Wedding Night Getaway

I am super-excited, because I just found out where we are getting to spend our first night as husband and wife- the historic Grove Park  Inn here in Asheville! Yes, the same hotel the president stays in! And I cannot express how grateful I am to my mom, who basically by being herself (wonderful, caring, helpful!) made an important contact at the hotel who is getting us a huge discount as a thank-you to my mom for helping them out. We are a very lucky couple! And I will finally get to try that famous Grove Park breakfast buffet!

The muddled brain of the bride

Wedding planning is fun. Coming up with creative ideas, finding inspiration in every little source of beauty, looking at tons of gorgeous stuff on the internet and in magazines! The only downside of this is that I am literally bogged down with information at this point. I have looked at dozens of magazines, hundreds of websites, hundreds of blogs! Yes, the blogs are the best. So....much.....pretty!

And all that is definitely enjoyable, for a self-proclaimed aesthete like me, but I am to the point where I feel like I can't maneuver through this ocean of imagery and ideas. I am now trying to write down every idea I have in my notebook for fear it will escape and then I won't be able to find it later. I'm sure other brides know what I mean? I mean, we all want the "perfect" wedding. Our own magical, blissful idea of that day when we join together with the one we love. Sharing it with family and friends, making it personal and unique. And really, the possibilities are endless!

I know that Ti and I really want a wedding that reflects our personalities, is intimate but still kinda grand, and really, really fun. The problem is limiting myself to a few ideas that still fit within our theme so our wedding is not all over the place. And this is kinda hard, because every great idea I hear, every beautiful picture I see, I want it! I'll need at least a dozen weddings to use all this material I have collected. I don't see my fiance agreeing to a wedding a year for twelve years though :) But maybe a career as a wedding planner is in the cards for me......I'll let you know how I feel the day of my wedding though....

Tastings!

Boy, if tastings are not the best part of wedding planning, I don't know what is! I talked a little about our meeting with our Baker, the talented Callie Stingel of Callie's Confections in Biltmore Park, in an earlier post. That was out of this world! Imagine arriving at a person's office and they have three different cake flavors prepared for you, along with five different buttercreams and two fillings? My mom, fiance, thought that we would go with my initial thought on the cake, chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. But after trying everything that day, we unanimously voted for chocolate cake with amaretto frosting and raspberry filling! I cannot wait to eat it!!! :)

As far as food tastings go, the three caterers we've met with have been amazing. It is going to be one of the toughest decisions from the wedding planning process to choose among these very talented people. We have been lucky enough to try some amazing pulled pork, beef tenderloin, pecan-crusted chicken, brats in puff pastry, crab cakes, buttermilk biscuit crostini with candied bacon, I could go on and on. You see now why this is going to be so hard! We have to make a decision quickly though, as we are at 5 months an counting till the big day! Wish us luck!

It's time.....

To start thinking about dresses! The most expensive and looked-at item of clothing I will ever wear. No pressure, right?

There are a few designers whose style and aesthetics I love, and have my eye on. Lazaro, Kenneth Poole, and Platinum by Priscilla of Boston. I will have to go to Charlotte to look for these gowns, as no one in Asheville carries them. So, road trip!

Once I find THE dress, there will be the matter of accessorizing it for the cold weather. Being a winter bride, I think an adorable faux fur shrug or cashmere wrap will be in order. I can't wait to see all the accessories in the bridal salons! Veils, jewelry, headpieces, cover-ups....How long do appointments usually last, 'cause I might need a few hours........

Update on Cake

So, we had our first cake tasting with the delightful Callie Stingel of Callie's Confections. She greeted us at her home office, and we were admiring the examples of beautiful cakes and sugar flowers on display. Everything in her office was pink and happy, even her laptop! :) And I thought I knew what I wanted: Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. But after she presented us with three cake flavors and five decadent buttercream flavors, there was one flavor that really stood out: Her almond buttercream. It was fabulous, and it made a big impression on my fiance and mom as well. Add a little drizzle of raspberry filling and I was in heaven. I was really having a moment. Put a sign on the door please, do not disturb!

So we will be having chocolate cake with almond buttercream and raspberry filling. Hopefully our guests will love it as much as I do! We also got to play around with some design ideas, finalizing the way we want the branches to look and a few sugar anemones here and there! I'm so excited! 

Cake is Good

So, we have a baker as well, and oddly, this is one of the first vendors we booked. I got to go to a wedding expo right after we got engaged, and as you can imagine, there were quite a few bakers there with towering fondant creations and sample after delicious sample of cake! One lady's cake stood out though, a rich moist chocolate cake from Callie's Confections here in Asheville. That has got to be some of the best chocolate cake I have ever tried! So, there will be a multi-tiered chocolate dream at our wedding. It will be covered in chocolate buttercream with chocolate fondant branches decorating it. Yum!

photo courtesy of www.calliesconfections.com

Fabulous Flowers

So, we have a florist, the very talented Alan from Blossoms at Biltmore Park. We met through StudioWed, a service I highly recommend to all brides-to-be! They set up a meeting for me with Alan and I loved his attitude and ideas. After our meeting, her e-mailed me a very detailed spreadsheet with everything we had talked about: My bouquet, bridesmaids bouquets, bouttoniers, centerpieces, etc., with two different options for all and prices. I was impressed. Organization like that is not a talent I possess, so I respect it when I see it! Our main flowers being used will be roses, anemones, ranunculus, fiddlehead ferns, and lots of bare branches.

DIY Bride?

I'll be the first to admit, the idea of doing some DIY projects for my wedding is exciting. So where did I look first for inspiration? Why, the mother of all crafters of course, Martha Stewart. Her magazines are like works of art, and her attention to detail is like no other, and her wedding magazine is no exception. So it goes without saying that her website, marthastewartweddings.com, would be packed with great projects.
The first thing I wanted to look for was a template for DIY ceremony programs. Oddly enough, one of my fiance's requests for the ceremony was for us to have programs, as he said he appreciated them at weddings he had been to. How could I say no to that? Looking through the sweet gallery of program ideas on the website, I think I found a winner:

Plus, they double as cute decorations for the chairs, instead of flowers, which are a lot pricier. Luckily for me, Martha provides detailed instructions on her website. She used cardstock to make the pockets, and decorated the bottom with a rubber stamp and ink. Maybe I could add a little bling to it? :)

Stationary!!!!!

Ok, there are about a million choices when it comes to stationary out there, from the classic ecru card with raised border and black script, to DIY kits, to custom-designed letterpress invitations from designers such as Vera Wang and Kate Spade. Originally, when we first started planning our wedding, I was leaning towards buying a Brides brand kit from Micheal's and printing them off at home. I looked at a lot of the designs they offered, and although pretty, they just didn't have "it". You know, reach the stratosphere of "perfect" that we want for our weddings. Trust me, we know it when we see it. Like when you saw that Monique Lhuillier gown on the runway for the first time.

I really wanted something different, imaginative, and whimsical. Not being a graphic designer, I was definitely not prepared to design my own. I searched dozens of sites. Catalogs. Local stationers. And then, while perusing one the many amazing wedding blogs I obsessively look at every day (namely theindiebride.com) I saw it. They featured an online design company called "A Printable Press", and just the few samples shown were enough to get me to click on the pic. I was taken to their website, www.printablepress.com, and started looking through their designs. Original? Check. Aesthetically pleasing? Big check. Customizable? Check. Winter themes? Check!

Now the difficult part is going to be choosing one of their amazing designs!  I love the mix of Victorian-style etchings with modern fonts, and the sweet whimsical feel of their designs. The best part is, you pay for the design and can print out as many as you need! Response cards and thank-you notes too! Oh, color and font customization here I come!



All images from their website, www.printablepress.com. All designs are copyright printablepress.com.

Yes! We have a venue! The beautiful Homewood and Coleman Place will serve as our Ceremony space and Reception space, respectively. My wonderful mom finalized all the details today while I was at work. How lucky am I?
Here is a picture of Homewood (The old stone house, courtesy of weddingmapper.com.

Coleman Place, which sits atop the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, will serve as our Reception Space. Here is a picture of it, while it's all dolled up for a party (courtesy of mywedding.com/asheville). I love the paper lanterns! I am so excited for the possibilities!

First Post

Hello all, thank you for viewing our page. It will detail the journey that will be planning our wedding here in Asheville in December. We are planning an elegant winter wedding with dramatic colors and textures. Thus far, we are still looking for a venue, and have seen a couple of places that are promising! Asheville has so many beautiful places to get married, although most of them seem to concentrate on outdoor ceremonies, which is understandable. After all, we have so many breathtaking mountain locations! Asheville is also a popular place to get married, so we have to get a move on! Any suggestions would be more than welcome!