Weddings in North Carolina

I went to the Bridal Fair in Chapel Hill today – it was postponed from last weekend because of snow. Here are some of the cakes I saw there…

I’ll be featuring these “cake shooters” (above) in the next post. And here’s detail on Sugarland’s adorable Indian bride and groom:

We played a wedding at Elodie Farms in Rougemont, NC last week (near Bahama). It was a small wedding, only about 35 guests. We played English country dance music and swing tunes at the bride’s request.

Even though it’s November, they got married outside. We set up on the porch just above them so everybody could hear quite well.
It was a very quiet spot with lots of pretty grassy yard – the kids had room to play, and pet the goats and laugh at the donkey.

When the ceremony was over we moved inside and set up in the alcove at the far end of this room. We played swing tunes during the early dinner, and after dinner a caller taught folks how to do English Country Dances, the kind you see in Masterpiece Theater Jane Austen balls.
This is what you see when you come in the front door. They set up the desserts – three cakes and some pie – and two big heated containers of soup and casserole and salad on this buffet table.

This is one of the several tiny rooms on the first floor where tables were set up for the sit down dinner. Everybody had room to eat comfortably in these several rooms and they could all hear us even though we were alone in that front room until the dancing started!

I know our bride got a good deal on her rental because November is the off season. If you really trusted the weather – or if you had big tents – I suppose you could hold a big wedding here outside, but the place was bursting at the seams with fewer than forty.

Elodie Farms is only five minutes away from Spruce Pine Lodge in Bahama NC, the first location the bride chose, but they were so odd about returning her contract she decided to move down the road.

Spruce Pine Lodge is better if you hope a lot of people will dance, but Elodie Farms is an exceptionally lovely old-fashioned farmhouse with a gorgeous view.

The goat cheese they make at Elodie Farms is spectacular! They served some at lunch.
Elodie Farms
(919) 479-4606
9522 Hampton Road
Rougemont, NC 27572

I recently had a very yummy lunch at the Croasdaile Country Club, and the room is absolutely lovely, bright and sunny (well, in the daytime anyway) and fresh looking. The service was excellent and the manager, John Sluck, goes out of his way to be pleasant and accommodating. He’s very efficient.

There are several rooms available for rehearsal dinners and receptions, and in fact you could have your wedding ceremony in one of the rooms while another was being prepared for the after-party! I believe it’s also possible to marry outside on their lovely grounds.

It used to be that only members of the Country Club could book the rooms there, but the rule has recently been relaxed. In view of the troubled economy and bridal party wishes to be frugal, room rental charges are waived under certain circumstances.

There’s plenty of parking and it’s easy to get to. You can contact Mr. Sluck at 919-383-1591 extension 239 to get his very comprehensive price and options package. Or email him at jsluck@croasdailecountryclub.com.

Here’s the website: Croasdaile Country Club.

My daughter’s getting married at noon on a Sunday. She decided she wanted people to be able to get together the night before, as well, because out of towners will probably arrive on Saturday.

So she’s throwing a party for a hundred people at the new Torero’s location on Chapel Hill Boulevard, in Oak Creek Village shopping center on 15-501 business, across from Toyota. This is a big building that’s been empty for a long time and they’ve painted it – it looks grand now – and it’s all beautifully painted with rich, lively colors inside. There’s a back room with seating for about 80 or 100 people.

Here’s their catering menu. Ruben, the owner, is going to cordon off the back for us and serve a buffet of various Mexican foods: rice and beans, enchiladas, tacos, burritos, chips and salsa, etc. with soft drinks, tea, sangria, and beer. The buffet (not including alcohol) will be around $11 per person, and considering that we don’t have to pay extra for the room, this seems like a spectacular deal. He’s a great local vendor, well worth supporting. I eat at Toreros often and it feels like home.

Now that my daughter has signed a contract with Nawwaf Said of Jazmin middle eastern restaurant and our day is secure, I’m willing to tell you: after all the weddings I’ve played at, I think the catering from Jazmin restaurant is the best in the Triangle. We met with Nawwaf today and now I’m impressed, not just with his great food, but with his professionalism, courtesy, and intelligence. He really has a handle on how the flow of guests and servers and rental agencies and food must work together for maximum efficiency – and fun.

My daugher’s getting married at Duke Gardens and they make new vendors jump through a lot of hoops to sign up, so we’re glad Nawwaf was willing to go through the process. Duke also has lists of approved rental people – there are no chairs or tables on site, we must rent them all – and Nawwaf is going to help us coordinate that.

We’re getting a very nice spread of Near Eastern food – pita and hummus and grape leaves and salads and lots of stuff including chicken and steak kebobs and felafel – and a range of soft drinks and teas etc. – with an appetizer course outside (to keep guests happy while pictures are being taken) and a buffet luncheon inside – for $28 per person. He will take care of hiring servers for us who will do set-up and break-down; we are going to provide the wine and beer but Nawwaf’s people will serve it. His people are going to cost $25/hour and it takes quite a few of them.

Anyway, I wanted to give this experience, so far, my heartiest recommendation. I first met Nawwaf when Mappamundi was playing at the wedding of a very picky bride. I told him at the time it was the best food I’d had at a wedding and asked, “Has the bride called you as often as she’s called me?” He smiled. He made her happy, so I’m sure he can make you happy too.

Jazmin now has two locations: 2430 Hillsborough Road in Raleigh, the food court in the Cary Towne Mall, and the one where we met him today, the newest, at 1624 Walnut Street in Cary, right at the highway exit. Go have a meal, you’ll like it!

At a recent event I snapped a picture of this driver, who works with the Bull City Carriage Company and Limousine Service. What a beautiful horse! She stood peacefully for an hour and a half. I don’t know how economical an option this is as far as transportation goes, but it certainly is beautiful. And I believe in supporting the old ways…

I was at a bridal vendors event lately and while I did not meet this vendor, the idea seems interesting:

Chantel Smith, “event coordinator,” is offering a flat-rate $5,000 package which includes:

Events in a Box, NC.

My daughter finally decided on Duke Gardens as the location for her wedding. It’s a very popular location, so you have to plan ahead. On the first day of June, the year before her wedding (which is June 2010), there is a “lottery.” All the people who want weddings at the gardens the coming June get pulled randomly in a lottery and the first person gets first pick, etc.

This may seem odd, but it used to be worse – a mother-of-the-bride I met told me that just a few years ago you actually had to camp out at the office on the first day of the month the year before – she got there at 6 am and there were already people there!

Anyway, the first date my daughter chose was taken by the time her lottery number got pulled, but she got her second choice. Her wedding is on a Sunday, which is less popular than the Saturdays…

When the kids were in town, we went to see the building and the grounds and to talk to Jennifer Copeland, the coordinator there (seen in the picture on the left).

There is a list of caterers from whom we must pick (except it is supposedly possible to get a new caterer on the list, and we’re working on it) and Duke Gardens takes a 7% surcharge – cut of whatever the caterer charges. They rent the place empty – you must rent tables and chairs.

This back patio is covered, which makes it great for hot weather or mild rain, and it can be extended by a special tent so your whole large wedding can be under cover – BUT you must use their special tent company, and the tent costs an appalling $2,000. It gets left there all weekend, so theoretically you should be able to coordinate with the other bridal party of the weekend and split the cost – but the tent company won’t tell you if somebody else is using the tent, they would rather get $2,000 each for the two days.

120 or so is the maximum number for a sit-down dinner. There are not extensive facilities for the caterers, so they must come pre-prepared.

The ceiling (above) is beautiful!

Sites available for weddings at the Gardens are:

Doris Duke Center Locations*	Ceremony	Standing Reception	Tables of 8	Theater	Classroom
Kirby Horton Hall	150	160	120	160	90
Isobel Craven Drill Classroom	-	-	32	50	25
North Terrace	175	200	160	250	-
North Lawn	225	300	240	-	-
Angle Amphitheater**	150	200	-	150	-

*Based on set-up, numbers may vary.

**Rental of the Angle Amphitheater is at the discretion of SPDG’s staff and is based on availability or in conjunction with rental of the Kirby Horton Hall.

Sarah P. Duke Gardens Locations	Ceremony	Standing Reception
Pergola	150**	150
Fish Pool	150**	150
South Lawn	150**	150
Iris Bridge	65	65
Blomquist Pavilion	20	-
Pond-Viewing Shelter	10	-
Bird-Viewing Shelter	10	-

**A maximum of 50 chairs are allowed at these Garden locations. For example, if 150 guests are present, 50 will sit and 100 will stand.

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Note that, if you rent the building, you have it for the day, but if you rent one of the outdoor spaces, you have it for, perhaps, only a couple of hours, and I have known of bridal parties being hustled away because a new batch was coming in.

Ceremony Times: Friday: 6 pm; Saturday: 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm or 6pm; Sunday: 12 pm, 2pm, 4pm or 6pm

Parking is $1 an hour and they tow. If you rent the building, you get 100 parking passes.

Some of the spots are a hike from the parking area, but there is a little trolley to take folks around.

Cost of renting Duke Garden locations (2009 prices):

Duke Gardens Ceremony and Doris Duke Center Reception: $2500 $250 each additional hour
Includes two-hour use of: The Gardens (50 chairs) or Amphitheater (100 chairs)
Includes six-hour use of the Kirby Horton Hall, the North Terrace, the Adult Classroom (for caterer’s use)
Also includes: 100 parking passes

Doris Duke Center Reception: $2000* $250 each additional hour
Includes six-hour use of: The Kirby Horton Hall, The North Terrace, The Adult Classroom for caterer’s use
Also Includes: 100 parking passes

Duke Gardens or Angle Amphitheater** Ceremony: $650 $250 each additional hour
Includes two-hour use of: The Gardens (50 chairs) or Amphitheater (100 chairs)
Also includes: 1 hour rehearsal, 100 parking passes

A tent on the lawn costs $500, you have to use their one preferred vendor.

My daughter, the bride-to-be, and her groom were in town for a whirlwind tour. We tried several caterers, visited her venue (Duke Gardens), and sampled cake at seven bakeries. I baked the last two cakes myself, as a home-made comparison taste-test.

We tried 2-4 cake types each at:

1. Guglhupf;
2. Cake Dreams by Sally;
3. Mad Hatter;
4. Sugarland;
5. Sweet Janes
6. Bliss
7. Good Taste Cake Designs.

Now the happy couple are back on the plane to California and I’m on my bed wishing for Pepto-Bismol. Reports on what we sampled will have to wait…

My daughter is interested in buying locally for her wedding, and so she sent me to the Carrboro Farmers’ Market to look for flower growers and vendors who sell by the bucket. The first I talked to was Cathy Jones of Perry-winkle Farm. She was friendly and confident. Her variety of flowers was the most extensive.

See her website and farm at her Cooperative Extension Service website

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The next batch of flowers were available at the Wild Hare Farm booth …


Leah Cook is the owner.

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“Haygroves are multi-bay tunnels that the Hitts use to grow high quality crops like heirloom tomatoes and cut flowers. The tunnels protect crops from the rain and allow the Hitts to control the amount of moisture going to the crops.” (From the Hitt Farm site at NCSU Cooperative Extension Service.)


You can email her: abhitt (at) bellsouth.net

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The fourth and last flower vendor selling by the bucket was Ken Dawson of Maple Spring Gardens.

In general, it’s great to go see the vendors in action on Sunday mornings, 9-12 (here’s the Carrboro Farmers Market website to check for updated information). There are a few small parking lots on Weaver Street approaching the market, so you don’t need to park a mile away and hike like I did.

However, you can’t have much of a conversation there because they’re very busy! If you know you want local flowers for your wedding, call them at a more peaceful time and they can tell you what can be available at your wedding date. Ken said when his daughter told him she was getting married, he knew a year in advance and planted huge drifts of “her” flowers around where the wedding was going to take place. Sigh.

I’ve seen Carol’s Garden Inn recommended by a number of satisfied brides, but I haven’t visited it myself. There are a lot of pictures on the website, I’ll try to go investigate for myself.

Carol responded promptly to my inquiry; here is the information she sent me, as well as the cost of her various packages. You can see they are less expensive than most alternatives! There are additional perks, check her site for more detals.

General: You can have up to 150 people. We have a covered pavilion for the reception. You will have to rent tables and chairs. We have an outside restroom that is handicap accessible. You can use any caterer you want. Music will need to be turned down by 10 PM and off by 11 PM. Clean up by noon the day after the event.

Wedding and Reception with use of guestrooms day before and the day of, house for wedding party only, rehearsal, 100 to 150 people: $975.00

Same as above but fewer than 100 people: $650.00

Wedding or reception only (no use of the house), up to 4 hours for the event: $500, $50.00 an hour after that. Includes 2 hours before the event to setup and 2 hours after the event to cleanup.

Name of company: Careli Rental Service
Phone number: 919-697-3238
Showroom location: Durham NC
5? round tables seat 6-8: $8.00
chairs: wooden folding $2.60 each, plastic $1.30-1.60 each
6-8 foot buffet tables: $7
tablecloths for above: $11-15
20×20 tent: $230 (notice this is half the size of the others I’ve listed) includes setup and delivery
delivery charge: at the moment, free for orders of more than $125 in Durham and Chapel Hill, $175 in Raleigh
setup/breakdown: not mentioned on website

Shocked at the idea of spending thousands of dollars on a photographer for my daughter’s wedding, I looked on Craig’s List under services today for moderately-priced options. I was also looking for photographers who would provide copyright-free cds/dvds of the digital images.

Success! Note that I have not met or spoken with any of the photo studio folks below, but I liked the images on their websites. Each of them has a relatively low-cost package which includes a cd of your images so you can print away to your heart’s content.

I’ve decided that from now on I will feature on this blog only photographers with wedding options under $2,000 which include a cd/dvd of images which can be printed freely by the customer. If you qualify, or know a good photographer who does, please be in touch with me!

• Bennett Weddings

  Don’t let some photographer own all your wedding pictures, charging you exorbitant prices every time you want to print one! With my wedding packages, YOU OWN ALL THE PHOTOS – You can print as many as you want, whenever you want!

  I came to wedding photography through my experiences as a photojournalist. Twelve years in the newspaper business taught me to see things differently – and that comes through in my wedding photos.

  Ceremony & Reception Coverage (5 hours) $800

• Carl Johnson Photography

  Warning: Flash and automatic music

  Wedding special: Up to 3 hours of wedding coverage plus (limited time) free engagement session
  250+ images on a cd: $545 (regularly $629)

• Infantino Photography

  Photography Packages include “The Ruby” – 3 hours of photography coverage, over 250 images taken, high Resolution photo CD of all images (you receive copyrights to print all photos on CD) = $500. Additional Hour of Photography – $105.00

• Robert F. Filcsik Photography

  Warning: Flash and automatic music

  I like his images very much. He says “Offering modern and creative photojournalistic style photography at an affordable price. Wedding packages start at $600. 4 Hours coverage, including CD with edited high resolution images and the copyrights for all images.” The number of images is quite limited, however.

• Andrew Gloc Photography

  Gloc appears to be a newcomer to the business; he doesn’t have much of a wedding portfolio, but I liked the images I saw. He says: “I charge $299 for 4 hours of shooting including a cd of all images.”

This past week I went to a luncheon given by the local “Perfect Wedding Guide” folks, and I met many wedding vendors. One group I was very taken with: the people who can actually do the marrying. I met four of them and they were all friendly, smart, relaxed, and definitely people I’d be happy to spend time with. They are flexible, inter-denominational, non-judgmental folks. In the order I met them…

1. Christopher and Catherine Sanford. They say at their website:
   

   Chris and Kay work with couples to create and conduct individualized non-traditional weddings to emphasize your connection with your families and friends… We work with you to deal with [issues such as]:

   1. “We are actually already married.”

   2. “One of us or both have children. How do we include them in the wedding?”
   3. “We come from different religions (or cultures). How do we honor both?”
   4. “We have a very limited budget. We’re straining to pay for our wedding.”

2. Ron Grillo. He writes:
   

   I’m an ordained nondenominational interfaith officiant, a graduate of The New Seminary in 1994… I have performed a variety of different wedding ceremonies, including, but not limited to, Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Interfaith, Non-traditional, Medieval, Native American, Civil and Renewal of Vows. Depending on a couple’s wishes, I have incorporated into my opening and/or closing words, or their vows, wording from their native language, such as Hebrew, Turkish, Russian, Spanish…

3. Robin Renteria. She gave the keynote address on “The Five Languages of Love” and was sweet and funny. She writes:
   

   I’m a seminary educated, ordained non-denominational U.U. minister.

   I offer religious, interfaith, spiritual, and civil ceremonies, both traditional and contemporary, in the language of your beliefs and traditions.

   Whatever your faith, culture, life style, or traditions, it’s my joy to help you relax and enjoy your wedding, by creating a ceremony that is unique and personal to you…

I eat at Saladelias a couple times a month – their food is fresh and beautiful and the people who work there are sweet and helpful. I’ve played at weddings catered by Saladelia and the food is just as good. Highly recommended! Here’s the Saladelia Catering menu.

Since I said Torero’s (see below) is on the gringo-friendly end of the spectrum of Mexican restaurants in the Triangle, I thought I’d put in a word for my current favorite on the other end – Super Taqueria on Roxboro Road.

I learned about it from a great local food blog, Carpe Durham. From their post about Super Taqueria:

Super Taqueria on Roxboro has everything one could ask for in a taqueria: salsa bar, licuado station, special weekend soups and ceviche, and a big screen TV playing Univision. The decor is also especially upscale when compared to Durham’s other taquerias, sporting a nice paint job and prints of vaguely Florentine landscapes.

We especially loved the gorditas de pollo. If you are rolling your eyes now, that is understandable; many taquerias fill their tacos and gorditas de pollo with limp chicken in a boring sauce. Not Super Taqueria; they cook little chopped bits of chicken on a grill so that they are caramelized and flavorful. Their gordita shells are also perfect–crispy on the very edges, chewy a little farther in, doughy in the very middle, and not greasy at all.

The people are friendly, there are wonderful salad things on the salsa bar, it’s inexpensive, and the steak in the tacos de asado is fabulously good. I don’t know if they cater but if they did, I’d press my daughter to choose them.

If you are visiting Spartacus (see previous post) to sample their catering menu, why not walk across the parking lot and try Torero’s Mexican restaurant?

I eat at Torero’s restaurant every week – the people are friendly, the food is tasty and the portions are generous. It’s not as hard-core as some of my other favorite Mexican restaurants, I don’t think you can order tongue or head tacos here, but that’s not what most non-Mexican brides are looking for, anyway…

They have a great looking truck they take to catering gigs.

Here is the Torero’s catering menu. The owner is friendly, attentive, and responsible.

Here is the catering menu of Spartacus restaurant. My family loves Greek food and has patronized this restaurant for years.

Of their buffet items, I’m particularly fond of the Greek salad, the “Angel Hair Mediterranean,” the gyros with tsadziki (don’t miss the tsadziki), and the chicken. On the other hand, sadly, on our last two visits the spanakopita, which used to be wonderful, was sort of soggy and the pita was not completely fresh.

In general – you should be aware that caterers often resort to freezing – and sometimes re-freezing – their foods. Some foods can tolerate that and others can’t. There is a local kosher caterer who serves pita I would throw out if it were in my refrigerator, blegh! Perhaps you can specify something about this in your contract.