Bio

Elaine and Garth are married!
Daisypath Ticker

Best Viewed Full Screen

This is the married bio of shrinemanager, if you're looking for my planning bio,
you can find it here.

The wonderful monogram made for me by knottie jillaly. I love it, thanks a lot Jill!

Our wedding website: www.garthandelaine.com

Wedding Pictures

These pictures are copyrighted by Rick Martin Photography,
so please do not use them without permission!

This is the wreath and sign my mother made to go on the front door of the inn. I thought it was gorgeous!

My wedding dress hanging in the window of my room

My mother, BM, and myself getting ready

Nice shot of my dress and shoes. Note to not-yet-married-knotties, don't put flower petals
on your shoes until after the photographer takes this shot! Ugh.

My DH before he started getting ready. How cute is he!?!

DH and Best Man getting ready

DH's best man and best friend, Corey.

DH putting his dancin' shoes on!

There goes the jacket

Finally ready to go

My MOH (my sister) putting blush on me

How many women does it take to put on a garter? Four, apparently.
I love this shot, because my mother handmade my garter from the collar of my great-grandmother's wedding dress.
It was one of my "something old's"

Putting the wreath on the flower girl. She's so cute!

Tying my sash. Good shot of my hair there.

My mom and I trying to get the freakin' sash to lay straight!

My DH and I seeing each other for the first time. Awwwww.

That bracelet was my other "something old." It is my DH's grandfather's WWII ID bracelet which was given to him by his wife
(my DH's grandmother) in 1941. DH's grandfather was so touched that I wore it.

MOH and I figuring out the flowers

My two BM's, myself, and our "groomswoman"

My hubbie, best man, and "groomswoman"

DH and I looking like such dorks we were so happy

The bridal party together

Love love LOVE this shot of me and my girls. God bless my photographer.

I had to put in this gorgeous shot of me.

Whoops, and this one too!

The pinky-swear shot. Our rings are in color, although you can barely tell.

The always lovely under-the-veil kiss

Some couple-y shots before the ceremony

Ceremony site set-up, ready to go

Our photographer caught this shadow that the back of one of our ceremony chairs made. Gorgeous

Our arch

Our ceremony musicians getting started. The guy on the end is my MOH's boyfriend,
and he hates this pictures because he looks so confused! I think it's adorable.

Our priest, the dear sweet woman

Here comes the groom's half

The bride and her attendants wait

Our adorable flower girl, who spent the ceremony winking at the guests!

My dad and I. *sniff*

My dad giving me a kiss and giving me away. I almost lost it here.

Alrighty here we go!

Gratuitous shot of my bouquet.

I LOVE this shot of the wind playing with my sash

The priest giving us her blessing

You may kiss the bride! WHooHoo!

Husband and Wife baby! Back down the aisle, good shot of our aisle runner

Our reception tables

I don't remember what we were laughing about, but it must have been funny

Signing the marriage license and our parish register

I thought this candid photo was so cute!

My mother starting the Israeli Circle Dance she had prepared in honor of our wedding

My MOH waiting her turn to join the dance

My BM and I join too

Then everybody joined in!

Best man's toast, which was so wonderful and heartfelt. We will all remember this toast for the rest of our lives. We love you too Corey!

What my DH's grandmother lovingly dubbed "the old people's table."

The "young people's" table

*sigh* Can't I get married every day?

My BM Jenny dancing with the flower girl's little brother Jack. Jack was in LOVE with her, it was the cutest thing I've ever seen

Let them eat cake! Grr, the cake. Explained in my vendor reviews

Yummy!

Everyone enjoys the cake

The Father-Daughter dance to start off the dancing portion of the reception. I love my dad

The Bride and Groom kick off their dance

I love this picture. The whole reception is going on around us, and all we see is each other.
On another note though, bride and groom DANCING over here!!! Anybody want to pay attention?!?

Our wonderful DJ got everyone on the dance floor

Jack just had to dance with my BM some more. He loved her

My dad wants to get in on the dancing too! Make some room!

The open bar was well into working its mojo by this point

My DH, the best man, and the best man's girlfriend. How many tequila shots have you guys had?

The last shot of the night before the photographer left. We didn't have a bouquet or garter toss
to "end" the reception because we had no single people to throw them to!

Vendor Reviews

Ceremony/Reception Site: Bleu Rock Inn. The Inn was shaky during the wedding planning, the general manager Jim doesn't return e-mails so it was a hassle to have to call him or go to the site physically in order to do something. The Inn has just started doing weddings, so they aren't as organized as I would have liked. The "contract" was just the food and prices we had discussed typed up with a place for us to sign, nothing else. But they pulled it off beautifully. Everything came together just as I wanted it, the ceremony and reception area were set up beautifully and the food was delicious! . I LOVED the site's coordinator, Cole. She was everywhere, helping me and the rest of the bridal party and the guests too. She was on top of everything, she rocked. She took care of everyone who stayed at the Inn the night before, and coordinated everyone's breakfast after the wedding. LOVED her.
Overall Grade for Bleu Rock: A

Flowers: In-house by Bleu Rock. The co-owner of the Inn also has a connection with Crystal City Florists, so that's who physically made our flowers. I love them. I gave Carolynn, the woman I spoke to, a general color scheme and what sizes of things I wanted, and a theme of "country wildflowers" and she designed everything from there. I love my bouquet, and the BM's bouquets. I loved that my DH's bout was different from the other bouts, but none of them were big and flashy. The centerpieces in their mason jars were perfect, right down to the length of the bow I had asked for. The arch was gorgeous, as was the cake topper. I had asked that the cake topper NOT have a big multi-bow, but it did anyway. Oh well. Otherwise, the flowers were great. Not too shabby for a floral budget of $350 huh?
Overall grade for flowers: A

Cake: Cafe Torino in Warrenton. Oh the cake. I was disappointed by the cake. First off, it wasn't what we ordered. We ordered a chocolate cake with raspberry filling. I was very specific that I wanted raspberry preserves, almost like a raspberry jam type-filling made with fresh fruit. What we got was a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling that had a very slight rapsberry flavor to it, maybe it was a raspberry liquor or something like that. It was tasty, everybody liked it, but it wasn't want I ordered. Also the piped design to cover up the seams between the layers of the cake was very sloppy, you can see it in the photo. I wasn't pleased about that either. The baker didn't leave us a cake box for the top tier either, the Inn wrapped it up for me and I had to drive to Warrenton (20 mins away) with the cake the day after the wedding to put the top tier in a cake box. I wasn't so displeased to ask for any money back, but I wasn't happy with our cake.
Overall grade for Cake: C- since it did taste good and everyone liked it.

Rehearsal Dinner: Cafe Torino in Warrenton. Overall the RD was very nice. We had rented the restaurant for the night, so we were the only people there. The owner had insisted a perfect head count with meal selections, so my SMIL made place cards for everyone with their meal selections on it. I had hoped the servers could have just gone around and asked everyone what they wanted. It was a huge hassle to call every person who was coming to the RD and figure out what appetizer, entree, and side dishes they wanted. I can image 32 place cards with all the info on it was a hassle too. The food was really good, and everyone got what they ordered. The entrees came out quite awhile after the salads, and some people (like my FIL) didn't get their entrees until everyone else was almost finished. The thing that really irked me was they only had 1 server for our party. I'm a waitresss too, and I know how hard that must have been on that poor girl. One server for 32 people is insane. She was making our drinks (the restaurant only has wine and beer) and running our food and clearing our plates. The poor girl. The owner should have had at least two, probably more like 3 servers for such a larger (and expensive) party. Also, my SMIL tells me that they tried to overcharge her past the amount they had agreed (and signed a contract) to pay. The dinner overall was lovely, the big table they made for us was lovely with candles and whatnot, the food is VERY good, but not enough servers and too pricey.
Overall grade for Rehearsal Dinner: C+

Dress: Dress #1: Ann's Boutique in Burke. I had a WONDERFUL experience at Ann's, I can't say enough good things about it. I bought a bridesmaid's dress to serve as my wedding dress, so I spent much less than most brides do in her shop. She gave me the same personalized attention she gives brides who spend thousands. She let my mother, sister, best friend, and I browse the racks to pick out dresses we liked. All the dresses were clearly marked with the manufacturer and price. She put all the dresses in a fitting room for me (I had like a dozen!) and helped me in and out of the dresses. Ann is wonderful, she really knows her merchandise and couldn't have been more helpful throughout the whole process.
Overall grade for Ann's Boutique: A

Dress #2: From Ebay seller bridals_on_main. I was very hesistant to buy this dress. It's my dream dress. I could never hope to afford it (it's $1200!) so I looked on Ebay and there it was. Size 10 (which is one size bigger than the 1st dress) in ivory, brand new. The seller didn't have a great feedback score, but I wanted it so badly I gambled. THANK GOD I DID! It's perfect. New, no makeup on the bodice, no dirt on the bottom, with the tags still attached and in a Watters garment bag. I am so thrilled. Thank you thank you THANK YOU bridals_on_main! It looked gorgeous the day-of too.
Overall grade for dress: A

Alterations and Bustle: Warrenton Custom Fabrics: The owner of Warrenton Custom Fabrics made my bustle, I'm sorry that I don't know how to spell her name, Ingrid maybe? My dress was very complicated to bustle, as it had a heavy underlayer and a english net overlayer. She did a 3 point underbustle on the underlayer, and a five-point underbustle on the english net overlayer. She did a LOT of alterations work on the dress also. She took in the bodice quite a bit, took probable 5 inches off the hem (which she had to do twice for both layers), she moved the holders for the sash lower, and smoothed out the english net where it puckered. All this for $120! I loved her, she did a wonderful job, the bustle held up all night.
Overall grade for alterations: A+

Up-do, manicure, and pedicure: I booked a hair trial, an up-do for the day of the wedding, and a mani/pedi for the day before the wedding at Salon Emage in Warrenton. I loved the mani-pedi, and the hairstyle was lovely. However, I told my stylist repeatedly that since my appointment was at 10am and the ceremony didn't start until 5pm, that I needed my hair to hold up. I think the word I used was "shelacked" into place with bobby pins and hairspray. In spite of all the warnings, she did not design my up-do to hold together for so long, and it started falling apart almost as soon as we left the Salon. My mom fixed it, but bobby pins were falling out everywhere.
Grade for mani-pedi: A. Grade for up-do: B-

Hair Comb: Ordered on 11/26. From Distinctive Veils. Loved it. Hardly anyone saw it because I had to put my veil behind it for the reception, so the veil covered it, but oh well.
Old Veil: Ordered on 11/26. Also from Distinctive Veils.
New Veil: Got it 2/24. From Veil Shop. I couldn't be happier with it. I should have just ordered this in the first place. Veil Shop has great customer service, and the veil arrived in a great box with directions for caring for the veil. Great company, they are as great as all the brides say they are.
Grade for veil: A+

Brooch for back of dress: Ebay seller qfashion. Great e-bayer seller, and my brooch goes perfectally with my dress. Take a look yourself!
Grade for ebay seller qfashion: A

Bridesmaid's Dresses: On clearance (yea!) from Barrie Pace

Grade for Bridesmaid's dresses: A

E-ring, and both wedding bands: My e-ring, my wedding band, and FI's band are all from Jared: The Galleria of Jewelry. I just LOVE Jared's. Their customer service is AMAZING. My e-ring and my wedding band are custom made, and they handled both flawlessly. And let me tell you, I am not an easy person to please when it comes to jewelry. So cudos to Jared's for making a picky woman happy.
Overall grade for Jared's: A+

Officiant: Finally, we were able to go with the priest from my parent's church. Her name is Patti Mary Andrews and she's the pastor at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Catlett, VA. I just love her. She reminds me so much of my mother, it's a little creepy sometimes. She's very nice, and (surprisingly) had no problem with FI not being Christian or baptized, and that we're not raising our children Christian. Oh, and that we're living in sin :-) We're such heathens LOL. Apparently that wasn't a problem for her. Thank goodness! The ceremony was lovely, she did a wonderful job. Her homily after the readings brought my mother to tears. Her secretary also made our programs, which was oh-so-very helpful. Pati Mary is a wonderful woman, I love her dearly.
Grade for officiant: A+

Photographer: Rick Martin. Rick worked out a GREAT price for us, I don't think we could have afforded a professional photographer if Rick hadn't been so great with his pricing. Rick is a little bossy, which I personally really liked, because I didn't want to have to be in charge of where everyone had to go for pictures. I just let Rick move everyone around, and I think it worked out great. The only thing I didn't like the day-of was that Rick kept hanging out in the Pub at the Inn when I thought he should have been out with us taking pictures. I had to go into the Pub a couple of times to tell Rick to come out and take pictures of something. After getting our pictures back, I was very pleased with our pictures and Rick really did take a lot of shots, and he got some really good ones that I really really loved. More pictures probably would have been overkill, so looking back on it, it was alright that Rick hung out in the Pub since he got all the shots we really wanted. After we received our CD of the images, I picked out about 15 shots where I wanted one item in color and the rest in black in white. Rick altered them for me, and got them back to me in 3 days! Fantastic turnaround time. I love our wedding pictures, and so does everybody else.
Overall grade for Photography: A-

Ceremony Musicians: Two ladies from our church and my sister's boyfriend. They all did a wonderful job, the music was lovely. They also learned the music for the Israeli circle dance my mother performed as a tribute to our union. I was very happy with our music, and they all did it out of the goodness of their hearts.
Grade for ceremony music: A+

DJ: Dream Day Dj's

Overall grade for DJ: A++++

Invitations: They are fabulous. Everything came out just like it was supposed to, they look great. I love the company we used, Wedding Invitations Store. I had an issue with the RSVP card (I forgot the accent on the e on the word "entree"). I realized it and e-mailed them a day after I had already approved the proofs. They pulled the RSVP cards out of production, re-did them, and shipped them to me for no extra cost! How great is that! Their customer service people are wonderful, I highly recommend this company.
Grade for invitations: A

Save-The-Date's: When I got the proof back from the magnetstreet people, and it was all wrong! I was really ticked. I had asked for some small, very simple changes to the design. Not only did they not do them, they were done completely incorrectly. I e-mailed them, and they fixed the problems in 24 hours, but still was very annoying. They didn't listen to me at all, but it's fixed now so I should stop venting. When I received the STD's on 12/05/05, they arrived much quicker than I thought I would get them. They are perfect, even down to the pretty packaging (a blue keepsake box, very unexpected.) So I absolve Magnet Street Weddings of any wronging on my save-the dates.
Grade for Save-The-Dates: B-

Tuxes: Men's Warehouse. Why oh WHY is it so hard to find a tux company that has good customer service? Really, how hard it is to rent tuxes to people? We only ordered two, my DH's and the best man's. When my DH called a week before the wedding to see if everything was alright, MW told him that they ship the tuxes from their warehouse only on wednesdays. So, rather than shipping it the wednesday BEFORE the wedding, they told my DH that it would arrive this wednesday. Well, this wednesday was THE DAY BEFORE THE WEDDING. Why couldn't they ship it the week before? What if it didn't fit, or they messed up the order? Which is exactly what happened. My DH went in the day before the wedding to pick up the tux, and they had given him the wrong vest. We ordered an ivory vest, and they gave him the same navy vest as the best man. They promised to try and ship the correct vest directly to the Inn the day of the wedding, and they promised to call my DH about the vest. Neither one of those things happened. No new vest, no phone call. When the best man tried to pick up his mandarin (no-collar) tux, they insisted my DH had ordered this ensemble with a tie, which the best man spent a half an hour trying to figure out. How can you put a tie on a shirt with no collar? The best man told us that later that when he picked up his tux two days before the wedding (tuesday) he saw my DH's tux right behind his. So they did have my DH's tux in advance, but nobody told him about it, and they were wrong about when my DH's tux had come in. We were very displeased with Men's Warehouse, obviously.
Overall Grade for Tuxes: D

Registry We went with just Bed Bath & Beyond since we're having such a small wedding, it didn't make sense to register in more than one place. My FI and I had a *great* time registering, he got a little trigger-happy with the gun! LOL. The people at BB&B are super nice, we went to the store in Fairfax Town Center. The registry consultant (Geri) was very nice, and the manager on duty (Eric) was GREAT, he even tracked us down later on in the evening with some bedding he thought we would like. I was very surprised how nice everyone was at BB&B. I had always thought that big chain retail-workers can be a little rude, but everyone at that location was nice. Every time we were in a department, there was a person there offering their help. I highly recomend BB&B, I couldn't be happier with the way it went.
Overall Grade for BB&B: A

Honeymoon: A week at the Sandals Regency Resort in St. Lucia. We loved our honeymoon. We loved Sandals. The whole staff was very nice and very accomidating. I would recommend Sandals only if you like to drink. The expensive all-inclusive price is only really worth it if you and your DH are drinkers. The alcohol is great, the bartenders really know what they're doing. They don't have "top-shelf" liquor like Grey Goose or anything, their best vodka is absolut and their scotch is Johnny Walker Black. Just remember, if you order a "rum and coke" you'll get their house liqour. Remember to order by the brand name you want, like "bacardi and coke" or "malibu and pineapple" (my drink of the week).

We flew into the airport that is an hour away from the resort, they sent an air-conditioned shuttle to pick us up from the airport. The roads in St. Lucia are old and in need of repair but the driver navigated them nicely. Lots of couples on the honeymoon bio were frightened by the drive to and from the airport, it's really not that bad. Yes they go a little fast, and yes they drive on the left hand side of the road. But I've visited Bermuda, where the driving is twice as fast with twice as many cars and dozens of scooters weaving in and out of traffic. The drive from the airport is fine, get over it.

Anyway, once we arrived at the resort, we were given a gorgeous room with a jacuzzi tub and a mini-fridge. We had requested a room with a patio so my DH could smoke the cigars that he brought. So we switched rooms. Turns out the first room we were in was one of the "rennovated" rooms so we got moved to a "non-rennovated room" a bit farther away from the center of the resort. We did use the balcony (tee hee) but the next day we decided we liked the nicer room better, so the super-nice front desk people moved us back.

The grounds are very well-kept and clean. The pools weren't chlorinated and very clean, which made me really happy. I hate over-chlorinated pools. Whoever invented the swim-up pool bar is a genius. They provide towels for you, and rafts to float around on. It really does look just like the pictures on the Sandals website.

The food at the resort was good. I think some people expected for the price they're paying to get like 5 star dining, and on a remote Carribean island, that's just not going to happen. The food was good, we liked all the restaurants on the resort, I would give the food a 7 out of 10. The french restaurant, La Toc, had the best food, we ordered a cheese plate to go from them almost every night we were there. The bartenders will give you a whole bottle of wine or champagne if you ask for it, so we did that alot.

Sandals has lots of activites all day long if you're looking for something "to do." The tour desk has lots of activites for outside the resort as well. We went horseback riding and did the Shopping Extravaganza tour, which were both very nice. I wouldn't recommend the horseback riding unless you've ridden before. The horses there have been doing this forever and as such will do what they want. My DH had never ridden before, and he was expecting a more well-behaved horse. I digress. Sandals is also great if you don't want to do anything but drink and hang out in the pool and the ocean. Which was all we did all week.
Overall grade for Sandals Honeymoon: A