Searching for a Venue

There's a reason there are no television shows dedicated to finding a venue, it might possibly be the least fun part of planning a wedding, or maybe that's just my experience. Every weekend we were driving all over the state to explore venues where one of three things would happen; we'd get there and know instantly that this place was not for us and continue to waste 2 hours of our time as they gave us the tour, or we would get there and know instantly it was over our price range and continue to waste two hours of our time on the tour, or last, we would fall in love and at the end when we were ready to double down, we were told every Saturday, Sunday and Friday were taken for the next three summers; but we were more than welcome to shoot for a Tuesday. Seriously? We thought planning a wedding a year in advance was neurotic, but on the contrary to find out we were already late was ridiculous. We never found exactly what we had envisioned but ended up choosing a Sunday in August, not our original Saturday in June, but we feel lucky to have it none-the-less. We grabbed one of the last Sundays in 2014 at this particular venue more than a year before our wedding- yikes! Good luck other brides! I have about a million pounds of venue brochures if you'd like them! 

Things I have learned:

1. My fiancé and I made the decision to not include anyone in our venue search, and it was absolutely the right choice for us. People seem to forget whose wedding this is, cough parents, and we didn't want any other opinions clouding or judgement. 

2. If you are even later to the show then we were, chances are you are going to feel pressured to take a date even if you are not in love with the venue, before that too gets ripped away from you and you're left getting married in Aunt Mirdle's backyard, which could be beautiful also. Don't feel pressured to take a venue you don't love. Things will fall into place. And remember if you end up getting married on a Tuesday at a venue you do love, you could end up saving a lot of money. Plus the people you need there will be there, it might even be a convenient way to weed out people you don't. 

3. My biggest advice is try, TRY, not to be overwhelmed. Planning a wedding is suppose to be fun, and hopefully you only do it once in your lifetime, so enjoy every long drive, overpriced venue, horrible minute of it!

The madness begins

The Decor

Excited to start planning my dream wedding I stopped at Hobby Lobby, Target, and Bed Bath and Beyond, before even calling my parents to announce my engagement. 11 months before the wedding, yes 11, I was informed of place card frames that were on clearance at Target. Having already decided on a buffet dinner, I didn't find them absolutely necessary, BUT THEY WERE ON CLEARANCE. I had to act fast or these unnecessary generic frames would fall through my fingers! My fiancé and I went to 10 Targets to get enough, 10! At number 9, yes 9, I also found these purple candles I had to have, don't judge me, candles are expensive. So we continued back to the 8 others, and finding zero at some kept on trekking until we hit every Target in Colorado with varied success. At the second to last one the lady asked me if I'd like a list of the Targets that carry these candles. I politely responded with, "That would of been nice 15 Targets ago, but now I can tell you with certainty how many candles they all carry, none, I bought them all." Miraculously we got just the number we needed one candle at a time (NEEDED-since then my parents have invited the mailman, the milkman and the grocery store clerk. We no longer have enough). After this charade I thought what a spectacular time to read the FAQ's on my venue's website; 

Q: Do you allow candles? 

A: Yes! As long as they are flame-less, dripless, and contained.

.....Well now I am just confused as to the definition of a candle. 

That's part of the wedding budget I will never get back, goodbye photo-booth.

The party  

We thought it would be fun to have an engagement party to ask our friends to be our attendants. We asked for volunteers to throw us one and had no takers. So we decided to throw it ourselves. We had decided on beer and brats, maybe even buns and condiments if we were feeling fancy. I informed my parents the party would be at their house but we were taking care of everything. A week before the party my mother says to me, and I quote, "I cannot believe you are only giving me a week to pull this party together." Umm.... Oh kay? Below are photos from the party. I do not see brats anywhere. There was, however, beer. Thank goodness, how else would our groomsmen of dranken too much, making us wonder what speeches would be come toast time at the reception. All sarcasm aside it was a beautiful party. 

My Inspiration

Hello, and welcome to my blog.

Aren't weddings wonderful? The flowers, the elegance, the romance, the attention and OH GOD that moment when you finally get to shout, "Yes!" to the perfect dress while your dear old granny dries her tears with your old blue borrowed handkerchief. It makes since that despite the divorce rate, and the knowledge that a marriage is a three-ring circus; the engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the suffering, girls still line up down the block to get married whether they have found that special someone or not.

Weddings seem wonderful, they do. Even I, whoever I think I am, fell victim to these fantasies. It took, oh I don't know, about a day of being engaged to realized planning a wedding is a nightmare at worst, and quite humorously dire at best. All of the sudden you have all of these relatives, who are they? And your parents have all these demands, who ARE they? And $10,000 seems like pocket change.
As my fiance so eloquently put it, "Romeo and Juliet were lucky they killed themselves before they planned a wedding."

And yet with all of this madness, and mistakes, and pressure, it is wonderful. All the hard work and headaches are worth it when you get to look into the eyes of the one person you can stand on this planet, as crazy Aunt Mirdle, and your jealous bridesmaid who didn't want to wear green even though green is your wedding color, and everyone fades away as you say two magical words binding your lives together.

With this crazy wonderful business that wedding planning has become I felt I had to document my experience; the good, the bad, the blues, and the wrong purple hues, because having a wedding is just to wonderful to not laugh at the horrible planning process.