Who Knew Finding A Venue Could Be This Confusing
When we first got engaged, I thought I knew exactly how I wanted our big day to look, feel, be like. We had discussed it a few times throughout the years; the colors, who was going to be standing up with us, where, etc. I had expressed my wish to have more than a year to plan the wedding because I don't make the best decisions under pressure. :) So when T proposed about 11 months ago we knew we were going to wait at least two years to get married. Plenty of time to make choices and plan without being super stressed and potentially forget something.
Many of you know, our date has changed many times. We originally set it for April 2018, then changed it to September 2017, then June 2017, then back to April 2017, then finally to our rock-solid-it's-not-changing date in May of 2017. I can imagine that it drove our bridal party crazy, trust me- it drove me crazy.
When we had changed our date the first time, we had looked at many venues. Many venues all over Kansas; near his hometown, my hometown, where we live currently, the town where we met, random towns with beautiful venues, etc. We settled on a venue (venue A) that I had previously attended a wedding there and loved. It was a smaller venue, only holding about 180 people inside. I was optimistic that the weather would be beautiful so we wouldn't need to go inside for the ceremony since our immediate family is about 100 people. T, my Mom and I went to venue A to figure out where things were going to be and they brought up very valid points about issues that we might run into later on. When we moved onto narrowing down our guest list, we had more people than we thought we would. With the guest list being over 190 people, we knew we had to find a new venue. So after telling everyone that we had finalized a venue and a date, we had to change it- yet again.
With a definite number of people we want to invite, we were back to the drawing board. I'm telling you, we looked all over again and again. We ended up expanding our perimeter to find a venue that we didn't have to spend a fortune on and we didn't compromise on anything we wanted. In the beginning of our planning, my Mom and Grandmother had told me about a garden that is owned by a friend of our family's, they told me how beautiful it was, how I just had to see it. I passed over it the first round because it seemed a little expensive (I was a little naive about how venues were priced, this venue is actually very well priced for all that is included), so I dismissed it and forgot about it. When we needed a bigger venue, my Mom brought up the garden again. I had learned a lot about how venues were priced, what was expensive, what was worth the price, etc., so I agreed to go see it. I'm telling you guys, I walked away that day knowing that that was were I was going to be married. I called T and raved, I wanted him to love it. Knowing that this was where I wanted, we changed the date to more of a springtime season. Soon after, T and I went and saw the garden together, his face lit up. He was silent and just kept looking around. I knew then that we had found the place where we would start the crazy, wonderful journey of marriage. The next day, we put a deposit down.
I'm not going to post many more pictures because I want people to be blown away. I'm so happy that we finally set a date, finally found our perfect venue and are about 11 months away from being husband and wife. Now that we have the big things done, we have to decide on the details. I'm looking forward to making all the important, little decisions that I am going to second guess for a long time. My main goal is to be as stress free as possible, however, I have a feeling that probably won't happen.
Any advice to a future bride about how to get everything done in a stress-free way? :)
Many of you know, our date has changed many times. We originally set it for April 2018, then changed it to September 2017, then June 2017, then back to April 2017, then finally to our rock-solid-it's-not-changing date in May of 2017. I can imagine that it drove our bridal party crazy, trust me- it drove me crazy.
When we had changed our date the first time, we had looked at many venues. Many venues all over Kansas; near his hometown, my hometown, where we live currently, the town where we met, random towns with beautiful venues, etc. We settled on a venue (venue A) that I had previously attended a wedding there and loved. It was a smaller venue, only holding about 180 people inside. I was optimistic that the weather would be beautiful so we wouldn't need to go inside for the ceremony since our immediate family is about 100 people. T, my Mom and I went to venue A to figure out where things were going to be and they brought up very valid points about issues that we might run into later on. When we moved onto narrowing down our guest list, we had more people than we thought we would. With the guest list being over 190 people, we knew we had to find a new venue. So after telling everyone that we had finalized a venue and a date, we had to change it- yet again.
With a definite number of people we want to invite, we were back to the drawing board. I'm telling you, we looked all over again and again. We ended up expanding our perimeter to find a venue that we didn't have to spend a fortune on and we didn't compromise on anything we wanted. In the beginning of our planning, my Mom and Grandmother had told me about a garden that is owned by a friend of our family's, they told me how beautiful it was, how I just had to see it. I passed over it the first round because it seemed a little expensive (I was a little naive about how venues were priced, this venue is actually very well priced for all that is included), so I dismissed it and forgot about it. When we needed a bigger venue, my Mom brought up the garden again. I had learned a lot about how venues were priced, what was expensive, what was worth the price, etc., so I agreed to go see it. I'm telling you guys, I walked away that day knowing that that was were I was going to be married. I called T and raved, I wanted him to love it. Knowing that this was where I wanted, we changed the date to more of a springtime season. Soon after, T and I went and saw the garden together, his face lit up. He was silent and just kept looking around. I knew then that we had found the place where we would start the crazy, wonderful journey of marriage. The next day, we put a deposit down.
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| The aisle |
Any advice to a future bride about how to get everything done in a stress-free way? :)
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