Photos

Professional Amateur
The wedding, part one (getting ready through signing the certificate) Pre- and postwedding and reception, Vickie snapshots
The wedding, part two (reading the certificate through the family dance)  
The wedding, part three (the reception)  
The wedding, part four (end of the reception)  
   

us | attendants | my attire | ceremony | flowers & decoration | food & drink | gifts & registering | Andrew's attire | guests & guest list | honeymoon | invitations & stationery | miscellany | money matters | music | photo & video | planning | prewedding pampering | reception | related events | rings | the big day | the cake | transportation & lodging | other stuff (including things I've made for Knotties)

vendor and source summary
   

us

Our house in Regent Square; we rent out the top two floors and live in the first.
For more photos from our engagement photo shoot with our wedding photographer, Lisa Kyle, at Frick Park and in our yard (including some with our dogs), check out
http://lisaprice.typepad.com/photos/engagement_photo_shoot/. For more of Andrew's photography, check out http://www.andrewandlisa.net/andrewgallery/.

attendants

We didn't want to ask any of our friends to spend money on specific outfits to wear. And we didn't want a formal-feeling ceremony with a bunch of people flanking us on either side, but we also couldn't pick just one or even two special friends to stand with us. Besides, our Quaker service had us sitting for the entire service except when saying our vows, and we hoped not at the front of the room, but amid our friends and loved ones.

So we aren't really having attendants. We've asked a few special friends to spend the day with us, to help us do things as we get ready, and to perform special functions during the ceremony, but no one is wearing bridesmaid dresses or formal attire.

my attire

I'm wearing a bridesmaid dress: Watters and Watters style 25503 (a.k.a. 5299) in white duchess satin with wild cherry single-faced satin ribbon trim, about $300 (including alterations) from MB Bride in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. What a drama this was, though! I originally had a whole other style in mind, then after four hours of deliberation chose this dress in dove grey (sort of a platinum color) satin but couldn't decide on the ribbon color, then called the shop to choose blue (Watters calls it jasmine) ribbon. Then two weeks before the grey-and-blue dress was to come in, I realized that now that we'd changed our design inspiration (from vintage Hollywood and black-and-white movies to Fallingwater and Frank Lloyd Wright and his Cherokee red), I wanted a white dress with red trim :) So I currently have a deposit down on the grey-and-blue dress and the white-and-red dress! Silly girl!

NOTE: As I forfeit the 50-percent deposit on the grey-and-blue dress regardless on my wedding date (9/24/05), I am looking for a buyer for it before that date. If you are interested in a size eight (check Watters' size charts for measurements) unaltered, still in the original storage bag dress in this style in dove and jasmine, for $150 plus shipping, please page me on the Pittsburgh board before that date (as soon as possible)!

Both dresses are in. I'm buying the white-and-red one; the other will just wait for a day when maybe I need a smashing evening gown for something, I guess. I have my second fitting on September 8!

Here's me trying on the sample at MB Bride:

pics from my first fitting :) August 13th  
holding my little White Aisle purse, a perfect color match!
and bustled
and some shots Allison took of the ribbon detail:
The final fitting:
Worrying about back fat (why I'm holding my arms and shoulders like that) and puckering seams...

worrying about a short crooked hemline, less cleavage and oomph than I'd expected, and being able to see the bustier...

worrying about back fat again...

...but in the end, decided nobody would care about any of the things I was worrying about besides me, and with 10 days to go, I couldn't afford to worry about it. The bustle bottom will get safety-pinned across to let the ribbon show all the way, too, by the way, as the ribbon really is the point of the dress. If I had it to do over, I'd have taken the dress to Clarissa Boutique and Parker Button at 1700 East Carson Street in Pittsburgh--after seeing what a professional and careful job they did on Annie's (anneg's) dress, I think they'd have done a better job on mine. But really, I think no one will notice but me, and this will not be what I'm thinking about on the wedding day. At least that's the goal :)

And the shoes:

The shoes have blue detailing on the tips, so that's my something blue :)

I'm not planning to wear a veil or tiara or anything else on my head, just a simple down-do. For jewelry, I'm wearing my pearl choker and studs. Can't go wrong with a classic :) Here are my other accessories:

This fantastic little purse from The White Aisle (a splurge at $30, but it's truly amazing, and I couldn't forget it since I first spotted it many moons ago), to carry lip gloss, tips, hotel and car keys, and whatever other little items I might need:

and this pashmina wrap from eBay seller zenjen ($35, another splurge, but I'm sure I'll use both of these accessories again, so I totally don't mind):

And finally, this beautiful handkerchief I know I'll never use again (and stupid at $20), but couldn't resist because I know I'll be crying all night--I'm such a crybaby that I cry at dog food commercials (seriously--we're for puppies?? I'm for puppies! It's as if we were made for each other...), so I needed a handkerchief, and...well...it's just so pretty... (also from White Aisle)

ceremony

I am a Quaker, so we're using a Quaker marriage license and no officiant, having a somewhat secularized but traditional-in-format Quaker ceremony. We look forward to exchanging our vows and to incorporating the reading and signing of a Quaker marriage certificate (see reception), but the ceremony is otherwise totally unprogrammed. Messages can come from any guest present, and their spontaneity is the fun of a Quaker ceremony :)

Programs are in redesign; one current plan is to make them on plain white card stock, double sided, measuring 4.25x11" (half a piece cut lengthwise), using the same lettering and colors as the rest of the printed material. No gluing or attaching anything that way, just printing and cutting, reducing the amount of time needed at the last minute. The other reason is that I used the cardstock I'd bought to make the programs in order to make the rehearsal dinner invitations. :)

Our vows are simple: "In the presence of these friends and family, I take you Andrew [Lisa] to be my husband [wife], promising to be unto you a loving and faithful wife [husband] so long as we both shall live." (The traditional Quaker vows include God, but I don't believe in a personal God, and Andrew doesn't believe in any God, so we've modified them to accommodate what we will be promising one another. The traditional vows vary from one yearly meeting to another, but generally go something like this: "In the presence of God and of these our Friends, I, Lisa, take thee Andrew, to be my husband, promising with Divine assistance to be unto you a loving and faithful wife so long as we both shall live."

flowers & decoration

Our florist, Allison McGeary , will be making me a bouquet of white tulips wrapped with a tulip leaf. Below are some pics I did when I thought I might do this myself with a test bouquet I bought from Flowerbud.com. I ordered a bouquet from them for $59 to test what I could do and how long it would take. Here's what I did in maybe 15 minutes after work:

The flowers arrive in a big box, which even in a 90-degree heat wave they survived on my doorstep all day while I was at work. I came home and followed the three-step directions to unwrap them, cut off about an inch straight across (because they're tulips, you don't cut them on a slant), then wrap them back up to keep them from drooping, and put them in a vase of water with the supplied food for at least 12 hours. Here's what they looked like when I came home from work the next night:

I took 10 tulips, removed the bottom leaf from each, cut them to the same length, rolled them in one of the tulip leaves, and secured the leaf with some white-tipped corsage pins. I then made smaller ones with three and five flowers. Allison will make one for me of about 12-15 tulips and one for Jen of about 2/3 that size, plus boutonnieres for Andrew and Chris as well as the three fathers. She's also making corsages or wristlets of some sort for the three mothers from tulips and freesia. Hers, of course, will be far more beautiful than mine :)

She'll also place a single tulip at each place setting in the bud vases I've ordered from Instawares (24 for $40, including shipping), so that'll use about 75-100, depending on how many guests are coming.

Around each vase, printed in red (for salmon), black (for chicken), green (for pasta), or grey (for children's meal) on a band of translucent white vellum, will be the guest's name. These vases will therefore serve as table decor, place cards, and favors. Love it!

food & drink

Our caterer will be serving a seated dinner with entree choices for our guests of salmon Florentine, herbed chicken, or pasta primavera, along with their fabulous square salad, rice pilaf, and perfectly prepared vegetables. For dessert they'll serve Jack Daniels bread pudding and make-your-own s'mores. We'll provide our own bartender, beer, and wine (actually, Andrew's parents are providing the beer and wine); the Cafe will provide soft drinks, coffee, and water.

gifts & registering

Andrew and I bought each other matching iPods for combination wedding and anniversary gifts (because they were such a major splurge, but we figured they'd last a long time and be pretty wonderful to have on the long flights to and from Ireland):

We've bought all six of our parents a small gift and each pair of parents another gift--in case they look at this page, I'm not posting specifics, but if you want them, email me :)

For the longest-married couple, still dancing at the end of the anniversary dance, we bought a Polartec Aircore-200 fleece throw in deep cardinal from Lands' End:

We're registered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Crate and Barrel, and TheThingsIWant.com. Here are some of my favorite things from our registries :)


Dansk Torun flatware (rounding out my current collection)

Domo everyday dishes

Dublin glasses (and we're going to Ireland for our honeymoon--it's like fate!)
 
 
Kukkula towels in blue (we also registered for a shower curtain in blue, and green towel sets)
 
Kukkula sheets in taupe (we also registered for them in blue and green)

andrew's attire

Andrew has rented a tux from Men's Wearhouse at the Waterfront ($20 deposit, balance of $50 due when he picks it up).

guests & guest list

We're inviting 77 adults and 26 children. Sixty-four adults, four children, and two infants are supposedly coming, according to the response count, including seven vendors and the two of us--a delightfully intimate group.

These are our save-the-dates, which we sent out in the spring of 2005. They included dates and times of the ceremony, reception, and after party, directions, reservation information, and maps. Our web site has information about things to do once they get here and lots of other details, so we also gave them the URL for that.

I based them on a vintage postcard image that I doctored in Photoshop. Each tab gives information (and, in one case, a map I drew). The upper-left corner is fastened with a pewter-finished eyelet (source: Michael's, scrapbooking aisle). The whole thing fits perfectly into a standard #10 envelope; we mailed them in translucent white vellum ones.

 
My stepmother Jean (who's lost a good 50 pounds since this photo was taken, thanks to a healthy spirit and lots of hockey playing!), my dad, and me (love those stylin' bangs, huh?)
Vickie, queen of the Vickie-cam :) in a high-school picture
Lisa, Jen, and me in 1990. A trio of dated hairstyles and fashions if I ever saw them! But the four of us (Lisa, Jen, Vickie, and me) will be together the whole weekend pretty inseparably, and I can't wait. Lisa and Vickie have also become good friends over the years, which is cool to see.

My mother and my brother David in an obviously vintage photo

David now

honeymoon

Andrew booked us a flight (well, two flights each way, stopping in Philadelphia) to Shannon International Airport in Ireland. We'll stay at the Clarion Hotel Limerick in (surprise) Limerick, County Limerick, Ireland. We booked everything through Expedia--very easy and we found a good deal that way.

Yes, a little cottage, bed and breakfast, or historic castle looks very romantic, and we did investigate and debate those--endlessly. But finally we agreed that we really do like the anonymity of being able to return to our rooms at the end of the day. We like spending time with people when we're out, which will be all the time that we're not in our home away from home, but when we come back to sleep, we just want to be on our own. ;)

When we're not, uh, in the hotel, though, there's lots of stuff to see and do in southwestern Ireland:


Have a medieval banquet, if it's not too hokey, at Bunratty Castle

or Knappogue Castle

or Dunguaire Castle.

Traditional Irish Night at the Corn Barn in Bunratty Folk Park

Cycle the Burren

Cycle County Clare

Watch dolphins off Carrigaholt

Or out of Kilrush

Visit the Flying Boat Museum

Visit Lough Gur

Walk some of the Ballyhoura Way

Take a fast ferry to the Aran Islands

Ride the Clonmacnoise and West Offaly Railway through Blackwater Bog

Follow the Limerick Garden Trail

And just take in the sights and meeting people in all the beautiful little towns around us. We're probably only going for about a week, and we can't plan every minute--I want to relax after the last couple of years of wedding planning, job hunting, and house buying.

invitations & stationery

The invitations and the rest of the wedding identity are all inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, where Andrew and I have spent many wonderful weekends. I used his Exhibition font throughout and used Cherokee red (actually now it's a PPG paint not called that at all but called New England Barn Red, but FLW always called it Cherokee red) as an accent color. I've printed everything on white card stock, then mounted it on the garnet Envelopments Pocketfolds. I hand-lettered the invitation envelopes, translucent vellum, in black ink in the Exhibition font. I bought all the Envelopments Pocketfolds from TextStyleDesigns.com, which is a vendor to which I give an A++++! Mindy Wogan, the owner, simply rocks! The service is amazing and fast, the prices are terrific, and she really knows her products--and she will totally steer you in the right direction, whether she sells what you need or not! The card stock I bought at Office Depot, and the double-stick tape and pens I bought at Michael's, both at the Waterfront.

These are the invitations, finished:

In the foreground are the rehearsal dinner invitations (issued really by my future mother-in-law, but I made them and am sending them out with our wedding invitations; responses will go to her, of course, as Andrew's parents are the hosts of that event). In the background are the wedding invitations.

And this is the stamp I designed and ordered from PhotoStamps. They arrived about 10 days after ordering.


Andrew took this photograph of the male toucan (on the left) feeding the female toucan at the National Aviary the weekend I first met his parents in 2000. The food dish was just below them both, well within reach of both male and female, but she just sat there eating, waiting patiently for him to feed her. He'd eat a little, then carefully feed her a little. I thought it was one of the sweetest, most romantic things I'd ever seen. It's still one of my favorite photos he's ever taken. Anyway, back to the stamps: for $0.60 stamps, two 20-stamp sheets cost about $40, as opposed to the $24 that they'd cost normally. To me, that extra $16 is easily worth this beautiful personal touch. I customized his original rectangular image in Photoshop; the stamp cuts off all white space to the left and right of the photograph and just tacks on a little postal rate information to the right. The whole stamp is about 1.5x2".

Upon opening the wedding invitation envelope, the recipient sees this closed pocketfold as an inner envelope, addressed with a silver gel pen:

Unfolded, the package looks like this:

or this with the response card set moved out of the way--in the pocket are a direction and map card (different ones for out-of-town and local guests) and a brunch invitation:

Here are the individual parts:

The out-of-town directions:

This is the inside of the folded response card; it really didn't take that long to do individualized ones! And this way I'll get (I hope) all the information I need from everyone.

Lisa bought me these swell note cards for my birthday, and I cannot wait to use them for our thank-you notes!

miscellany

At our mothers' requests, we placed engagement announcements in the Lansing State Journal, Andrew's parents' hometown paper, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, my parents' hometown paper, about a year before the wedding. We had our wonderful photographer, Lisa Kyle, do a photo shoot with us at Frick Park, and used one of the photos from that for the announcement (a color version of one of the photos at the top of this bio). We probably won't place a wedding announcement in any papers--maybe the Pittsburgh paper.

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, where we live and where we'll marry, lists its marriage license requirements on its Register of Wills' web site. You can download the form, then take it down to the office in person. We'll be using a Quaker marriage license, which allows us to use no officiant, just have our witnesses sign. So we downloaded the form, took our photo ID, the form, $48 ($45 for the marriage license plus $3 because I've been married before), and a certified copy of my divorce decree to the City-County Building downtown one day in the summer, and applied for our marriage license. They can mail regular licenses, but require that self-uniting, or Quaker licenses, be picked up in person, so Andrew picked ours up.

money matters

We are a low-budget couple with this wedding--our original goal was to spend no more on the wedding than we'll have spent on our rings! We'll go a little over that, but not by much :) We're paying for pretty much everything ourselves, with Andrew's parents helping us out very graciously with the wine and beer at the reception and with the rehearsal dinner. We think we'll come in at around $8,500 for everything but the rings and the honeymoon.

We bought wedding insurance from WedSafe and it's provided great peace of mind--well worth every penny :)

music

Our friends Mark and Sharlotte, who are professional musicians, have graciously offered to provide our ceremony music. We've hired John Vallese' company, Event 123 to provide our reception music. They are providing Steve Simak, who seems very professional and easy to work with.

I've asked Mark and Sharlotte if they can please play Aaron Copland's "Simple Gifts" as our processional. When they played it for us recently, I choked back tears (surprise!). If you don't know it, it's a mid-1840s Shaker song he incorporated into a ballet called "Appalachian Spring" in the mid-1940s. The lyrics are beautiful:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn, will be our delight,
'Till by turning, turning we come round right.

--Joseph Brackett, 1848

We're taking dance lessons at Dance America in Bellevue--just $75 for six one-hour lessons with two other couples we know from Gay Gregg, who is so patient and clear. It's been great! We did two sets of six lessons and she is a very patient, friendly teacher (just what we needed).

photo & video

Our fabulously talented photojournalist is Lisa Kyle. We aren't having a videographer, though I'm looking forward to Vickie providing her Vickiecam :)

planning

We considered a lot of location possibilities before deciding on the Edgewood Club, which we ultimately chose because it's very close to home--less than a mile away--and beautiful. We thought it would be a great way to honor the neighborhood we call home and the history and architecture we love about it.

We wanted a fall wedding, but also wanted to stay away from a lot of the fall holidays that our friends and family celebrate. Fortunately, we didn't have to schedule around a particular officiant (our Quaker service won't have an officiant), location (we didn't have our heart set on any particular location), or consultant (we didn't hire a coordinator until just a few weeks before the wedding); really our only scheduling issue was working around my future sister-in-law's work schedule--at the time, she was a police officer with junior status who'd have to cover all the other officers when they went away hunting during Michigan's hunting season! That's the other reason we couldn't go too much into October.

We have a web site with all sorts of details, more than you'd ever want to know. We're aiming for simplicity and intimacy throughout this process :) though I (Lisa, the bride) am a planning geek and project manager, so I also have a blog about my planning. I also obviously keep a lot of notes about decisions as I make them here, and get a lot of ideas from The Knot's Pittsburgh message boards. Mainly I stay organized on paper in my binder, in my computer's calendar, though :) and through a fabulous little book called The Bride's Book of Lists and a couple of spreadsheets. Once upon a time I managed this in Microsoft Project, but that fell by the wayside a few years back (we've been engaged for so long now) and I never reorganized the project plan. By the time things got started again, I just didn't make time to go back and set it up again. Sometimes I wish I had, but it's turned out okay. If I ever coordinate or plan another event, though I think it's a great tool and that's how I'd do it.

The color scheme has evolved through several iterations to where it is now: white with accents of a deep, rich red, inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Cherokee red, but ultimately a bit different, matching Envelopments' garnet. (For the record, my best match on my printer comes out to Pantone Metallic 8660C, R155-G70-B66, C28-M80-Y72-K20, hexadecimal #9B4642.) It coordinates beautifully with the rich blue and gold of the interior of the club and the brilliant white stucco walls, tiled portico, and barrel-tiled roof of the exterior.

The ceremony will be a Quaker service, with music beforehand, a processional, and a recorded song closing it at the end making it perhaps a little less than traditional.

prewedding pampering

Jen and I will head to Clipps in Regent Square for manicures and pedicures Friday, in addition to my having Ken and Eddy do my hair and makeup at Salon Cercone on Saturday :) My hair will be down, elegantly simple--Ken got it perfect at our last hair trial--and Eddy did a great job on my makeup. I'm in good hands.

reception

Map of the ceremony and reception location

Yes, those are train tracks running right outside, so hope for cool enough temperatures that we don't have to have the doors open--the train schedules are completely unpredictable! But if it's hot and we do have to have the doors open, we'll just have to have a big old sense of humor about that :)

Outside shot of the Edgewood Club, where both ceremony and reception will be. The location manager, Ron Gallagher, is a great guy!

Some photos Joanne Bartone took of the club at a previous wedding there--we plan to put pillar candles (see below) across the stage in the reception area like this couple did (top right, center right, bottom left), and luminaria along the sidewalk outside like they did as well (bottom right). We may have to skip the stage candles, though, if the DJ has to be on stage to allow more room for the dancing--I'm leaving that up to the coordinator and the DJ and the site manager to determine that day. Don't care :) The sidewalk (bottom right) is where I'll process, weather permitting; otherwise, there's a door from the interior hallway of the club where I'll just come in and walk to the center of the room to meet Andrew.

I bought most of what I need to make the luminaria (everything except the sand, which I'll get at Lowe's in September, and the X-acto knives, which we already own) at Instawares, which ships free in seven to 10 days (ships in three days and arrives in five to 10) with just a $4 handling fee and no tax (since I don't live in Georgia or South Dakota). They have an amazing selection of stuff--I'm also getting our takeout containers for leftovers for the morning-after brunch (see "related events"), archival pens for our guests to leave us memory cards to put in our photo album (in lieu of a guest book), and pillar candles.

 
 

The living room, where our ceremony will be, has this amazing floor-to-ceiling tiled wall fireplace in the most beautiful blue tiles with handmade accent tiles throughout that I tried lamely to capture one day--it will make a beautiful backdrop for our vows:

 

       
Our reception location, the ballroom, which opens onto the living room through French doors, and has more French doors opening onto a tiled portico. They provide all tables and chairs; we'll need to rent the linens separately through the caterer, which the caterer estimates will cost about $13 person. They'll be renting simple white linens through Mosaic.

now

then: look at those soaring beamed ceilings--they're still there and still beautiful! and the walls are plastered and gorgeous now :)


Where the kids will play during the latter part of the ceremony and as much of the reception as their parents choose, at the Court Cafe down a short hallway from the ballroom and living room. We'll be arranging for child care in ratios appropriate to the numbers and ages of children coming, as we start to get responses.

One down side about the Edgewood Club is that there's only street parking. But in the fall, the swimming and tennis seasons have closed, and there's nothing else happening in the evening, so I'm hoping it won't be a problem.

In lieu of a traditional guest book, Quakers usually use a wedding certificate. I don't seem to have a picture of it at the moment, but I'll post one again soon. We will have Andrew's friend Chris stand and read the first part of this during the ceremony (not including our names at the top), then we'll sign in the blank between the two paragraphs, then he'll finish reading it and he and Jen will sign below it as our witnesses. Other guests can sign it after the ceremony.

The rest of the guests will sign simple cards at each place setting that we'll then put into our photo album near their photos. We'll use the same archival card stock we used for the invitations, ask them to drop them into our card box. We'll provide archival pens ($0.88 from InstaWares). We'll put some prompting questions, inspired by GuestBookStore.com, on the tables, in case anyone needs help getting started: From where did you travel? How far? How do you know us? What is your favorite memory of us? What do you want us to remember most about the wedding? What are your wishes for us? What is your advice for us? We'll slip them into archival glassine envelopes I purchased from Electron Microscopy Sciences ($10 for 100 in the size we wanted--70mm square) that are affixed to the page archivally, so that if people want to write on both sides of a card or even on multiple cards, it's not going to be a problem :)

The photo album will likely be a Kolo Newport album in red (which comes with black pages):

Our card box is a Kolo Havana box (the one shown in green on the right in the photo, in red) ($25 from Jenni Bick Bookbinders, the best price I found and great, fast service!):

We won't have a receiving line. We've kept the guest list small on purpose, to ensure that we'd be able to spend time with everyone there.

After the ceremony, guests will check a table assignment chart to see at what table they'll eat; right now it includes all the guests except those whose names we don't know yet (because they're "and guests"), and we haven't assigned the actual numbers, but it feels good to have it all laid out already. I'll likely print the table assignment chart on larger paper and mount it on foam-core board using spray adhesive (or just pay Kinko's to do it for me?) near the door where they'll come in from the ceremony to the reception room.

I'll also give lists, organized by table, to Barb (the caterer) and the Edgewood Club person on staff, Jen. Then, when they get to their table, they'll find bud vases with one tulip in each, with one guest name printed on vellum wrapped around each vase, that will serve as their place cards and their favors; the name wraps will also be color coded to entrees so that servers know what to bring each guest. (Children are getting a children's menu of macaroni and cheese bites--yum--but parents can also request children's portions of chicken, pasta, or salmon, the adult menus we're serving, without sauces, if they'd prefer. Our caterers were awesome at coming up with that suggestion as a way to save money and still make everyone happy!)

related events

Some very sweet and generous (and sneaky!) Knotties (anneg and BethieB) planned a shower/bachelorette party for me in disguise as a Knottie GTG 2.5 weeks before my wedding. I was TOTALLY surprised and I can't believe that so many people could keep a secret so well and WOULD keep one so well. No one has ever done anything like that for me before. Here's how I described it in my thank-you post when I got home:

I've been a writer almost my whole adult life, but I'm not sure I have the words to express how I felt tonight, or how I feel when I think about it now. I went to Station Square tonight expecting to catch up with some Knotties I know and to meet some I didn't. I walked into the Red Star Tavern and saw, far in the corner, a table with red and white balloons. I figured, "Who else besides a bunch of Knotties could be sitting at a bar [with a bunch of balloons] on a Wednesday night?" So I headed that direction. Sure enough, I recognized Beth (BethieB) and Annie (anneg) right away, so kept walking over. When I got to the table, Anne motioned me to the seat next to hers, which had a small wrapped bouquet of red and white flowers lying at it, red rose petals strewn across the menu, a pile of greeting cards in front of it, and a little white gift bag in the middle of the table. She said, "Actually, this seat is for you." "Why is this one for me, with all the flower petals at it?" I asked. She and Beth explained that this was a surprise--for me! Somehow you girls had decided that I was having a hard time and needed this, was bummed about not having a shower or bachelorette party, and incredibly you managed to pull this off without my knowing. As all of this sunk in, I cried. Like a little girl, I cried :) I know I'll forget someone, but I'll try to remember everyone who was there. Anna (decca), Lori (lori7473), Jules (jules.), Ellen (ellenchris06), Kari (kari&paul), Meghan (meghan&rich), Sarah (sarah&tim), Tobi (LNFbride06), Beth and Anne, Loree (loree), Erin (PIBErinScottsomethingsomething--you know who I mean!) :) [I remembered as I was falling asleep, I think: PGHErinPIBScott--did I get it right?] I know I'm forgetting a couple of people, because I can picture the table and there are some people I haven't named :( But I promise it's just because I'm old and it's past my bedtime!! Please don't be hurt if I forgot you! Truly I'm just touched beyond belief that all of you showed up. And besides the people who came, Carole and Kristy (kap60999) sent cards and Amy (nyc212) and Sara (SPonchette) sent gifts. Most of all, I'm just incredibly, unspeakably touched at the generosity and kindness that so many of you showed me tonight and in the weeks that made tonight happen--whether it was a card, a gift, or your time and affection, I'm just so overwhelmed and can't believe that you would reach out to me that way. Sorry that got so long. I'm just a big ball of gratitude :) Thank you!!

So here are pics from the shower/party/GTG! Huge thanks to lori7473 for whipping her great little digital camera out of an Altoids case (no kidding) to take all of these!


This is the back of Jules' head, then Anna (decca) looking at me, then me reading a card, Anne (anneg), Loree, Beth (BethieB), Megan (duqlawgoddess), Sarah (sarah&tim) and Ellen (ellenchris0506) at the Red Star Tavern.


Anna (decca) and Anne (anneg) watch me reading Carole's card. Carole was home devoted to John, but I was so happy she was able to be part of the shower!


The back of Loree's head, Beth, Megan, Sarah, Ellen, and Meghan (meghan&rich) seeing something funny :)


Anna and Anne watch me opening Sara's (SPonchette's) card, which accompanied a beautiful gift!


Apparently I get a little devilish when I don't know what to do with all this attention! :) Really, I was overwhelmed by all the kindness!


Still opening Sara's gift, I think, with Anna and Anne looking on.


The back of Jules' head, Anna, me, a little of Anne's head, Loree, Beth, Megan, Sarah, Ellen, and Meghan as sneaky cohost Beth tells another funny story!


It's obvious I've never had anyone do anything like this for me before, because it's taking me forever to open Sara's present! But you can see that they are lovely leaf-shaped plates--I'm holding one in a rust color, and the other was green.


Look how stunned I am that someone has sent a gift, and how funny everyone else thinks it is that I'm stunned! They're all, "It's a shower, you idiot! Hold them up, let us take your picture, and get over it!" And I'm just like, "People give me presents and watch me open them?" I think they're just happy I finally finished carefully unwrapping the layers and layers of tissue paper already! :)


I promise to fix that this is rotated later. :) How appropriate that it's a picture of me holding bottles of wine ;) Erin (PGHErinPIBScott) bought us two bottles of wine (a merlot and a chardonnay) which will help us christen the wine glasses we've been receiving as wedding gifts from our registry! FI will be ecstatic ;)


The look on my face is NOT horror, but realization that (a) somebody has gotten me something off our registry, and (b) Knotties had been plotting this long enough for somebody to have ordered this off our registry and sent it to someone to hold until tonight. I am thinking about all of the people who have been plotting this, all of the emails and communications that must have been happening to pull this off without my knowing, all of the love that must be behind that, and wondering what the hell I could ever have done to deserve such wonderful friends, all while trying to hold it together enough to read the card in my hand and figure out what to do with the enormous box in front of me. Oh, and do it all quickly, because I can see in my peripheral vision that the waiters are bringing our food out.


Yeah. Take all that stuff I'm still processing above, and I'm trying to hurry through getting to the bubble wrap. Anna is trying to hold down the box lid so Jules and the other folks at that end of the table can see what I'm doing. I'm completely overwhelmed with emotion at this moment and trying hard not to cry.


I've now read that the gift is from Amy and Kimo (nyc212 and her fiance) and I am in total disbelief that they have sent me something, but I've shifted into better-hurry mode.


Again, I promise to rotate this later, but I'm trying to figure out the best way to open this without spilling things everywhere, and quickly so I don't delay the wait staff or everyone else's dinner.


I recognize now that this is the chip-and-dip set from our registry and all I want to do is tear into the little bowls to show everyone how cool it is, though the waiters have already started putting food on the table!


I'm working on getting better at showing off gifts in pictures :) Not my best trait, clearly! I tilted it a little so it would be clear what it was, and Beth joked that if I'd tilted it just a little bit more, it would have been an entirely different kind of picture ;) I agreed that the bowls would make interesting, uh, toys at some point. Naughty Beth! (But look how happy Anne looks--is she just happy for me, or is part of that really smugness for pulling this all off? ;) I bet it's a little of both, sneaky sneaky girl!)


The most patient waiter on the planet brings us our cake and a stack of dessert plates. Look at my hands--I'm as excited as a first-grader getting cake at her birthday party! I couldn't believe somebody brought a cake, and when Annie told me my FIANCE was part of the sneakiness in bringing it to Station Square to her, I couldn't believe it! Apparently, he'd snuck off after leaving me where we'd both been at about 5:15 that evening, thought I was headed straight there, rushed over there and told her to meet me at Bucca di Beppo a couple of doors down from Red Star so I wouldn't see, and they got the cake to Red Star's fridge! Meanwhile, I'd gone home in blissful ignorance to give the dogs a little break, check the mail, change from my workday jacket into a more comfy going-out sweater, and took a walk around Station Square when I was 10 minutes early anyway! Andrew even tells me that he'd seen me while he was walking to his car with the cake when we'd first parted ways, but I was completely oblivious.


This was a fantastic cake with raspberry filling from the French bakery (Jean-Michel something) in Millvale. See how it has an umbrella on it? That's because it was my shower :) I felt sooo special! I cut the first piece, but hostess Annie took over after that and did a beautiful job.


I can barely control myself waiting for my cake! Anna and others are looking at Beth's MyPublisher books, which are really lovely.


You wouldn't think I'd be so excited about cutting a cake, but look how pleased I am! And Annie actually cheering me on!


I'm being so careful. You can see the concentration on my face, the concern in Anna's, and the determination in Annie's hand. But Kari (kari&paul) and Jules are happily unconcerned, probably conversing about Jules' wedding, which Kari is coordinating, or just creative stuff generally, which they both share.


The group shot, which Brian the waiter took. It's obviously blurry (though somebody's purse is in perfect focus--very cute!), so I'll try to make out who's who. From left to right in back is Loree, Lori (lori7473), Anne, Megan, Anna, Jules, Beth, and Erin. From left to right in front is Sara, Tobi (LNFBride06), Ellen, me, Meghan, and Kari.

That's it for Knottie GTG/shower/party pics! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! PITTSBURGH KNOTTIES ROCK!!!

We had sort of an engagement party back when we first got engaged, but we've been engaged now for so long that it feels silly to do so now. Our rehearsal dinner will be at one of our favorite restaurants, La Feria! I'm so excited.

We're also having a brunch the day after the wedding back at the Edgewood Club (we love you, Ron!), catered by Yes, We Cater (we love you, John and Mark!), to say goodbye to all of our friends and family from out of town and to get a little more time with them before they leave. We are very excited about having the opportunity to spend a little more time in that space again, too, and to be able to clean it up the day after rather than the night of!

Mark Zablow of Yes, We Cater suggested that we get takeout boxes for people to take leftovers on the road with them, so I found these half-pint ones:

No, that's not a typo: five hundred. Don't know what we'll do with the extras, but I'm very excited to have found them. (They also sell them with the red pagoda designs on them, if you prefer them that way!)

rings


the big day

I've been working on our big day schedule, of course! Lots of help from some articles on The Knot. I'll give copies of directions, the schedule, and contact lists to all the parents, friends, and vendors, so everyone knows who's supposed to be where when. I'll also need to figure out who's meeting the various vendors on Saturday--thank goodness for our friends!

I'm planning to spend the night in our wedding-night hotel room the night before the wedding, so I can take over my wedding-night bag the night before. Andrew can bring his things over then, too, but he can't see me on Saturday until I come up the aisle!

the cake

We won't be having wedding cake, but will instead indulge our guests in Jack Daniels bread pudding and make-your-own s'mores for dessert. The Square Cafe has these little kits:

transportation & lodging

We've set aside a block of rooms at the Holiday Inn Parkway East, about a half mile from the Edgewood Club. People have already been booking rooms--it's very exciting :) We've also booked ourselves a room there for the night before and after.

We've also suggested other options:

We've booked Your Designated Driver to provide unlimited shuttle service between the hotel and the club from 4pm to 11pm in a 15-passenger van.

Not glamorous, but what a bargain and Paul is so nice! Seven hours for $295! It starts an hour before the ceremony, so it'll get the first people who'll head over, and ends an hour after the reception has to end and when the club has to be empty, so it's really perfect. It'll help people who want a designated driver, but also people who don't want to worry about parking in the residential streets.

other stuff

To see a PDF of the program pages I made for Knottie decca, click here. She had Kinko's print it duplexed (which is why I laid it out with the last page first and first page second) landscaped on 8.5x11" paper, cut to 11x5.5", folded in half, and tied inside cover paper with a ribbon. She has photos of the finished product in her bio. The script is a font called Kuenstler Script; the text is a font called Baskerville Old Face. I did it in Adobe InDesign.

To see a PDF of the invitations I made for Knottie morningangel513, click here. She asked me to use the copyrighted image which, in this emergency situation, I reluctantly did. I laid out three invitations on the first page and three response and response cards on the second page; she printed them herself. The font is called Goddard, which I purchased from the Scriptorium, a source of many of my favorite fonts. I created it in Adobe InDesign.

These are monograms I designed for Knottie SPonchette to give to her disc jockey to create a custom gobo for her (a light to shine on the dance floor at her reception)--not sure yet which one she'll choose; she asked only for a simple script with these letters, with the S (her first initial) above and to the left of the M (the new couple's last name) and the other M (the groom's first initial) below and to the right of the first M (the boxes around them won't exist in the final version but were just to ensure that the complete design saved as part of the proof):

The book that helped me learn to lose 50 pounds (and keep it off):


The weather in Pittsburgh:
The WeatherPixie

The weather in Ireland, where we're honeymooning:

The WeatherPixie


Our wedding web page: http://www.andrewandlisa.net

and our beasts:


Luxo (photo by Andrew)


Zuzu (Canine Good Citizen who doesn't always act that way around other dogs) (photo by Andrew)


and Kuan Yin (named for the goddess of mercy, of bodhisattva of compassion, in Chinese Buddhism--she's very big on the goddess part, but not so big on the mercy part. Then again, she turned 16 in May 2005 and now shares my home and attention with a fiance and two boisterous 60-pound lab mixes, so I guess I should give her a break.) (photo by Andrew)