Below are the four faces of our program for a Protestant ceremony. My Preserved Bouquet (DIY) project What I did: First I dried the flowers for 4 months (2 months hanging upside down in an unused closet- this step was smelly). Once dried, I sprayed them with Aquanet (read on a website that this helps preserve them). I had to split the bouquet in two parts because they wouldn't all fit in the box without getting squished (this was a little traumatic as some little petals flaked off when I pulled them out of the bouquet). Once thinned enough to fit under the glass, I hotglued the 1/2 bouquet still in the ribbon into the box, then I cut the blooms off the remaining half and hotglued them into the secured half to really fill out the side the viewer will see. I was able to fit in every single flower still in good condition! I don’t know how long they will last, but it’s better than nothing! Planning Section Was it worth waiting six years to get this beauty? ABSOLUTELY! Dave designed this ring with the help of the experts at Washington Diamond. We are getting married at The Wakefield Chapel. It is so cute! This picture is from Fairfax County’s Webpage. Inside of The Wakefield Chapel. I love all of the wood and the clean look of the windows! Photoshopped Wakefield Chapel (I took the photo from tobeatodd’s bio and did some sub-par editing…but hopefully you can get the idea…). Pomanders will go on fishbowl vases at the reception for centerpieces like this: Ceremony flowers are being reused at the reception at The Grand Atrium. (Go go Photo Shop powers!) Style of bridesmaids' dresses - from David’s Bridal. This is my mom’s dress. It is from Chadwick’s. Dave is wearing his own tux with ivory shirt and vest from Men’s Wearhouse. Groomsmen and dads have bronze-ish version of vest Groomsmen and dads’ version. My veil. It has tiny crystals and pearls sewn on the bottom. It was a bit too poufy for my taste so Angie reattached it to the comb for me. My shoes. These are kids shoes from Payless (I have small feet). They are super comfortable, but I will be the shortest girl there! Oh well. My something blue. F for fiance’s last name. One of my DIYs. This was the headpiece I ordered on ebay, but it was discontinued. The one I ended up with is the same colors, but the center flower is shaped differently- like this… My necklace is peridot with ivory and pink pearls. From overstock.com The necklace is much daintier in real life, as evidenced by me trying to look bride-y for the camera. Sample bouquet from A Floral Affair Sample corsage made by my future mother-in-law. She’s doing corsages and boutonnieres; A Floral Affair is doing all the other flowers. A hoodie to wear while hair and makeup is being done. I bought it from spoolofdesign.com. Front of my hoodie- the picture is blurry, not the work. Invitation in velum jacket: purchased from Michael’s and printed at home. Bubble sticks from Michael’s. We’re tying whimsical ribbon on them in our colors. The bubbles will go into this metal basket from Michael’s for passing out. We have a matching basket for the programs. We were just going to use our venue’s champagne glasses, but then I saw these cuties at Target. Random selection from our registry: I LOVE these dishes! We couldn’t find china that suited our style, so we went for this stoneware set. My dress! I NEVER thought I would go for a sheath! Angie is adding buttons down the back…just a zipper seemed kind of unromantic. Me in the dress (before alterations). I wanted to make sure the sample bouquet matched my veil and dress! Our favors. I did not initially plan to do favors, but alas…enter mother. We sorted through Easter M&Ms to get all pink and greens (and gave the rest away). The ones from the M&M website were surprisingly expensive. I am glad we did not go overboard- I’ve seen too many forgotten favors! Rehearsal Dinner dress Rehearsal Dinner at Bilbo Baggins Vendor Reviews Church- The Wakefield Chapel The first time we visited the county representative was quite late, but other than that we had no problems. Side staircase is rusted with chipped paint. Landscaping was impeccable. Clean up was less stressful than the contract indicated it would be. It was a good experience. Photos - Todd Kim Photography We loved that Todd got such versatile shots: traditional, candid, soft focus portraits, and some photo-journalistic ones. His versatility of work and packages is why we picked him. Todd missed a few shots (or got them, but at odd far-ish angles), but largely did wonderfully. He also did a good job at getting our “special request” photos. My biggest regret is that we did not have him come to the house for prep pictures. Also I wish I had asked him to get more super-duper close-ups of details- I now know that I am obsessed with those types of shots. One great thing was that he posted our wedding pictures on his site the very next day. Flowers- A Floral Affair After seeing a hastily put together demo bouquet (see planning section) we decided to change some things. The free “instant” demo was a great way to see what worked and what did not. We gave very liberal artistic control to Erin and Carol, who really understood my style even though I did not know what I wanted. Although the wispy pomanders were different from what I had in mind, I loved them even more than the solid ball of flowers I had imagined (but never shown them a picture of). All of our flowers exceeded my expectations. Reception Site- The Grand Atrium Preliminary:The planning process with Anne went very well- we met with her about 4 times. The prices were great, although it was a bit confusing at first because we swapped and added items. The liquor package- 4 hour open bar- was only $400!! They gave us extra food at the tasting which was nice, but sadly they do not let you sample appetizers. Food: Cocktail Hour- Bacon Wrapped Scallops (humungous and fabulous), Chicken Cordon Bleu Puffs (yummy but a tad greasy), and the Cheese and Fruit table. Lunch- baby greens salad (nice and fresh), Spinach and Artichoke Dip (a cold spread, not the hot and chunky kind), lemon chicken (mediocre), carved beef (wonderful!), veggie lasagna (very good), asparagus (overcooked), and baby potatoes (nicely seasoned). Everything was fresh tasting and a good temperature. We (bride and groom) had our meal served to us while the guests went through the buffet (to save time, in theory) but this ended up taking us longer. DJ: Matt the DJ was a little slow on responding to emails and for some reason asked our guests to hold hands in a circle around us as we did our last dance, which horrified us at the time but resulted in great pictures. On the up side, Matt cut his vacation a day short to do our wedding because my dad had heard he had the best vocal quality of The Grand Atrium’s DJs and really wanted him. Matt also did a great job with music during lunch even after my family gave him very confusing and seemingly contradictory requests. He also managed the special equipment we brought so that we could have premium sound for our video. Service: The bartender poured super strong drinks and the wait staff was very responsive. The Event Captain Sandy also packed us very generous take-home portions since new hubby and I were too distracted to eat much. This was very nice since they have a no to-go food policy. Overall: Having the two levels (downstairs for cocktails, dancing, and cake and upstairs for dining) encouraged people to mingle more and really focused their attention on the events (first dance, garter, etc.). It is not your traditional ballroom - which suited our style. It was a near-perfect experience save the hand-holding dance- which wasn’t too big a deal. Cake- Confectioner’s Art Sandy (the owner of C.A.) was great to work with and was exceedingly patient as FI and I came up with a custom design. The cake tasted amazing (we had the key lime flavor) and looked better than we had ever imagined. Highly recommended. Alterations- Angie Angie is friendly and reasonably priced. I wish I had been more vocal at the early fittings, to avoid needing a fourth fitting (I realized I did not like the length of my dress). I love my dress, but if I had spoken my wildest alterations dreams to Angie I bet she could have made them happen. Limo- ABC Limo/Limo Washington Our driver Baja was quiet but efficient. He arrived early for pick up and had GPS. The car was clean and its gadgets worked. It was a good experience. Tuxes- Men’s Wearhouse Great prices, nice color and pattern selection. On the down side, my dad got the wrong color vest and tie (we changed a few weeks before the wedding), but we did not realize this until he stood next to the other guys at the wedding. Good thing it was my dad that had the “special” color, rather than one of the groomsmen!!! Bridal Party Dresses- David’s Bridal The Springfield location is the best David’s Bridal I have been to, although they are a bit snooty about having appointments. Be sure to really check out the off-the-rack dresses. One of my BMs dresses had an odd zipper and some frays which she did not notice until just a few weeks before the wedding. Video- Cameo Video Productions of Washington and On Line Suburban Video Cameo did all preliminary activities (from dress shopping to day-of prep) and editing. On Line Suburban filmed ceremony and reception (my dad owns Cameo, so he clearly was busy during those two events). I am sooooo excited to get my DVD! Family loyalty aside, Cameo’s work really is phenomenal: romantic and beautiful, yet fun. My dad and I looked at the work of pretty much every videographer in the area to find someone to film on my wedding day- it was really hard to pick someone I trusted as much as him to give us beautiful video. This was our big splurge area. Rehearsal Dinner- Bilbo Baggins The food was very flavorful, which I loved. We had the upstairs wine room, which was great- although they would not guarantee us that specific room until a week before. The service was a bit slow, which was frustrating since they maintain a strict 3-hour timeframe (otherwise you pay an additional $200). We only had our food for a few minutes before we needed to move on to speeches in order to avoid going late. The only other negative was that they would only serve medium-done steaks for our group (save my mom who negotiated a medium-well after putting up a fight). This limitation bothered me since we only had about 8 people ordering steak; really no more people ordering steak than any other busy night in the main restaurant! Overall: the location is wonderfully quaint and the food is unique, but the service could have been better. Registries Macy’s- Very low stock in the store, plus they lost all of our information from the gun. We ended up not using them. JC Penney- Registering is very self-help, but easy. You just check out a small gun from a kiosk. The negatives: our bathroom accessory line changed product numbers so we ended up getting many duplicates as a result. Exchanges without receipts are not easy- you get the lowest price in the past 30 days which can work against you. For example, they told us we would have to pay extra to switch one towel color for another since we did not have a receipt. Also, there is no way to update quantity if someone buys item for you but does not check it off the registry. On the up side, JCP has the same items as Macy’s for much less and has a widespread national presence. Our guests LOVED to buy stuff from this registry. Target- Registry is self-help and staffed, but staff seemed a bit clueless. Our information got stuck in the gun overnight because an employee did not know how to download the info. We had to call the corporate office the next day and have them sort it out. Also, our Target items moved off the registry slowly; our guests just were not into it. One pro is that you can update “quantity desired” if guests buy an item without removing it from the registry. Update: Target pulled down our registry 90 days after the wedding. No warning, no message, nothing! I called to have them put it back up, and they said they would but did not.
What I did: First I dried the flowers for 4 months (2 months hanging upside down in an unused closet- this step was smelly). Once dried, I sprayed them with Aquanet (read on a website that this helps preserve them). I had to split the bouquet in two parts because they wouldn't all fit in the box without getting squished (this was a little traumatic as some little petals flaked off when I pulled them out of the bouquet). Once thinned enough to fit under the glass, I hotglued the 1/2 bouquet still in the ribbon into the box, then I cut the blooms off the remaining half and hotglued them into the secured half to really fill out the side the viewer will see. I was able to fit in every single flower still in good condition! I don’t know how long they will last, but it’s better than nothing!
Vendor Reviews Church- The Wakefield Chapel The first time we visited the county representative was quite late, but other than that we had no problems. Side staircase is rusted with chipped paint. Landscaping was impeccable. Clean up was less stressful than the contract indicated it would be. It was a good experience. Photos - Todd Kim Photography We loved that Todd got such versatile shots: traditional, candid, soft focus portraits, and some photo-journalistic ones. His versatility of work and packages is why we picked him. Todd missed a few shots (or got them, but at odd far-ish angles), but largely did wonderfully. He also did a good job at getting our “special request” photos. My biggest regret is that we did not have him come to the house for prep pictures. Also I wish I had asked him to get more super-duper close-ups of details- I now know that I am obsessed with those types of shots. One great thing was that he posted our wedding pictures on his site the very next day. Flowers- A Floral Affair After seeing a hastily put together demo bouquet (see planning section) we decided to change some things. The free “instant” demo was a great way to see what worked and what did not. We gave very liberal artistic control to Erin and Carol, who really understood my style even though I did not know what I wanted. Although the wispy pomanders were different from what I had in mind, I loved them even more than the solid ball of flowers I had imagined (but never shown them a picture of). All of our flowers exceeded my expectations. Reception Site- The Grand Atrium Preliminary:The planning process with Anne went very well- we met with her about 4 times. The prices were great, although it was a bit confusing at first because we swapped and added items. The liquor package- 4 hour open bar- was only $400!! They gave us extra food at the tasting which was nice, but sadly they do not let you sample appetizers. Food: Cocktail Hour- Bacon Wrapped Scallops (humungous and fabulous), Chicken Cordon Bleu Puffs (yummy but a tad greasy), and the Cheese and Fruit table. Lunch- baby greens salad (nice and fresh), Spinach and Artichoke Dip (a cold spread, not the hot and chunky kind), lemon chicken (mediocre), carved beef (wonderful!), veggie lasagna (very good), asparagus (overcooked), and baby potatoes (nicely seasoned). Everything was fresh tasting and a good temperature. We (bride and groom) had our meal served to us while the guests went through the buffet (to save time, in theory) but this ended up taking us longer. DJ: Matt the DJ was a little slow on responding to emails and for some reason asked our guests to hold hands in a circle around us as we did our last dance, which horrified us at the time but resulted in great pictures. On the up side, Matt cut his vacation a day short to do our wedding because my dad had heard he had the best vocal quality of The Grand Atrium’s DJs and really wanted him. Matt also did a great job with music during lunch even after my family gave him very confusing and seemingly contradictory requests. He also managed the special equipment we brought so that we could have premium sound for our video. Service: The bartender poured super strong drinks and the wait staff was very responsive. The Event Captain Sandy also packed us very generous take-home portions since new hubby and I were too distracted to eat much. This was very nice since they have a no to-go food policy. Overall: Having the two levels (downstairs for cocktails, dancing, and cake and upstairs for dining) encouraged people to mingle more and really focused their attention on the events (first dance, garter, etc.). It is not your traditional ballroom - which suited our style. It was a near-perfect experience save the hand-holding dance- which wasn’t too big a deal. Cake- Confectioner’s Art Sandy (the owner of C.A.) was great to work with and was exceedingly patient as FI and I came up with a custom design. The cake tasted amazing (we had the key lime flavor) and looked better than we had ever imagined. Highly recommended. Alterations- Angie Angie is friendly and reasonably priced. I wish I had been more vocal at the early fittings, to avoid needing a fourth fitting (I realized I did not like the length of my dress). I love my dress, but if I had spoken my wildest alterations dreams to Angie I bet she could have made them happen. Limo- ABC Limo/Limo Washington Our driver Baja was quiet but efficient. He arrived early for pick up and had GPS. The car was clean and its gadgets worked. It was a good experience. Tuxes- Men’s Wearhouse Great prices, nice color and pattern selection. On the down side, my dad got the wrong color vest and tie (we changed a few weeks before the wedding), but we did not realize this until he stood next to the other guys at the wedding. Good thing it was my dad that had the “special” color, rather than one of the groomsmen!!! Bridal Party Dresses- David’s Bridal The Springfield location is the best David’s Bridal I have been to, although they are a bit snooty about having appointments. Be sure to really check out the off-the-rack dresses. One of my BMs dresses had an odd zipper and some frays which she did not notice until just a few weeks before the wedding. Video- Cameo Video Productions of Washington and On Line Suburban Video Cameo did all preliminary activities (from dress shopping to day-of prep) and editing. On Line Suburban filmed ceremony and reception (my dad owns Cameo, so he clearly was busy during those two events). I am sooooo excited to get my DVD! Family loyalty aside, Cameo’s work really is phenomenal: romantic and beautiful, yet fun. My dad and I looked at the work of pretty much every videographer in the area to find someone to film on my wedding day- it was really hard to pick someone I trusted as much as him to give us beautiful video. This was our big splurge area. Rehearsal Dinner- Bilbo Baggins The food was very flavorful, which I loved. We had the upstairs wine room, which was great- although they would not guarantee us that specific room until a week before. The service was a bit slow, which was frustrating since they maintain a strict 3-hour timeframe (otherwise you pay an additional $200). We only had our food for a few minutes before we needed to move on to speeches in order to avoid going late. The only other negative was that they would only serve medium-done steaks for our group (save my mom who negotiated a medium-well after putting up a fight). This limitation bothered me since we only had about 8 people ordering steak; really no more people ordering steak than any other busy night in the main restaurant! Overall: the location is wonderfully quaint and the food is unique, but the service could have been better. Registries Macy’s- Very low stock in the store, plus they lost all of our information from the gun. We ended up not using them. JC Penney- Registering is very self-help, but easy. You just check out a small gun from a kiosk. The negatives: our bathroom accessory line changed product numbers so we ended up getting many duplicates as a result. Exchanges without receipts are not easy- you get the lowest price in the past 30 days which can work against you. For example, they told us we would have to pay extra to switch one towel color for another since we did not have a receipt. Also, there is no way to update quantity if someone buys item for you but does not check it off the registry. On the up side, JCP has the same items as Macy’s for much less and has a widespread national presence. Our guests LOVED to buy stuff from this registry. Target- Registry is self-help and staffed, but staff seemed a bit clueless. Our information got stuck in the gun overnight because an employee did not know how to download the info. We had to call the corporate office the next day and have them sort it out. Also, our Target items moved off the registry slowly; our guests just were not into it. One pro is that you can update “quantity desired” if guests buy an item without removing it from the registry. Update: Target pulled down our registry 90 days after the wedding. No warning, no message, nothing! I called to have them put it back up, and they said they would but did not.
Food: Cocktail Hour- Bacon Wrapped Scallops (humungous and fabulous), Chicken Cordon Bleu Puffs (yummy but a tad greasy), and the Cheese and Fruit table. Lunch- baby greens salad (nice and fresh), Spinach and Artichoke Dip (a cold spread, not the hot and chunky kind), lemon chicken (mediocre), carved beef (wonderful!), veggie lasagna (very good), asparagus (overcooked), and baby potatoes (nicely seasoned). Everything was fresh tasting and a good temperature. We (bride and groom) had our meal served to us while the guests went through the buffet (to save time, in theory) but this ended up taking us longer.
DJ: Matt the DJ was a little slow on responding to emails and for some reason asked our guests to hold hands in a circle around us as we did our last dance, which horrified us at the time but resulted in great pictures. On the up side, Matt cut his vacation a day short to do our wedding because my dad had heard he had the best vocal quality of The Grand Atrium’s DJs and really wanted him. Matt also did a great job with music during lunch even after my family gave him very confusing and seemingly contradictory requests. He also managed the special equipment we brought so that we could have premium sound for our video.
Service: The bartender poured super strong drinks and the wait staff was very responsive. The Event Captain Sandy also packed us very generous take-home portions since new hubby and I were too distracted to eat much. This was very nice since they have a no to-go food policy.
Overall: Having the two levels (downstairs for cocktails, dancing, and cake and upstairs for dining) encouraged people to mingle more and really focused their attention on the events (first dance, garter, etc.). It is not your traditional ballroom - which suited our style. It was a near-perfect experience save the hand-holding dance- which wasn’t too big a deal. Cake- Confectioner’s Art Sandy (the owner of C.A.) was great to work with and was exceedingly patient as FI and I came up with a custom design. The cake tasted amazing (we had the key lime flavor) and looked better than we had ever imagined. Highly recommended. Alterations- Angie Angie is friendly and reasonably priced. I wish I had been more vocal at the early fittings, to avoid needing a fourth fitting (I realized I did not like the length of my dress). I love my dress, but if I had spoken my wildest alterations dreams to Angie I bet she could have made them happen. Limo- ABC Limo/Limo Washington Our driver Baja was quiet but efficient. He arrived early for pick up and had GPS. The car was clean and its gadgets worked. It was a good experience. Tuxes- Men’s Wearhouse Great prices, nice color and pattern selection. On the down side, my dad got the wrong color vest and tie (we changed a few weeks before the wedding), but we did not realize this until he stood next to the other guys at the wedding. Good thing it was my dad that had the “special” color, rather than one of the groomsmen!!! Bridal Party Dresses- David’s Bridal The Springfield location is the best David’s Bridal I have been to, although they are a bit snooty about having appointments. Be sure to really check out the off-the-rack dresses. One of my BMs dresses had an odd zipper and some frays which she did not notice until just a few weeks before the wedding. Video- Cameo Video Productions of Washington and On Line Suburban Video Cameo did all preliminary activities (from dress shopping to day-of prep) and editing. On Line Suburban filmed ceremony and reception (my dad owns Cameo, so he clearly was busy during those two events). I am sooooo excited to get my DVD! Family loyalty aside, Cameo’s work really is phenomenal: romantic and beautiful, yet fun. My dad and I looked at the work of pretty much every videographer in the area to find someone to film on my wedding day- it was really hard to pick someone I trusted as much as him to give us beautiful video. This was our big splurge area. Rehearsal Dinner- Bilbo Baggins The food was very flavorful, which I loved. We had the upstairs wine room, which was great- although they would not guarantee us that specific room until a week before. The service was a bit slow, which was frustrating since they maintain a strict 3-hour timeframe (otherwise you pay an additional $200). We only had our food for a few minutes before we needed to move on to speeches in order to avoid going late. The only other negative was that they would only serve medium-done steaks for our group (save my mom who negotiated a medium-well after putting up a fight). This limitation bothered me since we only had about 8 people ordering steak; really no more people ordering steak than any other busy night in the main restaurant! Overall: the location is wonderfully quaint and the food is unique, but the service could have been better. Registries
Macy’s- Very low stock in the store, plus they lost all of our information from the gun. We ended up not using them. JC Penney- Registering is very self-help, but easy. You just check out a small gun from a kiosk. The negatives: our bathroom accessory line changed product numbers so we ended up getting many duplicates as a result. Exchanges without receipts are not easy- you get the lowest price in the past 30 days which can work against you. For example, they told us we would have to pay extra to switch one towel color for another since we did not have a receipt. Also, there is no way to update quantity if someone buys item for you but does not check it off the registry. On the up side, JCP has the same items as Macy’s for much less and has a widespread national presence. Our guests LOVED to buy stuff from this registry. Target- Registry is self-help and staffed, but staff seemed a bit clueless. Our information got stuck in the gun overnight because an employee did not know how to download the info. We had to call the corporate office the next day and have them sort it out. Also, our Target items moved off the registry slowly; our guests just were not into it. One pro is that you can update “quantity desired” if guests buy an item without removing it from the registry. Update: Target pulled down our registry 90 days after the wedding. No warning, no message, nothing! I called to have them put it back up, and they said they would but did not.