Our Vendors

In efforts of getting the majority of our wedding planning done as soon as possible (both to give us a sense of where our budget stands as well as to make things easier on us in the long run) Zac and I have been working to book all of our major vendors. For the last few weeks we have called several vendors, compared prices, and set up appointments. Attending the Premier Bridal Showplace Bridal Fair last Sunday was a great opportunity for us to meet vendors, see sample work, and get price listings. As of Friday, we now have all of our major vendors booked and can now focus on the smaller details of the wedding, like table decorations, ceremony programs, etc.

So here's a little roundup of the vendors we've booked. We're happy with our selections and we're excited to be working with all of these amazing people.

Venue: Wolf Lakes Park

Earlier this year Zac and I picked our date and chose a venue. Wolf Lakes Park is a beautiful venue with a view of the lake and well manicured landscaping. In addition to the atmosphere, the location also takes care of the set up and clean up, offers catering, and provides help with questions and planning as well as a coordinator the day of the event. After we reserved our date, Wolf Lakes provided us with a list of vendors that proved to be helpful in our planning process.

Photographer: Van's Photography

Before we selected a venue, we had decided on our photographer. Van's photography does amazing work, and having been in two weddings in which Van and Tess have taken photos, we felt comfortable with our decision to book them for our own big day. After seeing our engagement photos we're excited to see what images these two photographers will capture at our wedding.

 

DJ: Haro's Entertainment

As I mentioned just recently in this post, we hired Haro Entertainment to dj at our wedding. Adam Haro has great reviews and having worked with our venue on many occassions we are confident that he will help keep our wedding running smoothly and make the night a fun one for our guests. Planning the music for the evening has been fun and we look forward to dancing the night away after saying 'I do'.

Florist: Brown Bunny Flowers

Originally we weren't planning on having a florist take care of our flowers. For Sarah and Donnie's fall wedding we got sunflowers from the grocery store and created some beautiful bouquets with black ribbon and pearl pins. Since our wedding is in the spring we were sure that we could find some flowers in our color scheme and make bouquets for all the girls. My mom was less than enthusiastic about the idea. She was a little worried that we were leaving this detail to chance too close to the wedding and we wouldn't be able to find the right flowers in time. We started looking around for florists and Brown Bunny Flowers came highly recommended. After talking with the owner, Amy, we could see why. She is such a sweet lady. We emailed back and forth for a little while before meeting in person at the Premier Bride Showplace. After going over our color scheme, and our favorite flowers, Amy came up with a few different bouquets. I'm looking forward to see how they turn out.

Bakery: Barb's Cakery

 Zac and I really want to have variety for our guests when it comes to cake and dessert. We thought that the perfect way to have this would be to create a dessert table with several flavors of cupcakes, brownies, cookies, etc. We found a place that would be able to create a dessert table for our guests with the variety we were looking for but unfortunately not for the price we were hoping for. So, we're planning on creating the table ourselves with help from family and friends. In addition to the dessert buffet, we wanted to have a little something for the traditional cake cutting. At first we were thinking that we would pick up a 7" Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory and call it a day. We both love that cake, I get an employee discount, and our guests will have plenty of other dessert options with the table of treats. According to some people however, "a wedding cake is not a wedding cake unless it has more than one tier". So, Zac and I started looking for a bakery to get ourselves a "wedding cake". We didn't have to look far. Both Sarah and Donnie as well as Scott and Amy used Barb's Cakery for their weddings and we loved the way their cakes looked (Sarah and Donnie's cake is pictured on the left, Scott and Amy's on the right), and even more importantly how they tasted. I started looking at pictures of wedding cake designs with our color scheme and found something that I really liked. On Friday, my mom and I went to Barb's Cakery to talk details and put a deposit down on the cake.

Hair and Makeup: Hair and Makeup By Emily Johnson

The Premier Bridal Showplace was a great way of seeing what hair and makup artists are out there. Our vendor list from Wolf Lakes included a few hair and makeup artists on it's list, but nothing like what we saw on the vendor list for the bridal show. After walking around and picking up fliers here and there, we came across Emily Johnson's hair and makeup booth. After looking over her price listing and checking out photos of her work via her Facebook page, we booked Emily to do my hair and makeup the day of the wedding.

Transportation: Royal Coach Limos

Back in April, Zac and I went to check out a car to take us from the wedding to our hotel at the end of the night. We found a 1961 Jaguar at Royal Coach Limos that we loved. I'm planning on having a bridesmaid sleepover at my house the night before the wedding. In the morning, the car will come to pick me and my bridesmaids up and take us to the venue to begin setting up and get ready. At the end of the night the car will return and Zac and I will have a few pictures with the car before taking off to our hotel.

So there you have it! We are relieved to have our major vendors decided on and booked. It's nice to know that these details are taken care of and we can focus our attention on the smaller details. The next project will be working on our save the dates. I just received a reminder from Project Wedding (the host of our wedding website) saying that the save the dates should be going out by the beginning of October. I already have a design in mind for these announcements so hopefully it won't be too difficult to create. More details later...

Argyle Makes Me Smile

Doesn't the picture above look so cute?! Having looked through many wedding photos in the last 7 months, I must say that some of my favorites are feet/shoe pictures. I definitely hope to find some cute yellow shoes to wear on the big day. While I am still searching for the perfect pair (something with a cute detail like a bow or a flower), I have had much better success finding something for Zac and his groomsmen. 

Zac and I were on the hunt for some grey and yellow argyle socks. Not only do they look really good with a grey suit, but they are certainly something that Zac would wear even after the wedding. It's also a fun way (in addition to the ties) for the guys to show some personality and have some fun with their suits.  

After a quick Google search for 'grey and yellow argyle socks' we found the perfect pair at Express.com. Other socks we found were upwards of $15 a pair so we were happy to see the Express price of $9.90 a pair. We were even happier to see that the store was offering a discount if you ordered 4 or more pairs of socks.

We decided to go ahead and order the socks now in case the offer had an expiration date. After adding 5 pairs of the yellow and grey socks to our shopping cart our total was $31.25. Thanks to the bulk purchase discount we were getting 5 pairs of socks for nearly $20 less than the full price cost. Even with the cheapest shipping cost of $8 we were still getting a pretty good deal...

...until the deal got even better. As fate would have it, we received an Express catalog in the mail today. As usual, the catalog came with some coupons, including one for $15 off an online purchase! Whoo hoo! The catalog was about to make it's way to our outside garbage can (since we never shop at Express) until we rescued it and put its coupon to good use.  

After entering the promo code our total dropped from $39.25 to $24.25! That comes to an average of $4.85 a pair! Such an awesome deal. The socks should be arriving within 5-7 days and I am very excited to see them. I can't wait to see the guys in their socks next May and hopefully get some photos like this one.

Organized Bride

No doubt there are a lot of things to keep together and organize when planning for a wedding. Contracts, photo ideas, price listings, etc. The papers start piling up and keeping it all together can get stressful. From day one I knew that I would need a place to keep everything organized. Not only would it make things a little easier on me, but I also thoroughly enjoy projects and organizing. (School supplies like binders, dividers, and cubbies have always made me very happy. I'm satisfied with my status of 'nerd'.)

After Zac proposed and we began planning I put together a little binder to place all of our ideas for venues, colors, decorations, and any other items that we would need to figure out. Rather than going to the store and purchasing a "Bridal Binder" or "Wedding Organizer" (which can be anywhere from $20-$30) I pulled a white 1.5" binder from my pile of school supplies and considered it done. Most organizers are essentially decorated binders anyway and I couldn't justify paying for something with the word "bride" or "wedding" on it when I could just as easily make the same thing...for free.

Once we booked the venue and the wedding date was official, I printed out a cover page for the binder with our names and the date to make the binder a little more "bridal".

I added one packet of plain white dividers (that I already had in my school supply pile) to keep everything in order.

As we started to collect more papers, fliers, and ideas it became clear that I was going to need more dividers to keep everything separated a little better. After 'Bridesmaid Day' with Samantha and Michelle, and taking a look at Samantha's wedding binder, I was inspired to add some colorful dividers to the mix. My white dividers were great in keeping everything in a proper place, but Samantha had some wonderful dividers with pockets in the front to hang on to all of the loose papers/fliers that couldn't be holepunched. I loved the pockets and headed to the store a few days later to reorganize my own wedding binder. Thanks to Samantha's inspiration and four packs of dividers later the binder is now much more organized.

You might also notice that the binder is a lot thicker now. Four packs of dividers equals twenty categories. It might seem a little crazy but it actually makes organizing everything much easier.

I used 18 of the 20 categories (one of which is a place to put all of the information I need for Samantha and Matt's wedding). The categories include: budget, checklists, guest list names and addresses, venue information, photography contracts/receipts, apparel, decor ideas, etc. Having the pockets really makes it easier to keep everything in their proper category.

Having all of our contracts, price listings, and comparison sheets together has really made organizing our budget and planning the wedding a lot less hectic. Only spending $8 on dividers instead of buying an organizer for $30 wasn't a bad deal either.

Premier Bride Magazine

A few months back, one of my bridesmaids, Amy told me that she had heard from a friend of hers that Zac and I were going to be in the next issue of Premier Bride Magazine. (One of Scott and Amy's wedding photos was used as an advertisement for Van's Studio of Photography in the last edition of the magazine.) Zac and I were excited to see which photo was chosen. We also knew that there was a chance of last minute changes so it was possible that our picture might not have made the cut in the end. When the new magazine came out a few weeks ago we finally got to find out.

There we are on page 14! We both thought that it was pretty cool that our photographer, Tess, had submitted one of our photos from our photoshoot at Zac's grandparents' house, to be in the magazine. Needless to say, my mom was very excited and picked up more than her fair share of copies of the magazine. Zac and I picked up a few copies as well. (We thought perhaps that parents and grandparents would want a copy.)

We loved the picture that Tess chose. She does such fantastic work and we can't wait to see what amazing shots she captures at our wedding.

Pin-Head

Is anyone else out there addicted to Pinterest?

Right after graduation I was introduced to Pinterest by one of my favorite blogs Young House Love. I've loved their blogs for years. I started following (Zac refers to it as stalking) their posts in 2007 about a year after Zac and I first moved in together. They have tons of helpful hints regarding house projects and we have similar design tastes (Sherry shares my love for crisp white paint and ceramic animals). But enough blog plugging gushing.

Since being turned on to Pinterest there is has been no going back. You can find me on Pinterest here. Feel free to follow me!

  I have WAY too much fun browsing through many, many pages of pictures and pinning inspiring ideas to different boards for future projects. Pinterest has definitely been a help in planning the wedding, at least when it comes to ideas for centerpieces and other decorations. Now I can stop flooding my computer space with saved pictures and put all of the photos I like in one space on the internet. Plus, with Zac's birthday coming up (he's turning the big 3-0) I'm able to save all of my 'surprise' ideas (more on that later) in one space where Zac won't be looking.

My Pinterest account has also been the home for the ideas that have inspired our work on Project Wonderland. (Update: Zac has finished putting the capstones on the top of the wall. We are still planning on adding stone but for now it looks fantastic! I'll post pictures of the progress later.)

There are some really creative people who have posted on Pinterest. It feels like a little DIY community and I love it!!! If you don't have an account you should definitely head over to the website (http://www.pinterest.com/) and get in on the pinning fun!

We Have Music!

Zac and I have realized that time is going by very quickly. As of August 14th we have already been engaged for 7 months! We still have a little less than 9 months until the big day but Zac and I have decided that we should take care of our larger expenses (more specifically our vendors) as soon as we can. There are a few reasons for this:

- Now that we have less than a year until the big day, we are likely to find that vendors are booked for our wedding day. May is a busy month for wedding vendors which may make booking these vendors more difficult the longer we wait.

- Talking to vendors now will give us a better understanding of the money we will be spending in the longrun. This will definitely help us with our budgeting and monthly saving.

- Getting more done sooner than later will relieve the stress later on. We hope to have as much done as we can before the new year. Ideally we'd love to relax for the last two months before the wedding but we know that won't happen.

So, on Monday we had an appointment with one of the djs from our venue's list of approved vendors. We met up with Adam Haro of Haro entertainment at 10am and by 10:15 we had signed a contract and paid a deposit. Adam was actually the dj for Scott and Amy's wedding last September, so Zac and I have already seen how he works. We had a great time at Scott and Amy's wedding and we knew that Adam could do an amazing job for us as well. He has done numerous weddings at our venue and is after all on the list of approved djs for that location. To top it off, Adam has a really fun personality that is easy to get along with. He's also very professional and having already seen his work we knew we couldn't find anyone better to dj our wedding than him. It was an easy decision to make.

It was a great relief to hire Adam as our dj and have one of our major vendors taken care of. A dj can make or break your wedding and we have full confidence that having Adam in control of the announcements and music that our wedding will run smoothly and be a fun event. As an added bonus, Adam gave us a fantastic discount from his normal rate because we met with and booked him so close to the Premier Bride Showplace (a large bridal show hosted by Premier Bride taking place on Sunday, August 21). Haro Entertainment will have a booth at the event and they are offering a discount to those that book at the event. Zac and I were grateful for the discount not only because it was a great deal but also because it put us under budget for a service we anticipated spending more on.

Haro Entertainment also offers videography services and a photobooth. Zac and I definitely thought about these two services when we first started planning our wedding. The photobooth would make the reception fun for our guests and give us some silly photos that wouldn't be captured by our photographer. As I mentioned in a previous post (found here) getting video of the day (though less fun for our guests) would be a great way for us to remember the day for years to come. Though both would be a great addition to our wedding, so would about a hundred other things, and we have to be realistic. We're pretty solid on our budget right now and don't anticipate having any additional money to add these services to our dj package. Maybe as the wedding day gets closer we'll find some room in our budget to add one of these services to our list. (Though honestly, if we end up with some room in the budget it will probably go towards a nice relaxing honeymoon!) For now we're just going to concentrate on our list of "must haves" before thinking of any additional services. It's nice to know that if things change we can easily get these services taken care of with our dj rather than having to hire another vendor at what would certainly be a higher cost.

In addition to the discount, Adam also offered us free tickets to the Premier Bridal Showplace. This was fantastic because we had already planned on heading downtown for the big event. Thanks to Adam we also saved money on tickets for the bridal show. There are going to be quite a few vendors at this event and Zac and I are hoping to cross a few more vendors off of our list including a florist and bakery. (Wish us luck!) For now we have a dj and we couldn't be happier! Things are coming together.

It Has Arrived!

School is starting up again this week and it makes me a little sad that I won't be heading to the store and stocking up on school supplies for the start of a new semester. Minus the expenses I love going to school. I especially love the first week of school when I get to see who is in all of my classes (in major classes its always nice to see familiar faces) and hear about all of the things I'll be working on and learning throughout the semester. Yes, the true geek in me LOVES school.

My saddness for not attending school this semester is small in comparison to the excitement I felt when this package arrived in the mail yesterday:

I quickly opened up the package to reveal.....MY DIPLOMA! It felt so good to see my name and the official seals. Graduation was something special and it felt great to accomplish this. This piece of paper represents years of hard work, an unbelievable amount of papers, projects, and assignments, many long nights of studying, and a few hundred laps around the parking lot looking for a spot.

One of the gifts that my parents gave me for graduation was a frame for my diploma. As soon as I opened the package I went straight upstairs to grab the frame and put my diploma in its new home.

It only took a few minutes to get the diploma fitted in the frame....

...and up on the wall in the office.

I think it looks amazing!

Bridey

The last few weeks have been filled with some fun bridal time, which the girls (my fellow brides Samantha and Holly, and Samantha's maid of honor Michelle) have termed "Bridey". As silly as our name for it might be, celebrating, discussing our weddings, and planning has been really fun with these ladies.

Not too long ago Samantha put together a "Bridesmaid Day" to hang out with Michelle and I. 

Samantha picked up two bottles of champagne from her wedding venue, a wine tasting center called Appellation California. Here is Michelle with our yummy Sunday afternoon treat.

Michelle brought chocolate and I added some fresh strawberries for us to enjoy with the delicious champagne. We spent the afternoon catching up on the newest details of Samantha's wedding planning, looking for bridesmaid shoes online, and watching the first Sex and the City Movie. It was such a fun afternoon. Thank you Samantha for having us over. :)

A few days later we attended a vendor event hosted by David's Bridal. Our friend, co-worker, and fellow bride, Holly was in attendance as well. The vendors included a florist, a bakery, a dj, and a candy buffet table service to name a few. Dawn, a photographer from Composure Photo and Video was there as well. She snapped this photo of all of us girls and a few days later it appeared on her website. Samantha and I look like we're headed to our first day of school with our binders. What can I say, we're organized brides.

Michelle also captured this photo of Holly, Samantha, and me.

The shot definitely reminds me of the old Saturday morning cartoon, Captain Planet. Anyone remember that show?! This picture is very "Let our powers combine!" Ha ha. If you have no idea what I'm talking about check out this clip:

The vendor event was a fun experience, but since Zac and I already have a photographer (Van's Studio of Photography) and the dj in attendance was not on the list of approved djs for our venue (Wolf Lakes) it was more of an enteraining experience than a productive one. Afterwards, Samantha, Michelle, and I headed over to Elephant Bar to get some dinner and cocktails. (Holly was unable to join us.)

It was a fun night with the ladies, getting our Bridey on. :D I'm definitely looking forward to several more days/nights like this in the future. Michelle and I have a few nights like this ahead of us as we have a bridal shower and bachelorette party for Samantha that needs planning! We're going to have a lot of fun creating some special events for the bride to be. 

Faces of Rogers Contest 2011

Zac and I recently entered into the Faces of Rogers Contest 2011. What does this mean? Our engagement photo has been entered into a contest in which we could win a giftcard for Roger's Jewelry and be featured in their company's winter catalog. Kind of exciting right? 

So what do we need to win? So glad you asked! (Excuse the cheesy gameshow moment! :P) The photos entered into the contest have been added to the Roger's Jewelry Facebook page (found here). To vote for a photo, just head over to the Facebook page and click "Like". Next click on to the photo album (found here) and find our photo (we entered the same engagement photo featured at the top of this blog). All you have to do is "Like" our photo (comments don't count as a vote) and your vote is in!

We appreciate your votes! Feel free to pass on the link to your other Facebook friends :)