Tuesday, September 29, 2009

I'm back.

A week and a half ago I had very very minor surgery, and I thought for sure that my three week recovery would be filled with wedding planning and fretting...totally not the case. This is the first time in 11 days that I'm self sufficient and feeling pretty good (not so coincidentally, it's also the first day I'm not relying on 3 teaspoons of painkillers every 4th hour for pain management), and I'm back with a vengeance.

The hint of OCD in me rationalizes that now we have the big huge all important details down, we need to move to the next important, but slightly flexible tier - cakes, djs, florists, etc. I have absolutely no patience for things of that nature, so of course I'm back to my old ways and obsessing over centerpieces.

A quick Google search lead me to this gem


....over at bloomsandbranches.com. I'm all about cheap and efficient, so these are right up my alley. I need to crunch numbers (these kits vs. everything separately), but these just might be it! If we go with these, I could get one set a month or so...$35 a month won't be missed much! I estimate that I'd only need 10 or 11 of these (200 people - 14 at head table / 8 person per table / half of the tables would have this particular centerpiece). Hopefully we can decide in the near future and I can buy supplies for a mock centerpiece.

Here is a blurry picture I found of Emma and Connor last Halloween (our flower girl and ring bearer). Emma is Mike's niece and Connor is my brother. Just a little FYI.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

!!!!!!!

We found our dream reception site and paid our deposit on it! We had checked out this location a few weeks ago after hearing a lot of local buzz- it's housed in a very old building with a lot of rich history, and had received new owners last year who have just finished renovations. The owner invited us over to go through more details yesterday evening, so we saw the place set up for a wedding. It was so gorgeous! A favorite part of mine is the dedicated bridal room with a private restroom and a vanity- and it locks! Let's see, what else....wall to wall French doors separating the ballroom from the food, ROUND TABLES (this was a major selling point!), very large hardwood dance floor, very neutral palate...the list goes on and on. Another plus is that is is so very affordable...more than we could have dreamed. I think the absolute very best part of this place is the owners- they are the nicest people I could wish for. They obviously put so much thought into everything, from the decor to providing parking attendants. They are so flexible with everything, and they really just seem to want to please.

I think I was probably 10 times more excited in person last night than I'm conveying in this blog. Mike said that every time the guy answered a question, my big eyes just got bigger and bigger. I'm so happy!


In other news, I'm thinking of using kissing balls (carnations or roses?) as pew decorations, and then transporting them to the reception site and incorporating them into half of the centerpieces and around the cake and cookies. I really like the idea, so we'll see where it goes. We also really dig the idea of hanging votives (or floating tea lights) from branches on the other half of the centerpieces. I might make some mock centerpieces....eventually.

Oh by the way, http://thisisitjohnstown.com is the reception site!

Mike decided to finally read this and give his two cents in the last post! Awesome!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

So Far So Good?

We found a place we really like for the reception. It is perfect and we didn't even know it existed until a few days ago! We just need to make sure that we can use our own caterer. We spent a great deal of time going over decor ideas: branches, votives, hanging votives, tea lights, etc. We're on the right track... I think so anyway. We're also looking at groomsman gifts. I don't really know what I want to do yet.
MP