Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Ok, maybe not lions, tigers OR bears, but there certainly have been a lot of crazy/scary/trying times over the past few months as Ed and I have lined up all the "essentials" for the wedding. Planning large social events has never been my "bliss" so this has been quite the learning curve for me. Thankfully, Ed has been supportive and actively participated in every major decision (and even the minor ones). This wedding will truly be a "joint" affair! Thus far we've determined the location for the ceremony and the reception, as well as identified and "booked" the DJ, photographer and videographer.

Researching and interviewing individuals is exhausting business! It has been especially difficult for me because I lost my Dad to cancer just one year ago. I wasn't expecting that at every interview we'd have someone would ask about the father of the bride speech, the father/daughter dance or mention "when your father walks you down the aisle." *sigh* These innocent yet hurtful questions really made the interview stage tough on me, and I'm honestly glad to have that part in the past so that I can look forward to our wonderful day and all the good things that will happen instead of being reminded that my beloved Daddy won't be there to see me marry the only man for me.

We ended up choosing a photographer that was first recommended to us by one of my library coworkers. The photography studio also has its own photo shop as well as hosts its own web site where our wedding photos will be posted. The fact that they do everything from take the pictures to process them and put them online means that our guests will benefit (as will we) from having low priced but high quality prints and no middleman mark-ups! If you want to check them out, they are Clark Photographics. Ed and I really liked their great customer service and excellent package offering. We got an even better deal than what they had advertised! I'm really looking forward to working with them.

I work at the College of DuPage and have had the opportunity to do several teleconferences and multi-media projects with COD's multimedia services division. When it came time to find a good videographer, Ed and I first checked out multiple wedding videographer web sites and watched a myriad of nightmarish video clips. I'm amazed that neither of us got seasick from the bobbing cameras or suffered whiplash from inexperienced zooms and camera jerks! Yikes! We didn't like anything that we saw, so I contacted my "friends" over in multimedia services and asked for recommendations. I was amazed and excited to discover that one of the producers with whom I'd worked previously actually had a wedding videography business in addition to his work at COD. HURRAY! Paul Thompson and his wife Katherine will be doing our videography. Check out their business Web site: Beautiful Day Productions! Paul and Kate are fun, caring and really skilled so I just know that we're going to have beautiful video footage of the wedding.

Paul and Kate recommended the gentleman that we eventually contracted to do our DJ work at the reception. They have worked at several weddings where he DJ'd and they were very impressed by how he tailored his "performance" to suit the tastes and preferences of the different couples. We were pleased with our interview with the company and I thought it was very nice that the specific DJ, John Ciccone, contacted Ed just a few days after we signed our contract to introduce himself, give us his cell number and assure us that he'd make our night extra special. I LOVE quality customer service! This summer, Ed and I will have the fun "chore" of going down to the company's "listening room" where we can preview and select all our wedding songs! We can also build a "must play" and a "do not play under ANY circumstance" list. HURRAY. Needless to say, the chicken dance immediately was added to our do not play list!