When Did I Become So Indecisive?

I've had meetings with vendors and known right away if I wanted to sign on the line. I could just tell that they were right for me. It hit me like it did when I knew Mr. Kettle was the man for me. That awesome feeling I felt about my dress and my wedding venue was felt with a couple vendors.

Image via The Gloss

But then... nothing. No pangs of love drawing me in and letting me know I'd found the vendor for me.

Okay, complete honesty. That title is a bit misleading, hive. I'm not a decisive person by nature. I'm opinionated as hell, but most of my friends know that I can be indecisive. When I'm being indecisive, I just want someone to choose for me. But in wedding world, you end up with either pushy relatives or hands-off relatives. I've got this weird mix going.

They offer up all they're opinions and suggestions unsolicited. But when I actually want them to make a decision for me, I get no help. They want to make sure I get what I want and that I'm not being pushed into a decision I'll regret. I love them all so much for that because I know every detail of the day will be exactly how I prefer it.

But when I seriously honestly have no preference, I'm lost!

At least I wasn't lost when it really counted! / Image via A Scrapbook of Memories

I still can't decide between the two florists. Their prices are similar, and we went the same flower selections, so there's no difference. I know I'll love the flowers no matter who does them because I love the options we went with. I'm seriously considering flipping a coin to decide.

I prefer the second DOC (day-of-coordinator) over the first, but that's mostly because her price was $1,000 cheaper. Yeah, you read that right, it's a huge, huge, price  difference. But now my parents are wondering if we really need one.

Momma Kettle knows someone at her job who got married at my venue. The husband said they didn't need a DOC. Of course, they didn't have one. And how often is the groom aware of the details of the day that don't actually get attended to? I asked my mom to get his wife's number so I could ask her.

The decisions that need to be made are piling up. I thought by now I'd be done with all our vendors and able to focus on fun details, like finishing our invitations! I will do a post soon on our final mock up. It's hot and way better than anything I could come up with on my own.

But I'm not done making vendor decisions and I don't know how to get done. The one thing I do know is that I have no desire to meet more vendors in search of that love pang.

How do you make decisions when you're unsure? Is flipping a coin really that bad?

What's The Big Deal About A Day-of-Coordinator?

There's a day-of-coordinator option that was available to us through our first florist interview. She works at the gallery and she's pretty amazing.

In spite of my natural urge to sign on the line with the first person who's offer sounds good, I resisted. Momma Kettle made and appointment with another day-of-coordinator for this week. Her prices are waay better than the first lady, but we'll see how the meeting goes. I'll be happy to report back to the hive, if only to help people in the Chicago area who are looking for coordinators.

I started thinking about why we really needed one though. I know for a fact that we definitely want one. But why? Here are the reasons I came up with:

1. You really get to relax the day of your wedding, no hassles on vendor payments and tracking down family for portraits.
2. Your friends/family get to relax the day of your wedding. They won't be delegated the responsibility of organizing reception flowers or making sure the seating chart is visible and programs are handed out.
3. All your vendors (and your wedding party members) have a one stop shop at which to direct questions
4. If your DOC is awesome, he/she'll be involved before the actual day, helping with the wedding rehearsal and helping create time lines for events.

Having that type of help considering how large our wedding is will likely be completely essential. It's not a wasted expense for our piece of mind. Neither Momma Kettle nor I will have to keep downing champagne all night because someone else will be handling the oops! moments of the day.

Are you going to have/Did you have a DOC? Would you recommend one for a wedding as large as mine?

Configuring The Kettle Tea Party: Wedding Theme

After reading about all the lovely themes that brides come up with for their wedding, I was feeling a bit sad, or maybe just melancholy, that we didn't have a real theme for our wedding. I knew we'd never come up with a concept that would cover the whole wedding weekend because that's just not us.

Ultimately I've been accepting that our wedding will be formal and will be romantic, but it will have a couple of quirky twists to it. One twist is my dress, it's very unexpected. Another twist is having 2s of so many things and having so many people involved. But that's not really a theme, is it?

I didn't think so. Not when there are so many real themes out there. Whether it's color, icon, flavor, or culture, we just didn't have anything like what every other bride seemed to have.

Bird Wedding Theme / Image via Perfect Wedding Zone

Pink Wedding Theme / Image by Anne Ruthmann Photography via TWIS Weddings

Sugar Wedding Theme / Image via Wedding Favors Ideas

Greek Wedding Theme / Image via Lovely Wedding. Info

I wanted a theme! And guess, what hive, I've got one!

Before I tell you what it is, I'll tell you how I stumbled across our theme that already existed!

I've been loving all the banners and bunting that brides have been DIY-ing here. I was inspired to use that same concept for our Save the Dates featuring a photo from our e-photo shoot.


Personal Photo. See the Save the Banner!

 After taking a closer look at both my first and my second attempts at making our STDs, the wheels began turning.

Then I had a conversation with Momma Kettle about our wedding favors. We're going the picture frame route. They will double as place cards for the reception. Not the most unique idea, but they are perfect for what we have in mind. We're getting them in gold and they will match our decor perfectly.

I started thinking about more DIY projects I could do and I settled on decor for the reception. As much as I loved those banners that everyone else was making for their gift tables and cake tables, I knew they were just a bit too casual for our formal/romantic wedding.

Then it hit me.

Image via I Can Has Cheez Burger

 Well, it didn't literally hit me, but it certainly figuratively hit me. Frames!!!

I could decorate our tables with all the pertinent info we needed and make the fonts/colors match our invitations and put them in lovely fantastic frames!

The frames will be fancy and lovely go perfectly with the fancy mansion on the wedding day. They've already been incorporated in a number of ways into this wedding, we just didn't realize it.

Personal photo from E-Party Recap

Personal photo from E-Party Recap / We'll be re-using these to display the menu at our wedding reception.

Personal photo from STD Reveal

Personal photo from STD First Attempt

Frames everywhere!!

Here is where frames can come into our wedding:

• Personal photos around the mansion on the wedding day
• Frame for the poster board that will have our seating chart
• Frame for table decor to identify where everything is
• Frames as the only prop for the portrait backdrop. After people take serious pics, they may want to get a big goofy, and I'll go with that if we get some assorted frames for this purpose
• Frame motif for the invitations (which are currently in the design phase)
• Frame motif for the program, thank you cards, etc.

Frames, frames everywhere. I can't believe I never saw how all this could come together before. And there are so many options with frames. We can make it as dressy or casual as we want, so we can tie in the theme throughout the rest of the pre-wedding events. I'm pretty excited about this! Can you tell?

Image via Wedding Tweets

Image via Oil Paintings Frames

Image via Art Gallery Frames

What's your theme? Did you decide before you began planning or did it fall in your lap like mine did?

Figuring Out Flowers - Our Second Florist Interview

This won't be a terribly long post hive. We had our meeting with the second florist. I was late, again!!! At least I wasn't 45 min late this time, I was only 30 min late.

But I have an even better reason this time. I did have to stop and pick up Grandmother Kettle again. But first, I picked up Momma Kettle from her job downtown. Originally, we were going to meet at the florist, but since I was in the neighborhood, I picked her up so she could leave the car with Daddy Kettle and make his trip home from work easier.

So why was I in the neighborhood? Well, I was having lunch right across the street from my mother's building, with Miss Sunhat!! We met for lunch and were both quite glad to have someone to talk to about wedding stuff who never got that glazed over, I'm-not-getting-married-so-I-really-don't-care, look in the eyes.

We shared stories of Mr. Kettle and Mr. Ball Cap both trying to avoid searching out their tuxes for the wedding. It's always interesting to find random things in common. But this post is supposed to be about meeting florists, not how awesome Miss Sunhat is, so I'm moving on.

Our second florist meeting was with Homewood Florist. The shop was lovely. I wish I had taken a picture of the outside when we walked up.

Image via Homewood Florist

That pic doesn't show the entrance in all it's glory, Imagine that, in lovely fall colors, with a welcoming arch 10 feet in front of the store.

We sat down with the florist and went over the details of what I wanted for the wedding flowers. I was right that the first wedding florist appointment made the second one go much smoother. The highlight of the appointment was when Mr. Kettle showed up unexpectedly. He's doesn't work far from there and so he came by just because. I love that man.

She took notes, made some suggestions, but mostly we went with what was decided with the first florist. She did offer some alternatives in sizes for the roses for some of the corsages and bouquets. They were very helpful suggestions.

We've gotten our quote from the second florist. After hearing about some people in the hive not getting quotes for weeks or even months, I was very worried about having to wait a very long time for our quotes. But they both came very quickly.

We're currently evaluating the two florists, and then we'll make our choice. The one thing we know for sure is that we aren't going to need to have the third florist interview. So, for your viewing and inspirational pleasure, some pictures of what this flower shop can do!

All photos via Homewood Florist

How did you choose your florist? Which florist should I go with?