My First Sleepless Night (Damn This Wedding)

Can we just fast-forward to wedding please ?

By Sara Cardace

I suppose it was bound to happen. After a really insane week of running errand after errand and emailing, calling, and spreadsheeting like a manic (and squeezing in freelance gigs wherever I could) I went to bed on Sunday satisfied I'd put in a good day's work. Well, apparently my subconscious disagreed because I woke up at 3am in a total panic over all the details still to be nailed down and no matter how hard I tried to chill out I couldn't get back to sleep until 6:30. I'd say this was the opposite of a banner day.



Luckily that only happened once. And I actually don't think it's related to my stress levels so much as my brain just being in hyper-mode all day long and not being able to quite shut down at the end of the day. Still, not ideal. Thankfully - have I mentioned how awesome my friends are?--my friends Lauren and Jesse gave me a massage at a great Manhattan spa as my shower gift, and I'm thinking now's about the right time to use it. Booking it as we speak!

In other news, the RSVPs are flooding in and it looks like we're going to come in well under our maximum capacity of 175 (phew). Almost all of the friends we invited will be coming; most of the negative responses came from our extended family who'd have to fly in for the day. I'm going over the guest list with my parents this weekend and sending the final count to Chef Rossi next week. Meanwhile, we've been emailing like crazy with Chef Rossi to try to finalize the menu and the agenda for the day. Nailing down the timeline can be tough; I'd hoped to have a long stretch of uninterrupted dancing at the end of the night, but you need to give the catering staff enough time to prep between stages - cocktail hour, dinner, cake/coffee service and so forth - so that's taking some negotiating. John and I are meeting to pick out our wedding bands tonight, and we're going to apply for our marriage license tomorrow morning in downtown Brooklyn. I also need to nail down a post-wedding brunch spot for our immediate families and book a salon appointment for my mom, sisters, and myself (I'm pretty low-maintenance with regard to my hair and didn't want to pay the 1000% mark-up they usually charge if you tell them it's for a wedding...)

I did manage to find a pair of silver shoes that I love (on sale!), and John and I bought all the stuff we need to trick out the bathrooms (baskets, mini-products, etc) super-cheap at Target and Party City. We've also had some setbacks though. Chef Rossi highly recommended we go with Classic Party Rentals for our tablecloths, silverware, glassware, etc (she said they were a little more expensive than the competitors but much more dependable, and just about everyone else we've spoken to agrees) and we were happy to. But despite my going with the cheapest options across the board (no-frills flatware, one universal glass for all the drinks, no chargers, etc.) the quote came in at a whopping $4500! Which is at least $1000 more than I'd expected. We also just learned that some DJ damaged the sound system at Landmark at the Park, so we're no longer allowed to use their speakers - turns out renting a sound system is going to cost us another $400. Ouch.

Can we just fast-forward to wedding please?