The last (I think?!) in the wedding planning series...
OTHER (SOMETIMES COSTLY) DETAILS
Day-of Wedding Planner. Hired the lady that was affiliated with the venue. She was worth her weight in gold. She had suggestions for vendors, she knew the venue like the back of her hand, helped get the tables and decor setup the day of, met with us for the rehearsal, and most importantly, she kept the flow of the event moving and made sure everything and everyone was where they were intended to be. She also helped with clean up, who wants to make their loved ones take out garbage after a fun event like this?!Officiant. Hired someone through a coworker’s suggestion. At the last minute, she couldn’t do the ceremony because she had to be out-of-town for her day job but she hooked me up with someone else she knew. The situation felt a little stressful, but the stand-in lady did a great job (walking cast and all!) and we lucked out that her fee was small too.
Photographer. We loved our photographer (Alyona
Photography)! I found her portfolio online and loved the style of her photos.
We had her do our engagement pics earlier in the year to make sure she was a
good fit (yes!) and we were thrilled that she was available to do our wedding
too. Not cheap, but totally worth it!! The “you get what you pay for” mantra is
very true here.
Videographer. This was a somewhat last minute decision. I’m
glad we have some video of the event but didn’t feel the final output was as
good of quality as I’d have hoped for and I felt like the videographer have
more in the way of interviewing guests in regard to “advice for the newlyweds”.
We went with a lower budget on this and I guess “you get what you pay for” is
apt here too.
Photobooth. While fun, it was an expense that we could’ve
passed on. Maybe if we had a larger, younger crowd and/or the attendant
encouraged more photos it would’ve been more worth it. Leaving out a Polaroid
camera with instructions to take selfies would’ve worked just as well and saved
a bunch!
Food. We had our favorite BBQ restaurant cater (Home Team
BBQ). So tasty. I don’t care if anyone else was jazzed about the food, I loved
it! They brought shrimp and grits appetizers, smoked pulled pork and chicken,
mac n cheese… yum! There were some other sides too but I think that I’ve covered
the important things. The cost wasn’t cheap but not over the top either.
Totally happy with our choice on this detail.
Cake. Rather than getting a huge, expensive cake that we’d
have to have someone cut and put on plates (that we’d have to either buy or
rent), we opted for cupcakes and a small cake for the bride and groom to cut
into. I purchased a special cake knife and had it engraved with our wedding
date and names. I’m not a huge fan of cheesy things but I like to have some
mementos of special occasions! We hired someone I found locally (via
Craigslist) to make the cupcakes. She made a couple of different flavors and
they were so tasty! She was also much more affordable than the boutique cupcake
stores around town and totally open to suggestions on flavors. I ordered some
chevron covered cupcake tier stands online to display them on. A couple of my
coworkers helped out with the small cake, one made the cake (it was made to
look like a birch tree stump, plus it was delicious!!) and the other sculpted a
set of super adorable owls as the cake topper. I keep the owl family on display
at home and absolutely love them!! I had originally planned to make the owl
family cake toppers myself but was running out of time to do the task well.
Luckily, I have talented work buddies! We were very pleased about how all of
the “cake” details turned out.
Drinks. Joe made 4 different kegs of homebrew and we bought
wine, liquor, and mixers. I bought some glass jugs with serving spouts to hold
sweet tea and “wedding brew” (a mixture of lemonade and blue Hawaiian Punch).
We hired a bartender to serve all the tasty adult beverages. I think she did
ok, I didn’t interact with her much but it seemed like everyone who wanted
drinks had them and I don’t think anyone complained. We purchased mason jars that we had personalized (as mentioned in a previous post) for everyone to drink out of but had back up plastic cups too, for the kids and people who wanted to taste test the homebrew. Joe built a chalkboard and I decorated it with the drink menu.
DJ. Our friend had a friend who DJs weddings on the weekends
and we asked him to be our DJ because we were looking to cut corners on costs
and he was willing to “cut us a deal”. I had requested that he not be totally
cheesy for our event and his solution was to be mono-toned and not friendly to
the guests… or maybe that’s just how he is? Either way, hindsight says that we
should have found a moderately priced DJ with decent online reviews since we
didn’t really know him to begin with and still ended up having to pay him a
large enough sum.
Flowers. As mentioned above, we had a florist do the bridal
bouquet and the bridesmaid bouquets (OK Florist). My bouquet had blue
hydrangeas and blue-purple orchids - loved them!! We didn’t do floral
arrangements on the tables (though some tables had the repurposed bridesmaid
bouquets) and I think it was a wise decision. I could’ve thrown together some
store-bought fresh flowers for our bouquets but already had way too many things
to do with my parents and sister staying with us and had already committed to
making the rainbow fruit-skewer appetizers too. We also had the florist make
corsages for the mothers of the bride and groom. Not a must-have but they were
pretty blue-purple orchids that I also had in my bouquet. As mentioned, I ordered Joe’s
boutonniere from Etsy, it had hops and grains and was super cute. And I made the groomsmen’s boutonnieres and we also gave them to the fathers of the
bride and groom.
Rentals. We had to rent chairs, tables, and tablecloths.
Doesn’t sound like much but can still run you a hefty chunk of change! We
priced a couple of companies and ultimately went with the one our day-of
planner suggested as they had some chevron table runners I was really excited
about, they were competitively priced, and our planner assured us everything
would be perfect. They forgot to order the chevron table runners. WHAT?! Ok, at
this point you are probably thinking, “who cares about table runners?!” but it
was part of the overall look I had in mind so it was a disappointment for me!!
Otherwise, things went fine (and I eventually got the money refunded for the no
show items) but I wouldn’t recommend the company to anyone else.
Transportation. We rented a shuttle to take people back and
forth from the hotel to the venue so people could have a good time and not have
to worry about drinking and driving. Probably a good idea but maybe not totally
necessary. We weren’t in an area where people could easily get a cab. Also
rented a “getaway” limo for the bride and groom. The limo was kind of a silly
extra as it was just me and Joe and the hotel wasn’t terribly far away.
GENERAL ADVICE:
Get a day-of planner, if nothing
else. It’s worth every penny knowing somebody’s got your back to make sure that
everything gets taken care of, vendors all arrive, and that the pace of events
goes smoothly. If you can afford afull-blown wedding planner, I would imagine
that it would be very helpful – especially if you work full-time otherwise
and/or have kids!!
Make a list of all the stuff you
may possibly need or want to do. Cross off the stuff you don’t care about. Check off "done" items as you go. Keep
the visual reminder of progress and the things that still need
attention.
Allow people to help you. Dole
out some responsibilities to responsible friends and/or family members. I’m so
guilty of piling more projects than I can handle because I want to do them or
I’m too paranoid about how someone else would complete the task. Prioritize!
People will tell you that it’s
YOUR day. It’s really not. You probably have put a lot of blood, sweat, and
tears into it but don’t trick yourself into believing that you really can just do
whatever you want without consequences!! There are lots of people’s feelings to
consider and take comfort in knowing that it is not possible to keep everyone happy all the time. That said, it IS
your day to have a great time and to be MARRIED!
Try to have some perspective,
it’s a really fabulous, important day – but it’s just a day. Relax! I think that
keeping in mind that things don’t always work out perfectly will help you to unwind
and roll with the punches. And in the end, you are married!! That’s the end
goal, right?! J
No comments:
Post a Comment