Latest wedding updates

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I thought I’d start a new thread for all the wedding-related info (for the moms of sons :)). </p>

<p>Flowers
We met with the (awesome) florists last week, and just got our proposal the other day. We’re really excited about working with them, as their previous work is really beautiful <em>and</em> within our price range. (Yay!) They really seemed to understand our vision for the feel of the wedding day, too, which is sort of a challenge when working with me, as I have the artistic talent/vision/expository capabilities of your average houseplant.</p>

<p>My bouquet will look quite a bit like [this</a> one](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/bellafiore.jpg]this”>http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/bellafiore.jpg), in a “small natural shape”. The bridesmaids’ bouquets will be orange callas, yellow poppies, and yellow tulips. Adam’s boutonierre will be an orange calla lily, and the groomsmen will have yellow callas. The moms, dads, and grandmas will have cream calla pins.</p>

<p>Ceremony arrangements will be pretty minimal, since the chapel doesn’t need too much decoration. Reception centerpieces will look similar to [this[/url</a>], with each container holding flowers of one color. There will be yellow and orange callas, yellow poppies, and yellow and orange spray roses.</p>

<p>Ceremony
We’re having the ceremony at the [url=<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/chapel.JPG]MIT”>http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/chapel.JPG]MIT</a> chapel](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/bellafiore3.jpg]this[/url”>http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/bellafiore3.jpg). I’m going to look into chartering a trolley to take guests (and us) from the chapel to the reception site, as they’re about a mile+ apart and most of our out-of-town guests presumably won’t have cars.</p>

<p>Our default officiant is one of the MIT chaplains, but I’m hoping my dad can get in touch with the pastor at my childhood church (that’s his job for the week), because I think it would be awesome if he could officiate.</p>

<p>We’re inviting about 100 people – about 1/3 from my hometown (friends + family – I have a very small family), 1/3 from college, and 1/3 from Adam’s family. Apparently people in my hometown keep coming up to my mom and casually mentioning that they’re “really excited to go to Boston for the wedding”… ohhhh dear. We are planning to have a reception-part-II in my hometown over Thanksgiving weekend for a larger number of people, though.</p>

<p>Reception
We’re having the reception at the Museum of Science. The [room[/url</a>] we reserved will overlook the Charles River, and will be really beautiful with a view of the night skyline. We’re hoping to do a little negotiating with the caterer – the museum’s default caterer is really classy, and to be honest, we just kind of like plain food. :)</p>

<p>Attire
I went shopping for my dress when I was home in Ohio in August. I ordered [url=<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/dressback.jpg]this”>http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/dressback.jpg]this</a> dress<a href=“and%20the%20veil/headpiece%20I’m%20wearing%20in%20the%20photo”>/url</a>, and will probably get at least spaghetti straps put on it when I get alterations. I love my dress! I also ended up getting [url=<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/shoes.JPG]these”>http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/shoes.JPG]these</a> shoes](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/skyline.JPG]room[/url”>http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/skyline.JPG), which Adam likes because they only have a 1.25-inch heel (he is, shall we say, not as tall as his driver’s license says he is).</p>

<p>My (three) bridesmaids are psyched about getting tea-length dresses from [this</a> collection](<a href=“http://www.jimhjelmoccasions.com/teas/]this”>http://www.jimhjelmoccasions.com/teas/). The dresses will be in “pool”, which looks very green on the website but is a very bright light blue in reality. The bridesmaids will pick their own dresses, because they have very different tastes… and because I’m not that good at making decisions. :)</p>

<p>Adam’s dad claims that his only wish for the wedding is that Adam wears his tux from 1975 (light brown with black piping and white ruffles). Mmmm. ;)</p>

<p>Random stuff
I’ll be talking soon with various hotels in Boston and Cambridge, since my whole side of the family and my high school friends will all be coming from out of town. I’m hoping to get a good rate at a hotel near the subway, since most of my friends and family have never been to Boston, and I think they’ll want to do a lot of the touristy stuff.</p>

<p>The awesome benjones gave us an amazing engagement present: an engagement photo session with his wife, who’s a wedding photographer. (!) I am so psyched about this, because we were planning on just going to the Target photo studio to get an engagement picture, and now we can get some super pictures of the two of us.</p>

<p>We’re going to go to Disney World for the honeymoon! I think we’ll probably go in mid-October next year (the wedding is Sept 15), because it will be easier to fit around our respective graduate school schedules.</p>

2

<p>ooh, oooh… I’m the first to arrive :D</p>

<p>Muchas gracias. I will now proceed to savor each link.</p>

<p>Sincerely,
a grateful MOS</p>

3

<p>Gorgeous dress! You are going to be a beautiful bride.</p>

4

<p>It is all wonderful, mollieb. I especially love the colors you are doing in flowers. And the shoes. and… and… and…</p>

<p>I love the “not as tall as his driver’s license says.” I can relate - I’m not as slim as my driver’s license says ;). </p>

<p>I think I can live without the light brown tux with the ruffles and black piping :eek:. But if he does go with that, I can save you a lot of money on your dress by boxing up and shipping to you my friend’s dress from 1979 - white victorian with brown velvet ribbon running through some of the eyelet. A perfect match, I think.</p>

5

<p>This is lovely. Thanks for sharing.</p>

6

<p>I like your flowers Mollie. (My bouquet was tiger lilies and spider plants.) The chapel looks neat, and I love the idea of a reception at the Science Museum. Do you get to play with the exhibits? </p>

<p>We went to a conference a couple of years ago which had its big gala dinner at the Glasgow Science museum and I swear running around the exhibits with drinks in hand was the best part of the experience!</p>

7

<p>Great choice for wedding gown! Love the room and view at the Museum of Science. I had seen your post with the picture of the chapel at MIT before, it really is beautiful.</p>

<p>I can see that you enjoyed the planning.</p>

<p>Wishing you both many wonderful, healthy, and happy years together!</p>

<p>jmmom, I loved the wedding gown offer, but I hope that Adam does not really wear that tux-Is he going to? To keep the family peace, I guess he might, huh?</p>

8

<p>not an MOS, but everything looks great Mollie? I am so happy to see that everything is just falling into place.</p>

9

<p>

Lovely, lovely! Thanks so much for sharing! Your planning mirrors that of my son and his fiancee and I needed a fix from the bride’s perspective. He’s getting married August 25th. May I offer up my husband’s beige tux with brown piping and my bridesmaid’s coral dresses (1978)? They should go with your future FIL’s garb. ;)</p>

10

<p>

The actual reception room we rented doesn’t contain exhibits, but our cocktail hour will be in the exhibit area – the museum rep told us “…and you’ll have your cocktails over there by the moose.” :D</p>

<p>Larger weddings can actually be held in one of the wings of the museum, which I think would have been spectacular, but our wedding isn’t big enough to justify having all that space.</p>

<p>

I would love to see it. Haha, FIL is tall and wiry, so I think it might not fit so well.</p>

11

<p>Mollie–I just got rooms over Thanksgiving at the Marriott Kendall Square for $99/night because apparently that’s a slow time for them… it’s possible mid-Sept is too. </p>

<p>What does it say about me that the only link I checked was for the shoes? They’re great, BTW!</p>

12

<p>I checked every link, and I feel like a kid in a candy store! I hope my sons find girls as lovely, bright and nice as you are, Mollie. :)</p>

13

<p>Hi Mollie,
As a mother of 3 sons, (including one named Adam!) allow me to also offer up as an alternative to your future FIL’s suggestion, my spouse’s wedding tux from 1977, light yellow. It was lovely with the dark brown tuxes worn by the groomsmen. What were we thinking??? On the other hand, with the lovely selections you have made, you will never have to look back 30 years later and ask that same question!</p>

14

<p>LOVELY!!! So pretty! So classy! :slight_smile: :slight_smile: So very happy for you, Mollie! :slight_smile: :)</p>

<p>Hotels in/near Boston - the AmeriSuites isn’t very close to a T stop, but may be good if people are going to stay for a few days. If you look north to Woburn, or west to Waltham or Newton, you can get some great deals. Woburn has a commuter rail; Newton is close to the green line (although that presents the problem of having to go into Boston and then out to the red line).</p>

15

<p>I love the museum of science and Disney World ideas! That so sounds like something I would do. I wish you two the best of luck and lots of happiness. =)</p>

16

<p>When is the date? Are you going to put a white stretch limo on top of the wedding chapel? (Isn’t that what MIT students do??)</p>

17

<p>Haha, NJres, I’ll have to talk to some people and see what I can do about that. :wink: Perhaps a little bride and groom chapel topper?</p>

<p>The date is September 15 of next year. I love Boston in autumn.</p>

<p>Thanks to everybody who’s suggested hotels. I’m planning to start contacting hotels within the next few weeks – I tried to contact them about a month ago, but apparently hoteliers run on some sort of 50-week calendar and they told me to get back to them later. I’d really like to put them up at the Kendall Marriott, since it’s closest to the chapel + the T, but I definitely want to get a good rate. (How does that work, by the way? I just say “We need x rooms” and they will give a special rate to anybody who says they’re in my party? Do I have to pay a deposit or anything?)</p>

18

<p>mollie,
The way the Marriott works around here is you say that you would like to block “x” number of rooms and they will set those aside in the wedding name for you. You do not need to put down a deposit. Your guests will have to make the reservations by “x” date, let’s say 3-4 weeks before the wedding, and if the individual guests don’t reserve the rooms by that time, the Marriott will be permitted to release the rooms for sale to the general public. They will probably put you in touch with someone in their group sales department to discuss a rate and it will all be given to you in writing. (Tip-Add a few extra rooms on to what you think you will actually need-I was surprised that some local people wanted to stay at the hotel just because family members/friends from out of town were staying there.)</p>

19

<p>We had our engagement photos taken on Tuesday (by Ben Jones’ [lovely</a> wife](<a href=“http://www.rosenjones.com%5Dlovely”>http://www.rosenjones.com) :)), and we’re so pleased with the results!</p>

<p>A few of my favorite photos are [url=<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/engagement%20photos/]here[/url”>http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/engagement%20photos/]here[/url</a>]. We will most likely be using the one that ends in “072” for the engagement announcement in our hometown newspapers.</p>

<p>I’ve been contacting hotels since my last update, and I’m rather disappointed with the offers I’ve gotten. I want the hotel to be convenient to the T, since a lot of my hometown guests have never been to Boston, but all of the really convenient Boston/Cambridge hotels are giving me quotes that don’t seem all that different from what people could get individually on travel websites. I’ve handed this project to my dad, who is much better at negotiation than I am.</p>

<p>One of my bridesmaids is already hard at work planning the bachelorette party – we’re going to take the train/bus/plane to NYC for the day, do some shopping, maybe stop at a spa, and have a classy dinner, then head back to Boston. I’m so psyched about this – I’m not the bar-hopping type at all.</p>

<p>10 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days until the wedding! :D</p>

20

<p>Awwwwwwwwww, mollie, those are <em>SOOOOOOO</em> lovely!! I love the candid nature of them. Just beautiful! What a sweet, happy couple you two make! ~berurah</p>