blankhomedotmeet bredotcontactdotoutfitsdotcharlotte socialblank

2.12.2014

Wedding Wednesday: HELP!

Wedding Wednesday and this bride needs some help & suggestions!!!

First off I wanna go to Maui for our honeymoon, but lord I have no idea what I'm doing. Every time I even start looking at places I panic, hard. I want to stay somewhere that I know someone has gone to and didn't get a Staph infection from the bed or food poisoning from the local bar. I want to know details! Have any of y'all ever been to Maui/ Big Island area? Oh and don't even try to suggest anywhere besides Hawaii, I refuse to leave the United States. My medical conditions and foreign countries will never be a good recipe, ever. 

Moving on- how does one bride calculate beer/wine for a wedding of 254? I keep finding online calculators but literally every calculator gives me a different amount. I kind of panic about this daily. Someone help, what did you do? We will be getting our alcohol through a distributor my parents know so we will be getting it cheap-o but I just don't know how much to get! 

Videographer. I am not sold on this. I love the idea of getting to watch everything over again and remembering it and blah, blah. However, how many times am I actually going to watch it? Is it worth the money? Newlyweds, I know y'all will highly recommend this but what about y'all that have been married for awhile, do you think it was worth it? I have someone in mind that I want to use but I just am not sold on the idea of it in general. Y'all start commenting... 

When I picture my wedding I picture tons of candles. Beautiful right? Well I can't have candles at my venue, none. That leaves me with the idea of battery operated candles, however those will cost me my entire wedding budget to purchase. Have y'all seen or purchased these anywhere for a decent price? Or better yet, is there a romantic lighting alternative? 

 So I've done a ton of wedding planning lately and I just have so many questions! I would really appreciate some feedback if y'all have any! 

signature

13 comments:

  1. i work over at the duke mansion as an event manager... i always estimate 1.5 drinks per person, per hour. if you know you have a mostly younger crowd... wouldn't hurt to estimate 2 drinks per hour. sometimes distributors will let you return unopened cases of beer & wine. good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am saying no to a videographer for my wedding. My fiance's sister had her videoed and she has only watched it like once in the 6-8 years they've been married and that was right after the wedding. I would suggest saving that money for something else. I'm going to have mine videoed on an iPhone to send to my cousin in Korea, but that's free :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bless your heart! I know this might not help much because I don't personally know any specific resorts/hotels but as far as the area, my in-laws went there for their honeymoon and times since and loved it!! It looks really beautiful. As far as battery operated candles...have you looked on the website save-on-crafts.com? I'm not sure the prices of the ones you've seen but they usually have great deals on things such as that (I looked and they have a good number of them), I got a couple things from them for my wedding as well. Remember to breathe, I know it can be very overwhelming but it will all come together beautifully as it should! Good luck :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Planning the honeymoon was really stressful for me too. Unfortunately I don't have any tips on Hawaii except that it will be beautiful!! We estimated three/four drinks per guest but we also knew about half of our guests weren't going to drink. Videographers are tough because there are so many good ones and the videos are really cool....but they're expensive. We opted out and haven't regretted it. It's a cool idea but that money can go towards something else. And twinkly lights maybe?!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am a wedding/event planner and I agree with Laura's comment - 1.5/2 drinks per person per hour is a good estimate. However, if you are buying from a distributor, I would ask them if they will buy back any unopened bottles after the wedding - that way you could purchase more than you need just in case and then when you have left over get your money back. Regarding the videographer, I actually think they are not worth the money - you will watch the video a few times, put it on facebook, etc...but the amount they cost is definitely not worth it when you could use that money for some extra special honeymoon adventures! Hope this helps!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm so on the fence about a videographer, too. I really really want one but the fiancé would rather spend that money on the honeymoon and we've elected to put it towards that. But, if money magically appears that exactly where I want it to go!

    ReplyDelete
  7. We went to Hawaii 5 or so years ago and stayed in Maui for a week. We were based in a condo which was a short drive from Lahaina...right near the Ritz Carlton (there was a deal with our condo and the Ritz that we got to use their pool, which was sweet) and near the ocean. I believe we got the deal on Expedia. and Lahaina was such as cute, quaint town with plenty of restaurants and bars and close to a lot of activities. You should definitely go to a luau and go whale watching...it's worth it!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm not married - nor am I anywhere near getting married at the moment but I love anything that has to do with getting creative or design! Candle suggestions - if you want to stay within budget white christmas lights wrapped in white (or colored) tulle would be very romantic and you can put them (and wrap them) anywhere! If you need photographer suggestions I have a friend who is an amazing photographer out of Kernersville, NC! Also - Look on orientaltrading.com for supplies if you're doing anything yourself! Hope you find this helpful!

    ReplyDelete
  9. For your honeymoon in Hawaii -- I've heard amazing things about the Grand Wailea on Maui. My parents stayed there a few times when they went, and one of my co-workers stayed there on her honeymoon this fall and LOVED it!

    ReplyDelete
  10. GET A VIDEOGRAPHER!! I cannot stress this enough. We weren't sold on the idea either but 2 weeks before the wedding my husband changed his mind and booked one. It was the best money we ever spent (besides my wedding planner) The day goes by so fast.. you forget stuff is happening.. the ceremony flies by.. so does the reception. We watch our wedding video every year on our anniversary (we've been married 6 years in June) and I am SO thankful every time we do that we booked one. It's one of my favorite pieces of advice to give to brides when they're planning. I promise you won't regret it!
    xoxo,
    Nikki at www.bedazzlesafterdark.com

    Enter my giveaway for 2 $75 Belk Gift Cards here!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. We estimated 6 drinks per person for our wedding. Sounds INSANE but think- you have the old people who don't drink, our aged people who come to the wedding to DRINK, and the in-betweens. Tyler probably drinks 12 (AHH) and me maybe 4-5 depending on how cray cray I'm getting. So 6 is an OK balance?

    We didnt get a videographer and it is the ONLY thing i regret. I wish I had video of everyone dancing at our reception because I don't remember it (refer to point #1).

    What about Christmas lights that are subtle?

    Email me if you have other questions/ideas. I miss wedding talk!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Also!!! Call a travel agent for honeymoon- best idea EVER!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Literally, everything you are saying we...let's be honest (grooms aren't that helpful)...I went through!! Hawaii- our travel agent was a God-send. She books 150 Hawaiian honeymoons a year so she really has a great understanding of where to go and what to do. I am going to send you our whole itinerary. The Big Island was AMAZING and adventurous and Maui was beautiful and relaxing. The whole thing was perfect and we talk about it every other day on how we wish we were back on our honeymoon!

    We got a beer and wine vendor that did a straight per person cost no matter what they drank, so I am going to be no help on that one!

    Since our venue was a historical building were not allowed to have candles, hang anything from the walls, attach anything anywhere in any way basically. I know what you are thinking- we did have candles! I REALLY wanted a candle lit ceremony and I actually wanted candles all over the platform (I didnt get that), but what I did get I talked to the people at the venue to see if there was any compromise. They agreed to candles in vases where the wick was 2 inches below the glass.I had looked into a company that was willing to rent out fake candles (made of real wax) that were beautiful.

    Also as you know (but in case others are wondering)- we didn't have a videographer, we used WeddingMix where we got 3 cameras that could be passed around for videos, and then anyone could upload videos to the app. Then, you can have a professional edit it together, or edit it yourself. I love video editing so I decided to do it myself, however, I haven't gotten to it yet. So maybe its best to get someone else to do it! For us, this was the perfect compromise. We didn't need a big professional movie, we figured it would be more fun to go back and look at raw footage from our friends and family. We saved a few thousand and still have video from our day! We paid for everything from rehearsal dinner through reception ourselves so that was a huge win for us.


    Goodness....sorry....I could talk wedding planning for hours.....

    I think ill blog my honeymoon this week because everyone has been asking about it.


    RachelHodgePodge.com

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for the comment! I love to hear what my readers think, each comment means so much to me! xoxo