Details, details

We have just under 21 weeks to go. That's a bit under 5 months. Whew, okay, deep breaths.

photo by Faith West c/o Conroy Catering
We met with one of our fabulous event planning team over at Glen Foerd Mansion, today to hammer out some of the details of the event.

We started by discussing the bar. She definitely knows how to put us in a good mood. Turns out that if we use liquors included in the open bar or comparable to those included, we can get them at no extra charge, as long as they're not butlered. Woo! Also, we may well swap out the standard beers for a couple more to our guests' liking. We did decide to forgo the wine tasting in the special wine cellar, since I'm already concerned about trying to pack too many activities into one evening. And, since champagne will be offered at the bar, we'll be skipping the round of champagne for the toast, and people can drink anything they like.


Sorta what it will look like
Next was linens, where I was tempted to upgrade from ivory to white, but for the negligible difference it will make in a dim, candle-lit room, it hardly seems worth the expense.

Onto the timeline, which was one of the major areas in which we gladly accepted the guidance of our fabulous planner. The event currently runs 5 hours ceremony to getting kicked out, with an hour ahead of time for any photos before the ceremony. Between actually getting married, cocktail hour, various dances, various toasts, an entire meal, and dancing, that's a lot to fit in. We're hoping that we'll be able to move the start time up an hour to extend the entire event, but we won't know if we'll be able to until mid-October, as they have to hold the schedule open for other possible events until 3 months prior to any given date.

Then menu selections. Behold:
Butlered hors d'oeuvres
-Roasted tomato basil bruschetta
-Roasted petite potato with pesto cream cheese and roasted red peppers
-Miniature Maryland crab cakes with tartar sauce
-Sesame chicken with honey mustard dip
-Herb toast with filet of beef and brie (might get some of these without beef)

Cocktail hour stationary displays
-Tomato herb soup served in miniature cups with miniature grilled cheese dipper
-Black-and-white sesame-crusted Ahi tuna roll with wasabi aoli

First course
-Medley of wild winter greens with dried cranberries, stilton, and toasted pistachios with roasted shallot vinaigrette

Main course options
-Breast of chicken with rosemary garnished with fresh citrus fruits in citrus white wine sauce
-Poached filet of salmon with lump crab meat and lemon thyme beurre blanc
-Vegetable napoleon of portobello mushroom, roasted red pepper, and wilted spinach
-all served with young asparagus with parmesan butter and some kind of starch (which we're still debating)

Dessert display
-Mini cannolis, brownie diamonds, mini cheesecakes, and a great many other things that I was too busy salivating over to recall in specificity
-Coffee, teas, etc.
-Wedding cake (constitution tbd)

Regarding the cake, I've handed my design ideas over to the pastry chef, and we'll see if he or she comes back with any structural requirements (I'm thinking not), at which point, Fiance and I will pick a cake flavor and a selection of possible fillings to sample, since our original sampling didn't give us anything to write home about. Or write about really at all. I've also requested the dimensions of the future cake layers, which will no doubt eventually result in my constructing a cake of entirely recyclable paper products, crafting the ornamentation as foreshadowed previously, and photographing the assembly and final product for the pastry crew to work from.

Oh, and we also visited a couple of probable hotels had lunch, and made a couple of craft supply shopping stops.

Anyone else have a productive day?