The blog-o-sphere coverage of our wedding has been wonderful:
City Lady Country Girl- a newer blog that is FULL of eye candy!
OneWed
Sloboda's Weddings
Green Wedding Shoes
and last but not least, one of my favorite bloggers....
Thoughtful Day
Now that I have had a wonderful and restful break (almost 9 months- wow!), I am moving forward and "nesting".
Craven Home is where I will be posting my inspiration and documenting my new endeavour- a teeny tiny ceramics business. Mostly an Etsy shop (to be up soon!). I am hoping I can provide very simple, affordable, and functional ceramics for the home, as well as events.
This adventure would not have started if I was not inspired to create for my own wedding by all of the amazing talent blogging out there (see my blog line-up). To all of you ladies, THANK YOU!
Please continue to ask any questions about A Farm Fresh Wedding and see what is new with me over at Craven Home.
In response to a few email requests for a honeymoon post...
We were just so busy with wedding planning, that we just wanted something sweet and simple for our honeymoon. Not to mention, travelling in September is a little difficult with hurricane season, mini monsoons in the east, major muslim holidays, etc.
We went to Puerto Rico.
A quick stop in San Juan.
Then a small road trip to Rincon.
In Rincon, we stayed at the most amazing place, The Horned Dorset.
Then we were off to Vieques via a 20 minute puddle jumper flight - where it rained and rained... but it made for a cozy time, EMPTY beaches, and wet horses (which are roaming freely everywhere)!
We loved it.
In one of my first posts I wrote about Breezy Hill Orchard. AC and I have gone there many falls to pick apples. We couldn't think of anything better to send our guests home with. When I called up, Elizabeth Ryan (the owner), she said the pears and plums were sublime too. So, we decided on a local fruit medley with a canvas tote as send-offs. The favors were all wrapped up the burlap sacks, so Sarah (our photographer) didn't get a picture of one of the totes. I took one tonight- we used the design on the back of our Save the Date. We attached mini Moo cards to each burlap bag. The cards had pictures of AC, Molly, and me with a message "Andy and Christina love you" on the back.
The food was heavenly. We really didn't know much about wine, but the Blue Hill sommelier did a wonderful job. We learned a lot about the food we served when we were designing the menu. The staff at Blue Hill was amazing. 
Heirloom Tomato Salad with Purslane, Tomato sorbet, Summer Fruits, and Homemade Yogurt 
So, I really have to give so much credit to our friend, Tawana Schlegel, who volunteered her talent to be our floral designer. I really just showed her my inspirations (many on my blog) and told her I wanted everything to be very simple with my whole "farm meets the forest" idea. She was amazing. I felt as though she took images out of my mind and made them real. For the flowers for our family (dads, moms, grandmothers, etc...) we used kermit mums and white clover for the men, and the ladies had lady slipper orchids.
Our rings are just lovely. I made the ceramic piece to nestle them in moss.
One person, Z, asked if I was happy with Blue Hill. Was I ever. Here are her questions and my answers. The teaser pics are two of my favorite:
Pics by Sarah Sloboda
1. How was the food... the portions... did you go with the 4 course option?
If anyone has eaten at Blue Hill in the city or in Pocantico Hills, it is simply wonderful food. If you have not, do so immediately. The food served at our wedding was what one would expect if dining at the restaurant for dinner (if not better!). More on what we served in another post, but we did go with the four course option becuase the portion sizes are perfect to allow for this.
2. Did you have ceremony on site? The fee for this is quite steep after gratuity and tax? Is it worth it? Did they provide your guests with anything during that hour?
We did have the ceremony on site because we thought the farm was just so beautiful and we thought it was cool for everyone to see the farm where the food was coming from before and during the ceremony. Not to mention the ease of having everything happen in one place. The fee is typical for most venues in the area. The Union Church, with exquisite stain glass windows by Chagall and Matisse, less than a mile up the road charged the same amount (we aren't really church goers, but were curious). They also had decoration and photography constraints that we did not want to deal with.
Blue Hill does serve non-alcoholic drinks before the ceremony (I think a few of my guests had cocktails though).
3. Did you decide to have their wedding cake... or an outside vendor?
I did not use their baker. I knew one of the owners of Lulu's in nearby Scarsdale, so there wasn't a doubt I would go with a friend. Luckily they are of note and have been featured in Martha Stewart, Modern Bride, and The Knot. I HIGHLY recommend them.
4. Did you use a florist?
Yes, we did. We were so lucky again. Our very good friend, Tawana Schlegel is a floral designer and consults for florisity, L'olivier, and Belle Fleur in the city. This was our wedding present from her. If you like her work in the pictures, and are interested in using her, please e-mail me and I will put you in touch with her. She is currently starting up her own business. The containers we used were made mostly by me, so we didn't have to buy many. If you like my ceramics, I could be persuaded (simply because weddings are so much fun!).
5. Did you use their musical provider (John Rangusa?) or hooked up ur IPOD?
I don't know what most people's budgets are, but we found John Rangusa out of our price range. A one person acoustic for the night starts at $3,000. We used a local Williamsburg jazz guitarist (Shan Kenner) and his friend who plays the cajun for our ceremony and cocktail hour music. It was fine, and everyone liked them (they did get a little loud at one point, but the Blue Hill staff takes care of so much, they handled it).
We played a 20's jazz playlist on our ipod for dinner.
The one thing I wish we had done... bought an extra hour of time. Dinner takes awhile, and we had planned on a short hour of dancing (hooking up our ipod), that never happened. Everything was fabulous, but that's the only thing I would have changed... making my wedding 1 hour longer.
6. Where did you change???? I am worried about the bridal party, make up, etc... I have a listing of nearby hotels, but I'm wondering if you have any advice.
We stayed at the Tarrytown House and Estate. They have regular hotel rooms, but we did not want to come back to feeling like we were on a business trip, so we stayed at one of the King House rooms which was a little bit more, but worth it.
We did not really have a bridal party. Our nieces, 8 and 13, were our flowergirl and ring bearer. Most of the decisions we made about the wedding were to keep things simple. Neither of us were interested in asking our friends to obligate themselves for us- we wanted everyone coming to simply be a guest-- even our parents!
The green room at Blue Hill is where the offices are. There is a nice clean, but sparse bathroom. I put my dress on there. The lighting is good. There is also a full length mirror in the room. Just know that the area is not completely private or done up like a suite. They are extremely respectful and for the most part I felt I had first privilege to the space.
Z, and others, I hope this answers your questions. I loved having my wedding at Blue Hill. Good Luck!!! Please ask more questions... I love talking about my wedding.
A few people have asked me whether I had dropped off the planet. I have not. This is my wedding aftermath. Thank you notes, making wedding books (albums), catching up with the work I left behind, and the friends who are eager to hang out again.
So... I'm BACK, for a few final posts- but they are the best! Here it goes.
So, my AC is a... procrastinator. He still had not bought his wedding suit at 16 days before our wedding. He has a great suit that could have worked in a crunch, but we both wanted him to take his time and buy something he really loved for our big day.
Over lunch last week, we headed to Paul Smith. He had done the rounds at Barney's and Saks (thank you!), so he knew they had a fit that he liked. After a little nervous fun, we found his suit... yay!
So the Laura Zindel bread plates are a no-go (they don't have bread plates for dinner...)
My friend Ali is recently engaged and in the very early stage in her planning. This is all very exciting for me, it gives me an excuse to keep browsing. The Bride's Guide blog, on MarthaStewart.com, posted about Felix Doolittle a while ago. His images are a great! These are just a few of many- from farm, nature, food, and ocean inspired watercolors. Congrats Ali & Pete!
Pics from Felix Doolitle
