Everything Hits at Once

Our bride-to-be takes a time-out to reassess

By Sara Cardace

Well, I've gone from feeling like I had pretty much everything under control to thinking I have absolutely no clue as to what I'm doing! In the comments for one of my recent posts, several people gently suggested that it might be a good idea for me to hire a wedding planner. Well, I'd love to, of course, but it's just not in the budget-despite whatever discounts they'd be able to get me. Happily, a good friend who moonlights as an event planner has offered to be my eyes and ears on the big day, and she's offered to help me at this stage as well.

With that in mind, I'm using this week's post to get myself in order. An overview:

The Shower

Now it looks like there's going to be two showers. The first will be for my friends and whatever sisters of mine can make it, and I'm going to have that one in Brooklyn. My friends are helping me come up with a list of places that would be willing/able to host a group of about 20 people for a Sunday brunch in a private room or similar, and that won't break the bank. (It's harder to find such a place than you might think.) The second shower will be hosted by my mom at my parents' house in New Jersey farm country, and we'll invite all my relatives to that one. I know it seems weird to have two showers, but we've talked over the whole thing to DEATH and that seems to be the only way.

The Dress

As readers of this blog are well aware, I already have one great option--the Mika dress at Jenny Yoo. But I'm not totally on board with that one, so this week I'm launching into full gown-shopping mode by making appointments at some of the city's best high-end vintage bridal shops. More on that soon!

The Guest List

John and I have come up with a long list of all the friends we'd like to invite, and we have our parents working on lists of all the people they'd like to invite. Fingers crossed that the master list won't be too big for our beautiful venue!

The Caterer

So far our best option is definitely Chef Rossi, of the Raging Skillet. She just seems like such a dream to work with, she came up with an amazing, creative menu, and her prices seem pretty reasonable for New York. I have to confess that I may just call off the caterer search now because it would be so amazing to be able to cross this one off my to-do list.

The Officiant

No progress. I have a list of recommendations that came in after I sent out an email plea a few weeks back. Now if I could only find the time to start calling around....