as i had mentioned earlier, we weren't sure how to treat invitations given the fact that we weren't telling guests where the wedding would be held. should we just let the invitation itself be the announcement for the location, and keep it a secret until "six-to-eight weeks" before the event, instead of until the day before? letting the arrival of the invitation spill the beans? nah ... we decided to print "secret location" on the invitation itself ...

our invitation in a frame

once the outer envelope was opened, the inner package could be pulled out. the inner envelope was clear plastic, creating a little packet of enclosures. first, the invitation itself was showing through the front of the clear envelope ...... and when turned over, the other goodies could be seen. this is the side of the clear envelope that was sealed with a small sticker with the guests' names and a small flourish [not shown].
once removed from the packaging, a total of four enclosures were included. the invitation, the note from bride and groom, the hotel card, and rsvp card.

the note from bride and groom was two-sided; the note on the front [white gocco flourish showed up very poorly in the scan]
and a list of things to do on the back [this is the same sheet of pearly paper, have no idea why one side scanned dark and the other side so light, maybe something to do with the contrast of the white paint on the first side? also, why did i scan these instead of just take pictures of them?]:

shout out to my hubs for doing the stamps on all the invites and rsvp cards!!

While thinking about how to approach the "secret location" with respect to the invitations, I danced around the idea of my wedding dress. I ran across this Tadashi dress while on the Blue Fly website looking for bridesmaid dress ideas. I thought it would almost make a nice wedding gown. Then I could not get it out of my head. I even liked the color, even though it was not at all a traditionally bridal shade.

{images from www.BlueFly.com}

There was something about it that seemed to work for a March wedding in the chilly city of Chicago. Something about it that worked with St. Patrick's Day weekend. There was just something about it.

Then this "something about it" turned out to be: SOLD OUT.

Frantic, I called Blue Fly to see if maybe they really did have one left. Nope. I ended up calling Tadashi (half-hoping Tadashi himself would answer, "Hello, this is Tadashi, how may I help you?"). I found myself explaining this dress to the woman assisting me (alas, not Tadashi). She knew exactly which dress I was talking about and told me that their warehouse only had only one left, in black. Nope, a black wedding dress was way too untraditional for me.**

She was soo helpful though, and offered to send me the black one to try on for size, along with color swatches and said they would make me a new one in a size and color of my choice, since they still had the patterns. And they would do this for the regular, orginal price! Can you believe that??

**Speaking of black and wedding dresses ... I saw this book by the chair of the woman who was doing my alterations (Soheila, the Dress Doctor – she is great) and asked her how it was. She said although it is not typically the type of book she reads, she found the author very funny and sarcastic and that it was well written.

Bitter is the New Black
by Jen Lancaster

{image from www.barnesandnoble.com}

Yet she confessed the real reason she was reading it is because she was just told that she is actually IN the book! As it turns out Jen Lancaster is a local author, who came to the Dress Doctor five or six years ago, as Soheila told me, and asked her to make a black wedding dress. She ended up puting the Dress Doctor in part of the novel! Soheila showed me the author's photo at the back of the book: a head shot of her on her wedding day, in the black dress Soheila made her.

Size, Venue, Date
One of the first things we took care of was figuring out the size of our event, the venue and the wedding date.

• We decided to keep it intimate at 60 guests.
  
• We also decided to have the wedding in Chicago, our home together. As we were searching for the specific location for the big day, we fell in love with A New Leaf.
  
• We were not so in love with waiting two years for a summer Saturday (which is what we thought we wanted) at ANL. But we really loved the urban feel of the space and felt it really reflected Chicago. We decided we must have ANL, which is how we ended up with a March 15th wedding, over St. Patrick's Day Weekend. Who gets married in March??? Well, it gave us about ten months to plan.

We also recognized that the majority of our guests would be from out of town. I am from Southern California, and Patrick is from upstate New York. So we definitely wanted to give our wedding some Chicago flair. Given that Chicago was home to a number of speakeasies during the Prohibition, we decided to bring this fact to light by keeping the location of our wedding a secret until the day before, in what we called speakeasy style.

Inspiration
Already, a number of ideas were swirling my mind and I compiled my inspiration board.

my "before" inspiration board
{please contact me for sourcing}

What I was hoping for:

• Urban, Chicago feel
  
• Understated, speakeasy touches
  
• Air of elegance
  

Like any bride, there were some things i knew i did not want:

• No big shamrocks
• No huge green leprechauns
• No crazy green everywhere
  

First, a little introduction. Patrick and I met in Sacramento, California at a little restaurant called the Huki Lau where he offered to take a photo of my group of girlfriends so that I could be in the snapshot, too.

Eventually we were engaged in Sonoma, having enjoyed several similar day-trips to wine country together. After this particular perfect day of wine tasting, Patrick popped the question at a darling restaurant named the Girl and the Fig. He was so nervous that when the waitress brought out our sparking wine, Patrick told her, "We're married now!" though he meant to say "engaged!"

{a cocktail of pisco reservado, grapefruit juice, cracked black pepper and brandied cherries! delicious! oh, those are olives in the background.}

Then he fed me cheese. It was a slam dunk.

Somewhere in there, we moved to Chicago. And started planning our wedding.

- devon.

Type the rest of your post here.

A few weeks back Devon and I started emailing about A New Leaf weddings. And when she sent me a few of the photos, I just had to ask her to write for In This Instance. Her wedding was so incredibly personal and filled with amazing details that I had to see if she would write about it. I know that many readers find this blog searching for photos of weddings at A New Leaf or for ways to add personal touches and while selfishly, I want to hear more about those incredible photographs that she shared, I also know that all of you will completely enjoy seeing them as well.

Here is a little sneak peak of the fabulousness that will be appear in your reader... Enjoy!

I am sure everyone who reads this blog was thinking about Tara yesterday! What gorgeous weather, right? And she even scheduled her beautiful word cloud to post while she was getting married!!

So now that we're all waiting until she returns from her romantic Costa Rican adventure, all hoping for a glimpse of her first photos ... she has invited me to guest blog in her absence. Not quite the same thing. I know.

The continuity she has left you with, though, is that I am also A New Leaf bride. Or am I supposed to say that, "I was?" I was married four months ago, in the late throes of a Chicago winter, to Patrick. So while we wait on edge for Tara's return, I will be walking her readers through our planning process and the celebration that we created at A New Leaf.

-devon.

p.s. i am soooo sorry to anyone with a reader, as i just published this about five times trying to get it to display correctly. my own blog doesn't have the "type your summary here" and "type the rest of your post here" displayed in the draft view the way i am seeing it on tara's. i don't know if that is a function of being an added author, or just part of her template ... but i think it was truncating the post. again, sorry!

test

While we are opting for non-traditional in many aspects for our wedding, I am doing the bridal tradition of "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue." I find the meaning of each part of the rhyme sweet and romantic.

Something old represents continuity... the Tiffany pearl bracelet that D. gave me as an anniversary present a few years ago.

Something new offers optimism for the future... my pearl drop earrings bought for the wedding.

Something borrowed symbolizes borrowed happiness... my sister's brooch that she wore at her wedding.

Something blue stands for purity, love, and fidelity... the boning in my dress is covered in light blue fabric and the little blue flowers in my bouquet.

It has been a while since I did a post on those things I am lusting after but that my modest little budget won't stretch to fit. Today a gorgeous dress from Nanette Lepore has my attention... I would love to buy this for the Rehearsal Dinner.

{Image via Nanette Lepore}