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.
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...
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.
