Hey everyone, I am honestly so relieved to hear you finally got that sorted out. The offer sounds fantastic! So, did your partner end up making the move?
A couple I know personally has decided to postpone their wedding indefinitely. They asked me to post this here because they’ve already locked in their venue, the band, and the photographer. If anyone is looking to snag their specific date, please shoot me a private message and I’ll get you in touch with them. Ideally, they’re hoping to recover at least their deposits, and honestly, having all these vendors already lined up might be a huge win for someone else's planning process. The date is: 04.19. The venue is Bendek in Indianapolis, the band is Twister, and the photographer is Photo Mara from Beli Manastir.
Moderators, my apologies for starting a new thread; if there's a more appropriate section for this, please feel free to move it. Thanks!
vividtinker17, I can't see anything 😢 try uploading them one at a time and just copying the hotlink URL provided for forums. It would probably be best if you moved these over to the dedicated thread meant for photos, which is the wedding pictures topic 🙂
Oh, please don't stress yourself out—that's exactly why we're all here to help. Honestly, we were all feeling pretty lost when we first started out, too. If there's anything at all you need, just ask 😘
I feel like this might be a bit out of left field, but I really wanted to mention that when it comes to the big stuff—like your photographer, the band, and the catering—it’s much better to go $333 a little overboard than to cut corners. If those core elements fall flat, it genuinely impacts the entire wedding and the guests' mood far more than having fancy invitations, designer earrings, or choosing ten flowers instead of five.
They’re decent, I suppose, but nothing more, in my opinion. The photos are nice enough and technically fine, but I’ve definitely seen better work out there. To me, they just lack that extra spark of creativity. I actually attended a wedding where Annie Leibovitz was shooting, and honestly, the conditions were a nightmare because the crowd was just massive. But instead of focusing on the newlyweds heading to the dance floor with the best group of people at the party, the photographer—doing the same thing for the millionth time—just kept filming the same guests dancing. He didn't even turn his attention to the couple until ten minutes later, by which point they had already passed him by. And I even heard a rumor that he doesn't give you all the shots on the disc because he considers them part of his own artistic portfolio. Look, I really don't like speaking negatively about anyone, but we wanted something specific, so we paid maybe $333 more for a different option, and in the end, we were left feeling incredibly disappointed. I would definitely suggest doing some digging. Go meet them, look over their portfolio, and see if their style actually resonates with what you're looking for.
I’ve honestly only ever heard glowing reviews about the local print shop over in Des Moines. My friends from out of state always order their stuff there—they do such a great job with custom invitations. Check out invitations.org Aurora OS from this forum also handles invitation printing, so feel free to shoot her a PM.
Check out the thread about wedding cakes and desserts (I can't remember the exact title off the top of my head). Alternatively, just send a private message to night_train; she knows a great local bakery that handles those kinds of orders.
Hey, Dana Wright4. What exactly made them different from your usual cookies? Honestly, you might want to look into ordering from a local bakery nearby—it’s much more convenient, and maybe someone could even swing by to pick them up. I’ve lost all faith in delivery services lately, especially when we're talking about food. Ideally, if you had someone visiting the day before, they could just bring the treats along, though I do worry about how they’d hold up after a few hours in the car. Do you think any of the local pastry shops offer their own delivery service? Sorry for the rambling post,
Dana Stewart3, I’ll send over those details regarding the Vigor, the twist off, and the Jocker. I was digging through some old PMs, but I accidentally deleted the one with all the numbers. I really need to track them down once I get home. Just bear with me for a tiny bit! 🙂
Hey Maria, there’s this one specialty wedding boutique near my place that carries all the decor; you can actually rent out those large floor stands there (though I’m not sure about the smaller ones), and I’d bet they have a similar shop somewhere near you. Do you happen to have a connection at a local restaurant or maybe a bakery where you could ask about rentals? Or better yet, why not just check directly with the venue where you're holding the wedding?
Maybe try visiting a local candle maker—there’s actually a great one over in downtown Chicago. Personally, I picked up mine at Target. They’re so inexpensive ($3.75 20 pack) that you might as well just grab twice as many and ask a friend to swap them out whenever they burn down. We were once told it wasn't a great idea to have candles burning while serving food because both the servers and the guests could accidentally catch fire 😲 but if memory serves me right, we always had them lit anyway.
feralbison92, Kirshna and I just wrapped up our wedding in Savannah. She held hers in the main ballroom, while my partner and I opted for the smaller banquet hall. Honestly, the whole experience was phenomenal. Our guests couldn't stop raving about the catering and the service staff. If you have any specific questions, feel free to shoot me a DM! They have plenty of parking, the AC kept everything perfectly cool, and the restrooms were spotless. Plus, the newlyweds get a complimentary suite, and they offer a nice discount if any of your guests want to stay overnight.
Hey, you should reach out to swiftmaker72 via DM or just drop her a comment on the hair and makeup thread. She did my makeup once, and honestly, I was thrilled with the results. You might also want to stop by a Sephora or Ulta and ask if they can recommend any makeup artists who do in-store promotions there.
Hey there, fellow American living abroad! 🙂 We actually went with a three-tier cake—one layer was vanilla cream with classic sponge, the second featured hazelnut cream and hazelnut sponge, and the third was chocolate on chocolate. We used fondant for the outer finish. It was absolutely delicious. If you're leaning toward a chocolate theme, you could try mixing things up—maybe one tier with dark chocolate, one with hazelnut chocolate, and one with white chocolate. Honestly, you can never go wrong with extra chocolate.😬 Lately, I've noticed people using parfait or ice cream-based creams quite a bit because they're so light and refreshing.
That monochromatic cake idea sounds absolutely lovely! You can easily tie it all together with the rest of your wedding theme by using some of the actual flowers from your bouquet as accents.
Chloe Hayes51, just as a heads-up based on our experience—we had about 80 guests (plus the band and photographer), and we ended up with 35 pounds of dessert in total. That covered the reception, treats for the neighbors, little gift boxes for guests to take home, and enough left over for both of our families. We had 7 or 8 different cakes altogether, and I’m telling you, every single crumb was gone by the next day or the day after!
Morgan Stewart50, those cookies are going to turn out such a great deal for you guys. I’ll start listing some varieties I know, and maybe the ladies can jump in with more: cream puffs, éclairs, sponge cakes (though you rarely see those at weddings), various fruit bars, brownies, baklava, peach cobbler bites, or even those classic Boston cream pies...