Where are we on the wedding? A little annoyed with everyone involved, that's where!

Time for a mini-wedding-planning-rant, perhaps prompted by the make-up artists I referred to in the last post, who think the bride's face is worth charging an extra $100 for vs. a lowly bridesmaid.

Or perhaps prompted by the fact that the wedding is a little over 5 months away, and I haven't gotten much done.

Or perhaps prompted by the fact that the S.O. can't deliver on the one thing I've asked him for (his invite list) has no proactive ideas himself about the wedding, but manages to play devil's advocate on all the ideas I come up with, having yet to actually embrace a single idea. (That is his nature, which he says is merely thoroughly examining any issue...but is quite aggravating when all you really want is some cheerleading!)

So, let's recap:

What's done?

The date
The venue
The Matron of Honor

Where are we on everything else?

The caterer: Caterers are annoying. That's my brilliant insight. They seem generally unresponsive and reluctant to really go the extra mile to make sure you know what you're getting into.

Caterer #1: The beverages will all be catered by the Museum's in-house caterer, so I thought I'd see what their food was like too. They steered me to an open house tasting they were having, rather than a personalized on, assuring me that there would be plenty of vegan options. Well, there were some, but not enough, and the food was really only OK.

Caterer #2: An organically focused caterer in Santa Cruz. Trying to push me just to eat at their cafe to get a sense of their "style." Alternatively at first they said they could plan a sepcific tasting for us, but it would cost $30/person. Given our experience at caterer #1 I wrote back and said we'd be happy to pay that amount, but wondered if they could credit it back should we go with them for the wedding. They replied once again pushing me to go to their cafe or maybe to let them make me a plate from an upcoming event. The specific tasting meal suddenly seemed to be off the table.

Caterer #3: Catered my S.O.'s 40th birthday party and did a really nice job. I've been trying to get a quoet since May 10th. Two emails and a phone call alter, still nothing.

I wanted to choose a caterer by the end of May. It's not going according to plan.

The cake: We have an appointment tomorrow in Soquel at the bakery I think i'd like to use. They make the vegan cake from Whole Foods I love so much. They're making three different cakes (2 vegan and 1 non-vegan) for us to try. I hope this will be a no-brainer.

Cake as centerpiece: I had the idea that instead of using cut, dead flowers as a centerpiece, why not use an individual pretty cake? That way we could order different flavors, which would be fun. And 15 regular cakes would still cost less than a big old wedding cake, I bet. The S.O. seems unenthused, worrying that the cakes won't look good by the end of dinner.

More on the centerpiece: I additionally thought that the individual cakes could be on simple cake stands, and then around the base of the cake stand you could also have a bit of greenery and some autumnal fruits and vegetables: think Eggplant, Plums, Concord grapes, perhaps acorn sqaush...a basic Purple and green palette.

Further to the fruits and veggie, a favor: See, I wasn't planning on having a favor. No one ever keeps them, and they seem like a waste of money and materials. But at the hairdresser yesterday my sister and hairdresser came up with this idea: Give everyone a canvas grocery bag (with our names and the wedding date on them), and then they could take home the centerpiece fruits and vegetables.

The entire scheme above (bag, fruits & veggies, cake) seemed like a great way to combine uses, save money and be green. The S.O. thinks it's too vegan hippy-dippy Northern California. (As if i care if people think that.)

I'm a little frustrated by his luke-warm response.

The officiant: I have a friend who is ordained (via internet), invited, and would love to do it. The S.O. doesn't have any different idea, but can't seem to bring himself to just say "Yes, awesome, invite her to do it."

The wedding bands: I emailed our jeweler, and he said it only takes 2-4 weeks to get plain platinum brands, so we're cool there.

The music: I saw an ad for a mega-iPod-dock by Bose. The S.O. doesn't think it will be powerful enough for the dancing portion of the evening. While I think it would be good enough for the ceremony and dinner, he's probably right there. So we need to rent a more substantial P.A. system, I guess.

The cabaret reception idea: If we do this my brother-in-law has a full size keyboard that is enough like a piano that we likely wouldn't have to try to rent and move in a grand iano or anything. Which is helpful to know. Still not sure we'll do this, but it would be fun.

Invitations and save-the-date: Nothing done. Don't even really have the list.

The dress: Saw a pretty bridesmaid dress at a shop near my hairdresser yesterday. Smoky mauve color. Would want to add sleeves. looked online and found it even cheaper. Here are links to two styles by the same manufacturer that I like. (Imagine them each with long sheer sleeves with perhaps embellishment around the wrist that matched the embellishment around the empire waist on the one style.) Vox is not letting me actually upload the images like I want to, which is also really annoying. The dresses are very economical. I could order both for about $300 plus shipping and just see if I like them. Of course they'll take 4 months to get heere, and they're non-refundable, so maybe i'm crazy.

Other items:

Hotel room block for out-of-towners: Haven't started.
Seat assignmens: I guess I'd need the list first.
Rehearsal dinner: Tons of restaurants in downtown SJ...which is the most vegan-friendly? Well, besides the actual vegan/vegetarian Asian places.

So, I'm not freaking out, not at all. P.S.  next week we'll be T-5 months.

La la la.