Quote :

"have the reception at the new alumni center on centennial "

that's pretty awesome, i would totally want to do that.

12/16/2008 1:07:52 PM

We just hired Catering Works for our wedding in June 09. They are amazing and handling everything from catering, flowers, linens, cake, dj, church decorations and they were very fairly priced I was even impressed at the cost especially for 200+ guests.

12/16/2008 2:48:15 PM

I'm starting to poke around on theknot

Oh no

12/16/2008 6:07:17 PM

hehe, you'll see me around...same screenname

there's another tww'er on there...Picaflora. she recognized me from here.

[Edited on December 16, 2008 at 8:28 PM. Reason : ]

12/16/2008 8:26:52 PM

i'm finally getting excited about wedding planning instead of afraid of it.

as it stands right now, we're looking at about 200 but no more than 250 people, and possibly in my parents yard (12 acres in the country, pond with dam and waterfall). the other idea of rose hill plantation was gonna be $unitedstates and just too uppity for our tastes.

anybody have experience in renting tents and possibly *nice* portable restroom facilities (NOT PORTAPOTTIES!!)? recommendations?

should i get a wedding planner? i think i have very little concept of just how many details there are. how much are they typically?

12/19/2008 8:56:12 AM

http://ncbride.blogspot.com/

A girl from NC on The Knot created this based on every bride that's contributed for vendor name and info. Most of these brides have their own "planning bio" where they discuss the same. It's a plethora of information.

12/19/2008 10:14:47 AM

So, my Matron of Honor is going to be about 6 1/2 months pregnant by the time our June wedding roles around. We want black dresses, it's an outdoor ceremony, so short and simple bridesmaid dresses. Is it crazy of me to want something that both all three bridesmaids can wear? Any suggestions? There are a few "flowy" dresses that can function as a maternity dress, but they're all long. Has anyone seen anything tea length or knee length that would be appropriate for two size two bridesmaids and one normally size two, but 6 month pregnant bridesmaid?

12/21/2008 6:26:46 PM

I would stay away from anything fitted!

This has tons of options for pregnant women. Just poke around.

http://www.maternity-formal.com/Loren-maternity-bridesmaid-dress.html

http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/formal-maternity-gowns--maternity-bridesmaid-dresses--materntiy-dress

http://www.shopforbridal.com/Alfred_Sung_Bridesmaid_Dress_M407_p/m407.htm

Here are some choices.....My friend wore the second one this Christmas and liked it a lot.

[Edited on December 21, 2008 at 6:53 PM. Reason : ]

12/21/2008 6:51:59 PM

se7entythree

Rose Hill is definitely too much $$ for what you get. Not worth it. Also, for tents, check out Best Rentals in Wilson. We got married at a private home in Bailey, and they had the best prices hands down. They were also awesome at changing my rentals at the last second when I realized I would need a couple of more tables.

12/21/2008 9:29:45 PM

^^Thanks! I definitely like the second one the best.

12/21/2008 10:29:47 PM

Quote :

"Fhqwhgads Lil Fuj 13119 Posts user info edit post I got my "save the dates" for my wedding from an etsy shop my husband and I got married in Vegas and I found a girl on etsy who also got married in Vegas and was selling her "vegas themed" save the date postcard templates. they turned out fantastic. the seller worked with us to make sure we had the wording exactly how we wanted it."

I definitely wouldn't have ever thought to look on etsy for wedding stuff until it was way too late.

12/30/2008 11:47:18 AM

I'm not sure if it was in this thread or not where we were talking about wedding officiants, but I had mentioned that we were getting Rev. Kayelilly Middleton.

If anyone is looking for an officiant she has been so nice to us, I would definitely recommend her to anyone getting married in the Raleigh-Durham area. We've met with her once and hopefully again soon. Her style is so down-to-earth, and she's very personable. She really knows how to let you create a ceremony the way you want it (our's is going to be very personal and only 20 minutes, I would die if it's any longer) and without the whole sermon and religious tones that really aren't us.

I just thought i'd throw that out there for anyone looking. The whole officiant thing made me really nervous, cause I didn't want someone who was going to make me or my fiance uncomfortable.

12/30/2008 3:00:15 PM

When I told my grandfather Z had proposed, I also asked if he'd officiate for us.

Yes, he's religious, and we're not, but...there was a period when my family could only dream that I'd see 18, much less get married. That I'm alive, functioning, and doing things like working, school, and getting married are all icing on the cake...so this means a lot to my whole family. Him officiating is another way for me to thank him. It's more than just officiating a granddaughter's wedding.

12/30/2008 3:27:18 PM

haha my mom just sent me an email: site you might like - offbeatbride.com

1/2/2009 11:32:00 PM

^also is a book. Def my fave wedding site...

1/2/2009 11:34:05 PM

Quote :

"should i get a wedding planner? i think i have very little concept of just how many details there are. how much are they typically?"

If you're a person who doesn't like managing multiple tasks with great attention to detail, I would say consider hiring a wedding planner. If you want to be involved with the planning details but want help with the execution, go with a wedding director. I planned my wedding and hired a wedding director to handle final follow-ups, rehearsal direction, and wedding day direction. For me that was the best of both worlds because I planned my wedding and handled all the details (which I loved doing), and handed over final execution to the director so I could enjoy the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and wedding day without having to corral everyone, handle final payments due the day of the wedding, call to yell at any vendors running late, etc.

1/3/2009 12:01:39 AM

Quote :

"the other idea of rose hill plantation was gonna be $unitedstates and just too uppity for our tastes."

DON'T DO ROSE HILL.

My boyfriend and I went to a wedding there and it was so lame. The ceremony outside was pretty, but then came the reception. They rented the Gentlemen's Lounge and there was nowhere that you could really sit and get comfortable while eating your food. You were either having to prop the plate on your knee or they had tables outside that were nowhere near where everything else was happening. And their dance floor was an uneven brick floor. Not exactly conducive to dancing. There are so many better places for a reception in the Triangle imo.

1/3/2009 2:12:26 AM

That sucks.

1/3/2009 2:13:30 AM

Yeah, it was sucky. You could tell the bride's family had spent $texas on the wedding and you just ended up with a stuffy reception where no one really seemed to have fun. It was kind of weird actually. Even the bride's father at the end of the day was complaining to me and two of my friends about how it had turned out.

1/3/2009 2:15:46 AM

That's definately when I post on here about the name of the service. I hate to talk bad about a company, but people really should have the freedom to know the truth.

That being said, liquor's quicker!

1/3/2009 3:04:43 AM

thanks for the input!

i'm not in the triangle, fyi.

so mom brought up the officiant thing. she suggested her pastor, the church i grew up in. i'm not religious. we're not religious. we're not having a religious ceremony. how do i burst mom's bubble without completely crushing her?

i really dont want to have it at rose hill. mom thinks we should still go check it out. fine okay i'll go but just so we're clear WE ARE NOT GETTING MARRIED THERE.

1/3/2009 6:03:42 PM

Yeah, I think Rose Hill is the sort of place parents fall in love with but for most younger couples it's too old fashioned and uppity.

1/4/2009 12:20:33 AM

mom found something somewhere about having a wedding at the sylvan heights waterfowl park in scotland neck. anybody been there before?

1/5/2009 8:54:04 AM

oh, that kayelily middleton minister woman won't come to rocky mount. she said the farthest she'd go is nashville or rose hill. WTF hello rocky mount is next door. anyway....

we're gonna check out sylvan heights this weekend, as well as medoc mtn state park. thoughts? comments? suggestions?

1/5/2009 2:00:32 PM

We got married at Fearrington in October and I have to say that it was a truly amazing experience. If any of you are looking into it, I highly recommend them. If you have any specific questions please just ask.

Also, our photographer, Abigail Seymour, was phenomenal!!!

1/5/2009 2:37:12 PM

Ok...long shot.

My friend is getting married in Oct. and wants me to wear Alfred Angelo separates in egg plant.....

Do any of your guys have anything in your closets......This chick is more high maintenance.

250 for skirt, top, jacket
100 for shoes
90 for hair and make up

This is without a gift or my contribution to girls night out or the wedding shower that I am supposedly hosting at my house.

1/5/2009 10:32:02 PM

I'd be pretty annoyed with my friend if they wanted me to spend that much on clothes I'd wear once.

1/5/2009 11:13:04 PM

we're paying for the bridesmaid's dress (everybody else is a family member anyway). i think it's ridiculous to expect someone to buy something they're going to wear once and most likely not like anyway, especially when it could be expensive. i don't think that should be their responsibility.

1/6/2009 8:58:24 AM

this may be a long shot, but do any of you know or have heard of someone getting married at a farm owned by the Wordsworth family in edgecombe county? mom heard from a couple of people that it is almost exactly what i'm looking for (rolling farm land, well landscaped, field w/ trees in the background, house big enough in case of rain).

it's not rented out, you have to know the family. there's 2 brothers, one who owns the farm and the other who owns meadowbrook meat (MBM) company. we designed a house for the MBM one. i'm hoping that this is enough to get us in. they built this place just for parties/weddings/etc.

*crosses fingers*

1/7/2009 9:21:50 AM

If anyone is wanting to have a Siri bridesmaid dress, style Right Banks, Shantung, hazelnut with chocolate sash, let me know. I'll be selling one when it arrives Feb/March-ish.


(not shown in colors of course)

1/7/2009 4:38:51 PM

question for the brides: how much are the bridesmaid dresses that you're picking out for your weddings? My friend just picked hers out and it's almost $300 for the dress. Plus I'm traveling down to Orangeburg, SC for the bridal shower, then two weeks later fly to charleston for the bachelorette weekend, then back to Orangeburg three weeks later for the wedding. And I live in DC.

I'm just curious if anyone else thinks it's a bit unreasonable.

[Edited on January 8, 2009 at 3:13 PM. Reason : .]

1/8/2009 3:09:29 PM

I'm going to try and keep it under $200 - maybe even shoot for $125. I haven't looked much yet, though, so I don't know how realistic this is.

I'm also to get deep red (think claret, or ruby), in tea length, with sleeves. That way, if nothing else, they can be used at the holidays for parties.I really like this dress. If I choose a siri dress, that'll be it. And my mom likes that dress a lot, too, so my bridesmaids and mom might have the same dress...just in different colors and fabrics.

1/8/2009 3:15:18 PM

fyi on bridesmaids dresses, a friend of mine is looking into dresses shipped directly from china

i think the website is http://www.lightinthebox.com someone else she knows used the website and was pleased with the results

she's looking at around $80-100 for her bm dresses

1/8/2009 3:35:09 PM

Mine are $135. I'm buying jewelry and hotel room for my girls. They can wear whatever shoes they want (it's a black dress, David's Bridal F13408 so it shouldn't be hard to have something at home if they want), and travel is at most 3 hours. We're trying to keep it very reasonable for everyone involved. My sister is using a friend's beach house for the bachelorette party, so cost there will be negligible.

1/8/2009 3:49:10 PM

Quote :

"My friend just picked hers out and it's almost $300 for the dress."

the one i posted above costs that, and i was putting $100 towards it plus a laundry list of other things i was paying for and I thought I was doing a good job as a bride. i asked all of them beforehand was this okay and had given them a cheaper dress option. they all loved the dresses, so we went forward. well, skip to today and i just had the BM that was supposed to wear that dress drop out b/c of $ after it had been ordered. deposit is lost and it can't be cancelled, and i'm paying for it.

so...if you have a problem with the total costs being a BM in your friend's wedding (like are you going to have to pay for hair and makeup and accessories too, or is she paying for all that?) PLEASE tell her now, or at least talk to her about the costs and work something out.

1/8/2009 4:17:16 PM

If she had talked to me beforehand, it's be one thing, but she sprung this on me today. And I'm the only bridesmaid that is traveling for the wedding so that makes it tough.

What Im going to tell her though is to choose either the shower or the bachelorette party and I'll go to one.

She has no job, so I know I'll be paying for almost everything else associated with being a bridesmaid.

1/8/2009 4:59:32 PM

Damn iPhone

[Edited on January 8, 2009 at 5:03 PM. Reason : .]

1/8/2009 5:01:35 PM

Quote :

"a friend of mine is looking into dresses shipped directly from china"

Good idea.

When I was in Vietnam you could get formal wear made for dirt cheap. Too bad most of those tailors don't have websites.

1/8/2009 7:23:18 PM

Quote :

"uestion for the brides: how much are the bridesmaid dresses that you're picking out for your weddings? My friend just picked hers out and it's almost $300 for the dress. Plus I'm traveling down to Orangeburg, SC for the bridal shower, then two weeks later fly to charleston for the bachelorette weekend, then back to Orangeburg three weeks later for the wedding. And I live in DC. I'm just curious if anyone else thinks it's a bit unreasonable."

This is always a touchy subject. I think if a bride picks a dress that expensive for her bridesmaids, it's a good idea for her to be prepared to help with part of the cost, unless all of her bridesmaids are loaded and fine with it. The dress for my bridesmaids was $130 plus tax - It was a dress I liked that was also a decent price. They could wear any style shoe, as long as it was the color I chose (silver), which some already had. I paid for hair and jewelry, and I gave each lady a personalized gift at the rehearsal dinner. I have to say that you are a great friend for doing all that! All of my bridesmaids lived in town or within an hour, and they barely did anything to help or participate in pre-wedding activities.

Also, I agree with elkaybie - There are definitely costs involved with being a bridesmaid, so it's important to consider that when accepting if someone asks you. Ideally the bride will give you a feel for what to expect and will take care of at least some of the expense as a courtesy; if she isn't forthcoming with that info/conversation, I would say definitely ask about it so she knows that you need to know what the expectation is.

1/8/2009 11:13:02 PM

^^Haha...my aunt used to make all sorts of dresses for her kids.
Prom dresses, wedding dress, etc. and they were dirt cheap (cost of fabric) but looked good.

[Edited on January 8, 2009 at 11:22 PM. Reason : I guess this post isn't funny unless you knew I'm chinese. family sweat shop ftw]

1/8/2009 11:21:30 PM

^^ Thanks. I've been a bridesmaid twice, both my sisters. My oldest sister got married two years ago, and I probably spent close to a $1,000 on everything (gifts, hair, dress, etc...) and I was perfectly fine with that.

This wedding, looking at all of the travel, plus whatever gifts I'll be going in on, hair, makeup, shoes... I'm looking at exceeding $1,000 by a good bit. I love her dearly, but I just am going to let her know that this is a bit of a stretch financially for me, giving being unemployed.

And like I said, I'm the only one traveling a distance for the wedding, so it's difficult being in that situation.

(She does know that I'm unemployed, FWIW)

1/8/2009 11:25:31 PM

Yeah, I would say you're going above and beyond, given the expenses and travel. Based on what you've shared, it doesn't sound like she is being fair to you, not only for the level of expense with the dress and related details, but especially since you're the only one having to travel, and she knows you're not employed right now. If in your shoes, I would definitely have that conversation with her (that this is a stretch financially, etc.). Good luck

1/8/2009 11:32:39 PM

thanks

the other part of this is that she's fighting constantly with her mother about how expensive this wedding is getting... 400 guests and climbing.

oh joy

1/8/2009 11:33:52 PM

Nice! Yeah, it can get really expensive, really quickly. If I hadn't put my foot down with my husband's mom, our guest list would have been 400, possibly more. We were right around 350 total, and the day I went to finalize the invitation order, she tried to add about 50 more people to the guest list. Thankfully my husband supported me, and we pretty much directly said "no" - Had she persisted, I would have (politely, haha right) told her to hand over the $400 for the extra invitations. Thankfully the situation blew over without a lot of drama.

1/9/2009 12:14:25 AM

Just how much were those invitations
(I spent a couple hours doing the guest list and looking at invitations last night with my mother. $2/each felt insane)

1/9/2009 12:31:10 AM

$2/each is cheap comparatively. The ones my friend bought for her wedding were $5/each.

They're really nice though so I guess you get what you pay for.
http://www.mewpaperarts.com/

1/9/2009 1:27:45 AM

The ones I'm looking at are $1.74 ea (for 100 invites) just for invitation, response cards $1.09 ea and reception cards $0.99 ea. http://www.weddingpaperdivas.com

1/9/2009 8:22:43 AM

i'm looking at getting these http://www.weddingpaperdivas.com/products/ProductView_565.htm

i had no idea what is expensive when it comes to invitations. i guess $1.55 for 250 isn't bad then.

1/9/2009 8:30:22 AM

is it rude to call the bride when i get a save the date to tell her i already know i cant attend?

i know invitations are expensive and there is always a secondary list of people they want to invite, im just trying to save some effort and be polite but i dont know if that is coming off as rude

thoughts?

1/9/2009 10:25:22 AM

http://www.duchessclothier.com/

Badass suits tailored to fit starting at $400 for a two piece. Very flexible and unique.

1/9/2009 10:31:43 AM