Lights, Camera, ACTION....

This post has 3 parts 1. advice 2. frustration 3. resolution...first i shall start off with the advice section. ALWAYS read your contract--and not only that ASK questions. I don't care if you think it's a redundant question--ask ask ASK. When FI and I got engaged last August ( ahh it's almost been a year!) In true wedding fashion, we started looking at venues the next day. Knowing that we wanted a September wedding, and Knowing that venues booked a year or more in advance, we wanted to make sure that we found a venue that fit our requirements. We found that in the Galleria. Upon talking with our contact, almost a year ago now, I asked if lighting was included , she informed me that yes it was. Than a couple months later the parents came out, we met with her again--at this point I had already become a wedding blog reader, and had a little better knowledge of what lighting meant. I asked "could we do up-lighting/pin spotting lighting"--at which she replied yes. A couple months later she quit and another lady took her place. Fast Forward to about a month ago, when Mama Alexandria was visiting, and she SMARTLY insisted on re-checking our venue. While talking with our new coordinator, we re-asked the lighting questions..to be told yes, we COULD do all of this--but that the Galleria doesn't provide it. The galleria provides 7 spot lights and all the lighting to be either on or off. You can put the spot lights wherever you want, but there is no custom gobo or colored gels, also you couldn't pin point/or up lighting. This is where part 2 frustration kicks in. If Lighting cost an extra hundred or so dollars, than it wouldn't be that big of a deal--but here we were with less than two months to the big day and nobody for our lighting and we didn't have the extra money in our budget.

Now just to give you an idea of our space here is a picture I got from here :


As you can see it is an open space, and when it is light out there is plenty of light, however once it is dark the lighting can make or break the space.

After much research and angst I talked with a couple of highly talented lighting vendors. We ended up going with Sparky and Atmosphere Lighting




^ This is just an example of what he can do at the galleria--ours will be much lighter hues--but I feel this shows how the space can be transformed
we are going for more something along the lines of





So our lighting drama came to an end--We have decided to do some soft up lighting on all the pillars, and perhaps add some pin-spotting, but we aren't sure if we can budget that right now. I feel very confident in Sparkys work, and am excited to work with him. Unfortunately this probably means I won't get to have my photo-booth :( But I just feel that lighting is that important. Anybody else have any lighting issues?

Etsy, How Do I Love Thee?

Today is officially 13 months from my wedding day.  Yikes!  I've been kind of chilled out about my wedding plans because I've always thought, "Hey, I've got more than a year to go!  I don't need to make any decisions!"  That time is rapidly coming to an end--I've got to start putting myself on a timeline.  

Because we're getting married next Labor Day weekend, Mr. C-Ville and I decided we'd send out the save-the-dates a year in advance.  I know it sounds crazy, but at least six of our guests have changed their plans already because of our wedding, so we thought we'd just save the rest of our guests the hassle and let them know the date.  We've also got to write the wedding website--Mr. C-Ville is furiously coding and I am furiously writing wedding copy.  I want to have the website live by the time the save-the-dates go out.

For our wedding, I'd really like to have as many handmade things as possible.  The trouble is I'm not really a DIYer, unlike the amazing Miss Alexandria.  If I tried to use a Gocco, I'd probably knock out my own tooth.

That's where Etsy comes in.  Etsy's like crack.  First of all, if you haven't checked out Etsy Wedding, you should.  There's all sorts of amazing inspiration there.  Unfortunately, I've found so many things that I have to have, only to scold myself sternly for driving up the budget so much.  

I'm really impressed with the stationers on Etsy, and they make it so easy.  And they're so reasonable!  For our invitations, we'll be going with arripke, who does a custom wedding invitation package of invites and RSVPs plus any three other items.  Here's a sample of her work:

We're getting our save-the-dates from another seller, Cheerupcherup, just because I loved the design so much.  I'll post a picture of them when they actually come in, but here's another fantastic design of hers:

Every time I go on Etsy I find something else that's beautiful and perfect for what I want to do.  And so far, doing business on Etsy has been really easy.  

If You Could Get Married Anywhere...

I promise I'm not having second thoughts.  I love Clifton Inn as my wedding venue and I'm excited to get married there.

But I just found out that the Torpedo Factory is available for weddings.  Some of my happiest childhood memories were when my parents would take me to Old Town Alexandria for the day. We'd walk down King Street, do a little shopping, and invariably end up at the Torpedo Factory to look at all the artists doing their work and take a look at the Potomac River--and we'd always have dinner at Chadwick's. Wouldn't it be great to get married in a place you grew up loving?  Besides, look how gorgeous it is!

That said, though, I've always wanted a rustic wedding in a garden, and you can't really do that at the Torpedo Factory.  It's a bit modern and industrial for what I'd want my wedding to look like.  So that's why it would always be a great second choice.  (Plus I don't even want to think about how expensive it might be.)

Do you have any great second choices?  Were there other places you might have liked to get married?  

Miss Capitol Hill Wedding Recap - The Getaway

Because we were staying at the same Inn where we were having our reception, we weren't going to have an end-of-evening getaway, but I love the idea of getaways so we had one from the church to the reception.  

I have to say that I LOVED LOVED LOVED our streamer throws that we used for our grand exit.  They were so much fun for us and for our guests. All the testing I did trying to decide between paper vs. mylar, colored vs. monochome, and Favors You Keep vs. Aerotechnic paid off. 

The multicolored, mylar streamerthrows from Aerotechnic were awesome and made for some really great pictures ...just as I had hoped!  And the best part: b/c they stay attached to each person's hand it makes clean-up super easy...just gather the plastic pods and throw away. 

All photos below the work of Linda Wallace

^Everyone lined up as we got ready to head for the car

^Streamers Away!!!

^It actually started to get difficult to move through all the streamers!

^And we only had streamer throws for about half the guests...imagine if we had one per person!

^It even looks great in black and white!

^Finally we make it to the car

^But the streamers are still attached!

^O.k. now we are streamer free and ready to take off

^This picture is awesome...it's Husband and I in one of the side mirrors 

^And we're off!

To be 100% honest as much fun as our getaway was it didn't go 100% according to plan. I wanted the streamer throws thrown in the church as we walked down the aisle. And despite communicating that over and over again with our coordinator, that message did not get to our guests.  Just another example of one of those things that the bride realizes is wrong and no one else does.  Although Husband and I did have slightly confused looks on our faces when we walked down the aisle and no one threw anything, in the end...it worked out. 

Next up: The Reception!

Vendors So Far:

Video- Monachetti

Photography - Linda Wallace

Hair/Makeup- Daphne Latham

Dress Designer - Vwidon

Dress Salon - Promise for the Savvy Bride

Shoes - Vera Wang new from Ebay

Bracelet- Carolee

Veil- Occansey Design

Purse - Belk

Hair Flower - Ella's Alley

Flowers - Blue Ridge Floral

Suits- Men's Wearhouse

Ties - Wild Ties

Socks - The Gap

Bridesmaid Dresses - Maggy London from Nordstrom

Flower Girl Dress- Rare Editions from Dillards

Sportscar - Sports Car Rental

Reception/Accommodations - The Clifton Inn

Getaway Streamerthrows - Aerotechnic

Miss Capitol Hill Wedding Recap - The Ceremony

Now it's time for the ceremony - 

All photos below the work of Linda Wallace 

^We began with the reading of i carry your heart with me 

^In case you are wondering this is the look a bride gives when someone walks in late during the first reading 

^But the groom is paying attention!

^Ok, I'm paying attention now too. Both fiance and I got a little teary during this reading 

^Pastor Garth says a few words about why we are there 

^Time for more readings - I loved that our readers stood up where they were sitting to read. The church was small enough that everyone could hear, so they didn't need to be at the front with a microphone. 

^I like this shot of my dress and veil 

^Once the readings were done we moved up onto the alter to do our vows and the ring exchange. Fiance was crying when he said his vows which I think got everyone choked up. 

^Fiance putting my ring on my hand

^This is me putting his ring on.  He has huge knuckles so I really had to force it on...it was pretty funny as you can tell from the looks on our faces. 

^Our guests were snapping away 

^The Kiss

^Fiance wiping his nose after the kiss... no one ever thinks that the groom might get emotional and need handkerchiefs so we weren't prepared with any tissues! 

^It's official!

^Coming down the aisle 

^Outside the chapel

^Now we turned to greet our guests and get all the well wishes 

^Needless to say people were happy! 

^There were lots of hugs and kisses all around

Next up...the getaway! 

Are you Female? Do you Blog?

If you're reading this the answer to the first one is probably yes for about 99% of readers. And considering how popular wedding blogging has become in the last couple years it's probably at least 50% if not more for the second.

Today I ran across two really interesting articles about the same thing. Ostensibly it was about a conference that was held in NY for women bloggers. I was really amazed, though, at the different way this story was covered by two different publications. The first was from the BBC -

1) The Power of Female Blogging - I came across this article first and after reading it I felt really proud. The article talked about what a powerful force women had become in the blogging world and how companies that ignore the power of the female blogging voice were doing themselves a disservice.
I know from my own experience with wedding blogs that one good/bad blog write-up can make or break a vendor. Or suddenly someone discovers a new product/shoe/dress/accessory and it gets sold out. It's amazing the marketing power of the blog! The article said that 64% of the audience for one female blogging network had bought a product they had seen blogged. And personally I look to blogs for reviews of all types of vendors and products before I buy.
The article went on to discuss issues many female bloggers face...how to get more traffic and turn your blog into something that makes money for you without selling out to corporate interest.


But the second article from the New York Times had a different view


2) Blogging's Glass Ceiling - The beginning of this article was all about how women feel they aren't taken seriously in the Blog world, how men who blog gain more fame/notoriety (especially for political blogging) then women, and how women often get more hostility from Blog readers then men. In general how there is a glass ceiling for Blogging. FINALLY towards the end the article
went into the same issues as the first.

Since wedding blogging is pretty much a female dominated arena I can honestly say I haven't really felt the "glass ceiling" of blogging. And in general many of the blogs I read are female dominated - design, fashion, home, shopping etc. (gee I guess I'm pretty stereotypical). Maybe if I read some more political blogs or more tech blogs I might see it?

So I figured I'd do a little polling to see what you guys think! What do you think about the role of female bloggers and how powerful is the blogging voice when it comes to deciding what you buy?

Who Should You Invite to Your Wedding...

Since sending out the Invitations a Week ago, we have received about 20 responses, totalling in 34 people so far that are coming, and 8 people that unfortunately won't be able to make it. So far we haven't had two many surprises, however there have been a couple where we are pleasantly surprised that they are coming. Even though FI tries to pretend to be a "scrooge" a la Ebenezer--




acting "excited" when we get a decline--since we did go over our limit with the invitations. I know it's just an act , and even he has admitted that he is glad that we got to invite everyone that we care about to participate in our big day.

With that in mind, when browsing CNN today , I came across this article "Should you be invited to my wedding" -This article has a quiz for couples to take to see if there friends/people they are inviting to the wedding should "make the cut".

The Ten Questions are below:

1) Name the city I'm living in now (Good one to weed folks out, especially if you have moved a lot. Don't use this if you've lived in the same place for 10 years).
2) Name at least two of my closest friends.
3) Name my current employer and my past employer (Again, if you've remained in the same job for 15 years, this does not apply).
4) Do I have any kids?
5) Do you know the name of my fiance? Bonus question: Where and when did we meet?
6) Do you know where my parents are and whether they are still alive? (Imagine a friend at your wedding asking how long have your parents been married when they divorced years ago).
7) Name at least two of my hobbies.
8) How old am I? (My favorite is when family friends would query, 'Are you 28 now?" Imagine their surprise when I proclaimed, 'yeah, 10 years ago!')
9) Where did I go to college? (Some people might not remember whether you attended college or even graduated.)
10) Name my last boyfriend before this engagement. Bonus question: if you can name the last two and why we broke up. If you get the bonus question right, that might automatically get you in.

--So how did you do? Do you think these are fair questions, could all your guests have answered these? FI and I feel that there are a few very good questions, however some of them would be hard for our parents friends to answer--and since we allowed each set of parents to invite 20 people, those would probably be the only ones would would have trouble. Personally, I don't think a quiz is necessary it is each couples personal decision, but the quiz is an interesting way to look at it!