Today's wedding is a total treat. The details, the florals, the PINK COUCH (what an amazing piece by One True Love Vintage Rentals)! It is all so marvelously effortless and elegant. This team of vendors did a phenomenal job of creating a perfect wedding down to every detail. Get those pin buttons ready because you are going to want to look at these shots by Megan Clouse Photography again and again.
I concluded in my last post, that we decided to limit the guest limit making the final number 35 people. So how do we find the right size space to accommodate this quantity?
We knew that we didn’t want an outdoor event because the uncertainty of the weather would have caused us stress up until the last minute. The venues that I was familiar with were too large for our small guest list and I didn’t want to have us feel lost in the room. I wasn’t finding as many smaller venues in our area so I started looking into function rooms within restaurants and didn’t find just the right space.
I broadened my horizons outside of the Raleigh area and still didn’t have as much luck as I had hoped. I then began focusing in on B&B’s thinking that might be just the right direction to take: ceremony and reception all in one. And there it was…The King’s Daughters Inn! It is the perfect blend of 17 guest rooms, a parlor for the ceremony and reception, sun room for cocktail hour, and a dining room for dinner and cake. We rented the whole Inn and our wedding will be an overnight getaway for our guests!
Has anyone else had to alter their venue ideas to better suit your guest list headcount?
Hi E&Iers! I'm back after an amazing long weekend in Southern California at fellow blogger Taya's wedding (aka my future sister in law!). It was such a great weekend filled with laughs, dancing, friends, family, new friends and new family, in a gorgeous setting...it was everything a great wedding should be. I could go on and on, but I'll let Taya tell you herself when she gets back from her honeymoon. :-)
Onto my topic of the week - food! You might remember my post, here, on finding a caterer who would work with us in making everything affordable, while still including the elements we really wanted - quality, local food, family style dinner, etc. Well, we finally found them and it was worth the wait! My favorite thing about the caterers we found was that the owner, and lead lady of this husband-and-wife-owned catering company, really listened to what we wanted and figured out where to cut corners and where it made sense to splurge a little.
I am so relieved to have our catering booked! I believe food can really help set the mood of the day - the cuisine is just one more place to infuse your style as a couple. Loving how these weddings used food to help set the vibe of their wedding day.
My advice to fellow brides out there is that if you are not finding what you're looking for and you are getting a lot of 'nos' to what you believe is a reasonable request, keep looking and don't give up! Ask lots of questions and reach out to new vendors until you find someone who is ready to have a conversation and work with you. I think it's also good to know what things you absolutely know you want and what things you would be okay not having. For me, I knew I wanted family style dinner, but I was okay giving up the filet mignon.
If you are getting married in the Gorge and looking for a caterer, check out Boda's Kitchen. Ask for Sirota Johnston, the owner and boss laday. She's awesome.
When it comes to libations, there are not many drinks that my fiance and I will turn down. For our wedding we want to offer our guest a plethora of options. We like the idea of welcoming guests with a cocktail before the ceremony and have been playing around with the idea of something with lavender to take advantage of local ingredients.
An agua fresca bar incorporating fresh local fruit like strawberries and oranges is also on our wish list.
As well as a bourbon bar.
Personally, I don't think one can go wrong with a champagne cocktail or classic champagne.
With the Central Coast being well-known for its wines, we plan to serve wine from some of our favorite local wineries as well as beer from local micro-breweries.
Something tells me our guests will have no problem quenching their thirst. How did you decide what to serve for you wedding?
Of all the things I'm looking forward to about our wedding, I am incredibly excited that we will be able to serve our reception dinner family style (big portions of every dish on the table, rather than individually plated portions). My fiance is Italian, and serving our guests a wonderful family style meal has been important to us from the beginning. So fun! So simple! Wrong. Like every wedding decision, our choice to serve family style has had a domino affect on a number of other decisions. Most notably, our centerpieces need to have a small footprint. (Goodbye to all those low and chubby pink peonies and English roses I was lusting after all over Pinterest!) So, my latest challenge has been to find a centerpiece that fits our lush, botanical aesthetic, while keeping the table free for steaming bowls of polenta. Here are a few I've liked so far:
I couldn't resist this very Art Nouveau Parisian lantern...so dreamy!
I've become a little obsessed with footed arrangements. These arrangements have an elegant, vintage feel to them, and allow for stunning florals, without the precious table space. Here are a few catching my eye this week (the first two were sent to me from--not taken by--our amazing engagement and wedding photographer Shang Chen).
Source: Tec Petaja Photography
How have you made your centerpieces more practical?
Hello there! If there's one thing to know about me and my wedding it's this: I. LOVE. FOOD. My fiance and I are major foodies, and our number one priority is having delicious local and seasonal food at our wedding. Since there are so many amazing caterers to choose from, one way to help narrow them down is their presentation. During our catering tastings, I was blown away by the unique, imaginative, and inventive presentation of the hors d'oeuvres. Here are a few images inspiring my appetizer and hors d'oeuvres selections:
So what's been tantalizing your taste buds lately?
This week we have been on the hunt for our wedding photographer. I thought that picking a wedding photographer would be one of our easier decisions. After spending hours and hours pouring over wedding photographer websites, I now know that finding someone who can take the candid photos we love is not an easy task. I'll be the first to admit that I can look super awkward in photos. My fake smile looks forced and I look uncomfortable (because I am!). So, finding a photographer who can capture our wedding story with candid photos like the photos below is very important to me.
First Look
Sources: Sarah Culver Photography & Kyle Hepp
For more amazing first look photos, check out this article.
Happy Tears
Source: Sarah Culver Photography
After all of this photographer searching, I have learned that there are primarily three different approaches to wedding photography: traditional (more posed), photojournalistic (more candid) and artistic (clearly more artsy). We want a photographer who is primarily photojournalistic who can capture the entirety of our special day from the mascara application to the last dance of the night.
Sources: Future Weddings, Wild Flowers Photography & Sarah Culver Photography
I finally feel like we are starting to make some headway. We skyped with one photographer yesterday who we absolutely loved, but happens to live across the country. I also discovered the Wedding Photojournalistic Association which has been a great resource because it provides pricing estimates and lists photographers by region.
Sources: Future Wedding, Adria Lindquist & Lulu Photo
How did you decide on your wedding photographer? How many photographers did you meet/Skype with before you found THE one?
Have I told you that I absolutely love our (hopeful) wedding venue? Finding it was probably one of the easiest parts of the planning process so far. Locking in our reservation has been another story. Last February when we decided that we wanted to get married locally, an internet search for Ojai wedding photos yielded many of the breathtaking photos below.
Source: Jessica Loren Organic Photography
Our favorites were taken at The Dent House, a private estate located in the heart of Matilija Canyon. Now, almost eight months later, we are excited and relieved to be finalizing our venue. Yesterday, the four page rental agreement arrived in my inbox! Luckily my fiance is a lawyer, so I am hoping that the whole daunting contract process will be more of a breeze. As we read through the agreement, I am realizing more than ever all of the little details we will need to work out to make sure our special day goes off without a hitch.
Sources: Kurt Boomer Photo, Jessica Loren Organic Photography
With this venue we will need to bring in everything from tables and chairs, to bathrooms and a generator. We know this will be more work than a traditional wedding venue, but it will also allow for endless creative possibilities for all aspects of the wedding.
Sources: Kurt Boomer Photography
With gorgeous natural scenery, another huge perk is that we will be able to take all of our wedding photos on-site.
Sources: Braedon Photography, Kurt Boomer Photo
Do you have any pointers for finalizing a venue rental? What do you think are the most important things to look out for?
Planes, trains and automobiles...all three might be possible modes of transportation for our wedding weekend next July. Almost all of our guests will be traveling by plane and/or car to reach our (not-too-far-away) destination wedding town of Hood River, Oregon. The actual wedding location is about 15 miles south of Hood River. So, high on our list of priorities is making sure everyone can get easily to and from our venue without worrying about getting back after enjoying some adult beverages. Thankfully, our ceremony and reception are at the same place, so we just have to arrange transportation to the the wedding and back to town (a.k.a. the after party). So this week, I've been looking at different options for transportation. Not all of them work for our location, but they sure are fun to look at!
My friends had one of these red buses at their wedding last summer and it was awesome! Guests love them and (bonus!) they are such a perfect photo opp!
If I was getting married here in San Francisco, I would love to use trolleys! I used to live on the trolley line on California Street and even with that constant buzzing of the trolley line out my bedroom window, I never got sick of them.
School buses would be super fun and actually would work with our location...
Sources: top, bottom left, bottom right
As for the trains, there is actually a train in town that you can take around the area. Might be a fun pre-wedding day activity.
Did you provide transportation to and from your wedding? Any fun ideas that I'm missing?
Of the weddings I've been to in the past few years, I would say they have been about half DJs, half bands (and equally fun!). Like most wedding decisions, there are pros/cons with both options - if you have a DJ, you can play whatever music you want. If you have a band, it's like a mini concert at your wedding! So, for my own wedding, I could imagine either. Although when we visited our venue in-person, the first thing my fiance said about the dance floor was "it's begging for a band!" As long as the people on the dance floor look something like the ones below, I would be totally happy!
DJs are great because they can gauge what kind of music is working and play the next songs accordingly. You also have more flexibility with what you play. If you love a song and really want it played at your wedding, you don't have to worry that it's not on the band's list.
Bands are awesome too. They become the life of the party and people love a good show. They also come with a higher price tag, so that's something we are factoring in.
This past week Chris has been doing a ton of searching for bands online. It's been fun to listen what he finds. He's been playing everything from country music to steel drum bands...although we would probably go with something a little more versatile. ;-)
What's your take on band vs. DJ? If you know of any great (and affordable) Portland/Gorge area bands, please share!
