The asking my maids fiasco

I went back and forth with Danny whether we wanted a bridal party or not. In the end, we decided that we would regret if we didn't ask our family and friends to be in a bridal party and to go all or nothing. So all or nothing meant I had 5 girls to ask (plus my sister who I had already asked). I wanted to do something special like a card and a gift but couldn't decide on anything. Then I went to the weddingbee boards and saw that a post on how a girl asked her maids by sending them all flowers to their jobs. I loved that idea, knew it would be expensive but figured this is the only time I would ever get to do this.

I decided to use teleflora because the website let me send the flowers to multiple addresses and put it on one invoice. It let me pick each local florist based on the location I was sending it to. So here's how it went:

Bridesmaid D: She's a stay-at-home mom so I had to send the flowers to her house. The florist sent them a day early!!!! Then she starts writing on facebook that she has a secret admirer! I had to email her and tell her to keep it on the down low because everyone else would be getting the flowers the next day.

Bridesmaid G: I'll just let her email tell this story: OMG! I just got a special delivery at work; Flowers : )

My answer is ABSOLUTELY YES!! I am sooo excited and nervous. I have never been an official bridesmaid.

I do have to tell you when I first opened the little card I had a mini panic attack because I thought is was someone sending cards to their wife or something and they gave them to the wrong person because the card is signed Deanne. Then when I calmed down and actually read it again, I figured it must really be Deanna, and then I was giggling with excitement.

So they spelled my flippin name wrong!

Bridesmaid A: I find out that her work sent her to Columbus at last minute and she would be out of her office for 3 days! In a panic, I called the florist who was no help. I ended up calling her work and asked if they could just put the flowers on her desk for her to get when she gets back. They ended up putting them in the fridge so they were perfect when Bridesmaid A got them.

Bridesmaids M and B got theirs at their respective places of employment no problem.

Whew, right? I have to say it was fun getting the emails and phone calls from everyone saying yes and telling me they were excited. Oh and I asked them to send me a picture of these flowers so I could at least see them! Here they are. I picked two different designs and alternated between the girls:

Photographs - Check!

Since I had such a problem booking halls, I realized that I had to get on the search for a photographer too. I emailed a bunch of local photographers and got a few emails that were set up like this:

Hello Deanna - thanks for contacting me. Unfortunately, I'm booked on xx. However, I would like to suggest the following photographers. They do amazing work.

The photographer suggested 7 photographers' names. What was really weird was that I emailed one of the suggestions and I got another booked letter with the original photographer on the list! They must have a little club or something.

One of my favorites, Hunter Photographic, emailed me back almost instantly and was open on my date! I loved that he had an updated blog and was so fast to respond. He even wanted to meet with Danny and I right away! We met at a Caribou Coffee at my suggestion and I was sold on the fact that he brought an ipad (I'm a mac nerd) a cool portfolio. Included in the package were the engagement photos and I said I wanted to wait until spring because I hate winter and snow and don't want to see it in my photos. So we're looking forward to that in a couple months!

Hotel vs. Banquet Hall

My next natural inclination was to get a guest list number to see what we were dealing with. I knew it would be a big number. After going back and forth between both sets of families, the estimate was 378! This new information knocked out about 70% of the venues that I had bookmarked or liked.

Since my future in laws were helping to pay for the reception, we devised a system of booking appointments to look at venues on Saturday mornings. The first venue we visited lied on their website on how many people it could hold. Or you could probably hold 400 with tables set up in a completely different room. Fail. After about 5 visits, we narrowed it down to two choices - the hotel vs. the banquet hall.

I honestly fell in love with the hotel. It was built in 2009. Everything was sparkling new. The bar had a flat screen tv. But it was at the tip top of our budget. Also, Danny loves Jim Beam and their house brand of bourbon was Jack Daniels. We would have to pay extra for a longer bar time. We knew we wanted our carnival theme for appetizers and it just seemed like we would have to work so hard to fit our theme in these food and drink packages.

Enter the banquet hall. I wanted so much to hate it but each feature was better than the next! We could bring in our own alcohol! The dance floor was huge! They were flexible with food options! What really sold me was that the dj that we had excitedly booked too early had played there before and was familiar with how to set up their equipment there. The one catch was that we had to change our date to the weekend before. At this point, I was fine with the date change. I had a heart to heart with my future FIL and decided on the banquet hall! Yay! Now we can move forward!

Our first vendor!

Is probably not the first vendor you should book, haha. It was our dj! Danny had heard about Rock the House Entertainment by word of mouth and booked an appointment. We went to their studio and waited an obscene amount of time past our appointment because of the couple that was scheduled before us going overtime. When that couple finally left, the marketing manager came to get us and apologized. He brought us in an office and didn't say a word about the dj company. He asked us to tell him our engagement story. We were a little taken aback! He listened patiently while Danny told our engagement story and then asked a few more questions about how we envision our wedding. It was such a great meeting and I was convinced that we needed to book them that night! So I signed our first contract and deposit. I do not recommend booking the dj before your venue because we ended up changing our date and had to resign a dj contract, but the excitement of meeting with our first vendor was definitely fun!

Why are you so dressed up?

So a little background on Danny and I...Danny is a chef. I met him while taking on a waitressing job right out of college and ended up asking HIM out. We lived about 20 minutes apart in two different suburbs so I planned our first date in my neighborhood and chose a gelato place that had a private upstairs which I thought was really cool. We hit it off right away and have been together ever since, 7 years later!

Yeah 7 years later. I was getting kind of anxious (and so were our families) whether we would get married or not so I was not completely suprised by the events are are to follow.

Mondays are Danny's only day off in the week so we try to do something fun like go out to a restaurant (our fave) or movie or whatever. Danny does not dress up on his day off and definitely doesn't shave so when I saw him doing both I got a little suspicious. He suggested that we go back to the gelato place for our day off activity. Mind you, we haven't been there since our first date. We arrive at La Gelateria, get our gelato, and go upstairs to the seating area. We were the only ones there. I scarf down my gelato as I always do with frozen treats, and Danny started fumbling around in his pockets. He asked me if I had his keys and I said no. Then he pulls the ring out and says something like, "I had to bring it back to where we started" and asked to marry me. All I could say was "I knew it!, I knew it!". Very romantic, haha. But it was perfect for us because luckily no one was there so it was a completely private moment.

personal photo

I wasn't completely shocked by the proposal, but the after party is where Danny got me. He suggested we go to one of my favorite restaurants, Melt Bar and Grilled. I was so out of it, I said I just wanted to go home. We went anyway and I walk in and the whole restaurant starts clapping! Then I see a table of our closest friends....then my aunt, mom, sister, etc. etc. He invited 30 of our family and friends! That's when the tears started falling for me. People were giving me cards, gifts, flowers. It was a night I'll truly remember. Melt was especially great at dealing with such a large party since they are known for having long wait times and being crowded due to it's popularity.

personal photo....I think I broke every Anne Ruthmann rule with this shot!

Did you have an after party after your proposal?

Triumphant Return!

source

I'm making my triumphant return to blogging because of this post by Mrs. Penguin on Weddingbee. After a horrible and depressing 2009, Danny proposed to me in August 2010 and we are getting married in September 2011! And we plan on incorporating carnival food and elements in our wedding! It was meant to be!

I've been reading weddingbee since 2006. I stumbled upon it in the craziest way. I was searching for ideas for a wedding shower for my (now) FSIL. I found this thing called a blog that described a bridal shower they threw and was fascinated by it. Back in the day almost all blogs used to link to their other favorite blogs on the sidebar. I clicked on a blog and this person kept referring to herself as Mrs. Lime and wouldn't show her face. I then discovered these were monikers for brides-to-be on weddingbee. I added it to my google reader and have been reading non-stop for the past 4 years.

I will have to say, reading about other people's weddings and actually planning your own wedding is totally different! Nobody talks about how frustrating it is when your date is booked everywhere! There have been some angry tears shed on my part already regarding difficult wedding decisions. But at the same time I am incredibly happy to have all this support from friends and family!