Wednesday, August 17, 2011

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.

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