Wednesday, 21 April 2010-Adam

It's been a busy couple of weeks. After a few months of doing almost NOTHING related to wedding planning, things are starting to pick up. The big stuff is pretty much all done, but it's been nailing down the finer details, along with the much larger issue of finding a new DJ.

We decided to hire the front-runner from Shellie's last post. After getting e-mail from around thirty DJs, setting up interviews with eight, and actually interviewing six, it came down to him (Dennis) and one other guy. We actually had a pretty hard time deciding between them. We were very comfortable with both of them, they seemed very competent and experienced, prices were reasonable, etc. and we thought that each of them would do a good job for us. In the end, we wound up going with the guy we had been referred to by our videographer. All things being equal, we thought it wise to trust professional judgment, and our videographer has done a dozen or so weddings with our DJ. That's a bonus, not only on the basis of professional judgment, but because we know that the two of them can (and will) work together as far as coordinating the events, etc.

We're very excited, I might add, about our videographer. He was recommended to us by a friend who used him for her wedding. Having seen her wedding video, we were impressed with his work, and decided to meet with him to see if we thought we should hire him ourselves. We had really only toyed around with the idea of having a videographer at all; in some ways, it seemed kind of superfluous, and most of the professional wedding videos I have seen have been pretty low-quality, with bad sound, etc. (on the other hand, my sister Melanie's wedding video was shot with a Handi-Cam and is amazingly good, especially considering who shot it). Tom's work doesn't seem low quality at all, and we talked it over and decided that we would rather look back and say "I guess we didn't really need a videographer" than look back and say "I wish we had one good video recording of our wedding ceremony." When we met with him, we were immediately as comfortable with him as we were with Peter, our still photographer, so we decided "What the hell, let's go for it." It helped that he gave us a pretty healthy discount, of course, for having been referred by a previous customer. Tom is the one who recommended Dennis, our DJ, to us, and he had fantastic things to say about him, so when we finished interviewing all of the DJs, and it came down to Dennis and one other guy, we allowed Tom's recommendation to tip the scale in Dennis' favor.

We've also met with our florist (The Blossom Boys) twice now, once for an initial meeting, a second time to tweak the proposal. It's great to be so completely enamored with yet ANOTHER of our wedding vendors. Shellie and I could probably spend all day with those two, discussing/debating/gossiping, etc. It may seem foolhardy, but I don't mind telling you that they're the only florist we've met with and the only ones we're going to meet with; we're just so comfortable with them, and they're both so helpful and accommodating, it seems foolish for us to look elsewhere when they're exactly what we were looking for. Plus, the fact (for me, at least) that they're in the storefront where I purchased all of my prom/dance corsages, Chris and Betsy bought their wedding flowers, from them, etc. is a cool little sentimental benefit for me.

So the hall... we went there this past weekend and met with Steve. I don't think we really got anywhere with him regarding the tasting (he suggested we go try a bunch of different things in high-end restaurants to come up with what we wanted to eat), neither of us decided that it was important enough or worth it to push the issue. We picked one dish we want to try, got the tasting set up for June, and if we don't like the dish we taste, then we'll go with something different. For now, we decided on our chair covers, napkins, head table arrangement, got the floor plan, and nailed down our appetizers, soup, salad, dressings, ice cream, etc. as well as getting the owner to add five cases of Old Style to the bar package. That way, everyone (including me) should be happy with the beer selection. We have to narrow down what else we get (liquor-wise) but that part is taken care of.

I think, now, we can honestly say that we are just getting down to details; choosing bridesmaid/groomsman gifts, centerpieces (with which Shellie's Aunt Dawn has so graciously volunteered to help us), etc. I'm very happy that the big stuff seems to be taken care of, because that means we can minimize the stress level of the next five months.