Making sense of what all you need to book can be overwhelming! I suggest sitting down and making a checklist of your priorities to start with. Wedding magazines and websites such as The Knot are also great resources with checklists to keep you on track.
For us, the main priorities were the big items, florist, photographer and cake. I started by talking it all over with my best friend that had just gotten married in June and other friends that have been through this already. Positive word of mouth is the best advertisement!
Bridesmaid tip: Share helpful hints with the bride on selecting vendors...what you liked, what you didn't, etc. Hearing first hand experience is the absolute best.
I started out by booking our floral designer, Resa Browning. Resa is a wedding coordinator and floral designer in Georgetown and did a wonderful job with Nancy's wedding. She was absolutely wonderful to work with and I knew we would be on the same page with the style of flowers we wanted. I LOVE pink peonies and want them incorporated all through the wedding. While there are many fabulous florists in Lexington, Resa does this as a side job and is more affordable for the budget we are working with. I am meeting with Resa in January, so I'll do another post on what we come up with!
Next we conquered the photographer. I absolutely love photography, so this was a key component for us. These are the pictures that are going to capture every detail and moment of the big day and I want them to be perfect. I was fortunate to become good friends with Melanie Mauer at the Holly Day Market this year. She is phenomenal and gave me the advice to make sure I feel absolutely comfortable with the photographer I choose since they are going to be with you ALL day long. Since we are getting married on a holiday weekend and Melanie was already booked I knew it was going to be challenging to find someone with an opening.
So I started Googling wedding photographers in Lexington...wow...I had no idea there were so many! I started going through websites to see which styles I liked best. I didn't want anything too contemporary, I am more of a classic girl. I happened upon InRetrospect Photography and found some photos they had done at The Carrick House. Beautiful! I called to check on the date and set up an appointment to meet. Cailyn and I immediately clicked and sat and talked for almost an hour! Needless to say I felt very comfortable with her and have no doubt we are on the same page. She has a partner in the business as well that will be with the guys on the wedding day, so they can capture every moment. Cailyn just got married in October so she knows just what we are going through. I am so excited to do our engagement session!!
On to Brandon's favorite...the cake! I personally have a big sweet tooth, so the cake had to be yummy! I met Martine Holzman at a networking lunch for wedding industry professionals back in November. When the time came to think about the cake she was at the top of the list. I had heard of her reputation previously and knew she would be wonderful. We set up an appointment with her last week and Oh. My. Gosh. fabulous! We had the best time meeting with her and sampling her confections. Martine is originally from France and everything she and her team makes is from scratch. Her chocolate is imported from France and every bite melts in your mouth!
We really didn't know what style cake we wanted, so we looked through some books and combined a few elements of different cakes. We chose 3 different flavors because we couldn't decide from the samples she served us! She also sketched out the cake for us so we could see just how it will look (picture below). She also sketched out Brandon's groom cake. I cannot wait to cut the cake on our wedding day. I think this cake is way too good to be smeared on anyone's face...don't you, Brandon??
Up next - selecting the bridesmaid dresses and colors!
