wedding recap: friday legalities

friday was a very very full day. it started with a trip down to the court house to make this whole thing legal! you see, the state of alabama does not recognize wayne as someone who can perform a legal wedding, but it was very important to us to have someone who realy knew us to perform the ceremony. we didn't want some random judge or minister, so we decided that we would get legally married the day before our ceremony.



i don't know how many people couples getting married usually take with them to the court house, but we had a crowd of 10 people plus us. danny's dad was, of course, in jean shorts and a heather gray t-shirt, my brother-in-law was on crutches, and there were about 4 cameras going around. our group felt that every moment had to be documented...including filling out the paperwork. :)



my sister was the first to burst into tears and demand a tissue during the legal ceremony. parents soon followed.



what would a wedding be without a reception? we headed across the street to sam & greg's to celebrate with some pizza and gelato. yum!

a wee bit o'celebration & new hair

because our wedding was small and out of state, we weren't able to invite a lot of our extended family and friends. so, we decided that after the wedding, we would have a casual reception in cookeville in order to celebrate with the people who weren't able to come. it was important to me that they knew that they knew how important they were to us & that we wanted them to be included in the celebration. so we whipped out some invites that resembled our wedding invitations



and divied up food between our moms & voila - a party is born. we had it at my grandma's house & had a good amount of aunts, cousins, and friends show up. it was a lot of fun. lots of food and lots of chatting. it was so great to see everyone.

in other news, i have taken my first step in my go-crazy-because-i'm-married-now plan. i colored my hair last week. i was pretty nervous/excited going into it. i have never had my hair professionally colored before. i've only colored it once in my lifetime. i have always been afraid that once i start, i won't be able to stop...which is probably true b/c it was so much fun & i love it!



i was also going to cut it short but decided that it could be too much change to do the color and length all at once. so i started with the color & just trimmed and thinned, bangs included. the change in length might be happening soon though...

i know...i know...

it has been a while sine i've posted anything. i have been a blog slacker. there are so many last minute things to remember and do that any free time i have isn't really free time b/c i'm thinking of all those things. i can't believe the wedding is a week away - 1 week. it's so crazy. i can't believe it's here, but i am so excited!

my parents came down for a few days last weekend (danny was off gallivanting with his friends in canada - slacker) to help me with wedding stuff. my mom and i had lunch with cheryl on saturday to see how many things i had totally forgotten about, and i am very happy to say that nothing was a shock, unlike some of my previous lunches with cheryl. our big project for the weekend was table runners. i had bought some random pieces of fabric and had no idea if i had enough for all the tables or what i was going to do if we didn't. turned out that i had exactly, exactly how much fabric we needed. mom worked on those while i started on a couple other projects, and they turned out wonderful! i couldn't have done it without my mom. she was such a huge help.

mom also brought me my something borrowed and what could be considered my something old (i'm pretty sure i'm going to have multiples) - a beautiful antique beaded evening bag that belongs to my grandma and a handkerchief that belonged to my grandpa who passed away. i realize it's just a handkerchief, but it means so much to me to have something of his with me on my wedding day.

i'll share some other accomplishments with photos in upcoming posts, but i'm not going to promise dates, just in case.

things we have left to do:
pick up favors
pick up danny's suit
pick up mums
material for chuppah
earrings for the bride
programs
scrapbook guestbook
compile must-take photo list (any requests?)

mullins is taking all my money

we gave mullins our deposit today for rentals...plates, flatware, glasses, tablecloths, etc. the deposit wasn't so bad; it's the total that isn't so much fun. after paying the balance, i will either have a new found appreciation for the value of tablecloths or a new-found hatred for them. we even got the cheapest option! oh well...in the words of tony soprano, whatcha gonna do? it'll look nice, right?

the exciting part of this is that it was our last deposit! unless i've forgotten a major task, we are done booking vendors and giving deposits. on to all the little stuff that's going to drive us crazy. :)

the best idea!

so, if you know anything about weddings, you know that traditionally the bride and groom have a set of special champagne toasting flutes that they use during the wedding toasts and then put away in their china cabinet for the next 50 years or lose or break during a move (jeri).

here are some um...lovely...examples (by lovely i mean my worst nightmare). well, i had some images, but they seem to have disappeared. sorry about that.

now, i'm not badmouthing the tradition if you like it. it's just that danny & i aren't really champagne and toasting flute kind of people. we have already decided that we aren't going to bother with serving champagne and will toast with whatever we happen to be drinking.

the other night something just clicked & i had the best idea! in lieu of champagne toasting flutes, danny and i will get some really pretty beer glasses to toast with! danny & i are very much beer people (danny's a beer snob, at this point), so it is so fitting for us to toast with special beer glasses. AND beer glasses are something we use almost everyday, so no worries about them gathering dust on a shelf somewhere.

i think this might be a purchase that i pass on to danny. it's one (newly) wedding related area he knows more about than i do. if you want to read up on the different options when it comes to beer glasses, check out beer advocate.

followed by a productive monday

monday morning i met cheryl at the lodge to do a walk through with the rental coordinator. it was great to finally meet the rental coordinator, jessica, as she was on vacation when we booked the lodge. she was very nice and helpful. cheryl asked her if she had any experience with allison jansen, our photographer, and the second she heard allison's name, her face lit up. very good sign.

we walked through the entire lodge and mapped out where all the tables and things should go. jessica took her own notes, so that she will know how to setup everything the day of the wedding. we mapped out the tables for food, guest seating, head table, cake table, comfy chairs off the dance floor, and a sort of bar area where the wine and beer will be set up along with some extra tables and chairs where people can hang out. she assured me that fitting 100 guests outside for the ceremony is not a problem at all which made me feel a lot better (this was making me nervous), and the lodge has chairs we can use for the ceremony so no need to rent.

there's an event in the lodge the night before the wedding, so we're going to have to do an early rehearsal at 2 on friday. hopefully, everyone who needs to rehearse can make in time. cheryl thought i could suggest that people go hiking after the rehearsal before dinner (danny's parents would love that) but made me promise not to schedule anything for myself. i also found out the latest we can be in the lodge is 11, so i think an after party might have to be planned...

productive weekend

last weekend, my family attended a luncheon at the opryland hotel to honor my little brother, kevin, earning the rank of eagle scout. the luncheon itself wasn't all that exciting, but it was wonderful to have our entire set of siblings in one place to let kevin know how proud we are of him for his accomplishment (even if it was completed the day before the dealine).

after the luncheon, we all went over to opry mills to walk around before everyone had to go home (i can't tell you the last time i was at opry mills...it's been forever). after buying a pair of shoes at offbroadway, i went into earthbound trading company to browse around. this shop is full of random things: jewelry, saris, budha figurines, japanese lanterns, insense, and what else do they have? centerpieces for weddings, of course!

i pulled one out last night to test it out, and i love them! i'm so excited; i think they're going to look great. if you can't tell from the picture, they look like trees & the votive holders are orange glass. in the words of chandler bing, perfection!


we cleaned them out. seriously bought all they had.


and the best part...


my sister even got the clerk to give us an extra 5% off! woohoo!

centerpieces

i don't really want to use cut flower for our centerpieces. we're thinking either bunches of candles or potted mums. here are a few centerpieces that have caught my eye.


brides.com
theknot.com
mrs. donkey's knot bio
theknot.com
afforever knot bio
mrs. lemon's blog
theknot.com

and yes, scarlett will be responsible for our table numbers. :)

cake for your face

(retitled by danny)

we booked a cake! woohoo!

after the first two cake ladies i called were booked for our day, i turned to the huntsville wedding guide website which isn't my favorite resource, but it does have a directory. there i found a number for a place called sugar baker's. i totally fell for the name (think designing women meets a bakery) & scheduled an appointment for friday.

so, on friday, after running a block in the rain, we found the place. its location is great. it's on the square in downtown huntsville in an amazing old building that was built in the 1800s. it had been turned into a law office at some point & made to look very officey. thankfully, the officey look is all gone & exposed brick has taken it's place. i am a sucker for exposed brick. below is a picture of it on the outside; i wish i could find a picture of the interior.


stephanie, who operates sugar baker's, showed us around & told us a bit about the history of the building. she was so nice & seemed very easy to work with which is my #1 requirement of wedding vendors. she said that if there was a family cake recipe that we really wanted, she could do that. interesting bit of trivia - her daughter recently got married at the lodge. her pricing was also great - cheaper than publix. she will also deliver the cake & stay to cut it (one less thing to worry about). danny and i decided to book her on the spot. we're going to schedule a cake tasting soon although danny has already decided that there will be at least one chocolate layer.

below is the cake (pic from theknot.com) that danny and i both really like.


so another check off the wedding to-do list!

dinner time

in case you were wondering what you'd be eating for dinner on september 13, 2008, here's our menu. :)

marinated portabella “steaks”
stuffed chicken breasts
pork loin with fruit reduction sauce

sweet potato-apple mash
french green beans
wild rice pilaf

salad

fruit cascade
chocolate covered strawberries
homemade blueberry candy

disposable?

i'm struggling with this.

our caterer has offered us disposable plates and flatware. not like paperplates. nice disposable with a silver ring around the edge. what's great is this is included in our catering quote, so in our eyes, it's pretty much free. awesome.

the problem is that this goes against my attempt at being as green & eco-friendly as possible. disposable things are not eco-friendly. i did find some biodegradable cups online which made me feel a bit better about those. the most eco-friendly thing to do, however, is to rent plates and flatware from a rental company. great because we wouldn't be throwing anything away. bad because it's an additional cost & leads to all kinds of other questions: how many plates do you actually need? is there a formula for that? what if you ran out of plates?

now the cost is outrageous. it's 35 cents a plate. however, i think everything is about 35 cents (glasses, flatware, desert plates, etc.), so that can quickly add up. i keep thinking that to keep it simple and less expensive i should just stick with the disposable.

i had the thought that maybe i could possibly find them cheaper. what if i went to a flea market or thrift store & was about to find plates? they would be mismatched, of course, but i think that could be really interesting.

thoughts? opinions?

coordinator extrodinaire

i'm so excited - my friend, cheryl, has agreed to forgo her role as wedding guest & take on the very important role of being our wedding coordinator. she's full of great local wedding info and ideas. i'm really happy to have someone that i trust in charge of my wedding day. it will definitely help relieve some stress on the day-of.

yay for cheryl!