Crisp, Clean, Crate & Barrel

I love Crate & Barrel.

My mom will laugh at that statement because, as a child, I would rather have stabbed myself in the eye than tagged along when my mom shopped there. It was just such a boring store. I even thought the name was boring!

Fast forward 15 years, and I finally get it. It's an entire store stocked with clean, timeless items for the home.

Ryan and I will be attending a Crate & Barrel registry event during our WOW.

I know some people find it impolite to discuss registries, so if you are one of those people, you can leave now and pretend this post never happened. See you later!

For the rest of you, I will post some items that I've been coveting off their website.

Antifreeze Ice Cream Scoop
We don't own an ice cream scoop... much less one that doesn't freeze!

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Nylon Cooking Utensils
We already have a jar full of cooking utensils, but they are all worn and half-melted. I don't enjoy eating bits of plastic with my food.

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Footed Cake Platter with Dome
I don't make cake often... but when I do, I never know where to put it. It usually ends up shoved in a tubberware container with tin foil over the top. This is a much classier option.

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Tuxedo Vase
I own 2 vases, but one is red and one is purple. It's always good to have a plain clear vase. It works for any season and any type of flowers.

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Roasting Pan and Rack
Whenever Ryan and I make a whole chicken or turkey, we roast it on top of a cooling rack inside a cookie pan. D'oh!

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Gravy Boat with Saucer
Yes, it's something we would probably only use once every 3 years... but it's just so darn cute!

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Ona Pitcher
I could finally stop using the plastic pitcher I bought at the dollar store. So what if the only thing I ever make is Kool Aid? Kool Aid would look super cool in this awesome pitcher.

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It will be interested to have our first registry experience and see if Ryan and I's tastes match up as much as we think they do.

Note to my mother: this is not to be considered your own person Christmas list.

Cake Confusion

Welcome to my newest follower, Carli!

Our reception venue makes wedding cakes starting at $3 per serving. While we haven't yet tried their cake (we'll hopefully do that at our tasting on Sunday during our WOW), we like to keep our options open... just in case it sucks.

So I found a few bakeries in the area that seemed within our price range. I emailed them, but only got one real response back.

"What is the date of your wedding and how many guests do you need to feed? Are you looking for a stacked 3 or 4 tier cake or something smaller? Pricing varies according to how large of a cake you need as well as how much artwork you would like on your cake. A rough estimate is $2.50-6.50 per slice for budget purposes."

Okay, so that sounds reasonable. I emailed them back with: June 25th, 200 guests, 3-tiered would be fine, supplemented with some sheet cake, not a lot of artwork.

Something like this...

OMG, isn't this cake gorgeous?

This was the response I received:

"You have time to plan. The best thing to do at this time is to look for pictures of wedding cakes that you like on the internet and send it to us. The pricing is not final unless it is 3 months from your wedding date. "

Hmm...

I was a little confused by their email, but Ryan and I are thinking what they mean is that we won't know the actual cost until 3 months before the wedding.

That just won't work for us.

What if, come next March, they inform us it's going to cost $1,200... when we could have had our reception venue make our cake and only paid $650?

The cake just isn't that big of a deal to us. Yes, we want it to taste good. Yes, we want it to look good. But we're not going to break our budget over this (or cause unwanted stress).

Drafting a Timeline

Welcome to my newest follower, Danielle!

I've been thinking a lot recently about our wedding day timeline. Even though we're still 8+ months out from our wedding, I think getting the general layout of things down on paper will really help with all my upcoming meetings with vendors. Everyone's always asking who, when, and where.


So below is my first attempt at a wedding day timeline. I looked at a bunch of examples, gave a lot of thought as to how much time things take, and came up with what I believe is a pretty comprehensive plan.

Pre-ceremony:
8:00am - Bride showers and eats breakfast
9:00am - Bridesmaids arrive, Hairstylist arrives and begins Bridesmaids' hair
11:00am - Decorations are dropped off at the reception venue
12:00pm - Hairstylist begins Bride's hair
1:00pm - Groomsmen meet Groom at the hotel
1:10pm - Lunch
1:30pm - Photographers arrive at bride's parents' house and hotel
1:35pm - Bride gets her makeup done; Groom and Groomsmen get dressed
1:45pm - Florist drops off flowers at the Bride's parents' house
1:55pm - Bride gets dressed
2:00pm - Ushers arrive at the church; Florist drops off flowers to the church; Photographer 2 leaves for the church
2:10pm - Groom and Groomsmen leave for the church
2:30pm - Bride, Bridesmaids, and Photographer 1 leave for the church

Ceremony:
3:00pm - Ceremony procession begins

Between Ceremony and Reception:
3:45pm - Receiving line outside the church
4:15pm - Family photos at the church
4:30pm - Florist drops off flowers at the reception site
4:45pm - Bridal party photos at the church
5:00pm - Limo arrives at the church; Bridal party photos downtown Naperville
6:00pm - Helpers move things to the reception venue and check set-up
6:15pm - Bridal party leaves for Joliet

Cocktail Hour and Reception:
6:30pm - Cocktail Hour begins
6:45pm - Bridal party arrives at the reception venue; Bustle bride's dress and touch-up hair and makeup
7:00pm - Bride and Groom arrive at Cocktail Hour
7:30pm - Guests are moved to the ballroom
7:40pm - Introductions of the bridal party
7:45pm - Bride and Groom have their first dance
7:55pm - Toasts and speeches during salad course
8:10pm - Main course is served
8:35pm - Mother/Son, Father/Daughter dances
8:45pm - Open dancing begins
9:20pm - Cake cutting
9:30pm - Photographers end their day
10:50pm - Last dance
10:55pm - Grand exit

Post-Reception:
11:15pm - Designated person removes all items from the reception venue
11:35pm - Limo drops off Bride and Groom at the hotel
12:00am - After party at the hotel bar

Creating this timeline brought up a lot of logistical questions, like...

• How much time does the hairstylist need to do hair and makeup?
• Who will distribute flowers at the church?
• How early should the Groom and Groomsmen be at the church?
  
• When do I take off my veil?
• Who will move things from the ceremony site to the reception site?
• How will the bridal party get home after the reception?

... and many more.

Good thing we have 8+ months to work these things out!

Dress Surprise

Welcome to my newest follower, EricaB!

Our WOW is next weekend, and my mom had a thought that perhaps Ryan's mom would like to see my wedding dress before next June... and this weekend would probably be her only chance.

I thought that was a great idea, so we were going to make an appointment with the dress shop to go try on the sample of my dress again.


But I received an exciting phone call yesterday from my dress shop. They said that my dress and veil were in and ready to be picked up.

::Double Take:: Whaa?!?

That was unexpected.

Back in July when I found "the" dress, the shop owner told me they would have it delivered around March, 2011 so there would be enough time to have it fitted, altered, and ready before our big day.

I didn't think I would see my dress until March. It's 5 months early!


The exciting part is, now, Ryan's mom will get a chance to see my actual dress.

Let There Be Light

After contacting Mrs. Seashell about her lights and working out a fair price, I had to see how Ryan felt about it.

I emailed him at work. His response was perfect...

"Do it. Depending on the coolness factor, I may even want to keep them..."

Well it's settled then. I emailed Mrs. Seashell and the deal is on.

My mom is concerned about insurance issue with our reception venue, but I think we're just going to take our chances. Plus, to plead our case, these are battery-operated lights... just about the safest thing out there.

I did a little Googling and found some photos of uplighting at our venue...

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It's interesting that this couple only put the lighting in the dance floor section. That might be a good option for us since we are only purchasing 6 lights (for the time being), and our venue is quite large.

DIY Uplighting

I've always been just a little sad that we didn't work lighting into our budget. Our reception venue has all white walls, and I really feel uplighting would help tie in our color scheme.

But that just didn't seem like the smartest idea when you consider we are projected to be $19,000 over our original budget (yes, for serious).

Enter the battery-operated LED Superbright Acolyte E-Wall Wash:


For $61 each, plus a few colored gels, you can create your own uplighting without the hassle of obnoxious cables.

I originally saw the idea on Weddingbee... where else? Here is a photo of what Mrs. Seashell did in her living room with only 6 lights and some yellow gels:


Fabulous, right? We could buy 9 brand new lights for under $600, and based on the excited chatter on that Weddingbee post, I think we'd have no problem selling them to another eager couple for at least half that.

It may be an added expense to our bloated wedding budget, but it's definitely something we're considering. If we could get them for an even better deal, then it would really be worth it.

So I did what any internet-savy girl would do... I cyber-stalked Mrs. Seashell, found her email address, and asked if she was willing to sell her used lights at a discounted price.

Answer: Yes.

Excellent. Now I just need to get Ryan on board.

The Big Gap

After Saturday's wedding, I started to think a lot about our wedding day timeline. The wedding we attended had 1 hour between the ceremony and reception, with a 15 minute commute.

Here's the problem.... we have a whopping 3 1/2 hours between our ceremony and reception, with a 30 minute commute.

That is a long time!

I cringe at the thought, but there's nothing we can do about it. The ceremony must start at 3pm, and the cocktail hour must start at 6:30pm. No way around it.

My mom insists it's no big deal, and it's not my problem to worry about the guests... but I can't help it.

I know most people won't want to do any sightseeing or anything like that with their formal clothes on, so that isn't really an option.

Here are some ideas I came up that might help the long transition...

• We could have some water, iced tea, and/or lemonade at the church immediately following the ceremony. Guests could get a cold drink and mingle after they go through the receiving line.
  
• There could be a short list in the back of the program with some nearby bars and cafes where guests could hang out.
• We could rent a hospitality suite at our hotel for out-of-town guests who aren't spending the night to take a break.
• There could be an insert in the program with a list of time-appropriate movies showing near the reception venue.
• We could set up bocce ball, cornhole, and other easy games at the park near the church.

That's all I've got. I know it's common for people to open up their homes in between the ceremony and reception, but we will be having 200 guests, and my mom is hosting brunch the next day, so I don't think that's something they want to do.