Wedding Venues Part 1

If you don't already know, I am engaged to an AM-AZ-ING person, but it order to get married to him (within the next couple years) I needed to find a venue that was perfect but affordable. Once I got that fantastic ring on my finger it was like a baton was handed to me and I was OFF running! (He is probably chuckling right now, because he knows it's so true)

The one thing I knew about this process was how competitive it was to get a venue, since most people book so far in advance, getting engaged in December limited a lot of options. It's also (to me) the most important part of planning the wedding. It sets the vibe and tone of the day. I knew that once this was conquered a lot of pieces would fit together, and I could enjoy being engaged.

Like most to-be brides, I had no idea how crazy this industry is. I mean the minute you mention "wedding" they hike up ANY price by at least 200% (no joke). I started saying family reunion to try and get around the questions. I started by requesting pricing from different places and kept track of them by putting together a spreadsheet which laid out what they offered, pricing, things that would cost extra, etc. I quickly realized hotels would not be an option unless I wanted a minimum food and beverage of 20k. No, thank you :)

Next, I started looking into renting out a mansion and bringing in everything myself. I knew this would require a lot of work on my part and definitely a "day of" wedding planner, so I didn't pull my hair out the day of. After asking a handful of places I found rental fees were around 5k (just for the site, nothing else), so after approximating linens, silverware, plates, tables, chairs, bar, heaters, glasses, caterer, etc etc etc, that wasn't much cheaper AND I would be VERY stressed out. No go.

At this point I called up my fiance and asked to elope. My pitch was we could take the people we love and fly somewhere fun and romantic and still spend less $$ then having a wedding. He brought me back to earth by stating my weakness...he said I couldn't wear a wedding dress if we did that...DARN YOU HAWKSWORTH! I was back at it!

To be continued......