Say Cheese

In choosing a photographer, Zac and I had little to think about. We knew immediately who we wanted to take our engagement photos and capture the special moments of our big day.

When Sarah and Donnie got married back in October of 2009 they hired Van't Studio of Photography to take their wedding photos. Tess' work was unbelievable. She captured some wonderful moments and created some amazing images. Here are some of the photos she took at Sarah and Donnie's wedding:

Sarah's wonderful MOH Amanda getting her all prepped and ready to walk down the aisle.

A true moment between father and daughter. I LOVE IT!

Me and my beautiful sis, the bride to be!

The boys had a Reservoir Dogs moment,

What a beautiful moment between mom and daughter :)

She's SO happy!

Finally husband and wife! :)

Look at that lighting.

This one is so beautiful.

Such a gorgeous bride!

When Scott and Amy got married this past September, they also hired Van's Photography to take their photos. Van and Tess took some amazing photographs of the event. They really do such an incredible job. Here are a few photos from Scott and Amy's wedding:

After being announced husband and wife.

Amy and her mama (aka my champagne buddy), Carol.

After saying "I do".

I just love this little moment.

They capture some amazing photos.

They were married in the English Garden site at Wolf Lakes Park.

This is one of my favorite shots from their wedding.

Van's Studio ended up using this photo for their advertisements.

Having worked with Tess for two other weddings and being so impressed with the work that she does, there was no doubt that we wanted to hire her to take our wedding photos. We are confident that we are going to love our photos and that she will be there to capture all the moments we won't want to forget.

Our engagement photos are going to be taken on May 3. That means we have just three short weeks until our photoshoot with Tess. I am both excited and nervous. Of course I am so stoked to take some photos with my love (we are in desperate need of some recent photos for our home). I am nervous however for vain reasons. Having a crazy busy fall semester and a lazy winter break, my workout schedule suffered tremendously and as a result I am no longer my cute summer self. In addition there is the need to find something to wear. I am sure that I will find something but my tendency to be picky and a bit of a control freak will leave me worried until I find the perfect outfit.

As I mentioned before our engagement session is going to take place at Zac's grandparents' place in Chowchilla. His Grandma Marlene has told us that their garden really blows up and is incredibly beautiful in May so we are excited to see how it will look in just a few weeks. In addition to the garden we will possibly be taking photos in the orchard. I look forward to seeing how our photos turn out. :)

Going to the Lakeside and We're Gonna Get Married!

After going through all of our options, weighing the pros and cons of each venue, and referring back to our budget, Zac and I decided on a location:

Wolf Lakes Park

Located in Sanger, Wolf lakes has two equally beautiful sites to choose from:

The English Garden:

And Lakeside:

While both sites were beautiful and offered the same ammenities, the Lakeside appealed to us just a little bit more. The lakeside was spread out on a flat space. You can pretty much see each area of the venue from any location that you're standing at and we thought that it would prevent people from feeling separated from other members of the group. The big sell to us was the large lawn space just to the right of the newly built in buffet. While on the tour of the facility we asked if we would be able to use the lawn for our game time cocktail hour and were so happy to hear that it wouldn't be a problem. We would have to be sure to include games that could easily be set up and removed and that wouldn't harm the lawn. We were so excited! It was really important for us to keep this aspect of the wedding. So to find a venue that was already set up for weddings, provided all the things that we needed, added a bit of formality in atmosphere while still allowing us to have a bit of fun casual-ness, that is also allowing us to sett up an area for games was too perfect to be true. We continued the rest of the tour and were amazed by the beauty of the space.

As is suggested by the name, the venue is right on the lake. Throughout the reception (providing that the weather is accommodating, though I don't think that we will have a problem in May) guests can go for boat rides around the lake. At Scott and Amy's wedding we brought pirate patches and wore them on the boat ride. Super silly, but very us.

As part of the lakeside wedding processional, Zac and his groomsmen will arrive at the alter via boat. The boat will take them out to a little island in the middle of the lake about 20 minutes or so before the wedding begins. They have some pictures taken before getting back on the boat and taking the 5 minute ride to the alter. At first Zac was hesitant about this aspect of the wedding but soon he seemed to be excited. I think he's just nervous about having all eyes on him.

I will be walking down an aisle covered with greenary. In springtime the plant life should be as full as the photo above. :) The lakeside also has a newly renovated bridal room that is twice the size that it used to be and has it's own bathroom. This was definitely an unexpected bonus!

The reception area is covered but the sides are open, allowing the guests to enjoy the whole venue. If for some reason the weather is not cooperating and we have to deal with rain or crazy wind (knock on wood) the sides of the reception area can be rolled down to make a more comfortable space for our guests. I really hope that we don't have to deal with this but it's nice to know that it's an option. It's definitely something we wouldn't be able to replicate if we did the wedding ourselves.

Above the reception dance floor are these beautiful star shaped light fixtures. Zac and I are in love with them. We actually almost bought some very similar (obviously smaller version) light fixtures last summer at Ross for Less. We thought that they would look great in our backyard hanging from the tree, but since we're still working on the backyard, we thought we should wait. Looking at them hanging from the ceiling of the reception space, we totally should have gotten them.

The venue has some amazing spots for beautiful photos. Our photographer has already mentioned a willow tree that would be great for some post weding shots. She says that the lighting is amazing. We found a photo online from another photographer and we have to say that we totally agree with her:

If the lighting on the day of our wedding is anything like the picture above....words can't describe how excited I am!

Benefits:

-Price per guest includes food, tables and chairs

-Venue is set up for weddings so they have answers to questions we haven't even come up with

-Venue takes care of set up and clean up

-Coordinator is available for questions and concerns from the time we book the wedding through the actual wedding day

-Venue includes all necessary accomodations: bathroom facilities, large bride and groom rooms, enough parking for all of our guests, on site catering and bartending,

-Access to the facility the Thursday before the wedding for up to one hour for rehearsal with a coordinator to assist us.

-Invitations to open house event where we will be able to speak with vendors as well as taste test food and alcohol before selecting our menu options.

-Large lawn area that we would be able to use for our game time cocktail hour

Compromises:

-Once we were sold on the venue we decided that we should inquire about our hopeful date of May 5 to see if it was available. Being so far in advance we thought for sure that the day was open for our wedding. Unfortunately, we were wrong. May is a big month for weddings, but it's also a big month for high school proms. We found out that Wolf Lakes shuts down both venue sites for proms and they already had reservations for proms on Saturday May 5 and Sunday May 6. We were slightly bummed that our Cinco de Mayo wedding date wasn't available, but the venue was worth more to us than the date. Plus, we've figured out a way to use all of our Cinco de Mayo themed ideas for another wedding related event. But more on that later.

In the end we decided to book the Lakeside Venue for Friday May 4, 2012.

Location, Location, Location

So, plans had changed once again and Zac and I were headed in a different wedding planning direction. After deciding to have our wedding at a venue set up for events, in order to minimize stress and maximize relaxation for ourselves and our families, the search was on for a location.

Having gone location shopping with Sarah two years ago (I can't believe it's already been two years!) I was a little familiar with the list of possible venues in our area. Zac and I decided that staying in town, or at least within a short driving distance of town, would be the best decision. Any out of town venue that required a hotel stay for us and our family would just complicate things and create unnecessary issues.

As a way of finding locations that we perhaps hadn't thought of (or even hadn't heard of) I checked out some wedding photographer websites. I figured that if the photos of the location look good perhaps they were worth checking out. We made a list of locations to check out, called and made appropriate appointments and got ready to go on some tours. Before heading out we reviewed our list of necessary spaces. Zac made the point that no location was going to be 100% what we needed. Each place was going to have it's own set of benefits and compromises. We needed to decide what compromises we were okay with making and what things we weren't willing to budge on. With that in mind, we began the search.

1. Engelmann Cellars

After seeing photos of this wedding at Engelmann Cellars taken by photographer Ken Keinow, we decided that checking out the location was definitely worth it. The winery is located in Fresno, west of 99 on Rolinda. They have wine tasting on the weekend and during the summer they have movie nights out on their expansive lawn. People can bring blankets and enjoy some wine and a movie. How fun, right?!

From the pictures we could see that there were photo opportunities in the vineyard...

...orchard...

...and barrel room.

The wedding would be outside on the lawn in front of a backdrop of wine barrels.

We also noticed that we could have access to the large screen used for movie nights to play a slideshow or video during the reception.

With the outdoor lighting we could achieve the fun, casual, somewhat whimsical look we were going for.

The information for holding a special event at Engelmann Cellars was as follows:

- Rather than a rental fee for the facility, the winery asked for a minimum wine purchase.

- The minimum purchase for an event our size was 10 cases of wine (which ended up being $1680.00)

- They offered minimal chairs and tables (the number wasn't specified) that could be rented at a competitive price. (We could also choose to forgo their rental and rent seating from another company.)

- We would need to bring in our own caterer, dj or band, etc.

Zac and I thought it sounded good, so we made the drive to check it out. After arriving Zac spotted something that was a deal breaker. Right by the patio which connected to the tasting room was a nice, big, green port-a-potty. The had constructed a really cool sink out of a wine barrel that was right next to the facility, but Zac and I were still turned off by the port-a-potty. We looked around for a minute or so but it seemed kind of pointless. We both knew this wasn't the place.

Benefits:

-Wide open lawn space with plenty of room for separate ceremony and reception seating not to mention space for our game time cocktail hour.

-Freedom to decorate and accessorize the venue

Compromises:

-Completely open space provides little depth for photo opportunities (with the exception of the surrounding vineyard).

-Guests would have to use a port-a-potty,

- We would be spending more money on wine than we probably wanted to.

In the end we realized that it was very similar to having the wedding at someone's house but with less benefits.

2. The Grove

The next site on our list was Hobb's Grove. We saw photos of this wedding taken by photographer Ryan C. Jones. From the photos we could see that the space was nice and open but there were a lot of trees that added some interest and depth.

After contacting the venue we received an email with the following information:

-The rental fee would be $2950.

- We would have access to the location from 8am - midnight the day of the wedding. All music had to end by 11:pm and the grounds would have to be cleared by midnight.

-We would have access to the facility for 1 hour for rehearsal the day prior to the wedding.

-The venue offered chairs, tables, and linen (with limited color options) for up to 200 guests.

-They offered a large bridal room and groom's room, each of which had air conditioning and their own restrooms.

-An event coordinator would be available for the set up as well as the ceremony and reception.

-There is a large parking area that is well lit.

-The venue would be responsible for trash disposal after the event.

After going through the list and discussing the set up of the venue and everything they had to offer, we weighed the benefits and compromises.

Benefits:

-Being a venue that regularly accomodates a large number of people for a variety of events the place provided plenty of available parking space, not to mention bathroom facilities for our guests.

-We had freedom to decorate the venue with limited restrictions.

-They offered a coordinator who would assist and be available for any questions or concerns through the day of the wedding. (This was a big deal for us as we would really love a coordinator who is familiar with the venue. We would feel bad asking one of our family members or friends to play the role as they would be missing out on the fun of the wedding.)

-The rental of the location included the tables, chairs, and linens.

-We would have access to the facility from 8am to midnight the day of the wedding.

Compromises:

- The $3000 rental fee did not include a caterer or alcohol. Not that we expected to get away with food, drinks and location for $3000 but the cost of food and drinks in addition to the rental fee would be more than some places that offered all of these things.

Realizing that the rental fee would only be a good deal for us if we were having a large wedding, we continued on our search for a place that was less expensive or at least offered more for the price they were asking.

Other places that were suggested to us:

Fig Garden Swim and Racquet Club

Copper River Country Club

-Appellation California

-Wonder Valley Ranch Resort

-White Horse Inn River Terrace

-Banker's Ballroom

-Holland Park West

-The Grand 1401

Let the Games Begin

As I noted in the previous post. Zac and I were looking to have a large lawn area for the cocktail hour. This was mainly because we wanted to revamp cocktail hour and include some fun games for our guests to play while they waited for the bridal party to be announced into the reception.

 

Cocktail hour is usually a time for guests to hang out and socialize over some drinks and appetizers while the bridal party has photos taken. But with so many people brought together from two different families, how often do guests really socialize with the people they haven't met? Sometimes the cocktail hour can seem a lot longer than an hour when guests are anxiously waiting for the bride and groom to arrive and end the awkard "I don't really know too many people here" vibe that may be going on.

So in our hopes to eliminate this atmosphere and (hopefully) provide our guests with some fun and entertainment, we thought that turning the cocktail hour into a game hour would be the perfect solution. If our guests are having fun, they are less likely to realize how much time has passed since the ceremony ended. Also, we really want the wedding to be a fun event and we love our game nights so why not incorporate some lively outdoor games to the mix to make the event more us?!

We realize that there are a few things to consider in planning for a game time cocktail hour. While we want the games to be inclusive, so that our guests have an opportunity to mingle with people they may not know too well, we don't want to cross the line and be intrusive or make guests feel like they have to join in the games if they don't want or feel comfortable doing so. The whole point is to have fun and mingle with/meet people, not feel embarrassed or put on the spot.

Another important thing to consider is that, although we want everyone to have fun and get into the games, the event is still a wedding and people will be dressed accordingly. This means that we will have to keep the games pretty light and not include anything that can't be done while wearing nice clothes. (A.k.a. no three legged or potato sack races. :P) So the games we plan on providing for our guests are games like bocce ball, croquet, ring toss, bean bag toss and perhaps hula hoops.

The whole idea is still in the beginning thoughts (we have a whole year to sort out all the details). Hopefully the cocktail hour will provide a fun, unforgettable time for our guests.

*Any suggestions or ideas for our game time cocktail hour are happily accepted! :)