Rehearsal Dinner Venues

When I set a goal of booking the rehearsal dinner venue by November that seemed so far away.. Can't believe it's now, and it's almost past now. Guess we need to get in gear on this!

So I'm thinking.. even though I'd really like to do a dinner in Arlington, it probably makes the most sense to do something semi-near the venue. We'll probably have 30 guests - just wedding party and their dates, our parents, some other important types.. So yeah 25 or 30.

Right now we're looking at these spots: Villa Mozart, Courtside Thai, and Bollywood Bistro. I've actually talked to Villa Mozart and Courtside Thai and they would definitely host our dinner, have never been to or talked with anyone at Bollywood Bistro - I just found it on yelp, it has good reviews and it's right in downtown Fairfax.

We are still debating whether we want something more formal (like Mozart) or less formal/maybe more exotic than Italian (like Thai or Indian).

I still think a lobster feed at Foster's Clambake would be amazing, it would bring in my Maine heritage, but it seems prohibitively complicated to either get everyone there (National Harbor) or find a venue to have them come and cater.. Also I just checked their yelp review, doesn't look good - I've been to their location in Maine and it was awesome, it's too bad they can't make it work better in DC... It is just one review, maybe they had a bad day.. Still probably too complicated to even worry about.

Anyone been to any of these places? Anyone know of any other great places right in downtown that could host 30 people? I'd like to avoid the nearby strip malls if at all possible.

The Results of My Procrastination...

These days, my life is filled with a tremendous amount of writing for school, so I have not had any time to write for fun...so I apologize for being MIA. Hopefully after this week, once I have FINALLY completed my research paper, I can actually think about and do other things.

Although, at this exact moment, I am procrastinating and thinking about the wedding rather than doing my job (sshhhh...don't tell my boss!). When I am in the mood to procrastinate, I scroll through my Google Reader and check in on my favorite wedding blogs. This morning I came across this post from The Bride's Guide via Martha Stewart Weddings with this cute little dress

I know I have approximately 5 months left before the wedding, but I have been thinking about my rehearsal ensemble and I think this dress would be absolutely perfect! I just love the shape and I feel it will give me a bit of a 50's flare that would go great with the ambiance of our rehearsal dinner venue. I also like the idea of wearing a bridesmaid dress for my rehearsal...not sure why, but I like it ;-D

I am also feeling these two dresses from J Crew. I have been totally obsessed with all things J Crew the past couple of weeks (or maybe the past couple of months...or maybe for at least a year now...), especially since I discovered the J Crew factory store at Arundel Mills Mall (SCORE!)

I see myself procrastinating for a while today...

I am loving the series of posts from The Bride's Guide. They are covering Bridal Market this week which is apparently an extravaganza of beautiful dresses and all things bridal. If you are looking for dresses to daydream about or just to see what is new this season, you should head over to their blog and check it out!

Anyone else out there procrastinating today? I have TONS of work to do, but for some reason, I cannot concentrate with all of the little lovelies I see coming up on my reader!

Jittery Speeches

Last weekend my bridesmaid Amazonia got married in Phoenix, and my other friend Laura got married in Grand Rapids in late August. 2 friends down- 1 to go-- ME! Their weddings were quite lovely and it is interesting how different we all are. We have totally different styles in almost everything.

One thing I did pay close attention to at their weddings though were the speeches.

You see, Mr. NationalHarbor has a horrible fear of speaking in front of people and he is dreading having to get up with a glass of champagne and have all eyes on him during the meal at the receptions and rehearsal dinner. For my part, I don't really have a crippling fear of speaking in public- I just don't know what to say. I am not really a mushy type of gal, so I am not one to just cry and borderline hyperventilate like some girls. I feel like the hardcore criers get away with a lot because no one can even understand what they are saying through the tears so they don't even have to really be coherent. But since I am not a crier- I will have to be quite coherent as I thank the guests for traveling all this way for our special day. But I would like to be a little bit more original than simply stammering "Thank you all for coming!" as well.

I have tried to get Mr. NationalHarbor to practice speaking with me and he keeps trying to avoid the topic. I remind him that as he is very uncomfortable speaking in public anyway it is probably best for him not to try and wing it at the reception. I am trying to jot down a few ideas but I just have no idea what to say and would really like to say something that feels organic rather than rehearsed. I am torn.

The big question is- what does one say at the rehearsal and reception? What are you planning on doing? Sharing speech time? Letting the Mr. do all the talking or what?

Recap 1: The rehearsal and dinner

Our rehearsal was on the 3 year date to when Mr. GP and I first hung out. He'll call it our first date but it was our first solo hang out night.

I decided way before the wedding to not sweat the small stuff because after all, when life hands you lemons? You make lemonade.

The rehearsal was really the first snafu of the wedding. We knew we were going to have an after party, so we sent the best man and one of the groomsmen on a booze run.

Of course they decided to go out to Virginia. So of course they sat in traffic for almost an hour. Then! OF COURSE they decided to take showers upon arriving back at the hotel five minutes before the rehearsal was scheduled to start resulting in not one, but FOUR of the groomsmen to be thirty minutes late.

Our priest was none too pleased.

The Bridal Party at the rehearsal. Well most of it, two of my bridesmaids are missing.

The Groom and Best Man.

After rehearsal, we headed over to the dinner which was just up the block and around the corner at Hunan Dynasty on Penn. This restaurant is incredibly significant to us because, as I mentioned, it was where we got dinner together for the first time - the dinner that got the wheels churning in Mr.GP's head that he liked me.

Dinner was delicious. The room was fabulous, we didn't do assigned seating, we didn't really have speeches except from Mr. GP's father.

It was a family style dinner, with round tables seating about eight or so at each - we had nearly forty people at the rehearsal dinner.

For dessert, we picked out about 3 dozen cupcakes from Hello Cupcake - a big hit with the guests.

A narrow room but it was perfect for us!

The Groomsmen!

Stay tuned for the after party, getting ready, the ceremony, pictures, the reception, the after party and pictures from our honeymoon and of course...DIY madness and vendor reviews!

Rehersal Dinner Dress(es)

We have yet to plan our rehearsal dinner, haven't even figured out where it will be, but I've bought the dress I'll wear that night, oh yes. I bought my wedding dress the same way. No clue where the wedding would take place, but I went right on and bought the dress anyway. Seemed to work out ok, right?

So I already have this dress, which I love love love. I got it on major sale from Bluefly.com. I do not usually shop there. Even majorly discounted designer clothes are too rich for my blood. I got sucked in by the shopping spree contest they ran back when Shopaholic was released and that was how I found the dress.


It is prefect in every way. It's navy blue, so I'll match Mr. Fairfax (Oh, yes, have already picked out the outfit he'll wear that night). The eyelet fabric is just so sweet, and it will go perfectly with my gold Jack Rogers. Did I further mention that it has pockets (ding!)?
But I keep seeing this dress on etsy and it is really adorable and catching my eye a little too much.

The designer is Amanda Archer, www.amandaarcher.com

Urgh...Bluefly gives you three months to return, so I have awhile to make up my mind!

I love etsy, but I find it a little overwhelming sifting through all the many many talented artists and their goods on the website. I signed up for the etsy "Find" e-mails and read The etsy weddings blog pretty religiously and that keeps me up to date and underwhelmed. :P

Out of Hibernation - A Matter of Dates/Restaurants?

Here I am, Miss JeffMemorial. The MIA bride here at DCNearlyweds.com.

I am back, though. It has been a rough couple of months, but the holidays proved to be happy and revitalizing.

I feel as though I need to completely re-introduce myself as things have changed, haha.


Mr. JeffMemorial & I: Our Unofficial Engagement Photo/At a Capitals game, heh.

Known each other since we were nineteen. (Awww.) Young professionals living and working in Washington DC, mother and father to a crazy Scottish Terrier.

We became the JeffMemorial couple because our original plan was to be married at the Jefferson Memorial in early October of 2009.

Then something funny happened that we should have seen coming and never really thought of.

Mr. JM's birthday is on October 18th. Mama JeffMemorial (my mom) has her birthday the next day on the 19th. My birthday is on October 26th. Then Halloween is on the 31st.

This year's run through October was insane enough, and we could not imagine doing all of that plus a wedding this year, and then throwing a wedding anniversary in there every year to follow. Our solution? Move it to November.

But then.... November is too nice/cold/rainy/spastic to actually plan an outdoor wedding without some fear of Mother Nature explosions.

It had to go inside to accommodate our new November 7, 2009 date plan.

To shorten an already long story, we moved everything to our reception venue, Local 16, and then another tragedy struck. Not money. Not even the location. Originally we were thinking of having a child-free wedding and then realized we wanted his nephews involved in the ceremony and part of the family festivities at the reception. Local 16 is not a child-friendly location. It killed us to move it, because Local 16 really is beautiful.

But the wedding is about having those who are important there and the joining of families. His nephews had to be there.

We moved it. Thankfully for the last time. Date set and reserved at our new venue.

If you want to be specific, we're now actually more like Mr. & Miss OldTown (for Old Town Alexandria), although I love the Miss JM moniker, as it reminds me of where we've come from in this process.

This is because our venue for the wedding and reception is in a place that was the most unlikely venue and it has turned out to be perfect.


"The Internationally Famous Fish Market of Old Town Alexandria"

Really, I approached the event coordinator of the Fish Market on a whim. I was stressed beyond comprehension. We had been settled on Local 16 for months. We were making that work, working within their budgets, etc. And then we needed to change everything.

With this economy picking at all of our wallets, we needed a place that stayed within our budget, but we didn't want to sacrifice having a beautiful and unique wedding.

Finally I thought, hey, I know we had our hearts set on being in DC, but I had taken Mr. JM to Old Town, and he fell in love. Mr. JM had grown up in around Annapolis and the Eastern Shore, and I grew up in DC and in Northern Virginia. Old Town is like the perfect blend of the two. A seaside historic town (like Annapolis) with the Virginia charm that I love.

Our first date in Old Town was actually at the Fish Market, which oddly enough is a restaurant I had been going to with my mom since I was about six years old. It was one of my FAVORITE places to go to eat growing up.

The night we were there, they were having a big private party in their upstairs dining room. The thought crossed my mind briefly while I was pulling my hair out at work, trying to sort through where the heck we were going to have our wedding.

I perused the website to see if they had any sort of indication that they did big events, as one of the GREATEST things I've learned through all of this is that restaurants can be fabulous wedding and/or reception venues that tend to be less expensive (if you're needing to mind your wallet) because generally you pay for just the food and drinks, with maybe a rogue cost for clean-up, but I haven't come across those kinds of fees in my research. In addition, you may find the cost to be less, but the quality of the venue can be just as lovely as a hotel ballroom, country club or what-have-you. Plus, it's one stop shopping. It's your venue, your caterer, your bartender, and many times your linen vendor, as well. They also may have good recommendations for other vendors, such as DJs, florists, etc.

While I knew all of this going into considering the Fish Market, I was still skeptical. While it is considered a requisite stop for visitors and locals alike in Old Town, as well as a landmark, it's not the fanciest place by any means.

Imagine my surprise when I saw the space dressed and arranged for events on their website.





While it's not the set up we want, you could really see how the space could be utilized. I contacted their coordinator and practically bit my nails down to the quick; a place like this couldn't be that affordable, but I had to wait and see.

And it was! It was perfect! Mr. JM loved it. I loved it! Our families loved it!

They're giving us the entire top floor instead of just one room, so we'll have a room set up with the food (an appetizer buffet) and the bar, and the room pictured above set up for seating, dancing and our ceremony.

We haven't had to cut our guest list, and in fact since we moved it from Local 16, we were able to increase it, due to our menu set up and increased space.

Their event coordinator their is incredible. Answers every question, really personable and easy to chat with. She's fabulous and is so creative. We have free reign in terms of set up, etc. I have never dealt with such an accommodating, nice and flexible venue, and given the amount of people I have had to speak with in regards to this wedding.

Given the fact that we have been attempting the impossible (a wedding in the DC area for around $5k), I've had to talk to so many venues and people.

I guess I'm just so happy for us. One of the things we promised ourselves is that we were not only going to pay for the wedding ourselves, we were going to continue with our debt management plan and put nothing on credit. A pipe dream, seemingly, but nope.

Ironically we're having the wedding of our dreams and are able to invite those we really want there, and all for $4k, including my dress and our honeymoon hotel cost for Colonial Williamsburg.

So yea, check out the Fish Market of Old Town. If not for your wedding, you should be aware that for NoVA and DC brides, it's considered a wonderful place to hold rehearsal dinners and other wedding related activities. :-)

That was a lot more long-winded than expected, but hey, Miss. JeffMemorial is back!