Venue: Martha Clara Vineyard

I love this location because it is so gorgeous. It's a vineyard in the Hamptons but you really get a backyard feeling looking at the photos. Very casual yet chic.

Location: Riverhead, NY
Distance from NYC: About 1.5 - 2 hours

Plus: Venue is relatively cheap for a Saturday night (5,000 for the Gallery but only $4,000 for the Pavilion which is the better-looking one anyways). Plenty of outdoor space for guests to roam through the vineyards and even pick apples. Ceremony can move indoors to a barn in case of rain.

Minus: Bringing in catering and rentals is very expensive. Also all liquor has to be arranged through the vineyard which sounds convenient but they don't make it cheap.`

So cliche... but so perfect

I'm suddenly obsessed with Vera Wang. Her massive puffy princess dresses have always made me a bit sick. Until I saw these dresses- GORGEOUS!

Aurora Brooklyn

This is a restaurant with meaning to us. It's where we had our first real romantic date, and ever since it's been our favorite place to celebrate or just have a nice night out. Always just the two of us. We'd love to get married here but there are just too many complications.

For one, Aurora is small. There is no way that even 100 people could fit for dinner and dancing. It would be the perfect place for an intimate wedding of 50...

The most beautiful part of the restaurant is the ivy-covered back patio. But Brooklyn summers are so temperamental it's difficult to say what the weather might be like on the date we choose. If it's too hot our guests would hate us, but if it's too cold or rainy everyone would have to squeeze inside for shelter.

But the food here is spectacular Italian, and they serve family style which adds that bit of casualness that we are looking for. Also the price is perfect for our budget!

Venue Nightmare!

Finding the perfect venue in Manhattan has been impossible! Here are some we've looked into.. and ruled out:


Gramercy Park Hotel

Plus: Use of the gorgeous private roof club for ceremony and reception. Perfect indoor-outdoor, club casual environment.

Minus: Can only fit 75 people for the ceremony and the minimum for food spending is $40K!








The Lighthouse at Pier 60

Plus: Riverside venue with splendid views of the Hudson River. Interior has floor-to-cieling windows for constant exposure to the city views.

Minus: While the venue boasts a full package and an on-site coordinator to handle all details of the wedding day, the price is way out of our league. Also is located right next to Pier 59, a studio I've spent most of my career working in.


Public

Plus: Reasonable price and restaurant is so minimal but beautiful we wouldn't need to bring in many decorations. Maximum guest count is 120 which is doable. Can host the ceremony outside in a small patio.

Minus: Guests would need to be split between several different rooms within the restaurant so the night wouldn't feel like one cohesive party.

Bridesmaids

Dream Dresses

The Ring

Did I mention I've never been ring shopping in my life? On June 24th you could have asked me what my dream engagement ring was and I would have rolled my eyes at you.

Best thing hands down about this engagement thus far is that my fiance chose the most PERFECT engagement ring. No, not just because it's a beautiful shiny sparkly thing that I always get to wear. Has anyone actually tallied how many choices there are out there? The engagement ring design options are endless! But somehow, in a industry inundated with settings and cuts and shapes and sizes and style and color and.....ugh... my fiance chose the one ring out there that truly suits me best. And after no discussion on the subject what-so-ever.

Sure the element of surprise can be scary for some... this is the ring you're supposedly going to wear for the rest of your life... but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Just to drive the point home, here's an amazing video that my friends at Company X made on the Tiffany & Co. brand. You'll see my ring at 1:25. :)

Inspiration

I was never the type of person who spent hours thinking about my dream wedding as a child. I never kept scrapbooks, never followed celebrity weddings, never even paid attention to why the whole world is obsessed with Vera Wang. Never paid attention to engagement rings - it just didn't interest me. For me, planning my wedding is something that is going to have to start completely from scratch, and I need to start asking myself what the inner child in me has always wanted, and what the adult me still desires.

I find it impossible to even begin thinking about where and when I'll have our wedding until we can really decide what type of wedding we are after. Some key points we're after:

• Keep the guest list small
• Escape city life - do something in nature, or at least in a venue open to lots of natural light
• Decorate with a ton of candles and gorgeous flowers for a more romantic feel
• Simple color palette
• Very DIY feel; nothing to stuffy or fancy feeling
• No black tie!

This will continuously evolve. But at least we have a starting point.

Dressed up picnic.

Beautiful lighting and candles.

 mmm nature

Natural light flooding in.

So I'm Engaged...

I think these were the exact words of enthusiasm I expressed to my family the morning after I was blindsided by a proposal two months ago. Don't get me wrong, I'm overwhelmed with love and excitement about this new chapter in my life, but I never expected to be 26 years old and planning my wedding!

Since I've been sharing the news I've only heard one question, "When are you getting married" followed by "Oh take your time, enjoy being engaged!". How does this make sense people?

In the past 8 weeks I've looked into over 30 venues, tried on 15 dresses, registered in 7 different stores, started 5 different accounts on various wedding Web sites; and add all that up and that's probably a bit less than the number of fights I've had along the way.

This blog is an attempt to document my progress, or lack there of, and hopefully my experiences will one day help another lost bride-to-be in the same way I've been needing it!