Oh, it's on!

BOOKED!!!!!

It is , for sure, Jan 14 2012, in Carol Stream, at the Holiday Inn.

We are having our ceremony (another post to come on that.... if you have creative ideas, let me know!) in the ballroom, and the reception in the tent.

Here is a Flickr photostream, of all of the important things, including the "garden room", which is the post-party room in the bar. woooo.

i feel that a major weight has been lifted. Seriously. I have venue, catering, bevvys, and cake all lined up. Although, as I was with the planner, I took a little peek at the cake book, and Holy mother. Maybe it was just the page I turned to, but there were lots of flowers, columns holding the tiers apart, mid-90s vomit all over the page. I hope there is something better in there..... the first meeting we had with the catering manager I asked about the cake, and she said "oh yeah, you pick out of a book, but you can customize colors... a lot of people now are taking out the middle columns, and making it simpler. " Shyeah, you think? Here is an example:

I like this. Doesn't work with either of my potential themes, but I like it.

This is what I saw.

OK, not quite that bad. Close enough to make me think about getting a cake on the outside, maybe from somewhere awesome like Alliance or Bleeding Heart? BUT, it is already included (in our package, it is even served in a dark chocolate cup with vanilla ice cream, fanncy schmancy... we could have went up one more level, then you start getting crazy with choco-covered strawberries. Too bad I don't like those.), so it would be almost literally throwing money away. And, to be completely honest, I don't really care too much about the cake, as long as it's not offensively bad. Bad-looking or bad-tasting.

OK -- list for myself for future posts: Flowers, ceremony, decor.