45 posts tagged “wedding” (page 2)

Center+piece+side+detail

Here's the web site for the florist my catering contact recommended who works with produce. with only ONE picture that gives an example of such work, it's not much to go on.

I left a message quite late yesterday. Let's see if this guy can be a little bit more responsive than Whole Foods.

The picture on the left is definitely beautiful, fresh...I don't even feel the eed for the orchids though. Throw in some red or purple grapes and apples for contrast, and you are good to go!

Well, the Campbell Whole Foods produce manager seems to have completely flaked, never getting back to me with a final estimate,

Then this week, to add insult to injury, I heard tell of another bride who used good old produce in her centerpieces. Although she melded flowers and produce. I'm thinking just produce.

Our caterer gave me the contact info for a florist she knows who works with fruits and veggies. I'll call him next, but you just know that's gotta be more pricy than working with Whole Foods. And what of the grocery bags?

Sigh.

My sister and I got our hair cut yesterday. We've been going to the same guy for 15 years, ,and ew usually go on the same afternoon.

There happens to be a bridal shop in the mall where our hair salon is, so we were looking in the window a bit.

Basically we decided my sister can buy any dress she wants, in either the darker purple or platinum color range. There was a pretty platinum cocktail dress in the window, which I pointed out. She was concerned it had too many beads and embellishments...and din't want to have more than my dress did.

I actually don't care. It's funny, since I'm a former, or shall I say occasional, performer, but this doesn't seem like a performance where someone might ham it up and upstage me. Seriously, if a long dress, flashy ring and a handsome groom can't keep the spotlight on me, then my bad :)

I ate light yesterday, knowing that a full-on onslaught of food was coming. A real tasting, not some open house with a handful of options for me to try, and not some "stop by our cafe and try the hummus, that'll give you an idea of whether you want to spend thousands of dollars with us" approach.

Last night we went to Restaurant O in Campbell and had a real feast, especially prepared just for us. We spent two hours there trying 5 appetizers, 3 salads, 2 soups and 4 entrees. And they sent us home with all of the leftovers. For this they charged $100 for four people.

Everything was amazingly yummy, and where we had misgivings we discussed how to dial back this spice, amp us this flavor, basically fine-tuning the menu to our liking.

Needless to say, we told them we were choosing them right on the spot. Hopefully I'll get a revised proposal today and have one more (and let's face it, probably the biggest) item cross off the list.

So, you're probably wondering: are my mom and fiance on board with a 100% vegan menu after this tasting? That's another post.

Breakfast:
Shredded oats cereal
Rice Milk
Coffee
Soy Creamer

Lunch:
White Rice
Nutritional Yeast and Seitan

Dinner (Restaurant O):
Artichoke Pate and Eggplant Caviar on Toast
Vegetarian Spring Roll
Spicy Vegetable "Sushi"
Red Pepper and Hummus Cocktails with Pita Crisps
Stuffed Mushrooms
Heirloom Beet Salad
Pear/Walnut Salad
Spinach and Squash Salad
Apple, Acorn Squash Soup
Spicy Pumpkin Corn Chowder
Seared Tofu with Heirloom Beet Reduction
Shitake-Eggplant Cakes with Polenta
Spicy Curried Vegetable Skewers
Mushroom Sundried Tomato Risotto

I'm stuffed just typing all the food choices!

OK, I'm freaking out.

On June 1st I ordered two dresses from HouseofBrides.com

I was supposed to receive an email within "7 to 10 business days" confirming the order and the designer's proposed delivery date.

Never got that confirmation email.

Started trying to call their order status line (a toll call) on Saturday. That number roll overs to their 800-number, which is theoretically NOT for checking about orders.

You can hold and hold and hold, but you will never get a live person to answer the phone on the 800 number. I emailed their support email address. Nothing. I left a message on that 800 number. No call back.

They've charged me, and I have no confirmation I'm ever getting anything. And I can't get through to anyone to check on it.

Totally panic-inducing.

I guess I could just cancel via my credit card company, huh? But then I'd be starting all over. Which it sounds like I'll be doing anyway, huh?

ARRRRGGGGGH.

Bastahds!!

Actually sat down with the S.O. and discussed some wedding stuff. Made progress, so that feels good.

Cake: Decided on our cake flavor and set-up arrangement. Decided to go with the flow and scratch the idea of a cake  table as a centerpiece, and instead go for a cascade of cakes at a main table. One small-sized tiered "wedding cake" for the cake-cutting tradition, and then a series of round cakes on different height stands, so we can feature more than one flavor. I discovered that the S.O. wants it to look special. He keeps encouraging me to think about what I want, no how much various options cost...and I keep trying to explain to him that I don't think we're in a position financially to not think about the economics. This, of course, exposes our different attitudes towards money, which we were already aware of.

The S.O. brought up the point that if we feature a bunch of smaller cakes with a bunch of different flavors we increase the probability that guests won't get a slice of the flavor they were hoping for. So I agreed that we'd feature two flavors: White cake with Strawberries and the bakery's special "Dahlia" cake (which is layer of chocolate and white cake, filled with alternating fillings of chocolate and coconut frosting.)

Actions: I need to place a call to the bakery lade on Monday just to get re-educate on how many cakes we need to order at what sizes and cost to serve our guests adequately.

Catering: Finally got the proposal and tasting information from the restaurant down the street who catered the S.O.'s 40th birthday party. It sounds delicious and not really any more expensive than any of our other quotes. We're going to schedule a tasting this week, and hopefully pull the trigger.

Actions: I need to schedule the tasting, and I need to call the facility and find out what furniture and supplies they provide. I think the Museum provides tables and chairs, so that won't have to come from the caterer. I don't know if they have tablecloths though, for example.

The Invite list: Finally got the S.O. to at least go over the name, if not provide all the addresses I need. He still owes me about half a dozen names from his mom's side of the family. But at least we have a good idea that my target number of 150 guests is not to wildly conservative. Even if I invited pretty much everyone it would be reasonable to invite (I just think it's weird to invite people you haven't been in contact with for years, don't you?) if you account for normal negative RSVPs and attrition, I think 150 may be a tiny bit conservative, but we probably wouldn't hit 200 no matter what. So using 150 for getting quotes and signing contracts is perfect, and we can always up it by a small number if we need to.

So, feeling a little better that I'm making progress.

Well, actually they're both bridesmaid dresses, and between the two of them it cost less than $350 before shipping. And no, I haven't tried them on anywhere else before doing that wacky online ordering thing. I'm just an impulsive WTF kinda gal.

Here they are, shown in the color ordered:

Style2039

Style1969

My plan with the one of the left would be to add sheer sleeves, and probably some detailing around the wrist to match the detailing at the empire waist, which you can't see, but is very pretty silver and crystal beading.

The one on the right I might actually use the fabric from the overcoat to make the sleeves and leave off the jacket part.

Remember back in this post when I laid out the status of my wedding planning...and lamented?

Yesterday, the S.O., my mom and step-dad and I took a drive over the hill into Santa Cruz to do a cake tasting and to give caterer #2 the benefit of the doubt and visit their cafe to get a sense of their culinary "style."

One home-run and one strike-out.

Home-run: Now, I hadn't really looked into any other bakery than Black China Bakery in Santa Cruz. They're the ones who make the vegan cakes I buy from Whole Foods, and I knew I wanted them to get the business. The trick was in figuring out if we could go all-vegan as I hoped. we tried three different cake varieties, 2 all-vegan and 1 non-vegan. As luck would have it, everyone like the vegan cakes better! So now we just have to decide how we're serving the cake...cake per table? Cascading set of differently-sized cakes? (We like the idea of multiple cakes and multiple flavors.) The price seems reasonable, particularly if we go with their standard rosette decorations and then use flowers to embellish the presentation.

Strike-out: I was already annoyed with caterer #2. While they were the best philosophical fit, being focused on organic, local, season foods and green business practices, they were also the ones who weren't exactly going out of their way to get our business. After throwing out an option to cook us a specific meal for $30/person, they kindof took it back when I bit on the idea and stuck with their first two suggestions: "Just stop by our cafe to get a sense of our style" or "let me make you up a plate the next time we cater a vegetarian event."

So, given we were already in Santa Cruz we decided to stop by their cafe on our way out of town. The cafe was really a glorified sandwich shop, albeit with fancier ingredients, but there was no place for four people to sit indoors (and it was still foggy and chilly.) But beyond all that, my exact concern  was borne out, as they had only ONE vegan item on their entire (limited) menu, and that was hummus.

What a frikkin' waste of time. We headed back to Los Gatos and had some lunch here. After all the sugar shock of a cake tasting it was good to eat some "real" food :)

Breakfast:
Puffins Cereal
Rice Milk
Organic Banana

Snack:
Wedding cake tasting at Black China Bakery

Lunch (Los Gatos Brewing Company):
Diet Coke
Sourdough Bread
Vegetable Pizza (no cheese)
Jasmine Rice and Tamarind Sweet Potatoes and Fennel
French Fries

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.