Mandalinn, thanks so much! Gigmasters serves my area and I jsut requested a quote for the wedding. I know waiting for surgery stinks. I wish you well! I've found not exercising isn't too bad if you keep reminding yourself how great it will be when you start back. I've had my days, though!
Jen, the sample tracks for the "recommended" band were horrifying! My personal favorite worst was Holding Out for a Hero... oh, my! I'll keep looking!!! Your venue options sound extraordinary... we'll have a panoramic view of a Wisconsin golf course in March. It's beautiful the rest of the year and most of the reception will be in the evening anyway! I'll just have to discourage people from outdoor pictures... with help from the climate, of course!
I found one other bridesmaids' dress possibility on the Aria Dress website. A full-length strapless in their silk shantung in leaf green (check out the albums for the best examples) would look stunning and very spring-appropriate. Plus, they're made to each girl's measurements, which may solve a lot of problems for me.
I also found another possible centerpiece idea... I started looking at the FTD and Teleflora arrangements on my florist's website to get a price idea. It's a 8X8" arrangement of pink and yellow roses called "pink lemonade." The roses are accented by kermit mums and oregonia but I will ask to have this replaced with lime green viburnum (my favorite spring flower). It's $34.95, which is right at the limit of my centerpiece budget. Anything less expensive starts looking, well, cheap. Plus, this incorporates both of my grandmothers' favorite flowers with the pink and yellow roses.
Anyone else have great floral arrangements/ideas for centerpieces (on a budget)?
Mandalinn – Hope your surgery goes well and your recovery is quick. In the mean time it sucks that all you can do is wait it out, you have my sympathies.
One really cool thing about this wedding is the bride and groom are both vegetarians and big time environmentalists. The rehearsal dinner, another dinner hosted by the parents, the cookout party I hosted, the cocktail hour, the reception – all vegetarian food. It was so awesome to not have to grill anyone about what’s in the food, I could just enjoy it! The mashed potato bar at the cocktail hour was really good, I might look into that option for ours. They also did a bunch of cool things to make their event as close to zero environmental impact as possible (compostable plates and cutlery at the rehearsal dinner, buying carbon offsets, using recycled paper and soy based inks, etc.) and included an explanation of these things in their welcome bags (which were awesome by the way, home baked treats!) I am so proud of them for having such a positive impact and for educating all their guests about those things most important to them.
I guess the work for my wedding really needs to get underway. We’re planning on putting up flyers at the UW music school to find musicians for the ceremony. I used to see those posted all the time when I was a student there. We have our DJ picked out (college roomie of my BIL, he did my sister's wedding), we just need to have a meeting with him to hammer out the details/expectations and get a contract worked out. I can’t believe it’s just over 9 months away now, seemed like yesterday I had all the time in the world!
For centerpieces I thought I might do something as dressed up potted tulips. That way guests can take them home and they’ll last for a while and it would be relatively inexpensive if I work with a local vendor.
Shananigans- Get in touch with the music directors/conductors of the music school for recommendations. They are busy people, but they will know! Also, do not blindly hire a musician. Ask to see them perform first. And word of mouth is best. I didn't put up a single flier after my freshman year because I was regularly playing. UW has a fantastic School of Music, so you should have a lot to choose from. Get creative! See what small ensembles they are featuring. You never know what interesting combo you may stumble across!
Sorry, I get a little wound up over the topic I think music schools have some of the best classical musicians in the country and aren't tapped often enough (and they are MUCH cheaper than the "professionals").
That's really cool about the green wedding. We are offering a vegetarian option with our meal as well. I know it will be the majority choice on my side of the family.
We decided to make our vegetarian option vegan to appeal to the most people. I've watched my future sister-in-law get served a salad too many times!
I just got a response back from gigmasters. I haven't listened to their samples yet but I have high hopes it will be better than the last.
Junebug and Shan, your idea of contacting a music school is brilliant! I may have to get working on that next.
I'm so excited about creating a reception atmosphere that will encourage conversation- both families have more than their share of great storytellers and I can't wait to see how well they'll all get along. The families are starting to get excited, too. We're all getting "younger" and the idea of a relaxed dinner and an early evening has appealed to everyone so far. We're going to close the bar at 11 and end the reception at 11:30. Plus, it's helping us keep the budget in line.
Another cool centerpiece idea I saw was a small herb garden. I would love to take something like that home! Choices, choices!
aww... all your wedding plans sound exciting! I still don't have pictures... shouldn't it be illegal to make a bride wait 4 weeks after her wedding to see pictures?
Anyway, I thought I would weigh in on music. I know my situation is a little different, because I have a LOT of musical friends. I had only friends playing or singing at the ceremony itself.
My reception had a jazz combo that I adored... a friend from high school is a jazz performance major at IU School of Music, and he was the leader. The result was a really professional sounding group, for much less than the cost of professionals. A bunch of seniors at a music school are so close to being pros that none of your guests will ever be able to tell the difference. I got a lot of compliments on the music! So, obviously, my recommendation is to go the music school route.
Take care, ladies! Happy planning! And, I must say, I loved my wedding. It was fun and happy even if it was super hot. But now, I am just so happy it's over! No more stressing about tiny little details for a single day. Married life is divine. Not perfect, but thoroughly enjoyable. Being married is much more fun than planning a wedding.
I am sooo eager to have everything done. My fiance had to attend the wedding of a good friend without me this past weekend. He took notes! I cracked up... he even brought me their program so I could see the music they had selected and how they had set everything up. I swear, I did not train him to do this!
I'm starting to get excited about our colors. The David's Bridal clover and the leaf shantung from Aria are both nice, bright greens so we're moving forward with options- very cool. I think the centerpieces with pink and yellow roses will look awesome. Our reception venue is very yellow- yellow chintz drapes, gold stucco walls- and I was concerned about that color overwhelming my pale pink and green but, by pulling in the yellow, I think it will look very polished.
Is anyone else thinking of skipping the cake in favor of a spectacular dessert? Wedding cakes are ridiculously expensive in this area and the service I've received from several highly-recommended area bakeries has left me reluctant to give these obnoxious people my money. We may just go with a rich chocolate mousse with a Chambourd raspberry sauce. It tastes wonderful and can be prepared by the on-site kitchen. Very tempting!
I'd love to have friends perform at the ceremony, unfortunately none of our friends play classical instruments. I think we might start going to some of the free performances at the music school to start scouting, plus it's a fun way to spend and evening.
Lafayette - I hadn't thought about dessert instead of cake, but I don't see why you shouldn't. I've been to weddings where there's been desserts in addition to the wedding cake and the other desserts are usually better and more popular than the cake.
One of our friends offered to do a video for the reception. He did one for our friends' recent wedding and he did such a good job, it'll be a fun project to work on with him. You can see the video for our friends' on YouTube here.
Wend dress shopping again this weekend, it kind of makes me want to scream and throw things. I spent an hour and a half there to try on two dresses, the woman helping me was a total dingbat. She kept suggesting I try things on that I clearly had no interest in trying on. I went in there with a designer name and styles written down, it's not my fault she couldn't find any of the dresses I wanted to try on. Finally some other sales staff were able to locate 2 of the 4 dresses I was hoping to try on. I liked one of the dresses a lot, but if I end up getting it I will order elsewhere, I don't want to have to deal with them or give them any $$$.
Lafayette- I have been tossing around doing cupcakes or some other single serving desert in lieu of a wedding cake. I have very little choice as far as cake decorators go- I grew up not too far from Aspen and therefor am dealing with Aspen prices The local grocery store bakery does nice cakes, but the selection is limited. Those are excellent color choices! I am in the same boat as far as the room colors being a bit of a hurdle.
Shananigans- I don't understand why dress shopping has to be such a nightmare! I would just like to find that happy medium where the sales"dingbat" isn't bringing me size 2's to try on, nor is she bringing me dresses I have ZERO interest in trying on. Is this too much to ask?
I think it's a great idea to check out the free concerts. And like I said, don't forget about the ensembles!
So people keep asking me what my colors are.... I haven't the slightest idea on how to go about this. It doesn't matter for the ceremony because it's in a garden and there will be very little decoration and the reception hall has blue/teal accents and anything I pick is going to clash except a purple hue. But I really like the Canary at David's Bridal. I never would've imagined picking a yellow, but it's such a happy color.
Shan, the independent bridal store I went to suggested I call or fax them the style numbers so they could have things ready. They actually didn't have one of the styles in stock but they pulled a similar style from another manufacturer so I could get an idea of what it would look like. She also asked for my measurements, not my size, to help have the right things on hand. Your experience sounds like mine at David's Bridal... the girl was nice but clearly had no clue despite having worked there for several years. The "it could be discontinued today" sales pitch is what finally did me in, though.
Jen - I love yellow too Unfortunately it's a hard color for most people to wear, I personally look horrible in it.
Sadly, the store I visited on Saturday was a small local shop. They have two stores, one in Madison and another in Janesville. I even asked when I set up the appointment if I could give them the styles I wanted to try on in advance and they said to just bring pictures or style numbers. It's frustrating when you just want to get something done efficiently and no one seems to want to cooperate. If it's possible, I would say this experience was worse than those I had with David's Bridal. There are two more local shops I plan to check out, hopefully things can only get better, right?
I hope your experience gets better- otherwise I can suggest good places in this area. Amelishan Bridal in Hubertus (kind of between us) has come highly recommended to me, too.
Jen, do you have pictures of the reception site? I looked around to the people I love to inspire my color palette and I really love knowing my choices pay homage to special events in their lives.
My green was inspired by the season and my mom's bridesmaids' dresses. I love pink and pale pink roses were my maternal grandmother's favorite. My paternal grandother loved yellow roses so it all came together for the centerpieces. My bouquets will be pale pink with white freesia (still in buds to pull the green color into the arrangements). The more lime green in the fressia buds and in the green viburnum that will be in the centerpieces are a nod to my future mother-in-laws bridesmaids' dresses, which were a lime-chartruese (gotta love the 70's!). I had a lot of fun "talking wedding" with all of these women to pull these ideas together.
I'm having fruit pies as the main dessert for my wedding - one on each guest table plus 3 more for extras. But, we are still doing a 2-tier wedding cake (but is only costing me $85), and a groom's cake. DF was not happy about the pie idea, so I had to have the cakes as well in order to get him to agree to it. Way too much dessert, I know, but still in all it's less costly than if I'd gone with a big fancy wedding cake. Plus I love pie, so this is so me!
Hi all! I am new to 3FC, and a bride to be so I thought I'd drop in. All I have to say is that I really suck at planning events and I am poor so it's definitely been... interesting? *sigh* :P Anyway, the wedding is coming up like a freight train -- March 22nd, 2008. I have a lot of long distance people I'm inviting so I really needed to send invitations out like, 2 months ago but you know, I like to live dangerously. :P
Planning a wedding definitely has obstacles and frustrations, but you can do it! Just try to be as organized as you can. It's hard for me as I am normally a walking disaster, but I kind of look at this like work and make myself do a budget, keep files, etc. It really helps.
Good luck and I look forward to hearing more about your plans.
My wedding is March 29, 2008. I'm sending my wedding invitations right after the first of the year, roughly following the three month rule. I skipped Save The Date cards, which are typically sent six months in advance, because a) everyone I REALLY want there already knows the date and is somehow involved in the wedding and b) they cost money!
There are a number of free online e-card style Save The Dates and wedding websites available, if you decide to go that route.
What do you have planned/decided so far? What kind of wedding? How many guests?
I think music schools have some of the best classical musicians in the country and aren't tapped often enough (and they are MUCH cheaper than the "professionals"). 
The local grocery store bakery does nice cakes, but the selection is limited. Those are excellent color choices! I am in the same boat as far as the room colors being a bit of a hurdle. 
rakel!