Weddingbee

A quick musical background on Miss Onion:

I grew up in a household where there was always music playing. My mother started a chamber concert series in our living room when I was born, then she turned the series into a non-profit when I was a little girl, and from there the organization has grown exponentially. The organization now runs a major jazz festival in Connecticut the first weekend of August every summer and a jazz camp that runs for four weeks. Incidentally, I sang on the festival in 2005 — it was an amazing experience. See a highlights video HERE.

Here I am on stage with my friends/fellow musicians:

From left to right: Don Braden, John Benitez, me and Matt Wilson. Photo Credit: Stuart Felman

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Mr. Onion and I both had our wedding rings custom made. A jeweler friend (who actually went to high school with Mr. Onion) does mostly custom work, so he was the obvious choice. My ring was a particular challenge, because I wanted to have my cake and eat it, too. I had two major criteria:

1) It had to “snug” (i.e., fit perfectly with my turn-of-the-century engagement ring setting which I did not want to change).

2) It had to stand on its own as a design without the engagement ring for the rare occasion I wanted to wear just the wedding ring.

Too much to ask you say? Well he did it and I am thrilled with the results.

Here was my inspiration from WeddingRings.com:

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Many weddings these days aren’t just about the day anymore — they are about a whole weekend. We are asking all our friends and family to travel (some 300 miles, some 3,000 miles) to Burlington, Vermont, to spend the weekend with us. We’re taking over all 14 rooms at the Willard Street Inn for the weekend (Friday and Saturday nights).

My fiance and I, along with his best friend/groomsman, and his wife (who actually shares my name) will be heading up Thursday morning to get some last minute things done (OOT bags prepped, favors prepared, linens picked up etc.) and to enjoy some “down time” (haha — am I crazy?) before the festivities begin.

But what are those festivities? The folks coming in Friday (all the people at the inn and whoever else wants to make a weekend of it) will be invited to join us for a private tour and tasting at the Magic Hat Brewery in South Burlington (just 10 minutes south of Burlington). I am so excited as this is something that my fiance and I did on our first trip to Burlington together. Here we are in August, 2005:

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This was not an easy task. I’m sure many of you have had trouble with this wedding item as well. I have only three bridesmaids — they are my best friends from three different parts of my life. One from childhood (since we were in kindergarten), one from college and the third from my “post college” life in NYC. They are all very important to me so I wanted their gift to be thoughtful and lovely.

At first I wanted to get them each something different — one “big” gift, but quickly realized that I’d break the bank. What was I going to do? For BM #1 I was going to get new running sneakers as she’s a marathon runner. For BM# 2 a white water rafting certificate as she’s adventurous. For BM #3, a certificate for a baking class in NYC for the two of us so we could do it together.

So then I had to reconsider. I decided $100 each was what was realistic for our budget, so with that I went to work and here’s what I came up with.

1. Body Shop goodie — mini body butter with matching flavor/scent body scrub. Took advantage of a sale - 2 for $10, so I couldn’t pass it up and snapped them up when I saw them.

Grapefruit, Brazil Nut and Passion Fruit:

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Although my fiance and I are both from Connecticut (our parents live 10 minutes from each other) and we now live in NYC, we decided to get married in Burlington, Vermont. Five months after we started dating we decided to take a little vacation but didn’t have a ton of money or time to plan. So we decided to take a driving tour of New England (what better way for me to get better at driving a gear shift car?) as I’d never spent any time in our “own back yard” as it were.

We booked a number of Bed and Breakfasts in Vermont (southern and northern), New Hampshire and Maine. Of all the places that we stayed we really loved Burlington! We spent two nights at a stunning 1880’s mansion called the Willard Street Inn.

Here we are in the back garden of the inn on that trip (August 2005):

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Hello Weddingbee Readers, I’m Miss Onion! …And the crowd thinks huh? Miss Onion? Why would she choose Miss Onion when Miss Lollipop was up for grabs?! Well, I decided Lollipop was too much of a mouthful, and besides, I love onions! Caramelized, sauteed, grilled — you name it…yum! I’ve been hooked on weddingbee since the winter and I’m so excited to be a part of the hive! Mr. Onion and I met when we were five and six years old! He and my brother were childhood friends and cub scouts together (Mr. Onion went on to become an Eagle Scout — I’m so proud)! Fast forward to the very end of college when we were reacquainted and spent about 3 years becoming great friends before the romance “blossomed” (OK, I had to try something)!

We moved to New York City in April (’06) and our first night in our new apartment he asked me to marry him! We are planning a small “destination” wedding in September to Burlington, Vermont with about 60 of our closest friends and family. Why Burlington you ask? Because our first vacation together was a drive through New England and Burlington was our favorite stop! Planning a wedding 300 miles away forces you to do lots of research and be very organized, but I can’t wait for the whole weekend!

My family heritage is Italian so we love to cook (and because we don’t have a TV we have lots of time to try new recipes). We also enjoy hearing live jazz as often as possible and just exploring new neighborhoods. Our new hobby is real estate hunting as Mr. Onion and I are looking for a few hundred square feet to call our own! This is no small task in NYC but I know we’ll find the perfect place for us!

I’m the first of my friends to be getting married, so it’s been wonderful to have this wealth of inspiration here on weddingbee. I hope I can inspire other brides-to-be as they dream of their wedding day! Thanks for reading.