Kathy,
I have to come out of lurkdom. One to say I am loving your TR and two, my DH and I own a home just south of Dubuque in Bellevue. We love Iowa and love Dubuque. We plan on retiring there within the next 5 years.
I wanted to make some suggestions next time your there visiting. Not sure if you booked a reception site yet but look at this one.
http://www.costellosoldmill.com/
I recommend this photographer! She's great not only did she do my son's senior pictures but also a family photo shoot this past summer. What is nice her prices are reasonable and you can order everything on line.
http://www.abbitriphan.com/
For a fabulos meal go here next time. The best salad and garlic bread ever!
http://www.vinnyvanucchis.com/
If you want to stay at a great B&B look here. It may not look so nice from the outside but the owners are wonderful and the inside is breathtaking. There are the ones who inspired us to purchase a victorian home and rehab it.
http://www.therichardshouse.com/
Oh and here is information on Bellevue. It would be great to have a DIS meet if we are ever in town at the same time. Come down to the house we can go to a nice place for pizza! Or to the place mentioned above!
http://www.bellevueia.com/index.html
Wendy
Wendy, welcome, and thank you for joining. Thank you for all of the tidbits. Unfortunately, the reception site won't work with 400 expected at the wedding, but it is nice to have that site for future reference.
It would be great to have a DISmeet if we get to Bellevue. We try to get out to Dubuque every couple of months, and we also come in the winter (weather permitting) to watch our son coach his high school wrestling team.
He loves Dubuque. I coudln't figure out wh=y he wanted to stay there after graduation until we found out about Alisha, and he just likes the community, things are cheaper, etc.
Glad you had a good weekend. Love Markie's KC hat.
Jill in CO
Thanks, Jill. That kid of mine has more hats and shots than any single person I know...and that includes women.
And the wedding preparations/planning begins................................I am so glad that I have a few more years before I have to go through that again. It looks like ya'll found a great place for the reception so you can mark that off the list of things to do.
It sounds like you all had a great weekend together. I wish that Lacey lived closer so we could do weekend things with them.
Lisa, I can say that I am VERY glad that I am not going to be involved in all of the planning. To me they just have way too many people on their list, but they won't back down so I'll just let them go their way. Once a year is up and Alisha starts shopping for a dress, I will drive up to Dubuque as she wants my input.
Sounds like you found a prefect place. Around here, almost all weddings are the buffet style. The ones that serve you at the table are extremely high dollar weddings here.
Buffets are good though. You can get what you want then...and I usually get a lot!
That is so weird...I had never heard of a "buffet style" reception before. We had family style, but everything was on the table.
looks like a fun weekend!
the reception place looks good, they can do a lot with the space....that's a HUGE amount of people....I went to a friends wedding that had over 500, was a mad house....they also had a buffet and the food was only set up along one side of the table....took forever to get through the line!
Thanks, Lisa...it was a fun weekend. I can't even begin to phantom that many people in one room.
Such great pictures from the weekend!! What a cute couple!!
I have to say... I don't envy you with the wedding planning. I think it about killed me last year. Course, our budget was tight... so we had to really be careful to pick things that still enabled dd to go to WDW for her disneymoon.
And... I love the new bag!!!
The good news is that I am NOT the mother of the bride, so my role will a lot more limited.
I love my new bag too...it's so cute.
Cute pictures of everyone!
Thanks, MaryEllen.
500+??????
I can't even imagine.
Heck, I'm on the 3rd time's a charm plan and if you added all of mine together it wouldn't be 500. (275, 175, 12)
Wow. Just Wow. I don't think I've ever been to one that large either here or in Chicago when I lived there, 250-300 is probably about it.
They'll have a down payment for a house in gifts but how can anyone afford a reception that large? My mind is reeling with the size. I have planned a ton of parties though and have seen many places that require you to bring in your own caterer, as well as others that don't. It can actually save quite a bit of $$ but also means a lot more logistics to coordinate. It is interesting, the difference in area's. I had only been to buffets prior to moving to Chicago. And in many cases they might have just been heavy appetizers or what we'd call "cake and nuts" only receptions. A full dinner (or lunch) was the exception, not the rule. It wasn't until Chicago that I went to my first sit down/served full dinner reception with multiple courses.
Glad you guys found something that seems to work for everyone and had such a nice weekend. Very cute bag!!!
Cynthia, I cringe every time I think of the number of people. I can't even imagine trying to get on the dance floor or what the bar bill will be.
It will be interesting to see how it goes with a buffet.
