***Cincy2011 and TamTam7***

eagles347

Hello ladies...hope you are enjoying your weekend. I am. The weather in Georgia is BEAUTIFUL...and it doesn't help that FI is in town!

You two at some point asked for an update on my reception venue search and it ended today! We chose The Blacksmith Shop. www.blacksmithshop.net. We are so happy with our choice...we loved both of the places that we visited today, but the other space would have meant an unrealistic cut to our guestlist. I'm not sure that our color palette actually works for the space so I may have to reconsider that, but we'll see. My planner is trying to come up with a look book for me and we are meeting with a florist soon to see what type of arrangements she can come up with that will really make the space our own. The space is beautiful on its own, but I noticed that the brides in the promo albums tended toward heavier floral than I had originally planned and it really worked well.

How are your wedding plans coming?

@ TamTam - I can imagine that your wedding will be fabulous...your ideas are amazing. I can't wait to see pictures of how it all comes together. Did your envelopes come in yet? Did the color work? Where did you order them from?

@ Cincy - I really like your venue. We are doing gray also, but more as a neutral-base color than a primary. I guess it will honestly just take the place of the traditional black tuxedo. Have you picked a pop of color yet? 

tamtam7

Wow Eagles!  That is exactly the type of venue I would love for my wedding ceremony/reception site.  Georgia has the most amazing venues.  Please do not change your colors.  I love your colors!  They make me smile.  I think that those colors would look fabulous in your venue choice.  It will give it a fresh look.  I know what you mean though.  I don't think you have to go over the top with the florals.  I think a fresh modern look would be awesome.  Something like orchids in tall cylinders.  I say, let your planner develop a look book and go from there.  That is so awesome that you have a planner and she's creating a look book.  I love that!  Thank you for the compliment.  I just do not want it to come across as cheap looking.  We have a very, very limited budget.  I tried to stay within the ridiculously unrealistic budget that FI set, but that was impossible.  I did my best and I cut a lot of corners, but some things were just out of my hands.  I just hope that I did not sacrifice too much for style.  I tried to take everyone's financial situations into consideration i.e. bridal party so I just hope that it comes together nicely and doesn't look tacky.  I had a dream last night about my Junior BM and her dress.  It doesn't match my BMs dresses because they purchased their dresses from Kohl's instead of a bridal salon so I can't find the exact same dress for the Junior BM.  It's a similar style and material though.  I also went with a different color because the BM are wearing navy blue, and I thought that for a little girl the fuchsia color would be most appropriate.  Plus that will give me the pop of color I need for the pictures.  I'm probably just obsessing over something that no 1 else will notice.  LOL.  I did not get the envelopes yet, but they will come pretty soon.  I ordered them from paper and more.  I hope they will be fine though.  Again, I'm probably obsessing over something that no1 else will care about.  They'll just throw the envelopes away.  I'm looking forward to seeing how your wedding will come together.  You have great ideas too.  How are the engagement party plans coming along?

eagles347

I highly doubt that things will look tacky. The mere fact that you are concerned about tacky assures me that it won't be. Tacky weddings come about when people don't recognize tacky...lol. Don't stress. I agree with using fuschia for the JBM dress. I will have a JBM too and if I can't find the same color in a similar style, I won't hesitate to get one of the other colors for her. If I do that, I will coordinate her with the flower girls and let them be different too. I completely understand working with an unrealistic budget. The first one that my FI set was unrealistic in our area. Thank God we were able to come to terms on it and work together on a workable one. However, we all have to make sacrifices. I think the important thing is to put personal touches on it and try not to do things just because it is what everyone else has done. Am I remembering correctly that your FI didn't really want the big wedding thing? I'm sure he will love you all the more for it when everything comes together and he gets to experience a real wedding day. I definitely hope you get lots of candid pics of him that day to document the emotion.

As for the engagement party...so far so good. The invitation design has been revised and I'm waiting on the final proof. I will have to put some grunt work in to assemble the card pockets for them and round the corners of the invitations, but I think it will be worth it. We'll see. All I know is that I'm not paying the $3.00 per pocketfold that I saw on one website. I still think that was a misprint! It's a friggin' sheet of paper with three folds on it! Other than that, it is coming together well. Our theme is going to be a travel-theme, but the invitations set the tone for someplace tropical with bright colors like hot pink, teal, lime green, and orange so those colors are everywhere in party stores, Wal-Mart, craft stores, and even CVS & Walgreens...lol. We ordered some luggage-tag looking favor cards that my mom will probably personalize to tie to whatever favors we end up with. The t-shirt idea was vetoed because the guest list isn't as small as we thought it would be and they are too expensive. She and I talked about something as simple as sweet treats or tropical candies. I don't know though... I will be happy with whatever she decides because I definitely don't want to break the bank. We are going to have blender drinks and beer...margaritas and daquiris I think and whatever FIs frat brothers come up with. Lots of grilled foods...may get creative on the sides. We aren't going to focus on destinations after all so it deviates from the original idea, but will be easier to pull together and way more relaxed. Too bad you're so far away...we will be spending most of the party time around the pool so it should be a good time for everyone.

Thanks for the compliment on the venue. Georgia does have some nice places, but it is hard to find them in Middle Georgia...options are very limited, but I do feel very blessed that we were able to swing this one and that they will let us choose our caterer and provide our own alcohol with licensed bartenders. The mandatory per-person alcohol prices were deal breakers at several of the other places that we visited!

tamtam7

I was just telling FI that I can't wait to see how your wedding comes together.  You seem to be very detail oriented like me.  I'm definately go to hang around on this site after my wedding 'cause I can't wait to see how your wedding, Tyswife2b, and Cincy's wedding turn out.  You all have such great ideas. 

I'm glad that the engagement party plans are coming along.  Such a cute fun theme.   I wish I lived closer too.  That sounds like a fun party!  I loooove your colors for the e-party.  I'm sorry that you can't use the Tshirt idea, but I understand why.  Such a cute idea.  I'll have to use that for a summer party.  I just told FI about the idea.  He's such a guy.  He doesn't get it...he's all "That sounds great." in his usual nonchalant way. 

I love venues that let you pick your own caterer and bring your own alcohol.  Our venue allow us to bring our own alcohol.  The only problem with this place is that I have to use their caterer, and the food is ok, but I wish I could choose my own caterer that has a more diverse menu.  But I went with this place because it was reasonably priced and it is a nice looking venue.  But I was looking for a venue more like your venue, you know more modern looking, but I couldn't really find anything like that here that was in my price range.  And of course as you know, I really wanted to have my wedding at a vineyard or a museum, but I wanted a venue where I could have the ceremony and reception in the same location, but the vineyards here are either too small or too expensive, and for some reason the museums here won't let you have your ceremony there, isn't that weird?!  Do you plan on having a signature cocktail?

Thank you for assuring me that the wedding won't be tacky, LOL, and you're right, people that have tacky weddings are the ones that are the most clueless about how tacky it is. LOL.  You know you make a good point about coordinating the JBM dress with the flower girl dress.  I would like to do that, but I think that my cousin has already selected the dresses for the flower girl and JBM, and I'm afraid that I have annoyed my cousin enough about these dresses.  So, I'm just hoping that although the JBM dress doesn't look like the BM  dresses, it won't look too bad.  Yeah in terms of budgets, my FI just picked the most unrealist budget period!  I told him from the very beginning that he was crazy.  I think he just picked a number out of the sky. 

In terms of your question of whether or not my FI wanted a big wedding or not, no, he didn't want a wedding period.  He thinks it's a waste of money.  He is protesting the wedding.  He just complained to his best man yesterday that his life has been placed on hold because of the wedding.  If it were left up to him we would go to the justice of the peace.  But he's crazy, so we're having the wedding. I went over budget only a litte bit, but we're not going into debt over the wedding, everything is paid off except for the food, but I have money saved up for that, so he needs to just get over it.  We will still get the vinyl siding for the house or whatever he is pouting over...he just needs to hush.  It's like I told him, we have to save up for things that we want in life just like we save up for things we need.  There will always be something that we need to do for the house. If we keep putting off things that we want because we have to buy something for the house we'll never do anything enjoyable.

eagles347

I completely agree with having to take care of your needs and some of your wants. Why work hard if you never take the time to enjoy any of your money? As long as you two are wise about saving and debt management, and it seems you are, you should be able to enjoy your money every now and again.

As for the venue and catering/alcohol situation...if it had not been for them letting us select the provider, we would have had to go with something way different. However, these provisions mean that we can pay a little more for the venue and get creative on the rest (i.e. signature drinks).

I do plan to have a few signature drinks, but I'm not sure what they are yet. We are considering also having beer, wine, a punch and a few other mixers and chasers in case people want something simpler than the signature. We just want to limit the number of types of liquor provided so that we can avoid having tons of bottles opened and unfinished. His Best Man is really eager to help our with the wedding since he has been such a big part of our lives (he has been close friends with me before I met FI and ended up being FI's line brother...crazy coincidence!). His offering so far are to take care of transporation or to help stock the bar. He's awesome for that. We haven't accepted yet, but I am sure he will insist and evenutally my FI will give in.

Funny sidenote: I asked my FI for suggestions on signature drinks...I planned on doing a his, hers, and ours, and coming up with cute names. Needless to say, the "his" drink that he suggested is a cranberry and vodka...lol. Where is the imagination? He still doesn't get why that made me giggle.

tamtam7

LOL @ FI's siggy drink choice!  I told my FI about it, AND HE LAUGHED!  Your FI's best man sounds awesome.  That's great when you have supported friends that are rooting for you.  I love that guy's energy and enthusiasm.  How crazy is it that he was your friend first and then later he and FI became cool.  That is so cool!  So, hey!?  Have you guys picked out a photographer yet?  I love these guys:  http://sky-carla.com/ Have you heard of them?  Do you guys live in Macon or do you live in Atlanta?

eagles347

We booked our photographer already, but I went to that site and they do great work as well. Thanks for the suggestion. Neither of us live in Macon or Atlanta anymore. I am originally from Atlanta, but my parents are no longer there and after graduate school I got a job a few hours south so I moved as well. I actually live about an hour south of Macon. I've been here over a year now and I miss city life. FI lives in Statesboro, which is our college town. We are both looking into moving after the wedding, but it would depend on which school I end up in and FI's job transfer situation. This makes me so excited for the wedding...I am beyond ready to move in to the house and see him on a daily basis!

cincy2011

Hi ladies!  Sorry for the late response, I was in Cincy/Detroit over the weekend and all caught up with my FI and his family.  

Eagles, I am SO happy about your venue!  It is absolutely gorgeous!!!  I totally agree with Tam, I wouldn't change the colors if you can help it.  Your colors are so bright and beautiful, I think that color palette would still work in that venue. 

You have so many fun parts of your wedding to plan!  I love it.  We aren't having an engagement party since we're in different cities and our friends are all over the country. 

Tam - I love Sky + Carla too!!   They were on my short list, if we hadn't found an awesome photog in Cincy, I would have tried to convince FI that we needed them to travel there for our wedding!  Their work is phenomenal!!!