jd – To Infinity & Beyond!

This is Part 2 of a 3 part series recapping our wedding. The first entry was about all the awesome memories & moments. This second part is more practical – a list of our vendors/services so that when someone asks me, I can direct them here. The last part of the series will be general wedding advice and tips. And then I think I will be ready to walk away from writing about wedding stuff!

Venue: Camp Wing in Duxbury, MA. Gorgeous summer camp with a lot of options for a whole weekend wedding. We loved it, but it definitely did not turn out to be any cheaper than having a wedding at a more traditional venue (and was a lot more work!).

Photographer: Sara Smile Photography We really liked her – she was friendly and fun and easy to work with. Prices were reasonable and lined up with industry cost. Our wedding is on her blog.

Food: KO Catering & Pies, supplied the appetizers, dinner, and brownie ice cream sundaes. Their food is amazing, incredibly friendly and helpful staff, and great prices compared to others. We can’t say enough about how awesome they were to work with, and the fresh, delicious food. One catch is that they don’t bring the silverware/plates/table clothes, so you have to rent those separately – but you get a discount through them. The ice cream was from Christina’s Homemade Icecream, based in Cambridge.

Linens, cups, dinnerware: We rented all this through Rentals Unlimited. Their website was kind’ve clunky and the ordering process a bit of a hassle, but it worked out fine. We used them because we got a discount through the caterer so I can’t say if their prices are good or bad.

Booze: We got two cases of wine on sale at the NH Liquor Store Outlet. The rest of our beer and wine was delivered by Gordon’s Fine Wines & Liquors. It wasn’t discounted and was a bit of a hassle to pick out, but it was worth it to pay to have someone bring it all to the venue and be able to return what we didn’t drink. We hired a bartending company, Professional Pour, to serve during the cocktail hour and reception. We were happy with their services and felt like they were the best of all the options we researched.

Music:

For the ceremony: a friend played banjo while guests arrived. We had a friend with an iPod and speakers do the music for the processional and recessional.

For cocktail hour and the reception: we planned to do our own playlist on an iPod with the camp’s speakers until about 4 weeks before the wedding, when we realized we just had too many other things to worry about and this just wasn’t something we wanted to mess up. Hiring Ryan Kelley, ohryankelley@gmail.com was one of the best decisions we made with all of our wedding planning. He turned out to be fantastic – we got a lot of compliments on the music/dj. Prices line up with industry cost.

Tandem bike: We bought it off Craig’s List the weekend before the wedding!

Flowers: I didn’t order flowers until about a month before the wedding, from the florist closest to the venue, Consider the Lilies. We only got a bouquet for me and the best woman, corsages for the mothers and grandmother, a basket for the flowergirl, and boutonnieres for the dads, groom, best man, and ringbearer. We had a mason jar of black-eyed susan flowers at every table and these all came from my sister’s yard.

Videographer:  We didn’t have an official one. A few days before the wedding I asked a friend who does a lot of video work if he could set something up to film the ceremony. He set a tripod and microphone, and I’m SO thankful I asked him to do this. We didn’t want to hire a videographer for the whole day, but you might want to consider at least asking someone to film key moments that you’ll want to relive and see on film.

Ceremony: We wrote our own ceremony. We looked at ceremonies of friends’ weddings, and heavily relied on The Wedding Ceremony Planner – a book that helps you with layout and ideas. We were able to use a lot from that and tailor it to make it our own. My brother-in-law said the ceremony; he is a teacher by trade but was able to get a One Day Designation through the state. We also had a friend be in charge of the ceremony – she ran the rehearsal and made sure everything ran smoothly on the day.

Decorations: We mostly borrowed decorations from people whose weddings we’ve gone to over the last few years (benefit of getting married when you’re “older”). We also picked up additional stuff on Amazon, Ikea, and Joanne’s Fabrics. We got flowers pots for the ceremony area from a garden shop.

Guestbook: I made it from a pre-made template on Shutterfly. It was pretty easy and not too costly. I used pictures of us together from throughout the years, with a lot of pictures from our engagement photo shoot.

Wedding planner: We didn’t have one. But a few days before the wedding, we shared all of our crazy spreadsheets and notes with a friend made sure things ran smoothly on the day of the wedding and made decisions if vendors had questions. This was key – to have someone else know about everything and help keep things on track.

Clothing/bride: My dress was from David’s Bridal – it’s the one I said I wanted when I looked ahead of time online and the one I got. The shoes were also from David’s Bridal, and jewelry from Ten Thousand Villages.

Clothing/groom: His suit was custom made by Indochino. The shirt and tie were from Macy’s, and the shoe’s from Zappos.

Hair & make up: It was done by my awesome sister (who is a Mary Kay Consultant), just like when we were little girls J I didn’t want anything fancy, and we did a test run ahead of time. She is a Mary

Save-the-date: We did simple post card save-the-dates from a photo template through VistaPrint. They were cheap and mailed directly to our guests…but the website was painfully clunky and some of them never arrived to people.

Invitations: We used a template with Minted. We loved the design and simplicity (single card double sided + a postcard RSVP). They weren’t terribly expensive compared to the norm, and there are always coupon codes and discounts available (just search for them). Our invitations did get messed up and come in late (with big discount), so order early!

 

Phew – I can’t believe we pulled off all of this! I’m also happy to share spreadsheets with anyone trying to plan their own wedding!