YT Brides to Be

[Roxiesmama]

Originally Posted by celstu1

Oh there will be time. My wedding is March 24th and my first dress alter is Feb 16, that is what the bridal store set up too, based on the wedding date! You'll have plenty of time!
I had a 6 month engagement also. Engaged in Sept, married in March! We are having an 'off season' wedding, which around here is Nov - March. That means that vendors are freed up a lot allowing them to cater to you more and work with a short engagement. Its worked out wonderfully so far! we'll see how it goes on the wedding day! YIKES!!!!
I can't believe it, 54 days to the wedding! Time is FLYING by!

We made 95 8oz jars of homemade grape jelly from the Concord grapes in our yard for favors. We boiled them, strained them, made the jelly and canned them all!!! It was 3 full days of work, then we made labels for every jar and tied ribbons/bows around the lids. We are going to put stickers on the top of every jar with people's names and table (placecards) so people take the jelly home! We finally finished them this past friday night (except the placecard part), what a relief!!!! Our centerpieces have a bunch of little pieces, but we took wine bottles (empty of course) and spray painted them with chalkboard spray paint. We are naming the tables different wines, which we will write on the bottles. Then we have a bunch of fake grapes and votive holders with those LED votives, my mom made the holders, they are wine corks glued together and onto a cork coaster with a white ribbon tied around them. We got the wine bottles all sprayed, so now I need to put ribbon on those ... and then I'm done all wedding presentation prep work! YAY!!!!!

Glad to see that I should have enough time to deal with the dress fittings after it (finally) comes in.

Sounds like you did an awful lot of work on those favors! I bet they will be a big hit. I love the wine bottle idea for the centerpieces! I just ordered mine from the florist...LOL.

Our favors are somewhat put together, though we realized we're most likely going to have to order a few more. I added some people to the invitation list and I am nervous that we won't have enough. We ordered these adorable personalized stone coasters from etsy.com. I just love them, and want them in every room of my house! We had a heck of a time finding little boxes to put them in, but we lucked out at Michael's in the baking section. Turns out these little cookie boxes are just the right size.

[celstu1]

Originally Posted by Roxiesmama

Glad to see that I should have enough time to deal with the dress fittings after it (finally) comes in.

Sounds like you did an awful lot of work on those favors! I bet they will be a big hit. I love the wine bottle idea for the centerpieces! I just ordered mine from the florist...LOL.

Our favors are somewhat put together, though we realized we're most likely going to have to order a few more. I added some people to the invitation list and I am nervous that we won't have enough. We ordered these adorable personalized stone coasters from etsy.com. I just love them, and want them in every room of my house! We had a heck of a time finding little boxes to put them in, but we lucked out at Michael's in the baking section. Turns out these little cookie boxes are just the right size.

Oohhhh post a pic of them, they sound great!! I will try to take some pics of our favors and a flower less centerpiece! We will have flowers in the wine bottles, a purple hydrangea heads.

I'm really on count down now! 53 days! My mom is coming home in 5 weeks, the wedding is 7 weeks away and my MOH is due with her second child in 10 weeks! I'm praying he does not come early! But I can't wait to meet him!

[Baby Teddy]

Hi Ladies,

What are you girls all wearing for your rehersal dinners?

What about engagement shoots?

Bridal Shower?

Bachelorette?

I just ordered this dress...I was planning on wearing it to my rehersal dinner, but think I will also wear it for my engagement shoot since we are doing it in the spring and it will be WARM outside!

ALI-WD57_V2.jpg

[linz06]

Oh I want to see your favors!!! We were stuck on what to do for favors for a long time. Scott's cousin did a candy buffet last summer which I thought was a great idea and I wanted to do that, but it wasn't really much of a hit with the adults, and it was just full of kids all night sticking their hands in the candy bowls and eating and grabbing some more. My friend's cousin also did one last year and she said it was great! So it depends on the crowd I guess! We also thought we would give each person a scratch lottery ticket, because who doesn't like scratch tickets? I've seen ideas for this online, to put a ticket in an envelope with a note saying "We hope you're as lucky in life as we are in love" Scott looked into it last night and we can buy a roll of tickets, but each roll is $300. You can get 300 $1 tickets, 100 $3 tickets, etc. We are already spending close to $55 per person for food, corkage fee, and midnight lunch, so didn't want to spend that much on favors. Another friend just did a donation in everyone's name to the Canadian Cancer Society, and I think that was a great idea too.

After all that, I think we've decided we are making homemade wine. Scott has made wine kits before and he has all the stuff to do it now. It's relatively cheap as a gift per adult or per family, and we can put make personalized wine labels for them! He asked the hotel (reception venue) yesterday if that would be allowed, and they said they're fine with it as long as it's not opened at the venue. We will make sure to let people know to please just take one on their way out, or take one up to their room if they're staying at the hotel. We'll ask the MC to remind people not to open them there. We will have free wine on the tables anyway!

[linz06]

Originally Posted by Baby Teddy

Hi Ladies,

What are you girls all wearing for your rehersal dinners?

What about engagement shoots?

Bridal Shower?

Bachelorette?

I just ordered this dress...I was planning on wearing it to my rehersal dinner, but think I will also wear it for my engagement shoot since we are doing it in the spring and it will be WARM outside!

Attachment 362073

That dress is super cute!!!!!!! I think it would be great for engagement pictures!

For our engagement pictures we were bundled up I wore skinny jeans with tall black mukluks, and a red sweater under a black dressy jacket. I think it was a mix of class and snow bunny lol.

I have no idea what I'm wearing for anything else yet! My shower and bachelorette party will probably be in late May or June so I haven't thought that far ahead Knowing my friends, they will probably buy me something outrageous to wear for the bachelorette party lol. I am kind of dreading that part because I get embarassed easily!

[Baby Teddy]

Originally Posted by linz06

Oh I want to see your favors!!! We were stuck on what to do for favors for a long time. Scott's cousin did a candy buffet last summer which I thought was a great idea and I wanted to do that, but it wasn't really much of a hit with the adults, and it was just full of kids all night sticking their hands in the candy bowls and eating and grabbing some more. My friend's cousin also did one last year and she said it was great! So it depends on the crowd I guess! We also thought we would give each person a scratch lottery ticket, because who doesn't like scratch tickets? I've seen ideas for this online, to put a ticket in an envelope with a note saying "We hope you're as lucky in life as we are in love" Scott looked into it last night and we can buy a roll of tickets, but each roll is $300. You can get 300 $1 tickets, 100 $3 tickets, etc. We are already spending close to $55 per person for food, corkage fee, and midnight lunch, so didn't want to spend that much on favors. Another friend just did a donation in everyone's name to the Canadian Cancer Society, and I think that was a great idea too.

After all that, I think we've decided we are making homemade wine. Scott has made wine kits before and he has all the stuff to do it now. It's relatively cheap as a gift per adult or per family, and we can put make personalized wine labels for them! He asked the hotel (reception venue) yesterday if that would be allowed, and they said they're fine with it as long as it's not opened at the venue. We will make sure to let people know to please just take one on their way out, or take one up to their room if they're staying at the hotel. We'll ask the MC to remind people not to open them there. We will have free wine on the tables anyway!

What are you guys doing for your midnight lunch? I love that idea. I think we are going to do something similar!

[Baby Teddy]

Originally Posted by linz06

That dress is super cute!!!!!!! I think it would be great for engagement pictures!

For our engagement pictures we were bundled up I wore skinny jeans with tall black mukluks, and a red sweater under a black dressy jacket. I think it was a mix of class and snow bunny lol.

I have no idea what I'm wearing for anything else yet! My shower and bachelorette party will probably be in late May or June so I haven't thought that far ahead Knowing my friends, they will probably buy me something outrageous to wear for the bachelorette party lol. I am kind of dreading that part because I get embarassed easily!

Aww your outfits sounds perfect!! I bet your pictures will come out great! Can't wait to see them!

[linz06]

Originally Posted by Baby Teddy

What are you guys doing for your midnight lunch? I love that idea. I think we are going to do something similar!

We will have a buffet of buns, deli meats, pickles, cheese platter, and veggies and dip. The hotel is pretty strict about bringing in your own food, but they do allow us to supplement the midnight lunch with our own baking so I think some of Scott's family and maybe my grandma might make some little squares or cookies or whatever to go with it too

[celstu1]

What the heck is a midnight lunch? Is that when you can have more food served at the end of the wedding? I am actually having a day wedding, so it's over by 4pm. We are going to break for awhile and then meet up at the wine bar or tavern on the premises. I told my fiance and other people, whatever we do... Im wearing my gown! LOL I never spent more money on 1 article of clothing, I plan on wearing it the full day until I drop of exhaustion! LOL

I am just bummed about my baby boys, they can't come to the hall and I won't see them. I'm trying to work out someone going to get them at our house (which is only 5 mins from the hall) so we can do some of the formal pictures with them in it. I REALLY want them to be part of our special day even if it's only for a few minutes.

As for other outfits... I didn't even think of that!!! Bachelorette party might just be jeans and a cute sparkly white top, its going to be still chilly out in early March in New Hampshire so I need to dress more warm, no dresses or tank tops or anything. Our rehearsal dinner is going to be only 20 of our immediately family & friends so I am not sure that we'll super dress up for it. I do want to get something decent for our jack & jill party though! Might have to shop for that one!

[linz06]

Yes, it's more food served later Around here, the norm is a full day wedding. We get ready in the morning, ceremony in early afternoon, pictures before dinner, and cocktail hour for guests. Then we make our grand entrance at the reception hall, the head table is introduced, we eat dinner around 6 pm, and then there are toasts, anything extra (we are doing a slideshow), first dance, and then party time all night We have a midnight lunch that comes out around 11:30. I am always so hungry by then and I always go back a few times to fill up my plate lol! Last call for drinks at our venue is 1 am I think, and the bar closes at 1:30. It's a loooooooooong day of celebration!

We have this little tradition, I'm not sure if it happens really anywhere outside of Saskatchewan lol, but the DJ plays the song "I Knew The Bride When She Used to Rock'n'Roll" and all the men form a circle around the bride and take turns dancing in the middle with her! It happens at every single wedding. I am not sure yet if I want it! I might be a little uncomfortable (I'm not good at being the center of attention!) but on the other hand, it's my day, and it might be fun! I'm sure it will be really nice to cut loose and stop caring about every little detail that night lol!

[celstu1]

Oh my gosh! That is a LONG day! Kind of nice though, you truly get the whole day celebrating together with all your friends & family.
Over here in my neck of the woods, a modest wedding, which is what we are having is VERY expensive and usually most halls put a 5-6 hour cap on the time. We have the hall from 11am - 4pm. I am really bummed because the day will go something like 11:10am ceremony until 1130am, then 45 mins for pics for us and cocktail hour for guests. Then 1230 introductions into the dinner, first dances, then dinner at 1, cake cutting about 115, then dinner done by 230, then dancing only until 4. I really really wanted to get more time, but the hall won't do it. To get a couple more hours would have meant renting the hall for the rest of the night, then they make you book the rooms surrounding the hall since they can't use them because of the noise. Then the DJ is an additional $100 an hour! (I went into the wrong business I swear!) So for a moderate wedding like that, we are looking at $72 per guest for just dinner. $4 per guest for just dessert, we have a cash bar because we can't afford to pay for drinks for our guests, we have 75 guests and our wedding is around $15k! I wonder why weddings are decreasing, prices are too outrageous for anyone to afford in this economy! We estimated our favors cost about $4 per guest, not too bad.

[linz06]

Originally Posted by celstu1

Oh my gosh! That is a LONG day! Kind of nice though, you truly get the whole day celebrating together with all your friends & family.
Over here in my neck of the woods, a modest wedding, which is what we are having is VERY expensive and usually most halls put a 5-6 hour cap on the time. We have the hall from 11am - 4pm. I am really bummed because the day will go something like 11:10am ceremony until 1130am, then 45 mins for pics for us and cocktail hour for guests. Then 1230 introductions into the dinner, first dances, then dinner at 1, cake cutting about 115, then dinner done by 230, then dancing only until 4. I really really wanted to get more time, but the hall won't do it. To get a couple more hours would have meant renting the hall for the rest of the night, then they make you book the rooms surrounding the hall since they can't use them because of the noise. Then the DJ is an additional $100 an hour! (I went into the wrong business I swear!) So for a moderate wedding like that, we are looking at $72 per guest for just dinner. $4 per guest for just dessert, we have a cash bar because we can't afford to pay for drinks for our guests, we have 75 guests and our wedding is around $15k! I wonder why weddings are decreasing, prices are too outrageous for anyone to afford in this economy! We estimated our favors cost about $4 per guest, not too bad.

Oh my goodness!!! I thought our wedding was expensive but it seems way more in your area! We have about the same budget as you do, for about 120-150 guests. My brother is using just a hall (as opposed to a hotel) for his wedding next year, and I think it's about $400 to rent for Saturday (all day) and an extra $200 or so to rent the Friday and Sunday so they can decorate the day before and clean up the day after. We just didn't want to deal with all the extras that come with that... a caterer, plates, cutlery, extra decor, etc.

We will get our hotel "ballroom" for all of Saturday. We will know two weeks before the wedding whether we are able to decorate Friday or Saturday morning. They told us usually decorating happens Friday, unless someone schedules another event that night, but it's rare. We do have to have the main stuff cleaned up and presents removed that night, but we get a complimentary gift opening room in the hotel the next day, so we can move them right to where they need to be. The other nice thing is the hotel does all the catering so we just have to choose our menu! And because we are paying per guest for the catering, we technically get the ballroom free for using their services, and we also get a complimentary honeymoon suite in the hotel that night with a Jacuzzi tub and chocolate covered strawberries and roses lol, and complimentary brunch for two in the morning Overall, it's a pretty good deal because we're not having to pay for all of that stuff extra if we wanted it!

We are doing a "Toonie bar" for drinks. For those who don't know, a toonie is our $2 coin lol. We are allowed to buy our own alcohol for the bar, as long as we don't charge more than $2 per drink. So we will sell drink tickets, and hopefully make back a good chunk of what we're spending on the drinks. If we used the hotel bar, they charged $5.25 per drink. But we can buy it cheaper than that, and we can take back any unopened cases and get our money back for them! We will pay hotel bartenders though instead of using our family for it.

[celstu1]

Oh my gosh Linz!!! I've found NOTHING like that around here... NOW... keep in mind, I'm doing my wedding OFF season. The place that Im having it at, is usually $120-$165/pp, but because we are off-season, we get it for $55 a person, but then add tax & gratuity (which we pay) and it's $72 per person. There is a hotel in our venue, it's an Inn, and we are staying 2 nights which cost us $825 (not included, neither is any meals like breakfast the next morning). The room is just the room, no extras like roses or strawberries or anything. Also our reception room rental fee (even though they are catering the event also) is $750. Its all just nuts!!! We get nothing complimentary!! Crazy huh?

In NH you cannot bring in your own alcohol, so we are at their mercy, for functions, the drinks are typically $7-$8 each.... so we could not even have bought our guests 1 drink each w/o adding another $500+ to the bill. Isn't that nuts?

So our wedding is considered 'moderate' for this part of the country, but I guess lavish in other places. Its just nuts! Oh and if we had a night wedding and wanted midnight lunch catered, the hall does not do that, so an outside vendor would have cost us about $2500 for 75 guests.

[DJDB]

Wow.... weddings are so costly! However, I'm sure that all your weddings will be fabulous and leave everyone feeling like it was a great day

[linz06]

Originally Posted by celstu1

Oh my gosh Linz!!! I've found NOTHING like that around here... NOW... keep in mind, I'm doing my wedding OFF season. The place that Im having it at, is usually $120-$165/pp, but because we are off-season, we get it for $55 a person, but then add tax & gratuity (which we pay) and it's $72 per person. There is a hotel in our venue, it's an Inn, and we are staying 2 nights which cost us $825 (not included, neither is any meals like breakfast the next morning). The room is just the room, no extras like roses or strawberries or anything. Also our reception room rental fee (even though they are catering the event also) is $750. Its all just nuts!!! We get nothing complimentary!! Crazy huh?

In NH you cannot bring in your own alcohol, so we are at their mercy, for functions, the drinks are typically $7-$8 each.... so we could not even have bought our guests 1 drink each w/o adding another $500+ to the bill. Isn't that nuts?

So our wedding is considered 'moderate' for this part of the country, but I guess lavish in other places. Its just nuts! Oh and if we had a night wedding and wanted midnight lunch catered, the hall does not do that, so an outside vendor would have cost us about $2500 for 75 guests.

OH MY GOODNESS!!! That is so crazy! When you're spending that kind of money it's ridiculous that they only let you in for a few hours. I guess they want to squeeze out every penny they can and then on to the next ones! Well I'm sure your day will be absolutely wonderful, and wherever you go after the hall will be lots of fun, especially if you stay in your dress!!!

We tried to do an "off season" winter wedding, but it turns out that is considered conference season, companies have conferences booked every weekend from November to April! I guess it keeps the hotels busy!