Wedding Wednesday: Rentals, Cake, Hair & Makeup, and more!

 It has been far too long since I’ve written a new Wedding Wednesday post to update y’all which is a shame since there have been quite a few updates! I knew May and into summer would be busy, but I don’t think I expected my days to be quite so filled between my full-time job, planning our wedding, out-of-town trips, and celebrating friends’ weddings and our calendar is only getting more full! I’ve been making notes of all of the different things I want to update y’all on so hopefully having some ideas organized will make these posts more frequent. 

Since our last general update, I made a trip to Fairhope for my mom and me to meet with our planner at our reception venue and stopped back through Fairhope on my way back to Birmingham after a bachelorette on 30A for a cake tasting. 

If you missed the past updates find them here: Wedding Wednesday (the first of the series) // Planning Update // How I Asked My Bridesmaids

Fairhope Planning Trip: My trip to Fairhope back in April was incredibly helpful since we were able to walk through our reception venue with our planner, Anne Morgan. There was a wedding at the venue that weekend and we were able to see the space set up with a different style tent than the one we had seen when attending a wedding reception there. We spoke with the manager of The Fairhope Inn about some logistics we’re hoping to make easier and were able to see it as more of a blank canvas! Anne Morgan has made this entire process so much easier on us and was able to give great suggestions on what kind of rentals we would and would not need as well as where we should focus our flower budget. After walking through the venue we sat down at a nearby coffee shop and went through some day-of logistics and other questions my mom and I had come up with over the course of planning so far. While we have time before a day-of timeline needs to be decided it helped to hear some of my mom’s priorities and have Anne Morgan give suggestions about how to make those things realistically happen. 

Bridesmaid’s Dresses: I’ll do an entire post about this soon, but I’m pleased to say I found a bridesmaid dress that I love that my bridesmaids seem to love as well. I took a few of my bridesmaids that are in Birmingham to our Bella Bridesmaids in town to try on some things I had seen on their website. I’m so glad we went in person since we landed on a dress that wasn’t on the site and is the perfect silhouette to compliment my dress and my ideal shade of blue. My friends are the best too since they all got their orders in days before our order deadline which we put earlier than we had to allowing them plenty of time to alter should they decide to. 

Save the Dates: A big relief lately was getting our save the dates finally ordered. We are using Paper Eliza for them since she did our custom crest (that post is still to come as well). Narrowing down wording, fonts, and colors was a little tricky but I am thrilled that they are currently being printed and will be to me to address soon! I’m not looking forward to addressing them and having everyone see my handwriting but since we’re still collecting the last of our addresses this way makes the most sense. Also, if anyone has a secret source for stamps let me know since I’m not liking anything I’m seeing.

Hair & Makeup Team: I had been saving some photos on Instagram of hair and makeup artists in the area and got quotes from a few different people before ultimately deciding on a team that can do both! I’m hoping that I’ll be able to line up a trial at the same time as dress alterations to see how things will look all together. I’ll be giving my bridesmaids the option of doing each and am also thrilled that they don’t need a final count on that until much closer to the wedding date! I found the team I’m working with through my maid of honor’s cousin so having a nearly first-hand recommendation makes me feel especially confident about them! 

Tent & Table Rentals: This was something my parents were eager to get nailed down since we knew it would be a larger expense! Since our venue has a pretty courtyard we are excited to utilize it for our band, dance, floor, and additional tables. We ended up selecting the tend that we saw when visiting the venue in April since it covers nearly the entire courtyard but has legs that are tall enough that people inside the venue can still see all of the merriment should they choose to be in there. In addition to the tent, we rented a stage, stage front, lighting package, dance floor, bar to use outside, tall bistro tables, chairs, and a few plain linens for dining tables! While most of these details aren’t that fun it does feel good to have that squared away so that the courtyard can be used rain or shine. 

Bride’s Cake: While overall the planning process has felt pretty easy when it comes to decision-making, choosing the cake especially felt that way. I explained to Anne Morgan what I was thinking and she suggested a bakery that I’ve grown up with treats from! Since I tacked on a cake tasting to a quick trip to Fairhope on the way home from the beach I invited my dad to join me so that I wouldn’t have to go by myself. I get my sweet tooth from my dad so it was an easy yes on his part and I think a happy relief from just signing wedding contracts and writing checks. Pollman’s put together two different cakes with four different fillings in each. We decided against a fruit filling for their buttercream almond emulsion and when they sent back a container of just that along with the two cakes for Hunter to taste test back in Birmingham he should feel lucky any of that filling frosting made it back! We’re going with a classic design and having our florist place flowers on the cake, but I’m pleased that Hunter’s end decision about the flavor aligned perfectly with what my dad and I decided! 

I suspect we’ll use a different bakery for his groom’s cake since I think his mom wants something with a bit of a theme and Pollmans does more traditionally shaped cakes, but I’ll let them figure that out! 

Bachelorette Party Date: Another big relief item for me was nailing down a bachelorette party date and location with my bridesmaids. I’m not the only one with a busy summer and early fall, so narrowing a date that worked best for as many people as possible felt like a major success. My maid and matron of honor may think I’m no fun since I definitely gave input on the theme and are making them let me help where I can, but I can not wait to get into all of the details of the weekend. We will be going to Hunter’s parents’ lake house on Lake Martin for a long weekend toward the end of summer which will be the perfect location for the theme I have in mind! Don’t worry, I’ll be sharing plenty more about this once it’s closer to time!! 

I really do feel like we’ve hit most of the big stuff necessary so far and definitely think I’ll feel that way once I make a final decision on linen rentals and mail out our save the dates. The next planning parts feel more fun to me and I know my mom will be a lot of help when it comes to giving input on formal invitations which I hope to get to pretty soon! 

What I’m Currently Working On:

Linen Rentals // Narrowing Initial Flower Quote // Mailing Save The Dates // Overall Design and Layout // Invitations