General scenic photos from Cranbrook
Since most people seem to be coming to OurMichiganWedding.com to see pictures of Cranbrook, I thought I'd give the people more of what they want.
Here is a Flickr stream of Cranbrook photos via the blog Michigan in Pictures.
Sample Cranbrook Wedding Photos
I was browsing the net today and happened across some proof photos of a wedding held in Cranbrook in the summer of 2009. These are hosted on the photographer's website. The photos inside Cranbrook House look exceptionally nice, particularly because of the warm color tones created by the wood interior.
Towards the bottom of the page you'll see some great pictures of Cranbrook Lake and the surrounding trails. If you and your photographer have the moxie to sneak onto the grounds you should be able to get a lot of good engagement photos on the trails and near the Cranbrook House Gardens like the ones featured on this website. You probably would not be able to do formal wedding day photos in Cranbrook without paying. Security is generally relaxed but they aren't lazy. If you went over there wearing a tux and a wedding dress they probably would spot you and kick you out. I don't think they would call the cops, however.
View sample Cranbrook Wedding Photos
Read more about weddings at Cranbrook and wedding photography at Cranbrook.
Destination wedding thoughts: Las Vegas
We're getting ready to attend a destination wedding in Las Vegas. They will be having it at Caesar's Palace. One of the nice things about attending a wedding in Las Vegas is that there are a LOT of hotels to choose from. Around the first or second week of December we stayed one night at Excalibur for $50 (taxes & fees included) so that we could wake up early in the morning and take a $16 taxi cab ride to the airport. Now that's cost effective!
If you are planning a destination wedding in Las Vegas please try to avoid having it during one of the major conventions like CES in early January because all the convention attendees cause higher prices across the board for airfare and hotel.
Why I dislike Bed Bath & Beyond.
Reflecting back on it, I find that BB&B is a rip-off. BB&B prices tend to be higher for identical items vs. other stores and the best discounts they offer are the ubiquitous 20% off a single item coupons that you get in the mail every other week. I recently realized that the most frequent reason most people step foot into a BB&B store is to buy a gift for somebody else (usually a wedding gift). The registry becomes a problem if it is a store that you do not frequent because at least a few of your guests will be giving you gift cards. We received about $300 worth of gift cards for Bed Bath & Beyond. How am I going to spend $300 there? We already registered for, and received everything we could possibly want from the place but now we have a pile of gift cards for a store we never go to. The best we can probably do is use the gift cards to buy gifts for the other people registered at BB&B.
One positive aspect of Bed Bath & Beyond is that when you come in to register for gifts as a soon-to-be-wed couple, the staff treats you like royalty. When they hand you that item zapper you feel awesome. The kind of awesome that can only be satisfied by good old fashioned American consumerism. You yearn to zap everything you ever saw on TV, every slap-chop, blender, food processor, fluffy blanket, and towel you can find. And zap you will, because Bed Bath and Beyond has a rather large selection of items.
Despite the wide selection, however, I think the high prices, poor discounts, and overall uselessness of the store make BB&B a poor registry choice. If you're going to over-pay for kitchen accessories I think you should go all out and pick a high end registry store such as Sur La Table or Williams Sonoma instead of Bed Bath and Beyond. If you're going to make your guests buy you expensive stuff, make it expensive stuff that will last forever.
Kohl’s Gift Registry
Looking back on it, I kind of wish we had registered at Kohl's for our gift registry rather than Bed, Bath and Beyond.
Why I like Kohl's.
Kohl's already has good prices when things are not on sale. The bonus is that Kohl's almost always has a sale going on. I get Kohl's advertisements even more frequently than Bed Bath & Beyond. Case in point: Kohl's regularly has specials to discount 15% your entire purchase. They have early bird sales, night owl sales, weekday sales, secret sales, you name it. After discounts you would probably bay about half of what you would pay at BB&B. The selection of kitchen items may be limited but Kohl's has enough decent Calphalon and KitchenAid and OXO stuff to competently fill a kitchen at a price that won't leave your guests hating you. And, when everybody ends up giving you gift cards you will still be able to use the money to buy some Levi's jeans, shoes, and perhaps some cheap jewelry and/or perfume -- stuff you can't get at Bed Bath and Beyond.
Kohl's Deals Updates:
Kohl's Valentine's Day Gift Shop (Expires 2/14/2010)
Take an Extra 15% off Everything w/code: KCSAVINGS (Valid 1/13/2010 - 1/19/2010)