A Little Space, A Lot of Guests = Some Cozy I Do’s
September 4th, 2008 @ 2:40 pm by Mrs. Espresso
When I drafted our first guest list in December, the total head count (rounding up) was 150 people. Mr. Espresso and I both come from very large families, so a big wedding was a given. But the week before we did our invitations, the guest list suddenly jumped to 244. Say what?! Our ceremony only has room for 150 (if that)… how the heck would we fit 244! So after a lot of stress, a crying breakdown in the kitchen, and some sweet words and hugs from Mr. E (who didn’t even know what was going on or why I was stressed until my kitchen episode)- I was back in the game.
Everybody is also RSVP’ing “Yes”, but instead of fretting (anymore) over who will get a seat and who will be standing in the cheering marathon line before I even get to the aisle, I’m taking a step back. This is a blessing. Repeat. This is a blessing. 
Our friends and family want to be their to celebrate with us; and we’re dang lucky to have them!
So come on in. Just over this bridge we’re getting married.
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Zebras Are Coming to Our Wedding
August 5th, 2008 @ 5:00 pm by Mrs. Margarita
I just flew back to LA tonight to work on our wedding, which is coming up in less than 30 days! It’s freaking me out a little bit, but some deep breathing, Coffee Bean and So Cal sunshine should help.
I am going on a site visit/inspection tomorrow with our wedding coordinator, the fabulous Mary Sushinski from Occasions To Remember and a team of our vendors (DJ, caterer, elephant person (ha), photographer, videographer, etc). With this appointment coming up, I realized that I never told the hive about our wedding venue.
Our hunt for a venue was long and full of struggles. A lot of options were crossed off our list right away because we had certain restrictions:
1.) Had to hold at least 350 people
2.) Allowed outside catering (Mr. Marg insisted on Indian food)
My First No-Brainer!
August 1st, 2008 @ 1:07 pm by Miss Champagne
Finding a location for our wedding reception was surprisingly straightforward. As I mentioned before, most of the couples choosing a mountain wedding are married in the summer. But seeing as we (OK, really more I) wanted a winter wedding, there’s no way we could have an outdoor wedding—at least not unless it consisted of all of us on skis, or all of us dressed up with a ton of blankets. So when we started thinking about the perfect reception location, a few places came to mind.
Hotels, while they can be so beautiful and rustic, always seem to require the majority of your guests to stay there, with a minimum of three to five nights stay. I didn’t want to demand our guests stay at a hotel that was going to cost them an arm and a leg. Not to mention almost all of the hotels in Vail have a sort of Bavarian theme, and if you’re not exactly into that it’s easy to feel like you’re in Disneyland. So I started to look outside the hotel options.
Not Our Reception Venue, Part 4
July 30th, 2008 @ 1:20 pm by Miss Sweet Tea
Oops, I forgot to tell you about the fourth venue we visited, so in the interest of helping out other NOLA brides, here it is!
The third venue we saw on our scouting trip was ‘the one’…After a not-so hot visit at that venue (you heard me, it was a bit of a downer!), Mr. ST and I went to Louis XVI, a French restaurant located in the St. Louis Hotel in the French Quarter.
I’d heard it could be a bit of a wedding factory (peep the wedding site for the venue), as a lot of people get married here, with the venue sometimes hosting two weddings a day. Still, the price was right—no room rental fee, very complete and affordable menu packages—and I’d heard the courtyard was beautiful.
Sure enough, the first impression was a very positive one:
Our Reception Venue!
July 29th, 2008 @ 6:35 pm by Miss Sweet Tea
It’s time for the reveal… meet our reception venue, the Musee Conti!
(credit: Cariberry)
It’s in a historical carriage house on a quiet street in the French Quarter, and it’s even more beautiful at night, when you have the glow of the streetlamps and the backlit windows on the second floor shining out.
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Not Our Reception Venue, Part 3
July 28th, 2008 @ 6:14 pm by Miss Sweet Tea
The third installment of our reception venue search is about “The One that Got Away”…far, far away, as you’ll see below.
The Napoleon House is a historical bar in the French Quarter that is home to the city’s best Pimms Cup and one of its best Sazeracs. It’s a crusty, dank old place that is just plain awesome. A really unique New Orleans locale.
(photo circa… a long time ago)
Seriously, a bar, you may be thinking. Dear friends, have some faith!
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Picking the ‘Perfect’ Resort
July 27th, 2008 @ 1:00 pm by Miss Sea Breeze
Once we had settled on the Dominican Republic for our wedding, the time came to pick a resort.
Thanks to all the helpful advice from my new travel forum friends, I narrowed it down to Punta Cana relatively easily – relative, that is, to how tough picking the actual resort was. Although I’m sure Puerto Plata was also lovely (and generally cheaper too), I just couldn’t say no to the promise of fine white sands, for which Punta–whoawhoaWHOA– let’s back up the bus a moment here.
Did I just say picking the actual resort was tough? Tough??
Yeah, it was tough, if tough means COUNTLESS hours sitting with my butt on the couch and my laptop on my knees, scrolling through pages and pages of reviews and photos and forum comments, and filling brochures with enough flower-shaped Post-It notes to wallpaper our entire apartment. My head was spinning trying to keep track of which places had the coolest-looking pools, which places were kid-friendly, which had that nasty review about the bug problem and which had the greatest-sounding restaurants.
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Narrowing Our Site
July 25th, 2008 @ 2:16 pm by Miss Sweet Tea
I didn’t mean to jump right into my site visit reviews without a proper preface, hive. Not that you really need one, but I’m a wordy grad school bee, so you’re going to get one anyway!
Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!
July 22nd, 2008 @ 12:06 pm by Miss Sweet Tea
Hello, hive! I’m back for a week and busy with work, before I jet off again, this time to New Orleans for my second (and last) wedding planning visit before the wedding. So let’s get back to blogging, shall we?
Some of you have asked why did Mr. Sweet Tea and I, neither of us native New Orleanians, choose this city as our wedding destination. The question is, why wouldn’t we have chosen New Orleans with the overwhelming odds in its favor?
The first reason Mr. Sweet Tea and I thought of New Orleans as a possible destination, shortly before getting formally engaged, was purely sentimental. I have many fond memories of going to New Orleans in my childhood and teenage years (some a bit hazy after a too-long night out on Bourbon Street, I’ll admit!). Later, one of the best trips Mr. Sweet Tea and I took together was to New Orleans, just a few short months before Hurricane Katrina hit. It is a city that is not only important to me individually, but to the two of us as a couple.
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Let’s Stroll
July 15th, 2008 @ 7:03 pm by Mrs. Green Tea
Care to take a walk around our wedding venue with me?
Here is how most guests will enter the areas with wedding festivities. From the parking lot, guests will enter through a pathway with arches (covered with twinkle lights and rose vines). Directly in front is the lawn area under a big oak tree where people can hangout during the cocktail hour. To the first right is the dance floor and reception area, then the barn and entrance to the tasting room which will be our bar. Turning to the left is another arch entrance to a separate garden area.
