Vendor Review - Cocoa Couture

As I'm writing these Vendor Review posts, I count myself among the really lucky brides.  Every single experience I had in planning our wedding was at the very least good, if not better.  Every one of our vendors did exactly as we asked/anticipated, were there for us, answered our questions, provided a good service, and did it all with a smile on their faces.  All of that = no meltdowns on wedding day = one very happy couple.  Yay!

Anyway, back to the review.  Cocoa Couture is a dress shop located right in Hershey (I know, shocking - a business with the word "cocoa" in it in Hershey).  It is relatively new; maybe 3 years old or so?  I just know that I didn't remember noticing it until my sister got engaged, which was 3 years ago.  It's right along the main street in Hershey.

It's a pretty little building.  When you first walk in, you're greeted with a big stone fireplace.  If you go to the right, you'll find the bridal party/prom and mother-of-the dresses.  To the left, is the bridal room.  Hundreds of dresses.  Since I was (oh, who I am kidding...AM) an avid watcher of Say Yes to the Dress, I handled the sight of hundreds of white dresses hanging along the walls of the enormous room just fine.  However, I could easily see how it could be overwhelming for some.  Cocoa Couture carries tons of designers - David Tutera, Nicole Miller, Pronovias - plus, they have an in-house designer, Daniel Thompson.

I went shopping with my mom, my sister/MOH Callie, and my MIL.  We walked in and immediately were greeted by our consultant, Amy.  Amy sent my entourage into the bridal room, while she and I sat down to talk about what I was looking for.  I told her a bit about the wedding and showed her the picture of the dress I had fallen in love with.  It was an Augusta Jones.  I knew Cocoa Couture carried Augusta Jones, so I was hoping against hope that they had it.  I showed Amy the picture and asked if they had it.  She knew they didn't.  She asked me what it was I liked about that dress so much, then looked at a few other pictures.  She knew they had something really similar to the Augusta Jones, so she sent me into the bridal room to start pulling dresses with my crew, while she went around the store and searched for the dress she had in mind.  About 20 minutes later, she showed up, triumphant.  My mom, sister, MIL, and I had, in the meantime, pulled about a dozen other dresses.  She was so excited that she had found the dress she was looking for, so she put me in that one first.  My heart kind of stopped.  She'd nailed it.  It was everything I'd been hoping for: flowy, comfortable, fun (bubble hem and swiss dot!), ethereal... It was me.  I walked out of the dressing room and by the look on my sister's face, I knew she thought it was perfect, too.  My mom and MIL both loved it.  As we stood there, admiring me in the mirror, Amy said, "You know what this dress reminds me of?  You know that Jane Austen novel, Emma?"  I just about died.  I told her that my nickname is Emma.  Also, Matt and I had already designed our cake, and it had swiss dots on it.  Hello?!?! 

And yet, despite all the signs screaming this this dress was the one and I should just stop shopping, I couldn't bring myself to stop yet.  I don't know if it was the fun of trying on pretty white dresses all day, or the knowledge that I had 2 more appointments scheduled that day, but I just couldn't bring myself to say, "This is it.  I'm done."  I tried on the rest of the dresses we had pulled.  Daniel Thompson (the in-house desinger) happened to be there and when I tried on one of his dresses, he helped "jack me up" (to steal a line from Monty on Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta) and I really liked it.  But it just wasn't "me."  So we walked out of Cocoa Couture, and away from the dress.  Oh, did I mention that it was a sample sale dress, so it was nearly 50% off?  Yup, I still walked away from it.  And we felt absolutely no pressure from Amy or from Cocoa Couture.  She basically said, "Look, if you leave here and decide later that you want it, just give us a call.  We'll take a deposit over the phone!"  No pressure.  No guilt trips.  Just a friendly reminder that they wouldn't hold it for me, but would happily sell it to me if I decided on it later in the day.  We went to my two other appointments, and I found one or two more dresses I liked.  I even put a deposit on one!  But after we got home, I couldn't stop thinking about the first one.  The "Emma" dress.  That night, at 9pm, I called Cocoa Couture and left a voicemail that I wanted the dress and to please call me ASAP so I could put down a deposit.  Amy called me back on Tuesday (they're closed Sunday and Monday), said "I told you so," then took my deposit over the phone, and the dress was mine.  Crisis averted!

In the coming months, I went back a few times for fittings.  My seamstress was GREAT.  Because of the bubble hem on the dress, she couldn't just hem it like a normal dress.  She basically had to take apart the entire bodice at the empire waist, cut it from there, and put it back together.  Yikes.  She also had to take it in slightly, and move the straps in.  And she added cups for me (yay, no bra!).  She did an awesome job, and the dress fit me like a dream on the wedding day. 

Cocoa Couture was a great shopping experience.  The staff were friendly, knowledgeable, and wanted you to feel like a bride and look your best.  The prices are kind of high, but they carry higher-end designers, so based on who they carry, you should know what to expect walking in there.  They also have a great selection of bridal party gowns, partner with a tux shop, and do stationary there, too.  It could be a one-stop shop for the bride who hates to shop!  I would definitely recommend Cocoa Couture to any bride in the Central PA area.  Definitely.

Vendor Review - Steele Salon

I might be a little biased, but Steele Salon is the best place in the Hershey/Palmyra/Hummelstown area for hair/makeup services.  Why might I be biased?  Well, I went to high school with 1/2 the staff.  One of the stylists was one of my best friends in high school.  One of the other stylists is my "fake" little sister.  I kind of love the staff there.  On a deep, personal level.  It feels like home when I walk into Steele.  So when I needed to decide where to get my hair/makeup done for the wedding, there wasn't even a consideration.

I booked 8 appointments (me, my 6 girls, and my mom) with 3 stylists, plus a makeup artists for me.  Easy-peasy.  We were given Rachel (my stylist/close high school friend), Staci (my "sister"), and Mindi; Sara did my makeup.  Rachel has been styling and/or playing with my hair for at least 10 years, so she knows the texture of my hair and what works and doesn't work for me.  There was no doubt in my mind that she would do an awesome job on my wedding day look.


Me and Rachel.  I look 10.  And thrilled.



Done.  With the feather.

We arrived at Steele at 9am.  And we basically took over.  My dad dropped off bagels from Panera, we brought champagne, and the salon also had champagne and coffee and water for us.  There were 8 of us, plus BM Abriel's baby boy and her mom.  We were easily more than half of the people in the salon all morning.  They had on a fun mix of music, and we basically spent the morning talking, laughing, eating, and sipping mimosas.  Kind of a perfect morning with my best girls. 


 "Sister" Staci and BM Stephy



My sister/MOH Callie, making a mimosa



BM Abriel with her son and her mom


Unfortunately, no one got a picture of our spread, but we had tons of stuff there!  We were there till about 1.  During the time at the salon, I was calm and relaxed.  It didn't feel real yet.  And time was moving at a normal pace.  In fact, it kind of seemed like it might have been crawling.  I just wanted it to be 4:30.

Anyway, this is supposed to be a vendor review, not storytime.  Steele Salon was great - accomodating, friendly, quick, and - best of all - talented!  Each of my girls looked absolutely beautiful.  The stylists really listened to what each girl wanted, and everyone ended up looking like a perfect version of herself.  Definitely, definitely, definitely - if you're looking for a salon in Central PA, go to Steele. 

*all photos courtesy of BM Mel or BM Tina

Vendor Review - Linda's Cakery

Our cake was not something we'd planned on.  During our first meeting with David (coordinator extraordinaire from JDK), he asked us about the cake.  We weren't sold on having a cake-cake.  I always thought the tradition of cutting the cake was so weird - nobody really wants to stand around and watch people cut cake.  We considered cupcakes, but I felt like cupcakes were so trendy (not just in wedding world, but in the real world, in general).  So David suggested doing a display of petits-fours on sticks.  Like Cake Pops (which I've totally made and are absolutely freaking awesome)!  We loved the idea.  So began our search for a bakery who would be willing/able to do this.  I must have contacted about 10 bakeries, and each time I was told they couldn't do it, or it was out of our budget.  Finally, I got in touch with Linda at Linda's Cakery.  She said she could do it for about $1.50 per petit-four.  Banking on about 150 people, 2 pops each, we were looking at $450.  Well within our budget!  We made an appointment to meet with her to see what she could do. 

When we got to her bakery (the basement of her home), we were less-than-pleased with what we saw.  The petits-fours were enormous (about 3x3x3", not 1x1x1" like we'd been picturing, and they were covered in a messy chocolate ganache rather than a nice smooth fondant.  They looked majorly W.T. and we were hugely disappointed.  Luckily, Linda herself admitted they looked terrible and said that she realized she couldn't do what we asked.  Again, hugely disappointed, but really glad for her honesty.  She asked if wanted to look through samples of her previous work.  At this point, I was just anxious to make a decision about the cake, so we said sure.  We ended up really liking with this one design, and after discussing our colors and such with her, we came up with a good plan for a cake. 

Based on our estimated guest list, we ordered a 3-tier cake plus a 1/2 sheet cake.  We tasted several different flavors, and ultimately ended up choosing 3: chocolate with peanut butter filling, french vanilla with raspberry ganache, and pink champagne with strawberry whip filling.  Each would be covered in white chocolate buttercream.  After telling Linda our colors (navy blue, peacock teal, apple green, and brown), she suggested marbling the colors together in order to make it more interesting.  OK, so if you remember, this was our inspiration picture:

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Here is what we ended up with:

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(photo from my mom)

LOVE!  Not only did Linda make a beautiful cake, but it tasted amazing, as well.  And JDK did a great job with adding the flowers/feathers.  We ended up with just the 3 tiers - 2 pink champagne and 1 french vanilla.  We cancelled the 1/2 sheet cake because our guest list ended up being smaller than we'd anticipated.  Initially Linda gave us a hard time about cancelling it - she thought that we would run out of cake.  I spoke to David, though, and he assured me that it would be enough.  

Looking back, I wish I would've taken Linda's advice so that we could have saved the top tier.  We really didn't want to save the top tier, because it sounds just gross, but my sister and her husband also had JDK and she said they wrapped it so well that it still tasted fresh on their year anniversary.  Oh well.  We still plan to go out and have a wonderful dinner with a beautiful dessert.  And I'm actually considering ordering a tiny cake from Linda to surprise Matt for our one-year anniversary.  

In the end, I would definitely recommend Linda's Cakery.  She wasn't overtly friendly; in fact, I found her a bit brash.  But she made a beautiful, delicious cake, and we were really happy with the final product.  And the cost was perfect - well within our budget!

Vendor Review - MixedUp Productions

Book them.  Book them right now.

Ok, seriously.  Initially we booked with Top Hat DJs.  They were the Bride's Choice winner on Wedding Wire for 2009.  They're prices were pretty in line with what we planned to spend.  And the communication I had with the DJ was pleasant.  Unfortunately, a few weeks after booking with them, I got an email stating that they had accidentally double-booked for our date, and wouldn't be able to DJ our wedding.  D'oh!

Blessing in disguise.  I swear.  I mean, I'm sure Top Hat would've done a great job, but we're so glad we found MixedUp Productions.  I don't even remember how I found them; probably Martha Stewart Weddings.  My first communication with Mike Miller was great, and I felt really good about booking them.  When we finally got the chance to meet Mike, it felt like we'd been friends for years.  We bantered back and forth, and he totally got what we wanted.  We met him at the radio station where he's a DJ, and so when we mentioned that we wanted to have him edit down our song ("Chasing Cars," by Snow Patrol), he took us right into the studio and remixed it, right in front of us. 

He was totally on board with us not wanting to do any of the traditions - the bouquet/garter toss, dollar dance, etc.  And he suggested the Kissing Game for during dinner.  We gave him a list of couples that he could call one whenever people clinked glasses, and the couple he called on had to get up and kiss (creatively) and then Matt and I had to copy it.  It was SO much fun and I'm really glad he suggested it.

The day of the wedding, he came out to say hi when we got the reception and make sure things were moving smoothly.  He went over everyone's name again.  During dinner, he came over to me and Matt to make sure we were happy and see if we needed anything; he did that throughout the night, as well.  He played what we asked him to play, avoided what we asked him to not play, and checked with us before playing something that he considered "questionable."  The next day, as I perused facebook, I found that Mike had already put up a slideshow of pictures he'd taken throughout the night set to our song. 

Really, we could not be more impressed with Mike and MixedUp Productions.  We had so much fun at the wedding, and our dance floor was absolutely packed all night long.  Definitely look into them if you're looking for a DJ in the Harrisburg area.  You will not be disappointed!

Vendor Review - Weddings by JDK

Since it looks like it'll be a while until we have full rights to all of our professional photos, I thought I'd take some time to review our vendors.  I have no idea how many (if any) Central PA brides are reading this, but in case you are, hopefully this will help you.  So, to kick things off, I'm starting with our biggest vendor - Weddings by JDK.

JDK was our caterer, our florist, our event designer, and our equipment rental company.  Our day-of coordinator, David, is one of their lead designers.  This was the easiest decision we made, and hands-down the best decision we made (after, you know, agreeing to get married and stuff).  To be honest, we didn't even consider another company.  My sister had hired JDK for her wedding 2 years ago, and I was really impressed with everything they did for her.  Even then, I knew there was no question that we would use JDK when our day arrived.

We called and booked our first appointment with David just a week or so after we got engaged.  When we met with him, it instantly confirmed what we already knew - that this was going to be the day of our dreams.  We told David our vision - using peacock feathers, casual yet elegant, fun, reflective of who we are - David took it and ran with it.  He told us he was going to have fun with our wedding, and boy did he! 

Throughout the planning process, David listened to us and reflected our ideas back to us.  I showed him inspiration pictures and he pushed the creative envelope on them.  We told him ideas and he took them one step further.  He made suggestions and offered advice.  He created our entire menu based on our likes, dislikes, and things we're "known" for serving at our own parties.  Every single time we walked out of his office, we could not stop talking abou thow excited we were to see the whole picture come together.  David was so excited about the design he was creating, it made us even more excited. 

The days leading up to the wedding were, of course, stressful.  But knowing that David would be there, handling any crises that came up, made me feel loads better.  David came to our rehearsal and went over the timeline with the entire wedding party.  He handed out itineraries to everyone, and provided a timeline and important phone numbers.  He stressed to everyone: "If there is a problem, call me.  Don't call Erin or Matt.  Call me.  I will handle it."

The day of the wedding, he was right there.  He held my hand and helped me breathe.  He made an extra trip to the museum and back to get some arrangements for the church because he didn't like the way the bouquets on the altar looked.  He helped to organize the family for family photos.  He made sure everyone kept moving and did their job.  He kept me and Matt fed, hydrated, and happy.  He assigned a waitress just for me and Matt.  He corraled the wedding party when we needed them, and sent people on their way when they were crowding us. 

The bouquets that JDK created were absolutely breathtaking.  They were everything I'd wanted and more.  They wired my grandmother's ring right into the flowers, and it looked awesome.

The centerpieces at the reception were just incredible.  The tall ones completely blew my expectations out of the water, and the shorter ones were just as elegant.

And the bars.  Oh, my God, the bars.  I know what you're thinking.  "What could possibly be so great about a bar?"  Um, this.

JDK also did the flowers for our cake.  Hello, lover.

The table layouts looked fantastic.  With the navy pintucks and the white dishes and the wine bottles and...and everything.  They set up everything.  All we had to do was deliver boxes to the museum and they took care of everything - the gift table, the escort card table, the guest book, the group photo sign. 

I seriously cannot sing the praises for JDK enough.  If any bride is planning a wedding in Central PA, call them.  I promise you, you won't regret it.  Oh, and look for my sister's picture in the office.  And on their website.  I'm determined to bump her out, but for now, it's still pretty awesome that she and her husband are featured.

Tell Us a Story (pic heavy!)

I want our wedding pictures to tell the story of our day.  Not to show us standing around, formally posed, looking awkward and like we're dying to get moving already!  Or totally awkward poses, like "Ok, wedding party, watch the bride and groom kiss and act like you're really thrilled about it!"  Ugh.  But I wasn't sure how to convey this to our photographer without being like, "Um, hey...don't make our wedding pictures suck."  So, I started searching for inspiration.  Man, there's lots of inspiration out there!  Ready?

I love these of the wedding party:

We're having a trolley!

I feel like this bride is thinking, "Ahhh...I love my girls!"

Hershey has a really similar crosswalk...

I love this picture of the guys walking into the ceremony

That gorgeous bride in the middle is my friend Lauren (sniped from her facebook page)

Also from Lauren's wedding

This bride is my friend Davina (sniped from her facebook)

Davina's hubby and GM - this picture makes me think of the movie Reservoir Dogs

From our photographer!

There's just something I love about this

Yay!  Love fest!

But wait, there's more!  How great are these of the couple?

I love how the focus is ever-so-slightly more on the flowers

Lauren and her hubby again.  I love this one

Woo-hoo!  We're married!

And these detail shots?!  

I die!

I die again!

Another gorgeous shot from our photographer

I like this askew photo (from our photographer again)

I want our photographer to take a picture like this of our program!

And one like this of my grandmother's ring on my bouquet

There are a few in that big old list from our photographer, Everlasting Images in Hershey.  We fell in love with their photos the first time we saw them.  They send their images off to a publisher in Italy for this fancy finish, and the books have a metallic look to them.  It's impossible to capture on the internet, but just trust me that they are absolutely amazing.  When we met with them to book them, they told us that one of their shooters loves to photograph at the Antique Auto Museum, and was actually planning her own wedding there.  So we're really excited that she's going to be one of our photographers for the day.

*All images, unless otherwise noted, are from the fabulous Style Me Pretty.

Vendor Crush

Shhh...don't tell Matt!  But I totally have a crush on our DJ.  Not, like, a crush-crush (like what I had on Matt in high school).  But seriously?  I heart him.  A lot.

We met with Mike from Mixed Up Productions yesterday.  It was only the second time I'd ever spoken to him, and the first time we actually met (we did our "interview" over the phone).  As soon as we met, I felt like we'd all been friends for years.  He immediately made us feel at ease and like he wanted to help us make our wedding exactly what we want and fun! 

Mixed Up Productions has a great interactive website where you can provide your must-play list, set your wedding/reception schedule, and tell them what your special songs need to be.  You can choose whether or not to do the bouquet/garter toss, anniversary dance, wedding party dance....anything.  You specify everything to make it your night!  It's a great tool, and since we had used that already, Mike had a lot of our info already.  He helped Matt to narrow down options for the mother-son dance, since he and his mom still haven't decided on a song.  When we told him that our first dance is "Chasing Cars," he loved it.  When we asked him if there was a way to cut the song down, he said, "Absolutely!  After we're done her, I'll take you into the studio and we can do it this morning!"  What?!  We went through the sequence of events and figured out timing for everything.  We talked about our current must-play list and our do-not play list.  He helped us figure out if some of our must-plays should play during dinner or the reception.  All in all, he was great.

Once we finished figuring all of that out, he took us into the studio so he could cut back Chasing Cars.  While he made a digital copy of the song, he took us on a tour of the radio station (we met him at his office, which is in the local Clear Channel Broadcasting studios - for Central PA readers, that's The River 97.3, Kiss 99.3, Bob 94.9, and a couple talk stations).  So not only did we get a great meeting with our DJ but we also got a tour of the radio station!  Bonus!  Anyway, after a brief tour, we went back into the studio, where he played around with our song, and ended up with a great cut that is just over 3 minutes rather than its usual almost-5 minutes.  I think I saw Matt's nerves lifting in front of me.  Yippee!! 

On top of all this, he gave us a great suggestion to make dinner time a bit more interesting.  You know the annoying "clink your glass and make the bride and groom kiss" thing?  I hate that stupid thing.  If I could, I would have plastic silverware and plastic cups, just so our guests couldn't do this.  I can't stand it.  Mike suggested that we can turn it into a game.  Every time people click their glasses, he'll call out another couple and make them kiss first, and then we have to copy whatever they do.  We'll supply a list of couples that we think would participate and have fun with it.  Mike said it's fun, funny, sometimes creepy, and people generally love it.  He said it can have 1 of 2 effects - either people get into it and have fun with it, or people stop clinking glasses because they don't want to be next!  Ha!  I think it's going to be a lot of fun, and Matt and I already came up with a great list of couples to give him.  

So...yeah...I'm crushing a little on Mike.  Oh well.  How else are you supposed to feel about someone who makes it so clear that he's going to do everything he can to make your day even better?! 

Food! Part 2

Now, you know what we'll be munching on during cocktail hour. Ready to find out what the real food will be? Cuz it's going to be awesome, too.

There won't be a bread basket to get passed around and man-handled by everyone at the table. Instead, each person will have a martini glass filled with slices of artisanal bread wtih some herbed butter pooled at the bottom. I couldn't find any pictures of this, but just picture it...yeah, pretty great, huh?

Salad will be a seasonal fall salad - baby spinach, apricots, dried cranberries, goat cheese, and walnuts, tossed in a cranberry vinaigrette. Yumm-o.

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For the main course, each guest will have the option to choose (on the RSVP) from one of three meals. First up, the vegetarian option - a stacked vegetable napoleon served on top of Isreali couscous. I know it will include eggplant, but I'm not sure what other veggies will be there. Nonetheless, it looks good. We initially were oging to have a pasta dish with roasted veggies, but I feel like the vegetarian option is always pasta, so when David told us about this as a new option, we jumped on it. Change things up a bit, ya know?

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Another choice is blackened tilapia with a smoked corn relish. I am slowly expanding my seafood horizons, and tilapia is the first fish that I've tried that I really like. I'm working my way up to salmon.

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And last but not least, beef tenderloin with a sea salt rub. Lord knows I love me a good cut of steak.

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Each of the entrees will be served with twice-baked potatoes and roasted vegetables. I think it's all gonna be delish, but of course can only choose one meal, so I'll be going with the steak. Matt's going to get the tilapia. And then we'll trade bites, like we always do.

Stay tuned for the cake, coming soon!

Food! Part 1

I cannot wait for the food that we're planning to serve at our wedding. We worked out an awesome menu with David from JDK, and I think that everyone is going to love it. David asked us what our favorite foods are; what do we like to cook; what are we "known" for among our friends - he used our answers to all those questions to build our appetizer menu. Have I mentioned yet how much I love working with David? Cuz I do.

Anyway, with no further ado, here's a sneak peek at our appetizers...

First up, asparagus and herbed-boursin cheese wrapped in phyllo dough. This one originated from our "pee-stinkers," a really yummy recipe that we like to make and take to parties. Our recipe (courtesy of my mom) is made by cutting the crusts off of white bread, rolling it flat, and smearing Cheez Whiz in it. Then, you roll the asparagus in it, dip it in butter, and then coat it with Parmesan cheese. Then you bake it for about 30 minutes until the bread gets just crispy. It's amazing. It's also white bread and Cheez Whiz, so when David said they've got a fancier version, we went that route. It'll look something like this:

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Up next, a crab cake with aoili lime sauce, served on a small Asian spoon. We chose this because I don't eat much seafood, but I do eat crab cake. Our probably won't be quite this fancy looking:

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And now we have butternut squash soup shooters. David suggested this because it's a great fall option, and its one of their award-winning recipes. So...yummy:

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We're also having gingered chicken meatballs. We told David that Matt loves to make homemade meatballs, just like his grandfather used to do. So he suggested the gingered chicken meatballs to change it up a little bit. (No pictures, unfortunately)

And last but not least....the piece de resistence (as far as I'm concerned)! Cherry tomatoes and mozzarella skewered on a pipette that will be filled with balsamic vinaigrette. You eat the tomato and mozzarella, and squeeze the pipette at the same time - like your own personal caprese salad!

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So those are the butlered hors d'oevres that will be served during cocktail hour. Follow-up post coming about the actual dinner. And....the CAKE!!!

Venues, Vendors, and Vino!

I had envisioned my wedding being held at the Antique Auto Museum for years; ever since a friend of mine got married there 5+ years ago. It's a really unique venue, and the museum remains open during the event so guests can wander around. I love the idea of having the guests milling around the galleries during cocktail hour, rather than standing around awkwardly staring at each other. Matt and I had discussed it a long time ago, and thought it really was the perfect location for our wedding - both of our dads are into cars, so it works as a bit of a tribute to the two of them, as well. But we had to figure out where to have the ceremony. The Antique Auto Museum does hold ceremonies there, as well. But in meeting with the event coordinator (who is also a personal friend of mine!), we discovered that logistically it wouldn't be ideal - private parties cannot get into the museum until 5:30pm, after regular operating hours. And they have to clear out by 11pm. So with 1/2 hour for the ceremony, an hour for cocktails/pictures, that leaves us only 3 hours for dinner and dancing, and that was kind of not ok. Our friends and families are partiers, so we want to have as much time as possible for the fun stuff!

So we started looking around at other venues. My parents had recently joined the Hershey Country Club, so we looked at that. But it felt like too much of a "ballroom," and I wanted something different. Matt and I are not your typical couple - we like to do things a little off-the-wall, so having our wedding and reception in a ballroom just didn't feel right to us. A friend of ours suggested the Hershey Theater, which I had never ever considered as an option, but immediately fell in love with the idea. Both of us had graduated in the Theater, and I spent many years performing in dance shows on the stage. It is a beautiful building, and I could just imagine myself coming down the big staircase for a really cool entrance. Unfortunately, upon looking into it and contacting their event coordinator, we discovered that the date we wanted wasn't available. Plus, it would just barely contain our expected guest count - it would be pretty tight quarters. So, that was out. We went back to considering the Auto Museum, but just felt that we needed more time for the reception.

So we talked about church. Neither one of us is terribly religious or connected to either of our churches. FH grew up in the Catholic Church - he was an alter boy and attended CCD classes. But he became really disenchanted when the molestation scandels took off, and hasn't really been to church in years. I did not grow up in church at all, though I do consider myself to be spiritual and have beliefs that I stand by. And the church that I do attend, when I go, is beautiful inside and I have always felt comfortable there. So we went to check out my church and decided our ceremony would be there. It really is beautiful and I think it's going to make for a lovely ceremony.

Now, onto our vendors. When my little sister got married a couple of years ago, they used JDK Catering, and I was super-impressed. The flowers that they did for the wedding were absolutely stunning, and the food was amazing. And their coordinator was so attentive to the two of them throughout the day. There was no doubt in my mind that FH and I would use them, as well - we didn't even consider other caterers in the area.

During our tour of the Country Club, we were handed two big photo albums to look through of a few different weddings held at the club. We were both really impressed with the one album - the photos were beautiful, and captured a lot of the little hidden moments that many photographers seem to miss. So we got in contact with them (Everlasting Images), along with a few others. In the end, we chose the one we'd seen at the club - we just kept coming back to how their photos really "popped" off the page, and their prices were just right.

On to the vino... JDK does not supply alcohol, so we will have to supply it ourselves. Which is find with us, because we get to choose the wine and beer, and limit which types of alcohol will be serves (for example, no tequila!). One of the best parts of the wedding planning process - choosing the wines! We have already had one reds tasting, and are scheduled for a few more. My parents are actually into wine and have the lingo down, so it's fun to test out the various wines with them. We're looking forward to picking a really yummy bunch of wines to serve at our reception!!