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!

Halloween Wishes

Spooky Black Cat Photograph
Available on Etsy at afiori's shop

Happy Halloween!

Bloody Punch

Bloody Rum Punch
from About.com:Cocktails

How are RZ & I celebrating Halloween this year? We're enjoying the perfect Halloween cocktail!! The Bloody Rum Punch is a spooky take on traditional sangria. The eerie dark red color is sinful & simply add a fake spider or eyeball for the ultimate scare. Trick or treat!

Happy Halloween!