Sarah Consentino and Corey Jackson

Eight more days!

Sarah — Sat, 09 May 2009 14:58:52 +0000

Wow. Eight more days until our wedding! We can hardly wait. It’s been an amazing 13 months since getting engaged–and it has flown by incredibly quickly! This time has reinforced for us a couple of important things:

We’re a great team! We tackled all of the wedding details together and we’re still smiling!
We are blessed with incredibly supportive and loving family and friends.

Many wise people have given us the advice to really absorb this time, to sit back, relax, enjoy and take it all in. We know that the wedding day will be here and gone in the blink of an eye, and we’re planning to observe and soak in the day as much as we can. We have an amazing photographer and a videographer who will help to preserve the memories. But nothing will be better than standing side by side, celebrating our love and our lifelong commitment to each other, and doing this in front of some of our dearest and most important people to us. We know that the wedding is only the beginning of our exciting journey together. So, here’s to what we hope will be an elegant, meaningful, and FUN kickoff to the rest of our lives!

-Sarah

The Mediterranean beckons!

Sarah — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:18:35 +0000

With all of the appointments and preparations related to the wedding, we’re also trying to remember that we have a big trip to pack for: our honeymoon! We are taking a 10-day Mediterranean cruise on Holland America’s beautiful ms Noordam. We will have a beautiful suite with a balcony and a lot of wonderful amenities. Here’s a picture:

Our activities will include exploring the Caves of Drach in Mallorca, visiting Carthage and Sidi Bou Said, wandering the streets and museums of Florence, and driving along the Amalfi Coast. In addition, I’ll get to fulfill one of my biggest travel goals by visiting the Dali Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Spain. Salvador Dali is my favorite artist and the entire museum was conceived and designed by him. Figueres is also the town in which Dali was born and it’s where he spent his remaining years. He’s actually still there today; he’s buried in a crypt inside the museum!

Gee, I never thought I’d be talking about crypts and honeymoon in the same blog post.

Last but not least, of course, we can’t wait to eat our way around the Mediterranean! Between the shore excursions and the ship, there will be no shortage of amazing fare.

We have to thank Joe Wagg of Absolutely Cruising! for all of his help coordinating this trip of a lifetime. He managed to find the only available Mediterranean cruise that fit exactly within our date parameters, and he even came to Lynn to meet with us in person for more than an hour to talk details. If anyone out there is planning a cruise, we’ll gladly give you his contact info!

Also, we’d like to give a preliminary shout-out to Rebecca, Tyler, Alice, Rafa and Lesley, who will be taking care of our cat Ella during our trip. Ella says thanks!

-Sarah

"Thanks, guys!"

In our copious free time…

coreyjackson — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:25:03 +0000

In addition to wedding planning and our full-time jobs, we also managed to fit in a couple of shows this winter. Sarah was in Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret at Concord Players. Cabaret is about Berlin in the 1930s, just as the Nazi’s were coming to power. A real pick me up. The show was phenomenal and Sarah’s dancing skills were quite shocking to those who got the chance to see her sweet moves. I got to listen and watch for months, along with the entire train platform in Central Square Lynn, as she practiced nonstop in our living room. She tried to teach me a few of the lifts. I quickly remembered why I started directing. The show was directed by Nancy Curran Willis, musically directed by David Rose, and choreographed by an awesome friend and one of our bridesmaids, Jenn Condon.

A few towns over in Reading, MA, I was working on The Laramie Project at the High School. The Laramie Project is a collection of interviews and moments in the aftermath of a brutal beating and eventual death of gay University of Wyoming student, Matthew Shepard. You may remember the news stories about this one from 1998. This production was very rewarding for me and the students. It brought the whole community together in the fight against hate, including the police, fire, clergy association, school administration, faculty, parents, and students. I had the honor of co-directing this with Bill Endslow. He, along with his wife, Ellen Endslow (Carlin), are like second parents to me and are the main reason I found and love theatre so much. They will be very special guests at our wedding in May. Not to mention, May 17th, is also Bill’s birthday!!

So that’s what we’ve been up to. It’s been physically and emotionally draining for both of us and it’s nice, these days, to be able to come home after work and sit on the couch and do nothing!!

Speaking of which, I think I’ll get back to that, right now…

A quick note of thanks

Sarah — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:00:25 +0000

Corey and I wanted to take a minute to thank our amazing families and our wonderful wedding party for all that they are doing leading up to the big day. We know that weddings–and the celebrations leading up to weddings!–take a village. Please know how very grateful we are for your help and your time. We’re so lucky to have such a fun and loving group surrounding us, and we really can’t wait to party with you before, during and after the wedding! xoxo

Time For Some Yum Yums

coreyjackson — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:46:54 +0000

We picked out the menu for the wedding this week. Guests will be able to choose between Chicken Picata or Filet Mignon. We’re making arrangements for any vegetarians as well. But that’s not the best part!! A few months ago our caterer worked my cousin’s wedding and they had the best potato latkes. They will definitely be making the rounds during the cocktail hour along with some seafood, wrapped in bacon. The only way to eat seafood in my opinion.

Don’t get too full during dinner. In addition to a fantastic wedding cake from D’Amici’s in Lynn, we have a surprise for dessert!!!

-Corey

Get ready to party!

Sarah — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:11:47 +0000

If you’re coming to our wedding, you need to know one thing: it’s going to be a party!!! The band we hired will make sure that you dance all night and have a great time. The amazingly talented singer Athene Wilson and her Dream Team band play everything from funk to jazz to rock! Here are some samples:

Play that Funky Music

Stir It Up

Don’t Know Why

L O V E

Within the next month, we’ll also be selecting the hors d’oeuvres and entrees, and we’ve planned a yummy food surprise! All we can tell you is to bring your appetite.

Finally, in case you think you’ll be exhausted from all that partying, we thought we’d remind you that we’ve reserved a room block at the lovely Sheraton Ferncroft Hotel in Danvers, which is roughly 8 miles from the wedding and reception site. Please visit our Accommodations page for more information. Reservations must be made by April 16, 2009.

We can’t wait to party with you!

The palette

Sarah — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:34:58 +0000

Ohhh, we haven’t told you about our wedding palette yet! Let’s start there:

Color by COLOURlovers

The above colors are supposed to be coral, ivory, sage, chocolate brown and gold! I’ll be in ivory with gold accents; the bridesmaids will be in coral with gold accents; Corey and the guys will be in chocolate brown tuxes with “bisque” vests/ties (sort of a champagne shade); and we are still trying to figure out the flowergirls (ivory dresses with a coral sash??) and mothers of the bride (one in a shade of brown and one in sage??). If you’ve got any thoughts, give us a shout!

Speaking of attire, my dress and veil came in two weeks ago! Hooray. I can’t post pictures of those here, of course–but I can show you my shoes:Click here to see the Nina Shoes website.

Our color palette is also carrying over nicely into other aspects of the wedding: flowers (all ivory/white with hints of green), tablescapes (Corey would kill me if I told you), wedding invitations and programs (our good friend John is designing these in the coming months!), cake (very simple design), and makeup (coral eyeshadow with green lipstick and chocolate brown blush–just kidding!). We just can’t wait to see how it all comes together on our big day!

Engagement photos: a sneak peek!

Sarah — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:02:01 +0000

We are so lucky to have a wonderful and talented wedding photographer! Lexi Savelyev came to our neighborhood for our engagement photo shoot; we wanted to have “documentation” of our first home/neighborhood together. Here is a preview with more photos coming soon!

The Centerpieces

coreyjackson — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:42:55 +0000

Normal people call a florist for centerpieces. I’ve turned this into quite the art project. Sometimes being artistic means you always are making more work for yourself. It’s definitely going to be worth it. Our design is a little vintage, with faux vintage frames (thank you Michael’s) and real antique bottles (thank you Newburyport Flea Market). We’ll fill the bottles with single stem white flowers. It’s going to be very beautiful. We still haven’t figured out what will be in the center. Trying to find some sort of lantern type thing to fill in the center.

In order to get the bottles to look nice and clean, I had to boil them in water with DipIt. The stuff is magical.

If any of you out there have old photographs of the Jacksons or Herseys please share. We have a bunch from Sarah’s side, but I need more from my side.

Only 7 months to go… It will be here before we know it.

-Corey

Our wedding party

Sarah — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:51:32 +0000

Wedding Party Facts:

Matron of Honor:

Rebecca “Doc” Hains ~ Sarah’s sister. Girl power rules. Loves Theo, bunnies and birds.

Best Man:

Bill “Bubba” Jackson ~ Corey’s brother. Diehard Patriots fan. Van Halen Rocks!!

Bridesmaids:

Natasha “ABD” Azank ~ Sarah’s friend. Former coworkers from Brigham and Women’s. Finally finished her “diss.”

Lauren “Axl” Carr ~ Sarah’s friend. Coworkers at Dana-Farber. This is how we do it.

Jennifer “Hot Mama” Condon ~ Sarah’s friend. Witnessed my college years. Ghetto as hell.

Shereen “Chewbacca” Russell ~ Sarah’s friend. Former coworker at Brigham and Women’s. Hates cilantro.

Groomsmen:

Matt “Tevya” Brand ~ Corey’s friend. Met in Organic Chemistry. Double Quarter Pounder, just ketchup.

Dan “The Man” Bronson ~ Corey’s friend. Met in Flint Hall, Syracuse University. Named his cat after a war hero.

Ryan “Nomad” Cecil ~ Corey’s friend. Middle School thespians. Can I borrow a pair of shorts?

Cody “Who’s the Fairest?” Knudsen ~ Corey’s nephew. Loves skateboards. And reflective surfaces.

Flowergirls:

Kaitlyn “Fergie” Jackson ~ Corey’s niece. Middle School phenom. Then Superman Dat ohhhhh!!!

Brianna “Seabiscuit” Jackson ~ Corey’s niece. Equestrian superstar. Future Dr. Doolittle.