4 months later...


i can't believe it's been almost 4 months since the wedding. crazy. and the thank you post cards are just about complete (whew!).  we really can't thank our amazing friends and family enough -  the help and support is so very appreciated. let's just say we have some rockstar peeps! so, to see how it all turned out, check out the amazing images from the Wedding!! We were also featured on the The Loveliest Day and A Bicycle Built for Two  -- which is also super exciting! the day was pretty damn perfect :)


anyway, i guess it's time that we start getting rid of all of the beloved items we've collected for over a year. if you know anyone in the market for some fabulous shutters or soda bottles, check out the 'it's gotta go' page (on the right of this page). 

Days 359 - 367 (ok 9 days to go!)

life is good! we're 9 days out from the wedding. i can't believe we've been planning for this day for over a year already. and yes, i'm a bit nervous that i won't have such a fun thing to plan for...but no fear, liana is convinced that i'll find myself a new project. it will be sad though that i won't be able to keep justifying purchases we make -- 'but it's for the wedding and we'll use it afterwards too...'
speaking of new stuff-- here are a few things we recently acquired --
bottles for flowers
frames for pictures, obviously :)
painting/frame for a chalkboard sign
earrings 
forks and wine glasses for our table
and here's a sneak peak from my picasa album of  a few things

bottles for the remaining table center pieces and some for flowers in the courtyard

could not resist these forks!

a preview of the girls in their amazing dresses!

my co-workers threw me a 'surprise' shower on friday. while it was awkward and i was super uncomfortable with like 40 people staring at me when i walked into the room, it was incredibly sweet. i work with some fantastic people and good friends!

"Surprise" shower at work for Jess

ceremony prep is going well and what jess wrote gave us both the chills when reading it. after we work with her over the weekend and make a few edits, we'll be good to go.
And we're featured on a blog! that's fun, huh?!
Ok that's all for now -- more soon.

Days 348 - 358 (holy moly 19 days to go!)

it's sept! now this countdown is for real. like really for real. while i can't believe we're getting married in 19 days, i'm actually feeling good about where we're at with the process and planning. we plowed through the to-do list this week -
here's the recap --

• finally made it to meet the elusive Vikki (former bride selling her stuff) on route 1 for her chalkboard sign frames! she threw in her chalkboard spray paint and a paint marker too, so we're all set to make us some new signs (and 1st need to figure out what the heck we need to write)
• we ordered some engagement pics to display in the courtyard during the reception and have started going through old pics to frame as well. as we're not doing a slide show, we now need to parse through the stacks of old pics and just select a few for display. this is harder than one might think.
• oh and we went to grey's fabric and found this amazing reproduced vintage feed sack pattern for the photobooth wall backdrop. i like to describe this feature as a de-constructed photobooth. it's going to be cool but just not the small red box that one typically thinks of for a photobooth. anyway, here's the fabric --

•  oh and the shutters...we did it! they are finally hinged together! what a relief to know that this crazy project may actually work as a room divider and they look really cool. just need to clean the remaining 3 shutters and hinge those bad boys together too! check out the handy work...(and to go on the record, liana did in fact help with the hinging as the trusty assistant who handed me the screws and hardware :)

cool, right?!

i feel like we've done more this week (a reason i should be posting more often i guess). last night we were able to check off so much from the last version of the to-do list that a new one has been created and there's really not that much left to do. this is crazy.

Days 330 - 347

so we're close. like really close. and of course we recently realized that we had to mail in the application for a one day officiant at least 6 weeks in advance...good thing we got that mailed in right under the wire! whew!
and now that we've reached the 30 day mark, we can go do the get a marriage license thing now. oh man.

this past weekend we had a small soiree of sorts that started off with some yummy cupcakes and bubbly  and perhaps some temporary tattoos with our initials (thanks again Shannon for hosting!)

 

and then we headed to dinner at scollay square and concluded the evening with a cover band 

all in all a great time. thanks so much to everyone who made it out on Sat! it was great to get excited with everyone!
and the weekend ahead promises to be completely the opposite....
on the menu this weekend we have --

• finalize the menu and floor plan
• figure out what i get to search for at....wait for it....brimfield! in just a few short weeks
• get hinges and hinge those damn shutters (thanks to Dan for the tip on the best hinging technique)
• order /  print photos for frames
• get some fabric for the photobooth backdrop
• deal with some clothes pins
• test out DIY flower bouquets
• see a girl about some frames in saugus (finally!)
• avoid the hurricane 
• work more on ceremony 
• homework (um, ya, i'm starting school today and already have homework due on monday)

whew. i'm tired already. more soon.

Days 324 - 329

i cannot believe it's already sunday again. the weeks are zooming by way too fast! fairly busy week in wedding planning i suppose...here's the rundown --

• we received the ring vessel! that order was super speedy and it's beautiful! so excited for everyone to see it!
• the rsvp's have started to roll in-- it's really happening! and really soon! getting more excited by the day.
• my new dress from boden arrived and i think it will be the rehearsal dinner/ night out dress.and it fits perfectly and was on sale. could not be happier finding a cute dress for under $30!

•  the chalkboard paint was also out and the frames are looking cool. i love being able to re-purpose old things! it just makes me happy.
•  and i found more shutters!! $20 for 3 shutters just a few towns over (a nice change from most of my crazy craigslist adventures!). now i think i'm finally ok with what we have. though i really enjoy the hunt!
• we attempted to head out to saugus, ma to see a girl about some frames, but she cancelled on me. hopefully i'll be able to snag the cool frames she used in her wedding this week sometime.
• oh and we hung one of the windows frames on the wall today -- it's looks really cool, especially after painting 1 of the walls a lovely shade of goldenrod. of course it'll look even better once it's filled with colorful pics. i also get really excited to use the wedding decor purchases in our house, in case that wasn't obvious already :)

  

lots to do this week - on the list so far--

• try on dresses with jewelry to make see if everything works
• fill up our frames! which means ordering engagement pics and printing out old family/childhood pictures
• make a final decision / call for reservations for the night before shin-dig
• more ceremony stuff
• order liana's ring
• figure out photo booth stuff
• figure out a signature cocktail that is served over ice and with straws...we welcome suggestions!

Days 320 - 323

Monday, Monday, Monday...

so the weekend was super productive! friday was awesome -- got up early and made liana measure the shutters with me (before she even had coffee, which was pretty risky!). then we we spent a while at AFH scoping out the space with ashley and taking all kinds of measurements and really figuring out where things like the photo booth and bird bath will go. we also made some decisions around how to display our old photos and felling pretty good about stuff. we also snuck into the custom house observatory for an amazing view of the city! this is my new favorite place to take out of town guests! and then we went to a bar to see our DJ who had a gig that night. while it wasn't quite the music we're going for, he did a darn good job. now i just need to email him to make sure we didn't scare him away with our list of 100+ songs...

on saturday, we spent a few hours chatting and researching ceremony stuff and the 1st draft was sent to Jess for edits!

and on sunday i found another craigslist find and we made a quick trip out to rowley, ma for some vintage windows --
the plan is to add some pics to the panes as more decor.

oh and i may have found another guy selling shutters and may try to convince liana that we could use just a few more...stay tuned

Days 303 - 319

wow - so we're getting close. it's crazy.  things are going well -- lots of random etsy purchases over the last few weeks and the 1st packages are starting to arrive! here's the status update and recap --

• michigan trip was a success! it was so great to see everyone once before the wedding! however, i ate a ton and probably gained a few pounds. it's ok though, i made it to boxing class this week and need to kick-start that routine again.
• patrick's jacket is a bit loose, but fingers crossed it'll be ok after he tries it on with a button down instead of a solar t-shirt.
• i was in a wedding planning focus group. how perfect, huh?! $125 for 2 hrs and i didn't even have to lie once  :)
• i've discovered pinterest, according to them, it's a place organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. i am obsessed and i love it. so, lots of pinning  happening with new wedding ideas

and now, fun stuff we're acquiring--

• yep - that's a bird bath! can't wait to see that lovely addition in the courtyard area, can you?!

• paper straws.we're going old school here and are pretty excited to use these for drinks during cocktail hour!
• a beautiful vessel for the rings...sorry no pics, we're waiting for it to be created for us. and yes, i like the word vessel.
• burlap ribbon for our flowers. though we have 5 yards of it, so i'm sure we'll find more ways to use it too.
• and we're also looking into some photobooth props, but nothing ordered yet.

so, we're both off tomorrow and a long weekend of wedding planning is the agenda! we're going to the venue for another walk through in the afternoon with ashley and will be picking her brain and running our ideas by her. we'll have tape measures, notebooks, pictures, and diagrams in tow. and once we figure out how many more shutters, frames, etc we need, we'll be moving on to the ceremony. must figure this out soon. like really soon.
this is such a fun process! i'm going to have to find a new project after the wedding! someone else i know who just got married said that she hated everything about the planning process and that it was like studying for final exams and she couldn't wait for it to be over. man, that must suck.

Days 282 - 302

well the invites have been sent! and we've planted one as  test run but unfortunately I think we forgot to water it few times and so we may have missed out on wild flowers sprouting out of them....oh well. Hopefully others have better luck than we seem to be having.

we've also crossed more stuff off of the to-do list, which feels pretty good. I mean, the invites were top priority, but we also accomplished a few other things over the past 2 weeks --
We booked our mini-honeymoon! The plan is to go to Italy next spring, but we really wanted to do a smaller trip after the wedding. We found a cute bed and breakfast in Portland, Maine that got great reviews, so we booked our reservation. And we can take the train from Boston to Portland for pretty cheap - perfect!
We also found potential hair pieces (and by hair pieces, I do not mean toupees) -

Here's one of the ones we're thinking of getting. We also made hair appointments for Sept -- can't believe it's getting so close! Sept will be here before I know it!

Oh and here' s one of the dresses that the flower girls will wear. Ava and Layla will totally rock these!

Oh and we talked a little bit more about ceremony and have decided on who walks in/out when, using which aisle, with whom, and to which music! Pretty excited, I think it's totally going to work! Crazy how much you have to think about when you're making up the rules as you go :)

And finally the decor. We've been getting a bit nervous about the shutters.
While our 2nd bedroom is packed to the gills with wedding stuff, the venue is HUGE and we're really hoping that we have enough shutters and other stuff. But there's that fine line between 'we have a small selection of cool things but not enough to establish a theme' and 'wow there's way too much crap in here and it's taking away from the space'.  It'll be fine, I'm sure, but I think we just need to take some measurements and possibly go on another random adventure for more shutters....stay tuned.


And we're off to Michigan later this week for a long weekend! Looking forward to getting some time to spend with family and friends before the wedding!

Days 262 - 281

well well well...the days have been flying by lately. so what's new? let's see...

• liana threw a curve ball and got a new dress! yep, she wasn't sure if she was completely happy with the blue dress. luckily, j.crew had some other options and she ordered a new one last week. this is definitely a perk to not having bridal gowns, you can just find your usual size at the store and poof! you can have a new dress in just 5 business days. thank god it works! it's actually kind of perfect and has a similar mineral-like tone to mine, only more of a gold/copper color than silver. whew! sorry, no pics to share - we're going with the surprise factor for the blog-reading world :)
• ceremony planning had a good start -- though we still don't have it quite figured out yet.that's ok though, we spent a lot of time brainstorming and i'm not stressing yet
• i ordered this great  locket on etsy and think i'll somehow incorporate it into the flowers i carry and put pics of my dad and uncle in it to carry with me that day
• during liana's day off today, she may have found a dress for julia (sister) and a jacket/tie for my brother! and the cool thing is that the tie is from liana's cousin's boyfriend's company, the hill-side. wow that was a lot of apostrophe use in one sentence -- hopefully i got 'em all right! anyway, here's what we're thinking as of now (and no, that's not patrick :) 

ok that's all for now -- monday night and time for some bad tv to start the week off right

days 241 - 261

ready? set! here's the latest---
brimfield was a complete success! within 10 minutes of arriving we had made the 1st purchase and went back to the car with load #1. here are a few pics of our finds:

the copper tray above is used in traditional indian weddings and has a border of engraved acorns, a symbol of fertility and growth. cute, huh?! the step ladders on the right were some great bargains and perfect for the ceremony.


we were really excited to find this mirror. as you can see, it's getting some use now in the bedroom and will be displayed on a table with the tray and seltzer bottle. can you picture it yet?! excited yet?!

Liana received her etsy necklace and it is perfect with the dress!








And my purple peacock shoes arrived today too! and i think (or hope) i can totally rock them with the dress.

and then after having a blast at amy and dan's wedding in portsmouth last weekend, we came home and clearly had wedding stuff on the brain. we spent a few hours putting together a song list for our dj. we got a bit carried away and have over 100 songs to give him. it was hard describing the music we like when we have everything from  motley crue to tegan & sara to  rihanna on the list! :)

and the ceremony--- we've finally spent some time thinking about what we want. we had lunch with jess & christina (our wonderful friends who are visiting from berkeley this week- we are so lucky jess is also officiating our ceremony!) and started the conversation with them over the weekend. liana and i then went back to our local bar with laptop in tow and started jotting down ideas in appendix II of our notebook of lists.

we're really happy to be able to see christina and jess again this week to discuss more. they are both so great and helpful with thinking through all this. and jess has already done some preliminary research -- so excited to work with her to create the perfect ceremony for us.

we've got less than 4 months till the big day...i'm sure i'll be posting more often :)

Days 238 - 240

it was an incredibly productive weekend! i'm actually shocked we got so much done on the intimidating to-do list. there were even some appendices created to document the specifics we need to do for the ceremony and decor.
so for starters, we made our way to the boston flower market to see how overwhelming the store was. we're thinking about just doing our own flowers, and i was worried that this store and the ones next to it would be similar to a haymarket situation, but, no, it was totally fine. we even picked up a few bunches of flowers and 'tested out' the flower buckets and soda bottles (vases) at home...
and i think it will totally work. the lower photo is our attempt at mocking up the tables.  you get the picture, just imagine a lovely white table cloth and not a wrinkly fabric sheet.

and i ordered my shoes! purple peacock size 11's here i come! liana's etsy necklace arrived too, so once my shoes arrive, we'll be able to try on the full outfits -- fingers crossed that it all works together.

oh and then we wrote our our shopping (wish) list for the brimfield trip this weekend. let's just say that we'll be looking for everything from step stools to frames to lace to vintage boxes, crates, and bottles.

and finally, we sent out a mass email about hotels, etc to guests. and i figured out how to create a gmail group in my contacts - how excited was i?!  and yes mom, i'm sure the email was sent to all 70 people, not just you :) -  love the power of the bcc:

i am such a nerd. ok more later this week.

Days 211 - 237

wow -- so i'm a complete slacker, but the days have just been going by so quickly and all of a sudden weeks go by. but this just means that i have lots of updates.

1. we've ordered (and received this week!) our invites! that feels like a pretty big accomplishment and we're really excited about them. let's just say that they are in line with our green / sustainable ideas
2. we found a make-up artist and had a trial with lissa and she was great. of course we got all fancy on a stormy day wearing casual clothes and so it was a bit strange, and we both felt a bit, well, not like ourselves, but oh well. we're excited to work with her though.
3. hotel blocks are set and the website has been updated with details
4. this week we met with and booked our dj -- he was great - super laid back and seemed to be a good fit. now we get to really start to think about the music choices. and he liked our secret potential cute/silly 1st dance song...
5. and maybe the most exciting update--- it turns out i do not always end up with crazy eyes and awkward smiles in pictures! we spent about 3 hrs last saturday in harvard and central squares with ashley and had a blast! i think we ended up taking photos in at least 10 different spots including having a few beers in charlie's kitchen, a random alley in harvard square (that i'd never even noticed before), riding the redline, a quiet neighborhood street outside of central, standing outside of the middle east bar, among the funky murals in central sq, and ended up walking over a bridge across the charles river around sunset. the light came out just as we started shooting and the weather was perfect. check out the pics on her blog - this was the best idea EVER!

and with no real plans this weekend, there will be time to sit down and look at our to-do list. still feeling pretty ok about progress, but i'm just a bit nervous and hope that our ideas come together. it's brimfield antique fair time again and we're planning to go next weekend with the hopes to find any remaining 'things' we need for the space. 

days 177 - 210

ok back on track -- lots of updates, but i 1st want to share a necklace on etsy that i stumbled upon this morning.  it can be made with a different color scheme and a different brooch, but i'm kind of loving it. this may be too much with the purple shoes, or maybe this is better than the purple shoes. i'll need to consult with others on this one....

everything else seems to be falling into place - we're meeting with a potential dj next week, so fingers are crossed! he comes with great recommendations from my friends evan and jo, so i'm hopeful :)

and hotels?! YES, i finally got my act togehter and we've blocked rooms for fri and sat at the westin hotel on the waterfront  -- more details will be posted on the wedding website, but rooms are now available for reserving! we realize that this hotel is a bit pricey (although sadly pretty comparable to other hotels downtown boston). so, we're working to find a 2nd hotel with more inexpensive rates. We will be staying at the westin and working with them to have cabs available to take us from this hotel to the epicenter (a 5 min drive). 

food?!  oh we had our menu tasting and it was amazing! we're so excited about our catering team and the options.  i may have a post dedicated to the food later today. but in the meantime, feel free to look at the pics on the web album .

 

days 173 - 176

earlier this week, tracy sent me the link to these shoes on etsy and i can't stop thinking about them. and not in an obsessed kind of way, but in that i wasn't sure about them - i've never really been that interested in peacock feathers. but after a few days, i'm finding myself drawn to them. i'm intrigued. and as she pointed out, they are under 2 inches, so after practicing, maybe i won't fall down too many times. also, i'm in a wedding in may and amy's colors are purple and black. i'm wondering if i could pull these off with the black dress i'll be wearing in her wedding - just have to make sure the other ladies are wearing purple shoes too. and i need to figure out whether or not they are a bit too much for a bridesmaid...hhhmmm...

days 152 - 172

wow - so i have absolutely no idea where the last few weeks have gone! i think i'm just feeling a bit like i have nothing important to say about progress and things. one exciting thing did happen today though - as you may or may not know, i like to enter a contest here and there and just found out that i won 12 custom wine wings from wine on deck. and so we need to give them some artwork or message to laser engrave into the wing. this should get interesting...here's an example of what we're talking about here-

what do we do for the design? and what do we do with 12 of these? stay tuned...i need to email this guy soon, so please send ideas if you have them. i'm not super into the idea of using our names/wedding date on this as people generally don't need to display another couples wedding info in their homes, but who knows, perhaps we'll come up with something cool,  that's just my initial thought.

what else? not quite sure, this was really the highlight of my day :)
oh i had an all day research study yesterday and will make $400 in a month or so and maybe i just had to take a small dose of some hormone, which in no way had an any impact on my very calm day at work today. totally worth it though, especially since we're thinking about doing engagement pics. let's be honest, i am really not that photogenic and often get what i like to call crazy eyes in pictures and could really use some practice in front of the camera. besides, how fun would it be to do some shots in regular, oh just threw this on, outfits in the places that have meant a lot to us over the past 7 years?! we're thinking harvard square --- charlie's kitchen , noir, and maybe even just between stops somewhere on the T. Anyway, not sure if this is really going to happen or not, but stay tuned.

days 140-151

so we got a fun surprise on a snow day last week --- a box of chocolates from burdick's (addressed to liana)! i of course said 'well you know i didn't send them' (which i later realized was rather not-so-nice). anyway, after we made some guesses who they might have been from, we were pleasantly surprised to see that ashley, our photographer, sent them to us! so excited to work with her!
jealous much?

oh and we also found a cool registry site where we can register for things other than the traditional registry items and include links to things/experiences that we know we'll use and love. the whole concept is still kind of strange to us, but people have asked about it, so that's the deal. it's very much a work in progress until we figure things out, but we both think this site may make the most sense for us.

what else? we're trying to figure out what to do about transportation the day of. i requested quotes on some school buses to use between the hotel (not that we've found any yet) and the venue. not sure if it's necessary, since we're in the city and things are all pretty T accessible, but we should at least consider the options, especially if we need to get a bunch of people from one hotel to the space. then again, it'd be kind of appropriate if we all took the T together (and i'm sure we'd have some fantastic photo ops)
any suggestions would be welcomed :)

so overall, still not too overwhelmed, but we do have a lot on the to-do list for each month. pretty excited to start figuring our our shoes and accessories though. my dress is pretty plain, so the plan is to find some bright colors and funky jewelry.

days 123-139

i spent the early morning hours catching up on the blogs i follow and came across yet another inspirational site - the found blog - a group that rents out vintage 'stuff'. so smart. no, i'm not about to rent out a vintage bath tub for a shoot or anything, but there are just some really cool shots giving me more ideas. we've been into the look of having empty picture frames hanging in our house and we've got some ideas for doing this with bright frames in the AFH courtyard --

 oh, we got the flower buckets, which are really cool so the 2nd bedroom is truly becoming overwhelming and stuffed to the gills. the best part is that one would not expect the collection of items in the room would be used in a wedding.  haha - i love it.

oh and here i am in all of my tiara glory---

and here are the girls--

more pics from the shower are in the picasa album (link under 'pages' on the right side of the screen)

days 113 - 122

one of my 2011 resolutions is to post more often - and then i came down with a nasty 'sinus infection gone wrong' as my doctor said. so, i'm finally feeling better and am starting this resolution today and will try my very best-est to post at least once a week! i don't expect it to be too hard, since there's more happening the closer we get to sept.
so things that have been happening / need to happen...

• contract signed with PictureThis - the high tech photobooth. yeah!
• received invite for menu tasting -- this means that we need to pick out our top choices and send them in so we can schedule the tasting soon. i really hope that the saturday time slots are not filled up yet - fingers crossed!! stay tuned for menu selections
• updated the wedding spreadsheet this week -- of course, since i love data, i am tracking every dollar spent, what we expect to spend, where we spent it, as well as guest list details and notes
• found out that some save the dates never made it to the address...damn! at least we still have some left over, so i'd like to re-send soon and contact people who we haven't heard from to see if they received the post card or not...ugh
• spotted some cheap french flower buckets from a classified posting on weddingbee that were used in a wedding in florida and snagged them up. they should be arriving this week!
• added some dates to my google calendar. i'll have to play with it to see how it can be shared
• need to look at hotels and how the whole reserve-a block-of-rooms-thing actually works

well it's a snow day today, so hopefully i can be productive and get stuff done!

days 93 -112

the past 2 weeks or so have been crazy (i'm sure like it's been for everyone else). i've been fighting a cold since returning from michigan over a week ago and have not had the energy to do much of anything, though i've been trying to keep some mental notes about things i wanted to share:

• we received our invitation for the menu tasting, which is pretty exciting. stay tuned...hope to schedule this within the next month or 2 before 'wedding season' starts up for the catering team 

• while in michigan, i may or may not have experienced a very pink and sparkly surprise shower from my dear friends. amy and roxanne invited liana via skype, but since we are still very low-tech,  unfortunately she could not attend from boston. it was very much a surprise, and in true amy-style, i showed up at her house expecting to go to dinner at paesano's, and instead got 'surprise! you're having a surprise shower downstairs tonight' and we continued to deal with the chaos of the day, while the fantastic chris picked up food at ma kigers while having to deal with a sick dog at the hospital. and of course they pulled it together just in time for my mom to arrive, along with the sarah's. it was perfect and i am so grateful that these amazing (and generous!) women are still a part of my life (even though i'm really bad about keeping in touch -- this is one of my 2011 resolutions!).the room was covered in pink tulle, glittery hanging things from the ceiling and i was crowned with a lovely tiara (oh yes, with a veil). can i just say, this is so not me AT ALL and yet this is one of the many reasons i love these fools. oh and we had 2 games too -- these were actually pretty fun, the jess-bingo had us laughing and telling so many stories of our 10+ years as friends (some of which my mom probably didn't need to hear :). pictures will be posted soon. one of the most memorable moments is from little chase - "'eeewwww -- it smells like girls down here!"

• and we have our 'something magical' to wear (yes, i just decided that a 'something magical' is necessary) - we each received beautifully knitted shawls that were created with an actual love spell. thank you rebecca!

• during a visit to brooklyn this fall, while spending the day in pj's, and sipping some vino, (liana and sister sharing a pair of cat socks), we discovered the section quartet and loved their music. according to wikipedia, 'it specializes in turning popular rock songs into classical quartet pieces'. you may hear some of their work during cocktail hour...

i'm feeling ok about the wedding planning status at this point, which also makes me a bit nervous. i think the plan today will be to set up a google calendar and plug in some dates for things that we know need to happen to get a better sense of time lines. i also want to figure out how to link my evernote notebook to this site, since i'm a bit obsessed with using it, but we'll see.

yeah for an exciting 2011!!


update: yes! i was able to add my evernote notbook as a link to the 'sites i'm finding useful' on the right side of the page.

Days 86 - 92

so it's been kind of a busy week, but not so busy with wedding stuff.  so i will take this opportunity to blah blah about the venue and what we're thinking for things --
the artists for humanity is a great organization! here's some of the 'about us' from their website --

At the heart of Artists for Humanity is the belief that skills equal power and opportunity. AFH has three goals, which provide inner-city teens with:

• a safe meaningful place where they are respected for their contributions and develop mentoring relationships so important to teens;
• an opportunity to have a voice through exhibitions, commercial services, and public presentations;
• the respect and responsibility of paid employment that promotes self-esteem and financial accountability.  At AFH, young people learn entrepreneurship and get paid for their own creative production.

While the goals remain stable, methods of reaching them are constantly evolving. AFH reaches into every niche of the city to ensure fresh input, new projects and media, and a unique outlook.

i mean, really. really, if we're spending so much cash on this big day, then we thought that the money should at least go to support something meaningful in the community. and the walls will be covered in art created by the kids - we have no idea what will be hanging on the walls next sept, but i'm sure that bright colors will fill the space  - and who knows, maybe there will be a life-sized incredible hulk exhibit like there was last year in another wedding i happened to stumble upon (aka wedding stalking) in my venue research. i hope that people find a new piece of art that they can't live without while visiting southie....

what else interesting is there to say? well, we'll be having both the ceremony and reception in the same space which may be a new (and totally cool!) wedding concept for some folks. oh and since it's a green building, it's full of interesting things created using recycled materials, including windshields from old boston police cars as the railings for the stairs and 2nd floor balcony.
so hopefully our 'sustainable' ideas and the random stuff i've posted about are beginning to make sense to people now.
looking forward to sharing more with my 4 followers :)
and thanks steve, for mentioning the comment box - hopefully it works now...