Yesterday, my mom, Renee, Lexi and I went to Reddington Bridal in Park Ridge for dress shopping. It was the third total appointment I’ve had so far, after seeing David’s Bridal in September and House of Brides in December. You may remember I had a close call at House of Brides, and, walking away from a hard sell tactic, I was hesitant to subject myself to the emotional toll of surrounding myself with salespeople on commission trying to sell me thousands of dollars worth of arranged fabric. Fortunately, this was a good experience. Continue reading
Dress Shopping: Reddington Bridal
- The Bride
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Photography with a Cause
To be honest, when we first started looking for a photographer, I wasn’t that concerned with what photographer we chose. I was willing to shop prices and find a bargain. After a little soul searching, I figured out that it is something that’s worth spending more money on – actually, close to twice my initial budget.
What sealed the deal for me was my dad. Continue reading
- The Bride
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Dress & Photography Search, Ceremony Meeting
I went on my second dress shopping outing on Monday, this time to House of Brides, after having a bad experience at David’s Bridal in September. Since I want to keep my dress a surprise and not public on the Internet, I won’t talk much about what I liked and didn’t, though I did find a dress I liked quite a bit. It was good that I went, Continue reading
- The Bride
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Goin’ to the Chapel
St. John the Evangelist in Streamwood has our date open, and so we are penciled in. Huzzah! I still have to meet with their coordinator and go through some paperwork, plus we have the church’s pre-marital programs to go through. I’ll get more details on those soon, but I was told I’ll have plenty of time to do them even if we start after the first of the year.
- The Bride
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We Have A Date!
This has been a very, very long time coming, but we have formally signed a contract with a reception venue, the Best Western Plus / Wyndham Garden Inn in Schaumburg. Our date is…
Saturday, October 10, 2015
This is exciting and terrifying in approximately equal proportions.
- The Bride
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Signing Our First Contract
Today, Jim and I are meeting with Gina at One Fine Day Events to sign a contract with her for month of coordination (including day of), and a few other coordinating attributes for now until then. Her pricing is reasonable, and she has a TON of excellent reviews online on a few different sites. I’m hoping that she will be a big help to Jim and me, since we’re less than a year away from our probable wedding date at this point. Part of her wedding coordination package includes reviewing contracts, which is why we are signing with her prior to signing with the Best Western Plus / Wyndham Garden. The somewhat unfortunate part is that Gina herself will not be available to do the day of coordinating, though she can help us with the rest of it. We are meeting with one of her other coordinators today who will be with us on the day of the wedding, and I believe she also comes with an assistant or two. I like that Gina has 10 years of experience, dwarfing our BWP/WG event coordinator’s 2 years (which I also suspect is mostly business events and not weddings). I hope the meeting tonight goes well and that we get some good feedback from Gina on the BWP/WG contract so we can move on that as well. It’s all happening…
- The Bride
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Tasting Plus Garden
We had a tasting at the Best Western Plus, which no longer is a Best Western Plus. Already, all of the Best Western logos have been covered up, and outside there is a “Coming Soon: Wyndham Garden” sign. I took plenty of pictures of the venue as well as the food. The cocktail hour space, weather permitting, would be outside on the patio, and they even offered to provide heaters. We were particularly fond of the fresh fruit melange salad – which really was just fruit with Midori on the side.
- The Bride
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The Best Western Plus …?
Best Western Plus Schaumburg
Yep, it has been a while since I’ve posted. The wedding planning has been taking its toll and Jim did some valuable research for me on the wedding planner front. After meeting with two of them, we ruled one out and are still in talks with the other. In the meantime, Jim talked me into setting up an appointment at the Best Western Plus, the hotel attached to the bar/restaurant Entre where his friend Junior (brother of groomsman Victor) works.
It was not much like any Best Western I had seen before. Continue reading
- The Bride
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Where Are We Now?
Some of you are probably wondering what is going on with us, since I haven’t posted in quite a while. Well, I don’t want to go into too much detail, but I’ll summarize. We painstakingly negotiated with Pheasant Run on a contract that was ultimately unsatisfactory given the venue’s present situation and our confidence level with their catering manager. I am still in love with much about that venue, the New Orleans Ballroom in particular, and it breaks my heart to have to start looking again. Depending on availability, this may push back our intended date as well. Jim and I have a much-needed vacation coming up, during which it will be best to not worry and fret over wedding planning and logistics.
- The Bride
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Pleasant Pheasant Fare
Pheasant Run generously offered to foot the bill for a dinner at Harvest, the schnazziest of their on site restaurants, and we took them up on it Saturday evening. We got to see what parking was like at 5:30pm on a Saturday, and it was very packed. I will definitely want to address this on invitations in order to be clear with maps about where overflow lots are and which are most convenient.
As for the food, I was a bit timid about Continue reading
- The Bride
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