Cute idea

I found this article on the Wall Street Journal, and I thought it was an interesting idea, especially for couples with fond memories of a summer camp from their childhood or teenage years: Sleep-Away Camp Weddings

Chinese Labor Shortage

I just got this letter from the shop I bought my dress from, and I thought I should share it:

You are probably wondering how problems in China can possibly affect your wedding plans. Well, if you have ordered your gown and it's running late, YOU ARE AFFECTED. If you are waiting to order until closer to your wedding date, YOU WILL BE AFFECTED. I hate to break it to you this way - but almost ALL bridal gowns and fabrics are produced in China. The companies may be based in the US, but the gowns are not made here.

Due to a combination of factors (labor shortages, workers demanding higher pay / better working conditions and stricter scrutiny at US Customs) gowns are running behind from most manufacturers. In fact, these companies are no longer accepting RUSH orders for gowns.

If you are waiting to order until closer to your wedding, you will have longer delivery times and most importantly your gown is going to cost more. We are beginning to receive letters from our manufacturers stating the price of goods out of China are going to increase 20 - 30% as soon as August 1st.

Weddings are stressful enough . . . don't delay in ordering your gown. There is no need for you to pay more or be needlessly worried about its delivery. I've included some links to articles regarding the situation in China.

Chinese Labor Shortages, US Problems

Denying Global Slump, China Has Labor Shortage

Companies Brace for End of Cheap Made-in-China Era

If it weren't for the articles, I'd think they were trying to scam brides, but this makes sense, so if you are in the market for a dress, you may want to order it a little early.

Bridesmaid Dresses!

Hey everyone,

My sister and I came to a quick decision once she tried on the right dress. We have decided to go with Alfred Sung dresses, made by the Dessy Group. Each bridesmaid gets to choose between the following 8 dresses, in peau de soie fabric (which I have found is just a fancy name for duchess satin). The color will be daffodil.



The store we went to, Demetrios (located in Troy, MI), offered us a 15% discount if we ordered all the dresses through them, even though each bridesmaid will order a different dress. This is pretty common but not necessarily a given--I called Konja's Bridal in Berkley, MI, which also carries the Alfred Sung line, and they only offer a volume discount on dresses over $200 (which these are not). The annoying thing about Demetrios--and I should have watched out for this--was that Kaleen, the saleslady, said she could only hold the discount open for five days--I had to pay for my sister's dress in order to reserve the discount for everyone else.

Here are the prices we got, for your reference:

Style # D434--originally $175, with 15% off is $148.75
Style # D435--originally $180, with 15% off is $153.00
Style # D436--originally $180, with 15% off is $153.00
Style # D437--originally $185, with 15% off is $157.25
Style # D438--originally $185, with 15% off is $157.25
Style # D439--originally $185, with 15% off is $157.25
Style # D440--originally $190, with 15% off is $161.50
Style # D441--originally $190, with 15% off is $161.50

Feedback from my ladies has been pretty positive, although one has mentioned that she had to make appointments at five stores to try on all the dresses, which I didn't anticipate. Hopefully the benefits of having so many choices outweigh the disadvantages.

Holiday Inn-oying

Has it ever taken you a half hour to make a hotel reservation? Jesse's wedding is coming up this August, and he and his fiancee blocked a group of rooms for their guests at a Holiday Inn, where their reception is. I think that's great--it will be so nice for out-of-town guests like me to just go upstairs after the reception. No one has to worry about drinking too much. No one has to worry about getting lost in a strange city.

However, the phone number Holiday Inn says to call to make reservations (1-800-465-4329) is, I am pretty sure, a call center in India.

I'm ok with that. Usually it does not make a difference to me. But they must have trained these people to keep you on the phone as long as possible. The lady I talked to insisted on reading me the details of the hotel and signing me up for their Rewards Points program (it was free), and after I booked the reservation, I got tricked into listening to a promotion for a $199 vacation at Disney World.

The real problem was that, since the wedding group rate was only available for the night of the wedding, they had me book two separate reservations--one for each night. It was absurd. I don't want to worry about having to change rooms and I want to have to re-check-in. Plus, they had the non-wedding group rate at $119/night. Online, it's $87. I pointed this out, and the lady dropped it down to $99/night. I agreed to that at the time, because I was in a hurry to get somewhere.

This morning, though, I decided to call the actual hotel in Nebraska, cancel my reservations, and redo it online. I pressed the button "2" to be connected with reservations and...it sent me back to India. This time I explained how frustrated I was, and said I wanted to redo my reservations. The guy I spoke to said that the $87 was the "nonrefundable advance purchase rate," meaning they would charge my credit card now (instead of after we checked out) and I can't back out and get a refund. I said that was fine, and he canceled the Friday night reservation and edited my previous reservation to cover both nights at the $87/night rate.

Lesson learned? I don't know. I think you want to try to book with the group rate if you can, because I think the bride and groom get some kind of deal if enough people book with them. And, as my friend Claire points out, if you're in the wedding block, you sometimes get event info and a welcome package in your room.

But I'm not sure how to avoid getting transferred away from the actual hotel's phone line. Maybe I should have called the actual hotel, and pressed "0" instead of "2" for reservations. There are so many, many benefits to having a wedding at a major hotel chain, particularly for out-of-town guests like me. But do all major hotel chains outsource their reservations?

Photographer = booked!

Yay! After much searching, Derek and I decided on:

Events to Remember.

• The owner, Aaron, is so personable that we talked for two hours. I felt like I was his only customer.
  
• And, he has no problem communicating through email! I had no idea how nice I would find this, but it's great.
  
• He was able to create our own special "package": $2950 for 9 hours of coverage, a 30-page album, a high-res dvd of all of our pictures, an engagement session, 2 parent albums, and a proofbook. From what I'm seeing, that's a pretty good deal.

Here are the other photographers we looked at:

Birch Photographers

• Met with Nicole, she seemed very nice.
• Package pricing can be found here.
• If you go with Birch Photographers and President Tuxedo, you get a $300 discount on the photography.
• Their standard albums weren't leather-bound; they had a photo cover. It was cool, but I like leather-bound better.
  
• Here's what bothered me about them: they contacted me after I entered a contest to win a package from them. Then, they kept calling me about tuxes afterward. That was annoying.
• I didn't get the personal feel from them that I got from Aaron. The lady I met with was a manager--I didn't meet with the photographer. I would have gotten to choose from 6 photographers, but it just felt so impersonal. There were too many gimmicks--for example, if I booked by June 30th, I would get a second photographer thrown in for FREE. Well, it's July now, and they still have that promotion going on...with the deadline being a month later.

Precious Memories Photography

• We didn't actually meet with anyone from here, but they looked reasonable in price and they got an award from theknot.com.
• I didn't like them because I found a picture on there of a groom pretending to smack his new wife's butt. That just turned me off right away.

Grant Isaac Studio

• He was expensive (started around $4000 for packages with an album), but he was Derek's friend and we would have considered him. However, it turns out that he and his wife might be moving to North Carolina!

Fotografz Wedding Photography

• I liked this guy because he had a lot of experience in Birmingham, but he was just too expensive (starting at about $4000 for packages with an album covering 8 hours).

So there's the scoop on photography. Now, on to the florist drama! And boy, is there drama. You just wait until you hear the issues that I never knew existed. Also coming soon: bridesmaid dress shopping. Stay tuned.

Love Love Love...

Swedish Crown Princess Victoria's on-the-shoulder wedding gown. Simple, elegant, grown-up.





I hope this style catches on.

Photo from CNN.com

The centerpieces for my June 4, 2011 wedding unveiled!

A few weekends ago, Derek and I decided to do a little experiment. I'm a big fan of potted flowers; I used to work at a garden store and I really don't like seeing cut flowers die. Derek is a big fan of not wasting money. So what to do for centerpieces? On May 15th, we bought some pots from Meijer--Derek wanted this dish style as opposed to a deeper pot, because he was adamant that the guests be able to see over the centerpieces to talk to each other. The pots are made by PSW Pots and made out of recycled material. The bigger one is shown in the color beige and is 10" in diameter; that pot was $3.99 at Meijer. The smaller one is in the color dark charcoal and is 8" in diameter for $2.99. I like the look of the dark pot better, so I think we'll go with that shade for the wedding, but Derek and I decided to do a mix of sizes.

We filled the pots with Miracle-Gro Potting Mix from Meijer.

We bought a flat of petunias from Bordine's Nursery, which was $15/flat on May 15th (remember they go down in price as Memorial Day passes). We mixed the colors called Deep Blue and (I think, but I'm not sure) Baby Duck Yellow, which is pretty close to our wedding colors. The 10" pot has eleven seedlings in it, and the 8" pot had seven.

I think they look great, don't you? Here's the "before" picture, so you can compare:



A few notes:

• We grew these from May 15th to June 4th in Michigan, so we had our fair share of both crappy weather, and really good weather
• These pots have no drainage holes. That is what we wanted--we didn't like the idea of dirt spilling through to the tablecloths at the wedding--but just remember that, if you do this, to watch the pots when it rains. If there is sitting water on top of the soil, gently tilt them so it can drain out.
• If you like the idea of the "Sky Blue" petunias that are out there, they aren't really that blue. They are more of a lavender. These Deep Blue petunias look bluer in the photos here than they really are--they are really a dark purple.
• Petunias need full sun, so keep them outside until the wedding