$60,000 Wedding Giveaway in Minneapolis June 23, 2009

If you haven’t heard, The Guthrie has teamed up with some of the top local businesses to give away a $60,000 Dream Wedding in honor of the show “When We Are Married.”

All you need to do is submit a 3-5 minute video explaining why you and your fiancée want to be married at the Guthrie. Videos must be submitted by June 30, 2009 (so hurry!). The wedding will take place on August 16, 2009.

Some of the businesses contributing to this fabulous prize include:

the Guthrie
Dowling Studio
L’atelier Couture
Savii Formalwear
Bachman’s
and more.

Also included is a fabulous 7 night/8 day honeymoon at the Radisson St Martin Resort, Marina & Spa, which includes airfare (make sure your passport is current).

Get cracking on that video and submit it! For more details, click here.

The Budget – Broken Down Into Percentages June 15, 2009

Neither R nor I ever wanted an extravagant day. While I completely appreciate those weddings, and love attending them, we knew that it was most important for us to have our wedding, and have it paid off on the day it occured.

We didn’t want to incur or carry any debt from the wedding, just as we didn’t carry any debt for my gorgeous engagement ring (which is a testament to the awesome saving-skills of my husband).

Well — the wedding is over, and we can proudly say that we do not owe a dime – to a single vendor or a credit card or anyone. This wedding is PAID FOR!

Here are the percentages of what we spent:

Target Shows its Hipster Side June 12, 2009

Target never ceases to amaze me. I triple heart this store. A lot.

One of the reasons I love it even more than I should is their Red Hot Shop.

The Red Hot Shop is a collaboration with Daily Candy (loves) – and it offers monthly updated quirky/cool items — like a letterpress tooth fairy kit or this all-sorts-of-awesome octopus wall hook.

I’ve found jewelry, paper-making kits, cool baby gear and beau-t-ous clothes or shoes.

Of course these items sell out, almost every month, so make sure you remember to check out the shop in the beginning of the month!

Vendor Review – Hairstylist June 11, 2009

Vendor grade: A+++

Maybe it’s not even fair to review my hairstylist, because she is not available to most MN brides, but I will anyway.

Michelle is amazing. She came to my house for my trial and did 2 styles — first, the style I asked for, then a simple chignon so we could compare. We took photos, but we both loved the vintage-y curled style we started with.

On the day of the wedding, she was more than prepared, doing my hair while we chit-chatted, then pulling the bangs to the side so my makeup artist could do her magic. Once my makeup was finished, Michelle set my bangs and shellacked my entire head. The results were stunning.

Even though the day was SO windy, my hair stayed perfectly in place. I received SO many compliments.

I’d be happy to forward her info to you, if you ask via e-mail, but know that she lives in Portland, Oregon and you would need to pay for her airfare and lodging. I wouldn’t have hired anyone but her for this day.

Vendor Review – The DJ June 9, 2009

Review grade: A

Our DJ, John from Soundquest Entertainment was SO great to work with. He provided me with several forms, such as a timeline of the evening, favorite songs/types of songs, songs or artists to avoid.

He kept the music at a volume that was great for dancing, but not forcing the older relatives to leave. Their selection of music was pretty spectacular, I had a hard time coming up with something that they didn’t have.

The DJs with Soundquest work in pairs, so if one is on break, you’ve still got someone manning the “station.”

The best part was: John was totally willing to stand up to guests for our desires. We’d requested no chicken dance and no dollar dance. I had a family member begging him to do one, and he refused – until he had the okay from us that we’d be willing to do it.

I’ve been to too many weddings where the bride and grooms wishes aren’t met, and ours was the complete opposite.

I’d honestly, heartily recommend him to any friend or acquaintance looking for a great, energetic (but not annoying) DJ for their wedding or party, and I hope we can find a reason to hire John again.

Oh, and we heard from several relatives that the music was good — and the volume was great.

The price is fair too — 4 hours of entertainment and an hour of dinner music would be only $500.

The Wedding: My Regrets June 9, 2009

I am very happy about a lot of things pertaining to our wedding. I am a little disappointed and sad about some others. Here are my regrets:

1. The small ceremony — We had family-only at our ceremony. I wish we’d invited some friends. R was very against inviting a portion of friends, fearing that it’d hurt the feelings of those who were not invited to the ceremony, but I wish, wish, wish that I could have invited a handful of friends to the ceremony. It makes me sad that they couldn’t be there.

2. The caterer — though the food was delicious, Miel y Leche grossly underestimated the amount of food necessary (they didn’t even provide enough for 100 guests, and we had asked them to feed 150). I wish I’d gone with someone more established and better at meal catering.

The Budget: Breakdown June 6, 2009

We did a few things to cut costs and ensure we had all the niceties we wanted. Here are our secrets:

Our centerpieces, photos provided by Laura Ivanova

The Budget: How Much Did We Really Spend? June 5, 2009

Neither R nor I ever wanted an extravagant day. While I completely appreciate those weddings, and love attending them, we knew that it was most important for us to have our wedding, and have it paid off on the day it occured.

We didn’t want to incur or carry any debt from the wedding, just as we didn’t carry any debt for my gorgeous engagement ring – see below (which is a testament to the awesome saving-skills of my husband).

Well — the wedding is over, and we can proudly say that we do not owe a dime – to a single vendor or a credit card or anyone. This wedding is PAID FOR!

The Fussy Designer Unleashes a Collection of Damask Envelope Wraps June 3, 2009

Oh gorgeousness!

As I’ve said before, I only wish I’d found these a few months earlier!

The Fussy Designer so graciously and fabulously unveiled a collection of 8 different (but similar) damask envelope address wraps.

For all the damask brides out there — it’s your lucky day.

Find them here.

Venue Review – Arneson Acres June 2, 2009

Venue grade: A+

We weren’t originally planning to have our reception at Arneson Acres. In fact, we were all set to have it at another location, with a ceremony at AA, until several surprises caused us to change venues.

We are SO glad that we did change!