Small Town Pros and Woes

Small town pros and woes seems like an perfect name for this post. It’s mainly to discuss our various vendors, our limited options when it came to vendors, and how we found them. The woe of living in a small town means that there aren’t a lot of options when it comes to things like catering, flowers, photography, and cakes. The pros of living in a small town are that you know who the good ones are, and you don’t have to waste a lot of time searching.

Pro #1: Cake

We have a cake lady. That’s right. My family has a cake lady who they call to make cakes for various parties. My little cousin has had one of her cake’s for his birthday for year’s now. When my other cousin got married, the lady did her bridal shower cake, and when my friend’s and I threw a baby shower, we had her make a pink camouflage cake. She can do anything as in you show her a picture and she can do it. And they taste soooooooo good. Luckily for me, she also does wedding cakes. One phone call, a meeting, and $50 deposit later, we had a cake!

Hopefully, she can recreate something like this:

Pro #2: Photography

This one was slightly woe as well. I was amazed at the photography of the blogosphere wedding world. I thought it was amazing and awesome and that if I didn’t spend $3k+ on a photographer, my photos would be crap. Until I started looking at a photographer located in my small town, and honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference between her and the other’s. And she was only a 1/3 of the price! So once again, a few emails, a meeting, and a relatively larger (but still cheaper then the deposit for a $3k photographer) $500 deposit later, we had a photographer! *Small town disclaimer: she has a 2nd shooter for the wedding who I’ve known since I was little! His MIL is even invited to our wedding.

Sneak peek at engagement photos:

Pro #3: Flowers

This one was difficult in theory, mainly because I’m difficult. I honestly didn’t even try to look into this one, but mainly because my aunt said her friend (who I also know) was great with flowers/decorating, and would do our wedding if we wanted. I said: done.

And this is how we checked the box of 3 out of the 5 major elements (cake, photographer, flowers, caterer, venue). I personally hope it was as easy for everyone else in this process as it had been for us. This pretty much set us on cruise control for the next couple months, however, trying to find a caterer would prove to be relatively difficult. That is, until my stubborn self put my foot down and said enough was enough! But more on that to come later….