Hoboken Hospitality Nights

Fun & Festive Hoboken Hospitality Week!
Fine Art Winter Print available at Etsy in ara133photography's shop

Here at Koru Wedding Shoppe, we're decorating the shoppe & tagging the inventory for two nights of specials & savings for Hoboken Hospitality Week! On Tuesday, November 30 & Wednesday, December 1 from 6-10pm, shoppers can walk the charming streets of Hoboken & take advantage of special holiday offers & promotions at 40+ boutiques. It's two nights of festive cheer & great deals- not to be missed!

What are Koru's special deals? 50% off in-stock items, 20% off custom items, $5 Sale Bin & $1 Sale Bin! Have a Bride-to-be on your shopping list? Join us & enjoy the spectacular savings!

Cheers~

ThankFULL

Thanks Is For Giving
Print available at Etsy in rawartletterpress' shop

I adore Thanksgiving. This wonderful holiday gives me the perfect reason to pause for a moment, look at my life & give thanks for my countless blessings. Just to name a few . . .

1. My fiance, RZ. He is my everything & my life wouldn't be the same without him.
2. My family. They may drive me crazy but they support me & love me always.
3. My friends. My friends are my family & they are the BEST!
4. Bailey, Gucci & Kaydee. Bailey is a constant source of joy & love & we needed him after saying good-bye to Gucci & Kaydee. I'm grateful for the 18 years I enjoyed with them & can only hope for 18 years with Bailey.
5. My health. On good days & bad days, I never forget the importance of good health.
6. My happiness. Something in my life can always make me smile even through tears.
7. My safety. Thank you to those who have fought & who continue to fight for my safety.
8. My freedom. Thank you to those who have fought & who continue to fight for my freedom.
9. Koru Wedding Shoppe & its amazing customers. I'm lucky to love what I do!
10. My upcoming marriage to RZ :-)

I am FULL of thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving to you & yours!

Magical Alterations

Ally Bridal & Tuxedo Logo

Yesterday, I mentioned my wedding dress is perfect.

It just doesn't fit me perfectly. When I ordered my wedding dress, my measurements fell between two sizes. Lovely wisely recommended ordering the larger size as it's easier to alter a big dress than starve for a small dress & I happily followed their advice. And wow, it is big in every way, shape & form! The top is so large that it falls down if I don't hold it up. The bottom is inches & inches too long for short me. Clearly, alterations are needed.

Ally of Ally Bridal & Tuxedo to the rescue! Ally & I had never met but we have tons in common. We're both in the wedding business in Hoboken; we share the same web designer, the wonderful Kate of Bella Mi; & she altered my sister-in-law-to-be's wedding gown. I'm thrilled to support another local business, especially since it makes future fittings so convenient. Plus I know I can trust Ally to do a fabulous job.

I met Ally in her charming bridal shop on First Street in Hoboken, just three blocks away from Koru Wedding Shoppe. I put on my wedding dress & shoes &, within minutes, Ally pinned the dress to perfection. It felt amazing, just right. I could dance & the dress stayed in place! I could take a step without tripping over extra fabric! Miraculous!! I wanted to shower Ally with hugs & kisses!!!

My wedding dress in now in Ally's care so she can make it absolultely perfect for me. I'm beyond excited for my first dress fitting in early December. Although, as Ally warned me, I have to be careful not to gorge myself too much on Thanksgiving!

You're So Lovely

"You're So Lovely"
says Lovely Bridal Shop

I finally, finally had the chance to retrieve my wedding dress from Lovely Bridal Shop. It arrived one month early & I was unprepared. I hadn't found my wedding shoes yet! Not to mention, I didn't have a spare moment for a trip to Manhattan. Lovely assured me that my dress was in good hands & good company so I let time fly by. Finally, the time came to claim my wedding dress.

My Sister of Honor & I made our way to Lovely Bridal Shop on a beautiful Fall evening. Very, very unlike us, we arrived early. We ducked into Cafe Cluny, the adorable cafe across the street, to enjoy a glass of wine & share a cheese platter. An hour of good conversation later, we crossed the tree-lined street for my pick-up appointment at Lovely.

At long last, I was in the dressing room with my wedding gown. The dress was better than I remembered, much more beautiful than the sample dress I'd fallen in love with months ago. It was surreal! My wedding dress was here, really here! Right. In. Front. Of. Me.

Next thing I knew, I was staring at a Bride in the mirror. She was wearing a perfect, pretty wedding dress. I could hardly believe that Bride was me!

Floral Hint

Carnation photo via Hey Gorgeous!

To be honest, it's very, very difficult for me not to share every last detail of our winter wedding with you. I'd love to post a photo of my wedding dress, our wedding invitations, our cake, etc. It's so tempting! Then I remember it's most important for our treasured wedding guests to be surprised & delighted at our wedding. After our quickly-approaching wedding, I will have plenty of time to share with you. Reason wins.

Mostly.

Except for the flowers. Planning & creating our modern, winter white wedding look with my fabulous florist Liz has been one of the most enjoyable parts of wedding planning. Then to not be able to share any of the details . . . so unfair! I have been bursting to show you our perfect, sample centerpiece ever since I laid my eyes on it. But I resist.

Then I stumbled upon the above photo of a simple, white carnation bouquet on Hey Gorgeous! yesterday. I couldn't resist the golden opportunity. After all, I have written about my love for underrated carnations & my plan to use carnations for our wedding so I can say a little more. Right? This isn't an outright sneak peek, it's more like a sneak hint. Our wedding will feature flowers similar to the photo above from the bouquets to the ceremony to the reception. Sweet & romantic.

That's all I can write & show you for now!

Classic & Modern Invitation

Together Invitation Suite
shown in Admiral Blue

Simple, Classic, Beautiful

Reception & Response Cards
Together Invitation by Exclusive Collection II
Available at Koru Wedding Shoppe

The Together invitation is described as an invitation with classic flourishes & modern elegance. Many Brides are trying to infuse the old with the new so it's no wonder the Together invitation is popular at Koru Wedding Shoppe. First, it was chosen by a sweet couple having their fun, formal wedding at the Bride's family's waterfront estate. Last summer, it was chosen by a fabulous Bride & her Mom hosting the wedding at the Georgian-style mansion of The Estate at Florentine Gardens.

What I adore about the Exclusive Collection II are the sophisticated designs & the ability to play with color. Every invitation is available with two imprint colors for the fonts & the designs. Colored envelopes are available too which can be a welcome change from the usual white & ecru wedding envelopes.

Funny enough, both Brides chose to keep the Together invitation crisp & clean with one color- Admiral Blue & matching blue envelopes. The pop of color is there but it's a simple, subtle touch. The Summer Bride went classic with her formal script font selection. As you can see, the results are quite beautiful!

Two Months and Counting

Damask Table Number Luminary

Available at Etsy in SouthernBellWeddings' shop

Two months from today, I will walk down the aisle to marry RZ.

Part of me wonders where the last nine months of our engagement went. Is it possible to slow down time so I can savor each & every moment in the next two months?

The other part of me is ready for the days to fly by quickly & happily until we're Mr. and Mrs. How much longer until we're relaxing on the Hawaii beach as newlyweds?!

Two months, two months, two months!

With Thanks

Faded Glory
Available on Etsy at goodoboy's shop

Happy Veteran's Day!

Thank you, thank you to our Veterans who fought for our freedom
& to our Troops who continue to fight for our freedom!!!

Meeting the Boss

Cake Boss aka Carlo's Bakery
The site of our cake tasting

Fall cake display at Carlo's Bakery

Halloween treats
(we were there Halloween weekend)

"Love at First Bite"
Our bakery box of treats

3 vanilla spiderweb cupcake for Halloween
3 red velvet cupcakes just cause

Cake Boss, that is.

Our wedding package at the Hyatt includes a wedding cake from Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken. Sound familiar? Carlo's Bakery is featured in the popular TLC show, Cake Boss. On a recent Saturday morning, RZ & I found ourselves at the packed bakery for our cake tasting.

Although the line of tourists hadn't formed outside yet, the inside of the bakery was a zoo. It took some grit & determination to alert someone we were here for a cake tasting. Then we were ushered past the velvet ropes (no kidding, there are ropes), into the bakery where Buddy was posing for photos with a cake & upstairs to Buddy's office to met with Mauro. Buddy made a brief appearance to say hello & good morning to kick off the appointment.

The Hyatt had told us there was a selection of cakes included in our package or we could choose a custom design on our dime. We started the appointment looking at the selections & I was pleasantly surprised by the designs available. I had been sure the selection would be slim & we would be forced to pay more for our cake. Instead, we could choose from quite a few pretty cakes. One looked like stacked Tiffany boxes tied with white ribbon, one featured a beautiful swirl pattern & another was decorated with the NYC fondant skyline. I drooled over the swirl cake but we went with another clean, modern design.

Then came the fun part- tasting the cake! We were served ten, small slices of cake, each a different cake flavor paired with a different filling. Did you ever dream of eating cake for breakfast as a kid? Well, this was a dream come true. Yum, yum!! RZ & I easily narrowed it down to two choices & we had a tough time with the final decision. In the end, we went with the most popular cake/filling combination that Mauro suggested. Our wedding cake will be beautiful & delicious.

Our Cake tasting was definitely one of the best parts of wedding planning to date. Oh, how sweet it was.

Purple Reign

Pretty, Pretty Peony Invitation

Modern Monogram Seal

Open Pocket reveals Wedding Invitation, Response Card,
Rehearsal Dinner Invitation & Accommodations Card

Peony font pairs perfectly with Lavender design

Invitation by Marsupial Invitations
Available at Koru Wedding Shoppe

Oh Purple, you are so beautiful & regal. They say you rule in the wedding world. In fact, there are rumors Purple is the new Black. If this gorgeous wedding invitation is any indication, Purple will reign Queen for awhile.

The Purple beauty started with a referral from the Bride's sister who had done her destination wedding invitations at Koru. The Bride's sister was an absolute delight to work with on wedding invitations & the Bride was the exact same delight. She's getting married in May 2011 in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina &, like her sister, she wants pocket invitations for a clean, orderly presentation of the travel information. Unlike her sister, she doesn't want to assemble the invitations herself. Marsupial Invitations it is!

We didn't even have to crack open the invitation book because the Bride spies the perfect invitation displayed in Koru's stationery nook: the Pretty in Yellow & Grey invitation. The colors aren't right & neither are the fonts but otherwise, the design, layout & wording is exactly what she wants. The Bride wants to ask her guests for music suggestions on the response card too (a new fad that I'm loving). Perfect! The Bride easily settles on a Peony purple pocket, Alabaster shimmer paper, Peony font color & Lavender design color. She chooses a pretty script font for emphasis & a clear block font for the copy. It's so stylish I can hardly stand it.

What a lovely purple package. Be still my heart, the Peony Purple invitation is quite a gorgeous sight!

Transportation: Bride & Groom

The iconic Checker taxicab
from Film Cars
Photo courtesy of Peter Yanello of Film Cars

Bride, Groom & Checker taxicab
Photo courtesy of Peter Yanello of Film Cars

I saved the best for last as we wrap up the Transportation discussion.

Our wedding day transportation? A 1969 Checker taxicab. !!!!

Once upon a time, I worked in Manhattan as a wedding planning assistant & I had the sincere pleasure of working weddings with Peter Yanello of Film Cars several times, usually when a Bride & Groom hired the Checker taxicab. Many people think of New York City & instantly conjure an image of Checker taxicabs driving through the busy, skyscraper-lined streets. As such a NYC icon, the Checker taxicab was always a hit with the Bride, Groom & their weddings guests, plus Peter was wonderful. I filed the Checker taxicab away for future consideration.

The future, of course, is here. Our reception venue overlooks the glittering NYC skyline so our affair does have a bit of NYC charm here & there. When it came time to tackle wedding transportation, I did not hesitate for one moment to contact Peter of Film Cars to see if the Checker taxicab was available for our wedding. Peter is as lovely & gracious as ever & the Checker taxicab is ours on our wedding day! Since both are unique to our NYC-area, the Checker taxicab will blend quite nicely with the NY Waterway Wedding Shuttle. As with any vintage & antique car rentals, we will have to find an alternative if there is too much snow but it's a gamble we're willing to take. Fingers crossed!

The Checker taxicab will be ready & waiting when we emerge from the church as Husband & Wife!!

Invitations: Stuff, Stamp & Mail

Ready to prep for mailing!

Mark your response cards-
it's very helpful if guests forget to fill out their name!

My tissue & stamps

Coming soon: time to mail our wedding invitations!

Our wedding invitations arrived & we took some time to drool over, oops- admire them. There were the fun & games (no, really games!) of getting the correct postage. Finally, the time came to check, assemble, stuff, stamp & mail our wedding invitations.

I cleared the dining room table & carefully laid out my supplies. Laptop. Invitations, response cards, reception cards, accommodations cards & directions cards. Gauzy tissue. Response & outer envelopes. Stamps. Pencils. Scissors although I have no idea what I was going to use those for to mail invitations. I tend to be Type A at times like this & everything was laid out in exact order to leave little room for error.

First, I checked the outer envelope to make sure the guest name & address was correct. Next, I marked the back of the response card with the guest's line number on our Excel spreadsheet. I've heard plenty of nightmares about guests returning their responses with no name & this will help us identify unmarked response cards. Then the invitation pocket was stuffed with a response card, a reception card, an accommodations card & a directions card. (By the way, thank goodness for the pocket to keep things organized- it was RZ's idea!) The response envelope was stamped & placed in the pocket. Then the pocket was checked to make sure all items were enclosed. The gauzy tissue was placed over the invitation, the pocket was closed & invitation was put in the outer envelope. Last but not least, the outer envelope was stamped. I did this over & over- about 100 times!

Ready to deliver our wedding invitations with love!

Transportation: Bridal Party

Wedding Limo
Decal available on Etsy at snadyinfl's shop

After we secured transportation for our wedding guests, RZ & I turned our attention to our lovely ladies & handsome men, aka our Bridal Party. We have to get our Bridal Party to the church on time, transport them to our photo session & return them to the Hyatt for our reception. With a group of 10, the obvious answer is a limousine. No stretch Hummers or Escalades! We found & booked a 10-passenger limo to be at our Bridal Party's beck & call before the ceremony through the start of the reception.

Our wedding guests are covered. Our Bridal Party is set.

What about the Bride & Groom? Details coming on Friday!

Fast Track Thank You

November is the month to be thankful so we're going to kick off with a thank you note feature.

You may remember the Fast Track Bride who needed (& got!) her wedding invitations in a hurry. It's hard to believe but her wedding is mere days away. Luckily, her thank you notes arrived in the nick of time. They're ready & waiting for the happy couple to get married, enjoy their honeymoon & return to thank their wedding guests.

The thank you notes are simple, sweet & match the wedding invitations flawlessly. The Bride chose to have their first names in the same script font & same Lime font color on the front of the thank you card. The Pear outer envelope picks up the Lime font color & adds a burst of color to the thank you notes. Instead of choosing the Snow shimmer paper or the White matte paper from her wedding invitations, the Bride selected the Frost card stock. Frost has a subtle texture to make things interesting. The result? The perfect thank you note.

Cheers to love, laughter & happily ever after for the Bride & Groom~

Transportation: Wedding Shuttle

Our Wedding Shuttle
provided by NY Waterway

Similar to the theme of Halloween last week, the theme is wedding transportation this week. Our ceremony & reception are in two locations so, naturally, we need transportation. We have hired three modes of transportation &, at times, it's felt a little like planes, trains & automobiles. In our case, it's bus, limo & taxi. Let's start with the transportation for our wedding guests which I've so cleverly dubbed the Wedding Shuttle.

Why do we need transportation for our wedding guests? Our ceremony & reception are in neighboring towns of Hoboken & Jersey City, about a 15-minute, easy drive. Parking is the big, big issue. Our church has a small parking lot the size of a postage stamp that we want to reserve for our elderly & infant guests. Street parking is limited & the parking rules make it easy to find yourself ticketed, booted or towed (I've experienced all three in my eight years here). Garage parking is available but the walk may be bitter & cold in winter. Because parking in Hoboken is such a headache & hassle, we thought it would be best to provide transportation to & from the ceremony.

A bus was the natural solution to our wedding guest transportation needs & we decided to make it a tad fun with a local spin: a NY Waterway bus. NY Waterway operates ferries between New Jersey & Manhattan & they provide buses on each side to various locations. You can hardly visit the NYC-area without spotting the familiar red, white & blue NY Waterway buses. The buses are local & distinct, plus it didn't hurt that I've worked with NY Waterway as a private charter in the past & I found them to be courteous & prompt. So we booked them for four hours & worked out the details of our Wedding Shuttle.

Here is the plan. All wedding guests, regardless of whether or not they are overnight guests at the Hyatt, are being directed to go to the Hyatt prior to the ceremony to valet park or self-park their vehicle. Our Wedding Shuttle will be waiting near the Hyatt lobby to take them to our ceremony. The shuttle will make two scheduled runs to Hoboken. After our ceremony, the Wedding Shuttle will make two scheduled runs to return our wedding guests to the Hyatt. Now they're in the right place for our wedding reception. Let the party begin!