Men's Attire

After winning some savings at a bridal show, Jake and I decided to choose Savvi Formalwear. Jake's tux is free (sweet!) and the groomsmen/ usher/ dads get discounts. Also, by using them, I can get a 20% discount on my gown or a 25% discount on the bridesmaid's gowns at The Ultimate Bride- one of the nicer bridal boutiques in the area, which happens to carry my favorite desinger, Mikaella....

But we were talking about the men.

Jake's choosen formalwear:

Jake's choosen groomsmen's formalwear:

They are the same tux style (Calvin Klein), with sleek-edged lapel, but Jake has choosen to wear the same tux in black, and the groomsmen in grey, to make a distinction. Jake's vest and tie will be a soft grey, and the groomsmen will wear a vest in tie in a grey tone matching their tuxes, as shown above. I think these grey tuxes will look great paired with the soft yellow bridemaid dresses!

Engagement Party and Selection of Wedding Attendants

Our enagagement party was a casual at-home gathering of each of our parents, our siblings, and the friends we choose to include in the wedding. We served cocktails and hors d'ourves, which I am very proud of! (I showed off my culinary skills with some of my best finger-foods: lemon-curry seared scallops, spicy vegetable rolls, bacon-wrapped beef cubes, artichoke and goat-cheese crostinis, hot wings, red velvet cake balls, and white-chocolate cheesecake squares!) I had already asked my friends to be bridesmaids, but Jake was shy about it and/or procrastinating, so he finally asked them at the party. (though I'm sure they had figured it out by then haha)

So here's our awesome lineup!:

Groom: Jake
Bride: Angie
Best Man #1: Ryan
Groomsman #2: Matt
Groomsman #3: Alex (Jake's younger brother, 21)
Maid of Honor #1: Laura
Maid of Honor #2: Stacy
Bridesmaid #3: Sami (Angie's younger sister, 14)
Reader #1: Sammantha (Jake's younger sister, 12)
Reader #2: Mackenzie (Jake's youunger sister, 17)
Usher #1: Mike (Angie's youunger brother, 15)

It was very important to us that we include all of our younger siblings in the wedding, but we didn't want a huge wedding party when the wedding was to only have around 100 guests. Also, we didn't want half of the wedding party to be under 21. So we thought, we would invite my female sibling and his male sibling to actually be in the wedding party, and invite the rest of the siblings to participate as readers and ushers. We absolutely wanted to make everyone feel included in our special day. :)

Another option, which we have not decided upon yet, is the flower girl/ ring bearer. Initially we did not want to have these roles, but then again I have seen some pretty cute kids in ads or wedding shows over the last 2 months, so now we are reconsidering. If we do, I'm thinking 2 flower girls and no ring bearer. My 2 older brothers each have adorable little girls- Sophie, 7, and Alyssa, 5- so if we do decide to have flower girls ( and if the church permits flower petals being thrown, some don't) then I think they're perfect for the role!

Photographer choosen!

We were lucky enough to have the first photographer we interviewed be the right one for us! I heard of her from my coworker, Trierre, and I'm very grateful for the recommendation! I will have to continue to spread Alecia's name around as more friends get engaged over the years. :) 

Alecia Hoyt Photography is a perfect match- Alecia is very talented (just view her portfolio: http://www.aleciahoytblog.com/) and her packages came pretty close to our price range. Our original budget was $1500, and the cost we came up with was $1800 to include 6.5 hours of coverage- enough time for some pre-ceremony photos, the ceremony, portraits, fun pics around town, and the first half of the reception. We were even able to negotiate an engagement photo session to be included with the package! Although it was a little bit over budget, I feel like photos are an ok place to splurge- after all, this is how we will remember the day for years to come. I will accommodate by reducing my transportation budget. It's worth it! Plus, now we get to take our engagement pictures in the fall! So... where should we have our photos taken?

Caterer choosen!

We reviewed websites for several caterers, including Catering St. Louis, Steven Becker Fine Dining, Patty Long, and Hollyberry, among others. We made several appointments but we were fortunate enough to have a positive experience with the first one, Patty Long, and we feel confident to book with them!

Jenny, their wedding coordinator, put us at ease with her welcoming attitude and reassurance that their company can coordinate as much of the reception as we like, including not only the food, serveware and labor, but also the rental of tables for gifts, cocktails, the bar, etc, and linens such as tablecloths, napkins, runners, etc. In fact, the estimate she gave us already included any tables or linens we needed!

Our estimate came out to about $7,500, for around 100 guests, to include a 4 hour open bar, 2-3 butler passed hors d'ouevres, a seated dinner including salad and entree choice, and cutting and serving the wedding cake we provide. This combined with the $2,500 facility rental fee at the Rialto puts us right at our reception budget of $10,000. Some additional options we may include:

1. Giving the guests an entree choice (ie chicken or steak, etc) = apx extra $400
2. Providing a passed champage toast (instead of guests walking to bar) = apx extra $350
3. Providing passed wine service with dinner (rather than guests walking to bar) = apx extra $500
4. A fun idea of mine- Root beer floats passed as an end-of-the-night treat = apx extra $400
5. Adding additional hors d'ouevres = apx extra $200 per additional choice

My favorite of these options is the root beer floats! Also, giving guests an entree choice would be more formal. Any thoughts?

April 30th, 2011

We have set a date! We booked The Rialto for Saturday, April 30th 2011! For the ceremony venue, We have choosen Little Flower Catholic Church, and Fr. Herzog will be our officiant. A word to the wise- get started early if you plan to marry in the Catholic Church, because you will need to find copies of your birth certificates, take the FOCCUS assessment, take premarital counseling courses and a natural family planning course, and coordinate all ceremony activities with the church wedding planner. So, now that we have our venues, we need to find a caterer. Stay tuned for next post!

Reception Venue Choice: and the winner is...

The Rialto!

                        

Why we chose The Rialto:

This location, with it's combinated aspects of clean modern art-gallery and historic architectural ballroom, had the perfect feeling we were searching for on our wedding day. We are excited to be able to provide our guests with a dining/dancing room, cocktail room, and rooftop outdoor lounge. The large windows and harwood floors will provide a pretty backdrop for our first dance and the ceremonial toasts. We're so excited!

Why we didn't choose Moulin Events:

After returning to each location for secondary visits, we discovered that Moulin Events would not let us use their ballroom, despite our offer to meet their mandated minimum of 130 guests. They basically told us that there were other brides interested, that had not made offers yet, but were lucrative potential customers because they were planning parties of 300 or more. They offered an alternate site on the first floor that was was less enchanting, but we decided to take our business somewhere it was appreciated. (After all,it's not like a $10,000 reception budget is chump change...) The customer service representative was dismissive and rude, and if they want the minimum to be 300 perhaps they should mandate that instead of 130, to make expectations more clear.

This was almost relieving, as we were having a very difficult time deciding between the two, mostly because Moulin Events is in a sentimental location (due the the engagement) but The Rialto had an environment that felt much more appropriate for a wedding (and is also in a sentimental location, near where we first met)

I think ultimately this would have been our choice regardless of the poor customer service we received from Moulin Events- that only expedited the process.

So now, we just need to check around with some local Catholic Churches, and find one that is a pretty backdrop for the ceremony and has dates available in late April and early May. Then we can select a date and book it!

Location, Location, Location...

Since Jake and I decided that we want a spring wedding, we are hoping for late April or early May of 2011. This may be tricky because we are only about 11 months away, and as ridiculous as it seems, many places book 12-16 months ahead. We thought that was just something people said, but apparently it is true! Windows on Washington, as well as St. Ambrose Church ( 2 of the options we initially discussed) are already booked for the whole spring season! So it looks like we will need to move quickly. 2 prospective reception spots:

1. Moulin Events: This rustic french-themed venue is in Lafayette Square, and housed in the same building as Vin de Set- the dinner location from the night Jake proposed! So naturally this seems like an appropriate wedding location. However, we found several disappointing facts- First, the rooftop is not available for use, and we had hoped for some outdoor lounging space. Second, the venue is fairly expensive- starting at $77 per person plus aa additional room rental fee- but this does include many perks, such as a free champagne toast, table linens, and a personal concierge for the night- and the menu sounds delicious. Third, the ballroom, though huge and beautiful with its historic wood floors and brick walls, has a completely exposed ceiling of pipes and tubes. I understand that an exposed pipe or two is considered "modern" and "lofty" but eating dinner under an entire ceiling of old gray pipes doesn't exactly say wedding to me. I wonder why they never finished the ceiling? Or at least painted the pipes and ceiling a clean white so it looked less dirty and warehouse-like. Fourth, the location charges extra for many items- for example, to decorate the room with hanging paper lanterns, you must personally purchase the lanterns (average $1-$2 each) and then it costs and additional $4 per paper lantern in service charges? $4 each, just to hang them up, Seriously? Despite these concerns, we are still very interested in the location because it simplifies the process with an all-inclusive servicec (site, catering, linens and coordinator all from one vendor), and because the location has sentimental value.

http://www.moulinevents.com/

2. The Rialto: This sophisticated venue is located near SLU (where we met) and the Fox Theater. It is located on the top floor of a modern arts building, in a ballroom-like environment. It includes 3 spaces: The ballroom, which is where we could place the seated dinner and the dance floor; the atrium, which is an adjacent cocktail lounge with (you guessed it) a large atrium skylight; and the outdoor terrace, which has lovely city skyline views. The perks to this is that it has a cleaner, more elegant feeling than Moulin, with hardwood floors, large windows, a finished ceiling, and interesting architectural details; it also provides multiples spaces which allows for a cocktail room, and an outdoor lounge area like we wanted. The unfortunante part is that the facility rental fee is fairly high ($2500) and the venue is not all-inclusive, so we would need to provide our own caterer, linens, etc. So, our ability to afford this location would be dependent upon the price range of our caterer.

http://www.rialtoballroom.com/