Last night, I wrote this, intending to finish it off into a journal entry, but never quite getting around to it:

Ah, yes, I should update. Life's been busy, with this week being kind of annoying overall. Mainly, it's the wedding. I really need to nail down a photographer, and I think the reason I haven't yet is because that's a WHOLE LOT OF MONEY for some pictures. But I want good pictures! Anyway, I think I found a photographer who takes pictures that I like and who I seem to get along with pretty well. Tim and I are meeting him tomorrow night after work; here's hoping that I can work out a package deal with him to get the stuff I want. He might end up out of my price range, which would suck because that means I'll have to start over again. Argh.

Also, we must meet with the DJ soon. Gah. Music. I can never think of the names of songs that I like when asked. It's just not one of my talents.


Now, after having met with this photographer...

One of the things they always tell you, in every last wedding book, website, even some of the magazines (although those usually are still trying to sell you stuff), is that the wedding industry is huge, evil and scary and that all the vendors are out to gouge you for as much money as they can possibly get from you and that you really have to fight and watch your back or else you suddenly realize that you've spent three times your wedding budget.

That has, for the most part, not been our experience. At least, not with the vendors with whom we've decided to go with.

The caterers, Culinary Excellence (I'll link this entry up later), cut us a deal on the food. Still pricey, yes, but they put in our budget on the bottom line and made everything fit (while throwing in extra stuff, such as a pasta dish for the vegetarians).

And tonight, the photographer, Ken Smith, totally worked with my budget, also throwing in a few extras so that I ended up getting what I wanted while not spending way way too much. In fact, all I said was "I can scrape together enough for your lowest priced package, but it doesn't have X and Y" and he dropped his price while throwing in X and Y and even Z!

I am so completely thrilled!

He's a really nice guy. We both got along with him wonderfully, and were impressed not only with his artistic skill, but with his grasp of the digital age (and, no, he's not some young kid; this is a photographer with nearly 20 years professional photography under his belt and even more experience if you count back when he was just doing it for fun and to make art). After we'd hashed out a deal, he leaned back and asked us about writing, then told us stories about all the writers and artists in his family. He's very sweet!

Hm, maybe that's it. Maybe it's that moment when Tim says, "Basically, my novel advance is paying for this wedding" that charms the vendors into giving us more whlie charging us less.

Still have to fill out and sign the contract with the photographer, but he's holding our date. So that's set, Meeting with the DJ this weekend. I still have to find an inexpensive but decently skilled videographer, but then I'm done with the big contract vendors. Whew! Then it's all cake, dress fittings, hairdressers and wholesale flower marts!

Cheers!