eeeee

The upstairs area for the ceremony...

a side view of the upstairs - window! uh! :)

Downstairs in the main hall...

I have several other pictures, it's too annoying to post them here so I may start a new Picasa web album and share the link here later..

SO yep we loved it. Zach's parents both came with us to view Old Town Hall this evening and we all agreed it was awesome and perfect. EEE!! :) :)

They were setting up for an event for 80 people, it was great - we could have just walked in and had our reception. Definitely nice to see it set up like that so we could be sure we'd all fit comfortably. We may want to fiddle with the layout a little, maybe add a couple tables so people aren't jammed elbow-to-elbow at each table. Also may consider doing something with those chairs... I dunno! We can worry about that later.

Upstairs, where we want to have the ceremony, is so cute. The windows are amazing, the walls are lined with books (it doubles as a library), and the back of the room has a sort of make-shift art gallery. The room was set up for like 130 people, but it was roughly as it would be for a wedding ceremony so we could visualize it pretty well.

In the back there's a little Librarian's Office that I'll use as my "holding area." Looks like it'll be great for those "preparations" pictures on the day. ..however I forgot to take any pictures for you guys. Sorrryyy!

Afterwards we went to dinner at Courtside Thai, which was an idea for the rehearsal dinner. The service was excellent, food was mostly great (except a lot of their dishes are fried, and some don't advertize they're fried, as Zach learned - but my meal was really delicious and not fried), the decor was ok, the space was maybe a Little tight. They'll seat 40, which is about the number we were shooting for, but we might like a little more breathing room. So definitely well worth the experiment, but we'll keep looking for other places. I'd love to check out Bombay Garden. But there are a lot of options, and we've got Several months to worry about that so I'm going to try not to till a bit later.

Edible centerpieces

I would like to state for the record that this was already an idea I've been thinking about! But this picture from the Earth Friendly Wedding blog really sums it up pretty well. I love the idea of lemons, oranges and/or apples in the centerpieces - maybe oranges/apples would be better because then guests could actually eat them throughout the reception - with any leftovers I/we could make pies! Though I'm not sure how I would do that when I fully plan to leave for the honeymoon the next day.. If we used lemons I was thinking we could make lemonade, or use them in cocktails or to flavor the water.. I dunno! But I'm going to keep noodling that idea..

Oooh and I just found this basket that could hold zee fruits!

Another blog I like to check in on sometimes is Offbeat Bride. Some of the ideas there are wayyyy over the top for me but every once in a while I pick up a neat idea.

I also love this idea of using mismatched vintage plates - I don't care if they're "vintage" but if I can find them at Goodwill and they're cool looking, it would be neat to use them.

I'm thinking I want to find a great pair of non-ivory colored shoes to wear. I'm thinking pink, orange or blue (could be my something blue?) - I like these, though the site calls them red. Is it just my monitor or do these shoes look pink??

Have I talked about the birdcage veil yet? I can't remember. But I want one. Who thinks I could pull this off?

For the send-off, I was thinking we could have everyone throw lavender or jasmine at us instead of bird seed/bubbles/stones/etc. - I wonder if the two scents would mix well if we made up combo bags of lavendar and jasmine... How would we package it to give to guests so they know it's for throwing at us and it doesn't get everywhere inside before the send-off..?

Can you tell I'm getting tired of embedding photos in this thing? Hope the links work ok!

Decorations ETC

Haven't had a lot of time the past couple days to obsess over wedding stuff.. But today I did pick up another wedding magazine and ripped out a few more dress pictures, and went to some websites they've suggested for various money-saving ideas.. So far I like Save-On-Crafts.com the best. They have giant centerpiece-size martini glasses! :-o actually those are probably too expensive but they have a lot of other stuff, including some more eco-friendly options. I'm kind of in idea-overload right now, I have hundreds of ideas but they wouldn't all go together.. it's hard to commit to a color scheme/theme/etc.!!

Last night I finally found my pipe cleaners so I started playing around with my buttons.. I don't know that I'll want to use pipe cleaners in the end, but they're good for practicing. Here's a pic of the flowers I've made so far! The buttons still need a good cleaning, the ones from Grandma in particular have umm, seen better days. But I think the idea has potential. Sorry the pic is blurry, took it on my cell phone..

I also discovered a new blog I think I need to follow - Earth Friendly Weddings. Perfect!

I was supposed to go running tonight, wooops! I got distracted.

my dream

I had a dream last night that the song for the Processional at the wedding would be "Kids" by MGMT. LOL. ..part of me really likes the idea actually.. haha we'll see.

I was searching nearby Old Town Hall on google maps for other restaurants that might work for the rehearsal dinner, and found a couple interesting ones. One sounds awesome - Courtside Thai, got great reviews on Yelp - but they have no website so maybe we can go take a look this Saturday when we go check out the town hall (oh yes by the way we're planning to go check it out this Saturday evening! woop). I'm not even sure their place is big enough, not sure yet how big our dinner is going to be - also it's pretty early to worry about this. But I just like browsing... :) Also found Villa Mozart, which looks pretty classy.

All I want to do every day is play with buttons. Look what I found! Am i nuts or is this a perfectly acceptable non-tacky boutonniere? it's ok if you think it's tacky. please tell me what you think! I don't want Zach's groomsmen to feel ridiculous up there. I was thinking of working the wooden toggle ones in somehow - not into a design like this picture, but if we had a real flower and a mostly traditional boutonniere, maybe add a toggle or button just to tie it all in..

Just tried to draw my idea out in Paint, can't seem to get the vision out right.. But you get the idea. I tried to draw in some other small accent flower, little berries, baby's breath, and all attempts failed. So just try to envision it I guess.

it's 11:11

So I'm making a wish that this Old Town Hall idea works out! Zach loved the idea!

Old Town Hall

For those of you who've gone to the Chocolate Festival in Fairfax, you should remember this building. I hardly remember how the layout was inside actually, so I'll definitely want to drag Zach there sometime soooon to check it out, but the Purple Onion catering lady suggested the venue so I contacted them for more info, and have already heard back! It sounds perfect. Except it's in Fairfax, but it's a rill cute part of town, and there are hotels and stuff not too far away. The site fee for the main hall on Saturdays is $1,500, and then we can also rent the upstairs for the ceremony at $75/hour, so that's really reasonable.

Also right around the corner from there is a restaurant that would be great for the rehearsal dinner - La Rue 123.

The best part is, they don't appear to have any restrictions on catering (meaning I can bring in Sarah's cake) and there's no alcohol beverage fee, as long as it's By Invitation Only and no cash bar. So we should be able to bring in our own alcohol.

I still would Prefer a spot closer in but I do love this part of Fairfax and it's not tooo far away. There are no hotels right Next to it, but we could definitely look into hiring a bus to get people back to their hotels, so we don't have to worry about designated drivers and all that.

..also how cute is this! The Stafford House is just half a mile away from the Old Town Hall, perfect for us to stay there Saturday night before leaving Sunday morning for the honeymoon.. Convenient to Dulles too!

caterers etc.

I send out so many inquiry emails I'm forgetting who I'm requesting information from.. At some point I need to go through my sent mail and find out, and then keep track in one of my beloved google doc spreadsheets..

Anyway! I got a few responses from inquiries over the weekend, a couple of them are promising.

Caterer: The Purple Onion Catering Company. I got a really detailed response with a wide range of catering prices, and since I asked her specifically about catering at Cabells Mill, she gave me the full quote on all the supplies I would need to have an event there (chairs, linens, china, etc etc), which was nice. Most companies I've contacted send me some meal quote with an asterisk saying "does not include beverage, labor, tax or gratuity." This lady sent me quotes including all those things, and one buffet-style full dinner with staff, linens, china ETC (all but the alcohol, which we could provide and use their bartender), was $5,500 something (and that was for 80, would be slightly less for the 75 we're shooting for). That is really reasonable, and the sample menu looked pretty good, though I would want to change out some of the options. Anyway I think Cabells Mill is pretty much out unless we get desperate, but this company operates in Arlington, DC and Alexandria too so they are on my list.

This weekend I went through all the wedding magazines I've collected the past couple weeks and ripped out bunches of pages of dresses I liked, catering company ads, honeymoon ideas, etc etc etc. I found an ad for a catering company that advertized itself as environmentally friendly so I will be contacting them for more info. We're Considering doing a totally vegetarian reception.. Well haha I asked Zach if he would be ok with that and he said, "Umm sure?" I'm going to get some quotes and see if we can get some yummy vegetarian options. I saw an article about food suggestions and they had a picture and description of some seriously delicious looking vegetarian risotto, which gave me the idea.. Should be less expensive AND more environmentally friendly so I like the idea. And the vegetarian Sara(h)s will approve. ;)

I also got a quote back from a possible officiant - A.C. Warden, of Capital Ceremonies. She seems like a cool person, she personalizes every ceremony and her quote was a range of $500 - $800, I guess depending on a lot of factors. I'll probably contact her again for a new quote when we have our venues booked and we've thought a little about what kind of ceremony we want. I would love to find someone cheaper! I think we might be able to pay someone at the courthouse $50 to come out on a Saturday and perform the ceremony, depending on our budget we may just do that. But it would be nice to have a full-service celebrant.

We met with Meg on Saturday about being our photographer - we're excited! We're going to contact her again in late March/early April for an engagement photo session, which should be fun. We're trying to think of locations we'd like to have the photos taken, so far our ideas include:

Lincoln Memorial/Jefferson Memorial/Tidal Basin (cherry blossoms!)
Metro (train and bus)
Singing Karaoke (maybe at Freddie's Beach Bar?? hahah! or Sobe, would be a lot quieter)
eating at Bob & Edith's diner
Teddy Roosevelt Island (where he proposed)

Anybody has any suggestions, let me know.

Oh and Zach loved the pinata idea! woop woop!

The Athenaeum

OK new site idea!

The Athenaeum, Old Town Alexandria (map). Really pretty part of town, close to the water.. Not sure why I didn't have this on my list before, a 5-hour Saturday rental, including the required membership, is $1,350. Looks like we could probably do our ceremony there too, in one of the galleries? ..Something in their wording leads me to wonder if the maximum capacity includes multiple rooms.. I would not want to split up our guests into different rooms, so we'll have to take a look.

Maybe my mother, et al., would like to join us on a site visit there sometime soon? :)

Love it love it love it

Elaine (Mrs. P) took us down to Centreville/Annandale this morning to view the Cabells Mill facility and the Wakefield Chapel, and they are both just as cute as they look in the pictures. omg. Unfortunately Cabells Mill is a Little on the small side, we'd have to get creative with the space in order to have tables for eating and room for dancing.. They suggested possibly having the meal and then sort of moving the tables to the side and making a dance floor area.. I'm not sure how I feel about that. But man I want it to work! It's so charming! And the grounds are rill pretty too, everything was sort of brown today but I'm thinking by mid-March it'll be at least a little greener. I guess I'd like to try to check out the Grange at Great Falls at some point, see if that space is any bigger.

We can't reserve the spaces until March so I'm going to keep looking at other venues and we'll just think about it. Definitely confirmed they are both livable options - I still would like to find venues a bit closer in though. So the search continues--!

This afternoon we're meeting with Meg about photography :)

possibly hopefully great venue idea!

So. I'm definitely falling in love with the Wakefield Chapel idea, and there's another Fairfax County property that would be Great for the reception, and if we use both we get a 10% discount off both. However. The chapel is in Annandale, the reception site I'm looking at is in Great Falls. For those not from around here, they ain't close to each other. Here's a map of the directions between the two. I'm thinking we could rent a big bus and cart everyone from place to place? I definitely don't want everyone driving 50 cars all over the place, sort of defeats my whole sustainable plan. I will have to look into hiring a coach... Anyway.

This is the chapel. Cuuute! I think I mentioned before, it's non-denominational, and we can bring in a secular officiant. It's just so darn cute I want to gobble it up.

And here are some pics of the Grange in Great Falls, where I'm thinking reception. Fairfax County has some other sites available but most of them wouldn't hold our estimated 75 - 100 people.


I really have to figure out how to make this blog do what I want with my pictures! Gah!


So, am I right or am I right. These are both pretty sweet venues right? And the prices are totallyyy reasonable. I just need to find a caterer.

Here's the pricing breakdown. Chapel and Great Falls Grange together, for a non-resident, is $2,625. If they are still doing the 10% off thing, that becomes $2,362.50. That includes use of tables and chairs and a couple other things; 3-hr block at the Chapel (plus 1 hour for rehearsal), 6-hr block at the Grange. Also includes the $100 alcohol use fee. So I'm thinking this is just the best deal I'm going to find! They don't start scheduling March 2010 till March 2009, so we have some time to think about it, go view the facilities, etc.

Also I'm going to ask if they're real sticklers on the resident/non-resident thing - maybe they would let us put the reservation in the name of a Fairfax County resident I know (cough. Amber. cough), and then we could get a further discount - then it would end up being $2,050 for all of that I described above.

I have not shared any of this info with Zach yet, but I did say something about the Chapel to him yesterday and he said it sounded neato. The biggest problem with this idea is the distance between the two spots. And also where will our guests be staying?? I'll need to look into hotels nearby..

* * *

OK also there's another option, Cabell's Mill is another Fairfax County spot, would be the same price as above, but it's in Centreville instead of Great Falls so that would be closer to the Chapel AND there would probably be a lot more hotel options near that venue.. The only drawback is that Cabell's Mill has a kitchen with just a small sink, no appliances. Might make catering a little dodgy. The Grange has regular home appliances - nothing like a big fancy caterer's kitchen I don't think, but at least a fridge and an oven and all that.. The building looks rill cute, can't tell as much about the indoors, but they say it seats 85..

those crazy Brits

Had a dermatologist appointment this morning, and on my way there I popped in a store and bought umm three wedding magazines (waiting room reading matter you know) and I accidentally bought one that said "UK's Hottest Wedding Ideas." All I saw was "Wedding Ideas," but it's ok because even though all the ads for vendors and venues are in the UK and irrelevant, they had a lot of nifty ideas I can use. Also. Best part. I found out they call the bachelorette party a "hen party." all the articles were like "so gather your hens for a nice spa day" and there were a bunch of ads using the term too, they were all "bring your hen party to our club for your last wild night out!" and stuff. LOL. I love it. I mayyy insist on calling the bachelorette party the Hen Party. HAHA.

In other news... Sigh. I heard back from the State Theatre. They let me know I probably don't want to do an evening event there, minimum required is $12,500. She said the daytime idea could work, the minimum required is $6,500 - but then she said usuallyyy when all is said and done the daytime events end up running around $11 - $13,000. So boooo. Actually she just sent me an estimate from a previous event that ran $11,200-ish, but that was a luncheon for 100, I wonder if brunch for 75 or 80 would be significantly cheeeeper... I thought this idea was totally out but nowww I'm thinking maybe there's room to think about it, at least. Now that I know State Theatre's prices maybe I can find other venues Like that but less expensive. hmmmm..

venues

I am getting a little frustrated with my venue search. Howww is there not just a big room with a sound system and a kitchen I can rent out and hire a reasonably priced caterer who will provide silverware and glassware and all that, and I can bring my booze and cake and somebody else will clean up after us..? seriously? in the dc metro area this does not exist?? I'm sure it does. I just have to keep looking.

For a brief moment I thought I might get away with hosting our wedding at Union Station's Columbus Club room, it's only $1,500 for the site rental, I thought they might allow us to bring in outside food/beverages.. But no, I got a quote back from them that explained they have one caterer they allow, and the package they offer is $150/person, not including beverages........ Dang. So that's out.

I finally called the State Theatre but this Johanna lady was not in, so I left a message.

Here are some other venues I'm looking into:

The Equality Center (contacted, waiting for a quote)

Ingleside Vineyards (contacted, waiting for quote. also I didn't realize at first how far away it is, would practically be a destination wedding... but I'll wait to find out if we could afford it)

Durant Center (haven't contacted them, not sure what it is exactly but it's in Alexandria, some site told me it was good for weddings)

Wakefield Chapel & Stone Mansion (There are a number of Fairfax county locations that could work, I thought the chapel looked cute - reminded me of the one in Rocky Horror Picture Show, honestly. it's non-denominational so I don't mind it. unfortunately there isn't a reception location toooo close by, but I like the stone mansion idea. have requested information, waiting to hear back)

There are some other places I'm looking I just can't remember them all. Here are the sites I'm using to search, if anyone has any better ideas please pass them along.

http://www.sesma.org/eventList.php
http://visitalexandriava.com/weddings/
http://www.eventective.com/USA/Dist+of+Columbia/Washington/
WeddingWire.com

I've looked at theknot.com and all those types too. I'd be open to a hotel wedding if one exists that charges less than $100/person.. Unfortunately hotels always require in-house catering, I couldn't have Sarah's cake and they'd way overcharge me for alcohol sooo I don't think I'm really interested. They would probably also poo-poo my buttons idea.

some responses to comments

I was going to just reply in the comments section to everyone's stuff but you guys have sooo many ideas I think it deserves a whole new post.

First: OH MAI GAWSH SARAH I LOVE YOU. that is an amazing idea. GO. :) (for those who haven't read all the comments, she has offered to make my cake AND include little edible candy buttons!!!)

Thanks everyone for your ideas and feedback I love you too!!

I'm definitely already perusing the used wedding dress options, there are actually several websites devoted to this, and craigslist has a few listings too. Sofiabridal.com looks like a cheapish option too - but I'm wondering if there's a catch because their custom made dresses are only $300 - $500 and that seems like an amazing deal... I would in theory prefer a used dress but since they're so specifically tailored to the previous owner it might be tough finding one that works for me. I'm keeping my eyes open though! Still need to start that dress ideas post, I want to share some pictures of dresses I like so far. Haven't tried any on though so I don't Actually know what style would look best on me.

Amber tried posting comments but blogger Denied her so I will share some of her ideas. She says I should call my wedding party "bridal attendants." That's a very easy fix, and a good idea. I will probably go with something like that or just stick with the traditional "bridesmaids" and not use the matron title even for the matrons. Unless said matrons really object, they are/will be pretty new brides and may want people to know they are happily unavailable non-maids - in that case I don't mind using the matron thang.

Another amazing idea Amber had was to do pinatas at the end instead of the bouquet/garter toss!! At first it sounds like a joke but ummm I'm kind of liking the idea. I will have to see what Zach thinks. She also suggested just doing hors d'oeuvres and things instead of a plated meal and yeah that's definitely under consideration. I really only posted that thing about the plated meal as an example of something rill expensive I probably can't do. I'm open to any kind of food options - buffet, plated dinner, heavy appetizer spread, etc. Just not something like hot dogs on paper plates. As much as I lurve hot dogs...

My ideal reception would be at a place where we can bring in our own booze (keg maybe, or cases of beer, a few bottles of vodka/gin/tequila and lots of champagne, etc etc) and then people just drink until it's gone. Going with a traditional "open bar" is basically out of my price range, it's usually at least $25/person..

Oh and to explain the budget thing a little - yes, we are working with the amount we think we can save over the next year, not just with what we have already. LOL that would be an Incredibly small party involving fruit snacks and maybe string cheese for dinner and it would be BYOB and only the number of people who could fit in Andy Hanson's back yard. Anyway we are very lucky because Zach has a small inheritance coming to him this year, which we will Not be using for the wedding, but we will be adding it into our ING wedding savings account so it will boost our earned interest. It will also provide a little money in advance if we need to put down a deposit somewhere - but we plan to fully pay back any money from the inheritance we spend on the wedding because that money is for buying a HOUSE at some point hopefully in the not-terribly-distant future. :)

Also I'm not sure if I mentioned here yet but Zach's parents have offered to pay for our honeymoon! woop woop! Also they said they could just put in the same amount they paid for Zach's brother's honeymoon and we could use the whole thing on ours or we could put part of it towards the wedding fund.. I would prefer not to cut down our honeymoon funds toooo much, when else could we splurge and have a really amazing vacation?? But it's good to know the funds are there as a back-up.

I'm glad people like the brunch idea, I think it's definitely a strong back-up plan. There are a number of bars/clubs with private party rooms that don't charge any rental fee, they just want a certain amount of money generated from alcohol/food consumption so we might be able to work out some kind of thing where we reserve some room (say, Eleventh Street Lounge's basement) for like an hour, have a little appetizer buffet, open bar and then after an hour they open it up to the public, we stay and keep drinking but guests would pay for their own at that point, or we move on and take our party wherever we like. I'm hoping most people coming from out of town would want to stay Friday and Saturday anyway? So it might not be tough to keep them in town all day to wait for the evening afterparty?

har har har to the ham cake!! Zach would definitely approve.

photographer update

We may have a photographer! :) Our friend Meg Linehan is mainly a photographer of rock shows But wedding photography is in her blood (her dad used to do weddings) and she is putting together a package for us and we're meeting this weekend to discuss. So more details on that laterrr. The girl takes a pretty picture of cherry blossoms so I have high hopes. :)

a note on the button bouquets..

...I am planning to skip the bouquet/garter toss, so there won't be any injuries from the button bouquet! :)

I would like to think of Something to do at the end of the night, if anyone has ideas..

Thirteen Months Out

I've decided instead of doing the mass email thing where I force my blabbing upon everyone, I'll just distribute this link to everyone and people can follow along/chime in as you like. Or not. :)

So far, here's where we are. Our date is tentatively March 20, 2010. It's actually Zach's parents' anniversary, so I'm hoping they will agree to let us do something special for them during our ceremony or reception. They're just really amazing people and I would love to have a chance to honor them and their marriage in a meaningful way.

My bridal party is decided, Zach is still narrowing his down I think. Here's mine:

Maid of Honor: Mary Czarnionka (York, ME)
Bridesmaid1: Sarah (sister) (Portsmouth, NH)
Bridesmaid2: Marnie (sister, technically matron Tao but whatev) (Dallas, TX)
Bridesmaid3: Kara McCulloch (soon to be matron Kowalik) (Arlington, VA)

I'm taking suggestions on a new titling system for the bridal party. For some reason I'm just not in love with "bridesmatron." It makes my ladies sound so.. well, matronly. But I may not even print programs so it may not matter.

Budget: Zach and I are paying for the wedding, so our budget is Le Small. It's... basically impossible for us to have a big wedding in this area, or even a small wedding with all the traditional weddingy stuff. We want somewhere around 100 guests, so just the open bar would be around $2,000 (minimum, unless we found a place we could bring our own booze). Plated meal, let's estimate low, would be $3,500. Thaaat's pretty much our budget and doesn't cover site rental, ceremony (officiant, site fee, etc.), attire, rings, photographer, decorations, blah blah blah. However, free booze and food for guests are my top priorities so I Will Make This Work.

I'm just going to have to get rill creative.

Invitations: We're thinking bookmark save-the-dates (recycled paper, soy inks, what what), and then we'll post our wedding website on the save-the-dates and say Hey we're not mailing invitations so send me your email address plzzz! And then for those who really don't do email/Internets, we will call them. It's partly a money-saving thing but also a world-saving thing. I love love love stationery/paper products of all kinds, but I would like to make this wedding as sustainable as possible and this is one of the easiest things to cut out.

Photography: We think we may have a couple friends of the family who have some amateur photography skills so if they agree to help out that will cut out a big expense. I would love to get a $2,000 photo package buuut I'd rather put the money into having a good time at the reception. I want to have a photo booth (not necessarily a real one, just like, a digital camera set up by the guest book so people can take pictures of themselves to go with their note in the book), hoping lots of guests will be taking their own photos, and then if we have someone with a Real camera taking some pictures of the preparations, ceremony, reception and a few poses, we'll be good.

Flowers: I haven't settled on the idea yet but I am seriously contemplating scrapping the flowers idea entirely and doing BUTTONS. I found some great ideas on etsy.com, I'm going to try to paste them in here, hope it works.

Ok I'm not sure this is working how I want it to, forgive me if the formatting is totally messed up. I'm such a blog noob!

Anyway these are some button bouquets that have inspired me. My mother brought me 2 tins full of old antique buttons, most fun I've ever had going through them with her, sorting by color and texture - I want more!! Please if you have any old buttons, I am taking donations. I'm thinking of doing this for my bouquet and the bridesmaids, but haven't figured out how to incorporate the idea into boutonnieres without going way over-the-top tacky. So ideas would be welcome.

Venue: I love the idea of having the reception at the State Theater.They put your names on the marquee! Unfortunately they haven't responded to my inquiry, and I'm just pretty sure they're out of my price range. They can fit like 300+ people so just having 100 might feel dumb anyway. We toured the Columbus Club (yes, the club for Knights of Columbus).. We only went because it's So Affordable, it was tempting to consider, even though we're not catholic and don't know anyone who's a member. The event director there is really nice, the space really wasn't that bad, I just.. can't do it. That gigantic light blue sign over the main entrance blaring KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, along with the super 60s dated architecture.. was just too much for my vanity.

We haven't really started thinking about the ceremony venue.. I have no idea what we're going to do. We will not be having a church ceremony, I don't know who will officiate, I just don't know. I like the idea of an outdoor ceremony except that we're shooting for March 20 so it's a biiit chilly outside still. Maybe an art gallery or a club or something... It'll depend on where we have the reception. I'll post some ideas for that later.

One thing we may do, to get around the high food cost/open bar problem, would be to have a brunch reception. I don't think Zach is super crazy about the idea, but I think we could make it fun. I mean I would really prefer a Saturday night affair, but I'm trying to keep my mind open. I'm thinking brunch reception with mimosas and bloody marys, maybe a pianist or something, no big entertainment would really be necessary, people aren't going to get all crazylike drunk-o and dancing at noon (I'd hope), so that would cut down our costs a Lot - and then maybe we could host an after-party at a local bar/club that evening, for whoever wants to come party with us. So that's an idea.

DRESS: I will have to do a separate post about my dress ideas. I'm hoping to find a used one, or get one on a wicked sale or something. Running of the Brides is coming up in Rockville this April, and then there's one at Friendship Heights in July, I think I definitely want to do one of those! Could I be crazy enough to go to both? Depends on how many crazy friends I have haha.

Color Scheme: We've been throwing some ideas around, haven't really settled on anything yet. We like the idea of brown & cream, or brown cream and pink, or brown cream and blue.. I'm leaning towards pink, he's leaning towards blue.. ;) And we might just skip the brown and go with black, I think tuxes/suits would be easier to find in the traditional black? But we haven't looked into it. I would like polka dots to feature in there, but don't want to go too over the top with that. Actually buttons are (usually) round, I think the two ideas go together well.

Cake: we may not have a cake? I think he doesn't care at All, he'd rather not have one, I'm kind of like Sigh I'd like a cake but they're pricey, it's not that big of a deal. I wanted cupcakes but now everyone's frickin doing cupcakes and I'm just not sure anymore. I just had the idea today of doing mousse, served in martini glasses - and the martini glass would be the take-home favor? Probably still expensive.

OK that's probably enough blabbing for now. I literally have ideas swarming through my brain Almost constantly, so I'll try to post them often and get your comments/ideas/etc.