here are my bridesmaids' dress, some are cut different, but everyone used this fabric.
p.s. our them is antique vintage.

6/21/2010 8:59:22 PM

^that is beautiful!

6/21/2010 9:01:30 PM

went to a reception that had a margarita machine

it was pretty much the best reception ever

6/21/2010 9:03:43 PM

See! That's what I'm talking about!!

I know this is a rad idea. I'm just going to have to save up the money for the machine and say to hell with what everyone else thinks

6/21/2010 9:10:30 PM

^^That's what I want at mine.

Weddings are expensive. We're getting a planner for $4k, videographer for $4k and expecting the pictures to be pricey too. I'm interested to see how much food/drinks/venue and all that will add to the tab. Luckily we're getting married next fall so we should have plenty of time to plan.

6/21/2010 10:24:05 PM

4k for a wedding planner And I'm freaking out that my booze, catering, photography, dress, and venue are coming in at just under 5k

6/21/2010 10:27:01 PM

Yeah, the planner comes recommended by a few friends that have used her and she has a track record of making up the cost in savings at different vendors. It's flat fee so she doesn't have an incentive to get us signed up with more expensive places. She also manages the budget, goes on all the vendor visits, does all the invitations/rsvp's and helps to keep my fiance's sanity .

6/22/2010 7:51:53 AM

budget is a must. just our food and venue came in right at under 24k, due this friday

[Edited on June 22, 2010 at 8:04 AM. Reason : ]

6/22/2010 8:03:53 AM

^i feel your pain.

6/22/2010 8:07:55 AM

$24K is like.. double our budget.

(Well, not counting the photog, because Eric's parents really wanted to pay for that part so I don't include it but even with that added in, it's still almost double... eek..)


Seeing as my sister got engaged this past weekend and might get married the fall before my wedding, I'm really feeling pressure to cut our budget to help my mama out... Definitely doing Sam's club flowers, DIY invites, decorations, everything.

6/22/2010 8:36:02 AM

when we started all this planning, i had it in my head that we would probably end up spending around 35k total. i felt like that would be ok. we never made a budget, and you would be surprised at how quickly and easily it is to blow by your estimate.

our total is a lot higher. what makes it worse is that her parents are divorced and her dad is kind of a douche when it comes to helping pay for stuff. ive ended up putting about 10k of my own money into this whole thing.

6/22/2010 8:59:30 AM

^ that was kind of our situation (not with 35k tho.. we aren't rolling in $ over here )

We said we'd spend 15k max, but its definitely coming in a lot higher. My father said he "preferred to decline in assisting with our wedding." Mom's helping a little, but it's still hard to swallow spending that much on one day. Especially since most of the cost is a result of it being in Charleston. Same event in Columbia or Raleigh would probably be 25% cheaper, if not more.

[Edited on June 22, 2010 at 9:14 AM. Reason : .]

6/22/2010 9:08:29 AM

Quote :

"just our food and venue came in right at under 24k"

i...can't fathom spending that much money, especially on just the food and venue

i am NOT judging, and, IIRC, that's about average for this area, but we're having:

- 200 guests (guesstimate at 80% of invited)
- booze (wine and beer only, but unlimited for guests)
- stations (like a buffet, but with pasta, fajita, and meat carving stations, where the pasta and fajita stations have a grill for veggies and meat and each is manned by servers, so people don't really serve themselves)
- country club venue (it's on a lake and we love it...the ceremony will be outside on the lake and the reception will be in the ballroom with the ceiling-to-floor windows overlooking the lake...in any case, i wouldn't consider it cheaping out)
- 2 photographers
- 1 videographer
- DJ

and we're right on budget (including miscellaneous things like flowers, cake, centerpieces, favors, etc)

i'm just not sure what else we would spend money on that we're unhappy with...i guess we'll know if we missed something or cheaped out when it's all said and done, but right now, i'm pretty proud of how well we've done

6/22/2010 9:21:21 AM

Y'all are baller. Our budget is 5k

6/22/2010 9:22:06 AM

^ Ours is $10ish...

6/22/2010 9:26:30 AM

we decided to get married at the biltmore estate in asheville. (hard to believe that it is only 10 days away)

my fiance and i live in blacksburg va, her family lives in morganton nc, mine lives in fayetteville, greensboro and DC, all our friends live in raleigh. we decided that instead of picking a place close to one group, we would let everyone travel to where we wanted to have it.

6/22/2010 9:35:57 AM

that's awesome...gorgeous place

6/22/2010 9:40:22 AM

^^^ Honestly I wish we had 10k because it would make things SO much easier. I'm really stressing over how we're going to keep this wedding within budget right now.

[Edited on June 22, 2010 at 9:40 AM. Reason : d]

6/22/2010 9:40:44 AM

With the addition of my sister's wedding, I'm wondering if my parents will be able to afford mine + hers. I'm prepared to take a cut... then go take Eric's parents up on their offer to help

6/22/2010 10:13:12 AM

i guess it also helped that we reserved the biltmore as our venue almost 19 months ago.

6/22/2010 10:25:12 AM

ours is 10K. We're having it in Hawaii on the beach where they filmed Lost. (figured that'd be kinda cool). We both wanted a beach wedding, and we weighed Hawaii vs OBX and figured fuck it, lets do Hawaii, we can go to OBX anytime.

6/22/2010 10:38:52 AM

we had to fight my fiancée's mom in order to pay for the wedding...i figure if i'm not getting two goats and 5 acres as her dowry, there's no reason to let the bride's family pay for the wedding

6/22/2010 11:20:05 AM

Man, I would love if either of our parents would offer to pitch in. So far nada.

6/22/2010 11:34:22 AM

^We're not asking her parents since her mom is a teacher and her dad is retired. My parents have agreed to pay for the rehearsal dinner but we haven't talked about anything else with them. We're planning to pay for the wedding ourselves.

6/22/2010 11:57:47 AM

We wanted to do alcohol self serve, but they wouldn't let us -illegal in NC

but I am sure some places won't mind.

yeah my planner was 3.5k, not worth it, she's a bitch. (although she does get stuff done, but kinda doesn't give us the time of day b/c we aren't spending over 6figures on the wedding.)

6/22/2010 12:53:11 PM

Our budget is 10K. I cannot spend more than that and feel okay about it...personally speaking.

6/22/2010 5:49:59 PM

^^ That sucks about your wedding planner. I'm so anal retentive about details in general I knew it would be a waste of money to hire myself a planner. I can do all that shit myself and probably better than the average wedding planner

Quote :

"We wanted to do alcohol self serve, but they wouldn't let us -illegal in NC but I am sure some places won't mind."

Yeah, this shit sucks. Luckily we're getting a bartender from a friend. We're letting him set up a tip jar for payment

6/23/2010 4:30:41 AM

Just ordered a hair clip off Etsy. Can't wait for it to arrive

Got it from here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/gochemoche

Some of her brooches are cute as can be too. Too bad I never wear brooches.

6/23/2010 11:31:10 AM

^ those are really nice. what color did you get? pic?

6/23/2010 12:04:55 PM

found a pic of my shoes. they crack me up -they are just too over the top. and I like gold and pearls.



[Edited on June 23, 2010 at 12:24 PM. Reason : too no to]

6/23/2010 12:23:47 PM

those are so freaking awesome.

6/23/2010 1:25:45 PM

^^^ I did a custom order in aqua and red

6/23/2010 6:01:25 PM

One day. just one day, i'll be able to actually post info in this thread.

6/24/2010 2:25:38 PM

ahh yes, me too. my bf caught me looking at it like WTF

6/24/2010 4:35:41 PM

From the couponing thread - This would be good for those of you who are buying liquor for your weddings. My venue does not allow liquor so I figured I'd pass on the information.

Quote :

"This isnt "grocery store", but it was in one of the coupon booklets and is definitely worth mentioning. There is a rebate form to save up to $25 off certain brands of liquor. If you go to the ABC Store, you can find a rebate form which will tell you which brands are eligible...$4 off 1 bottle, $10 off 2 bottles, and $25 off 3 bottles. All bottles must be 750mL, and although the list is limited, Crown Royal, Captain Morgan, Jose Cuervo, and Smirnoff are included. Also, noticed there were $10 rebate forms for Crown Royal itself, if you dont feel like buying that much liquor at once."

[Edited on June 24, 2010 at 7:29 PM. Reason : oopsie daisy!]

6/24/2010 7:27:28 PM

T minus 3 days

6/29/2010 9:53:35 AM

Quote :

"Our budget is 10K. I cannot spend more than that and feel okay about it...personally speaking."

that's how we felt about the budget we set...i certainly don't judge others for their weddings and how much they choose (or can afford) to spend, but we figured that if we couldn't do it within our budget, we'd simply cut out some things

fortunately, we've been very lucky in that we should be able to do everything we want within that budget without cutting out anything

6/29/2010 10:25:49 AM

^I hope we are that lucky too.

I have gotten some big stuff out of the way without spending too much- centerpieces, dress and veil, bridesmaid gifts, save the dates and invitations(print at home), favor boxes and some glassware for our candy bar, and the ceremony/reception fee for just under 4000.

Now we need to figure out the music/DJ....Photography (it pisses me off that every person we find is over $2000....), and the cetering....My fiance's parents offered to pay for the rehearsal dinner and my mom is going to give us a little money so we are doing pretty well so far.

I just found out today we have someone who will marry us...we just have to pay for his lodging at the beach in lieu of a "tip"...We are sending out our save the dates soon. They will be more expensive to mail than your typical post card...but they are messages in a bottle and I think they are adorable!

6/29/2010 11:19:54 AM

I never wanted to spend this much! but my dad keeps insisting. (Arab's mom had to have a church) so we had to do the traditional route and go all out.

I just really wanted the check!

and a small outdoor wedding with lots of liquor and good food.

and leftover $$$ for house payments and jewelry

I didn't get any jewelry
or what I wanted.
that's why my dad wants to play "you don't always get what you want" by the rolling stones at the wedding.

[Edited on June 29, 2010 at 12:18 PM. Reason : .]

6/29/2010 12:17:13 PM

Quote :

"it pisses me off that every person we find is over $2000...."

Our photographers are $1800 if I remember correctly. But I also signed the contract in late 2009 so I don't know if maybe their prices have risen since then.

6/29/2010 12:42:12 PM

^Who is that?

Thanks for the PM quagmire. That's a good tip

I did find a guy I realllllly like and he is only 1600 but I don't think he shoots natural light so flash+aquarium=

6/30/2010 2:55:37 AM

Quote :

"Thanks for the PM quagmire. That's a good tip "

you're welcome...let me know if you go with them

Quote :

"I did find a guy I realllllly like and he is only 1600 but I don't think he shoots natural light so flash+aquarium= "

what makes you think that? i only ask because i would assume most photographers would prefer to shoot "natural" light if it's sufficient...the problem is that many weddings that are indoors have poor lighting and they have to use diffused flashes or shoot with a higher ISO (which can make it grainy)

i see your point, though...flashes in an aquarium FTL

6/30/2010 8:22:43 AM

YAYYYY i'm done with my rotation so this month (starting next week actually) i will be balls to the wall planning. starting back next week .
the bakers never got back in touch with me (when we went and we told them what we wanted-they had never done it before and had no idea how to estimate the cost, they said theyd get back ahold of me in about a week...and that was about a month ago!)
i think since i contacted them so far in advance they were taking their sweet time and i may have gotten pushed back. i'm gonna call em back and explain i want most things set now and we can go over details next year.

btw

Quote :

"flash+aquarium= "

i would not have though of that! this is why im posting some of my plans in here. for you guys to double check em



[Edited on June 30, 2010 at 9:58 AM. Reason : gg for thinking of that]

6/30/2010 9:57:49 AM

If you need a harmonica player, let me know. I own a Hohner Special 20.

6/30/2010 10:00:48 AM

LOL

i got a mental image of pachabels canon via the harmonica.

6/30/2010 10:14:52 AM

Quote :

"Who is that?"

Story Photographers. Ashley is amazing!! Here's their blog: http://www.tellingyourstoryphotographers.com/

6/30/2010 10:39:15 AM

^^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ1a6BqHR08

6/30/2010 2:28:07 PM

I think this is the location we're going to go with. Haven't decided officially, but it's high on our list.

http://www.thepalmerbuilding.com/

6/30/2010 2:44:42 PM

Finalized the reception menu today...Doesn't sound huge, but we only have 15 people attending...and that includes us.


Appetizers
Imported & Domestic Cheese Tray
Fresh Vegetable Crudite
Miniature Crab Cakes w/ Choron Sauce
Tempura Shrimp w/ Sweet and Sour Sauce
Fruit Punch Served In A Festive Punch Bowl With Fresh Fruit

Salads
Caesar Salad
Chef's Selection Fresh Tossed Seasonal Salad

Entrees
Sliced Marinated Beef Tenderloin w/ Shitake Mushroom Sauce*
Free Range Chicken Breast w/ Black Truffle Jus*
Lobster Ravioli w/ Vodka Cream Sauce*

*Chef's Choice of seasonal vegetable and potato or Rice
Artisian Rolls and butter

Wedding Cake
2 Tier Buttercream Wedding Cake

Beverages
Freshly Brewed Coffee, Decaf, Tea and Herbal Teas

Champagne Toast
One glass of champagne or sparkling cider per person

3-Hour Hosted Bar Service
Call brands, domestic and imported beers, house wine, assorted sodas and bottled water

6/30/2010 4:11:26 PM

Finalized my menu....

Appetizers
BACON
BACON
BACON
BACON
BACON

Salads
BACON
BACON

Entrees
BACON
BACON
BACON

BACON
BACON

Wedding Cake
BACON

Beverages
BACON

Champagne Toast
BACON

3-Hour Hosted Bar Service
BACON

6/30/2010 4:42:09 PM