We found our Music Man through our photographers who are friends with him.  So often now, DJs play from an iTunes-esque setup with computers and preset playlists.  While there is nothing wrong with this, technology has, after all, made things easier, we were super excited to hear about our DJ. He actually spins vinyl!! He was the only DJ in OBX we could find who still spins.

Moon Blossom let me know that she used the same DJ and that he was awesome. It was so nice getting a confirmation from someone who has used him.  The next task became choosing what music for which occasion.

Little did I know that you have to choose more songs than 1st dance, last dance and mother/father-son/daughter dances. Entrance music for the bridal party, bride/groom, garter removal, garter toss, bouquet toss, and cake cutting. Having recently finished choosing our songs, I would like to offer a few tips/options. For the entrance music, each member or couple (bridesmaid-groomsman) can have their own song or the entire party can have the same song. The bride/groom should have a different song to alert guests that the “main attraction” is coming up.

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Alright, so by now you know a little more about Apricot Dude and I. Now- let me share to you where we are at with our wedding plans. After all, this is what I’m here to talk about! Here is a little information on our church and reception site….

Our actual wedding will take place at Saint Francis de Sales Catholic Church. (The church we currently go to does not have the capacity to handle a wedding over 200 people in their chapel.) Here is the catch; I’m not catholic. But I have always dreamed of getting married in a huge church with beautiful stained glass windows, long aisle, etc. I decided to make the choice not to become Catholic so we took our chances and starting looking around at churches. We found some that were too small, too big, too expensive….and then we heard about St. Francis de Sales through a friend of a friend and decided that this was the church we wanted to become husband and wife in.

So you’re probably wondering how we pulled this off…well, all we did was call and ask if it was possible and they said yes. We simply have to provide our own pastor and go through Pre Cana classes. So my advice for those who are not sure if something can be done; simply ask. You never know- they might say YES!

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Or stocking the bar rather.

There are many different types of wedding bar options ranging from dry weddings to full open bar options. Ours is somewhere in the middle. All sorts of soft drinks as well as beer are provided by our hall. However the bartender will serve anything else that we provide, so we set to the task of stocking the bar.

{Image from: chiqweddings.com}

To save some on the booze, we visited a local bulk-shopping club to find some of our stash at better prices. There we found our wines, champagne and a couple of pre-mixed cocktails (we opted not to provide tequila so margaritas will still be available this way).

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Indiebride is a blogger that I follow on Twitter and one day she shared this opinion piece by Peg Fisk that was featured in the New York Times. I suggest you give it a quick read before I go on.

…

OK. For those of you that didn’t read it, the gist of it is Ms. Fisk, who apparently is divorced, is sometimes invited without a guest to weddings. She rants about being the single person, sitting at the “loser” table, forced to make conversation with other singles. Halfway through the article I thought, “Jeeze, if you’re going to be bitter about it, don’t go to the wedding.”

I was relieved when I read the last paragraph.

“So whenever I get invited to a wedding and can’t bring a guest, I send a generous present, show up at the church and then go home to a nice glass of chardonnay. I toast the happy couple, and perhaps do my own version of the hokeypokey in my living room. ’Cause that’s what it’s all about.”

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*I didn’t want to get sued for any kind of trademark infringement.

The one thing I wasn’t expecting when I began wedding blogging was meeting all of the amazing fellow wedding bloggers throughout the country. The writing world is generally a dog-eat-dog kinda world so the fact that I have met such wonderful, helpful and inspiring women is beyond amazing.

One such woman is Jacin from Lovely Little Details. She’s kickass to say the least. Her wedding had a lot of the same inspiration as I had and confessed that I wished I could send her my venue photos and get her ideas for what I could do with it. Her response was, “Go for it!”

So I did.

I emailed her a picture of my reception venue and a LONG description of our theme, colors and feel of our wedding.

A few weeks ago, she sent me this image and I absolutely loved it:

I was also quite impressed with her Photoshop skills.

I was beyond thankful.

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We didn’t spend too much time doing research on DJ’s, we didn’t really think it was THAT big of a deal. I knew what we DIDN’t want (old-fashioned/cheesy), but we were pretty open to a bunch of different options. There arn’t many DJ’s local to the Outer Banks, maybe a handful or so. Their prices were all very similar. As we’re out of towners, and were planning the wedding from a distance, I have to say we placed a lot of weight on the DJ’s websites and reviews on various websites. When we found DJ Bruce, we hit jackpot again. His prices were slightly lower than the competition, as he’s a bit newer on “the scene”, but his equipment was topnotch, and his ability to read the crowd was incredible. He fit in every song on our “must play” list, and was attentive to our “do not play” songs. We had MANY of our guests afterward tell us how fun the dancing was, and that the DJ did a great job of playing the songs requested by our guests, even when my grandma wanted an old Italian polka, I hadn’t thought to ask him for in advance! We recommended him 100%!

Thought I’d share some photos of the killer dance party to share with you just how amazingly fun a wedding can be when you have a great DJ and a lot of people having fun!!

Photos courtesy of my wonderful photographer Julie Dreelin.

p.s. my boy loves to dance, so we were on the dance floor for much of the reception. (to see just HOW much he loves to dance you’ll have to wait for the next post!)

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Our RSVP deadline is tomorrow. Since we sent the invites, I think I have heard every excuse and scheme under the sun. It has not been a pretty six weeks. I’m not going to go into detail (this is not supposed to be a ranting blog, I had to remind myself), but I do want to share with you our numbers thus far.

Invited: 106

Accepts: 59

Accepts with condition*: 10

Regrets: 13

No answer: 20

Hmm. That makes me think of some of my guests!

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Life is uncertain.  Eat dessert first.  ~Ernestine Ulmer

It’s no secret with my friends and family that I am a fan of dessert! After my dress this was the next item on my list…my initial thoughts were to do many different varieties of sweet treats – a dessert bar.

www.sweetandsaucyshop.com

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I am in need of a reception dress. If it were only for comfort reasons, considering that it will be hot and humid at my wedding, I would still be hesitant to change out of my wedding dress. I absolutely love my dress, and as is obvious, I will only be wearing it for a short period of time. While I plan to extend that amount of time as long as possible, I will need to change into a reception dress at some point in the evening.

I say need because of a matter dear to my heart. Years ago my mother purchased two strings of pearls, one for my sister and I when we got engaged. The day she took me dress shopping, she gave me my pearls and oh how beautiful they are. I love them. My sister married her husband a couple of years ago and wore her pearls most of the days during the year or so she was engaged. I loved my pearls so much I got a little jealous that my sister could wear hers nearly every day and my job makes that somewhat not possible. Anyways, I wore them trying on dresses knowing they would be worn with the dress.

A couple months later, my uncle called for my mailing address. He asked if I would be wearing a necklace with my dress and if Kenny had ever bought pearls for me. I told him I would be wearing a necklace, and no, Kenny has not bought pearls. He informed me that he would like to give me the pearls that he gave my recently deceased aunt on their wedding day. He just knew they would look beautiful and that Aunt Linda would be so happy for me to have them.

Two very special, and very different looking, strings of pearls. The ones from my Freesia Mom are smooth and classic, the ones from Freesia Uncle are three strings of freshwater (thus varied in shape) pearls. Both absolutely perfect and beautiful, from two people with the sweetest of intentions that I would never want to hurt.

After much deliberation, and discussion with Freesia Sister, as well as a friend who happens to have 2 daughters around my age, I decided a change into a reception dress would be a perfect time to change necklaces. Freesia Mom’s pearls with the wedding dress we picked out together, Freesia Uncle’s pearls with the reception dress.

So, to find a reception dress within a reasonable budget. When I imagined my wedding dress, there were a few qualities that I thought of that did not end up a part of the wedding dress I chose. I’m hoping that maybe this will be a chance to incorporate a few of those qualities: something flowy, with an open back…and above the knee since it will be a summer reception dress. I’m aiming for less than $200. I have emailed a couple of dressmakers. One would make the dress for $250, but I’m concerned of the chance that it wouldn’t turn out. This is the “sketch” I sent (I know I’m no designer!):

"front", "back" option 1 or "back" option 2

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Luckily for us, our venue provides tall centerpieces. They look like this:

{Source}

When we revisited the venue, I had the chance to see the tables set up for a wedding that was going to occur the next day. Here’s what the tables looked like:

{Personal Photo}

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