Matt and I interviewed Rev. Patrick J. Callahan today and immediately liked him.  He’s a former Catholic priest (who left to get married in his 40’s) and does a thousand weddings.  He was really open to any type of wedding we’re interested in and can make this ceremony as religious (or not) as we want.  This was something that I really wanted Matt to feel good about being that Matt is Catholic and more religious than I am.  We decided shortly after meeting him that this was the officiant we wanted–yay!

Tonight, I finally bought an organizing binder to store all the contract and vendor information I’ve been collecting.  Whew. 

Want to nail down in the next couple weeks: florist and videographer.

Categories: Ceremony
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After work today, I drove up to Kenmore to meet Cory from Bogle Productions to get a sense of how he makes wedding day videos.  I thought I’d check him out after noting that he was voted Best Videographer in Seattle Bride magazine for a few years in a row and he also came highly recommended.  Nice guy, pretty straightforward stuff, really reasonable prices (compared to some other videographers I found).  Unlike the photographer, I think I want to meet with a few more videographers–the style seems to really vary as do the services (some offer “day of editing” for showing pre-ceremony bits during the reception, some capture a love story, some offer montages, some don’t, etc.).

It’s funny–I was emailing back and forth with Amy a couple weeks ago about the feeling of buyer remorse in planning weddings.  Her wedding is in a couple months but she made so many decisions nearly a year ago.  I wonder how often that happens with people as they plan weddings.  For example, one thing that’s always going to get to me–did I really pick out the right dress?  I know it’s the right dress now, but will I think a year from now if I should have gone with some super modern, all silk satin number instead?  Fortunately, as Phoebe pointed, I do have the fun slinky cheongsam that I’ll get to change into during the reception to balance out my attire throughout the evening.

I’ve been obsessed lately with trying to find bios of Seattle brides on theknot.com and see the vendors that they all used.

Categories: Vendors
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This has been a rather productive week in terms of wedding planning (probably because my parents were in town and it was incentive for me to interview some vendors with them in town).  First off, we decided to hire H.B. Radke & the Jet City Swingers to be the band during the reception—we’ve been looking for a band that specializes in jazz, swing and standards and this band really hit the spot.  Matt and I have gotten sample CDs from a number of bands but I think this one had the best sound.

Monday evening, my mom and I had our first florist consultation with John Gardner of Aria Floral.  It was a great meeting as it really forced me to think about what was important to me for the whole wedding–do I care about flowers on the placecard table?  How about re-using the petals from the aisle for the cake table?  Man, I’m totally scared to see what this proposal will be like…it scares me how much flowers and decorations may cost.

Tuesday evening, my parents and I went to interview Joey Hong of John & Joseph Photography and totally fell in love with his portfolio.  We knew going into this after looking at a ton of photographer websites online that we liked how unique and creative his photography was.  The meeting itself sealed our instincts—and this morning, I faxed in the contract to book him.  But man, they’re popular—they’ve already gotten 40 inquiries for July 7th ALONE.  And they’d already met with 3 other couples for that specific date.  No pressure!  But in all honesty, we knew walking out that we’d be super happy with their photography.  They also have really artsy albums—they don’t look like traditional wedding albums, rather really nice art print books.  Thanks to Amy for the recommendation!

Categories: Misc Planning, Vendors
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Well, this was the big weekend for our parents to finally meet…and it’s over now.  I wish it could last longer because it WENT SO WELL!  Our parents got along really well, just as we expected, and the 6 of us had such a wonderful time with each other.  It was a really action-packed weekend. 

Thursday night, with only Matt’s dad in town, we met up for a casual dinner at Purple Wine Bar & Cafe—after George had spent over 12 hours traveling with all the craziness in England that happened that day.  He waited 5 hours in security at Boston Logan, missed his flight, then got re-routed to Atlanta, and finally arrived in Seattle 6 hours late.  Still, he met up with me and my parents and we had a fun time together.

Friday night, as it was my and my dad’s birthday, we celebrated by going to Waterfront Seafood Restaurant where Matt’s mom finally arrived from Denver, just in time for appetizers.  We all ate a grand meal and had a fun time sharing stories.

Saturday, we met up for brunch at Rosebud, a restaurant that Matt and I frequent because it’s a block away from my condo.  Afterwards, we went back to my place where I did a quick slideshow of all the pictures from Portugal.  Near the end, as we showed pictures of our betrothal ceremony, Matt whipped out the framed Betrothal documents that Father Mariani (the priest that conducted the ceremony) put together for us—we had framed them as a gift to our parents.  That was really special to show those documents then.  We then split up, with the guys hitting the driving range while I took the 2 Sharons (yup, they’re both named Sharon and they’re both nurses and they’re both Virgos) out shopping at Moms, Maids & More to stir up ideas for what to wear on the big day.  Super fun shopping experience.  After that, we all met up at Newcastle Golf to finally show our parents the ceremony & reception site—they were all blown away and super happy with our choice. Yay!  For dinner that evening, we splurged again and had a steak dinner at El Gaucho.  Yum!

Today, we got together for a very fulfilling dim sum at Jumbo Restaurant where we gobbled down all that food in half an hour.  In the afternoon, we headed downtown for some shopping and browsing around in the Pike Place Market as it was an absolutely gorgeous day.  We then bid adieu, exchanged hugs and handshakes and that was that.

I am so happy and excited that Matt and I have such wonderful parents that will be coming together as a family.  I’m looking forward to our future together!

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  After interviewing a bunch of people, I’ve finally decided to hire on the fabulous Janel Schlitt of Occasions, LLC to help out with day-of coordination plus a bit of design for flowers and decoration.  Yay!

Categories: Misc Planning
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Woke up early this morning for a 9am appointment at Marcella’s where Phoebe, Asayo & Jigna met me and my parents to try on the final 3 dresses…and we decided on the Lazaro dress that I saw at the trunk show over the weekend!  I’m soooo excited.  We put the deposit down and the dress is now getting ordered.  Woo Hoo!

Categories: Dress
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Over the weekend, I was browsing through the Lazaro website, knowing there was a trunk show at Marcella’s, when I came across a dress that made me gasp.  I sent a mail to Leah, the bridal sales consultant that I’ve been working with to see if the dress was at the trunk show.  She immediately called me and started blabbing about how much she thought I’d love the dress and that she totally thought of me when it came in and that I should come in that day to check it out.  I snagged the last appointment.  Fortunately, Phoebe was able to join me so last minute to check this out.  I loved it.  Admittedly, it was a bit hard to envision it fitting on me initially because this was probably the smallest sample size dress I’d ever tried on–it was literally the dress from the runway, so the model was like a size 0 and 5′10″—great.  So the sample kinda falls on me funny—but after tucking here an tucking there and holding things in for a bit, I could see it and I really loved it.  Did I mention that it’s much cheaper than any of the other dresses that I’ve been looking at?  That helped too.  Another neat thing—Lazaro, himself, was at the dress shop for the trunk show so I got to meet him.  I think it’s my favorite now.  Fortunately, the shop is going to hold this dress for me until my mom gets here–and I’ve made an early AM appointment for Wednesday, after which they’ll fedex the dress to the next trunk show.  I hope my mom likes it!  I really think that this may be the one…

On the coordinator front—wow, well, I’ve spoken to 5 coordinators so far, including Coordinator A, the first one we ever met.  I think I have a pretty good idea who I’ll want to hire now after interviewing so many but I won’t go into it since future coordinator will likely peruse this website; however, here are my thoughts in general about coordinators:

• It’s really helpful to see examples of their work–such as the timelines they put together or the email newsletters they may put together for the wedding party.  This is especially important for day-of coordinators. Why?  Most coordinators bring their “portfolio” which is just photographs of weddings they’ve done–while I ooo and aaah over these photographs, they don’t really show me what this coordinator is capable of–it just shows me they did a pretty wedding and that there was a great florist and photographer.  I was impressed when a coodinator showed me actual examples of how they coordinate.
• Do they review contracts?  Preferably yes.
• Know your vendors.  I interviewed one coordinator whom I started asking ‘who’s your favorite band?’ ‘who’s your favorite florist?’ ‘who’s your favorite officiant?’  For each one, she stumbled trying to remember names of vendors.  That really didn’t impress me.  I would hope that a coordinator can instinctively remember great vendors rather than needing to refer to some sheet of paper they’ve been updating.
• Good vibe is important–I’m going to be working with this coordinator a bunch.  I need someone that’s on the same brainwave as me–not someone that I’ll just get annoyed with speaking to.  There are plenty of good coordinators out there, so hire someone that you’ll get along with.
• Shop around–prices totally vary.  I’ve found day-of coordinators to range from $750 - $3500.  And they all basically do the same thing!
• Do they get vendor discounts? See how the coordinator reacts to your desire to take advantage of that.  Will they limit the number of vendor referrals/discounts they give you?  Do they take kickbacks? (preferably not)
• Have they ever worked at your venue?  Have they had experience with any special things you want to do at your wedding?  I asked each one about their experiences with Chinese tea ceremonies–it ranged from “I learned Chinese doing it!” to “I’ve never planned one”.  That can be a tiebreaker.

At the end of the day, honestly, I liked all of the coordinators I met–they were all wonderful people that I’m sure are totally capable of helping out with the wedding.  It’s little nitpicky details that ultimately help me decide in the end who I want to hire.

Categories: Dress, Misc Planning
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Okay, so I’ve been rather obsessed looking over wedding websites and message boards to get ideas and such.  One thing that I keep trying to interpret are all the weird acronyms that people use (”While I was talking to my FI the other day about the STDs,  we thought it’d be nice to ask the DOC to join us at the RD” .  I finally came across a post that finally defines what all of these are. 

FI - Fiance
FH - Future Husband
DH - Dear Husband
MIL - Mother in law (also works for father - FIL and sister - SIL although I don’t think I’ve ever seen BIL.  Maybe no one talks about their brother-in-laws)
FMIL - Future Mother-in-law (also works for FSIL)
IL - In-Law
MOB - Mother of Bride
MOH - Maid of Honor
BM - Bridesmaid
BP - Bridal Party
GM - Groomsman
FG - Flower girl
RB - Ringbearer
DOC - Day of Coordinator
CP - Centerpiece
STD - Save the Date
OOT - Out of Town
E-pics, E-ring, E-party - Engagement
RD - Rehearsal Dinner
NWR - Not Wedding Related
SWR - Somewhat Wedding Related
HM - Honeymoon
GTG - Get-Together
DW - Destination Wedding
RP - Repost
XP - Cross Post (specific to theknot)
TIA - Thanks in Advance

Categories: Uncategorized
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Just talked to Jocelyn (sister of college friend, Julia) who just informed me that she and Ivan are also engaged now!  They apparently got engaged a few weeks after Matt and I did.  They’re likely to get married in Ithaca and they’re also eyeing the same weekend of July 7th!  How funny would that be if we got married on the same day?  Selfishly, I would love for them (and Julia) to come to my wedding and vice-versa…but I also know it’s a pain trying to nail down a date.  Hopefully it can work out so that we can attend each other’s weddings!  In any case, it’ll be great to have a fellow Seattle bride-to-be to talk about all things wedding.

On another note, I’ve scheduled interviews with 3 possible day-of wedding coordinators over the next few days.  Also, I called coordinator #1 from the other week (the one that Matt and I really liked but she didn’t do day-of weddings in the summer).  I told her how much we loved her but she was a bit out of our budget and also we (moreso, I) were interested in a day-of coordinator rather than someone doing the whole thing.  The great news is that she wants to try to work something out and work with us….so she’s going to email me later with thoughts on whether or not she can take us on in a smaller chunk and propose something else. Looking forward to seeing what that is!

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After thinking about it a bit and gathering advice from past brides, I’ve decided that I definitely want to hire a “day-of” wedding coordinator who may or may not help out a bit with a few extra things (such as decorations).  I don’t really need a full on coordinator since I’ve already picked a venue, practically have picked a dress, and am a natural organizer.  So, I’m on a hunt now for a good Day Of Wedding Coordinator.  Matt and I interviewed one person last week who was totally awesome but she unfortunately doesn’t do “day-of” weddings during the summer at all.  So I’m now contacting a few others to interview over this next week based on recommendations from Newcastle and from friends.  A few little nitpicks that I’m keeping in mind as I pick someone:

• Do they have a good website?  If their website sucks, I don’t want someone who can’t even represent themselves professionally.
• What is their experience? esp. in Seattle…
• Do they only do weddings? or do they also plan other types of events?  And overall planner is fine, but it seems to feel better to have someone who only does weddings for a living.
• How expensive are they?  I’ve found the price range for day-of coordinators to be anywhere from $750 to $3500 (which is as much as some coordinators charge for the whole shebang)
• Can they save me money? (i.e. do they have some good vendor relationships?)
• In meeting with me, how flexible are they?  Are they willing to meet me wherever’s convenient for me? or only in their office?  It’s just a small indicator to me as to their willingness to be flexible and work with me when it comes to the big day.
• When I meet them in person, do I like them?  I’d need a coordinator that seems to share similar tastes….

Categories: Misc Planning
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