Day 219 - Musical Chairs

Today I have set out to tackle the first aspects of the seating charts and I have a question for my bride friends. Where do you sit the plus ones of your bridal party? I can't sit them at the headtable but they do not really know any of the other guests. I could sit them with the ring bearer and the flower girl but then they would look as though they are at the kids table.

Most of my bridal friends said they simply let everyone pick their own seats. This is an option that wouldn't work out so well with our wedding. The main reason for our seating chart is to avoid the inevitable family drama. It's a nice way to ensuring separation of those most angry of guests.

I guess we'll just fill the tables with the guests and then seat the extras with the friendliest most welcoming of guests. I will make my best effort to seat them at a table where there are guests similar to their S.O. as they will hopefully feel at home in that atmosphere.

<3 your hippie bride

Day 218 - Extreme Couponing

I have been couponing where I can and shopping for a bargain everywhere. Today I managed to save our wedding budget $133.90 by acting on a tax free event. This meant rushing my poor daughter outside in such a hurry that.... well let's let the video tell you the story

Worth it in the end...hoping to save another $300 plus dollars soon. I took some of that saved money and bought her new shoes. :) 

Day 212 - Heartbreak #2

After a panicked moment when I realized the website I was going to take my music from no longer existed I set all my nerd/geek friends on a mission to find it for me. I now have a hard copy and many back-up's of it.

With that trial over I started my research into local flourists. I thought my choice of Gerbera Daisies would save me a bundle. I was right, but it's still looking like I should have budgeted for $400 or more. I can't rationalize spending that much money on flowers.

I decided to switch gears and look into the details of our best man marrying us. Only to hit another roadblock. Today I learned that every province in Canada permits your friend to marry you with the disappointing exception of our province!!! I didn't want to end up living in this province in the first place and this only fueled my already flaming disgust with this province. I guess I will have to settle for a stranger marrying us.

<3 your disappointed hippie bride

Day 211 - He's brilliant

I cracked open the wedding planning book today to get a few tasks organized. While doing this I asked that hubby-to-be give me a helping hand in making a list of what is important to him. 

This is what he gave me:

- Bride Happy
- None of your family {I told him some were coming and he then wrote}Sad panda
- No Pink Suits
Butterflies?
Big Screen in Bathroom$100,000 car to leave in
- Do whatever you want! 

The big screen in car were making fun of a groom on some TLC show. Otherwise, cute, loving and so not helpful. ;p

Day 207 - Venue with tears

After the heartbreak of last week we walked into the venue hubby-to-be had selected and found THE VENUE!
I am not going to post any photos as we are sure this will be our wedding venue and therefore a surprise to the guests.
It was not the curvature of the earth, I don't think visually anything can truly compare to that particular venue. But it was much more personal and warm. When we went to the room where the reception would be located we saw there on the wall a painted portrait of the hill where we have our annual photograph taken overlooking the city. I choke up immediately and hubby-to-be silently smiled.
We told the story to the co-ordinator who then herself choked up. You know you have the right venue when not only do you choke up but you make the event organizer tear up.
All we have to do now is review the contract, set aside enough money for the deposit and we're golden.

<3 your hippie bride

Day 201 - first heartbreak

No one said it was going to be easy. Sticking to a budget means giving in here and making compromises there. Sometimes it means forgoing something entirely.
Today I was in e-mail communication with the co-ordinator at the venue I'd fallen in love with. I was asking a few more questions regarding pricing and planning when I mentioned how I'd trimmed my guest list down so as to fit the venue within my budget. She slashed my dreams when she returned with this e-mail (censored appropriately)

Hi Bwings,

Along with our wedding packages we also offer reception packages that are less expensive.  It's the difference between a full dinner or a stand up reception.

Please note that we won't book the ________ Ballroom with less than 100 people.  We do require a minimum of $3000.00 in food revenue ($30.00 per person for 100 people) in order to book this room.

If you are looking at 50 people, we could certainly look at booking part of our alternate Ballroom.
Cheers for now,

Slightly injured but not ruling out the alternate ballroom I responded asking if there were photographs of the alternate ballroom. She returned appologizing that there were no photographs of that room. She then admitted that if someone has already seen the ballroom that I had viewed that there really was no comparison. And then my heart was broken. I added and subtracted for the next fifteen minutes and just couldn't rationalize the cost of the venue of my dreams over the wedding I'd always wanted. The deposit was $1000 which, although manageable, we do not comfortably have right now. The minimum revenue made it necessary that we have 100 guests which meant we would no longer be alienating anyone. However we would arrive in paper bags since that's all we could afford. A minimum revenue of $3000 plus tax of 15% and gratuity of 16% meant we'd be looking at $4000. Add in the socan fee to permit a dance that's another $60 and then there is the bartender fee if bar sales are less than $300 of $75 for 4 hours and $15 for each additional hour. We would be looking at roughly $4200 leaving us with $800 for our venue!!! I teared up a little right then and there I have to admit.
Time to reassess the situation with David. .... But.... bbbuutttt I want to see the curvature of the earth. :'(

After showing the figures to David and choking back the tears we scrapped the beautiful wedding venue and are back to square one. In the end it does not matter where the wedding is as long as I'm marrying my best friend.

It was time to send out massive amounts of e-mails. This time I included in my list of questions for the venue co-ordinators "Do you require a minimum revenue to secure your location?" In an effort to cheer myself up I tried to rewrite a holiday carol into a wedding song. "Just hear those wedding bells jinglin', ring ting tinglin' too! Come on it's lovely weather for a wedding day together with you! ... umm... Giddy up Giddy up Giddy up let's go?"

I hadn't realized just how many wedding venues required a mimimum revenue. I know it makes sense but you would think if they were going to charge a minimum revenue they would put that somewhere on their cost list. Or at the very least they would revise the cost to say, "$3000 to book the room. This covers meals for up to 100 people. $30 for each additional person." Then you know you are paying for the room and not the food. What a pain! At this point I just want to give up and elope in a really pretty already paid for dress!!!

Just as I gave up I passed the laptop to David who was quietly minding his own. SMACK laptop hits his lap. He nervously questioned, "What...is this for?" I said, "if you want to marry me you're going to have to find the venue because I can't find anything!"

What does the bugger do? He opens google enters the exact same search I had entered and opened the first window I'd already opened. He scanned and I scoffed he smile and I shook my head. Finally he spoke up, "This one here seems like it might work." I rolled my eyes with my arms crossed tightly around my chest, "Yeah, I already looked at it. I can't remember what was wrong with it but something wasn't right."

He read over the description of cost and it ended up being a lack of something. A lack of words that made me feel as though there were strings attached. Upon contacting the staff we discovered there were no strings attached. Well, it must be a horridly ugly place! He returned with, "Actually my boss got married there and a co-worker said it was a really nice place."

Still seemed to good to be true and with my heart already so vulnerable from the last venue I skeptically scheduled an appointment to view it on the 14th. We'll see then what the location holds for us. Until then, my heart weeps for the most beautiful venue I've ever seen. 

Day 196 - Wording is everything

Given the incredible drama surrounding my family and the fact that I have not referred to myself by my maiden name in years I don't know what to do for our wedding invitations. I want it to be formal and proper but I do not want to use my last name. I can't use his last name though because that would give the impression I was marrying a relative. I also can't use his last name and use no last name for me because that gives the same implication.

I pondered over this for a while, most of the day. Before I came up with the wording that solved everything. It was inspired by the story hubby-to-be once told me as a joke when I couldn't sleep. In the story he was climbing the tower to rescue the princess (predictably me) which I said was kind of creepy. The idea of someone climbing your house and into your window isn't necessarily romantic. The story was more detailed and completely romantic and funny.

The wording I have worked out for our wedding invitations will state that he has rescued the princess and now Bwings & Asmerus wish to invite you to their wedding. This way it is just the right amount of formal while casual enough that it needn't include our last names. I'll work out the specifics later.

For now, sleep <3 your hippie bride