Friday, October 30, 2009

News!

Hello,Wow! What a week!

1. The navy blue envelopes came and Steve started addressing them
2. Michael Latarski the amazing Chef at Rosemont got back to us with his menu ideas. (That's right I am going to share them here first)-No promises about what we'll end up with but here's what he said

Hi Miranda,

I hope all of your planning is going good and i wanted to run some ideas by you, after working the entire summer and seeing what all the other weddings were doing I wanted to do something different for you. I know we had talked about a family style dinner, are you still interested in this due to your liking of making your wedding not feel like a wedding and more like a family gathering.

Ive decided on going with a artisan cheese board with all mild, and sharp cheeses with fresh fruit, No stinky cheese just as your had mentioned.

My placed Salad would be a mixed green salad with dried cherries, apricots, candied walnuts and white French dressing.

A light appetizer would be a salmon pinwheel, which consists of smoked salmon boursin cheese cucumber and chive. I understand that there are a couple of people that do not care for seafood. for them or for the entire wedding I was thinking a Artichoke heart stuffed with toasted marscapone cheese on a toast point. It is very light and very easy to eat and going with a fall theme since you are getting married in October.

My main dishes were a little bit harder to come up with due to the diverse liking of your guests. Just some ideas that I came up with

Stuffed Chicken Sundried Tomato, Spinach, Mozzarella Cheese, With Balsamic Reduction or Basil Cream
I know that you had said no meat but that your husband was a big red meat eater, if we wanted to add a red meat dish i would recommend a roasted herb spiced ball tip( very tender sirloin) with a hearty demi glace( Fancy word for Gravy)
Pasta Primavera (squash, zucchini, roasted peppers, Red Sauce or White Sauce or light pesto cream)
Starch Wild Mushroom Risotto, or Vegetable
Veggies- Marinated Grilled Portabella Mushroom Salad, Roasted Red Peppers Buffalo Mozzarella
Italian Green Beans with Crushed Garlic and vine ripened tomatoes.

Love him! We are still a year away and he's done such a nice job with his very first round of suggestions. Honestly, we'll do so tweaking, but great job. We also found out that their event coordinator Jodi is leaving at the beginning of 2010. Hopefully, whoever takes her place will be just as good.

I realize I mis-typed in my last post about photographers, we actually still have a top 6. We have got to get this narrowed down soon. If you have any comments about these guys let me know.


We also still have to pick a DJ, which is seriously turning into the nightmare of this wedding. Steve is ready to just go with one that we have, but I think if we are going to pay someone to play music they need to guarantee they will play the right music. So we are still talking about it.

In Dress news: I think I found the bridesmaids dresses.
It is a cocktail length wrap dress that can be worn about a million different ways. See the video on different styles here. All of the sizes come in a range because it's a wrap and can be tightened and loosened a bit, so nothing needs to be fitted or tailored. It comes in a gorgeous deep midnight blued (unlike the "marine" David's Bridal was trying to pass off as midnight blue). It is made of a matte jersey material so new icky shiny photos and it's hand washable. Oh and it's only $150, so affordable for even the most cash strapped bridesmaid. I'm really excited about it, but almost think it's too good to be true. There are a couple of stores that carry the dress in our area, so hopefully we'll have another girls outing soon.

As for my dress, I'm finally getting organized. Just going to a large bridal store didn't work, so I am readying the spreadsheet. So far I have a list of about 40 stores in our area and I am initially cross-referencing them with styles they carry (b/c it's easy to do). That way I can narrow it to a smaller population of stores that carry the most styles I like. I'm also adding in specific style numbers from designer websites that I want to try on. The style numbers are the next level of the cross, but will require actually calling stores and if I'm doing that I might as well be booking appointments.

The website is coming along (I know everyone is dying to see it, *snicker, snicker*). I'm really struggling with first person vs. 3rd and striking a balanced tone. There's such a difference between talking to your college buddies and your grandma...harder than it sounds. It's also tough b/c there is a lot I want to cram in there, but don't have enough images at this point to break it up. I'm becoming my own worst client. I did finally get Steve to cough up some pictures for the movie (what movie? you ask- yes, yet another project I started). It will be terrific!

So, progress is slowly but surely being made. 11 months and 11 days to go. I feel a little un-organized and unprepared, but I suppose events are always like that.

This weekend's to do list (in case you are keeping score)

1. Scan in Steve's pictures
2. Send congrats on being in the top 5 emails to the top 5 photographers (I know there are 6, someone is leaving)
3. Finish the website copydeck
4. Order return address labels
5. Email Michael menu comments
6. Spend at least 1 hour working on the dress spreadsheet
7. Make an appointment for the bridesmaids to try on dresses

Whew! Will update soon.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

What a difference a month makes

Wow, time is just flying by. Work is crazy busy, but we've been trying to keep up with wedding stuff.

Went dress shopping

Yup, that picture kind of says it all. Ladies, I have bad news for you. If you want to wear something that does not involve a 50lb train or a million tiny beads and you have any curves at all, you are SOL. Ugh! The entire day was this tiny little woman trying to shove, squish, and jam me into a series of white marshmallow monstrosities. Kate and Sarah were an amazing help. They not only assisted with getting me into and out of the princess traps, but made jokes and were totally supportive. Really those ladies were the only thing that kept me from crying out of frustration.
Save the dates-finally finally found navy envelopes (after scouring the area and then ordering paper samples online) JAM Paper had them and they were really reasonably priced. We ran out of big leaves and Michael's stopped carrying them, so Steve ordered a couple packs online (not the right size). Uh so if anyone needs fall leaves for a DIY fall project you just let me know, our kitchen table is covered with them.

We are going to use a couple of the medium leaves instead and Steve only has 15 more to go. Then we are just waiting on the envelopes and will be sending out the save the dates. Looks like approx a month later than we planned. Thanks to everyone who helped us track down addresses! I think we are all set in that department. I hesitate to tell you this, but current guest list is at 121.

DJs- This aspect of the wedding is driving me crazy. I feel like all of the DJs on our list are terrible and unprofessional and I'm not sure what we can do about it. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

Photographers- So, we had a list of 13, quickly to 12. Larry Spencer of Spencer Photography is one of the worst vendors I've dealt with, ever. We had two appointments to chat and he stood me up both times. The first time he said he confused the times, but called a 1/2 hour late which doesn't make any sense. The 2nd time he was again late and then we had a hostile email exchange. I'm starting to think wedding vendors in Ohio don't actually want to make money.

1. Spencer Photography- horrible & rude
2. Ken Love Photography-so cheesy it hurts to look, check out this canned email he sent me

well I am open that day by some miracle. I already have 40 weddings booked for 2010. All I have left is sunday's and fridays. Below is my info. I'll work with ya if I can. Lets talk about it. I also have video guy that's pretty cheap and real good.

I'd love to discuss your wedding with you. Below is info on me. I believe my pricing is much lower than many other photographers and at the same time very fair. Quite simply I book 100 + weddings a year for my associate and I for a reason and that reason is no one shoots quite like us or works harder than we do. I'm everything the other guys are not. I do what I do because of my passion for photography not the money. In other words when you do something for the right reason the results are unbeatable.

Here is some wedding info about me and my business. I'm a nationally award winning photojournalist and former Akron Beacon Journal photographer with 22 + years of experience working for 5 different newspapers and several national magazines. Don't let the lower price fool you.. I have lower overhead than the other guys and I do a lot of weddings plus many other kinds of photography so I don't have to charge inflated prices or try to sell you proof albums like in the 80's and 90's.. to try to charge you more money. It's a digital world. I give you all the photos on disk and it's super easy on shutterfly to make a wedding book. Save your money and only pay for what you really need which is my award winning photography. Or have me make your wedding book for a little extra.

3. Shane Wynn Photography- Jen was really nice, but looking through their galleries I saw very few pictures that didn't look like something a friend would have done

4. Riverfront Photography- good mix of drama, humor and clean crisp details- strong contender

5. Drobny Studio -you know you are in trouble when the first bride in his gallery looks like Night of the Living Dead-seriously the image you put on your site are all we have to go on

6. Memory Productions- this is the guy our amazing florist recommended, he's pricey but still a strong contender

7. Affordable Wedding Portraits- pictures are decent, but clearly they don't take touch ups seriously and none of the pictures are as good as Memory or Riverfront

8. BCR Studios- some great photos, they seem to lean toward some special effects with blurs and color splotches, but definitely in the running

9. Catherine McKinley Photography-She's very friendly and I thought her pictures were very well done, Steve wasn't as thrilled, but I think she's still and Excellent possibility

10. Cirino Photography- average photos, but they did not respond to my note to them, so they're out

11. LCD Photography-beautiful photos and love the look, but am a little nervous that they are used to doing much larger, much more expensive weddings than ours

12. Lindsey Beckwith Photography-again tough to see what they are doing differently than a friend with a camera would have done

13. Z Media- some interesting and pretty shots, definitely in the running.

So there you have it, a month later and we've got a top 5 for photographers, no dress prospects, a diappointing DJ pool, no menu, and a table full of leaves. I think it's safe to say we are going through a bit of a rough patch in the wedding planning dept., but I have high hopes for November.