Coordination

I apologize for the delay in the updates.  Its just because we have been busy, busy getting stuff done!  (I have a running list of posts I need to blog to catch up - so they're coming, I promise).

And this post is going to be quick and painless because that is exactly what it was to find and hire Crystal Whitaker as our day of wedding coordinator.  Quick (well kind of). Painless (definitely).  This is Crystal --->

First off, we (being me, my parents and Kelsey) knew from day #1 that we wanted to hire a coordinator for the day of our wedding.  Javs was happy to jump on board when he saw how vehemently we insisted so 'coordinator' was added to our budget from the very beginning.  Part of this determination was thanks to Kelsey's wedding coordinator.  She 'came with' Kingsmill and helped coordinator some details pre-wedding, but was primarily there to ensure that all the details determined before the day of, were executed beautifully at the wedding.  And they were.  Perfectly even.  Lynn was a dream. And she honestly made the day more enjoyable for all of us.  She did everything from keeping wandering groomsmen in line to having all the presents loaded in my parents car at the end of the night. 

Crystal came highly recommended from some brides that had their weddings in Charlottesville last year.  I emailed her almost immediately, but learned to 'claim' her for day of services I'd have to wait until 6 months prior to our wedding day (an Event Company, her employer, policy).  If I wanted to book with her earlier than that, I could take advantage of any of the other services the Event Company provides.  (They don't want to lose a coordinator for just 'day of' services if another bride is interested in booking more with them for the same date and I totally understand!)  Crystal was great about sending me some options that I thought I might be interested in, ex: transportation coordination, but in the end I just couldn't justify the extra cost.  All the other services were either being taken care of by another vendor we had booked or were something I thought we could easily handle on our own.  So we took a chance, and decided to wait it out.  

I kept up with Crystal via email - checking in every now and then to give her an update on vendors we booked and to make sure she was still available October 13th 2012.  Well as you know, we just crossed our 6 month mark! And on Sunday, April 15th Javs and I and my parents met with Crystal.  Despite her continued apologies for a cold, we thought Crystal was a dream.  She had a very calming personality (something I'll need want around me on the day of) and displayed some of her organizational skills by pulling out books and schedules from the event she directed the night before.  We loved her.  We handed her a check before we left the coffee shop.  YAY!  So quick might have been the wrong word (I waited almost 5 months to actually book with her), but it was totally painless.  And I'm relieved to know that Crystal will be overseeing our day to ensure each detail we planned turns out well!

 

First Wedding Gift!

Javier and I had the chance to open our first wedding present on Friday! (I promise I won't recap every wedding present we get, but since this was our first and very special, I thought I'd share it with each of you!) Over Easter weekend, Mrs Cabezas tempted us with a quick peak at a package that had arrived at the Cabezas casa. She explained the huge box was for us! It was a wedding present (our first!), but assured us that last Friday (April 13th and TJ's bday) was the day to open it. Her suggested open date, certainly provided a clue, but left us even more curious about the box's insides. We waited the week and anxiously arrived at the Cabezas house for dinner after work on Friday. It took all three of us to gently removed the box, styrofoam peanuts and layers of bubble wrap from our mysterious gift. But when the present finally appeared (completely unscathed from is trip to DC) it was so worth it!

Look!

At an antique store in Milwaukee, Mrs Cabezas had been surprised to find this lovely UVA print! Her thoughtful mind remembered two wahoos taking their nuptials, come October, and so she whisked it back to good ole Virginia (well Washington DC) for us! Its obviously hard to tell here, but the detail is amazing. Javier's aunt and uncle took a magnifying glass to it and saw that even the people walking about grounds are dressed in period attire. Very cool!! We love that you can see the chapel and some of the builds surrounding the lawn. An especially neat touch (for us nerdy UVA history folk) is the Pavilion VII sketched into the border at the bottom. The building of the University did not start with the Rotunda (as many people think), but right there, completely randomly at Pavilion VII so this addition immediately caught my eye and made me excited.

(Nerdy History Aside: The Rotunda was actually the last building constructed on the Lawn. Jefferson died before seeing it completed. While there are several theories as to why TJ started with Pav VII I've always believed the one that implied he understood how government funding worked and was worried the $$ would run out before he completed the true vision he had for the Lawn, so he started at VII then hopped to Pav II and back and forth up the Lawn so that the project always looked unfinished and the $$ kept rolling in. What a smart man!)

Needless to say, Javier and I are so pumped about the print. Thanks again Mrs. Cabezas!

Happiest of Bdays TJ!

Readers, today is a very important day. Not because it is Friday the 13th (although that is awesome and should be celebrated by all with horrifying and ridiculously overthetop movies). Not because it is exactly 6 months to the day that Javs and I get to say our 'I do's (although that is awesome as well and should also be celebrated with horrifying and ridiculously overthetop movies). No, no. Today, my friends, is Mr. Jefferson's bday.

One. I did not realize that Javs and I were getting married on TJ's half birthday until about 30 seconds ago. I had realized today was our 6 month mark! And as a devoted wahoo alum knew that it was TJ's day of birth. But for whatever odd reason, I never put two and two together. Now that I have, I think it is awesome.

Two. TJ was awesome if for no other reason than his foundation of a University that I love more than I ever imaged that I would. There are so many amazing stories about good ole TJ and I could easily nerd out for a fairly decent amount of time talking about the genius of his architecture and design of the Rotunda and Lawn. I'm not sure why I hold TJ to the level of reverence that I do. Maybe its that he was a red-head and I've always had a soft spot for the gingers. Maybe its his slight odd and sometimes obsessive tendencies (not that I could relate or anything since I am rarely odd and never obsessive). But either way, I'm fan.

So let me get geeky here for just a second and take some of the stuff I know about TJ and the University and relate them (or attempt to anyway) to weddings and/or marriage.

Form v. Function - A lot of folks would say the same thing after viewing the Lawn and Rotunda for the first time, 'Wow! Its beautiful!' - and indeed they both are beautiful. But Teej knew that in addition to building a beautiful University, he needed to build functional space for learning and studying. His little tricks of the trade can be found all over the pavilions and scattered throughout the Rotunda where he made functional space also appear quite appealing to the eye. The dome room, for example, was built as a library of the University, but stand in the center of the room and do a full 360 and I guarantee you'll see no bookshelves. It's TJ's genius two column design that blocks the shelves from view when you're in the center of the room - which is where he knew the University would host distinguished guests and formal dinners.

A wedding, in a way, also has to balance both form and function. In reality its the function that's the most important part. One true goal of a wedding = end up with two people legally married. I'll totally admit that I have had my moments where I forgot about the functional aspect and focused 100% on the pretty stuff. I should take a clue from Mr. Jefferson and remember that regardless of how beautiful I want the dome room to be, it still needs shelves, it is the library after all. Thank goodness I have an understanding fiance that reminds me from time to time (like last night when I was freaking out about the beauty) that at the end of the day, the 'big day' is really about us joining our lives together.

Change- I ended my historical tours at Lawn room 43 west because one of the things that gripped me most about UVA and its history was the change (and lack there of) that took place within the University. This was the room where Leroy Willis, the first African American student selected to live on the Lawn, resided during his fourth year in the College of Arts and Sciences. So many of TJ's original plans and hopes for the University are still alive and thriving on grounds; student self governance, students and professors still live and learn among each other on the lawn, and, of course, the pursuit of knowledge separated from religious affiliation. But the university has also grown. Its diversified and expanded in ways that TJ probably never dreamed of and I was always struck by this paradox that existed so peaceful. The University provides a unique avenue for values and ideals, even living structures from another time to persevere with modern priorities and passions. Very cool.

I think this might be a good way to approach a marriage too. We're starting off with some deep seeded ideas, emotions and plans. And some of them are good, strong; worth building a foundation on. Some, like the love, we'll hold on to. But change is inevitable. And if we find a way to balance the old, with the new - then we'll probably be stronger because of it.

Happy Birthday Mr. Jefferson!

One down! Two to go...

Kelsey has a dress for the wedding! YAY! After watching her try on all those dresses (and remember you guys only saw a portion of them!) I'm so happy that Kels found a dress that we both love love love! We have both been spending some time on Pinterest, pinning dresses we found online that we really like for possible bridesmaid dresses. (If you're not on pinterest yet, do it. Its awesome.) We both agreed after the last shopping/marathon that we were finding a lot more dresses that we liked online than in the stores. Of course, the issue with online shopping is that you can't try it on to see how it really looks. Harumph.

But after retrying on the dresses that Kels bought for the boys and letting everything sit for a few days, Kels suggested that she order a dress from Modcloth that we both really liked. The nice thing about Modcloth, was that she could return it if we didn't like the fit, but it would mean losing her shipping and handling costs. The dress price was reasonable and I think my always thoughtful sister was sensing my frustration with our lack of success on the maids' dresses front so she took a chance and ordered it!

















And I'm so happy she did! She looks fabulous :) I think the ruffles give the dress that romantic feel that I was talking about, but the pencil skirt and asymmetry make if a bit more modern and interesting. Its also a really nice warm brown color that we haven't found a lot in stores and looks beautiful next to her skin tone. (Most everything we find is either dark chocolate or cream/khaki.) Kels says its comfortable, but I think its still plenty fancy for the wedding. Its even plenty long for those legs of hers. Huge win! Win. Win. Winner.

Favors on the rise

Hope everyone enjoyed their Easter weekend! Javier and I traveled south (along with 1,354,927 of our closest friends on 95 this weekend) to Williamburg for a great visit with my family. Mom was hosting her brothers and sister and their families for an Easter supper complete with KOLACE! for dessert. While she had planned on making them Friday before we arrived, she decided that having fresh kolace, made day of, on Saturday would be a real treat for all! (because of the time it takes for kolace dough to rise - my grandma usually made and froze them ahead of time for family occasions!)

This meant that I would have the chance to help her out with this batch! Up early, we set to work so that the dough would have plenty of time to do its rising. Since Mom has done this more than a couple times now, I let her take the lead, but stepped in where I could. Here are some action shots of me kneading the dough before we set it up to rise. (She reminded me that I'd want some fun photos for the blog - thank goodnesss! - but I did instruct her not to get my 7am face or hair in the pictures...yikes)

















If you remember in Mom's guest post she talked about the importance of all the rising the dough has to do in order to make a good kolace. We set it to rise once as a big ball (which is supposed to double in size) and then again after the dough is divided into little balls. I laughed that we were kind of the blind leading the blind when Mom pulled off the electic blanket and tubberware lid (part of her highly technical design to encourage our dough to do its rising) and asked 'do you think thats double?' and responded with, 'I don't know? Do you think its doubled?'

Regardless of our kolace making experience, our two heads were better than one because, together, we figured out a few tricks of the trade along the way this time! One was the process for dividing the dough. I have a distinct childhood memory of my Grandma taking a handful of dough and placing it, palm up, in her left hand. Then she would squeeze each finger, starting with her pinky and moving upward until her pointer and thumb pinched a perfectly round and smooth piece of dough from the blob in her hand. As a little girl I tried to repeat this easy and natural movement with mixed results. Mostly I ended up with more dough between my fingers and falling out the bottom of my hand than pinched between my pointer and thumb. But on Saturday, armed with my memory and a larger hand, I picked up a piece of dough and pinched out a round ball as easily as if I'd been doing it all my life. Voila! Unfortunately, it was a rather large round ball. Since it still had to rise (again to double in size) Mom showed me a better size to aim for (two heads!). She also picked up the technique (she had tried before, but with not enough dough in hand, making it much harder) and together we quickly pinched out 3 baking sheets of kolace balls.

After they had risen what we eyeballed to be about double in size, we started to fill them with the cheese and cherry fillings. Enter trick of the trade #2. Again, I remembered Grandma spending some time mashing each puffy ball in the center to create a little 'boat' for the filling. While Mom had been mashing, she was nervous about flatting the dough to pieces (especially after all the hard work getting it to rise!) and therefore made more conservative boats. I on the other hand, seemed to error on the opposite side and began dutifully mashing away. We both tried our techniques on our half of a cookie sheet and watched them bake to see how it went. Again, two heads proved to be better - we agreed that a technique somewhere in the middle seemed to be the way to go; not too mashed, but a decent boat to hold some of the good filling!

And here they are!












The family was super pleased to try our latest endeavor and agreed that 'day of' really makes a delicious difference :) It was super fun getting to make them with Mom. And made me excited to share them with our guests at the wedding. I think food favors are a great way to go. They tend to be less expensive and, I think, more practical than some other wedding favors. And growing up, I learned that making food for someone was a way to show your love. Its certainly something I held on to and practice today. So with the 'thanks for coming to celebrate our day with us' I hope each guest feels in their Kolace, I also hope they taste the love we're sending with them on their way.

'...well I should say!'

Javier and I are almost 6 months into being engaged and have been lucky enough to receive sweet 'Congratulations' messages from friends and family through cards and emails, over the phone and even through some creative madlibs, but on Sunday we got to hear a very unique and exciting 'Congratulations' message!

http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=phc/2012/03/31/phc_20120331_128&starttime=01:08:37&endtime=01:37:12
(Javs queued it up to be at the right time to hear!)

We're on the radio!!!

Isabel had the chance to take a quick break from college visits to see the taping of Prairie Home Companion this past week and was kind enough to submit this sweet message to be read aloud, on air at the show! While its been super wonderful hearing so many kind words from friends and family, it was pretty cool to hear the same sentiments exuding from the radio. (that and now we're famous)

So thanks for the fun shout out Isabel!