burlap and tea cups, oh my!

With the approaching holiday season mixed with work mixed with our part-time self-employment to boot, it is certainly challenging to still fit in wedding thoughts and to-do lists, but we most certainly manage to do it. Approaching 5 months away (holy cow!), we are truly trying to make planning + research make its way to finalized + set. Save the Dates will be arriving in your mailboxes soon, and a nice big block of rooms is being worked on for The Litchfield Inn, only 10 or so miles from the wedding location.

Unable to help myself from constantly thinking of the pretty + girly elements of planning our wedding, I just want to share my new-found love for everything burlap and some old photos that Dave and I took at an antique store that was filled with treasures.

Photograph From Ruffled

First, the burlap. We have put a lot of effort into thinking up how to dress the dining tables, and I recently saw an image I liked and realized that it was burlap that I was falling for. For more delectable burlap photos, check out this post on Ruffled: Burlap + Vintage Tablescapes


Beyond Burlap, we see picnic from a vintage viewpoint. Old rusty bikes, rustic baskets, (burlap), you get the picture. And I know for myself, that I see tea cups. I can't quite explain it, but perhaps what is truly fueling my drive to have entirely antique/unique tea cups and mugs set out for everyone with dessert is because I just never did have a genuine tea party with anyone when I was a child! I always played tea party with dolls, but I think I secretly wanted one with real live human beings. Also, I think I was in a play once where tea was at the core of the drama, and I remember really enjoying feeling a part of a Victorian era, even if was only for a Girl Scouts theatrical production.

So, in comes tea cups. I want so many of them that I think it will make your head spin. What will we do with them after we use them for our wedding, you may ask? Well, I guess the only answer to that is year-long tea parties. You are all invited, of course.

Some other fun ideas we have had are for the gifts for all of our wonderful guests, but I don't want to give too much away about where our ideas have lead us. I will say this: I have bought some lovely picnic ribbon, and I am not afraid to use it. Our antique shopping inspiration for gifts:

Ah, so that is all for today. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

More Blue!

:) Great photo of the infinity pool in the last post sweetie. Yes, a mixed drink would be great with a view. In the interim, maybe a bit of this to quench our hopes of anticipating



Fiji... one day!

A few weeks ago I picked up a "one hundred places to see before you kick the bucket" magazine. Like the images Melissa posted, and the ones featured in the magazine, options seem endless. We really can't go wrong wherever we are, although sharing unique experience(s) in the unbelievable world we live in would be icing on the cake. Can you imagine a cluster of islands looking like this!?






"Nintendo, Wii had a problem!"

Last night we attempted to sync the Nintendo Wii to connect with WiFi. Many benefits come with having the Wii cruising on the internet, one of which includes NetFlix streaming straight through the television. After many error codes, it seems to be working as Melissa is unwinding in front of the tv right now.

These are our Wii characters Missy and Dilly. When there's downtime (and there's not too much) this is one of the ways we fill it...




Notice the blue water in the background!

In addendum to Melissa's entry: Apparently sweetie missed the fact that there is no way way I am serving her booze in the infinity pool.



Clearly I am serving a mean spin on our game of ping pong with blue water in the background. Hopefully this will suffice in the meantime! That and the Champagne bottle she seemed to have missed next to the pillar. :)

Challenges to ping pong are welcome.


Fiji image courtesy visadiaries.com

dreaming of sandy beaches + blue lagoons

I am in disbelief of how much Dave and I have accomplished in recent weeks (wedding and non-wedding related). In terms of wedding, we have:

1. ordered our beautiful save the dates - coming soon to a mailbox near you.
2. met with a caterer that we are excited to potentially work with.
3. met with a furniture rental company that has super pretty linens + will meet with us again in December to re-configure everything that we are getting.
4. finalized our hotel arrangements for the wedding weekend + started a list of hotels for you all to consider (check it: http://thecameraandtherug.blogspot.com/p/travel-lodging.html)
5. researched bands
6. researched honeymoon spots
7. set an appointment with the owner of the farm + the woman who will be marrying us, Kathy, to go over our vows and use of the location.
8. sent off a design to a rug-maker for our ultra unique + quirky rug aisle for me to walk down.

In terms of non-wedding things that we have been up to, somehow finding the time amidst it all, is that we both photographed a wedding this past weekend, which was the first time Dave shot with me, and it was an absolute blast! We have both been working full-time, watching tons of episodes of "The Wire" (best show ever), coming up with new business ventures, taking care of our cat and dog, and trying to find time to relax!!

It is easy to imagine that on this Fall day, filled with so much on my mind, so much keeping busy and simply keeping up with it all, I cannot stop dreaming of the lagoons that hopefully await us come post-wedding weeks. Dream with me here. Our top-dog place of interest, that may have to wait until "one day, one day" is Fiji.

FIJI

Next on our list is an India + Maldives trip. This one would really be cool, because we have both always wanted to travel to India and Maldives seems absolutely incredible.

INDIA

 

MALDIVES

And of course there are closer to home beeeeeeautiful options, my personal favorite so far of St. Lucia and Dave's pick of Tobago. I am a sucker for greenery near blue open waters, and Dave is a sucker for palm trees. I think we will win no matter where we head to.

TOBAGO

 

ST. LUCIA

 I have also always wanted to be in an infinity pool. It is a serious dream of mine that I cannot wait to have realized. This could be me (with Dave fixing the drinks in our villa):

Alas, much more planning to go before we take that wonderful honeymoon trip, and honestly, I would be satisfied going an hour away to get some chili dogs for a honeymoon, as long as I have Dave by my side!

bridesmaid deluxe

This is my best friend Angelica outside of the Dilmaghani Rug Showroom. Dave and I both find this picture too funny. LOVE IT.

dance floors + rental delights

Dave and I have quite the adventure coming our way tomorrow: we are going to visit a Party Rental company in Connecticut, to take a look at all of their chairs, tables, cool cloths, and dance floors etc. Not to mention Kathy of our Angevine Farm is allowing us to stop by to see her son's set-up! That is right, her son is getting married on the farm tomorrow, and we have been invited to take a look. Could this be more precious of an experience? We think not.

After Angevine (pronounced An-jih-Vine), we are off to Queens NY, where we will be meeting with a sweet + French invitation designer by the name of Claude. We might even attempt to pull off a meeting with a caterer somewhere in there, but there is never enough time, and we need to make sure to have fun with it all!

I leave you now with a very simple question. Which dance floor set up would you like your feet to boogie on? Black and white checkers, or something simple like white with black border? Or do you not mind either way - and would party on a grass rug for all you care? With an attempt to make this interactive, feel free to comment on the blog, or let me know outside of C+R.

OR...

cam + rug blog evolution!

Keep checking the camera + the rug site for updates/information about our Warren, CT wedding. Save the Dates and invitations will be coming soon, but for all of the information, you're in the right place!

Be sure to check out our newly posted "How We Met" Section, with more updates to come!

I love you Dave, and I love you all.

dreaming of...

peonies, peppermints, and marrying my sweetheart.

you know how sometimes you are at work, and you have the brightest of ideas?

well, i just thought: how lovely would it be to have peppermint incorporated in our cake somehow? I love peppermint, but more than anything i love the way it looks. The lovely red and white swirls...

and peonies are just plain pretty. i think i will definitely like to include them in our wedding.

and while trying to find a good peppermint photo, i found this: (looks like my grandparents' crazy dog "Tux" - made me laugh).

angevine farm

Like the new camera and the rug layout? We do. The new banner and the lovely photograph where it came from (shown below) is courtesy of Dennis Dilmaghani, father of Dave. I must admit that I am guilty of editing his wonderful picture into one colored with how I kind of picture our wedding day. Antique, serene, simple, and sweet. No matter how one edits or doesn't edit the picture of that view, however, it is always going to look beautiful. The patch of land shown in the picture is most likely where our ceremony will be. Hope you enjoy picturing it as much as I do.

pretty dresses + pretty love

It is official - we have settled on a date.

05.07.11

It is very exciting, and every little detail to get started, is falling into the right place!

After having found the dress of my dreams with my best friend and bridesmaid, Angelica, I decided to go back a second time with my wonderful future mother-in-law to make sure I wasn't crazy. Turns out I am not crazy. She loves the dress too, even with it just being a design + not the dress made to fit my body. Now, being as unique and special as it is, it has to be made by the dear Kelima K. First fitting is January, and then I am on my way to wearing a beautiful gown on my walk down the aisle towards a beautiful man.

(Best part of the dress = it reminds me of the film that my mom had me watching all of the time when I was a kid called "Somewhere in Time". I looked up costumes from the movie, and realized the image below was an actual scene that the dress specifically conjured up for me. Sleeves aren't as long though!)

Next on the agenda is to send out our save the dates. Since our wedding is going to be a picnic/farm/intimate affair, we are hoping to create an invitation set that speaks to the more casual and fun-loving theme. The inspiration below.

In other planning news, we are also looking at photographers, with our heart set on Jagger Photography, as well as hotel bookings, catering, and music. So many darn things to think about! But we can promise that there will be lots of fun to be had! Can't wait....

Have any ideas? Send them our way!

Wedding Goodies

We had an awesome weekend.

A few ideas.... Thinking about Checkered place mats:



Melissa found this pretty lace



Which apparently also smelled "D'lish" **



Look at that smile!

Sweet pouches to go with the placemats. Need to find them online though, these were too many different sizes.



** Bad joke about a new food network show: We may be on TV on August 18th, we'll be 'Noy'd if we don't get on.... Nasty food for nothing. Food network, 24 hour restaurant battle in Brooklyn. Kings County although the food was fit for one of these little buggards.




On the way out of CT we stopped at another produce farm with a small storefront for water. This one above tried following us in!

So it's Monday, sure am looking back at the weekend, but very much looking forward to every one coming up.

Antiques CT

After visiting the Angevine farm on the 11th, we decided to go exploring the area in and around Kent and Litchfield a bit more.

This past Sunday, Melissa and I packed into the car for a day trip back to Connecticut. With no specific destination, we went to a few antique markets with the possibility of sparking ideas for wedding decor on a local level among other interesting things...



I caught Melissa off-guard a bit when my jaw dropped looking at this thing photographed below. Mermaid doesn't leave much to the imagination. Kinda looks like a figurehead from an old ship. I say pirate ship. Probably not though. Funny because we were just talking about crows nest, a location at Montauk we had considered, and of course, we met at a Pirate Karaoke joint.



We both liked how comfortable this couch was. It was sitting a bit lonely in one of the flea markets we went to, so we joined it for some downtime and sat on its face.



Unlike the figurehead, the couch was important as it reiterated our shared sentiment that the Wedding be casual and comfortable, perhaps even featuring a relaxing nook for people to sit and hang out.

We currently have a big folding table semi-established in the vestibule. Melissa picked out a really cute picnic cloth at a garage sale to place over it which looks great. Melissa currently has her typewriter on it, although this below may be a viable solution with some modification to length. Utility and space is everything right now. At our apartment here in Scarsdale, we're using the walls and going vertical as much as possible. With consideration of many wedding items to be on hold until next year, it's important we think of solutions on short space. This is kinda sweet because it has a few mail slots to organize.




This was a start to our journey toward CT. We have love, we enjoy intrigue, we found comfort, and considering utility helps too.

I just realized it's about time to take some photographs of the apartment here. It's our nest and we'd love to share it soon.

Missing Laundry!

i love this man

First Picture to Grace My New Camera. 

location, location, location

Although Dave and I are still in the flittering stages of newly-engaged, where we half want to plan a wedding and half want to dream big. It is fun. Step 1 is choose a date and location. We are in pre-step 1. Montauk was the first location that we checked out, and even though we found heaven in a backyard, the person who owns the place has fallen a bit off of our radar.

Next place up is in Connecticut: Angevine Farm (photo above). Who knows how I found the place, but it looks beautiful. 200 or so acres. We both can't wait to see it in person some time over the next two weeks. We'll keep you posted. 

Tonight we drive to Ithaca for a wedding I am photographing tomorrow. Weekend of wonder ahead! 

wow.... wow.... woooooowwwwwwww!!!!!

I love this woman

Melissa and I had a sweet afternoon this past Sunday treating pop'n-fresh to some good old photography...

Old photography...

Old school landscape photography. And Wegman. Not the good one with the hot chewy pretzel bread. Gigantic polaroid cameras with huge gigantic buttons Wegman.

At any rate, this is photograph of either of my parent's shoes and Melissa looking around the gallery. Odd, I know

party down

Great photograph courtesy Louisa!

My brother Matthew and my sister-in-law Louisa were married in late April 2008. Every year they celebrate their close-but-not-quite birthdays on the same evening to share with friends, family and good 'ole Karaoke.

Smooth singing (courtesy Melissa) and chorus by Dave: "Fuck her Gently"

Nastiness provided by Dave: "Nasty Boy"

Matt and Melissa "It's not unusual"

And many, many more....

Had a great time

Sunny day

The other day I was dying to get some sun. I love sunny days, which I hope we see plenty of in Myrtle beach (very much looking forward to it).

This photo was taken with my phone outside of work. Melissa was on her way back from work in NYC where apparently it was raing NYC. So, I sent a few rays of light her way with this pic.

turtle

Both Melissa and I have been very busy with work. Melissa's been commuting to the city, which round trip is nearly 3.5 hours +/-, so the work day is very long.

I'd like to bike a bit more, although on my most recent trek last week I found this turtle on the path which was great. It reminded me of a turtle which frequented our pond growing up. This thing was huge. Maybe 10 pounds. I don't know. Could lose a finger to one of these

Slow and steady wins the race, which is seemingly very appropriate given the recent events of both of us working full time jobs in over the course of the last few weeks.

the animals : part one

The animals make a wonderful addition to the life of the camera and the rug. And naturally they love hanging out with the actual rugs of the house. These photographs have been taken over the past couple of weeks, and I think they accurately display just how much our cute critters like to lounge. I enjoyed playing around with Lightroom as well.

This is how Olie, our cat, likes to spend most of his day.

Sunbeam Kitty

Olie is a motivator for work. 

If she could jump out, she would.

Beasley, our dog, is sometimes trouble and sometimes just plain cute.

I call this entry "Part One" because these guys will surely pop up on here again. They make our already lucky life feel that much more lucky.