Btw, krazedgirl, that was an awesome post!

Quote :

"the ones I got from this thread: 2and3 2and3photography.com Michael Moss michaelmoss.com Story Photographers storyphotographers.com the ones I got from other references: Philip Schmidt philipschmidtphotography.com Portraits by Angelo portraitsbyangelo.com Neecie George neeciegeorge.com Hilton Pittman hiltonpittmanphotography.com Still Life Photography yourstilllifephotography.com Heather Swanner heatherswanner.com Amy Terrell @ Simple Moments simplemomentsphoto.com Melissa Kay melissakayphoto.com A Moment Like This amomentlikethis.net Bridal Spectrum bridalspectrum.com Carrie Richardson richardsonfry.com Dara Blakeley darablakeley.com Emory Lane emorylanephotography.com Jennifer Kidd kiddphotography.com Kevin Milz kevinmilz.com Kelly Martin kellymartinphotography.com Michelle Gunton michellegunton.com Nicole Faby nicolefabyphotography.com Robert Filcsik filcsikphoto.net Penny Noell pennynoell.com Michaels Memories michaelsmemories.com Megan Kime megankime.com Loebach Studios loebachstudios.com Simply Creative simplycreativephotography.com Pretty crazy huh?!"

[Edited on April 7, 2011 at 9:34 PM. Reason : K]

4/7/2011 9:33:17 PM

were ordering paper for our invites tomorrow.

ill post a pic of them
i designed them myself!

4/7/2011 9:45:44 PM

Well the original idea for centerpieces kind of fell through and now I'm kind of at a loss for what to do since we don't have much money left

4/8/2011 8:46:17 AM

mirror tiles? large center candle in cylindrical glass? with smaller votive candles around? flower petals? little paper sprinkles?

these are the kind of things we're doing....and buying a lot from craigslist

4/8/2011 10:22:12 AM

mirrored tile in center of table, hurricane globe on tile, with sand and shells in the globe


you are getting married at the beach, right?

Here is what my sis-in-law did @ her wedding. She got married in Wilmington


[Edited on April 8, 2011 at 10:46 AM. Reason : adding pic]

4/8/2011 10:31:16 AM

Awww that's awesome! Unfortunately I don't have the money to buy a bunch of glasses. I have some mason jars I could use I guess. Do you know where she got the fronds from?

4/8/2011 3:35:34 PM

we're thinking of hiring musicians for the ceremony......either solo (harp or violin) or duo (violin/cello).....any suggestions on which instrument for solo would be better?

also the florist is asking if we prefer corsage or wristlet for the mothers.....any suggestion?

4/8/2011 3:44:21 PM

What's the difference between a corsage and wristlet? Aren't that both worn on the wrist?

We're doing neither. At a 50-person wedding I'm sure everyone can figure out who the moms are

4/8/2011 3:49:28 PM

boutineer or whatever it is that they pin on you vs. the wrist.
yeah only 50 ppl.....but they gotta respect the groom's mom.
sadly my mom won't be at the wedding she passed away awhile ago

4/8/2011 4:01:34 PM

Our moms carried a single peony with them. They didn't want a corsage either pinned or on their wrist. So that's an option too

4/8/2011 4:19:57 PM

Quote :

"Unfortunately I don't have the money to buy a bunch of glasses."

My mom has a ton that I'm sure she wouldn't mind you borrowing.

You can get the fig leaves at a florist.

4/9/2011 8:59:49 AM

Thanks for all the compliments guys


April Sirit from Evoke Photography is our photographer. She's AMAZING.

And just as an FYI for those looking at photographers -- Story Photographers is actually taking on April and another lady to help out with their weddings, so no matter what you'll have a great photographer. I think the lady from Story Photographers (Ashley?) sometimes works as a second shooter with April. I <3 all their pictures.




I have a question about DJs. Who should I be looking for? I'm kind of lost as to what is too expensive.... Or is it worth it to try an iPod reception? Or maybe pay for a few hours of DJ then switch to iPod for all the drunkies?


anddddddd I would like some advice on our Save The Dates. Thoughts on these 3? (We are sending 3 different pics out, but to where everyone will only get 1 of the 3. Yeah I basically stole the idea from Joie. We're going to have a different color scheme for each, so ignore the blue on the test shot...)







[Edited on April 10, 2011 at 4:53 PM. Reason : ps DJ Lauren: I think I'm gonna submit that paw pic to Awkward Family Photos ]

[Edited on April 10, 2011 at 5:05 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on April 10, 2011 at 5:06 PM. Reason : pss, I think I would prefer it saying "Sam & Eric"]

4/10/2011 4:50:33 PM

#1

4/10/2011 5:53:45 PM

i freaking love them all...

but number two is totally my favorite!




(by the way i dont know if i told yall this but our save the dates were a hit! i found out that people were getting together asking eachother what one they got!
so youre gonna <3 it sam! )


[Edited on April 10, 2011 at 6:31 PM. Reason : i like "sam and eric" too btw]

4/10/2011 6:26:46 PM

#2 but it needs to be vivid like #1 and not washed out

4/10/2011 7:42:53 PM

Washed out? :\ I thought it looked soft and vintage-y... Our photographer edited it that way so I can't change the colors

I think I didn't write it out properly... We're using all three of those, I just want to make sure they're all ok

More clarification:

#1 will probably go out to our immediate family and just close family in general
#2 will be our friends
#3 will probably go to family friends and distant relatives


[Edited on April 10, 2011 at 8:35 PM. Reason : .]

4/10/2011 8:24:03 PM

I like #1, #2, #3 in that order
#1 - Love the closeup, the candidness of the picture, and the love that is radiating not to mention the red in the dress with the black shirt contrasts really well and adds color to the card.

[Edited on April 10, 2011 at 11:33 PM. Reason : k]

4/10/2011 11:33:14 PM

Thanks

So is the consensus that all 3 are good to send out? Plus, would it be way too early to send them out in May (a year from our date)?

4/10/2011 11:45:04 PM

my order (though i like them all is): #2, #1, #3

but they are all super awesome. i like them all for diff reasons. but i think the people you have each one being sent to (the groups of people) is as it should be!!

but #2 is sososososososos freaking cute!!!! like cute-cute. #1 is cute in the awwwww puppylove bunnieskittensfluffybabyanimalsi'mgoingtocry type of way. lol.

4/11/2011 12:38:44 AM

oh another reason I like #1 is because it's a closeup and personal, and thus the focus is on the couple as it should be....#2 seems a bit small and "far away" and makes me squint to see who the couple is and the focus is lost with the surroundings



[Edited on April 11, 2011 at 1:05 AM. Reason : k]

4/11/2011 1:04:37 AM

^^^ I would think it's still a little far out for Save The Dates. You don't want people to get it and forget about it since the wedding isn't for a while.

4/11/2011 8:28:30 AM

If most of your guests are coming from out of town and need time to buy plane tickets etc I don't think it's too soon. If most of your guests are in the Triangle area I would wait until six months before the wedding.

4/11/2011 8:32:49 AM

^I agree...maybe 8 months if you're feeling really anxious/excited to get them mailed out

And I love all of them; Number 3 is my favorite but then again I'm a sucker for having dogs involved in anything at the same time the dress you chose is so fabulous it's hard not to love that one too! plus it's super cute

Quote :

"i found out that people were getting together asking eachother what one they got!"

similar thing happened to us once people realized there was more than 1 version. it's a lot of fun for sure and if you have a website (especially if you're putting the link on your std), put all three versions up so people can see them!

4/11/2011 9:49:53 AM

^true!!

so 2 weeks ago i got another fitting for my dress.

i really really really wanna post a pic of a portion of the skirt. (its made from the lace of an old wedding dress i found at a goodwill in dunn....)

i'm stopping myself now but man oh man its hard



my next fitting is sunday AND they are taking cody and i to japanese!

4/12/2011 11:30:55 AM

My dress should be here by the end of this week! So excited!!

Also got the menu cards and escort cards done. Now I need to work on my vows

Quote :

" AND they are taking cody and I to japanese!"

Wat

4/12/2011 12:07:26 PM

^i wanna see you in it! (i promise i wont show anyone! )


they said they wanna take us out to lunch, so of course we said yes

4/12/2011 1:10:09 PM

Oh hah I thought it was a typo not a cuisine

I'll take pics once it arrives

4/12/2011 1:56:41 PM

what's everyone's take on babies at the wedding?

I prefer not to and have told my friends who asked because it's my special day and ppl have told me that:

1. babies can ruin the mood
2. it's our day
3. parents can't enjoy

but my bridesmaid wants to bring her baby.....what to do? this is the same bridesmaid that was telling me what bridesmaid dress/color she prefers to order instead. What a B !!

4/13/2011 10:46:11 AM

imho i think she should totally respect your wishes.

i'm not in a situation like this (we dont really care too much about the baby situation and also i wouldn't mind for my nephews to make an appearance )

4/13/2011 10:56:47 AM

another friend told me to send a note to all guests stating this is an adult wedding and if they need babysitting help, we can recommend babysitters.

is that a good approach? does anyone have any good wording I can use?

argh ...i'm fuming now!

4/13/2011 10:59:40 AM

We've gone the route of not mentioning it in our invitations. If need be, we'll spread word unofficially that it's preferred for people to not bring their children.

4/13/2011 11:01:05 AM

Bad bad etiquette to explicitly say it with the invite. There are a few implicit ways to say no kids: late night reception, list all invited people on the rsvp with a checkbox yes/no, etc. If people ask if their kid is invited then you can talk about a babysitter.

Personally though if I was a bridesmaid and was told my baby was unwelcome that would kind of piss me off. It would also piss me off if it was a family wedding and told that. Depending on the venue you could hire a babysitter and have a kids room. I have been to a wedding that did this and it went over VERY well. Kids could hang out watching Spongebob while parents did whatever. I know that at least one guest said if the room hadn't been an option they wouldn't have gone to the wedding because finding a babysitter was a pain in the ass.

Offbeat bride also has some great articles on the sticky situation of weddings and kids.

4/13/2011 11:19:19 AM

but if you were the bridesmaid, wouldn't you understand that this is the bride's one special day in her life, not your babies's day. i mean, you can't hire a babysitter or ask your mother-in-law for just this one day? i find it hard to believe that.

and also, i already told another friend that we prefer not to have baby and she said no problem she will hire a babysitter.

so how does it look now to let one of my bridesmaid bring a baby

[Edited on April 13, 2011 at 11:26 AM. Reason : k]

4/13/2011 11:22:48 AM

Quote :

"so how does it look now to let one of my bridesmaid bring a baby"

yeah-that is a quandary!

cody and i at one point were deciding on no kids.
but then i wanted my nephews to be there and we thought it would look tacky (of course this is out opinion)

maybe you could mention that the other girl offered to hire a babysitter?
i dont know how you would approach that though...how close is everyone (family, friends?) ?

4/13/2011 12:12:09 PM

how old is this baby?

I would sit her down and tell her that you would appreciate it if she would hire a sitter. Bring up the part about your other friend hiring a sitter.

4/13/2011 12:35:20 PM

The reason it would piss me off is I'm already spending a lot of time and money as a bridesmaid to be told my kid is just an unwelcome brat. And maybe her kid is but now is not a great time to let her know this. You're just going to need to tread lightly in how you inform people of this decision.

Also keep in if a lot of friends have kids, try as you might don't be surprised if some show up anyway. This happened at my friend's wedding last year. She really didn't want kids there, spread the word around by having a late wedding and having people spread the word for her and still one of her friends showed up with her young baby. It was alright in the end though as the baby slept most of the time and the couple left early.

For me I decided I didn't care if people brought their kids. It would be hypocritical to say my cousins' kids are party but not my friends. Most weddings I've been to the kids were not a nuisance and brought some cute action to the dance floor. It's about deciding if you want to mount that battle, which may be worth it if it's only a few people with kids, or just going with the flow.

[Edited on April 13, 2011 at 12:46 PM. Reason : T]

[Edited on April 13, 2011 at 12:48 PM. Reason : Phone]

4/13/2011 12:45:05 PM

If you're going to request others not bring their youngins, it's best to not have any children there. Most people will be cool with the adults-only wedding, but there are a few that will pitch a fit, and if they come w/o kids and see a child there - well you can imagine they'd be pissed.

My now brother-in-law and his wife were so angry about us having an adults-only wedding that they chose not to come entirely. It was a crappy situation (mostly because they never even brought their issues up with us, they just told his mom they were not planning on attending) that might have been avoided had we all just had a discussion about it.

4/13/2011 12:49:09 PM

How old will the baby be? If she's nursing you've got an entirely different issue on your hand.

But we purposefully did not put kids on the invites except for immediate family, and people still brought their kids. There were ~8 under the age of 10. Youngest was 6 mos. It didn't ruin the day.

But if she's nursing...I dunno. I'll be in a wedding ~3 mos post our due date, and while we won't be taking the little one since my in-laws live nearby, I'll at least be carrying around a cooler, my pump, and ice packs to quietly step away every 2-3 hours to pump. If she doesn't have that option or prefers not to pump for nipple confusion reasons, you may have to allow it...

[Edited on April 13, 2011 at 12:51 PM. Reason : And note that some women nurse for a full year...they do solids too, but they do still nurse]

4/13/2011 12:49:33 PM

i never thought about nursing!



this made me think of a wedding i went to recently.
children were allowed (the couple had a daughter) and during their first dance their niece ran up to go dance with them. some people may have thought it was cute but i would not have been happy if it were my child. the bride handled it very well, she didn't really mind. even when the little girl had to be pried away so that they could dance with their daughter >.<

4/13/2011 12:52:35 PM

the baby is a little over a year old..... the only other guest with a baby i told her i prefer not to have babies and she said no problem she'll find a babysitter....i plan to resolve this with my bridesmaid privately.

i guess it's just the boiling relationship i have with this bridesmaid and this was the tipping point
she's my childhood friend and we've always kept in touch so i have to invite her

but here is just a sampling of some of the run-ins i've had with her

1. she doesn't like my groom, always badmouths him to me but that's normal since she's always badmouthed all my ex-bfs for no reason when i was dating them, and then the moment i break up, she's like. oh why'd you break up, that guy was really good for you

2. she wanted me to give her a tour of my new place, then when she came she trashed it saying i overpaid, it was small, blah blah

3. she expected me to pay for her bridesmaid dress, then she tried to change the style/color on me

4. i had a civil marriage at the courthouse recently because i wanted it to be on the anniversary day of my mom's passing and she said why the hell do another ceremony/reception then, it would be pointless and stupid...i was like b/c i want to have a celebration with friends and always envisioned walking down the aisle......she also said just b/c i had the civil marriage on the day of my mom's passing, it wouldn't erase the bad memory of that day

probably more drama than yall care for hahaa

4/13/2011 1:06:54 PM

Just curious, but why did you make her a bridesmaid? I understand inviting her but there must gave been more to it then that for choosing her as a bridesmaid.

My aunt gave me awesome advice concerning choosing bridesmaids. She told me to treat it like I'm hiring an employee. If I have a close friend who is also a train wreck when it comes to being responsible, is it fair of me to expect them to magically become responsible during my wedding planning? It really made me sit and think about who to choose and my final list definitely was not what I expected. But it's worked out wonderfully because the girls I did choose have been incredibly helpful and supportive, whereas with some other people I considered I could have totally seen them becoming major drama llamas lol.

4/13/2011 1:14:45 PM

i made her a bridesmaid b/c i was her maid of honor, i've known her the longest since childhood, she claims i'm the baby's godmother, and i have no other real close female friends to replace her...

so i guess it was more out of respect than anything else

i do have another maid of honor who's been super supportive and helpful throughout this whole wedding process not to mention she's here locally as opposed to the bridesmaid

[Edited on April 13, 2011 at 1:24 PM. Reason : k]

4/13/2011 1:23:09 PM

man that sucks. i hope you get everything situated out!

4/13/2011 1:25:40 PM

Im glad all you girls enjoy this. I am not. My fiancee is fortunately doing most of the planning and then just making sure things are fine with me. How can I tell her that I dont care too much about many of these decisions in a polite way?

4/13/2011 2:20:47 PM

On a scale of 1 to 10 how pissed would y'all (brides) be is the MOH didn't go to the bridal shower luncheon? >_<

4/13/2011 2:39:28 PM

^^ occamsrezr said,"I care about a, b, and c. Everything else I have zero opinion."

^ Depends why she didn't come.

4/13/2011 3:01:09 PM

^^ definitely depends. Would you have missed hers for the same reason?

4/13/2011 4:31:24 PM

Considering how little I care about wedding I don't think I would have a luncheon to begin with me and peter have to work till 6 on Thursday. And the luncheon is at 1130 on Friday with a 5 and a half hour drive. Maybe I should just suck it up and try to make it.

4/13/2011 6:21:58 PM

Why you making Peter go to a bridal shower?

4/13/2011 7:26:39 PM

Quote :

"and i have no other real close female friends to replace her..."

unless you're a stickler for even numbers in your bridal party...no need to replace her. when i had a falling out with a bridesmaid that resulted in her no longer being in our wedding, I didn't replace her. i didn't b/c i thought asking the replacement to be a bridesmaid would not be very kind to that person considering i didn't ask her (or him) to begin with...

4/13/2011 8:16:10 PM