Wedding of the Week - Karin and Corrado

We recently got in touch with Karin and Corrado to share some of their thoughts about planning their wedding at the Mansion on September 25, 2010. Here's their story:

How They Met:

Corrado and Karin were in the same place at the same time a few times before they actually formally met. Ultimately it was a couple that they were individually friends with that would bring them together.

The Proposal:

After living together for about a year and a half Karin was starting to get excited and thinking that they would potentially get engaged soon. She really wanted to be surprised by Corrado when the time came so she didn't talk much about about rings or timelines. On a Saturday morning in April while Corrado assisted his Sister's husband move furniture, Corrado's sister Angela insisted that she and Karin go have some fun at the jewelry store and try on rings!

On their drive home later that day, Corrado noticed that Karin was very quiet. He asked her about her afternoon with his sister and she told him that they tried on a few rings just for fun. He smiled and said “don’t say anything more and the second we get home I want to hear all about what you liked.” When they arrived home, Corrado came upstairs with a pad and paper. He drew what looked like a loosely sketched circle with a round diamond on top and sweetly asked Karin “Is this what you would like?" Karin laughed and said "That is perfect!" Corrado pulled out of his pocket a blue Tiffany Box, opened it up and said "How about this one?" He then got down on one knee right there in the living room and asked Karin to be his wife. After jumping around with excitement she finally got out the word “Yes!” After opening champagne to celebrate she had a moment of clarity and thought - "oh no, did I blow his plans?" He said he had the ring for a few weeks now and was waiting for this perfect time and this was it!

Inspirations for the Wedding:

Karin said, "In planning our wedding our main goal for the event was to create a beautiful romantic atmosphere in which we together with our family and friends could enjoy ourselves to the fullest! The Wadsworth Mansion makes it very easy to customize your wedding to your individual desires. The atmosphere we wanted to create would have to include delicious and beautifully presented food & cocktails, fun & romantic music and a vibrant color palette. We had a hand in every creative element from picking our Signature Drinks and Dessert Martini Station to the Navy Blue and Moss Green Color Palette. "

"A combination of live ceremony music, a jazz trio for cocktail hour and a DJ for dancing allowed us to incorporate different types of entertainment," Said Karin. "Food and drink is where we allocated most of our budget, and we wouldn't have had it any other way! We truly wanted to delight our guests with a tasting menu including things like seared diver scallops, gnocchi with English pea and corn chowder and little individual parchment lined silver cups of French fries! Our vision was simply to create an exceptional experience for our guests and ourselves."

Why They Selected the Wadsworth Mansion:

Karin's sister got married at the Wadsworth Mansion in 2005. Karin was her Maid of Honor and was there with her every step along the way in creating her dream wedding experience. When Karin and Corrado got engaged she couldn’t stop thinking about how she would love to be married there as well. In an attempt to do something different from her sister they looked at other venues in CT but she said nothing was comparing to the Mansion. Karin was worried about how her sister would feel if they got married at the Mansion too. Luckily, she couldn’t have been more thrilled! She loved the idea and that it would soon become an even more special place for their family.

"There are so many things that make the Mansion so ideal," said Karin. "The history, high ceilings, beautiful patio, lawn and landscaping, the fact that it is private and you are the only event for the day, and the central CT location. But for me by far the most brilliant feature is the ability to create a wedding that is yours only. No two weddings at the mansion will ever look the same! You have creative freedom to make your dream wedding come to life and nothing can compare to that. And I soon realized that in initially looking elsewhere I was trying to be different and unique...but that is the beauty of a Wadsworth Mansion wedding, it is your story to create. There would be one similarity in both of our weddings and that was that my sister and I both would both walk out of the very same beautiful French doors onto the stunning patio and down our respective 'aisles' to say “I Do!” And I couldn’t ask for more than that!"

Here is some of Karin's advice for brides and grooms:

• Don't forget to enjoy the planning as it is all part of the experience! The wedding day does go by fast but all of the anticipation, dress fittings, and hair trials can be just as exciting as the wedding day itself. My girls and I always made each trip to a dress fitting or cake tasting into an event, with shopping or celebratory dinner and drinks after!

• Take your pictures before the ceremony if you can! If you are like us and are getting married at the same location as the ceremony taking the pictures before is a great way for you and your bridal party to maximize your time and also not miss your cocktail hour. Plus, walking down the aisle is overwhelming and emotional! Having some private time to see each other right before can get some of the jitters out and allow for a more intimate "first glance" at each other! Plus your makeup will be at its best!

• You adore all of your bridesmaids for the individuals that they are. Allow them to have say in their look for your wedding. For instance, if you want them all in the same dress encourage them pick their own shoes within a certain criteria i.e. color. If you want them all to get hair and makeup done, allow them to pick the hairstyle that suits them best. Your bridesmaids want to feel their most beautiful for your big day too!

• Make sure you work with your caterer, wedding planner and photographer to create a timeline and flow that will allow for you to enjoy, not rush through, your wedding reception. Everyone I talked told me I wouldn’t have time to eat at my wedding but we ate every single course!! You will work so hard to plan every detail, be sure you don’t miss a thing! By working with our caterer to coordinate first dance, cake cutting etc. at times when guests were already stopped and paying attention, we weren’t constantly interrupting the fun and it felt more relaxing. We really had time to enjoy every moment of our wedding together!

• Schedule to leave for your honeymoon a few days after the wedding. While it may sound romantic to jet set within 24 hours of when you become Mr. & Mrs., it is stressful packing for your honeymoon the week of the wedding when you are so busy tying up loose ends ...plus who wants to be worrying about getting to the airport on time for their flight during their wedding reception?! Book a really great hotel suite for your wedding night. Plan a relaxing breakfast the next day to catch up and recall all of the fabulous details with your family and friends. Spend the next day packing and relaxing before you fly out. You will extend the anticipation and excitement and leave more relaxed for your trip!

Thank you Karin for some really great suggestions!

To view additional photos from Karin and Corrado's wedding, visit our write-up from September here.

Rev Your Engines for Reading Pictures

This past Saturday the Mansion hosted a special ‘One Book One Middletown’ event promoting the Middletown 2011 selection “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein. Despite the chilly day, we did still have a crowd of people come to check out these great cars! Below are some of the photos we captured from the event.

Wedding of the Week - Kate and Zach

Remember Kate and Zach who were married at the Mansion on September 25th?

We loved getting to know them while they planned their wedding at the Mansion. Here is their story:

Kate and Zach met in the Fall of 2002 through mutual friends at Boston University during Kate's Freshman Year. Zach was a sophomore. They were in love ever since!

About their proposal:

Zach operates ZZ Imports with his father and is president of Heirloom Rugs so when Zach told told Kate that he had a work appointment in Nantucket she thought nothing of it. They decided to spend Friday at Kate's parent's house in Noank. Early in the morning while Kate was still asleep, Zach asked Kate's parents for her hand in marriage.

That morning Kate and Zach stopped at their favorite place, Mystic Market to pick up snacks for the ferry ride to Nantucket. When they were about halfway to Nantucket while passing through Newport, they received a call from Zach's mother that the "appointment" was cancelled. They decided to spend the day in Newport anyway, which at the time Kate thought was her idea. In reality Zach had the whole day planned. Zach suggested that they have a picnic at the park on the water with the food they packed for the boat. Zach pulled out the antique Persian rug that was supposedly for the "appointment" and they used it as their blanket. Since Kate worked for Perrier Jouet they had packed some champagne. In the middle of their feast in the park Kate still had no idea that Zach was going to propose. Zach then got down on one knee and popped the question and she said YES. He had planned the whole weekend in Newport, a private boat ride, amazing dinner and a bed and breakfast.

The Details:

Kate said: "When planning our wedding we wanted something classic and timeless that we could look back at our pictures and smile. From the first moment we saw the Wadsworth Mansion we knew it was exactly what we wanted. It brought back memories from our engagement as it looked like the gilded age mansions of Newport. We used the antique theme throughout our wedding from the 50 foot Persian runner to the antique candelabras."

The marriage was officiated by Justic of the Peace Chaz Zezulka of Mystic who was Kate's sixth grade teacher. Kate wore an ivory lace Pronovias gown designed by Manuel Mota embellished with her grandmother's heirloom pearl and diamond broach.

Kate and Zach celebrated their honeymoon in Bali and Singapore.

Thanks for sharing your story with us! To view additional photos from our write-up of Kate and Zach's wedding in September, click here.

Friends Tea - Photos

On Sunday, March 20th the Friends of Long Hill Estate hosted their annual Tea at the Mansion. More than 26 unique tablescapes were presented for this annual fundraiser.

Below are some of the photos from the day:

Wadsworth Mansion's Executive Director, Deborah Moore, hosted three tables this year!

Tea was served with three courses of sandwiches, biscuits and assorted desserts. Kim's Cottage Confections of Middletown provided the treats.

Vendors sold clothes, hats, and jewelry.

Thanks to those who participated! We hope to see you again next year!

For additional photos and a write-up in the Middletown Patch, click here.

Rev Your Engines for Reading

On Saturday March 26^th between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. the Wadsworth Mansion will host a special ‘One Book One Middletown’ event promoting the Middletown 2011 selection “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein. Don King of King Racing Enterprises located in Middletown, Connecticut will bring a Nascar Whelen Modified Tour Car to add some horsepower to this literary event. Also revving up interest for reading will be Stanley Cohen’s Ferrari Enzo and Peter Lombardo’s Ferrari 360 Challenge car.

Middletown Rotary is the sponsor of the One Book, One Middletown literacy project with support of the City of the Middletown. The goal of One Book is simple...to get a lot of people in the area to read the same book at the same time and then encourage them to talk about it. By doing so, they hope more people, especially more young people, will be motivated to spend more time reading. The "One Book" movement began in 1998 when Nancy Pearl, executive director of the Washington Center for the Book in the Seattle Public Library, initiated "If All Seattle Read the Same Book." In recent years, the "One Book" concept has been supported by a number of organizations and today “One Book” projects have proliferated throughout cities and towns in the United States.

The 2011 Middletown selection “The Art of Racing in the Rain” is a heart-wrenching, but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope written from the perspective of an aging dog. The novel follows the story of Denny Swift, a race car driver and his dog Enzo. Enzo spends his days watching and learning from television, gleaning what he can about his owner's greatest passion, race car driving and relating it to life. Enzo hopes his journey through life will prepare him for reincarnation as a human being as promised by Mongolian legend. The ‘Art of Racing in the Rain” is currently # 6 on the New York Times best seller list for Trade Paperback fiction having spent 92 weeks on the list.

These spectacular automoibles will be on display:

Friends Host Tea at the Mansion - This Sunday!

The Friends of Long Hill are holding their annual tea this Sunday at 1:00. There will be 24 unique and beautiful tablescapes where guests can enjoy a lovely three course tea prepared by Kim's Cottage Confections. I am preparing two tables-one formal in blue and gold to match the window treatments in the ballroom and the second is created from Mustardseed and Moonshine tableware which is manufactured in South Africa. Each pattern represents a different flower. I love this event because all the tables are beautiful. The event also provides me with the opportunity to buy a beautiful tablecloth!! There a few tickets left so call us to reserve a seat. [860 347 1064]