Monday, August 27, 2012

Save the Date: The Featurette

The Save the Date video all began with a song.



A few months ago Jake dared a ridiculously talented friend of ours, singer and bassist - Kate Davis, to write a happy song. You see, her beautiful music often has a rather somber, unrequited love feel to it.

So, she accepted the dare. 

And wrote this song, little k + little j, for us. Earlier in the summer, Jake and Kate along with our friends Noah Kellman and Gabe Schnider recorded the song while on tour in Portland. We decided to use a portion of the song for our Save the Date. I know it sounds incredibly narcissistic but I LOVE this song. It might be my favorite. Ever.

With our soundtrack chosen, I styled the day around an idea and our friend, David Bailen directed, filmed, produced and edited our featurette. 

ENJOY! (click HD and full screen for best viewing!)

 
We mailed DVDs to our family and friends who are not quite computer savvy. All others were directed to our Wedding Website that I designed using Wix. The labels were made using the incredible Pinhole Press

Save the Date: The Nighttime Photography


We decided to break in the afternoon because of the heat, and continue in the evening once it had cooled off a bit. 

The sky turned black, it began to pour buckets of ran, thunder and lightening. Then just to add another level of crazy to our day - it hailed. Yes, it HAILED!

But, we HAD TO FINISH. The city locked all of the parks due to the weather, so we hopped the fence, lit 50 sparklers and well, we made it work! It was the most fun I've had in a long time!


Photos by David and Julia Bailen.

Save the Date: The Daytime Photography

This summer has been completely crazy for JG and me. We've both been in and out of the city traveling and when we are in the city we are working like mad. Oh, and then Jake was scheduled to get his wisdom teeth taken out! And I was headed to Nantucket to nanny for three weeks. We had one day, and one day only to photograph (and film) our Save the Date.

By 7am it was already 90 degrees outside. And humid.

Jake was a total trooper and appeased my crazy stylist persona and wore his grandfather's 1950s Lily Pulitzer blazer, even though by 10am we had reached the 100 degree mark. 

After a few hours of dancing, running, piggy-backing and indulging in other tom foolery, a near by sprinkler seemed like a gift from the gods. We didn't hesitate!.


The photography by David Bailen

Save the Date: The Cards

After months of shopping around at different stationary stores and online websites I decided to use Minted for our Save the Date. I had used them for Amanda's bridal shower and was thrilled with the entire process and the final product. So I felt I really couldn't go wrong.

They turned out fabulous! I hunted for the perfect stamps (Miles Davis and Edith Piaf forever stamps - hellos!) and final touches (Washi Tape from the gorgeous stationary store, Parchment in Nantucket.)

And voila!




Up next: Save the Date - The photography!




Amanda's Bridal Shower

Jamie and I decided to have a theme for the shower. Usually I feel themes can get carried away and end up feeling forced. But, luckily we pulled it off! We chose a Recipe Shower and built on that idea. 

Here are the invitations I designed through Minted:


Everyone brought a recipe card with them to the party (which had been enclosed in their invitation) And we forced Amanda to wear an apron. The favors were heart-shaped measuring spoons. The location was the beautiful, Half Moon Restaurant in Dobbs Ferry, NY.


Amanda giggling over a baby photo of her fiancé John.

 Jamie joked that my bun kept getting bigger as the weekend progressed. (Please ignore tan lines.)

Yummy cake!

Smoochies for the bride from her grandmothers.

Mother of Bride and Bride

Jamie, Amanda and Me... 

It was a fabulous brunch!



Planning ...

I love to plan. I especially love to plan parties. So in the midst of my own wedding planning, I decided to take a little detour and plan my friend Amanda's bachelorette party/bridal shower weekend with my best friend Jamie.

Below is the result of a no-penis-paraphnelia girls night out in NYC!


also... we ran into Project Runway on our way to Dos Caminos: Meat Packing on Friday... and this happened.


Up next ... Amanda's Bridal Shower

Flower girl + Ring boy

have you braced yourself for the cuteness?
you really should.


Lilly - my friend and bridesmaid Emily's daughter. Taken last month in East Hampton

Matthew - my oldest nephew and son of my brother John and sister-in-law Cristina... taken in Napa two months ago.

Engagement Party: The Flowers

On the day of our engagement party, the Lee-Tolley residence seemed to have forgotten it was winter and orchids and wild blooms sprouted from vases and arrangments all over the apartment as if spring had decided she had enough with the blustery cold!

I took a million photos. I couldn't stop. The florist is truly an artist.








Engagement Party: The Toast




Even though a picture tells a 1000 words, here is the toast that Jake rocked on the night of our engagement party...  in case you missed it!

There are two reasons why I decided to write down this toast, instead of improvising as I go along.

Number 1) When nerves set in I revert to valley girl speak, using like and um between every sentence. And 2) because Kate told me to.

Five years ago, I arrived at the Lee Tolley’s apartment to teach their son David a drum lesson.  After the lesson Nancy fed me a large roasted chicken. Mistake number 1. A few months later, Nancy asked me if my girlfriend would come babysit.  Mistake number 2.

You should all know that Nancy has been offering to host this engagement party for about 3 years. We have only been engaged for 2 months.  We know all of you in this room love us just as much, if not more than the Lee-Tolleys.  Yet, none of YOU offered to host our engagement party.

But in all honesty, we feel like a part of your family.  We couldn’t ask for more kind, caring, generous and thoughtful people in our lives.  So Toast number 1 goes to the Lee-Tolley Family. 

Nothing is more important to us than our families.  We wouldn’t be the people we are today without you.  Our parents show us what marriage is all about and we hope to be as happy as you both for the rest of our lives.   I could tell you all hundreds of stories about our families in past years we have been together. But I would rather skip to the moral of the story.  I have felt like a part of the Christopher Family for years, and Kate has felt like a Goldbas.  Now let’s make it official. Toast number 2 goes to our families!

Kate!  My girl. I am so glad I flirted with you years ago in the Manhattan School of Music Cafeteria.  I would like to finish with a sincere poem I composed today:

            Roses are Red
            Violets are Blue
            Kate is a catholic
            And I am a Jew.
            Kate thanks for accepting my proposal,
            Mazel Tov, I love you.

   
   

Engagement Party: The Fams

I think the most exciting part of the upcoming J+K nuptials is that our two clans are becoming one big happy extended family. I feel really lucky. I don't know how else to say it without sounding completely cheesy. So i'll just leave it at that.  


The Christopher Family


The Goldbas Family