peeks!

Ready for some pictures of things we're considering?
i think i love all of these things, but i dont think they'll all work for us.

This is kind of a random assortment of images, and i have no idea where they're all from. sorry!

a cake that scares me.

This cake is so huge and sprawling that it is hard for me to comprehend. There is so much going on and i am overwhelmed by a CAKE. insane.
anyway,
We've been looking into cakes. I cannot believe that people actually pay $600-$700 for a CAKE. A cake?! Cake is like, three ingredients and so easy to make! who pays that much for a CAKE!
sooo...
we might be making our own. Casey has been researching things like fondant and tiers. Seriously, if we made our cake ourselves I bet we could do the whole thing for like, $50 max. especially since we want funfetti cake and each box is only a dollar! and funfetti cake is guaranteed to be delicious, by the way, so we don't have to worry about making a recipe wrong or anything.
Everyone says not to do things yourself because you'll have too much to do. But Casey is more of a teammate than other grooms, and I think making our cake would give us something else to freak out about in the days preceding our wedding. Like, instead of worrying about something that we can't control (spilled beverage on dress, wilted flowers, late arrivals, whatever), we can worry about the cake together, be a team, and cross something off the checklist. And save at least $500.

Another thing we were thinking of doing is having a baker make a smaller wedding cake that is like, maybe $100 and then making our own grooms cake. Unfortunately though, most bakers don't offer box funfetti as an option, and they try to make it all fancy and gourmet when what we really want is the $1 box. so who knows.

The French Estate

Casey and I booked our venue yesterday and we couldn't be more thrilled with it. We had had our hearts set on the beautiful outdoor chapels at Kindred Church in Anaheim Hills, but they wouldn't allow us to have a cake and punch reception on site, and it seemed silly to leave and go to another site for only an hour or two.
On a whim, I searched for something like 'cheap beautiful wedding venues' online, and found The French Estate!

The French Estate is actually a little more expensive than Kindred was, but it is just about eighty billion times better as well!

It is owned by a woman named Sarah (she lives there), and she is just wonderful to work with. She is very sweet, accommodating and honest, and she offers to do all these extra things all the time that weren't agreed on when she gave us the quote. And then she leaves the quote the same!
Ceremony Location:
It looks like a lot of people choose to use the backyard for the reception, but we decided to use it for the ceremony instead. The front half of the yard will be in shade, so we figured it will be better for people who want to stand and talk after the ceremony. The backyard is also farther away from the street, so we wont be competing with cars who don't know they're intruding on a wedding.





Cake and Punch Reception Location:
Here's the front yard, all dolled up for weddings and not receptions. Just imagine what it will be like, I guess! The two yards are connected by a wide side yard. There is no pesky fence separating the two, which means that we can just mosey wherever we want to mosey.





Interior (for photos, etc.):
We love how period-accurate the entire home is. It's beautiful!



When I first called Sarah, she asked me what I wanted in a ceremony location. I told her I only needed two hours max.. that I wanted the ceremony and the cake and punch reception outside and that's it.

The two hours has turned into four or five hours, she's offered to let us use all her chairs and tables, she has cake cutting utensils, she is making the punch, she is letting us use the interior, she is including a wedding coordinator, she is including offsite parking and a shuttle bus... the list goes on.
All for the same price. I have not seen this kind of kindness and generosity in a vendor yet! She seems so willing to help us make our day perfect, instead of wanting to make money. It's like she wants to take special care of us as though we were her own family members getting married, not some random people who called in, irritated because their last place fell through. The French Estate is a really wonderful location and both Casey and I are so glad that we decided not to use Kindred - we like The French Estate so much more!


It took me a long time to find all of these photos online and I couldn't find credits with them. If you are the photographer and would like credit given, a link to your website or for me to remove the photos entirely, just let me know.