Journal

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Less than Six Months to Go!!!

Categories: Catering,Food,Marriage,Money,Music,Photographers,Vendors,Venues,Wedding Planning — Tags: budgeting, planning, wedding — By: Theophila @ 03:46 UTC

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 <><

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Saturday, April 12th, 2008

Booking and Planning Updates

Categories: Etiquette,Flowers,Homes,Job,Life,Marriage,Money,Music,Relationships,Vendors,Wedding Planning,Wedding Supplies — By: Theophila @ 01:55 UTC

I did book the Judy Chamberlain band about a month ago! They’re pricier, but they were the quality we wanted, and she was very understanding and willing to negotiate on the price, knowing that we still want to have enough money to have this wedding! The nice thing was being able to talk to Judy on the phone and be completely open with her about expectations, the eclectic mixture of his and my music tastes, and still get the vintage-y feel of it. We both knew, even before we’d started thinking about music, that we didn’t want a DJ. Chris thought DJs were tacky, and he hates the typical “party music,” and we weren’t sure about a “wedding band.” Add to that the large range of age groups and types of people that will be there – among them college-aged friends, people from churches, his childhood friends from the harbour, diving, and surfing, his old customers, and a small handful of people I knew from NIST. I’d had my heart set on swing and classic rock, and plus we both love a good live band, as often plays at Stateside when he’s working, leading to phone calls from him to “come in and watch the band tonight!” – and, as a consequence, spent money. When it came to the research and choosing, though, I pretty much picked Judy once I’d spoken to her. I spent some time contacting other musicians and bands so that I could get a feel of things, but I was given the run-around, flat-out insulted by – not even a musician, but – a “band broker” who hyper-inflated the prices (10k for four hours? get real!), and then disappointed when another band finally got their audio samples to me, and I found that the leader couldn’t really sing.

Joy was also busy, and I wasn’t able to get in contact with her again, so I have been contacting other coordinators for day-of coordinating. The last I’d spoken to Joy, she’d gotten a little overloaded, so it’s understandable that a wedding over a year away is not on the top of her list of priorities. In the meantime, however, I met up with Michelle Schneiter of Verve Events about a week ago, and her day-of coordination package is very reasonable, and I was impressed with how organised she was – getting the list of needs, details, names, etc. So far I’ve found her the most organised and affordable plus easy-to-contact coordinator. I’m 80% sure of booking with her when I can afford it. I get the feeling, however, that I’m also being bridezilla, not having much else to do, and this has been occupying my mind to chase away the bad thoughts from trying to balance everything lately. I’ve been looking for another job, as funding a wedding on a server and a hostess’ salary, and especially buying a house, is a little out there. I did go to an interview and pretty much bag a job, but as a student, I couldn’t justify committing to it for more than six months and give up my academic career for it, so I let it pass.

I just want to get the pieces of this wedding put together so that I have the peace of mind to be able to set it aside. I won’t have nearly as much time for it nearing the end of my studies and with the house purchase looming. I also don’t want to plague Chris with the little details, especially as much as he is spending all his time working and saving now that business is slow, and he and his father are on a tighter deadline to finish the house in Big Bear on the weekends before his dad and Masami (his dad’s wife) have the child in September!

In many ways, I’d love to be happy and just enjoy the moment, but my head doesn’t let me. I’ve seen so many friends get engaged since I’ve started planning, and it seems most are getting married before we do; not that the timing matters as much, but I am a little miffed that it seems easier for them. We don’t need the “large party,” but with many of those closest to us coming from out of town (some of our family coming from out of state or out of country), it would be nice to be able to spend the time celebrating over simple food and dancing. Sadly, “simple food” isn’t so simple or affordable when it comes to Santa Barbara. It would be nice for it to be as simple as getting married in a church surrounded by the people with whom we’ve grown up and who have made our lives beautiful, but as it is we’d have to exclude parents and those who’ve become family if we do that!