Monday, April 30, 2018

Our Wedding: Tasting with Blackstone Catering

One aspect of our wedding that Tim and I were excited for was our tasting. We made an appointment for a Saturday afternoon so we could have lunch and enjoy trying what Blackstone Catering had to offer. 


When we walked in Shannon, our event manager had our table set and ready. We made our choices ahead of time and a chef prepared plates specifically for us to try. I loved the mini menu they created for us. I wrote all over one of them as I took notes and the second one I kept as a souvenir for a possible wedding planning scrapbook.


Our table was super cute and very simple- perfect for my taste!


We started with appetizers which were amazing. The first two were a pizza with creme fraiche, caramelized onion, arugula and bacon and a roasted filet of beet crostini with creamy horseradish and crispy onions. Both were delicious and were definitely contenders for our appetizers.


We accidentally ate our buffalo chicken bites with housemade blue cheese before I took the picture. They were good but not our favorite. What you see on the plate is panko chicken satay with sweet chili sauce. We did really like this but it tasted a bit like chinese food- not what we were looking for.


Our last set of appetizers was truffled macaroni and cheese in a porcelain spoon and grilled chicken quesadilla with chipotle maple mayo and cilantro. I was the most excited about the macaroni and cheese which we added to our yes list immediately. We nixed the quesadillas because we preferred the pizza and the crostini to it.

Once we had made our decision on our appetizers we moved onto our pasta station selections.


My choice was the penne in vodka sauce with fresh black pepper and pecorino ramno. It was amazing! This is what I'll be eating on our wedding night for sure- bring on all the carbs!

Tim's choice was penne bolognese with rich tomato meat sauce, veal pork and beef, creamy ricotta. I didn't try this one but Tim loved it and we decided this will be our second pasta. We are switching up the pasta type however.



The pasta tasting was my favorite part of the entire tasting.


Next up was our grill station tasting. The grilled vegetables were amazing and think will be a great side dish.


The honey barbecue chicken was very tasty and I think it will be a great choice for our guests.


Another one of our side dishes will be roasted fingerling potatoes and they were delicious! Tim joked we should just have a huge bowl of potatoes for everyone to eat. They were THAT good.


Lastly we tried the grilled flat iron steak with chimichurri sauce which we ended up not choosing. We wanted to try it but ended up deciding on steak tips. We are positive it will be delicious.


The chef did a great job at make our plates look gorgeous too. We had the best time trying all this food and planning out our wedding night. Shannon has been an absolute delight to work with and we are so happy she is working with us.


We had to take a picture in front of the huge fork outside the office- well I did- I don't think Tim cared either way but he's a good sport.

What did you serve at your wedding? Also what did you do for dessert? We are thinking of doing a small cake just for us to cut and then a dessert table for everyone else.

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Paco's Tacos, Proclamation Ale Company and Iron Works Tavern

I love exploring new places and areas in my home state of Rhode Island. Despite being the smallest state with the longest name we have so many places to explore.  I had previously been to Proclamation Ale Company when it was located in Wakefield but hadn't been to their new facility yet. 


Located right outside was Paco's Tacos food truck. Tim and I both opted for tacos and they were delicious!


I love chicken tacos and this one was great- I would highly recommend grabbing a taco from Paco's Tacos. Food trucks are such a great invention aren't they?


Proclamation Ale Company is in a huge building with arcade games to play, beer to drink and tables to sit at. If you've been reading for awhile you know that I'm not a beer drinker and only go along for the social aspect. I was with Tim, Derek and Ally and all of them loved the beer that they had so you can take that as a solid recommendation to visit and have a beer here!


After beer and tacos we headed out for a real dinner down the road at Iron Works Tavern. This is a really cool building and the food was excellent! We all enjoyed our food and had a terrific time chatting and hanging out.


My macaroni and cheese was great! If you are ever in Warwick, RI you definitely need to stop in and try it!

Have you ever been to Rhode Island and eaten here? I have a ton of recommendations on my Rhode Island page. Check it out here!

Monday, April 23, 2018

The Bride Box

Last week I had the loveliest surprise in my mailbox! I had no idea this was going to be arriving so I was shocked to get it.


The Bride Box is something I had never heard of but wish I had heard of sooner. Tim's brother Dan is dating the sweetest girl named Danielle and she has become a good friend of mine. She knows that I love beauty products so this box was right up my ally.


The box was so pretty on the inside as well- the light blue tissue paper and the bride box sticker were gorgeous.


Such a sweet card! I know it says Dan and Danielle but I'm pretty certain it was mostly Danielle! :)


I had no idea this was a beauty box until I pulled aside the tissue paper but I immediately saw products and got so excited.

Here's what's inside:


A Our Fully Charged Mascara which is made with magnetic technology. I'm not sure how it works but I am so excited to try it!


This Lip Gloss is described as light up lip gloss which I'm not sure about. I will definitely give it a try!


A lip treatment sounds amazing and I will definitely be using this to refresh my lips after this harsh winter.


This little bride compact is super cute! I am definitely putting this in my purse immediately.


This Lauren B nailpolish is a natural version without all the harmful chemicals that are in normal nailpolish. The color is a gorgeous pink too which I think will be great to wear all summer.


This diamond dazzle stick is used to clean engagement rings. I have already tried it out and it seems to work great! I love seeing how sparkly my ring is after it's cleaned!


What will I use to hold all these products? My new makeup bag of course! This is so cute and I will use this to carry products with me for the wedding day as well!


The last item might be my favorite thing in the box. This necklace says love and I have already worn it since receiving this box. It is super sweet and I definitely will wear it often since it's so simple and pretty.

After looking into the Bride Box online I found that there are several different options. The one I received is the Bridal Beauty Box but there are also some others that you could get. I think the beauty box was the best one for me. I much prefer products to mugs and hats :)

You can check out all the boxes here.

Thanks again to Danielle- you're the best!!! :)

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Our Wedding: I Said Yes To The Dress!

This past weekend I did something very exciting... I went shopping for my wedding dress! 

I chose to invite just my mom and my MOH Rachel to my appointment. It may come as shock since I write this blog and put so much of my life out there for the world to see but I am extremely shy, easily embarrassed and very anxious. I knew that having a ton of people watch me try on my dress would not be up my ally at all! There were several people asking if they could come along but I was very firm on my decision that I did not want more opinions then the two I was bringing with me. 

It ended up working out great because I was able to listen to their opinions and they had some great ones! They knew when I was uncomfortable in a dress and knew what to say to help me through the process.


I'm so thankful to them for all their help!

I chose to shop at Alexandra's Boutique because so many had recommended it and had great experience there. My experience was no different- they are fabulous there!


Plus Rachel is the best at taking pictures and asking people to take pictures of you. I wouldn't have half the memories I do if it weren't for her!


This is the teaser photo I sent of Tim. When I said yes they brought out champagne to celebrate! We sipped on our champagne until it was time to handle the financial part of everything. After that it was time to go to Davids Bridal in Warwick to handle bridesmaid dresses!

 
Let me just take a moment to say how AMAZING my MOH is! She brought me this tote bag that says Bride on the side and two little bottles- one for sand from the beach on our wedding day and the other for sand from our honeymoon! It was so thoughtful and is a perfect gift for me- I'm obsessed! :)


Also how gorgeous does she look in the dress we chose?! I think it will look gorgeous on all the girls and 2/7 have ordered them- success!


Just a look at the back of the dress- I love the belt and color. It will be perfect!

How many dresses did you try on before you found your wedding dress?

The dress I chose was actually the first dress I tried on! I ended up trying on several other dresses just to make sure but ultimately I felt the most comfortable in the first dress I tried!

Monday, April 16, 2018

Life Lately: Easter and Family Dinner

Monday again?! I'm throwing this post back to a few weeks ago for a recap of our Easter with Tim's family and a family dinner with mine.

Tim stil had to ask the majority of his groomsmen to be in the wedding and Easter was the perfect time to get three of them done!

He found some labels on Etsy and we purchased the label and then were able to customize each one. Here's an example of the one we did for his brother Matt.


Isn't it cute? I thought it was a great, simple way to ask each of his groomsmen! First up he asked his dad, Jim.


He was very touched by the gesture and of course said yes!


Then he asked his brother Dan who pretended to give the beer back! He was joking however and took  the beer and said of course he would love to be a part of the wedding.


When Matt arrived Tim asked him as well and he was also thrilled to be a part of it. It was so fun to see how each of them reacted when Tim asked them. Now he only had two groomsmen left to ask.


Besides just asking the groomsmen we had a great time with Tim's family. We do an annual nip hunt  which is always a great time.


I love when someone offers to take our picture- I always feel weird asking and I hate just having a million selfies!


We also love getting a chance to hang out with Ally and Derek- our bridesmaid and best man!

The following Friday we headed to my parents house for a family dinner. My parents have been in Florida for a few months so it was time to all get together for dinner!


Tim asked my brother Dan to be a groomsman too!


So cute with the man hug! This was 6/7 for asking groomsmen- since Tim asked Fred while they were golfing and I wasn't there to take a picture I will just tell you that he said yes and we officially have a complete bridal party!


Also look how spoiled Kai is- up on the couch with my dad chewing on a bone!

Have a great day everybody!

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Our Wedding: Save The Dates

Todays wedding planning post is about our save the dates!

I knew I wanted one of our football pictures to be the focus of our save the date so after having zero luck on Shutterfly I decided to try Minted.com which worked out perfectly.

Minted had a setting where I was able to design my save the date the way I wanted it. I think they turned out really nicely!





I chose another one of my favorite pictures from our engagement session for the back and put our wedding website on there as well so people will have that information.


When I went to the post office to buy stamps I thought these blue one were perfect since they match our colors and look beachy.


I had to blur out all the addresses for privacy reason but here are our first wave of save the dates ready to be mailed!



I also purchased a self inking stamp from Shutterfly to stamp our address on the back of every envelope. It was very helpful and saved time when putting them all together!

I'm obsessed with our save the dates and can't wait to start hearing people have received them!