One of my many woes as I plan my wedding is the response time it takes to hear back from the location and the catering staff. I had wanted to get married at the local zoo carosel room, it’s a beautiful room with hand carved wooden horse and wonderfully painted walls. The down side, it took the events person 4 ½ months to provide me a contract from when I originally requested one. One of my friends stated that she was having the same problem with her facility choice, so naturally I assumed that it would be the case for all wedding locations. I was wrong.
My fiancé found this wonderful building called ‘The Ruins’ located near Alki Beach in Seattle. I requested some pricing information and asked some questions, basically resulting in 4 or 5 emails back and forth and every email was answered the same day. This was also over the Christmas holiday, Dec 23rd to the 26th. That was when I learned that not all locations where the same.
The Zoo makes most their money on everyday admissions, so they aren’t too worked up about ensuring that the facilities are rented after hours as it really isn’t their bread and butter. The Ruins on the other hand makes most their money hosting events and are most likely more liable for when people slip through the cracks as its important income they wouldn’t normally be generating.
Break down of prices I received from the Zoo and pricing estimate I received from the Ruins
Point Defiance Zoo
Facility: $638 ($250 an hour minus 15% for off season)
Fully refundable deposit: $500 ($300 w/out alcohol)
Catering for cocktail reception: ($2325, 75 people) $31 per person (appetizers ($25 per person) and dessert bar ($6 per person), price does not include wedding cake)
Cash Bar: if $350 in sales isn’t met, out of pocket price for bartender $150
Facility rental contract: Price paid in full when signing the contract, the $500 damage deposit due 30 days before the event.
Catering contract: $500 due when contract is signed and payment received in full 20 days before event, final attendant number due then.
Positives: The room is wonderful and a fun location, plus it’s the zoo! The actual rental price of the facility is amazing considering all tables and chars and plain table cloths are provided.
Negatives: The response time from the sales/rental correspondent, 4 ½ months to work up a rental contract is a bit extreme. The price of catering was a bit much for a cocktail like setting I wanted. I had assumed that they would be less then the Ruins, but they where more and dessert had even been priced out separately. $25 a person for a cocktail party seems a bit extreme for the five items I wanted, one of which was fruit. They also still wanted to charge a $3 per person set up fee even though the reception wasn’t going to be sit down. The contract also had listed a $485 service fee, and I still haven’t heard back on what that fee entails. The prices of the open bar, $5.50 for domestic beer and $6 for importuned, was a bit much. The bar pricing reminds me of stadium beer pricing.
The Ruins
Facility: $1300 +$150 (ballroom and bridal room)
Catering for cocktail reception: ($1875, 75 people) ~$25 per person and the wedding cake is included
Open bar: only option available if a bar is desired
Facility rental contract: Room price paid in full when contract is signed.
Catering contract: Half the estimated price of catering needs to be paid about 30 days in advance, the final attendance numbers supplied three days before event, and the remainder of the bill needs to be paid 30 days after the event.
Positives: I love the ballroom and its wonderfully colored theme. They are excellent at responding to emails and answering all your questions. Everything is taken care of by the Ruins, including decorations and flowers, except for the bridal party. The rental information they sent me broke everything down, right to the amount of servers I’d need for my size of group and the hourly wages I’d be responsible to pay for the servers and the bartender. I love the contract and payment schedule at the Ruins, especially the amount of time you have to tell them your final group numbers.
Negatives: Open bar is not going to happen with my friends and family, the bar tab alone would probably cost more then the catering. If you wanted a cake from a specific location it won’t be happening here as everything must be done through the facility including decorations and flowers, except for the bridal party.
So now that I know my fiancé and I don’t want to take out a loan to help pay for the location and catering, and not enough time and extra cash to save up in the amount of time left before the wedding (~5 months), I’ll have to start my search again for a location that would fit our needs and allow for the wedding party to supply the food (since this is what he had wanted to do from the beginning).
I personally didn’t want to do a potluck like event for my wedding, but if we supply all the food, it turns into not quite a potluck (I keep telling myself this) and into more of a hosting party. So I’ve been given a dead line of February 21st to find a new location (he’ll also be looking) or else we’ll need to reschedule the wedding. What fun!
Showing posts with label wedding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wedding. Show all posts
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
New Years Resolutions Starting in December
My New Years resolution is to write every day in the blog. Even if it's only one line. I'll also attempt to review at least one book per week. The only thing unusual about this resolution is I plan on enacting in starting tomorrow December 1st. Why put off a month what you're going to start anyway?
Things have been busy with my lately. I finally have the location for my wedding all figured out and the clothing designed for most of the participants. I have several prospects for my wedding photographers and I found my dress in November. Now I'm just waiting to get the contract back from the location and start working with the caterers. I'm hoping to keep them at the same price, but I think that might be delusional thought right now.
I also got in my first accident, yeay. It was so fun I hope I never get into one again.
Things have been busy with my lately. I finally have the location for my wedding all figured out and the clothing designed for most of the participants. I have several prospects for my wedding photographers and I found my dress in November. Now I'm just waiting to get the contract back from the location and start working with the caterers. I'm hoping to keep them at the same price, but I think that might be delusional thought right now.
I also got in my first accident, yeay. It was so fun I hope I never get into one again.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Napkins, Mugs, Star Trek and Gnomes
Original thought for the title of this blog post "Enough with the planning already and get on with it!", but it doesn't quite go, I'll save it for later :)
So I’m hoping to get some Etsy love soon. I’m in talks with someone who would like napkins printed for her wedding, 400 of them! I’m hoping to get the bid so I can have some other products aside from hair pins listed in my shop. Don’t get me wrong, I love creating the hair products, it’s just that I’d like to expand and mostly practice making products that I’ll be doing seriously later. Not that if I win the bid I won’t complete the items in all seriousness. I’d just like to figure out how everything works when it’s not my project (going on the theory that I won’t be as stressed about it).
At first the statement was I would like a monogram printed on a napkin, and after learning the information, I sent the first set of ideas. (I threw in some simplistic ideas along with one that might be considered gaudy as I wasn’t sure what she was going for)
After indicating that they were a bit to much, even the simplistic ones, I sent the following:
Currently waiting to hear back from her. (I have my fingers crossed)
The last time I came up with an idea, it was the meshing of star trek insignias (non-geeks please avert your eyes) between Vulcan’s and Klingon’s. She liked the idea, but wanted to have their local glass artist make the piece. I was more then happy to part with the art as it was for a wedding topper and I didn’t think that I’d be able to accurately make the icon. I asked for a picture of the final object, but haven’t received one.
I think that I’m going to bid on another set of wedding invites, just need to sketch them first. It’s a Venetian mask theme so I’m thinking I’ll throw in some fleur-de-les and see how it goes. I can’t decide if I want to try putting a fence in the background but that might look funny, not that the loads of floating fleur-de-les wouldn’t. I’ll be sure to post it once I have my crazy idea down in some form or another.
I went to the craft store the other day and ended up picking up two pairs of buttons one in bronze and one is silver that look like old family shields, some feathers in the same warm brown family (different shades), brown and black ribbon and then a huge bushel of flowers in which I have to think of some way to attach the darn things to a head band or large hair clip. The only problem is the question that kept rattling around in my head, do adults still wear stretchy headbands and what color should it be? You see the flower is large, fuchsia with some rich orange colors. It’s a beautiful plant. I just don’t know what to do with it. As for the buttons, I can’t decide if I’m going to go for a head piece or a wrist wrap. I’ll have to go back to the store if that’s the case (which is certainly no problem for me).
I also tried grabbing a few bunches of flowers to see how it would look arranged in a bouquet and I have to say that for a quick ‘how do you do’ it could look pretty phenomenal (personally I’d like to use awesome- as in awe inspiring). If I got them now, at 40% off, I could cut the price in half, so instead of about $50 for flowers (one bridal and two maids), I could get it for about $30. To bad I don’t know what my dress will look like or the exact coolers, plus I think if I made it this early I might just end up throwing them away after getting sick of looking at them for over a year.
As an aside, how can some flavor dink packets taste so delicious while others taste like I’m drinking powder? I recreantly tried a strawberry energy dink flavor packet and it tastes horrible! Since I have a hard time wasting anything, I guess I’m going to have to force it down bit by bit. I’m also hoping that the energy statement printed on the side is true to fact. I could definitely use some.
I didn’t do any unpacking yesterday, but I did manage to get basic staples for the kitchen (yeay) and even pulled out the coffee maker for this morning. I have been dying these last couple of days without coffee, but now the magic elixir is free (relatively speaking) and flowing! Now, I’ll just need to stack up on traveling mugs. I currently only have one as I tend to leave them places.
On the plus side (aside from getting food), the store I went to has basic white plain mugs for 88 cents. With that much blank space, the possibilities are endless! I keep thinking that I’m going to try out some of my Alice prints but perhaps the cups should match my current light green table settings. Maybe I’ll add a bold leaf pattern or perhaps something quarky like a silhouette of a gnome playing in a field of grass. That would be interesting to say the least.
So I’m hoping to get some Etsy love soon. I’m in talks with someone who would like napkins printed for her wedding, 400 of them! I’m hoping to get the bid so I can have some other products aside from hair pins listed in my shop. Don’t get me wrong, I love creating the hair products, it’s just that I’d like to expand and mostly practice making products that I’ll be doing seriously later. Not that if I win the bid I won’t complete the items in all seriousness. I’d just like to figure out how everything works when it’s not my project (going on the theory that I won’t be as stressed about it).
At first the statement was I would like a monogram printed on a napkin, and after learning the information, I sent the first set of ideas. (I threw in some simplistic ideas along with one that might be considered gaudy as I wasn’t sure what she was going for)
After indicating that they were a bit to much, even the simplistic ones, I sent the following:
Currently waiting to hear back from her. (I have my fingers crossed)
The last time I came up with an idea, it was the meshing of star trek insignias (non-geeks please avert your eyes) between Vulcan’s and Klingon’s. She liked the idea, but wanted to have their local glass artist make the piece. I was more then happy to part with the art as it was for a wedding topper and I didn’t think that I’d be able to accurately make the icon. I asked for a picture of the final object, but haven’t received one.
I think that I’m going to bid on another set of wedding invites, just need to sketch them first. It’s a Venetian mask theme so I’m thinking I’ll throw in some fleur-de-les and see how it goes. I can’t decide if I want to try putting a fence in the background but that might look funny, not that the loads of floating fleur-de-les wouldn’t. I’ll be sure to post it once I have my crazy idea down in some form or another.
I went to the craft store the other day and ended up picking up two pairs of buttons one in bronze and one is silver that look like old family shields, some feathers in the same warm brown family (different shades), brown and black ribbon and then a huge bushel of flowers in which I have to think of some way to attach the darn things to a head band or large hair clip. The only problem is the question that kept rattling around in my head, do adults still wear stretchy headbands and what color should it be? You see the flower is large, fuchsia with some rich orange colors. It’s a beautiful plant. I just don’t know what to do with it. As for the buttons, I can’t decide if I’m going to go for a head piece or a wrist wrap. I’ll have to go back to the store if that’s the case (which is certainly no problem for me).
I also tried grabbing a few bunches of flowers to see how it would look arranged in a bouquet and I have to say that for a quick ‘how do you do’ it could look pretty phenomenal (personally I’d like to use awesome- as in awe inspiring). If I got them now, at 40% off, I could cut the price in half, so instead of about $50 for flowers (one bridal and two maids), I could get it for about $30. To bad I don’t know what my dress will look like or the exact coolers, plus I think if I made it this early I might just end up throwing them away after getting sick of looking at them for over a year.
As an aside, how can some flavor dink packets taste so delicious while others taste like I’m drinking powder? I recreantly tried a strawberry energy dink flavor packet and it tastes horrible! Since I have a hard time wasting anything, I guess I’m going to have to force it down bit by bit. I’m also hoping that the energy statement printed on the side is true to fact. I could definitely use some.
I didn’t do any unpacking yesterday, but I did manage to get basic staples for the kitchen (yeay) and even pulled out the coffee maker for this morning. I have been dying these last couple of days without coffee, but now the magic elixir is free (relatively speaking) and flowing! Now, I’ll just need to stack up on traveling mugs. I currently only have one as I tend to leave them places.
On the plus side (aside from getting food), the store I went to has basic white plain mugs for 88 cents. With that much blank space, the possibilities are endless! I keep thinking that I’m going to try out some of my Alice prints but perhaps the cups should match my current light green table settings. Maybe I’ll add a bold leaf pattern or perhaps something quarky like a silhouette of a gnome playing in a field of grass. That would be interesting to say the least.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Pike Place Market, Dragons and Tea Cups
Well this weekend was packed full of many fun activities. Saturday, after an unsuccessful look at apartments, my fiancé and I headed up to Seattle, but not before hitting up a yard sale in which I picked up my first tea set for the wedding. It's a plain white set and came with a tea pot and a milk pourer. After several attempts we finally managed to get it bagged and in the car. Saturday was an unusual day, mostly because it was sunny and partially warm. We parked near the waterfront and meandered down the road, only really making a stop at the Old Curiosity Shop. The mermaid wasn’t hanging from the ceiling, but they still had the mummies, shrunken heads and other weird objects/animals in the back of the room.
Once reaching the end of the storefront portion of the Seattle waterfront, we made our way up a bunch of stairs (reminder: probably need to work out more) and ended up cruising through a portion of Pike Place Market. I had to take this picture, but it should be noted that I was almost left as the rest of the group made their way towards Pike Place Pub and Brewery. Lesson learned: don’t get in the way of people and their beer.
After having a couple of beers, well them not me, we headed towards Capitol Hill and my first experience with a place called Unicorn and the fried Twinkies they sell there. I’ve never had a fried Twinkie before and I think next time I go, I’ll have to tried their fried Snickers. It tasted a bit like a donut and the cream filling inside and melted into a delicious ooze. With the whip cream on the top, it only completed the complex and tasty features of the dessert. If you ever get the chance, I would recommend trying a fried Twinkie.
Sunday was filled with shopping, mostly not for me, and a tarnished serving platter and a painted rabbit for the wedding. We tried apartment shopping again, but most of the locations weren’t open on Sundays. Mike and I went and saw Dreamworks 'How to Train My Dragon' in 3D. It was an excellent movie. The graphics where amazing, one of the dragons acted surprisingly similar to one of my cats and the story line was enjoyable, heartwarming and at times a bit emotional.
Mike new the exact moment I’d start crying, even reaching up and feeling my face to check, jerk. But I got him back, well I guess it would be the other way around. I ate almost all the chocolate I bought except for one piece about a third of the way through the movie. When he declined the second piece I offered him, I finished the bar off and as I placed the last chocolaty morsel in my mouth, he asked for another. Ha ha, too late.Price to tea set consisting of 4 cups, tea pot, suger canister, and milk server, $5
Price of bunny and tarnished serving platter, $3.26
Wedding total so far: $8.26
Friday, March 26, 2010
Wow, my first Blog
This is my first ever blog, yeay! (and its a crazy long one)
There is so much to say and talk about that I hardly know where to begin. I work as an Engineering Liaison at a small aeronautical company, but my life doesn't end there. I fence, I create and I love finding new DIY projects. Currently I'm in the process of planning my wedding, which isn't till May 21st, 2011 (it feels like a long ways away). And I get the challenge of trying to spend about $6,000 on it. Pretty steep and I will say that I do have one cheat; my mother is buying my dress. I heard all those groans out there (which as of right now are in my head), but the dress boutique that I will be getting my dress from doesn't have any dresses over $2,000.
Now why would any reasonable person think that a nice or even gorgeous wedding gown (which they do have) would have a max price of $2,000? Location, location, location. I live in Washington State and if I went shopping for a dress in Seattle or Bellevue I'd be looking at spending $5,000 to $9,000 dollars on the same dress which could cost me $1200 at a Puyallup dress boutique. What I would recommend to anyone looking for a wedding dress is check out wedding boutiques that are further away from largely populated areas and give them a try first. See if there is something there that you like before shutting them out entirely because they aren't in the greatest location.
When I went with my sister to Lady Margret's, we found that the lady's there aren't paid on commission (no hard sells) which made the experience so much better and gave us the pleasurable experience of working with someone who was there to find the best dress for her without pushing the most expensive dress on us.
Another thing to look for is how much alterations cost and the price of bustling, which you may want. Lady Margret's had excellent pricing and since my sister bought her dress during a special feature month, she didn't have to pay to get her dress bustled. Which leads me to another point, be aware of what sales are available or are on the agenda for future months and if you have time, wait for them if they're worth it.
An additional interesting fact I found out while helping my sister look for dresses and looking for my own, is that almost all the wedding dresses, in one form or another, seem to come from China. That's not a bad thing. It just means that in most cases, when you're buying a dress you're paying for designer name, boutique location and how much the owner thinks they can get out of their customers (which is standard business practice).
Another item to be aware of when buying a dress is how transparent the fabric is. I've heard horror stories of how a bride wore blue underwear and you could see it through their dress because of the sheerness of the fabric and they had to shuck the panties and go bare butt through the whole evening. My suggestion for that is when trying on dresses, think of what underwear you’ll probably be wearing at during your wedding. You don’t have to wear it when initially trying on dresses, but if it’s down to a chosen few and you can’t decide come back another day and try the dresses on again, this time wearing underwear you’ll probably be wearing on your wedding day.
At some wedding boutique’s you may also need to buy a slip to go under the dress in order to fill it out. My sisters dress came with one built in and wasn’t an additional cost. This is something to be aware of. Some wedding boutique’s claim they have the lowest prices but when all is said and down with, after alterations, holding fees (which some places have), wedding slips and other miscellaneous items, the dress can cost more then if you had bought a nicer dress at a higher end boutique.
One problem my sister did have was during the final fitting, the owner came in wanting to check out the dress fitting (they had has some problems the last couple of fittings) and noticed that the dress wasn’t sitting right on her. The strapless dress was too high on her chest, causing the waist to sit wrong and the hips of the dress to be too high. After some adjusting, the dress finally sat right and it was discovered that it was a size to small and needed to be taken out. They ended up having the dress widened a ½ inch on either side of her chest then tapering smaller to her waist. A wider zipper was put on and on the wedding day, the dress fit perfectly. Now you ask, why you would want to go back to a wedding boutique where they fitted your sister wrong. I have to say because as soon as the dress was discover to be too small (Monday), it was fixed and picked up on Wednesday and ready for the wedding that Friday. They were fast, the alterations where beautiful and unnoticeable and the price wasn’t outrageous. The important fact is that even though she paid for last minute alterations they didn’t cost her an arm and a leg as some standard dress alteration’s can cost, even without the rush.
So over all, here is the wrap up on dress buying; shop around, visit out of the way locations to try and get the best price; be aware of the overall price of the dress, how much are alterations going to cost, do I need a bustle and what about a slip; check the sheerness of the fabric and most of all, ensure the dress is seated and fitting you right, go up a size and have them take it down if your unsure.
So with those wedding dress shopping facts, I leave you to your shopping! Have fun :)
There is so much to say and talk about that I hardly know where to begin. I work as an Engineering Liaison at a small aeronautical company, but my life doesn't end there. I fence, I create and I love finding new DIY projects. Currently I'm in the process of planning my wedding, which isn't till May 21st, 2011 (it feels like a long ways away). And I get the challenge of trying to spend about $6,000 on it. Pretty steep and I will say that I do have one cheat; my mother is buying my dress. I heard all those groans out there (which as of right now are in my head), but the dress boutique that I will be getting my dress from doesn't have any dresses over $2,000.
Now why would any reasonable person think that a nice or even gorgeous wedding gown (which they do have) would have a max price of $2,000? Location, location, location. I live in Washington State and if I went shopping for a dress in Seattle or Bellevue I'd be looking at spending $5,000 to $9,000 dollars on the same dress which could cost me $1200 at a Puyallup dress boutique. What I would recommend to anyone looking for a wedding dress is check out wedding boutiques that are further away from largely populated areas and give them a try first. See if there is something there that you like before shutting them out entirely because they aren't in the greatest location.
When I went with my sister to Lady Margret's, we found that the lady's there aren't paid on commission (no hard sells) which made the experience so much better and gave us the pleasurable experience of working with someone who was there to find the best dress for her without pushing the most expensive dress on us.
Another thing to look for is how much alterations cost and the price of bustling, which you may want. Lady Margret's had excellent pricing and since my sister bought her dress during a special feature month, she didn't have to pay to get her dress bustled. Which leads me to another point, be aware of what sales are available or are on the agenda for future months and if you have time, wait for them if they're worth it.
An additional interesting fact I found out while helping my sister look for dresses and looking for my own, is that almost all the wedding dresses, in one form or another, seem to come from China. That's not a bad thing. It just means that in most cases, when you're buying a dress you're paying for designer name, boutique location and how much the owner thinks they can get out of their customers (which is standard business practice).
Another item to be aware of when buying a dress is how transparent the fabric is. I've heard horror stories of how a bride wore blue underwear and you could see it through their dress because of the sheerness of the fabric and they had to shuck the panties and go bare butt through the whole evening. My suggestion for that is when trying on dresses, think of what underwear you’ll probably be wearing at during your wedding. You don’t have to wear it when initially trying on dresses, but if it’s down to a chosen few and you can’t decide come back another day and try the dresses on again, this time wearing underwear you’ll probably be wearing on your wedding day.
At some wedding boutique’s you may also need to buy a slip to go under the dress in order to fill it out. My sisters dress came with one built in and wasn’t an additional cost. This is something to be aware of. Some wedding boutique’s claim they have the lowest prices but when all is said and down with, after alterations, holding fees (which some places have), wedding slips and other miscellaneous items, the dress can cost more then if you had bought a nicer dress at a higher end boutique.
One problem my sister did have was during the final fitting, the owner came in wanting to check out the dress fitting (they had has some problems the last couple of fittings) and noticed that the dress wasn’t sitting right on her. The strapless dress was too high on her chest, causing the waist to sit wrong and the hips of the dress to be too high. After some adjusting, the dress finally sat right and it was discovered that it was a size to small and needed to be taken out. They ended up having the dress widened a ½ inch on either side of her chest then tapering smaller to her waist. A wider zipper was put on and on the wedding day, the dress fit perfectly. Now you ask, why you would want to go back to a wedding boutique where they fitted your sister wrong. I have to say because as soon as the dress was discover to be too small (Monday), it was fixed and picked up on Wednesday and ready for the wedding that Friday. They were fast, the alterations where beautiful and unnoticeable and the price wasn’t outrageous. The important fact is that even though she paid for last minute alterations they didn’t cost her an arm and a leg as some standard dress alteration’s can cost, even without the rush.
So over all, here is the wrap up on dress buying; shop around, visit out of the way locations to try and get the best price; be aware of the overall price of the dress, how much are alterations going to cost, do I need a bustle and what about a slip; check the sheerness of the fabric and most of all, ensure the dress is seated and fitting you right, go up a size and have them take it down if your unsure.
So with those wedding dress shopping facts, I leave you to your shopping! Have fun :)
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