Bridal Shower Tea Held in Honor of Savannah
Savannah’s future mother-in-law and sister-in-law, Laurie and Katie DeMayo host an elegant tea in honor of Savannah.
The ladies hosted the bridal shower tea in the DeMayo home in Ligonier, Pennsylvania. Mostly local friends and family attended the shower. Chris’ (groom-to-be) out-of-town aunts traveled from New Jersey for the tea as well. Savannah’s future father-in-law toasted Savannah to kick-off the party, despite a ladies only tea.
Chris also made an appearance at the end of the party with a lovely bouquet of flowers that he presented to Savannah – so sweet!
Savannah’s Bridal Shower Tea Invitation
A close friend of Laurie’s loaned her the tea set for the day. It was an exquisite National Wildlife Society set. Laurie and Katie served sandwiches and desserts along with an array of teas, champagne and wine. Potted geranium plants accompanied each place setting and served as the favors for guests to take home. Along with the geraniums were specialty soaps with a label,
“From Savannah’s Shower to Yours”.
The table is set for Savannah’s bridal shower tea.
Party hosts and bridesmaids organized several games for the guests to play. First, there was an over/under game where party-goers guessed facts about the bride. Next, the ladies played a wedding themed Mad Libs game. The group voted on the best and the funniest entries to award the winners. In more modern terms, the party played a wedding emoji decoding game while they also played the traditional what’s in your purse game.
Savannah was a little uneasy being the center of attention while unveiling her gifts. She and Chris received many items from the bridal registry. Savannah tells us she truly appreciates how every guest added special additions, creativity and greeting cards to each gift as well.
Savannah opens bridal shower gifts.
Everyone is excited as the wedding date inches closer and closer!
Quincy Cellars’ 10-Year Anniversary
Quincy Cellars Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary!
Ten years ago, on June 7, 2007, Quincy Cellars opened its doors. Thank you to all our customers for being such a big part of our journey so far!
We had a vision to create a top-notch destination and an unforgettable experience just for you.
And so it began with the transformation of the 150-year old barn into an amazingly rustic yet modern event venue complemented by a charismatic wine cellar … and now includes gorgeously romantic outdoors spaces – an open-air pavilion, deck, patio and most recently, a dock over the pond.
And did we mention our fabulous food? Award-winning wine? Beautiful gardens? The willow tree? The envelopment of vineyards?
Take a look at this video from last year. Or see some shots below.
Quincy Cellars at Night
The willow tree. The pond. The fountain. This shot of Matthew and Teresa was captured by Rachel Lusky Photography.
Rachel Lusky captures another couple – this time, in the vineyard.
The wine cellar in the lower level of the restored barn.
With our customers’ continued support and vision, this year – and the next 10, will be even more remarkable!!
BBQ Chicken Dinner August 7
Quincy Cellars hosts a Sunday-for-a-cause chicken BBQ picnic August 7, 2016, from 2:00 – 5:00 p.m., rain or shine! The Tennessee Backporch band will perform. The event benefits the Veterans Miracle Center out of Erie. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at Mihalak’s Guns in Cranesville, the UPS store at 2501 West 12th Street, Erie or from the Veterans Miracle Center Erie.
A ticket includes the live music, one drink and one trip through the picnic buffet. Choose from Quincy Cellars award-winning wines or newly released 7 Sins Brewery hand-crafted beers. Soft drinks are available too. Wine selections include Cayuga white, Vidal blanc, Niagara, Riesling, Seyval Blanc, Chancellor and dry and sweet Concords. The beers include Gluttony – a Stout; Envy – an Amber Ale; and Lust, the 7 Sins Brewery Cherry Wheat.
As far as the dinner goes, it will not be your everyday picnic – Quincy Cellars is known for its delicious foods served only for special events with Master chef and owner Kevin Daughrity creating amazing menus and meals. He and his staff will barbeque chicken and serve it buffet-style along with locally sourced, home-made potato salad, freshly baked corn bread, baked beans and a local seasonal vegetable.
Meanwhile Tennessee Backporch will pick and sing. This variety band is well known in Erie, playing numerous weddings and events since 1980 so it is likely you have heard them – and won’t want to miss this opportunity. In fact, Tennessee Backporch is so good they have a standing gig at the Presque Isle casino! And they are kind-hearted, performing in support of this budding charitable organization, Veterans Miracle Center of Erie and the vets it serves.
The Veterans Miracle Center Erie (VMCE) is a newly formed agency, created in January of 2015 as a non-profit agency assisting veteran and active-duty military families. It was modeled after The Veterans Miracle Center of Albany, New York and serves Northwestern Pennsylvania. The VMCE mission is to offer real solutions that will enhance the lives of the people it serves. The VMCE provides clothing, personal care and hygiene products, houseware items, ambulatory equipment, children’s toys and much more — additionally, specialists are available to provide veterans, military personnel and families counseling for personal needs, jobs, housing and finances. All goods and services are available free-of-charge to veterans, personnel and their immediate household.
Quincy is grateful to have the opportunity to offer support to those individuals who protect all of us. We salute all veterans and military families.
Katie and Matt’s Wedding Day Menu
Quincy Cellars is known for its fresh gourmet food with a contemporary flair and so I personally have been very curious to hear all about featured couple Katie and Matt’s menu choice for their upcoming special day.
Events manager, Amy, guided the couple through this important decision. First she presented them with owner/chef Kevin’s decadent wedding fare options – which by the way totally impressed Katie. Next, considering Matt is an outdoorsman with a traditional American palate (hot dogs, tacos, burgers, you get the picture), Katie wanted to make sure he was happy and asked him to take the first pass at the menu choices. He chose at least two options per category – despite a little trouble with some of the pronunciation of the contemporary options (wink, wink) and, Katie filled in the blanks in request for their personal tasting.
The couple worked with Amy, scheduled the tasting and ultimately discovered a perfect menu just for them. Drum roll please… and, here it is:
Hors d’oeuvres will be offered in the venerable wine cellar, including an assortment of classic and mod artisan cheeses, meats, and crackers at the bar. Black-tie serviced hors d’oeuvres include a one-of-a-kind Bloody Mary shrimp cocktail, along with delicately created spinach and artichoke phyllo cup pastries (Katie’s fav!). My mouth is watering already!
North 40 Photography captures Abbey and Chris in the cellar at Quincy Cellars in 2012.
The main course includes a locally-sourced field green salad with house-made intensely flavored and fresh vinaigrette. The salad is accompanied by bread freshly baked onsite, served along with compound butter. If you are like Matt (and me) and wondering what compound butter is – it is just that a combination of fresh herbs and spices added to the butter giving it amazing flavor, kick and sweetness – a perfect match spread upon the out-of-the-oven hand-crafted bread.
Abbey and Chris’ menu. Year 2012 by North 40 Photography.
All guests will be served a paired plate which includes a poultry and a meat entree. The bird is a slowly roasted chicken breast with a honey pomegranate sauce which assures a moist white meat along with an incredibly sweet and tangy flavor – divine! The hoof is an exquisitely selected filet mignon cooked just right using Quincy’s very own Merlot along with a hint of rosemary garlic for a flavorful yet subtly infused steak. Katie and Matt chose a parmesan and herb mashed potato for the starch. A seasonal farm-stand vegetable will also be prepared with care and served with the paired plate.
Kevin and Andrew in the Quincy Cellars kitchen making the magic happen!
Drinks include Quincy Cellars’ fine wines and 7 Sins Brewery crafted beers. Per Katie’s request, a variety of 5-star doughnuts from Mighty Fine Donuts in Erie will be served along with locally pressed apple cider.
October 22 cannot come soon enough!
Katie & Matt Planning Ahead for October Storybook Wedding
Katie is busy with planning the details for her big day and has found herself fretting lately – with all the big decisions made, she is finding that it is the little decisions and tasks that are a bear. And to top that off, she is most concerned about one item she cannot change – the weather! October 22 is a bit of a gamble on the shores of Lake Erie so please join us in sending in good vibes to her for that day!
The bridal shower is scheduled for August 22 and so the guest list and design for the bridal shower invitation are top-of-mind for Katie right now with the date fast approaching. Her aunt is hosting the shower in Sherman with an artsy theme. The bride-to-be and guests will be guided through creating their very own painting! Her aunt is calling the day, “Brushes with the Bride” – trendy and fun!
Katie is also getting the wedding day guest list together which for most brides can be exhausting. The good news is the guest list is often the most challenging task of all! Here are a couple articles on etiquette and simplifying the task. Real simple offers 6 tips on creating a list and keeping the peace while The Knot suggests a few simple rules.
Selecting the ring for Matt is on Katie’s upcoming to-do list and Matt has yet to pick out the tuxes for the groomsmen. More tasks include finalizing decorations for the ceremony to be held in the pavilion – and again, with some concern – in her words, “you cannot see it all tied together until the night before/day of when it is completed so it is hard to decide!” She is renting some of her decorations from Special Occasions Rentals & Design and plans to have her order buttoned up soon.
Special Occasions Rental & Design
A plus for Katie is she is finding all the vendors (and especially Amy at Quincy Cellars!) to be very patient, helpful and insightful which is putting her at ease.
See you next time to discover together more decisions to be made and details to be planned!
Less than 150 Days Till Katie and Matt’s Big Day
With 150 days left till the wedding day, what does a bride in our modern Information Age do in preparation for her big day? Creates a save-the-date card, a website and a hashtag – but, of course! #ACoupleOfBucks
Katie was stressed about creating the save-the-date, having a tough time deciding whether or not to place an engagement photo as the focus or a different graphic related to the Fall country chic theme. She also knew that time was of essence and getting it designed, printed and sent out no later than 4 months prior to the wedding date was critical. After much fretting and procrastination, Katie finally pulled the trigger and went with an engagement photo. She also created the card herself to save time.
Katie chose Zazzle.com as the vendor to produce the cards. Zazzle.com is an online store where you can collaborate with makers & designers to make almost anything. It has easy-to-use templates to help customers create a variety of event planning and marketing collateral. In addition to artwork as the focus, the details of the day are important in producing a save-the-date card. Here is what Katie’s design looks like – fabulous! She is waiting for the printed product to be shipped – cross your fingers it is what she expects! 
The purpose of the save-the-date notice, the wedding website and the hashtag is to give guests enough advance notice about your date. Having this knowledge for one, assures guests reserve your wedding day on their RL (real life) social calendar. Secondly, when friends and family talk about your day through social media like FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter, via the hashtag, all chatter, photos and links can be searched and viewed easily. The date, time and venue are the most important details to share at this point. Also, if the venue is in a busy region, if your date falls on a holiday or otherwise busy weekend and/or guests are traveling far (typically, 30 miles or more), you will want to suggest accommodations for them.
Again putting her creative skills to work, Katie designed the website and a hashtag. She went to theknot.com to produce a personalized wedding site. She had fun with this one, telling the “Matt and Katie” story and simply used the Knot’s boilerplate to fill in the blanks for their special day. The address is theknot.com/us/acoupleofbucks. She also had fun with the hashtag creation – #ACoupleOfBucks – Matt’s last name is Buck and before you know it, so will Katie’s – and that, my friends, makes a couple!
Phew, who knew wedding planning was so fun??!! We at Quincy Cellars are so glad to be a part of it!
Matt & Katie – The Ring
Matt is a true romantic and amazes Katie again – this time, with the engagement ring. Katie has urbane taste and had not specified what she wanted in a ring but Matt listened. He “creeped” around and talked to Katie’s family without her knowing so that he could create an extraordinary ring.
First, he asked her parents’ permission to marry her. Being the gentleman he is, Matt also spoke with her grandmother upon which she gave him her engagement ring. Knowing Katie’s special bond with her late grandfather Matt was able to take the stones from her grandmother’s ring and arrange it in a token of love personally made for Katie.
Katie expresses her joy and states, “Knowing that my ring has the stones that were on the ring my grandfather selected and gave to my grandma means the world to me.”
Her grandfather passed away when Katie was in middle school 10 years ago and she still misses him to pieces. For many years she was his only granddaughter so she was royally – and justly – spoiled. The two of them spent lots of time together – as a high school principal in the Erie Area Katie’s granddad often brought her to extra-curricular events with him. As as special treat, when they were out and about, he would always stop at local donut shops to satisfy their love of donuts (by the way, Katie is having donuts at her wedding reception – yumsters!).
The engagement ring story gets better, Katie had no idea that Matt was working with the jeweler located smack dab between their workplaces at the time – on several occasions during his lunch break he sneaked to the jewelry store, praying she wouldn’t spot his car in the lot! Check out the ring and witness Katie’s pure awe in the proposal photo shown.
Come back to our blog regularly for Katie and Matt’s storybook tale – their big day culminates at Quincy Cellars October 22, 2016.
Matt and Katie – the Proposal
Some brides will say the most exciting part of getting married is the proposal – and from Katie’s perspective, hers was truly special.
First, Matt completely surprised her – she had no clue as to what he had planned nor if/when to expect it – can you say, romantic??!!
Katie and Matt live in the northern tier of PA, close to Bradford – sometimes known as God’s country. Their property has a lovely and scenic view on top of a steep hill overlooking the valley and town. One beautiful Autumn day last September, without suspicion, Matt asked Katie to hike up the hill to enjoy the colorful and picturesque foliage.
Once they reached the peak, Katie was bombarded with hugs and sweet nothings when suddenly she spied Matt pulling something out of his pocket … and, her heart stopped. Matt presented Katie with an exquisitely radiant ring and requested her hand in marriage. (Check our blog often and learn the beautiful story behind the ring.)
Katie immediately said YES. For someone who loves simplicity, this was an absolute perfect and amazing day for Katie (and Matt!).
Knowing Katie and Matt’s love for natural beauty and simplicity, it is no wonder the couple has chosen Quincy Cellars to celebrate their marriage together this coming October. We cannot wait to host their big day!
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