Posted Monday, December 29, 2008 10:05 PM
ah, this Chicago wedding reception venue list is growing by the moment. i'm up to over 70 now. A lot of RFPs went out tonight, so we'll see what happens.
Highlight of the Night: Finding out that it *might* be possible that Navy Pier's Crystal Gardens could be affordable if I can get it for under 100 people. That'd be a freakin' sweet ass reception! **pie in the sky moment for tonight....**
Posted Sunday, December 28, 2008 10:44 AM
so we visited two more reception sites yesterday and they were both really blah. the first one had a $15,000 minimum for saturdays (which the guy did NOT explain in the many e-mails we exchanged so we drove out to Addison for nothing...) and then at the Belvedere, the place was very blah. Our room would basically be a long grey room...uh, no thanks.
I'm already so tired of it, and we've only looked at three places!!
Posted Monday, December 22, 2008 10:08 PM
So I am up to 26 places looked at, with 7 new ones looking like possibilities and 14 out of the picture.
If you're looking for info:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=py3R4TKSbWhQpdN5lZWp_NA
Posted Monday, December 22, 2008 12:50 PM
Here I am stuck in the thinking that when I give a gift, $100 is about the price, to pay for a plate at $50 for two.
Now, even we are choosing to do between $50-100 per plate, but jeez, the Chicago Millennium Knickerbocker hotel STARTS at $185 per person....insane much? Do people give $400 gifts at weddings? I must be in with the wrong crowd...
In any event, my mailbox is full of RFP responses, so I have several vendors to cull through (NOT the Knickerbocker...) and it's taking all my willpower not to look at them during work. Thankfully it's lunch time!
Posted Sunday, December 21, 2008 4:33 PM
So here is the very bare bones of vendor info. Now it's time to dig up all those RFPs and e-mails I have saved to see all the info I have lying around.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=py3R4TKSbWhQpdN5lZWp_NA
Posted Sunday, December 21, 2008 3:17 PM
So as I'm checking out the various vendors culled from Chicago Social Brides (chicken from $148 a person...ummm, no.), I was inspired by the crystal wedding trees.
I had seen this before when watching platinum weddings a while back and didn't think much of it, but I've been wracking my brain trying to think of centerpieces, and I really like this idea.
However, then I was thinking, how is that going to go together? (I'd love to make the tables places we've traveled instead of numbers)
Then I saw this:
http://www.decoratemywedding.com/enlargements/crystal_trees/tree_goodwish.htm
and thought, viola! Take the pictures from each place and hang them from the crystals!
It brings everything together, with having pretty crystal wedding tress and my want to do something more fun than table numbers. : )
This is much like having the epiphany that I wanted plum as the wedding color.
Now if I can just find a decent price!
Posted Sunday, December 21, 2008 2:23 PM
Just got the Chicago Social Brides Modern Luxury magazine. (Actually, two, somehow.)
The glossy 313-pager has a lot of neat things in it (though could never afford) as well has some God-awfully hideous "couture" bridesmaid gowns. Regular bridesmaid gowns are ugly enough without subjecting them to this.
In any event, it had tons of great pictures to give some ideas (and inspire some melancholy wistfulness that we're not millionaires) as well as have a huge vendor list and lots of great ads. I have dog-eared several and will check them out, if to make my eyeballs pop out of their head if nothing else. Honestly, though, there are several listed we (and I mean "I") had looked at previously and can afford, so who knows? I'll give a full report back.
Posted Saturday, December 20, 2008 11:14 PM
So after a lot of crap going on at work, I've finally gotten back in the mood to get planning. The FI and I went through all the old bridal stuff I had from the expo and repeated mailings and threw away what we didn't need, so that's finally organized.
Ceremony:
And after dropping our beautiful, traditional, but very evil and conservative first church, we finally set up and met with our priest for the church we will get married in. April 24, 2010 confirmed! He didn't ask if we live together....he seemed like he was fishing, but I didn't offer. Sister didn't go to special living-in-sin PreCana. Will I go to hell if I don't?
Reception:
The Astoria, Buffalo Grove - Checked out first reception site. Dislikes: crap look from outside (it's sort of in a strip mall, blah!); some areas look worn on inside; they book multiple things at one time; little time to set up beforehand because of afternoon events !!!!!!
Likes: Great price/packages. Friendly, nice lobby, good size, no minimum, package includes everything we want plus cute extras for half our budget.
The Final Word: Leaves something to be desired in looks, afternoon events, but package is perfect and only half of our budget. Worth keeping in mind at this point.
Misc:
Then we went to the library so I could pick up some fun wedding books. The FI started flipping through some "groom" books, and he was like, "I have to plan the limo?" I just nodded, and he was like..huh....and put the groom book on my stack to take. He also grabbed the Knot's guide for grooms, and we were sitting on the couch this afternoon reading our respective books and he even chuckled and seemed to be enjoying himself. It's moments like these where I love him so.
: )
Yay for planning actually starting!