Do we get to eat?

Oh boy, I hope so.

The first thing you should know is that our invite design has been done for quite some time now thanks to a super awesome friendor.. I think we had the final product done by Christmas of 2010ish? Booya. I know it's pretty far in advance, but hey, it was one less thing that needed to be worried about!

On the bright side, I still love the design and am super excited to get them all assembled and DIY'd up in the next month. On the not so bright side, I realized that I left out a possible key bit of information: reception deets. As in, there is no mention of it on the invite whatsoever.

I fretted about this for a while but eventually had to let it go - the invites were done and there was not much I could do about it at that point. Not to mention the fact that I plan on including a website card with our invites, so I can just put the reception info on the website, right? Here's hoping people actually go to it.


Anyway, the answer is yes: there is indeed a reception and we will get to eat. Huzzah!

Personal photo. Nom.

And what, exactly, will we be eating? Well I don't really know yet, but I can tell you that we are planning on having an extended-cocktail-hour-style reception. Our whole evening will probably be equivalent to most people's cocktail hours, but that's kind of the point. Foxy and I always enjoy cocktail hour better anyway, and always manage to fill ourselves up and not have room for whatever dinner is later served. So there's that.

It's a bit interesting the way everything will be set up, but I'm kind of excited for it. There will be a "typical" cocktail hour immediately following the ceremony, but it will only consist of drinks and three passed hors d'oeuvres (and possibly a cheese and veggie tray.. Foxy won't quite give in on that yet. Tell him we need one, k?).

Food stations will then come into play during the actual reception. We will likely have one for pasta, one for meat, one for crepes (good for dinner AND dessert!), and a separate soup and salad bar. And before you ask, yes. There will be enough food. Just because we won't have piles and piles of every food you could ever imagine does not mean you will go hungry (and I say that because people have doubted us). It means that you will be able to munch and nosh on some delicious treats all evening long and not be confined to scheduled eating times.


Mmmm. I'm getting hungry now.

The other thing that might come as a surprise to some guests is that we won't technically have a table and chairs for everyone. We'll have four large rounds that can each hold about 10 people, and these will be reserved for family, older peeps, people with kids, etc. Maybe a bridal party table, as well. Then, pending we have beautiful weather (which we will), there will be tall cocktail tables spread throughout the pavilion and the area outside of it.

Personal photo

Personal photo

Images via Vandiver Inn

Extra chairs and seating areas will be aplenty, for sure, but there won't be "official" places to sit. Which I love, actually. It will ideally (hopefully) encourage people to mingle and shake their groove thang on the dance floor a bit more. Because if I want one thing, I want people to dance!

Now, if the weather happens to be craptastic, we do have a backup plan. We ditch all this stuff I just told you about and do a buffet (to save space in the pavilion, since those stations take up a lot of it), or stick with it and just use a combo of the pavilion and the inside of the inn itself, which is actually where cocktail hour will be. It's not my top choice, but hey. What will happen, will happen.

Are you going a bit nontraditional with your reception? Any tips for hosting a cocktail style one?

Linens & things

Ugh I'm so behind on this. Foxy and I spent a night at our venue and had a meeting with our DOC over a month ago, and here I am just writing about it. #badblogger

Anyhoot, the Vandiver sent us an email a while back promoting cheese & wine for $109 when you book online - a deal they are giving guests if you stay at the inn on a weekday night before January 2012. Um, sign us up please. Since Foxy and I work random hours and days, we were able to go on a Tuesday night back in October and set up a meeting with our DOC for the very next day!

On the agenda:
1. Check out as many of the Vandiver's 17 rooms as possible.
2. Discuss logistics.
3. Choose linens. (Foxy was SO excited for this part. Well, not really. Ok, not at all.)
4. Spend some QT with Foxy Mama.

About #4.. it was a bit last minute, but when I told my mom about our meeting the week prior, she said she would see if she could move some things around and meet us in Havre de Grace. She was apparently really touched by my little blurb on wishing I lived closer to her and could actively plan more of the wedding with her in this post (previously posted on my personal blog a while back). Lo and behold, she was able to drive the 3.5 hours down and join in on the fun! I can't even tell you how much it meant to me - I may have only seen her for a few hours and we really only talked about relatively basic things, but it was the bee's knees (ha!) to have her there.

Now jumping back to numero uno: the rooms. It was a tough call, but we chose to spend the night before the meeting in the Vandiver room (also known as the honeymoon suite due to its jacuzzi tub and gorgeous king sized bed).

Image via Vandiver Inn

The next day, we were able to see 13 of the remaining 16 rooms. Why is this important, your inquisitive mind may ask? Well, we decided to "rent out" the whole venue/all three houses both Friday and Saturday nights of our wedding weekend. Rooms will go to parents, wedding party, and the officiant. Oh, and us. We actually forgot that WE needed a room. (And to add ourselves to the guest list. Apparently we're not actually going to our own wedding..?)

The cool thing is that we can assign rooms to people, and when they eventually call to "book a room", it's already set up for them. It's like my very own Barbie dream house(s)! Except it was really hard to decide on some of the rooms.. I mean, how would I know if Foxy's groomsmen would prefer a room with a nautical theme or filigree wallpaper? Ohh, the decisions.

Once we were done with the room walk-through, we got down to numero dos: logistics. We shared our "vision" with the DOC, I showed her pictures of my dress, we swooned, I told her Mrs. Lox said hi, we talked about colors and vibe and all that fun stuff. Which promptly brought us to numero tres: linens!

After seeing my dress and hearing me harp on and on about my inexplicable love for mason jars, a light bulb seemed to pop on over our DOC's head as she rushed to the attic to grab some linens "that would be just perfect".

We hemmed and hawed for a bit - can you believe they actually don't have a true turquoise linen? Just a blue and jade type green. But it actually worked out for the best; the first thing she showed us was this pretty white lace.

This was about the time when Foxy zoned out.

Since we'll be having more of a "cocktail style" reception, there will only be about 4 big rounds and lots of smaller cocktail tables around the venue. While I was definitely digging the lace, it was just much too much white. I was hoping for the bigger tables to at least have some pop of color. Since they didn't have turquoise, I asked about our accent color - a nice clementine orange. No go there, either. To which Foxy Mama replied, "well, what about peach?". Ah, that woman is a genius.

What you see is an ivory base, peach underlay, and white lace overlay, and hive? I'm in love. I was surprised at how much I dug the tritone look on the big tables, and how excited I am to see just the two tone (ivory underlay and white lace) on the cocktail tables. It's going to give the place such a wonderful rustic-y look without going overboard. ::cue more swooning::

I'm so happy to have this small (but oddly significant?) part of planning out of the way. And as usual, I don't think it would have been nearly as awesome if my mom wasn't there. She picked my dress, she picked my hairpiece, she picked the linens.. she knows her stuff, yo.

Has your mom (or dad, or sister, or SO, or cat..) helped you pick out or decide on anything wedding related yet??

Ur doin' it rong.

Here's the situation.

We have a venue, but no officiant.

We have invites, but no Save the Date's. Truth.

And? We have a rehearsal dinner picked, but not the actual meal for our reception.

Edit: I'm pretty sure it's impossible to do cheese wrong. Nom.

Backwards? Maybe. But hey, that's how we roll.

So.. about that rehearsal dinner. We want to do a Maryland-style crab feast!

Since living in the good ol' MD, Foxy and I have made eating crabs somewhat of a regular thing. I'm not just talking crab cakes or king crab legs. I'm talking full blown bash-the-heck-out-of-the-crab-so-you-can-find-the-meat-and-eat-it crabs. I still have no idea how to do it right, but it's SO much fun.

Well imagine our surprise (and luck!) when we learned that our venue was having a traditional Maryland crab dinner for one of their recent Monday Night Supper Clubs. Our initial question of whether or not they would be able to do such a thing vanished. They nailed it and then some.

No plates necessary!

And.. gone. Delish.

They way they set it up, each table got a big basket of crabs but could also go up to the buffet line for some potato salad, grilled corn, peel and eat shrimp, and/or fried chicken; thus, an option for everyone. While Foxy and I would love to watch and giggle at our guests trying to open up their crabs in order to eat (come on, it'd be a smidge amusing).. I suppose it'd be better if there were other options. ;) We're hoping to do something similar to the mini-buffet Vandiver did for the supper club, and we could even throw some crab cakes into the mix if people want crab but don't want to work for it. (Those lazy bums!)

We haven't set this in stone yet, as we still want to check out some local restaurants to see their take on the crab feast. But this is definitely a viable option!

Has anyone else had their rehearsal dinner at the venue? Why or why not?

The one where we eat. A lot.

One of the millions of things we love about our venue is that catering is included. Everything is cooked and prepared by Susan, one half of the Vandiver Inn's husband-wife ownership team (another reason we love it - it's family own and run!). Since they don't technically have a "full service kitchen" and thus need to prepare food über-fresh the day of and is specific to each event, they don't do formal, traditional tastings.

What they do have are these super fun Monday Night Supper Clubs almost every week. The theme of each dinner varies, but Susan typically makes a multi-course family style meal for whoever decides to attend that week (usually locals). When we signed our contract with the venue, we were told that we were more than welcome to attend one (or several!) of these dinners free of charge to count as our "tasting" of sorts. The idea is that you get a feel for the food as a whole, even if you aren't getting those exact menu items for your wedding. Think of it as when you go to restaurant; you only try one or two dishes, but you can definitely tell whether a place makes fantastic food or not based off of that meal. Same deal at the Vandiver!

Image via Vandiver Inn

So back in June, Foxy and I decided to visit the venue again for two reasons. The first was to see it and the surrounding area at the same time of year that our wedding will be. The second.. well this should be obvious.. we went for a Monday Night Supper Club, aka our first official tasting!

The night's "theme" of sorts was locally grown produce and local meats. Foxy and I are big fans of buying and eating local and fresh, so this was a perfect meal for us.

We started out with some crispy goat cheese apps with corn relish and hot pepper jelly.

As a testament to how freaking delicious these little balls of heavenly cheese were.. Foxy had about 5. And he usually hates goat cheese. I'd say it was winner. Even better was the fact that we were able to mingle and enjoy said goat cheese and some wine on the porch before dinner started, which was so very lovely.

Side note: ideally, our cocktail hour will be split between the inside of the house and the porch/front area of the Vandiver. Some pictures!

I die over those umbrellas! I want one NOW.

The drinks at cocktail hour would be set up on the left side of the deck,

where the big Cocktails sign is. (Green pomanders left over from previous wedding!)

After enjoying the weather and scenery for a bit, we were called into dinner by John, aka number 2 of the husband-wife ownership team. Some inside pictures!

Aren't the copper tables to die for?? We so want one when we get a house!

As for the food itself.. well.. I kind of only have one picture of that.

Can you blame me? Everything was SO amazingly delicious!! If you couldn't read the menu up above, menu items included a garden salad with a homemade spring onion dressing (fabulous), grilled asparagus (meh I hate asparagus), stir fried portabellos, bok choy and snow peas (salivating), crispy potatoes with creamery garlic, chives and cheese (oh. my. god.), sourdough stuffed chicken with gravy (delicious), and strip steak (Foxy says it was mouth-watering - I passed since I don't eat red meat). For dessert there was an incredible blueberry ciafouti - think a mix between a blueberry muffin and coffee cake. Yum!

So our overall opinion? We done did goooood picking out a venue, and hence, a caterer. We definitely plan on going back many times before our wedding next year, both to enjoy more food and fall in love with the place a little more. Although I'm not sure that's even possible.

Gratuitous lovey photo by the water two blocks from the venue!

Don't you just love wedding related things that involve food?!

Picture perfect!

The future in-laws were in town for the weekend at the end of March, and there was talk about showing them our venue after I got off work that Sunday.

I was all for this plan, as the last and only time we have been to our venue was the previous June (2010), when we initially toured it and met with the DOC. I figured this would be the perfect chance to reassure myself that I indeed love the place (hey, booking two years out leaves a lot of time for reconsidering!) and to poke around town a bit to find good picture taking locales!

First off, I don't have a personal picture of this (bad blogger), but remember how there are three houses that are a part of the Vandiver?

Images via Vandiver Inn

Well, the Vandiver Mansion was/is greener than it looks in the photo there, but the other houses were definitely white when we first visited last year. Totally fine, whatever, no biggie.. I guess they didn't really look like they were all a part of the same 'complex', but I wasn't worried.

However! The first thing I noticed when we got to Vandiver that Sunday was that they resided and repainted all three houses, so they are all a gorgeous sage green color with accented windows!! It's something small, but it excited me beyond belief. The houses look SO good when they all look the same. So.. major pointage, Vandiver!

Images via Vandiver Inn

We also poked around and found the lighthouse and pier that I'm determined we will be taking pictures at. We were there at dusk in early spring, but fully intended on going back this past June during the day sometime to see exactly what it will look like.

How cute is the area?!

Pictures in front of the light house perhaps?

And maybe a first look on the pier?

Beautiful view where the Susquehanna meets the Chesapeake!

I definitely need to find a way to get pictures on the rocks without getting my dress dirty.

The in-laws!

Oh hai.

I couldn't wait to go back when the trees and grass would be lush and green and get a better idea of how everything would REALLY look!

Did anyone else visit their venue ahead of time to scout out picture locations? Or did you go someplace else entirely for photos?

Venue revealed!

I don't really need a big lead in to this because you can just look at my hover cloud/bio thingy and see that we're getting married at the Vandiver. Kind of ruins the surprise, doesn't it?

Anyhoot, I had been looking at the Vandiver Inn for a while. A few things let me know right away that this place could very well be our wedding venue:

1. Fantastic reviews on Weddingbee & Wedding Wire. Check.

2. Their website has a whole section dedicated to weddings.. with basic price points listed. Chhhheck! This hardly EVER happens, at least with most of the venues I was researching. There's usually a fun game where you email or call and wait for a response back that can take days or weeks, and I'm an antsy pants. One place I looked at didn't respond for 5 months.. what?!

4. Those price points listed? Are totally in our budget. BIG CHECK.

3. The day of coordinator (hereto referred to as DOC) answered my email and called within 48 hours. Check check check.

4. It's located in Maryland, on an inlet that leads to the bay. This means water. Lots of water.. and having grown up 10 minutes from the beach, I'm a total sucker for that. :))) Check x10.

Since I was already falling in love without even laying eyes on the place, I made an appointment for Foxy and I to meet the the DOC (who's really more of a quasi-wedding coordinator.. she's seriously amazing) and take a tour of the place. After an hour and a glass of wine, we were sold. Two weeks later we faxed over the signed contract. BAM. Venue: donesky! This totally goes against my usual indecisive nature, but when I just love something that much? I get impulsive and hope it works out.

Some background for you: the Vandiver Inn is an old mansion that is now run as a family owned bed and breakfast and has really seemed to have found a niche in the wedding market. The town it's in is so cute and quaint, like it was taken from some old, historic New England town and dropped in northeast Maryland. The water is two blocks away, and 'downtown' is about four blocks away and full of cute little shops and restaurants. It's almost as if we're getting the upstate New York feel, while still staying in Maryland. Score!

Also? If you sort of recognize the place.. it's because Mrs. Lox just got married there!!

There are two other smaller houses affiliated with the Vandiver Inn, located right next to it. The Vandiver has 8 guest rooms (where Foxy and I + family will be staying), and the two other houses have another 9 rooms total (for more family and wedding party). I LOVE this, because we can all stay together and it will make getting together for the rehearsal (dinner) so so so much easier.

Images via Vandiver Inn

The mansion itself has a very rustic and old town feel, like the town itself. There's a porch that leads into the first floor of the mansion, where the cocktail hour will be. If the weather permits, they can open the doors and windows (that act as doors) so people can mingle both inside and out on the porch. There is also a grassy area with a few tables for people to sit at out front.

Images via Vandiver Inn

The outdoor ceremony location is to the right of the mansion, between the Kent house and Murphy house.

Images via Vandiver Inn

Is it lame that I can already imagine walking down the aisle to that pretty gazebo? (Which makes me think.. how am I going to decorate?!)

And last but most certainly not least, the reception will be in the pavilion just behind the mansion!!

Images via Vandiver Inn

How great is that? It can be open air on nice days (picture on the right) or closed off on crappy days (left), so you don't need to worry about rain. The string lights on the ceiling are already in place, and you can add extra decorations pretty much however you want. To us, it's perfect.

One of the greatest things is that the wife of the family who owns the place (Susan) is also the head chef.  They get all their ingredients from local farmers and produce stands and cook it on site in a kitchen no bigger than a closet, so you know it's fresh. They even have their own herb garden and borrow herbs from neighbors if they need other kinds! How freaking adorable is that?! I just may move here after the wedding.

Oh.. and, lets be honest.. the deciding factor?

There's a street named Red Head Way two blocks away. Um, hello.. meant to be?!

In search.. of a venue

Pretty much the instant Mr. Foxy and I got engaged, I ran out to buy a bajillion wedding magazines and started researching venues. I quickly realized that weddings are wayyy more expensive than I thought they were. I mean, I knew they could be pricey, but couldn't I do a great wedding with all the fixin's near DC for under $10,000?

Oh shut up, Nelson.

Image via Dangerously Awesome

That would be a big fat no. I already knew that we couldn't afford a wedding where I grew up on Long Island, so I decided to look in upstate NY near where Foxy grew up. His parents currently live on one of the Finger Lakes, which I thought would be perfect because there are tons of wineries in the area, and I love me some wine. The only problem is that apparently the Finger Lake region of NY is a huge touristy area. Who knew? Not like I grew up in NY or anything. Bler.

Despite the fact that upstate NY was more expensive than I thought, I kept searching for places up there for us to look at on our July visit to his parents'. In all reality, the average prices up there were on par with or even above what the DC/MD area was offering. But it was pretty and Foxy seemed to really dig the fact that we'd get married upstate. Mostly because we could get Dinosaur BBQ (if you haven't heard of them, look them up then drop what you're doing and go get some NOW) to cater if we had it up there.

My dream wedding vision turned into us having a large tent with hanging lights and lanterns everywhere, preferably at a winery, and serving Dinosaur. They'd bring in a huge BBQ pit to cook all the food in, right there in front of everyone. It would have been amazeballs and it would have been so quintessentially us.

However, I realized that tents are expensive, many places wouldn't let us bring in outside caterers, and I was liking the idea of having to travel 7 hours to get to our wedding destination less and less as time went on. Plus, I really didn't want to plan it from so far away. That just sucks. We ended up only looking at one place while visiting in July, and quickly crossed it off the list. It just wasn't what we were looking for.

So I picked up my DC/Maryland search.


(Sidenote: Even though we're literally about 20 minutes away, I crossed out Virginia because I don't really like Virginia.. nothing at all against anyone who lives there or likes it, but I have this weird name association thing. Like, I refuse to eat from any restaurant named Lardo's (it's real, trust me) or Potbelly... it disturbs me. I really don't want to live on a street like Gun Powder Lane because it's so dismal. So I really don't want to live in Virginia, or get married there, because, well.. it looks and sounds like vagina to me. Sorry guys. It's the truth. I know I have issues. I'm sure Vagina Virginia is a wonderful place to live.)


Back to business. My main criteria was that the catering cost per head had to be under a certain amount for me to even begin to look at it. I was so hell bent on having an outdoor wedding on a Saturday in June; no wonder good prices were/are hard to come by. I found a few places that could be possibilities if some adjustments were made on our part, but the ones I wanted we couldn't afford, and the ones we could afford I didn't want.

And then. Then! We found it. You know that feeling that you get when you find the right dress? Both Foxy and I got that when we found the right venue...

..more to come!