No children allowed at the wedding.

2/12/2013 10:55:28 AM

We had about the same attendance. I think we had 92 and invited 170. Funny thing though, only 86 replied yes. Still haven't figured out who showed up that said no.

2/12/2013 10:57:26 AM

from my understanding it's all about where and when the wedding is...if it's a semi destination wedding that isn't too far or out of people's budgets you'll have a high yes response rate.

we're getting married in Colorado in June so warmish but not too hot...so a lot of people are coming and using as a chance to hiking/camping/climbing.

if we had the wedding in NC I would have had to invite everyone that I used to go to church with so my numbers would have been higher

2/15/2013 11:15:46 PM

^^ we almost ran into that problem. a few people said no initially but then i found out a week before the wedding they were considering coming.....i was like, "ummm final numbers were due 2 weeks ago" i feel like sometimes people have zero concerns about how last minute decisions could affect things.

2/17/2013 1:13:54 PM

I was frustrated with those that replied yes, but then didn't come (a couple of them because they were too hung over from the night before).

2/17/2013 1:27:17 PM

who is counting the number that actually shows up? how does that work?

what are the small details that got forgotten until the last second and you wish they would have been thought about earlier?

2/18/2013 9:10:58 AM

My mom had 100 chairs set up and counted how many were empty while we were eating dinner. Our food was buffet style, and our caterer wasn't stingy with food, so numbers weren't super important, but if you had a sit down plated dinner you could be screwed. Especially if you are doing it somewhere expensive.

2/18/2013 9:55:13 AM

we had a sit down dinner so it was easy to see who didn't take a place card.

2/18/2013 10:13:01 AM

I need two recommendations/suggestions:

--Officiant

--Wedding music (open to a mandolin player, guitar, or the classical stuff)

3/4/2013 7:30:06 PM

So glad our wedding went off without a hitch, the stress is gone.

Good-luck to everyone planning their wedding now, hope your weddings goes as well.

3/18/2013 9:55:40 AM

What kind of officiant do you want? I had a very close friend get ordained to do my wedding. He is a pretty awesome writer and a theater major and he tailored the ceremony to perfectly fit us as a couple and incorporate some of my mom's ideas. He is talking to another wolfwebber about officiating their wedding and would love to do more.

3/18/2013 11:33:56 AM

We are considering asking a friend who is ordained to do ours. Part of me thinks it would be cool and personal (and cheaper). Another part thinks it would be weird to have the officiant get drunk at the reception and hit on our other friends.

We need to book a baker. I guess I should get on that. We're doing engagement pics in a couple weeks and then sending save-the dates probably mid-April. A little later than I wanted to, but meh.

3/18/2013 11:40:30 AM

My mom was not happy at first with the whole situation, especially since our officiant was gay, but she loved the ceremony and loves him now. It was so awesome to have it so personal.

3/18/2013 3:22:35 PM

We interviewed and talked with Reverend Kayelily Middleton and she was my top choice. Very nice and comfortable to interact with and very open to different ideas. Even though my wedding was canceled, I would recommend her to be on your list of those you consider.

http://raleighweddingblog.blogspot.com/

3/18/2013 3:37:18 PM

We had an officiant in Charleston because you can have a Notary Public marry you in SC (so very much cheaper than Kayelily is because of the competition in SC - it was only $150 for our custom ceremony)

3/18/2013 9:02:31 PM

Hey are there any places in downtown Raleigh to get engagement photos that aren't already done to death? I'm talking some off the beaten path shit, son. Gimme the cool pic spots.

3/26/2013 8:51:17 PM

Florist recommendations for Raleigh? Looking at you elise and CasstheSass.

I searched and saw a review for Karla Scales that I'm gonna pass along to my bride.

3/31/2013 4:05:51 PM

Greg Warren Flowers!! love him!

3/31/2013 4:33:49 PM

noted and passed along thanks!

3/31/2013 5:18:23 PM

My florist is in Louisburg. Flowers by Henry. Wonderful man I have known since I was eight.

3/31/2013 7:09:43 PM

One of our best ideas was taking a picture for thank you cards at the wedding. I have received so many compliments on our cards, and I was worried that I was doing the wrong thing by not hand writing each one. The original plan was the picture on front and blank back so I could write then each out personally, but a couple ER visits, a surgery, and just plain procrastination put me in a pinch. I used vistaprint and the back said thank you for helping us start our happily ever after, love Michael and Elise Lastname. I have had an overwhelming positive response, even from the older proper ladies.

4/2/2013 11:17:05 PM

ActionsPants

One of my favorite spots was on the train tracks near the Boylan Bridge - almost got hit by a train but had some great shots.






And I'm not sure how many people have shot pictures there, but I did love this area near Cobblestone





One of my absolute favorite shots was in front of that big butterfly mural near marbles, though. That might be too common for what you're thinking. Either way, plenty of places to get creative! Like on campus



[Edited on April 8, 2013 at 7:37 AM. Reason : Last one]

4/8/2013 7:33:44 AM

Our engagement photos are this Wednesday...ugh...

4/8/2013 7:57:34 AM

^ Where are you doing yours?

[Edited on April 8, 2013 at 10:37 AM. Reason : .]

4/8/2013 10:37:23 AM

Charleston

4/8/2013 10:43:25 AM

40 days out today here and I'm kind of freaking out at what's not done. All the big stuff is taken care of (all vendors booked, baker and caterer completely done, invites out and rsvp's coming in) but there are so many details. Ceremony wording, vows, and reading...play/do not play/ceremony order to the dj...group photo requests to the photographer...favors...liability insurance...and a million other little things. Oh, and the fact that I've not yet planned our honeymoon.

Also trying to figure out how much beer/wine we need. It's not a huge crowd (we invited 85 including children, thinking we'll end up with 70-75 attending) and some don't drink, but many of those that do drink, do so with vigor.

4/8/2013 11:18:17 AM

^ for our wedding we had about 240 people, but the same mix you are describing. A caterer said the formula they use is 2 drinks per person for the first hour, 1 for every hour after that and a 70/30 beer/wine mix for an afternoon/buffet style wedding and a 60/40 mix for a formal or plated dinner wedding. We did 3:2:2 mix of red/white/sweet white wines. Nearly all the white/sweet white wines were drank, a case of red was leftover.

4/8/2013 12:09:18 PM

Thought I could avoid a lot of this planning crap....but now the Rehearsal Dinner is rearing its ugly head!

Mom came in town for the Bridge Run this past weekend and we checked out the location. The spot is good, but there might be an issue with an earlier party reserving the bar on the same night and of course everyone is freaking out on how many people we are going to invite.

This wedding shit is for the birds....

4/8/2013 12:38:38 PM

If it makes you feel any better, every time you post about something I have a mini freakout because it's usually something we haven't touched on at all yet.

Though I did order a return address stamp for our save-the-dates. So now I just need to get our pics done and actually order them and get the addresses for the other 1/3 or so of our invitees so we can send them out ...

4/8/2013 12:45:39 PM

Future in-laws left on Monday after 4 days of wedding stuff. They picked out decorations and dinner/glassware. The best part was going to a tasting of our caterer. We ate everything that will be at the wedding, including the deserts (bananas foster and smores stations). It was honestly one of the best meals I've had in recent memory (and we eat out at good places)...which is pretty exciting. I've rarely been impressed by wedding food, but this caterer is the jam.

Felt bad for the parents because they went into the weekend looking for stuff that they didn't like so they could cut it out after being over budget. But they loved everything. So we're basically hoping that about half the invites come.

4/23/2013 5:01:05 PM

^You may get a lower attendance number than you're expecting. We had a spate of unexpected 'no' RSVPs at the end (basically most of my extended family suck and aren't coming) so out of 80 invited we're sitting on 58 attending with a couple of undecideds that need to decide in the next week. That's not even 70% and I would think that the larger the invite list, the larger the amount of 'no' replies you'll get. The upshot to this is that we wanted to keep it small, and now that has come true. I just regret the fact that not one single person from my dad's side of the family (other than Dad) will be there.

Quote :

"Wedding planning is the worst. Half the time it feels like you're in a business relationship and not a romantic one. "

Amen to that. I'll be so glad when this is over. 18 days... Then wedding, another day in OBX, and a week in the FL Keys. We'll need the relaxation!

[Edited on April 30, 2013 at 10:47 AM. Reason : Glad our caterer is flexible. Can add people up to 7 days out.]

4/30/2013 10:43:28 AM

Just throwing this out there in case any of you are looking for photographers.

http://www.ronnynause.com



[Edited on April 30, 2013 at 10:48 AM. Reason : .]

4/30/2013 10:47:33 AM

Engagement photos are up:

http://proofing.julietelizabeth.com/Couples/PaigeJohnEngagment/29163736_8NKkCJ#!p=1&n=20

Feel free to make fun of me! I didn't think we were going to bring the dog, but our photographer insisted because apparently he's all we talked about. I think they worked out pretty well.

Quote :

"You may get a lower attendance number than you're expecting."

I hope so. I just think it will end up being the perfect storm of everyone coming. It's a destination wedding, so its pricey...but it's also Charleston, so it's not like a tropical island pricey. My family and friends are the poorest and probably won't be willing to shell out the money to come...yet they're also the closest, so they have less to spend and less time to take off. Her family and friends are the furthest away (Connecticut and surrounding states)...yet they're all rich and are already planning mini-vacays out of this wedding.

Should be interesting...

4/30/2013 1:58:26 PM

We just got our engagement photos back! http://www.carolynscottphotography.com/2013/05/07/erika-emmanuel-engaged/

5/7/2013 11:04:22 AM

Carolyn and Geoff are our photogs

5/7/2013 11:23:26 AM

We love them; they're so fun, and they take great photos.

5/7/2013 11:32:10 AM

Great pics jbrick83! You two make a cute couple!



Byrn Stuff, y'all are so adorable and awesome!! looooooooooove the pictures!

5/7/2013 11:37:12 AM

I agree, jbrick; those pics are great!

Thanks, Minka. We had a really good time shooting them.

5/7/2013 12:02:39 PM

Hahahahaha jbrick your dog is hilarious looking. I love him.

5/7/2013 6:31:58 PM

^Ha...he's definitely a clown. He's kind of messy looking and we were a little worried that he'd mess up the pics. But now we think they look great with him in them. He definitely made the photo shoot pretty funny.

Byrn Stuff...your photo shoot looked like a blast!

[Edited on May 8, 2013 at 10:21 AM. Reason : .]

5/8/2013 10:20:54 AM

Love the kitchen shots a whole whole bunch.

5/8/2013 10:30:29 AM

OMG! Emman, I LOVE YOUR ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS SOOOOOOO MUCH!!! They're like perfection.

5/8/2013 11:19:45 AM

^^^I didn't mean that as an insult, I don't think there's any way that little dude could have messed up your pics. You will cherish those someday, if nothing else for the dog

5/9/2013 1:25:30 AM

10 days.

So...many...little...details...

5/9/2013 1:33:48 AM

Thanks, guys It was a really fun shoot. If you're curious about the kitchen shots, we were making jerk chicken, arroz con gris, and margarita cupcakes (with tequila lime icing!).

5/9/2013 9:13:08 AM

Quote :

"I didn't mean that as an insult, I don't think there's any way that little dude could have messed up your pics. You will cherish those someday, if nothing else for the dog"

Didn't take it as an insult. Just reinforcing that my dog, is in fact, a clown!

But we are extremely happy with how they turned out. Our little buddy was great.

5/9/2013 11:07:24 AM

Do any of you guys/gals have recommendations for DJs in the Raleigh area? Looking to book one for my wedding in mid-October.

5/9/2013 7:01:44 PM

Oh man...place of ceremony double booked. Luckily we were first...by about 5 or 6 months...but the other bride is coming out swinging. I have a feeling this is about to get ugly...

5/15/2013 5:46:48 PM

Where are you getting married?

5/15/2013 5:51:39 PM

^^^We had Frank with Joe Bunn and loved him.

5/15/2013 5:57:43 PM