The Other Parties…
A wedding party doesn’t last just one day….
- For our out-of-town guests arriving Friday night, we’d love to treat you to dinner for making the trip out to Pittsburgh. You should have received an invite via email. We’ll be having an Italian dinner at 7pm on Friday, Oct 9th at J. Verno Studio at 3030 Jane St. You can take a taxi from the hotel, or a Super Shuttle from the airport (reserve beforehand.)
- Late Friday night, everyone is welcomed to join us for a little barhoping on East Carson around 20th St. We have a tentative meeting point of Smokin’ Joe’s at 10:30pm. We will have some transportation available after the bars close back to the Sheraton hotel.
- Saturday is the wedding, however we have to be out at 11:30pm, so we’ll be heading to a bar 2 blocks away, The Birmingham Bridge Tavern. There will be transportation both to the wedding from the Sheraton, and returning home at multiple times during the night (10:30, 11:30, and 2pm)
- Sunday, we’d like everybody to get together for a brunch @ 11am. It’s fixed-price for you, at $24. It’s in a beautiful old train station converted into a classy restaurant with great food. – Grand Concourse at Station Square, right across from the Sheraton Hotel.
Vinnie’s Cell: 917-612-0051
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.JPG "Pittsburgh Cookie Table")
There are two long standing Pittsburgh wedding traditions that you, in all likelihood, will encounter and I must prepare you for.
One, the polka, will hopefully be completely avoided at all cost.
The other is just plain delicious and must be embraced as a tradition unique to Pittsburgh – no wedding is complete without the COOKIE TABLE!
In Pittsburgh, friends and relatives bake dozens and dozens of cookies – all different- and display them at the reception. We’re not talking a few dozen cookies but hundreds and hundreds of cookies. From what I could find, I need about 5 to 10 cookies per person attending the reception. For our wedding that’s 650 to 1,300 cookies!!
It was considered sacrilegious when I suggested not having a cookie table at the wedding. My grandmother – who is fine with our wedding at a commercial photo studio, with having Milo the dog as the ring bearer, and with jamming down the aisle to the Beatles – was definitely NOT fine with the absence of a cookie table. “What will everyone think! No cookie table at the wedding!”
So now, I’m asking you for a favor.
Dear friends,
Can you make a dozen cookies for my wedding? It’s important to my Pittsburgh roots.
Thanks,
Kris
——————————-
Here is some more background for those that are interested:
Gormet Magazine discusses the cookie table
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Welcome to Pittsburgh!
For all of you asking what to expect in the ‘burgh!
Pittsburgh has very distinct and separate neighborhoods, even within the city. It’s an old school industrial town with eastern European roots and a traditional blue collar community. In addition to Polish, Jewish and German cultural influences, Pittsburgh also has a rich interesting history due to it’s location on three major rivers and a strong working class that tends to stand up to the likes of Carnegie and Frick.
There are fantastic colleges, like Pitt and Carnegie Mellon, so the average bar age is pretty young. You can usually tell the locals apart from the college students because of the Pittsburgh accent. You will be asked what you think of them ‘stillers and your thoughts on the most recent game. You will hear the term “y’ins” or “y’unz” — this means “you all.”
A typically sentence would be “Y’inz gawin dawntawn to watch the stillers, en at.” Loosely translated this means, “Hey guys! Are you going downtown to watch the game?”
This unique language is called Pittsburghese and the people who speak it are y’inzers. Not everyone is a z’iners, only people who say y’inz is a y’inzer. People are generally nice, and full of pep and vigor. Bar fights are common. Expect to meet more than a few republicans and union democrats.
Because public transportation is a bitch in Pittsburgh, and because the city is more than a little confusing, with one way streets and over 400 bridges, I have created a must-do itinerary for you with a list of things to see and do.
Your must-do itinerary
Thursday Night
If you’re getting in on Thursday evening, take it easy! The Sheraton is located in Station Square which is a small but tourist-focused section of Pittsburgh and there are a few things to do very close to the hotel.
If you get in early here is my suggestion is to take the Duquesne incline (Du-kane) up to Mount Washington and eat at one of the restaurants there. The Grandview Salon is a casual place with a good sausage hoagie (this means sausage sub), I recommend this for a good meal and a fantastic view.
If you’re scared of heights, stay close to the hotel and explore Station Square. There are a bunch of restaurants, including a Hard Rock Cafe and a slightly lame bar.
Friday Day and Night
Time to explore! For you hungry folks, grab a quick and dirty breakfast at the (now famous) Deluca’s located right on the strip (here are directions). If you want to walk around a bit, make sure to check out PennMac (Pennsylvania Macaroni), Wholey’s fish market, and Enrico Biscotti.
Next head straight to the Andy Warhol Museum and enjoy a few hours with great artwork. The museum is in the Strip District of Pittsburgh, which is a line of docks where fresh produce was (is still?) dropped off from the boats. The Strip really shines on Saturday mornings, when there is an open air market and all the city residents come to buy fresh fish, cheese and have a great coconut macaroon.
The open air market is a site to behold BUT if you plan to be a little busy getting ready on Saturday, check out the strip on Friday.
A MUST DO: While in the strip, head to Primati Brothers, Pittsburgh’s most infamous sandwich place. Make sure to pair your sandwich with the one true Pittsburgh micro-brew — Iron City.
After chilling in the strip district, maybe you want to relax by the water. Take a cab from the Strip District to The Point. The Point is a large park at the convergence of the three rivers – the Monongahela, the Allegheny and the Ohio. Head there to relax with the famous grey skies of Pittsburgh.
From The Point, you can walk over the bridge back to your hotel. It’s a great stroll through the city – swing by Market Square and walk across the Smithfield Bridge. Here’s a map.
Note: If you missed the first opportunity to head to Primanti Brothers, there is another location in Market Square.
Rehearsal dinner and fun in the Southside!
We’re hosting a rehearsal dinner for all out of town guests at 7:00. You will receive an evite for this event with location details. The rehearsal dinner is at 3030 Jane Street. You will have to take a cab from your hotel to the location. Please be aware that the entrance is not at 3030 Jane street, it is around the building on Harcum Avenue. Here is a map of the building.
After the rehearsal dinner we will be going out as a group to a few bars on the Southside.
For you big-time gamblers, a new casino just opened in Pittsburgh. Last call is at 2:00AM, but the slot machines never close and there is free coffee and pop all night.
Saturday Day
The big day! Get an early start by heading to the open air market in the Strip, or get your hair did! Here is a list of good hairdressers in town:
There is a bus taking everyone from the Sheraton to the wedding location (3030 Jane Street). The bus is leaving at 4:00 and will return at 10:30 and 11:30. The wedding and reception are in the same location.
Sunday – Brunch and Octoberfest at the Hofbräuhaus.
On sunday we are meeting with friends for brunch, you’re more than welcome to join us. Because our lavish wedding is so lavish, (it took a lot to afford this dress) we’re not able to pay for brunch. We’ll be at brunch at 11:00 – we have yet to decide what restaurant.
From there we will be heading over to the Hofbräuhaus to enjoy a liter of beer and some hot pretzels.
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My new wedding dress!
(Thanks for the idea Jim and Jenny!)
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My first Wedding Gift!
I was so excited to see a box waiting for me when I came back from the gym. Heck ya!We didn’t even put away the groceries, just ran for the scissors and started to open the box.
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Wedding gifts!
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(image from DivineCaroline.com)
Choosing a wedding photographer has been really hard, mostly because our friends are brilliant photographers and pretty hard to beat. Also, we have high expectations and don’t want any pics like this.
Pete, our friend at Sandwich Studios, gave us an unbeatable deal on engagement pics – we promised him lunch and beer and he promised 251 amazing pictures. We’ve already been shot at Sandwich Studios once before, so we knew what to expect – a lot of props, silly costumes and crazy angles.
WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!
Pete, Vin and I wandered all over the city, doing normal day-to-day San Francisco things – running up and down the Lyon Street stairs, jumping into the freezing Pacific Ocean and checking out the murals in the Mission.
We had our one little paparazzi! Pete followed us with his massive camera as tourists stared wondering just what the hell we were doing. One old grannie walked into our shot to give us a hug and tell us just how happy she was to see us get married. Crazy.
We hit up a lot tourist areas, particurally the golden gate overlook. I thought it would be funny for Pete to get a shot of some japanese tourists taking a pitcure of us as we stood by the bridge. It didn’t work out very well, as they couldn’t understand a word we said. We just ended up bowing back and forth and getting nary a shot.
I will post the shots when they’re ready. Be prepared. They’re awesome.
Oh! Pete will be attending the wedding, so we’re still shopping for that elusive wedding photographer.
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Golden Ticket Holders – π
At one point we were so exhausted making our STD’s that we failed to notice a small π symbol printed on several copies.
It wasn’t until we had stuck, sealed and signed several π’ed copies that I realized something was a little off. I turned to Vinnie to figure out what the hell he did to make 3.14159 appear on our invitations. Vinnie thought that Mike, the awesome PBwiki designer who helped with our STD layout, wanted to leave a signature on his creation and left a pi on purpose.
Not So! ( I know for sure Mike wouldn’t want π to clutter the clean lines of his design!)
Anyway, it appears our computer or our printer wanted to say hi and decided to print π. In our utter exhaustion, we decided that no one would notice and if they did – who cares! (The π is really, really tiny!)
Of course most of the golden ticket holders – those of you with a small π symbol on your invite – have noticed! Here are the explanations that we created for our π:
- We were engaged the day after π on 3.15
- We are not having cake at the wedding, instead we’re having π (this is true!)
- Round π to the nearest number and multiply by 2 = 6. The number of years we’ve been together
If you’re a π holder, leave a comment below! I’m curious to know who received the golden tickets!
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Vinnie and I have differing views on how themed we want our wedding to be. I don’t mind non-traditional as long as it doesn’t go overboard and turn into ‘A night to remember’ prom hell.
And it could, and in fact, it almost did.
Vinnie, being the more organized and dependent member of the team, made all of our appointments for our whirl-wind 4 days trip to Pittsburgh. Everytime he called someone, the vendor would ask to speak to the bride. I would violently shake my head and run into the other room – who wants to explain wedding colors that aren’t decided and a dress that had yet to be purchased?
That left Vin on the phone with enthusiastic florists, trying to explain our idea of traveling and including different friends from different cities as the ‘theme’ or our wedding.
One florist in particular seemed to really dig this idea. He dug it so much that he called back at 9:30 PM PDT (that’s 12:30 EST) to discuss the creative elements that he could use for New York! Paris! San Francisco!
We took the red eye, and started meeting with folks at 11:00AM. Enthusiastic florist was second on our list, on the way there Vin assured me that I would LOVE him. That may have been the jet lag talking because Mr. Enthuasitc florist was also “so much like a girl, he didn’t even give me the address! He just told me to meet him at the Panera Bread next to Loews off the Monroeville Interchange.”
We found Panera and settled into the most exhausting conversation of the day. Again, this is verbatim:
“Hello!-Let’s-get-straight-to-work! -I-want-you-to-see-the-fabulous-work-that-I-have-already-done-and-talk-outloud-so-I-can-hear-your-ideas! I’m-xo-excited-I-know-just-what-we’re-going-to-do-and-you-will-LOVE-IT!”
(We look at book of 8×10 glossies of flowers, not your average poloroid of the bouquet)
This is my idea!
First, the Pittburgh Table! Black! Gold! We’re going to have Roses dipped in Black, with cat’s tails sprayed with diamond glitter and black spraypaint! There will be yellow flowers and gold votives with lighting around the table. We need a gold tablecloth for this! 5! We will have 5 gold tables!
Of course, we could also do football flowers. I have a great idea to arrange carnations into footballs!
Next, Boston! Think – the Boston Aquarium! We will have a vase, covered in netting. Inside the vase, FISH! Live fish! The vase will be wrapped in netting, covered with star fish! On the table there will be sea shells and candles. Fabulous! You’ll love this! This table will be royal Blue!
Vermont! Maple Leaves everywhere! White tablecloth with snow! Think ski season in Vermont!
San Francisco! I want to do China Town. Think of a big chinese lantern, big! Lighting the whole table! The lantern will sit in a bed of rice. This needs to be orange, the table clothe will be orange!
New York! The Big apple! I want a 3-foot tall Empire State building on the table, 14 candles will sprial down the inside of the installation. Inside the Empire State building will be apples. The apples will be stuffed with carnations. The table cloth will be RED!
Paris! Moulin Rouge! Fabulous! White feathers, a Swan neck vase with flowers spiraling from the top. The center of everyone’s attention. We need to do at least 5 Paris tables.
It didn’t stop there, but I couldn’t keep up. I gently let him know that I was looking for something a little less ‘orange, white, red, and blue’ and something a little more ‘eggplant purple’. He didn’t seem to get it. In fact he let me know in no uncertain terms, “You can have whatever you want for the wedding but the reception is different altogether.”
Wow.
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Tags: flowers
Short Story: I bought another dress, bartered Greggory down $1,100 and it’s beautiful.
Long Story: Pot head store owner and wedding brownies
My address clearly states San Francisco, CA. This raised more than a few eyebrows on the recent trip back to PA. I’m not sure why, but I’m guess it’s because our reputation as a No-on-prop-8, hybrid-cars lovin, pot smoking bastion of liberal thought.
The owner of PA’s fanciest wedding dress shop just happens to be a big gay man with a pot addiction. As soon as I walked in, he looked at me and said,”I just watched a documentary about Humboldt County, is it true?” I assured him that we get great pot out here, and he busted out with, “I just HAVE to move there. Now tell me what kind of dress you’re looking for.”
A good start.
Every dress Greg brought for me to try on was beautiful, and perfect — exactly what I was looking for, except for the price tag. Wow, these dresses are steep. You never think you want to spend a ton on your wedding dress, until you try on couture…
Anyway, you stand there naked while women in the room help you step in and out of these gorgeous gowns. In the middle of one of these changing session, as I stood clutching a dress to my naked body, Greg knocks on the door and busts in on me. This is our conversation, verbatim:
Greg: My doctor is just so mad at me.
Me: Why?
Greg: The pot, it’s ruining my health.
Me: How?
Greg: The Smoking! So I tried it in brownies. I have never had a pot brownie before, so I didn’t know what to expect. I was with her (gesturing to the women helping me try on dresses) and her husband. We baked it into brownies and I didn’t feel a thing.
(The women smiles and nods as if to say, ‘yeah, he’s a big pothead, doncha’ love him)
Me: (Still almost naked, holding a fancy wedding dress to cover my bare boobs, trying to act casual) Did you make them correctly?
Greg: I didn’t feel a thing! So we went to this great antique store and went our own direction. She went over there and I went my way. Then OH MY GOD. I couldn’t stand, I felt it. Oh My God! It was potent.
Me: Ya, eating pot is like that.
Greg walks away, I try on a new dress.
After five or six dresses, I found the perfect one – the price tag was off by just over $3,000. Mentioning to Greg that this dress is well outside my budget he says, “let me just think!” and struts off.
Minutes later he proposes a plan. He cuts me 1,100 off the price and reduces the sales tax. If I can find him some of the good stuff from Cali, he can help me out even more.
My poor mother sat there, the only thing she could say was, “Do no send pot in the mail. that’s interstate commerce!”
The question remains how to get Greg the good stuff in PA.
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Tags: dress
So you have the save the date! They’re out!
Now you know that we’re not already married (thanks for that rumor!) and that we’re getting married this year 2009.
We hope you figured out that the picture is a magnet that you can peal off and stick on your fridge and keep as a Pittsburgh trip momento.
Here’s a 2-minute video interview with the designer.
Did you notice the colors? They’re just for fun – and may be caused by a temporary onset of Adult ADHD. (50-seconds)
Vinnie has a silly name for our Save The Dates
–
Original artwork:
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Tags: save the dates, std
Save the date drama
Remember when I mentioned that things are going smoothly? There’s one thing that had slipped my mind – Save the Date drama. We can’t seem to decide on a design or an overarching ‘theme’ for our wedding (what is this Disney World -we need a theme?)
Vin and planning a big-ish trek around the world after we get married so we thought it would be fun to incorporate that into the wedding. (About 6 months after the wedding, we’re heading to India and hoping to backpack through China.)
Tonight our fight was about save the date designs. I think there should be design continuity between the save-the-date/wedding invite/ reception. His idea for a save the date card was this:
Note: We are not chinese.
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Tags: save the date, std
Dress Shopping
I know there is a check list somewhere that I am missing – things are falling into place a little too smoothly. Everytime I go home, I seem to make a decision about the wedding. This time it was the dress.
My friend warned me that there would be 6 women in the dressing room with you when you’re trying on wedding gowns. Notably she said “Don’t make the mistake I did, don’t wear a thong.” Who knew?
With those words ringing in the back of my mind, I went home and staunchly refused to check out wedding dresses. COME ON. Post Christmas, my last workout a distant memory and 6 women helping me get dressed. No thanks, I refuse!
Of course my mother, after 29 years of dealing with my stubborn behavior, has found ways around it. Image living with 7 days of ”all I want for christmas is to go dress shopping.”
We ended up at a South Side button store. Yes, a store that sells ribbons and buttons — and also happens to have sample discontinued designer dresses in the back.
Seeing all those gowns, well – you can help but want to try them on! It started slowly, first one dress, then the next with a pair of shoes, then another with shoes and a hair piece. Suddenly I was standing there in a great backless dress with feathers and a veil on my head. Voila mademoiselle bride-to-be.
This may have come too easily, we thought. My only criteria was “I like feathers” and somehow we found an incredibly simple dress able to carry off a crazy feather hat and purple shoes.
(Did I mention that I want purple Christian Louboutin shoes with my dress?)
Anyway, having been whipped into a dress frenzy, I was easily cajoled into checking out another dress location or two.
That’s when the hell that is chain-store wedding dress shopping began. Yes. I did it. I entered the devils lair, the place that few can survive – David Bridal! AHHHH! I nearly shot myself in the face after two second of looking at the same polyester nightmare in sizes 0-22.
I ran from the store before the oncoming panic attack hit – that swell of wedding nightmares, waves of princess skirt, corseted horror. NOoooooooo!
We immediately called the button lady and asked her to please for the love of all things holy, please stay open 15 minutes late so we can make it back to buy the dress.
That’s how I found my dress – in the back room of a button store. I’m going to keep looking around (just in case I made a hasty fearful decision) but the more I think of it, the more I like it.
And no, I’m not posting a picture of it yet. Mostly because I left it back at home in PA.
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Tags: dress
Finally! Bridesmaids dresses that don’t suck ass!
I’ve been seriously concerned with the dresses that I’ve been finding on the web and in those hideous wedding magazines. Martha Steward -ugh. It’s all smiling and white and green. It makes me want to puke.
Those magazines sell a story totally lacking in pizzaz, glamour and fun — not to mention realism. Where are the drunken family members grinding to Marvin Gaye and embarrassing stories of your past revealed in wedding speeches that weren’t vetted. And those dresses! Who spends $17,000 on a wedding dress. I’m planning this in a recession!
I mean, UGH. The same eye bleeding bridesmaid dress in multiple colors of puke green!
Fear inducing bridesmaid dresses
I have decided to forgo crappy bridesmaid dresses and look at real dresses – you know, the ones that you wish you were wearing to your friends wedding.
Here’s where I’m looking
err..that’s all i had time for. I will add more to this list!
What stores do you think I should look at?
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Tags: dress
Am I unusual because I don’t want to plan a damn thing?
This is getting frightening. The space that I booked is huge and empty and white. I definitely need to get creative in my decorations, but I am at a total impasse. This impasse leads to stress sleeping which leads to napping which leads to taking NyQuil to sleep through the night.
I am thinking about eloping. It sounds much easier.
On the positive side, here are some of my ideas.
I like the idea of headbands on my bridesmaids. God knows what their dresses will look like, or what color they will be but I have to start somewhere – right?
Here are pictures of some feathers that I really like: (I just bought one to test it out!)
My grandmother suggested heading to paint stores to see what color palettes I like. This just may be a good idea! I started to look at some color websites online. Here’s what i’ve found.
I found a greate color site where I am testing things out.
Here is a photo I found on their blog — I am going to draw a shred of inspiration from it and figure out a palette that suits me.
Here are some palettes that I like – I created the first one, the others I really liked but didn’t create. My friends at work think they’re too somber, I tend to agree. I’m finding this to be a very hard line to toe.
AHHH! What to do!
If you happen to head to Colourlovers.com, create a wedding palette for me! I would love to see it.
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God knows what I was busy dreaming about when I was a little girl, but it sure as hell wasn’t my wedding. In fact, thanks to my recently-discovered pre-teen diary, I know exactly what I was dreaming about – leaving Pittsburgh to travel around the world.
I quote, “The only thing that would happen if I took the car and went to Canada is that I would be caught and sent home” – Krissy Mo, 1994
It turns out that I am taking that car and heading right back to Pittsburgh to tie the knot.
So, all this dreaming about travel did not leave much room for dreaming about weddings – which I believe will be reflected in the day itself.
I am officially frightened that my bridesmaids will wear hideous shape-hiding sack dresses in the color orange.
Ugghhhhh….
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Tags: color, wedding fear
back to the ‘burgh
Wedding preparation has officially begun. It’s about time too — we’ve been engaged for almost 6 months.
The whole east coast vs. west coast, city vs. vineyard, his family homestead or mine — omg, it was too much and so we buried our heads while the details fell into place.
By that I mean, sketching out who would come if we had it here (West coast) vs. there (east coast), and then comparing the financial reality of New York (his family) or Pittsburgh (my family)
Pittsburgh, my small industrious city won out. Frankly, who wants to spend 5x more by getting married in NYC. And the ‘burg seems on the rise once again, so getting married there seems like a good time.
oh — and Vinnie really liked the movie ‘Pittsburgh’ so I think that influenced our decision
So Pittsburgh, here we come!
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Tags: location
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Recent Entries
- The Other Parties…
- What to expect from a Pittsburgh Wedding
- Welcome to Pittsburgh!
- My new wedding dress!
- My first Wedding Gift!
- Wedding gifts!
- Corn you hear me? Engagements pics have arrived!
- Yes we are that cheesy, Engagment Shots by Sandwich Studios
- Golden Ticket Holders – π
- Prom night relived: A date with a potential florist
- My Wedding Dress – The Pothead Edition
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