365

My wedding is in 365 days!  I cannot believe it!  While we have chosen the date, church and venue - there are loads of things to do and I am looking forward to all the planning that is to come!

As I read through wedding magazines and checklists of things to do, I think the most important part of planning a wedding is to remember that it is about us. When it comes down to it, I can be put in any white dress, hold any types of flowers and put any kind of centerpiece in the middle of the table - but as long as we have fun and enjoy the most special day of our lives together, I would say it amounted to the most perfect wedding day!

So polish your dancing shoes, family and friends - November 9, 2013 will be a day to remember!

An overdue update

It is hard to believe how fast time goes by and how days come and go without much time to write blog posts!

While most days, before I got engaged, I would spend train rides blogging; lately I have been spending train rides looking through wedding magazines, reading about invitations, looking over favorite reception songs, picking out items for our registry and everything else you could possibly think of regarding wedding planning.

At night, I have spent time trying out new recipes and who would have guessed it - looking up things for our wedding!

I have been giving a few soups a try and have had great results!  I make a sweet potato and carrot soup, a white bean and broccoli soup and a fire-roasted tomato soup!  It is always nice to look forward to a warm soup when you come home from work on a brisk fall day.










I have also been trying a few dessert recipes and found a great recipe for homemade caramel icing.  It went so well with the vanilla cupcakes I made and I even put a chocolate caramel candy in the center of cake to give it an extra something special!  I think the attendees of the flower class really enjoyed them!  

Wine and appetizers - how classy!

The weekends are seeming to come and go so quickly as well!  Two weekends ago, I went to see Regina up at Penn State.  She and her roommates made me feel so welcome and it was a great weekend.  They had even planned a mini bachelorette party for me with wine and appetizers!  It was a perfect start to a fun night!

Celebrating my engagement!
"To Kathryn!"

This past weekend, Tom and I celebrated Halloween with friends at a few parties in Hoboken!  It is always fun to see how creative people get with their costumes!

And now, we are in the midst of Hurricane Sandy.  New York City is pretty much shut down and all modes of public transportation are suspended.  Hoboken doesn't do well with rain and flooding, so we are hoping for the best in the next few days.  We are safe, have plenty of food and water and enough board games to keep us beyond entertained!  

Here's to staying safe and to more frequent updates, I promise!

Hoboken bake sale

I was asked to donate some baked goods to the Hoboken bake sale by one of my first Good Afternoonan clients. I was happy to help and hope this will be a great business opportunity for me!

I decided with the start of October, it would be fun to make something with Halloween themed decorations. I also wanted to make sure I had a crowd pleaser so I thought I would do a spin on the chocolate peanut butter cakes I made for Jason's birthday. With many suggestions from those who tried them, I was told that maybe melted peanut butter chips would have been better to ensure that every bite had peanut butter in it! And instead of making cake balls, I made regular cupcakes for the bake sale.

Then I had purchased cupcakes liners and picks with Halloween images like bats, witches, ghosts and pumpkins.

Here is the finished product! I am pleased how they turned out and hope the bake-sale-goers love them!

Bread baking!

Last night Tom's Aunt Janet and Uncle Bruce treated us and Tom's newlywed cousins, Kristen and Joe to a bread baking class  at Le Pain Quotidien in New York City! We learned all kinds of techniques and made countless loaves of bread - it was such a fun night!

Aunt Janet and Uncle Bruce making their pizzas

We started by learning the ten step process of baking bread but skipped a few steps ahead since bread baking can be an all day affair! We made baguettes and small rolls as well as fruit and nut rolls and pizza dough! After we formed the small rolls, we filled them with butter and chocolate - and sampled a few pieces of chocolate along the way!

Joe and Kristen

Once most of the dough was in the oven, we made pizza for dinner! They were so delicious!

After pizza, we packaged up all of the bread to take home! Both Tom and I have freezers full of awesome artisan bread that we will be able to enjoy for quite a long time!

Tom and I with the pizza, the chocolate mini rolls, the baguettes, the fruit and nut rolls and a baked pizza!

The whole bread making group :)

We are thinking we might even sign up for the scone making class to further our baking knowledge! I highly recommend taking the class as it was definitely informative but more importantly, a really fun time with family!

Venue shopping

This weekend went so quickly! On Friday night, Tom and I watched a movie and ordered Chinese food with a few of our friends. We wanted to keep a low key night since we were headed to PA early the next morning to see my family and look at potential venues for our wedding!

On Saturday morning, Tom picked me up at my apartment in an awesome convertible that we rented for the weekend! Even though it was a little bit chilly, we rode half of the way home with the top down! It's funny how the topics of our conversation have changed - on the drive down this weekend we were talking about possible honeymoon locations! I mean we have thought of the idea of that before and talked about it - but now that it something that actually will be happening in about a year, it had become so real!

Once we got to my house, we picked my Mom up and went to the Radnor Hotel to view the grounds for a reception. I used to be a hostess at the restaurant there and I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of my old co-workers still worked there and gave me, Tom and my Mom such a warm welcome!

We enjoyed learning about the wedding package and after our appointment we sat for lunch to think through the options presented to us.

On Saturday night, my Mom invited some family and friends over for cake and to share in the excitement of our engagement. The love, support and genuine happiness we have experienced in these last few weeks has been wonderful!

On Sunday we went to view another venue and then went to Sean's soccer game. He played really well and it was fun to watch him play! Then we went to TJ Maxx and Home Goods and then to Patrick and Karen's house for dinner. After dinner and talking about the venues we went to see, Tom and I hopped back in the car to head back to Hoboken.

It was another wonderful weekend and I am so glad we got to celebrate with our family this weekend!

Flower class flavor

I was too busy getting engaged over the weekend (forgive me) to know that last Saturday was the first day of Fall.  I heard it on the news earlier this week and took it as inspiration for this week's flower class desserts.

I made a simple butter cookie in the shapes of leaves and apples and decorated them with fall-colored sprinkles to celebrate the first week of Fall.

Then I placed the cookies into little clear bags and tied with a gold and red bow!

I hope the attendees enjoy the cookies and think of Good Afternoonan the next time they need food "made with a little bit of love."

In case you were wondering

This is what cloud 9 looks like...

I am still on cloud 9.  I often look down at my left hand and think - I can't believe this is happening!  And with all of the calls, text messages, emails and well wishes on Facebook, it seems that not a minute has gone by that I do not think about all of the excitement that is to come!  I am overwhelmed at how many people are truly happy for Tom and me - it sincerely warms my heart to know just how many people love us!

Even though I've only been engaged for a few days, I am looking forward to all of the planning and seem to have already gotten a head start!  My friend Alicia from work got me the Martha Stewart Fall Weddings magazine to look through and we have been having fun looking at Pinterest for ideas as well!  Another friend from work Ryoko passed along her wedding guest spreadsheet template that will surely be helpful as we develop our guest list!

Luckily, there are plenty of checklists to follow and websites for wedding planning so I know we will remain on track for a perfect wedding day!  And I am lucky enough to have Karen, my sister-in-law and Jackie, my sister-in-law-to-be, who both planned beautiful weddings in the past few years and will surely be able to pass along their advice as well!

My first priority of planning is to simply enjoy each part of it and I know the rest will fall into place!