it's officially a party!

Today we finalized our decision to book Rob from Absolute Entertainment as our DJ.  Aaron Couch from Disc Jockeys on Call was the other main competitor.  We met with both Rob and Aaron last weekend.

Aaron was the DJ at my cousin's wedding and I thought he did a great job.  His voice is amazing-- I think one guest called him Barry White.  He offered us a good price, but couldn't guarantee that he would be our DJ.  We weren't okay going on faith in a DJ from his company that we hadn't met.  Aaron told us that my cousin had booked much farther in advance than us and that September 2010 was set to be a busy month, which was why he couldn't guarantee us that he would be the DJ unless we paid more than double the price.

At our meeting with Rob he gave us a demo of his DJ skills and music tastes, and also showed us some recent reviews of his performances.  We were pleased with the meeting.  Thanks to my mom's great bargaining abilities we got quite a deal on Rob for our wedding!

There seems to be something with DJs about being hot and cold with communicating.  The week following our sales meeting with Jason from Absolute Entertainment we heard nothing from anyone.  After meeting with Robby however we got excellent communication from Jason as well as the president of the company.  Aaron seems to be the same way-- my cousin had warned me that he wasn't great with communication, but he called and e-mailed me as soon as I requested information.  Let's hope we stay on the upside of things.  Absolute Entertainment also has an online planning tool, which should make things super easy for us to plan.

Things seem to really be coming together now with all of the big vendors booked.  Football season will be over at the end of this week, so I should have lots of time to go dress shopping then!

engagement photos

This past Sunday we had an engagement photo session with Frank Formica and one of his assistants.  We met at Frank's studio and drove over to the Naval Research Station in Annapolis.  We took some photos under trees with changing leaves, and then moved on to some rustic old buildings.  It was lots of fun and the pictures turned out great!  We are officially going with Frank for our wedding photos.
Here are a few favorites:

Next on our list of things to do is a DJ.  We've had one meeting so far with Absolute Entertainment.  They seem like good DJs and offer reasonable rates, but have been terrible with communicating!  We've been in touch with a few other DJs via e-mail, and are working on setting up some meetings.

Dress shopping is still in the works as well.  I went the week before last to the Bridal Boutique in Columbia with Mom, my sister and Grandma and tried on another 10 or so dresses.  I think I at least have the style narrowed down now, but don't think I've quite found the right one yet!