a little special musical guest........

belathee photography

Another detail to make your wedding little more unique, is having a special musical guest. We were lucky to have good friends of ours, Au Revior Simone, play a little concert at our wedding. We had them play 4 songs just after the cake and then it was back to the full on dance party.....

If your planning having a dj or playing music via ipod, which are a lot cheaper then hiring a full on band, having a little musical guest play a couple of songs can be a nice balance and addition to your cocktail hour. A great way to find musicians, is to look at your local bars\restaurants and small music venues. There you will find musicians that are not going to break the bank. Maybe you would like to have jazz trio or string quartet or maybe even something a bit more out there, like a klezmer band. Last summer, my husband and I attended a country wedding here in northern Italy, where the bride and groom walked in a procession with all the guest from the church to the venue, led by a klezmer band. It was fantastic and really set the tone for the party.

Here are some of my favorite little restaurants and bars in the nyc/brklyn area that have live music weekly........
it's a great way to sample potential musicians you are considering to hire for your big day.
Moto, williamsburg brklyn
Barbès, park slope brklyn
Pete's Candy Store, williamsburg, brklyn
The Antique Garage, nyc
Cafe Steinhof, park slope brklyn

check out the little list of musiciansThe Mad Jazz Hatters, brklyn
Baby Soda Jazzz Band, brklyn
Klezmer band, brklyn
The Blue Viper's of Brooklyn
The Moonlighters, brklyn
Delta Dreambox, brklyn
The Slavic Soul Party, brklyn

a little gift of music...................

photography by belathee

With the stress of wedding planning, my husband and I needed to have a little fun, so we decided on DIY wedding favor for our guests. Since music is a big part of our lives, we decided to make a CD and share a funky collection of songs that we love. It's not your typical mushy and sappy wedding CD, although I will admit there are a couple that still bring tears. I illustrated and designed the art and he managed the production for CD case. Voilà! Turned out pretty good, if I don't say so myself.
The CD included 2 songs that were in our wedding, "Perpetuun Mobile", which played while I walked down the aisle and Vinicio Capossela's, "Ovunque Proteggi" for our first dance.
check out the play list.......................

"Perpetuun Mobile", Penguin Orchestra
"Venus as a boy", Bjork
"All my friends", LCD Soundsystem
"Our lives are shaped by what we love", Odyssey
"He lays in reins", Iron and Wine/Calexico

"Nothing like this", J Dilla

"Song of the Siren" Robert Plant
"Monitor" Siouxsie and the Banshees
"I know what I know" Paul Simon
"Satellite of love" Lou Reed
"Everybody" Madonna
"Bumble bee orchestra" Lady Bug
"Ovunque Proteggi" Vinicio Capossela


We had our CD favors designed and produced by a company is called, mycd.it, located here in Italy. The style we ordered was a 4 panel, digipak, with a soft spot nub to hold the CD in place, rather then the plastic tray. They also provided a template so we could transfer the artwork created for the cover and inside. Since this site is only in Italian, I've include some links to a few sites in the states that have comparable designs/packaging.

Oasis Disc Manufacturing
Triple Disc Media
Cravedog CD & DVD Manufacturing

a little violet wedding bouquet..........

For my wedding bouquet, I was determined to have real violets but every florist I spoke to was unwilling to do work with such a delicate little flower, until I found Livia Cetti at The Green Vase. She is the flower guru in New York City and also happens to be the contributing stylist editor at Martha Stewart Weddings. She loved the idea and took on the challenge of working with the itty bitty bloom and as you can see below the bouquet was absolutely outstanding!
She also made the gardenia that I wore in my hair. It was so fragrant and lasted through out the entire afternoon and evening.

Note : if you want to work with fresh violets they must be kept in water up until minutes before the ceremony and know that the flower is extremely delicate, so they won't last the whole event. If you want to look of fresh violets all day or night and not to mention, the budget for it, have your florist make a second bouquet.

Violets are a symbol of faithfulness. Blue violets say "I'll always be true"

little table setting details........

For our table flowers, I decided not match too much, so I asked our florist, Livia Cetti from The Green Vase, to make each table a little different using various vessels and flowers. The dining room has a lot of dark wood and beautiful large portraits, so didn't want the flowers to overwhelm and fight with the space. Livia used a variety of colors to go along with my color palette of violet, saffron yellow and cream. The table flowers included violets, white narciss, purple frutilaria, purple anenomies, assorted tulips and ranuculas in shades of orange and yellow and gloriosa lilies in orange and yellow mixed in with little votive candles.
Along with the flowers, I added a little light fun. With so many new faces around, (half the wedding guests where from Italy and the other half from America), I thought the fortune fish would be the perfect creative ice breaker to spark conversation. And guess what? it worked! Everyone LOVED it! it was hilarious.

Note to future brides, not all flowers I wanted were available in February and winter is a time when flower prices are a bit higher (also, with valentines day just around the corner prices where even more) Just keep in mind that even if you have your heart set on something, you may not get it, even if your willing to pay a higher price. This can happen, regardless of which season your wedding take place.

our little winter wedding in gramercy park......

Some more highlights of our February 9, 2008 wedding at the Player's Club on Gramercy Park. When we were searching for a venue, we wanted something that had the warmth and coziness of a old New York brownstone. After extensive research, I stumbled upon The Player's, a private club situated in a Greek Revival townhouse, facing Gramercy Park. What most people don't know, is that the club is open to non-members for events, with a fee of course. (it's not as steep as one thinks for NYC standards) Also, there are a lot of unique perks to this venue, one being that you have a access to Gramercy Park the day of your event. This is something very special as I believe it is the only private park in all of Manhattan. It was absolutely perfect for pictures, even in bare tree February but just think how beautiful a spring wedding would be! (note to future brides, the garden is filled with beds peonies in the spring) The inside of the venue has a vintage/library/bohemian feel, with 2 working fireplaces and beautiful chandeliers. Portraits of famous actors, costumes and old theater props fill up walls and rooms.

colors: violet, saffron yellow, cream
inpiration: vintage, chandeliers, candlelight and violets

little highlights from our wedding

I've been away from my blog for some time but now I'm back home in Milan, settling into married life. I will be posting more images from our February 9, 2008 NYC wedding very soon...

In the meantime, please enjoy the highlights that our photographer, Dorothee, from Belathee Photography, put together.

stayed tuned.....

Red Velvet anyone.........

Publish Post

There's nothing better then a perfect slice of red velvet cake. A couple of weeks ago, my mom, fiance and I were taking a coffee break at 71 Irving (my home away from home), between wedding appts. and treated ourselves to red velvet cupcake, yum!........we were all in heaven. The cupcakes come from a bakery uptown called, 2 Little Red Hens.

chandeliers are like house jewelry............

I'm completely obsessed with chandeliers and I'm using it as a starting point for our Feb.2008 winter wedding........