Weddings and money as a gift

MDJ has an interesting post today on giving money as a gift, but what I found really interesting were all the comments where people shared the costs of their own weddings. I’ve put wedding planning on the back burner because I got too frustrated with it, but I should start get back on the proverbial horse. In fact today on the bus two girls were having a loud conversation about a friend who was struggling to get an available date for a wedding venue in August 2009, that’s over a year away!

Wedding planning is complete madness I tell you. Weddings are overrated!

Wedding: Budget dresses!

Wow, I’m surprised to discover that Isaac Mizrahi has done a bridal line for Target. Some of it is actually really quite cute, and for the price, you can’t go wrong. I really like these bridesmaids dresses:

It’s almost making me reconsider my decision to forgo having bridesmaids!

The wedding venue search continues

I just wanted to blog this post I found on one gal’s opinions of a bunch of Vancouver area wedding venues. I totally agree with her comments of the Celebrations Pavillion at Queen Elizabeth Park. The absolute same thing happened to me! I’d actually seen a photo of a ceremony on some random wedding photographer’s blog and thought it looked neat and wished I could find out where it was taken. Shortly after, I found the QE Pavillion site and put two and two together and thought it would be the perfect combination of outdoors but still having a roof overhead in case of inclement weather. It was a pretty good contender until the boy and I actually went there and saw the ugly yellow windows. Seriously, what’s with that?!?

More on weddings…

I dunno if this is going to change from a pf blog to a wedding blog, but it’s hard to think of other stuff to write about because this wedding stuff is kind of all-consuming. And I never thought I would ever be one of those types to get all into their wedding, but I’m finding it’s a lot of work.

I know everyone says that the first step in planning a wedding is setting a budget, but I’m kind of skimming over that… Because considering I’m so broke right now thinking about how much I can save for a wedding isn’t even on my radar. Basically the budget so far consists of what my mom has generously offered, but being the ever frugal girl, I kind of want to see how low I can go and still pull this off (half of what she’s offering would be great).

The wedding learning curve is a steep one, and even armed with all those budget wedding books I picked up, I’m still having to learn as I go. Our first priority is finding a venue, and my personal challenge to get the best bang for our buck is turning into a lot of work.

The boy and I fell in love with the first venue we went to see, but were in for a bit of a surprise when the venue event coordinator told us the minimum food and beverage order requirements. Lesson #1 learned on the job, wedding information package wording can be tricky so never assume, ask point blank what the minimums are up front so you know what you’re getting yourself into! Had I asked when I first phoned the venue we probably would not have bothered to go see it in the first place. But maybe that’s just one of the tricks of the trade, get the couple to fall in love with the place and trust that they’ll scrape together the cash.

Of course after seeing that perfect venue, it was a little harder to totally love the second very reasonable and affordable venue we looked at. So here I am spending a good chunk of time trying to research more options because maybe I have an unreasonable streak but I want it all! Affordability and the stunning outdoor setting we imagined!

I’ve spent hours scouring the web trying to find information on Vancouver venues that fit the bill. Being new to the city, I’m not really familiar with typical wedding venues and am kind of having to start from scratch. While I was glad to find this list of Greater Vancouver Wedding Venues, it’s quite a daunting task to go through the list and try and figure out what could be in my budget and offer what I’m looking for. Basically, I have to call each one up and get the info I need. A Lot Of Work. So it’s nice to find reviews on other blogs the give the skinny on places, and I’m glad that From Sparkly To… Single? has kept her blog up including these great posts on wedding venues, a bunch of which were ones I have been considering. Another helpful place for information on wedding venues has been this West Coast Vendor Review Thread over at the weddingbells.ca message boards.

I seriously feel so wedding’ed out and this is only the beginning! Although once the venue is booked, I think I’ll be able to relax for a good while before thinking about any more about wedding stuff. Maybe.