Our wedding vendors

This post has been sitting in my drafts for way too long, and it's about time I get this info out there! I'm kind of embarrassed to be posting it almost 8 months after our wedding, but hopefully this is helpful to someone.

Ceremony Venue: Lighthouse Point Lawn Area

This area is booked through the City of Santa Cruz, and is so beautiful! Downsides: Limited parking (although our guests didn't seem to have a problem), a maximum of 50 chairs are allowed, and the fact that it's a public space. When we decided to get married here we knew that there would be dozens of strangers watching, but it was worth it.

Reception Venue & Catering: Michael's on Main

Michael's on Main is a restaurant in Soquel, about 15 minutes from our ceremony location. Our reception was on the back patio, and it was beautiful. The staff were very nice and I received many compliments on the food.

We were supposed to have a coordinator there that night but she wasn't, which was weird. It was included in our price. We had our day of coordinator so maybe she didn't think she had to come? I also told you about how they forgot to put our favors out, and the coordinator was pretty unapologetic and defensive about it.

Guitarist: David Field

We got David to play at our wedding for a reduced rate by posting a gig ad on Craigslist, which I blogged about here. What I could hear was beautiful... most of the time I was thinking about other things but I clearly remember his rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for our first dance.

Officiant: Mark Toback
We hired Mark because he writes his ceremonies specifically for each couple, and we loved that concept. He didn't disappoint, as he wrote and performed a beautiful ceremony that we loved! He took a lot longer getting it to us than he said he would, but it was still well before the wedding so whatev.

Chair/Bench Rentals: M&M Party Rentals

They got the job done and were on time, so we were happy with them.

Day of Coordinator: Allumer Weddings & Events

Cristina was fantastic from the moment we hired her. She is so affordable yet as helpful and professional as anyone could be! She was setting up the lights at our reception venue at 8 a.m. the morning of the wedding, and stayed until at least 11 p.m. after everyone left. She also ordered our flowers for us, and I'm so glad we had her!

Cake: Hoffman's Bakery

Hoffman's delivered the delicious princess torte plain, and our day of coordinator decorated it with fresh flowers. It was yummy! The two times we met with them they seemed disorganized, but the cake made it to the reception as ordered, so I'm not complaining.

Photographer: Weddings by Tammynize
I love our photos! Tammy was so nice on the wedding day and captured everything just how I had hoped. She was helpful and creative, plus she's affordable!

Bridal Gown Alterations: Lana's Studio

These ladies did a great job and were very sweet. The price was reasonable, the bustle was beautiful (although it broke at the reception, I think that was my fault) and the dress fit great.

Hair: Kepare Salon

My stylist did an okay job. I didn't love it but I may not have given her enough direction. They don't accept credit cards and didn't tell me when I made the appointment. I got lucky that I had enough cash on me!

Those are the main vendors we used. Any questions - feel free to contact me! :)

P.S. To see all my posts about our wedding day, see the tab at the top of the page

Our honeymoon

The days following our wedding were laid back and so relaxing! And that's exactly what we were hoping for. We just wanted time to spend together without appointments or sights to see.

It was so great to spend those days alone with my new husband. I love having a husband!

Monday: Long walk along the ocean and lots of hanging out at home.

I think you have to take this picture on your honeymoon, right?

Also on Monday this raccoon fell in our trash can and couldn't get out. James knocked it over so that he could, but not before taking a picture and being hissed at!

Tuesday: Breakfast at Zachary's downtown. Walking and playing around Seabright State Beach.

 

James is pointing to the lighthouse where we got married, across the Monterey Bay.

Our lighthouse is over my shoulder here too.

In the evening we were supposed to go sailing on a boat called the Chardonnay, but they cancelled it :(

Not enough people booked, so instead we went to a nice dinner at Shadowbrook. We've already decided we just have to come back for our anniversary to go sailing!

Wednesday: Packed up the car and headed home. Huge thank you to my mother in law for letting us borrow her SUV... no way would we have fit even half of this crap (wedding stuff, gifts, supplies for the week, clothing...) in either of our cars!

That baby was packed to the brim.

The day after our wedding

We decided to share our first married day with our families. Every single guest had to travel to Santa Cruz from out of town... the closest was about a half hour, the farthest was the East Coast. Most were more like 3 or 4 hours.

We really wanted to have another get-together to thank our friends and family for giving up their whole weekend to celebrate with us. So, we hosted a BBQ at our rental house. It was very laid back and several people helped with food, which we so appreciated!

About half of our wedding guests joined us at the BBQ. We just got to hang out and visit with everyone. It was really fun!

Everyone left around 4 p.m. and by that time I was so exhausted from the last 3 days' events! We relaxed, read our guestbook and opened our wedding gifts for the rest of the evening.

The day before our wedding (Part 2)

See the day before our wedding (part 1) here.

Here are a few pictures from before our rehearsal. My mother in law's coworkers threw her a "mother of the groom" shower and gave her this tiara and sash!

The whole group headed over to our ceremony location at 4:40 for the rehearsal. We met the officiant, day of coordinator, and James' sister's family (her two daughters were our flower girl and ceremony reader).

We ran through everything and it was completely surreal. I choked up a bit but didn't actually cry. It was windy but otherwise perfect.

My bride outfit from the bachelorette party made a reappearance!

After the rehearsal we went back to our rental house for dinner: Lasagna and pizza from Kianti's, salad and red velvet cake. Oh, and plenty of wine!

 

The food was delicious, but more importantly, everyone had a great time. Most of our relatives were meeting for the first time, and everyone blended and got along so well. I couldn't ask for a better night!

We nontraditionally stayed together the night before the wedding, and it was great to talk about everything and share our excitement for the following day...

The day before our wedding (Part 1)

The day before our wedding was the BEST day before our wedding I could have asked for! It was fantastic! In the morning James (who wasn't sick any longer :) and I went for a walk along the ocean. Again. Love love love it!

We picked up the flowers at our coordinator's house at 11 a.m. The one thing I would have changed about this day was that I would have picked them up about 9 a.m. It was fine though.

We got them home and started preparing the flowers, and my parents and maid of honor showed up soon after to help.

We took all the flowers out of the boxes they came in, and put them in buckets, ice chests and trash cans with water (whatever we could find)!

My other sister and her husband came a little later, and the whole family helped assemble flowers. It was so great! The flowers turned out absolutely beautiful. I'm so happy we did them ourselves. It would have been twice the cost, or more, for a florist to do so much.

After the flowers were in buckets, we had to take the leaves off every. single. stem. Plus dethorn the roses.

  

We made two bouquets,

Plus a whole bunch of centerpieces. I actually don't know how many. I think about 40? The way our tables were set up, we didn't need an exact number. Just a bunch!

James and I delivered the finished flowers to our coordinator's house. As soon as we got home I took a shower and got ready for the rehearsal at 5 p.m., and James' parents also arrived around that time.

Part 2 coming soon, as I patiently wait for pictures of our rehearsal from my sister ;)