I am not the type of girl that has had my wedding planned since I was six. True, I’ve known who I wanted to marry since age 14, but the flowers, dress and colors? No idea.
Needless to say, Brian’s recent question has thrown me into wedding planning overdrive. Suddenly, my computer’s search history is filled with wedding websites, I’m getting emails from theknot.com, and my coffee table is stacked with old issues of Martha Stewart Weddings (thanks Whit). While my thoughts have been consumed mainly by wedding thoughts the past two plus weeks, I am determined not to freak out about our day- especially since we have over a year to plan. Sounds positive, right? Well, I am happy to report that it is (almost) working.
Overall, I am very relaxed. We’ve changed colors a few times, we’re figuring out who will be in the wedding, creating guest lists, etc. But there is one thing I am starting to panic over. Just one, that’s not too bad right?
My one and only concern at this point is the venue. I really wasn’t worried at first… we both knew we wanted an outdoor/rustic wedding. After searching quite a few places online, we settled on a shortlist of venues, mainly restored barns. We know, we’re a bit odd, but the atmosphere just fits our personalities. Well, who the heck knew that finding a wedding venue would be so difficult? Here’s a rundown of my last few days of calling and emailing:
- Option 1 was eliminated because even though it is in our town, the restorations on the barn won’t be completed until long after we’re happily married. Lame.
- Option 2 was quickly removed as option one as soon as we realized that it was six and a half hours away from where we live. Since we have several people coming in from out of state, it’s not exactly fair to ask them to drive another half a day out of town.
- Option 3 is out since the only Saturday they have for a wedding in the fall of 2012 is October 27. For an outdoor wedding a date that late scares us a bit. The realization that venues are being booked over a year in advance is what really made me panic!
- Option 4 is already out in my head because the woman who responded to my email only answered about half the questions I asked her. And she has yet to return my follow up phone call.
- Option 5, an amazing restored salvage wearhouse in the city is out after we realized the price for the hall alone was about 75% of our budget. Sad day.
- Option 6, another great city location, is out because they can barely seat 130 people, and if we want dancing for those 130 guests we’d be responsible for breaking down tables and chairs. No thank you.
- Option 7, possibly my favorite (a barn at an apple orchard), is slipping quickly away since their coordinator has failed to answer both my email last week and phone call yesterday. I really want to see this place, even though I seriously doubt they have any openings for a fall wedding, it’s worth a shot.
Whew. So far, searching for wedding venues is turning out a bit like our house hunt. Hopefully we don’t end up looking at 32 venues and end in failure this time around! In all reality, I know that we will find a beautiful location for our wedding, and the rest of the plans will fall in place. But I’d still feel a bit better about the whole thing if we had a date set. Time to hunt for some more venues…
Oh, and stay tuned! I ended up getting an AWESOME wedding organizer that I’ll be sharing as soon as I have some time for photos!
It took us almost a year just to set the date! It will all come together! Hey Starved Rock does outdoor weddings too! 🙂
I was going to say Starved Rock, also. Or Pere Marquette. Good luck!
Oh, I would have LOVED to have my wedding in a barn!!! But there are very few to be had around here. We knew the approximate time we wanted to get married (in October, as it's my favorite month of the year). In the end, the exact date was chosen because it was the only one available at our first choice venue. So if you have a date in mind, your venue may depend on what's available. I can't wait to hear about your wedding planner! Good luck with all of the other upcoming plans.
@Whit- Haha, we definitely thought about Starved Rock! But with all the smaller places that are already booked, I'm SURE they no openings next fall 🙁
@Sandra- I've never heard of Pere Marquette. It looks awesome, but unfortunately it's way too far away to ask our out of town guests to travel in addition to what they'll already be doing!
@Kanalt- Yeah, we are definitely hoping for September or October, but will likely have our date finalized based on the venue we choose. And hopefully I get some spare time one of these days to get some pictures to post about my wedding organizer!!!
We booked our wedding at starved rock in july or august for a february wedding and they still had quite a few dates open, but then again, I am sure october is more popular than february!