Once the big question was asked and answered, we had to decide a few things. Like when and where. The colors. The people to include. Who would take pictures, play music, bake the cake, cook the food, and arrange the flowers.
The when and where was easy. We wanted to have the ceremony in the Fall and in the North for the pretty fall colors. So we decided to do it in Detroit Metro area in October. Because we live in the South, we asked Brian’s mom to be our eyes, ears and mouth. She was delighted. When we asked, she got tears in her eyes.
She went right to work the very next weekend and started visiting venues. To our amazement, most venues were booking for 2016 with only 1-3 days available for the Fall in 2015!!! That sent Lynn into frenzy mode. She went to as many places as possible over the next week or two. Gathered information and emailed it to us.
Out of six places that had any dates in the Fall of 2015, we narrowed it down to two. Fox Hills and The Dearborn Inn. i liked Fox Hills because they had a covered patio/tent like area. Brian did not like them because if it rained, we would have to do our reception inside. The inside was not near as pretty as the outside. The Dearborn Inn was beautiful inside but we were not as happy with the style of the gazebo outside for the ceremony. They also told us that we would HAVE to use Pastry Palace for our cake. What if we do not like their cake? i am very picky in regards to cake so this was almost a deal breaker for me.
The week of July 26-31, 2014, Lynn called us and told us that 3 other couples were coming that weekend to look at The Dearborn Inn for our date specifically. We told her to book The Dearborn Inn for us right then and there. Sheesh! Talk about popular…weddings in the Fall in the North…who would want that?
When Lynn booked the venue, she was advised to get the photographer, videographer and DJ as soon as possible too because they were a high commodity. So off to work Lynn went again. The person at The Dearborn Inn was not joking either. The DJs were being booked 2 years in advance as well. SOOOOO…decision time again. Lynn went to gather information and send it to us to review. We picked our DJ relatively quickly. We chose a man named Mike Dembs who works with Mike Staff Productions. It took us a couple of days to pick him, whereas it took 3 weeks to pick a venue.
Next was our photographer. We chose a wonderful man named Harry Vitanis. He does beautiful work. If you want to see some of his work, here is his website. He was slotted to do our engagement photos as well.
Originally we decided not to have a videographer. Everything was already getting pretty expensive! BUUUT Lynn wanted us to have a video to remember things by, and she included the videographer into the already growing list of ways she is helping us with our wedding. Harry suggested a man named Charles Horn because they work well together. He does a great job too from the videos we sawl on his website.
All that is left is the flowers, the tuxes, the cake flavors (we already picked out the design), the favors, decide on the song list, the gifts for the bridal party, pick an officiant, finalize the honeymoon, get the ceremony accessories (like the flower girl’s bubble gun…J/K, the marriage license and the guest book), get the dress accessories…and that’s about it! WOOT WOOT!