"I Do" Ideas: Honeymoon (Part 1 of 4!)

This week I thought we could explore some ideas for honeymoons. (Thanks to Kara for suggesting this fun topic!) I’ve come up with 4 categories: Local/cost-conscious, Tropical, Transatlantic and the Continental US. Over the next 8 weeks, we’ll touch on all of the categories (with a few Wedding Stories sprinkled in between!)

First up:

Local / Cost-conscious

Kennebunkport, Maine

“The Place to be all Year”

Activities and sights to check out include: gift shops, whale watching, sailing excursions, Blowing Cave, Spouting Rock, summer home of Pres. Bush, Cape Porpoise “The Quite Side of Kennebunkport”: Goat Island Lighthouse, fish markets, galleries, lobstermen on the pier, Goose Rocks Beach: kayaking, canoeing, Fine Living Festival (celebrating fine food, art and wine), Christmas Prelude, “Walk the Port” Local Appreciation Night, and more!

Source

For more info on Kennebunkport, visit here.

Martha’s Vineyard

“The Vineyard” Best time to go: June through August. Martha’s Vineyard consists of six towns: Vineyard Haven, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, West Tisbury, Chilmark, and Aquinnah.

Activities and sights to check out include: beaches, bike and hiking trails, kayaking and canoeing, red clay Aquinnah Cliffs, street fairs, fireworks, farmers markets, the Agri-culture Fair, golf tournaments, art and music festivals, Flying Horses Carousel in Oak Bluffs (the nation’s oldest operating platform carousel), five lighthouses, and more!

Source

For more info on Martha’s Vineyard, visit here.

Nantucket

“There once was a man from Nantucket…” Nantucket has been named a National Historic District and has architecturally changed little since the 17th century, as seaside cottages and old-fashioned lamps still line its streets.

Activities and sights to check out include: beaches, biking, boating, fishing, whaling, sailing, festivals (including the Arts Week that starts Labor Day weekend, the Christmas Stroll, the Daffodil Festival in April, the Wine Festival and the Film Festival in June), golf, museums (including the Whaling and Shipwreck museums), antique shopping, handcrafted jewelry and more!

Source

For more info on Nantucket, visit here.

Block Island

"One of the 12 last great places in the Western Hemisphere." Block Island consists of one town: New Shoreham. It is the smallest town in the smallest state in the US.

Bride Heather says: “We enjoyed massages at Koru Eco spa, a movie at the old Empire Theater and wonderful dinners at The National and The Spring House (also where we stayed).”

Activities and sights to check out include: beaches, moped and bike rentals, horseback riding, fishing and boat rentals, kayaking and canoeing, sailing and parasailing, shopping, The Nature Conservancy, carriage rides, lighthouses, nature trails, art galleries, The Farmer’s Market, bird watching, snorkeling, and more!

Source

For more info on Block Island, visit here.

Cape Cod

“The Cape”. Cape Cod, Massachusetts is divided up into four sections commonly referred to as: Upper Cape, Mid Cape, Lower Cape and Outer Cape.

Activities and sights to check out include: beaches, golfing, bike trails through the sand dunes, drive-ins, boardwalks, art galleries and centers, sculpture gardens, mini-golf, outlet malls, wineries, Hyannis Harbor, JFK Museum, Sandy Neck Beach, Mayflower Beach, The Flying Horses Carousel, Buzzards Bay, Woods Hole, Lewis Harbor, and more!

Source

For more info on Cape Cod, visit here.

Where did you go for your honeymoon?

Stay tuned in a few weeks for part 2 of Honeymoon Ideas!

“I Do” Ideas: Personalized Photo Candles!

 

Yankee Candle has come out with personalized candles that I think are SO cute for either a wedding morning (with an engagement picture) or for a fun post-wedding gift! You can upload the picture as well as add text and a date. These personalized candles can be found on their website here.

Not into photos? Yankee Candle also carries a “Wedding Day” candle, which can be found here.

 

This is the one I had on my wedding morning:

Has anyone ever ordered one of these personalized photo candles? How did it come out?

Amanda, Jensy and The Vineyard

The Venue: Saltwater Farm Vineyard
The Photog: Studio 1923
The Bride and Groom: Amanda and Jensy

A Wedding Story: Justine!

This week's Wedding Story comes from Justine Tobin. Now living in Georgia, she had her big day at a beautiful state park in Bristol, Rhode Island. Justine keeps a blog, titled Tobin Inc*; On it you can see more wedding photos as well as the artwork she creates. With that, here's Justine...

When did you get married?
June 7, 2009

Where was your ceremony? Reception?
Ceremony: Colt State Park Bristol, RI; Reception: McGovern's on the Water Fall River, MA

What was your favorite aspect of your wedding?
Besides family and friends…I would have to say the butterfly release*

Butterflies were in Justine’s theme of her whole day including in her bouquet and on her programs.

What was the best resource you used during the planning process?
The best resource was The Knot and friends

What's the one thing you would have done differently?
The one thing I would have done differently was hire a professional videographer...It wasn't in our budget and we had some family members record but I wish we had a professional.

Any advice for future brides?
Advice for future brides is stick to you gut, be nice to everyone helping you but honest. Keep things simple but true to what you want. Have fun this is an exciting time for you and you will never forget it. Stay organized and keep in mind your time frame. I know this is alot but that about sums it up!!

Very true advice, Justine. Staying organized is SO key. I remember buying multiple wedding planning organizers and eventually scrapping them all for my own control-freak personalized binder; a place I could keep all my vendor contracts, style ideas and photo inspirations.

Photo courtesy of Tony Avila.

If you'd like to be a Featured Wife or Bride, please email me at legallybride@hotmail.com

Amanda and Jensy--and The Vineyard

The Venue: Saltwater Farm Vineyard
The Photog: Studio 1923
The Bride and Groom: Amanda and Jensy

“I do” Ideas: Bridal Shower

This week, I thought I’d share a recent bridal shower I helped throw for one of my friend’s whose wedding I’m in in October. The shower was held at Cafe Nuovo in downtown Providence. (They also do weddings by the way, that are Gorgeous!)

Since the bride loves Audrey Hepburn, we decided to do a Tiffany themed shower. For starters, we found Tiffany blue boxes from Accent the Party. We used them as both placecards and favors. For placecards, we printed out the names and table numbers of each guest and attached them to the top of the box. For favors, we put a pearl bracelet in each box.

 

On the placecard table, we filled oversized martini glass vases (you can get these at crafts stores like Michaels or JoAnn Fabrics or even Christmas Tree Shop) with Tiffany boxes / pouches and pearls to serve as decor. Those boxes are a great way to add a punch of color as soon as the guests walk in.

 

At each table, we chose to display pearl & teal necklaces as the centerpieces. Along with each centerpiece, we framed a B&W picture of Audrey Hepburn along with a teal number to serve as the table numbers. Here they all are:

 

At each place setting, we put a “Bridal Bingo” for guests to play along while the bride was opening her gifts. The first guest at each table who won Bingo took home the centerpiece at that table. (Note to party planners: When making Bridal Bingo on your own, remember that EACH sheet has to look different. Something I had not thought about when starting to make them. You can use sites like this one or others that can make this game for you… much easier!)

We also put a “Thank You!” bag of personalized M&M’s at each place setting. These are a fun way to add a pop of color to your table setting. You can order them from here and they are available in tons of colors!

 

The whole table set up

Some more Tiffany decor items we used to decorate around the cake table.    

We had an absolutely fabulous cake courtesy of Sin Desserts in Providence. Besides making beautiful and delicious cakes, what’s so cool about Sin Desserts? Jennifer took pictures of the whole cake-making process so the bride could have the step-by-step pictures of her cake creation! You can see some of the photos on her blog.

The bride wore teal and as her maids, we decided we would all wear black (like Audrey would) with pearls.

 

The waiters at Cafe Nuovo served mimosa’s to the guests as they arrived.

Cafe Nuovo also made menus for each guest (in our color scheme!) that said “Jessica’s Bridal Shower Luncheon”

  

On the invitation, we asked all of the guests to wear their pearls to go along with the theme. Everyone participated; it was so fun!

We did a game where we asked the groom a bunch of questions before the shower and then the bride had to guess what the groom answered. For every answer that she guessed wrong, she had to put a marshmallow in her mouth and keep it there! Since she did so well… After the game, we had a honeymoon bag waiting for her as her “prize”.

We filled it with travel-size items she’ll need for her honeymoon as well as Mr. & Mrs. luggage tags and Bride & Groom passport holders! You can find all of these items at Michael’s Arts & Crafts Store.

 

And that’s it; what do you think?! I’d love to hear any Bridal Shower themes you’ve thrown or seen; always looking for new ideas!