Bits and Pieces

January 29th, 2007 @ 1:26 pm by Mrs. Kiwi

Since a lot of the things are up in the air regarding our wedding, I thought I’d post with a random blog full of things that are going on.

To start with, I’ve purchased a veil off of ebay. It was my first ever ebay purchase and I hope it works out! I should be receiving it any day now. It’s a low expense veil, as I might borrow my cousin’s veil for the wedding. So I guess you would say it’s a tester! It looks like this:

And I’ve also purchased the tiara I blogged about- also on it’s way. I’ll post pictures when I finally get them (and find my camera).

We’ve found out our budget is a little low, and need to save more. Although it’s “only” (ha) a thousand or two more, it’s still more. Still, despite that, we’ve become resigned to spending the money. After all, we only get married once.

We are working on the guest list, trying to sift out people we haven’t seen in years. I’d rather invite my old friend from high school instead of Mr. Kiwi’s great uncle “Schmo” or whatever his name is.

Mr. Kiwi and I took a day long trip on Saturday to Michael’s and Walmart, picking up various things we could use for our centerpieces. As soon as the flowers in the centerpiece vase die, I’ll start with a few trials to see what you guys think. We purchased many pillar candles in our colors, a bunch of shined rocks (in an ivory color), pine cones, colored glass beads, potpourri packs, a ton of ribbon, different punches and various favor containers. Once I start with the trial runs I’ll really run down what we bought, for how much, and where.

We’ve contacted an officiant in Southern California, he seemed a little over anxious, and that was a little off-putting, but we still need to meet with him. I’m really hesitant to meet with vendors, I don’t know why. I think I get nervous.

We may have a florist! One of the parents of Mr. Kiwi’s basketball players gave us a card for a woman who does floral design from her house. She is low cost, has no overhead, and has been used by tons of people- including the Will Rogers foundation. The parent has used her for many functions, and she said she’s wonderful- also she’s in our city! This is exactly what we were wanting, but had no idea how to find. Hopefully that will work out.

Anyway, that’s all that’s going on right now, but I have a few questions:

Regarding guest lists: Do babies count as one guest? Say the child is a year, or 10 months, when does the child become a guest?

Regarding flowers: What do you bring to meet with a florist? Pictures of what you want? Your budget, and what you need?

Regarding officiants: If you’re hiring one, did you interview many, or automatically click with the first one? What are you supposed to talk about?

Thanks for all the help!

Tags: los-angeles, veil |

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9 Responses to “Bits and Pieces”

Guest

Tessa

For me, a baby becomes a guest when I think they will be eating or taking their own space at a table. So, one year, I’d think no, right? Won’t they be eating that mushy stuff from a jar? Meh.

1/29/07 @ 1:35 pm (reply)

Guest

Val

When I met with our florist for the first time, I brought just the things that you mentioned in your post. I showed her lots of photos of individual flowers/colors that I liked, as well as the style and arrangement that I wanted. I also gave her our budget. I was very impressed with her ideas and her ability to work with our budget.

1/29/07 @ 1:37 pm (reply)

Guest

Miss Kiwi

Tessa, I think you’re right. It’s funny, since we last made our guest list (Guest list 1.0), one cousin has been born, and two more (twins!) are due today! So we were unsure about whether or not to include that in the guest count.

1/29/07 @ 1:38 pm (reply)

Guest

I have a set of 6 month old twins and one 12 month infant on my “guest list,” but since they won’t be eating adult food at the reception, we’re not really counting them as “guests.”

1/29/07 @ 1:41 pm (reply)

Guest

turtle

Guest list: I only included them if they would need food and a seat. Some of our friends have little children, and we did not invite their children. I know that sounds awful, but this is pretty common with our group of friends at other parties. Parents know to bring a babysitter or send their children to the grandparents for the weekend.

Florist: I gave my florist a budget, some pictures, but mainly just came with ideas. It’s a great time to brainstorm with your florist and see what she comes up with. Your florist should then be able to adjust it to your budget.

Officiants: We unfortunately didn’t have much of a choice of an officiant. Many of the churches we looked at either would not let us get married there (because we weren’t of their religion) or had to use their clergy. We ended up going with Father T of an episcopal church, and he was awesome. We clicked right away. I think if we didn’t, we’d either look elsewhere, or just stick with it….

Good luck! i hope you can show us pictures of your centerpieces soon.

1/29/07 @ 1:44 pm (reply)

Guest

Miss Lime

florist: see this recent entry of mine - http://www.weddingbee.com/2007/01/25/floral-concepts-done/
my cousin, who is helping me, sent the posted document, my budget, photos of my venue as most of the florists aren’t familiar with it, and i am working on sketching a plan on even layout for them as well. it’s a bit much, but my cousin is making the initial contact and getting general quotes, so she needed all that to help me out.

officiant: check out labridezilla.com’s templates section. i believe there is a list of interview questions there. if you don’t like this guy, there are also a lot of other officiants listed. also, don’t discount someone you know doing it (rack your brain….i’m sure you know *someone* who would do it). i think that ceremonies officiated by someone the bride & groom knows end up the most meaningful and special.

1/29/07 @ 2:07 pm (reply)

Guest

Miss Bluebell

Lots of progress this weekend I see!!

The veil looks great, and I’m so glad you bought the tiara!! And I can’t WAIT to see your centerpiece mockups!!!

1/29/07 @ 2:16 pm (reply)

Guest

Mrs. Snowbride

Regarding guest lists: Do babies count as one guest? Say the child is a year, or 10 months, when does the child become a guest?

For children, I’ll tell you what I did-First of all, we didn’t invite any children. Regardless, people RSVP’d and included their kids. While this, I feel is a bit rude, I still had to accomodate. Children under 1 did not count as far as a guest or food was concerned. Kids over 4 I had to count in the catering number so I counted them as a guest.

Regarding flowers: What do you bring to meet with a florist? Pictures of what you want? Your budget, and what you need?

I brought pictures first and explained my theme and ideas. From that, she made a mock up of me of some pictures and colors and we worked from there. Once we were on the same page as far as a “look” was concerned then the talk of budget began.

Regarding officiants: If you’re hiring one, did you interview many, or automatically click with the first one? What are you supposed to talk about?

I had trouble with this. I am catholic, my husband is not. Since he was not willing to convert, obviously we were not allowed to marry in the church. So, at this point I was really stuck. My choices were limited since we were having a destination wedding. We ended up having a cousin of my husband (who is also a minister) perform the ceremony.
We had a meeting with him and some of the most important things to ask and/or discuss I think are:
What are you legally required to do or say? (This changes by state)
Are you willing to let us contribute to the ceremony? If so, in what way? Readings, etc…

Good luck!

1/29/07 @ 3:13 pm (reply)

Guest

Mary

The children issue is specific to everybody’s reception location- you definitely need to ask them! For us it’s a very intricate system : 0-3 are free and get a seat but no food, 4-11 are discounted (food + beverage) and get the same food as everyone else but no booze-obviously, and 12-21 are discounted for the beverage only (again, no booze).

1/29/07 @ 5:28 pm (reply)