Happy Leap Day!

Here is some fun information, in Ireland, it is a tradition that on Leap Day woman are able to propose marriage to their favorite handsome gentleman! AND if the man denies the proposal, he has to give the woman some sort of compensation. This can be anything from a kiss, money, or a new pair of gloves (lucky lady!!). However in Greece it is considered unlucky to be married in a Leap Year and many couples will plan their weddings around a Leap Year. I knew about the marriage proposals in Ireland (mainly due to the movie Leap Year, which i LOVED!!) but not about Greece. OOOPs, good thing I am not Greek ;).

Just a little something extra! If you are waiting on the special someone to pop a certian question, maybe you could do it instead!

Enjoy the rest of your extra day!

Finding a site… (Be prepared this is a long one but it was one of the hardest decisions for me so I learned a lot)

Well hopefully you have picked your date and have an idea with about how many people you want to invite.  Now you need to decide where you have your wedding! You will have some idea of where you want to get married or what type of setting.  Use friends, bridal shows, magazines, the internet, anywhere to get ideas.  BUT be careful! There will be hundreds of places for you to choose from, this is where your guest list number comes in handy.  Do your research, find out what is the capacity for a banquet at venues you are interested in using.  If your guest list is 150 but the venue holds 125, it’s a no go.  Be careful also of venues trying to be sneaky.  I went to a reception venue which said it could hold 200 people.  Once I got there I was informed that yes, 200 people could fit but the dance floor was moved outside on an adjacent deck.  There was no way I was risking that in middle of the summer.  All I needed was sweaty, smelly guest who might be drenched by a quick evening shower due to the August humidity.  No thank you! But if that interests you, message me and I’ll give you some information.  It really was a beautiful venue in downtown Baltimore.

 Before you start calling/emailing venue sites, (here is recommendation #3) create a wedding email address.  Go to gmail, yahoo, or your email of choice and create one. It can be as simple as powersscottwedding@whatever.com. This way all of your wedding information will be in the same place.  Any correspondence between vendors, venues, anything will be together and much easier to manage.  Both my Mom and I had access to my wedding email and it was great!

When contacting venues make sure you tell them both your guest count and your date.  They will let you know if they are available or not and set up a time to meet with you.  I would also ask for pricing information.  This will let you be able to go over their prices before meeting and can give you an idea if you are interested or not.  I visited most places after work during the week.  We did double book a couple days.  Just make sure you give yourself a good hour to visit and see the venue (Especially if it is a hotel.  If you are visiting a reception hall it would take less time)

After you have visited a couple venues, you will realize what you really want at your reception and what you could live without.  MAKE A LIST!! It seems silly but it really helps.  All places will have the same basics, options for head table, white linens, but does this site offer Chivari chairs or do you have to pay extra? Are they willing to work with you to customize the menu and menu options or is the number of appetizers, etc. set in stone? And then there is the cost, why your budget is so important.  Most reception venues will give you prices per guest.  I have seen prices ranging from $17 all the way to above $250.  Some places will give you inclusive prices (this includes taxes and gratuities) and some will give you the price without.  If you just have the base price, be able to add about 20-25 more dollars for each meal depending on where you live.  I live in Maryland and we have pretty high food and beverage taxes. 
  You also have to decide if you are getting married and having a reception in the same place.  Every venue I looked at had an area I could use for my marriage ceremony, if that is what I wanted.  Many venues charged a flat rate for usage of this space however some had the price included already.  This is just another question to ask while visiting sites. 

Whew! That was a lot for one blog.  I will post more about reception venues later but this is a quick what to do!  If you have specific questions please feel free to leave comments and I will get back as soon as I can!

Budget and guest list…..where most of the fights begin

You picked a date? Perfect now you can start planning everything else right? Eh, first you need to have a few conversations.  Unless you are a descendent of the Rockefeller or Vanderbilt, you will have some type of budget.  It does not matter who is paying, there is always some type of budget.   You also need to determine about how many guests you will be having at your wedding.  You don’t HAVE to create the actual guest list right now but it helps.  My guests would be at 200 MAX.  Even though everyone in the wedding world says about 25% RSVP no, what if they don’t? I know some people feel that 200 is a huge wedding but I have a lot of family and my parents were footing the bill and they had friends they wanted to invite so that was my number.  Absolutely no more than 200 invitations were going to be sent out and anyone who we wanted to invite after those 200 were on the B list (more about this drama in a future post).  So these are 2 huge things that need to be done before you begin looking at reception venues and talking to vendors, I don’t care when or where your wedding is going to take place.  You can have an absolutely gorgeous wedding at any budget! Yes any budget!  So there it is recommendation #2 once you get a date, determine your budget and max guest number ASAP!

Take a deep breath, you just got engaged! Now where do you start?

Congratulations!!!! If it is anything like when I got engaged, you probably tried to ruin your fiancés plans and I don’t know go to a baseball game with your friends instead of the romantic dinner he had planned.  But alas, he prevailed and you are now engaged to be married.  Now where to begin??? It is important to know around when and where you want to get married.  I got engaged August 26, 2011 and dreamed of getting married on March 17, 2012.  I know I am crazy right?? Well close your jaw that’s not happening.  Even though I had a dream of a specific church and reception site, I quickly realized that the dates were not going to work out. So had I had to choose.  I hate to be the one to break it to you ladies but not everything you want will come true for your dream wedding.  You might have to make some compromises. (Might being the key word, if you get everything you absolutely want, I am truly happy for you) It was more important for me to get married at Loyola College Chapel than to have my reception at Ravens Stadium so we picked a date based on when was good for my teaching schedule and when the church was available.  August 4, 2012 was now W-Day and I should have realized that I would repeat that date more than a million times over the next 11 months.  Once you determine what day you are gonna tie the knot, it actually becomes easier! So there is my recommendation #1.  Pick a date ASAP and don’t change it.  If your 3rd cousin can’t come that day oh well.  This is YOUR day and you need to remember that.  (Trust me, my sister has had to remind 50 times and I still forget) Picking a date before anything else actually helps a lot with decision making. When looking for a reception venue, if one is booked, you move on to the next one. It took me all of 3 days to realize how big the wedding industry is and despite the current economic state, it is still booming! Pick your date and it will help you narrow things down slightly.

Introduction...

Okay, so I know this is very cliché but I have always wanted to write a blog. I have never considered myself a writer but I figured with what is going on in my crazy life right now, might as well! (Although I can’t imagine anyone will read it) So on top of being a teacher, just completing grad school, and living with a boy(come on ladies we know that’s a full time job), I am also recently engaged and in the process of planning a wedding. I have always enjoyed planning parties and consider myself creative and organized so why couldn’t my Mom and I do this ourselves…famous last words right? Well it is definitely coming along easier than I ever imagined but it would have helped having someone give me some pointers, instead of all those books, magazines, and websites. I won’t lie, they help a lot, but are extremely overwhelming. So here I am writing this to help all of you out there (well in my mind at least) do it all, including planning a wedding.