man, as far as "chick flicks" go, the notebook was one of the best ive seen. but this isnt a movie thread so ill let it go at that

3/10/2009 2:12:04 PM

we used http://streetworkdjs.com/ for our wedding and i was very happy - we had jim (the head guy) but i had the feeling any of them would have been good - also very happy with all of the conversations we had before the wedding and felt very comfortable about the whole deal - highly recommended

he was quick with email response as well and due to that we were able to do most of our correspondence past the initial meet and greet over email

i imagine this is standard for anything larger than a 1 man shop but they have a guy on standby every weekend they are booked in case something unforeseen goes wrong like a car accident or something

Quote :

"Please PM me with any advice, reviews, and/or recommendations."

PM sent as well

3/10/2009 2:38:31 PM

Quote :

"Also got a quote from Solid Gold Sound, which makes you book with them, put down a $100 deposit, and then a month from the wedding you finally get to meet the DJ."

I can't believe anyone would actually agree to this. Amazing.

3/10/2009 8:18:02 PM

^ I agree. They're not even a consideration right now.

3/11/2009 9:40:49 PM

random wedding cake finds:


like that, cept for a the cutesy accessories. not my kinda thing at all.


that's just fun


gorgeous

3/11/2009 10:08:58 PM

i wanted the mario cake sooooooooooo so bad, but mom hated it.

that would have been the most awesome thing ever

3/12/2009 8:26:52 AM

are you doing a grooms' cake? those are typically less traditional, so you could do it for that

3/12/2009 8:29:18 AM

omg love the mario cake lol

3/12/2009 8:31:30 AM

^^no.

that's another thing i think is stupid about weddings. you have one big cake already, there's no need (to pay) for whole other cake. wasteful

3/12/2009 8:45:46 AM

every wedding i've known the groom's cake is at the rehearsal dinner (since the groom/groom's family is typically the one hosting that), and not the wedding...but i see your point.

[Edited on March 12, 2009 at 8:52 AM. Reason : ]

3/12/2009 8:52:07 AM

we're having bbq at a local museum (former tobacco warehouse downtown)

3/12/2009 9:03:47 AM

thats the cake we had for our wedding in Las Vegas

chocolate ganache w/ raspberry puree filling

3/12/2009 9:04:21 AM

^^nice!

and that looks damn delicious

we ahhhhhhhh don't have a cake yet, and the wedding is like 80 days away i'm thinking lowe's foods! for real though...mother in law found someone to do a grooms cake in southport for the rehearsal dinner so i'm gonna give her a shout today on my lunch break. if not, then we really will be doing lowe's foods.

apparently we had some snags with the RD caterer...i'm glad i didn't know about it! she got a new one, and it's still gonna be local fare at the marina in SP which will be really cool i think. not to mention low key...eggsalad

3/12/2009 9:21:42 AM

lol our RD was at the Hofbrauhaus on a Friday night during Oktoberfest

http://www.hofbrauhauslasvegas.com/

it was the craziest thing ever.

the next day (the wedding day), my dad woke all the guys up early to take them out to a shooting range in the Las Vegas desert. And then they had lunch at the Carnegie Deli in the Mirage. Nothing like being hung over, woken up early and shooting off loud guns in the desert and then filling your bellies up with mountains of pastrami

3/12/2009 9:32:52 AM

My fiance and I decided to keep the RD super low key. We are grilling out at the county park and having a kickball game. Since the wedding is out of town for 99% of the guests, everyone invited to the wedding is invited to the RD. Plus there is going to be a ton of kids and we are having such a fancy affair the next night we just didnt want to have to plan two big events. Plus for about 100 people our costs right now with site rentals, decorations and food is about $600!

3/12/2009 11:02:09 AM

a) i love the idea of low key rehearsal dinner. i think bbqs/cookouts are kinda cool and i'd love to do something like that
b) i've been sitting here watching this dumb wedding cake show for awhile, it is addicting, and this cake (totally not me) is super cool for a cake that is different (for like dark/gothy people). i just thought it was really neat that they made a cake look good with a goth theme



it was red velvet underneath so it looked really cool when they cut it!

now they're doing one on mini wedding cakes


cool idea, apparently expensive according to the show. i still like the idea of just regular cupcakes on a cool tiered stand thing.

[Edited on March 12, 2009 at 6:09 PM. Reason : .]

3/12/2009 6:05:33 PM

Quote :

"that's another thing i think is stupid about weddings. you have one big cake already, there's no need (to pay) for whole other cake. wasteful"

I think the original purpose of the groom's cake was from southern weddings. You'd cut up the cake and give it to single women in boxes, and they were supposed to put the box under their pillow and they would dream about their future husband.

3/12/2009 7:58:52 PM

I'm going to try and meet up with a cake baker this weekend in Charlotte. I had a friend get married and she used Bella Cakes (http://www.bella-cakes.com) and said they were great to work with and very cheap. I had the cake and it was fantastic.

If anyone has any other recommendations for cakes in Charlotte let me know. We're definitely looking for something pretty basic and simple. I really don't want fondant or anything like that, but the lady wants there to be nice designs on it at least and maybe some flowers.

3/16/2009 9:13:44 AM

http://weddings.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Southern_Wedding_Cake_Charms_Tradition


I had a bridesmaid luncheon at the Paris hotel in Las Vegas...my neighbors had a cake made by the same place that did my wedding cake...I had never heard of the Southern tradition of baking charms into the cake. Apparently neither did the cake company from Las Vegas. It took a lot of explaining and faxing

It looked beautiful and all my bridesmaid got to go up to the cake and pull on a string that was attached to a charm. Then we had my little cousin (2 years old) come up and pull on a string and she loved the string more than the charm she got

3/16/2009 9:19:52 AM

Bella-Cakes is totally booked so now I'm going to try out Edible Art. Anyone with other suggestions for cake bakers in Charlotte?

3/17/2009 10:31:30 AM

^^ That's neat. I've never heard of it before either lol.

3/17/2009 10:55:33 AM

Quote :

" i love the idea of low key rehearsal dinner. i think bbqs/cookouts are kinda cool and i'd love to do something like that"

For our RD we did pizza and beer. We got a keg and put it on our back deck and my husbands mom bought a bunch of pizzas. My hubby's mom wasn't into spending a lot of money, and frankly, we didn't want her to have to spend a lot of money. Plus, pizza and beer just fits me and Dennis better than something fancy.

Also, I got my wedding cake from a woman, Cinda, who works out of her home in Apex. I tried her cake at a wedding convention and made an appointment with her right away. The cake was delicious and she loves to make cool, obviously creative cakes. When you meet with her she makes you 2 small cakes to try and also to take home so your parents/friends can try as well.
This is her website: http://www.cindascreativecakes.com/
It's very easy to make an appointment with her online. I also liked the idea that she was local and worked out of her home instead of a bakery. She was very nice and very professional. And she delivers the cake so no need to worry about that on your big day.

3/17/2009 12:43:14 PM

^ that is an awesome RD! i always told my mom i wanted a keg and cookout in like our back yard (or someone's back yard) and to have the badminton net set up and corn hole and other games. so cheesy but i think it would be fun. the only problemo is that my family is very unlike my boyfriend's family (they don't drink, or really like bbq and southern food). so...i may never end up getting my way.

i really like the pizza idea too. i'm a pretty casual person as well, so stuff like that appeals to me.

what did you guys end up doing for alcohol at the wedding? i've been to some with open bars, some with just beer/wine, some that didn't have any, and some that did beer/wine and one signature cocktail. that (and food) seems like where some of the big expenses come in. haha..i like how i'm asking these questions and i'm not even engaged oh well, my parents will never be able to afford a wedding now and i'm still in grad school so i sure can't afford it. my wedding reception might just be a keg on someone's deck and ruckus pizza

speaking of parents, did a lot of you alls parents contribute to the wedding and/or RD?

3/17/2009 2:18:08 PM

don't forget about the cash bar

we're doing wine and beer only...3 buck chuck merlot and chardonnay, and we haven't decided on beer yet. we're getting the alcohol ourselves as it's much cheaper to do that and pay our caterer the corking fee for their bartenders to serve it than our caterer get the wine and beer. plus we didn't like their beer choices.

i think we've secured our baker for the wedding...need to do a taste test, but she's reasonable, has our date available, and doesn't charge a delivery fee to our reception location. Sweet Thang Bakery out of Southport, NC. so there's a bonus of being sick today--calling around and inquiring about bakers.

3/17/2009 3:01:54 PM

My reception site doesn't allow outside drinks, so I'm stuck with what they have. Just doing beer and wine as well, but don't think we will be offering a cash bar at all. I'm going to meet with them this weekend and see what kind of beers we can get. I would spend the extra money for some better choices than Bud/Miller.

3/17/2009 3:54:32 PM

We are having beer and wine only. The reception cite gave us the option of paying either $30 per person over 21 for 5 hours OR to pay per glass which is about $5 per glass. We went with the latter option just cause we didnt think that most of our guests would drink that much.

Oh and my parents are paying for everything that is related to the reception along with the church donation, which is really the biggest hunk. I am paying for flowers, my dress, invites, gifts and all the million other little things.

3/18/2009 10:10:37 AM

Quote :

"what did you guys end up doing for alcohol at the wedding?"

We did open bar but only with beer and wine. We knew we had to work an open bar into our budget because most of our guests were friends, and even the family friends are big drinkers. So that was high on our list. Plus, the place that we had our reception at had good choices of wine/beer and even gave us leftover beers from other weddings so we had more choices for our guests even though we only paid for 4 beer choices and 4 wine choices. I thought it was a good price. But we spent most of our $$$ on our reception with food and alcohol and a lot less on the ceremony.



As for parents paying, my Dad paid for almost everything. He set me a budget and we worked within that. My mom wanted to contribute so she paid for my dress and the alterations. My husbands mom paid for the RD and the pastor.

3/18/2009 10:47:59 AM

We're only having champagne punch. A good portion of our guests don't drink, so I'm not going to sacrifice on the food to provide other kinds of alcohol for those that do. And, we have a really small budget, so it just didn't work out financially for us to provide beer or hard liquor. Honestly, we've probably got less than 10 guests who will miss it, but they don't really care either way. They're the kind that will bring their own beer if they want to drink it.

[Edited on March 18, 2009 at 10:53 AM. Reason : ]

3/18/2009 10:52:55 AM

For our alcohol:

We relabeled 2 buck chuck with our own labels. (FedEx for the WINZ!) We got compliments on our wine. We did a blind taste test of 10 bottles of wine that cost less than 6 bucks a bottle. Most of the people liked the chuck which is why we went with it.

We have a friend that makes his own beer. We got 4 5-gallon kegs for 280 dollars. We had to buy CO2 cartridges and put a deposit on the kegs and taps. It was quality stuff. Everyone kept telling us how good it was. He has a brewery in his garage. If you are seriously interested I will PM his e-mail addy. We bought domestic stuff when it was cheap.

We also did a champagne punch fountain. It was delicious! Out caterer made it. She told us what to buy and it wasn't more than 35 dollars for 100 servings.

We bought all of the alcohol & drinks and paid a bartender 25 dollars an hour.

We didn't want alcohol originally but were conned into it buy my mother in law. (she was a super pain in the butt. she lied about being allergic to wine. She is the reason that I almost eloped a week before the wedding)

For drinks we bought 2-L when they were BOGO. I think our whole bar for 100 adults and 25 kids was like $460 and that included the plastic tumblers (wine, regular, and champagne), drinks, soda, coffee, water, and capri suns (bogo with coupons).

If anyone needs some plastic tumblers, plastic wine goblets, or the plastic champagne flutes we bought them in cases and have tons leftover. It would def. be enough for an informal rehearsal dinner or small wedding reception.

3/19/2009 7:06:59 AM

Alright, so what did you/are you guys doing for music during the ceremony? We're thinking about possibly a classical guitarist. Can't afford an entire string quartet so probably just sticking with one person. Anyone have experiences with this or do something awesome other than piano/organ?

3/19/2009 9:00:07 AM

we're having just a guitarist, although not classical. it think he can play classical though
http://www.jdjoyner.com/


question: we're having my parents' church's minister do our ceremony b/c it was obvious it was NOT going to be worth it to get into religion with them, plus i grew up in that church and know the guy well anyway. he is willing to be very flexible with the wording, so we're requesting no jeebus mentioned (since we don't want to offend all the chinese/buddhist people, you know), but he will still mention the lord or whatever. we're going to get over it.

my question is, where to find sample wordings that will work? he's given us a basic, what he normally says kinda thing and we're picking it apart, but we need to find examples of what we do like to show him. i thought it would be kinda neat to incorporate a little bit of buddhist type stuff but nothing overly weird and no extra stupid little things like lighting a candle together, etc. just words. any suggestions??

so far google isn't very helpful. everything seems to be (1) really religious, (2) really secular and weird, (3) for "unions" for gay ppl. we need kinda in b/w the first 2.

[Edited on March 19, 2009 at 9:35 AM. Reason : bah]

3/19/2009 9:31:08 AM

^^We have a string quartet, and they're costing us $850. That's $200 per person, and $50 for the rehearsal. There were a lot of options available that we discussed with them. They said string duos (would be $450) or string trios ($650) have become increasingly popular. That charge is for 30 minutes before ceremony, ceremony and 30 minutes after, as well as the rehearsal.

3/19/2009 9:54:29 AM

^^^iPod ceremony!

3/19/2009 10:07:04 AM

^^i think our guy is 350 or 400 dollar bucks

i think you need to consider the "feel". that was a big thing for me. i was not at all interested in the formal-ness of a string quartet or whatever. i dont like violins and whatnot. guitarists can be much more informal/casual depending on what they play, but that's not generally an option with quartets.

3/19/2009 10:18:57 AM

^Definitely. I've been to a wonderful, informal wedding with a guitarist. He did a great job of keeping everything sincere, but not overly stuffy or overly laid back.

We're having an outdoor ceremony, so I think that'll take away from some of the formality associated with a string quartet, but I just love that kind of music. The string quartet was our one "splurge" for spending, and it really wasn't that expensive.

3/19/2009 11:13:53 AM

Quote :

"she lied about being allergic to wine. "

wtf

3/20/2009 1:52:15 AM

Wedding cakes cost too much...

3/23/2009 3:10:47 PM

Quote :

"Also, I got my wedding cake from a woman, Cinda, who works out of her home in Apex. I tried her cake at a wedding convention and made an appointment with her right away. The cake was delicious and she loves to make cool, obviously creative cakes. When you meet with her she makes you 2 small cakes to try and also to take home so your parents/friends can try as well. This is her website: http://www.cindascreativecakes.com/ It's very easy to make an appointment with her online. I also liked the idea that she was local and worked out of her home instead of a bakery. She was very nice and very professional. And she delivers the cake so no need to worry about that on your big day."

Ditto. Cinda is awesome!

3/24/2009 12:09:51 AM

We did cakes as centerpieces. The Fresh Market has some delicious cakes for 12-16 dollars a piece. We bought 12. They were the hit of the wedding.

We made our own cake plates.

3/24/2009 7:44:01 AM

That's a neat idea.

3/24/2009 8:27:57 PM

What does that icing tastes like...the "fondant?" Is that it? It LOOKS awesome!

Also, when getting engaged how does one go about budgeting a wedding? Do they parents chip in without asking, are there certain things certain family members traditionally pay for, is it callous to even ask for help? I always wondered how people can afford weddings and what do you do if the family doesn't offer to help.

3/25/2009 1:38:08 PM

fondant isn't icing and it does not taste good. you're supposed to peel it off/just eat the cake underneath. it tastes a lot like cardboard, but it won't kill you.

3/25/2009 2:00:46 PM

^^I think that's going to depend on the family. I knew my parents were going to give me x amount of money. Traditionally Bride's parents pay for wedding and reception and all that includes (with the exception of the brides flowers and the groom's tux and the bride's rings). The Groom's parents traditionally pay for rehearsal, the brides flowers, the bride's rings, and sometimes the honeymoon.

But that's just traditionally, pretty much, it's whatever your set of parents decide to do. For instance, my future-in-laws are only contributing to the rehearsal dinner. They aren't paying for the rings/flowers/corsages/boutonnieres or the honeymoon as they traditionally would.

Here are some good articles that go into more detail on how it's traditionally done.
http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-planning/wedding-budget/articles/wedding-budget-who-pays-for-what.aspx

http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-planning/wedding-budget/articles/who-foots-the-wedding-budget-bill.aspx

http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-planning/wedding-budget/articles/wedding-budget-101-establishing-your-budget.aspx

[Edited on March 25, 2009 at 2:21 PM. Reason : ]

3/25/2009 2:10:39 PM

Interesting, thanks!

Sucks about the icing thing... looks interesting anyway. So is it safe to say most wedding cakes don't use that type of icing? From the pictures it looks like a lot do but maybe they make it so smooth some other way?

3/25/2009 3:08:39 PM

pretty much the same here as Gzusfrk.

After all the congratulations and excitement, if you two aren't paying for it yourself it's ok to ask, and you need to know, what that $$ is before you start planning anything. That number sets the tone for everything. Then set your priorities for what's most important for you two to have at your wedding and go from there. It may mean spending less in areas, or foregoing something you want all together. But know that number first.

And don't go in to debt trying to have a platinum wedding. And if someone is paying for it, know that sometimes even though it's "your wedding" that person holding the check book does get a veto card or two.

and we're using buttercream icing...which tastes good. ganache also tastes good (obviously http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganache) but can melt so it isn't the best for a summer or outdoor wedding.

[Edited on March 25, 2009 at 3:13 PM. Reason : ]

3/25/2009 3:11:32 PM

Weird double post on an edit...

[Edited on March 25, 2009 at 3:44 PM. Reason : ]

3/25/2009 3:41:39 PM

We're using a cream cheese frosting, but it was a close call with the buttercream. A lot of people go with fondant, but add a layer of icing underneath, so that there will be some taste. If you don't have fondant (like I don't) you pretty much have to realize it's not going to be perfectly smooth (unless it the ganache like ^ said). I chose to go with no fondant, because for a cake that expensive, I want it to taste incredible without having to peel off the top later.

And I don't think I would say most people don't use fondant. I think it just depends on the bride and the type of wedding you're throwing. Most of the more intricate cakes are going to use fondant.

3/25/2009 3:43:41 PM

a LOT of people use fondant, it just depends on the way you want your cake to look. if you like the really smooth, rounded edges then go for it. i like it on certain cakes. we're going w/ buttercream though b/c i want hard edges.

3/25/2009 4:02:55 PM

Quote :

"What does that icing tastes like...the "fondant?""

It tastes like shit

3/25/2009 7:50:54 PM

It's too bad because it's really pretty. I think I'd want to try a bite just to see...

I have a feeling our wedding, when we get engaged ya know, is going to be our complete responsibility which means we've been in talks of saving up now and not having one for several years to do the dream wedding I/we want.

He says the wedding we want to do can be done with $10k.... I don't even know the average cost for a wedding but that seems super cheap...

3/25/2009 8:17:28 PM