nh08's reviews

When your guests ask you what they can do to help out for the wedding, or what you would like for a wedding present, ask them to bring bars or something from dessert. Most people laugh at the suggestion, thinking that we were joking. But we're not! In total, twenty people brought a dessert plate of some sort, ranging from cookies to bars to cupcakes. What happens is that people then have something to snack on while the caterers are setting up. Also, it helps to cut down on the cost of wedding cake. Wedding cakes can be expensive, and having a dessert table for people to chose between kind of helps make the small cake feed more! And it makes people feel happy to bring something that will cause instant happiness!

My husband and I love local music, and so do most of my friends. We decided to combine our love of music and pretty things for our joint-Bachelor party and attend the second or third annual Rock and Shop Market. This happens once a year, and it's a place where local up and coming bands play while local artisans show off their wear. It was great attending this place and looking at all the jewelry and clothing, and getting to listen to lots of upcoming bands. I knew most of the sellers, so eventually just settled into a corner with a few beers and talked about wedding plans and decoration ideas while my husband-to-be got on stage with his friend's band and jammed. There are so many creative people here! I got ideas for name tags, invitations, bouquets, and party favors. And everyone had a good time because you could move around and do different things. Afterward we all went out for beers, and then home!

Thai Palace Restaurant in Raleigh has some of the most amazing vegetarian dishes in the area. My family loves to go there for the pad thai. Eric's parents had a harder time getting into the menu, mainly because this isn't the type of food that they normally eat. I think most people enjoyed it because there are enough items on the menu that are familiar (like the chicken dishes). Also, the food is not spicy unless you request it to be really spicy. It was the first time for many of our family members there, so they were really impressed with the cute decorations and the overall atmosphere. We called two days ahead to let them know that we would be bringing in a group of 14 on a Thursday night, and they set aside tables and made sure that we were served quickly. I liked it, and I know we will go back again.

I loved our cake! We set up a consultation with Lynn, who has so many years of experience in the wedding cake business in the area. She asked us all about where our reception would be, what kind of decorations we would have, and the number of guests. The cake estimate was $175, which was about average. We knew that we could get a cake for less at Wal-Mart, but we weren't interested in doing that. Also, the cake tasted really nice, and she would take care of the setting up of the cake table. It was three tiers, chocolate with butter cream frosting. We also requested that the cake be decorated with white on off-white flowers, to match the pattern of my dress. I loved the cake! It was beautiful, everyone who had a piece loved the taste of the cake! We were surprised that we had some left over (we brought it home) but we think it may have been because we stuff our guests with cookies and bars before we cut the cake.

This was a catering service that came really recommended to both our families; they had catered the wedding of Eric's cousin, and Eric's parents had gotten and held onto their card since 2003. We were nervous about the costs, but the event planner that we worked with was great. She was just as much opposed to wasting food as we were worried about wasting money on too much food, and with over ten years of experience as an event planner, she assured us that she would help us come up with the best menu possible. We had hot and cold plates, as well as appetizers. They brought in and took care of the dishes and clean up. Of the food we ordered, I would have to say that the roasted potatoes and cole slaw were my favorite, and I know that my dad loved the freshly sliced roast beef. The food selections that they recommended, like the number of fruit plates and cheese and meat plates, along with the sliced roast beef was perfect. It was more fancy than a regular cookout, but it wasn't pretentious. One thing we did opt of was the desserts, just because we had already ordered our cake elsewhere by the the time we met with the caterers.

Rev. Lawrence F. Holmes performed the ceremony, but we did speak with all the other pastors at one point or another about the value of marriage, and what it would mean to be married in the Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. Because Rev Holmes knows us, he was able to make the service very personable, and we felt as if he was really talking to us and our close friends rather than reciting something from a book. I think, for a wedding, it's a wonderful expereince to have the pastor know you very well. It feels more like a close friend is letting you get married.

It was a beautiful service. I think one reason why we both like Holy Trinity so much is that the congregation really has a strong musical background, so there's always singing and piano and guitars. We knew that our wedding would have music in it, and that music would play a big role. We were happy that, as members, Rev. Lawrence F. Holmes recognized that and let music be a part of our ceremony; our close friends were allowed to play the music, and it was quite nice being surrounded by the sounds of guitars and bells. The ceremony itself was traditional. In the year we got engaged, we spoke with the pastors about the role and value of marriage. Then we set a date, and began to discuss the details of the wedding procedure. It was fun and great, because you could tell that everyone was genuinely happy for us. I'm am not sure if you can get married here or rent the facilities if you're not a member, but it's very easy to become a member.

Reception:

What I liked best about having this place as the reception was that it has a great atmosphere: it's beautiful, spacious, and people really feel at home. There is a space for setting up food for the caterers (and they let us know that we could bring in any caterers as long as they were clean). We couldn't have any hard liquor, but in the end we decided that it would be okay to have a non-alcoholic party. There is an outdoor space and an indoor space, and people can move back and forth. We also had Eric's band there, along with several of his close friends who are in other bands. They were great and played the cheesy wedding music that everyone loves to dance to. My other top pick for here is that there is a really beautiful rose garden nearby. We had some great pictures taken there right after the reception.

I can't get over how beautiful my ring is. I always said that if I was lucky enough to get a ring, I wouldn't care what it looked like. Eric must have take that as a challenge because he went out of his way to design and find a jeweler who could make the ring of my dreams. The band fits my hand perfectly, it sort of curves in to match the natural groves of my hand. And Eric had chosen an opal as the main stone and put in as well as a bunch of small diamond in the wedding band part. It looks really amazing. From what Eric says, the staff of jewelers at Jewelsmith are amazing, really talented and helpful. I believe that it was someone by the name of Carl that worked on my ring. Eric had a great expereince there and has been suggesting to his friends to go buy their rings there, too.

I found out about Purple Puddle through one of the Bridal Shows I attended. It's a really cute shop that takes care of the delicate details of the wedding, like flowers and invitations. I went there because I was in need of invitations, I wanted them to be nice, and I didn't have the time to make them myself. I had ideas, I just had waited to long to execute them. Also, many of our friends who make cards and prints didn't have the time to make the invitations for me at a cost that I could afford. I liked Purple Puddle because Kathy was great about showing me what they had in stock, and she was also great about understanding that I wanted something unique and special. They carry some really great labels, so it was easy to find things that I likes but hard to narrow it down to just two or three styles. I made a second appointment to go in with Eric and have him decide between the three styles. The styles were all unique, and all very rock and roll! We had already written up what we wanted the invitations to say, so then it was just a matter of placing our order. It was great service, really quick, and in less than a week our invitations were ready. The samples/proofs looked good, as did the final product. We were really happy with how the invitations looked, and working with Kathy was great.

We found this really nice webpage that lets you create a webpage about your own wedding. I loved it, mainly because we were able to include pictures and music and the story of how we met. I think one draw back of this site is that we couldn't put the pictures where we wanted. Also, there was a limit to how big the picture could be. It would be nice if we had a bit more freedom in how we could place the graphics and stuff. But again, it's free! And we got lots of compliments on it, which indicated that it was a good idea. We only had about 30% of our guests confirm that they would attend the wedding on the online RSVP page, and so we still sent out RSVP cards in the mail. In the end, we still had to call people to find out whether they would be at the wedding.