We were so excited to taste the delicious food that Mission Inn has to offer, and the chef did not disappoint!

Meeting the Chef at Mission Inn

Our tasting menu included beef, chicken, and fish selections, several different hors d’oeuvres (including one of our own creation), and two sumptuous salads.

Sampling the delicious entrees!

It was so difficult to choose, because we liked all of the options!

Big smiles because the food was so yummy!

We’ll keep the final menu a surprise, but I’m sure that everyone–even our vegetarian and vegan guests–will be delighted with our choices. We picked the most delicious aspects of each dish and combined them into Mission Inn’s signature dual-plated entrees that all of our guests will love. We can’t wait–and it will be hard to save room for the cake to follow!

We very much enjoyed our meeting with In Bloom, their designer Victoria, coordinator Amanda, and owner John. We never knew flowers could be so intense! In a wedding, there are flowers everywhere–everyone in the wedding party gets some; there are flowers up and down the aisle, flowers on each table at the reception; flowers for the cake; flowers for the cocktail hour; flowers as a backdrop for the ceremony; flowers by the guest book–you get the idea. It would have been overwhelming but for the expert help of Victoria and Amanda! They really knew everything there was to know–they identified for us each place we might want flowers (and, of course, accessories to go with them, from stands to vases to embellishments), and were able to show us countless examples of different colors, bouquet styles, and flower placements.

Planning with Victoria at In Bloom

Victoria was also fantastic at identifying the type of flower we had seen somewhere before–we could tell her we liked “the flower, it’s kind of round, with rose-like petals inside,” and she’d immediately ask if it were a garden rose, and show us a picture to confirm. Amazing! Amanda was great at figuring out the logistics of everything, from the number of each different type of centerpiece we’d need to what colors would stand out in our particular ceremony location at Mission Inn. The entire experience was amazing!

Orchids for Jamy’s boutonniere.

*The beautiful photographs for this post are courtesy of Roberto Gonzalez at Orlando Magazine. He also shoots weddings! Check out: JulieandRoberto.com

Maria and Jamy trying the cake samples!

Alejandra, the baker and owner of Everything Cake, welcomed us to her home in Lake Mary for a cake consultation and tasting.

Jamy, Maria and Alejandra with the welcome sign!

Not only was she a gracious and welcoming host, she also is a fantastic baker and artist! She showed us some pictures of cakes she had finished and delivered just that morning–they were absolutely beautiful! She takes great care to engineer each cake from the first tier up–and pays meticulous attention to the design details, as well.

Alejandra explaining her cake philosophy.

The cake flavors Alejandra provided were delicious!

Alejandra gave us a large helping of all of the various flavors she offers, and helped us choose the combination for each layer of our cake. She also made a special batch of marzipan–Maria’s favorite–just for us. We love how each of the flavor combinations we selected taste, and can’t wait to have lots of tasty cake at our wedding!

Our cute platter of delicious cake samples – complete with a marzipan heart!

*The beautiful photographs for this post are courtesy of Roberto Gonzalez at Orlando Magazine. He also shoots weddings! Check out: JulieandRoberto.com

We, along with Maria’s parents, met with Erica and Ashley from Paperdolls Ink.

Maria and Jamy meeting with Ashley and Erica.

Erica and Ashley brought a small suitcase filled with invitations, save-the-dates, programs and menus for us to look at. They also brought a bunch of paper samples.

We spent a little while going through the whole box and examining each invitation. We discussed what we liked and didn’t like on each one and Erica and Ashley jotted down notes of our ideas.

Maria and Jamy reviewing sample wedding invitations.

Then we picked out different colors of stationery to use for the actual invitations. There were so many colors to choose from, but we think we chose colors that accurately represent the color scheme we have in mind for the wedding.

Along with choosing the design of the invitation, we also had to choose the construction of it. There are so many different styles of invitations nowadays! Some fold, some are one card, some have decorations attached…In the end we chose one that has little pockets on the back for the RSVP cards, etc. We liked how compact it was and that it looked like a fun design.

We just received the electronic proofs of the invitation and we are looking forward to seeing the final product!

We met with Jim at Tagas Event & Production Services to discuss the lighting for our special day!

We had previously decided that the theme of the wedding would be “light” since Maria loved so many of the different lighting ideas on Pinterest.

Maria telling Jim about her vision for the lighting.

Since we hoped to incorporate as much of the lighting theme as possible into the wedding and reception, we knew that our meeting with Jim would be an important one.

Jamy and Jim discussing the lighting.

We showed Jim a bunch of pictures that Maria had collected on Pinterest and he was wowed by a number of the unique designs. We narrowed down our ideas to the top two that we really wanted to see accomplished at our reception. Jim reassurred us that he knew exactly how to execute our ideas and where to get the materials necessary for the big job.

Maria showing Jim her Pinterest pictures.

We are so so excited to see how the lighting comes out! We are sure that it will be breathtaking.

Jamy and Maria were so thrilled to meet with Maria Shafer, who will be the DJ for the ceremony and reception. She was so funny and nice and we had a great time with her. She is easy to get along with and we can already tell that she will be a great addition to our wedding-day celebrations.

Maria Shaefer gave us a “homework assignment.” She wants us to come up with the songs that we really want to hear during the reception. Jamy and Maria have already started making the list and it is a lot of fun! We listen to Pandora a lot on our drives between Tallahassee and Orlando, so whenever we hear a song that we really like, we put it on the list.

Additionally, Maria Shaefer suggested that we could play some classical Spanish music before the ceremony begins as a tribute to Maria’s cultural heritage. Jamy and Maria think that’s a great idea and they are looking forward to choosing some Spanish songs with the help of Maria’s Mom, who was born in Puerto Rico and spent 10 years in Spain.

We were so happy to meet with Tammy at Mission Inn to start discussing the food that Mission Inn will be providing for our reception.

We were excited to finally see the menu of possible food options. We are big foodies so we knew that choosing the food for our reception was going to be one of our favorite parts of the wedding planning. Tammy said that the Misson Inn chefs are flexible, so that if we really wanted a certain kind of food and we didn’t see it on the menu, the chefs would be happy to whip it up.

Tammy showed us the chairs that will be in the ballroom where the reception will be. We were so happy to see that the chairs are lovely and that they incorporate our colors so we won’t be needing any chair covers!

Tammy also gave us referrals for additional wedding services that we might need. We are in the process of making calls and getting more information from vendors.

Finally, Jamy and Maria sat down and chose which items to taste off of Mission Inn’s menu (with one addition of their own). Maria’s parents and Jamy’s parents will be joining Maria and Jamy for the tasting this upcoming Saturday at Mission Inn. It is sure to be fun and delicious! We can’t wait!

Jamy and I had a phone conference with Lon from Sensational Ceremonies on Saturday, March 9th. He was very helpful and informative. He was understanding and made us feel at ease about the whole process. After going through his 30+ page packet of different options for the ceremony, we certainly had a lot to talk about and we spent the better part of an hour discussing those possibilities. We love that Lon is open to different ideas and that he wants to make our ceremony unique so that it fits us perfectly.

Our homework assignment is to piece together the different parts of the sample ceremonies in the packet that we like and add a few of our own ideas to send to Lon. He is going to help us edit and polish the whole thing.

We are looking forward to meeting him in person in the future and certainly looking forward to him presiding over our wedding!