Newport Nuptials: Bliss and Trip Tie the Knot!

I'm going to divide this post up in to three sections: (1) all the wonderful wedding festivities, (2) sightseeing in Newport, and (3) a recap of all the wedding projects for the crafty folks who want to see!

(1) Love and Marriage: Finnegan Wedding Festivities
Our friends Bliss and Trip got married this weekend in Newport, Rhode Island. They live in Chicago but Bliss has family ties to Rhode Island. It made for an amazing backdrop to celebrate this fabulous couple. The overwhelming amount of love and friendship surrounding the couple was a wonderful reminder of the investment friends and families make in their loved ones' marriages. (Yes, as our 5th anniversary rapidly approaches, I'm feeling especially sappy and Bliss and Trip's special day hit all my shmoopiest buttons!)

Matt and I flew in Friday afternoon and joined about 180 folks for the rehearsal dinner at a restaurant called The Landing. It's at the end of the dock and prompted us to happily use a word we'd never used before--"wharfy"--as in, "Man, this place is so charmingly wharfy!" I also tried my first (non-Rockefeller) oysters and enjoyed them.

We got reacquainted with a lot of friendly folks I'd met at Bliss' shower and bachelorette party, and met several great people that whose company we'd enjoy throughout the weekend.


There were some great toasts and a lot of hugs and laughter. The night ended at Celtica Pub, our home away from hotel for the weekend, where the banner pretty much sums it all up.


Saturday afternoon, we headed to St. Christopher's Church for the ceremony. The church is very beautiful, inside and out, and is right across the street from the water. Watching Bliss and Trip interact throughout the ceremony was really sweet and touching and the grins on their, and everyone else's faces, were truly priceless.







In between the ceremony and reception, we grabbed a bite at Celtica again and caught some college football. Then we headed back to the Newport Marriott for cocktails. The view from the balcony during cocktails was a very popular spot and perfectly captured what a gorgeous day it was.

I filled out our wish card, a clever guest-book alternative that Bliss will later put in a scrapbook.

We also posed for some pics, including this one--check out the gorgeous bride over in the corner! I love when you look at pictures after downloading them and find little treats like this one.

After the cocktail hour, we took our seats and the reception started. The toasts given by Bliss' dad, the Best Man (Trip's cousin), and the Maid of Honor (Bliss' sister) were truly terrific. I consider myself a connoisseur of such things and they were great. Later, Bliss and Trip cut the (carrot!) cake and had their first dance as a couple, followed by Father/Daughter and Mother/Son.


The rest of the reception went by in a flash as we enjoyed ourselves talking and dancing and talking and dancing--the first picture includes our pal (and my NU sorority sister) Debbie--the three of us used to work together.






After the last dances, we headed back to Celtica for our third and final time for more drinks and karaoke and good times. I can't thank Bliss and Trip and their families enough for putting on such a wonderful weekend. Matt and I wish them all the best!

(2) Newport State of Mind
While the wedding festivities were plenty and exposed us to quite a few great Newport sights, we also had some time Saturday morning and Sunday to explore. Saturday morning we had breakfast and walked around the Newport Harbor area.

Sunday, we first hit the Newport Shipyard. I have never seen so many huge yachts in one place, and I've never seen them being worked on in this fashion. It was truly impressive and we enjoyed just wandering around and imagining what it would be like to be on, let alone own, one of these marine masterpieces.





Then we headed to Easton's Beach and the Cliff Walk, where there are gorgeous cliff views on one side and Newport Mansions on the other. Based on time and energy at our disposal, we did the part of the Cliff Walk that took us from Easton's Beach to The Breakers, the famous Vanderbilt mansion. We once again let our imaginations run wild and thought about what it would be like to live in one of these amazing homes with views like these right out your door. Spectacular!







This will definitely stay on our list of places we'd love to re-visit!


(3) B+T Projects: Fun with Embossing!
Once Bliss and Trip were officially an item (though not really talking about marriage yet), I put in my plug to see if Bliss would let me do their wedding stationery (invitations, etc.) for them. Once they did indeed get engaged, she agreed to let me do it, which thrilled me (and still thrills me) to no end. Stationery is a hobby of mine--I did our wedding stationery and have done the occasional party and cards for personal use for about 10 years now. This project was great fun as I got to collaborate with Bliss and Trip! They were great inspirations, as Bliss' preppy style set the tone and Trip's Irish heritage wove in wonderfully. We decided on an embossed "B + T" monogram as a central theme, which we carried from the save-the-dates through to the programs and placecards. Here are some snaps of some of the projects.

Invitation: Navy envelopes lined with stripe. Stripe band. Embossed navy square on band. Inside, white, navy and fuschia cards.

Ceremony program: Ivory paper with embossed stripe square.

Placecards: Embossed squares in navy (signifying beef meal selection), ivory (signifying chicken meal selection), and green (signifying vegetarian meal selection). Placecards clothespinned to strips of ribbon for placecard display.

Napkin rings: This one is all Ila! My mom made napkin rings that emulate preppy grosgrain ribbon belts. Striped ribbon with D-rings.


Table numbers: Each number included one of seven Irish wedding blessings or toasts. Ivory on navy, placed in frames by hotel.


FAQs Book: This book includes questions and answers about the couple--how they met, their first date, the story of the proposal, and so on. Cute and clever writing by Trip and Bliss. Booklet made of ivory paper. Front includes navy square with "F" stamp. Bound with navy ribbon.


Alternative uses: There were some very fun and creative uses for the napkin rings and placecard clothespins, including hair accessories and quite a few people clothespinned their placecards to themselves!

Loving Frank(s): A Wonderful Wisco Weekend

Mom, Dad, Matt and I had such fun on our road trip last summer that we are continuing to find opportunities to mix two much-loved, yet admittedly apples-and-oranges, pasttimes: touring Frank Lloyd Wright buildings and eating at restaurants featured on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Last summer, we visited Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob in the Pittsburgh area along with four Triple-D diners/dives in OH and PA.

This fall, we're doing two closer to home. The first, this weekend, took us to Spring Green, WI to see Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's home, studio and school for several decades and until his death in 1959. It was also the setting for much of Loving Frank, a book written from the perspective of Mamah Cheney, Frank Lloyd Wright's mistress who was murdered, along with her two children and four employees on the estate, at Taliesin. I was rather obsessed with the book during the summer of 2008 and am mesmerized by the tragic history--both real and imagined--applied to this amazing home.

Before heading to Taliesin, we had lunch at the very charming and really yummy Spring Green General Store (not a Triple-D locale but it could be).

The charming shops across the street from the General Store included a tea shop, and they got me with the "Loving Frank tea" - their Prairie Passion blend. Can't wait to make some iced tea with it--it smells divine (and very intense, just like Frank and Mamah's romance).

We stopped at the historical marker on the way to Taliesin, and I just love the quote at the end, "I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose the former and have seen no reason to change." No self-esteem problem there.

The views from the estate are spectacular; Frank had the good sense to "buy the view" so nothing could blight it.

The layout and exterior is a fascinating mix of an Italian villa and Japanese design and landscaping. Frank's signature Cherokee red is used liberally, and the sculptures and gardens are all very beautiful legacies of the master himself.


While pictures are not allowed inside, we noted multiple times how short the entry ceilings were. I speculated that Frank, in his infinite self-orientation, had said there was no reason to be any taller. That was later confirmed by our excellent tour guide who said that Frank was about 5'6" and was always photographed in a chair or from below so as to make himself look taller. He also said that anyone being over 6' was a waste of materials. Poor Matt! 3 of his inches are just a waste of materials according to Mr. Wright. (I may have teased him with this bit of information a couple of times since.)


We also drove to the Unity Chapel, the family chapel, and looked at many of the family gravesites. During the Taliesin tour, our guide told us that Mr. Wright's wishes were to be buried in Spring Green, which he was. His wife (the third Mrs. Wright, I believe) wanted his ashes to be taken to Taliesin West in Arizona and his family would not entertain it. So members of his wife's family later unearthed Mr. Wright's remains, cremated him, and took his ashes to Taliesin West. Such an amazing life he had, even in death. His grave marker remains, and the marker says "LOVE OF AN IDEA IS LOVE OF GOD." Really beautiful.


Saturday night we headed to THE SHED, a place that REALLY should be on Triple D. Great local hangout.

Sunday morning we headed to Kenosha to try out Franks, a breakfast/brunch spot featured on Triple D. It's one of my new favorites. It has everything you want in a diner, drive-in or dive: quirk, attitude, mouthy regulars, wait staff that feel like old pals, and high-quality/high-calorie grub. We had our own customized versions of their famous "Garbage Plate"--an amazing concoction of hash browns, eggs, cheese and whatever else you'd like. I had a veggie version and it was divine.

I've seen the future and it includes us driving to Kenosha just for brunch.




We ended our time in Wisconsin with a stop at the Mars Cheese Castle. My parents had never been there (for shame!) so Matt and I very happily introduced them to the original building before it gets torn down to make way for a highway expansion. The new, more castle-y castle is coming along nicely. We also went to the sausage place down the way and picked up more yummy treats to take back to Chicago.


We are looking forward to our upcoming sojourn to the very famous Robie House right here in Chicago, which my parents and I have never toured despite the fact that Matt and I lived together in its Hyde Park neighborhood for two years. We are going to do this on Mom's birthday, 10-10-10! And we plan to follow it up with a birthday dinner at a Triple-D featured South Side pizza joint. Can't wait.