Music Mondays: The Dollar Dance

I have never heard of or seen the Dollar Dance until my cousin's wedding in summer 2008. I have to say, it was so much fun! Since their wedding and my engagement I have heard different versions of the dollar dance. I think it varies by culture and/or region.

My cousin's DJ had each guest give a dollar or whatever they had to the couple to help them celebrate their first night on their honeymoon, hoping to get enough for a few cocktails and dinner. I think they got enough for a couple nights on the town! People had so much fun and were really generous.

Each guest held up their bill/s while one chosen guest from each table danced around to get the money. The DJ had a few other things going on in-between, but eventually the dancing guest from each table and the person to their left had to participate in the Soul Train. They had to dance down the soul train, until they reached the DJ to give the money for the bride and groom.

Above, Future BIL Newport and Mr. Newport were the lucky chosen ones from our table!
Here is their version of the soul train!
We had plenty of laughs at that wedding. The money dance just added to the fun.

Some people think it is tacky to ask for money at your wedding, but honestly, it's a dollar. It's fun and it helps the couple enjoy a night out on their honeymoon. I think it also depends on your crowd for whether or not you include this. Some people are for it and some are against.

Have you ever been to a wedding with a dollar dance? What do you think?

Willl you.......swing me around?

When Mr. Newport proposed, pretty soon after he just picked me up and started swinging me around on third beach (The Beach in Middletown , RI, where we had our proposal picnic). He's done it many times before then and many times after, but now every time he does it, it brings me back to those exciting few moments shortly after he proposed. The excitement. the Happiness. Pure Joy. Inexplicable. Undeniable. Most Amazing Moment of My Life. (So far).

When we were deciding on the where and when for our e-shoot, I knew for sure, we had to include third beach as a location and I wanted to re-create that moment.

Well, we did and it brought me back all over again.

Is there anything that reminds you of the moment your fiance proposed? Does it still bring back all the feelings you had when he asked you to be "THE ONE"?

*Photo credit: David Bibeault

Great Minds Think Alike

I previously posted about Rascall Flat's "My wish" as a Father Daughter dance.... little did I know, it was a front runner for FMIL Newport as well.

I called her on Mother's Day to wish her a happy day, when she told me she got Rascall Flat's tickets and was considering it as a mother-son song. I guess great minds think a like! Luckily I have many options I'm considering. I think I'll end up giving my dad a CD with songs I like and let him choose.

How did you decide on your father/daughter dance song choice?

Bachelorette Question?

I have a friend, who happens to be one of my bridesmaids, and she sent me a text this past weekend asking who pays for the bachelorette party (not related to my wedding, she has another wedding this summer). Although I have never been in a wedding, and I'm not sure where I got this from, but I always though the bridesmaids pay for themselves and split the cost of the bride, then other guests attending pay for themselves.

My BM responded that she thought that it was tacky to ask guests to pay for themselves and she thought bridesmaids should pay for everyone. Her reasoning was, a bridesmaid wouldn't ask a guest to pay their way for a shower, so why is this different?

As someone who has never been to a bachelorette party, I'm a bit stumped. I've always assumed each girl paid their own way, except of course the bride. I feel like I must have read this somewhere.

What do you think, is it the bridesmaid's responsibility to pay for everyone in attendance? What have your experiences been?

Beach Bums

"No matter where you travel, you will never be able to shake the sand out of your flip flops, nor the ocean from your soul...." -anonymous

Mr. Newport wanted to get some shots on the beach. Not just any beach, but the beach where he proposed. It is beautiful, romantic and secluded which helped since we didn't have to work around people on the beach. It was practically empty.

This wasn't by coincidence. We actually planned our shoot around Newport's busy schedule.I went online and looked up all upcoming events on the Go Newport* calendar, I then checked Salve's graduation date, Salve's summer session start date, and then we had a one week time frame to get the photos in!

We chose May for the lack of students and the lack of tourists, which left us with excatly one week to get the photos without the hassle.

The beach was pretty secluded, no tourists yet!

All photos credited to: David Bibeault

Did you plan the timing of your engagement shoot around other events?

*Go Newport is a website that gives tourist information related to Newport, RI. The calendar gives information on everything from events like the Boat Show, Restaurant Week, to plays in the area. It is a great resource, if you plan to visit

A friendor Surprise!

Planning our wedding has had lots of ups and downs, especially because of the budget. We have really had to prioritize and cut things, whether we want to or not...Lately it seems like everything is getting cut. So I was super excited to hear that we are being gifted a wedding service, I would have otherwise had to cut- Calligraphy!

I love Calligraphy and beautiful handwriting and really wanted it on our invites, but it didn't seem like it was going to happen, other things were moved up on the priority list and calligraphy was one of the first items to go.

I started researching places to learn DIY calligraphy, but even that would eat at our budget. After realizing I couldn't afford to pay someone to teach me, I started doing self-taught trials. They came out ok, but the perfectionist in me has not been happy with the results. There are some things, you just need to leave to the professionals.

In comes my aunt, she is a professional calligrapher. She has been doing wedding invites as a side job for years. I never thought to ask her, because I knew we couldn't afford it, and I didn't want to take advantage.

Last week, she spoke to my mom and offered to do the calligraphy on all the invites and escort cards for both myself and my sister as our wedding gifts. I am beyond happy. I have seen her work before and it is beautiful. She has a traditional style, which is exactly what I'd like. I wish I had a sample to share, but unfortunately, you'll have to wait and see.

I've seen her work multiple times, as she has done the calligraphy for many cousins (think large Irish Catholic family---25 cousins on just one side!). So I know it will be beautiful and even more special because it is a gift done out of love.

I still plan on learning calligraphy for my sister's shower, but it's one less thing to worry about for the wedding.

Has anyone else been gifted a service for their wedding? How are you finding ways to save on your budget?

College Sweethearts

Shooting at Salve (our alma mater) was a blast! Part of me has worried that we are over-obsessing with Newport when it comes to the wedding (it's where we met, we got engaged, where our engagement shoot was, and where the wedding and thus all wedding photos will be), so for about a minute I questioned why do it in Newport, well actually my sister quesitoned it. I briefly thought maybe I could do it somewhere else, but I couldn't think of one place I'd rather do it than Newport.

I am so glad we stuck with Newport. It truly was like a walk down memory lane. We started at The Salve gate that leads to the admissions building, then we walked through different areas of the campus.
Including outside Hunt Hall, our freshman dorm, where we met! We showed our Salve pride by sporting our Salve t-shirts for a portion of the shoot.
The shot above was included in our least favorite shot list, not because of our photographer, I just hate jeans and felt a little uncomfortable and Mr. Newport wasn't a huge fan of his outfit choice either, oh well, go Seahwaks!

This is our photographer, Dave's favorite shot: (I love it too!)
I really wanted to incorporate the "There's no place like Salve" sign, but I didn't really know how, so Dave came up with this cool shot!

Mr. Newport came up with this shot idea, which he is super proud of. He is actually way more creative than me when it comes to photos, which baffles me because I spend hours obsessing over photo blogs, but put me in front of a camera and I'm like a deer in headlights. I could hardly remember the key shots I wanted. He'd just walk around and point to something and say, that would make a cool shot, and it pretty much always is!
How gorgeous is Salve's campus? I miss it so much! Oh well, there's always reunions and wedding planning dates to get back there.....

Did/Does your engagement shoot location hold special meaning to you? Was/Is it the same location or similar to your wedding day location?

All photos credited to: David Bibeault

To the happy couple......

Photo Source

John Beckwith: Are you going to give a toast?
Claire Cleary: Yes.
John Beckwith: Nervous?
Claire Cleary: A little bit.
John Beckwith: What are you going to say?
Claire Cleary: Normally I'm not very good at these things, but I think this one's pretty good.
John Beckwith: (reading from paper) "I never thought my sister would find someone who cared about what other people thought as much as she did - until I met Craig?"!
Claire Cleary: Yes, that's funny. It's funny because it's true. People like funny.
John Beckwith: I know, but the whole funny-because-it's-true bit only works if the truth is a *small* thing like "everyone knows Jennifer likes to shop, ha ha ha". I think you're better off going with something from the heart. Honestly.
Claire Cleary: I think people are going to like this.
John Beckwith: I think you're going to hear crickets.
Claire Cleary: I think you're wrong.
John Beckwith: Sounds of silence. Go walk the plank.
Claire Cleary: Uh uh. I'm sticking to it.
John Beckwith: Ok, meet me at the back of the room. I'll be the guy waiting to say I told you so.

I think most people who have seen the film Wedding Crashers, remember the scene where Claire gives an awkward speech at her sister's wedding, but is saved by John, who gave her a bit of a pep talk. As shown above.

The thing is though, when she wrote her speech, she thought it was perfect, and funny. In reality it was kind of offensive and not funny to anyone else. I think most speech givers have a fear of hearing crickets, so they try to be funny and sometimes it just doesn't work.

I have been to many a wedding with inappropriate speeches, long speeches, boring speeches, offensive speeches, confusing speeches......

When I give a speech at my sister's wedding this fall, I'd like something that expresses my well wishes and love for my sister, but with a bit of humor to keep the audience entertained. The thing is though, I'm not sure how to do that. What will the crowd find funny? Do we have the same sense of humor? Will it be too long? Too awkward?

I have a few months to work on it, but this is one of those things I DO NOT want to leave until the last minute.

Have you ever had to give a speech? Any tips? I'd also love to hear a little about some of the best and worst speeches, you've ever heard!

Music Mondays: Dancing with Dad - Part 4

Previously, I wrote about a few options for my father-daughter dance, including Cinderella, My Wish, and My Little Girl. The last option I thought of, isn't really an option. Heartland's I loved her First.

My sister will be married in October and this will be her father-daughter dance song. It was one of the first things she claimed during the planning phases. It is something she was really excited about. She had heard it at a friend's wedding and couldn't wait to play it at hers.

I'm sure she would be fine with me using it, as we are really clsoe and I don't think she would begrudge me of anythign, but I know it was really special to her and I want to keep it that way. I will need to create my own special moment with my dad, that is just for us.

Although I won't be using it for my wedding, I thought I'd share it with others. Most people have probably heard it by now, but it is such a beautiful song, I think it was an instant classic as soon as it came out.

I Loved her First, by Heartland
Look at the two of you dancing that way
Lost in the moment and each others face
So much in love your alone in this place
Like there's nobody else in the world
I was enough for her not long ago
I was her number one
She told me so
And she still means the world to me
Just so you know
So be careful when you hold my girl
Time changes everything
Life must go on
And I'm not gonna stand in your way

But I loved her first and I held her first
And a place in my heart will always be hers
From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
And I prayed that she'd find you someday
But it still hard to give her away
I loved her first

How could that beautiful women with you
Be the same freckle face kid that I knew
The one that I read all those fairy tales to
And tucked into bed all those nights
And I knew the first time I saw you with her
It was only a matter of time

But I loved her first and I held her first
And a place in my heart will always be hers
From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
And I prayed that she'd find you someday
But its still hard to give her away
I loved her first

From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
Someday you might know what I'm going through
When a miracle smiles up at you
I loved her first

Did anyone else feel they couldn't use something they really loved due to a particular circumstance?

Engagement Photo Re-cap

Thing's didn't really go as planned...at all. When I booked our photographer for the session, I thought I had plenty of time to prepare and somehow it snuck up on us (even though I had months to plan). I spent the day before the shoot scrambling to find outfits I liked, I was a mess the day of deciding whether to curl or not to curl my hair, I didn't have time for a manicure, I never made an appointment to get my makeup done, so I did it myself, and I never really put together a real schedule. Sure I had lots of ideas over the past few months and I made tentative schedules, but when it came down to it, we kind of just went with the flow.

The day before, my mom and I went to Salve and kind of scouted out areas that could possibly make for good shots. I'm really happy we did this. I didn't want to regret missing any amazing areas, so it was good to walk around and get a feel for what we would really want to use for the shoot. Then, the day of the shoot, Mr. Newport and I took another trip to campus, also to look at different areas to shoot. I'm glad we did this too, because we cut down on a lot of options.

I love the rose garden and thought we could get some awesome shots, but Mr. Newport didn't understand the meaning behind the location. We didn't pick Newport because of it's beauty (altthough it definitely is), we picked it so we could have our photos taken in places that are meaningful to us. So we cut out a lot of places. We ended up taking photos where we first met, the place we went on an informal date/get to know you, the place we had our actual first date, outside the building we had our first dance and where Mr. Newport proposed. So lots of meaning behind every shot!

What I learned:

1. Relax beforehand. I spent the entire day before and morning of the shoot running around looking for outfits and shot locations- I ended up getting blisters and couldn't wear the cute shoes I planned on for our pictures. The sad thing is- I pretty much wore all clothes I already had, with the exception of a T-shirt bought from my alma mater the day before.

2. Plan ahead. See #1. If I had really planned my outfits ahead, I wouldn't have been spending so much time at the last minute running around.

3. Coordinate. Make sure outfits look good together, if you are wearing heels, it's probably not a good idea for him to wear sneakers. I had originally planned on wearing heels, but because of my sore feet and Mr. Newport's footwear choice, it made more sense for me to wear flip flops.

4. Choose a location with meaning. That was our main goal and when I veered off, Mr. Newport gave me some perspective. Sure you can get awesome spots at a palce that isn't meaningful, but to me, it makes the shots more personal.

5. Get creative- we brought in a couple props (more later)

6. Vary the shots. To make your photos more unique, try different outfits and more than one location, it will give you more options to choose from in the end. We ended up with three outfits each and three locations.

7. Trust your photographer and be flexible. I had so many ideas in mind, but at the last minute went with the flow, and I am so glad I did. Our photographer was super creative and had so many great ideas. We had ideas, but when we threw something out there, he knew how to make it work, which enhanced all of the ideas we put out there.
8. Be your self. I originally wanted a dressier outfit and heels, but they so aren't me. I do wear dresses almost every day, I dislike jeans and heels. I felt so comfortbale during the shoot, except for the portion we wore jeans, and they happen to be our least favorite shots. I didn't even own a pair of jeans, so I bought a pair, since I saw so many other pictures of other couples in jeans. I thought it looked natural, but it just didn't work for me, because it isn't who I am.

9. Don't always follow tips you hear, if it doesn't work for you. I was told to wear solid colors, but I love one of my patterned flowy dresses, so I chose to wear it anyways!

10. Have fun! We just kind of walked around and reminisced about our dating days. We were completely relaxed and didn't take it too seriously. We listened when our photographer gave suggestions. We also made sure we both gave each other reasons to smile throughout the shoot. It made it fun and more natural.

If you had your e-shoot already, what kind of tips do you have? or, What tips from others did you find the most helpful?

All photos credited to: David Bibeault

David Bibeault Photography: There's no place like Salve and no one like our photographer!

We have loved David Bibeault, our photographer, from the begining. He was the first photographer we met with, and after one meeting we knew he was it. He was the person we wanted to photograph our wedding.

That is weird for me, I am always so indecisive, so it was pretty uncharacteristic of me to meet some one who handles the most important aspect of the wedding (in my opinion), and then book them right away, no meetings with other photographers. We just knew he was it.

To be honest, time went by and my indecisive nature began to creep back up, I began thinking....what was I thinking? Why didn't I check out all the possibilities. . . . . .

Then came our engagement shoot and it hit me again. We were so relaxed and completely comfortable during the shoot, which I didn't expect and we realized we were completely right to go with out gut instinct and book Dave.

We just got an e-mail tonight that the pictures are available to view. Going through them, I was amazed. I was expecting awkward pictures...just because I was so nervous before it, but instead I saw pictures that just really capture who we are and the place we fell in love, all shot beautifully and creatively. I am completely in love with our photos.

I really don't think we could be any happier with the outcome.

Was anyone else completely blown away by their engagement pictures? Or do you have a vendor who you booked right away based off of a gut instinct?

More photos to come! :)

Saving the Date...

The one thing I know for sure, when it comes to our save the dates, I want to include a picture from our engagement shoot...I haven't seen them yet, but we specifically chose our e-shoot locations to use the photos for the Save the Date. We wanted something that reflected our relationship so we chose Salve, where we started. We also wanted some shots to showcase our wedding locale, so we took shots all over Newport. Now we just need to get them in and decide which to use!

I have been planning on working on our Save the Dates as soon as the photos come (which is hopefully this week). Although I still had no clue what I really wanted to do for them. Until I saw Miss Duckling's post on Weddingbee. I am in love with her Save the Dates.

I think they are so unique and inspiring. I love the details.

How cute is the actual date? It's like opening up a surprise!

Although I am in love with her Save the Dates, I don't want to exactly copy them. I'm hoping when we receive our photos, I'll feel totally inspired and an idea will just come to me...in the mean time.......

Does anyone else have any creative suggestions? What are the most unique Save the Dates you have seen?