Wedding Journal

June 2016 — 12 Months to Our Wedding Day:
Time started to tick away rapidly, and the anticipation and excitement grew once Drew and I set a date for our wedding day. In the first month of our engagement, we started to envision our future life together. Luckily we were able to enlist the help of our family and most dear friends. Every friend we asked gracefully accepted our offer to be in the wedding party. Selecting Betsy Johnson as our wedding planner gave a great sense of comfort that our special day would fulfill our vision. It was so rewarding to start writing out our guest list as it brought to light how many people have enriched our lives. Drew's family has summered in Vermont since his great grandfather was small. They have a house there now, but still spend time at Pinnacle Harbor Resort, where Drew and I vacationed a few months after we met. It was June when we went for  our long weekend in Vermont, and everything was so green – especially after living in San Francisco, where we met. So we decided to have our wedding and reception at Pinnacle Harbor Resort in Vermont where all the guests could completely relax.
 
July 2016 — 11 Months to Our Wedding Day:
Drew surprised me with an engagement party at Top of the Mark. My best buddy Molly kept the whole event on the QT. The Mark's chef made an assortment of hors d'oeuvres, including one with my favorite, Dungeness crab. We started the evening off with just a small group of local friends, but then our families joined us. They had flown into town for the party and to meet each other. Drew and I, with our friends and families, danced the night away with the band Fabulous Blues Trio and watched the sparkle of the city all around us. Drew got down on one knee and in front of everyone once again asked me to marry him. The night could not have been more special!

August 2016 — 10 Months to Our Wedding Day:
Molly, Julia, my mother and I met up in New York City for the weekend to shop for the perfect wedding dress. We finally ended up at Eve's Dress Shop, where my over-stimulated mother said we should have started. We commissioned my wedding dress based on my grandmother Phelan's wedding dress that she wore in 1958. Gram's dress is lovely, with delicate hand-stitched embroidery. Our dear family friend, Father Fitz, is officiating at our wedding, so we talked to him in Boston, Drew via Skype, about our wedding duties. Later that week, Drew arrived from San Francisco and we went up to Vermont to meet with the Pinnacle Harbor Resort chef, Norman, to sample local Vermont food offered at our wedding reception.

September 2016 — 9 Months to Our Wedding Day:
If swing dancing is your thing you are going to love our dance band, Once Around the Block. Lily, my roommate from college, booked the impossible-to-get date with the band. Lily had a fling with the drummer one wild summer and still has an in with the band. We also are going to continue my family tradition of an Irish bagpiper leading us into the ceremony. To honor Drew’s grandfather we've chosen his favorite David Austin roses to be the centerpoint of our flowers. Talmadge Pierce has grown roses at his home on Long Island for as long as he's lived there. His favorite, the Lady Emma Hamilton rose, came from Drew’s great grandmother’s rose garden.

October 2016 — 8 Months to Our Wedding Day:
For our guests who are traveling to Vermont for our wedding day, we have reserved the entire Pinnacle Harbor Resort for our wedding. We will have their fabulous dining rooms, activity rooms and gorgeous lawns all to ourselves (all 300 of us!). My mother recommended that we should have our gift registry at our favorite store in San Francisco, Gump’s, as well as our registries in Boston and New York City. We decided to rent a small carnival and a nanny to entertain the younger wedding participants, and to give their parents some time to enjoy the festivities without interruption.

November 2016 — 7 Months to Our Wedding Day:
I asked Molly, my maid of honor, to pick out the dresses for the bridesmaids. She went to Morilee for her best design ideas. My bridesmaids/man Julia, Grace, Lily, Naomi, Libby, Eva, Jae, and Fin all agree on not looking too wedding-y; simple dresses and a classic tux for Fin will do. Drew is also going with the classic tuxedo. I was at his fitting and found him to be irresistible in black and white. His best men/woman will reflect the same style and elegance, and Nat will have a black and white dress.

December 2016 — 6 Months to Our Wedding Day:
After much discussion and much more research, we finally decided on our honeymoon destinations. We will first fly to Scotland, where we will travel for almost a week, with four days on the Royal Scotsman train and checking out some single-malt scotch breweries, then on to Paris for a week. We are going to end our honeymoon in Venice, Italy. So romantic! This honeymoon trip is the most wonderful wedding present ever from our parents who together made sure we will have only the best!

January 2017 — 5 Months to Our Wedding Day:
Five more months to go and our lives are becoming a whirlwind of activity. We met with our local San Francisco minister, Charles Peterson, for prenuptial counseling, a three-hour conversation on what we should consider before we start our life together. We both left reflecting on our union. On the lighter side, we watched Breakfast at Tiffany's before going to get our wedding rings. Simple bands to match the engagement ring that Drew gave me in Morocco.

February 2017 — 4 Months to Our Wedding Day:
The wet chill of a San Francisco winter cannot dim the excitement we feel as our wedding day gets closer. We chose the same classic wedding invitations as Drew's parents had and we are getting them from the same stationery company. We also finally decided on our wedding cake from Stinzers Bakery. The dessert chef in Vermont will be making a smaller matching tiered ice cream cake for all our friends' and families' kids at the wedding.

March 2017 — 3 Months to Our Wedding Day:
The closer we come to our special day the more decisions we need to make. We are so grateful for our wedding planner. Jenny has guided us through the many decisions with the precision of a general on the battlefield. We chose a calligrapher Drew’s sister Julia recommended to address invitations. We also utilized her precious talent to write out our wedding vows, which we will be framing. Drew's grandfather, Conrad, has generously offered to lend one of his antique cars, a 1920 Rolls Royce Phantom, and a hire a chauffeur who will drive us around during the weekend.

April 2017 — 2 Months to Our Wedding Day:
With spring came one of my most treasured memories. Molly surprised me with a long weekend out with the girls for my wedding shower. We started off on Friday when Molly chartered a small plane to take us to Turks and Caicos. We went scuba diving, danced, ate divine food and pampered ourselves. So much fun! Drew’s best buddy Cal surprised him with a three-day trip to Hawaii. Cal brought him back alive, which was all that I was hoping. Honestly, I know that Cal made one of Drew's dreams come true, and they had a fabulous time.

May 2017 — 1 Month to Our Wedding Day:
Most of the last year has been similar to floating on a gentle breeze, but now that our wedding day is so close I can feel the ground rush beneath my feet. Everything is set in motion, and now it's just a matter of showing up at the altar. Our parents flew to San Francisco to witness us signing our marriage license at City Hall. We all then went for dinner at Nightbird, where my brother Michael's boyfriend, the chef, had all the staff come out and toast us.