Ye Update Post of Doom - AKA I'm cramming a year of stuff in here...3 days before my wedding.
Quick Recap:
Sarah + Neil
10/16/10
North Carolina
Colors: Plum, Sage, Chocolate Brown, Cream, Burnt Red, Burnt Orange, Black
Theme: Oh hell if I know. Here are my influences: Rock and Roll, a little bit of steampunk, a little bit of vintage, a little bit of industrial, martini bars, chill music.
So, my last progress post was almost a year ago. I've been planning but haven't made any other progress posts in the process because I was finishing grad school, dealing with incompetent roofers (why is it raining inside my house?!?!) and other stuff that comes along the way. I got inteimdated by all the beautiful weddings I saw on here and felt I couldn't compare. Also, to be honest, I haven't been that excited about getting married. I've had a lot of drama along the way (mostly family drama, and more recently with my venue drama) that honestly, hasn't left me very excited. In addition, I learned on Monday that my grandmother has slipped into a coma and is not expected to live through the week. So, yeah. I'm just not feeling it. More like, I'm ready to get this over with. Maybe it's because I've had a lot on my plate. Maybe I'm just not that girl. But,I'm getting married Saturday so I figured, it's time to go out with a bang!
Intro Post:
http://community.livejournal.com/weddingplans/16076999.html#cutid1
365 Post: <--- I couldn't find it on WP....hmmm. Whatever.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So when we last left of - I had a venue, an idea for mood lighting, and a dress. Let's update on those.
Venue:
I'm the chick who posted last week in a panic because her venue was seized by the federal government. I finally learned on Sunday of last week that we will be allowed to have the wedding there. Since then, the “event coordinator” of the venue (and I use that term very loosely) keeps trying to change our contract. Finally my wedding planners had to step in and basically say, “look, it's not our fault the owners misused funds and pretty much illegally purchased this place and haven't paid the mortgage since January. Our bride has followed her contract to the T, and we're not amending anything. If you'd like to have our business, great, if not, you can refund out money and we will go to a much cheaper venue who would love to have our business.”
So, that shut them up - and we're all chugging along.
Speaking of wedding coordinators.
I had to fire my first set of wedding coordinators (all though if you ask them, they fired me. We'll say for the sake of the argument that it was mutual.) Apparently, changing your mind about wanting to have a wedding cake instead of cupcakes, 8 months out from your wedding, before you've even booked a baker? CAUSES WAY TOO MANY PROBLEMS. The way they came across, I wasn't allowed to change my mind, or explore new ideas about my wedding because 8 months out - I was supposed to have everything set in stone and not budge.
I'm not going to lie. Some of the things they said in parting were very hurtful. And it made me question my taste level and second guess almost every choice I've made from here on out. So that's why I haven't shared much....because I was well...hurt.
So we got rid of them and have much two new planners who have not only saved my wedding, but my stress level as well. They rock. And if you are in the NC are you SHOULD use them.Literally.
http://www.coordinatedevents.net/
Paper Stuff:
Save The Dates:
90% of our guest list had never seen or heard of a Save the Date. Thus, I spent a lot of time explaining the concept.
Invites
And I don't care if you stalk me. You'll probably be a lot cooler than most of the people there. Can I say that I just LOVE my invites. Everyone who received them RAVED about them. I wanted something different and I got it. They took a lot of work but to me they're perfect.
Wedding Website:
www.mywedding.com/neilandsarahswedding
I found mywedding.com to be SUPER easy to use. The guests who have figured out how to use the website have found it very helpful. I have to give a major props to the ladies here because I stole most of their content -- especially chapstickqueen who I used word for word when describing dress code and smoking. Thank You Ladies.
The dress.
I'm the 6'2 chick who bought the black dress. I liked my dress in white, loved my dress in black when it came in, SQUEELED when the fittings started, and well....finally felt like a bride when I got to see my sneak peak bridal portraits from last weekend.
Accessories:
I thought accessorizing this dress would be easy. Throw on some bling and be done.....right? Wrong. Everything either got lost against my skin or looked like I was going to prom. Nothing felt “right” But then I kept coming back to this necklace on etsy. I finally jumped the gun, had it modified a bit, and then rolled with it to make a whole set. It's a little off beat, but it totally works. Etsy seller: EJP Creations is highly professional, loves what she does, and is a complete gem to work with. I'd highly recommend her.
Shoes: Are flats that I had dyed vibrant purple.
Yay. Also - my crinoline in real life is about the color of my shoes. Why its blue....I have no clue.
Beauty:
Hair. I have naturally curly/wavy hair so I've decided to embrace it for the wedding and put more structured yet loose curls ala Kate Winslet.
Makeup: I asked for airbrush and yeah that was about it. I'm usually a low key makeup girl so I asked for a bit of glamour - especially in the eyes.
Here are the two ideas combined.
Please note - my hair will look better than my half assed hair trial in which the hair stylist was running 30 minutes late, burned me with the curling iron, and then put 4 or 5 curls in my hair and sent me on my way.
I think I'm going to ask the makeup artist to put some more color in my cheeks and maybe some more color in my lips. Thoughts?
Menswear:
They're wearing a basic black suit, white shirt, black tie. FH wanted a tie with a skull on it - or something like it - so we got him this from etsy seller: toybreaker
Flowers:
I didn't really have an idea what I wanted from my flowers....I had a lot of inspiration pictures, but nothing was completely what I wanted. Luckily I'm working with an awesome florist who sat with my patiently for THREE HOURS to find out exactly what I wanted. I don't have pictures but I can give you the descriptions. (For those who are visual people....Lumpyhead's latest wedding should pretty much mimic my flowers)
Brides Flowers: Black Magic Roses, Red Amaranthus, Burgendy and Green Succulants, Green Hyperciun, and Green Fuji Mums
Bridesmaids: Green Fuji Mums and Dark Purple Alstromeria.
I decided to add a little bit of funkiness in there and had some custom sticks put in there - in the shape of clock hands - an odd to my industrial/steampunk/whatever the hell I've got going on. Once again, etsy seller EJP Creations helped me out with these. All of the bridal party flowers will have these. Odd, yes. But I love it.
They won't stick out like that...but you get the picture. :-)
Ceremony:
We're having our ceremony in the English gardens. It's a long aisle - 1:15 to walk it - but that's ok.
Music for seating of the guests: Random Loreena McKennitt Songs
Pre-Lude - Eva Cassidy - Songbird
Bridal Party Entrance: James Horner - The Ludlows
My entrance: Vitamin String Quartet - Wonderwall
My mom will be walking me down the aisle as she's the person paying for this, but she's been the only loving, healthy, consistent parental figure in life and I wouldn't have anyone else walk me down the aisle for it.
Our ceremony is beautiful - and make me cry every time I read it. As soon as we finish our vows, I will post it. We're doing a handfasting, and my mom is currently finishing the chords.
Recessional:
Lenny Kravitz - Lady
I would like to say this is a compromise, because I wanted “The Perfect Drug” by NIN or “Get Together” by Madonna. FH wanted “I believe in a thing called love” by the Darkness. This is what we compromised on. *Grumble*
After the bridal party leaves, our officient will announce our cocktail hour and guests will file out to the most awaeome music ever: The Closing Credits to Moulin Rouge.
Before our cocktail hour begins, our guests will get a tour of the mansion - which is a good thing because the place will likely shut down soon unless the courts intervene. This will be our “favor” to them.
Cocktail Hour
When the guests step out into the circular driveway of the front of the house, they will be greeted with food and booze! Yay! It will be twilight, the house will be lit up, and I'll have some pretty cool ambient electronic/jazz music, which my FMIL absolutely hates - so we'll make sure to crank it it up extra loud for her. Why yes, we've worked passive aggressive in there! Payback for all the times she called me bridezilla on facebook.
We're serving beer and wine and have two signature drinks. One signature drink has lots of cranberries in it and you can't taste the alcohol. The other has pumpkin liquer, godiva chocolate lquer, half and half, cinnamon, and lots of yummy stuff that worked for me.
Appetizers include:
cheese and fruit table
Stuffed mushrooms
Bacon Wrapped Cheese Straws
BBQ Stuffed Hushpuppies
Dinner and Debauchery
Due to the size of our guest list -- we're putting up a clear tent to have dinner and dancing --which will be right next to the greenhouse. We're going for the overall mood and feel as seen below.
Lounge Area: Due to the size of our party - we can't use the enclosed greenhouse area to eat or dance - so we've turned it into a lounge area. Lots of comfy couches and side tables, side tables, tons of candles, and our lighting company is going to light it with purple up lighting, along with the tent. Kind of like this:
Table Decor
Steel gray table clothes and black napkins. Excuse crappy cell phone picture. I didn't go with any of my colors - just cause it didn't feel right - and this did.Besides, I didn't want it to be purple rain with the dresses, and purple uplighting, etc.
Table Numbers - Look like my invites - but honestly I'm too lazy to pull them out to photograph.
Centerpieces on the odd tables: Tall glass cubes filled with river rocks, extending out of the cubes: curly willows, rust snapdragons, green fugi mums, bells of ireland, dark purple mini callas and hanging red amaranthus.
Even Numbered tables get: small cubes with black magic roses, assorted succulents and green amaranthus.
Music: once again - during dinner we'll have ambient trip/hop jazz which, as stated, FMIL hates. Special dedication to her!
FOOD!
The one thing FH and I were in agreement upon was the food. We didn't want “typical” wedding food - and we wanted hearty portions. Too often we've been to weddings were we had no idea what we were eating and the portions were ridiculous. We wanted soul food esq type food - and had a hard time finding caterors who didn't want to push us to a BBQ or something else. We tried three caterors (that was an interested expeirence....one cateror wouldn't give my mother food to try) and luckily the first one completely got me.
Here's our menu (Keep in mind we wanted southern soul food with a little bit of fall in there)
½ Portion Fried Chicken
½ Portion Herb Roasted Chicken Breast
Southern Style Pot Roast with Carrots and Onions
Sides
Southern Style Greenbeans
Roasted Oven Vegetables
Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan and Carmel Glaze
Baked Mac and Cheese
Collard Greens
It's like Sunday dinner at Grandma's house.....it's chock full of carbs and I LOVE IT!
CAKE!!!
Minus the flowers.
Three layers:
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip with cream cheese icing
Fresh Apple with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing and Carmel Drizzle
Humingbird Laden with bananas, pineapple, and pecans. Frosted with a cream cheese frosting & more pecans.
YUMYUMYUM.
Misc
Our first dance will be an accoustic version of Taj Mahal's “Lovin in My Baby's Eyes” by my cousin and uncle.
In liu of a guest book, we're bringing in a photo booth instead, and we're going take the second set of prints and put them into a huge frame.
Our card box is actually an antique birdcage that we got off of ebay and cleaned up.
Getaway Car -- bad ass Excaliber!
Honeymoon
Some of you might remember that my FMIL booked our honeymoon for a lovely trip to Canada. Which, wasn't where my FH or I planned on going. FH talked to her, and all went well. Luckily, she ended getting her money back. Originally we were going to end up in Ireland, but FH's work schedule didn't allow the time to do Ireland properly.
So we're going to the Island of Nevis in the Carribian. We've rented a cottage that sits on a cliff that has 200* of the carribian sea and its own private pool. I plan on sleeping, reading, drinking rum, and enjoying my husband while being cut off from the world. Hurricanes, rain, impending doom be damn - we're going to have a great time!
Whew. That's about a year worth of planning into one post. I'm concerned because this wedding is something people aren't expecting -- but hopefully that will be in a good way. I know that my dress will shock all of my guests, and I know that some people may be put off that it's not a "Traditional Southern Wedding" but that's ok too. I've come to terms that this will either be very pretty -- or the biggest train wreck I've ever seen.
Either or.
Good Luck to my date twins out there!