I got, and the shenanigans that surrounded that second visit! Also, if you're thinking about going to Kleinfeld's for your dress, my review of my experience there is coming up as well.

Duet platter? Like people have to sing for their food?

(MMM yum yum yum)

Just kidding, I was totally not that clueless! There were a couple things that Mr. Hermit Crab definitely wanted to have a say in, and food was the big one. Since we keep kosher, we were allowed to bring in an outside caterer. After some extensive research, and more countless hours on the phone, we narrowed it down to three. We met with all three caterers, and decided to set up a tasting. Unfortunately, one of the caterers was terribly unresponsive. Deciding that two good options were enough, we crossed them off the list. We set up tasting appointments with two of the area's leading Kosher caterers: Foremost and Prestige.

Since I am a vegetarian, and we decided to serve a meat meal (meaning no dairy), Mr. Hermit Crab was all too happy to be the official taste-tester. That being said, I was very clear with each of the caterers that the veggie option had to be delish, since I was going to be eating it! During two tastings, we were served delicious and stomach splitting meals that included dishes such as:

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Seriously, if I could make a career out of going to tastings, I would! They were the best :)

I will say again, like with the venues, either of these caterers would have done an excellent job. Ultimately, it came down to little things like personal attention and that I didn't love the veggie meal at one of the tastings. After many full bellies, and lots of pros and cons lists, we decided to go with Prestige caterers. They were so attentive, we just couldn't get enough of the food, they were compliant with all of our requests, and they even said that they act as Day of Coordinators and we wouldn't even need to begin to think about that - score - two birds, one stone! They take care of everything from plates and drinks to dessert, and since we won't be having a cake (gasp, I know! more on that to come...), they will be providing stellar dessert options as well. Stay tuned, we'll be making our menus soon!

How did you find your caterer? Did you go on any tastings? Share your favorite dishes here!

Engagement Party: Cape May Edition

Mr. Heb and I with Mama Heb and Mr. Heb's dad, mom and sister the night before the party

Our friends has thrown us an unexpected engagement celebration and our Syracuse engagement party was wonderful - full of dancing, food, and love from our community here in Syracuse. However, due to the fact that Syracuse is quite far from where both of our families live (Metro NY area and South Jersey), only a handful of out of town friends could come, and non of our parents' friends.

Mr. Heb's parents finished renovating their house in beautiful Cape May, NJ in the spring, and wanted to throw us an engagement party over the summer. Who were we to say no to a party in our honor?!

The party was so much fun - with more delicious food, friends and family, even a trolley tour of Cape May, and of course relaxing on the beach. Once again, the pictures can do a much better job of setting the scene than I can, please enjoy! (All pictures are personal photos).

Mr. Heb and I enjoying our "Congratulations" cake at dinner the night before the party

Mr. Heb's parents enjoying their anniversary cake the night before the party - 34 years!


Mr. Heb and his absolutely A-dorable little cousin

More toasts - Mama Heb, FMIL Heb and myself, and apparently I find toasts hilarious!

Some of my hometown friends who made the trek for a third and final party!

Myself with my dad, my step-mom, and little sister

Mama Heb and I

Hebs on the Trolley Tour

I hope you have enjoyed seeing pictures of our engagement parties, they were wonderful, and it's been so fun to relive them through pictures. They truly make me excited for the wedding, and it was fun to have celebrations spread out through our 20-month engagement.

Something I have learned from all these engagement parties, is that celebrating your engagement really can come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Each party was totally different, but definitely wonderful and I loved each in its own way.

How long was your engagement? Did you have many celebrations before the wedding?

Engagement Party: Syracuse Edition

After my friends threw an unofficial engagement celebration in New York City, we wanted to throw an engagement party to bring both of our families together here in Syracuse where we are currently living, and celebrate our happy occasion with our families and friends, and with the community that I work in. If I haven't mentioned before, I love my job! I get to work with tons of wonderful children from birth through college, and since we couldn't possibly invite them all (or even most) of the families to the wedding, we thought an April engagement party would be a great way to celebrate with our community here! There was a plethora of delicious food, klezmer dancing for hours, and lots of happy company. It was definitely an affair to remember.

Fun fact about my dress: I couldn't find anything that I wanted to wear for the party, so I went to David's Bridal and many of you may recognize this dress from their Bridesmaid line - I wear it all the time! (Who says you'll never wear that Bridesmaid's dress again ;) ).

I hope you enjoy some of these pictures that can tell the story of our engagement party much better than I can with words! All of the photos are personal photos.

My future sister in law and I

My adorable little sister - she'll be almost 6 at our wedding and she can't wait to be flower girl!

Mama Heb, yours truly, and my wonderful great aunt. Everyone calls her Aunt Bobbe, you can too!

My step-mom (affectionately my step-monster, I love her!), my Papa bear and my little sister.


Some of our Upstate friends

Some of my hometown friends who made the trek all the way up north! Fun fact: see the girl I am crouching with? I will be officiating at her wedding in September! More on that soon.

My Mr. and I giving a toast. Something must have been hilarious!

The delicious spread prepared for us by Sisterhood

Ah yes, the chairs. We were more than a little terrified to say the least!

The Klezmer band that kept our party going and the Hebs dancing with my future family in law!

The party was just exactly what I could have hoped for and so much more. Coming up soon, the third and final installment: Cape May Edition.

Did you have an engagement party? More than one? Was it what you had hoped for?

Engagement Party: New York City Edition

Once we got engaged, and set the date, it was time to celebrate! And celebrate we sure did, because we had not one, not two, but THREE engagement parties.

Technically, we had two official engagement parties, and an impromptu celebration that my hometown friends put together for us, but they were all amazing in their own ways.

Up first: My hometown friends celebrate!
I should say first that I have the most amazing group of friends. We went through from kindergarten to 12th grade together, and have stayed close even after all of us went our separate ways for college. I was the first from this group of friends to get engaged, and everyone wanted to celebrate. We went to one of our favorite high school hang outs - Mama Mexico, and had ourselves a night! I hope you enjoy the pictures that captured that wonderfully impromptu celebration of our engagement. (All pictures are personal photos).

Two of my three best girlfriends from as far back as I can remember

I just thought you might enjoy this one - that's my prom date on the left :)

The boy on my left is one of my oldest and closest friends. His parents are like a second set of parents for me. Fun fact: He and I played twins in our 3rd grade play, and I was a foot taller. He is getting married to the beautiful girl sitting next to him in October!



An obligatory down the table shot of us being served cake and all my friends clapping

One second Mr. Heb and I were enjoyed the cake that the waiter brought out for us, the next I was trying desperately not to let him pour tequila all over me! (I won)

Did I mention there was a mariachi band? Unfortunately this is the best picture of I have of them, but you get the idea!

All of my friends who had come out to the celebrate and the waiter who tried to make the evening a little more exciting posed for a final group shot. I'm looking forward to June when my whole group of friends (all 18 of us!) will be back together for the first time in many years.

Since we have gotten engaged, two more of my friends have too, and will be getting married in September and October. It's so great to be able to plan and share this experience with two of my oldest and closest friends!

Up next, we party the afternoon away in Syracuse, NY!

Are you planning your wedding with any of your friends? Did you have an unexpected engagement celebration?

Envisioning the Vision

Now that we had the venue picked out and reserved, it was time to start figuring out the details. My family asked me for colors, for a vision, for any direction at all! And do you know what? This is how clueless I was. I told everyone "Jewel Tones" and this is the image that I sent out to my family:

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I know, seriously, like what are they supposed to do with that! I knew I wanted bright colors, but I didn't want it to look like a 6-year-old birthday party or a bat mitzvah.

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I wanted our family to wear any color they wanted (in this palette and except for black, white and beige) since they will be up under the chuppah with us during the ceremony (we're not having a bridal party - more on that soon!). I wanted big, beautiful flowers everywhere. I wanted whimsy, sophistication, fun and color color color!

Was I able to make my idea translate into wedding vision? Stay tuned to find out more!