Tom & Tanya   Please welcome our newest featured bride, Tanya! What a refreshing young bride Tanya was. She gave me her colors, freedom & wanted me to create something "over the top". The result was a feather hat that was stunning and fit Tanya's fun loving personality. You will enjoy Tanya & Tom's story, it is so FUNNY and very sweet. A real love story!      The love story   Tom and I met at a blood drive, I had just gotten a job in recruitment with the non-profit organization that runs the drives in Connecticut and he was a blood drive volunteer.   To be honest, I really thought Tom was volunteering for some sort of court ordered community service since he was the only volunteer I had that was under 70!   I was leery of him at first, convinced he was some sort of criminal... Quickly the volunteers informed me (the nice older ladies that pass out the juice and cookies) that he was just a lovely young man who volunteered because he was an avid blood donor and liked to help out with that cause.

The approving way the “little old ladies” at my blood drive spoke of Tom made me embarrassed I ever thought he was a criminal!  We saw each other only at blood drives quite often; steeling glances & smiles, making small talk.  Of course, the other volunteers, having much life experience, saw how we looked at each other and did everything they could to make our paths intersect.   It took 3 months before we started dating; I was waiting for him to ask me out, since I was a manager of sorts.  He asked me to help with a paper he was writing, I used that opportunity to ask him out on a real date – the first guy I ever asked out!  We knew instantly it was perfect, but often laugh at the strange place we met.  “Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.”  I found my husband completely by accident!

He proposed on December 23rd of that year, outside in a snowstorm, on an icy bank at the edge of a waterfall.  I complained on the way there, he said we were going for a walk in the snow – I was tired and cold and warn out.  I was clueless till he pulled out a little black box and got down on one knee, I pretended not to notice his hand was shaking, it made the moment all the sweeter.

I wanted to get married in June, around the summer solstice. Midsummer Nights Dream is my favorite Shakespeare play, (Tanya is short for Titania, so maybe there is a bit of the fairy queen in me).  I had no idea when I picked the date it was the same weekend his mother chose to get married on 33 years ago!  It made the day all the more special, his mother and father are so very much in love after 33 years of marriage, they still smile and hold hands as they walk down the street.  He jokes all the time that he married his mother.

We had a small garden ceremony and reception at A Cardinal House http://www.acardinalhouse.com/ in Glastonbury, CT.  Dr. Michael and Nancy Lepore open up their beautiful home to host small wedding ceremonies.  Dr. Lepore is a Justice of the Peace, he officiated our beautiful ceremony.  His wife Nancy designed and arranged all the flowers for the wedding party.  I would recommend the Inn to anyone looking to have a small wedding in Connecticut.

Our family and close friends showered us with good wishes.  God blessed us with the most perfect weather – a bright breezy summer day.  Friends of ours played folk music during and after the ceremony. We incorporated the broom jump to “sweep away the old and bring in the new”.  Since it was Midsummer Day, I wanted to honor the Swedish tradition of the majstång dance. We decorated a birch maypole the night before with the wedding party.  It looked so pretty, covered in greenery and flowers, its ribbons being blown with the wind in the background of our ceremony.  Everyone enjoyed the folk dance, even those who claim not to dance.  Our reception was free flowing, guests mingled about the home and veranda; the servers found them and passed delicious food and drink.

There was one word on the tip of everyone’s tongue “hat”.  Everyone wanted to know where I got the hat, no one could say enough about it.  What I love about it, besides how amazingly spectacular it is, is that the veil is so easily tucked in, I could wear the hat again, to a cocktail party or other occasion, with a brown or green dress and it would look amazing.  I’ve ordered a head form and clear Lucite box to display it in so I don’t have to keep its beauty hidden in a box. Doreen, you have given me lovely memories of my special day that will last a lifetime, I cannot thank you enough.   Best,   Tanya

Here is a letter Tanya sent before we asked her to be a featured bride. She is such a sweet spirit, I just want you to enjoy all that she had to say. Dorene       Hi Doreen! I wanted to thank you once again for my AMAZING hat!!! I had the most perfect wedding on June 23rd.  I was married outside in a garden in Glastonbury, CT.  God blessed us with the most perfect weather it was sunny, 75 and breezy.  The wind in blowing threw my feathered hat made the hat look that much more surreal!  Everyone complimented my hat, everyone was like “Tanya, that hat is so you!”  Of course everyone had to know where I got it and I told them it was a one-of-a kind custom piece by this amazing artist Dorene Vandermeer!

More of the letter....   Of course, during my hair appointment EVERYONE in the salon had to check out my hat, my stylist had a very easy time positioning and securing the piece with just a few bobby pins.  I ended up wearing the hat off to one side.  We adjusted the veil with a few bobby pins and the hat was secure through the whole ceremony reception and dancing!  Towards the end of the reception I tucked the veil up under the hat and secured with one pin, it was quite simple and I didn’t need to take the hat off to do it (your design is genius – very bride friendly!!!!) We adhered to a few cultural traditions during my wedding, a traditional Swedish maypole dance (it was midsummer day!) and a broom jump, for good luck.  My best friend of 20 years walked me down the aisle. My photographer is Craig Norton. Craig did an amazing job.  I hope my beautiful pictures inspire other brides to work with color, should you choose to use them on your website.  The hat was over the top gorgeous, but it worked really well.   I can’t tell you how happy I was with the piece you made me, it really made a fairy book wedding day that much more perfect! Best, Tanya

Here is the letter Tanya wrote after opening her hat, it touched me deeply (I teared up).   Dorene, I love, love, love the delicious confection you created for my wedding day!  You are a genius!!!  I was a bit down after receiving some news about an ill relative and I opened my door and saw the box, I said - no, its can't be my hat so soon!  It instantly smiled and knew, that my happy thoughts and prayers could help my relative more than my tears.  The arrival of you package helped me do that... Then, I opened it, it was packaged so beautifully!  I literally got tears in my eyes when I saw it - I love it!!!  The craftsmanship far exceeds anything I dreamed of.  Thank you for all the personal touches - the gift wrapping, the note and the lovely sentiment enclosed from the book by CH Spurgeon.  You are one of those people, that without knowing it, has made a lasting impression on my life.  I will think back to you, and the lovely hat you created for me, with fondness throughout my life.  Thanks you again. I look forward to sending you photos from my wedding day. Warmly, Tanya Brinkman   Thank you Tanya for allowing me into your life and for letting all of us share in your wedding. Blessing, Dorene