rentals

each 8 foot table can seat 8 people when aligned in a long row, so i'd need 15 tables... 15 x 8 = 120 feet - is the terrace 120 feet long? i believe the catering people told me the terrace could seat 200 people at a long table, weather-permitting..
andrew and jenn will be happy to hear that i've sat down and have started planning more than just the venue and photographers. and while it's not quite invitations or save the dates yet, it's a start, right? so i want to pull off a dinner on the terrace with one (or two) long tables. i've been trying to dissect the $140-$200 per person estimation my caterer gave for food/linens/tables/cutlery/chairs etc (not including flowers), because a follow up call in the summer they'd told me perhaps $30-$60 per person for food....so where did the other $100+/person go? rentals?! yes i realize i indicated i wanted no buffet with waiters in tuxedos, but....i'm really hoping it doesn't have to be that expensive.

so i made a phone call to the rental company in the city, and for $1700 (ahem, $14 per person) worth of rentals, i basically get ratty old wooden tables (above)? i guess it transforms into something elegant with a simple tablecloth....(side note, hopefully giving the wooden lawn chairs double duty for the ceremony and the dinner will work out...ie they'll be proper table height...)
....but this company in abbotsford offers chic aluminum tables, but i guess they'd be covered up too and would only big a big deciding factor if i was recruiting family and friends to set up, which i'd rather not since i'd want everyone to enjoy the day alike. the burnaby-based rental company that the caterer goes through gave me a rough outline of the rentals, and while it'd be nice to save some small amount of money going through a rental company in surrey run by manjit, i don't think it would shave off more than a couple hundred, if that, and i'd rather leave my day in the hands of someone more reputable...

i'm going to go through their website in detail and see just what the "geneva" flatware looks like and try to compare to other places if i can.



i've also learned the importance of the word "delegate." sadly, i don't think we know anyone with enough charisma to take charge of a microphone and an ipod for us, so i think we're going to have to get a dj so the night doesn't flop out at dessert. i've given my mom, the dancing queen, the job of finding a dj because she is always organizing dinner/dances with her alumni association and i was surprised she couldn't name her favorite dj off the top of her head. the downside, though, is that andrew (and i) are at the complete opposite of anything that would be played in the club scene, and for that matter, at a wedding. r&b...hip hop, no way. we would love to have indie music that we like, and even some oldies, but as pop-y as it is, does deathcab for cutie really lend itself to dancing?

photos that i want taken on my wedding day

via d_irwin at flickr. a shot of hycroft at night.

tilt shift photography

i don't think i've talked about the lensbaby yet, but let's talk about the tilt-shift! i first found out about tilt shift photography through andrew's make magazine - here's the article about how to make your own tiltshift. flickr has gads of photos, but it's hard to sift through the ones that were born from hours of photoshop and the ones straight off the negative. if you are at all familiar with my naked people earrings, you'll see why i would appreciate how this lens can turn everything into a model trainset. this photo below is via pinboke at flickr.

and while a lot of the best pictures seem to be taken from airplanes or by cubicle dwelling, metropolitan business people from their (skyscraper high) office windows, this room is made doll-sized, and this one below seems like it could translate into a great hycroft shot:
tilt shift:


and hycroft wedding, courtesy of jonetsu:

hycroft manor

stephanie from culinary capers was kind enough to give us a tour of hycroft on very short notice. below are a mix of my own photos and a few i found on flickr. the whole reason i fell in love with this place is because of its unique little rooms (which of course will have very little to do with the wedding) and unfortunately they can't even function as the bride/groom dressing areas















the major downside:
the ballroom/eating area looks to be dim, hot and stuffy as it's the basement of the place and does not have sufficient windows. needless to say andrew is not impressed. we could have the dinner outside and the dancing down here after, but it's going to be hard to get everyone to go down here sans tables and chairs, unless we could bring in some vintage couches and create seating areas for dessert/dancing....i do love that there's a piano that we could do our first dance to....


here's the backside:



it features a nice patio that we could possibly squeeze 100 people on to for dinner, with larger tables than these i hope...and even possibly dance on. although there's no outdoor music allowed because it's in a residential neighborhood, i read that one couple had an ipod play list...and this couple is dancing:






the ceremony can be here on the grass with those lovely white wooden chairs:


in comparison to brock house, we don't have to start at 6:30 pm - if we get the house for 8 hours, and ending time is 11 - that means we can have the ceremony at 3 or 4 and make better use of the daylight for photos and dinner. the only thing is that it's out in potentially blazing heat, and, more importantly, you can hear the traffic at granville and 16th. now is the time to consider using my ubc alumni powers to ask to join the ubc women's club that runs hycroft for a potential discount or at least booking priority....