Wedding Breakdown

In the past several weeks, lots of people have been asking me about the wedding and how we’re putting it together. I thought it would be fun to list out the various professionals and venues involved in the big day.

(I’ve resolved to only concentrate on the positives of the interactions with the vendors to date for this post. If you’ve seen my updates on twitter and facebook within the past few days, you know there have been some bumps in the road, to put it mildly. I’m not going into those here.)

Wedding Ceremony Venue – First United Methodist Church of Voorheesville

This is the church that Cassie attended in her home town. On the weekend we got engaged, when we went to pick up Emma at Cassie’s parents’ house, her mom, Holly, was at a social function at the church. We stopped by the church to tell Holly, and she shared our joy with the church members. The funny part of the story is that she immediately gave me a tour of “the church [we] were getting married in.”

Wedding Reception Venue – Indian Ladder Farms

When Cassie and I were brainstorming ideas for our reception, we were both clear that we didn’t want the usual banquet style event. The very first idea Cassie had was to see about using the apple barn at Indian Ladder for the reception, and, after looking at a couple of the more conventional places, the idea became better and better to us. The farm is feet away from where Cassie grew up and her family has some history with Indian Ladder, but, aside from that, I thought it would be cool to do a more casual, “down home” wedding.

We’re doing the entire evening cocktail style with various stations for food, so the openness of the barn will make it amenable to mingling and partying. It’s also pretty awesome that the date we picked is the week before they open for the season.

Catering – Elegant Touch Catering

We met with a number of caterers who deal with off-site events. The prices quoted by some were outrageous. Elegant touch gave us a reasonable quote with a menu that we really liked. After sitting down for a tasting, we were happy with the food. It’s a big plus that they’ve done events at Indian Ladder and are familiar with the space and kitchen there.

Photography – Andy Kainz Photography

I wasn’t going to hire the “higher end” photographers in our area. While they do great work, we had something a little different in mind. After All Over Albany’s 4th Birthday Party last year, Cassie and I were impressed with Andy’s more photojournalistic style, and we really wanted our special day captured with that type of eye. We worked with Andy and Marcie, local Roller Derby legend who helps Andy, late last year on an “Engagement” photo session at the Troy Farmers Market and Thatcher Park, and they did an amazing job.

Flowers – Anthology Studio

Evan and Kara at Anthology Studio are awesome. I’ve had them prepare things for me for various occasions, and they do impressive work at very reasonable prices. It was only natural that we’d want them involved in providing many pretty flowers for our wedding. This is another connection that I’m glad All Over Albany made happen.

Men’s Formalwear – Tuxego

Anthony, proprietor of Tuxego, and I worked together on an event six years ago, and I’ll work with him on every event I can. He and his staff are awesome and are dedicated to making everything perfect. [It is also very likely that he and I are related; you take care of family.]

Jewelry – Hannoush Jewelers (Wolf Road location)

You can’t have a wedding without rings. For the past few years, Albert at Hannoush has been doing the right thing for me, including when I went to buy the engagement ring. Besides dealing directly with Albert, my favorite part of the experience is that the staff doesn’t crowd you when you’re browsing the store (at least at the newest Wolf Road store). That’s the one thing I’ve hated about jewelry shopping, and it is important that the sales staff maintain their distance while I’m thinking.

Cassie picked a nice band that alternates some small sapphires with diamonds. I opted for a shiny, black tungsten carbide band. Very simple and very me.

DJ – Danny Marcil (AAAA Total Entertainment)

Holly recommended Danny to us. We recently met with him and think he’ll be a great fit. He gets extra points in my book since he does some karaoke events in the area.

Dessert – Cheesecake Machismo + Indian Ladder Farms

Wedding cakes are boring. We thought it would be a lot more fun to do a mixture of baby cakes from Cheesecake Machismo. Not only are their cheesecakes amazing, but the little baby cakes are the perfect size.

(Relax. We’re cutting a wedding cake, but it’s just for us. Holly and company are going to make some cupcakes too.)

We’re also having apple cider and cider donuts from Indian Ladder Farms. And we know that they quite possibly make the best cider donuts in the area.

Favors – DreamPuff Sweet Shop (plus something else)

Cassie and I put our heads together and came up with a unique marshmallow flavor that combines our individual favorite things, so our guests are going to get a special treat that isn’t normally available. This isn’t like stacking two dimes and getting a small stack of dimes; it’s like putting together robotic lions to form Voltron!

Cassie and Holly also worked hard on a second part of the favor, but I don’t want to give away the surprise.

Transportation – Today’s Limousine

Cassie took the lead on this one. I trust her opinion since she’s worked in the industry for a few years now.

Honeymoon – Walt Disney World (in Florida)

Cassie’s been there a lot of times, but I’ve only been there once. I suggested it as a fun and relatively inexpensive thing to try for a honeymoon. There are plenty of things to try to do in the few days that we’re there. My main objective is to say “Andy’s coming” to all of the Toy Story characters I meet. (Supposedly, when they hear that, they stop what they’re doing and drop.) I also want my picture taken with Twitch.

Now that it’s all in writing, it actually looks pretty impressive. Fingers crossed that things go smoothly from here forward.