Say it With Cookies

I just purchased these awesome cookie cutters at Williams Sonoma in June. I saw them on the site awhile back, but they sold out, but they recently became available again! It's kind of like embossing, but for cookies! If you've been following along, you may know how much I love embossing, examples here, here, here, and here!

The set includes three cutters, seven premade words (Welcome, Happy, Birthday, Holidays, Thank You, From, I Love You), three sets of alphabet letters (plus extras of vowels and other commonly used letters).

I have big plans for this set and it has something to do with our guests, but since some of our guests read the blog, you'll have to wait until after the wedding to see what we are doing with these!

Have you found any cool new gadgets you plan to use during your wedding planning?

Beef or Chicken?

We recently had our food tasting and let me tell you, there were a lot of unexpected surprises that day. For one we started the morning on an impromptu wine tasting in Sakonnet on our way to Newport.

Going to our tasting, I was pretty sure of what we would pick, at least for the entrees. The ABC has 3 different packages. Within each package there are set entree options. So no matter what you pick, the pricing is the same. So when I saw Filet Mignon was an option, I knew for sure it would be on our menu. I love a good filet!

I also knew we would get a chicken option. Most of my family members are picky eaters. So this again was a definite on our menu. The ABC has two chicken options, chicken picatta or marinated and roasted breast of chicken with mandarin sauce. Chicken picatta seems like it would be a much better choice. I'm a reformed picky eater, so thinking of my own tatse buds I thought there is no way I would have wanted the chicken with any sauce. I used to like really bland food. Picatta sounds like a safer choice for picky eaters.

When it came time to set up our tasting, we were to give the ABC four options we'd like to taste. We opted for the two chickens, the filet, and a new york sirloin. Mainly because we could try up to four options.

New York Sirloin

Filet Mignon with twice baked potato

Mandarin Chicken

Chicken Picatta

After tasting the food, I did a 180. Mr. Newport loved the New York Strip and I loved the Mandarin Chicken. Not what we expected, but we are really happy with our choices.

We also surprised ourselves by deciding to include a pasta cource. I was having trouble deciding if we should include an extra hor' deurves or the pasta course. Mr. Newport and I were leaning towards the hor' deurves and our Moms liked the idea of the pasta dish. After trying the penne in pink vodka sauce, we were sold. It was one of my favorite parts of the tasting! We ended up with choices we weren't expecting, but happy with what we chose. Did you serve all time favorite dishes for the wedding, or go with something you weren't expecting?

Rehearsal Dinner: Check!

When it came time to look into rehearsal dinner locations, I had only one spot in mind. There is an amazing Italian restaurant in Newport called Sardella's. It was "our spot", when we lived in Newport. By junior or senior year, we pretty much went on a weekly basis.

It is also the place we went to celebrate our graduation with my family, the place we went for Valentine's day, birthdays, anniversaries, family and friend's visits to Newport, and of course on the night we celebrated our engagement. I was really hoping to have our rehearsal dinner here. The thing is, I didn't want to be pushy or demanding. My future in-laws have been exremely generous throughout the wedding process (and life in general) and haven't made any real requests. Since they have offered to host the rehearsal dinner, I didn't want to tell them where to have it.

When they came to visit for Christmas, we planned a day in Newport, where we could show them the wedding venue, look into rehearsal dinner locations and morning after brunch spots. When it came time to talk about the rehearsal dinner location, FMIL Newport recommended Sardella's. We both obviously loved the idea, but thought they'd want to look into a few more places. We were wrong, actually I was wrong. We had thrown around a few spots, as we are more familair with the area. Luckily Mr. Newport's parents know how much it means to us, and decided to just have it there. We didn't even look anywhere else.

The day after Christmas, we drove to Newport, and took a look at the space. Although we have been there multiple times, we hadn't seen the event rooms. We decided on a small room towards the back of the restaurant. It has a stone wall with inserts to put candles. It's technically outside, but enclosed. I'm already imagining an intimate rehearsal dinner, with our closest friends and family, eating great food, drinking great wine by candlelight at "our spot".
Are you having your rehearsal dinner at a location with some sort of significance to you and your fiance? Was the search for a location easy, or did you need to look around a bit?

On the menu

We chose our venue for the amazing views, but it is also known for it's amazing food. The taste test is something we are both looking forward to. I like checking out the menu every now and then to try and figure out what we may choose, but they have a lot of really delicious options, so I think we'll just have to wait to see which tastes best!

I do want to be concious of our guests tastes. To try and make the food appealing to as many guests as possible, we are trying to include foods from different food groups. Our package includes three passed hor deurves, stations including cheeses, fruits and veggies, and two meal options.

I'm trying to decide how to make everyone happy- meat lovers, poultry lovers, seafood lovers and veggie lovers. For the cocktail hour the one thing I know for sure is, I want Bacon Wrapped Scallops. So seafood guests have one choice to make them happy -hopefully. Then should I include a meat, some type of chicken, or something vegetarian friendly? We only have one vegetarian and there are the fruits and cheeses, but I'd prefer to give him one option from the passed hor deurves, although I wouldn't know how to choose between a meat and chicken option for the third.

Then there is dinner, I know for sure we'll have filet mignon, as it is an option in our package and my favorite meal. But what to do for option number two? as a wedding guest. What do you prefer, seafood or chicken?

How did you decide what types of food groups to incorporate and at what part of the evening, cocktail or dinner?

The Engagement Party

A few months after the proposal, a couple of friends threw us an amazing engagement party.

They held the party at The Estate, a fancy nightclub in Boston. The bachelorette scene from Bride Wars was filmed there. Apparently Kate Hudson is a huge fan of the club. I'm a new fan, too! It was the perfect setting for the party. My friends reserved a private room. It was actually two rooms, one had a bar and music, and the other side was a little more intimate. We were lucky that so many of our friends came. It ended up being a snowstorm on the night of the party. We were so grateful to have so many people there. It was so special. One of my favorite details was a slideshow BIL Newport created for us throughout our dating years set to music with quotes throughout. They had it playing on replay through out the night. The details were so awesome. Even the desserts fit the color sceme.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 confectionery house. Except the rings, which were purchased through A.C. Moore.All of the food was amazing. Everything was home-made or purchased through Roche Brother's and everything was delicious!
Chocolate covered strawberries were a huge hit.
They had diamond details everywhere! It was dim in the place and everything was glowing from the candle light and sparkly diamonds.
A few of my mom's delicious homemade desserts.
They used the plate I made for Mr. Newport at a pottery studio, the week after he proposed. "Love is Life" is a quote written on an archway on the cliffwalk in Newport.

Did you have an engagement party?