Blog --> Wedding Central

Our blog is now our wedding website. I've been struggling for months (yes, months) about how to do our wedding website. While Jake is the software guru of the household, he will not touch websites with 10 foot pole or a 100 foot pole for that matter. It's been a good 10 years since I coded a website from HTML.

After much thought, research, and a bit of learning, I gave up and decided to turn our blog into wedding central. The number one reason is for my own piece of mind. It's one less webpage that I have to think about updating and it's a lot of time and money saved. We won't be shelling out money for web hosting and I won't be sitting in front of the computer for hours trying to figure out the aesthetics of it all. The second reason is usability for our family and friends. They can continue to follow our blog after the wedding without having to switch to a new URL. 

Now I can check off this line item from my DIY project list. Two down, a bazillion minus two to go. 

What do you think of the new layout and colors? Any feedback would be fantastic.

Confessions of a Shoe-a-holic

My name is Celia. Hi Celia. I am a shoe-a-holic; I currently own 50+ pairs of shoes. It's been 21 days since I bought a pair. Applause.

While most women wait until they've found their dress before searching for the perfect pair of shoes, I did not. I've actually had my shoes since the February, I've even tried on wedding gowns with them on. I knew early on what I wanted, the problem was trying to find them in real life. You see, I fell in love with a pair of insensible designer heels; actually two pairs (Valentino and Christian Louboutin): 

(Luce Bella, Bellinter House)

How fun is that bow?! Unfortunately, these suckers are a couple of seasons old. And even if I could find them, they're 5-inches tall, and they cost a small fortune. After searching a bit more, I found a pair of Me Too on the DSW website. Reviews gave this shoe pretty high marks for comfort and style. This was definitely much more sensible with 3 and 1/2" heel and it was a pump. I had originally wanted a pump so that I didn't worry about my foot slipping. And to top it all off, this pair costs $55!

(DSW)

They fit perfectly and were oh-so comfortable, EXCEPT, the peep toe opening was too big! Three of my toes poked out. I'm not just talking about the tip of the toes, I'm talking about the entire toe! One random day, I happened to come across another pair of Me Too while browsing through Marshall's shoe selection (one of my favorite places for cheap but fabulous shoes). They look almost exactly the same as the previous pair except for three things: 1) They are slingbacks instead of pumps, 2) the peep toe opening is much smaller, and 3) they are even cheaper, $30!! I can't tell you how comfortable these beauties are. Honestly, it's like I'm wearing sneakers with a heel.

(Zappos)

Now, you are probably thinking that this isn't much of a confession. Here comes the shocking part of my story. Since I'm a two dress bride, I'm also going to be a two [pairs of] shoes bride. Our friend N was over last week, so I pulled out my second pair to show her. While I went to go wash my hands before pulling them out of the dust bag, N walked over to the bag and proceeded to read the print on the bag. "Lo...Lou...Loub...Loubou...Loubout...GASP...tin. OhMYGOD." It was then followed by "I can't believe that I'm in the presence of Louboutins."

I didn't pay full price for them, but they still cost me a pretty penny. I won't be counting them against my wedding budget as I got them for my shoe collection. But I will still be eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a long, long, long time.

What's your shoe story?

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Last week we signed our contract with DeCordova and sealed the deal. The best part to having a wedding planner, we didn't even have to go back to the venue. We were able to take care of it all over email. We now officially have a date:

Bummed Out

Yeup, the's exactly how I feel today. A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to my friend N share her frustrations about wedding planning. N's wedding is in September. After sending out STDs, she recieved a couple of "sorry, but we can't make it" responses. This bummed her out pretty hard. At the time I could only sympathize with her. And to be honest, I didn't fully undertand just how much it saddened her.

Today, I finally understand. We haven't even notified our guests of our date, but already I've gotten a couple of "maybe, but probably not's." Earlier in the week, I was emailing a good friend of mine, talking about random stuff. I mentioned our date to her, but as it turns out, her family is planning a family reunion for Ramadan (which spans over the entire month of August in 2011) in Indonesia. So it's not like she can go to both. Nothing is set in stone, but family is important and comes first.

This morning, I found out that my really good friends are expecting twins! First of all, I'm ESTATIC for them; couldn't be happier. Their twin girls will be a great additions to their family. They already have one little girl (3 years old) so it will be a very busy household. My poor friend, being the only male will have to fend for himself. Anyways, they're due in September. I don't think traveling for a family of 5 with 3 little ones is in the cards for them. Of course, I'm making an assumption since I haven't talked to them, but I'm pretty sure that even travel for just the two of them would be a financial burden to their family.

I'm completely understanding of these situations; there's nothing I can do. It just sucks that friend that I've known for over 10 years, can't be there. On the flip side, it's less people to feed which means we spend less money right?

Venues - The Winner

Drum roll please..................................may I present to you, our venue:

DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum

Decordova exhibits are mostly sculptures focused on modern and contemporary art (yes modern art is different from contemporary art, I just looked this up). Paula found this place for us while we were actually visiting Castle Hill on Crane Estate. She said that she couldn't help but think of us while she was there. It would have never crossed our minds since neither one of us are fans modern art (or contemporary), but Paula  totally called it!

It actually took us two visits before we realized that it was THE place. The first time we went, we took full advantage of a warm spring like day of the year. To Jake, it was as if were at the zoo (for those who don't know, Jake LOVES the zoo). Armed with a map, we proceeded to try and see all the sculptures on the property in numerical order. I followed his lead, but at the same time I was trying to imagine where a tent would be set up on the property. 

Unfortunately, not all of the sculptures were out. Some they remove for the winter and they also try to clean up the park and cycle new sculptures in before Spring. We were really excited to see the giant piggy bank and the trojan rooster. But alas, neither was there. Jake later found out that the piggy bank was destroyed by a rogue tree a few years back. I'm sure your asking, why would we be that excited about a pig sculpture? You see, we've got this joke between us where we constantly make piggy noises at each other. It's because I'm constantly eating and Jake is usually eating sweets. One of us will jokingly say "Do you really need that?" to which the other will respond with a "Yes, yes I do." This is then followed by pig grunts SNORT SNORT SNORT.

(Left, Right)

We had an appointment set up with Jessica, the events director a few days later. It just so happened to be the next sunny day! It was great to be able to go back and look at things with a different eye. Especially since we were busy running around the property trying to find all the sculptures. During our visit with Jessica she showed us all of our options on the property. As soon as she showed us where we could put the tent outside, we knew that this was our venue. Before we left, we had Jessica pencil us in for two dates: 8/20/2011 and 8/27/2011.

We remembered to bring out camera on this outing, so we have pictures to show! We didn't take any pictures of the building, and the one's on the web just don't do this place justice, so you'll just have to kind of use your imagination. The building used to be a summer home of Julian de Cordova that has since been expanded and converted into the museum.

(Aerial view of the museum - Source)

Here is the property map. We (and our guests) will get free reign of all 35 acres and the inside of the museum on our wedding day. Our tent will be set up on the Main Lawn, while our ceremony will be up on the Sculpture Terrace, overlooking the lake.

(Property map, the top of the map is West - Source)

Finally, we have pictures of us and some of the sculptures. Click on photo for larger version.

(Personal photos)

Related posts:
Venues - The Contenders
Venues - The Rejects
Platinum Wedding Venues