Our Married Life

I did run by Romano’s Bakery and set an appt on November 19th for cake tasting and consultation.

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.

I figured since we both have nothing better to do this Sunday, we can go have brunch at Brookhaven and sample their food. Suprisingly enough they exceeded my expectations. It’s not a 5 star meal by any means, but it was very good. The presentation was nice, and wait staff was nice, the food was good. Brian had some sirloin steak with demi glace sauce and chicken with some tomato ragout sauce on it. The garlic mashed potatoes he had was good too. They also had a salad bar with regular salad and pasta salad I think. There was a cheese tray display with sliced fruit and crackers which we’re getting. I had salmon with lemon sauce and bbq glazed pork chops and mixed vegetables with brussel sprouts :-O

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.

I am mildly disappointed/upset that this wedding planning hasn’t progressed at the speed that I want it to be. I feel like time is wasting. We’re not meeting with enough people, we’re indecisive, we’re cheap. Ack!!!!

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.

So I had an idea yesterday while driving home from work. There’s this place on Preston called Cookie Blooms or something of that sort. It’s basically a place that makes cookies, decorates them and puts them in a bouquet or basket. Wouldn’t it be fun to get together the night before and decorate cookies, wrap them in clear saran wrap or plastic with a cute little bow. We can either use them as centerpieces, favors at the reception or at the church….

After much deliberation, reviewing ALL the options Dallas has to offer, we are finally going with Brookhaven. It’s cozy, homey, and the perfect size and location. Located in a neighborhood in Farmer’s Branch, the country club comes from old money. There is a view of the pool just outside the reception area. We need to scope out churches in the neighborhood for our ceremony. Of course we can always have the ceremony out on the golf course somewhere, although we prefer a church.

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…

On Friday I visited the Addison Events Center. It’s a beautiful facility but too many hidden costs. You have to pay for a security guard if serving alcohol, for the dancefloor, no decorations, blah blah. I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

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.

It seems as if though we are not ready to commit to any of the plans. I just called Brookhaven to let them know we’re going to book. She’s going to email me the contract. This requires at 1400 deposit. Cripes. Are we actually ready to spend money?

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.

Well, I got my CityPlace proposal back. The coordinator said this about my menu selection:

“The way you are wanting to structure the menu appears more like a dinner buffet but without enough quantity. I will send you a dinner buffet menu that you might be more interested in and of course you could add some hors d’oeuvre items before the dinner if you like.”

I assume I had enough food there but I guess not. The portions must be really tiny. With 2 entrees, a mashed potato bar, salad, 3 cold displays, and 3 hor d’oeurves, it’s not enough food?

Ok…I have settled on Brookhaven Country Club. I’ve received more reviews from people who say the food there is great. I will be requesting a proposal from them tonight and hopefully get something this week.

We will then confirm our date by making the deposit next month (hopefully).