Mama's Song

Over the past two years of planning and even beyond, Newport Mom has been amazing. When Mr. Newport and I moved home to Boston, she let us live with her (for what ended up being three years) to save for the wedding and our first home. She bought me my first bridal magazine subscription- before we were even engaged. She, along with the other parents, contributed financially to help make our dream wedding possible.

a planning trip to Newport

To say she "helped" make our dream wedding come to life would be an understatement. She was by my side through pretty much every vendor appointment, diy project and added fun events along the way.

another planning trip in Rhode Island- we stopped at a vineyard on the way to our tasting

I didn't do a mother-daughter dance at the wedding, but about a week before the wedding I heard Carrie Underwood's song, Mama's Song. It got me pretty sentimental and reminded me of my relationship with Newport Mom.



Newport Mom has always been a bit protective of me. I'm her youngest. I know it's always been important to her for me to find true happiness; she's never wanted me to settle.

Girl's weekend in Kennebunkport

Newport Mom and Sister Newport always had a song (2 actually), and we never had any. As soon as I heard this song, I knew I found it. It just really represents our relationship and Mr. Newport. She adores Mr. Newport- which is good since we all lived together for three years!

At the Boston Shower

Since I'm the youngest, I think it was hard for Newport Mom to see me get married and grow up. It's kind of like a chapter closing. My favorite part of the song is when Carrie says, "Mama there's no way you'll ever lose me. Giving me away is not good-bye." I know Newport Mom already knows that, but I love that part regardless.

Picking out the cake flavors

The week leading up to the wedding, I gave Newport Mom the new Carrie Underwood C.D. and told her to play our new song. She loved it.

Was your mother a significant part of your planning process? Did you let her know how much it meant to you in a special way?

A Newport Tradition

A little DIY rewind.....

Every year at Christmas, Newport Mom has always made a ridiculous amount of cookies, so when I asked her to make about 200 for the wedding, she was up for the challenge. They are perfect to make for weddings, because unlike other cookies that taste better within a day or two of baking, sugar cookies have a longer shelf life and can be made in advance. We decided to use Newport Mom's sugar cookie recipe, which has been around longer than me. I asked Newport Mom for the recipe to share with the hive and she even added a few tips. Sugar Cookies
1 cup margarine (2 sticks softened)
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Mix cream, margarine and sugar until fluffy
Add vanilla and egg to mixture and mix well
Combine flour, baking soda, and salt and add to mixture
Mix everything well
Cover dough with waxed paper and refrigerate for at least 2 hours
Divide dough into manageable amounts and roll out over floured waxed paper
Cut dough with cookie cutters and place on ungreased cookie sheet
Bake in 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes
Tips:
Press metal spatula into dough and then flour to help remove cut cookies from wax paper onto cookie sheets.
If you like crispy cookies, roll the dough out thinner and remove from the oven when the sides just start to brown.
If you like a chewy cookie, roll the dough out thicker and remove from oven right before the sides begin to brown.

After the cookies were baked, the next step was to decorate! I had to work the morning they started decorating, so I came home to a kitchen full of cookies and icing. The first cookie I saw wasn't what I expected. They had tried out a meringue recipe for the frosting from Allrecipes.com (we love that site), which had awesome reviews, but it didn't look pretty. Luckily while I was gone, Sister Newport told Newport Mom after 2 cookies it was a no-go and they moved on to plan B.
As plan B, Newport Mom made her special glaze - which I thought she planned to do all along. I asked for the recipe and she said she can't give one because she doesn't measure, but all it is, is confectionary sugar and milk mixed together. She said you need to mix it until it comes to a consistency you like. I was surprised, I've had these cookies a ton of times and had no clue the glaze had only two ingredients. With the exception of the colored glazes, which she added some gel food coloring.

Then we got to work. We iced the cookies. I was pretty awful at it, so I was put in charge of the detail work.

Newport Mom was a jack of all trades and pretty much did everything from the baking to icing to decorating. She used a piping bag to put details on the light house cookies.
I made a mess with it, so I used a red candy decorator for my detailed work.

After two fun mornings of decorating, the cookies were complete! I'm so excited we got to include my favorite holiday tradition into our wedding, although with Christmas around the corner I may have burnt Newport Mom out with her cookie making. Hopefully she'll be up for round 2 in a couple of months! This is one project I definitely couldn't have done on my own. Newport Mom and Sister Newport were amazing!

Did you have a lot of help with any diy projects?

In Living Color

Everything about our wedding was navy and white. I've really wanted to include color somewhere, but wasn't sure where. Then it hit me, the thank you gifts! I wrapped part of the bridesmaid's gifts in fun colors. It's not a huge detail, but I was excited to include the fun pops of color.

I started with the thank you notes. I'm obviously not joking when I said I want to infuse some color. I went a little crazy at Paper-Source and bought note cards and envelopes in lots of bright colors. I also got a few rolls of wrapping paper to make the envelope liners. I then embossed "thank you" on the cards and added some bright stickers. And this is just the beginning of the brightness. There are many more bright details to come.

Did you feel the urge to include lots of fun pops of color into any wedding details?

The Newports got MARRIED!

About two years ago, Mr. Newport proposed. About two weeks ago, we said I do. I didn't think I could possibly feel happier than the day Mr. Newport proposed, but our wedding day blew that theory out of the water. Our wedding day was better than I could have ever dreamt. I had all these worries leading up to the wedding day of what could go wrong, and there was some stress the week leading up to the wedding, but when the day finally arrived, it was absolute perfection.

I've never experienced the level of happiness I felt on that day. It's hard to put into words, but after two years of planning and preparing, to finally have our dream wedding happen surrounded by all of the people we love, was just incredible.
It wasn't just an incredible wedding, but a whole weekend that I can't wait to share with you. Everything surrounding the day was amazing. If your debating a semi-destination wedding, I really recommend it, it was so amazing spending extra time with family and friends during such an emotional weekend.

The wedding was just the cherry on top. I never had the chance for a signing off post, so I'd like to thank you all for letting me share our story. It's been so amazing to have a place to share every idea and plan with others who are going through the same thing. Your comments and feedback have meant the world to me. So many times I turned to you for advice and you always deliver!

I can't wait to start my re-caps and share every detail with you! But, I'll have to wait for all my pro pics. While I'm waiting, I have a few posts I was hoping to share pre-wedding, but never got to. But for now, it's time to unpack and enjoy my last few hours with my husband (I love saying that!) before he heads back to work.

All photos by our incredible photographer David Bibeault

Overlooking Details

I've been to a few morning after wedding brunches and I've never gotten an invitation for one, so I kind of assumed we didn't need to send them. Then I got a wake up call, when we found out we need to give a head count for the brunch. I wish I had thought of this and included it on our response cards, it would have made life easier. Now we have more responses to track down. And our guests are probably thinking they just rsvp'ed. I had to whip up some invitations because we didn't realize this until about 2 weeks before responses are due.

Did you overlook something that created unexpected extra work?

Dream Wedding vs. Reality

Mr.Newport and I talked about everything and anything when we met. We had long involved conversations over AIM. I actually saved most of the ones early in our relationships and there is one specific one that I've been thinking about a lot lately.

In one of our early conversations, we somehow brought up the subject of marriage and weddings. We started by talking about what we thought our futures would look like, and somehow in these conversations of the future, we talked about our "dream weddings". Mr. Newport said he wanted to get married in shorts and a Hawaiin shirt on the beach. Then, I described my dream wedding. I said I wanted to get married in Ochre Court (Salve's chapel), in my prom dress (a story for another day), with a cinderella vibe, and I wanted "an awesome dj". I envisioned my bridesmaid's in black cocktail dresses, guys in black tuxes, guest's dressed in black tie, candle light, a real elegant affair.

source

Mr. Newport said he would go with that for the right kind of girl. And I said, "without the hawaiin shirt?" He said "yes".

Fast forward about 7 years and here we are planning "our" dream wedding, not my elegant affair, nor Mr. Newport's Hawaiin shirt clad shindig. Instead we've found ways to make it "us". I've always wanted that upscale black and white wedding, but as soon as we got engaged I knew it wasn't right. Instead we've opted for a more casual feel that focuses on location and sharing our story with friends and family.

Every detail represents who we are as a couple. The location of all of the festivities is the same location we met and fell in love. The church is the same place we volunteered the first year we started dating. The reception is located on the same street where we had our first apartment, overlooking our alma mater. Location choices have been really important to us.

We even were able to find some compromises along the way. Mr. Newport didn't want a tux, I wasn't into the Hawaiin shirt, so we came up with a compromise that left us both happy, casual for him, but nice enough where I can still pull off a nice wedding gown. Instead of black cocktail dresses and hawaiin shirts for the wedding party, everyone will be dressed in our favorite color- navy blue. We may not be getting married in Ochre Court or on the beach, but we are including each location in our photos.
Sources (Clockwise from top left): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

We chose the nautical theme because we both love the ocean and it lends a more casual vibe. We're even going to provide flip flops for guests, hoping they'll spend more time on the dance floor or head out to the beach to enjoy the view.

Our wedding is far from either of our original visions, but it really is "us".

Is your wedding what you always dreamt, or did you have to adjust your original vision to make it about you as a couple?

Let's Rehearse!

One of the best things about being a crafter during wedding planning, is having left over supplies from past projects. I love making cards and if I see a really great sale at Paper-Source, I'll pick things up, even if I'm not sure what to do with it, because I know eventually I'll get good use out of it.

Our rehearsal dinner invites were great proof of this. Awhile back, Paper-Source had a huge sale on sparkly red rick rack cards. At the time I was dreaming of a lobster bake rehearsal dinner or using them for Christmas cards, so I bought them without a clear vision in mind.

Fast forward a year and I needed rehearsal invitation materials quick and I turned to my paper drawer and had these waiting, along with left over envelopes and 4 bar white paper. I decided to include some ribbon left over from our oot bags to jazz them up a bit.
They don't really go with the rest of our paper products, but I didn't have to spend any more money to make them, so I was satisfied.

Did you create any wedding projects using materials you already had or leftover from other projects?

Crafting the Ceremony

In the past year, I've been to two amazingly beautiful non-religious ceremonies. I loved how personal they were. Having a non-religious ceremony can open the door to so many possibilities where the couples love can really shine through. I've seen it done through non-traditional readings, song choices and vows.

In the Catholic Church, you just don't have as many options. You need to pick a reading from the old testament, a reading from the new testament, a reading from the gospel, and catholic hymns. The one place we have been able to personalize is in the prayers of the faithful. Because we have to choose from approved lists, it makes for less personalization. I don't want this to sound negative against the Catholic Church because we chose to get married in the church knowing this. Having our ceremony in the church was our top priority and meant more to us than having the option of total personalization. It actually means a lot to me to follow my church's traditions and repeat the same vows that many others have used before. I don't want to take the ceremony lightly. While I want the ceremony to be about our faith, I want it to also represent us as a couple.

When it came time to choose the reading from the Old Testament, I struggled with many of the readings in the Old Testament related to men and women. I ended up finding a reading from the book of Ruth. This one really spoke to me. When you first read it, you would think it is about a couple, but it is actually the story of Ruth. Ruth and her sister in-law both lost their husbands. Their mother in-law, Naomi, tells them to go on with thier lives, she tells them to go back to their families and remarry. But Ruth decides to stay with her mother in law and helps support her. Although it is not a reading related to a couple's love, I think it fits perfectly for a wedding, as we also want to showcase our love for family. We're joining both of our families on the day we wed. Even though Ruth's husband was gone, she still saw Naomi as her family and wouldn't leave her side.

A reading from the book of Ruth 1:16-17
Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after you, For where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. And where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord do with me and more if anything but death parts you from me.

Our reading from the New Testament was an obvious choice. I've heard many people say it's over used and such an obvious choice, but I just love it. I always knew we'd have the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians read at our wedding. I think the passage just embodies the meaning of love.

A reading from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 12:31–13:8a
Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, is not pompous,
it is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
The word of the Lord.

For our gospel reading, we chose a piece from the book of Mark. I chose this reading because the emphasis of two people joinging together. It seems appropriate for a wedding reading.

A reading from the book of Mark 10: 6-9
Jesus said to those around him:
“From the beginning of creation,
’God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother,
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.’
So they are no longer two,
but one flesh.
Therefore, what God has joined together,
let no one separate.”

Last came the prayer's of the faithful. I've heard that some churchs have guidelines on what should be said during these, but we weren't given any guidelines through our church. We chose this area to make things a little more personal. We wanted to include a prayer for our marriage, a prayer for our friends who also are preapring for marriage, a prayer for our parents, a prayer for friends and family who couldn't make it and those who attended, and a final prayer which sort of thanks every one for their love and support.

Prayer's of the Faithful
- We pray that the love of Mr. and Mrs. Newport may grow deeper each day and may that love strengthen and comfort them on their journey through life together. That they and all married couples may always cherish their special love by being each others best friends and partners, we pray to the Lord.
All: Lord hear our prayer.
- For those preparing to wed, we pray to the Lord.
All: Lord hear our prayer.
-For the parents of Mr. and Mrs. Newport whose examples and guidance have formed the foundation upon which they will build their life together, we pray to the Lord.
All: Lord hear our prayer.
- For all those unable to attend today but are with us in spirit, we pray. For the safe return of everyone who has traveled to be here today, we pray to the Lord.
All: Lord hear our prayer.
-For the family and friends of Mr. and Mrs. Newport, we thank them for their help, support and kindness in helping them prepare for their special day. We pray to the Lord.
All: Lord hear our prayer.

Did you spend a lot of time finding the right words for your ceremony? Were your readings religious or did you do something more personal?

DIY Escort Cards

As I mentioned before, we decided early on we wanted to have starfish escort cards. I had seen quite a few on the internet and thought nothing could be more perfect for our theme.

It seemed like such an easy project, and it really was, but it was so time intensive. I originally planned to print off the names and table numbers for each guest, but I decided I wanted a navy card with white writing, so I decided to write out each card. I now understand why calligraphy is so expensive. It takes forever! I'm no pro, so maybe that was the issue, but it took so long to write out each name and they are far from perfect. I can't even imagine how calligraphers do it and make them look so perfect. After weeks of writing out names a little at a time on my lunch breaks and while watching tv, it was time to add the table numbers. I didn't like the idea of having them on the front, it looked too cluttered and messy, so I decided to emboss the numbers on the back of each card. Luckily Sister Newport did this part for me. She's become a pro-embosser after all of her wedding embossing last year.
Once the cards had their numbers it was time to assemble. This was really the easy part. I have a craft tray and set up a little station. I punched a whole in each card. Then Newport Mom cut pieces of ribbon, strung a piece of ribbon through the card and tied on the starfish.
The biggest issue with these was finding a tray to hold them in. I couldn't find the right size in any store, so Newport Dad stepped in and made it for me. I gave him an explanation of what I was looking for and a few measurements and he built us our tray and painted it white, so the navy will really stand out. Once it's at the wedding, it will look a little different, since we are adding sand and the cards will be sitting upright.

Did you create your own escort cards? Did you have a lot of help?

DIY Chocolates

The OOT Bags are coming together! We've purchased most of the items we need. And, this past weekend, we made all of the diy chocolates! When we start started, we realized it was time intensive, and I didn't think it could be done in a weekend, but with tons of help from Newport Mom, they are all done and packaged to go!

Here's a glimpse into the process:

We had multiple molds. If your doing a ton of these, I recommend having more than one mold. It takes a lot of time for them to cool, so you have to do all the work, then wait, then do it all over again. It's really messy, so getting more than one set done at a time helps.

We had molds for large shells, sand dollars, starfish and a mold with mixed smaller shells. The starfish kept breaking when we popped them out, so we decided to skip them. It was too much work and about half broke each time. Delicate molds are harder to do, the little starfish arms broke off. The other items didn't have any points sticking off to break, so thewy all stayed in tact.All of the chocolates were done with milk chocolate, except the sand dollars. We added white chocolate to the design, and these ended up being our favorite. We bought brushes to add the detailed work. If you do this, you have to make sure to clean it with hot water after each use, otherwise the chocolate hardens and gets grainy.

After adding the white chocolate, these had to cool.
At first we tried using Wilton chocolate-making squeeze bottles. It was so messy to transport the chocolate between the bowl to the tube, and it hardened quicker.Newport Mom decided to just use a pyrex measuring cup and spoon. She also learned timing the chocolate in the mircowave is key. She burnt the first batch and decided to start with 30 seconds and move down to 15 second heating peroids, while mixing in between.

We also learned that after cleaning the molds, you have to completely dry it. If there is any moisture at all, the top off the chocolates comes out funny and it looks sort of peeled. At first we couldn't figure it out, but after trying the second round, it seemed like this could have been the problem.

I had originally done my own trial with Ghiradelli chocolate and they didn't come out as good. I like the flavor of Ghiradelli, but after heating it, it doesn't taste as good. This time, we used chocolate designated for candy making and it came out so much better!

After a lot of heating chocolate, pouring chocolate, cooling chocolate and repeating, we were finally able to package them!

I had bought cellophane bags and we tied it with a ribbon.

Are you making anything special for your out of town bags? If you've made chocolates before, do you have any tips to share?

To Top or not to Top?

I've been going back and forth for months now on whether we should go with our original topper, Lladro's The Happiest Day, or purchase the one I found online, below. The True Romance People Topper reminds me of our engagement, but I'm just so in love with the Lladro piece Newport Mom gave us for our engagement gift.
Mr. Newport has been dead set on having the people on top of the cake, but after seeing this set up below, I'm warming up to the idea of putting the topper to the side. Mr. Newport will still get his people (albeit not on top of the cake) and I'll still be able to use the Lladro piece from Newport Mom. It's not exatcly what we want, but it could work.

Source

What do you think, should we get the True Romance Topper, so we can actually have a "people topper" on our cake, or stick with the Lladro and place it to the side?