Journal

I blink, and it’s 2009 already. We have less than six months to go on our wedding, and a lot of stuff is not finalised yet. We did finally book a photographer – Halberg Photographers, and Tim and Cheryl have been awesome to work with! I had seen their work before, realised that they were out of our budget, and then searched elsewhere. About eight months later, I saw an advertisement of theirs again, looked through their portfolio, and sent them a Facebook message lamenting the fact that we were so broke. Tim wrote back almost immediately and was quite willing to work with us. A number of factors cemented the deal for both sides: Chris & I are members of Calvary Chapel, and Tim and Cheryl are members of Reality Carpinteria, a separate ministry that had branched out from Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara many years ago, and they were excited about that. Furthermore, our wedding is on a Thursday, giving a little more flexibility during a busy summer wedding month (July). Finally, we loved their work and their personality. Tim took our engagement pictures for us, perfecting capturing our happy-go-lucky attitudes, our silliness, and our sweet-but-random moments. A few of those are on the about us page.

We did finally book Michelle Schneiter of Verve Events, and her help and advice throughout the planning process has been invaluable. I was so grateful for her organisation, getting the names of people involved, and providing advice on vendors, locations, and timing. Since the last wedding update, we have also changed our venue from Elings Park to having the ceremony in the Mural Room at the Santa Barbara Courthouse, with the reception at the Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center. As much as I love the idea of a beautiful outdoor wedding on a hill overlooking the city, it was more practical to have a venue that included the tables and chairs and would set up, break down, and clean for us. Also, without the added costs of equipment rental, lighting issues, delivery, and pickup, we saved almost a thousand dollars. I hate counting pennies like this; I had this vision of how I wanted to treat my guests and show my appreciation for them showing up to celebrate with us, but at a certain point, the costs were just far too high to be practical. One thing we agreed on was that we refused to go into debt over the wedding. At least the reception will be at a location on the beach, overlooking the water.

We paid for the ceremony venue in November, and finally put down the deposit for the reception venue a few weeks ago. We went to a cake tasting with Henning’s Cake Boutique two weeks ago as well, so we happily have an order for a cake and cupcakes for us for the day! We also tasted with Catering by Falzone and loved their food! We just need to save up the money to put toward the deposit. For a while we were considering Woody’s Barbecue for the catering, but we get more and a more home-cooked taste with Falzone, plus they communication was excellent, which has been an increasingly important factor in these last few, high-stress months. We have yet to put down a deposit for the rental company, but we did decide on using EventRents for our linen, coffee maker, ice tubs, and other miscellaneous small rentals.

As for ceremony details, we found Leslee Sipress about eight months ago. We are having her and a harpist for the ceremony. Picking out the music has been somewhat difficult. Chris thinks the sound of the harp is beautiful, and though it creates its own sense of elegance and solemnity, we still didn’t want some converted pop tune done in “classical style.” But for classical, I was adamant that I did not want any of the Wagner or Mendelssohn traditional wedding marches (Here Comes the Bride?? No thanks!), or the overplayed Pachelbel’s Canon in D. This meant that we had to do a lot more hunting. Thus far we have fallen in love with the 10th movement of the cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147, by Johann Sebastian Bach, also known as Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. Also in the list for processionals is the cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, also known as Sleepers, Awake!, and also by Bach. As for which should be the attendants’ entrance and which the bride’s, we haven’t figured that out yet. Following the same trend (Bach, if you haven’t noticed), are the Arioso from Bach’s cantata BWV 156, the 2^nd movement, Largo Ma Non Tanto, from his Concerto for Two Violins in d-minor, BWV 1043, and his Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068, better known as Air on a G String. Now, if we stick with this Bach theme, we just have to somehow find a Bach recessional! (Maybe the 1^st movement, Allegro Moderato, from his Brandenburg Concerto #1 in F, BWV 1046?)

In preparation, we have also gone to some pre-marital counselling through Calvary. Rather than have the generic classes, they had us each fill in an information packet about our beliefs, wants, expectations, and concerns, discussed it with us, and then assigned us to an already married couple most suited to us. The experience has been great so far – the couple is very loving, very knowledgeable, and has cared a lot for us and for our relationship. I definitely have seen the benefit of this preparing us to grow toward and for each other in our marriage. So far we’ve only had two “formal counselling” sessions with them, but I’m looking forward to the next one.

As of now, this is what we have:

Chosen, designed, and/or paid for in full (finalised, in other words):

• My dress – made in Thailand on our vacation
• Our bridesmaids/groomsmen – keeping it simple, two each
• My bridesmaids’ dresses
• Our minister – Pastor Ricky Ryan of Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara!
• Our invitations (I designed them in InDesign) – paper, envelopes, etc.
• Silk flowers from MostlyFlowers
• Bridal jewellery from Bead on a Wire
• Day-of coordinator – Michelle Schneiter of Verve Events
• Photographer – Halberg Photographers
• Ceremony venue – the Mural Room at the Santa Barbara Courthouse
• Ceremony musician – flautist Leslee Sipress with a harpist
• Reception venue – the Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center
• Reception band – Judy Chamberlain band
• Cake/cupcakes – Henning’s Cake Boutique
• Favour bags
• Table layouts
• Wedding day itinerary
• Guest list

We have chosen but still do not have the money for:

• Veil/headpiece from Twigs & Honey
• Equipment rental company – EventRents
• Caterer – Catering by Falzone of Moorpark
• Wedding favours

Things yet to be decided:

• Men’s formalwear – Chris would rather buy a nice suit than rent one, and we need to get the men fitted for suits

Help contribute to the wedding if you can! We’d be super duper grateful! OurWishingWell

God bless, hugs and kisses.

Lots of Love,
><> Elizabeth <><

Just when I feel like I’ve been running around trying to organise and plan everything on my own, the boy chips in and brings me a copy of The Santa Barbara Independent, which happened to be the “wedding issue!” He also offered input about beverage, champagne/sparkling wine, wine, and beer selection, on which we will have to do more research and milk our restaurant, local vendors, and distributor connections. I was also quite happy to find a few more resources on local caterers that I hadn’t been able to find online and submit RFPs to them. Even still, I’m realising the little politics of things such as where to seat people (ideally, everyone I know should get along!) and whom I don’t invite, even though they’re a friend of a friend and one of my closer acquaintances as well, just because I want to keep it limited. We’ve stuck with close friends or those we’ve known for a little while but connect with very deeply and know that our friendship will only continue to grow. It’s been hard for me to decide not to invite certain people because even though we’re on very good terms, and when we do see each other, we get along very well, the fact is we’ve always been comfortable with not making the effort to keep in touch and with not getting to know each other deeply. I want those at our wedding to have a strong sense of the significance of the moment, not just in general, but to us personally. Our guest list is already at 100 people, but I can’t seem to send out “save the date” announcements without somebody else asking if they’re invited. What would Miss Etiquette say about that?

I am also still waiting to hear from Joy about wedding coordination. To save money, I’m doing most of the planning, but on the day-of, I definitely want somebody there to whom all questions and issues of procedure will be directed. Our first meeting went fabulously, and she seemed to understand our financial restrictions but also offered wonderful ideas about what we’d need. I connected well, which was a great first sign, and she had also worked under another well-known event planner, so she understands the industry. However, she has been busy lately, so until she gets in contact with me again, we are still without coordinator, caterer, photographer, and such.

Today (or yesterday, at this point!), we also contacted the real estate agent again to look at some homes we’d gotten off MLS and the listings he’d printed up for us a few weeks ago. The real estate drop has been a break for us, since we may actually be able to afford a better Santa Barbara home now, but it is by no means easy. We have to arrange another meeting to look at the rest of the houses, condos, and townhouses, and then visit several financial institutions to try to get pre-approved for a loan (just to see how much we could possibly get). Please pray for us, it is definitely needed!

God bless, hugs and kisses.

Lots of Love,
><> Elizabeth <><