My best friend had the idea of decorating a table with pictures of me and my husband throughout our life together. We weren’t going to be having a slide show, mainly because there was no screen and we didn’t have a budget to rent more equipement, and also because people like pictures. My best friend and my mom bought about 3 dozen frames from K-Mart, all different sizes, but all white frames. It was the coolest thing ever! It looked great. They spent between $3-10 a frame, some of which were on sale. Afterwards my husband and I kept more than half the frames and put them in our house.

We chose to stay here on our wedding night because our apartment is so small, and there wouldn’t have been enough room to host all our guests that were coming from out of town! The hotel is great because it has a pool, and we were able to sit by the pool or in the lounge area. Also, they gave us a great deal because we had reserved a block of rooms. We had a great 15% discount, and on our wedding night our room was free. This Holiday Inn is clean and very nice, and also the managers and staff were great. Even though we live in Dayton, they had lots of great suggestions of where we could go with our friends to eat or hang out, and even nice areas for pictures.

This was somewhat good and somewhat bad. It was good that we rented some mini-vans, because we were able to chauffer guests to and from the hotel and reception area. It was also nice to have the mini-vans on the Friday night, because my uncles were able to get family from the airport, and then they were able to transport supplies to the wedding reception hall. It was really, really handy! I also didn’t mind (in fact I loved) climbing out of a mini-van with all my bridesmaids! The only problem was with customer service, which took a long time. There was some miscommunication between my husband and the Hertz car rental person. Luckily we rented the cars on a Thursday and had extra time and we could afford to wait around.

My mother suggested we go to a pizza place after the rehearsal dinner, because pizza is something that everyone likes and that is fast to serve. I think this was a good idea, only I think I would suggest ordering pizza, because not everyone is ready to eat at the same time. My fiance/husband and I were late because of last minute details. The pizza is great, and so is the garlic bread, and the restaurant is nice. I think going out to eat wasn’t a good idea, and I think if we would have ordered pizza people could have eaten sooner.

I am only giving three because I still had to put on my make-up the day of the wedding myself. I bought Clinique make-up because it is suppose to be for sensitive skin, and I didn’t want to wear anything that would cause me to break out. I went a month before my wedding to the make-up counter, and the sales person gave me a lesson on what formal make-up should look like, what essentials were, and how to choose my colors and apply it. Before then, I had only worn cover girl make-up. The clinique make-up feels much nicer on my skin, and the color matching was perfect.

My husband originally wanted to have a ring made for me, but when we looked into that option, we heard of too many people who had overpaid and still didn’t get what they wanted, or that the diamonds were inferior quality. When I went to Kay Jewelers with my fiance/husband for the first time, I couldn’t understand how someone couldn’t find what they would want amongst all the ring styles they have. Some of the rings were beautiful, and I had a hard time choosing a ring! In the end I think the ring chose me, it just looked right when I put it on my hand. I think the staff at Kay’s was wonderful, they were so nice and supportive. I was happy to buy my ring from them.

My husband’s best friend was in charge of finding cheap hotel rooms for some of the bachelors, and I think he associated cheap with gross. I didn’t stay here, but from what I heard from the people who did end up choosing this hotel over the other ones we suggested said the rooms were damp, a little smelly, and not very nice. If you just want a place to sleep, then this place is fine, but just barely. One person who stayed here said she would have rather have paid a taxi the money to drive her home.

We bought our own supplies and made our own centerpieces with plants and flower vases that we bought at wal-mart. I bought these beautiful gold hurricane vases in January, they were meant to be for Christmas but they looked beautiful at the wedding. The vases were originally $15 but I paid $5 for each one, and we bought 20 total. I’m sure they would have gotten cheaper, but I didn’t want to wait and there not be enough in stock. And then we got fresh flowers a month before the wedding. I would say that each centerpiece cost $10, which is not bad at all.

When I planned the wedding, I thought that because it was near prom season we would find more formal dresses. In the end I didn’t like this season styles, and I found that prom dresses really weren’t suited for bridesmaids dresses. I did end up liking a few styles of dresses at the Dress Barn. The dresses I chose, one style for the maid of honor and another style for the bridesmaids, were really cute! They were simple, which made my wedding dress really look fancy, but they were pretty and delicate, too. I went to the store with my mother, otherwise I probably never would have stepped inside that store.

We bought the flowergirl dress at Sears, and we also bought her shoes there and I think this was also where we bought her small purse. It was a very pretty dress, and they have a great selection, but if we would have waited we could have found better sales. There were so many sales during the two weeks before the wedding! And in the end it didn’t matter that she had an expensive dress on, because she just rolled on the floor anyway. I hate admitting it, but we spent over $200 on a six year old, and I can think of many areas where I would have rather spent the wedding money. My niece looked very sweet, but her outfit was almost the same price as two bridesmaids.