Prairie In A Pot...

Wildflower Seed Planting Instructions:

• Cultivate soil to a depth of 1-2 inches.
• Remove plant debris and stones.
• Broadcast seed and lightly firm to soil.
• Apply starter fertilizer.
• Watering should begin immediately.
• Water lightly and frequently until seed is thoroughly germinated.

This Wildflower "partial shade mix":

• Performs best with 3 or more hours of sun.
• Height: 3-4 feet
• Contains beautiful perennials, biennials, and annuals
• Ideal to create a meadow looking pot

Wedding Show * 1.23.11 * 12-4pm

RUSTIC OAKS will be at the Ramada Crystal Ballroom this Sunday, January 23rd - for the Radio Fargo-Moorhead Wedding Show!

The show takes place from 12-4pm!

Stop by our booth and say hi...we'd love to meet you!!

At our booth:

• Grab some free goodies
• Pick up a mini bag of "Prairie in a Pot" Wildflower Seed
• Check out our slide show and photo display
• Gather some: Brochures, Tell-A-Friend Postcards, & Honeymoon Package Promos
• Flip through a photo album of past Rustic Oaks weddings
• Visit with Emily & Sarah - we'll be happy to answer any questions you may have

Brides & Grooms-To-Be...

Rustic Oaks is pleased to be hosting the following weddings:

Andrea & John: 5.21.11

Kelsi & Luke: 10.16.11

Kristin & Chris: 5.28.11

Congrats! We look forward to working with you all!

Catering

Another benefit of a Rustic Oaks wedding is the fact that you get to choose your own caterer; having the freedom to serve exactly what you want - from exactly who you want - is definitely another way to truly make your day reflect you!

More often than not, food is not an overly memorable part of a wedding - but with the freedom of choice that Rustic Oaks offers - you have the opportunity to "wow" and impress your guests and serve them something they may remember. So forego the oh-so-typical chicken breast and green beans almondine and exercise your freedom of choice!

When it comes to your wedding day meal, I think it's important to serve your guests some of your personal favorites. This is your day, and as much of the day as possible should reflect you...including your meal! Dare to be different...make your meal memorable...and don't be afraid to think outside of the wedding dining box.

The fact that Rustic Oaks isn't your typical hotel reception venue benefits both the wedding couple and the caterers; we don't have the normal hotel "food minimum"...and you're not locked into a venue-specific caterer or menu. And there are definitely some super-talented local caterers that will jump at the chance to cater your wedding!

This past wedding season we had a number of caterers "show their stuff" at Rustic Oaks. The owners and I got to sample everything from a hog roast to a local church's famous mac and cheese! It was fun to see what the different couples and caterers came up with - and we are looking forward to see what will be served in 2011!

Ryan and I had heard more than once to "serve your own personal favorite meal." This was an easy one for us, as our favorite meal in all of FM is (hands down) the Spicy Shrimp and Chicken Pasta from Carino's Italian! After meeting with Julie, the deal was sealed! Julie and the whole Carino's Crew were beyond accommodating from the start! They have a large variety of both menu items/prices and levels of service - which make it possible for Carino's to cater to basically any budget.

We had a larger wedding, so a big priority for our meal was getting everyone through the buffet line in a timely manner. Our solution: choose a level a service through Carino's that included servers to dish up the food for our guests. After everyone had gotten their food, the servers became table bussers and clean-up crew. Julie was there to oversee the staff...and a GM/cook were around to oversee the food. And when all was said and done, they even made an appearance in our photo booth. What an awesome group!

Lastly, I'll end with a money saving tip. Dessert can be spendy. We were looking at about $2/head or $700 for a pretty generic catered dessert. We went a totally different route - in attempts to please more guests and save some money! Our solution: a dessert and candy bar, compliments of our aunts, cousins, parent's and grandparents. A number of our relatives made 2-3 pans or dozens of their "specialty;" a giant serving table became our dessert bar - filled with various desserts labeled with the baker's/dessert's info. (Cousin Kelly's Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes were a big hit!) We added some giant jars of Laffy Taffy, Snickers, and so on...and voilà!! - a pleasing dessert spread full of Finley Favorites!



*For more details about Carino's catering- visit www.carinos.com/page/catering/ and contact Julie! (jcarinos@cableone.net or 701.261.4640)

*I also have to give some major props to another local favorite: Eric & Sara @ Mosaic Catering - www.mosaicfoods.net/catering-event-service/! (mosaicfoods@aol.com or 701.373.7805)

Wedding Update!

Rustic Oaks is happy to be hosting the following wedding:

*Jenilee & Ben - 7.2.11

*Katie & Jon - 6.23.12

*Erica & Andrew - 7.1.11

*Megan & Fletcher - 10.15.11

*Lacey & Mike - 6.30.12

I look forward to working with all of these fabulous couples!

Happy Planning and Happy Holiday!

Cheers!

Thoughts from Mel Corneliussen...

My Barn...

Where bare unpainted buildings stand
My farm to me is not just land.
To me, my farm is nothing less
Than all created loveliness.
My farm is not where I must soil
My hands in endless dreary toil
But where through seed and swelling pod
I've learned to walk and talk with God.
My farm to me is not a place
Outmoded by the human race.
For here, I think I just see less
Of evil, greed and selfishness.
My farm's a haven-here dwells rest,
Security and happiness.
What'er befalls the world outside,
Here faith and hope and love abide.
And so my farm is not just land
Where bare unpainted buildings stand.
To me my farm is nothing less
Than all God's hoarded loveliness.

Photography

To kick off my Finley Wedding blogging, I've decided to start with photography!

When Ryan & I got engaged and started our wedding planning, we knew we needed to first focus on finding our venue, caterer, and photographer - being those are 3 aspects of a wedding where the vendors book up far in advance. It took us about 2 minutes to completely fall in love with Rustic Oaks...so with our venue checked off our list, we moved on to finding a caterer and photographer. (I'll save catering for another blogging topic...)

I probably should have first mentioned that we had a relatively tight budget to work with. So before we made any calls or inquiries to any of our wedding vendors, we broke down our budget. Photography was a tough one for us (mostly me, I guess) because I absolutely love photography and love pictures; and I had high expectations for the amount of coverage/number of photos/access to copyrights/etc! And wedding photography expectations like that come with a hefty price tag.

Like all couples, we had to pick and choose what areas were priority and where we needed to focus our funds vs. cut costs. Ryan & I agreed that photography was one of the areas where we needed to cut costs.

So where do you even start to find a photographer to fit your budget and fulfil your coverage expectations? If you google FM photographers, you get about a gazillion results (33,000 to be exact)! Knowing we had a relatively small budget...and knowing we didn't want to sort through and contact 33,000 options...we contacted our friend Josh Stanz - who, at the time, was transitioning from "photography as a passion/hobby" to starting a part time photography business!

And wow did we luck out - catching Josh at just the right time! Back in February, we were one of his first officially booked weddings! And soon after we booked, word about Josh Stanz Photography spread like wildfire...and in my opinion, he got really good, really fast; by the time our Sept. 18th wedding rolled around, he was a pro.

If you're a bride-to-be on a budget and are still hunting for a photographer, I have zero hesitation telling you to put Josh at the top of your list. He and his wife/assistant, Tracy completely exceeded our most optimistic expectations; an engagement session, full day wedding coverage, disk(s) of hand-edited photos, and copyrights to the pictures are all included in his package price. And the fact that he's creative, stylish, modern, & fun (the JSP motto)...makes him, in my opinion, under priced at $1,300-$1,500.

Check out Josh's website: www.joshstanzphotography.com ...and head to the contact page to see if your wedding date is still available!

If you're looking for more photographer recommendations, contact me @ rusticoaks@live.com and I'd be happy to send you contact info. for a variety of super-talented photographers that we've worked with!

Finally, I have to give some quick props to my friend Alyssa Dahl of Lissadee Photography; Alyssa did some candid photos for us at our wedding! You can check out her work on facebook!