We’re Married!!!
PRO PICS Please ask if you would like to use a photo and credit me and Sun-Dance Photography. Thanks!
NON PRO PICS < Our leaning cake. Can you tell it slopes to the right? Don’t even get my started on this one.
VENDOR REVIEWS All in all I was happy with my vendors even though there were a few glitches. Luckily, by the time I noticed most things I had had a few glasses of champagne and was in wedding day bliss so I barely noticed. Location: Chateau Bradbury I was looking for an outdoor venue that had a historic feel and I fell in love with the Chateau as soon as I drove into the property. They charge a per person price and there is no gratuity, service charges, etc and we liked that there were no hidden costs. The price includes the use of the site, catering, chairs, linens, valet, DJ, coordinator and cake which was very helpful since we were planning from out of town. They also have a password protected webcam and I was able to give the info to some friends who couldn’t make it to the wedding and even to some knotties! Most of my planning was done with the site coordinator Lindsey. She was very helpful and knowledgeable throughout the planning process. A few times she was a bit slow at times in responding to phone calls/emails but that’s the only negative. Day of, Lindsey and the staff did a wonderful job. Everything was set up beautifully with little direction from me. The only major regret I have for the night was that we were very late all night. The DJ was about 30 minutes late to announce us at the reception and from there we fell father and farther behind schedule. Because of this, DH and I feel very rushed all night and didn’t get to visit with some of our guests. I don’t know if this was the DJ’s fault or if Lindsey should have been more on top of things but I would recommend either having your own day of coordinator (Lindsey assured us we didn’t need one) or assign a friend or family member to keeping schedule. Catering: The Ultimate Affaire (through venue) Food was fantastic! DH and I tasted everything and loved it. Our food far exceeded my expectations (mine were pretty low since cooking for a few weddings in a hotel kitchen). We did 3 “action stations” instead of a sit down dinner and everyone raved about this choice. Our menu is in our planning section below. Cake: Beverly’s Best Bakery in Fullerton At our tasting, I thought their flavor choices seemed a bit generic and the cake and fillings tasted too sweet (but I’m a bit of a food snob). They said they could make our cake look exactly how I wanted and I liked the flavors we chose (white cake with fresh strawberries and Bavarian and chocolate cake with an Oreo whipped cream filling) so I left happy. Day of, our cake was absolutely delicious! Every single slice was gone in about 20 minutes and I’ve never heard of this happening at a wedding. The cake looked beautiful too, pretty much exactly how I pictured it. However, it was completely leaning to one side. It became the joke of the night, the “leaning tower of cake”. Maybe this happened in the van on the way to the venue? The sun? We laughed it off, no big deal. DJ: Tim at whatadj.com (through venue) Very nice guy, wasn’t too cheesy, didn’t play anything on my “do not play” list. Apparently my mom requested that he play only classic rock for the first hour of dancing and he didn’t run it past me. I was a little peeved at first because its not our favorite genre of music, but the dance floor was packed and everyone in all age groups seemed to be having a great I couldn’t exactly complain. Again, I have to mention that he was 30 minutes late announcing us which made us behind schedule all night. Florist: Eddie at City of Commerce Flowers My flowers were amazing!! I loved everything about our bouquets, gazebo, centerpieces, etc! Eddie was a pleasure to work with and his prices are fantastic. They did forget a few key items. They forgot the rose petals down the aisle. We found a box of white rose petals at the end of the night so apparently they just never made it to the aisle. They also forgot our sweetheart table centerpiece but I put my bouquet in a vase, looked fine. Nothing that ruined the day, but I wish I had given our site coordinator the invoice or a checklist so that she could have checked off items. Eddie was very apologetic after the fact and I still totally recommend him. Photographer: Blendi at Sun-Dance Photography I loved Blendi’s work on their website and I adored her personality when we met. Day of, Blendi and Claudia went above and beyond their photographer duties. Blendi helped me into my dress when nobody else could get the zipper up and flagging down people to move tables, flower arrangements. They were so sweet and fun to have around and their work is stunning so I can’t wait to see our photos! Stay tuned for full review. Dress: Yolanda Couture, Meghan from Dana Gail Couture in Sausalito I will start by saying I loved my dress and I love Dana but there were a lot of bumps in the road. I never received the invoice and it turned out Dana had mailed it with insufficient postage and the dress showed up about 6 weeks late and only 4 weeks before the wedding which completely stressed me out. That said, Dana is lovely to work with, much more like a friend than a vendor. She only carries a few lines and gets to know each bride personally. After visiting some snooty LA an SF dress shops, Dana’s little boutique was a welcome change. MOH and MOB dresses: Saeyoung Vu Couture, www.vucouture.com My only attendant was my sister so I told her she could pick her own dress as long as it was chocolate brown and long. She went with my mom to Saeyoung Vu in West Hollywood and my sister found a dress she loved in 5 minutes on the sale rack. Woo! Even better was that my very picky mom found a dress too. They took a strapless dress and added sleeves which was exactly what she was looking for. From what I was told, everythI loved both dresses. Hair/Makeup: Stacy Oliver atwww.stacyoliver.com Stacy is such a sweetheart and both she and her assistant were fantastic to work with. We loved our hair and makeup. She didn’t even bat an eyelash when my “Momzilla” had a bit of a freakout about my sister’s (MOH) hair. Her prices are fair too. The only negative was that we ran about 40 minutes late but I wasn’t wearing a watch. I really should have kept better tabs myself. Invitations: Nessa at www.card-girl.com We had gorgeous custom designed letterpressed invitations. Nessa doesn’t use templates of any kind so we got to sit in her adorable office in SF and design something together from scratch. We went back and forth for weeks perfecting them when I decided I wasn’t in love and she just told me to come on over and we started over, combining new colors and ribbon until I was happy once again. After our invites were printed, my mom decided she didn’t like the wording so she had them reprinted. That said, Nessa one patient woman, not to mention very sweet and talented. I love my invitations and I admit I was almost heartbroken to mail them out. If you are looking for something outside the box or just want a hand in your invitation design, Nessa is your girl. You don’t have to live in SF either, Nessa works with most of her clients over email. Lounge furniture: A-Packaged Parties My mom mostly dealt with them but she says they were very nice and helpful. The couches showed up on time and looked fantastic. We had a “cigar bar” setup and it was a huge hit! Highly recommended. Ben and Jerry’s I’m not rating vendors, but if I was I would give these guys a big fat “F”. We paid for the Ben & Jerry’s TRUCK to show up at 8:30pm with DH’s 4 favorite flavors. The guy showed up at 10pm (1 ½ hours late!) with a little table with 3 flavors. The flavors were coffee, vanilla, and chocolate brownie, not Chubby Hubby, Cherry Garcia, and Turtle Soup. There was nothing at the table that even said B&J. I could have had an ice cream bar through Chateau Bradbury for ½ the price we paid.
HONEYMOON We went to Belize on our honeymoon and spent 4 days at the beach and 4 days in the jungle. We had a wonderful time and highly recommend checking out Belize if you are like both relaxation and adventure. Here’s a link to some of our photos: honeymoon pics
PLANNING SECTION
MEET THE HAPPY COUPLE FI and I met on an airplane to Peru! He sat down next to me and we got to talking and we realized that we were heading down to hike the Inca Trail and we had both randomly booked our trip with the same Canadian adventure tour group (we are not Canadian and there are hundreds of these groups). FI but the two of us hiked together everyday and talked and told stories and laughed and by the end of the trip, we both knew there was something really special between us. It was a really neat way to meet someone… dirty, blistered, exhausted… so different from typical dating!
ENGAGEMENT PICS Andrew Wyner Photography
OUR BEAUTIFUL WEDDING SITE Chateau Bradbury This was Minnie Driver’s house in the movie Gross Point Blank. The big gun battle in the end of the movie was filmed in the interior and Minnie Driver’s bedroom is actually the bride’s room!
ATTIRE My gorgeous dress!! It’s Yolanda Couture, Meghan. I love the random draping and the boned bodice with that “V” dropped waist. The dress normally comes in silk taffeta but I ordered it in ivory duchess satin. Its so luxurious and has a much better shape than the taffeta.
HAIR AND MAKEUP
FLOWERS & DECOR
Centerpieces Mockup of our centerpieces by our florist, Eddie at Commerce Flowers. They are so beautiful and his prices are amazing! We will use ivory vendela roses (they will be more opened up on our wedding day), hydrangeas, ranunculus, bells of Irland, and cymbidium orchids.
Bouquets Mine will be all white bouquet, just peonies and ranunculus. My MOH will carry a bouquet of green cymbidium orchids, green hydrangeas, and green and ivory roses.
CAKE I love all these cakes. We are going with a 3 tier square stacked cake, all white with a chocolate brown ribbon around each layer, “swiss dots”, and our monogram on a fondant plaque on the middle layer. The florist will put white peonies on the top only. The flavors will be chocolate with cookies and cream filling and white cake with fresh strawberry filling.
ALL THINGS PAPER
INVITATIONS Our invites are here and I LOVE THEM!!! The invites themselves were designed and letterpress printed by Nessa at www.card-girl.com, boxes were DIY
Save the Dates Magnets from Vistaprint and chartreuse cardstock from Paper Source. Under the magnet is a little note saying that the photo was taken moments after FI proposed on the Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska. I don’t know why the chartreuse cardstock photographs so yellow!
PROGRAMS One requirement, PURSE SIZE! I always leave programs because they don’t fit in my bag. I like these modern programs from knottie bride2B7-22. I also like the booklet style with a ribbon, can’t decide.
TABLE CARDS Ours will be similar to these from knottie Lessie
VALET THANK YOUS I got this idea from Martha Stewart Magazine. We bought coasters from For Your Party. The valet guys will hang them from guest’s rear view mirrors when they leave. We bought monogrammed cocktail napkins and hand towels for the bathroom like these but in chocolate brown with lime green writing. Total waste of $$ but cute. They are also from For Your Party.
MENUS Mockup of DIY menu on Paper Source chartreuse paper (they will be tucked into chocolate brown napkins like these). We wanted the food to be FUN, elegant, and memorable. We decided on having a plated salad for and then have 3 entrée stations. Passed Hors D'oeuvres crunchy asparagus speers in phyllo with asiago cheese steak crostini with caramelized onions Endive cups with a blue cheese cream, pears, and walnuts Seared Ahi toasts with mango papaya salsa Plated Salad baby greens with fresh raspberries, feta, walnuts, and raspberry vinaigrette Grill Station fillet mignon with choice of sauces: blue cheese butter, béarnaise or mushroom wine sauce garlic mashed potatoes grilled vegetables Caribbean Station Macadamia Nut crusted Mahi Mahi Coconut rice Fresh fruit salad Grilled cheese station Brie with apples Mozzarella tomato, and pesto Gruyere and ham french fries Dessert Wedding cake Ben and Jerry’s ice cream Yes, we are having a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream truck, woohoo!!! It will have the cows and everything. As far as I know, we get 4 flavors, all the sundae toppings/cones, and a B&J scooper. I can’t wait for the photos of people all dressed up with their ice cream cones!
RANDOM FUN STUFF FAVORS We wanted something edible but also personal so we decided on fortune cookies with custom fortunes. FI is excited to make these up. I think reading fortunes out loud and trying to decipher FI’s humor might be a nice icebreaker! We bought these frosted plastic takeout boxes at cudge.net. The are really tiny and cute. We will add a chocolate brown ribbon and our monogram tag like knottie lakewoodbride.