Cordless Mic and Cake Toppers

I created a must-have file for our wedding...

I look at so much wonderful inspirtation and read about a lot of ideas, and needed a way to sort through the stuff we like and we stuff we absolutely must have. I'm proud to say the must-have file is fairly small, as I feel it should be. We can't have everything and we really can't bother ourselves with a long, long list of important details - that would drive us mad.

One of the things in my file, although it may sound silly, is a cordless microphone.

As many of you know, we're having a garden ceremony outside and I can't stand the thought of a microphone cord obstructing the view of us and our backdrop. I hate to use pictures of a real wedding to show something I don't like, but in this case I felt it was fine since I truly love this wedding (especially the couple's cake), and since they will probably never read this blog.

Check out the officiant in the third picture down.

While I can totally appreciate her excitement, that cord has got to go!! Maybe the couple was able to photoshop her (or the mic) out of these pictures. That is what I would have wanted to do!! Am I being crazy guyz? I don't want to be a snobby bride! Maybe I'm being a little picky here.

Did you request a cordless mic?

So onto what I love about this wedding.

The couple's cake toppers.

I adore the simple elegance of these love birds. Gor.ge.ous! I haven't even begun to think about what we want for our cake toppers, but this is going into the inspirtation file nevertheless. I hope we can find something as timeless and unique. Something like this would really compliment our garden theme too. I wonder if anyone has ever had butterfly toppers!  More on this later...

What's in your must-have file?

Have you thought about cake toppers yet?

The Brooches Debate Chiavari vs. Banquet Chairs

We're trying to think outside of the box when it comes to our wedding...

Not necessarily in terms of creativity, but in terms of the "box," many brides and grooms (especially brides) get into when it comes to their must haves. Most of us want the best of the best. The best caterer, the best DJ, the best photographer, and there's nothing wrong with that, except for that most of us can't afford the best of everything. In our case, we're splurging on the venue and photography. We feel like these are lasting investments (if you will), or really (that's just a fancy way of saying) the things we can justify spending thousands of dollars on.

When it comes to the trendy extras like a candy bar or photobooth, we're really having to restrain ourselves. We want it, but our budget simply doesn't have room for it all. For instance, I LOVED the smilebooth. We discovered it during our trip to New York at the Wedding Party, and it was my "must have," item for months. Seriously. Months. I told Aaron I didn't care how much it cost, and when we found it was approximately $1500 somehow (lol) I convinced myself that was reasonable.

Did I mention that was on top of our wedding costs? Yeah. Mr. B wasn't buying it.
Then I got on this kick about having a wedding planner. Mr. B wasn't convinced we needed one until we met with a few, and all the sudden he was all, "we can't do this without one!" Despite his lenancy on the issue, I knew our budget wasn't going to handle a smithbooth AND a planner. So I had to chose.

Of course, the planner was more jusifiable.We'd be utilizing the money we spent throughout the year and not just on one day (we wanted a full-time planner). Not only that, we definitely felt the planner would earn their fee by saving us money on the caterer, flortist, and other wedding-related expenses.

So alas, I had to say goodbye to my beloved smilebooth. 

Smooth. I gave in on the smilebooth. Mr. B and I got the planner we felt we needed. Easy peasy. Then, something came up I wasn't so quick to overlook, which bring me to our current debate: chiavari versus banquet chairs.

Even though the cost isn't as high as the cost of a planner and smilebooth, a few hundred dollars goes a long way in the wedding-budget world. You don't want to throw away $200 or $500 on just anything, because there are a lot of good uses for that money (like contributing to more expensive items).

I'm not a fan of banquet chairs (no offense to brides out there that are planning to use them or that did). I think chiavari chairs are so much more beautiful! In the words of our planner, "They significantly upscale the design of the room!" AMEN!

But, I have to ask. Is this minor? Am I being a spoiled bride? Should I be more lax about this kind of thing? Who is going to notice the chairs?

Well, I will. I just think chiavari chairs takes a dining room from "all that's nice," to "wow, that's sophisticated!"
What's really the difference these two types of chairs, you ask?

 

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Are chiavari chairs worth the splurge?

Were banquet chairs included at your venue? Did you use them?

Help Design My Dancefloor

I need your help. I want something fun like this at our wedding:

Tanja Lippert via Style Me Pretty

I love these pictures and I love these lanterns. I like how the lanterns give the room a jolt of color and how they really make this seating area stand out. I'd love to have lanterns or something similiar hanging from the ceiling in our dance room. Something like this would be perfect:

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The problem is that we're getting married during the day and I don't think it will be dark outside for much of our wedding. Plus, I'm not sure we can hang anything from the walls or ceiling. It'd be really cool if we could hang drapes like these:  

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Do any of you have a design suggestion for this area of our venue?

I want something that sets our dancefloor apart. Something that is going to define that space. Something that is going to bring color and life to the drab room. I like this a lot too. Love this I should say. Probably because of all the green:

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The picture below is the room where our dancefloor will be. I took it back in when we found our venue. The DJ (or iPod station) will be set against the back wall of this room. From what we've seen of other weddings at this venue, the dancefloor will be directly in front of the DJ area and adjacent to the fireplace.

*my photo*

See that boring white ceiling: what is something creative I can hang from there?

How would you decorate this space?