Category — reception

I love this seating arrangement. This way, everyone is sitting with everyone. I never did understand the whole sweetheart table thing.

(from here)

On to vendor two from the event last night. (Re-cap if you are just joining me, my good friend Lauren is engaged to an event sales manager for a catering company, and he got us into a ‘The Knot” sponsored vendor event last night)

This vendor is one of those “oh, if i had the money….” vendors for me. Lattes on Location.

Again a vendor serving Orange and Los Angeles Counties. These two women were great. Very speedy and they offered lots of different kinds of coffee drinks, of which I ordered a cappuccino, which didn’t require any sugar cubes! 

Plus look at how cool it is! A great way to continue to entertain your guests!

I may have said I had three vendors to talk about… if I did, i lied. The last one was going to be a limo company, but seeing how a limo is a limo, and there are a million limo companies, and I can’t really say anything about them, except that they were playing wedding crashers on the screens (which was a good choice, but who is going to be watching a movie when you just got married?!) I have decided not to revue them.  I know, don’t be mad :) 

Ok, so the first vendor I wanted to spotlight from last nights shin dig is ‘Thank Goodness it’s Sofia’ Catering and Event company.

This is a catering company located in Long Beach, but they serve all of southern california and further, i think! They provided all of the food at the event last night, and it was sooooo yummy! I love all things mini, so when we were handed things like chicken tamale popsicles (mmm) and club sandwiches 3 inches tall the diameter of a quarter, I was in love.  Seriously, small food is so much better than normal sized food! 

How good does that lettuce wrap look?! They are first and foremost caterers, but they have a team that will help you with all of your event needs including rentals and other vendors. 

Now, you may think I am biased since it is my great friends fiance who is the event sales manager at T.G.I.S., but I would not lie to people about food. It is too important. All I can say, is I can not wait until April 25th to go to their reception, cause I know it is going to be filled with lots of amazing mini food. MMM… Jeremy, if you are reading this, in exchange for doing your invitations (I know I said they were a gift but…) you can just supply me with some more of those chicken tamale popsicles and club sandwich skewers. Thanks  (I kid, I kid)

Need a caterer? Check them out!

How is this for a table scape?

(from martha, of course)

Our colors, a’la Martha. I love our choice, and I am hoping we can pull it all off

more from the same wedding. they strung pictures (with homemade frames!) of family members on their wedding day(s). So cute, and perfect to go over the dessert table, guestbook area, drink table… pretty much anywhere!

Again from the wedding of Jesse and Deanna. For table numbers they made these super cute little cards. Each number has the word ‘years’ under it, and a picture of the bride and groom at that age. So adorable!

I have had my ups and downs with this whole long engagement thing. Part of me is stoked to have a year (now 10 months!) to do all of the DIY that I want to include in our wedding day, but then the other part of me is just all “dude, let’s do this thing.”  

One of the cons of a long engagement is the flip flopping. Example: Last week I had this super great idea for our guestbook, and last night, as I was checking out the Real Wedding Saturday over at Snippet and Ink, I changed my mind. Just like that. I still think my first idea is super cute, and would encourage any bride to do it, and, well I guess I should tell you what my first idea was because who knows, I may just flip flop again. A lot can happen in 10 months!

Ok, so guestbook idea #1:  How I see it is, when are you ever gonna look at a half empty book full of signatures? Never. But how often would you look at a photo album of all of your friends? At  least once in a while.  So here is the idea: Set up a little station with a hand held chalkboard and lots of random chalk.  Set up one of your photographers at said station. Have your bridesmaids encourage everyone to go over to said station, write/draw/whatever a little something on the chalkboard, and have the photographer take your picture.  You can do this in groups, by yourself, write something meaningful, or draw a picture of the bride and groom. Whatever. You know how people sometimes set up little backdrops and have a pseudo-photo booth? It would be like that, and then it would also be your guest book. Then, once you get all your pictures back you would take the ones from your photo-guest book and put them into a blurb book (or whatever kind you prefer) and voila! a guestbook full of pictures from all of your guests! Great idea huh? 

Ok, well the snags so far in this are: 1. people may not get too excited about it 2. We probably won’t have a second photographer who can dedicate themselves to the guestbook station.  SO, in comes idea #2:

(pictures both from Snippet and Ink and from the brides blog)

So this is brilliant, and perfect, and super cute, and perfect. A picture book, and a guest book, all in one. So kind of idea #1, but more simplified, therefore better What she did was she made a blurb book (they offer a guestbook template!) and filled it with pictures of her and her fiance from when they were dating, plus scans of ticket stubs and receipts and such! Super cute, and fun for the guests to be able to flip through, especially if they don’t get to hang out with you all the time!  

Like I said I can totally flip flop again, but right now this idea is sounding super good. (plus I already downloaded the free software from Blurb and created a “guestbook photos” folder on my desktop to start collecting)

I found this image here, originally from here. We already (think) we know what we want to do for our guest book, which I will talk about later, but I saw this and think I may have to add it too :) 

Originally this jar was for little notes of things that a child had said, so as to fondly look back on all of those little moments later on. My use for it would be two fold. 

This is what I am thinking: sometimes people find ceremonies boring… i know i know, but it is true. I have a feeling our priest (we call him Father Cocoa Puffs) will make things interesting, but there could still be those few.  And when you are early to a wedding, sitting in the church can get rather boring, especially if you don’t know too many people. Now, this isn’t to keep people busy while we say our vows, but something to do while you are waiting. My thought is to include a little piece of paper and mini-pencil with each program and to have each guest write a little note, whether it be a word of advise or a silly picture, and then to have them fold it up and place it in a jar, either at the end of the ceremony or at the reception. It would be nice to have a little mason jar sitting on a shelf somewhere in your home, and to be able to just walk over, unscrew the top, and read a little note of love.

Don’t these look delicious?

from here.