47 days!

It's getting so close!  After spending months twiddling my thumbs and wondering what wedding planning I could be doing, I have so many things to do that I'm not sure what to do first!  Luckily I have deadlines for meetings and payments, so that helps keep me organized.  


A few days ago my mom and I met with the florist to finalize the details of my order and also the "day of" schedule--when and where to drop everything off.  Linda brought a sample bouquet and two boutonnieres with her so I could have a look and add/drop any flowers.


I had originally told Linda that I wanted a lot of orange, with fuschia and purple and some lime green mini hydrangeas.  The bouquet that Linda brought was very much a fall bouquet--lots of orange, but also red and green.  I liked it, but I was going for more of a wildflower look.  Luckily my mom made some suggestions that I think will help achieve that look.

Another thing we did was hold the bouquet up to the plum colored napkins that we bought to put under each centerpiece.  Since the flowers will be the same, it was nice to see the contrast between the flowers and napkin.  The dark napkin really makes the flowers pop.  


All in all, for my bouquet plus three BM bouquets, nine bouts, four coursages, 10 small arrangements for the pews in the chapel, and 10 centerpieces, I am playing about $1000.  I think that's a pretty good deal.  My mom kindly decided to pay for two large arrangements for our stark white chapel, and that set her back $150.  I thought that was kind of a lot, but she said that was what she was expecting to pay.


I am nervous about the florist, though.  I recommended her to a friend who got married a few months ago, and the bouquets and boutonnieres looked a little under the weather.  It was a hot, July day following a massive rain and that isn't really an excuse for slightly browning and sad looking flowers, but I think the florist may think it is.  So I am concerned that I will not get the most stunningly perfect flowers that I can imagine, but I guess I care more that I'm not paying an arm and a leg for them.  I just need to keep that in perspective.

Cake tasting!!!

Tomorrow is our cake tasting.  I have been looking forward to this for months!  Our cake is included in our package with the caterer, so all we have to do is head over to the bakery and taste some samples!  (I think)  


I really am not totally sure what we get with this package.  The bakery (Rolf's Patisserie) has a few different types on their website, but I am not sure what we are allowed to pick.  Also I do not know exactly how much I can dictate what design I want.  I do have some in mind, though…

(source: 100 Layer Cake) 

(source: Style Me Pretty)

(taken at a friend's wedding)

I love that rustic look of the frosting, and the glam of the sparkly rock candy and silver dragees (does anyone know how to pronounce that?).  I also saw some gorgeous cakes at Sweet and Saucy Shop, a bakery in California.  I think I linked to their website through another wedding blog, but oh my god.  They make the most gorgeous desserts!  

I made a presentation using google docs, and I think I am going to print it at FedEx Kinkos to bring with tomorrow.  Hopefully they'll see what I like and they'll be able to accommodate me, or at the very least suggest something similar.  

I'm so hungry right now…time to make breakfast and put away these sweet dreams!

Suit yourself? Too expensive.

From early on we knew we wanted the guys to wear suits in the wedding.  Since we are keeping things slightly casual, we thought tuxes would clash a little too much.  So we had decided: charcoal gray suits.  

But suits are expensive!  We felt terrible asking friends to spend $300 or more on a suit that they may not ever wear again.  And we couldn't ask the guys to just wear a suit of their own because some do not even own suits at this point.  Now, I know that this is a little ridiculous considering women spend hundreds of dollars on BM dresses and rarely wear those again. But I think most of my friends have done a good job of choosing an affordable dress, and some of them I will [hopefully] wear again.

Well, apparently there are no suit rentals in Chicago.  Now, I didn't go out of my way to search for vendors but I was told that no one rented suits.  And when I did a Google search the only results were for tux rental companies.  So we did what we had to and picked out the most basic tux you could find.

We headed over to Men's Warehouse the other night and made our reservations.  Joe wears suits everyday for work, so he knew what he was looking for.  Unfortunately the only color options were black, white, and light gray.  So we opted for black.  I think it will look really nice with the navy blue BM dresses and really, why would we choose white?  Light gray is great if it were a summer or daytime wedding, but for an October afternoon not so much.

(source: finetuxedos.com, After Six tuxedo)

The tux really looks like a suit.  The only difference is that there is a shiny stripe that runs down the sides of the pants, but I don't think it is very noticeable.  I could barely tell it was there.  

The cost of renting the tux was $125 and that included:

• Tux (jacket and pants)
• Shirt
• Shoes
• Tie and vest

We want to provide the ties for all the guys ourselves, so we wanted to opt out of that.  And the vest.  And the shoes.  Because really?  I'm sure all guys have black shoes to wear with a suit.  The girl helping us told us this would only save us (really the groomsmen) a few dollars but we stuck to our guns.  Turns out the cost went down to $87!  That's a big savings!  And Joe got his tux for free, so that's a big bonus for us.  

It feels so great to check another thing off the to-do list!

I will not be naked at my wedding!!!

I got my dress!!!  I only tried on about 10 dresses, but it was obvious this was the one.  I went to Wedding Belles in Barrington, and it was a great experience.  It's an old house with a few of the bedrooms set up as dressing rooms and some full of dresses.  I told them my budget was under $1000, and they told me that their dresses run between $500 and $2000, so I'd be counting some out, but that it was doable.  We only pulled dresses that were under $1000 and there were quite a few.  I was open to most styles, so that helped when it came to trying things on.  If you're pickier you'd probably have a much smaller selection.  

Two ladies from the store help you get in and out of the dresses, so beware.  My underwear wasn't the most appropriate but I figure they are probably used to it.  In the dressing room there is a three way mirror and a pedestal so you can see yourself very nicely.  If you love a dress, you head down to the main floor to stand at a larger mirror and they give you some earrings and other accessories (veils, too) so that you can get more into the look.  I think they sell veils also but I don't plan on wearing one so I'm not positive.  

Overall, this was a great experience, though I have no others to compare it to.  It was that easy.  :)  I ended up spending $700 on the dress plus $50 in tax (they're on the Lake county side of Lake-Cook Rd, so you only pay 7% tax instead of 10%!).  A tip if you plan on going there: check out the dresses in the dressing rooms.  They have some hung in the closets.  I actually found my dress that way--it was in the room that we were all in and I thought I'd add it to the pile.  I'm so glad I did!!!  I can't wait to wear the dress at my wedding!

Indie Wed

I just bought my ticket to Indie Wed!

Here is the description from the website:

On January 30th 2010, Chicago will be the location for a unique wedding event. The event, called Indie Wed will be the first of its kind in the Midwest, bringing together local vendors with a twist. Indie Wed caters to unconventional couples who are taking a more modern, edgy, or eco-friendly approach to their special day as well as the more conservative couples who simply want to add some special touches.

The event will highlight the work of local independent designers specializing in various wedding related fields including stationery, cakes & pastries, fashion, catering, floral design and photography.

What also makes this event unique is that it is both a wedding show as well as a market where vendors will be selling their wedding related wares on the spot.

I'm really excited!  My friend Lauren, who is getting married in July 2010, has agreed to go with me.  We're both big etsy fans, so I think we'll find a lot of things that we like there.  I haven't been to a bridal show, and I wasn't really planning on going to one, but this one looks so cool! 

photographer--check!

So we decided on our photographer.  Bryan Swisher photographed my friends Betsy and Jon's wedding in May 2009.  I was a bridesmaid in that wedding also, so I got to see Bryan in action most of the day.  He's very quick and easy to be around all day.  I think that's what is most important.  You have to be comfortable with your photographer because you have to smile at him all day long. 

And Joe and I both really like to take pictures and so we wanted to find someone who has an eye for detail and is creative.  We met with Bryan and got to see some of his pictures and talk to him about what kinds of pictures we want, and he can do it all.  The photojournalistic pictures of the cake and the flowers and the rings, the candid pics, and the posed pics.  We didn't want to be limited to one style, so Bryan's ability to get it all done is what made the decision for us. 

After all, the photos are probably the only reminder that we'll have of our wedding day in 2030.

The most important detail--dancing

Ok, so maybe it's not the most important part of the day, but the music is key to everyone having a great time at the wedding!  I've already told Joe that I'll be spending the entire time dancing once dinner is over.  He's not too keen on that idea, but I think I'll get him used to it in the next year. :)

So with that in mind, we hired our DJ!  My friends Debbie and Rob used the company something2dance2 for their wedding, and since I was a bridesmaid I really got to experience Something 2 Dance 2 first hand.  Jon, who DJ'd (is that spelled right?) at their was great!  And Debbie and Rob LOVED the company.  And it's also been part of the "the knot best of weddings" since 2007!

Something 2 Dance 2 uses an online planning tool so that they can get to know the bride and groom through stories about their relationship, how they got engaged, etc.  The site also has an extensive list of songs that you can request to be played or not to be played at your wedding.  The DJ basically acts as a wedding coordinator, also, making sure that toasts, pictures, and dances are all done in an easy manner.  So you're paying for two services in one!  Who can pass up that bargain???  :)