The Guest List- Part One

I think the guest list is a very touchy subject. Personally, if I could afford it, I would invite everyone I know. I would prefer a smaller, more intimate wedding, but I wouldn't want anyone to feel left out. The reality is that we can't afford it. We have to make cuts. When you guest list increasing every week (with 22 months left to go!), you need to make cuts. Especially when you already booked the caterer/venue and are locked in on price.

I am not a fan of the B list, I would never want to know I was on the B list in a friend's life, but I think my ideas on what I like and don't like have gone out the window since I've gotten engaged. Do I like to label the people in my life as A-listers and B-listers? Of course not! Do I have to decide who I think is on the most-important-people-in-my-life-that-need-to-be-there list? Yes I do....Unfortunately.

I kept putting it off. Thinking, maybe we'll get HUGE raises and we can make it work! I don't think it is going to happen in this economy. Before I make any more large financial decisions regarding the wedding, I need to finalize the number.
I am already making up some guidelines.
A few cousins at a family wedding in 2006

1. Immediate family - yes
2. Extended family - aunts, uncles, cousins - yes, if over 18.
3. Friends I see multiple times in a month- yes
4. Friends I see less than once a year - no
5. Dates- no, unless married, engaged, living together, in a long term relationship, we are close friends with the significant other, or the person we are close with doesn't really know anyone else at the wedding

These are my guidelines for my friends and family. Mr. Newport's situation is different. He recently moved up here and works long hours, so he doesn't have the luxury of seeing his best friends as often as I do. We only got to visit his home a couple times this year. When we went we wanted to spend as much time with his family as we could, so visits with friends weren't as often as he'd like. He has made some great friends up in the New England area, but it isn't the same as your friends from home. So my rules will be different than his rules.

Has anyone else had to come up with a list of "rules" for the guest list? What was the worst part of making your guest list?

Weddingbee!

I just found out I am going to be interning with Weddingbee! It is my absolute favorite website and I am so excited! It is my dream to blog on Weddingbee, but since my date is so far away, I can't apply yet. So I am really excited to help with the behind the scenes work. It is a one month internship and I think it will be a great experience.

I love my current job, but I have always wanted to do something in the wedding industry on the side, so I feel like I will get to live out my dream for the next month.

Anyone else have an experience where they get to test out their dream job?

Will you be my Maid of Honor?

So I finally asked! After a couple months of torture, I asked my sister to be my Maid of Honor! The wait was totally worth it. I wanted to ask her just right. I previously posted about My, Will you be my Maid of Honor? Experience . It was great, my sister did it perfectly and therefor, I wanted to do something extra special for her as well.

I tossed many ideas around. She took two really great ideas, tea and the chocolate buffet in Boston and I really did not want to copy her. For awhile, I thought about taking her to the Melting Pot for fondue, I love fondue and she has mentioned a few times, that she really wants to go. I thought of doing a wedding extravaganza night and have wedding movies and make a cute wedding looking cake and ask her there over a night of wedding bonding, but then this past weekend, I saw Bride Wars and it changed my whole perspective.

I almost cried in the theater watching it, which sounds ridiculous, especially since I never really cry and get emotional, and it really isn't the kind of movie you cry during. I don't wnat to give anything away, but there is an amazing quote at the end of the movie and it made me think of her. I was wishing we were watching it together.
So Sunday, I took my mom and my sister in town Boston, under the premise that I wanted to thank them for the amazing engagement party. We started off walkign through the Public Gardens, which are gorgeous in the summer AND during the winter, due to the snow we had this weekend. We went to see the 12:30 showing of Bride Wars. I took a cue from the movie and took her to Tea at the Boston Park Plaza (it is a significant part of the movie). I waited until she least suspected it and handed her the scrapbook.

My sister, I'm pretty sure, immediately knew what was going on. So my mom teased me and asked if I was goign to say anything, but I said the scrapbook says it all. I'm not too good with words, but when I write, I can fully express myself. So here it is:

The title page: One of my favorite photographs from childhood. It may have been our first trip to Disney World.

A few more childhood memories: we used to go to the same Dance Studio.
A mix of pictures, past and close to the present, with a few quotes.

The letter that explains how much she means to me, why I want her as my maid of honor, and the actual question. She is a shoe fanatic, can't you tell?
The question:Top ten reasons to be my Maid of Honor: I found many lists by typing this into google, but they were too generic, so I made a personalized version. She laughed and cried, reading through it.
The end of the book has many pages left for the wedding activities to come, I started by doing the engagement party, but plan on having scrapbook nights with the girls to fill in the rest, including, a Will you be my Bridesmaid/Maid of Honor page, the Shower, The Bridesmaid Luncheon, Bachelorette Party, Rehersal Dinner and Wedding.
I'm still looking for a great way to ask the rest of the girls, while still making it a surprise. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them! What are some of the ways you have asked or been asked?

Hostess with the Mostess

As I said in the last two posts, the party was amazing. I wouldn't have changed anything, except, I would have liked to spend more time with certain people.

I have been known to be the person staying in the corner at a party with my closest friends. They are my comfort zone and I of course enjoy their company. Since my sister and I have gotten engaged and my brother had a baby. There have been quite a few parties, where I have had to play host.

I have been working on spending time with everyone at parties and not just my closest friends. I have gotten pretty good at it, for my shy self, a little too good. My only regret from the party was not spending more time with Mr. Newport and the party's amazing hostesses.

I was so caught up in trying to make everyone else feel comfortable and happy to be there, that I forgot to spend time with my best friends and future husband. I checked in a few times, but no real quality time. It always seems like these parties fly by and end before I know it. (I was so caught up, I didn't even get a group picture with all of the amazing hostesses!)

Does anyone else have trouble trying to play hostess/guest of honor and keep a balance?

Party Venue

I just have to rave about our event venue. It was located at The Estate, which is located in Boston. The bachelorette scene from Bride Wars was filmed there! The staff was amazing. My friends loved working with them and the night of, I thought they were great too.

They were extremely flexible, they worked in their budget and allowed them to bring outside catering, which definetly helped further with the budget. They also gave each of our guests free access to the main nightclub, which is usually a $20.00 cover.
The drinks were a little pricey, but as the bride-to-be they gave them to me on the house all night and Mr. Newport too! I did feel a little bad about all the guests having to pay for the pricey drinks, but everyone seemed to be having a great time, so I don't think they minded.

So anyone in the Boston area looking for a place to host an event. I highly recommend the Estate.

The Engagement Party

Our engagement party was Saturday night and I may be biased, but I think it was the most amazing party I have ever been to in my life. Mr. Newport completely agrees. It was absolutely perfect. The details were amazing. They knew I wanted to have a black and white theme with diamond accents. Being a control freak, I had already bought a few things a long time ago, but then they took over. I gave them what I had and they said I wasn't allowed to help anymore. They completely took over and I couldn't have thrown a better party myself. They took my vision and did 100 times better than what I had been imagining. Here are some detail shots from the party:

The cupcakes: The one thing, I was allowed to do! My mom had said she would take care of them, but was sick before the party, so I made them so she wouldn't have to. I think they turned out great! All the supplies were bought through http://www.confectioneryhouse.com/ Except the rings, which were purchased through A.C. Moore.All of the food was amazing. They were on a budget and could not afford to go to a typical caterer, but you couldn't tell the difference. Everything was home-made or purchased through Roche Brother's and everything was delicious!
Chocolate covered strawberries were a huge hit and they found a way to use my diamond picks!

They had diamond details everywhere! It was dim in the place and everything was glowing from the candle light and sparly diamonds.
A few of my mom's delicious homemade desserts.
They used the plate I made for Mr. Newport, the week after he proposed at pottery. "Love is Life" is a quote written on an archway on the cliffwalk in Newport.

One of the coolest things I found out that night was Bride Wars had a scene filmed there! The Bachelorette party was filmed at the place where the party was held. Apparently Kate Hudson is a huge fan of the club!

Has anyone seen Bride Wars yet? I can't wait to see it, more so now than before! :)

Our Wedding Website

Being a destination wedding, we think it is really important to have a website that gives our guests lots of useful information. I looked at multiple sites in October after we got engaged (I was antsy and it was pre-blog!). I found many great sites with fun features and varying amounts of control, but ultimately it came down to http://www.mywedding.com/. The biggest reason? It is free. For a free site, it is the best I found.

I love the background options- there are a good array, which I didn't find at other sites. There are also a lot of places to convey information. The site has generic links to pages that I think would be useful:

A Home page- A general Welcome area.

Our Story- A place to tell your stories- We are each writing our own versions his & hers.

Wedding Party- A place to post pictures, names and a little information about the bridal party.

Photo Galleries- We plan on posting a few! I was really happy with this option.

Music- You can play music on the site or have guests send in song recommendations for the big day.

Wedding Events- A place to give information about the events related to the wedding.

Accommodations- A place to let guests know about room blocka and area hotels.

Attractions- A place to give information about area atractions.

RSVP- We will not be using this option, we prefer the paper responses. (The great thing about the site is you can choose not to turn a specific page on!, so this isn't seen by our guests)

Guestbook- A place for guests to leave messages, which everyone can see.

Contact us- A place for guests to send private messages.

Registries- A place to leave information about where you have registered.

Blog- It has a blog option, which I am not using.

Then there is the option for Custom Pages. We opted to do a Restaurant page and a Fun Facts page. We still have 2 custom pages left to consider using, they give you the option to use four.

They alsocolaborate with a few invitation designers so you can have your invites match your website. That was actually how we came up with our theme. I like our background so much that I thought it would be fun to do a starfish theme. Here are the invitations that match our background:

http://www.papeteriestore.com/store/

We aren't sure if we will use them yet. We want something more creative and from the heart. I have considered DIY invitations, but I have also considered looking at local vendors as well. Mrs. Corn from the Weddingbee started a invitation business close to my area. It is called Limoncello Style. One of the best things she offers is DIY rescue, which may come in handy if I do my own.

http://limoncellostyle.com/

Has anyone else found a great place to get a free personalized wedding website? What sites have you found are the best, even at a cost? Any sites with better options?

Signature Drink

For the engagement party we are having a signature drink. This past weekend, a few of my girlfriends came over for a drink tasting. I should have done more research beforehand. I had mostly chocolatey drinks, as the party is black and white themed, but they didn't taste very well. We rated each drink on a scale of 0-5.


These are the coasters purchased through For Your Party . I love this site! They are pretty expensive though. These were bought by my mom. They are actually doing a discount right now 25% off all items, if you spend over $75.00. Use promotional code: Thx2u. I am debating on whether or not to buy our OOT guest bags this week! The discount ends the 15th of January!

My mom was originally planning on throwing a large engagement party, but it is now small and being thrown by firends. This left us with excess coasters and a few other supplies, which helped me decorate for the tasting!

For garnishes, I thought it would be cute to use Lindt chocolate, on diamond cocktail picks, to go in the drinks.
This drink was a concoction made up by my friend, it was pretty good, but the cocoa powder on top was not working for me. I ended up inhaling it as I went to take a sip! The cocoa powder is a no-go as our the Lindt Chocolate garnishes.

After testing a few chocolatey drinks, we realized they just weren't too good. I am not a Vodka drinker and they all contained some type of Vodka. The ones that didn't, contained cream or heavy liquers, which just weren't working either.

Next, we moved on to fruity. This was hard because I am not a fruit-loving girl! I love veggies and have never really been one for fruits. We tested a couple and it came down to a drink called the "Scooby Snack". It is one of Mr. Newport's favorite drinks, he was the one who suggested we try it and everyone liked it the best. It was rated a 4.5, while most others ranged from 0-3.5. It won by a landslide!

A Scooby Snack consists of:

1 oz. Pineapple Juice

3/4 oz. Midori

1/2 oz. Half and Half

3/4 oz. Malibu Coconut Rum

It was not what I was picturing (it has green tint), but I think everyone will like the taste, which is the most important thing! Some people weren't into the idea of half n' half in the drink, but changed their minds after tasting it.

Is anyone else doing a signature drink for a wedding related event? What are your favorite drink recipes?

Registry Time!

Our friends are throwing us an engagement party next weekend, so we thought we should probably start a registry. Last night, we went to one of our favorite stores. We were so excited to walk around the store and use the gun. Then we got there and reality set in. We live at home with my mom and are planning on being here until the wedding, to save money for the wedding and a home. We realized last night that picking out registry items, when you don't have a home yet, is pretty hard!

I am a visual person and I couldn't pick anything up and visualize it in our future home because I have no idea what that home will look like. What if the kitchen is tiled a certain color and we can't use plates we picked out? What if the bathroom has the same issue? I know the logical thing to do is buy basic colors, but that is no fun to me!

We thought this may be somewhat of a problem, but it was worse than we expected. When we get a home, we are going into it with pretty much nothing. We have always always lived in apartments fully furnished and equipped with everything from the TV, microwave, utensils, dishes, measuring cups, you name it. So we don't really have anything other than two beautiful bedroom sets given to us by Jim's parent's (they moved last year and gave us two hardly used Ethan Allen sets).

We set one criteria only: It has to be something we really need that is practical.

That really didn't work last night.

We ended up with 8 items. A pizza cutter, a dough scrapper (real practical, huh?), 3 candle holders, pilsner glasses, a trivet, a napkin holder, a 2 tiered server and a pitcher (probably the msot practical!).

They are all things we will use, but when you need a lot, they probably aren't the most practical options. We need to focus more on dinnerware, utensils, pots and pans, tools (Jim's favorite idea!), etc.

I found a few tips over at Yum Sugar . (The above picture is from there, as well). Most of these I have heard before, but here are some of the top tips:

Register at two or three different stores. This will give your guests options, especially if they do not live near one of your chosen stores.

Over register by requesting more items than the number of people on your guest list. Also, be sure to check up on your registry a few days before your event. Most people purchase gifts a few days before. If there's nothing left on your registry, you're going to end up with some random items.

Register for items in every budget. Don't shy away from big ticket items - a big trend is for guests to pool together for one large item. However, make sure there are enough affordable pieces on your registery too.

When registering, make sure you specify both of your names. Some guests may want to personalize your gift and may need to know how to spell your names.

See the rest of the list, by clicking the Yum Sugar, link above.

I like that they say it is ok to register for big ticket items. A lot of places we are looking at offer completion bonuses. So after the wedding we can buy items left at 10-15% off, depending on the store. We were thinking of registering for a couch and dining table and chairs at one of the stores, but we didn't want to look greedy. It is mainly for the completion bonus afterwards, but after reading this, if a large (extremely large), group wanted to go in on a big ticket item, that would be awesome too!

What were some of your experinces while registering? Did you enjoy your first time registering or did it leave you a little frustrated? Any other great tips?