Flower pictures

Cheaters

This morning Jason and I spent an hour or so eating food and checking out stuff at Crate and Barrel during this thing they call Sunday Morning Engagements. They close the store to everyone but registered couples and then we got to come in and watch all these demos of things they have in the store. We had coffee cake and orange juice, scrambled eggs with sausage made in an electric wok (!) and a piece of freshly cored pineapple. And the best part was because we did the event, we received a free pair of heart-shaped toasting flutes just for being there!

OK confession time. We went for the flutes. Not gonna lie. We put about 30 things on our registry, got our flutes and took off. Now I'm gonna see how many of the things we found I can find from our other registry places. After all, we don't really need to be registered at 4 places. So we probably won't tell people we're registered there, but keep the registry open. After all, whatever isn't bought off our registry when our wedding date comes around, we get 10% off if we buy it ourselves. So I don't mind keeping stuff on a list to get the discount. I know, I'm a horrible person... but we did find a few things that I know we won't find anywhere else, so if we get enough wedding cash we really will buy from them!

Cakes

For no reason, I present various pictures of cake designs that I like.



Not in red, and only three tiers most likely. But I like the simplicity of a single ribbon and then the flowers. (I also like the sweetheart table behind it, but that's irrelevant.)












Again with the simplicity. Whoever did this doesn't have a whole lot of experience with fondant though, because it looks kinda like a wrinkly bedsheet on that second tier.









I love the simplicity because it's clean and elegant. The purple calla lillies are exactly the shade I want the purple in my wedding to be.













I like this one, but I'd made the stripes thicker, like 1/4 of the total height of each tier.















I like the pearls around the bottom borders. Also the flowers on top. Not crazy with the ribbons/bows.















Again with the right purple and the simple band of color with a few flowers. This one's in the shape of a heart which Jason doesn't like, and I'm undecided on. I like it, but not for a wedding I guess.













Interesting take on the tier idea. Instead of one stacked cake, it looks bigger on three separate stands. The stars are wrong for a wedding (reminds me of a magician for some reason) but I like the "burst" looking topper you can kind of see in the top corner.














I like the proportion of the ribbon band to the cake. I also like the few flowers on top and the simple designs in white on the sides of the cake. This is probably my favorite of all these pictures because it's the closest match to what I think of when I envision my cake :)







Thoughts anyone? You don't have to register to leave comments (at least that's what I was told!)

:)

Exactly eight months from now I'll be Mrs. Williams!

Pictures!!!

I finally got around to uploading all my pictures onto my computer from the digital camera I got for Christmas. So now you can see the things I've been talking about and give me your opinions!

White floating candles in purple-dyed water. Right now they're in a tupperware thing, but for the big day they'll be in fish bowls. They'll also have wreaths around them. I think the water is too dark even though that's only one drop of red and one of blue. We'll have to make a bucket full at a time so it winds up being lavender instead of black.


Chair tie out of purple and white ribbon. Shown here on our tall-backed dining chair, but for the big day will be in chairs with shorter backs, about half the height of the chair back.


That's all I have for now. But at least it's something visual. Eventually I'll get around to making a mock-up of the wreath and candles centerpiece. I still have to buy the fishbowls though.

Free food continued

Today we met with Myra from Cookin' Cowgirls Catering. She brought me flowers, which I thought was interesting, but nice of her. We sampled the following menu:

Roasted chicken and gravy
Pot roast and gravy
Garlic cheese mashed potatoes
Southwestern corn casserole with roasted poblanos

There was enough for me and Jason and his parents to have a taste. Everyone thought the food was really good. Not to mention the prices are within our budget which is a huge plus for us. Even adding in extras like passed appetizers, punch, soft drinks, etc. is still manageable. Plus, they will cut and serve the cake and pass the champagne for the toast. Pretty much do everything that we would need them to do, and still not cost an arm and a leg. The good thing is that they charge by the hour and not by the service, so they'll do pretty much whatever we ask them so long as it's within the frame of time we are paying them for.

We are going to set up a time for her to visit the venue, and then I guess we will talk about signing a formal contract and all. Is it bad if we sign with the only caterer we've met with?

Free food

Tomorrow we meet with our first caterer. Yum I love free food! What's weird is that because they have a rule that non-employees aren't allowed in the kitchen, she is coming to us with the food. But instead of meeting at our cramped apartment like we originally planned, I think we are going to take it to Jason's parents house so we can have a little more room. It should be interesting because as far as price goes, this company is the front runner. So if the food is up to our standards, we may not have to look much further. Although if these caterers keep volunteering to bring the free food to us...

We have another tasting some time next week, most likely Tuesday since I'm off that day. And then there's one more company that I'd like to try to meet with maybe next weekend. I've gotten quotes from about 8 companies, and except for the one that wants to charge me $55 a person, the prices all seem relatively comparable. I guess it will really come down to the food, how well we click with the people, references, and pictures of other events they've catered before.

Last night I kept having dreams about how I was getting married that day but nothing was done yet. I even dreamed I was getting married on my birthday once. But then I would remind myself I had another eight months and go back to sleep. Except then I would have the dream again about not being done and ready. It's that panicky feeling that makes me glad I've gotten started on a lot of the major things that need to be done. I'd rather be done and sitting on my butt the last month than running around still finalizing lots of things.

The one that almost got away

Michaelbond has so graciously agreed to be our doorman!

Two down...

Congratulations to the newest members of our wedding party - Trey and Dylan were finally cornered and agreed to be our ushers! We are so excited that you two will be part of our special day :)

In progress

Yesterday I went back and bought more of those floating candles. Today I am working on catering and then I want to make a list of all the things that still need to be done and start figuring out when they have to be done by. I need to start setting goals for each month since we're just over eight months away now.

Sales

Today as I was driving to Party City to look at their wedding stuff since their ad said they had some stuff on sale, I stopped in at Bed, Bath and Beyond to browse their 30-percent-off-everything-already-on-sale sale. I bought floating candles to experiment with as part of my centerpiece design. I put some water in a candle holder thing and floated a single candle to test it out. I lit the thing like three hours ago and it's still going strong. I've heard floating candles are notorious for not staying lit, but mine seem to be just fine. Now I'm gonna play with dyeing the water purple since the candles themselves are plain, unscented white. I just hope the candles don't absorb the color and get stained. But that's what this experimental candle is for - to try all my crazy ideas before doing it to all of them.

Then I went to Party City and bought lots of ribbon in purple and white. I'm going to attempt to make the chair ties myself, since my venue wants to charge me over $500 to do them in tulle. The ribbon example I made also looks really cute, PLUS I can keep the ribbon afterwards (not that I'd want to collect, untie and uncurl all that ribbon to save and use again, but it's nice to have the option if I want to). Also, at $1.71 per 500 yards of ribbon, it'll be a MUCH more economical option even if I do decide to trash it all at the end of the night :)

For my birthday eve dinner with Jason's parents, the gift they got me was a really pretty silver bangle bracelet with 44 rhinestones. I think it's going to be part of my wedding day jewelry. Yay.

In today's issue...

Save-the-date cards. Invitations. So many choices. But I think we are going to try to make our own STDs (heh). At least design it. Then let someone like Kinko's make them in a mass quantity. I think we're going to do postcards because I think they're cuter for people to put on their refrigerators (plus they save on postage costs lol).

We want to use a cute picture of us but can't agree on any of the ones we have. Maybe we will look into getting some studio ones done at Walmart or JC Penney. We still need to do engagement pictures, but want to wait for the weather to be consistently nicer so nature has a chance to regenerate after the harsh winter.

Let's take a vote. Should we hire a photographer to do our engagement pictures or should we just get someone to come out with us and take them using a nice digital camera?

Anachronisms

Random thoughts bouncing around in my head that are neither complete, nor anything that I'm actively working on because honestly, it's way too early to even be thinking about:

• Candles - I love candles and want to incorporate them as much as possible where I can. The chapel where we are getting married will come fully decorated with pew decorations, candelabras, an altar, etc as illustrated here: http://www.thecountryabbey.com/sitebuilder/images/interior_of_chapel_from_balcony-264x205.png http://www.thecountryabbey.com/sitebuilder/images/DURING_CEREMONY_CROPPED-263x200.jpg However, I thought about putting candles on the wooden side panels (on either side of the lower stairs, behind the greenery stands in the first picture). I just imagine a ceremony where it's dark, except for the intimacy provided by the soft glow of candlelight. OK, so our ceremony won't be before the sun is all the way down, so everyone will be able to read programs and vows and stuff, but I like the simplistic romance of candles...

• Along the same lines, has anyone ever seen a wedding party carry a bouquet that had both flowers and candles? I've seen candles that look like bouquets, but from pictures they all look like miniatures (a couple of inches high at best). Then I saw a bouquet that looks like the regular greenery, but instead of the bulb of the flower, they replaced it with colored candles. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/CandyWA/votivecandlebouquets.jpg
  I like the scalloped edges of the tealights. I don't really like the bigger votives because they look too bulky. The ones shown in the picture are more potted plants than handheld bouquets but I bet a florist could work with me to adapt them to my needs. My two concerns, though, are
1. Would these candles cause a fire hazzard to the greenery in the rest of the bouquet? Obviously, my venue wouldn't allow anything that could potentially pose a threat.
2. How would I keep them lit all the way down the aisle and all during the ceremony? Have you ever tried to walk with a candle without shielding it? Unless I walked like a sloth, they'd blow out before I got there. And with one hand linked through my dad's arm and the other holding the bouquet, I'd have no way of shielding the flame. Would battery-powered candles (essentially fake) just look cheesy? I would love to find a way to make it work because it's me and it's unique, but not if people are going to be all "Ew, what on earth is that she's carrying?"
   

Done and done!

We have officially booked a venue and paid the deposit.

www.thecountryabbey.com

October 20, 2007 we'll be getting married!