Wedding love: Roger Federer and Mirka Vavrinec

Forget the Jonas Brothers or the Backstreet Boys. My longtime celebrity crush has been class-act tennis player Roger Federer. Watch the man hit a perfect winner in the corner of the court, while appearing to expend no more energy than most people do shooing away a fly. I dare you not to swoon.

Naturally, when I picked up the People Magazine (at the gym, I swear!) with his wedding photos in it, I was thrilled to see Roger and his new wife, Mirka Vavrinec, looking so gloriously happy.

Images from www.gotennisblog.com

Things I love here:
1. Mirka's gorgeous knee-length Oscar de la Renta gown and delicate, sexy mules.
2. Roger's shy but happy smile.
3. Mirka is pregnant and a) wears white and b) is absolutely glowing and stunning.
4. While magazines were permitted a limited photo op prior to the wedding, the ceremony and reception were limited to a guest list of their 40 nearest and dearest, no magazine photographers allowed.

Best wishes, Mirka and Roger!! And thanks for skewering that annoying "marriage curse" myth in tennis. (Roger won the French Open just weeks after marrying Mirka. Maybe you just have to find the right person to marry!)

Duck and cover: the kids issue

RSVPs are rolling in, and for some reason, last week I thought it would be a lot of fun to start playing around with a seating chart.

Fun. Ha. What on earth was I thinking?

Image from TopTablePlanner.com

The primary thing I'm worried about with the seating chart at the moment is the issue of kids. Months and months ago, Econo Boy and I decided to limit the guest list to ages 12 and over. Econo Boy's parents love kids, but in their social circle, no one invites children to weddings -- weddings are Adult Events, end of story. Upon hearing their reasoning, my dad, who has less than zero tolerance for the misbehavior of toddlers, jumped on the adults-only bandwagon so fast my head spun. (I have no idea how he survived our Terrible Twos.) So, with the major financial contributors strongly backing this option, no-kids-under-12 it was.

So far, no one has objected or been upset at having their young children left off the guest list -- at least, not that I know.

But now I'm looking at a version of a seating chart that has a couple with 2 young children who won't be there (ages 1 and 4) at a table with 2 older children who were invited (ages 12 and 14). Suddenly I'm worried the couple whose children aren't there will be upset that other children were invited, even with the obvious 10-year age difference. I'm also worried that people will get their noses out of joint when they see that some close friends of ours are bringing their 2-month-old baby. (But good grief, the kid is nursing and eats every 2 hours, and they're flying out for our wedding. Asking them to come sans baby would be insane.)

This is one area where I fear that the wedding blogosphere has overloaded me with information and opinions. I would never have fretted about this kind of stuff had I not read so many scary comments about people's reactions to kids/no kids.

And frankly, I'm still a little baffled at the strong feelings people have about bringing their kids to weddings -- some parents seem to feel entitled to bring their uninvited little ones because "weddings are about FAMILY and children are part of FAMILIES and if you don't invite FAMILIES your wedding is a SHAM and you are an awful bridezilla." Really? The marriage is fake and the couple (mostly the bride) is evil because they thought a late-night party with an open bar wasn't a great place for kids? Aren't we overstating things a tad? And when did the concept of "FAMILY" become a club you use to beat your loved ones into submission?

I can't help wondering if this is one of those areas where a vocal minority on the internet makes a particular problem or opinion seem much more common than it really is. What do you guys think? Is the kids/no kids battle overblown? Or are you finding yourself facing it at your weddings?

Wine Wednesday: Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Cava

About a month ago, I mentioned that Econo Boy and I ordered the Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Cava for our wedding, 100% untasted by us. It was on mega-sale, it had glowing critical reviews, and we've liked every Cava we've tried, so we figured what the heck, let's go for it.

Ever since then, I've been trying to track it down at area wine stores, with no luck -- until I stumbled on the website for a wine store about 15 minutes' drive away. They didn't have it in stock, but I put in an online order, they graciously ordered it for me, and last week I drove out to pick it up. After getting horribly lost, pulling over to ask for directions, and then finding the store more or less by accident, I was on my way home with my long-searched-for bottle of Segura Viudas!

Image from SeguraViudasUSA.com

And? Our gamble paid off. It's delicious. It's almost Prosecco-like in its clarity, but not quite so delicate -- it's definitely got presence. I missed some of the nuttiness I get with other Cavas, but the smooth finish and overall elegance of this wine is a winner. I think it's a perfect pick for a large party because it's well-made and complex, but still refreshing and approachable; it will appeal to a wide variety of palates. I wish I had another bottle right now! (Not all to myself, of course.)

Table settings, or: my continuing quest for the World's Worst Photographer award

Sometimes, no matter how old she gets, a girl just needs her mommy. At least, that's how I felt when I realized that I needed to pick out table settings for the wedding. I could have just gone with white everything and relied on the centerpieces to provide color, but my mom is kind of a genius at home decor. (She should have her own blog -- heck, her own magazine. Martha Stewart, look out!) So naturally I dragged my mom with me to the rental place to help me figure out what we were doing.

Here's a photo I brought along of a table setting on a dark blue tablecloth, with something close to our newly-selected flower colors:

Image from Brides.com.

At the rental showroom, my mom and I immediately pounced on their new navy blue organza overlays -- not quite as cool as the textured ones in the photo, but a) available and b) affordable. The rental folks were nice enough to set up a sample table for us so we could evaluate different looks. After some rearranging of plates, glassware, and trying several different napkins only to settle on the first one we tried (navy), my mom and I came up with this:


OK, the photo sucks, but this time I have an excuse: I took this on a cell phone camera, it being the only camera we had available at the time. Ignore the unfortunately-placed seam and the wrinkles from the folds. I think with the centerpieces, mirrors, and candles, it's going to look really cool!

DIY: Menu cards and wine lists!

I've admitted in the past that I am not the world's greatest DIYer. It's not that I don't want to be! In truth, I look with envy upon those who can whip up gorgeous handmade details for their homes and their loved ones. And in middle and high school, I used to sew -- nothing fancy, but I did make myself a sundress, and I also sewed an awesome 40s replica dress for our school's production of "The Diary of Anne Frank."

But when I started the wedding planning, I promised myself (and the ultra-patient Econo Boy) that I wouldn't attempt anything crazy, like planting and growing 30 wildflower centerpieces or hand-sewing the perfect tablecloths. The thing is, I'm a perfectionist, and I'm also not that artistic (and I kill plants -- not on purpose, but that's another story). Plus, my mom still has my sewing machine in her basement. I knew that if any potential wedding DIY projects turned out less than professional-looking, I would end up crawling under the bed and sobbing and not doing any dissertation work.

But if there's one thing every grad student knows how to do, gosh darn it, it's use Microsoft Word and an injket printer. Introducing: our menu cards.

As a food lover, I always enjoy the menu cards at other peoples' weddings so I can get a head start on drooling over the evening's fare. So I decided to order textured linen card stock samples from LCI Paper and give it a shot. And ... it turned out surprisingly well! We found the perfect wine cork menu card holder at CorkeyCreations on Etsy, and the combination of card stock + MS Word + inkjet turned out really nicely, for around $0.20 per card (not including ink).

Our menu cards! The two-columbines motif was designed by our invitations printer, whom I have chosen not to name here for obvious reasons.

This is more a mock-up than a final version. For one thing, I thought I was being really clever by putting the table number at the top and not having to use table number stands, but I'm starting to reconsider -- I'm not sure the numbers will be large or obvious enough. For another, we still haven't done our tasting, so the menu isn't final! The other side of the menu cards will be printed with our wine list (which I haven't shown here because they'll include the names of the people who recommended the wines to us). I'm also going to print drinks menus with our wine list and our beers and liquors on the bars.

Incidentally, CorkeyCreations is a great seller -- she sent me a free sample holder so I could verify that the place card holders we liked would be large enough to hold 5x7 menu cards. When I ordered a full set of 50, they were in the mail within 48 hours. Highly recommended!

Wine Wednesday: Zinfandels

Zinfandels are hit or miss for me. Some Zins subscribe to the "fruit bomb" theory of red wines -- think liquefied blackberry jam mixed with vodka. Some people love the fruit bombs, but they're not my thing. But drier, spicier Zinfandels are some of my favorite wines.

One of the best Zins I've ever had is the Cline Cellars Ancient Vines Zinfandel. It practically explodes on the tongue, with tons of fruit and spice, and goes down with a delightful peppery finish.


Note: don't confuse this Ancient Vines Zin with the Cline red-label standard Zinfandel. The latter is very fruit-bomb-y, with much less character and pop. Econo Boy loves the Cline red label, but I'm less of a fan. For a good comparison of the two Clines, see this post at CheapWineRatings.com. Unfortunately the Cline red label is much more widely distributed than the Ancient Vines, but if you're ever in Sonoma, Cline is absolutely worth a visit!

Thoughts on a wedding dress at fitting #2

I have a bit of a strange relationship with my wedding dress. I go back and forth from loving it to thinking I should have gotten something less formal/with ruching/with less lace/that wasn't white/that cost less. If I had it back to do again, I would probably look more seriously into having it custom-made, or go for something like this Jenny Yoo silk shantung bridesmaid's dress (in pale pink instead of purple):

The Jenny Yoo Sloane dress. Image from JennyYoo.com

Picking out the dress was probably one of the most emotionally fraught parts of wedding planning for me. I'm somewhat insecure about my appearance, and there's so much pressure on brides to find the PERFECT DRESS, the one that makes you feel like a princess and a sex goddess and a fashion model and most importantly a bride. Yikes. No dress can do all of that. But when I bought the dress, I was new-ish to wedding planning and still convinced, in my heart of hearts, that everything had to be PERFECT or it wasn't worth doing. (Ah, the joys of being a lifelong perfectionist.) And part of me felt like a little bit of a failure for going with a dress that I just really liked, instead of one that I loved and couldn't live without or whatever.

But last week, at my second fitting, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, and you know what? I looked really good. Is my dress the "perfect dress"? Probably not. (Is there such a thing? Almost certainly not.) But I like it, it's flattering, and I bet Econo Boy will think I look beautiful. So I'm happy. And the fact that I needed only minimal alterations doesn't hurt!