Wed Recap: Videos and fun pages from our Guest Book

As I mentioned, I wanted to finish up the last 4 or so wedding recaps I had.  So you all know that the guest book was like one of the best parts of our wedding because it involved the photobooth.  I knew I wanted photos of every single guest (as many as we could collect) from our actual wedding day.  So we incorporated the idea of using a photobooth to offer a fun entertaining activity for the guests as well as an extra favor for them to remember our wedding by.  And the second set of photos that they took would be placed on a page from our guest book. 

Here's some video of some of the guests in the photobooth throughout the night:

Rather than using the typical scrapbook with blank pages for our guest book, I found a company called the Guestbook Store online and ordered a book and customized pages for our guests to complete.  The pages have a place for a 4 x 6 photo of the guests - perfect since that was the size our photobooth printed out.

Here are some of my favorite pages of our guest book.  (Please note that the pages are double sided but the photo only goes on one side)  :)

This couple color coded their answers so we would know which came from each of them :)

I love how Kristin even colored in the page in our wedding colors on this page:

I love how our neighbors mentioned the video from our ceremony with such enthusiasm:

I think the best 'real' advice I got from anyone was from Mr Fix It's mother who wrote the following:

I particularly liked that my aesthetician/masseuse wrote under "How do you know Stacey & John?" :  "I make Stacey feel good with my hands." 

And I thought it was pretty profound when one of Jordan's friends wrote under the 'advice' section 'Not to fight because it scares kids.'  :)

Share time:   What did/are you doing for your guest book?  Did you incorporate photos of the guests? 

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  If you incorporate a photobooth or guest book that may not be too self explanatory at your wedding, it's a good idea to put up a bunch of clear signs with instructions or even better, have an attendant to direct your guests on what to do and how to use the equipment. 

Wed Recap: Great expectations...

I never did a full recap about our experience with our DJ.  I think of all of our vendors, the DJ was one the one that we really put a lot of expectations on.  So much so, that we even had like 3 or 4 meetings with him and the owner of the company to confirm all that we were hoping to accomplish for our guests at our wedding.

The best thing I can say is that they were super organized and attentive and extremely accommodating.  I think for all we got from them (a custom GOBO light of our names, uplighting for around the reception room, audio system and wireless microphones for the ceremony and reception, dance floor lights, about 8 hours of coverage, emcee services, etc) we got a really good deal from a quality company.  They were a pleasure to work with.  But unfortunately, no matter how much we communicated everything to them, things didn't come off the way we had envisioned them in our heads.

He did play a good mix of music and there were definitely people dancing, but it didn't seem like a lot of the songs Mr Fix It and I had specifically hoped for were played much.  It could have just been that I didn't hear half of them while I was chatting with guests or that we simply ran out of time, which TOTALLY happens at wedding receptions!

I had put trivia questions on the guests' tables asking them to answer the question in order to get the bride and groom to kiss.  About 3 or 4 people came up with their answers immediately after the grand entrance but that was it.  The DJ didn't really walk around encouraging the guests to answer the questions while dinner was being served and people were hanging out.
Probably our biggest let down though was in the way the grand entrance came off.  Mr Fix It and I are HUGE UFC/MMA fans (mixed martial arts/ultimate fighting championship).  We love to watch the fights and host fight nights with friends and such.  So I suggested a creative grand entrance that incorporated this idea by coming up with little introductions and nicknames for each member of the bridal party to be introduced with.

We spent a lot of time coming up with personal introductions and corresponding songs for each bridesmaid or groomsmen to come into.  We even played videos of the fights for our DJ's in one meeting and specifically told them how we wanted the introductions to be pulled off.  I even specifically noted parts of each song that we wanted played while each bridal party member was introduced so they would have something to dance to and get the crowd laughing and such.

Well, unfortunately, our DJ didn't nail the grand entrance voice as well as Mr Fix It hoped he would. And I guess the old addage "If you want something done right, do it yourself," really would have played out here because Mr Fix It even suggested that he record the intros himself for the DJ to play for us.  But I thought it would be better to have the live version rather than a recording. 

And the DJ didn't pick the best parts of each song for each party member either.  For example, for our friend, Jerry, we wanted Britney Spears's Womanizer to be played...but only the chorus.  Because Mr Fix It always jokes about what a player he is with the ladies.  But when he was introduced, the DJ played the very beginning of the song where there are no real words and a very slow beat...it didn't come off well at all. 

We also wanted the intros to be real quick, one right after the other, because we had a large party and we also wanted to keep the energy flowing and fast.  But our DJ took too much time and waited too long for each party member to get all the way into the reception room.  We had specifically told him when and how to begin each intro, but it didn't come off the way we had wanted.  Oh well. 

Regardless of the let down, it was still unique, different and fun and a lot of our guests mentioned they thought it was funny and creative.  So you can see for yourself here:



Though it didn't come out quite the way he hoped, we did get some wonderful shots of our bridal party from the photographer:

 By Roseanne Rivoli

By Gemma Bourke

My best suggestion to you is to remember that when you are meeting with vendors, you can NEVER OVER communicate!  And when you have something you are asking a vendor for that is not typical of what they provide, be sure to test it out! Make them do a demo or audition to prove that you are all on the same page.  :)

Share Time:  Did any of you have a vendor really let you down?  Or did you have something that you thought you communicated well to your vendors to have handled only to have them not meet your expectations?

Unless otherwise indicated, all photos by Robert Mullins

Wed Recap: Time to eat!!!

UGH!  I never got around to writing out this whole post...so you might have read the ramblings of my notes.  This just goes to show the madness of life.  I'll try to edit it up a bit in a hurry as I am supposed to be working right now :)

We ran out of the mini cheese chicken quesadillas...John was upset about that and the fact that the lemonade pitcher was empty when he came out to the cocktail area.  But caterer handled it immediately.

Caterer was sick and left early :(  But his staff did a great job of keeping things cleaned up for the most part.

Food was okay...seemed like guests were eating it.  The chicken didn't get the rave reviews we thought it would and John and I thought it didn't taste nearly as good as it did at the tasting.  He thought the tri-tip was not cooked enough but one of my friends said her fiance loves it rare and thought it was great.  One of our friends told us the roasted garlic mashed potatoes were like 'crack' and that he had gone back for 3 or 4 servings.

Salad and veggies were good but hard to screw that up. 

Appetizers seemed well enough...simple - fruit, cheese, crackers and then quesadillas.  Substituted the stuffed mushrooms for little teryaki chicken drumettes at our caterers request because there were no ovens.  John wasn't happy about that and didn't think they were as good but other friends said they were really good.

Seemed like people had cleaned their plates, including my boss who is hard to impress :)

We had water pitchers on each table that we asked them to infuse with either cucumbers, lemons, or strawberries.  Some people loved this, others said it was not that good. 

They only cut up the bottom layer of the cake so the other three layers that had different flavors weren't even set out!  Thankfully, we ate the lemon layer the next day at our day after lunch with family.

Overall, the food was definitely not bad, but definitely not great either.  We knew that food was *NOT* a priority for us as long as it tasted good.  It must have been okay for most of the guests because a few people even commented on the good food on their guest book pages. 

Wed Recap: The little ones...

One thing we knew for sure was that there would be lots of kids at our wedding.  Out of a guest list of about 190 people in attendance, at least 15 to 20 of those were kids ranging from 6 months to 16 years in age. 

Our 2 little nephew ring bearers hanging out pre-ceremony

By Grant Sharp

Now everyone knows how hard it is to keep kids entertained at a wedding, at least during the ceremony portion.  So I had lots of ideas to keep them busy and active.  And it had to start with our four ring bearers (3 of which were Mr Fix It's nephews and 1 was my nephew) and our flower girl (my little cousin). 

Our Junior Groomsmen (nephew) keeping some of the ring bearers entertained

Besides the favor boxes that were specific to the younger aged children that I blogged about here, and the little kids corner area that we set up with portable DVD players, lollipops, craft kits, coloring books and two paid babysitters, we had a few things that I didn't share previously.  Oh, and that kids corner with the babysitters?   Yeah, there were at least a couple kids in that room the entire night!  So it was definitely a good idea and money well spent!

Of course, the kids had fun with the ribbon wands that we left on the ceremony chairs for all the guests to wave as we walked back down the aisle:

By Kathleen Wolsfeld

And they loved the flashing sunglasses and mouthguards that we gave them for the reception (though the flashing didn't really show up well in these pictures)

By Kathleen Wolsfeld

By Chad Beever

A big hit were the table top bowling pin sets.  And the older ones danced the night away.

You can imagine how many fun shots the younger ones took in the photobooth (there were at least SIXTY photo strips of my flower girl, junior groomsmen and younger cousins alone in the booth!).

They adored the chocolate fountain...Yum!

By Heather Hughes

And these two would not stop bothering our magician...he was so great with them!

My sister said my little 3 year old nephew is still playing with his favor box toys even today four months later!  But probably the best investment I made for the ring bearers was for the ceremony portion of our day.  When they made their way to the end of the aisle as seen here:

A little bribery goes a long way:

I told their mothers that they could just gather them in the front row to sit down so they didn't have to stand on the altar for a good 45 minutes to an hour.  And waiting on their chairs in the front row, I had these little goodies:

Silent and yummy and entertaining!

I got these little mini travel sized magna doodles at Target for like $10 each and they kept the boys busy during the ceremony.  And you can't go wrong with a sucker!  Especially the ones that last for hours.

By Grant Sharp

But for some reason, my sister's in-laws felt the need to also have a bag of Reese's Pieces waiting for my little nephew.  That was something we had not planned on and right at the beginning of the ceremony he dropped the bag and the little candies spilled everywhere in the front and into the aisle.   Now I did not see them as they tried to quickly pick them up but apparently several of the wedding party and family members at the front of the altar saw all this go down and started laughing thinking it was just hilarious.  Good thing I had the sucker there for him so that he wasn't in tears about losing all of his candies!

And for added convenience for the guests with the youngest kids...these precious babies:

I even had our rental company swap out 4 of the chivari chairs for highchairs....which my family profusely thanked us for!  And as a special treat for these super young ones who can't really play with toys, we gifted them these fun little personalized bibs:

By Heather Hughes

By Chad Beever

Share time:  Did you do anything different or special for the younger guests you invited or included in your wedding?

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  Read the above information.  I think it speaks for itself.  Be sure to have little things throughout your day available for little ones to be entertained and kept busy so they don't get bored - or loud!

Unless otherwise noted, all photos by Robert Mullins Photography
All raw video footage provided courtesty Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills

Wed Recap: To toss or not to toss? A unique twist

I have honestly despised the moments when the DJ calls all the 'single ladies and gents' out onto the dance floor to have the bride and groom toss the bouquet and garter away to see who will 'get married' next.  Yeah, right?  Does it really ever happen that the people who catch these things get married next?  Doubtful.

However, I knew I wanted to somehow have a toss and of course, it had to be unexpected.  Originally, I had the fabulous idea that I would surprise the girls I tossed my bouquet* to by having the bouquet break up into 4 smaller bouquets so that more than one girl gets to catch it.  :)  But as I evaluated our guest list, I realized there weren't as many single ladies as I had expected there to be. 

Instead, I had read on some blogs about how some brides were choosing to 'hand' their bouquet off to someone specific rather than just toss it away.  I loved this idea and here is how I incorporated this into our own wedding for a very special lady in my life:

As for Mr Fix It and the garter toss, he wanted to do this for sure.  But mostly just because he is a perv who wanted to get up my dress.  He decided he wanted to be 'covert' about it and worked with the DJ to surprise me with the song selection that would play while he slithered across the dance floor to remove my garter.  Here are some great pics and video of his little display:

As you can see, Mr Fix It tricked the guys they called on to the dance floor by acting like he was going to toss the garter, but then he decided to intentionally place it into the hands of one of his groomsmen that he calls a 'playa who needs to settle down finally.'  :)  I love how the DJ made the comment "If that isn't someone saying 'tag you're it' I don't know what is!"

Share time:  Did you decide to do the tosses and if so, was there anything different or unique about how you incorporated them?

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  Rather than tossing away your own bridal bouquet, *be sure to ask your florist about creating a smaller 'toss bouquet' for you to throw to the ladies.  Usually this will be thrown in free as part of the contract (mine was).  You can also do this with the garter as well.  A lot of garter sets come with a fancier garter for the bride to wear and a simpler version to be tossed.  The bride can wear both of them on her leg with the toss one on the bottom so the groom removes that one and leaves the fancier one for the bride to keep.

Unless otherwise noted, all photos by Robert Mullins Photography
Raw video footage courtesy of Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills

Wed Recap: The party's over

We didn't get a grand exit.**  There were no sparklers waving, no bubbles being blown, no leis being placed around our neck or loud cheers and clapping as we made our way out of the room and out into a cool car to speed away in.  In fact, there was no car there to be decorated or anything.  But we knew this was going to be the case.  I had told Mr Fix It all along that if I was spending all this money and I was planning all these things, that there was no way I was going to miss out on anything.  I wanted to party with my guests until the last one left the building.  And that's just what we did.

It was just about midnight and the only people left in the reception room were me, my mom, my sister, my daughter and my now husband, Mr Fix It.  The coordinators and catering company were scampering around trying to pack things up.  The tables were almost bare and the DJ was packing up so no music was playing.

We went ahead and headed over to the bridal cottage area and started packing up my gown, bouquet and all the other little things I had brought with me.  Mr Fix It and I had each arrived at different times during the day.  I got to the venue at 8 am and was there until midnight that night.  I had to drive my own car because I had my gown, gifts and lots of other little things to bring with me.  Mr Fix It arrived around 2 pm by himself (all his family and groomsmen had to be there an hour earlier for pictures).  So we had each come in our own cars.  And we didn't want to spend the money to rent a getaway car because we knew it would not really be driven at all...our hotel was literally 5 minutes from the venue.

So after we packed everything into my car, we stood there just confirming what time everyone was going to be at our house the next day for the lunch.  I hugged my mom and sister and daughter good-bye, told them I'd see them in the morning, and jumped in my car.  Mr Fix It jumped in his car and we followed each other out of the venue past the tigers and onto the street until we reached the hotel. 

We checked in (Mr Fix It was supposed to do this on his way to the venue but of course it didn't get done).  It was after midnight and the lady at the counter was so sweet.  We got into a full on conversation with her about marriage and our wedding and our faith and turns out she was a Christian who just wanted to chat it up with us.  She was really nice but we were so exhausted.

We got into our room and jumped out of our clothes.  We were both so tired but Mr Fix It said there was no way we were going to sleep on our wedding night without gettin' busy briefly :) 

When we woke up in the morning we headed down to the hotel restaurant for our buffet breakfast.  Several of our wedding guests (actually our neighbors who had rented rooms because they didn't want to make the 30 minute drive home drunk) were checking out and said hello.  Some friends who had come to the wedding from San Jose stopped to say goodbye on their way out.  And then we ran into one of Mr Fix It's oldest friends and his girlfriend.  They were getting breakfast, too so we invited them to sit with us.  We sat there for a good two hours just chatting with them and having so much fun talking about lots of stuff.  His friend even offered to stay at our place while we were on our honeymoon so our dog would not have to be by himself.  And then we said our goodbyes and headed home to a house full of people and food!

It was a great day before, a wonderful night and a fabulous breakfast with friends.  But it seriously did just go by way too stinkin' fast!  :( 

Our videographer ends his wedding videos with a message from the bride and groom to their guests...we didn't really know about this so when he pulled us aside, I just gave the mic to Mr Fix It.  So here is our final goodbye from the end of our reception:

Share time:  What was your grand exit experience like?  Did you even have one?  Or what will it be like if you are planning one?

**  I told you I was going to jump around and just blog about whatever video clips I came across or whatever was fresh in my memory during my recaps.  So don't think just because this post is about the very end of the night that the recaps are over...far from it.  There's still a lot more to come :)

Wed Recap: Surprise! For the groom and the guests

I really wanted our wedding to be full of surprises for our guests and especially my groom - as much as he would let me surprise him.  :)  I wanted the guests to feel like they were at a sentimental and emotional wedding but also a really fun and entertaining one unlike your typical 'processed' weddings where it's the same expected thing after the same expected thing.

Some of the ways I tried to infuse this uniqueness and creative surprises were with little extra elements that didn't cost much at all and yet added something fun or different to the event.  So here they are:

I'm going to start off with the video today because believe me, you just have to see this first little surprise for my groom *LIVE* :)  Then after you can read about each thing and see the pics :)

1)  Of course, you all know about the one main thing I did at our ceremony that truly set our processional apart from anything else the guests had seen.  I incorporated a spoof of the E! THS as a video to precede my walk down the aisle.  I loved playing it at the ceremony instead of the reception as most montages are now played because it kept the guests all looking in the same place and gave them something to laugh at during what is typically a traditional and sometimes mundane part of the wedding celebration. 

2)  There was a great surprise for Mr Fix It during the processional as well.  I have eluded to the $14 sign I had created in our wedding colors from VistaPrint.com in the past.  Well, I saw a version of this idea on a blog while browsing for parasols for my bridesmaids and just had to do it!  We had our eldest ring bearer carry this fabulous little sign down the aisle.

By Robert Mullins

By Jeff Ezell

By Kristin Jepson

Unfortunately, the two ring bearers in front of him didn't walk quite as fast so he ended up getting real close to them to where it took a minute for Mr Fix It to truly be able to see what the sign said.  But once he and all the other guests got a glimpse of it, they had some great laughs as seen in these photos:

By Robert Mullins

Check out Mr Fix It's face when he sees the sign his nephew is carrying:

Photo courtesy Janet Campbell

I love all the guests laughing in this one :)

By Tanya Beever

By Robert Mullins

3)  For our recessional, I loved the photos I have seen of guests tossing flower petals at the bride and groom.  The shots are just gorgeous.  But I really wanted *ALL* of our guests to get in on the action and so when I saw this idea of 'ribbon wands' on another web site, I just had to incorporate it.  It was sort of inexpensive to make the wands.  I think it was $70 for about 100 of them.  I made one for every other guest and we placed them on the chairs at the ceremony.  Here you can see the guests holding them and playing with them pre-ceremony.

By Robert Mullins

By Robert Mullins

This little one was so in love with them that she collected a bunch during the cocktail hour and made them into pom poms :)  (By Kathleen Wolsfeld)

I was kind of bummed about how this was executed.  I wish I would have made enough for every single guest to have one.  And I should have actually attached a little tag on them letting them know when and how they should wave them because most of the guests either didn't wave them very high or out the aisle at us or they only waived them for a brief moment.  Therefore, we didn't get the great shot I was anticipating of us kissing at the end of the aisle with all these little ribbons flying over the guests heads :(  This was a fail type of idea...but had I done it better (listed it in the program or used tags), I think the guests would have gotten into it more.  Instead, here are the shots we got of a few of them waving around (as you can see, the video footage looked way better than these photos):

By Robert Mullins

By Roseanne Rivoli

 

By Robert Mullins

At least somebody had fun with them :)  Mr Fix It's little niece

By Robert Mullins

4)  And my favorite surprise for Mr Fix It and the guests at the reception was definitely the chocolate fountain.  When we first contacted our caterer, he let us know that they included a chocolate fountain with dippers like strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, pretzels, etc during your reception after dinner.  Well of course, I was not happy with just your typical chocolate fountain.  So I found a site online called http://fondue4you.com/   This place lets you buy different colored chocolate for your fountains.  And they had a wonderful Tiffany Blue color to match our wedding colors!

I mentioned to our caterer that I found the site and asked him to check and see if the cost of their chocolate was comparable to what he normally paid.  He said he would handle it no problem and didn't end up charging us anything extra.  Steve from La Finestra catering was very accommodating throughout the process and we loved working with him.  And look at all he put out (there's actually a lot more on the other side of the fountain)

Though when Mr Fix It heard me confirm the 'blue chocolate' order, he flipped out!  He was pissed that I had yet another 'stupid little detail' that was probably extra money and thought I was going way over on the wedding details.  Plus he kept insisting that colored chocolate was going to taste *horrible*!  Well, come wedding day when that chocolate fountain was all set up, he was eating his words...and the chocolate!  It was the most yummy-licious freaking chocolate I have ever tried before!  I didn't notice it was set up until the very end of the night and as soon as I made my way over there I was all over that thing...as were all the guests.  They raved about it!  I highly encourage you to order this stuff...soooo good!

Photos by Robert Mullins

We made sure all the guests knew about it by including it on the little place card notes we tucked into each guests' napkins.  We also had our DJ announce it after our first dance to let everyone know to go check it out.  It was set up right on the other side of the fire place in the alcove just off the dance floor so lots of people made there way over there.

All in all, these little extra details which didn't really cost much extra truly gave our guests some memorable things to be entertained by that they didn't see at just every other wedding.  Oh, and of course there were the other things like the magician, photobooth, and flip flops that they loved as well.  Lots of fun surprises.

Share time:  Do you plan on having any little surprises for your groom or guests on your wedding day?