I hit January and realized that my time for scavenging, searching & budgeting must end and my time for booking, acknowledging financial reality and coming up with a strategy that made me exhale properly again had come.
Conclusions?
Some things in the wedding planning universe were much less expensive than I expected. Like music!
Other things, like photography and stationary, blew my mind.
So I did up a "this is what it will really cost" spreadsheet (yes, work has crossed over into life, how horrifying) and worked out how much we could save between now and July (realistically) and felt a little better. :)
So here is what I've managed to get booked:
1. Music: http://www.classicstringquartet.com/
I really wanted live music and figured it was wildly out of budget. Turns out it's roughly the same cost as a DJ and 1/4 of the cost of a) what I thought and b) photography. We're going to have a string trio for the ceremony and a piano/bass combo for the reception :)
2. Photography: http://www.callaevansphotography.com/
Through a nice twist of karma we lucked in with Calla through a friend at work. I just adore her work :-)
3. Officiant: http://www.gordkushner.com/
Recommended by our venue and delightful to meet in person we feel really lucky to have found Gord. He gave us a duotang (how awesome are duotangs?) of possible ceremony/vow/reading combos and encouraged us to creatively mix & match. He's super experienced and even offered to take Drew tux shopping....awww :)
Semi-Finalized:
4. Schedule - it's looking like:
August 21st, 2010
11 to 11:30 - ceremony
12-4: Reception & Revelry
4-6: married couple relax and enjoy a dinner together at the hotel
7: meet the married couple for drinks (we wanted Canoe but it's closed Sat.....thoughts?)
Btw, meeting later for drinks allows me to do something so awesome on my wedding day I'm thrilled just thinking about it: Buying a second dress to change into. Egggggcellent. What bride could ask for more?
So far I like this one:
As an aside I pretty much like everything in the model photo. I wouldn't mind her hair, that wall art, those house plants. Dammit anthropologie. Dammit.
Left to finalize:
- Invitations: These are going out in March if it kills us. I think we've decided on a style: http://www.i-do-it-yourself.com/2009/06/diy-invitation-jill-matt/
I've written up "our story" and Drew is having at it. See, I'm great at writing a lot. (see here) and Drew is great at being concise. Hopefully this will result in the perfect wedding invite ^_^
- Flowers: Not looking forward to these, or their horrifying cost. Maybe I'll just carry one big flower....that I grow myself.
- Honeymoon: Our venue co-ordinator Breia, is currently scouting Hawaiian sister hotels and trying to get us a good rate. Pray for us people. Seriously.
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