<p>OOOOOOHHHHH!!! </p>
<p>Man. I’m not MIT material, we now know that for sure. Oy! LOL!</p>
<p>Oh, wackymother, that is so funny. I just always heard the rhyme of it and never even saw tha bat-mit(zvah) at all. It’s all in the eye of the beholder. </p>
<p>Reminds me of the old thread on derivation and pronunciation of screennames. Much weeping and gnashing of teeth over mar-eet vs. mar-ee-tay. The bat-mit vs. b-at-mit begins to rival the momof2incas. I may now realize that she is the mom of 2 in california, but along with bazillions of others, she is still the mom of 2 peruvians to me :).</p>
<p>Haha, I’ve been asked the b-at-MIT vs. bat-mit question before, no worries. 
</p>
<p>It is, indeed, my MIT email address. Although Adam does call me mollie-bat-mit when he’s making fun of me. :)</p>
<p>I always thought Mollie was softball player. . .</p>
<p>You might end up with some CC wedding crashers–better keep the final plans a secret.</p>
<p>
I’m in! Though when I first read this I though “better keep the final plans a secret” was in reference to the CC wedding crashers plan, just like an MIT hack.<br>
Mollie, I love reading this thread. Thank you so much for sharing. I love your dress, the flowers, your shoes, the photos of you and your sweetheart!</p>
<p>We went to visit Memorial Church today, and we were really pleased. The church is, of course, beautiful (a few photos [here](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/church%20photos/]here[/url]”>http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/church%20photos/)</a>), but the best thing is that the church’s sexton seems so helpful and knowledgeable. My fiance commented after we left that the sexton is like a free wedding planner. :)</p>
<p>As much as I would have loved to get married in the MIT chapel, Memorial Church seems much better-managed, and I feel like the sexton will go out of his way to make sure he takes care of everything for us. Plus, now my girls and I have a huge area with couches and a kitchen to get dressed in!</p>
<p>What else… benjones’ lovely wife referred us to a photographer that I really like, so hopefully we’ll have the photography stuff taken care of pretty soon. (Ben’s wife took our engagment photos, but she can’t take our wedding photos – one of the MIT admissions officers is getting married the same day we are. It’s a popular wedding day for MIT alums!)</p>
<p>Of course, it’s also finals week for my classes, and I need to go edit Adam’s statement of purpose for his graduate school app… lots of irons in the fire this week. Better go make another to-do list. ;)</p>
<p>I can attest Mem. church is a fine place to get married. My best friend was married there. </p>
<p>How about those duck mobile thingies to take you over the the MoS? ;)</p>
<p>mollie, I thought your nickname was Latin from the verb mollio “soften” and meant “MIT softened me”. LOL</p>
<p>I was home in Ohio for the holidays, so yesterday two of the bridesmaids and I went out to dress-shop. (The third, my future sister-in-law, had authorized us to pick any dress for her, as she’s busy being a fairy godmother at Disney World.)</p>
<p>I had told them they could pick different dresses if they wanted, but they both liked [this</a> dress](<a href=“http://www.jimhjelmoccasions.com/dress_db_occ/display_dress.php?imageno=5661]this”>http://www.jimhjelmoccasions.com/dress_db_occ/display_dress.php?imageno=5661) the best, so one dress it is! It will be in a bright sky blue color with aquamarine lining underneath.</p>
<p>It was so much fun trying on dresses with them – I was trying them on too, because it wouldn’t have been fun just to watch. 
Man, there are some ugly bridesmaid dresses out there!</p>
<p>Awesome! I haven’t thought about that part yet. But, when I was home for Christmas, I saw old pictures of my mom at weddings in the late 60’s. Nothing like it back then when most brides and bridesmaids sewed the bridesmaid dresses. I told my mom that the veils were a bit much, but can’t beat the resourcefulness!</p>
<p>As a veteran of too many fugly bridesmaid dresses, I can say that you have chosen well!</p>
<p>Haha, ophiolite, when I was home I was looking at my parents’ 1981 wedding photos, personally. My dad wore the oh-so-hot brown tux (with monster sideburns), and my mom’s dress was this puffy, lacy, creampuff concoction. I shudder to think how out-of-date my wedding attire is going to look in 25 years. :)</p>
<p>Mollie,
That dress looks spectacularly gorgeous! I can’t imagine that it will look outdated in 25 years. Then again, I couldn’t imagine that my spouse’s YELLOW tux with the ushers’ chocolate brown tuxes would look dated 25 years later. ;)</p>
<p>Ha! My husband wore a retro tux that Cary Grant could have worn. My dress was a 1930s antique that made me feel like Katherine Hepburn, though I can’t claim to have her cheekbones. I just had one bridesmaid, I sent her a picture of my dress and told her to wear whatever she liked. That was easy and our photos don’t look dated to me. :)</p>
<p>Oh, man, has it really been a month since mid-December? I think I’m living in a time warp.</p>
<p>Photography
We sent in our deposit to [this</a> photographer](<a href=“http://www.studioatticus.com/]this”>http://www.studioatticus.com/), and we’re totally psyched to have her take the photos. We decided to go with a really good photographer instead of an equivalently-priced photographer + videographer, and I’m happy with that choice. (MIL is not so happy.) </p>
<p>Invitations
We spent an hour or so on Sunday sitting in the local stationery store looking at invitations. We were not psyched. All of the really crisp, elegant stuff was absurdly expensive, and all the stuff in our price range had lots of embossed bells and flowers and princesses.</p>
<p>I did find a place online that has invitations that I really like. I think we will go with [url=<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/invitation.JPG]this”>http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/invitation.JPG]this</a> design<a href=“it%20will%20actually%20have%20a%20brown%20backing,%20which%20for%20some%20reason%20isn’t%20showing%20up”>/url</a>. Cute and inexpensive! Win.</p>
![http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/invitation.JPG]this](http://web.mit.edu/mollieb/www/wedding/invitation.JPG%5Dthis){kind=link}
<p>Save-the-Dates
Since we’ll have a lot of people coming in from out of town, we’re going to send out save-the-dates by mid-February. I designed them, and we’re going to have them printed on white cardstock at the MIT copy center and glue them on larger pieces of blue cardstock. Yay DIY projects!</p>
<p>Registries
It’s so much fun to register! We’re sort of done, except that we don’t have the “recommended” number of gifts for the number of guests we’re inviting. To be honest, we just don’t want enough stuff. But I’m so excited that we’re going to have a set of nice kitchen stuff – we like to cook, but our current equipment isn’t all that great.</p>
<p>Cake
We’re going to start going to cake tastings in the next week or two – yum! Does anybody have suggestions on cake flavors? A lot of the bakers we’re considering have a dizzying array of flavors, but I don’t know how to pick something that everybody will like. (For instance, my mother is trying to insist that we have a chocolate cake, although my fiance strongly dislikes chocolate. Fiance refuses to have a white cake, because white cakes “taste like weddings.”)</p>
<p>EDIT: Also, any opinions on having both sets of parents on the invitation? They are both paying, but more than that, I feel like it’s more appropriate to acknowledge both sets of parents and both of us – it’s <em>our</em> day, not <em>my</em> day, and I want to honor his parents too. But do you think it will raise eyebrows?</p>
<p>Get a strawberries and cream cake!!! Or a coconut cake–although coconut is controversial and some may not like it. I’d say berry or coffee flavors are more unique than white or chocolate but still pleasing to the majority of people.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m actually doing cake tasting this weekend! I’ll let you know if I find out anything interesting or if I come up with questions you may want to ask the baker. </p>
<p>My mom is interested in a lemon poppyseed layer, but I’m not sold…we’ll see, the cake tasting will be an interesting experience no doubt!</p>
<p>Re: Invitation…</p>
<p>I think what we are going to do is say, “together with our parents” instead of singling anyone out. </p>
<p>so it’ll go something like this </p>
<p>Jane Doe
and
John Doe</p>
<p>Together with our parents cordially invite you…</p>
<p>This way it leaves nobody out…</p>
<p>When we got married, nearly 29 years ago, our invitation was issued by both sets of parents.</p>
<p>From memory, something like this:
Our children, Bride first name and Groom first name, are getting married.</p>
<p>The honor of your presence is requested at such and such place and on such and such date and time.</p>
<p>Bride’s mother first name and Bride’s father first name
Groom’s mother first name and Groom’s father first name</p>
<p>A friend of mine had carrot cake for her wedding cake - her favorite!</p>
<p>IIRC, my wedding invitation was “(Bride’s parents) request the honor of your presence at the wedding of (me) to (husband)…”</p>
<p>Mollie,
When I got married in 1977 both sets of names were on the invitation, something like Mrs. and Mrs. X and Mr. and Mrs. Y request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their children “A” and “B.” And I would love to help out with your “cake tasting.” I will be in the Boston area for a few days beginning on Friday. Where should I meet you? :D</p>