That to-do list.

The thing about weddings is that you get all of this stuff done and then there are just 1,000 more things next up on your to-do list. We just finalized most of of vendors but we still have some other things that need to be decided here pretty quickly.
First up is the cake. We have done some tastings when we hired our caterer, as well as some other tastings of local bakeries. One bakery even gave us two whole cakes to take home. We ate 1 slice of each...looked at each other...and decided we don't want traditional cake. I ended up taking these babies to work and they were gone by the first morning break.

What we did decide is that we would rather have (our favorite) cheesecake! I did some internet research and found 1 bakery in San Diego that does cheesecake specifically and they do cheesecakes for weddings. They are called The Incredible Cheesecake Company

We stopped by there the other day and grabbed a slice of their classic and their "naughty hula". They were AHHHMAZING. So we will be making a consultation appointment soon. If they are too pricey (or not professional enough) then we might be able to do something like order cheesecakes from Costco and have our coordinator set them up. Here are some inspirations.

Another to-do list item coming up is to reserve the ceremony chairs. This isn't really a big deal I just want to get the best price. I do know that they charge extra to deliver and set-up on a Sunday, which I think is ridiculous but whatever. Here are some ideas on how I would like the chairs to be set-up. Because of the public nature of our venue I am looking to create a little privacy with how the seats are arranged. I also think it will help looky loos to steer clear.

And finally I leave you with a dream and a wish. These shoes are stupid expensive, but gorgeous.

Thanksgiving already!?

Well, time is flying but we are getting a lot of things done that are on the list. Woo Hoo! Also coming up is my birthday and the 1 year anniversary of us getting engaged. That was a fast year! So as of today we have hired a DJ, coordinator, videographer, and guitarist! We also bought our wedding bands!

DJ
DJ Daniel Peterson. We had originally thought he was a little expensive, but he was able to match a deal that a different DJ had given us. Thanks to that we were able to hire him for what we could afford. We are super glad because we liked him more than the other DJ's. We could tell he really cared about the flow of the party and the type of music being played.

Coordinator
Based on an awesome referral from a co-worker who has been a coordinator in the past, we have met with and hired Elisa Suter of Events by Elisa. She was super upbeat, friendly and she cared about us as a couple. I know she will care about our event as if it was her own. Truth be told, hiring a coordinator is one of those expenses that is not totally necessary, but with our wedding being in two separate locations and those locations being city owned property, we are short on people who can do set-up for us. We really need a coordinator! I am excited to now have one! The photos below are from her website.

Videographer
Last week I also met with Luke McCain a local videographer. His style is exactly what I am looking for, but at a price that isn't through the roof! Some companies are charging $5,000 for a wedding video! Ridiculous! He was super nice and easy to talk to. He also gave us a full DVD sample of what we would be paying for. The video is great, below is an example of his work. I am glad we have decided to go for the video because we are putting all this time into our event and don't want to forget it all years later!

Niki + Kyle | October 15th, 2011 from Luke McCain Videography on Vimeo.


Guitarist
We did go to see the guitarist Kenny Earnest live at this restaurant in Rancho Santa Maragrita (an hour drive!). He was good and we liked him, but his professionalism was a little in question when he wasn't really responding to e-mails in the way I thought he should. Maybe I was being sensitive, but oh well. We started looking around for other guitarists and were super happy to find a different one whom we like a lot better! His name is Matt Commerce. We went to see him perform at one of our local pubs, Hennessey's. He plays guitar and harmonica and we really liked that vibe. There are some links below to some of his performances and music.
http://www.myspace.com/mattcommerce
http://www.gigmasters.com/acoustic-guitar/Matt-Commerce/



Wedding Bands
We just happened to be at the mall last weekend to get Chris some sunglasses and I randomly wandered into a jewelry store to see what was there. I wasn't super impressed with any of their ladies bands, but Chris actually found a band he wanted in like 10 minutes. At first I thought he was just trying to get it over with, but no he really just found the one! It is a ceramic band coated in tungsten with a comfort fit. It is really lightweight, and tungsten is harder than steel so it will be durable. It is black which I was surprised he wanted. I really like it!

My band took an extra day to find. We went through some stores together and hadn't really found one. I started off wanting a very thin diamond band such as this one.

Then I quickly realized that it was not enough sparkly bling for me. Plus my engagement ring is oval, so part of the band would be covered up. Here is my engagement ring, just to remind you!

So I thought I might want to get 2 different skinny bands such as these ones...

Or I thought I might just get one big band such as this one (this ring was GORGEOUS in the store!)

I really love the two mismatched bands look, but having two bands is more than we can afford right now. I am hoping for our anniversary I might get one! :-) So what I decided was to get 1 band that had slightly larger diamonds. It is super sparkly and I love it! It was Veterans Day weekend so we got a pretty good deal. All I have is the lame picture from the website and you can't even tell how awesome it is...once it is done being sized I will post a real picture.

End of October '11

Well here we are, at the end of October. Seems like I was just marveling at how we only had 9 months left and now we have only 8 and some change. Chris and I are both working constantly and we don't have as much time together as we like. We hope that this part of our lives will be short and hopefully he will get a full time fire job soon so that he can quit the rest and have time to himself. His new position as a reserve fire fighter will open some doors for him we hope.
As far as wedding planning is concerned, today I met with the final florist and I was not really impressed with her. She seemed a little spacey and definitely not as thorough as the other florists I met with. I decided to go with Sally Preston-Gonzalez of Exquisite Blooms. Her taste level is similar to my own and she seemed at ease and confident. I e-mailed her today to ask her what the next steps are in booking.
We have met with one DJ, DJ Daniel Peterson. We really liked him. He knows his music and seems very thorough. What I really like is that he can mix and also add beats to songs that are older to make them seem fresh. His price is a little steep for what we were thinking we would spend on a DJ. We have one more meeting next weekend until we make the DJ decision.
We got quotes from Kenny Ernest and Tini Grey for guitarists and Tini Grey is too expensive (even though I really, really like him). I wanted to go see him live and ever the practical one Chris said "Why? If we can't afford him?" Good thinking Chris. We are going to see Kenny Earnest play at a restaurant next Thursday (date night), hopefully we like him in person too. :-). On to November!

Florists, Music, Videography Oh My!

Save the dates are out and now I have the task of hunting for florists and music. I started with florists and have had two appointments so far. It is really important to me for the florist to really get my vision, but also work with me on my budget. I love the ones who are able to offer me suggestions for keeping the look I want but finding a less expensive way to do it. I put together a packet of inspiration pictures for the florist to look at. Below are some of the pictures I chose.

Ceremony

Attire

Cake

Bouquet

Reception

My first florist meeting was with Sally Preston of Exquisite Blooms. We met at a cute shop in Little Italy and went through all of my pictures. I felt really good about the meeting and Sally seemed really sweet and calm.  She does amazing work and I would totally trust her. The only thing I am worried about is staying under budget...i'll have to wait to see a proposal.
My second meeting was with  florist/ coordinator Jen Haase from Branches Floral Studio. She also really understood the look that I wanted and even coined the name "Modern Luxe". I don't know about the luxe part...but modern for sure. She also went into a lot of detail regarding her coordination business and it sounds like she really knows what she is doing. It reminded me that I really need to find room in the budget for a coordinator because all of the things she was talking about I do not want to have to worry about on my wedding day. I am still waiting on a a proposal from her as well.
I plan to meet with Dede Barnes from Moments in Bloom sometime in the upcoming weeks. I e-mailed her my inspiration pictures and she said she really loved the look. I was up front with her about my budget and she is willing to offer a lot of suggestions on how to save money.

In addition to florists I have been looking for musical options. We want to have an acoustic guitarist for the ceremony and cocktail hour and then a DJ (a real one that mixes) for the reception. I have found some awesome options for the DJ such as Injoy Entertainment and DJ Daniel Peterson. We plan to set up meetings as soon as Chris has some time. For acoustic guitarists I really love Tini Grey, but he has not gotten back to me regarding availability. I did hear from Kenny Earnest who quoted me a really great price. I am hoping Chris and I can travel up to Long Beach and Rancho Santa Margarita  to listen to these guys perform live.

I am also searching for a coordinator and have already talked to Jen Haase. We have some friends that are getting married the day before us and they have a friend who is a coordinator. Here name is Stephanie Furlong of Furlong Event Design. Based on her website I cannot wait to talk to her! I also have a friend who used to coordinate weddings that gave me Elisa's name of Events by Elisa. I am planning on contacting her soon.

The last little bit of this blog is just to swoon over some videography. I really would LOVE to hire a cinematographer for our wedding to make videos like the ones below. They are just gorgeous! But most of these services are WAY far out of our budget. I did find one gentleman who has a similar style (although not as cinematic) that seems more affordable (last video). :-)



Jim & Stefanie // San Diego, CA. from FortyOneTwenty on Vimeo.


Sunny and Nik Wedding at Andaz Hotel in San Diego from Rustic Red Studio on Vimeo.

Nancy + Alex | September 5th, 2011 from Luke McCain Videography on Vimeo.

Save the Date's Cost Breakdown

We finally got the save the dates out! People have been letting is know they received them and that they are really cool. I think we did pretty good for the cost, which was almost nothing. I was also able to pay for them out of my normal everyday non-wedding spending budget so they didn't put a dent in our wedding budget. Here is what they cost:

Design: $0-I did it myself on Microsoft Publisher using the high resolution photos from our photographer. We chose not to have the photographer print any or make albums of our engagement pictures and instead we just wanted the digital files. This way we can work with them ourselves. I came up with the idea for the design from wedding blogs I saw.

Postcards: $34.70 (incl. shipping and handling) for 75 postcards though Overnight Prints. I only needed 55 but I had to order either 50 or 75.Used their handy custom postcard creator and uploaded the Microsoft Publisher file I created. I had to convert it to a high resolution JPEG first which isn't easy if you aren't handy with the computer. They already had a postcard back option.

Postage: $16.17 for 53 postcard stamps ($0.29) and 1 80 cent stamp for our Italian friend. We hand delivered two of the cards to friends who had just moved.

Total: $50.87 none of which came from the "wedding budget"

Check 'em out!

August Set-backs and Inspirations

As a teacher I get almost three months of time during the summer paid with no obligations. This summer my time was pretty much spent trolling the internet for wedding ideas. I am now a wedding blog whore and have about 20 different wedding blogs that I look at regularly. I feel like I am not sure what I did with my summer. The good news is that during the school year I won't have time for this kind of thing so I got a lot of idea-finding done while I had the time.
I was trucking along with wedding stuff and then my bubble got a little burst when we found out our landlords are selling the condo we have lived in for two years. Our first place together. We have had to put wedding planning on hold so we could find a place, and now get through the move. We did find a place, but it is also a bit of a financial set-back as well. I pretty much can't wait for this month to be over. Here is where we are on wedding planning stuff.

Wedding Website
This baby is officially done (except for travel information and registry). Here is the link:
Our Wedding Website!

Save The Dates
The Save the Dates have arrived! They look great and I am pleased with them. Plus they cost us almost nothing. After we send them out I will put up a cost breakdown with postage included. Here is a picture of one.

Invitations
So here are what the original two looked like but I wasn't totally happy with the script fonts (the ones that our names are in)

The design is pretty much set it is just that damn script font. Here are two that might work better than the two above.

I don't know. Even looking at them on here I am still not happy with the script. Blah.

Flowers and Decor
One of the next things on my to do list is to hire the florist. I felt totally unprepared to do that until I had an idea of what I wanted the decor to look like (this is what I spent my summer on). Here are some of the inspiration pictures for florals and ceremony decor that I have been liking.

One thing I know for sure is that I want to use milk glass. I have already started collecting and here is about half of what I have so far. I am really excited about these!

I am thinking yellow flowers primarily, but I really like the photo that has light pinks, yellow and whites mixed together. I always worry about garishness because I have seen a lot of weddings where it looks like a crayon box threw up in the room. I want it to be really elegant. As for the ceremony, I want to cut down on the floral costs for that by using paper and fabric to make interesting decor. I like the circle of paper flowers in the example pictures. I am not sure how they made those but I like these giant crepe paper flowers Martha Stewart does. I would just lay them on the grass in a circle.

I plan on making boutonnieres out of fabric. This is one I tried just to see if I could do it. I can :-)

In addition I am thinking round pomanders made of fabric such as this one would like nice hanging from the chairs.

As soon as we move and get situated I will start researching florists and setting up meetings.

Music
Another thing we have to start thinking about is music. If I had all the money in the world I would like to hire a band for the reception, but we will probably go with a DJ. I do want acoustic guitar for the ceremony and cocktail hour. I found this guy online and am already impressed by what I see, so much so that I think I'm sold without even meeting him yet. He has a very soulful voice, does TONS of covers and has a slight Hawaiian vibe. Mr. T and my first vacation together was to Hawaii. Click the song names on the right to hear him sing.
Tini Grey

Finally...something we didn't expect to do was purchase Mr. T's wedding attire. It turns out he will be having some job interviews coming up and his old suit doesn't quite fit. I thought we could kill two birds with one stone and here is what we came up with. So gorgeous!!!!