Poll: Wedding Dress

I put a poll on the right side of the blog for people to voice their opinion on something that I cannot make up my mind about. I do not know if I should wear my wedding dress to the Minnesota Reception.

Pros:
I get more than a single use out of it
People who didn't see me in Vegas will see me in the dress
I don't have to find another outfit for Minnesota

Cons:
Will it be tacky since I will have been married for two weeks at that point?
It might be very hot to wear
Brian won't be in his rented tuxedo, so we might clash a bit

If you have any strong opinions, please feel free to comment on the post. Otherwise, please record your vote in the poll box on the right side of the blog.

Thanks everyone! I can't wait for the wedding!

Minnesota Reception

On August 29th, 2009 we will be having our reception in Minnesota to celebrate our August 15th wedding in Las Vegas.

We will be having the reception at Brian's parent's house in Eden Prairie. We plan on starting the event around 2pm so that we all have time to hang out in the pool (bring your suit!) and enjoy a cocktail while visiting! Dinner will be served in the early evening, around 5pm, with snacks available before.

This map shows the location of the house:


View Larger Map

Click on the map for more detail and to get directions from your location. Feel free to park on Mayfield Drive or Cottonwood Lane. We are very excited to have our reception at the house and share new memories with family and friends.

Invitations

The first set of wedding invitations was mailed today! I am very excited about this since we had so many problems getting them printed. First, our ink smeared. So, Brian had to have them printed at school. Then, the envelopes smeared at his school! We had to buy clear labels that were overpriced but got the job done. Typing this makes the problems seem so small. However, each error meant another day or two passing without getting them done. I feel like I have been working on the invitations for years.

These invitations were a labor of love. They were designed by us and assembled by us with help from Tanya and Jorge (Thanks guys!). I hope everyone enjoys them.

Since we destroyed so much paper with smeared ink, we have to wait for another shipment before we can make the reception only invites for the Minnesota reception. I am hoping that the errors will be avoided through our experience with the first batch.

I will post better pictures when people start getting them in the mail. Again, I do not want to ruin the surprise!

Alicia Ordered Her Dress!

I finally got over my natural aversion to dresses and ordered my wedding dress. Of course, being me, I could not obtain a dress in the normal way. I ordered my dress online directly from China.

In this dire economy I wasn't about to spend $3000 on a dress. So, I discovered that dresses are significantly cheaper if you order them online and have them shipped to you. So, I ordered my dress from Julius Bridal (www.juliusbridal.com)

I learned about this dealer from the Bridal Bargains book and looked around their website. I loved this dress immediately. I also have to admit that a part of what I loved about this dress is that it is called "Anita" which was my Grandma's name.

Here are a couple of pictures of it from their website:

I am very excited about this dress!

Las Vegas Reception

Photo from brianh's photostream on Flickr

Brian and I finally booked the reception in Las Vegas. It is going to be held at The Buffet at the Wynn. Since the reception will be in the same casino as the wedding, guests will not have to go very far!

We booked The Buffet from 7pm until 9pm. So, if you are coming to the wedding in Las Vegas, be sure to leave lots of room for dinner! Also, you will not need to worry about lines; guests will be able to bypass the line and be seated in our section at 7pm.

This buffet is supposed to be the best in town with lots of delicious choices. According to my event planner, Linda, the Buffet has:

"Sixteen (16) live action exhibition cooking stations and a sumptuous array of extraordinary dishes [that] make this all-you-can-eat experience one that will re-define your notion of buffet dining. The endless parade of dishes is showcased beneath a sun-filled glass atrium surrounded by terraced seating and gardens."

Here are a couple of photos of the buffet:

Photo from Miss Shari's photostream on Flickr

Photo from Miss Shari's photostream on Flickr

We are very excited to have our reception there! It looks beautiful and a buffet seems like the perfect way to celebrate a wedding in Vegas!

Registries Completed!

Brian and I are finally done with the arduous task of registering. We registered at the following places:

1. Crate & Barrel
2. Target
3. Bed, Bath & Beyond

All three registries can be viewed online by just searching for our names.

When it came to registering, Crate & Barrel was our favorite experience. We went to their wedding event to register and it was a lot of fun. They gave us free food, let us wander free and we got the heart shaped bowl (pictured above) as a gift for registering. They definitely won me over. Plus, many of their products were more reasonably priced than at Bed, Bath & Beyond! Who knew?

Why Vegas?

(Photo from NNowack's photostream)

I chose Vegas because I have always wanted to get married in Vegas. When I was in the 4th grade I saw a show on TV about the crazy weddings in Vegas. It showcased drive-thru weddings, Klingon weddings, and weddings with an Elvis impersonator. I decided then that I wanted to go to Vegas. It seemed like such a fun, laid back place to get married.

Brian and I also love casinos. I have gone to Mystic Lake in Minnesota many times with Brian, playing the slot machines, wandering the floor and people watching. I even took Brian to Atlantic City for his 22nd birthday. We have great memories of casinos: my winning $200 on a pull tab and drinking free coffee late into the night.

Announcement

(Photo from Roadsidepicture's Flickr Stream)

Guests do not have to feel required to come to Las Vegas. We are having reception in Minnesota on August 29th in order to enjoy this occasion with those people who do not have the time, money or desire to fly out to Las Vegas. We understand that people have other commitments and that a trip in this economy is a burden. I just wanted to say this so that no one feels badly if they can’t make it.

Honeymoon Booked!

We finally booked our honeymoon. We are very excited about it. We debated our options for a long time and finally settled on a sort of compromise.

I wanted a road trip. I love road trips. In the past I have driven to Seattle, New Orleans and to New York twice with Brian. While this seems like a lot of fun, Brian convinced me that it was a poor idea for our honeymoon. It would be very hot in a car, gas is expensive and we would be racing to get from hotel to hotel. Plus, we would have to pay for every little thing along the way. This does not sound very romantic.

Brian wanted a cruise. He loves the idea of an all inclusive, trip with swimming pools, bars and a casino all in one place. He has great memories of going on a cruise in high school and has always wanted to share the experience with me.

So, we chose a cruise. To make me happy, the cruise leaves from New Orleans, so that I get to share a bit of my road trip memories with Brian (most of which involve cajun food and various hot sauces). The cruise is through Carnival and it goes to Cozumel and Progresso in Mexico.

We are already having fun dreaming about our day excursions and the fun things to do aboard the ship!

Any advice for things to do in Mexico or in New Orleans?

(p.s. sorry about the blurry photo)

My Registry Research

I am a bit obsessive. I have a fear of getting discombobulated at the store when I register. So, I treated the registry like any other project I take on: I did my research.

I read, cover to cover, Alton Brown’s Gear for your Kitchen and took copious notes about the products he uses and recommends. Brian and I adore Alton Brown and basically follow his advice in the kitchen as often as possible. So, I now have an 8 page registry list that is annotated with all of Alton Brown’s advice. For example, when Brian and I pick a cooling rack we want to make sure that it has the following:

• That it will fit on my cookie sheet so that I can use it in the oven (to cook meat over a pan and catch drippings)
• It must be woven and not parallel bars
• It should be made of chromed steel

When we choose a stock pot we want it to have:

• Heavy gauge metal that is anodized aluminum, stainless steel with aluminum or copper-cored disk or cladded stainless steel)
• Comfortable sturdy loop handles
• Be able to hold about 8-12 quarts

I think my hard work will pay off. I hope that my detailed list will help keep the whole experience under control and simple.

I was wondering, is there anything that you would recommend that I definitely have on the registry? Please comment!

Save the Dates!

Now that most of our Save the Dates have been mailed and received I feel that I can blog about them! Brian and I designed and made them ourselves.

We printed on white cardstock which we trimmed. Then we mounted it onto precut chartreuse color, #10 size cards from Paper Source, an online paper seller. Finally, we finished off with a hole punch and a bit of black ribbon. They all went into orange colored, #10 sized envelopes from Paper Source.

It was much more time consuming then I expected. We had started looking at possible designs a long time ago! First we thought about doing a boarding pass design. I tried making that look right for months, to no avail. I got frustrated one day and decided to look at a boarding pass that I did like and try to copy it. I realized that no boarding passes actually look cute. I just thought that the "idea" was cute. Some ideas do not work in reality.

So, then we went through other choices: magnets, passports, and simple cards. Finally, our favorite comic newspaper, The Onion, released this issue:



We loved this issue (click here for online version). We read it from cover to cover.

We were inspired and decided to design something like this. We wanted the same superfluous words and fonts. We had a lot of fun creating our own version. Here it is:

Wedding Registry Planning!

Brian and I (Alicia) are gearing up to register this weekend. We are starting off at Bed, Bath & Beyond tomorrow morning. Bed, Bath & Beyond seems like a good choice because they have many branches and a wide variety of products (no I am not being paid by them to say that). Plus, it is the basic home store that Brian and I use the most in New York.

Next, we plan on doing a Target registry online from home. We are doing it from home because the Target in Brooklyn is horrible (see The Consumerist’s article calling the Brooklyn Target an “Abortion of Retail”). That store is so awful that I have actually written complaint letters to Target Corporate about it. None the less, Brian and I enjoy every other Target we have been to and want to register there.

Finally, I reserved a couple of spots for us to attend the Crate and Barrel Wedding Event on February 22nd. It is on a Sunday morning before the store opens, so all the engaged couples can have the store to themselves before they open for the day. There is supposed to be free food and we get a heart shaped bowl for registering. It sounds like fun and we are excited to go.

Is there anywhere else that I should register? If you have a suggestion, please comment!

When we met...

Alicia and I (Brian) met over a year before we began dating.

I had just started my first year at the University of Minnesota, Duluth (UMD) and Alicia was pounding out her last. We technically met at a Mock Trial informational meeting. Alicia was interested in pursuing a legal career, so she attended. I'd been watching a ton of Law & Order and I really enjoyed Mock Trial in high school, so I tried to make it. But alas, I was new at UMD and couldn't find the room. I made it, but was so late that there was standing room only. My face was just one in a sea of students. We didn't talk, so technically we weren't introduced, but we were certainly at that meeting. Since I'm writing this, I'm going to claim that I fell in love with Alicia right then and there, and that she thought I smelled funny.

The first time we actually acknowledged each other's existence was in Cina 102, the room Mock Trial meetings occurred. Every Monday and Thursday, the team would meet to work on that year's case. Unfortunately, I was on the Prosecution side, Alicia on the Defense, so we talked very little. (To be honest, I didn't really learn Alicia's name until January, when I had to write her name on the team rosters before every round. I'm really bad with names.)

Cina 102

When the season ended, we went our separate ways. Alicia graduated UMD in the spring of 2004, so she was no longer eligible to be on the team. But the stars aligned for me, as she returned to the team as an assistant coach. I was only one of two returning team members, which greased the wheels for us to become better acquainted (Talking to people you've already met is an awesome way to avoid meeting new people. What can I say, I'm lazy.).

The 2003-2004 Mock Trial Team, with Alicia and Brian!

We really, truly got to know each other by coming to Mock Trial meetings early. I was in class until 5:40 (Mock Trial started at 7:00), so it was easier if I didn't go home before meetings. Alicia worked until 5ish, so it was easier for her to simply go to UMD. Thus, we came early and talked! We usually fought playfully over whether Target or Walmart was better. Walmart is better, so I always won.

A big turning point occurred when the big regional tournament for Mock Trial came in February. The tournament took place in St. Paul, MN. Thus, the team would split up and carpool down from Duluth, MN. Alicia had to take the LSAT, thus she drove down in her own car. I rode in Prof. Grau's van. Prof. Grau sucked all the fun out of the car trip by grilling me on the case to help prepare. So when the tournament was over and I found out Alicia lived in the same apartment complex as I, I insisted it'd be easier on Prof. Grau to not drive me home. We chatted about movies, games, etc., all the way home. We were some chatty Cathys. My heart goes out to Liz, the poor third student who rode along with us.

Alicia as Assistant Coach

It was awesome knowing someone living basically next door and I'm rather shy, so I knew that if I didn't call Alicia the next day, I'd rarely hang out with her. Luckily, Alicia was thinking the same thing. I called Alicia the next day. On February 14^th, 2005 (Valentine's Day, no less), we had our first date.

Save the Dates!

Save the Dates have been mailed! I thought that i would post teaser pictures of them so that you can look forward to them. They took a lot longer than I expected. Brian and I designed and made them ourselves, printing on our home printer and cutting the cardstock with our trusty laser printer. Above you can see the envelope when it is sealed (I blurred out our address in the picture). Yours will come with tape on the string so that it won't get caught in the USPS machines. Below is a picture of the card just peaking out.

Hopefully you will see yours soon! I will also post more pictures and explanation of how we made them and why we chose our design later. I do not want to ruin the surprise.

The Wynn Room Reservations

To quell the growing discontent amongst my sisters I thought that I would post the information that I received from the Wynn about hotel rooms. When I was researching the Wynn I asked them about their policy for blocking off a set of rooms for our guests. They told me:

"The discount for guests rooms on the room block is $ 20.00 off per night and per room off of the current rack rate. Your guests would reserve their room by contacting Room Reservations directly and using your BLOCK CODE that we will provide you with once we have created your room block. This room block will automatically drop 60 days prior to your event date so you will need to share this information to your guests and also let them know the drop date. The automatic drop happens so that you both are not obligated to pay for any rooms that have not been booked on the room block.

At this time, room rates are not posted just yet. They will begin to post 8 to 10 months prior to your event date, we will certainly be in touch with you to let you know when they have posted. When they do post will will ask you to please provide us with your check in and check out dates (rates quoted are good for 72 hours from date quoted) and we will be more than happy to do so."

So, as of today, the hotel rooms are not available for reservation for the month of August, 2009. They are only booking out to June, 2009 right now. I will keep my eyes peeled for when the rooms become available and I will let everyone know about the room reservations and the code for our party when we set it up.

If you don't want to stay at the Wynn, for whatever reason, feel free to scour the web for a variety of deals at other hotels. The Wynn is located at the north end of the Strip and is easily accessible from other hotels. We do not want our guests to feel forced into staying at the Wynn. We realize that everyone has differing tastes regarding hotels, casinos and expenses.

Thank you for your patience! This is all so new to us (and exciting)!

Wedding Date, Time and Place!

36.127485, -115.167156, 2009.08.15, 17:00

Those are the magic numbers. At 5pm on the fifteenth of August, 2009 at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, NV, I will be taking Alicia's hand in marriage.

Yep, we've officially decided!


View Larger Map

We'd debated all the options and this seems like the most sense.

As for the date, August seems the most convenient for everyone. Five o'clock allows everyone time to make it, even allowing for same day arrival of our guests. The fifteenth falls on a Saturday, which minimizes time off from work.

From what I've read and heard, the Wynn is the nicest possible place for us to begin our lives together. It is the newest Hotel/Casino on the Vegas strip and the reviews have been glowing.

Alicia and I hope to see as many of our loved ones that can make the trip to join us in the
celebration.

Certainly, there will be more information coming. For the time being, here's some essential information about the wedding venue:

Wynn Las Vegas
3131 Las Vegas Blvd S,
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(866) 221-5381‎
http://www.wynnlasvegas.com/

Picture in the Sidebar

I wanted to make sure that everyone knows that my sister Vanessa took the picture on the sidebar of this website. She took the picture when my family was visiting New York for my graduation from law school. I love the picture and I plan to use it as our official engagement picture to be published in the Sun Current back home in Minnesota. Thanks, Vanessa!

Tentative Date for Wedding

Right now, Brian and I have decided to have the wedding on August 15th, 2009. I plan to reserve the date with the ceremony site very soon. By very soon, I mean the next couple of days. Therefore, be on the lookout for a new post announcing the official wedding date! I am excited!

Don't make solid reservations yet but I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware that we are planning it for a Saturday in August!

Open for Business!

The wedding planning blog is now kicked into gear. After the necessary comment from my sister this morning wondering why I procrastinate planning the wedding, I thought that I should just buckle down and start this blog!

I stopped nit-picking over the perfect banner for this website and just created one that I liked. Brian's first response to it was "We aren't using those fonts on our invitations, are we?" I said, "No." "Oh, then it's great!" he said.

He's a picky man.

So, here it is. I created the banner by downloading vector graphics for free from Vecteezy! Then I created the graphic in a combination of MS Word and Gimp, a freeware version of Photoshop. I know that most people won't care about those details but I felt the need to give credit where credit is due.

The banner is subject to change as we figure out what fonts and styles we are using for our invitation suite. I like it for the time being. Expect many more posts in the future since there are many things to do! Happy planning!

Future Site

When Brian and I eventually start planning our wedding (after the New York Bar Exam), this will be where you can come for all wedding related news!