Since I bought all these pillar candles for the fireplace in the ceremony and since we won’t getting married in that room, I’ve decided to put those candles into good use. I thought about using some of their mirror centerpieces and cluster some of those candles on top of that between each couple’s seating on the head table. So about 4 candles of different sizes every two chairs. Then I’ll use the votive candles/holders that I bought at Garden Ridge and will line it up at the front edge of the table. Essentially there’ll be lots of candle lights covering the head table. We’ll also sprinkle rose petals all around it to add some color. Whatcha think?

As for the guest tables themselves, the country club will be providing 3 votives per table. We’ll be using their mirror tiles and with the vases I bought I will fill them with orange or fushia colored rocks which I’ve also bought and a couple stems of gerber daisies or roses. There will also be rose petals sprinkled around each table. Although it may problematic since we’ll have at least 20 tables and I only have 15 vases. I may alternate between that and using some of their bubble bowls. Hmmm.

As for the cake tables, we’ll sprinkle more rose petals, we’ll have the I Do letters and maybe some more votives.

We stopped by Brookhaven today to make a payment and do some preplanning. We sorta finalized the menu (although that can change at any point) and talked about the layout, choosed the colors of the tablecloth etc.

So here’s the rundown:
Table – White table cloth with white overlay and teal napkins (to match bridesmaids dresses)
Chairs – Captains chairs (the fancy kind with arms) so no need for chair covers YAY!
Tables will be round with 8 settings.
There will be a head table seating 10 of us.
She also let us use the other half for the ceremony since there won’t be an event that day. Soooo, the invitations say garden terrace room – but it’s not like it matters since the whole dang thing is all in one building/room anyway. This is great because once the ceremony is over, we can use it as the dance floor! Now we don’t have to use that small space in the corner as the dance floor. Instead the garden-terrace room will be used as the buffet area.

I wish we took pictures or had pictures. DANGIT!

She will also setup the tiny room by the bar for kiddies. She’ll put a tv in there and all we have to supply are the movies to entertain any children.

As for the cake table, we’ll have two, one for each cake. There will be a silk ruffle overlay on each one, so it’ll be dressed up all pretty.

Ok so here’s the menu – I’ve posted one before, but it’s changed a bit:

Cocktail hour:
Hot artichoke dip with pita chips
Fruit and Cheese Display
Vegetable crudite and ranch dip

Dinner Buffet:
Pecan crusted trout with butter sauce
Flat iron steak with cabernet demi
Chicken Saltimbocca roulades
Leaf salad and two composed salads
Dinner rolls
Green Beans
Lemon Pepper Broccoli
Roasted new potatoes
Garlic whipped potatoes
water, iced tea, coffee, punch

Dessert:
wedding cake
deluxe coffee station

Right now we’re ordering one keg (Bud Light) and having a limited open bar, but we may have to get another keg (each keg holds 100 cups I think, I dunno)

We’ll have to finalize everything a couple weeks beforehand, so please return the RSVP cards, because we want everyone to have a good time and don’t want to run out of food!

I hope no one’s a vegetarian because they’ll be eating sides only :-/

Here is my breakdown:
1 domestic keg $285
1 imported keg $310
open liquor bar $1000 cap (mixed drinks and wine ranges from 4.50 to 6.50)

Is this enough? I know that at least 1/3 to 1/2 won’t drink at all. I may be overestimating, not sure.

I originally was going to have an open bar and put a $1000 cap and turn it into a cash bar. BUT, people are saying that we’ll reach our cap within the first hour since 1000 for 150 people would amount to 2 beers per person or 1 mixed drink per person.

This one is difficult since I’ve only been to weddings where the hosts would bring their own alcohol.

So yesterday after coming back from visiting my parents, I thought I would stop by GardenRidge. The only location I know of is north on 75 somewhere in Plano. I drove and drove and did not find it. I heard they were having and sale was hoping to find something I could use for the wedding. Oh well.

I stopped by Marshalls instead and found glass pieces on sale. I got a clear, tall, very large wine goblet thingy, clear bowl, cylinder hurricane lamp looking glass container, and some other cool shaped glass container. All of this will be used towards the candy buffet and I got all 4 or 5 pieces for 30 bucks. Now all I need is to go to Walmart to buy real candy jars to complete the set. Yay!

I suggested In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel, but it’s not very danceable.

There’s nothing else that is special except Crazy – Pat Green, but even that isn’t danceable or overly sweet.

This will be a tough one.

So I’ve find 2 possible songs I like. What do you think??

• You and I – Michael Buble because I like the lyrics and it’s different.
• In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel… I like this one out of all the others. Brian would sing this to me over the phone along with his other sappy songs. I used to fall asleep to them. Hehe…

And you know, the more cakes I look at, the uglier they get. I think I know what I want, and I’ll stop looking from now on.

We shouldve been dorks and taken pictures of what we had. The buffet presentation was nice. Dessert was good. They also had breakfast on the other side of the room, but since we were there sampling real food, we didn’t have any of that. They had waffles and an omelet station plus other stuff. I did get a glass of mimosa which tasted too much like champagne to me, but Brian seemed to like it. All in all, I think we should be ok with the menu. We just need to pick the food items….

I’m leaning towards the following items:

Cocktail Hour:
Spicy Crab Dip
Crudite Display with Ranch Dip
Fruit and Cheese Display
Coconut Shrimp
Bacon Wrapped Oyster
Asian Style Chicken Salad in Phyllo Cups
Spanakopitas

Entrees:
London Broil with Bearnaise or Flat Iron Steak with Cabernet Demi
Blackened Chicken with Andouille Cream
Pan Fried Trout with Pecan Butter Sauce

Sides:
Green Beans
Lemon Pepper Broccoli or Corn on the Cob
Roasted New Potatoes or Rice Pilaf
Garlic Whipped Potatoes
Leaf Salad
Composed Salad

Beverages:
Open Bar
Coffee
Iced Tea
Punch
Deluxe Coffee for after dinner cordials

Dessert:
Wedding Cake

It’s a lot of food….We may cut the appetizers and add more guests…We’ll see.

Today we’re meeting with another photographer at 6. Their prices and style is pretty good. Somehow my mind keeps creeping back to Duran Photography. What is it that I didn’t like about them?? Too traditional? No negatives? It seems that most of these photographers do not include an album in their packages but only proofs. I guess that’s why I keep coming back to Duran, since they do offer an album.

I am also mildly disappointed at Yi, since I called her to go shopping that one time with Julie, but she never called back. I know it was tooo short of a notice, but she could at least reply. Hrmph. I wonder where she is? I’m assuming she’s out of town. Oh well, it’s not a big deal.

Junior bridesmaids, is it appropriate? Is it too much? I want to include my sister’s daughters in the wedding somehow. They’re too old to be flower girls, but too young to be a regular bridesmaid. Plus I would need to include all 3 versus only one of them. Melody is 11 I think, and Melinda is 9, and Madeline is 5? Gee I don’t know. We’ll see. Also, should I even have a flower girl and ring bearer?

I tried to take my mom shopping for mother of the bride attire a couple of weeks ago, because she gets so bored being at home all the time. We ended up with nothing, mainly because she claims she’s gotten that taken care of. We’ll see about that. I may just have to get my sister to take her shopping whenever she’s down here.

I did schedule a meeting with TheCakeGuys for the second weekend of November. They have tons of designs, but I’m not sure about the flavors. Brian wants plain white and chocolate, which is what they seem to only offer. I prefer a mixture of different flavors. I guess we’ll have to see during the tasting.

We also need to schedule time to go have lunch at the country club. They told us we can go there and have lunch to see what the food is like. If we want further tastings we can schedule a specific time.

Less than 11 months to go. After the holidays, things will soon creep up.

The wedding coordinator at Brookhaven called on Friday saying that there was another bride interested in the date that we held. We knew we had to act fast if we wanted it. It was our top and best choice out of all the places we’ve looked at. The only problem was the minimum, which was 7000 for the main dining room area… It’s not that it’s high, it’s just that if we wanted a smaller wedding or if we dont have enough headcount, then we’d be spending money for extra people that won’t be there. Even though our list hit 150 guests, who knows if everyone will be there…

I’m just finally glad we made a decision. Brian just asked his old friend to be his best man. Yay!

Our next steps is to find the ceremony site…

I really wish we can just commit to something already…but in a way, I want to be creative. I want it to be different. I guess I’ll update more once we have some decisions finalized. I did find the cutest bridesmaid dresses at the Jessica McClintock store in Stonebriar.

So far the total bill for 160 people, just for the reception alone is $8900. I am forecasting that we’ll spend 20,000 just for this wedding. It better be quite the shindig.