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).