As I mentioned in the previous post, we finally chose our wedding venue! The Conservatory in St. Charles, Missouri. It's BEAUTIFUL!!
The week we got engaged (back in early July), I bought a local wedding magazine. In the venue section, The Conservatory was at the top of the list. I was AMAZED by the picture, of course, but it looked like it would be way out of our price range so I didn't give it another thought. Plus, I really had my heart set on a destination beach wedding. Well, fast forward a few months... I realized the beach wedding was unrealistic for us, since our wedding budget turned out to be SO low. So we went back to searching for a local venue. Within 24 hours, I had two different friends mention The Conservatory. It's a beautiful garden house, heated in the winter, with plants everywhere... it's a pretty good alternative to an outdoor beach wedding! So I looked at the website with one of my girl friends, we ooh'd and ahh'd over it, but, as I first assumed, it WAS out of our price range. :( Poo. So, I continued to search. I found some other garden houses that were cheaper, but, honestly, THEY SUCKED in comparison!! So I went back to the website, looked at prices again, and noticed... OMG... week days in the winter are half off! Our Monday, February 14th wedding would be $600 instead of $1,200! I decided to show James the website, so, when he got home, I typed in gardenwedding.com... and... he gasped! Yes, my big, strong, tough, manly-man GASPED at the beauty of The Conservatory! It was priceless, and I knew immediately that it would be our venue... assuming the date/time we wanted was open still.
The following day happened to be a Wednesday, which is open house day at The Conservatory! So I grabbed one of my best girl friends, we took a drive to St. Charles, practically DIED when we saw the place in person, and, after learning my date/time was available, I booked it right away!!
Meanwhile, unsuspecting James was at work having a pretty average day. I called him, sounding really disappointed. I told him The Conservatory was booked for February 14th. He sounded totally shot down, and when he started to say "Awww, really," I said "YEAH... BECAUSE I BOOKED IT!!!!!!!" It was a cute moment! :) How could I not book that venue? He gasped!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Finally, things are coming together!
The last few weeks have been really productive! We have almost everything set up now, and the only things really left to do are the fun decorating projects (like invites and reception decor)! Be expecting some DIY tutorials in the very near future!!
So here are the things we have tackled...
Wedding date - CHECK! (February 14th, 2011)
Wedding colors - CHECK! (Black, white, and touches of red)
Wedding venue - CHECK! (The Conservatory)
Officiant - CHECK! (A very close family friend, aka "Mom #2")
Wedding music - CHECK! (Mom #2 got us a guitarist!!)
Guest list - CHECK! (Still need to print invites, though)
Wedding party - CHECK! (Not traditional choices, but I'm happy with it!)
Wedding rings - CHECK! (Jared Galleria of Jewelry, and we already wear them lol!)
Dress - CHECK! (David's Bridal, Galina Signature, still needs alterations)
Suit - CHECK! (Men's Warehouse, already altered)
Shoes - CHECK! (Mine were on sale at Burlington, his are from Men's Warehouse)
Reception date - CHECK! (February 19th, 2011)
Reception venue - CHECK! (Only $150 for the entire day, hall with full kitchen use!)
Caterer - CHECK! (My amazing brothers will make home made pizza and pasta!)
Cake - CHECK! (A friend's aunt does cake decorating, and we're using her)
Cupcakes - CHECK! (Who else?? ME!! My favorite part!!)
Photobooth - CHECK! (Definitely a splurge, but it's so fun AND it handles favors!!)
Feeling really satisfied about saying "CHECK!" so many times - CHECK!!!!!!
The wedding venue is so gorgeous it doesn't need any decorations, so we're saving some money there. Our reception venue needs a little help, though, so we've been using Craigslist to find some cheap used decorations. I got $1,000 worth of decorations for only $250. Everything is in great condition! We have hundreds of candles (tea lights, floating candles, other small candles), about 90 tea light holders, tons of other candle holders, 48 bowls for floating candles, glass tumblers, 40 5x5 table mirrors, about 40 8x8 table mirrors, tons of paper lanterns, fake calla lilies, a card box made of 3 damask print hat boxes, 50 white balloons, 12 really pretty silver balloon weights, and soo much more!
There was ONE thing about "shopping" on Craigslist that sucked, though. When I posted my ads in the "items wanted" section, I kept getting wrongfully flagged and my posts would be removed. It took me a little while to figure out why on earth my completely innocent and rule-abiding posts were being flagged, but I came to the conclusion it must be another bride looking for wedding items in the same color(s). ONLY my posts looking for color specific items were being flagged, so I guess some B*TCH thought I was competition or something. Excuse my language, but, come on, she's a B*TCH for that LOL!!
Also, a shout out to Walmart for having REALLY CUTE red tea light holders for 50 cents a piece! Shout out to Target for the discounted Halloween cupcake pans with travel lids (regular cupcake/muffin pans, but discounted because of a Halloween wrapping!!). And shout out to the various dollar stores that have had really cheap wedding items we needed! Oh, and a final shout out Office Max for having GORGEOUS invites! The price could have been better, but the selection and quality made it worth shopping there so I won't complain.
Now, if only I could figure out how the heck to work my printer!
So here are the things we have tackled...
Wedding date - CHECK! (February 14th, 2011)
Wedding colors - CHECK! (Black, white, and touches of red)
Wedding venue - CHECK! (The Conservatory)
Officiant - CHECK! (A very close family friend, aka "Mom #2")
Wedding music - CHECK! (Mom #2 got us a guitarist!!)
Guest list - CHECK! (Still need to print invites, though)
Wedding party - CHECK! (Not traditional choices, but I'm happy with it!)
Wedding rings - CHECK! (Jared Galleria of Jewelry, and we already wear them lol!)
Dress - CHECK! (David's Bridal, Galina Signature, still needs alterations)
Suit - CHECK! (Men's Warehouse, already altered)
Shoes - CHECK! (Mine were on sale at Burlington, his are from Men's Warehouse)
Reception date - CHECK! (February 19th, 2011)
Reception venue - CHECK! (Only $150 for the entire day, hall with full kitchen use!)
Caterer - CHECK! (My amazing brothers will make home made pizza and pasta!)
Cake - CHECK! (A friend's aunt does cake decorating, and we're using her)
Cupcakes - CHECK! (Who else?? ME!! My favorite part!!)
Photobooth - CHECK! (Definitely a splurge, but it's so fun AND it handles favors!!)
Feeling really satisfied about saying "CHECK!" so many times - CHECK!!!!!!
The wedding venue is so gorgeous it doesn't need any decorations, so we're saving some money there. Our reception venue needs a little help, though, so we've been using Craigslist to find some cheap used decorations. I got $1,000 worth of decorations for only $250. Everything is in great condition! We have hundreds of candles (tea lights, floating candles, other small candles), about 90 tea light holders, tons of other candle holders, 48 bowls for floating candles, glass tumblers, 40 5x5 table mirrors, about 40 8x8 table mirrors, tons of paper lanterns, fake calla lilies, a card box made of 3 damask print hat boxes, 50 white balloons, 12 really pretty silver balloon weights, and soo much more!
There was ONE thing about "shopping" on Craigslist that sucked, though. When I posted my ads in the "items wanted" section, I kept getting wrongfully flagged and my posts would be removed. It took me a little while to figure out why on earth my completely innocent and rule-abiding posts were being flagged, but I came to the conclusion it must be another bride looking for wedding items in the same color(s). ONLY my posts looking for color specific items were being flagged, so I guess some B*TCH thought I was competition or something. Excuse my language, but, come on, she's a B*TCH for that LOL!!
Also, a shout out to Walmart for having REALLY CUTE red tea light holders for 50 cents a piece! Shout out to Target for the discounted Halloween cupcake pans with travel lids (regular cupcake/muffin pans, but discounted because of a Halloween wrapping!!). And shout out to the various dollar stores that have had really cheap wedding items we needed! Oh, and a final shout out Office Max for having GORGEOUS invites! The price could have been better, but the selection and quality made it worth shopping there so I won't complain.
Now, if only I could figure out how the heck to work my printer!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)