Well, with 2011 fast approaching it seems like the wedding will be here before I know it. In a few days I'll be in the same calendar year as Andy and I's wedding!!!
I still have yet to pin down a photographer or DJ which are two high priorities. I have a DJ I like so far but, once again, I'm nervous to go with my gut. I have talked to a few other DJs. Some are waaaaaaaay to cheese ball for me to even want to consider. The guy I'm looking at is very nice and offers some other things like lighting and a slideshow projector. I need to talk to him more and make a decision.
Over the holiday I'm going to take my sister to try on bridesmaid dresses. As she pointed out, this is the only part of the wedding "all about her". haha. She wishes. I'll pick a dress she hates on purpose. (I kid!)
I really am hoping to find 2-3 dresses and let my ladies choose their own. I don't need them as identical twins, just similar. I'm going to start with two places. I'm going to look at dresses at David's Bridal since there's one I really like. As much as I hate it, David's is convenient... I'm also going to find salon's that carry Mori Lee bridesmaid dresses.
My bridal shop carries Mori Lee and gives a small discount on the dresses since I purchased my wedding gown from them. Surprisingly, floor length gowns are in the same price range as David's Bridal?!?!!? Hopefully, one of these two options will turn something up. I'm still a little reluctant to do the bridal shop bridesmaid dresses because you have to order them and wait. David's is off the rack and a little more like a regular store which is comforting. I'm going to wait until I see what dresses they have before I stress about how to obtain the dresses!
And, that's where I stand. Things are going really well. On a side note, take my poll. I just read a post about a bride telling her ladies they couldn't wear their own engagement rings with the bridesmaid ensembles?! I've never heard of such a thing. Just curious where most brides fall on the spectrum!
The answer: not as much as Port City Rentals would like me to think.
While my mom was in town we decided to check out a few other vendors, including rental places for chairs, tables and linens.
I'm not doing a full sit down dinner so, in theory, linens should be easy. I have eleven 36" round tables in the courtyard that I want to put tablecloths on. I have a couple more of the same size in the bar. I want to rent a few tall bistro tables and teal tablecloths for these and then white linens for the food serving tables. All and all its a pretty small order, we're looking at 21 teal table clothes and 8 white ones. Want to know what that will cost me? Over $1200! Yep, that's a whopping $40 each. I like teal but there's no way in hell I'm paying for that. The cost of renting the bistro tables (not included in this price) are one quarter of the tablecloth price. SERIOUSLY?! The tablecloth is more than the table!?
I don't even understand why people would do this. About 4 seconds of google searching leads you to all sorts of online options where I can buy all my tablecloths for under $200. For $6.99 I can get a tablecloth for my courtyard tables.
3 strands of $250 lights
Now, if the price of tablecloths wasn't enough, my trip to the rental place brought me even more surprises. The Ezell House is decked out in lights for nighttime. All the banisters are wrapped in rope lights and the courtyard area has those italian style lights draped over it. The courtyard is broken into two sections, the main courtyard and the courtyard extension seen in my photo.
When we went to the rental place, they tacked on a $250 lighting charge to our quote so "we wouldn't be surprised later!". Screw being surprised later, I'm surprised now! Apparently, the lights over the courtyard extension aren't part of the venue's lighting, they're strung up by the rental company. All the rest of the lighting, including the italian lighting in the main courtyard are permanent and part of the rental.
Now look at this picture. The wedding taking place when I took the picture had added their own lanterns to the lighting but as you can see there are three strands of lights over the courtyard extension. Three. Apparently, if the lights aren't up, the rental place will string them up for $250. Sometimes they take them down when putting up tents, etc. If they're already up, lucky me, I just pay a $50 usage fee.
This is bullshit. First, why wouldn't the venue own all the lights? Why are 3 strands of lights excluded? Of course, this area will be my dance floor so lights are necessary. Second, the rental company just announced that the lighting fee would be included in the quote. They didn't even take time to tell me what the actual deal with the lights was. I had to email them and the Ezell House back and forth trying to get the scoop. I mean, why are 3 strands of lights now included on my quote? Why can't the venue just own them and deal with them? How confusing?!
So, of course, like linens, I'll do my own. This kind of thing just irritates me to no end! I'm sure this will just be an ongoing annoyance. I'm hoping the Ezell House will be helpful in letting me put up my own lights. All my bridal bargain books warn me of venues being in cahoots with vendors. I sort of feel like this is one of those situations where they're basically tricking brides into throwing down an extra $250.
SO frustrated!
FYI to all you other brides to be:
www.linentablecloth.com
www.cvlinens.com
Cheap! Lacy, another grad student here, just told me she got hers from the first one. Thanks!
I woke up this morning and Chelsea had emailed me some completed pictures so I decided to post them since they're much better then my own!
Sorry for delayed absence. I completely and totally forgot to blog! Last weekend I went to Tallahassee to visit my darling friend (and bridesmaid) Carly for labor day. Her husband is in the Arctic doing research and Andy is out on a NOAA cruise, so while they're away being marine scientist, we had a girls weekend.
As you can tell by the title of this post, I have bridesmaids. I've finally managed to ask everyone (and they all accepted). At first, I was going to wait a while. In fact, I was going to have Carly be the first (after my sister) because I had this girl's weekend planned. One thing led to another and I eventually asked all of them before Carly. haha.
See, what happened is that Andy and I have been talking about when and who to have in the wedding party. Since Andy doesn't have a brother his obvious best man choice is his friend Nate. I'd already asked my sister to be Maid of Honor immediately after the engagement, so Andy wanted to have at LEAST a best man. Then, Andy comes to find out Nate has been asked to also be in the wedding part of his college roommate. And the kicker, the wedding is in October 2011 just like us! Luckily, we have different weekends but Nate will be serving in wedding parties two weeks in a row! yikes!
With that in mind, it got me thinking maybe I should ask the wedding party much sooner than I had anticipated. I'd hate to find out one of them has a conflict. So, despite what all the planning books says, I asked everyone over a year in advance. At least everyone has plenty of time to plan.
Now its time to brag. I REALLY love the way I asked my bridesmaids to be in the wedding.
Sorry about the crappy pictures...
I decided to "pop the question" to my friends by giving them a ring box with a Ring Pop inside!
I bought little white boxes at Michael's and painted them white and teal. I bought paper flowers there too from the Martha Stewart collection of fun things. This picture doesn't show it but I also glued ribbon and a bow around the side of the box for some more teal details.
On the inside, I cut foam from the fabric store to fit inside the box and then covered it with a teal velvety material. I then glued all this into the bottom of the box to make a sort of ring pillow. Inside the lid I put a note "Will you be my bridesmaid?"
Originally, I tried to unwrap the Ring Pops but that was a sticky disaster so I ended up keeping them in the package. Some of the girls actually were sent in the mail, so I was a little worried if they'd make it.
Unfortunately, I kind of forgot to take a final picture. I was in a rush to get them in the mail. I still had Carly's but I forgot to take a picture. haha. Oh well.
Anyway, I'm super excited to have bridesmaids! And I was very excited to get to work on my first wedding related craft! I think these were a success. I just wanted a fun and unique way to ask them to be part of my special day. They very much reflected my personality so I couldn't be happier. My only regret was I didn't think up this idea until I'd already asked my sister because she would LOVE it.
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