Recently in Ceremony Category
Just a few updates on previous posts:
In Ceremony conundrum, my fiance and I still didn't have a Catholic church to hold our ceremony at.
Well, not too long after that posting, we finally heard back from St. Benedict Catholic church in Montebello and got the thumbs up. The most humble and honorable Father Maguire will assist us in our marriage vows.
Despite the little bit of panic on our part for waiting so long, we are relieved and very happy to be married at St. Benedict, which was where my fiance originally wanted to hold the ceremony since it has been his family's church for many years.
Only a few more months to go.....
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In this Quinceañera posting, we got a mother's perspective on planning for this big 15th birthday tradition.
With all the hush-hush and sneaking around, surprisingly the birthday girl still had no clue up until the time she reached mom's driveway, which served the entrance to her big surprise party.
As mentioned in the previous posting, the quinceañera didn't want a big fancy bash but rather a smaller kid's party at the park. But of course, this princess did want a fancy dress to take studio pictures in.
Well, she got her dress and took her studio pictures, then held the party at the park.
But after that fun celebration, we convinced the birthday girl to get back into her dress to take more photos with her grandmother and aunts who came in from out of town.
After a little hesitation, we dressed the birthday girl up in her dress at a separate location (away from the surprise party). We finished with a quick swipe of makeup and then headed to mom's house to "take pictures."
As we drove up to the house, balloons could be seen and loud music could be heard, coming from mom's driveway.
Though the birthday girl noticed that, she didn't think it too strange. She thought it was just stepdad blasting his ranchera music while hanging out with brothers and neighbors, relaxing after work.
Then she opened the driveway gate and saw a row of family and friends, all dressed up, waiting to greet her, and she could see the party decorations behind them. The shocked look on her face was priceless.
After the last song was danced, and the last piece of cake was eaten, I know my mother thanked everyone who helped in putting the surprise party together.
But I believe my mom deserved the greatest recognition for being the genius who beautifully coordinated the whole surprise, making it a fun, unforgettable celebration.
Since before I was engaged, my fiance said he wanted to be married in the Catholic church. So when it came to planning, since I am not Catholic, I left the ceremony details to him.
Since my fiance has been teaching at a Catholic school for many years and he really wanted to look into having the ceremony at the school church. At the moment though, the church has an interim pastor and after months of procrastination, my fiance finally asked if the interim pastor could perform the service there. Unfortunately, our Friday ceremony would not work there so, on to the second choice.
Our second choice was the local church that my fiance and his family have been a part of as he was growing up. I have been there a few times for special services with his family. It's a nice church and has been a part of the community for many years.
Because of how things went the last time, I decided to involve myself more in the ceremony planning with my fiance.
As I mentioned, I am not Catholic, and was not baptized so I was a little new as to what is required to be married at the church. I must admit I was a little nervous at first because of the fact that I am not baptized, but many churches are open and welcoming.
So, first my fiance has to get all his paperwork in order. Since he is Catholic, the father asked for him to get a new copy of his baptismal certificate, his first communion and confirmation papers also.
Luckily, he had all those things done at that church so if he couldn't find any paperwork, it has to be in a file there somewhere.
We are now waiting for the next step. To see what else is required, such as pre-marital counseling, and for how long. We are cutting it pretty close since when we first called the church, they said they ask for six months in advance to be married there. If everything works out right, it is a beautiful church and l would be happy to be married there.
I know no matter what happens though, my fiance has been very understanding and flexible about having the ceremony outside of the church. We just have to wait and see.
I must admit, I am a little nervous about meeting with the pastor and curious about the kind of counseling we need to do.
To married readers: Did you have to do any counseling sessions before getting married? What did you think about them?
With a budget established and an estimated guest count in order, we decided to see about having our ceremony at the Catholic church of the school where my fiance teaches and I began scouting reception venues. I looked at the San Gabriel Valley and Whittier areas since we didn't want to go too far from the church and from where our parents live. It would also help with transportation costs.
With a theme in mind and the idea of a semi-formal wedding, I first set out to look for a location that had both an indoor area for dinner with access to an outdoor area, like a patio or balcony overlooking green grounds or valley and mountains.
Since a close friend offered to cater the reception, we just had to find a reasonably priced location that fit 250 people for dining and dancing and allowed outside catering, I knew it wouldn't be quick and easy but boy, I didn't realize how frustrating it can be.
Not having much luck finding a big enough venue to allow us to bring our own catering, we decided to expand our search to places that have reasonable prices for their catering.
The first place we visited Luminaria's in Monterey Park. Being on top of a hill above the 710 and 10 freeways, it had a great view of the Downtown L.A. skyline and being a Mexican restaurant, it had a great feel and decorations that I was looking for.
They did allow outside catering with certain conditions but also catered for about $30 a person. We were hoping to make that a lower number per person but if I loved the venue and the view, I was willing to work it out somehow.
The outside and entrance of the restaurant was perfect. The ballrooms, were a different story. The smaller one had low ceilings and paintings in intervals along the walls, nice and cozy, but I knew would not fit our guests comfortably.
The second ballroom was larger, had high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows along the back and side walls that had an awesome view of the surroundings and the skyline but aside from that was pretty plain and not fitting with the theme I had in mind. It would need a lot more decorations to make my theme work and that would mean more money. Sadly, Luminaria's wasn't going to work.
I had my eye on a few other great places that would kind of fit our budget but either they weren't available for the date I wanted or would also need us to shell out more for rentals or decorations.
Usually a patient person, this reception venue search was really testing my limits.
I was ready to give up when my MOH (maid of honor) found a great spot that has our date, allows outside catering on a Friday evening and is in a nice proximity to the ceremony site and our parent's homes.
It had probably been about 5 years or more since I had been to Memories in Uptown Whittier. I believe I was there to see a friend's speed metal band play. What I remembered - dark, old and cold - did not make me think of wedding reception, but I gave it a chance and checked out the website.
First, I didn't know the hall had an upstairs room as well. Second, they definitely had done som remodeling since I was last there. The paint looked nicer, the lighting was nice and even though it didn't have an outdoor area, I imagined my theme would suit just nice here.
I set up a time with the owner John, to see it with my fiance and MOH. The downstairs area has a long, shoe-horse shaped bar, cushiony booths along the walls and a nice stage and dancefloor. It didn't fit 250 for dinner but I liked it.
The upstairs has really high ceilings, the walls were painted and decorated to give it a nice classic, older-building feel with a few spots showing exposed brick to give it an authentic feel. There are also booths along both sides of the wall and a nice center stage at the back. There was a large dance floor right in the middle.
Once I heard the price, we were just about sold. I jotted down all the information about venue rental pricing, non-alcoholic beverages, bar prices, etc... so I could look over later and crunch some numbers before deciding.
Though Memories does allow outside catering on Friday evenings, they also have a caterer that serves as the house caterer for all Saturday events and can also be available for events on other days, I asked the price - starting at $10 per person for buffet. Wow! I thought, that's pretty good but we already have a caterer.
Our caterer would have to provide the dinner and flatware, clean-up, cake cutting, champagne serving, and the list went on. Again that seemed like more costs to us. Their caterer would provide the dinner and flatware and clean-up for free, and the cake-cutting and champagne serving at a small fee.
But it was the deal John made us that had us sold on using their caterer - venue rental cost at half price if their caterer is hired. After I crunched the numbers, the convenience and price of using their caterer outweighed using our own, so we called up John to get a tasting of the food offered before making the final decision.
The caterer offered a Mexican buffet, which is exactly what we were looking for. We tried the chicken fajitas - juicy, tasty, and filling - the decision wasn't too hard after that.
What we loved about working with the caterer and John was their willingness to work with us on adding things and having options. It definitely put me at ease. Saving money by getting the venue at half price with the caterer there, I couldn't help but want to splurge a little. I reserved both the upstairs and downstairs rooms.
I figured we could make it a little more updated by havin a cocktail hour downstairs, then dinner upstairs followed by dancing back downstairs. That way there's a slightly different feel to each part of the reception and we would not be so crowded. And we still got both for less than just the upstairs would cost if we brought in our own caterer.
The key here was being open to different venues and willing to step away from my original idea. And having the best MOH ever is a plus!
While still working on getting details down about the ceremony site, it's also nice to know we can have it in the downstairs room, if need be. Always got to have a back-up plan.
