Takin' care of business....

WOW what a productive weekend! We got so much accomplished on a single Saturday. We decided on the reception menu, had a successful meeting with the cake designer, registered for our formal china and flatware, met with the music minister and decided on a few songs, and booked the organist!

Our Reception Menu. Our caterer had a nice selection of options (mom, Jay and I have been to one or more of her events and tasted her specialities). Here is what we chose:

Carving Station:
-Beef Tenderloin
-Turkey
Tiger sauce (horseradish + sour cream), mustard, mayo
Rolls
Cheese Fondue
-Vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, etc)
-Fruit (apples, strawberries, pineapples) most suited for…
Chocolate Fondue (semi-sweet)
-Cheesecake bites
-Strawberries
-Pretzels
-Marshmallows
-Small cookies
Stuffed Mushrooms
Bacon Wrapped Shrimp
Chicken Salad Pastry Cups

Water, Iced Tea, bottled cokes
Beer, wine

There will also be a special surprise outside on the deck that I can’t divulge just yet. But it will be awesome. (The country club is on a lake with a wraparound deck).

A few more details to work out about the layout of the reception hall. We’d like to move some awful wicker furniture out of the green room area to make room for more tables, but the country club’s pretty staunch about that. Our caterer says she’s moved them before, then moved them back, wink wink. Next up: searching for 90x90 espresso table cloths for the 7 or 8 round 8-tops we’ll have for seating. Here’s an idea of the food spread (we may end up moving the carving station to stand alone?):



Our Cake. The cake of my dreams. It is so me primarily, and Jay is okay with that. He loved it from the minute I showed him the picture from the Spring 2002 (ha!) In Style Weddings. I’ll reveal the design later, but it is just so cool. Our designer is so talented. She can literally do anything with icing. All of her creations are Pound Cakes.

Are you guys familiar with pound cake? It may be a southern thing. It’s so named because (for a regular family size cake) you use a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a pound of flour—yeah, it’s really good for you ;) We chose lemon pound cake with strawberry cream cheese filling, and chocolate pound cake with Snickers bar filling! Two layers of each for our four tier cake.

We finally registered for our china, too! Because my hometown is pretty small, many people end up buying china because there just aren’t a lot of store options. (More on the other stores we’re registering at later).

We’re going with Waterford Kilbarry Platinum. Very simple, very chic. And to just set it off perfectly, we’re going with square salad plates instead of the round in the first picture. It adds such a kick to the aesthetic. Elegant yet chic.


Finally, we met with the minister of music, and decided on a couple of the pieces for sure (I want to listen to more classical pieces for the bridesmaids, mothers, etc to walk down to). Trying to choose pieces that are lovely and classic but not overdone. Everyone does Canon in D. Everyone does Trumpet Voluntary, etc.

We have my processional (thanks to Jay), and two of the prelude pieces (Ravel and Bach). Narrowed down the solo song choices. Booked our organist--our minister of music just raved about this guy. Swears he can just tear it up on the organ. Also got the names (going to call them this week) of two musicians (trumpetier and violinist) that the organist has worked with and knows how talented they are.

Whew! So that's about it for now. Otherwise, I'm waiting impatiently for spring clothes and accessories to arrive in stores so I can buy my wedding shoes (and thus get my dress hemmed/altered) and my rehearsal dinner dress.

UPDATE: Bought this book today at Michael's with my 40% coupon. Jo Gartin is a wedding planner and frequent contributor to In Style Weddings, which is where I read about this hot-off-the-press book. It is the coolest--all about making your wedding unique. Full of little nuggets of helpful info, not necessarily a step-by-step how-to. A real emphasis on invitations and flowers. Her mantra is that she's rather have someone say: "wow, that's so original!" rather than "wow, they must have spent a fortune!" Preach on!

Plus, it's budget friendly; she writes with this perspective in mind.

ALSO FOUND: 6" fat square vases to use on the reception tables; $2/ea. I am probably going to abandon my original idea of one dark wooden box with bamboo, and go with glass vases with bamboo and flowers. I may use one brown box in the middle if I can find them. This vases will give the center of the table more of a reflective, shimmering quality (since I am using espresso table cloths) without overdoing it--remember the picture I posted last week.