Monday, July 27, 2009

couple updates :)

hey! we have a hotel! We went with the Hampton Inn, Fairfax, rooms are $79/night (plus taxes). My mother, zp and I went to inspect it a few weeks ago and we liked it a lot! It's about a mile from Old Town Hall so I'm hoping people will take a cab (or walk?! haha maybe not in heels) to/from the wedding so we don't have to worry about drunk driving..? :) Also I still need to ask the hotel if they do shuttles, that would be the absolute ideal. Once we send out the Save the Dates with our wedding website and all that, you'll be able to reserve your room in our block. I'm thinking Save the Dates will go out in September, via email (except for those we know don't do email)!

also we're pretty much decided on our officiant! I say "pretty much" but we're basically decided, it's just for some reason weird/scary/exciting to actually say we're settled 100%. We haven't informed the officiant that she's the one yet so I guess it's not checked off completely. But we like this woman. And she's a lot closer to our venue than A.C. I'm very excited to start working with her on the ceremony. eeee!!

The bridesmaids have pretty much settled on their dresses (those who will be wearing dresses anyway - Mary's outfit is TBD). I'm not going to share any of the details here, but I think they're going to look awesome. We're going to wait a while before ordering them since they're custom-made to fit each girl exactly, they shouldn't need alterations.

My mother let me know her employer, Petal's Edge, will allow her to order my flowers through them to get wholesale prices without mark-up, and she can use the shop (after work hours) to tie up boutonnieres and bouquets and stuff! So we'll be thinking about that. I still prefer locally grown if we can swing it, but it was an extremely generous (and unsolicited) offer, which I really appreciate.

Next goal is to book a DJ. Hopefully we'll hear from Gerardo next month about whether he wants to be our photographer? That will be good to have out of the way as well. I have someone who wants to be our "second shooter" for FREE, so we'll probably take him up on that offer, but we still need the primary.

UPDATE: we are officially booked with Georgiana - next week she's going to send us "homework" to start working on ideas for the ceremony. :) :) I also sent the email to A.C. letting her know she has not be chosen. SIGH. Not my favorite thing to do.

1 comment:

  1. Rachel, that officiant looks AWESOME!! She sounds perfect; not stuffy or formal or goofy. She seems to have a good philosophy about not only weddings ("...make it personal, urge them to savor the moment, which will never happen again. Drop all the worries about the band and the photos."), but also the marriage ("there was a lesson to learn in giving marriage our serious and ardent effort"). Very very cool.

    I am REALLY hoping that Gerardo will be able to do the photographs; I know you will be so happy with his work. It's also great that you have a volunteer for extra photos!

    If you like, I can ask the concierge manager if he has any DJ recommendations; I know that part of the job is hiring people for events, not only on behalf of residents and clients, but also for the property itself (pool parties, etc). I'm sure they get feedback from people as to how the DJ was, so that might be good to know.

    I have some ideas percolating about the flower-with-buttons thing... when I get a chance to stop working for ten minutes at a time, I will be able to solidify the ideas into something presentable, hopefully. Just brainstorming, y'know? I know you said that the bridesmaid dresses are pretty well sorted out, but I can't remember what (or if) you may have mentioned regarding color(s). I am happy to help you figure out flowers to coordinate with them (if that's the direction you want to go, that is).

    I know that your flower preference is for locally grown, but there are so many variables that can interfere at the eleventh hour, not the least of which is the weather at that time of year. If you decide to take P's E up on their offer, we can certainly look to order flowers that come from as nearby as possible (and some of what they order actually Is supplied locally, I think); I mean, we don't have to order hydrangeas from Columbia, SA, is all I'm saying.

    Anyway, still lots of time, lots for you and zp to think about and decide upon; it is so fun to be here for this planning stage! I hope you know that if my suggestions and/or offers of involvement are seeming too pushy, you have only to say the word. You are doing a marvelous job of planning this wedding; I am just here to help if you need/want it. :)

    Getting so excited!!

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