wedding vendors, part 2

Many decisions go into a wedding. In part 1, I covered the venue and the photographer and here I will go into ceremony details. :)

3) Dress: Brides Against Breast Cancer
The wedding dress was the first thing I found and the most surprisingly easy decision. Brides Against Breast Cancer is an organization that grants wishes for end-stage metastatic breast cancer patients (like Make-A-Wish Foundation), and their primary fundraising source is a traveling sale of wedding gowns that have been donated by bridal shops, designers, etc. I definitely went to this event with no expectations and no plans to buy, especially since it would be the first time that I would be trying on any gowns. Monica and Jen A came with me to provide honest opinions and ultimately found and approved my gown!

The event took place in a hotel ballroom, with all the dresses hung up in one room and an open changing area set up in the other room. Each person had a bridal consultant or "fairy godmother" who would ask what style of dress you were looking for and then go and grab a bunch of dresses and help you change into them. Then you would look in the mirror and tell her what you like and dislike about the dress, and then change into the next dress, and repeat. Altogether I probably tried on 6 or 7 dresses, quickly narrowing in on a strapless style dress with an A-line skirt. I tried on a lot of simple dresses while secretly coveting the ballgown princess-y look...but when I did actually get to try on a ballgown, I looked really short, like I was drowning in the dress. So it's true what they say, you can picture a style in your head but you never know what you will look like in it. I was a big fan of the ballgown with draped "pick-ups" look, but on me it just looked like I was drowning in a down comforter...

Luckily, Monica took it upon herself to go searching amongst the racks, and she was actually the one who came back with THE dress. It's strapless and made of light taffeta satin, with an A-line skirt and a lace bodice that fits perfectly so that I'm not "spilling" over the top...and then the surprise in the train, which is big and poufy and has bows trailing down it, giving it that long train and ballgown look while preserving the elegance in front. *love* And I don't have to lose any weight or anything to fit into it! Can't wait to wear it. :)

4) Ceremony Music: Strings For Your Heart
I consider this vendor the one major indulgence and the only thing that I've ever really imagined since I was a little girl for my wedding day; that is, walking down the aisle to a classical string quartet...except since the quartet was too expensive, we nixed the second violin and booked a string trio instead, heh. :) I found Strings For Your Heart while browsing the listings on GigMasters and emailed the group after listening to their samples on their website. I chose them over other live music options based on the quality of the samples and customer reviews and their flexibility in pricing. Menzies and I still have to choose the songs for the ceremony processionals, but I think I would like to keep it pretty traditional. :) Strings For Your Heart is also playing at our cocktail hour, but mixing it up with some pop selections. Menzies thinks (and I concede) that this is a little over the top, but I'm still excited. :)

5) Ceremony Officiant: Rev Clint Hufft
Menzies and I have crashed two weddings in order to book this guy! Haha...seriously though, it is strange to look for a vendor to marry you. Since we do not have a pastor or spiritual leader in our lives, we weren't quite sure where to turn on this one. There was the option of asking a good friend to get licensed online and perform the ceremony, but we weren't sure who to ask and we still wanted it to be an authority figure. I also considered asking one of my uncles to perform the ceremony, but then the whole thing would be in Mandarin (Chinese), and we were afraid that we wouldn't be able to understand our own ceremony, which would be pretty unfortunate. While we were puzzling over our options, I had the chance to meet Wen-Lin's friend Marcella who was also planning her wedding and was in a similar predicament. She was actually the one who recommended Rev Clint. :)

Although there were hiccups involved in trying to meet Rev Hufft (like driving up to Orange County only to crash the wrong wedding and miss him altogether, haha), when we did finally meet, we liked his focus on making the ceremony exactly what we want and not injecting any of his own agenda into it. He has also provided us with ~50 pages of different potential ceremony texts and will help us put together a version that is "us" and will also advise us on how to structure the ceremony. All I'm looking for is a ceremony that is meaningful and honest, delivered in a way that conveys the preciousness of the bond and promises that we are making, in words that we will remember and honor in our marriage. So, of course we are still deciding specifically what that means, whether we will write our own vows, whether to have readings, etc. But I feel confident that we are in control of our own ceremony and that we still have the time to mold it into what we want.

Up next: more vendor decisions, including hiring a coordinator!