Well Wed's Cape & Islands Wedding Affair Contest Winners!

As promised, I am announcing the 2 winners to my Cape & Islands Wedding Affair ticket giveaway, hosted by Well Wed.

Just to recap, I have 2 pairs of tickets to giveaway to 2 fortunate brides. Brides could enter by posting a comment on my blog post, or by tweeting about the giveaway on Twitter. I had lots of entries, mostly via Twitter (I guess people don't like to comment, lol). 

This morning I used a free online generator to randomly pick the names of the two winners. Despite all the Twitter entries, both of the winners of the contest were people who commented on my blog!

So without further ado . . . . 

Congratulations to Mickey and Shannon!!!

I hope you guys have a fabulous time at the show on March 6th and get to bring someone special with you! I wish I could be there to meet you in person, but alas I will be in Miami, so let me know how you liked the show :D

My First Giveaway: Tickets to Well Wed's Wedding Affair!

Hello readers! I'm estatic to share the exciting news that I am having my first giveaway, starting now!

I was fortunate to be contacted by the great team at Well Wed, who specialize in weddings for the Northeast, and publish fantastic magazines that are your guide to weddings on Cape Cod, Vermont, New York and the Hamptons. As a bride who was recently married on Cape Cod, I know how important and challenging it can be to find trustworthy local vendors. Therefore, I'm excited to partner with them to offer 2 pairs of tickets to a couple of lucky readers to their Cape & Islands Wedding Affair on March 6th!

The Cape & Islands Wedding Affair is a bridal show like none other, and I have heard amazing things about it from some of my readers who have attended in previous years. Click the link above to see some great photos of the Wedding Affair. If only I were not currently living in Chicago, I would be there myself in a heartbeat!

Here are the details, courtesy of the Well Wed team:

Cape & Islands Wedding Affair Itinerary
Saturday March 6th, 2010
Ocean Edge Resort
Brewster, MA
3:00-7:00 PM

"Meet with some of the area's most celebrated wedding professionals, spend time in the Groom's Lounge (cigar rolling & micro-brews), relax in the bridal bar with complimentary facials & pedis while nibbling on chocolate."

The Bridal Bar:

Pedicures
Brow Shaping
Mini Facials
Hair & Makeup Consultations & Styling

Workshops & Seminars

3:30 - 4:00 - Wedding Coordination & Budgets:

Meet one of the area's most renowned wedding coordinators who will share with you their tips & tricks for creating a dream wedding - without breaking the bank!

4:30 - 5:00 - Plan The Perfect Menu - Wine Tasting & Pairing:

Taste the area's finest locally grown wines & learn how to pair your selections to create the perfect wedding menu.

5:30 - 6:00 - Practical Planning Tips:
One of the area's most celebrated wedding professionals shares their wealth of knowledge on wedding trends, budget planning, & DIY ideas, followed by a Q & A session.

6:30 - 7:00 - Couture Fashion Show:

Sip martinis & champagne while enjoying a "runway" fashion show featuring the latest trends in gown design.

Doesn't this sound amazing?! How could anyone not love fashion, beauty bars, wedding planning, and wine tastings all rolled into one? One of the best features about this event is that they sell a limited number of tickets to create an intimate setting (which my loyal readers know I'm a big fan of) and to provide brides with individual attention, unlike at your traditional bridal expo, which can be enormous and completely overwhelming.

The best news is that I have not one, but two pairs of tickets to give away to you lucky brides, at a value of $40 per pair! Bring your MOH, your mom, or your FH and have a ball while planning your wedding!

The only catch is that you have to be able to go to Cape Cod to attend this event, and it will focus heavily on local (Cape & Islands) wedding vendors. I know some of my readers are from Massachusetts, but if you are not and know of any friends or family who might be interested in this event, be sure to pass along this opportunity to them (trust me, they'll thank you :)

There are 2 ways to enter this giveaway. Note that doing both will automatically give you two entries into this contest!

1. Enter a comment below about why you wish to attend this fantastic event, being sure to include your email address so I will be able to contact you quickly and easily in the event that you win a pair of tickets.
2. Tweet about this giveaway, being sure to mention me, @Cape Cod Bride so I know you did it.

Since we are on a tight deadline with the Wedding Affair being on March 6th, I will only keep this contest open until this Friday, February 26th at midnight! So be sure to enter asap so you don't miss out on your chance!!

Contest Shout-Out

I just wanted to give a quick thanks to Backyard Bride, who recently announced on her blog that I won her ULTA gift card giveaway! As you may be aware, the past couple of weeks have been pretty crappy for me, as I was dealing with some health issues, among other things.  Hopefully some retail therapy will help :)

 

source

In all seriousness, though, I realized that with the stress of work, school, and everything else I have had on my plate that I was not properly taking care of myself, and as a result, my health suffered.  I am an optimist, so I do believe that the positive that has come out of this experience and some other recent personal events is that I have taken the time to reexamine my priorities, and will make sure I am mindful of working towards all of my personal goals, so that I can become the best version of me!

So I just wanted to remind brides out there who are still amidst the stress of wedding planning to remember your priorities, and take care of yourself! Because a healthy bride is a beautiful bride!

All About You!

Hello to all of my lovely blog readers!

When I first started blogging, my hubby installed some sort of gizmo that tracks all sorts of cool stats about my blog, including how many readers I have per day, week, and month.  I totally forgot about it until recently. When I went to check it out, I was shocked by how many page impressions I get!

That led me to wonder . . . Who are all of my readers? I know I have some faithful followers and commenters (props to you guys), but I had no idea I get so many other anonymous readers.

So instead of writing about myself for a change, I've decided that I want to learn all about you! And being the dedicated graduate student/researcher that I am, I created a reader poll to find out who you guys are!

You can click the above link to take my short survey. There is also a new tab on my blog that contains the survey, called Tell Me About Yourself. 

I promise it's short and I'd love to learn more about everyone! Any link sharing, retweets, facebook status updates, etc. would be much appreciated!

Transportation on a Budget

Cape Cod Groom and I lamented over what to do regarding our wedding transportation.  We considered renting a traditional limousine, but the prices in our area to transport us and our wedding party were outrageous.  Plus, given that Cape Cod Groom loves cars, he wanted something more flashy than a typical limo.

Given that we were also having a vintage theme to our wedding, I suggested renting an antique car for the day.  My groom was pleased with this suggestion, until I looked at renting the antique cars through valet/limo companies.  They were just as expensive, if not more costly than renting a limo, and held far fewer people! I was beginning to feel a bit discouraged, but, knowing that Cape Cod has lots of wealthy retirees with car fetishes, I decided to post an ad on Craigslist to see if I could negotiate a price with someone who owned a vintage ride.

I still had plenty of time until my wedding, so I wasn't worried about taking my time to find the right vehicle.  I got a few responses right away from the Craigslist ad, but they were muscle cars and convertibles at that, which would not do for my December nuptials. I was beginning to think that old men with nice antique cars probably do not have any idea what Craigslist is, nevermind frequenting the site regularly.

At the suggestion of my friend at Cupcake Wedding, I contacted a local antique car club on the Cape to see if any members would be interested in renting me their ride for the day.  To my dismay, I got no response from them! Now I was starting to panic, because there was not much time left until the big day, and I feared that I would end up riding to the ceremony in my father's Buick.

Miraculously, about 8 weeks prior to our wedding, I got an email via the Craigslist ad from a man who owned a 1948 Dodge.  He said he had chauffeured a couple of weddings before, sent me tons of pictures, and after seeing the car in person, my groom and I knew this was it! It was way cooler than any limo we could afford, and about 1/3 of the cost!

Here are some pictures of our ride, taken on our wedding day by our photographer Seth Kammueller.

Car with a view of the Chatham Lighthouse in the background:

 The grill!

 Waiting for the bride:

In the end, we were really happy with our decision. The car fit with our vintage theme perfectly, I loved the color, and my groom loved riding inside an antique car.  Plus, since we saved money on not having to rent a limo, our parents decided to rent a couple of large passenger vans to transport guests to and from the reception.  While it is by no means necessary to provide transportation for your guests, I will say that this gesture made guests really happy since that they could drink as much as they wanted without having to have a designated driver.  Plus, the cost of the vintage car plus the two vans was still lower than renting a limo for the day!

I highly recommend doing something similar if you are in a similar situation and have a tight budget. My only advice would be to start your search earlier than I, to avoid the stress of all of the last minute negotiation and planning!

Going Against the Grain: DIY Table Names

As a bride on a budget, many elements of my wedding included DIY projects, and my table numbers were no exception.  I initially considered purchasing table numbers because I did not want to create too much work for myself and my groom the week of the wedding, but after scouring Etsy and finding some decent deals, I decided to create them myself.

One reason was that even though there were some reasonable prices from Etsy vendors, after calculating the cost of making them myself, I just couldn't justify spending the extra amount of cash to have them pre-made.

Another reason was that I did not want simple signs with a number on them.  Since were were having a Christmas wedding, and my family and I have always adored Christmas movies, I decided that I wanted each table to bear the name of a Christmas film.  Thus, I knew if I wanted custom table numbers, it would make much more sense to just do them myself.

My groom and I thus went to Paper Source to purchase the supplies for our project, and fortunately had help from a very experienced saleswoman, who helped us find exactly what we needed. We decided to make our table numbers double sided, so we purchased table tents, navy paper, and silver shimmer paper (see below).

My groom and I chose the movies and created a custom monogram for the top of the table names in Microsoft Word.  As you have to use a high quality printer that will not smudge, we went to my father's office and printed the table numbers in navy ink on the silver shimmer paper.  

The hardest part was cutting the navy and silver paper to fit the table tents, which were smaller than the standard 8.5" x 11" paper. Thankfully, my groom used his mad paper cutter skills (I highly recommend using a paper cutter and not scissors!) and made everything fit perfectly. 

Overall, making the table numbers was more tedious and time consuming than my groom and I had anticipated, but we were really excited with our creation.  Here are some images of the final products (you're also getting a sneak peak of my DIY centerpieces, which I will soon detail in another post):

This was where we sat the groom's family, since this is their favorite Christmas movie:

 My family was sat here, since this is my mother's favorite Christmas movie:

I couldn't resist throwing some humor into our table names!

 And last but not least, my personal favorite, the Bad Santa table:

Overall, our table names were a huge hit with our guests (fortunately our guests all had a sense of humor).  Our friends at the Bad Santa table jokingly asked what they did to deserve that label, and all of our other guests were jealous that we did not deem them worthy of sitting at the Bad Santa table!

In the end, I'm so glad we decided to go against tradition and created table names that reflected our personalities and interests.  I highly recommend doing the same for your wedding, as it is not only a great conversation starter for guests, but also makes your wedding more unique and personal, while saving money! 

A New Marriage, A New Blog!

Exciting news to share ladies and gents!

As I mentioned in a previous post, after my wedding I was debating about what to do with this blog, given that I was no longer a bride-to-be. Ultimately, I decided that I want to keep this blog to share with my audience my wedding day recaps, DIY projects, and general wedding fabulousness. However, I also want to share my perspective on life as a newlywed wife, so I decided to create a new blog. 

I'm excited and thrilled to share that I have my new blog up and running, with my first post officially published! It's called The Lovely Nester, and you can follow the link to start reading about all of my new adventures as Mrs. Cape Cod Bride. 


I also have a sneak peak of my next post on my new blog to share with you. It is about a controversial book on marriage by Lori Gottleib, the author of Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr Good Enough. In the book, Gottleib argues that wise women stop chasing the unattainable "bad boy" or the perfect Mr. Big ala SATC, and settle down with the "good guy."  This got me thinking about my own choice in a partner, and made me ponder love, passion, and compatibility.  

What do you think ladies? Do you believe there is a perfect soul mate out there waiting for you? Or did you choose the dependable guy who is good enough, but don't feel as though the passion is there? Can there be a happy medium, in that you marry your best friend who you also lust for, or is that happy ending only found in trite Hollywood romance flicks?

Wedding Recaps: Gettin' Ready Part 1

Wow, it's hard to believe that I've been married for 62 days already! I know I have been terribly lazy about blogging and posting my wedding recaps, but who knew life as a newlywed could be so hectic??

I'm so excited to begin sharing my wedding recaps with you. I have to say, the morning of my wedding was not what I envisioned, but nonetheless, I had a blast.

First of all, Cape Cod Groom and I had originally planned to keep with tradition and spend the night before our wedding apart, so we would not see each other until the ceremony. But with all the stress of the wedding, we both really wanted to unwind our best friend, each other! So we decided to say eff tradition and I spent the night with him at our swanky hotel. I have to say, it was the best decision we could have made. We relaxed, had a great night's sleep, slept in, and even had time to go to breakfast together on the morning of our wedding!

Then we went to my family's house, where I met up with my sister/MOH, her boyfriend, my mom, my hairstylist and makeup artist.  One of our groomsman, my cousin, and a few other friends & family members were there as well. At first I couldn't believe that the morning of my wedding was spent with a group of guys, but again, who needs tradition? We had fun, they helped ease my nerves, and we watched Four Christmases (I heart Christmas movies) while I got my hair did.

Our amazing photographer, Seth Kammueller, was there to capture the morning. Here are some of the highlights, before I put on my gown (saving that for another post!). 

The MOH and I get our hair did:

A giggly MOH

Let the sausage fest begin!

 The gentlemen arrive

 A happy groom

The groom & groomsman

The groom and MOH are all smiles

The MOH and her BF

Makeup time with the fantastic Samantha Spearin!

Lovin my hair in this first one, props to the great Jessica DiGravio:

A few more tidbits:

My fuel. It wouldn't be a New England wedding without the Dunk!