Tuxes

This weekend Matt and I went tux shopping.  Luckily, we are both on the same page of getting a lot of the details out of the way, so we decided we'd get tuxes taken care of early.  Our wedding photographer, Katie, had sent me a picture of charcoal tuxes at a wedding that she thought looked really good.  It sounded like a great idea to me, since the wedding will be outdoors in the middle of the summer.  Charcoal seems ever so slightly less heat absorbent than black.  Of course, when I suggested it to Matt, he was not a fan of the idea.  So I pulled a variety of photos for him to look at, surveyed a few outside opinions, and eventually convinced him to at least look at the charcoal tuxes in the store.  Deal.

When we got to our appointment, we had her set up both a charcoal tux and a black one.  Surprisingly, Matt was intrigued by the charcoal tux, but we tabled that decision and started with vest and ties.  We generally have very similar taste, so I wasn't expecting this to be very difficult, but we had quite the time settling on a tie.  We ended up choosing the one after circling through all the options repeatedly.  Now, back to the tux color.  I had already decided that I could live with either option, so it was up to Matt.  He decided to model both jackets with the vest and tie in the store (which was a great look with his white t-shirt and jeans)...and he ended up choosing charcoal!  I was excited, I think it will look great.  While we were there, I modeled the bridesmaid dress for him and I went a snuck a peak at my wedding gown on the rack.  All in all, a fun and successful outing, and one more thing checked off the list!

Yesterday we did registry number two.  I had been worried that with two already furnished houses, we wouldn't be able to find much to register for, but we are on a roll finding things...some of which we actually need and some of which we just really want! :)

And I keep neglecting to post that my friend from college, Carli, will be my personal attendant.  Her sense of humor and lightheartedness will be exactly what I need on the wedding day!

Crisis!

I've had my first wedding crisis.  I suddenly realized that I'd been doling out money left and right...deposits here, purchases there...and my filing system consisted of nothing but my reliance on Gmail to store everything for me, as well as a pile of receipts sitting on top of my microwave.  And then it hit me - I'm an event planner, I live for binders.  Why am I planning the biggest event of my life with no binder?  So Operation: Wedding Binder began.

I started by creating a page for the ceremony, the reception, the vendors...I was on a roll.  This was going to be the most thorough record of an event I had ever created.  I scoured Gmail and my credit card statements for charges (since I didn't have access to my microwave pile) so that I would have a record of everything I had done so far.  This is where I realized...I had no record whatsoever of the trolley.

I think that I haven't blogged about this yet, but the master plan was for the Des Moines Trolley to transport the wedding party from the ceremony to the reception, stopping in various downtown locations along the way for pictures.  This was one of my most important aspects of the wedding to me, I booked it the day after we set the date...or so I thought.  As I'm compiling my binder, I realized that I had no email confirmation and no credit card charge for the trolley.  I immediately picked up the phone and called the owner, Pete, who was very friendly but had no record whatsoever of my reservation, only an email inquiry.  Apparently the online form I submitted hadn't gone through.  I held my breath as he looked through his calendar...and discovered that by some miracle, no one had booked the trolley in the past month and a half.  Phew!  I asked him to stay on the phone with me while I resubmitted my form and I now have email and verbal confirmation that we have the trolley.  And out of the goodness of his heart, he gave me his 2010 rate since I thought I had booked it before his 2011 rate when into effect. 

This was the moment when I realized that I am just like every other stereotypical bride.  Really, would it have been the end of the world if I hadn't gotten this trolley?  No.  Would it have ruined my wedding?  No.  Was I practically hyperventilating at the thought of not having this trolley?  Absolutely.

Luckily, crisis averted...this time, anyway!

The Back Up Plan(s)

So far, overwhelming support for the all white chairs.  (Thank you, that's the answer I wanted.)

HOWEVER, my friend Katie from work is also getting married this year, so we did some brainstorming for alternatives...I think we have some winners:

1.   Customized Erin and Matt folding lawn chairs that guests can take with them as parting gifts.

2.  While searching the internet for the customized chairs, we came across mini 3 inch folding chairs that can be personalized.  Guests could hold the chairs while imagining themselves comfortably seated!

3.  BYOC (Bring your own chair) because who doesn't own an abundance of folding chairs?

4.  Giant bean bags in the amphitheater.

5.  Picnic blankets!

6.  Please sign the guest book, here's your program, and a chair to take with you to the amphitheater.  Please return it at the conclusion of the ceremony.

And my personal favorite:

7.  Half an hour into the ceremony, we ask all the guests to stand while a tuxedo clad delivery person comes to take away your chair.  We will ask the delivery man to wear a Phantom of the Opera style mask and cape to complete the effect.


Nothing but class for this wedding!

You may now be seated

As I've mentioned in a previous post, one of the wonderful disadvantages to getting married in a park is the lack of permanent seating.  Today I decided to follow up on the chair rental suggestion from the local morning show DJ who was nice enough to respond to my creepy stalker-like request for help.  I called the local hardware store, found out they do have chairs for the incredibly low price I had been told about...but they don't have enough.  Unless...I'm willing to do a mix of black and white chairs.

I'm sure you're probably all rolling your eyes at this huge chair related crisis, but really?  Mixed chair colors?

a) People are going to think this is a stylish, trendy choice (I am neither stylish nor trendy, I know this)
b) Black chairs could be way hot
c) This raises the options of checkerboard? Alternating rows? Brides side white, grooms side black? (Which would make me significantly more popular than Matt because people are going to opt for the white chairs...)

I started searching around and found a place that will deliver, set up, tear down, MATCHING chairs, but for significantly more money.  So I have to decide if it's worth the extra money.  Which brings up a good point, I failed to find out if my bargain mismatched chair price included set up.  Now I realize that I could probably find volunteers to set up and tear down chairs that day, and not that I don't trust all of you wonderful friends and family members to help me...but let's face it: I'm an event planner, I'm super anal.  So if my chairs aren't in perfect concentric semi circles spaced evenly apart, it's going to be an issue. 

So I ask you, loyal blog followers...what to do?

*A caveat: I'm not committing myself to taking your advice, but I appreciate the feedback.

Mail merges and registries

Today Matt and I both had the day off, so our number one priority was getting the save the dates stuffed, addressed, sealed and stamped.  That turned out to be an all day project thanks to some technical difficulties, but we finally got the job done. 

Since we had some extra time, we decided to tackle our first registry.  This also turned out to be quite the time consuming project, but we were happy with our first stab at registering.  We discovered that we have the opposite taste in flatware (which was unusual, we tend to have the same taste in everything) but after that it was smooth sailing.  By the time we got done though, we were exhausted.  It may be awhile before we decide to tackle another registry!

Lights, Camera, Action!

Today we met with our videographer.  Turns out he is the son of our DJ, so that will be very convenient.  We were impressed with him, I think he will do a great job.  He does a full length ceremony video and then a 5-10 minute video montage of the whole day's events, starting at the hairdresser and going all the way through the reception.  And he assured us he would stay out of Katie's way as she was photographing.  So we booked him, check that off the list!  While we were at the mall we picked up Matt's wedding band that had come in.  He's already looking forward to wearing it every day...or not.

Our goal for the weekend is to get the save the date magnets addressed and mailed, but we haven't gotten to that yet.  And I'm meeting with my realtor on Wednesday to talk about what needs to be done to the house before we put it on the market, so I have some cleaning to do before she comes in to look at it.  Luckily we have a three day weekend! 

Save the Date!

Our Save the Date magnets were delivered today!  Which means that lucky Matt gets to have a stuffing party with me this weekend.  I was excited to see that we matched the color pretty well to the coral color of the wedding.  Always scary working with custom colors, but it worked out.

After much haggling and debating about a reception package with the Marriott, we finally figured out what we wanted and got a contract worked up.  Phew!  I also went through the stack of brochures from the bridal show last weekend and found a videographer to meet with.  Matt and I have a meeting on Saturday.  I was really debating about spending the money for video, but finally decided that I would regret not having one, so I was on a mission to find the least expensive wedding video that I could.  After setting up the meeting, I realized that the videographer was from the same company as our DJ.  Weird coincidence!  So that is promising since we were excited about our DJ.

And Matt now has his second usher, his friend Nick Judge from Southern Illinois.  The wedding party is complete!

Bridezilla!

This morning I went to two bridal shows in West Des Moines.  I had gone to these shows last year with friends while I was maid of honor, so I was prepared for a day of chaos.  The bridal show basically consists of a room full of wedding vendors (aka cakes, florists, venues, photographers, dj's, etc.) all trying to sell you their services.  I went early in the morning to help Katie set up her booth so I was one of the first people in the room.  Thank goodness! 

I didn't need much since the wedding is 90% planned, but I was after four things:  videographer, florist, invitations and honeymoon.  The first wedding show didn't have much that I was interested in, but the second show had quite a few decent possibilities!  After about the first half hour of the show being open, I was ready to go, which was lucky because the place was PACKED.  Lots of completely overwhelmed girls walking around with their friends/family.  I saw a girl starting to cry, another girl hyperventilating, and lots of girls just looking totally clueless.  It made me really glad that we have things pretty much figured out already...otherwise I think I would have been just as stressed out as everyone else in the room!

Now to sort through the pile of handouts that people sent home with me...

And it has been brought to my attention that I didn't mention who we got our cake from.  Glorious Desserts, in case you were wondering.

Mmmm...

Today we had our cake consultation appointment (a.k.a. we got to eat a lot of delicious cake)!  Glorious Desserts makes BEAUTIFUL cakes, and they are also some of the most delicious flavored cakes around - win win!  Luckily before we got there, Matt and I had scoured her website and figured out what we did/didn't want, because when we got there they wanted us to instantly tell them how many tiers, what color, what shape, what design.  Yikes!  We flipped through some books, picked out our cake, and then got to do a tasting.  YUM!  They gave us a plate of nine of their most popular flavors to try.  For the number of people we have coming, we got to pick six different flavors.  I've already put my bridesmaid Kati in charge of saving me some cake at the wedding in case I get too distracted to ever have a piece (aside from the cake cutting.)  So get ready for a delicious cake experience!
 
And we got save the dates ordered!  Two more things checked off the list today!

Also, I would like to thank myself for picking a complicated wedding color to match things with.  The cake, save the dates, website, etc...it's quite the guessing game picking a shade that is close.  Of course I wouldn't pick something standard like blue.  It's got to be a very specific variation of coral...way to go, Erin.  :)

Engagement photos, round 1

Today we had a mini engagement photo session with our friend and wedding photographer, Katie McDonald. (Check her out at www.katiemcdonaldphotography.com, she's great!) We wanted to do our actual engagement photos in the spring when it is nice out, but we decided to do a mini shoot today so that we would have some photos to use for save the dates. Luckily it was a whopping 34 degrees and sunny today, lovely weather for outdoor photos...but we survived the cold and Katie got some good ones of us.

Once we finished, I happened to mention that I had heard about a bridal show going on, so Katie and I convinced Matt to go with us by promising him free cake samples. It was a pretty small bridal show, but we found an AWESOME DJ and booked them! Woo hoo! That was the most surprisingly productive trip ever!

We have an appointment with a cake decorator this week so Matt will get to try even more cake samples...