Wedding Show Awesomeness!!!!!

Our tickets =)

Wedding Shows...they should really be called the gold mines of wedding planning!!! Miguel and I have been to a couple of wedding shows and our son, Noah, has been to all of them with us except one.  (He is such a trooper and loves coming with =) My bridesmaid, Autumn, came with the three of us this time and it was such a wonderful experience to share with her!!

Out of all the vendors that were at the show, we have now narrowed down pretty much every type of vendor we need for the Wisconsin reception, except for the florist, but I don't really plan on having a ton of flowers so it's not that big of a deal.

MUSIC--we saw The Music Caterers at a previous wedding show and they were awesome!!  The guys were so personable, helpful, funny and outgoing!...their personalities were just like Miguel and I's and they are a perfect fit to pump up our reception.  They not only do DJ services, but they have a photo booth which is something I have wanted for the reception since day one!  And now, they offer up-lighting on top of the other services...which is another thing that I've wanted for the reception since day one!

CAKE--oh man...one thing about the wedding show that is always our favorite is the cake!!!  I seriously think we ate an entire cake between the three of us!  LOL. Out of all the cake vendors, one of them stood out to us the most...the flavor of the cake was so vibrant and rich and the cake itself was so moist!  Bernie's Cake Shop will definitely be making our cake and I already know what I want it to look like, so we are all set with that.  The most difficult thing now will be to decide on cake flavors....oh boy!

VIDEOGRAPHER--I haven't done much research on this type of vendor yet, but we saw some at the wedding show.  The one that really stood out to me was called Precious Moments Video.  The guy that we talked to was really nice and we talked pricing and they are definitely someone I would like to look into further.  I want to have everything videoed so this is a must-have for me.

PHOTOGRAPHER--We didn't even waste our time looking at this type of vendor because we've had our photographer since we got engaged.  Miguel's cousin is a VERY good photographer and his work is just breath-taking...I wouldn't have anyone else taking pictures of our special day!  You should check out his work =) www.dkingofimagez.com

RECEPTION LOCATION--this has been a REALLY big thorn in my foot since right after we got engaged. We looked at a place in Appleton called The Wave and fell in love with it.  The price was right and the location was just what we were looking for....we found out at a previous wedding show that it had closed down.  CLOSED DOWN??!!....oh man was it a depressing day when we found that out!  So we have been on the hunt ever since for a place to "wow" us like The Wave did.  After the wedding show on Saturday (01/07/12), we went to check out the Tundra Lodge.  Ohh boy!...this trip was rather disappointing!  They had HORRID red carpet that I've had nightmares about and the ballroom upstairs was so huge I felt like an ant and the ballroom downstairs felt like a conference room and closet. lol.  I loved the look of the Tundra Lodge from the outside and the lobby was awesome!...but all-in-all...I didn't want to have anything to do with it.  After we left there, we went to check out Green Bay Distillery.  As soon as we pulled in I fell in love with it.  The huge windows in the front were amazing!  We walked in and it got even better!  The main room was nice and open, it didn't seem crowded and everyone was really nice!  Towards the back of the main room they had dart boards, pool tables and skee ball....yes, I said SKEE BALL!!!! lol.  Then we walked into the ballroom...HOLY COW!!  I instantly lost my breath and knew that this was the place for us.  It wasn't too fancy and it was different...not your "normal" wedding reception looking room--which is exactly what I was looking for!!

The ballroom at GB Distillery facing the stage from the bar

The ballroom at GB Distillery from the stage looking at the bar

We loved the fact that the room was nice and open and that the ceilings were high.  The walls were an off-white color so the pink up-lighting will look AMAZING and give the room some texture.  Also, the stage was awesome because the head table will be elevated so everyone will be able to see us and there wont be a bad seat in the house.  They also have a "lounge area" in the back corner by the bar with chairs and couches...I loved this!  They said we could keep it or they could take it out but we are totally going to keep it! 

The awesome lounge area by the bar =)

All in all...the wedding show day was so awesome!  I couldn't have asked for a more productive day!!  We narrowed down so many undecided vendors and options for the wedding in one day and found our perfect reception site.  It is definitely a day to remember!!  I'm so glad Autumn came with us!  It's always nice to share the excitement with someone who isn't in on the planning we do everyday at home =) lol.  And we had fun trying all the different kinds of cake, playing in all the photo booths and watching the fashion show--the guy who thrusted his junk in my face to "i'm sexy and i know it" was definitely memorable. HAHAHA!!

Photo Booth Fun--Dad and Noah

Photo Booth Fun--Autumn and I

Photo Booth Fun--The whole group =)

Only 525 days left til our big day!!  It is so crazy to say that it's next year....NEXT YEAR!!! woah!...that's just crazy!!! lol.

Love--The (almost) Ninhams =)