My friend Tara is getting married next month, and I am so excited to see her and her fiance tie the knot! My best friend of 20 years and former-roommate of six years, Sally, is recently engaged as well! She is geting married in May 2012. Two of my lovely law school ladies, Katie and Megan, also got engaged to their long-time loves this year. Last, but certainly not least, my cousin, Francie, is getting married in July! I hope that I will be able to make it to her big day down in Mississippi, but she is getting married three days before the bar exam. Whether or not I make it, I know that she will be a beautiful bride, and I will be there in spirit!
So, in light of all of the recent and upcoming marriages and engagements of my friends and family members, I figured I would post some of the details of my wedding in case they may help in the planning process! Here it goes :)
The Venue
We got married at the Charleston Women's Club on Virginia Street in Charleston, WV. I chose this venue because I loved the clean canvas that the wooden floors provide! I also wanted to hold our ceremony and reception at the same location, as Jason and I don't currently belong to any church. I highly recommend the Women's Club for the following reasons:
The price is extremely reasonable. We had the building to ourselves from the Thursday afternoon before the wedding until Sunday afternoon after the wedding, and we also held our rehearsal dinner there. The total venue cost was only $1,000!!
Most importantly, you can use whatever caterer you want. This was important to me, because I didn't want to be tied down to one particular caterer.
Beer and wine = fine! We could also have had liquor, but I decided against that. For one, we would have had to have paid a bartender. Secondly, the bar bill would have been way more expensive. Finally, people got drunk enough off of the open bar of beer and wine - I didn't want anyone puking on my wedding dress!
The Women's Club also had decent-looking silverware, plates, and glassware that we were permitted to use.
Drawbacks - I was not a huge fan of the curtains or the big green curtain on the stage; however, I was so pleased with the tables and chair covers that I didn't really notice! We rented the tables and chair covers, but I can't remember where from. I literally just googled "chair covers for rent."
Here are some pictures of the venue on the big day!
Hair
I get my hair done by Anthony at Nico Spalon in Morgantown, WV. Anthony has been doing my hair for about five years now. I do not trust anyone else with my hair! He was kind enough to come down from Morgantown to do my hair, and all of my bridesmaids' hair, for the big day. Because I was living in Charleston over the summer, we didn't really have an opportunity to do a run-through before the "actual" 'do. He nailed it. He also came to my hotel room, which I was sharing with one of my maids of honor, and touched up my highlights and trimmed my bangs at 10:30 p.m. the night before the wedding.
Makeup
My makeup was done by the lovely and talented Ms. Sarah Franklin, who works at 712 Salon in Charleston. She came to the Women's Club, which was a huge help for me. All but one of my bridesmaids opted to do their own makeup, so it was really great of her to still come to me instead of making me drive across town in the 96 degree heat! I don't usually wear a lot of makeup - most of what I put on my face consists of pre-makeup products. I had also never worn fake lashes, so I was kind of terrified when she suggested them. My concerns were unwarranted, because she took my personality and style into account, and she did an amazing job! My makeup stayed on through hours of sweating, ha!
The Dress
The dress . . . oh my. I am sure that many of you have heard about my wedding dress disaster, but in case you didn't, here is the short version. The day after my grandma (Gig) passed away, I went to David's Bridal for my final fitting. This was about two and a half weeks before my wedding. I realized at the final fitting that they had butchered my dress in alterations. They swore that they would fix it, and worked on it for another couple of days. When I went in for the final, final fitting, the dress still wasn't fixed. I was two weeks away from my wedding date with no dress. Having just lost my Gig, I had bigger things to worry about, so I kept my cool. I didn't yell. I didn't cry. I didn't panic. I just asked if I could pick out another dress and just pay the difference if the new dress was more expensive than my old one. I picked the dress that I got married in off the rack that night, had a bustle put on, and married the love of my life in it. Turns out, I loved the new dress so much more than I liked the first one. It was perfect. Both dresses were from David's Bridal, and David's Bridal's alterations department was the culprit responsible for the demise of the first dress. With that being said, David's was extremely accommodating, let me exchange dresses, let me trade in my veil for a new one (even though I didn't have a receipt), and rushed the alteration to add the bustle.
The Cake
I got my cake from a local business called A Piece of Cake, which is a local bakery owned and operated by a woman named Angie Young. The bakery is built off the side of her house. I hear the cake was good, and the bit that I got to taste when cake-shopping was amazing. Unfortunately, I didn't get more than the bite used for the photo op on my wedding day. Hopefully it is just as delicious on our one-year anniversary!
The Food
The wonderful Robin of Joe's Fish Market did our food. We told him that we wanted heavy hors d'oeuvres. I didn't want to do a sit-down dinner because I felt like it would take too much time away from dancing and mingling. I also liked that the hors d'oeuvres option allowed people to eat a bunch of different things. Again, I hear the food was amazing! It sure looked good! Unfortunately, due to socializing with our guests, which was extremely important to us, I only ate a spoonful of crap dip, one scallop, and half of a mini-crab cake. The caterer was extremely reasonably priced, and they did an amazing job with the presentation. They also provided extremely helpful servers and bartenders, and they were responsible for all of the set-up and clean-up. I think this food looks beautiful, and my family loves taking pictures of food for some reason, so enjoy!
Flowers
We did as little live flowers as possible, because I feel like they are just too expensive and kind of a waste of money. It just made me nauseous thinking about my parents spending all of that money for flowers that would die within a few days. The only live flowers we had at the wedding were my bouquet, my bridesmaids' bouquets (5), the boutonnieres for the men, and single calla lilies for moms and grandmothers. Even then, flowers were over $1,000. Morris Floral did the bouquets, and I loved them!
The DJ
At the advice of my friend, Megan, we hired Bill Shahan to DJ our wedding. He did a great job, and was really accommodating to our requests - and to our guests who decided to take the mic and do a little karaoke show for everyone!
The Photographer
Last but not least, all of the beautiful pictures that I have posted in this post were taken by the wonderful and talented Will and Dana Price of Price Portraits in South Charleston. They were amazing and SO helpful. They stayed longer than we could have asked, and they were so helpful as far as telling us when we were supposed to be doing what (It's time to do table shots with your guests, It's time to cut the cake, this is how you do it . . .). I am so in love with all of my pictures!
One of the coolest things at our wedding was the photo booth! That was also courtesy of Price Portraits. It allowed our guests to take unlimited photos, and it printed out one copy for the people in the photo booth, and I got a copy later. There are so many hilarious pictures from that photo booth - it was totally worth the cost!
Clearly, I like black & white photos.
Well, happy wedding planning, friends!!
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