Carnival Food

This is me indulging in my favorite food from a Carnival Cruise...the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. Definitely the best dessert ever!

There was a post on Cruise Critic earlier about pictures of food from Carnival cruises. It made my mouth drool. The plates are sometimes a work of art themselves. Here are some of my favorites:

Willow Pond and Photographer

We went and saw Willow Pond yesterday. It was really nice, but we definitely can't afford the package they showed us. They have another package with an outside reception venue, so we might go back and look at that. So, our number one venue is still the Tallahassee Garden Club.

We have a few more places on our list to look at, including: Wakulla Springs State Park, Southwood Country Club, and a couple of plantation houses in Thomasville.

Well, I had a incident with my number one choice for a photographer over the weekend. I sent her multiple emails and called her up the week before she was going to come to Tallahassee for us to meet. She never once responded to any of them, so we didn't end up meeting. I was pretty bummed about it and started looking for another photographer. She emailed me back yesterday saying that she's been pretty sick and that she's sorry she didn't back to me. She wants us to meet sometime in March. I'm going to meet with her because if I really like her in person, I think I'm going to book her, but I'm definitely more weary of her now. There's a few other photographers that I'm going to meet with, so we'll see if I can find someone better. I hope it all works out.

Booked the Honeymoon!

I booked the honeymoon today! We got a really nice balcony too! It's 50% bigger than the other balconies plus the room is a little bit bigger. It the exact same price as a regular balcony too! Yay!

Check Out My Guest Post

Budget Bride's Handbook

I wrote a guest post about finding the perfect photographer at the Budget Bride's Handbook. She's on vacation, that lucky dog! So, head on over and check it out!

Honeymoon

Yes, I know it's really far out, but we've decided on where we're going on our honeymoon. We decided to go on a 7 day cruise with Carnival Cruise Lines. We've cruised with them before and had a fantastic time. I'm going to be giving our PVP a call sometime this week to talk out details with her so we can book it sometime soon. We're booking so early because they have a new thing called an Early Saver rate which saves us a couple hundred dollars per person. Plus, we want a balcony and those go pretty quickly. Plus we need to be in the middle of the ship because I get horribly sea sick. I can't wait to actually book it.

The ship is the brand new Carnival Dream. She doesn't even start sailing until September 2009. Very exciting because the other ship we've been on was their Celebration, which was the smallest and oldest ship in their fleet before she was sold to someone else. So, we've been on their oldest and now we're going to be going on their newest. The ship has an 18 hole mini golf course, a water park, and tons of other great amenities. My only issue is that if you look straight down from your balcony, you're going to be seeing people walking on the deck under you instead of looking down into the ocean like it is on other ships in their fleet.

The itinerary is great. We leave April 17th for 7 days.

Leave Orlando at 4pm
Day at Sea
Cozumel 10am - 6pm
Isla Roatan 10am - 6pm
Belize 8am - 6pm
Costa Maya 7am - 3pm
Day at Sea
Arrive in Orlando at 8am

It's going to be a little under $2000 for both of us and that includes taxes and tips. Then we'll be doing some excursions at each place.

We're definitely very excited! Have you ever taken a cruise?

Reminder to Vote

Please vote for me! It would really help our budget if we could win!

David’s Bridal “Dress Your Wedding” Contest Sponsored by Visit David's Bridal

Officiant

Jason just informed me that his best friend's mom officiates weddings. He's going to ask her if she'd be willing to do ours. That would save us some money! And it would make it a lot more personal! Yay!

First Dance Song Picked

I was telling someone my engagement story and I mentioned that we got engaged in a cabin named "Have I Told You Lately" and that's when it clicked...that should be our first dance song! I sent it to Jason on YouTube and he really liked it. So that's what we're going with. It's the perfect song.

Tallahassee Garden Club

We went and looked at the Tallahassee Garden Club today and really liked it. It's a historic house in downtown Tallahassee. It's a little more expensive than we were hoping for, but we can work it out if we work with a cheaper caterer. It is now #1 on our list. We still have a few places to look at though.


We will be having the ceremony on the front lawn. We will rent an arch ($25) and put it down at the end of the sidewalk, down by the road. Then, we can set the chairs on both sides of the walkway. We can all come out the front door and then walk down the aisle to the alter. I think it will work out pretty perfectly. The only thing I'm worried about is the traffic, but I don't think there should be too much on a Saturday afternoon.


Then, we would move the guests to these two porches and have a cocktail hour. There are a few iron tables down on the brick for them to sit down and the wooden porch is huge! We could get appetizers from Sam's Club and set them up out there for the guests.


Then, after the cocktail hour is over, we would move all the guests to the ballroom. There are seperate rooms in the house where we can set the buffet and bar up, so all the would be in this room are the tables, DJ, and cake. The guests would go to a different room to get their food and then come back in here for the rest of the evening. Whenever they wanted a drink, they would have to go out to another room. Hopefully that's not too much of a hassle. The venue provides tons of tables and chairs so we have that covered. We would be using 60 inch tables and seating 8 people at each one. The chairs are hideous though, so we have to rent chair covers. We also have to rent linens. The venue will rent plain white ones to us for $5 a piece.

I got very excited when I noticed that the wallpaper is damask! It's hard to tell in the pictures though.


This is the stage area in the ballroom. We would put the head table up at the front of the stage and then have the cake as a backdrop (we would put it up on the table that is already up there). There is another entrance to the stage, so we would move those steps right there so there is more room to dance.

Here's the breakdown of costs. I have only looked at prices at one rental company so far, so we might be able to find stuff for cheaper.

Rental (from 9:30am to 11:30pm): $1000
Alcohol Fee (they charge extra if you serve alcohol): $100
Linens: $5/per table x 11 tables = $55
Chair covers: $4/per cover + $1.50/per sash = $412
Arch: $25

Now that I'm thinking about it though, I could rent chairs for $1.50 for each chair. That would be $113 which is a lot cheaper than renting a lot of chair covers. Definitely a better deal. Hopefully delivery isn't too expensive.

So actually, now that I noticed the chairs, the place is a lot cheaper than I thought it was going to be. It would come out to about $1300 for the entire place for an entire day. Not bad!

So, what do you think about it?

First Engagement Present

We received our first engagement present a couple days ago. One of my fiance's co-workers was in China when he heard about the engagement, so he picked up this gorgeous picture for us. It's all hand-stitched with silk. His friend sat there and watched them do the entire thing. Now we just have to buy the frame, which sadly is going to put us back about $25.

Crinoline and Veil

I just bought my crinoline and veil from another knottie. She's shipping it out tomorrow. I can't wait until it gets to my door. It cost me $40 for both, including shipping. Definitely a good price.

So, $425 taken out of our budget so far. $4575 left.

Crinoline and Veil

I found a knottie who's selling both the exact crinoline and veil that I'm wanting. She's selling the crinoline for $25 and the veil for $15. That's including shipping too! Definitely a great deal. The crinoline alone retails for $49. The veil I could get on etsy for about $25. I'm so excited! I can't wait until she emails me back and I can go ahead and pay her and get everything in my hands. Yay!