Weddings in North Carolina

I had been under the impression that fondant icing is on the way “out” but not at this bridal event! In fact just about every cake I saw was decorated with fondant. These, from Lynn’s Traditions in Raleigh NC, for instance:

And these next two pictures are cakes from Miel Bon Bons in Carrboro:

Here are more cakes from Miel in Carrboro, NC:

My wordpress blogs were hacked, and while I’m trying to put them back together unexpected things are happening. Hopefully soon I’ll have them back together and be able to resume posting.

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.

Based in Asheboro, this artist makes handmade blank books and address books of various sizes, shapes, and luxury levels. Her books are luxurious to see and hold in your hand, the photo doesn’t do them justice. All different patterns and types of fabric available.

Visit the the Ay Bee Cees at Etsy.

I watched Sharon Michalka of weddingbrushes.com in action recently. She sat down in a corner with her canvas and paints, and as the event unfolded, it unfolded on her painting as well. It was quite entertaining and she’s a nice person. She’ll do portraits as well, of course.

Warning: her website has automatic music. Look to the right of the screen for a place to turn it off.

Of the places we considered, Camp New Hope was my preference for my daughter’s wedding next year. It is big, informal, outdoorsy but with nice indoor space, very close to where we live, and inexpensive.

I took these pictures yesterday – it’s late August so everything is kind of burnt up from the sun.

The guy who runs it is very kind and accommodating. I’ve played a number of weddings there and found the venue very pleasant.
There are two biggish cabins on site which can be rented for the weekend of your wedding, for people who don’t like to drive. The cabins have kitchens so you can settle in and have a vacation weekend!
[caption id="attachment_408" align="alignleft" width="475" caption="New Hope Camp and Conference Center dining hall"][/caption]The dining hall is large, air-conditioned, and L-shaped, so you can have one activity at one end and another at the other. Also, they have chairs and tables so you don’t have to go to the trouble and expense of renting them.Fleming Lodge, which is close by the dining hall, is smaller but nicer: it has a wood floor, I’ve done contradances there. It has a porch where people sometimes put food and/or drink.
There are several pavilions, some larger, some smaller; I’m a mentor with the Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate program in Carrboro NC and they sponsor family get-togethers at Camp New Hope, with volleyball on the grass and tons of people in the pavilion for a fried-chicken feast.

Also, having the pavilion means if it rains, or if it’s very hot, there’s shelter for you and your guests.

My daughter decided the camp was too rustic for her, but for an informal affair it would be wonderful. The next post will give prices.

On my way to the Bridal Show, held today at the Jim Graham Building at the NC State Fairgrounds, I happened across the weekly Raleigh Flea-market. It’s huge! And when I saw these $15 tuxedos I couldn’t resist.

I’ll be in Paris till August and will resume posting then. Have a nice July!

Today, as part of my investigation of local letterpress printers, I visited Travis Friedrich of Parklife Press. He had warned me he was expecting delivery of a new printing press, and wouldn’t be able to talk much, but I thought watching the operation would be very cool. And so it was!

Here he is about half an hour after I arrived. The lady who sold him the machine had wheedled her friend, a real estate agent (who says: “I can’t believe it, housing prices in Virginia are so good right now, and we have so many wonderful listings, and mortgages are so low, why aren’t people buying?” – my PSA for her…) into driving this gargantuan artifact down to North Carolina in a rental truck.

The old press, which Betsy was selling because there is not enough work to keep it busy in Fairfax Virginia, weights about 4,000 pounds. Travis is installing it in his shop, which is the garage of his home in Carrboro, NC.

I bet he isn’t planning to move anytime soon.

Here is one of the machines he owns, I drooled over it.


Here’s his paper-cutter, manufactured in the 19th century and still going strong.


While I waited and watched the huffing and puffing (it was 92 degrees and just past noon, exactly the right conditions for humping a 4,000 pound machine out of a U-Haul), I discovered a box full of used polyresin plates, and Travis said they were just going back to the factory to be recycled so I could have some. I chose this, for example.

As I explained yesterday, these days very few people are actually setting metal (or wood) letters in quoins backwards and running them through a press. Instead, they design on computer and send the files off to be converted into these polyresin plates.

Travis is a super-nice young man. I hope his business will prosper!

This was my last view of him, an hour after I arrived. I hope he managed to get the thing out of the truck eventually.

Go to his website to see prices and better pictures of his perfect, meticulous work, but in the mean time here are some pictures I took while I was there. You can click on any one of them for a larger view:

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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…

Actually, I first saw these paddle fans when I went down to Alabama for the first annual national Sacred Harp Singing Convention, probably in 1979. Some friends and I hopped in a VW beetle and rolled down from Boston! It was the first time I’d ever seen a cotton field! It was the first time I experienced Chick-Fil-E! Or barbeque of an entire animal!

We visited some small non-airconditioned churches (in fact some did not have indoor plumbing, they had instead a “Men’s Trail” and a “Lady’s Trail”). Many of the parishioners were vigorously operating personal fans with Jesus on them. (Some had ads for funeral homes on them, savvy advertising considering the average age of those in attendance.)

I’d never seen such a thing but I certainly wished *I* had one too…

So I was pretty thrilled when we showed up to play at a wedding way out in the country, in a tent out under the blistering June sun, and were handed these! Of course, you can’t hold a fan and play the fiddle at the same time, but I liked this wedding souvenir so much I’ve kept it for nine years.

I wonder if they were hand-made? They are laminated, very stiff cardboard, with the paddle glued on the back (that’s better than staples for sure).

There are many sources on line, here are some examples (I haven’t dealt with them, so not recommendations):
Inkhead.com
U.S. Imprints.com
Hand Fan Factory
Hand Fans Direct

Some will do a minimum as low as 130. Some will do full-color as part of the base price, but at some places you pay extra set-up etc. for each separate color (these places are obviously using real printing presses rather than ink-jet printers). Watch out for the weight of the stock – I would say 16 point is a minimum and more is better.

The fan I pictured here is laminated. I’m not sure who does that. Anyway, I’ve seen these fans at a few more weddings and think they’re a great idea.

First off, I’m not a fan of cut flowers in general. They’re expensive and ephemeral.

Ephemeral, that’s the part that gets me – cut flowers start out beautiful and then wither and rot while you wrestle with your distress about throwing them out. And it makes you think about life and death, and then, what a waste it was to cut them when they were so pretty in the field etc…

I get it about beautiful wedding bouquets – they’re pretty and worth it, and I won’t try to convince my daughter to carry sticks or balloons down the aisle instead. But what’s with giant floral arrangements on the tables at the reception? Not only is it expensive, but people want to take the vases and put them on the floor so they can see the guests across the table and talk to them!

So if they get in the way and they’re expensive, why not skip them altogether? This is how, as a young wife, I had the brainstorm that Thanksgiving dinner would be far more relaxed and enjoyable if I simply did not cook or provide foods which are traditional but which nobody likes. Bingo! Everybody stuffs themselves on the things they DO like, and happiness prevails.

I bet you could find a better use for the money you could save on all those fancy flowers you don’t have to buy.

My daughter pointed me to some cute, stylish wedding blogs this morning and one thing that caught my eye as I browsed was odd alternatives to flower arrangements for the table. I’ll probably post more of them later (when I’m trying to convince my daughter out of table flowers) but here are some ideas which perplexed me.

I’ve been busy figuring out how to film videos of our wedding ensembles and posting them to YouTube. So far, the venues have been kind of noisy but it’s really fun! Here’s a Pratie Head video from St. Patrick’s Day 2009 at the Broad Street Cafe, it’s about a sweet young woman who wants to marry her sweetheart, a soldier, and follow him wherever he must go.

For more of the new videos see the Pratie Heads Youtube channel.

And then I used my camcorder to record a Mappamundi concert in Flat Rock (at the Hendersonville Chamber Music Concert series) last weekend. Here is a video from that show; it’s a Sephardic song called “Una Noche Al Lunar,” about a woman who misses her sweetheart, but knows they will soon be reunited.

For more of the new videos see the Mappamundi YouTube channel.

What do you think?

Since my daughter is getting married, and I’m a NC wedding musician, I thought I’d start boning up on the current state of wedding planning and publications. I’ve looked at quite a few books and so far the best is “Bridal Bargains” by Denise and Alan Fields. (I am not connected to them in any way.) They have an excellent no-nonsense approach to the bridal industry and lots of good ideas presented in a way that is not too frou-frou for even a groom to read! And lots of ideas about economical weddings and staying on budget using unusual approaches.

There’s one passage that made me groan, though:

Every major metropolitan area has a plethora of good wedding entertainers. The only problem is finding them. Ceremony musicians, reception bands and DJs typically keep a very low profile, choosing to work by word-of-mouth referral. Many of the most successful bands don’t advertise their services. So how can you find these people?

Sound of teeth loudly gnashing. They think we don’t want to be found? Not the case at all.

• Advertising is expensive, and most musicians don’t have the money to spare.

• Advertising takes time and expertise, and many wonderful musicians are very busy – and not so good at writing copy or finding economical places to place ads. Those who offer to build websites for musicians can be predatory, taking advantage of people who are pretty inexperienced online, and the costs are often too high.
• The online world, as found in web searches, is over-run by “directory sites” which claim to offer local services but which, at least in an area like the Triangle (that’s where I live, it’s Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, and Raleigh in NC), are often very empty and unhelpful. “Real” musicians can’t get the rankings to compete with the big paid sites like “The Knot.”

OK, I’m off my soap-box now. I am trying to find out if Google can be moved to try harder to watch out for the little guy, because that’s who you want for your wedding – not offers from some big slick cover band from New York or New Jersey to come down and do your wedding as long as you pay thousands in travel costs. You want somebody nearby, who would love to make music for you.

I know these things change every day… but on April 20, when I put in a Google search for “wedding music in North Carolina,” the very first result was an advertising link aggregator that does not happen to list even one single wedding music vendor in North Carolina! I wrote to them and pointed this out; they said North Carolina is a new area for them, and wouldn’t I like to buy some advertising?

Don’t you wonder, though, how it is that they got to the top of this search, if they have no relevant content at all? They must know some fine tricks.

Olga samar
olga_samar@yahoo.com
(919) 462-9472