Jaw, Meet Floor

In mid-May, our reception venue hosted a networking evening for 300+ wedding professionals in partnership with Brides.com and Brides Philadelphia/South Jersey. No, I wasn't in attendance. (I wish!) But our caterer -- one of the event sponsors -- recently sent me the link to an online photo gallery. And as I clicked through them, I realized my mouth was actually wide open. (All images courtesy of Brides.com.)



Seeing these photos has me even more excited for our wedding day feast -- and soooo happy we're going to be in attendance for the entire cocktail hour. How delishes this all look?!







I loved seeing this side of our venue -- until I started to worry. Will our wedding be too plain? Is our idea -- to let the beauty of this old-bank-turned-modern-art-gallery shine through -- lazy? Or cheap?



Mrs. Cupcake once wrote about venue envy. Well, um...we've got the venue. Is it possible to have event envy?





So I kept clicking, and realized that few weddings are this elaborate.



And even if we could afford to throw this much money into rentals to dress up the F.U.E.L. House, I don't know that we would. Such a well-staged event definitely wouldn't feel "us" enough. Personalizing our wedding, so that at the end of the evening guests are remarking how it seemed like the perfect reflection of our tastes, is my goal. Amazing lounge furniture would be a fabulous bonus, but it's totally not necessary!

Have you attended -- or seen pictures of -- a lavish event in your reception space? Have you had to make peace with event envy?

A Blank Canvas

The F.U.E.L. House is a gem of a space, with an impressive facade.


And yet, for all the times Mr. Bruschetta and I have strolled through Old City, we didn't even notice it until we started looking for a reception location!

Step inside, though, and you'll quickly realize why we fell so hard for this gallery-cum-venue. Immediately, you notice the neutral color palette -- and the gorgeous crystal chandelier.


The white marble Grand Hall (set up in these shots for an exhibit -- the furniture won't be there for our reception) is where we'll dance the night away.


We'll share photo slideshows with our guests on this flatscreen television. (The space behind it houses the tiny kitchen in which Laurent will cook up our amazing wedding feast. Also pictured is one of the F.U.E.L. House's "rolling walls" -- more on them later!)


We'll either set up the bar right here on the marble dance floor or further back on the hardwood portion of the first floor.


These steps, which will be covered and inaccessible during the reception, lead down to the space that once served as the vault of The Girard Corn Exchange Bank. And the black and beige box is an old-fashioned (but still working!) elevator for providing access to the second floor.


The back portion of the first floor will, in the event of good weather, simply be a place for guests to relax. Should bad weather push our Betsy Ross House courtyard cocktail hour indoors, guests will mix and mingle here before going upstairs for dinner.


The open door leads into a space that will be reserved for the bridal party.


Main access to the second floor is a (somewhat narrow) staircase -- but what a unique place it will be for pictures!




Okay, the upstairs. We'll have our seated dinner up here -- but guests will still have a view of the downstairs!


Along the back wall (see that open door?) is the unique bathroom about which I already posted.


And our DJ will set up in this alcove on the first floor (here you can see two more of the rolling walls), next to the staircase.


We're planning on adding splashes of color throughout the F.U.E.L. House (more details coming about this!) -- our art gallery reception venue that's the fusion of traditional and contemporary.

Is your reception venue classic or modern?

Love Squared: Bruschetta Engagement Pictures Part II

(Thanks to our photographer for these pictures -- and to Mrs. Avocado for assisting me with the technological aspects of blogging, so you can enjoy the Bruschettas in "HD"!)

We changed outfits -- ducked in a corner of the adjacent parking garage (shhh....) -- and fetched the purple balloons we'd stashed in the car. I wanted a lush, green setting for our outside shots, so we set out on foot for Washington Square.







Interesting-looking architecture? Sure, we'll stop and pose.





Finally, we reached our destination...



...but quickly tired of our balloons. Mr. Bruschetta attempted to give them away to passersby, but not a single one accepted his offer! Not wanting to release them into the air, we opted to secure the bunch to a park bench.













We spun. We twirled. We got very, very dizzy.







As we walked back to the market at the end of the shoot, our photographer called Mr. Bruschetta. She then captured our "huh?" moment.



Turns out she was actually requesting we kiss. Oh. We were happy to oblige.



But we couldn't stop laughing about the mix-up.



Did you select an urban setting for your engagement pictures?

Off the Market: Bruschetta Engagement Pictures Part I

We snapped up our photographer (and bonus photographer!) mere months after getting engaged. So, it felt like an interminably long time until we reached the end of summer 2008, when we planned to take our engagement pictures.

I passed the months sinking deeply into a blogging addiction: Food, photographers, weddings. You name it, I read it! Inspired by great outfits, unique settings and fun props, I carefully planned out our session.

We began at Reading Terminal Market. On a weekday. During lunch. Chaotic doesn't even get close to describing what that place was like! From the first click of the camera, people kept coming up to ask if we were famous. Ever the ham, I was surprised to find myself self-conscious and nervous in front of the lens. At times, my awkwardness translated into less than flattering photos -- but we still ended up with a ton of great pictures we love!

(All pictures are from Cindy Patrick Photography. I also owe a special thank you to Mrs. Avocado, for patiently walking a very clueless Miss Bruschetta through the necessary steps to edit HTML and present such amazingly huge pictures to the hive!)

Okay, enough chatter for now. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking!





















We left the market, and realizing I'd be donning a skirt soon, decided the time was right for a piggyback ride!





Anyone else shocked by how uncomfortable you were in front of the camera?