Charm City loveBIRDS: Making Moves

It has been a busy two months since my last post. Between the holidays and wedding planning, it seems like life has been non-stop. After securing our fabulous photographer, the DJ was next on our list of vendors to book. We contacted a couple different DJ’s suggested by Camden Yards and met with our favorite. His approach seemed to fit well with the role we want our DJ to play in our wedding and we are looking forward to working with him to create a fun and relaxed atmosphere we want for ourselves and our guests.

Earlier this month, we were able to do a tasting with DNC (the company that provides any and all food served at Camden Yards). As I mentioned in previous posts, we did not have the option of bringing in a caterer or having a tasting before we signed the contract with Camden Yards so we were taking a chance that the food would be to our satisfaction. We pre-selected a few appetizers and entrees that we were considering serving from their set menu and we were pleased with our choices! Kristine and I, along with my mom and our MOHs, sat down with the Event Coordinator from DNC for the tasting. This was our first tasting of any kind but I was very impressed with the experience. The coordinator made us feel comfortable and free to give our feedback, and she encouraged us to express any changes we would want in a specific dish (seasoning, size, presentation, etc.). Additionally, the head chef spent a lot of time talking to us about what we are envisioning for our day and suggested different options we had not considered. I really appreciated their flexibility with our ideas and changes; it made the “set menu” feel a little more “us”.

In addition to tasting the appetizers and entrees, we asked to taste the desserts they serve with the meal. This is of utmost importance because the dessert is Kristine’s thing. When we first started planning, I told her that I wanted her to be in charge of desserts – I am not that big on sweets and Kristine LOVES them. Desserts are the only thing that DNC allows you to bring in from outside the stadium; however they also have an in-house pastry chef that we could work with. Kristine is very particular and also takes desserts extremely seriously (she had me make a “test pie” before making the actual pie I contributed to Thanksgiving dinner, which was also a ploy to get more pie . . . ) so she decided it was necessary to have an additional desserts only tasting to put the pastry chef to the test. There will certainly be more on that to come!

We have also recently had an initial consultation with a potential florist. Flowers can be a big ticket item at weddings so we plan to shop around a bit to find the florist that meets all of our floral and budget needs. We started with this particular florist because I got an email for 10% off a wedding order and liked what I saw on their website (gotta start somewhere, right?). We went into the meeting with a pretty specific idea of what we want. Many people have asked us about our “colors” and my go-to answer is colorful. We both really like bright, bold colors – in our home, in our wardrobes, so why not in our wedding?! One way we plan to incorporate lots of color is through our flowers. The florist we met with was friendly, open to our ideas, and gave us some great suggestions. Up until now, our vendor selection has been pretty easy so I’m hoping that we bat three for three with our florist.

With all of the wonderful chaos that is our life right now, I have been attempting to maintain my sanity through it all. Exercise is definitely a great stress reliever and as a life-long athlete I enjoy being active. However, I sometimes struggle with the motivation. Therefore, I decided to create some motivation by signing up for 5k races. In the beginning of November, Kristine and I ran theKidsPeace Trick-or-Trot 5k which happens to take place at Camden Yards. This was our first 5k together and Kristine’s first ever (she did great)! It was a great opportunity to get some exercise as well as support a worthwhile organization which works to find foster families and provide resources for local teenagers in need. Another perk to participating in this event was meeting The Showalters! Buck and Angela Showalter are huge supporters and advocates for KidsPeace and my family and I got to meet them at the pre-race registration event where we talked about baseball, dogs, and of course our upcoming Camden Yards nuptials! They are down-to-earth, genuine people and having the pleasure of meeting them was a highlight for these O’s fanatics.