Shoes That Pop!

A few months ago I posted about finding the Ever After shoes and how I wanted to wear them for the wedding. Just in case you don't remember them, here they are again.

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Beautiful, huh? Well, I'm not wearing them for the wedding anymore! Now, don't get me wrong, those shoes are absolutely gorgeous and I still love them. However, they didn't quite fit so I had to come up with a back up plan.

A few weeks back, my MOH and I went shopping for shoes and jewelry for the wedding. I also wanted to find undergarments for my dress, since I have an alterations appointment coming up, but more on that later.

We both had a rough idea of what kind of shoe we wanted. She was looking for cute silver heels while I decided I wanted to walk down the aisle in fuchsia shoes. Yes, you read that right. I went from white Cinderella shoes to fuchsia heels. Don't ask, my mind can be quite a mess sometimes! Anyways, my MOH didn't have to look long for her shoes. She found the perfect pair at the second store we visited.

I didn't have quite the same luck. There was not a single pair of fuchsia shoes in the entire mall. Several shades of light pink but no fuchsia. I was very disappointed but my MOH saved the day! She suggested a certain website called Zappos [seriously, hit it up if you haven't done so already] that had hundreds of shoes and free shipping.

I was a bit skeptical at first, but after browsing their selection I found the perfect pair of shoes. I just had to have them! I have never in my entire life spent so much money on a pair of shoes before [then again, most of my shoes are under $20] but these are so worth it. I mean, just look how pretty!

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I was a little afraid that they might not go with the dress, but when I tried them on with the dress it looked absolutely fabulous! It's the perfect pop of color! I love these shoes so much I want to wear them already!

Did you change your mind about your wedding shoes? Did you choose white or a pop of color?

Anxiety

You might be wondering about the title, a bit random maybe? This is my blow-off-steam and venting song from college. My song of choice when I feel like punching something [and, dare I say, maybe even someone] and I’ve been repeatedly playing it these last few days. Keep on reading to find out why.

A wedding should be cause for joy and celebration. It is only too often that we forget about the not-so-pleasant situations that accompany a wedding [and yet are left out from most wedding magazines, blogs, etc].

Our wedding planning has been mostly smooth sailing, perhaps because we’re having a small affair. However, this past week has been something else. We are nearly at our two-month mark and one memory has been screaming at me.

It was this past December, and the Mister and I had gone back home to attend a good friend’s wedding. I was sitting at my mom’s kitchen island contemplating our current family situation. The words that came out of my mouth are, still, a little unexpected – both for me and the Mister.

“Let’s just run off to Vegas and elope. It’ll be so much easier.”

Three very unexpected situations have happened in just a four-day timeframe. I can’t help but laugh at the first one. Although annoying, it was still a pretty minor thing, and easily fixable. [Yes, we can pick up my uncles and grandmother at 4:00pm on a Thursday afternoon, at the airport that’s normally 45 minutes away from us, through rush hour traffic, and still make it to our 6:00pm wedding rehearsal – right!]

The other two, well, those are a little bit bigger [although completely unfounded, 8th-grade-drama type of issues] that can be hurtful and emotionally exhausting. The most disheartening thing is that one of them came out of left field from the least expected person. [Big “Vegas” neon flashing sign, anyone? No? Just me?]

It’s seven months after my random statement at my mom’s house and I’m still not sure if the Mister thought I was serious or not. I know I was, although I’m not sure I would have followed through on it. Would it have been worth it? Such a simple question probably deserves an equally simple answer.

No, it wouldn’t have been worth it.

This is our wedding. This is our day. Yes, it is important for my family and his, but, ultimately, it is ours. It’s our choice, our decision, and our prerogative to have the wedding and marriage of our dreams.

Although selfish, and maybe a little immature, sometimes the only way to go to retain some sanity is to just say “Screw it, this is our wedding, and we’ll do whatever the hell we want!”

Has your wedding planning been smooth sailing or have the big waves of drama crashed down on you? What’s your blow-off-steam song?

Yummies in Our Tummies

Today's been one of those days. You know the ones I'm talking about, where things don't seem to go right or the day just feels plain weird. I woke up late, not feeling that great today, and, even though I had planned on staying a bit later today at work, I ended up leaving later than that. Don't get me started on the drive home. However, once I got home and checked my mail, I saw the latest issue of Brides Magazine and started to feel better already.

So I sat back, enjoyed all the wedding-porn-filled-pages while sipping some Coke {a certain Puerto Rican rum may or may not have found its way into my Coke}, and just relaxed. Ah, feels so good!

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Now, let's talk about the menu. A few weekends ago, the Mister, my MOH, and I went to our tasting. Oh. My. God. This has to be one of the best parts of wedding planning. I wish we had taken pictures, but we were so involved with the food that we just forgot about it!

The food was absolutely delicious. We tasted appetizers, salads, potatoes, vegetables, entrees, and even cakes! Here's what we had:

Appetizers:

1. Fresh Fruit Cocktail
2. Minestrone Soup
3. Cream of Chicken with Rice Soup
4. Pasta with Marinara Sauce

Salads:

1. Fresh Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
2. Chef's Tossed Salad with Creamy Cucumber
3. Caesar Salad
4. Mesclyn Mixed Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Potatoes:

1. Twice Baked Potato
2. Red Potatoes with Dill Butter
3. Duchess Potato

Vegetables:

1. Glazed Carrots
2. Green Beans Almondine
3. Stuffed Tomato with Spinach Souffle
4. Medley of Fresh Grilled Veggies

All this food is without even included the actual entrees. And we were supposed to pick one from each category. So many choices! We also tried three entrees: Broiled Filet Mignon, Chicken Piccata, and Chicken Kiev with Orange Sauce. We didn't like the Chicken Kiev, but the Chicken Piccata was to die for!

So, what did we pick? Our guests will enjoy

1. Minestrone soup
2. Fresh spinach salad with a choice of dressing (warm bacon dressing or Italian dressing)
3. Twice baked potato
4. Medley of fresh grilled veggies
5. Their choice of entree: filet mignon or chicken piccata

We are thrilled about our menu. We think our guests will love the food, just as much as we loved it during the tasting.

Have you had your tasting yet? How many different items did you try? Was it easy to choose your menu?

DJ {Date} Night

Our booked DJ company Admit One DJs, hosts an event called Meet the DJ Night, where their clients can meet their DJs. It’s almost like Speed Dating, but with DJs: Speed DJing! I know, I’m a dork, anyways…

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The Mister and I went to this event last week. I have to be honest, I had no idea what to expect. All we knew is that there would be food, drinks, and DJs, and we would pick our top three choices at the end of the night Other than that, we knew nothing. I had no idea what to ask, what I should ask, or even where to start!

The Mister and I walked around the place not really knowing what to do. I have to admit, it was a little overwhelming at first, but we were pros by the end of the night. The Mister spotted one DJ we had met when we booked them in January. He was one of the DJs who spoke Spanish, which was a must for me. We chatted with him for a while, and we really liked him, a lot. He was very professional, with plenty of experience, and a lot of knowledge of the Latin rhythms I know my family will be expecting.

We knew that there was another DJ who spoke Spanish but, after searching for a while and asking one of the managers, we found out he couldn’t make it that night. The manager said we could definitely do a phone interview with the DJ if we wanted to. Although bit disappointed, we decided to talk to other DJs anyways. And so we spoke with DJ #2. And DJ #3, and DJ #4, and DJ #5. Thank God I brought my little notebook; I was jotting down names like crazy.

At some point during the night, I realized why the company does this event, and why it’s important for us, as their clients. The DJ will be an important part of your event, whether it’s a wedding or something else. You want to have someone who you feel comfortable with; you want to have someone with a personality that doesn’t clash with your own.

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I also realized that it would be okay if our DJ didn’t speak Spanish. I wouldn’t have been able to realize this if I hadn’t met and talked to the DJs. Many of them had experience in multi-cultural weddings, and their confidence of how to handle such unique weddings, even when they didn’t speak one of the languages, made me confident in their ability of making our wedding a great experience for our guests.

At the end of the night, the Mister and I picked our top three DJs and decided we didn’t need to do a phone interview. We were comfortable with the two DJs we picked that didn’t speak Spanish, and the one who did speak Spanish is our number one choice. I really hope we get him but, even if we don’t, I know any of our choices will make a great job at our wedding!

Have you ever been to a Meet the DJ Night event? How did you choose your DJ?

Love at First Sight

Tonight, the Mister and I will be going to an event hosted by our hired DJ company. Which has made me realize that I have not posted about our DJ!! Well, let me fix that right up.

We decided pretty early on in our planning that hiring a DJ would be the best way for us to go. Since we come from different backgrounds, our families' taste in music varies a lot. One of the key things we were looking for was to have some merengue and salsa to dance to. A DJ with a good variety in music could easily have something to please everyone.

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Our search was extremely short. Back in July 2009, the Mister, my MOH, and I attended a Bridal Expo. We saw a lot of DJ companies back then, but only one of them blew us away. We loved them so much that, when we decided to look for a DJ last January, the Mister immediately suggested to go see them first.

We met with them in mid-January and booked them right away. Yep, you heard that right. We booked a vendor on our first meeting with them without meeting with any other vendors in their field. Trust me, I've already gone through my share of worrying about it. I'm the kind of person that needs to analyze every option, consider every pro and con, gather every bit of information possible, and make an informed decision. That's my blessing and my curse.

Why did I let us book a vendor without seeing anybody else? Well, this is something the Mister really, really wanted. And by this I mean this DJ company. He wanted this to be his splurge if you will. Did I keep worrying about it weeks after we booked them? Yes, definitely. Do I worry about it now? Not so much!

One of the things that I love about this company is that they host an event called "Meet the DJ Night". During these events, they invite their clients to come out and meet every single DJ the company has. After meeting the DJs, you select your top three DJs, which means you have two back up DJs in case anything comes up on the day of the event. Awesome, huh? I'll let you know how tonight goes!

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Oh yeah, the DJ company is Admit One DJs, in case you were wondering ;-)

Have you ever booked the first vendor you met with without shopping around? Did you worry about it? Do you over-analyze everything like me?

Giveaway!

Just wanted to let you know about a cool giveaway hosted over at A Chocolate Lover's Confession. Two lucky readers will win a pair of Delicate Soles. How great would those be for dancing on your wedding??? Go on over to check it out!

Good luck!!

The Photography Chronicles

We did it! We finally have a wedding photographer! Our last big-ticket item can be officially scratched off our list. Photography was one of the things we were really worry about, budget-wise, since we knew it could get pricey. How did we go about our search? Well, it was a team effort.

First, I put together a list of absolute must-haves:

1. High-resolution digital files (or digital negatives) with copyrights released to us

Okay, so not much of a list. That was my absolute requirement. Price range? Well, we were hoping no more than $1,500. A wedding album? For me, it wasn't a deal breaker. The Mister really wants one and, after talking about it, we decided that this was something we could add on later.

Then, I looked for possible candidates. I decided to use The Knot to find photographers in our area, and came up with a lot of results. I combed through them, looking at countless portfolios and packages, and selected those that met my requirement and our price range.

I put everything together in a spreadsheet and sent it to the Mister. The Mister was to go through the list, check out portfolios, select his favorites, and make appointments. Let me say, he did a great job! He even uploaded his edited spreadsheet into Google Docs without any prompting from me. After all these months of me trying to force Google Docs on him for wedding planning, he finally did it all on his own. But I digress. Let's talk about our appointments, as we had quite an interesting experience.

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Appointment with Photography Studio #1

Our first appointment was at 11am, and we found the place easily. We were a little apprehensive of this place because of the $999 price. However, we went in with an open mind and knew that our budget wouldn't allow for a lot of fancy or extra things anyways.

Our consultant was a sweetheart! She was an absolute delight to work with and we hit it off right away! We looked at samples of their photographers' work and it was amazing. The Mister knew what he wanted with photography and, although neither of us knew the terms, she was able to narrow it down to two photographers who would be a perfect fit for us.

The package that they had to offer was extremely attractive. Some of the highlights are: ten hours of coverage, unlimited locations, high-resolution files, portable backdrop for the reception, an in-studio engagement session, and a 20-page album.

They have about ten photographers and, instead of assigning a photographer for us, we selected a photographer based on his work. Our consultant brought us two albums, each album containing the sample work of a photographer. She gave us some time so we could look through both albums and see if we liked what we saw. Let me tell you, we LOVED what we saw! We picked a photographer and we were both really excited.

However, we were not ready to sign the contract. We had another appointment that afternoon and, for my peace of mind, I needed to see what else was out there. The Mister did not want to lose the photographer that we picked, in case we did sign with this studio, so our consultant sweetened the deal. If we filled out the contract {filled out, but not signed}, she would hold the photographer for us for a week. No strings attached, if we decided to go with someone else, there would be no charge. Nothing. So we did! And then, we left for lunch.

Appointment with Photography Studio #2

After lunch, we headed off to our second appointment. We were very excited about our first appointment, but we went into this second one with an open mind. I wanted to see what they had to offer and, if they were a better fit for us, then we would have gone with them.

We were waiting out in their lobby area, just browsing at a wedding magazine, when the consultant came out to greet us. A nice and friendly greeting. We followed her to her office and it just went downhill from there.

As many of you know, when you're planning a wedding, you have to interact with a lot of vendors. We have been interacting with our fair share of vendors, and every single one of them have always been a delight to work with, whether we chose their services or not. Until now...

I'm not sure what happened, I'm not sure what was going on, but I don't think she was thrilled of having us there. She wasn't really friendly, she barely smiled, and she talked to us with a bit of a condescending manner. She wasn't very helpful at all and, when we asked her questions, she would respond almost like we were kids.

I'm not even going to bother to describe what they had to offer as she barely made an effort to sell their services to us. We just wanted to get the hell out of there.

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Impromptu Non-Appointment with Photography Studio #1

After our second appointment, we drove straight back to the first photography studio. We decided to go with them, and were hoping to close the deal that day. We met with our consultant again, and she was such a refreshing delight. Needless to say, we signed the contract and our chosen photographer is officially ours.


How did you find your photographer? Did you have a strategy? Did you have any bad experiences with a wedding vendor?