Friday is Relaxation Station (Well, almost)

The Friday before the wedding was meant to be nothing but relaxation, rehearsing and eating. It was all of those things to some extent, but before any of that could begin we had to drop off the items to Three Village Inn. Janette and I hurried up to Stony Brook from Holbrook to meet with Kim, the catering and sales manager. Kim looked slightly overwhelmed by all the stuff we were bringing in, which surprised me a little bit. Don’t other brides show up the day before the wedding with a big part of the wedding party in tow, boxes of centerpieces, favors, ribbon and wine bottles?
Anyway, after that fiasco, it was time for our reflexology appointment. I must, at this juncture, mention that we changed this appointment about three times during the course of the morning.

When we (Janette, Samia, Eugenia, Adrienne and I) arrived at the Relaxing Foot Station, I definitely needed an hour of a stranger voraciously kneeding my muscles. The room was dark, long and quiet. Massage chair upon massage chair lined the store. In assembly line fashion, each masseuse (refloxologist?) was assigned a patron. First, they sit you on a stool facing the big chair and put up your hair and work on your back for about twenty minutes. Then you sit in the chair and they cover you with towels. The rest of the time is spent working on your legs and feet. During our session, I suddenly heard a familiar voice say, “Hi. Is Andrea Podgarsky here”? This was quickly followed by a lot of “ssssshhhh’s.” It was my friend, Gabi. It made look up and chuckle, but then go right back to being pampered (or pummeled? Is there a difference?).

When our appointment was over and my friends yelled at me for not telling the reflexologist to go lighter, the bunch of us when out for pizza. It was really a nice, impromptu meal with friends. In fact, the whole day was exactly what every bride should have in the hours leading up to her wedding. I felt loved, appreciated and exactly where I wanted to be at that moment.



Next, it was time for our nail appointments. My cousin Sarah, the flower girl, and her mother, my aunt Judy met us there for a little pre-wedding pampering. It was Sarah’s first time getting her nails done and I think she really enjoyed it all!



She's well on her way to being one of the girls!


Aroma Nail Salon was lovely. It had a lovely amosphere. We had the run of the place.



Unfortunately, I smudged a toenail. Fortunately, I didn't care all that much.

Next up: Rehearsal Dinner.

A Very Belated Wedding Weekend Recap Part I - DYI Madness

I know. I know. I have been incredibly lax with the upkeep of this blog. My apologies to those who had been reading it. (Does anybody actually read it?)

Anyway, Arthur and I just celebrated our two month anniversary. Who'd have thought we would have made it this far? Yeah us!

I am going to start from the very beginning or at least where I left off.

The Thursday and Friday before the wedding is somewhat a blur because it was so hectic. There were labels to be made, programs to be printed, dresses to be picked up from the dry cleaners, underwear to buy, and finishing touches to be put on so many things. My mother and I were having a hard time getting along. Now, it all seems somewhat foolish, but we were both incredibly stressed out. I acknowledge that most, if not all, of the snarkiness was probably my fault. It reminds me of those moments during high school right before the dinner dances and the prom. I would be very nervous and want everything to be perfect and so the one person I always felt most inclined to be angry with was my mother. Daughters, I ask you, who more can you be snippy with than your mothers?
In any event, now that the festivities are all over, I no longer need to keep the details a secret.

At first, as I have probably mentioned before, I was very anti having favors. Favors now-a-days seem to fall into two categories: the uber tacky or the uber trendy. The first category consists of knick knacks with the couples names on them that the guests will never use, but will feel too guilty to away. The second category is usually a donation to a charity. Don't get me wrong, I think the concept of a mass donation in lieu of unnecessary material items is fantastic. However, we had already chosen to register at Target and use the IDO foundation because they give back to charity. I just wasn't comfortable with either choice.
When my aunt Terry mentioned making chocolate for our post-wedding brunch, it somehow ballooned into her making chocolate for favors. Now, homemade chocolate was definitely something with which I could live. Why? 1) It was homemade 2) People could EAT it. 3) It didn't cost a fortune 4) CHOCOLATE!

Of course, we couldn't just throw pieces of the yummy, creamy goodness on the table - no matter how pretty they were (mixes of milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate covered pretzels, nut cups, leaves and crispy leaves). This is the packaging we came up with:



We bought the little white boxes at the dollar store. We purchased the cellophane bags to hold the chocolate, the golden homemade sticker, kiwi colored ribbon and mini-red roses at the craft store. My friends came over a few weeks before the wedding. See "The Little Things Post." to help put it all together. Of course, we had run out of ribbon and so mom and I had to finish them on October 1st - the Thursday before the wedding.

We also had to finish up the hotel gifts. Instead of creating gift bags, we decided upon a bottle of local, seasonal wine for each hotel guest - Pindar's Autumn Gold.



I fell in love with them and the way they looked. However, I freaked out on Thursday, thinking that we did not have enough (there were some guest RSVP’s at the last minute). So my mom and I ran around on Thursday buying a few bottles (at a higher price) and then later sending out my aunt and my friend for others! It turns out we didn't end up using the extras, of course. I was still pleased with outcome and from all accounts the wine was pretty good. We never did try it ourselves.

The finishing touches for the wedding cake also needed to be dealt with. I know I should have figured it out earlier, but it was just one of those things that kept falling to the bottom of the pile. No sweat! We solved the dilemma using the same method with which we solved many other wedding DYI dilemmas. Another crazed trip to the crafts store! I picked out three sizes of ribbon and my mom threw together some beautiful silk flowers for the topper. She really has a great eye. Results? Artistic confectionary wonder! Judge for yourself:

Thankfully, my mother had completed the centerpieces ahead of time. They turned out great, giving the reception room at Three Village Inn a warm, cozy glow and setting the tone for the evening.




She had not, however, completed the bouquets. She stayed up late Thursday night finishing them up. This probably didn't help our crankiness with each other, I’d imagine! It was worth it in the end, though. The bouquets, corsages and boutonnières were absolute perfection. My mom is very talented.





Perhaps the biggest headache of the days leading up to the wedding were the programs. I mentioned this in a previous blog entry and things did not improve. One of my best women, Janette, kindly took over the reins of this seemingly impossible task, much to my relief. She did a fabulous job and in the end, they looked amazing.





So that was Thursday.