Since we lost our venue and it was too close to the date to find something that fit our first vision on our current budget, we had to change our vision instead.
I'm beyond pleased to say that this is working out 5000 times better than we imagined it could.
We're now having food at the formal reception and a cocktail after-party at the hotel where all of our out of town guests are staying. We get to use the indoor pool and hot tub and we'll be using the suites directly across the hall from the conference room where the dj and bar will be, the pool is on the same floor and end of the hotel as the conference room and suites, as in so close that the doors to the pool room are adjacent to those rooms doors!
We'll have a party going throughout that part of the hotel me thinks! teehee!!
For the food we're going roast and carve up two turkeys before hand, add ham, roast beef, veggies and cheeses and we have a sandwich board . This would allow us to have a smaller budget, and not have to have too many things need to be hot. I've always enjoyed those, since people can make their own sandwiches according to their diets, we just provide the different kinds of food to go on the sandwich plus different kinds of salad. Have a hot appetizer, like the meatballs and lil smokies and maybe a chili or soup. I can make chili and soup by the gallons without breaking a sweat.
I'm meeting with the women of both families next week to finalize the menu and delegate who's in charge of what dish, we're making everything ourselves and friends of mine in the service industry will take care of making sure everything stays stocked and passing out the champagne for the toasts.
At the hotel, the space is big enough for 80 plus the indoor pool area and two suites across the hall for $330!! O,O (Really?!? WOOOOHOOOO!!)
That should be more than enough for an after-party and it means that we'll be spending about the same amount between the fee and the bar, as we would've if the Pub had stayed open for us. The hotel doesn't have a restaurant and bar, so we get to bring everything in ourselves and have a friend bartending - taking care of the extra expenses much more cheaply than one would normally wracked up at hotels which provide everything for you. It's perfect and I'm glad it happened this way. Now I don't have to worry about drunk drivers coming from my party; anyone who cannot drive can either crash in one of the suites or get one of their own at the front desk.
The older I get the more I appreciate my community and how much easier life is when one isn't set in a specific vision with all the details just so. If it's a bit hazy and nebulous on the edges magic is able to flow and things work out so much better than you ever imagined possible!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Wow! Awesome Cakes!
Our engagement cake ended up in LA Weekly's Food Blog as one of the nerdiest pastries in the universe. LOL I think they're exaggerating a bit... maybe? We're #3 - the people are modeled off of our engagement photos.
http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/baking/dungeons-dragons-cakes-the-ner/
Mar's also making our wedding cake, which will not be nerdy - it'll be the Pigeon Point lighthouse, with the house attached, on a cliff over a beach and the ocean. No really, that's what she told me and that the lighthouse will light up behind it's sugared glass windows (it's better than the actual lighthouse which doesn't light up at all these days.)
My cake is going to Awesome!
http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/baking/dungeons-dragons-cakes-the-ner/
Mar's also making our wedding cake, which will not be nerdy - it'll be the Pigeon Point lighthouse, with the house attached, on a cliff over a beach and the ocean. No really, that's what she told me and that the lighthouse will light up behind it's sugared glass windows (it's better than the actual lighthouse which doesn't light up at all these days.)
My cake is going to Awesome!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Last Minute Arghs!
Because the economy has gone down the toilet, the venue for our 2nd reception site had to close for good.
We feel really bad for the owners, that was their lifeblood, their whole income and with a new house and a toddler - this is a horrible time for them to go under. Our prayers are with them as they go through this transition in their lives.
So we don't have any hard feelings toward them, but it certainly put a bunch in our planning panties!
We started looking for something else immediately and have had people all over trying to help.
Every place we've looked so far has been one or more of the following :
A. Too small
B. Too expensive
C. Already Booked
D. Doesn't allow booze and/or food
We're now rearranging our thoughts and plans instead of panicking.
We've decided to go ahead and have food at the formal reception - homemade Church potluck style. We'll still have a box for food donations and we'll still be donating a large amount of food to the UUCB's favored food bank for the holidays.
Right now we're trying to decide what needs to happen and how.
With an actual meal added to the Church events, we can make the other reception an after-party cocktail event with dancing instead of a full-blown second reception.
We go on Friday to talk to the manager of the hotel where we have our out-of-town guests staying. They have a conference room which is ok, but there's an indoor pool down the hall and if we can stretch it between the two (maybe reserve two rooms for people to use as changing stations) - it would work well for us in this capacity AND those staying at the hotel don't have to worry about getting back to it when they are done for the evening.
Hopefully we can get this figured out, then ironed out by the end of this coming weekend. We're running out of time.
As far as everything else goes, we're ahead of schedule on almost all of it. Which is exceedingly happy for me.
Still to do:
I need to get the cakes ordered for Mar (she's a food sculptor, not a baker as she puts it, so we're getting her cakes to sculpt from Whole Foods.)
Make my veil - which I have scheduled for next week on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at my Mom's house.
Finish putting together the centerpieces and attaching the gifts to them.
Finish the guestbook tree and the birdcage for the gift card collection.
Finish the cake table runner.
Put everything in their bins and mark the tubs according to what part of set-up they go to.
(I'm trying to make it super easy to put together without me. Each area gets a tub with everything they need to decorate, a list of what is in it and a diagram of how it all goes.)
Tea dye the sanctuary pew bows and the table runner.
Schedule the guys' haircuts day and the gals' spa day.
Finish the slideshow.
Make the music list for Dodo
Make the menu for the food.
Make the food for the reception.
Print the programs.
That should take up the next month and a half - keep me busy at a nice even pace.
In the meantime, I'm getting my teeth fixed to improve my oral health and going to physical therapy, as well as a pain management doctor, to get my fibromyalgia under control.
I want to look and feel spectacular for my wedding day - after all, I'm hoping I'll only get to do this day once.
We feel really bad for the owners, that was their lifeblood, their whole income and with a new house and a toddler - this is a horrible time for them to go under. Our prayers are with them as they go through this transition in their lives.
So we don't have any hard feelings toward them, but it certainly put a bunch in our planning panties!
We started looking for something else immediately and have had people all over trying to help.
Every place we've looked so far has been one or more of the following :
A. Too small
B. Too expensive
C. Already Booked
D. Doesn't allow booze and/or food
We're now rearranging our thoughts and plans instead of panicking.
We've decided to go ahead and have food at the formal reception - homemade Church potluck style. We'll still have a box for food donations and we'll still be donating a large amount of food to the UUCB's favored food bank for the holidays.
Right now we're trying to decide what needs to happen and how.
With an actual meal added to the Church events, we can make the other reception an after-party cocktail event with dancing instead of a full-blown second reception.
We go on Friday to talk to the manager of the hotel where we have our out-of-town guests staying. They have a conference room which is ok, but there's an indoor pool down the hall and if we can stretch it between the two (maybe reserve two rooms for people to use as changing stations) - it would work well for us in this capacity AND those staying at the hotel don't have to worry about getting back to it when they are done for the evening.
Hopefully we can get this figured out, then ironed out by the end of this coming weekend. We're running out of time.
As far as everything else goes, we're ahead of schedule on almost all of it. Which is exceedingly happy for me.
Still to do:
I need to get the cakes ordered for Mar (she's a food sculptor, not a baker as she puts it, so we're getting her cakes to sculpt from Whole Foods.)
Make my veil - which I have scheduled for next week on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at my Mom's house.
Finish putting together the centerpieces and attaching the gifts to them.
Finish the guestbook tree and the birdcage for the gift card collection.
Finish the cake table runner.
Put everything in their bins and mark the tubs according to what part of set-up they go to.
(I'm trying to make it super easy to put together without me. Each area gets a tub with everything they need to decorate, a list of what is in it and a diagram of how it all goes.)
Tea dye the sanctuary pew bows and the table runner.
Schedule the guys' haircuts day and the gals' spa day.
Finish the slideshow.
Make the music list for Dodo
Make the menu for the food.
Make the food for the reception.
Print the programs.
That should take up the next month and a half - keep me busy at a nice even pace.
In the meantime, I'm getting my teeth fixed to improve my oral health and going to physical therapy, as well as a pain management doctor, to get my fibromyalgia under control.
I want to look and feel spectacular for my wedding day - after all, I'm hoping I'll only get to do this day once.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
The Centerpice Tins and Candy Boxes
What a lot of creative and beautiful decorations which fit our Victorian Faerietale perfectly.I'm just going to post pics and a brief explanation.
These are the tins and candy boxes we'll use for the centerpieces at the reception. Twigs and stones go in the tins to create mini trees and small gifts are tied to the branches for people to take.
Close up, the ladies used a mix of decoupaging and affixing jewelry, shells, and paste gems to them. They look really cool and very unique. I had no idea they would turn out like this! Wow!
Hey Ethel, your prince now has a cool spray of feathers coming from his hands!
A little faux treasure chest that Stephanie created as a decoration for the cake table! Yay!
Yay For Scarlett!
I have this amazing friend, she's a whiz at organizing events and understanding how people work. I've had the joy and pleasure of working with her before on another community event and so she knows how I work and how I like things.
Tonight she showed up at my art showing at the Phoenix Asylum in Boulder and offered her services to us for whatever we may need! I had to pick my jaw up off the ground and felt my heart swell. I had been aimlessly searching for someone exactly like her, someone capable and willing to be in charge of all the decorations and set-up for the ceremony and receptions the day of.
Everyone knows I'm a control freak with major OCD and "I Do It!" habits, many of the women helping have been repeating like a mantra "You need someone to take charge of getting everything done for you." These lovely women are doing quite a bit already, and don't feel up to the task of making sure the big picture happens.
Scarlett loves doing these kinds of things and is amazing at achieving miracles. To have her want to help on a trade basis is even better. (I think she wants art, maybe something else - whatever she wants, she gets for this! This lady knows I have a hard time receiving without giving back.)
This is a prayer answered in hearts and rainbows. Yay!
Tonight she showed up at my art showing at the Phoenix Asylum in Boulder and offered her services to us for whatever we may need! I had to pick my jaw up off the ground and felt my heart swell. I had been aimlessly searching for someone exactly like her, someone capable and willing to be in charge of all the decorations and set-up for the ceremony and receptions the day of.
Everyone knows I'm a control freak with major OCD and "I Do It!" habits, many of the women helping have been repeating like a mantra "You need someone to take charge of getting everything done for you." These lovely women are doing quite a bit already, and don't feel up to the task of making sure the big picture happens.
Scarlett loves doing these kinds of things and is amazing at achieving miracles. To have her want to help on a trade basis is even better. (I think she wants art, maybe something else - whatever she wants, she gets for this! This lady knows I have a hard time receiving without giving back.)
This is a prayer answered in hearts and rainbows. Yay!
Our Party Reception Venue Went Under!!
I received a general "we're sorry, dear customer's, but the economy made us close" email from them.
Sad for them, trying not to panic for us.
We did an extensive venue search before we settled on the Pub, most of those places are booked now or super expensive for us - like a minimum of $5K to book there for anything...
We need space for over 100 people, maybe upwards of 200 with booze and food available to all.
I have a contact with a brewery, we can get a keg of good beer for the price of a keg of PBR with them.
We have a ton of champagne already and a discount with a big liquor store thru another friend.
My Not-a-MoH's saying that we can cook for that many people.
It would not be a stretch for me to make army sized portions, I already make platoon sized ones. ;P
We pick easy dishes and let anyone who wants to volunteer, each make one dish in a large quantity.
It's just finding the right space to be able to do this in, with less than 3 months to go.
I sent an email back, giving our regards and reminding them of both our contract and the deposit we'd already paid to them for our reception. I figured either they are so far up to their eyeballs in panic that they forgot or they've talked about how to deal with these kinds of things and have been brainstorming how to fix it at little to no stress/extra cost to either side.
All I can say right now, about my feelings on all of this is: D'oh!!
The owners sent a response email to us, apologizing and offering to help us find a new place. She said they hadn't run our card yet, just put the deposit amount on hold, so she'll undo that and void the receipts. I'm really glad that they were able to respond and be so helpful. Even if they didn't do it in an order which would cause less of a freak out, the fact that they did this at all gives them even higher marks in my book.
Supposedly, she talked to the owners of another restaurant next door to them, today. Asking if they'd take our contract at the same terms and prices. There are other options as well. But it's really nice of them to go out of their way to help us find a replacement venue.
Goodbye Scotch Corner Pub - we loved you while you were around, we're sad to see you go.
Sad for them, trying not to panic for us.
We did an extensive venue search before we settled on the Pub, most of those places are booked now or super expensive for us - like a minimum of $5K to book there for anything...
We need space for over 100 people, maybe upwards of 200 with booze and food available to all.
I have a contact with a brewery, we can get a keg of good beer for the price of a keg of PBR with them.
We have a ton of champagne already and a discount with a big liquor store thru another friend.
My Not-a-MoH's saying that we can cook for that many people.
It would not be a stretch for me to make army sized portions, I already make platoon sized ones. ;P
We pick easy dishes and let anyone who wants to volunteer, each make one dish in a large quantity.
It's just finding the right space to be able to do this in, with less than 3 months to go.
I sent an email back, giving our regards and reminding them of both our contract and the deposit we'd already paid to them for our reception. I figured either they are so far up to their eyeballs in panic that they forgot or they've talked about how to deal with these kinds of things and have been brainstorming how to fix it at little to no stress/extra cost to either side.
All I can say right now, about my feelings on all of this is: D'oh!!
The owners sent a response email to us, apologizing and offering to help us find a new place. She said they hadn't run our card yet, just put the deposit amount on hold, so she'll undo that and void the receipts. I'm really glad that they were able to respond and be so helpful. Even if they didn't do it in an order which would cause less of a freak out, the fact that they did this at all gives them even higher marks in my book.
Supposedly, she talked to the owners of another restaurant next door to them, today. Asking if they'd take our contract at the same terms and prices. There are other options as well. But it's really nice of them to go out of their way to help us find a replacement venue.
Goodbye Scotch Corner Pub - we loved you while you were around, we're sad to see you go.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Hair Stylist booked and hair style chosen!
I have jawline-length, fine, slightly wavy, and very thick hair, I have to have it thinned out more often than I need the length trimmed.So we talked about my dress and veil, we talked about the wedding themes and the tiara - I was considering the hair styles of young Liz Taylor, young Audrey Hepburn and an older Audrey. It was Gabby who said she thought the young Audrey was the right one. It'll be strong enough to hold the veil and perfect for the height of the tiara. ~>
Gabby said one thing which made me extremely happy.
"I'm going to use my mother as my practice model between now and your practice day. You have similar hair and the same length, it'll help me be able to perfect the look you're asking for."
My Practice styling is booked, she booked for day of as well!
One more thing down - a bajillion more to go!
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