"Intime" proofs are here...

I got my proofs from my Tony Yang "intime" session a few days ago. I thought I'd share just a few teasers before I pick 10 for him to post process.





It was a great experience and I hope Mr. Onion will be thrilled with the images as his wedding gift. I would recommend b-pics and Tony. Learn more on Tony Yang's website.

Ceremony Planning -- Part I

On our trip to Burlington recently we met our minister for the first time. I was nervous because we booked the church, mailed the invitations and made all our plans without having met or spoken to her! Much to my relief she was fantastic!! We brought some ideas with us and she loved it all. She encouraged us to make the ceremony as personal as we liked -- music, readings, vows -- whatever was "us." She was pleased we weren't planning a 10 minute ceremony like a couple she's just married a week earlier. She said "I wondered why they were even here -- they should have gone straight to the reception!"

Here is where we'll stand in front of the pulpit:



Here's what we're thinking so far (in parts so it's not too much to read at once)!

Purpose of Marriage: which the minister will read at the beginning of the service after her brief "welcome."

Mr. Onion and Miss Onion, you have come together for many reasons. You have decided that being together will enrich your lives. You have decided that whatever challenges may lie ahead for you, they can be met more easily with your shared love for each other. You know that your joy will be enhanced because of your commitment to each other.

You are now taking into your care and keeping, the welfare and happiness of the one person, in all the world, whom you love best. You are agreeing to be a light and strength to each other. You are entering into an act of pure faith in which you give yourself to the utmost.

Marriage is more than just an acknowledgement of existing love or an expression of hope that love will last. In marriage, people exercise their uniquely human power to shape their world according to their will. Two people may come together and come to love each other by chance. But when they marry, every day thereafter they make and act on the choice to stay together and continue to love one another.


Blessing of the hands to replace the lighting of the unity candle:

“These are the hands of your best friend, young and strong and full of love for you, that are holding yours on your wedding day, as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow, and forever.

These are the hands that will work alongside yours, as together you build your future. These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, and with the slightest touch, will comfort you like no other.

These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief fills your mind. These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes; tears of sorrow, and tears of joy. These are the hands that will tenderly hold your children.

These are the hands that will help you to hold your family as one. These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it. And lastly, these are the hands that even when wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch.”

Up next: Vows and readings/poems

How did you plan your ceremony. What is/was your favorite party of your ceremony? What readings did you use? We're still not set in stone on the readings so I'm grateful for your thoughts.

Mr. Onion is the best!

I just got an email from Mr. Onion (from work). The subject was "Love!!" He went on to tell me how he was having a busy/bummer of a day and he opened his calendar to check on a work thing and then sent the following email to me:

I realized that I have a mere 45 days until we get married and are off to Curacao for sun, dolphins, snorkeling and smooching!! WOOHOO...I can wait a month and a half! This day just got so much better!!

He'd kill me if he knew I posted that, but he's a good Mr. Onion and doesn't read weddingbee lest he spoil any surprises. Here is a picture of the cute aforementioned dolphins at the Dolphin Academy:



I'm not sure what I'm looking forward to more -- the wedding or the honeymoon! Ahhh a 12 vacation!

Hair & Make-up, Part III

So you all know by now that my first hair/make-up trial in Burlington was a disappointment. A few days later I went to the MAC counter at Bloomingdale's to get another make-up application to see if I could get a better idea of what I wanted.

This was great, except I couldn't find someone in Burlington to hire and still had no idea about my hair. First I got in touch with another bride whose hair and make-up was beautiful (we share a photographer which is how I'd seen her pictures).

Here she is -- the beautiful knottie VTBride2Be




I reached out to her stylist, Talia at Signature Style in Manchester, NH -- the bride had highly recommended her. She was booked as was the owner of the salon, but she referred me to another stylist in New Hampshire -- she too was booked. That's when I decided it was time to look in Burlington again and not give up.

I called Indigo Salon in Burlington this afternoon based on some recommendations on the VT board on the knot. They said someone would call me back tomorrow. Then, because Mr. Onion urged me to, I tried the Stephen & Burns Aveda one more time (I'd called and called in May and their wedding coordinator never called me back).

I spoke with Dawn who was SO helpful and nice. She went ahead and booked me for the wedding and would have been able to book me for a trial two days before the wedding, but I decided that we'll just take ONE more trip to Burlington the second weekend in August (our last free weekend before the wedding - yikes). There is a 24 hour cancelation policy with no deposit needed so I'm in the clear.

When I calculate what we've spent on gas, hotels and trials my hair and make-up better be AWESOME on the wedding day! The Aveda's prices weren't insane either -- $65 for an updo and $50 for the make-up (day of the wedding) and for the trial - $50 hair and $25 make-up. The really shocking thing -- the pedicure is $75! Wow -- I better have the softest most relaxed feet in town. That's steep even by NYC standards.

So I will return equipped with photos and ideas (see below) and be relieved (I hope) with four weeks to go before the wedding, not two days (which really would have stressed me out to no end).






Last two photos from knottie meandoc -- photos by Zlatko Batistich. This is meandoc's bridesmaid who brought the same Katherine Heigl photos with her as inspiration -- I think it came out pretty well!

Big "guns"

Mr. Onion, his best friend/groomsmen and I were shopping for groomsmen ties at Saks 5th Avenue yesterday. We found a beautiful tie (see below) which we decided will be our groomsmen gift as it was a little pricey ($95) but I think it really "ties" together the groomsmen and the bridesmaids attire without being matchy-matchy.

Anyway -- while shopping we saw a young man, a girl we assumed to be his fiance and her mother and father and a few other hangers-on shopping for a tuxedo for their wedding. Just for a visual (because I couldn't exactly whip out my camera and take a picture of a total stranger...even in the name of weddingbee -- it would have been weird), the young man was in amazing shape like this:



Photo from flickr user "uk_arms"

Now imagine trying to fit those "guns" into a ready made tuxedo. It was just ridiculous. The poor guy got shoved into a jacket that was so tight around his biceps that he just looked silly. For some reason the sales men were floundering trying to figure out what to do. I was in pain just watching this fiasco.

So I casually put my hand on the back of the woman who I assumed to be the future mother-in-law and said "can I offer you some advice?" She looked a little surprised but gladly said "sure." I explained that we had Mr. Onion's suit custom made as he had very broad shoulders compared to his waist, that is was a wonderful experience and would be about the same or just slightly more expensive to have a custom tuxedo made for him. I jotted down the name for her -- Alan David Custom here in New York City and recommended she ask for Alan who we had been working with. Then our groomsman pulled out his cell phone and had the phone number handy! Yes, he carries his tailor's phone number with him -- I just loved it. The mother looked so relieved and said "we've been looking and looking."

Then this morning we returned to Alan David Custom to pick out Mr. Onion's shirt fabric because we decided to have an off white custom shirt made to finish off the look of the beautiful suit and tie.



(This is not the shirt -- this is just a white work shirt as a "stand in" for the fitting).

And here are pictures of the ties:

Groomsmen Tie:



Tie for my father (which compliments my mom's black dress with the
pink underlay). My dad's tie we got at Bloomingdale's -- it's a Valentino.



If you were thinking about buying a suit or tuxedo for your fiance as opposed to renting, I highly encourage you look into having it custom made. You might think it's WAY too expensive, but onnce you factor in the cost of tailoring you'd be surprised. And for a few hundred extra dollars to get something stunning your future husband will wear for years to come -- priceless!!

Call Alan at Alan David Custom16 East 40th Street, Suite 202
New York, NY 10016
Ph. 212-227-4040

Last chance...Part II

I already shared part of our weekend in Vermont (the hair and make-up trial). Now I want to share the fun stuff! We had lunch at Adrianas, the restaurant that is hosting our wedding reception and tasted a new salad that will be replacing their "house salad" for our menu. It's a grilled pita salad with tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers, calamata, olives, feta and romaine -- I wish I'd taken a picture because it was SOOO good!

After lunch we popped into our baker to see if she had a cake stand we could rent and then we heard a noise. Mr. Onion looked left and right to find out where it was coming from. And then we saw a Ferarri! Wait...then two, three, four. They just kept coming. They turned right up the Church Street Marketplace (which is usually for pedestrians only)!




There was even a Lotus or two as well. It was a car show! We had no idea it would be happening but it was so much fun.




A few more photos:

Mr. Onion and me at the top of the marketplace (that's the Unitarian Church, not ours).



Our Church just off the marketplace:



And there was even a beautiful car parked right outside Adriana's!



And finally Leunig's Bistro -- the best french restaurant in town! Our first trip to Burlington in 2005 we stayed for 3 nights. The second night we are at Leunig's. It was so good we went back our last night there as well!




I love Burlington, Vermont!! I'd highly recommend you visit :)

Second dress fitting...

I had my second dress fitting on Wednesday morning with Melissa at Mark Ingram's Bridal Atelier. We're almost there! She still has to shave down a little fabric under my right arm so my arm falls naturally over it and isn't uncomfortable. She's also going to shorten the lining which is causing the hem to flip out a little instead of stand straight and bow under a little like it should be. It's so nice not to have to worry about a bustle!



I wore my hair up in a bun to see what it would look like with the dress and veil as I'm thinking about an updo now as I was so unhappy with my half-up/half-down hair trial in Vermont.

Here is my new inspiration -- Kkatherine Heigl from the Emmys! She looks stunning and I love that it's inspired by the 40's but she doesn't look like she's playing dress up with pin curls and bright red lipstick. There is some interest to the wave in the front and the side bun looks so pretty.




And here is my hair with my veil just thrown up in a quick bun to see what it would look like from behind.




Thoughts on the new inspiration??

Meringue? No problem!

In June my future in-laws hosted a BBQ that was a reunion for my future father in-law's side of the family and was intended to be my introduction to all of them. Well Mr. Onion's aunt couldn't wait 3 months, so she gave us our wedding present on the spot. I present the coveted Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer:



And over a month later we finally "broke it in!" I'm so proud of us. We made a lemon meringue pie, which I've never done before, and it came out beautifully and tasted great too. Here is our handy work:



Any other brides out there using wedding gifts you've gotten already pre-wedding?! What's your favorite gift so far?

Round 2 (make-up that is)

So after my 2nd dress fitting this morning I went to Bloomingdale's to check out some make-up. Thanks to my friend who was kind enough to come with me, we decided to tell them I would be singing at a benefit, not that we were shopping for bridal make-up. First I went to the Clinique counter and found a PERFECT foundation (superbalanced makeup - color = alabaster). I never wear make-up and I thought I'd be looking for a tinted moisturizer, but this really feels great on and is great coverage. Then we went to the MAC counter looking for a concealer (bought MAC's studio finish, NW25) for my serious circles and I liked what the girl at the MAC counter did for me (liquid eye liner -- very bold) for tonight's boudoir photo session with Tony Yang, so I'm going to leave it on.




What do you think of this for the wedding? Too bold? I kinda like it and it photographed well, but up close it's certainly not "soft." I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too!

In natural light:





I don't know why I purse my lips -- I do this a lot when people try to take pictures of me. I guess I'm a little uncomfortable "fake smiling." OK, off I go to meet Tony. Can't be late and miss out on any daylight. I'll let you know how it goes.

No work for me!

No work for me tomorrow (shh -- don't tell). But seriously, tomorrow morning I have my second dress fitting, then I'm heading to the make-up counters at Bloomingdale's to scope the sales ladies and see whose make-up I like. Then I will ask her to "make me up" as my make-up trail in Vermont was a disaster as you all saw. Then I'm going to run and get my hair trimmed (I've been growing it out for almost a year I'm embarrassed to admit) and blown out so it looks fab for my boudoir photo session tomorrow night with Tony Yang. Yup, you heard me! But Tony calls the session "intime" -- classier I guess.



I discovered Tony months ago thanks to Mrs. Ant's many posts of her wedding photos. So a little nervous but excited, I'm off tomorrow night to his studio. I am terrible at lying (this is Mr. Onion's wedding gift -- again shhh don't tell) so I told him I'm "doing wedding things with my NYC bridesmaid that he can't know about!" How's that for an alibi?! Haha.

Wish me luck. If I'm not too timid, and they are not too scandalous I MIGHT share an image or two.

Hair & Make-up Trail

As I mentioned in a previous post, Mr. Onion and I went to Vermont this past weekend for our last trip before the weekend. On Saturday I had my hair and make-up trial with Sarah, the owner of Aras Salon in Burlington.

I brought a few magazine clippings of hair ideas and no pictures for make-up ideas (my fault) and as a result I don't adore the make-up. I don't know if that's because the only direction I gave her was "I don't wear make-up every day so I want it to look natural" or if she just didn't "make it happen." She is confident she can lighten up the upper lid (tone down the pink) for the wedding. Here's hoping!

So here is what we came up with:







I will have a clip in my hair and a veil for the ceremony. We'll take the veil off for the reception. What do you think? Is the hair to ethereal for my dress? This is one of the down sides of planning 300 miles away. I can't go back next weekend and try something else -- this was a one shot deal! Thoughts on how to make the make-up a little more refined/subtle?

Here is her contact info:
Aras Salon
188 Shelburne St
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 651-6990

Better together...yes we are!

A quick musical background on Miss Onion:

I grew up in a household where there was always music playing. My mother started a chamber concert series in our living room when I was born, then she turned the series into a non-profit when I was a little girl, and from there the organization has grown exponentially. The organization now runs a major jazz festival in Connecticut the first weekend of August every summer and a jazz camp that runs for four weeks. Incidentally, I sang on the festival in 2005 -- it was an amazing experience. See the a highlights video HERE.

Here I am on stage with my friends/fellow musicians:



From left to right: Don Braden, John Benitez, me and Matt Wilson. Photo Credit: Stuart Felman

I got my degree in classical voice and later fell in love with jazz love songs from the 30's and 40's when I discovered a song my grandfather had written for my grandmother when they we first married in the late 1930's. I didn't know my grandfather (who passed away long before I was born) was a composer. As my grandmother was passing away four years ago now, my mother began to sing this beautiful song that turned out to be the ballad that he wrote for my grandmother. It's called "Is it love you're after?" And with that I was inspired to record this song and other great love songs from the same era (feel free to listen here and here if you're curious).

Ceremony Music:

So -- when it came time to pick music for our wedding it was a MAJOR decision. Because we are hosting our reception in a restaurant there will be no room for a live band, but I knew that the ceremony music HAD to be live (strings if possible).

So I began my search with the UVM String department because when I was a music major all my friends played weddings to make some extra money. Well I finally got a demo from one of the student ensembles I'd been talking with and it just wasn't "it." I understand their students, but my standards are WAY too high.

Gotta love the Internet! I happened upon another Vermont bride from the VT board on theknot.com and saw she'd hired a guitarist from Boston to play her ceremony. I checked out his website and was pleasantly surprised -- he was wonderful. I emailed him an inquiry and we then talked at length on the phone. Before the conversation ended he said he'd be happy to play for our ceremony, cocktail hour and even stick around for the first hour of dinner! Hooray! I was so happy.

He just emailed me a sample of a song we'd asked him to work on for our ceremony -- Jack Johnson's "Better Together." Now I know that this will be a hugely popular wedding song but I just don't care! I love it and it's very "us." I think we'll print the lyrics in our ceremony program.

So without further ado, check out the sample he put together HERE.



His name is Brendan Burns. He's a jazz guitarist who trained at Berklee College of Music and now teaches and plays gigs. So far, I'd highly recommend him. Clearly he's willing to travel so give him a ring if you think a nice solo guitar would be just the thing for your wedding.

You can check out his website to learn more about him and hear some samples of his work. He has samples of a few pop tunes, classical songs and many jazz selections including "Moonlight in Vermont!" How perfect :)

I'll keep you posted on our final music choices for the ceremony! Until then the research continues....

Last chance...

This weekend is our last trip up to Burlington before our wedding in September! We have a number of things to "get done" but I'm really looking forward to a weekend with Mr. Onion in a place we love. We get to do a number of fun things:

1) Meet the minister for the first time and discuss our ceremony.
2) I'm getting my hair and make-up trial
3) Nailing down our rehearsal dinner menu
4) Nailing down our reception menu

All fun stuff. Be assured our camera is coming with us for these adventures! Will post more when we get home.

For now I leave you with one of our engagement photos from our wonderful photographer, Daria Bishop. This was taken in Burlington outside the aquarium, the ECHO Center. More photos to come later!

A ring is born!

Mr. Onion and I both had our wedding rings custom made. A jeweler (who actually went to high school with Mr. Onion) does mostly custom work so he was the obvious choice. My ring was a particular challenge because I wanted to have my cake and eat it to. I had to major criterion:

1) It had to "snug" (aka fit perfectly with my turn of the century engagement ring setting which I did not want to change).

2) It had to stand on its own as a design without the engagement ring for the rare occasion I wanted to wear just the wedding ring.

Too much to ask you say? Well he did it and I am thrilled with the results.

Here was my inspiration from WeddingRings.com:



From here he created a "mock-up" in silver before he make it in platinum with the diamonds from my mother's original wedding band she no longer wears.

Mock-Up:




And from there, a ring was born:






Note the fine etching on the leaf on the side view. I couldn't believe it, but he solved both issues beautifully. I can't WAIT to wear it for real come September :)

Mr. Onion designed his own ring and doesn't want to share because he doesn't want it to be a "fad!" He's so cute. I'll keep working on him. He wouldn't let me share it my knot bio either. Kill joy! Doesn't he know weddingbee readers are on "a need to know basis" and they NEED to know?!

Fun Fact:

My wedding ring is a size 2 3/4! I'm not kidding. The jeweler didn't have a size small enough for me to try on (he said they had children's sizing rings but he didn't have them).