Photographers

Photographers in the area:

• Jeff Wojtaszek Photography (you can also see his blog here)
  
• David Difuntorum Photography
• Laurie Beck Photography
• LoveShackPhoto
• Carol McDonald
• Liz Warnek Photography
• Lorraine Daley (you can also see her blog here)
• Sarah Dicicco (you can see her blog here)
  

I like some of these guys more than others. I really like Carol McDonald, although she photographs in the Poconos. I emailed her to see if she'd be willing to travel to eastern PA for our wedding, because her rates are much more reasonable than lots of the photographers in the Philly region. Even if she charged to travel, it would probably still cost less than some of these other photographers, and I think it'd be worth it since I like her photography style. I emailed everyone on this list to see more about packages/rates/availability. Will post more as I narrow down the search. Oh- we also started looking at music for the ceremony/cocktail hour this weekend. We're awaiting a few CDs, so I'll post more about that after we get more info in the mail.

Save the Date's On the Way!

Save the Date's are DONE!!!! Expect to get the finished product sometime this week! Here are our cheesy pictures capturing one of our first wedding "moments":

Dresses by Watters

I saw that Watters has a trunk show December 11, 12, & 13th at a bridal shop that's only a few minutes away from my house (Betsy Robinson's Bridal). I figured I would look closer at these dresses to see if any were worth going to see. I really didn't find any that I truly loved, but here are the ones I liked:

• Casandra -
  
• Clarissa -
• Francesca - even though I don't think I want strapless, I should at least try one on to see...
  
• Gloria - I wish the beading went all the way to the bottom of this dress
• Ivette -
  
• Love - I kind of like this, minus the brooch
• Patricia - I don't think I really want spaghetti straps, but you never know
  
• Toulouse - this style is a little different from what I would normally like, but I think I'd like to try it just to see what it looks like when it's on
  

Save the Dates

Check em' out. Still a lot to put together, but here's the finished product!

Updated Save the Dates

So... my perfectionism got the best of me and I chose new envelopes and a new font for the save the dates. Here they are:

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Here's the idea for the save the dates. After hours of frustration with Microsoft Word, I've decided to do them scrapbook-style. The base of them is pink/gray, and I've made a little envelope thingy to place the magnets in. Check it out:

Dresses

Here are some dresses that I like (seriously, this time):

• Autumn Royale by Maggie Sottero
• Jim Hjelm @ Kleinfield
• Jim Hjelm - Style 8856
• Jim Hjelm - Style 8814
• Jim Hjelm - Style 8654
• Jim Hjelm - Style 8660

Dresses

Since we've found a place to have the wedding, I'm excited to start looking at dresses now. What do you think of this one?

Save the Dates

I'm thinking magnets... I haven't decided whether I'm going to make them or if I'm just gonna order them online, but I started the envelopes today. I just got some plain white ones from Joann's and printed the addresses on. I also decided to make them look a little fancier and stamped some silver swirls on the front and back. I also got some beautiful paper (perfect shades of pink and gray) for some other DIY stuff in the future. Bridesmaids- if you click on the picture of the envelopes, the picture will enlarge and you can see your name- I blurred out the street addresses :)

Wedding Location

After a long, long, Saturday- we're 99% sure we've chosen our wedding location. As long as everything promised reads true in the contract, there really is no reason why we won't have the wedding here. It is very reasonably priced and gives us a nice place to have the ceremony and reception, in addition to a place for all of our family & friends to stay. While I'm not thrilled about the exterior appearance (not a fan of the hotel or barn in the ceremony background), things are beautiful inside of the facility. I'm exhausted, but very excited to start planning more of the "fun stuff" now! Here's a slideshow of some of the pictures I took while we were there yesterday:

Busy Saturday

Saturday was a very long, but productive day. We saw all the places we had planned to see, which ended up giving us great insight because each place was so completely different. Here's my description & review of each place:

1) Holly Hedge Estate - small bed & breakfast-type place - 15 guest rooms - nice property, nice ceremony and reception location - priced above-average
2) Normandy Farm - medium sized hotel/conference center that used to be a farm - has 113 hotel rooms & 28 guest suites - has an okay ceremony site (with a good indoor alternate) - has a pretty cocktail hour area and pretty reception hall - very reasonably priced
3) Fonthill Castle Estate - historic landmark - looks much better in pictures - prices are okay, but still are a little high given that they don't include alcohol in the package

Saturday Schedule

Time	Place	Location
10:00	Holly Hedge	New Hope, PA
12:00	Normandy Farm	Blue Bell, PA
2:00	New Hope Vacation Rental	Doylestown, PA
3:15	Fonthill Castle	Doylestown, PA

I talked to someone at Stroudsmoor today too, and August 20th is still available... so that is always an option if the places we see this weekend are too expensive or if we don't like what we see.

A few other ceremony/reception possiblities...

Places in the area (Philadelphia suburbs) that we plan to see this weekend:

• Fonthill
  
• Normandy Farm
• house rental in New Hope
• Holly Hedge Estate
  

We are also still looking at the Stroudsmoor in the Poconos. We always really liked it, but hadn't really considered it because we thought we were going to plan everything on our own. Now that we're thinking about having the ceremony/reception somewhere else.. we're thinking it might be a good option because then we could find some more houses that are more reasonably priced for the week. Who knows... this is so confusing. I REALLY REALLY just want to make a decision this weekend. So if we don't like these places... Stroudsmoor it is!

Here's the plan for now...

We plan to see the New Hope rental on Saturday at 2:00. It's a little pricey, but it's close to a few of the ceremony sites, and looks like it would be an awesome house to stay in for the week. As for the wedding planner, I'm not sure if that'll be necessary and/or in the budget if we have the ceremony/reception elsewhere. The owner said that having the reception at the house will actually cost more (not sure how, but he said he'd explain when we meet on Saturday) and that every bride that has stayed there has chosen to have the ceremony somewhere else after figuring out the details. When we go up there on Saturday, we're also hoping to see the Holly Hedge Estate and the Fonthill Castle Museum. The good thing about Fonthill is that you bring your own alcohol (they still provide the bar tender), so that will save a lot of money. Their fee also includes chairs, tents (if needed), linens, tableware, etc., so that eliminates the need to rent things. They also work along side a catering company, which is who actually coordinates all of the property rentals. So that would also be nice to not have to worry about searching for caterers/bartenders. It would also would eliminate the need for lots of decorations because the place is so beautiful already. Anyway, my mom is planning to call them tomorrow (they were closed today for some reason) to try to get some more information.

Thank you all for your emails/posts with advice and encouragement. And thank you Mom for helping me with all these new places! I'm so lucky to have such good friends and family to help with planning the wedding!

New Hope Vacation Rental

New Hope Vacation Rental

• 4500 sq ft - sleeps 10+
• 6 bedrooms / 3.5 baths
• set on 5.5 acres
• has heated pool
• includes a stone house and a barn that has been redone to accommodate additional guests
  

This place looks big enough and nice enough to host the ceremony and/or reception. I'm completely torn between doing the house thing or going somewhere to minimize the planning and # of vendors I'll have to worry about. I'd love to rent the house and have the ceremony/reception somewhere else, but that really isn't an option. I'm so indecisive about this!!!!!!!! Any thoughts???

• Homeaway.com ID#: 195257
• Link: homeaway rental
  

Wedding Confusion...

So we were all ready to book a room at the bed & breakfast close to the house in Damascus, and were planning to visit the house this weekend- then we (75% me, 25% Scott) started to question the idea of doing everything ourselves. Do we really want to have a ceremony and reception at the house where we're staying at all week? Do we really want to plan every detail of this reception and rely on several vendors to pull through on our wedding day? Are we putting to much thought & energy into making sure our guests will have plenty to do if they come to the wedding? Do we really want to drive 4 1/2 hours every time we need to meet with florist/officiant/planner/etc.? Should we choose a beautiful ceremony site and then plan everything else around that? We never really did come up with any answers, but we did start to broaden our search and focus on finding a beautiful place to hold a ceremony. We're not sure about this weekend, but I'll post more when we figure it out. In the meantime, look at the new links & pictures below of all the new places that we found. My mom is going to help with calling some of them to see whether they're available and/or affordable. Will keep everyone posted!

Other pretty sites...

• Cairnwood
• Merion Tribute House
• Holly Hedge Estate
• Pen Ryn Mansion
• The Elkins Estate
  

Fonthill Castle Estate

Fonthill Castle Estate

• Memorable Affairs - Fonthill Castle