Wedding Weather

Now that my wedding is less than three weeks away, looking at the weather has become a bit of an obsession. I know they never give real predictions further than 10 days out, but I can't help it. I'm obsessed.

I remember talking to Mrs. Sunhat (who lives in Indiana, not too far from me) a couple days before her wedding and lamenting that she wouldn't have the snow she desired. I want snow for my wedding, but I'm trying to be realistic. In this weird Chicago winter, I really can't be sure of anything.

I happened to go to weather.com and look at their 10 day forecast, and their forecast finally included February!! February 1st was on the forecast. That's so close to my wedding and I'm super excited that it's so close.

I don't know about snow, but I now have an obsession with how each day's weather lines up with the average weather for that day. I guess I feel like doing all this pointless analyzing will give me a firmer idea of what kind of weather I can expect.

All I know so far is that it will likely be very very cold with temperatures in the low 30s or upper 20s. Thank God my wedding is indoors in only one location.

Screenshot of January Joliet weather from The Weather Channel

Did you worry and hem and haw about the weathe leading up to your wedding? Did your predictions prove true?

Making Decisions Left and Right

I love purple statice. I thought I was getting purple status, but after looking at the picture from before (and a quick Google search to confirm), I was actually getting purple statice. This is an amazing flower. They're so bright and vibrant. And it's a sturdy flower, which is great because I really like to run my hand over it again and again. I can't help it because it feels like a lei.

Image via FlowerShop Network

Image via Luau Shirts / When I rub my fingers over the statice in my bouquet, I'll be thinking warm and welcoming thoughts!

We recently had our meeting with our venue to sort out some details of the wedding day. We picked linens and napkins and table runners, all things I don't really care very much about. But it was a productive meeting to make sure our venue and our family was on the same page.

It's becoming a bit of a routine to roll into these places with lots o' people. There me, Mr. Kettle, Momma (and sometimes Daddy) Kettle, Mima (and sometimes Poppa) Kettle, and maybe one or two more. I'm continually impressed with these vendors who don't seem fazed by us. We come in full of jokes and distracting laughter. No meeting lasts less than 90 min, even when it's supposed to be an hour. If I had to do this all over again, one of my top priorities for vendors is that they are patient with a good sense of humor and no problem repeating themselves.

Since I was still unable to decide between two florists who had come up with very similar ideas for our wedding flowers, we decided to have a flower-off! In my mind, we'd have the two florists show up to our venue. One would be wearing red, the other blue. They'd battle it out with bouquets, table arrangement, and altar flowers. After a tough battle, one would emerge victorious, and I'd have the perfect florist.

In reality, it was much more tame. Mima Kettle picked up a sample table arrangement from one of the florists. The other florist volunteered to come to the venue and and bring two sample table arrangements with him. When we first saw them both, we weren't happy. There wasn't a clear winner. All of my newfound confidence at having re-learned my ability to make decisions deflated.

But as our supposed-to-be-one-hour-long meeting with the vendor continued, it suddenly hit me, I really liked one waaaaay more than the other. Luckily, it was the vendor who was actually there who's sample I preferred. The flowers were just right, and the decision to leave the hydrangeas out was perfect. Curly willow, which was previously my heart's desire, suddenly didn't look so hot.

We chatted with him about a couple of things we wanted edited with the flowers, and he re-did a quick estimate, and we handed him a deposit check. I was so thrilled because in that moment, that meant that all the major decisions for the wedding day were done. And we made our deadline of having them all finished by Nov. 15th!!

Wedding Venue, Day-of-Coordinator, Florist, Clothes, Hotel, Invitations, Music, Food, Cake, Done!!! We were engaged for 5 months and 14 days when we had everything done, so that's pretty good. But we were just 91 days from the wedding, so that's not so good. I figure it's what happens with a relatively short engagement (less than one year).

How long did it take you to get to the end of planning the major wedding decisions? How happy were you when it was all finally done?

Three Months And Counting

Ack! My wedding is less than three months away now. As I neared and passed the 100 day mark, it seems that things had really slowed down a bit. But almost as soon as I pressed publish on that post, they sped back up again.

I managed to find a way to make decisions again. With the help of Momma Kettle, who has gracefully stepped in here and there to push an indecisive bride toward what she really wanted, I've made some decisions.

We've picked our cake baker. the lovely Creative Cakes!!


Image via Creative Cakes

These people put together a great showing for our tasting, but that's a whole other post.

I've picked a day-of-coordinator. No surprise there, I picked the woman who had the best price and who really got me. I'm looking forward to working with her and I'm glad the rest of the family is on board with the decision.

I've seen some amazing wedding bands online and have plans with Mr. Kettle to go check out rings and hopefully order them.

We finally started our marriage counseling sessions. Mr. Kettle rocks for keeping track of my work schedule and making those appointments happen with both pastors in two different cities!

We're going to our venue this weekend to make the final orders for menu, table runner, chair ribbons, etc. I'm so excited to have finally made all those decisions. We're also having our two florist options make sample table arrangements to take with us out there and judge for ourselves which we would prefer.

Basically, by the end of this coming weekend, I'll have checked off every major to-do on my list, with the exception of booking the honeymoon, which is also another post itself.

As much as I wanted to (and kind of did) stick my head in the sand for the last month, I feel great now that things are moving forward.

Oh, did I mention the best part... Our invitations are finished!!!!! I just received the final sample in the mail and all 175 of them should be arriving next week. We'll have them assembled and sent out by this time next month. I can't wait to share them with you hive.

Just Sitting and Waiting

I've been a bad blogger, and I'm sorry, but there's been a lot of nothing going on with my wedding planning. To illustrate my point, a list:

• We know where we want to go for our honeymoon, but are still sorting out when we're going to pay and when we're going to book.
• We still haven't picked a florist.
• Our DOC doesn't actually know we picked her yet. That's my fault. I should be sending an e-mail, but instead I'm blogging.
• We haven't had our venue meeting yet to sort out the last details of our plan for the day.
• Our invitations are done, but not yet ordered.
• The clothes are all picked out and ordered (except the hostesses), but nothing has arrived yet.
• I've been so busy with work, I haven't had time to start any of my DIY projects.

So basically, a whole bunch of almost something. I'm looking forward to having lots to talk about in just a couple weeks. November 15th is Momma Kettle's and my deadline for having all the big stuff planned and all the little stuff started. Wish us luck!

In the meantime, I checked my wedding website, and I noticed something. As I'm writing this post, I'm 99 days from my wedding. I completely forgot about being this close to the big 100 day mark. I am belatedly excited, and even more motivated to get this stuff done. It will get done!

Image via Wedding by Color

When you reached 100 days, were you still in full swing or in a weird lull?

And Another DOC Meeting

I wrote about a post about how I'd lost my ability to make decisions. We still haven't chosen a DOC or a florist. But, we are making progress on the solutions Momma and Mima Kettle came up with.

We met with a third DOC on Monday. Mr. Kettle came with me and Momma and Daddy Kettle to this meeting. By this third meeting, we were old pros. We laid out what we had planned so far and gave her the information she needed.

She asked some follow-up questions and took a lot of notes. Then we talked about what her services would be. From all three meetings, I'm starting to see that it is the rule of thumb that DOCs get involved before the actual day-of.

They come in anywhere from immediately to 30 days prior to the wedding. They help for a detailed timeline for the day. They try to get to know the wedding party so there's no confusion as to who's running the show on the wedding day. They go the rehearsal and of course they're at the actual wedding.

The DOCs all offered to take care of making sure deliveries are on schedule on the wedding day, making the sure musicians are on time and set up, and taking care of day-of vendor payments. Also, they all seem to have teams they work with (especially for a wedding the size of mine).

So how will we choose between people who seem so similar?

Well, it's all about personality. Personality and price.

I liked the first DOC we met with. She seemed very no-nonsense, which would be very effective with my family and friends. The only problem is her prices. Very high. Almost 3 times what the second DOC was charging.

I really liked the second DOC. She seemed like her main goal would be to make my wedding day perfect. That's all the DOCs main goal, but she got me. She really got me, you know? Her prices were nice, but my parents were worried that she perhaps didn't have enough experience to make it happen.

The third DOC was great. She actually went to school with my parents so she was definitely our type of person. Everyone automatically got along great. And even better, she didn't treat me like how some of my parents' friends can: like a child because I wasn't born before the end of the 1970s. We don't know her prices yet, but she said she will send us a proposal by the end of this week.

I pretty much just have to choose between the second and third coordinator. If their prices are very similar, it will be interesting because I'm leaning toward the second DOC and I know my parents are leaning toward the third.

Yummy Yummy In My Tummy

I know that title isn't nearly as sophisticated as it should be, especially considering our venue.

Image via My Chicago Wedding

The tasting was sophisticated and classy. But the food was so good, I just wanted to dance up and down and go, "mmmmmm, yummy." In fact I still do. So there you have it.

I don't know where my camera is. I thought I'd left it at work and was kicking myself for not having it for the entire five days I was off (birthday celebration, woot!), but I'm back at work and still can't find it. So all pics from here on will be taken on my super cool new Blackberry that was a birthday gift to myself. I apologize in advance.

Mr. Kettle and I picked up Grandmother Kettle and drove out to Joliet for the tasting. There, we met Momma and Daddy Kettle, Mima and Poppa Kettle, and FSIL Grand. Yeah, we took 8 people there. I tried to take pictures, but it was an afterthought.

Personal Photo: Momma Kettle, Daddy Kettle, Grandmother Kettle

Personal Photo: Mima Kettle, Poppa Kettle, FSIL Grand

The brought us out the food and caused a bit of an issue with us that we got sorted out and hopefully won't have problems with anymore. They had some clerical issues where they neglected to tell the chef we had 8 people coming, not 4. So they only had enough food for a tasting they normally do for 4 people. We were nice and shared, but we were all still starving when we left. The silver lining to that fiasco is that the entire family is on board with having a DOC now.

But on to the food, which was so tasty. We started out with and hors d'oeuvres platter. They brought two of each.

Personal Photo: 8 different options, with 4 different sauces

Then it was time for the entree selections. I'd chosen three options, and they all looked pretty good. Mima and Poppa Kettle cut all the entrees into 8 pieces so we could each try a bit of it. The steak was really good and so we knew that would be our beef option. We had to choose between the two chicken options. We really couldn't decide!

Personal Photo: New York Strip steak

Personal Photo: Chicken Piquant

Personal Photo: Chicken Saltimbucco

Ultimately, I decided whoever was actually ordering the chicken for the wedding would choose. But almost all of us were getting the steak! Grandmother Kettle said she was getting chicken. Since she was the only one, we let her choose. She picked the chicken piquant. It will be so tasty. It has a lemon caper sauce. Yum!

Up next was the three options for cake. I forgot to tell them ivory buttercream, so they brought us pure white. Because this was my birthday weekend, I had a lot of icing. Hive, you were so right about the ivory buttercream being way better tasting. I'll make sure I choose the right icing for the wedding. Our three options were red velvet, french lemon silk, and milk chocolate mousse.

Personal Photo: I almost forgot to take a pic, but luckily it's only missing one bite.

We all loved the french lemon silk. We thought the others were just okay. That was enough to make us check out another option for cakes. Yet another thing to add to my to-do list... Yay...

They have dessert buffet options, so we tried out those. Lots of chocolate options. They also have a chocolate fountain. I want that chocolate fountain!

Personal Photo: They had chocolate versions of everything!

Personal Photo: I think there was even chocolate baklava!

They gave us wine and beer with the food. We were very pleased with the food. So now I can feel good about knowing that the dinner will be tasty and our guests will be happy.

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?

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?

Planning For Inclement Weather

Most weddings happen in the summer months. June is the most popular month for weddings. People fight over getting the perfect wedding day.

Image via Gazillion Movies

I have avoided this issue by choosing to get married in February. Mr. Kettle and I have been very happy with our selection of wedding date. But there is one possible hitch to our happy wedding: winter Illinois weather.

There was a terrible storm this past winter. In Chicago, a little snow doesn't bother us. But when this storm was on it's way, people went to the grocery store and then went home. They didn't come back out for at least a couple days. There were no cops or buses on the street; who would drive a vehicle through a few feet of snow? There was no one out except Walgreens employees.

I didn't think too much about that happening to our wedding. I figured that through sheer will, the weather would be nothing but a bit of sunshine and light snow. I'd stand there in my pretty dress with the matching veil and perhaps a lovely fur coat taking in a few snow flakes and hopefully some wintry sunshine. Kind of like this.

Personal cartoon. Yeah, you all will be subjected to my cartoons now... I mostly put on the coat so Mr. Kettle won't see the part of the dress he doesn't know about.

But when Hurricane/Tropical Storm sidelined a few weddings, I started thinking about the real possibility that something could happen to keep my wedding from occurring on the day or at the location we're planning on. At our tasting next month, I will bring up the issue with our venue to see if they have any contingency plans they go with for winter events.

That is not enough for me though. I looked online and found wedding insurance. My best internet friend Google brought up four sites that I took a look at.

They are: Wedding Protector Plan, WedSure, WedSafe, and The Event Helper.

After looking at all the options, it's really best that I consult with our venue to see which one of these would be best for us. I'm not sure how much coverage we need and what our backup wedding plan is. Also, I don't know if we should be getting coverage just for postponing the event. Perhaps we should add photographer coverage, deposit coverage? And what in the world is professional counseling coverage?

I'm thinking worst case scenario, we can get over to my church which is right across the street from my parents' house and next door to my pastor's house. We could get married there even in a blizzard, we'd just have to figure out a party to celebrate with family and friends later. There's a lot to figure out, but I've got a couple of months to sort it out.

Are you getting wedding insurance? Are you worried about Mother Nature altering your carefully laid plans?

Figuring Out A Wedding Budget

Every bride should know that it's very important to have your priorities in mind when figuring out where the money for your budget will go. I knew this. I just didn't know my priorities weren't so set in stone.

At first, my priorities were:
1. Food
2. Flowers
3. Clothes
4. Everything else in no particular order.

But then... I realized every venue I was even remotely interested in made their own food. So finding the perfect caterer to fill all my wedding culinary dreams wasn't going to happen. I also realized that I really love roses and wasn't very interested in much else. Variety was over-rated (at least for now).

Also, choosing the clothes for the wedding party was a relatively simple process that didn't involve more than 1 store visit to 2 store for each group of people getting clothed. And since each clothing item came in under budget, I had to reconfigure my budget priorities.

Food was now included in the reception budget that now also included ceremony budget since we were one-stop-shopping. Clothes ended up being a less significant portion of the budget. Flowers still has the same budget for now, but that's subject to change once we actually start meeting with florists.

After coming to terms with our large guest list, I realized that venue, stationary, and photography were going to have to move up in priority. Momma Kettle was also realizing around this time that perhaps Chateau Bu-Sche wasn't really where we should have the wedding. On the recommendation of a couple of colleagues/friends, she began to reconsider.

She and Daddy Kettle sat down with Mr. Kettle and I to revise our budget. This was the second time we had done this.

We discussed all the options available to us, including reducing our honeymoon budget and photography budget in order to accommodate a large number at guests at a nicer venue. We played with the numbers and ultimately decided it was worth it to try and make the change.

We knew photography was important, but we decided to find a photographer to fit into the new budget instead of splurging. Our final (for now) budget split is as follows:

Image: Calculator by Discovery Education

Music: 2.5% (yay for marrying a musician)
Wedding Day & Prep Beauty: 0.7%
Brides Clothes/Accessories: 3.3% (yay for already owning most of what I'm wearing)
Flowers: 2.25%
Gifts/Favors: 1%
Invitations: 3.75%
Photography & Videography: 6.25%
Engagement Party: 4.25%
Wedding/Reception [food, linens, decorations, drinks, etc.]: 76%

Being a one-stop-shop is expensive. But we'll get everything we want and need. It's definitely not the budget I thought we'd have, but it's the one that will give us the wedding of our dreams. When I say "our" I mean it. I think Momma Kettle has been dreaming about my wedding longer than I have.

The Kettles Find A Cupboard

When I think of me being Miss Kettle, I tend to think of this:

Image: Mrs. Potts /  From The Disney Wikia

I loved that movie when I was a kid and had the VHS. I was more than eager to buy the Special Edition DVD when it came out too! But back on task-- finding a cupboard for The Kettles was an on-going task since our trip to Joliet didn't pan out like I'd hoped.

The Jacob Henry Mansion was beautiful but had too strong of a vintage feel. The Patrick C. Haley Mansion was perfect in every way except that it was outside of our budget. Fail.

So we moved on to our third option.

Image: Chateau Bu-Sche

I thought it was very beautiful on the drive up. I liked the winding driveway and the huge parking lot gave me an oddly happy feeling. It was like the place was used to accommodating large numbers and our guest list that was guaranteed to have at least 250 at that point would be welcome.

Momma Kettle took a wrong turn away from the parking lot, so we got to see a bit more of the grounds. We went inside and met with our coordinator and began our tour.

Is this tiny pond and seating area absolutely lovely? I figured it might make a great photo op even in February.

I've seen a number of pics from weddings on that bridge. I began envisioning light snow fall and me risking the flu just to get one of those shots. Momma Kettle began envisioning me in a fur coat for the wedding day.

It looked so stately from this angle. Like I was getting married in a mini-White House.

This is an outdoor shot of the atrium where our wedding would be held. Too bad the tree is hiding how pretty it looks from the outside.

This is what guests would see right when they walked in. A board telling them which room housed our wedding since they already had another event book down the hall for our day. That board unfortunately blocked the fireplace.

Stairs that would probably be where we took photos of our entire wedding party. There really weren't too many options, which was a bit of a concern considering how many folks we had.

The room was setup for a function later. I immediately decided I hated this room. You can't really see the striped wall paper, but I was frowning and Momma Kettle was ready to move on. That is, until our coordinated directed our attention to the adjoining atrium.

Right from the start, I love this room. I cound finally see how the same people who owned the mansion owned this place. The drapey ceilings were laced with twinkle lights and I began to feel better about the striped wallpaper if it came with this loveliness.

I must admit, I began seeing myself walking down this aisle with Daddy Kettle, and I could see nice bouquets of baby's breath decorating the aisle chairs. But this is the time our coordinator pointed out we had to choose either noon or 6:00 pm for a ceremony time. So much for a sunset ceremony...

The chandeliers are a bit small, but I could work with it. We confirmed we could have both the ceremony and reception in this atrium. Only the cocktail hour would have to take place in the terrible striped wallpaper room.

I could imagine these seats filled with all our family and friends as Mr. Kettle and I said our vows and exchanged our forever love. Sigh!

This is another room setup for a wedding later that night. I had never seen chair covers done like that and I had to take a picture. At the time I loved those off-to-the-side bows, but now I'm not such a fan anymore.

After our tour, we sat down with our coordinator and talked prices. Momma Kettle and I were super surprised with how much more affordable this place was. They explained it was because they had multiple events there in a given day at a given time.

We found out adjusting our start time wasn't a possibility. That made me sad, but it wasn't a deal breaker. We also found out that our large guest list couldn't be accommodated in just the atrium. We'd have to have some people in the horrible striped-wallpaper room.

Momma Kettle and I discussed how we'd go about doing toasts and dances and cake cutting with two different rooms. Simply having all the doors open wouldn't really do it. That ugly-wallpaper room would feel like the B Room. We figured we could make it work.

We scheduled another time for Mr. Kettle to come look at the venue. When we left, I told her I really did like it a lot. I loved the mansion more, but not $15,000 more. So if Mr. Kettle liked it, we would go with it.

He and I went back and saw the Chateau. He had no complaints, so we booked it. Momma Kettle and I went back and signed a contract with them. That's when I found out their don't do tastings before you sign the contract.

When I asked about it, here's what happened:

Me: Can we do a food tasting before we sign a contract?

Her: Ohhhhh, we really don't do that. But it's not a problem. People really like our food. After you sign a contract, we'll set one up.

Me: What?! The reception food is one of my highest priorities. I'm fine with not bringing in and outside, coordinator, but I really want to try the food. What if I hate it? Will we get our deposit back?

Her: No, we don't refund any deposits. But people like our food. If they didn't, we wouldn't be in business for 30 years.

(At this point, I gave her one of my award-winning deadpan looks).

I took one quickly at work to illustrate. I pride myself on being able to express thinly-veiled displeasure. It's very effective.

Her: Well... we normally do tastings 2 months out so you can choose a menu. But...! We don't do winter tastings, so we'd be able to squeeze you in this October, that's a lot sooner. I want you to feel confident in your food choices.

Me: That sounds a lot better to me. I think we can work with that. Can you check the schedule now to see which day will work?

Momma Kettle was looking quite amused with me at this point because she knows I care a lot about being nice and professional, but I also want to be treated like my business is important to people. If we're about to fork over $10,000+, you could at least make sure we comfortable doing so. That's all I'm saying.

We handled the food issue and hammered out some more details. They also do a winter discount per person. Winning!

We walked away happy with our decision, but still having some logistics to work out for the wedding.

Did you have any last minute hiccups before booking your venue? Did your venue work with you to accommodate your priorities? Were you completely satisfied with your venue choice?

The Kettles Continue Their Search For A Cupboard

I've been trying to be clever and think of tea-themed title posts. Maybe I'm not so clever... But I know that a kettle belongs in the cupboard with other tea items, so I think of our wedding venue as our cupboard, especially since the ceremony and reception will be in one spot.



Image: Amish Corner Cupboard Hutch /  Furniture by Dutch Crafters

Moving on. We Kettles had agreed on getting married somewhere other than either of our churches. We had just left Jacob Henry Mansion and were almost 100% that wouldn't be our wedding venue.

We drove up to the Patrick C. Haley Mansion. I. Was. Floored. I loved it from the moment we walked up.


Image: Patrick C. Haley Mansion Grounds / This is a photo from their website for how it looks in the winter. I should be so lucky!

When we first walked in, we couldn't find any employees. Momma Kettle and I strolled around while Mr. Kettle went off to find someone. I still hadn't managed to pick up jaw up off the ground by the time one of their coordinators arrived.

They took us on a guided tour of the mansion. They explained all the details, history and options available to us for a February wedding. I apologized for all the drool as I salivated over every detail of the venue. Did I mention I love, love, love, this mansion? Warning, there are a lot o' pictures to follow.



This was the only picture I was able to pull myself together enough to take before our tour guides arrived. It's what everyone will see right as they walk into the ballroom.



This is where our tour started. It's the foyer of the mansion. I wanted a picture of the stained glass windows. Had it been anywhere else, or any larger, it would be a deal breaker.

That's Momma Kettle assessing one of their rooms they've filled with little tables and chairs for people to utilize throughout the day while not in the ballroom.



Anyone who knows me knows I enjoy a nice beverage. This bar in the sexy dark wood made me drool. It was very easy to imagine people looking stylish just for standing near this bar in photos.



This is a view of the ballroom from the balcony that overlooks it. I could imagine myself stealing away during the reception to overlook the whole party. I like doing that at parties.

This is a view from the front of the ballroom. I loved the ceilings with the chandeliers and draping fabric that was lined with twinkle lights. I could envision our reception feeling like it was under the stars. So romantic! And how beautiful were the chair covers? I didn't even think I wanted chair covers until I saw these.

This is usually used for outdoor ceremonies, but we were told we were free to sneak outside for some outdoor photos on our day in February. I don't know why we would, but it's an option.

This is the skylight over the conservatory at the front of the ballroom. I could just imagine being under this getting married at sunset and then dancing under the sky during our reception. If only we could get a starry night or light snowfall...

This is the conservatory where we would have our ceremony and it would be the dance floor during the reception. Sooooo many windows. I could have my winter garden feel!

This is how they'd have a head table set up. We want to do a sweetheart table, so we wouldn't have this. But I love the chair covers and I had to take a closer look at the table settings after they drew my attention to it.

Platinum and gold? This comes standard? Sign me up! I could already see some lovely DIY'd napkin rings.



This is the second floor of the mansion. Mr. Kettle is contemplating testing out the seating for guests to enjoy while they're not in the ballroom.



More second floor seating. We were beginning to discuss if we should have the jazz quartet set up on the second floor for the cocktail hour. This was before we began discussing prices...

This is a pic of the edge of their coffee/sweets table setup. Through the arch, you can see the lovely dining room where they sat us down and unveiled the price, which brought me back to reality. 

They have lovely fireplaces all around like this. Perfect mantles for lots o' family photos to personalize the place.

This is the room for the groom to get ready. It's really lovely, like an old-school cigar lounge or something, right?

Momma Kettle was testing out chairs in the drool-worthy bride's room. It's a huge room that's perfectly circular. So beautiful.  I immediately imagined getting ready there with all my girls. I just knew some of my favorite pics from the wedding would be taken in this room.

Isn't that the most adorable vanity?? I don't even like wallpaper, but I was in love with this room. Mr. Kettle looked at me and went, "oh no, I've seen that look before." He knew I'd be disappointed if/when we had to walk away from this place.

This is the approach walking up. I'm glad they have that middle bar to hold onto. I could imagine the tile on the steps could be very slippery in February.

They have a fountain in the middle of the walkway coming up to the mansion. I bet it looks lovely in February. I'm seeing twinkle lights!

A close-up of the fountain and an outdoors shot of the ballroom. Isn't it just breathtakingly beautiful?

 I don't know if you can tell yet, but I was in love with this place. When we sat down to talk prices, I realized it was outside of our discussed budget. Had we been having the wedding I originally wanted, we would have a much smaller guest list and been able to have the wedding at the Mansion.

Family is super important to Mr. Kettle and I. Having the wedding at the mansion wasn't more important to me than having a large number of family and friends there to celebrate with us. Momma Kettle and I asked a ton of questions and found out a lot of information to see if we could make it work. But ultimately, we decided we would have to keep looking for wedding venues.

Wedding Planning Tip #2: Have a budget in mind before looking at venues so that you'll be aware that you may have to walk away from your perfect venue.

Wedding Planning Tip #3: Know your wedding planning priorities. For me, guest list was a higher priority than wedding venue. After seeing my dream venue, it moved higher on the list of priorities, but not over family, of which Mr. Kettle has a lot.

Winter Wedding Tip #1: Everything with some venues cost less in the winter. This place was willing to knock $2 off per person for everything. That adds up if you have a guest list in the hundreds!
The next place up on the list was Chateau Bu-Sche. This place was owned by the owners of the Patrick C. Haley Mansion, so I had hope this place might have some of the same details I loved so much about the mansion.
Did anyone have to walk away from the perfect venue for budget concerns?