Shoes, wedding vendors, and guest posts

Today, for the first time ever, I am wearing sneakers at work. It's casual Friday, and in the past I have worn cute flats with my jeans, but today I wanted something a little warmer on my feet, so I picked out my nicest pair of sneakers. They are narrow white and purple Pumas with a Velcro criss-cross strap instead of laces. And I have to say that while I love these shoes? And they go with my outfit? I feel a little awkward walking around the office in sneakers. I'm so used to skirts and flats or heels or boots. Even though other people are also wearing sneakers, and also my boss isn't here today (not that he would care) and neither is his boss (who might actually care).

Anyway. Now that we've all had a fascinating update on my footwear, let's talk about the wedding (I know, I've been doing a lot of that recently). Today I signed three contracts, and wrote three checks, and put them in three envelopes to mail at lunch. We now have an official caterer, photographer, and ceremony/reception site. And I am so, so excited about all three. So let me tell you about them!

We'll start with the caterer, which, in a backward-and-forward sort of way is how we found our reception site. We initially thought about going with a different site, and this caterer was the exclusive caterer for that site, so we did a tasting with them. And we ended up doing the tasting at another site that was exclusive to that caterer, and we loved the new site so much more, and it was the same price as the other one, so we changed our minds and haven't looked back since.

Anyway, the caterer is absolutely delicious. I was afraid of an exclusive caterer because I had in my mind the idea that all caterers made gross food like they serve at office luncheons, but this food was incredibly yummy, and really inexpensive. Plus they gave us a discount and I negotiated them into giving us an unlimited open bar for the cost of the standard beer and wine service. This is the beauty of getting married in November. And they offer a free Day of Coordinator, so that's another expense we don't have to worry about.

The site is here in DC, not too far from where we live. It's a big ballroom with 40-foot ceilings, two fireplaces with comfy furniture in front of them, pillars, and a dance floor in the middle. It is just gorgeous and I'm in love with the black and white marble foyer, where the cocktail hour will be held. I borrowed a couple of their (not very good) photos so you can see for yourselves. Just look at these pictures and imagine it looking like that, but a million times nicer in person.



The photographer is the same guy who photographed my sister's wedding. He gave us a $600 discount in part because he knows my sister and in part because our wedding is in the off-season. He has a photojournalistic style that is just gorgeous, and he offered to take us pretty much anywhere in the city before the wedding to take fun pictures of just the two of us. He's also just generally a really nice guy and someone I feel totally comfortable working with.

Lastly, as I've mentioned several times, Torsten and I are leaving next week to spend ten days in Germany. I'm still up in the air about what to do with my blog during that time. The two options I'm considering are pre-writing posts to be published throughout the week or asking some of my favourite bloggers to write guest posts for me (and whoever did Tuesday would have to do a Retrospective, obviously). What do you guys think? Which would you prefer?