Chapter 16: Productivity

Today has probably been the most productive day of our entire wedding planning experience so far. We woke up bright and early at 7am to give us enough of a safety net to get to Pittsburgh with inclement weather. It turned out the roads were much better than expected, so we were early for our 9:30 appointment with Chris from Guardian. As we mentioned in a previous blog, he is the one who is going to set up the security, central vacuum, and whole house audio system. We walked through the house discussing where various things were going to go, like the speakers for the audio system and what windows and doors needed security. After signing the paper work (and Chris's continual talking), we had to rush over to our next appointment.

We met my mom and Megan for our 11 am appointment with Rania's assistant caterer. There we got some free lunch and were able to sample some of her food. We all had a few different kinds of chicken and a delicious piece of chocolate cake. We also discussed linens, cakes, etc. and decided we really liked their service so we reserved them for our wedding.

Next, we went to our 1:30 appointment with the florist, Allison McGeary. This was a husband and wife team, collectively called McGeary Creative. What is special about their service is that they provide design ideas along with their floral expertise. They asked a lot questions to get a feel for what we wanted and they seemed to have some good, creative ideas. Overall, we really liked them as well and are most likely going with them.

Our most important meeting was at 3:30 at Phipps Conservatory. The conservatory was packed with people because it was the last weekend for the Chihuly glass exhibit, and everyone was cramming it in at the last second. Luckily, our Phipps representative, Ansley, was able to have us bypass all the lines. We took a nice walk around the tropical forest room and special events hall, with Ansley answering all of our questions and helping us envision the layout. After we completed our walk through, we agreed to finalize the reservation and booked Phipps.

Tomorrow we are stopping at a Bridal Showcase just outside of Pittsburgh before we head back to State College. Good weekend!